At age 17, Donnell Drinks was one of many young men in Philadelphia who went to prison for life without parole. Today, the city has resentenced more of those prisoners than any other jurisdiction.
Black Panther in struggle: The continued imprisonment of Russell Maroon Shoatz
By Ted Kelly posted on December 23, 2020
Since 1972 nearly half a century ago Russell Maroon Shoatz has languished in a prison cell built on stolen land, poisoned and irradiated by the fossil fuel industry.
A Black Panther Party member and soldier in the Black Liberation Army, Shoatz was falsely accused of killing a cop in the Cobbs Creek area of Philadelphia in 1970.
His family, pillars of their community, have tirelessly fought for his release and carried Maroon’s revolutionary message through the years, whether in solidarity with MOVE, Mumia Abu-Jamal, George Floyd, Walter Wallace Jr., or other struggles demanding justice.
Kempis Ghani Songster: ‘The struggle of working people in the prison system’
Kempis Ghani Songster co-produces the podcast “Move It Forward” which can be listened to at: transom.org/2020/move-it-forward/
These slightly edited comments are from a Dec. 10 webinar organized by the Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party.
Co-moderator Monica Moorehead: We’re very excited to welcome to the panel Kempis Ghani Songster. He is the Healing Justice Organizer for the Amistad Law Project and the host of the new monthly podcast show, “Move It Forward.” He is also co-founder of Ubuntu Philadelphia. Our earlier panelist, Swift Justice, was speaking from an Alabama prison. What similar conditions did you experience in Pennsylvania prisons? Why should the issue of mass incarceration concern all workers? How does the struggle of people on the inside affect all of us?