On September 25, New Afrikan revolutionary and freedom fighter Assata Shakur died at the age of 78 in Havana, Cuba. As a “20th century escaped slave” in her own words, Shakur lived out her last breaths in freedom. Assata Shakur was charged with allegedly killing a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973 and briefly imprisoned, before escaping the claws of US imperialism in 1979. Because of this, Shakur has long been placed on the top of the FBI’s most wanted list.
Assata Shakur, whose political awakening began as a college student protesting racist policies in New York, went on to become one of the most prominent figures of the Black Liberation Movement in the United States. After joining the Black Panther Party in Oakland, where she organized survival programs and demonstrations, Shakur returned to New York to lead the Harlem chapter before breaking with the Panthers over internal disputes. She then joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA), which sought to wage an armed struggle for New Afrikan national liberation through bank expropriations, attacks on police, and actions against drug dealers accused of exploiting Black communities. By the early 1970s, she was being linked by the Old State to nearly every major BLA action, including bank robberies and a grenade attack on New York police that destroyed a squad car and injured two officers. In 1973 she was captured in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, charged with killing a State Trooper, and sentenced to life in prison plus 26 years.
Shakur’s imprisonment was marked by solitary confinement, torture, and long periods in men’s facilities, until the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO) and the Revolutionary Armed Task Force (RATF), successors of the BLA, freed her in a 1979 prison break. The escape sparked a wave of support, with posters reading “Assata Shakur is welcome here” appearing across New York City and more than 5,000 people marching in solidarity days later. Outraged federal authorities responded by placing a $2 million bounty on her capture, but repeated efforts—ranging from diplomatic pressure to covert operations—failed to bring her back into custody. For the remainder of her life, she continued to give speeches and interviews on the lasting importance of struggle despite her exile in Cuba.
Assata Shakur’s life was a life in the service of people. She never gave up the principle of combating and resisting US imperialism, taking up the highest form of struggle by joining the BLA. As a result, she paid the sacrifice of harsh imprisonment and a life away from her beloved people and homeland. As we commemorate Shakur’s legacy, we must highlight her life as the life of a New Afrikan revolutionary: it was life given for national and social liberation of the New Afrikan nation, intimately linked to the struggle for liberation of the US working class and all workers and oppressed peoples of the world. Through both deeds and words, Shakur pointed out that the New Afrikan nation today is still an oppressed, captive nation, and she understood the only way to free it is to overthrow US imperialism once and for all through armed struggle.
Shakur’s revolutionary activities and the Black Liberation Army were situated in a moment that was hamstrung by the dominant revisionism within New Communist Movement. Because of this, they strayed away from the correct Marxist principles such as the centrality of the working class, the importance of a militarized Communist Party to guide the socialist revolution, and the defense of Marxism against modern revisionism. It was due to these shortcomings that the revolutionary high tide of the 1960s and the 1970s was defeated by US imperialism. However, they were genuine militants and revolutionaries for the cause they represented. The BLA and M19CO arose in a time of mass revolutionary upsurge against exploitation and national oppression, and they have provided valuable lessons in waging armed struggle in the heart of international imperialism. The New Afrikan freedom fighters were not alone in their endeavor either: in Puerto Rico, another nation oppressed by US imperialism, the Macheteros under the leadership of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos also waged an armed struggle against US imperialism, himself paying the ultimate sacrifice of his own life. Taken together, these are part of an important political legacy which we uphold the need to analyze the positive and negative aspects in order to give the class-conscious movement, particularly the national liberation movements in the US, a new revolutionary impulse.
On the occasion of her 60th birthday in 2007, Assata Shakur said: “it is doubtful that I will ever live to see my people free of oppression and repression. But I am totally convinced that our collective dream of freedom will some day be realized… Most people in the Americas, were either indigenous people whose ancestors were victims of genocide, or brought to this hemisphere as slaves, or came to this continent seeking freedom. I believe that it is our collective duty to make freedom a reality.” The contributions and examples of heroes like Shakur deserve careful study. Today, it is more important than ever to take up the principles of national self-determination and resolute revolutionary struggle without compromise following their footsteps.
