Campaign Update

As Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case has entered a legal “fast track” and his life is again in grave danger, the Partisan Defense Committee has initiated a new campaign to free Mumia that is winning important support in the U.S. and internationally. Several prominent authors attending a May 22-28 international PEN conference in Berlin, including Nobel prizewinner Nadine Gordimer, signed a statement issued by the PDC demanding “Free Mumia Abu-Jamal now! Abolish the racist death penalty!” In Mexico, Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) signed the statement, giving his return address as “mountains of southeast Mexico.” Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano has also added his signature.

Gordimer, a staunch opponent of South Africa’s former racist apartheid regime, wrote one of her most famous books, Burger’s Daughter (1979), in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising, during which black students and other protesters were slaughtered. Many of her books were banned in South Africa during that period. Others who signed the PDC statement at the PEN conference included Jiří Gruša—president of PEN international, an organization that defends writers against persecution—poet Chenjerai Hove of Zimbabwe and Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom.

The U.S. capitalist state, its cops and courts have wanted Mumia dead for decades. And today, Mumia’s foes are also stepping up their efforts. We have previously reported that the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis named a street in honor of Mumia on April 29 (see “Mumia Honored in France,” WV No. 870, 12 May). In response, the Philadelphia and national Fraternal Order of Police launched a counterattack, sparking renewed tirades against Mumia and his supporters by bourgeois politicians and the Philadelphia media. A resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H. Con. Res. 407) and sponsored by several Pennsylvania Congressmen, both Democrats and Republicans, demands that the French government take action against Saint-Denis unless it changes the street name.

This sinister blowback points to the urgency of redoubling efforts to fight for Mumia. While favoring all possible legal proceedings on Mumia’s behalf, the PDC launched its current campaign based on the understanding that it is only through mobilizing the social power of the working class in mass protest that Mumia’s freedom can be won. Crucially important is winning active support for this campaign in the labor movement, in the U.S. and around the world.

Adding to numerous unions and trade union officials that have joined the fight for Mumia, the New York chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) recently signed the PDC statement. At the CBTU’s May 24-29 international convention in Orlando, Florida, PDC representatives addressed several meetings, and over 60 labor officials and activists endorsed the statement. Among them were UAW members from the Detroit area, AFSCME officials from across the U.S., International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) representatives from southeastern ports and members of the Ontario Federation of Labor in Canada.

Additional signatories include Ken Riley, president of ILA Local 1422 in Charleston, South Carolina; Chris Silvera, Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters Local 808 in New York; and Mary Selvie, Chairman of the Chicago area UAW Region 4 Women’s Committee. Internationally, labor activists from Germany, Australia, Sweden and Bangladesh have signed the PDC statement. The National Council of Trade Unions in South Africa has issued its own statement in defense of Mumia. In Britain, the Southwark Branch of the UNISON public service union and Mike Gallagher, secretary of the Poplar Branch of the University and College Lecturers’ Union at Tower Hamlets College, London, have also issued statements.

Also last month, PDC representatives brought Mumia’s case to a Labor Notes Conference in Detroit and to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union convention in Vancouver, Canada. The PDC also gave a presentation on Mumia’s case to an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party in New York City. Focusing on urgently needed financial support for Mumia’s defense efforts, a fundraiser on Manhattan’s Lower East Side sponsored by the New York Labor Black League, which is fraternally associated with the Spartacist League, raised over $400. Meanwhile, campaign supporters in Chicago are building for a major June 15 jazz benefit. Join the campaign! Free Mumia!