MIM NOTES No. 190  July 15, 1999

Movement demanding freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal grows; state 
attacks back

In April, May and June, the struggle to free death row prisoner 
Mumia Abu Jamal continued to intensify. Mumia, a former Black 
Panther, was framed for the righteous killing of a police officer 
engaged in an act of police brutality. He was sentenced to death 
in 1982 after a bogus trial. His appeals are now in the much 
quicker federal courts and an execution could happen in the fall. 
Prior to his arrest, Mumia was a radio journalist who exposed 
police brutality. From within the walls through books, articles 
and radio commentaries, Mumia continues to be an outspoken leader 
of the oppressed. This effective political work has earned 
increasing support from the people, while also earning increasing 
hatred from the imperialist establishment.

Pam Africa and Mumia's attorney Leonard Weinglass report that 
Mumia is ill, with a swollen and discolored left ankle. This may 
be a result of being forced to wear paper-thin slippers on the 
cold cement floors. The imposition of this new dress code was part 
of the punishment for the death row hunger strike MIM Notes 
covered 15 months ago. It is also possible that this is a symptom 
of a more serious health problem. Such problems are the unreported 
torture and even death penalty of prisons which provide little 
health care and subject inmates to conditions that often bring on 
serious illness resulting in death or disability at a young age.

Mumia speaks at Evergreen College Commencement in Washington State

On June 11, Mumia Abu Jamal spoke via tape recorded speech at the 
graduation ceremony at Evergreen College in Washington State. 
Washington State Governor Gary Locke was also scheduled to speak, 
but he pulled out so as to not share the stage with Mumia.

Evergreen President Jane Jervis issued a statement saying Abu-
Jamal was invited to speak as part of a discussion on the validity 
of the death penalty and of the effects of racism and poverty on 
justice.

But "discussion" is not on Amerikkka's agenda. Locke wouldn't 
discuss the issue on the same stage. House Majority whip Tom Delay 
(R-Texas) pledged to call for a moment of silence in the House in 
protest of the speech. In a statement, Delay called the invitation 
of Mumia "socially irresponsible.(1)

According to the Associated Press, some students and uniformed 
pigs walked out of the ceremony, and two dozen turned their backs 
during the speech. Other students wore yellow armbands in support 
of Mumia. That the school invited Mumia and that he spoke should 
have been the focus of the Associated Press news story, but 
instead it focused on the protest.(2)

Mumia was invited by a committee of students administrators and 
faculty. The college resisted public pressure to dis-invite Mumia, 
but has began a "revision of how the college selects speakers in 
the future."(3)

The dead pig's widow told the Associated Press that the speech was 
"not fitting for a graduation ceremony. A classroom, maybe, but 
not a graduation ceremony."(4) 

In imperialist Amerika, there are 2 kinds of graduation speeches: 
fluff and imperialist mouthpieces advancing the Amerikkkan foreign 
policy agenda. Mumia's speech on the need for people to become 
revolutionaries is neither. Most people do not question why the 
imperialists deserve free speech to huge audiences and throughout 
the mainstream press while revolutionaries, at best hope for a 
chance to speak to a small classroom. MIM thinks that people 
should be offended when the war mongers give speeches to 
graduating classes encouraging them to become a part of the war 
machine. In fact, at many of these speeches large student protests 
take place, never to get reported in the media.

Millions for Mumia Marches demand freedom

On April 24 10,000 people attended a rally & march in Philadelphia 
to celebrate the 45th birthday of Mumia, and to demand his 
freedom. Thousands more rallied in San Francisco. MIM and RAIL 
comrades attended the rally in Philadelphia to distribute 
literature, interact with the masses, and raise funds for the 
Books for Prisoners program.

Single-issue organizing such as the fight focused exclusively on 
saving Mumia Abu-Jamal's life tends to lack a broad revolutionary 
perspective. This is why it is especially important for MIM and 
RAIL to attend events like this one. While it is important to 
demand freedom for imprisoned revolutionary leaders, MIM and RAIL 
go further and organize against the prison system as a whole. 

MIM says all prisoners are political prisoners because all 
imprisonment under imperialism is political. This can be seen, for 
example, in the fact that Black men are 8 times more likely to go 
to prison than whites. 

Of those incarcerated for their political beliefs or actions, 
Mumia is the only one on death row (although others have sentences 
that will ensure they die in prison). However, what happened to 
Mumia is not exceptional: the judicial railroading of Black men 
into the gas chamber is the status quo of imperialism. The blatant 
miscarriage of justice in Mumia's case presents an opportunity to 
expose and organize against imperialism as a whole that cannot be 
missed. But we need to put this case in the larger context of the 
criminal injustice system.

At the same time, both at rallies like this one which many people 
will attend and then consider their duties as an activist done for 
the year, and on the streets, we need to be pushing people to make 
the struggle against this corrupt imperialist system a part of 
their lives. As Mumia told the graduating class at the mostly 
white Evergreen State College, speaking of the Black Panther Party 
founder: "Huey [Newton], at least in his earlier years, lived his 
life deliberately and set the mark as a revolutionary. What was 
the difference between Huey Newton and you? Absolutely nothing, 
except he made the choice." 

Philly attacks financial ally of Mumia campaign

At the end of May, the City of Philadelphia has removed the Black 
United Fund (BUF) from its employees' annual charitable appeal. 
The Black United Fund is an important conduit for donations to 
Mumia's defense. The city charitable appeal is called the Combined 
Campaign, and in the past raised $1.7 million for charity. A tiny 
portion of this, $100,000, went to the Black United Fund. But this 
tiny portion makes up 25% of the annual budget of the BUF.

The BUF gives out dozens of grants to Black groups, but the 
movement to free Mumia didn't get a dime, so what's the crime? The 
BUF was behind in its legal paperwork and the city is using this 
to cut off the group even though the BUF is actively rectifying 
their paperwork problems. The real crime was the Black United 
Fund's alliance with International Concerned Family and Friends of 
Mumia Abu Jamal. The BUF handles tax-deductible contributions for 
the Mumia group and does bookkeeping in exchange for a small fee. 
In the last month, the BUF handled $200,000 in donations for 
Mumia's defense from around the world.

According to the city of Philadelphia Deputy Mayor Linda S. 
Berkowitz, this work was "inconsistent with the objectives of the 
city's Combined Campaign." Inconsistent with the objectives of the 
Fund? Probably. Inconsistent with the political demands of the 
racist city of Philadelphia? Definitely and necessarily.(5)

Notes: 

1. New York Times June 10 1999. 

2. Boston Globe June 12 1999, p A4. 

3. Boston Globe June 11 1999, p. A14. 

4. Boston Globe June 12 1999, p A4. 

5. The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 1999.