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UWASI B/vlAQOON1946-198^

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your honorsince i'vc Iwen convicted of murder

, and have taken tlie time to digest;;; just what it means

after noting what it means to my familyand how it affects people who read the newspapers

• and all"i see now, that i'vc made an awful mistake!

tUnd didn't ^ppcoachftiis matter of a trialfn a respectful, deliberate or thoughtful manner

had nothing to cjo with this case mm

. -i must have been legally insane thinking about:: the twenty five murders ofrchildrcitin Atlanta since Wayne Williams capture

• the recent murder of a man in boston by police " " - ; • .:: the two recent murders of two in Chicago by police

the shooting of the five year old little boy in suburban cali fthe lynchingsfn Alabama7 "' •

'• the mob murder of a transit worker in Brooklynthe murders of fourteen women in Boston

,' feeling that this is evidence of something * .- ". . . i .1 *"* . f « * _ . _ • . . • • * • • « .*- . .«_. ...... 1 . .. ..

th<i tifedt pihtik* &ttyttod later« a' jn^ftttt-p^^-tfll^flilA^lny'

Ihroiigh his corrlfnitrncflt, ifid

UWasi'feitidedI fx>lid£&nd went tmdef-grdlirid Itl 1968 after his Indictment lit the New Y6rkffarhe-Up trial, He spent 10 ydars iti prison because of his revolutionary activities', and

to escape twice. His final stay IH prison began when he was arrested in bc:ccriil>etf 1081charged with participating in the BLA'i October21 Brinks expropriation attempt in Nyack, New

|s> v Whether on the streets or in pn'.son, Kiiwasl Was loved by Iliosc wfio knew him—for his stronghi :;chfira6f.er, Cani and c6ncerti for others, especially the children, and his ever present sense of humor.'$ jKiiwaSrs determination flhd courage, his love b f l i f e and freedom, ichia in nn example to n i l who4 ; would dare to struggle for justice and a belter world.

BORN ON SUNDAY*

Oh that Saturday, that Saturday--why we can't we make It go away?Don't want to believe It—thoughIt's all too real.Where did our warrior go?

from on Sunday; died on Saturday;atniggled the whole week through.Give "S4/7" end more.

As bad as Death Is . . .no way It could fake Kuwasl head on.No one took Kuwael head on.He'd dodged a kit of bullets, ' .caught *. couple too,always kept moving.No, Death must have snuck up on him.must have entick him.to 1ak» our warrior away.

Born on Sunday; died on Saturday;atruggled the whole time In betwxen:Struggled and loved, danced to the boat, lauqhfd,and then etriiggled even harder-^whole life through, struggled for his peopl*to be free.

wftrlor—writing potme, cooking cxlell stfw, tussling withkids, (whtn h* could)—'g*nll» warrior, vtlor In ictlon.No,/i« dldn'l Ilkt vlolunc*,not «v«n ir Will bit,}u*t h*t«d oppr'fjtslc-n * whol« lot mot*.So h« fought »rrf fought ind fought»nd n»v*r looked buck.

Sfld ti<}\Y All Ik*x*l<i til fctm* off*ld lot tilt human -pltH (Irmilxh!

P<~"rn nn Sonrlrty; rll'd on F»t<tid*Y~~hn\r could w» !*>** him 5<? 5"ifirC««fh inttfk up furl <*n*1chfrl him.

Y*t ttty II ff I* nm<-h gr**l-r f/jfirr rf-nCi>n still h~*t K<i«r**l'y glint Imigh,ringing *cio~* fiom th" olh*r *l<1«.

n on Sto

(VnvM

Horn on Sunday; dl»d on Saturday;crtmttd thi poftry of ulruggl* »ll w»ek lonp;i»ld N»w Afrlks hud to b* Ire*.

Our w*rrlor, revolution ptrsonlfltd,»nd mainly, w*ll mainly ht Just lovndNpf only "th» p«opl«" In Ihf abstract,but p»opl«,hi* p»opl»,common pfopl*,*nd all kinds of Individualswith thalr faults and foibles, soul and

dlfd of Airis !»f ,i\tit*«ni pflnon on fi*ttur1«y. n~r.. I.?,JPflP. Ill" n«ni(» Is rf Yonib*n origin: Rrfngo^nn\«*ns "\Vt*ttr>r<t"; Kt<wH«t mf<ns "Pnrn on Sundny."Originally from P»«lmnt*, Ktivrasl was on* of thertnthf-r 31 and lnli>r with tti» Rtack Liberationh* wan (>v/c« <-"f^liiird and fiv/r« **cap»d hafotlast arnifd •o<r"p'Tf"<<"' with th* *n«my, th*"Rtlnk's" *3rprop»/flf/ofi and <J<KT battla.

"ffAHY N&HS HKfSSAKfT/t. 15

Memorial honors BalagoonOn Dec. 22, 1986, in the heart of

Harlem, over 200 people paid their respectsat a memorial tribute hosted by the NewAfrikan People's Organization to honorNew Afrikan Freedom Fighter KuwasiBalagoon of the Black Liberation Army.

The feature aspect of the memorial wasa video interview of Balagoon on October20, 1986 done by "Let the People Speak."Speakers included Chokwe Lumumba,Chairman of the New Afrikan People'sOrganization, Julio Rosado of the Move-ment for National Liberation of PuertoPJCO, and attorney Judy Holmes of theResistance Law Office,

Cultural presentations from the NewAfrikan Rappers, brothers in struggle, andpoetry readings from the Book Sou! ofBLA by Nkechi Yaifa, Minister of Justiceof the Provisional Government of theRepublic of New Afrika and AshantiOmawale, former BLA POW gave thememorial a spirit that reflected the essenceof Kuwasi.

The Eulogy was delivered by AhmedObafemi of the New Afrikan People's Or-ganization, which was followed by remarksfrom Kuwasi's sister, Diane Weems Ligonand the presentation of the New Afrikanflag to the family.

Some of the most moving commentscame from prisoners of war and politicalprisoners. Statements sent from MarionPrison by Sekou Odinga and SundiataAcoli arrived in the mail too late to be readat the memorial. Odinga is a very close andlogn time comrade of Balagoon, both whowith Sundiata were members of the Pan-ther 21.

Kuwasi Balagoon leaves behind a histo-ry of resistance and struggle and will beremembered by all freedom loving people,His spirit lives on.

Kuwasi Bclagcori

^CHURCHESKuwasi Balagoon dead, service set Dec. 21

Black revolutionaryKuwasi Balagoon died onDec. 13 at the Erica Coun-,y Medical Center inJpstate, New York. Heind been moved thererom the New York State>enitentiary at Auburn/here he was i n c a r -erated for his political-nilitary work in behalf ofHack liberation.A memorial service to

onor his life of struggle

and sacrifice is being or-ganized by the NewA f r i k a n People's Or-ganization for Sunday,Dec. 21 at 2 p.m. on the2nd floor of the ACARbuilding at 317 W. 125thSt.

Balagoon, who wouldhave been 40 years of ageon Dec. 22 was born inLakeland, Md. At 17, as ayoung enlisted man in theU.S. Army he witnessed

racism and discriminationin the treatment of Blacksoldiers by white officersand enlisted men. At thisyoung age he began torealize that Black peoplehad no reason to be fight-ing in Vie tnam oranywhere else in behalf ofa racist "Amerikkka"where Black people's sur-vival remained threaten-ed by capitalist economicpolicies and a white-

dominated poli t icalsystem.

He left the U.S. milit-ary and moved to NewYork where he became atenant organizer and in1968, a member of theBlack Panther Party.

When the U.S. govern-ment's repression cam-paign against the BlackLiberat ion Movementknown as COINTELPROtook aim on the BlackPanthers, he was among21 men and women nam-ed in a federal conspiracyrap to bomb shoppingcenters and police sta-tions. It was in the in-tense atmosphere of an18-state alarm to pick upthese 21 Panthers and vi-cious FBI and police at-tacks against Panthers inChicago, Los Angeles,Houston and elsewherethat Brother Kuwasiwould elude arrest and gounderground. All 21defendants would befound not guilty on allcounts. His latest arrest(he escaped from prisonseveral times) would oc-cur in Dec. 1981 when hewas arrested and charged

with participation in theBrink's armored car ex-propriation attempt inOctober of that year inNyack, N.Y.

In the slow-trial oncharges arising from theBrink's action, Balagoonweuld uphold a prisoner-of-war position and refus-ed to participate in thetrial. He openly acknow-ledged that he was a sol-dier in the Black Libera-tion Arrnj' (BLA), a politi-cal-military clandestineorganization formed in1971 to defend Black peo-ple and to fight for Blackpeople's liberation.

Balagoon was also acontributing author of thebook LOOK FOR ME INTHE WHIRLWIND, andhas written many poems,short stories and politicalarticles published in sev-

eral Black, U.S. and Cana-dian journals and newspapers. A videotape of an interview recorded a monthbefore his untimely death,will be played at thememorial service.