Who We Be? POCC!!

What's our call? Free 'EM ALL!!

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!

What is the Prisoners of Conscience Committee?
"We are not a prison activist organization. We are a revolutionary organization." -Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr.

The Prisoners of Conscience Committee was founded by Fred Hampton, Jr. during the nine years he spent in jail in the 1990's. In the words of Chairman Fred, Jr: "[The POCC] was literally birthed from behind enemy lines, its birth canal was the concentration camps, its umbilical cords are the prison chains." Now a national organization, the P.O.C.C engages in revolutionary work throughout the country, both through their own programs and through coalition building with other revolutionary peoples and organizations.

"I always knew 'Aint nobody gonna save us but us,' says Hampton, Jr., "So now how can we get as many people organized as possible?" Coalition building is extremely important, and the P.O.C.C. is able to connect with people "locked up in different struggles" by framing the conversation in terms of the concetration camps and the prisoners held captive within them.

Many organizations differ over what constitutes a political prisoner of war, but Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. contends that "all prisoners are political."

POCC Clarification of Terms:

"We must start using brutal terms for the brutal realities we exist in."- Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr.
Prisons--> "Concentration Camps"
Gentrification--> "Land Grab"
Police Brutality--> "Police Terrorism"
AIDS, Heroin, Crack, Ebola--> "Chemical & Biological Warfare"

P.O.C.C. CAMPAIGNS:

HARRIET TUBMAN CODE

Members of the POCC teach and live by this code which is summed up by M1, Minister of Culture of the POCC, as: 'Leave no brother or sister behind enemy lines." Anyone "fortunate enough to come from behind enemy lines cannot forget those who are still held captive."
An example of this spirit of accountability is that of Aaron Patterson, Minister of Defense of the POCC, currently held behind enemy lines. Upon release from jail after 17 years on Death Row on a false conviction, he took the $100,000 restitution given him by the state of Illinois to use as a bond on another prisoner's release. The P.O.C.C. is currently engaged in a campaign to free Aaron Patterson.

P.O.C.C. EDUCATIONAL ETHIC

Chairman Fred Hamtpon, Jr. and the P.O.C.C. make a clear distinction between being educated and being trained. Academic education must be used for the purposes of liberation! Academics writing books simply for the sake of writing books, and not with the purposes of making change, is unacceptable. These are exercises in futility or "Intellectual Masturbation," as Fred Hampton, Jr. calls them. Classrooms should be places of revoluationary change: class projects, according to the P.O.C.C., should be real work, like actively working on the case of death row inmate and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

P.O.C.C. CODE OF CULTURE

“There're too many of us in Sing Sing for us to be talking about bling bling.”- Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr.

The P.O.C.C's Code of Culture applies to artists and musicians and is a call for cultural production to work toward positive change and not to distract from the battles at hand. An example: Puff Daddy cancelled his Chicago wing of a 'Vote or Die' campaign because the P.O.C.C. and community members would not allow the campaign to cross Illinois state lines. We say, "Organize or Die!" not Vote or Die.
“We have nothing to lose, but our chains," Malcolm X said, and the P.O.C.C. adds: “and ours ain’t platinum.”
"We be the great grandchildren of Garvey, offspring of Malcolm and the cubs of Panthers." -Fred Hampton, Jr.

P.O.C.C. FREEDOM CAMPAIGNS

"One Prisoner, One Contact"

"for the security of our comrades, everyone should be in contact with at least one Political Prisoner/Prisoner of War/Prisoner of Conscience- kidnapped and held captive behind enemy lines.
The One Prisoner, One Contact campaign's intent is to form "principal coalitions as well as scientific relationships." The campaign builds communication through people on the outside writing to prisoners on the inside. It's not just writing about, "hi, how are you, can't wait for you to get out" - but rather building real contact between prisoners and communities to create something powerful.

"Welcome Black to the Community"

This campaign seeks to help release prisoners re-settle into the communities they were kidnapped from. Fred Hampton, Jr. sees it as members of the P.O.C.C. and community's responsibility to help them come back home and start life on the outside again. The P.O.C.C. pulls together care packages of clothes and other necessities to aid them in this endeavor.

"P.O.C.C. Triple S :Straight Street Sessions"

Straight Street Sessions follow the P.O.C.'s approach of going out to the people, to talk about the war on Africans and colonized people. To Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. and the members of the P.O.C.C., it is imperative to recognize the realities of the people. "If banging is a reality to you, then we say, bang for freedom!

P.O.C.C. Positions

Math for the Masses
On Electoral Politics: "whether you run for a garbage collector in Detroit Michigan or a state representative in Chicago or President of the us, no position on political prisoners plus no position on reparations plus no position on African anti terrorism bill, very simply , equaled no vote. That was POCC’s official position."- Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr.

On Music

"The streets make music," Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. said. "It was the movement on the streets that made James Brown start singing, 'I'm Black and I'm Proud.' The movement made it possible for Marvin Gaye to stand up to the White men who really ran Motown records and say, 'I'm going to record What's Going On whether you like it or not."

African Anti-Terrorism Bill

The African Anti-Terrorism bill was created in response to the passing of Patriot Acts I, II, and III. The AAT Bill explains the POCC's positions on what they see as the most pressing issues of terrorism facing communitites of African people, including: "Police Terrorism, Just-Us System, Concentration Camps (U.S.), Land Grab, Mis-Education and Chemical and Biological Warfare, on African and Colonized People."

Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. on the AAT Bill:

"We’re taking a position that we don’t care if an individual is running for President or running for garbage collector in the city of Chicago, they have to take a position on this African Anti-Terrorism Bill.
"It addresses this phenomenon of terrorism from the viewpoint of the O.V.’s.

The O.V’s be the Original Victims of Terrorism and that means African people. People who have been subjected to terrorism under such euphemisms as slavery, Jim Crow, red lining, gentrification, etc. We’re putting these in their correct context. We say that the crime of terrorism has no statute of limitations. We say that bomb dropped on African women and children, the MOVE organization May 13, 1985 in Philadelphia on Osage Avenue, that was terrorism.

Or what happened December, 4th 1969, assassination of Chairman Fred and Defense Captain Mark Clark Defense Captain Mark Clark that was one of our Ground Zero’s. Matter of fact, yesterday December 2, 2004 when we mobilized deep to march the one-year anniversary of the cold-blooded shooting of little 17 year-old Darryl Hamilton, the brother was shot by Chicago Police. Shot several times in the back and in the head. He had his face pulled over the concrete! up under the surveillance camera. He’s an individual that we identify as our modern day Emmett Till.

These are all victims of terrorism. In fact, more than that, they are original victims of terrorism. That’s just a bill that we’re pushing forward and we’re holding cats accountable. Whether they come from the white-left or any other community there’ll be endless discussion about this phenomenon.

"Just like the ruling class, they have code orange, code yellow, code green so and so forth. We have classifications for the terror we’re subjected to. Code green. Code black. Code Red. We say Mumia Abu Jamal’s status is code red. Sundiata Acoli his code is red and so many other soldiers and soldierettes who are held inside the concentration camps and in the general community at large." 

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