In Memory of Kwame Ture
Heriberto Ocasio, National Spokesperson
for the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru
The Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (US) sends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Kwame Ture and to his comrades in the All African People's Revolutionary Party. We share deeply in their loss because Kwame Ture was loved and cherished by revolutionary people around the world who knew him or knew of him. His contempt for the oppressors and love for the people will always live on.
For many of us who woke up in the 1960's, Kwame Ture's voice was one of the first voices we heard-- his courage and strength aroused our revolutionary passion and yearnings. As a young high school student, I clearly remember the day in 1967 that "Stokeley", as we knew him then, came to speak at our high school and explained to us why there was nothing else more worth living for than REVOLUTION. I remember that day, and I remember that more than a few of us followed his call to get "ready for the revolution."
Kwame Ture helped turn on a whole generation of people to revolution and internationalism-- to standing with oppressed people here and around the world and fighting against this bloodsucker system called imperialism. Our Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru, which builds political solidarity for the People's War in Peru, led by the Communist Party of Peru, is part of that legacy and responsibility that Kwame Ture has left us.
We should remember the story of how the people of rural Alabama helped hide and protect Kwame Ture when the racists in power were trying to hunt him down and kill him. How the local people woke him up in the middle of the night saying: "Come on get up, they're coming to get you!" How they put him in a car and drove him to another shack and put him there, where someone else would take care of him until the morning. And we should always remember Kwame Ture's words about this, when he said: "They always sacrificed their lives for me; so I know that once you sacrifice for the people, the people will sacrifice for you... We are revolutionaries", he said, "and we are never pessimistic, never, because we know the people are going to win no matter how long it takes."
We should remember Kwame Ture's words and remember how he lived his life, and keep drawing strength and inspiration from him and keep up the fight, because the people ARE going to win-- no matter how long it takes, and Kwame Ture's spirit will be with them when they do!
November 29, 1998
Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru
PO Box 1246, Berkeley, California 94701
415-252-5786 * Fax: 415-252-7414
www.csrp.org