EMERGENCY INTERNATIONAL PRESS
CONFERENCE will take place at WHAT Radio
(Philadelphia) on December 2, 1999 from 9AM to
10AM. This is VERY IMPORTANT and will be
dealing with the PA Legislative Black Caucus introducing
a House Resolution for a new trial for Mumia (date has
been pushed back to sometime in January), due to the
tremendous efforts of the African-American
Reconstruction League among many other important
developments.
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL WILL CALL IN
during the press conference and Pam Africa,
Consuewella Africa, Leonard Weinglass and others
will update all on where the case lies now and
emergency actions taking place the entire month
pushing for our brother's freedom! DON'T MISS IT!
ICFFMAJ wants supporters to call and fax
grassroots and mainstream national and international
news media and STRONGLY URGE them to
simulcast this emergency press conference via
WHAT's website. NOW is the time we need the
Emergency Response Network to be in FULL
EFFECT and we need this press conference
to be heard by people WORLDWIDE.
2. DECEMBER 2, 1999 - 7:00 PM -
CALL TO ACTION OF ALL PEOPLE ON THE DAY
THEY WANTED TO KILL MUMIA.
As many people as possible in the Philadelphia Tri-State
Area are being asked to COME TOGETHER that evening
for a strategy session on the EXTREMELY
IMPORTANT December 6 activities and saving our
brotha's life! For more info contact Pam Africa at
215-476-8812
===========================================>
From: "Naomi" <naomi@innocent.com>
Jun Yasuda, a Buddhist nun, Casa Aga, a student, and Louise
Lora, all associated with the Grafton Peace Pagoda in Grafton,
NY will begin a weeklong fast to free Mumia Abu-Jamal in front
of SCI Greene on December 1st. The fast, honoring Buddha's
birthday, is a protest against the injustice of Mumia's trial
and sentencing, against the death penalty, and against prisons.
In the words of Jun Yasuda: "No more prison, no more punishment
-- taking care human way."
---------------------
Naomi
Email: naomi@innocent.com
=====================================>
From: chris98@pacbell.net
Friends,
Please make plans to join us on:
December 11, 1999
International Human Rights Day
Mobilization at the Oakland Federal Building
2PM - 14th & Clay - Downtown Oakland
Freedom For Mumia Abu-Jamal
Freedom for Leonard Peltier
Freedom for all Political Prisoners
Final Organizing Meeting:
Friday evening - 7PM - December 3
HERE Local 2850 - 548 20th St - Oakland
(enter thru the parking lot on 21st St)
Final Saturday Community Outreach:
Sat. - Dec 4 - 1PM
Mosswood Park Rec Center (meet in front)
MacArthur & Broadway - Oakland
Help get out the word in the East Bay.
Sept 25 Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal & All Bay area Mumia Support Groups
All the stops need to be pulled out. A spirit of unity must develop. The
highest level of united action is called for by the critical phase that
Mumia's case is passing through.
___________________________________________
Saturday, December 4th marks the 30th anniversary of the murder of Fred
Hampton and Mark Clark. Both were leaders of the Black Panther Party in
Chicago. This coming Saturday at 5 p.m., KPFA-FM (94.1) will feature a 15
minute documentary on Fred Hampton which includes portions of a speech
recorded shortly before his death. So tune in to "In Your Ear" Saturday,
December 4th at 5 p.m. Presented by The Freedom Archives and produced by
Lincoln Bergman and Claude Marks.
=========================================>
From: "katie insignificant" <punka101@hotmail.com>
Just wanted to let you know .. on your list of activities coming up..
The Youth Network Of Refuse and Resist! has planned a
ACT YOUR RAGE on December 10th Friday in Philadelphia
doors 6:30 show at 7PM at the Germantown YWCA on germantown
AVE right off of cheltan ave. its a Politically motivated open mic
session, that night's Act Your Rage is primarily focusing on Mumia...
seeing as though there is a demonstration the next day.. its primarily
aimed at youth, but all are invited to speak, rhyme, sing, play, dance
they rage. its free as well.
-Katie
============================================>
From: Imani Henry <imanihenry@yahoo.com>
Sign up online at
http://home.earthlink.net/~npcboston/mumia.htm
to GET ON THE BUS for the December 11 Regional
Demonstration in Philadelphia (coordinated with
San Francisco and Chicago demos) to DEMAND A HEARING
FOR MUMIA ABU JAMAL.
(also: SEND A LETTER TO FEDERAL JUDGE Hon. William
H. Yohn, Jr. c/o Leonard Weinglass, 6 West 20th St.,
Suite 10A, New York, NY 10011. Tell him to grant
an evidenciary hearing in Mumia's case so that the
evidence of coerced police testimony,
prosecutorial misconduct in illegally challenging 11 of 15
prospective African American jurors because of
their race, and the 29 constitutional violations of
Mumia's rights can be heard. More info available
at http://home.earthlink.net/~npcboston/mumia.htm
Buses leave 11:30 pm Friday night December 10 from
the parking lot at Roxbury Community College,
getting back to Boston after midnite Sunday
morning.
$35 round trip (plus $5 donation requested for
transportation subsidy fund). Call
Jericho Organizing Committee 617-412-3487 or
National Peoples Campaign 617-522-6626
284 Amory St (near Stonybrook T stop)
npcboston@yahoo.com
http://home.earthlink.net/~npcboston
Tickets also available at
Lucy Parsons Bookstore
549 Columbus Ave Boston
617-267-6272
=============================================>
From: "Smohallah Atem-Nu" <smohallah_777ug@hotmail.com>
November 30, 1999
Baltimore Sun
By: Peter Hermann
"Officers Refuse to Work for Band"
--Police reject overtime in arena over act's support of police killer
Baltimore police officers refuse to work overtime to provide security for
a band playing at the downtown arena Thursday because the progressive rock
group has donated proceeds to a convicted police killer in Philadelphia.
More than 3,000 city officers heeded a plea by Fraternal Order of Police,
Lodge 3 not to sign up for 10 positions at a Rage Against the Machine
performance at the Baltimore Arena, giving up about $150 each in overtime
pay.
The city-owned arena will have to use its security or hire outside help.
Extra officers will be ordered to patrol streets outside the building as
part of their regular duties, as is routine for such events,
"The department is obligated at this point to provided exterior security
only," said police spokesman Robert W. Weinhold Jr. "It is the
responsibility of the event host to maintain interior security."
Edie Brown, director of public relations for the privately managed arena
said, "The area does not sit in judgement of anyone's political policies...
The promoter's job is to bring concerts in. He does not take a public stand.
The concert is nearlt sold out, with 12,00 people paying $25 each for
tickets. "We will have more than adequate secuirty," she said.
-Proceeds Given to Defendant-
Rage Against the Machine has played in several cities on its latest tour
without incident or protests by police, Brown said. The band has given
portions of its proceeds from concerts to the legal defense fund of Mumia
Abu-Jamal.
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther was convicted of killing Philadelphia
police Officer Daniel Faulkner during a traffic stop in 1981 and sentenced
to death.
On Oct. 26, a federal judge stayed his execution, 13 days after
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge signed his death warrant, opening the door for
Abu-Jamal's bid for a retrial. He argues that his trial in 1982 violated his
constitutional rights.
-Trial Called 'Travesty'-
Members of the band could not ne reached for comment. Their Web site
defends their stand, saying that their benefits are "not to support cop
killers, or any other kind of killers," but are to help Abu-Jamal get
another trial to try to prove his case. They call his first trial "a
travesty."
The band uses loud music to drive home a political anti-establishment
message, with songs such as "Killing in the Name" and "Bullet to the Head."
The local promoter is David Geller, one of five board members on
Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley's inaugural committee. O'Malley, who takes
office Dec. 7, has been a supporter of the police union and made a strong
commitment to policing a part of his election campaign.]
"I promote concerts and events," said Geller, who also runs the Lava Lounge
at the Inner Harbor. "That is my business." He said he employs four city
officers at each night at his club, and supports police causes.
-Free Speech Claim-
Geller also said he doesnot know whether prceeds from the Baltimore show
- one of many stops on the group's three year tour - would be given to
Abu-Jamal's defense fund. Geller is promoting the show for Washington based
I.M.P., whose co-owner, Seth Hurwitz, said Rage always gives a portion of
its earnings to charity.
"We have something called free speech in this country," Hurwitz said "Rage
Against the Machine would certainly not do anything to threaten public
safety, and I'm sure that the police would not either."
Officer Gary McLhinney, FOP president, said he decided against a public
protest by the widows of city officers killed in the line of duty out of
fear for their safety and to avoid giving the band "any more attention."
But the union leader said a stand was necessary. "I don't see why we
should subsidize this band," McLinney said.
Leaders of the Police Memorial Fund, which is raising money to build a
tribute to officers killed in the line of duty, said they were offended by
the concert.
Money raised by the band, their statement says, "has been used for defense
attorneys to find legal loopholes to delay the execution... and help to
provide a forum for Abu-Jamal to protest that he is a political dissident,
when he is nothing more than a cold-blooded killer."
-Voluntary Police Action-
The refusal by officers to work overtime is strictly voluntary. Such
available assignments- which must be approved in advance by the department-
are routinely posted or announced on the police radio.
Officers are free to sign up as long as it does not interfere with their
regular duties. Such assignments include providing security at city pools,
concerts, baseball games and block parties.
The city usually provides officers at taxpayers expense for large events.
The Baltimore Orioles pay overtime to all officers working inside the
stadium. The city pays for officers on traffic control duty outside, which
is part of their regular shift.
Weinhold said he did not know how many officers will be stationed outside
the arena, but said they would be assigned from Central District patrol and
the tactical unit. He describe it as "routine" and done "depending on the
nature of the event."
=======================================>
From: "Nic Veroli" <nveroli@igc.org>
MUMIA, RACISM, AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WTO: FIGHTING THE SILENCE
For those people, almost a million at last count, who wear the label
"prisoner" around their necks, there is no law, there is no justice, there
are no rights.-- Mumia Abu-Jamal.
An American worker who once upon a time made $8/hour, loses his job when
the company relocates to Thailand where workers are paid only $2/day.
Unemployed, and alienated from a society indifferent to his needs, he
becomes involved in the drug economy or some other means of survival. He is
arrested, put in prison, and put to work. His new salary: 22 cents/hour.
--"The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy."
PRISONS AND THE GLOBAL SWEATSHOP
As the "Voice of the Voiceless," Mumia Abu-Jamal, Black journalist on death
row, speaks for some of the most oppressed people in the United States whose
struggle has deep parallels with the fight of workers around the world
resisting the WTO. In his writings and speeches, Mumia makes the connection
between the prison-industrial complex, systematic racism and global
imperialism. In the U.S. in particular, racist exploitation is exemplified
by the prison industrial complex and the general degradation of U.S. labor.
Exploitation of U.S. workers and prisoners mirrors the exploitation of
sweatshop workers in the Global South (a.k.a. the "Third World". By
promoting the free-flow of capital to areas where labor is cheapest, the WTO
makes itself into the primary agent for this exploitation. The truth is
that the WTO values the rights of corporations over those of human beings.
THE WTO IS RACIST
It is no accident that the voices which are most frequently silenced in the
World Trade Organization are voices from the Global South-- primarily people
of color. There is inherent racism in the belief that it is okay for global
corporations to employ people of color in the South at below-subsistence
wages while trampling their most basic human rights. These folks, mostly
women--work in slave-like conditions which essentially eliminate their
control over their bodies and their lives (e.g., women are forced to take
birth control pills and experience frequent sexual abuse). Furthermore,
economic policies forced upon countries in the Global South by
WTO-sanctioned free trade agreements drive many people to migrate across
borders to escape poverty. But a system of racist exploitation awaits them
in the North as well.
In the United States, people of color are over-represented in the low-wage
labor pool and in the prison population. For example, 30% of
African-American men are in prison and all African-Americans live under the
constant threat of police violence. Native Americans are the most
impoverished sector of the U.S. population and have the highest rate of
unemployment. For people of color in both the North and the South,
violation of civil and human rights is the norm.
CREATING JUSTICE
To create a just society, we need to challenge the system of racist
privilege sustained by the WTO which makes this superexploitation the order
of the day. Yet much of the labor and environmental movements, some of the
main forces organizing against the WTO, have neglected to incorporate the
fight against racism into their struggles. For example, the AFL-CIO
provided no significant support in the fight against I-200, the initiative
that succeeded in overturning affirmative action in Washington State.
In its mobilization against the WTO, the coalition led by labor and
environmentalist groups has not adequately addressed issues of racism. This
failure leads to the weakening of the movement as a whole.
FIGHTING THE SILENCE
By recognizing the connections between the fight against racism and the
struggle against the World Trade Organization, we can articulate a political
vision that denounces a racist legacy and includes the voices of the most
oppressed in our country and abroad.
SAVING MUMIA IS PART OF THE STRUGGLE
The fight against the WTO is in large part, a fight against a racist and
unjust system. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been both a victim and a powerful critic
of that system. His is a valuable voice for us to hear in formulating a
vision that we can carry out after the November 30th WTO protests. To
respect Mumia's voice, we must fight to save his life.
For more information about what you can do to fight against the
Prison-Industrial complex and to save Mumia's life contact:
ï‚· The Seattle Mumia Defense Committee: (206) 835 5517 or at
www.speakeasy/~smdc
ï‚· International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal:
www.mumia.org
ï‚· The Campaign to End the Death Penalty: (206) 378-0989
ï‚· Washington Prison Project: (206) 324-8165
"Indeed, although it is obvious that non-violent movements for social change
must internationalize because of the interlocking nature of the problems
they all face, and because otherwise those problems will breed war, we have
hardly begun to build the skills and the strategy, or even the commitment,
to planetize our movement for social justice." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1967)
Sources:
Goldberg and Evans, "The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global
Economy."
M.L.King, Jr., A Testament of Hope.
M.A. Jamal, Live From Death
Row.
====================================>
From: "Ed Trautz" <hivoltage@erols.com>
To Our Sisters and Brothers in Struggle at UNAM:
As people organized to free Mumia Abu-Jamal - a man who our government
would like to execute because of his inspiring, courageous and rebellious
words, especially because of his exposure of the repressive actions of the
police against oppressed groups in the US - we take great inspiration from
your struggle against your government's effort to suppress the rights of
the working class in your country. It is a most beautiful sight for those
very
brief moments when our news shows footage of hundreds of thousands of
people protesting the theft of education from working class and poor people in
México and the privatization of many of your public institutions.
We thank you for your support of our cuase. We are all stronger because
of the unity you have expressed against oppression in this country and we are
writing in hopes of strengthening your fight against oppression in your
country.
It is an outrage that the rulers of your country should want to make
college education more and more elite, reversing one of the gains of your
1910 revolution. It seems that they are eager to reduce the number of
educated youth in your country as they reduce public services and their
attendant bureaucracies in the interests of NAFTA and IMF inspired
privatization schemes. Zedillo, Cárdenas, Barnes, their lackeys and the
police are making it very clear that they only want education to be truly
public for as long as it serves their political and economic purposes.
In your country in which half of the people live below the poverty line,
most of the children in the countryside are malnourished and millions live
without running water and electricity, it is especially shocking to think
of what the increase in wealth gap is doing to your people because of the IMF
and NAFTA. We are enraged that our government - and yours following it -
finds it acceptable that millions of peasants are being displaced from
their land as a result. Now they are trying to convert the universities to
serve
the type of workforce they need to create to support the changes being
forced on your country.
Here in this country, most of our poor - those who are not homeless -
still enjoy running water and usually have electricity (though not always).
But
that "wealth" is built on the backs of the oppressed in countries like
yours. Those who run this country try, as much as they are able, to make
sure that even the horrible conditions some of our people face still aren't
as horrible as the conditions the poor in your country face. They would
like to keep us blind so that we don't become indignant at these
arrangements. They would like us to remain ignorant of struggles like your
own and that of the EZLN and others in your country. And they would like
us to never see how the oppression in your country is directly connected to
our own oppression and created by the very same people. That is why it is
especially important for us, here in the belly of the beast, to show our
support of your spirited rebellion and fiery resistance and to join you in
your cause.
Your movement has been under fierce attack by the government, the police
and by backward forces from it's beginning. We join you in condemning
those attacks. Terror tactics that attempt to intimidate and demoralize
the movement are nothing but a continuation of the very same things you are
rebelling against. When they attack you they are only confirming what we
already know. We know that they will defend their interests against the
interests of the people no matter what it takes. But we also know that
when they attack, it means that we have given them something to worry about.
We know that we have shaken up their plan and that we have threatened
something dear to them. This is a very good thing since their plan is
completely
against the interests of the people and can only make the conditions of the
people worse. Your brave resistance to these attacks is commendable and
inspiring.
Ultimately, it is only through struggles like yours, ours, Mumia's and
others like us all over the world that we will be able to build something
better than what we now have. Only through our struggles might we
eventually throw all forms of oppression off of our backs. We hope that
one day, the physical and economic border that our government has violently
placed between us through bloodshed and plunder, will be removed forever.
*Abolish the educational reforms!
*Down with NAFTA and privatization!
*Freedom for all Mexican Political Prisoners and POW's!
*Freedom for all US Political Prisoners including Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Leonard Peltier!
*¡Ya Basta! ¡La lucha continua!
GOD BLESS YOU, COMRADES!
In Struggle,
Edward W. Trautz III
==================================>
For more information contact:
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 19709 - Philadelphia, PA 19143
Ph: 215-476-8812 / Fax: 215-476-7551
Web: www.mumia.org / E-mail: mumia@webcom.com
Tax deductible contributions to the Organizing Campaign to
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal should be made payable to and sent to:
The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Inc.
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Tel: (215) 476-8812
Fax: (215) 476-7751
Tax deductible contributions to the Legal defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal should
be made payable to and sent to:
National Black United Fund/MAJ
40 Clinton St., 5th Fl.
Newark, NJ 07102
=========================>
IT'S RIGHTEOUS TO RESIST!