From Gregory Koger:
Stand with Me on July 23...
and Support the Prisoners' Hunger Strike

July 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On July 23, 2013, a court hearing has been set where the State will move forward with their attempt to put me back in jail for documenting a political statement opposing censorship at the "Ethical" Humanist Society of Chicago (EHSC) with an iPhone—a "crime" for which I received a 300 day jail sentence. Further details of our nearly four-year-long struggle against this political prosecution are available at my defense committee's website: www.dropthecharges.net.

Being under imminent threat of days, months, years of vicious, violent repression at the hands of the State within their timeless tombs clarifies the mind. Uncertainty coalesces into preparation and determination. Instantly the mind shifts to political battle mode, recognizing keenly that one is directly on the front lines of the class struggle—a gravedigger of the bourgeoisie. That you are being called on to reaffirm boldly—and in starkly visceral terms—your commitment to standing with the wretched of the earth, and of your dedication to struggling with them towards the liberation and emancipation of all humanity.

On July 23, 2013, I will attend the court hearing and my legal team will challenge this baseless political prosecution and outrageous sentence. However, I am fully prepared for the State to lock me up. This will be happening as prisoners being tortured and held in indefinite detention without charge or trial in Guantánamo Bay are on hunger strike, and during the National Prison Hunger Strike called by prisoners in Pelican Bay SHU—which is set to begin on July 8, 2013.

I am prepared to follow their courageous example and join them on the National Prison Hunger Strike for as long as the State intends to hold me captive along with the millions of others entombed within the United States' criminal system of mass incarceration. I will spend every day that I'm held captive working with other prisoners to take up the call for the National Prison Hunger Strike and to step forward as part of the powerful force for revolution that we have the tremendous potential to become.

I know personally the hopeless life far too many of the youth are caught up in—and I know the horrors of spending many years in solitary confinement. As a teenager, my family lost our home and I got involved in a street organization (aka "gang") to survive on the streets. After being sent to an adult maximum security prison at the age of seventeen, I became increasingly politically conscious in the midst of spending over six years straight in solitary confinement—conditions that amount to torture under international law.

Since my release from prison nearly seven years ago, my life has been dedicated to opposing and bringing to an end the crimes and injustices of this capitalist-imperialist system. I've been in street protests, abortion clinic defenses, human chains defending parents sitting-in to oppose their children's schools being shut down. I've debated and discussed the prospects of and necessity for revolution and a radically different world from prison yards and street corners to universities and high schools.

I firmly believe another world is possible—a world drastically different than the current oppressive and exploitative capitalist system of private appropriation of the vast wealth produced by billions of people globally. This completely outmoded and unnecessary system is enforced by brutal police terror and a court and prison system unparalleled in the history of human society domestically, and by bloody imperialist military force abroad.

The world does not have to be like this! Collectively, we can dismantle these oppressive institutions and bring into being a world without nations or borders, a world of voluntary economic, political and social structures devoted to meeting human needs and unleashing humanity to express its highest potential—a communist world.

Getting to that world will take revolution—nothing less. I would encourage anyone seriously grappling with how to end the injustices of this system and transform the world to check out the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live. In this talk Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, gets deeply into the historic roots of the development of this oppressive system and the strategy for how we could make a revolution and unleash those who are counted as nothing by the rulers of this system to transform themselves as they transform the world in the interests of all humanity.

And that is what this political prosecution has actually been all about. Those who rule this system do not want those of us born into life at the bottom of society—that this system has absolutely no future for—to recognize our revolutionary potential. They do not want people from other backgrounds and social strata to see that those most demonized and degraded by the rulers of this system can become the backbone of a movement to radically transform all of society. And they will use any means they feel necessary to crush the potential of those most oppressed from stepping forward.

I call on you to stand with the prisoners being tortured in the dungeons of this criminal capitalist system. One way you can do that is by signing the EMERGENCY CALL! JOIN US IN STOPPING TORTURE IN U.S. PRISONS! statement being circulated by The Stop Mass Incarceration Network and donating to have the statement published in the Los Angeles Times. You can sign the Close Guantánamo Now statement being circulated by The World Can't Wait to support the men on hunger strike in Guantánamo. There are many other bold and creative actions we must develop to support the hunger strikes and to end the torture being committed upon tens of thousands of men, women and children by the rulers of the United States. And I ask that you stand with me in the final stages of opposing this political prosecution, including coming out to the court date on July 23.

With Hope and Determination for a Liberated World for All Humanity,

Gregory

July 2, 2013

Come Out to Court Hearing on July 23
Not One More Day in Jail for Gregory!

Download PDF of this Call

We received this call from the Ad Hoc Committee for Reason:

Gregory Koger

A court hearing has been set for July 23, 2013, where the State will move to put Gregory Koger in jail to serve the remainder of his 300-day sentence for peacefully videotaping a statement against censorship at a public meeting of the "Ethical" Humanist Society of Chicago (EHSC) on Sunday, November 1, 2009.

July 23, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Cook County Courthouse—Courtroom 104
5600 Old Orchard Rd., Skokie, IL

Neither the Court nor the Cook County State's Attorney has responded to the Post-Conviction Relief Petition that Gregory's legal team filed in March. This Petition exposed the lies at the heart of the false charges against him and provides documentary evidence (suppressed by the judge at trial) of the perjured testimony and prosecutorial misconduct that laid the basis for his conviction—and demands that his wrongful conviction and outrageous sentence be overturned. For more details, see www.dropthecharges.net

In his youth, Gregory spent years in solitary confinement while in prison. He transformed himself and has dedicated his life since his release to opposing injustice and struggling for a liberated world for all humanity. Gregory's legal team will vigorously oppose any attempt to put him back in jail.

We call on you to come out to stand with Gregory and demand:
Not One More Day in Jail for Gregory Koger!

Ad Hoc Commitee for Reason • www.dropthecharges.net • adhoc4reason@gmail.com

For more on Gregory Koger's case, see "Overturn the Wrongful Conviction of Gregory Koger—Not One More Day in Jail!" at revcom.us.

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