The Foul And Scary Truth About MOVE

“Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”
-George Orwell

(Picture of MOVE's Truths Being Played Out On Osage Avenue)


It is a kind of not often enough spoken fact that all “faiths” are not created equal. For the sake of this blog we will consider MOVE to be a “faith” of sorts although plenty of other adjectives might be more appropriate, but this the one to which I will address at this point.

Truth. Objective or subjective is the currency that anyone who is serious about politics or life in general. And with that being the case there are agreed upon notions of what “truth” is. Without turning this into an epistemological exercise in Socratic philosophy I will employ the concept of truth in it’s conventional definitions and than contrast that with the notion of truth employed by MOVE.

For MOVE, “truth” is ever changing and very personal. For example, what MOVE leader Alberta Africa says is the truth. It doesn’t matter whether she says that the sky is purple with pink polka dots. What she says goes and is therefore the “truth”. Question that “truth” and you will find yourself in the middle of a very ugly and disturbing situation. Push someone like Alberta to far and you may find yourself in a bullet ridden car on a rainy night dead as a doornail.

John Africa claimed that clouds for example were not, as any modern scientist would tell you, condensated water droplets, but instead were clouds of pollution. John Africa said it, so it was the “truth”. And there you have it.

The same pattern of stupid and authoritarian proclamation exist to this day. Another yarn spun by John Africa was that John Lennon was killed because the late Beatle expressed an interest in meeting with the meglamonical Africa. An unlikely scenario given Mr. Lennon’s rather contentious relationships with “gurus” in the past.

That is the terrible reality lies within a violent authoritarian cult and it did not begin and will not end with MOVE.

MOVE’s concept of “truth” is an integral part of it’s propaganda endeavors. It allows them the moral certainly to lie and lie and lie again all without any shame or remorse. John Africa taught MOVE people that “what is necessary is right and what is right is necessary”. This is the kind of Machiavellian logic that allowed for Kissinger’s ecocide of Southeast Asia and the establishment of realpolitik as the only politics that matter here at the beginning of this new American century.

But MOVE was never so ambitious. They applied their subjective morality principally in keeping order over their charges in order that they preserve the bourgeois leaders comfortable.

For inscribed in John Africa’s teachings (the ones we have access to) are the blueprints for death and destruction and offer a rearview perspective upon the group’s savage bloodletting of the past.

I will give an example.

My posthumous friend, John Gilbride, who was savagely gunned down by assailants (more or less) unknown, was not only a victim of a vicious murder, but was just the latest in a long line of MOVE’s victims who was caught up in a wave of violence and death that had began back in the early 70's but had yet to break and fall back. It is a fact that John is not the first and unfortunately will unlikely be the last.

What helped paved the way for John’s demise was MOVE’s dogged commitment to spreading the “truth” about John. As it was however, none of these “truths” were what they were advertised to be. John was no abuser as MOVE claimed. He was no deadbeat. He was no violent sociopath. He left that kind of muck to MOVE, they were awash in it, and if my observations are correct, still are.

But people believed MOVE’s “truths” about John. Shamefully, I fell for some of these myths as they were told and told again in a way that would make Nazi propagandists proud.

It was not enough however for MOVE to spread “truths” about John. No sir. They had to defame and verbally assault the man’s entire family. No one was safe from their rhetorical barrage and MOVE had no shame in their attacks and no one on that side of the equation cared to distinguish fact from fiction.

All it took was for a MOVE leader to say something was true and so it was. Living deities who could tell no lies, with malice towards none, and only the fire of truth and the protection of life to guide them. Bullshit of course, but it makes for good press in the Indy media.

So the moral of the story is to be wary of unchecked power, even if it seems to emanate from unlikely sources. MOVE leaders do exert undue and damaging amounts of power over their charges. The group is a haven for child rapists and psychopathic killers. Deny it someone. I challenge you.

If there is justice in America than they will be given the Manson treatment anytime soon.