In support of Leonard Peltier & Mumia
Abu-Jamal
Native-led caravan shuts down Peace Bridge
Special to Workers
World
Buffalo, N.Y.
Protesters braved the icy winds off Lake Erie Feb. 5 to
demand freedom for Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal. The
demonstration, organized primarily by the Native American
Warriors, began with a militant protest in front of the FBI
headquarters in downtown Buffalo.
The protesters chanted, "You say death row, we say hell no,"
and the activists indicted the FBI for the frame-up of Native
warrior Leonard Peltier. The Eagle Heart Singers provided
drumming for the event.
A car caravan formed and proceeded to the Peace Bridge where
a demonstration of Native border rights took place. Drivers
pulled the caravan of cars onto the bridge slowly, occupying
both incoming lanes.
Approximately two-thirds of the way across the bridge, the
caravan stopped and activists held a rally. This rally spanned
all the bridge's lanes, stopping traffic in both directions--to
point out that there is no border for Native people.
Grandpa Bear of the Native American Warriors addressed the
crowd and those in backed-up traffic. He said that
"reservations were concentration camps where children died
slowly from unemployment."
Declaring that the fight is for "equal rights, hunting and
fishing rights," he stressed the need for the unity of all
people to fight for basic rights and to free all political
prisoners. He urged the crowd to persist and escalate the
struggle to free all political prisoners.
The power of this speech, with the backdrop of stalled
traffic on the border, demonstrated the seriousness of the
battle to free Abu-Jamal and Peltier.
Tom Scahill of Workers World Party also addressed the rally.
Pointing out that the FBI building faces the banks and the
wealth the agency protects, he called for actions in support of
the poor and oppressed.
Scahill drew the connection between the U.S. government that
violated every treaty with Native people and the Pentagon's
actions against Iraq and Yugoslavia.
After holding the bridge throughout the rally, demonstrators
then adjourned to a traditional Native feast in Fort Erie,
Ontario.
The demonstration was organized by the Native American
Warriors, Workers World Party, Food Not Bombs, Concerned
Citizens Against Police Abuse, the WNY Coalition for Global
Economic Justice, Brock University's Free Mumia Committee and
the Canadian Auto Workers, Local 199.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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