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by Russell Maroon Shoatz (Author), Chuck D (Foreword by), Fred Ho (Editor)
Russell Maroon Shoatz is a political prisoner who has been held unjustly for over thirty years, including two decades in solitary confinement. He was active as a leader in the Black Liberation Movement in Philadelphia, both above and underground. His successful escapes from maximum-security prisons earned him the title "Maroon." This is the first published collection of his accumulated written works, and also includes new essays written expressly for this volume.
Despite the torture and deprivation that has been everyday life for Maroon over the last several decades, he has remained at the cutting edge of history through his writings. His work is innovative and revolutionary on multiple levels:
- His self-critical and fresh retelling of the Black liberation struggle in the U.S. includes many practical and theoretical insights;
- His analysis of the prison system, particularly in relation to capitalism, imperialism, and the drug war, takes us far beyond the recently-popular analysis of the Prison Industrial Complex, contained in books such as The New Jim Crow;
- His historical research and writings on Maroon communities throughout the Americas, drawing many insights from these societies in the fields of political and military revolutionary strategy are unprecedented; and finally
- His sharp and profound understanding of the current historical moment, with clear proposals for how to move forward embracing new political concepts and practices (including but not limited to eco-socialism, matriarchy and eco-feminism, food security, prefiguration and the Occupy Wall Street movement) provide cutting-edge challenges for today's movements for social change.
Author Biography
Russell Maroon Shoatz is a founding member of the Black Unity Council, former member of the Black Panther Party, and soldier in the Black Liberation Army. He is currently incarcerated in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Quincy Saul writes columns for Capitalism Nature Socialism and the Africa Report and is a cofounder, a writer, and an organizer for Ecosocialist Horizons. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. Fred Ho is a jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer, and social activist. His previous books include Diary of a Radical Cancer Warrior and Raw Extreme Manifesto, and he is a cofounder of Scientific Soul Sessions. He lives in New York City. Chuck D is a rapper, an author, and a producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious hip-hop music in the mid-1980s as the leader of Public Enemy. He lives in Ventura, California. Matt Meyer is an educator, an activist, an author, and an editor whose previous work includes Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners. He is a founder of the anti-imperialist collective Resistance in Brooklyn and served as national chair for both the War Resisters League and the Peace and Justice Studies Association. He lives in New York City. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is a South African politician and activist. A founding member of the Natal Organization of Women, she has worked as the Chairperson of the ANC Parliamentary Caucus, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Deputy Minister of Health, and Deputy Minister of Defence. She is currently the executive director of Embrace Dignity.
