Freedom is a Constant Struggle!
Free Anti-imperialist Political Prisoner Jaan Laaman!
Amandla!
Free Jaan Laaman shirts available!
Order your shirt now to rep the cause and help fund Jaan's freedom campaign. Shirts are $15 (plus $3 postage). All the proceeds go to the Jaan Laaman Legal Freedom Fund. If you donate more than $50, you get a free shirt! We have sizes M-XXL. Send payment through paypal or send a check or money order to:
Jaan Laaman Legal Freedom Fund
P.O. Box 681
East Boston, MA 02128
Jaan Laaman grew up in Roxbury, MA and Buffalo, NY. His family emigrated to the US from Estonia when he was a child. He has a son now in his twenties. Jaan has been in the struggle for freedom since the 1960's. He has been an active member of the United Steelworkers of America, a Students for a Democratic Society(SDS) organizer and an anti-war, anti-imperialist activist. In 1972 he was charged with bombing an unoccupied Nixon reelection headquarters. He was sentenced to 20 years, but after winning an appeal, he was released in 1978.
In 1979, he helped to organize the Amandla Festival of Unity in Boston to support liberation movements in Southern Africa, which featured Bob Marley & the Wailers. This activity, along with the anti-racist, community security and human rights work he was doing, led to death threats and increased police harrassment, so Jaan went underground.
Jaan was captured in 1984 in Cleveland, Ohio, with several comrades after what the US government labeled the largest fugitive hunt it ever conducted. Jaan and his comrades, who became known as the "Ohio 7" were accused of being members of the United Freedom Front (UFF), a group that took responsibility for targeting the offices of the South African apartheid regime, US military bases, and corporations profiting from war and apartheid. Jaan is close to completing his Massachusetts state sentences. In the near future he will be returned to the federal system to begin a 53 year consecutive sentence for seditious conspiracy.
"My friends and fellow activists for a liberated, just, peaceful and healthy planet, let me share some hopeful information and ask for your support and assistance.
I have been locked up for over 21 years now. Soon I will complete my Massachusetts sentence and then I have to begin a 53 year federal sentence. Because of my two separate sentences, I am the last Ohio 7 person, with a release date, who is still in captivity. I do have one other Ohio 7 comrade, Tom Manning, still in prison, but he has a life sentence with no real release date. [Jaan's comrade, Richard Williams diedin federal prison on December 7, 2005.]
Years ago I exhausted all normal appeals. Because of new developments this year I now have a possibility of reopening and challenging my entire Mass. conviction. I have always maintained my innocence in this case and now I may finally be able to prove it.
Of course any legal effort is an uphill battle, especially for political prisoners,. But this is a real possibility. Actually this is my first appeal I am hopeful about and I am determined to win. But I can only do it with your help. I need to raise thousands of dollars to mount a multilayered appeal now.
My hope and intention is to overturn my conviction, prove my innocence, and finally rejoin my family and all of you outside once again."
-Jaan Laaman, 2005
We need to support Jaan's legal struggle by raising funds and donating!
Donate:
Jaan Laaman Legal Freedom Fund
PO Box 681
East Boston, MA 02128
Write to Jaan:
Jaan Laaman (W87237)
Box 100
South Walpole, MA 02071
On the web:
4Strugglemag , an .. 'zine written by political prisoners and their allies.
