19th Annual Partisan Defense Committee Holiday Appeal

Thousands Raised for Class-War Prisoners

The Partisan Defense Committee's 19th annual Holiday Appeal for Class-War Prisoners, held this past December in six cities in the U.S. and Canada, raised over $10,000 after expenses. The PDC addressed trade-union locals across the country, receiving pledges of over $1,600 earmarked for the legal defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Some of the unions that contributed to Jamal's defense were Amalgamated Transit Union Locals 308 in Chicago and 1179 in New York City and Bay Area's AFSCME Local 444. In attendance and amounts raised, this was a very successful year—but the need for such defense efforts is even greater. America's foremost political prisoner, former Black Panther Party member and MOVE supporter Mumia Abu-Jamal, remains on Pennsylvania's death row, as his legal appeals enter a crucial phase. Many other class-war prisoners have already served decades behind bars; others face decades more—while Bush and the Democrats' anti-immigrant "war on terror" targets the rights of all to dissent.

The PDC's annual appeal raised funds for Mumia Abu-Jamal's legal defense as well as for monthly stipends to 15 other class-war prisoners—trade-union militants, fighters for black freedom and opponents of imperialist and capitalist militarism, men and women who were singled out for standing up to racist capitalist oppression and exploitation.

Besides Mumia, these prisoners included: United Mine Workers union militant Jerry Dale Lowe, who was recently released from a halfway house; leftist activist Jaan Laaman of the New Left Ohio 7; Hugo Pinell, the last of the San Quentin 6 still in prison; Ed Poindexter and Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa, former Black Panther supporters victimized by the FBI COINTELPO operation; Jamal Hart, Mumia Abu-Jamal's son, framed up by Philadelphia cops; Jamal Holiday, a young black man still in jail after the Republican National Convention protests; and eight MOVE members imprisoned since the Philadelphia cops' siege of their home in 1978: Chuck Africa, Michael Davis Africa, Debbie Sims Africa, Janet Holloway Africa, Janine Africa, Delbert Orr Africa, Edward Goodman Africa and William Phillips Africa.

The PDC holiday fundraisers were an expression of solidarity and showed how to organize to continue the fight against the racist rulers' reactionary onslaught. The benefits were a real "tribune of the people," where black, white, Asian and Hispanic activists, veterans of the '60s and young students, gay activists and trade unionists, came together to hear about and fight for both old and new cases of urgent importance to the workers movement.

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!

The New York City benefit this year featured live jazz with the Bern Nix Trio, Oliver Lake, Roy Campbell, Anthony Coleman and other guest artists. It drew a diverse crowd, including many youth and trade unionists from the Transport Workers Union, Communications Workers of America, 1199 SEIU, DC 37 and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, among others. Leftist attorney Lynne Stewart addressed the crowd, describing the ominous implications of the government's terrorism smear and prosecution of her, her paralegal and translator (see speech on facing page). She also emphasized the importance of Mumia Abu-Jamal. "It's still about Mumia," the veteran movement lawyer said. "Mumia is the point person. He is the most egregious case. He is the one that speaks. And when he speaks, it's all of us speaking, with his words and his wisdom, just as was read here tonight."

This year's appeals focused on Mumia Abu-Jamal, an eloquent "voice of the voiceless." His frame-up and death sentence are what the racist death penalty in America is all about. Despite the formal overturning of his death sentence, despite the sworn confession of the real killer, the recantation of prosecution witnesses, irrefutable proof of the trial judge's racist bias and the prosecution's racist jury-rigging, coercion of witnesses, doctoring and concealing evidence, Jamal remains in the shadow of Pennsylvania's death chamber. Part of building for the New York City Holiday Appeal was a December 7 presentation at Columbia University by PDC staff counsel and former counsel for Mumia, Rachel Wolkenstein, on the fight to free Mumia. The Spartacus Youth Club co-sponsored and helped build the event, which was hosted by the Columbia Political Union and also co-sponsored by the Black Students Organization, Amnesty International and the International Socialist Organization, among others.

Also speaking in New York was Monique Code, representing Mumia Abu-Jamal's son Jamal Hart. Hart was imprisoned and given a 15½-year sentence on bogus firearms possession charges for speaking out in his father's defense. After eight years behind bars, Hart was recently transferred to a prison in Ray Brook, New York, near the Canadian border and far from his family and supporters in Philadelphia.

Code read from impassioned greetings to the benefit by Hart, who wrote:

"These capitalistic rulers collectively remain in love with their Confederate flag.... The warriors still held in captivity such as Hugo Pinell, Sundiata Acoli, Ruchell Magee, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, and my father Mumia Abu-Jamal, who by the way, still resides on death row in the Pennsylvania hellholes, will ultimately be freed by people who remain steadfast in solidarity. We must NOT give up hope.... I sincerely urge you to join this movement that supports a class war and the freedom of all political prisoners."

Unionists and Youth

"For those who came to the Holiday Appeal for the first time, I'm sure this was a unique experience: black and white, young and old, all participating in a political meeting on an equal basis," commented a veteran PDC organizer in Chicago, where the social at the United Electrical Hall drew some 85 people. The PDC built strongly for the Chicago event at union meetings, including making a presentation at steel workers Local 1014 in Gary, Indiana. Despite devastation of the steel industry, there are still thousands of steel workers who are a force to be reckoned with. Other trade-union locals where presentations were made included Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 308, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 6, UAW Local 551's Civil Rights Committee and the regional UAW Civil Rights Committee.

Speaking at the Chicago benefit was a young anarchist, Jeremy Hammond, whom the PDC defended following his arrest at the 27 June 2004 Gay Pride Parade. Hammond and two others were seized by cops for defending their march from anti-gay bigots who attacked the parade. Recalling the IWW's slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all," the PDC has a long history of mobilizing labor to defend gay rights. Chicago is the city, after all, where the PDC and Spartacist League mobilized hundreds of steel workers, auto workers, transit workers and others in defense of Gay Pride Day in 1982 when Nazis threatened it.

In Toronto, Canada, the Partisan Defense Committee's first public benefit was held at the Steelworkers Hall, where trade unionists and youth attended. The Holiday Appeal was built at left and labor events and in black neighborhoods, where a local barber, wearing a Mumia Abu-Jamal pin, invited organizers to give a rap to the customers. At the benefit, guest speaker Norman Otis Richmond, a prominent black activist and radio host, spoke about Jamal and his own experiences as a member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit.

Greetings were sent to the benefit by Dave Bleakney, National Union Representative of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The greetings noted that the CUPW has supported the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal for years:

"Our union has sent letters, passed resolutions and participated in demonstrations. It is no secret to us that this is an eloquent class warrior who finds himself caged for telling the truth in a system that cannot afford the truth.

"Postal workers know this truth well. Our former national President once went to jail for several months for mistakenly assuming that the right to strike and negotiate actually existed in Canada."

Labor must practice class solidarity, he wrote, stating it must "forget living in a dream world that it is business as usual. Business as usual has meant genocidal policies against indigenous people. It has meant slavery and death for millions. It has meant unions are on the defensive. And it means that yet another one of ours is languishing on death row."

International Cases: Canada, Israel and Ireland

Greetings were read to the Toronto gathering from Sophie Harkat, the wife of Mohamed Harkat, one of five detainees held without rights since December 2002 by the Canadian government under draconian "security certificates," which allow the indefinite detention of any refugee or immigrant whom the government considers a national security threat. She pointed out, "These men are detained on only allegations and without any access to the evidence. Their legal teams are kept in the dark.... If the Security Certificate hearing is found reasonable...then these men will be deported without any chance to appeal the decision. They will be returned to jail, torture or death. The last person deported to Algeria on a Security Certificate has disappeared."

International issues were also raised at the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City fundraisers. In the Bay Area, it was standing room only, with many youth and trade unionists attending. A spokeswoman for the Mordechai Vanunu defense committee gave a vivid speech describing Vanunu's release from an Israeli prison after serving his 18-year sentence and his re-arrest. Last November 11, over 30 armed police seized this brave whistleblower who exposed Israel's nuclear arsenal, and today he is under surveillance and barred from leaving the country.

The New York social received greetings from the courageous antiwar activist Mary Kelly in Ireland, who struck a U.S. military aircraft at Shannon Airport through which nearly 350,000 U.S. troops have been transported in the past three years. In her defense, Kelly wrote, "By chopping up this warplane with an axe, I acted to save lives and prevent crime, and my defence of justification was firmly based in Irish and International Law, including the Nuremberg Principle which calls for determined action to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring." Though convicted, which she will appeal, she wrote, in a piece of good news: "Due to a vigorous and relentless campaign and the unapologetic legal challenge presented in the Court, I have walked from this a free woman—the judge finally had to admit that my motivation was upright and my beliefs sincere: on December 1st he passed sentence—2 years suspended."

Become a PDC Sustainer!

We urge WV readers to support the work of the PDC. The Partisan Defense Committee seeks to build a class-struggle legal defense organization that all workers, all class-war prisoners and victims of racist persecution and brutality look to as their own. That's what this year's holiday appeals looked like. Now, we need your help to sustain and expand this ever more urgent work. Free Mumia-Abu Jamal! Abolish the racist death penalty!

Become a sustaining contributor to help drive the work of the PDC forward! Contributions can be sent to: PDC, P.O. Box 99, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013.

Reprinted from Workers Vanguard No. 840, 21 January 2005.