F O L K E T I B I L D / K U L T U R F R O N T 11-12/97
p å t e l e p r i n t e r n
"TEAR DOWN THE PRISONS
WALL BY WALL
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!"
by Tom Burghardt, Editor, Antifa Info-Bulletin
Framed-up by Pennsylvania's racist "justice" system in 1981 for a crime he did not commit, Abu-Jamal continues to sit on death row. A target of the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO program and a decades-long vendetta by Philadelphia cops, Abu-Jamal is housed in SCI-Greene, a notorious "Super-Max" high-tech hell-hole. According to Amnesty International's Secretary General, who heard testimony from Mumia on prison conditions in November:"Death row in Pennsylvania looks and feels like a morgue." Everything is high-tech, and there is no human being in sight. From the moment that condemned prisoners arrive, the state tries to kill them slowly, mechanically and deliberately -- first spiritually, and then physically."Jump-starting the spirited march and rally, a 15-foot high "prison" embellished with the names of US political prisoners such as Leonard Peltier, Sundiata Acoli, Laura Whitehorn, Dr. Mutulu Shakur -- and a hundred other freedom fighters -- was torn down. Out of the symbolic wreckage of the US prison industrial- complex, a 12-foot giant Mumia puppet surrounded by fluttering doves symbolizing freedom for all political prisoners, led the march to UN Plaza in downtown SF. Demonstrators chanted, "Tear down the prisons wall by wall, free Mumia Abu-Jamal!"The demonstration grew as it snaked through the Western Addition. Area residents of this largely black working class district lent their support to the marchers' demands by raising clenched fists, honking their horns and in general, encouraging marchers who denounced racist cop violence and state-murder. Many area residents, especially youth, joined the demonstration. Unlike previous San Francisco mobilizations for Mumia, the cops kept a low, though surly profile.At UN Plaza, speaker after speaker denounced a capitalist "justice" system that has criminalized a generation deemed "marginal" by a "new world disorder" rooted in racism, global plunder and exploitation. Speakers included former political prisoner and FBI frame-up victim, Angela Davis. Ramona Africa -- the sole adult survivor of the 1985 bombing of the MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia -- 13 MOVE members, including children were brutally massacred during the assault by the Philadelphia PD. Reginald Lewis, a member of the radical Young Comrades organization, spoke to the importance of continuing and intensifying the struggle to free Mumia. Christina Vasquez, Director of the Companeros del Barrio, a victim of state terror and torture in her native Colombia, denounced imperialism and made the international connections to US "low-intensity warfare" strategies around the world and Mumia's quest for freedom "in the belly of the beast."Yesterday's march and rally was a good beginning; many marchers felt that it is critical to keep up the pressure and turn up the heat until Mumia and all political prisoners are free. The Struggle Continues!FREE MUMIA NOW!
FINDINGS OF THE JUDGES OF
THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
FOR JUSTICE FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
We find it a fact that the human and constitutional rights of Mumia Abu-Jamal were blatantly violated in numerous and systematic ways resulting in his unjust conviction, unlawful incarceration and illegal death sentence.
We recommend that a thorough, independent, international and impartial judicial investigation, with full subpoena powers, should be conducted into the historical and current operations of the Philadelphia Police Department, particularly in relation to its treatment of people of color; and into the FBI's Counter- Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), and all similar repressive programs, particularly in relation to their treatment of the Black Panther Party, MOVE and other political organizations led by people of color;A thorough, independent and impartial judicial investigation, with full subpoena powers, should be conducted into the actions of all Federal, State and City elective, judicial and law enforcement officials that had any role in relation to the bombing of MOVE headquarters in 1985;All public officials found responsible for the deprivation of Mumia Abu-Jamal's human rights should be removed from office and declared unfit to hold such office in future by reason of their breach of public trust;We therefore urge the Secretary-General of the United States and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to call for reports on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal from U.N. Special Rapporteurs, especially those with jurisdiction over:| (i) extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions; (ii) torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment; and (iii) independence of the judiciary |
1. Araneu, Francese - Catalonian activist
2. Arnold, Christoph - has served as senior elder of the Bruderhof since 1983
3. Aziz, Barbara Nimri - Arab-American journalist and activist
4. Black, John - Ctte. to Free Mumia, Penn State Univ.
5. Brutus, Dennis - former political prisoner and writer in exile from South Africa
6. Camargo, Gilma - Native of Panama, coordinator of the American Association of Jurists
7. Chinoesu, Phile - Philadelphia, Chair Million Women March
8. DuBois, David - son of W.E.B. DuBois, professor, Pan Afrikan journalist
9. Falco-Mairat, Myriam - Paris, Criminal Atty.
0. Ferguson, Herman - former political prisoner, former exiled RAM leader. Now RNA jurist.
11. Golden, Marita - President, Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation
12. Gray, Rev. Cecil - Philadelphia activist, Afrikan educator
13. Grevatt, Martha - Union activist, Ohio
14. Humphrey, Mattie - Longtime Philadelphia prison activist.
15. John Judge - counterintelligence expert
16. Yuri Kochiyama - Japanese-American activist, personal friend of Malcolm X
17. Lanzmann, Claude - writer, producer, director
18. Meerpool, Michael - son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
19. Nkrumah, Gamal - son of Kwame Nkrumah; Pan Afrikan Journalist
20. Panzer, Ulf - Judge in Hamburg, Germany, member of Judges and Prosecutions for Peace.
21. Queen Ivory - Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation
22. Washington, Father Paul - Philadelphia activist, Church of the Advocate
23. Weyl, Roland - Member Intn'l Assn. of Democratic Lawyers
24. Wright, Judge Bruce - Retired New York State Supreme Court Justice
25. Wright, Julia - Paris-based journalist, activist; oldest daughter of late novelist Richard Wright
