WW News Service Digest #310
1) Escalate the struggle for Mumia
by "WW " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "WW " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 23. elokuu 2001 23:31
Subject: [WW] Escalate the struggle for Mumia
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 30, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
2,000 outside Philly courtroom say:
ESCALATE THE STRUGGLE
FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Death-row political prisoner blocked from attending hearing
By Greg Butterfield
Philadelphia
In yet another blatant violation of his constitutional
rights, state and local officials conspired to prevent Mumia
Abu-Jamal from attending an important Aug. 17 court hearing
on his case. But they couldn't stop Abu-Jamal's supporters
from holding a militant rally outside the courthouse and
marching through Philadelphia's busy streets, tying up
Friday afternoon traffic.
At least 2,000 people took the day off from work or school
to demonstrate their solidarity with the revolutionary
journalist and former Black Panther. They came from
Philadelphia, throughout the United States, and from Canada,
France, Sweden, Spain and other countries.
Together they roared again and again, "Brick by brick, wall
by wall, we're gonna free Mumia Abu-Jamal!"
Lt. Fischer, a police official at the rally, admitted,
"There are many more people than we expected." The rabidly
anti-Abu-Jamal Philadelphia Daily News was forced to report
the next day, "The largest local 'Free Mumia' demonstration
in years roamed across Center City for six traffic-choking
hours."
Actions were also held in dozens of cities and towns
worldwide. These included San Francisco; San Diego;
Minneapolis; Paris; Berlin and Hamburg, Germany; and Oslo,
Norway.
"We're on his side, and we're not going away," protester Kim
Huole said. "We're not going to give up until he's a free
man."
Abu-Jamal has spent over 19 years on death row. He was
accused of the Dec. 9, 1981, killing of white Philadelphia
cop Daniel Faulkner. He has always maintained his innocence.
Recently it came to light that a man named Arnold Beverly
had confessed to killing Faulkner. Beverly says he was hired
by a group of police with mob ties. Abu-Jamal's previous
legal team knew about the confession but didn't raise it in
earlier court documents.
Beverly's confession points to Faulkner's death being the
result of an internecine war within the notoriously corrupt
Philadelphia Police Department. Abu-Jamal--hated by the cops
for his vocal opposition to racist police terror--made a
convenient scapegoat.
The court hearing here was aimed at getting Beverly's
confession entered into evidence in the Pennsylvania state
courts. For two years Abu-Jamal and his supporters have
waited in vain for a promised hearing before federal appeals
court Judge William Yohn.
OVERCROWDING? POLICE JAILED ACTIVISTS
On Aug. 15, Abu-Jamal's lawyers went into the Common Pleas
State Court to request a "contempt of court" order against
court administrator Joseph J. DiPrimio and prison officials.
DiPrimio had issued the order barring Abu-Jamal from being
brought to Philadelphia for the hearing. He claimed that
city jails were too crowded to house Abu-Jamal.
Abu-Jamal's supporters scoffed at this excuse. The supposed
overcrowding didn't stop police from arresting and jailing
four activists and several bystanders outside the American
Corrections Association conference a day before the hearing.
Judge Pamela Dembe presided over the Aug. 17 hearing. Dembe
had originally ordered Abu-Jamal to be present, but she
refused to hold DiPrimio in contempt or uphold Abu-Jamal's
right to be in court.
"Once again, through no fault of my own, I have been
obstructed from being in the courtroom," Abu-Jamal wrote in
a statement read to the court by attorney Marlene Kamish.
Abu-Jamal also recalled how Judge Albert Sabo had barred him
from over half of the 1982 trial that ended in his death
sentence.
Though barred from attending the hearing, Abu-Jamal had
strong representation in court, including Kamish, Elliot
Grossman and other members of his new legal team.
Before 9 a.m., several prominent supporters and organizers
entered the courtroom. They included the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
actor Ossie Davis, comedian Dick Gregory; poet Sonia
Sanchez, the Rev. Lucius Walker of IFCO/Pastors for Peace,
Pam Africa of International Concerned Family & Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jama, and Monica Moorehead and Larry Holmes of the
International Action Center/Millions for Mumia.
INSIDE THE COURTROOM
Afterward, Workers World spoke with Monica Moorehead about
the scene inside.
She said the courtroom was divided into three main areas --
one for Abu-Jamal's supporters, another for police
supporters, and another for the media. The court session
lasted 35 minutes.
"Judge Dembe raised the question of whether her court had
jurisdiction to hold oral arguments on the issue of a legal
brief Mumia's lawyers filed on May 4," Moorehead explained.
"That brief argued that Mumia was a victim of 'ineffective
counsel' during his Post Conviction Relief Act Hearing in
1996. Dembe stated that the legal brief had been filed 'in
an untimely fashion' according to the Pennsylvania state
law."
Abu-Jamal's lawyers, meanwhile, argued that Dembe should set
a date for oral arguments immediately. Dembe denied this
request.
Instead she gave Abu-Jamal's lawyers until Sept. 7 to file a
new legal petition explaining why the statute of limitations
should not be a determining factor in setting a new PCRA
hearing.
Prosecutors would then have until Sept. 21 to respond. Dembe
said she would make her decision some time after both
petitions were filed.
Moorehead told WW: "Dembe made her ruling based on what is
on the books, rather than what is the righteous thing to do.
Instead of looking at the strong factual evidence within the
300-page legal brief that Mumia's lawyers filed with her
court on May 4, she is saying that because the brief was not
filed within a 60-day time limit, it could very well be
dismissed by her court.
"In essence, her ruling is very similar to the July 19
ruling that Federal District Judge William Yohn made, based
on the statute of limitations in the Anti-Terrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. In other words, the
innocence of a person takes a back seat to procedural
guidelines. Where is the justice in that?"
'NOW IT'S UP TO YOU'
A spirited rally was held outside while protesters awaited
word from the courtroom.
Representatives of Native nations, the Palestinian uprising,
South Korean students on a hunger strike outside the White
House, and supporters of the Puerto Rican political
prisoners and prisoners of war expressed their solidarity
and gratitude for Abu-Jamal's courageous stands on their
behalf.
Signs and banners identified diverse groups of supporters,
including the Black Radical Congress of Durham/Chapel Hill,
Rainbow Flags for Mumia, the Postal Workers Union, Vieques
Support Campaign, Mothers Against Police Terror, New York
Quakers and the Toronto Free Mumia Coalition, among many
others.
"Free Mumia-End the racist death penalty," read hundreds of
International Action Center signs carried in the protest.
Palestinian flags and Black liberation flags flew above the
crowd, as did those of many Caribbean and Latin American
countries.
People shouted, "Take it down" at building contractors who
hung racist banners from the scaffolding on City Hall and
other buildings. As one racist goon made lewd gestures from
the top of City Hall, demonstrators shouted: "Jump! Jump!"
"Whenever young people participate in something like this,
adults often say, 'You don't know what you're talking
about,'" said student Josh Block from North Philadelphia.
"But we do. Mumia is an inspiration. Even though he's in
jail, he talks about the real issues that affect us all."
After the hearing, Abu-Jamal's attorney's read his statement
to the crowd. They said Judge Dembe had seemed to side with
the prosecutor's argument that it was "too late" to enter
evidence that would show his innocence.
"We have done as much as we as lawyers can do," Grossman
told the crowd. "Now it's up to you to make sure we get the
hearing.
"They don't want us to take Arnold Beverly's statement in
court, because they know the police did it," Grossman said,
referring to Faulkner's killing. "They are protecting the
police who are responsible."
Ramona Africa of MOVE told the crowd: "Slavery, apartheid,
the holocaust and the murder of Shaka Sankofa were all
'legal.' But they weren't right.
"We don't care about legal niceties-we care about justice."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson reminded demonstrators about recent
death-row victims Sankofa and Wanda Jean Allen. "Too many
innocent people have been executed. Too many innocent people
are in jail, and too many guilty people are in high places,"
he said.
He called on local officials, churches and synagogues to
take up Abu-Jamal's cause, saying: "Justice starts at home.
Until Mumia is free, none of us are free.
"Until Mumia is free, we are only released."
AFRICA DENOUNCES YOHN'S 'STONEWALLING'
At around 11:30 a.m., Abu-Jamal's supporters took to the
streets.
A truck covered with Free Mumia signs served as a mobile
sound stage as youths led militant chants. Pam Africa
periodically stopped the truck and held impromptu street
meetings, drawing large crowds of workers and shoppers to
listen to the latest developments in Abu-Jamal's case.
All along the way, motorists responded enthusiastically to
the many signs that read "Honk for Mumia."
Marchers reached the federal court building at 1:30 p.m.
There, Africa responded to what she called federal Judge
Yohn's "stonewalling."
"We will fight, fight, fight for the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal
by any means necessary," she said.
"We are here to put you on notice. We are going back to our
hometowns to mobilize like we have never mobilized before,"
Africa said, drawing cheers and shouts of "Yes!"
"In Seattle and Quebec, they beat some people and locked
some up. In Genoa and Palestine, they killed people, they
beat people, they locked up more people.
"But they couldn't stop the people."
Steven Kirschbaum, a representative of Steel Workers Local
8751 in Boston, spoke about the growing labor support for
Mumia. He called the white construction workers who had put
up anti-Abu-Jamal banners "scabs."
Attorney Michael Tarif Warren said the movement must learn a
lesson from Yohn's delaying tactics, which are aimed at
robbing momentum from pro-Abu-Jamal forces.
"We must never go to sleep again because of developments in
the courts," he said. "We must be in the streets. We must
stay in the streets."
He also denounced Yohn's "unprecedented interference" in
that day's state court hearing. Warren said the federal
judge had "recommended statutes and language for the state
courts to deny [Abu-Jamal] a Post-Conviction Relief Hearing"
based on the 1995 Effective Death Penalty Act.
That law, passed by the Republican-dominated Congress and
signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, provides a
legal cover for executing prisoners even if they are later
shown to be innocent.
RE-ENERGIZE THE MOVEMENT
The day's main message was the need to re-energize the Free
Mumia movement.
"We had a victory here today," declared Larry Holmes of the
IAC. "We kicked open the door of the court.
"It wasn't just the lawyers who kicked down the door," he
told the demonstrators. "It was you. You represent the
millions of sisters and brothers who support Mumia but
couldn't be here today."
Saying the government fears an "Intifada for Mumia," Holmes
urged the crowd to "go home, call a meeting and say, what
are going to do to turn up the heat?
"Mumia has instructed us to join with the anti-globalization
movement. We're going to take Mumia's struggle to Washington
Sept. 29 as part of the convergence against the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and George W.
Bush," Holmes said.
Holmes said activists should be ready to return to
Philadelphia on short notice. He also recommended that
groups organize activities on or around the 30th anniversary
of the Attica Prison Rebellion on Sept. 13, and begin
planning now for mass actions on Dec. 9. That is the 20th
anniversary of the incident that put Abu-Jamal on death row.
"The courts are more concerned with covering up police
misconduct than freeing an innocent person such as Mumia,"
Monica Moorehead told WW. "That's the real reason why the
courts and the police do not want to grant Mumia a PCRA
hearing.
"This confirms what we have known all along: Mumia will not
be freed by this corrupt, racist, biased legal and political
system, but by the militant intervention of the masses."
- END -
(Copyright 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)
