Freedom to Speak the Truth

Freedom to Speak the Truth

On June 12, 2002 a federal jury awarded Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney (two Earth First organizers) $4.4 million in damages after finding Oakland police officers and FBI agents wrongly blamed them for bombing themselves in order to silence their political and environmental speech. It is essential that we not see the Judi Bari case as an isolated incident of FBI/police harassment and attempted assassination of those who challenge capitalism, racial oppression, and US economic and military aggression, just as we not see the “Oakland Riders” as an isolated incident of police racism and harassment of people of color.

Recently, a report was released that showed that Ronald Reagan initiated FBI harassment and infiltration of UC dissidents in the sixties. This report is relevant to the FBI harassment of Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney as the FBI used their bombing and accusations that ensued to try to discredit the efforts of these activists.

We also know that the FBI was part of numerous assassinations of political leaders in the sixties ranging from black panther leaders, to Malcolm X, and though not proven, likely Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Why are we supposed to believe that the FBI did not work with police to set up and frame Mumia Abu Jamal and Leanord Peltier, two prominent people of color who were challenging white power at its roots, who were speaking the truth the same way they worked to frame Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.. Knowing the Mumia Abu Jamal story well, it sounds too similar to the Judi Bari/ Daryl Cherney case to not find cause for alarm.

In business school, future corporate leaders learn three primary strategies to challenge dissident voices: fire them, publicly ridicule them, or co-opt them by putting them into positions of power. It is clear to me that the US government uses the same tactic to shut down voices of dissent. This is a violation of democracy and free speech.

The Declaration of Independence, which we will celebrate in just a few weeks states there is a time “in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another”. Our “founding fathers” believed that an essential part of freedom of speech was the right to overthrow one’s government. Revolutionary speech is a fundamental form of free speech that we must fight to maintain in the United States.

We must not support a government that clings to a past that includes slavery that Mumia challenges by calling for black power, or the genocide of Native Americans that Leanord Peltier challenges by calling for indigenous rights. We must support leaders such as Leanard Peltier and Mumia and challenge the FBI’s actions to discredit, kill and imprison them. We must not be scared to speak out in a time of political repression and manufactured fear, but must be diligent in speaking the truth and making sure true justice is served. We must continue to challenge government repression and work to build a democratic society. In the words of George Orwell “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”