MUMIA BENEFIT SENDS MIXED MESSAGE TO MIXED CROWD by RC93 reprinted from MIM Notes 186, 15 May 1999 On January 28, Rage Against the Machine(RATM) brought together popular acts including the Beastie Boys, Bad Religion, Black Star, and Public Enemy's Chuck D and Professor Riff for a show in New Jersey.(1) The concert was organized to raise money for the legal battle of Mumia Abul-Jamal, who was framed for the murder of a Philadelphia pig, Daniel Faulkner. There was great controversy over this concert among government officials and the mainstream media. Radio talk-show host Howard Stern and Faulkner's widow, Maureen, were among those to express their outrage, resulting in New York's K-ROCK to drop its endorsement of the concert.(2) The controversy surrounding the concert led K-ROCK to offer refunds to those who did not wish to support Mumia's case. Mainstream media reported that 2,000 of the 19,000 tickets were returned in protest of Mumia, while Zack de la Rocha of RATM quoted the number at 567.(1) Nonetheless, the tickets were quickly resold. But it is interesting to ask how many of the 19,000, mostly young, mostly white people attending the concert did support Mumia's case. From previous experience RAIL can assume that a majority of the people attending the mainstream concert were not concerned with the case. One informed reviewer wrote, "I wasn't the only one though; every single person that I saw get interviewed was well informed about the case and to my surprise all gave solid answers."(1) It is good to hear that young people are aware of Mumia's case, and that others were informed by the controversy surrounding this concert. Unfortunately, organizers of the show downplayed the political importance of Mumia's case, misleading the mass of young fans. In a press release Zack stated, "Let me say straight up that tonight's benefit is not to support cop killers, or any other kind of killers, and if there were no question about the guilt of Mumia Abu-Jamal, we would not be holding this concert. But whether Jamal is guilty, or is himself the victim of an outrageous miscarriage of justice, is precisely what is at issue."(3) The Beastie Boys made similar statements. This only gives credence to the Amerikkkan injustice system, which has the goal of eliminating activists such as Mumia, and has no interest in giving him a fair trial. Young activists who want to create a truly just society should work with MIM and RAIL, who actively oppose police brutality as well as the repression carried out by other sectors of the injustice system, with goal of replacing it. While MIM does not encourage the killing of individual police as a means of obtaining revolutionary goals, we would support Mumia whether he did it or not. The fact is that Mumia's brother was being beaten by Faulkner prior to the shooting, and if Mumia had been the one to shoot the pig (which is very unlikely) it would have been in defense of a violent attack. The reviewer quoted above was disappointed that RATM did not open with their cover of NWA's "Fuck tha Police" as they had at their Mumia benefit in 1995. In this song Zack raps, "and when I'm finished/bring tha yellow tape/ to mark off the scene of tha slaughter... A young nigger on a warpath/ and when I'm finished there's gonna be a bloodbath/ All cops dying in L.A./ Yo, I got sumfin' to say/ FUCK THA POLICE!" MIM prefers this message to the reformist ideas Zack preached at the recent concert. This goes to show the wishy-washy line that can result from anarchist ways of thinking, which also led RATM to work with the reformist group Amnesty International on this concert. Notes: 1. Rage benefit concert for Mumia. Review by J. Moreno. http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/mumiabenefit.htm 2. Morello, widow of slain police officer debate Rage/ Beasties benefit. http://www.mtv.com/news/headlines/990121/story10.html 3. Zack de la Rocha's complete press conference statement regarding the Mumia Abu-Jamal benefit concert in New Jersey on January 28th, 1999. http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/zackbenefit.htm