Abolition Today

Max & Yusuf cover Rikers jail and all the horrors behind that island of death. We'll be joined by Dr Stewart who has spent the last 3+ years on Rikers awaiting a trial.

Unlike just about every other coverage you've seen, we examine this hell on earth from the perspective of Slavery Abolitionists and not as prison abolitionists or reformists.  (Replay)

Max is sick and recovering from a virus. We were intending to have Dr Stewart on again this week but circumstances prevent it. We'll return live "God willing" on September 10th with a breakdown of the ASNN Vermont trip.

This week we're in Vermont for the Abolish Slavery National Network Anniversary Celebration.

In honor of the special date, we're revisiting the beginning of the journey. Our broadcast from August of 2020 when the ASNN was newly formed as an institution designed to end constitutional slavery nationwide. This was before all the momentous accomplishments we have enjoyed and prior to the sometimes heartbreaking losses.

At the end of it all, the ASNN has achieved great and historic deeds. Successfully removing slavery exception clauses from 3 states with 5 on the ballot this year and 2 dozen more ready for 2023. We introduced a joint federal resolution to repeal and replace the 13th amendment and reignited one of the most impactful movements in American history. The Slavery Abolitionist Movement. We will finish what our ancestors began.

This was how it all started.

In S3-E30 we'll discuss the August 14th premier of the documentary #SlaveState2022 held in Baton Rouge, LA and will be joined by some of those who were there for that historic event.

We've also got some powerful teaching to do about the state of Louisiana. Its historical to present connection to chattel slavery, convict leasing, and mass incarceration. Pattern recognition is a superpower.

We'll update you on the upcoming August 28th anniversary event for the Abolish Slavery National Network which will be held in Burlington Vermont, and spend some time in remembrance of the largest prison slave labor work strike in US history. The Millions For Prisoners Human Rights March on Washington, DC held on August 19th, 2017. A catalyst moment that changed everything.

As always, the music and poetry mixes will be diverse, powerful, and on fire. This week we have a special Bridging The Gap segment that you don't want to miss. Orson Wells reading John Browns speech at his sentencing.

Max and Yusuf are joined by Curtis Davis. Author, abolitionist, and formerly incarcerated director of Decarcerate Louisiana.

Curtis is a founding member and Executive Director of Decarcerate Louisiana, and the End Plantation Prisons Project. He was instrumental in overturning unconstitutional Jim Crow juries in Louisiana. He is also a member of the Abolish Slavery National Network and introduced the LA abolition amendment.

Curtis's book "Slave State: Evidence of Apartheid in America" is available for purchase now.  Curtis Davis spent 25 years in Angola prison. Since leaving that literal slave plantation he has become a beacon of hope for those still left behind.

Of course we'll have news, updates, music, poetry, testimonies, and the voices of the ancestors reclaimed in our Bridging The Gap segment.

(Rebroadcast) Max, Yusuf, Tribal, Tag, and Curtis are all in Louisiana for the red carpet premier of the documentary Slave State 2022. We will return with a live broadcast on 8-21-22

It's our 1st episode of Black August 2022. Martin Luther King Jr. warned that we face 3 evils in the world. Racism, Poverty, and War.

In the 50 plus years since his assassination, racism has returned to its roots of forced bondage. Rebuilding a global system of enslavement through international prison industries. We've witnessed the largest mass displacement in mankind's history with some 82.4 million forced out of their homes. Unwarranted hubris among dictators has brought us dangerously close to a world shattering war with the most advanced military armies on earth.

Fires rage out of control both literally and figuratively. Plagues unseen for generations have returned, and the threat of nuclear annihilation has never been closer.

In merica we face civil war, mass killings, and political coups at the highest levels of government. White nationalists have become more emboldened than they have been since reconstruction. Saying the quite parts out loud for all to hear with no repercussions. All while slavery abolitionists work to finally end constitutional slavery in the US for the first time.

Enter the Dragons of Black August 2022. 

Also, the free premier of the documentary Slave State 2022 happens on August 14th at East Baton Rouge Parish River Center Library. 250 North Blvd., 4th Floor, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802. Time: 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Come through and meet Max, Tribal, Curtis and the Decarcerate Louisiana organizers!

Of course we've got flaming hot-fire music mixes, poetry, and our Bridging The Gap segment which brings the voices of the abolitionist ancestors back to life for a new generation.

3 Abolitionist Yankees met in Sumter South Carolina... it's not the start of a joke. It's today's reality.

Max, Yusuf, and Tag will be broadcasting live from the Paul Cuffee Abolitionist center in Sumter, SC.

With that in mind, we're going to talk about reconstruction, Yankees, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags. What those labels mean and how they connect to today's Slavery Abolitionist movement.

We'll also discuss the 5 state solution proposed by the Republic of New Afrika.

We have some epic news to share. Another state is on the table to end slavery in 2022! That brings us to a grand total of SIX STATES where constitutional slavery abolition can become a reality in 2022. When we are successful on November 8th, that will make a total of 10 states who have explicitly abolished slavery without exception for the first time in US history.

We'll tell you all about it.

Of course there's music, poetry, and we will be Bridging The Gap by bringing the ancestors words back to life for a new generation.

Max is back, +1. If you know you know.

This week we're calling out the blatant hypocrisy of US elected officials. Frankly, we're sick and tired of it.

It's the same old song over and over. Everything is called slavery BUT slavery. A red herring to chase. While they rename and redefine everything from covid isolation to roe v wade as "Slavery", they are actually practicing real slavery on you and me. Us and ours. Then, to put the crit in hypocrite, they have the audacity to point fingers at other nations doing far less than what merica is doing right now.

At this moment in history, the US is in violation of multiple international treatise simply by having ANY exception for ANY reason that allows enslavement within their federal and state constitutions.

Article 4 of The Declaration of Human Rights doesn't say;

"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." (Except for merica who can use it as a punishment for crime whereof the party has been duly convicted)

It's a crime against humanity that is in practice across this nation every day within a for-profit prison industry and a criminal justice system that acts as a revenue generator. 

The next time you hear these unholy hypocrites talk about prison labor in China or assassinations of journalists, remember you live in the country with the largest prison population on earth. Where police turned slave-catchers have killed enough people in one decade to fill every seat in Yankee Stadium with dead bodies.

"There comes a time when it is best that the worse should be made known" – Frederick Douglass

We'll have incredible music, and bring the voices of the ancestors back to life for a new generation.

While Max is away, Yusuf will be joined by guest co-hosts Tag Harmon and Jean'na Kenney. We'll have a candid discussion about the forgotten and most times ignored history that 40% of the enslavers were white women.

We'll share an interview with Prof. Stephanie Jones-Rogers about her book, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. We'll see how this history shaped the erasure of black women from the Women's Suffrage Movement and Voting Rights.

We're talking about Femme Fatale Frenemies: A Relationship That Started on the Plantation and perpetuates to this day.

As always, we'll have powerful music clips, and we'll bring the ancestors' words back to life for a new generation with our Bridging The Gap segment.

This is a special episode. We'll be joined by Shifa Rahman and Brian Palmer of the Convict Leasing and Labor Project and Savannah Eldrige of the Abolish Slavery National Network.

The mission of the Convict Leasing and Labor Project is to expose the history and ongoing impact of the convict leasing system and its connection to modern prison slavery while restoring the dignity of all victims of forced labor and their descendants. CLLP aims to lead a national conversation on the history and impact of forced labor, including chattel slavery, convict leasing, and the modern crisis of mass incarceration.

The Sugar Land 95 are the 95 African-American individuals unearthed during a construction in Sugar Land, Texas, 30 miles southwest of Houston. Archaeologists found evidence that the 95 individuals belonged to the state of Texas' convict leasing system and were buried in the unmarked gravesite.

The first bone was found in February 2018, by a backhoe operator clawing through the dirt on land owned by the Fort Bend Independent School District. By the summer, the remains of 94 men and one woman, all African-American victims of convict leasing, had been recovered on the future site of a career and technical education center. Ranging in age from 14 to 70, the inmates had muscular builds but were malnourished, their bones misshapen from back-breaking, repetitive labor. They were buried in plain pine boxes sometime between 1878 and 1911.

CLLP has been at the forefront of the fight to preserve the Sugar Land 95's burial ground and ensure they are properly memorialized.

As always, we'll have powerful music, clips, and we'll bring the ancestors words back to life for a new generation with our Bridging The Gap segment.

Max and Yusuf are traveling this week to continue fighting the good fight of ending slavery. Enjoy a rebroadcast of our 4th of July broadcast from last year. We'll be back July 10, 2022 God-willing with a new LIVE broadcast.

 

"Slavery never ended. Not a solitary day has passed where it but for a single second suddenly ceased. It wasn't solved, it evolved from slaves on plantations to involve caged convicts being leased, Or, warehousing bodies for profit like living slabs of meat. Like the deceased beast you eat at a rich man's feast. Deliberate deceivers. Talking about freedom and peace in a nation where nobody has either." - Max Parthas - Slavery is Abolished ...