LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Many of us have seen documentaries, such as The Weather Underground and Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975 among others, which romanticise the revolutionary upheavals and struggles of the civil and human rights movements of the 1960s.  Yes, it’s true that great American civic leaders over the years have taken courageous stands against injustice, and much to our benefit.  But the reality is many of the folk heroes we laud in our historical studies, or in popular culture, languish in prison enduring political persecution.  Many former Black Panthers, for example, and Native American leaders, such as Leonard Peltier, continue to endure social suffocation in prison.  Often, they are denied vital medical treatment, as has recently been the case with political prisoner and former Black Panther, Mumia Abu Jamal.

The Free Mumia Coalition are organising rallies across the nation, which, in the Bay Area, will be followed by a march to the Oakland Police Department in solidarity with political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal.  The rally and march in Oakland, and across the nation, will take place on Friday, December 9, 2016, which, as the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia reminds us, is the 35th anniversary of the night of the shooting, in which Mumia was also shot, and for which he was framed:

On December 9, 2016 it will be 35 years since the police tried to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and revolutionary journalist, the “voice of the voiceless.”  Unable to kill him, the cops, courts, and politicians conspired to frame him and sentence him to death for a crime he didn’t commit.

It took an international mass mobilization to prevent his execution. Now, it is taking protest and publicity to keep him alive in prison and to get him effective treatment for his Hepatitis C, which he is still being denied by the Pennsylvania prison system. We need to act!

The Free Mumia Coalition and many other organisations, including many thousands of sympathetic supporters have been calling, for years now, for the release of Mumia.  And, as prisoners are suffering from illnesses, such as hepatitis C, and are being denied adequate medical treatment, the Free Mumia Coalition is also calling for prisoners to be provided with any and all medical treatments needed.  Please join in solidarity, if you are in northern California, near the San Francisco Bay Area, or check your local community for solidarity groups and actions. [1]

Messina

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DECEMBER 9TH FREE MUMIA COALITION—[19 NOV 2016]

FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL NOW!

FREE HEP-C MED FOR ALL INFECTED PRISONERS!

Friday December 9, Rally

Oscar Grant Plaza, 4pm

Followed by March to OPD Headquarters

Join us for a National Day of Action on December 9 [2016] to FREE MUMIA NOW and FREE HEP-C MEDS FOR ALL PRISONERS, in coordination with his Philadelphia and New York supporters!

Mumia, a former Black Panther, who police tried to execute on the streets of Philadelphia in 1981, was framed by a racist judicial system and sentenced to death.  Like other Black Panthers, he was an innocent target of the FBI’s repressive COINTELPRO campaign.  From death row, Mumia became known as “the voice of the voiceless”, exposing deplorable prison conditions and fighting racist police killings, imperialist wars, and capitalist oppression.  International protests got him off death row, but now they are trying to kill him by medical neglect.  They are withholding life-saving Hep C medication he, and 7,000 other Pennsylvania prisoners desperately need.  After 35 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, it’s time to mobilize to FREE MUMIA and other political prisoners like him now!

A recent US Supreme Court decision, Williams vs. Pennsylvania (2016) could open the door for Mumia’s freedom, but only if this fundamentally racist judicial system is confronted with mass protests, like those that got him off death row.  This decision ruled that a prosecutor cannot later sit as a judge over the same defendant’s appeal.  This is exactly what happened in Mumia’s case.  On this basis, Mumia’s attorney’s have filed a new legal action.  If successful, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rulings, which upheld his conviction would be overturned.  Mumia could, then, re-appeal the issues of his innocence, jury bias, and falsified evidence to win an outright dismissal of charges or get a new trial.  Mumia was framed by corrupt cops, prosecutors, and judges for the murder of a policeman that he did not commit!!  Let’s mobilize for Mumia now!

Partial list of endorsers for the Dec. 9 Free Mumia Coalition:

Dr. Angela Davis; ANSWER Coalition; Anti Police-Terror Project; BAMN; Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY; (Former) Black Panthers: Cleo Silvers, Eddie Conway, Larry Pinkney, and William Johnson; Code Pink; Haiti Action Committee; International Action Center; John Brown Society; Justice for Palestinians-San Jose; Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Love Not Blood Campaign/Uncle Bobby; Lumpenproletariat; National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party; Oakland Socialist Group; Oakland Teachers for Mumia; Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression; Party for Socialism and Liberation; Socialist Organizer; Socialist Viewpoint; Speak Out Now; Veterans for Peace – East Bay; Workers World Party.

Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?

(Background information provided by the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal)

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a revolutionary journalist.  A former member of the Black Panther Party and MOVE supporter, he fought racism and police brutality with outspoken radio reporting in Philadelphia in the 1970s.  Known as the “voice of the voiceless”, he was an award-winning journalist.  His work continues today—from behind bars—with books he has written, and recorded essays on imperialism, war, racism, and more.  Though censored off mainstream media, including National Public Radio (NPR), his commentaries can be heard on KPFA and other Pacifica stations.

Mumia is a political prisoner because he acted and spoke out against police brutality and racism.  Mumia was considered an enemy of the state.  He was targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO disruption program from age 15.  Publicly threatened by the notorious Mayor Frank Rizzo, he was well known to Philadelphia cops as a political enemy.  They arranged his conviction before a racist court, and sent him to death row in 1982.  He’s now serving life without the possibility of parole.

Mumia has never wavered from insisting his innocence.  Falsely accused of killing a police officer, Mumia was set up from the moment he was found at the scene.  Police coercerd vulnerable “witnsses” into saying they saw something they never did.  A real witness was driven out of town for saying Mumia didn’t do it.  Other witnesses who saw two men (not Mumia) run from the scene were ignored, or forced to lie against Mumia.  Police corrupted the ballistics, and forged a “confession”, that Mumia never made.  Another man’s real confession was suppressed.

Cops, courts, and politicians conspired to send Mumia away, and keep him there.  Starting with the “hanging judge” Sabo, who said he would “help ’em fry the n_____r” at Mumia’s trial, state and federal appeals courts, including the Supreme Court, have ignored law and precedent to keep Mumia behind bars.  Mountains of evidence, which should free Mumia, has gone unheard.  Politicians like the former DA (later governor) Ed Rendell, and ex-governor Tom Ridge, are complicit in the frame-up.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is complicit in Mumia’s framing.  All the cops on Mumia’s case were crooked, and the cop who was killed was likely talking to the FBI and killed by corrupt cops for that reason.  The cops’ motive in framing Mumia was to silence him, and cover-up their own crimes.  But that didn’t stop the DOJ from secretly warning DA Rendell not to use a DOJ corruption target, Alfonso Giordano, against Mumia at trial.  Giordano was the chief frame-up artist at the crime scene, but using him could have blown the “case” against Mumia.  (Giordano later pled guilty to corruption.)

Mumia Abu-Jamal should have never spent one day in jail.  Mumia’s case exposes the race and class bias of the entire capitalist judicial system.  The state demands his slow death in prison as retaliation to his defiant resistance to state repression and racial oppression.  And, now, that includes slow death by medical neglect.

But Mumia has not been silenced.  We stand with Mumia.  Mumia’s freedom is part of our own struggle for justice and human liberation.  Free Mumia now!

December 9th Free Mumia Coalition

Contact:  Tova, 510.600-5800; Jack, 510.501-7080; Gerald, 510.417-1252  19 Nov. 2016.  labor donated

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“Voice of the Voiceless” (1999) by Rage Against the Machine

Free Mumia benefit concert (bootleg) [2] performed on 28 JAN 1999 by Rage Against the Machine

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[1]  This article is based on personal experience, as well as a printed flyer handed to attendees of a recent lecture.  Apologies for publishing this information so late, my friends.

Also see the following related websites:

• Free Mumia
• Prison Radio
• Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

[2]  YouTube video posted by ЯРКОе видео (Ukraine) on 17 MAR 2012.

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[Image of political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal by source, used via fair use.]

[8 DEC 2016]

[Last modified at 20:10 PST on 8 DEC 2016]