'Racism & sexism go hand in hand'
The following is excerpted from a talk by Erica
Williamson at the March 13 Buffalo United for Choice `99
Mobilization Kickoff. Williamson is with the
Buffalo committee to free political prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal. This group is part of the mobilization to build a
national "Millions for Mumia" march in Philadelphia on April 24
to win a new trial for Abu-Jamal.
Mumia has spent the last 18 years of his life unjustly on
death row because he exposed the agenda of right-wing terror in
the United States.
The same right-wing aggression that is trying to kill Mumia
Abu-Jamal is also responsible for supplying the ammunition for
the 41 bullets involved in the racist killing of Amadou Diallo
in New York City last month.
And it is the same right-wing aggression that fueled the
fire in the slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian here in Buffalo. And
the fire still burns in memory--from the many clinic bombings
spread across the nation to the tactical bombings of Black
churches and cultural centers in the South.
We experience this violent aggression aimed at our
reproductive choices and sexuality when we are denied access to
abortion rights because federal subsidies have been withdrawn
and because abortion clinics are increasingly becoming targets
of terror--as with the anthrax threats.
The malicious intent that stains the hands of the right wing
also seeps onto and bloodies the hands of elected Democrat
President Clinton, who with his bombings and sanctions against
millions of women and children in Iraq, is himself no stranger
to death.
Racism and sexism have gone hand in hand in the history of
America, dating to when, in slavery, Black women's bodies were
considered to be accessible at all times to the slavemaster as
well as his surrogates.
Yet it has been a deliberate attempt of the ruling class to
keep the issues separate. Because if a class of people remains
divided along the issues of race, sex and gender they will
never gain the political strength to destroy the
opposition.
The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal represents state terror at its
worst--that is, the death penalty.
It also demands a united force of people opposed to
oppression, whether it be sexism or racism. Because if they
kill Mumia Abu-Jamal for speaking the truth about the terror
that afflicts millions of people, who is to stop them from
killing you for exercising your right to speak of the right to
choose?
End the racist death penalty! Freedom for Mumia
Abu-Jamal!
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