MILLIONS FOR MUMIA
People's power wins right to march
By Greg
Butterfield
In mid-April, supporters of death-row political prisoner
Mumia Abu-Jamal flooded the offices of Philadelphia officials
with faxes, phone calls and emails. Their efforts helped force
Mayor Edward Rendell and the police to back down from a plan to
prevent a mass march during the April 24 Millions for Mumia
event.
The cops had said march organizers would be limited to a
500-person "symbolic procession."
Police Commissioner John F. Timoney admitted defeat April
16. He told local media there would be no restrictions on the
number of people who can march.
At a news conference earlier that day, Pam Africa of
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
insisted, "We will march" to stop the execution and demand a
new trial for the former Black Panther.
"This is a tremendous victory," said Monica Moorehead, a
national coordinator of the Millions for Mumia Mobilization.
"The people pushed back the forces of racist reaction."
She called the cop plan a "scare tactic." Its aim was to
intimidate people, especially in Philadelphia's Black
community, by implying there could be a clash between police
and protesters.
The plan backfired. Instead, people rallied to the march's
defense.
`Overwhelming response'
When they learned of the city's plan, Millions for Mumia
organizers alerted activists through the Internet. The group
asked supporters to bombard Rendell, the police and the media
with protests.
"The response was overwhelming," said Sara Flounders of the
International Action Center, who participated in negotiations
with the city.
Thousands weighed in to support the right to march,
Flounders said. The former "first lady" of France, Danielle
Mitterrand, held a news conference in Paris expressing outrage
at the decision. The popular rock group Rage Against the
Machine announced it would defy the cops and march.
"The city backed down as thousands of people reminded them
that we do not need a permit to hold a political protest,"
Flounders said. "Our permit is the First Amendment."
Police intimidation has backfired at every step--from the
Jan. 28 Rage Against the Machine concert in New Jersey to the
Feb. 26 Town Hall rally in New York--thanks to Abu-Jamal's
supporters' determination to be heard.
The march will pass 13th and Locust streets, the site where
Abu-Jamal and Police Officer Daniel Faulkner were both shot on
Dec. 9, 1981. Faulkner died. Although eyewitnesses saw another
man shoot him and flee the scene, Abu-Jamal was convicted of
the cop's murder and sentenced to death.
On April 22, civil-rights lawyer Leonard Weinglass will file
papers in the U.S. Supreme Court requesting a review of
Abu-Jamal's case. Last year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
denied Abu-Jamal's appeal for a new trial.
Moorehead said protesters should be prepared for the
possibility of other interference April 24-- but said, "We will
have a militant and orderly march."
At the April 16 news conference Pam Africa said: "The
Philadelphia cops, courts and city establishment are
increasingly on the defensive and desperate in their
18-year-old cover-up of the truth: that Mumia is an innocent
man, framed because of his courageous stand against police
brutality.
"Now people from Philadelphia's communities and all over the
world are more determined than ever to come out against the
outrageous injustice that forced them to organize the April 24
rally in the first place," she said.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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