Ferguson Black Friday protesters were chanting the words of one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists

Ferguson protesters who temporarily shut down a St. Louis-area mall on Black Friday were repeating the words of the Communist Manifesto and a convicted cop killer who is one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists.

Protesters lie on the floor at the St. Louis Galleria, Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, in St. Louis. The group was among several hundred protesting the decision of a grand jury not to indict a white police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo. (AP Photo/Skip Foreman)

Authorities briefly closed down the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights after demonstrators staged a "die in."

I found a local newspaper's online video report on the event, and watching clips of the protesters singing parody Christmas carols and chanting in the "call and repeat" style used by the Occupy Wall Street crew, I noticed the words sounded familiar.

The caller and those repeating her words were saying:

It is our duty to fight for our freedom. 

It is our duty to win.

We must love each other and support each other.

We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Chapter four of the Communist Manifesto talks about the "forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions" and then concludes by saying, "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win."

The earlier words also had a familiarity to them, so I searched and found their origin.

They are reported to be the words of Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur. A member of the Black Liberation Army, Chesimard was convicted of first-degree murder of a police officer, but escaped from a New Jersey prison in the 1970s.

Image: FBI.gov

Shakur was not the shooter, but participated in an encounter that ended with a New Jersey State Trooper being killed during a traffic stop in 1973. Although she was sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison, in 1979, Shakur's supporters conceived and executed a daring prison break. She subsequently lived underground before being granted political asylum in Cuba.

In 2013, the FBI added Shakur to its Most Wanted Terrorists list and offered a $1 million reward for information directly leading to her apprehension.

(H/T: St Louis American)

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