Women of the Revolution: MOVE

This column by political prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was written on June 14.

Several days ago, after discussion with sister Suzanne, I began thinking about a piece on the women of MOVE. This seemed especially timely after the recent release of several MOVE sisters: Debbie, Janet and Janine Africa.

These women spent over 40 years in Pennsylvania’s prisons, some spent in the notorious Holes, for protest against what they called unjust treatment.

These women weren’t strangers to me, for I interviewed some of them in the ‘70s, when they lived in the “old” MOVE House on Powelton Avenue, not far from Drexel University. Some of them I interviewed when they were held in the old House of Corrections in the Northeast.

Forty-plus years had passed — and behold! — these were the same women. Older? Yes, but not by much.

But I’m wrong. An honest look reveals they are more committed, more dedicated than the young women who entered these cells over 40 years ago! And, seeing pictures of them, I’m forced to make another observation: They are more beautiful than they were 40 years ago.

This may seem hard to believe, but see for yourself; it is what it is.

And speaking of MOVE women, I don’t think it’s widely known, the simple but telling fact that the administrators of MOVE are women. They, essentially, lead the Organization.

We don’t see this example in the broader movement, unless it’s a women’s organization.

For discipline, commitment, steadfastness — and will — the women of the MOVE Organization have set a high bar, for they are women of John Africa’s Revolution!