Saturday, September 25, 2021

Historical Document: MOVE Hunger Strike Letter to Media

This is a MOVE letter to the media from the early 1980s regarding a hunger strike by the MOVE women at SCI-Muncy. I'm posting this here to reference in a future post, but the document also stands alone. To my knowledge, this document has never previously been publicly available. The end of the letter is of specific note as the letter acknowledges that the MOVE women were intentionally working to speed up their own deaths and placing blame on the media. The letter makes it seem like this was a choice made by the women at SCI-Muncy, but none of them would have done anything of this nature without orders from John Africa. To be clear, John Africa gave these women orders to speed up their own deaths in a hunger strike in order to protest the prison demanding that they consent to having blood taken. All of these women were in their early 30s and most of them had young children waiting for them to be released. Most of those children perished in the house on May 13th, 1985. Here's an exerpt from the end of the letter:

"RIGHT NOW THERE ARE SIX WOMEN SUFFERING VERY BAD IN MUNCY, WORSE THEN IS THOUGHT, BECAUSE YOU SEE WHAT IS NOT KNOW BY THEM DOCTORS IN MUNCY, IS THAT THE MOVE WOMEN ARE EXERCISING VIGOROUSLY, TO BRING ABOUT A CRISIS SITUATION IN 30 OR 40 DAYS THAT THE DOCTORS THINK WILL HAPPEN IN 60 OR 70 DAYS, THE MOVE WOMEN ARE NOT WAITING TO DIE SLOWLY, THEY HAVE SAID THAT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO DRAG THIS THING OUT, AND THEY ARE EXERCISING TO SPEED UP THE LOST OF RESISTANCE, WE HAVE APPEALED TO THE WOMEN TO GO GRADUAL WITH THIS DEMONSTRATION, BUT THEY HAVE REFUSED, SAYING THAT THEY ARE TIRED OF PEOPLE WALKING ALL OVER MOVE'S RELIGION, AND THAT THEY ARE GOING TO PUT A STOP TO IT ONCE AND FOR ALL, EVEN IF IT MEANS CYCLING, AND MALMED, KLEIN, MCDERMOTT, AND MANY OF YOU NEWSMEDIA PEOPLE ARE TO BLAME."













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