HB: Do you think him being a political organizer is a motive for attempting to carry out this extreme sentence?
WI: Haramia became a political organizer after his conviction, while on death row. The reactions that he and other political organizers in prison and on the row suffer is definitely based on their commitment to justice and uncovering the truth. There is a strong desire, on the part of the prison system, the courts and this society, to silence the voices of the oppressed who demand not only answers, but solutions and who refuse to compromise or negotiate away pieces of their liberation.
HB: You wrote that Haramia’s death row organization DRIVE is “an amazing example of oppressed people in the worst of circumstances organizing themselves for self determination.” What kind of organizing is DRIVE doing? Has the movement now spread to Philadelphia?
WI: (www.drivemomovement.org) DRIVE is a very powerful case of oppressed peoples directly affected in the bowels (not even the belly) of the beast organizing themselves. It was founded by Haramia and other brothas on the row in Texas. It is organized across racial lines, which is fairly unheard of in prisons. DRIVE is committed to nonviolently opposing the death penalty in all its manifestations. They protest not just their own death sentences, but those of people across this country.
This has taken the form of hunger strikes, the last of which went from October of 2006 to January of 2007, a three month strike. Haramia spoke of that when I went to visit him, saying how difficult it was to see these men turn into walking skeletons. But they feel that they can not in good conscience go along with the death penalty, with all its contradictions, the overall racism and classism of who is issued the death penalty, and the inherent inhumanity of taking a person’s life.
They also have on their website a memorial to the people who refused to “walk,” that is, when their death sentence came time, they refused to go along with the program and walk to the death chamber. Haramia said they refuse to be led like cattle to the slaughter, that as human beings, it is an inherent desire to want to continue to live, and that each person who refuses to walk is engaging in an act of civil disobedience.
A recent really exciting development with DRIVE is that they have expanded to include a chapter from women on death row in Pennsylvania. This is such a powerful step because these women are organizing and mobilizing themselves, and also because there is so little discourse about women in prison, let alone women on death row.
HB: Are there any appeals left, or any other grounds to stop the execution
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