Second Liberty City Seven trial declared mistrial

Trial Update
On Wednesday April 16, a second mistrial was declared after a jury was once again unable to come to a guilty verdict on the United States government’s charges against seven impoverished young African men known as the Libert City 7.

During the first trial in December 2007, which saw nine days of deliberation and repeated pressure from the judge to come to a verdict, the jury decided that it could not convict any of the Liberty City Seven (LC7) in the case and issued a not guilty verdict for one of them, Lyglenson Lemorin – who has subsubsequently been held captive in an immigration detention center in Atlanta, GA by a U.S. government determined to criminalize these African men.

The second trial had a similar outcome, despite an intensified effort by the U.S. government to try and shape popular opinion around the case. During the second trial, local and federal government agents covered the streets of Miami with “anti-domestic terrorism” propaganda – clearly targetting the case of the Liberty City 7.

The case of the Liberty City Seven began when seven young Africans — Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Rotschild Augustine, Burson Augustine, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera and Lyglenson Lemorin — were kidnapped and imprisoned by FBI agents in June 2006. The government called them terrorists and charged them with sedition (conspiracy to overthrow the government).

While ruling class publications such as the LA Times attribute the second mistrial to a “flawed legal strategy”, stating that “it highlights the obstacles in a legal strategy of arresting terrorism suspects before they strike”, it is being made clear through this trial to the African community that the U.S. government is a criminal entity that will stop at nothing to lock these brothers up.

The entire African commuinity knows this case was manufactured. Even during the first trial, it was revealed that the FBI sent two agent provocateurs into their midst to create a situation that would give reason to arrest them, much like the FBI did in the 1960s to Black Power organizations. In this case, the purpose was to be able to give terrorism a black face. Resistance to parasitic U.S. and European imperialism is growing around the world. The U.S. government recognized that the African working class is the most consistently revolutionary sector within U.S. borders and needed to turn the so-called “war on terror” against the African community. So the FBI agents offered the LC7 $50,000 and gave them at least $4,500 over time to lure them into the government trap. Notwithstanding the courts withholding of important evidence that would destroy the credibility of the FBI agents, some jury members apparently saw through the clearly manufactured case and could not render a guilty verdict.

More importantly, the repeated mistrial serves as evidence of a deep and profound crisis that U.S. imperialism is suffering around the world – and within its own belly.

This crisis has at its basis that emminent death of a social system built on sucking the blood of everyone and everything around it. It is a social system born out of the enslavement of african people and the genocide of the indigenous people of North and South America and the subsequent theft of their land. Now, in this period, we see – as Malcolm once said – the chickens are coming home to roost.

Oppressed people everywhere are striking mighty blows to U.S. imperialism. Whether it is the heroic Iraqi people and their righteous resistance and fight for possession of their land and resources. Or whether it is the progressive government of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez reclaiming the resources for the use of the Veneuzeulan people and other poor and oppressed nations – the U.S. is finding it impossible to succeed in overturning this trend towards national liberation and self determination.

This is the significance of the mistrial and inevitable victory of the Liberty City 7! The state cannot even succeed in stopping the righteous resistance from within its own belly. For the fact is that the LC7 is guilty only of struggling to improve the conditions in their poor and oppressed community of Liberty City, Miami - and wanting to inspire other Africans to do the same.

Moreover, the case is revealing the fact that the real terrorist is the U.S. government itself. It is the U.S. government that is responsible for the horrific conditions that African and other oppressed people are forced to endure in this country every day. Whether it is the government orchestrated sub-prime mortgage assault which has rendered hundreds of thousands of Africans homeless in the U.S., or the driving of grain and other prices up to maintain the white lifestyle at the expense of a starving world population – the U.S. government is truly a terroristic force that must be stopped and brought to justice.

The International People’s Democratic is an African working class led grassroots organization that has been an active participant - and in its beginning stages- the leading force in the struggle to Free The Liberty City 7.