Reflections on the trial of the New York 8
Black revolutionaries and F.B.I.
Over 500 F.B.I. agents spread throughout New York on the night of
October 17, 1984 to arrest eight Black revolutionaries, whom the
newspapers would call "urban terrorists" the next day. With guns
pointed to the heads of children, bazooka rocket launchers cocked on
homes and searchlights locking down the streets, the police
culminated a two-year monitoring plan that included wire taps, video
and physical surveillance. The NY 8 won victory in a
month-and-a-half battle for bail as the first people held under the
new federal Preventive Detention Law (No Bail Act) which
fundamentally turned around the presumption of innocence in making
them prove their right to bail. They faced over 72 conspiracy
charges for isolated, petty crimes that could not be legally
considered on their own. So, they were linked together as predicate
acts of a criminal enterprise, which laid the basis for the
government to apply RICO, the Racketeering Influence Organization
Act used against organized crime. In essence, the NY 8 were charged
with conspiring to commit conspiracies.
New case law was set to circumvent the wives� legal spousal
privilege of not having to testify against their husbands. The
government created eight separate grand juries (called a Chinese
Wall) where wives would only testify against the other parties. They
refused and were imprisoned. Failed attempts to force the testimony
of others resulted in more jail sentences, with one supporter
staying behind bars longer than those on trial, which lasted from
April-August 1985.
Recently, in New York, the December 12th Movement, a group
organized from the core of the NY 8, hosted an anniversary
celebration of the NY 8, who defeated all criminal conspiracy
charges and walked away with community service and probation. Final
Call staff writer Dora Muhammad recently went One-on-One with the NY
8�s political voice during their trial, Omowale Clay, to compare the
political climate that led to the 1984 arrest with the climate
surrounding the current war on terrorism.
Final Call News (FCN): What helped you get through the trial?
Omowale Clay (OC): Here we were each facing 260 years in
jail, locked down with 24-hour maximum security, cut off from
everything. One of the things that helped us through that was our
politics. We knew that we were not criminals. If anything we had
done in our lives, it was fight for the liberation of our people.
FCN: Why do you feel the case is a relevant backdrop in
understanding the quickening pace of new laws passing through
Congress?
OC: The American judicial system will be one of the vehicles
of fascism in essence. We saw a series of criminal laws that were
applied politically. Our position was, if they could find us guilty
then they have laid a legal precedent to arrest people for ideas,
thoughts, actions that never happened but the ones that you say we
were going to do. Every day they called us terrorists. Finally, by
the end of the trial they were forced to call us Black
revolutionaries.
We saw the adaptation of military tactics used in an
international arena being used domestically: The preemptive strike
is the rationale for attacking Arab countries without any
provocation by the theory that we�re attacking them to prevent an
attack on us. It is defined by the perpetrator. We think, therefore,
we can act. It does not get sanctioned internationally in any court
of law or any tribunal. One of the reasons Bush says that we are at
war, even though Congress has not declared war, is because it
creates a different climate of what is possible, particularly on the
question of civil and human rights. They can now say that if you�re
demonstrating against the government that�s seditious conspiracy, an
act against the security of the United States. Now, the FBI has been
told that all the gloves are off. You can deal openly with
unscrupulous characters. Before, they were wire tapping illegally
anyway. Now they can do it legally which means they can now go a
step further to crush dissent.
FCN: How do you compare the climate during the time of the trial
to the one that exists now?
OC: Back in that time, the Reagan economy was one of beaucoup
money and growth for the rich but the poor were in recession. This
country was in an economic crisis before this attack. The recession
that they were going into meant that they were going to have to lay
some people off. The attack gave them the pretext to resolve some of
their economic contradictions. The airlines did not fly for four
days. They lost $5 billion as an industry. They�ve laid off over
30,000 workers in the airlines. The government then gave them $5
billion and makes available to them $10 million in loan guarantees
but never required them to hire back the 30,000 people.
The most important thing is that you cannot separate the growing
right wing trends in this country from the political economy. It is
phenomenal the number of businesses that are being taken over or
going out of business. The crisis in the economy leads to the
question of the corresponding laws to ensure the protection of rich
people. With that kind of crisis in the economy there has to be the
development of more stringent infringements upon people�s civil and
human rights.
FCN: How does the new anti-terrorism law fit into the equation?
OC: One of things that we witnessed during our trial was a
growing development of fascism in this country under a pretext.
Recently, (Secretary of Defense Donald) Rumsfeld said we�re going to
use every law on the books, from immigration to the IRS, to put
these terrorists behind bars. Well, wait a minute. If they�re
terrorists, then they have in fact committed acts that make them
terrorists. And there are laws on the books already to do that. Why
are you talking about immigration? If they have done something, you
wouldn�t apply immigration law to them. What he was really saying
was, we�re going to start using these laws against anyone we want to
use it against by us simply saying, this is who you are.
FCN: What are the lessons to be learned today from your case?
OC: Psychologically, with all that they did, our case is a
very good lesson to never give up. When it seems like they have
assembled everything against you, never give up. You have to have
faith in our people that once they understand what is going on, they
are your most reliable base. Consciousness is having some sense of
history. When you have a sense of what has happened before, it helps
you better understand the things that are happening now. For people
who look at this and say, this doesn�t really concern me, it�s a
real question of political education.
Also, that they know how to script things. They�ll say, "Let�s
create this atmosphere that they�re guilty." That�s very important
for us in this crisis right now to see . No one condones terrorism
but it is a military tactic. We watch on television things that this
government is doing around the world. We can flip the channel if we
don�t want to look at it anymore. Those people who are the victims
of U.S. foreign policy can�t change any channels. But as body bags
begin to come home in this country, we will become much more
sensitive . When it�s in your face, you begin to start questioning
what�s going on. You find yourself in the situation where the rights
that you thought you had, you no longer have. These are lessons from
the NY 8 case.
FCN: Thank you.
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