From: Grinnell Coalition in Defense of Mumia <mumia@grinnell.edu>
Please spread the word!:
BRING THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE TO IOWA CITY ON SATURDAY NOV. 6th
11 AM-Rally in front of Old Capitol at Clinton Street and Iowa Avenue
12 Noon-March
Sponsored by the Grinnell Coalition In Defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal
e-mail: mumia@grinnell.edu
===========================================>
Philly Daily News - November 1, 1999
Sting draws fire over Abu-Jamal
Cops to stage protest over Brit rocker's Mumia support
by Christine Bahls
Daily News Staff Writer
In two weeks, rocker and international activist Sting will perform
at the Tower in Upper Darby. And some local cops plan to be outside
- sending him a message.
It'll have the name of Mumia Abu-Jamal written all over it.
Delaware County police are upset about the entertainer's position on
Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted killer of Philadelphia police officer Daniel
Faulkner. Sting has called for a new trial.
"Sting opened his mouth," said Chester City police officer Ed McClellan,
president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 19.
"Let them come on," said Pam Africa, coordinator of International Concerned
Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. "All they're doing is exposing
themselves . . .
They prove why the death penalty has to be abolished."
The impetus behind the protest is FOP Lodge 27, representing at least 900
retired
and active Delaware County police officers, said lodge president Joseph
Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald said lodge leaders will be meeting soon to work out the
logistics, which
include calling on fellow officers from the surrounding counties.
"We are supporting . . . anybody who's against the Mumia Abu-Jamal movement,"
McClellan said.
It will be a quiet demonstration, Fitzgerald said. "It's not going to be
out of hand."
If the cops are there, "We will be there," Africa said. "We will always be
where our
supporters are at."
On Dec. 9, 1981, Faulkner was gunned down near 13th and Locust streets. He
was
killed after the 25-year-old officer had pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in
a traffic
stop. Abu-Jamal reportedly passed by and spotted the two. Officers found
Faulkner
on the ground, shot at close range in the face. Abu-Jamal was lying nearby;
he had
been injured by a bullet from Faulkner's gun. Abu-Jamal's gun, with five
spent shells,
was also found. He was convicted a year later and the appeals have never
stopped.
Abu-Jamal, now 45, has contended he had an unfair trial for many reasons.
He has
never testified in any of the legal proceedings. Last week, a federal judge
stayed the
execution of Abu-Jamal, which had been scheduled for Dec. 2. It will be
next year
before the judge decides whether to hold a hearing on the latest appeal.
Abu-Jamal, a former journalist, has become a cause celebre, and has
garnered support
from entertainers, politicians and, as Africa put it, rich people, poor
people, black people,
white people, all kinds of people.
Sting, former head of the band Police, has long been an activist,
supporting environmental,
health and human rights causes. According to Africa, he signed a letter
urging a new
trial for Abu-Jamal.
McClellan said that at the national FOP annual convention in August, the
membership
voted to boycott anyone who supported Abu-Jamal. Because of that vote,
McClellan
said, he expects officers from throughout the area to be at the Tower Nov.
14. He said
his lodge, representing 100 officers, will discuss the event at its Nov. 9
meeting.
Usually, cops are called to keep the peace at demonstrations. Who will do
the honors for
them at the Sting concert?
Fitzgerald giggled at the question.
"We would police ourselves, I guess."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Send e-mail to cbahls@phillynews.com
==============================================>
From: J P <philnpc@op.net>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 21:25:23 -0700
1. Clinton disrupted in Philly today:
“U.S. OUT OF VIEQUES! FREE MUMIA!”
.........................................................................
1.
Today, José Albizu Rodríguez, Mario Hardy Africa and I attended the
rally for Phila mayoral candidate John Street at La Salle University in the
northeast. It was a "get out the Democratic Party vote" event where they
brought in Sen. Edward Kennedy and President Clinton. When Clinton was
about to start his speech the three of us got up and shouted: "President
Clinton: Get the Navy Out of Vieques Now" and "Free Mumia". We
continued until security "escorted" us out but not before the media cameras
took our pictures. (Local ABC, NBC, &CBS news all covered the disruption.)
Somebody told me that Clinton commented on Vieques saying that it was an
important issue that needed attention. While we were chanting, judge
Nelson Díaz a Puerto Rican, who was on the podium with the
"dignitaries", stood up and raised his arms making a victory sign with
both hands. Current Phila mayor, Rendell kept moving his arms signaling
us to sit down.
While we were walking out a Puerto Rican young woman followed us
shouting:
"I'm so proud of you guys, I had to leave in solidarity" It turned out
she attends Girls High and is part of a school group called "Latinos
Unidos". Afterwards we had a chance to discuss Vieques and Mumia and the
possibility of presenting the Vieques slide show in GH. Many asked us
about Vieques and Mumia after we left the building.
Before the event, we had to wait more than one hour to get in, so we
decided to give out the leaflets then, we gave out 500 leaflets on
Vieques and a few hundred on Mumia.
=============================================>
From: "KamariYa(!!)" <ngozi@secapl.com>
From: CAGeovanis@aol.com
The recent street theater action staged by the Chicago Committee to Free
Mumia Abu-Jamal, which ridiculed 20/20 correspondent Sam Donaldson for his
snuff journalism on Mumia's case, will be featured in an upcoming television
episode of Labor Beat:
Channel 19 (Chicago cable stations only)
Thursdays, 9:30 pm, Nov 4 and Nov 11
Fridays, 4:30 on, Nov 5 and Nov 12
The Mumia piece will air about 16 minutes into the show, which will also
feature a segment on Utah Phillips by Marty Conlisk and a music video by The
Strike.
===========================================>
From: Michael Novick <part2001@usa.net>
Although I was at the L.A. demo, I didn't realize until I read this
piece that David Horowitz is the director of the Wednesday Morning Club,
which invited PA Governor Ridge here to Los Angeles.
Horowitz, once a leftist and editor of Ramparts, is a stone racist
who has made his latter-day career by vicious attacks on the Black
Panther Party. I was on a radio call-in talk show with him several
years ago on KKBT-FM ("the Beat") here in L.A., hosted by Dominique
Di Prima. The topic was racism and hate crime activity in the wake
of an attack on two Black teens by nazi boneheads in one of the
northern suburbs. Horowitz came on to push his view that Black
people are their own worst enemy because they portray themselves as
victims. He exhibited zero sympathy or concern for the young Black man
or his female cousin who had been attacked with a machete for the
'crime' of being in an area some racists considered to be "white turf."
Tom Metzger of the White Aryan Resistance did a pre-arranged call-in,
and when one of the other guests, a Latino man, drew a comparison of
Metzger's open racism with Horowitz's disguised racism, Horowitz
leaped from his seat screaming vile curses on air, launched himself
at the Latino guest and literally began to strangle him, putting his
hands around the smaller man's throat! Several of started to try to
pull Horowitz off the man he had attacked, and studio security guards
had to physically restrain and remove Horowitz from the premises. I'm
surprised he wasn't charged with assault.
Given Horowitz's often-expressed venom against the Black Panther Party,
it is not surprising that an organization of which he is director
would have invited Ridge to L.A. Horowitz has a number of other foundations
and affiliations locally, including one whose name escapes me at the
moment, which has been one of the main organizers and funders of white
student lawsuits against affirmative action, against the use of college
student fees to support progressive causes, etc.
Charlton Heston of course recently used his prominence as an actor and
gun rights advocate to announce that white men and white culture were
under attack; his rhetoric of whites on the brink of extinction was chillingly
similar to that used by the Ku Klux Klan and various neo-nazi and
Christian Identity groups, but was considered 'respectable' enough, coming
from Heston, to be run as an op-ed piece in many major metropolitan
newspapers. Where was Heston when the Black Panthers were being criminalized
and killed for maintaining Black people's right to armed self-defense?
For Heston and Horowitz to associate themselves with Ridge,
and vice versa, is a clear sign of the more naked racism and growing
desperation of the system in the face of expanding support for Mumia Abu
Jamal. It's important for us to be aware of these reactionary and
racist linkages, and also to be equally explicit in drawing the linkages of
Mumia's case and those of other former Black Panther Party
political prisoners, to the on-going struggle for liberation and against
systemic racism and colonialism.
Michael Novick
REF: TO POSTINGe:
>CONFRONTED IN LOS ANGELES BY MUMIA SUPPORTERS:
>PENNSYLVANIA GOV. RIDGE ON THE ROPES
>By Richard Becker, Los Angeles
>
>Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge launched his bid for national political office
>here on Oct. 26, but it quickly hit the rocks. Demonstrators chanting
"Governor
>Ridge--serial killer," and "Free Mumia," outnumbered Ridge supporters by
>better than two-to-one.
(see www.mumia.org for entire text)
===================================================>
From: "Maine Mumia List Serve" <maine_sup_net@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 22:54:24 -0400
Attention Mumia Supporters
There is a heated debate taking place at the Web-site
:http://www.e-thepeople.com/petition.cfm?PETID=259107
with not enough Mumia support. Let's take back the debate and put these
kill crazy liars back in their place!
=======================================>
** INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL! **
------------------------------------------------
From: gilbert@fol.it
Florence, Bologna, Rome and other Italian cities are on a move to free
Mumia Abu-Jamal and to stop his execution. In Florence, well-attended
weekly meetings of the city-wide committee to free Mumia have been
planning a number of initiatives (the next meeting is November 1O at
9:30 p.m. at the CPA occupied social center in Viale Giannotti, 79).
Last Thursday October 21, the Italian edition of Mumia's latest book
"Death Blossoms" was presented to a standing-room-only crowd in the
city's largest and most prestigious bookstore (Feltrinelli) by a
representative of Amnesty International, members of the local Free Mumia
Committee, and the editors of 3 progressive publishing houses. A lively
discussion continued until almost closing time with attention focusing
on the racist, classist nature of the U.S. death penalty and "justice"
system, and on concrete steps to be undertaken in the next few weeks.
University of Florence students are planning an initiative on November 9
with professors and an Amnesty International representative at the
University with the presentation Mumia's book "Death Blossoms" and a new
video on Mumia.
The Florence Committee has launched a petition campaign to award Mumia
the honorary citizenship of Florence (he already has such citizenship
from Palermo; Venice and other cities), and has been invited by the
Region of Tuscany to collect signatures and distribute information this
Saturday at a Regional conference on immigration and a multicultural
society.
The Committee is organizing a day of mobilization in Florence for
Saturday November 13 with "mass leafleting" and information tables in
front of the Duomo (Cathedral) and in three out-lying neighborhoods.
tens of activists will hand out thousands of leaflets (with English
translations for tourists). This mobilization is intended to build for
a large national demonstration for Mumia in Florence on Saturday
November 20 as part of the "Counter-Summit" activities on the occasion
of the presence of Clinton, Blair and other European leaders in
Florence on that weekend, and to build for a national demonstration
being organized for Rome at the end of November.
The Association "Malcolm X" in Rome has prepared an excellent 60-page
dossier with photos on Mumia's case, and Mumia was on the cover of the
mass-circulation progressive weekly magazine "Avvenimenti" last week
with several pages of articles, and again today in "Avvenimenti" there
is a page of letters in support of Mumia and a good article.
LIBERTA' PER MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, LEONARD PELTIER, SILVIA BARALDINI!
FREEDOM FOR ALL PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL PRISONERS!
NO TO THE RACIST, CLASSIST DEATH PENALTY!
Committee for the Liberation of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Florence, Italy)
================================================>
From: dshoom@UVic.CA
Hi. Did anyone tell you about the demonstration we had in Victoria, British
Columbia Oct. 23? I don't know if anyone did a count, but I'd say there
were at least 100 people. The mood was pretty militant. We took over a lane
of a major road and marched to a local US customs sub-office. There were
many speakers. One guy, an socialist from Iran, showed the crowd the local
Iranian community newspaper which had a story about Mumia on the cover.
Also, our local labour council passed a motion. I don't know the details,
but I think it calls for a new trial.
In Solidarity,
Dan Shoom,
Victoria, BC
========================================>
From: Nuafrikan@aol.com
International Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
INT'L CAMPAIGN TO SAVE MUMIA (No. 3)
--- [please repost and distribute widely. Excuse duplicate postings.][c/o International Liaison Committee, 87, rue du Fg St Denis 75010 Paris, France. tel : 00 (33) 1 48 01 88 27 fax: 00 (33) 1 48 01 89 24 - email : <cimumia@wanadoo.fr>. In the United States: ILC, P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140. Tel. (415) 626-1175. Email: ilc@energy-net.com.]
Mumia¹s Execution Has Been Stayed! He Must Be Now be Freed!
CAMPAIGN UPDATE Nº 3 (Thursday, October 28, 1999)
In this Message:
1) Introduction and Statement by Daniel Gluckstein, on behalf of the International Committee to Save Mumia
2) Echoes of the Campaign and New List of Endorsers of Open Letter to Bill Clinton
***** The International Committee to Save Mumia Abu- Jamal is preparing an international delegation to Washington in November to present to President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno the hundreds of thousands of signatures gathered in support of the "Open Letter to President Clinton" [for the copy of the Open Letter, see Campaign Update No. 2]. Following the announcement that Mumia Abu-Jamal¹s slated December 2 execution had been stayed by Federal Judge William Yohn, the International Committee issued the following statement.
+++ Statement by Daniel Gluckstein, for the International Committee to Save Mumia:
On Tuesday October 26, Mumia Abu-Jamal¹s attorneys were informed that Federal Judge William Yohn had issued a stay on the December 2 scheduled execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Though the stay on the execution had been anticipated, those who have mobilized around the world to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal can breathe a sigh of relief. We still have some more time ‹ though not much more time ‹ to secure Mumia¹s freedom. Though we have a brief respite, we can¹t relax. On the contrary, we must step up our efforts to win a new trial and freedom for Mumia.
According to the press agencies, Judge Yohn said he would decide by February whether or not he will grant Mumia an evidentiary hearing. Everything indicates that the authorities are hell-bent on moving ahead with the appeals process as quickly as possible. If this is the case, it may be just a question of months before a new execution date is set.
Meanwhile, Mumia remains under an active death sentence. For him these next months will prolong the unbearable waiting, the untold hardship.
This situation is intolerable!
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on death row for more than 17 years, must have a new and fair trial. He must have his day in court ‹ NOW ‹ to prove his innocence.
In France, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and the ruling Socialist Party reiterated their "total opposition to the death penalty" and called upon all "human rights activists and fighters for justice to participate in the broad international solidarity movement taking shape day after day, by sending a petition to Bill Clinton, asking him to stay the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal."
The execution has been stayed by order of a federal judge. This is now done. But should Mumia be forced to languish any longer on death row? We say no.
No one can accept such a travesty of justice. Everyone knows that Mumia was denied his elementary right to a fair trial. The decision must now be taken by Bill Clinton and Janet Reno to launch a Justice Department investigation into the consistent violation of Mumia¹s civil rights at the hands of the Philadelphia Police Department. Such an investigation would help uncover the truth; it would also press the case for a full evidentiary hearing by Judge Yohn ‹ and therefore a new trial.
This is what French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin should be demanding of Bill Clinton, who he will meet next November 21 in Florence, Italy, and then again, eight days later, at the WTO Third Ministerial Summit in Seattle.
Everyone in France who is mobilizing to save Mumia Abu-Jamal¹s life should insist that Lionel Jospin, in the name of the French government, urge Clinton to direct Janet Reno to launch a Justice Department investigation into the violation of Mumia¹s civil rights. This is something Clinton can ‹ and must ‹ do to open the way for a new trial.
‹ Daniel Gluckstein *****
Open Letter to President Clinton (initiated by the International Committee to Save Mumia) Gathers Important New Endorsers Every Day
The International Committee to Save Mumia was set up to promote the Open Letter to President Clinton adopted by the international rally of October 15th in Paris. The rally, which drew close to 10,000 activists, was convened by the Organizing Committee of the Open World Conference of Workers in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights (to be held in San Francisco, February 11-14 2000) at the initiative of the International Liaison Committee and the San Francisco Labor Council.
The world over, the campaign to save Mumia Abu- Jamal is developing rapidly. The hundreds of new endorsements sent to the International Committee are proof of this.
In Africa, trade union leaders in Senegal, general secretaries of the five labor federations in Benin, as well as labor activists in the Republic of Mauritius and Angola have signed the "Open Letter to President Clinton."
In Asia, labor activists and trade union leaders in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Taiwan have signed and circulated the "Open Letter to President Clinton."
Rallies will take place on November 4th in the main cities of Brazil, called by the youth and students committees to Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal and by activists in the Black movement and trade union leaders. The Open Letter to Clinton has been adopted by acclamation by the 2000 delegates to the Sao Paulo State Workers Party convention in Brazil.
In Martinique, over 300 endorsements were gathered over the past weekend, mainly from trade union leaders and activists. Several declarations and statements of support have come in from Chile, Mexico, and Peru, among other countries in the Americas.
Throughout Europe, Members of Parliament (MPs) and trade unionists are joining the International Committee. This is especially true in Great Britain and Switzerland. The British Firefighters Trade Union Federation has announced it will participate in the international delegation Washington. In Spain, the UGT federation of public services workers will organise a delegation to the U.S. Embassy on November 5th, the date on which demonstrations and gatherings have beec called in front of embassies and consulates throughout the Spanish state. In Portugal, the first endorsers of the "Open Letter to President Clinton" have asked to be received by representatives of the Portuguese government and of the U.S. embassy. In Russia, political organizations and trade unions in St. Petersburg adopted the "Open Letter," while In Germany, hundreds of endorsements have been collected and delegations are being organized in the coming days to the U.S. Consulates in Berlin, Frankfurt and Bonn. In the Netherlands, a committee has been established to promote support for the "Open Letter."
A high-level international delegation comprising Members of Parliament and leaders of major trade union federations will take the hundreds of thousands of signatures to the White House and the U.S. Justice Department before the end of November. New endorsers of the appeal worldwide include:
GREAT BRITAIN : Tony BENN, MP, Labour Party ; Jeremy CORBYN, MP ; Jamie RITCHIE, lawyer ; John HAYWOOD, teacher ; John SPENCER, secretary of the Freelance section of the journalist trade union ; Ben RICKMAN, Brent Trades Council, local union TUC, Brent ; Joe MARINO, general secretary Bakers trade union, BFAWU. TAIWAN : ICLE, Information Committee for Labour Education. YEMEN : Mahmoud MAHMMED, trade unionist, oil industry. INDIA : Samir KUMAR, leader of the Indian trade union centre (CITU) ; T. S. Rengarajan, trade unionist, CITU, New Delhi. PORTUGAL : Joao PROENCA, general secretary, UGT. AUSTRALIA : R. J. HENRICKS, trade union secretary. SENEGAL : Souleymane SOUARE, trade unionist, SATEL. BENIN : Gaston AZOUA, general secretary, CSTB ; Pascal TODJIMOU, general secretary, CGTB ; Siméon DOSSON, general secretary, CSA ; Pépin SIMEON, general secretary, COSI ; Justin ADJIBABE, leader UNSTB, and 57 trade unionists and leaders of youth organisations. MOROCCO : Mounir Alami KHALID, trade unionist CDT. ALGERIA : Mustapha BENMOHAMED, MP, national popular Assembly. Republic of MAURITIUS : Rada Kistnasmy, Veena Dholah and 24 trade union and popular organisations leaders. RUSSIA : Evgueni KOZLOV, Russian Party of Communists (Leningrad region) ; Mher MARIKYAN, Dmitry LOBOK, Council of employees, engineers, workers and peasants of Leningrad region. SRI LANKA : Somawansa AMARASINGHE, Political bureau of the JVP. CHILE : Patricio CID, physician, Foro por la Democracia ; Pedro SANDOVAL, Partido de Trabajadores (Workers Party) ; Hector VELASQUEZ, trade unionist steel industry ; Luis MESSINA, bank trade unionist; Jorge GEORGACOPOULOS, trade unionist ; Patricio GUZMAN, director of Debate Social. SWITZERLAND : Christiane JACQUAND, national councillor; Michel BUHLER, artist ; Suzi DULEX, MP ; Alain FRANCK, trade unionist ; Michèle WINTER-DUTOIT, health sector, trade unionist; Georges WINTER, writer ; Monique GAVIN, trade unionist, health sector; Abdou LANDRY, lawyer ; Antonio HERRANZ, trade unionist health sector ; Sylviane HERRANZ- DUVOISIN, journalist ; Rachid EL KHATTABI, UCPO ; Jacques ROBERT, trade unionist, president of the CGAS, secretary of the industry and building industry in Geneva. COMOROS : Ali Ibauroi, general secretary of the Comoros Workers confederation. PAKISTAN : Gulzar Ahmed CHUDHARY, general secretary, APTUF ; Nasir CHUDHARY, Progressive Youth Organisation. SPAIN : Manuel CAMARA, senator. ANGOLA : Antonio Alberto NANDO, president of the Democratic party, vice-president of the Association of African Lawyers. BRAZIL : Eduardo SUPLICY, Senator of the Republic, PT (Sao Paulo) ; José GENOINO, federal MP, PT (Sao Paulo), leader of the federal MP fraction of the PT ; Aloisio MERCADANTE, MP federal PT, Sao Paulo ; Arlindo CHINAGLIA, MP federal PT, Sao Paulo ; Valter POMAR, member of the PT national executive; Flavio JORGE, in charge of the struggle against racism, national secretariat of the PT.
In France: 25,000 signatures have been gathered to date. Thousands of signatures are being gathered every day on the Open Letter to Clinton and are being sent to the International Committee to Save Mumia.
The following are some of the many trade unions that have endorsed : Loire Atlantique, Paris and Val d¹Oise regional federations (FO), Artists national federation (FO), or the executive committee of the railway workers of Sotteville-les-Rouen CGT section undersigned by 123 railway workers. Also, the Dole hospital (Jura region) CGT local, and the Roannais region CGT local, which writes to Clinton: "You have the duty, power and responsibility to prevent the execution".
Many renowned personalities have decided to join the International Committee, including: Yves Bonnefoy, writer, honorary professor at the Collège de France ; Michael Deguy, writer, former president of the international Collège of philosophy, honorary president of the Maison des écrivains (House of Writers) ; Bernard Noël, writer, president of the international philosophy Biennial; François Dominique, writer; Roland Ménard, author, winner of the SACD radio award ; Roland Timsit, actor ; Jacques Belleville, biologist...
Thousands of signatures, individual or in groups, include 6 Socialist Party leaders of Paris, 417 college pupils of Arras, 5 wage earns in air transports, 206 college pupils in Bondy, 506 activists in the Congress of Energy (CGT), 205 inhabitants of Montpellier, 885 people in the Rhone region, 850 in the Oise region, 158 students and IUT students in La Rochelle, 90 post office employees in the Seine Saint Denis department. ... -- More than ever, let us prepare the delegation to Washington to bring hundreds of thousand signatures to Bill Clinton! o Please inform the International Committee about the initiatives you haven take in each country; send us your signatures !
-- We will give you more information on the delegation in our next communiqué. ==================================>
WE MUST NOT FAIL! TAKE A STAND FOR YOUR BROTHERMAN!
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal P.O. Box 19709 - Philadelphia, PA 19143 Ph: 215-476-8812 / Fax: 215-476-7551 Website: www.mumia.org / E-mail: icffmaj@aol.com or mumia@webcom.com
MUMIA MUST LIVE! TIME IS RUNNING OUT!