Solidarity in Puerto Rico with Mumia Abu-Jamal
By Carlos Rovira
In a show of working-class international
solidarity, demonstrations were held Feb. 3 in two Puerto Rican
cities, San Juan and Aguadilla, to demand the release of U.S.
Black revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
In reports of the protests, Abu-Jamal's name
was mentioned for the first time in the Spanish-language print
and television news media of the colonized island nation.
Chants, placards and banners called for Mumia's
release and an end to the racist death penalty, which has
become an issue in Puerto Rico. "Libertad para Mumia!" was the
outcry in front of San Juan's federal courthouse and outside
Aguadilla's federal prison.
The actions were called by the Socialist Front,
which played a leading role in the July 1998 People's Strike.
That was a national labor stoppage to protest Wall Street's and
Governor Pedro Rossello's scheme to privatize the country's
public utilities.
To coincide with the "Millions for Mumia"
demonstration in Philadelphia on April 24, the Socialist Front
is planning a large protest that same day in the capital city
of San Juan. Building up to that will be a series of events,
including a public forum in the city of Ponce on Feb. 18 and a
youth concert at the University of Puerto Rico in March, when
five music bands will perform for this cause.
Socialist Front mobilizers are being invited to
various parts of the country to speak at Mumia events organized
by other progressive political groups, especially the
traditional independence movement.
An interview with Abu-Jamal, produced by the
People's Video Network, has been translated into Spanish and is
being shown at public gatherings to educate people on many of
the outrageous details of his case.
Puerto Rico, brutally colonized for 100 years
by the U.S. government, has had many of its own political
prisoners. There have been many solidarity protests in the U.S.
for the anti-colonial struggle in Puerto Rico. But now, the
opposite is occurring.
Puerto Rico is in a full political mobilization
to support an anti-racist struggle being waged in the
colonizing country. Many Boricuas view the struggle for the
release of this African American political prisoner as
naturally linked to the struggle for their own national
liberation.
In a gesture of solidarity, former political
prisoner and national hero Rafael Cancel Miranda will come from
Puerto Rico to address a Feb. 26 Town Hall meeting in New York.
He will also march in Philadelphia on April 24 with the
"Latinos/as for Mumia" contingent.
The U.S. colonial government is trying to
reinstitute the death penalty in Puerto Rico. But despite its
attempts to win public approval, 65 percent of the people
opposed it in a recent poll.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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