Chuck0
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I would not recommend turning your back on them. They are prone to dirty tricks. I will mention two personal examples.
The first one you may remember , Chuck. While you and Rose and I were working with the DC Mumia coalition, Malcom told us that they (IAC) had arranged a speaking tour with Pam Africa. We set up a location, printed flyers, and did the outreach. As the date approached, I called Pam to ask about her travel and lodging arrangements. She had no previous knowledge of the event. Although pissed, she came anyway because her name was already out there.
Three years ago, Alfred Woodfox, an ex-Panther was being re-tried for the murder of a prison guard. Rose, myself and Kwasi were invited by some Baltimore anarchist friends to attend the trial for support. We drove to Louisianna and met his support group. The lead figure in this group was an ex-Panther from New Orleans who was also an IAC leader from Oakland. The West Coast Workers World person,Becker, (I dont remember his first name) was also there. They had rented a block of motel rooms ,had extra, and offered us one which we accepted. The night before the trial, Kwasi reviewed the ruling for this new trial. It turned out that back in the 70's the Grand Jury that indicted him had been declared unconstitutional by the Louisianna Supreme Court. Instead of attending the trial we went to a local college law library to see what could be done about this. We discovered that according to law all indictments by that Grand Jury were null and he shouldn't have been tried the first time unless re-indicted. It was the responsibility of the Attorney General to have either released him or re-indicted him at that time. Now, more than twenty years later, he could not be reindicted because of his right to a speedy trial. This meant the court did not have jurisdiction to try him. By the time we got back to the trial it was to late to stop it. He was convicted and given a natural life sentence.
We explained the situation to his attorney and wrote a motion that the attorney approved of. We made several additional trips to Louisianna. With the cooperation of his attorney we were able to visit him and the other two members of the "Angola Three" who agreed with this strategy. We initiated an internet based write in campaign targeting the Attorney General and the prosecuting attorney. This was successful enough to cause write ups in the New Orleans papers. The problem was that IAC was planning a speaking tour of schools in the area. They said they were concerned with the the injustice of the trial and wanted Albert to appeal on grounds of innocence instead of these jurisdictional grounds.
IAC countered with a character assasination campaign against the three of us. Calls from people in New York that we did'nt know bombarded Albert's family and members of the support group. This eventually scared Albert and he elected to go for the appeal instead. IAC had their tour. Albert lost his appeal. He's still on the "Farm".
BobH