World Refugee Day: Hands Off Assata!
Formerly Africa Refugee day, the United Nations general assembly named June 20th (tomorrow) World Refugee day in 2001 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This years theme is “hope.” In the 21st century, increasing numbers of people are forced to flee their homes, not only because of war, but also because of injustice, exclusion, political affiliation, scarcity of resources and environmental destruction. The future will likely see more refugees as conditions continue to deteriorate as a result of globalization. The United Nations define a refugee as,
“A person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution.”
On the heels of Juneteenth, this description of a refugee reminds me of Harriet Tubman. Tubman was a woman who faced persecution in her country of origin (USA) for her revolutionary beliefs and actions. She was an escaped slave, whose government placed a $50,000 bounty on her head-dead or alive. History has a funny way of repeating itself. On May 2, 2005 the FBI issued a $1,000,000 bounty for the capture of Assata Shakur, a revolutionary political leader and refugee who escaped from prison and fled to Cuba in 1979. In the history of the United States, nothing has enraged the establishment more than an escaped slave. Tomorrow, on World Refugee Day, let the world stand together and say: Hands Off Assata!!!
For more info, visit: World Refugee Day and Hands Off Assata
Published on June 19, 2007 at 12:07 pm.
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Filed under news/politics, radical politics, racial rhetoric.
