The following article appeared under the Partisan Defense Committee's Class-Struggle Defense Notes masthead in the print version of this issue of Workers Vanguard. The PDC is a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization which champions cases and causes in the interest of the whole of the working people. This purpose is in accordance with the political views of the Spartacist League.

Mumia: Court Orders Hep C Treatment

(Class-Struggle Defense Notes)

On January 3, U.S. federal district judge Robert Mariani ordered the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) to administer life-saving hepatitis C treatment to Mumia Abu-Jamal. This ruling is the product of an urgent legal battle by Mumia after his active hepatitis C brought him close to death in March 2015. Pennsylvania’s prisons have refused to pay for the new, effective but expensive, treatments. While we welcome this ruling, we understand that the racist capitalist state has pursued a vendetta against Mumia and wanted to see him dead for over 35 years. Mumia’s lawyer Robert Boyle warned: “The struggle is far from over: The DOC will no doubt appeal this ruling.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a former Black Panther Party spokesman, a well-known supporter of the MOVE organization and an award-winning journalist known as “the voice of the voiceless.” Framed up for the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer, Mumia was sentenced to death explicitly for his political views. Federal and state courts have repeatedly refused to consider evidence proving his innocence, including the sworn confession of Arnold Beverly that he, not Mumia, shot and killed the policeman. In 2011, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office dropped its longstanding effort to legally lynch Mumia, but he remains condemned to life in prison with no chance of parole.

If Mumia is successful in his fight to receive treatment, it will set a precedent for tens of thousands of other prisoners. Medical care is urgent, but what is also necessary is to demand his release from the clutches of the racist capitalist state. Free Mumia now!

We encourage our readers to contribute to his legal expenses. Contributions can be sent to the Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal, care of the National Lawyers Guild Foundation, 132 Nassau St., Room 922, New York, NY 10038, earmarked “Mumia legal expenses.”