Assata Shakur, born on this day in 1947, is a revolutionary socialist and former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) who became the first woman to be added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2013.

spoiler

Shakur grew up in New York City and Wilmington, North Carolina. She became involved in political activism at Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College of New York, participating in sit-ins and civil rights protests.

After graduating from college, Shakur briefly joined the Black Panther Party, leading its Harlem chapter. She left the Panthers and joined the Black Liberation Army, a black power group that was inspired by the Viet Cong and Algerian resistance movements and waged guerrilla warfare against the U.S. government from 1970 to 1981. Shakur was one of the targets of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program.

After being involved in a shootout with New Jersey police officers, Shakur was convicted on multiple counts of assault and murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1979, BLA members freed her in a bloodless prison escape.

Shakur successfully sought political asylum in Cuba, where she died on September 25, 2025, at the age of 78

“I didn’t know what a fool they had made out of me until I grew up and started to read real history.”

  • Assata Shakur

I hope you nerds have a good month of July cuddle

Remember no crackers

anti-cracker-aktionqin-shi-huangdi-fireball

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    I’m on and off with Hasan Piker but every time I see the crtitisism he gets being over “Uyghur genocide denialism”, “Pro-Putin”, and “being against the Democratic Party” tells me that it’ll be a very long time (if ever) before Americans widely adopt a principled leftist stance. It kind of vindicates BadEmpanada, who’s viewed as “insane” by most of them.

    Edit: I’m on and off in that I’ve liked how he opened his audience up to Lenin and anti-imperialist ideas. I have not been happy with his current sheepdogging for the Democratic Party lately.

    • CommunistCuddlefish [she/her]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      5 days ago

      Hasan went to bat for GraHHam Platner, minimized the war criminality of it, and glazes liberal zionists. I can’t even consider him a leftist of any stripe.

      If a western “progressive” isn’t anti-imperialist, they’re not leftist, they’re a liberal at best (and that’s not a good thing at all! The project of liberalism is welded to genocide). If their socialism isn’t internationalist in nature, then is it… national socialism?

      • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        5 days ago

        My larger point is that if someone like him is considered extreme than Americans have a much larger mountain to overcome.

        And it vindicates BadEmpanada who says Americans are too selfish to ever let leftism firmly take root. It’s a bitter pill but he’s largely correct

    • Angel [any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      5 days ago

      Can’t get over how bro literally glazes liberal Zios. I lost respect for Piker a long time ago, honestly

    • Riffraffintheroom [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 days ago

      He hasn’t publicly done or said anything that would get him immediately imprisoned or killed by the US government, and therefore I curse him whenever I read his name. I am not a cop.