When John Gilbride left Alberta Africa in 1998 and filed for custody of their son, Zack, John wasn't just going up against Bert, he wasn't even just going against MOVE, he was also up against a massive amount of resources that Bert was able to tap into in the Free Mumia movement, as well as the deeply entrenched fear that authorities had of conflict with MOVE. It's important for me to point out here that I'm not writing this piece with the intention of discrediting the Free Mumia movement as I'm still very much in favor and support of Mumia's freedom. My purpose in writing this is to explore the ways that Alberta was able to use MOVE's credentials to exploit the movement for her own gain, and in doing so to examine the ways that movements are often susceptible to capture and influence by people with psychopathic, authoritarian, and narcissistic tendencies.
I've said before that based on my experience in MOVE, and my study of other such groups, that I think these groups are often comprised of roughly 10% of membership with psychopathic tendencies, and 90% of membership consisting of people with people-pleasing and highly empathetic tendencies that make them easy targets for those seeking power. I think this is also largely true of political movements, and that Alberta viewed the Free Mumia movement as a resource for her own personal exploitation. In order to make this case, I need to give some specific examples of how Alberta did this, and doing so will require me to name certain individuals from the movement who were used in this way. My purpose here is not to shame these individuals, for I was used in a very similar manner, but to show how this happened. I'm doing this to demonstrate the nearly impossible odds that John was facing in his custody battle with Alberta, who we called Bert, but also because I think there are larger lessons to be learned here which I'll explore more at the end of this piece.
When John left Bert in 1998 the Free Mumia was at its peak. Demonstrations were regularly occurring across the world calling for Mumia's release or for a new trial. Musicians like Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys, Spearhead, and Public Enemy were speaking out on Mumia's behalf. Millions of people around the globe were rallying to his defense and pointing out the ways that the injustices in his case exemplified so much with what is wrong with the US criminal justice system. In the previous three years, Mumia had released his books "Live from Death Row" and "Death Blossoms" to critical acclaim, and the world was taking notice.
Though many know Mumia as a former Black Panther, his primary point of self-identification at the time of his arrest in 1981 was as a MOVE supporter. In the years leading to his arrest, he had become enamored enough with the group to demand that John Africa act as his counsel at his 1982 trial. When Mumia was arrested and hospitalized on December 9th, 1981 John Africa sent Pam Africa (at that time still known as Jeanette) and a few other MOVE members to the hospital. On that night the first Mumia support group was founded by John Africa himself. Since that time Pam Africa has remained one of the key leaders of the Free Mumia movement and has become known internationally for her energizing speeches and tireless organizing.
From my own personal experience with Alberta, she never seemed to care much about the Mumia movement, or any activist organizing at all. This is also supported by the testimonies of the survivors who have left MOVE. Some of them overheard Alberta say things such as "If you claim something is racist you can always gather a bunch of stupid people to do your bidding and protest on your behalf." I never heard her say it that directly, but that certainly fits with the ways I've heard her talk about activists. Alberta's attitude towards people who were actually on the ground doing the activist work that she benefitted from felt like the attitude of a corrupt king towards subjects for which he had disdain.
Though Alberta was not typically involved in the radical organizing that MOVE was known for publicly, she certainly benefitted from it. Starting in late 1998 Ramona and Pam began discussing Alberta's custody case at speaking engagements for Mumia and the MOVE 9. This started slowly but as the intensity of the custody case increased so did the portrayal of John Gilbride as a government agent. By 2000 it was not uncommon for Pam or Ramona to mention John at a speaking event and the MOVE table often had a stack of flyers about the custody case. As I've mentioned before, Alberta framed John seeking custody of his son as an attempt to destroy not only MOVE but the Mumia movement as a whole. With this rationalization, it became appropriate to use the resources of the Mumia movement for her own personal defense. When I was staffing the office of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia full-time in the months leading up to John's murder we were using the office and all of its resources (copier, computers, etc) as much for Alberta's defense as for Mumia's.
On September 7th "Murder at Ryan's Run" posted some pages from John's personal journals. I've posted one of those pages below. These pages demonstrate that at the height of the custody case Alberta left the country and took Zack with her to France without his father's permission or knowledge. Alberta and Zack were traveling with Ramona and Carlos Africa and were using a conference about Mumia's case as an excuse for their travel. From the page I posted below you can see that Bert and Zack were staying with Julia Wright (daughter of famed author Richard Wright, and renowned activist and intellect in her own right), a key figure in the French Free Mumia movement. It seems as though John had been trying to track Bert and Zack down for days and the only person he could reach was Julia Wright.
From L to R: French MOVE/Mumia supporter, Claude Guillaumaud-Pujol, Ramona Africa, Ria Africa
A page from John's notebook documenting his attempts to track down Alberta in France
Alberta made a few trips to France at that time, and regularly recruited help from people she had access to in the French Mumia movement. She stayed with Zack in the residences and countryside cottages of French Mumia supporters free of charge for extended periods of time. She cultivated especially close relationships with the French contingent. Whenever the French contingent traveled to Philly for Mumia events, Alberta and Ria provided banquet meals for them at MOVE headquarters. MOVE members spent days preparing for their arrival and they were always treated as honored guests. They were the only contingent that was treated with this much care and respect. When the custody case heated up and Alberta needed international phone calls of support she relied on them heavily.
In episodes 8 and 9 of "Murder at Ryan's Run" we learn about the involvement of Dr. Suzanne Ross in the custody case and in public relations in defense of MOVE. Dr. Ross is a crucial figure in the Free Mumia movement, spent years heading up the New York Coalition to Free Mumia, and has worked very closely with Pam Africa for decades. Dr. Ross is also a respected clinical psychologist and acted as an expert witness for Alberta in the custody case. I've posted a few pages from her testimony below but the entire testimony (beginning on page 404) is available to read. The whole trial transcript is worthy of a great deal more examination. Dr. Ross's testimony is likely the most important testimony of the trial because she's the only non-MOVE member (or very close supporter, like Gary Wonderlin) to testify on Alberta's behalf, and did so as an expert witness. Dr. Ross even gave quotes to newspaper articles in MOVE's defense. I've posted part of one article below, but the whole article can be found here.
In the article, Dr. Ross states: "I guarantee that the children there (in the MOVE house) are very much loved, protected, cared for, and taught values and skills." Meanwhile, at the exact time that this was being stated, Pixie Africa (now June Stokes) had just turned 13, was pregnant, and had been forced by Alberta and Ria to become pregnant at 12, was in the house, and would soon be threatened with death by Alberta. At the trial, Dr. Ross testified that she was not a MOVE supporter, acted like she hardly knew Pam and Ramona Africa, and significantly downplayed her major involvement in the Free Mumia movement. Dr. Ross' testimony carried a lot of weight and had her history with MOVE been understood I doubt that her testimony would have been admitted at all.
In Episode 7 of "Murder at Ryan's Run" we learned that Alberta intimidated John's attorney, Sheryl Rentz into not calling Andino Ward, father of Birdie Africa, to testify. If Andino had been allowed to testify to his experience of having his son stolen by MOVE, as well as the child abuse within MOVE that he learned about from Birdie, then it's possible that John would have ended up winning full custody of Zack. Threatening Rentz into withholding Ward's testimony and utilizing Dr. Ross certainly secured Bert's custody win. Dr. Ross made many claims to Bert's benefit; among them, that childhood in MOVE is safe and loving. By extension, that Bert was a caring mother. The recent testimony of MOVE survivors who either experienced some level of guardianship by Bert or had their own parents undermined by Bert and Bert's decisions enacted upon them demonstrate her vicious abuse.
This is not meant as a personal attack on Dr. Ross but deserves exploration because her testimony was a pivotal moment in the custody case which I believe led directly to John's murder. I also take a much larger lesson from this, which is that no one, regardless of their movement credentials, is worthy of unquestioning loyalty. Alberta is the type of person you cannot say no to, who has the ability to reward those who cooperate. I have no doubt that Dr. Ross felt a great deal of pressure to comply with Alberta's request. This is one of many, many examples of Alberta using her role as the leader of MOVE to exploit people from the Mumia movement. I hope that the way that Alberta and Ria used MOVE's radical credentials to serve their own ends will become a case study within other movements so that people can protect themselves from similar abuse going further. Hopefully, more people who were used in this way by Alberta and Ria will feel comfortable coming forward so that there can be transparency, justice for the survivors, and justice for the Gilbride family.
I hope that those reading can see that this is not meant to shame the activists involved. We need to acknowledge our own history. Bert used classic abuse tactics. Her carrot was access to the elite inner circle of MOVE, special banquets, and desired attention. Her stick was the threat of exile from the movement or shame. Apart from the fear of reprisal, shame has kept so many people from telling the truth about our own history of abuse or manipulation within MOVE. We're ashamed of our own actions, where we misjudged situations, and can't quite explain these events to ourselves in our 2021 consciousness. If we want to build movements going forward with interpersonal transparency and freedom to dissent then we have to be willing to own our own humanity by reckoning with the truth.
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