Freeing Silvia Baraldini (2009)

On November 9th in 1982, Silvia Baraldini was jumped by eight members of the FBI terrorist task force and brought into custody during a sweep of the radical left. Silvia was a leader of the May 19th Communist Organization, a key element in an alliance of revolutionaries, Black, White and Puerto Rican, who worked relentlessly to expose repressive policies of the U.S. government. In 1983, using an array of tactics, the government put an end to the alliance. Silvia was convicted of helping to free Black Panther, Assata Shakur from prison and received a 43-year sentence. After seventeen years in U.S. prisons, in 1999, following a ten-year campaign culminating in one million Italian signatures, Silvia won the right to serve out the remainder of her sentence in her homeland, Italy and was transferred to Rebbibia prison in Rome. Silvia's story exemplifies the enduring human spirit within the resistance movements as well as the repressive measures waged against them by the United States government.