“He is a true revolutionary hero for us all,” said U.S. presidential candidate Gloria La Riva after meeting Albert Woodfox, one of the former “Angola 3” political prisoners, following Woodfox’s speech to a packed public forum in San Francisco. Woodfox was released from Louisiana’s infamous Angola prison in February 2016, following 43 years in solitary confinement.
Louisiana is one of the states where La Riva is on the ballot and she has repeatedly visited the area, most recently to join demonstrations against the racist killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, where she was arrested along with hundreds of other protesters.
After the meeting, La Riva said: “Albert Woodfox embodies the enduring strength of the movement. He suffered vicious persecution because of his organizing of a Black Panther Party chapter inside the notorious prison, along with his comrades, Herman Wallace and Robert King.
“Almost half a century with nothing but bars, four walls, a bed and a sink for 22-24 hours a day is beyond cruel and unusual treatment. Not to mention a blatant violation of international law. Yet there are more than 80,000 other people in solitary today in the U.S., and that’s a conservative estimate.
“The only thing Woodfox was ever guilty of was resisting repression and injustice, but the state was threatened by his leadership and dealt with him like they do with other revolutionary political prisoners.
“In the last months of Obama’s presidency our campaign demands he grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Russell Maroon-Shoatz, Mutulu Shakur, Jalil Muntaqim, Chelsea Manning, Sundiata Acoli and all the other political prisoners!”
