APoem for Dessie Woods/Rashidah Muhammad
The following poem by Kalamu ya Salaam honors Dessie X. Woods/Rashidah Muhammad(RIP), a warrior queen who killed her rapist in Georgia before moving toOakland where she worked with the Uhuru Movement, Marvin X, and became amidwife and community organizer in West Oakland before making hertransition due to cancer at 61.
There is a street named Rashidah Muhammad Way, downtown Oakland, but we doubt those whonamed the street in her honor were aware of her valiant past in Georgiaas told in the story following Kalamu's poem.
--Marvin X
HIWAY BLUES (for Dessie Woods)
photo by Alex Jones
HIWAY BLUES (for Dessie Woods)
Ain't it enough
he think he own
these hot blacktop hiways,
them east eighty acres,
that red Chevy pick up
with the dumb bumper stickers
and big wide heavy rubber tires,
two sho nuff ugly brown bloodhounds
and a big tan&white german shepherd
who evil and got yellow teeth?
Ain't it enough
he got a couple a kids to beat on,
a wife who was a high school cheerleader,
a brother who's a doctor,
a cousin with a hardware store,
a divorced sister with dyed hair,
a collection of Hustler magazines
dating back to the beginning,
partial sight in his left eye,
gray hairs growing out his ear,
a sun scorched leathery neck that's cracking,
a rolling limp in his bow legged walk,
and a couple of cases of beer in the closet?
Ain't it enough
he got all that
without having to mess
with me?
Yeah, I shot the
motherfucker!
—kalamu ya salaam
______________________
Africa loses a courageous warrior!
The APSP built the National Committee to Free Dessie Woods and fought to free the courageous African woman whowas an example of resistance to the African communityOn November 4, 2006 the Uhuru Movement and the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) lost a dear friend and a powerfulfighter for the liberation of African people everywhere. Dessie Woods,also known as Rashida Mustafa, died of lung cancer in Oakland,California at the age of 61.
Dessie Woods’ name was known around the world after she was sentenced to 22 years in prisonfor killing a white man in Georgia with his own gun when he tried torape her. The story of the resistance of Dessie Woods and of thepowerful movement led by our Party that freed her is part of the legacyof the ongoing struggle of African people for independence andliberation.
The APSP joins the work to free Dessie Woods
In the early 1970s, the entire Black Liberation Movement was under heavy attack bythe U.S. government’s COINTELPRO program, one of the counterinsurgencyprograms responsible for assassinating our leaders, destroying ourrevolutionary organizations and locking up African people who took astand of resistance. During this time, the African People’s SocialistParty was a leading force in defending countless African people whofound themselves in prison for fighting back against the conditionsimposed on us.
Our Party freed Pitts and Lee, framed up and facing the death penalty in Florida, and Connie Tucker, aParty member who had been imprisoned for her stand. Because of thesuccess of these campaigns the Party was asked to join the existingwork to defend Dessie Woods.
The Party was asked to join this campaign by one of the two factions around which the work haddeveloped. This factional struggle represented the ongoing contestbetween those struggling for African self-determination and theideological imperialists posing as revolutionaries.
Joining the work to free Dessie Woods was a strategic decision made by ourParty. In the Basic Party Line, Chairman Omali Yeshitela makes it clearthat “All our work is guided by our understanding that our strugglefor national liberation within U.S. borders is an integral part of thewhole African Liberation Movement…”
When we joined the work, the existing committee to defend Dessie woods wasdisorganized and dominated by white left forces. The white women’smovement and their sympathizers who wanted to build a defense forDessie Woods based on a struggle against rape and sexual abuse of allwomen. Our Party struggled that the attack on Dessie Woods was part ofthe colonial violence imposed on all African people for the past 500years. The white left position was defeated.
The Party formed and led The National Committee to Free Dessie woods withthe slogan, “Free Dessie Woods! Smash Colonial Violence!” This was apowerful statement that brought to center stage once again theliberation struggle of African workers inside the U.S.
1975: a defiant example
On June 17, 1975, Dessie Woods and her friend Cheryl Todd were hitch-hiking home to Atlanta, Georgia from an unsuccessfulattempt to visit Todd’s brother in Georgia’s infamous Reidsville Prison.The two African women were picked up by an insurance salesman namedRonnie Horne.
As an ordinary southern white man, Horne understood his “right” to assault the two African women if hechose to do so, and he did. Horne began to intimidate the women andwhen they resisted he pretended to be a cop and threatened to arrestthem.
After stopping in a deserted area, Cheryl Todd escaped from Horne’s car and ran. Horne drew his pistol in an attemptto stop her, but Dessie Woods who had been sitting in the back seat,grabbed the gun and struggled.
Dessie was successful in removing this colonial attacker from the land of theliving and ensuring that he would never again attack another Africanwoman. She then took Ronnie Horne’s money and made sure that she andCheryl Todd got safe transportation home to Atlanta.
1976: the trial and demonstrations
For this courageous act of self-defense and African resistance, the women were jailed andconvicted. Todd’s family was able to secure an attorney, but DessieWoods had to rely on a public defender. The attorneys made some smalltrial victories and had the trial moved to Hawkinsville, Georgia. OnJanuary 19, 1976 a contentious trial began in this small plantationtown of cotton and peanut farms and a population of 3,000. Woods, Toddand their militant supporters were seen as such a threat to thecolonial relations, that scores of law enforcement officials descendedon Hawkinsville — armed bailiffs, armed state troopers, sheriffsdeputies and local cops.
Beginning with her successful confrontation of Ronnie Horne, Dessie Woods continued to actwith calm resolve. Through her carriage during the trial, shepersonally smashed any preconceived notion of the passivity of Africanwomen and the general servility of African people.
Hers was a defiant example too dangerous to go unpunished. The Statetherefore chose her as their main target, allowing the liberal andwhite left supporters to separate Cheryl Todd’s case from Woods. Toddwas given a light sentence, primarily probation.
The trial was understood to be a sham, and the mass support for DessieWoods and for justice to African people continued to build. Because ofthis, the State was unable to convict her for murder, but on February12, 1976, Dessie Woods was convicted of voluntary manslaughter andarmed robbery. She was sentenced to 10 years and 12 years to be servedconcurrently.
The Party forms the African People’s Solidarity Committee
In September of 1976, the Party, guided by our strategy, convened the first meeting to organize the African People’s SolidarityCommittee (APSC), laying out the theoretical framework for NorthAmerican people to do anti-colonial organizing — such as the defense ofDessie Woods — under our leadership. A second meeting was held inDecember of 1976 and the practical work of organizing Dessie WoodsSupport Committees under the APSP-led National Committee to DefendDessie Woods was laid out.
On November 1, 1976, the supreme court of Georgia denied Dessie Woods’ appeal and upheld herconviction regardless of the more than 20 errors committed by the trialcourt. The struggle to free Dessie became our primary mass work and weintensified this work throughout the United States and in Europe.
1977: the resistance intensifies
Despite the legal setbacks, the Party knew that the defense of Dessie Woods was the defense of all Africanpeople colonized in the U.S. and understood the strategic necessity toput her case within the context of the African Liberation Movement.This is illustrated in a quote from Ironiff Ifoma’s November 1978 BurningSpear article entitled– “Dessie Woods Is All Of Us” that reads,“rape attacks against black women by white men are not sexual acts buttactics of colonial terror to keep a whole people terrorized.”
The struggle continued to build, and on September 4, 1977 some 500 people from virtually all areas of the country came togetherin Atlanta, Georgia to militantly demand the freedom of Dessie Woods.The Atlanta rally of predominantly African forces rejuvenated theAfrican Liberation Movement at that time and further consolidated theAPSP’s leadership.
This action, along with a subsequent one on September 14 in the San Francisco, California bayarea, also demonstrated the growing support for Dessie Woods.
On the inside, Dessie continued to be defiant and organize other prisoners. She paid a heavy price for this, being continuallydrugged, brutalized and put into solitary confinement.
APSP “on fire” in 1978 with non-stop mobilizing around the case of Dessie Woods
On July 4, 1978 the National Committee to Defend Dessie Woods led twonational demonstrations. Collectively known as the July 4th Movement toFree Dessie Woods, the demonstrations held in San Francisco,California and Plains, Georgia raised the slogan “Free Dessie Woods!Smash Colonial Violence!”
These two mobilizations were extremely significant. They continued the momentum from theSeptember 1977 demonstration in Atlanta and further consolidated theParty’s leadership of the pro-independence movement. This was madeclear by targeting Plains, Georgia the hometown of peanut farmer turnedpresident James Earl Carter.
As head of the U.S. Government, Carter represented the colonial relationship Africans hadto the United States. The treatment of Dessie Woods and all Africans inthe U.S. dispelled the myth that he and the Democratic Party wereanything but anti-African white ruling class representatives.
“At that moment in 1975 when she took on Ronnie Horne to protect herself and Cheryl Todd, she also took onU.S. imperialism and defended us all.”
The struggle against opportunism and for real solidarity
The significance of the mobilization for July 4 in the San Francisco bay area is found in the profoundideological struggle made by our Party. We declared and determined thatwe would lead our own liberation struggle; that ours was a struggleagainst domestic colonialism; and that the white left’s act of“adopting” the cases of individual African women or prisoners wasopportunism and unacceptable.
In 1978, San Francisco was a hotbed of so-called progressive causes, including the Women’sMovement, the Gay Movement, and the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee(PFOC) — which was articulating clear support for the anti-colonialstruggle of African People. There was a strong prisoner supportmovement with many individuals and organizations such as PFOC havingsignificant relationships with prisoners, particularly Africanprisoners.
Remnants of the Black Panther Party still existed and memories of the Black Power Movement were strong inpeople’s minds. There was extensive solidarity work being done with therevolutionary movements in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba.
In this atmosphere, the Chairman’s first large public speech was received enthusiastically and the turnout for the July 4thMovement to Free Dessie Woods was large, boisterous and fantastic. Thiswould all change soon, and by 1979 the Party was publicly calling forthe disbanding of PFOC as an organization and struggling with theopportunism of APSC and the North American “left”.
Our primary struggle was that we would lead our own liberation movement,and that the correct response from the North American community was tofollow our leadership and provide our movement with political andmaterial support. This put us at odds with PFOC and other ideologicalimperialists.
The Party struggled that the attempted rape of Dessie Woods was an act of colonial violence targeting allcolonized African people, and that the prevention of such atrocitiesagainst African women in the future can only be found through thefreedom of all African people. This put us at odds with the whitewomen’s and gay movements.
Those ideological struggles made with the white left were earth shaking and groundbreaking. The APSC of today is clear proof of our having needed to makethe struggle at that time and further proves the correctness of ourstrategy.
We end 1978 challenging the legitimacy of the U.S. government
The November 1978 issue of the Burning Spear Newspaper hasseveral articles describing our nonstop mobilizing. In early September,members of the National Committee to Free Dessie Woods held ademonstration in Midgeville, Georgia, home of Hardwick Prison, and thenwent out to the prison itself demanding to see Dessie Woods.
An APSP-led demonstration to free Dessie WoodsThe demonstrators were bold, refusing to be intimidated by the guards and prison officials. Whilethey were not able to see Dessie, they did set a militant example forall the visitors and challenged the authority of the State.
In the Point of the Spear of the same issue, the Chairman summed up the situation:
“Months of hard work by the African People’s Socialist Party bore fruit on the night of Friday,October 6 [1978] in San Francisco. It was on this night that theCalifornia Dessie Woods Support Coalition (DWSC) sponsored a historicpolitical program entitled, ‘Night of Solidarity With African NationalFreedom Fighters.’
“This program saw almost 100, mostly North Americans, turn out for a program organized by the mostlyNorth American Dessie Woods Support Coalition to express militantsolidarity with African national freedom fighters — freedom fighterswhose collective existence up to this period has not been acknowledgedby the North American Left movement.
“This was an important program for our Party, for it was the concretization of ourstrategy for winning support from the progressive sector of the NorthAmerican people for our struggle for political independence throughself-liberation.”
At the end of a dynamic 1978, on October 18, the Dessie Woods Support Coalition sponsored a picket andrally in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco. Fifty people,mostly North Americans, militantly marched chanting “Free Dessie Woods,Put the State On Trial!”
1979: Not One More Year!
The March 1979 issue of the Burning Spear was a special edition with the headlinereading “Black Women in the Fight for Freedom.” The Spear issue told ofa demonstration held on February 17, 1979, when the Dessie WoodsSupport Coalition marched across the Golden Gate Bridge, a historic SanFrancisco landmark, thirty strong demanding “Not One More Year —Dessie Must Be Free!” With voices and signs they demanded loudly andpublicly that the U.S. State release Dessie Woods from its death gripin 1979 and end the colonial violence against black people in the U.S.
As this activity was occurring on the outside, Dessie Woods maintained her resistance on the inside of Hardwick Prison. Shebegan her fourth year of incarceration challenging the otherwise routineconditions inside this highly controlled southern concentration camp.
Her militancy and pride in her Africanness quickly began to influence other prisoners who sought out her help. Inretaliation, the prison authorities made numerous attempts on her lifeand continued to drug her.
International solidarity with Dessie Woods
Throughout this period of protracted struggle, our Party was guided by a strategyfor liberation of all African people. An important component of thatstrategy, international recognition and support, had the Party touringEurope in 1979 successfully stopping in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam,Paris and culminating with a demonstration at the U.S. Embassy inLondon on September 26. The Party established fraternal relations withseveral organized African forces in Paris and London and also received asolidarity statement from the Vietnamese government at their Londonembassy.
This is further illustrated in the article “Dessie Woods Must Be Free This Year” from the November 1979 issue ofthe Burning Spear:
“On December 8, hundreds of people in over 12 cities in Europe and the U.S. will be inthe streets demanding the immediate release of Dessie Woods and an endto colonial violence against African people. In Copenhagen, Amsterdam,Paris, London, New York, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Eugene, SanFrancisco and elsewhere, [U.S. president James Earl] Carter will beconfronted with the massive denial of human rights of Dessie Woods andall African people colonized in the U.S. The internationally supportedactions led by the APSP will be demanding African independence and thedestruction of U.S. colonialism.”
On November 1 in Eugene, Oregon, an enthusiastic crowd of over 200 people enjoyed avariety of culture by African artists and the North American “AmazonKung-Fu School.” It was a successful fundraiser for the Dessie Woodssupport work, but still at the end of 1980 after more than four yearsin prison, Dessie was “in the hole” and brutally beaten. Her parole hadbeen denied and our work to free her continued on the outside.
1981-2006: Dessie Woods is free from prison
In 1981, after serving five years of the original 12, Dessie was released from Hardwick Prison inGeorgia, and she relocated to Oakland, California.
In subsequent years, Dessie Woods, known to us as Sister Rashida, was notalways active in the Uhuru Movement, but she was a tireless communityactivist defending her neighborhood and the human rights of Oakland’sAfrican community. She regularly attended events at the Uhuru House inOakland, California. Her photo as part of a panel on Building theAfrican People’s Childcare Collective was featured on the cover of theOctober 1983 issue of the Burning Spear Newspaper.
The headline for the article describing the panel’s work was “The Struggle of Black Women is the Struggle of Us All.” This sumsup the contribution that Dessie Woods, Sister Rashida, made to Africaand African people. At that moment in 1975 when she took on Ronnie Horneto protect herself and Cheryl Todd, she also took on U.S. imperialismand defended us all.
>via: http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=dessie-woods-death
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