Mumia Abu-Jamal faces US Supreme Court, as supporters mobilize globally (tags)
On Friday, Dec. 19, 2008, death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal filed his appeal to the US Supreme Court, asking it to consider his case for a new guilt-phase trial. One month before, the Philadelphia DA filed its separate appeal to the court asking to have Abu-Jamal executed without a new sentencing-phase trial. Both are appealing the March 27, 2008 rulings by the US Third Circuit Court. At this critical stage in Abu-Jamal’s case, supporters organized a week of global solidarity actions that began on December 6, the day of the main protest in Philadelphia.
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports (tags)
On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn't want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an "illegal strike." But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses' mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers' May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their "symbolic" action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party.
The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal: an interview with author J. Patrick O’Connor (tags)
In his new book, O’Connor argues that Abu-Jamal was clearly framed by police, and that the actual shooter was a man named Kenneth Freeman. O’Connor criticizes the local media, who, he says “bought into the prosecution’s story line early on and has never been able to see this case for what it is: a framing of an innocent and peace loving man.”
What Mumia Abu-Jamal Never Learned (tags)
On the eve of the United States premiere of In Prison My Whole Life at the Sundance Festival on January 20-25, the battle for the life and freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal heats up in the news media and the streets of far-flung cities while he awaits a crucial appellate court ruling and prepares to publish his sixth book from death row. Media activists present photographic evidence disproving the case against him.
Has Mumia's Favorite Cult Killed Again? (tags)
9th Circuit, Supreme Court Fed & State, Democrats & Republicans Murder Tookie (tags)
With one clenched fist, the United Front of the Capitalist Class, namely the falsely labeled "liberal" 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Surpeme Courts of Cal & US, Democratic candidates for governor Phil Angelides and Steve Westley, and Republican Nazi Schwarzenegger murdered Tookie Williams. They need to be threatened to stop their murder with political labor strikes and by voting for anti-death penalty parties such as Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party.
EXCERPTS: BIO DATA/REVOL. LIVES (tags)
Look there is one reason and one reason only they're killin' Took....If he played their game - just wrote kidz books, he'd be alive at 12:05...But he dedicated his book to Angela Davis, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, Dhoruba, George Jackson, John Africa and Ramona Africa... And the Terminator sez that's why Took's goin t die - said it straight out in his statement why he was goin t kill him.... Took's not dyin because he failed to so-called reform.... He's dyin because he WOKE UP spiritually and politically.... There is nothin more dangerous to the white than someone like that.
Denial of Clemency for Williams Cites Support for Class-War Prisoners (tags)
California Governor Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger's denial of "Tookie" Williams' clemency petition is an appalling document, showing not only Scwarzenegger's moral cowardice in hiding behind the jury's decision, (which the bourgeois press is emphasizing) but also that he is an extreme right-wing apologist for the frame-up trials and long incarcerations of political prisoners around the globe, from Nelson Mandela to Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Read Governor Schwarzenegger's Statement (tags)
The dedication of Williams’ book “Life in Prison” casts significant doubt on his personal redemption. This book was published in 1998, several years after Williams’ claimed redemptive experience. Specifically, the book is dedicated to “Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, Ramona Africa, John Africa, Leonard Peltier, Dhoruba Al-Mujahid, George Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the countless other men, women, and youths who have to endure the hellish oppression of living behind bars.” The mix of individuals on this list is curious. Most have violent pasts and some have been convicted of committing heinous murders, including the killing of law enforcement.
What is the reality of the far left's favorite cult?
MOVE: A Radical Fraud
More Than 17 Years Later, Mumia Abu-Jamal Still Guilty (tags)
Somebody aked for a bit of the overwhelming evidence aginst Cooke. Here's just a very small bit of the Mountain of it.
photoessay: CHANT DOWN BABYLON! artists against war, by Hans Bennett (tags)
On January 30, 2003, Chuck D, Ani Di Franco, Ozomatli, Saul Williams, and Michael Franti performed at an anti-war benefit concert for AWOL magazine. Includes essay and photos from the event.
Hans Bennett photoessay: REMEMBER AUGUST 8, 1978! FREE THE MOVE 9! (tags)
On the corner of Broad and Walnut in Center City, Philadelphia, August 10, 2002, more than 25 MOVE members and supporters (including several visiting from Spain) gathered for a demonstration to commemorate August 8, 1978. On this day, 24 years ago, more than 500 heavily armed police officers attacked MOVE headquarters in the Powelton Village neighborhood of West Philadelphia. When the MOVE family fled into the basement to avoid the attack, police countered by flooding them out and imprisoning the MOVE 9 for the murder of Police officer James Ramp.