"SUPPORT FOR LEONARD PELTIER IN OCTOBER AND BEYOND"
Open letter from David Dellinger
David Dellinger is the a veteran pacifist leader and Vermont resident
whose most recent book is _From Yale to Jail_
Why am I and dozens of others going to fast from October 1
through October 12, along with hundreds of others who plan to be
fasting during part of that time?
Why are hundreds of us, fasters and non-fasters, going to march
from Lawrence, Kansas, to Leavenworth Penitentiary on October 11 and
stay there through October 12?
To demand freedom for Leonard Peltier.
Leonard Peltier has spent 18 years in prison for a murder he did
not commit. It has been proven that at his trial in 1975 the FBI
withheld evidence proving his innocence. The prosecution has
admitted it does not know who killed the FBI agents who entered the
American Indian Movement (AIM) camp and started firing at its
occupants. The government has even admitted that it extradited
Peltier from Canada under affidavits that it knew were false.
Despite these facts, Peltier has been denied a new trial and
denied parole. So we are demanding that President Clinton declare
Executive Clemency *now*!
There are some personal reasons why I will go to DC and
Leavenworth. Already committed to fasting from October 1-12 for
Peltier's freedom and for changing the name of October 12's national
holiday from Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day, I attended two
different June and July weekends when American Indians held sacred
ceremonies, first in natural settings in Virginia and then, after
short marches, in DC. "Short marches" for people like me, but the
second weekend included people who had left Alcatraz Island on
February 11 and walked 3,800 miles to the Lincoln Memorial in a
spiritual Walk for Justice. Other participants had walked from
Florida to DC.
For some time, I have been comparing the present period with the
'50s. Then, as now, people were discouraged because injustice was
rampant, the right was vocal and growing, and the media mocked and
downplayed the social protest movements. But when, in December 1955,
Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a segregated bus, her
action, to everyone's surprise (including hers), became the spark
that inspired a nationwide, massive civil rights movement and played
a major role in producing the soul-searching, activist '60s. Sooner
or later, I have told audiences, some action I could not predict
would have the same dramatic effect as did Rosa Parks'. On the
Peltier Weekend, the spirit was such and the audience so diverse,
unified and powerful that I began to feel a successful Movement to
Free Leonard Peltier might become that action.
As a speaker at the June and July events, I said that in many
ways Leonard Peltier is our Nelson Mandela. Given the history of our
treatment of the American Indians, freeing Peltier could be as
important for us as releasing Mandela was for South Africa. Freeing
Peltier could have the positive, reconciling, forward-looking effects
here that freeing Mandela has had there. Not that this country would
automatically achieve justice for Indians and all the rest of its
oppressed people--anymore than we should expect utopia to be
established in South Africa. But freeing Leonard Peltier can be a
significant step in an urgently needed direction, a step with
continuing consequences.
Many people responded positively and I repeated the comparison
in Colorado shortly afterward. Speaking after me was Dennis Brutus,
the South African activist who spent considerable time in prison
there before living in exile here. He immediately said that the
parallel was so striking that, building on it, we should be able to
succeed in freeing Peltier during the October fast.
Now it has been announced that Mandela will be in DC on October
4 to receive The Africa Prize for Leadership. Many of us will be
there on October 3-5 making a public appeal for Peltier's freedom.
With Dennis Brutus' help, we hope to have a delegation meet with
Mandela and ask him to make a public appeal to Clinton to Free
Leonard Peltier now!
For further information on the fast and other plans for support,
contact the People's Fast for Justice, PO Box 170610, Brooklyn, NY.
Be in touch with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, PO Box 583,
Lawrence, KS 66044; (913) 842-5774.
Or contact President Bill Clinton, The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington DC 20500, to request Executive
Clemency; (tel) (202) 456-1111 or (fax) (202) 456-2461 or (email)
President@whitehouse.gov