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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 6, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Protest Clinton's Summit

Mumia, Peltier Back April 27 National March

By Judi Cheng

The mobilization for a major demonstration against cutbacks and police brutality in Philadelphia on April 27 moved into gear in mid-February as key political prisoners gave the call their full backing.

Activists and organizers from over 200 organizations are fired up and ready to take on the powers that be when they protest the "Presidents' Sum mit on the American Future"-what they're calling the cutback summit.

News of the demonstration has been spreading across telephone and fax lines, and on the Internet. Union leaders, students, lesbian, gay and transgendered activists, political prisoner advocates, and other prominent individuals provided this growing support.

Free Mumia!

Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther and journalist who was framed on a murder charge, endorsed the April 27 action and offered his high-spirited support. Abu-Jamal has been on death row in Pennsylvania for 14 years.

The New York City Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, one of many organizations that have worked tirelessly to win his release, also backs the April 27 action.

Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier also sent his personal message to support the April 27 action. "During the 1960s and 1970s, many of us," he said, "fed up with the `system's' lack of compassionate attention, took to the streets in protest. We were not the first, and as is demonstrated today, [we are] not the last, either."

Peltier said: "March in protest because protest is needed! The true voice of compassion must be heard. Cutting funds to those in need in favor of the Pentagon is an outrage. I am with you today. I am with you always."

Students Pledge Action

New York student leaders met in Albany Feb. 22-23 for a conference called "It's Time To Fight For Access." They want to combat Gov. George Pataki's proposal to increase tuition at state colleges by $400 a semester, cut $180 million from the State University of New York budget, and cut $175 million in the Tuition Assistance Program. The students pledged to take action on each of their campuses in the coming months.

Returning from this conference, Anya Mukarji-Connolly of the Center for Women's Concerns at SUNY-Stonybrook was ready to struggle. "The turnout was very good. April 27 will be very exciting, and I'm looking forward to being in Philadelphia, the center of the struggle to free Mumia AbuJamal."

Berta Joubert, a key organizer for the April 27 action in Philadelphia, has collected support from prominent individuals in Pennsylvania, including Councilmember Angel Ortiz, State Sen. Vincent Hughes, and the Rev. Paul Washington, among others.

"There's a great deal of interest in this community, one of the most repressed in the country, where the police department has a reputation for being especially brutal," said Joubert.

Protest organizer Deirdre Sinnott told Workers World, "We expect that the demonstration will be partially built by people spreading the call from activist to activist and person to person on the Internet."

Sinnott said many of the organizers and participants at the True Spirit Conference in Maryland supported the April 27 demonstration. "There's a call going out to organize a transgendered contingent in the march," she added.

Organizers plan a coalition meeting for March 11 in New York City to mobilize volunteers interested in building the April 27 march.

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