This is a collective statement and it is published here with permission from the Black Workers League.
“No movement can survive unless it is constantly growing and changing with the times. If it isn’t growing, if it’s stagnant, and without the support of the people, no movement for liberation can exist, no matter how correct its analysis of the situation is. That’s why political work and organizing are so important. Unless you are addressing the issues people are concerned about and contributing positive direction, they’ll never support you. The first thing the enemy tries to do is isolate revolutionaries from the masses of people, making us horrible and hideous monsters so that our people will hate us.” Assata Shakur
Assata Shakur – Joanne Deborah Byron/Joanne Chesimard, died while living in exile in Havana, Cuba, on Thursday, September 25, 2025. She lived and died as a powerful woman with a free mind and soul dedicated to the liberation of her people and all those who are exploited and oppressed.
In 1973, she was falsely convicted of a shoot-out with state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike, in which a trooper was killed. Another member of the Black Liberation movement, Zayd Malik Shakur was also killed, and Sundiata Acoli was wounded and eventually captured. Assata was also shot, captured, beaten, tortured, and jailed along with Sundiata. In 1979 members of the Black Liberation Army broke her out of prison. Assata lived underground until she was able to flee to Cuba in 1984 where she was granted political asylum. The FBI placed her on their most wanted list with a bounty of $2,000,000. The FBI was unsuccessful in their attempt to return Assata to the United States.
After her capture in 1973, Assata told us that she loved us and hoped that somewhere in our hearts that we loved her too. She identified as a “Black revolutionary woman,” and as “a victim of all the wrath, hatred, and slander that amerika is capable of.” She said that they accused her of “every alleged crime” and “…have plastered pictures alleged to be me in post offices, airports, hotels, police cars, subways, banks, television, and newspapers.”
Like Assata, today, Black, poor, and other people of color are treated like the criminals, when in fact, the real criminals are making policy in the US government. Assata’s words are clear. “They say we steal. But it was not we who stole millions of Black people from the continent of Africa. We were robbed of our language, of our Gods, of our culture, of our human dignity, of our labor, and of our lives.”
Sister Assata was right who are the real thieves and bandits in the world today. She told us long ago that “…we did not rob and murder millions of Indians by ripping off their homeland, then call ourselves pioneers. They (may) call us bandits, but it is not we who are robbing Africa, Asia, and Latin America of their natural resources and freedom while the people who live there are sick and starving.”
Assata also said “they called us murderers,” but who are the ones supporting genocidal policies that allowed the bombing of women, children, and hospitals in Gaza? Who treated Black Americans like criminals when they were seeking refuge from the broken levies due to hurricane Katrina? Who are the ones that allowed those poor and Black citizens to drown?
The truth is, brothers, sisters, friends, and allies, Assata’s death is a clarion call for us to organize against the building of a fascist movement by the US government under the Trump administration. We need unity now more than ever. We need to build solidarity between Black people, other oppressed nationalities, workers, and progressive forces. We need to develop a transitional program that takes us from the conditions we face today to a democratic society that meets the needs of the people, including self determination for Black and other oppressed peoples.
We must be the hope that Assata lived with while in exile. We must be the hope that we will win against the real criminals and thieves who are destroying what little affordable health care, housing, and education that currently exists. These wealthy and racist criminals are the ones sticking us up without wearing a ski mask when we go shopping and pay high prices for food and other necessities.
We need the courage to resist the false middle class dreams we are promised in exchange for our obedience to a system rooted in slavery, settler colonialism, and white supremacy. These systems along with racism, capitalism, and imperialism are designed to exploit us and treat us as less than and inferior.
We must stand together with those who want a society that is centered around the humanity of people, and not the commodification and exploitation of them. Assata was safe and protected because the Cuban nation made a sacrifice to make sure it was so. Therefore, we must stand with Cuba and organize for the kind of world we want and deserve, not the kind of world criminals and thieves want us to have.
It is time to build new movements in the Spirit of Assata Shakur and all the political prisoners and all those before her, who sacrificed their lives so that we could have a better life.
Long Live Assata Shakur!
It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
