Does your library have National Lawyers Guild Review?

More documents

Recommendations

Info

126 national lawyers guild reviewit is a cautionary tale of just how far elements in the government will goin their attempts to assassinate not just people, but ideas. The old saying isthat you can kill the revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution. You canhowever, as Hampton’s death reminds us, certainly impede the revolutionby killing the revolutionary.Fred Hampton was a remarkable figure, already a nonpareil leader andorganizer when he was killed at age twenty-one. He had, before his death,accomplished more than most of us do over decades. At a time when EldridgeCleaver was saying the only position for women in the revolution was prone,he defended the dignity of Panther women in Chicago and insured that theircontributions were real and appreciated. He was principally responsible forbuilding a thriving and vigorous organization in Chicago that both served thepoor and organized them to free themselves. In the last few years, the federalgovernment and various local governments have paid millions upon millionsof dollars in damages for violating the rights of protesters at various demonstrations.In fact, St. Paul required the Republican National Committee hadto get a $10 million insurance policy to pay any post-convention judgments,demonstrating (as it were) with crystal clarity that payment of those judgmentsis, as far as the government is concerned, just a cost of doing business. Theidea is to keep numbers of protesters down with threats of prosecution whileseparating those first being roused to protest from the veterans.The government did not expect to be exposed when it executed FredHampton, but its intent was the same – to limit resistance. In that, it succeeded.His death resulted in the effective quashing of the Panthers in Chicago.Only a cynic would imply that another difference is that the people whoare being arrested and are recovering damages are mainly white and oftenfrom relatively privileged backgrounds, while Fred Hampton grew up aworking class African-American who organized in the ghetto. Only a cynicwould think it more than coincidence that Imam Abdullah was also African-American and was working in a city ravaged by the economic crisis. Andonly the most cynical of cynics would speculate that John Burge’s reign ofterror and torture in Chicago, bore any relationship to the FBI assassinationof Fred Hampton.So, let us turn from such wild speculation that we may not be such a“post-racial” society as the mass media have proclaimed after the electionof Barack Obama and that there are people in this country who should fear,rather than respect and rely on, the police. Rather, let us discuss the story Jefftells. It is a legal drama worthy of Scott Turow, John Grisham or RichardNorth Patterson, full of plot twists, intrigue, even a little oblique sex and,
the assassination of fred hampton127if not exactly a surprise ending, a somewhat unexpected one which reallysums up the whole sordid tale.What distinguishes it, of course, that it is a true story told by one of theprincipals. The attorneys of the People’s Law Office were barely out oflaw school when they filed suit on behalf of the families of Fred Hamptonand Mark Clark. When the case settled more than a decade later, they wereexperienced—and brilliant—lawyers. Thomas Edison said that genius isone percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. The PLO addsanother element, commitment to its clients and to a better society. Its commitmentto exposing the criminal acts of the FBI and Chicago police wascombined with painstaking research, review of every record laboriouslyuncovered and a refusal to give up. Jeff’s account of the struggle is told withall the skill of the best authors of legal thrillers, but it has an ingredient theylack. It also inspires. For those of us who were around back then, it rekindlesour youthful ardor. For those who were not, it still can light a fire. Guild Notesis the quarterly organizational and programmaticpublication of the NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD.ISSN 0148-0588. Free to members. Subscriptionrates to non-member individuals $50 per year; tolibraries and institutions $75.00 per year.Order through your subscription agent or directfrom:GUILD NOTES132 Nassau Street, Suite 922, New York, NY 10038email: nlgno@nlg.orgweb: www.nlg.org
Page 1 and 2:
national lawyers guildVolume 66Numb
Page 3 and 4:
Nathan GoettingCall for theRwandan
Page 5 and 6:
citizens united and the fetishism o
Page 7 and 8:
citizens united and the fetishism o
Page 9 and 10:
crime and punishment in private pri
Page 11 and 12:
crime and punishment in private pri
Page 13 and 14: crime and punishment in private pri
Page 33 and 34: Alan ClarkeU.S. War Crimes: Torture
Page 35 and 36: u.s. war crimes: torture as officia
Page 49 and 50: testimony on torture policy111willf
Page 51 and 52: testimony on torture policy113That
Page 53 and 54: Henry M. WillisORGANIZING—WITH OR
Page 55 and 56: organizing—with or without the nl
Page 63: David GespassBook Review: TheAssass
Page 67 and 68: editor’s preface continuedFor thi
show all

Does your library have National Lawyers Guild Review?

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?