----- Original Message ----- From: james-tait <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2000 1:40 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] WWP Candidates: "Organize Millions To Free Mumia!" STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 17, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- SOCIALIST CANDIDATES: "ORGANIZE MILLIONS TO FREE MUMIA!" By Monica Moorehead [Workers World Party 2000 Candidates Monica Moorehead and Gloria La Riva issued the following statement to protesters at the Democratic National Convention] In February 2000, the prison population in the United States--which was under 300,000 in the early 1970s--reached 2 million inmates. This makes the United States the greatest prison house on the planet. The U.S. establishment has expanded the repressive state apparatus over the past few decades in three main areas-- capital punishment, police aggressiveness, and by establishing what has been called the "prison-industrial complex." This growing repression has aroused resistance. This year thousands of people defied police to take the streets in New York to protest the acquittal of four white cops who shot and killed Amadou Diallo. Hundreds more in Washington and San Francisco took civil-disobedience arrests to demand a new trial for death-row inmate and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Meanwhile, a movement is gaining momentum around the country to declare a moratorium on executions. THE FIGHT TO FREE MUMIA There are more than 3,000 political prisoners in the United States. These heroic women and men, the majority of them from nationally oppressed communities, either entered prisons as activists during the 1960s and 1970s or became political in jail--like the murdered Black Panther leader George Jackson. They all have at least two things in common: they stand against racist repression and other forms of injustice, and the capitalist state wants to silence them. Many political prisoners are well known, like American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier, the MOVE 9 and the Puerto Rican independence fighters remaining in prison. The most recognized prisoner on death row is Mumia Abu- Jamal, "the voice of the voiceless." Mumia is more than just another innocent man, like so many who languish in apartheid-like dungeons. In the eyes of the U.S. government, he is "guilty" of being an uncompromising, unwavering revolutionary who has helped to expose police brutality, the death penalty, and other forms of racist atrocities since he became a member of the Black Panther Party as a teenager. Mumia's fight for a new trial has stimulated unity among progressives and revolutionaries of all nationalities and ages. The struggle to free Mumia and all political prisoners is tied to the overall struggle against a class system that persecutes the poor, workers, the oppressed, and all who resist the tiny clique of parasitic bosses and bankers. DEMAND A NEW TRIAL Marxists continue to search for an opening to struggle. They reach out to both the existing political movement and to new layers of the masses on these issues. The opening right now with the most potential is the struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. By demanding the right to a new trial, the movement can explain how Mumia got railroaded to death row in the first place. It can also generalize to explain the role of the capitalist courts. These courts railroad not only revolutionaries like Mumia, but all poor people. We can not only show how Mumia was a victim of a police frame-up and brutality, but also link his situation to millions of others who have been brutalized by the cops and will never receive real justice through the courts. And Mumia would be the first to say that yes, this is the right thing to do--this is not about me but about the whole rotten, capitalist system that is quick to oppress and repress the majority of humanity to make a lousy buck. URGENT TASK FOR MOVEMENT The most powerful factor that can win a new trial for Mumia, the one capable of making the government step back from a "fast track" execution, is the organized force of millions of outraged people from every community. This is the urgent task of the progressive and revolutionary movement in the United States at this time. The state--and especially the police force--wants to execute Mumia as a vehicle to strengthen their repressive apparatus and to strike a blow against the movement. To save Mumia and free him, the movement has to help create a dynamic atmosphere that will make the ruling class worry about the threat to its stability if the state tries to murder Mumia. A victory in this case will be a strong first step toward fighting for all the oppressed against the repressive capitalist state. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
