Canadian Labour Support for Mumia Abu-Jamal
by Bruce Allen
As 1999 drew to a close the campaign to win freedom for the wrongly
imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal gained
significant ground in Canada. On November 29 delegates to the Bi-Annual
Convention of the 600,000 member Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)
unanimously passed a resolution from the St. Catharines & District Labour
Council calling for staying the death sentence imposed Mumia Abu-Jamal and
his unconditional release. The resolution also called on the OFL to provide
active and ongoing support for the campaign to win his freedom. Immediately
following the unanimous adoption of the resolution a group of delegates from
the convention took their message of Ontario labour support for Mumia
Abu-Jamal to the doorstep of the U.S. Consulate in Toronto.
Just over a week later members of the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) Left
Caucus mobilized to get a similarly worded emergency resolution to the floor
of a CAW Council meeting being held in Toronto. With the backing of the CAW
Council's Human Rights Committee the resolution was unanimously adopted.
The
decision effectively throws the support of the 238,000 member union fully
behind the international compaign to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
This support from the OFL and the CAW complements earlier decisions by
the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers Federation to support the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Now it is up
to the Canadian Labour Congress to follow up on these actions and make the
voice of the principal labour organization in Canada heard concerning this
most urgent human rights issue.
Free the Angola 3!
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