On April 23, members of the Party for
Socialism and Liberation joined dozens of spirited activists for a
rally in front of the Thurgood Marshall statue in Baltimore to demand
freedom for political prisoner Marshall “Eddie” Conway. The rally
commemorated Conway’s’s 65th birthday, while focusing on his
four-decade-long unjust imprisonment—a product of the U.S.
government’s repressive program known as COINTELPRO, which targeted
many progressives and revolutionaries during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Eddie Conway was arrested in 1970 under
charges of murdering a Baltimore City police officer and severely
injuring another. At the time, he was the Minister of Defense of the
Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party and spent much time
organizing within the Black community in the face of extreme
oppression and racism perpetuated by capitalist exploitation and its
historical roots in slavery.
Conway was arrested while on shift as a
worker for the U.S. Postal Service; five agents confronted him in a
supervisor’s office with .38 caliber revolvers aimed directly at
his chest. The charges brought against Conway were deliberate
fabrications—it is well-documented that he was working at his job
site at the time the murder took place.
Several organizations and individuals
attended the rally, chanting and braving cold rain. Many spoke out
against the imprisonment of Eddie Conway and other political
prisoners, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and the Cuban
Five.
During his speech, ANSWER Coalition
(Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) organizer Nicholas Powell
compared the struggles facing Black Americans during the 60s and 70s,
when Eddie became radicalized, with those of today, noting the
effects of deindustrialization on the working class and the
subsequent effects of Black mass imprisonment—a figure that today
far outnumbers those of African descent who worked as slaves. Powell
discussed the need to build a street-oriented fight-back movement and
stated, “We need more Eddie Conways!”
The rally was chaired by Marvin “Doc”
Cheatham of the National Action Network of Greater Batimore and was
co-sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition, Southern Christian Leadership
Conference – Baltimore chapter, NAACP Baltimore, Paul Robeson
Institute, Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, and many more.
