Anarchist Black Cross
Remember We're Still Here
“Here we remain, yesterday’s urban guerillas, abandoned in captivity”
Ojore Lutalo is locked down in Trenton, New Jersey, for actions carried out in the fight for Black Liberation.
In Ojore's own words, he is "serving a parole violation sentence (we received 14 to 17 years) stemming from a 1977 conviction for expropriating monies from a capitalist state bank (in order to finance our activities) and engaging the political police in a gun battle in December 1975 in order to effect our departure from the bank, and to ensure success of the military operation..."
"After my parole violation term terminated in December 1987, I started serving a forty year sentence with a twenty year parole ineligibility (I was paroled in 1980, and I have been back in captivity since April 20, 1982) that I have received in 1982 for having a gun-fight with a drug dealer. The overall strategy of assaulting a drug dealer is to secure monies to finance one's activities, and to rid the oppressed communities of drug dealers." Ojore was originally arrested with New Afrikan P.O.W. Kojo Bomani Sababu, and was struggling with comrade Andaliwa Clark up until the point that Andaliwa was killed in action within the confines of New Jersey's infamous Trenton State Prison after he shot two prison's security guards in the repressive Management Control Unit (M.C.U.) on January 19th, 1976 when they tried to stop him from escaping from captivity.
Ojore was a comrade of the late Kuwasi Balagoon, a New Afrikan anarchist P.O.W. "I've been involved in the struggle, the war against the fascist state since 1970. I've been an anarchist since 1975 without any regrets. Prior to my involvement in the struggle, I was just another apolitical lumpen (bandit) here in Amerika."
"I was... influenced and highly motivated by the Black Liberation Army (B.L.A.) here in Amerika. These sisters and brothers were New Afrikans just like me from the streets of the ghettos who took the initiative militarily, to start assassinating members of the state's security forces who were murdering black people in our communities. From the inception of all revolutions, I feel that the people need armed combat units to check state sponsored acts of terrorism by the government's security forces. In addition, I feel that these armed combat units are necessary to show the people that fascist acts of state-sponsored terrorism... will be responded to militarily. In 1975 I became disillusioned with Marxism and became an anarchist (thanks to Kuwasi Balagoon) due to the inactiveness and ineffectiveness of Marxism in our communities along with repressive bureaucracy that comes with Marxism. People aren't going to commit themselves to a life and death struggle just because of grand ideas someone might have floating around in their heads. I feel people will commit themselves to a struggle if they can see progress being made similar to the progress of anarchist collectives in Spain during the era of the fascist Bahamonde..."
Ojore is presently locked down in an M.C.U. in Trenton. "I'm encased in a cage of steel and concrete surrounded by high prison walls topped with gun towers and rows of razor wire while being watched by sadistic fascist pigs. Nevertheless, I'm not complaining because I have accepted revolution, which is an armed struggle for me, and I have come to terms with the prospects of death and captivity... The vast majority of the Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners now being interned here in the concentration camps of North Amerika aren't receiving any assistance (e.g.: being liberated, assistance in liberating ourselves, financial assistance needed to obtain food packages, winter clothing, reading material and postage stamps) from the so-called progressive revolutionary organizations, groups and individuals here in Amerika. With our talents, we have been abandoned here in the state's numerous concentration camps and our M.C.U.¹s by those out there in what we call minimum custody..." We don't need moral support because we have purpose. We don¹t need anyone to tell us to stay strong because we are going to remain stead-fast anyway, because we have come to terms with the prospects of death and captivity."