FROM QUEBEC TO PHILADELPHIA
Camp Free Mumia gains momentum
By Monica
Moorehead
Organizing for the Camp Free Mumia Now activity set for the
weekend of May 11-13 in Philadelphia received a tremendous
boost at the Free Trade Area of the Americas protests in Quebec
City April 20-22.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators including youths,
students, trade unionists, environmentalists and many more
poured into the streets to express their opposition to the
expansion of NAFTA-type policies throughout North and South
America.
These policies are anti-poor and anti-worker. They lead to a
general lowering of wages, a deepening erosion of safety
standards concerning working conditions and the environment,
and destruction of local economies by the profit-hungry giant
monopoly corporations.
The International Action Center brought an important message
to these protests: Political repression against the workers and
the most oppressed is an inherent outgrowth of economic
inequality.
The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the most well-known political
prisoner on death row worldwide, symbolizes one of the most
barbaric forms of repression inside the United States and
elsewhere: racism.
His case has evolved for almost two decades until it is now
the pinnacle of the struggle against racist police brutality,
the death penalty and the prison-industrial complex in the
United States. Throughout his tortuous daily life on death row,
Abu-Jamal has remained a staunch revolutionary who stands in
opposition against all manifestations of global capitalist
slavery.
In his statement to the protestors in Quebec, Abu-Jamal
called for global resistance units.
Gery Armsby, a young transgender leader of the IAC,
commented from the front lines when asked about the IAC's main
political objectives during the Quebec City protests: "Our main
thrust was to raise the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. We had
hundreds of bright orange flags that read 'Free Mumia' in
Spanish, French and English.
"Those with us carried a big banner that read 'Build global
resistance to the capitalist death machine.' We marched with
these banners in the labor march for an hour, then went over to
where there were confrontations at the perimeter.
"People would see the banner and start chanting, 'Brick by
brick, wall by wall, we're going to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.'
"
IAC activists from New York, Boston and elsewhere were able
to hand out thousands of leaflets to demonstrators about the
encampment demanding the freedom of Abu-Jamal. Many of those
who took a leaflet made a commitment to participate in the
encampment.
Some said they want to come early to help mobilize others to
come to Philadelphia--the city where Abu-Jamal was falsely
convicted on July 3, 1982, after a sham of a trial for the
murder of a white Philadelphia police officer.
The encampment will coincide with the May 12 international
day of solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. Revolutionaries and
activists around the world will be holding demonstrations to
bring attention to his case.
The motivation for the encampment is very simple: to let the
powers that be and the repressive forces that protect their
private property know that the movement is not going to rely on
the bourgeois courts to free Abu-Jamal--that only the power of
the people's movement can liberate Mumia Abu-Jamal and all
political prisoners.
The ruling class will receive a clear message that the
two-day encampment is just a dress rehearsal for continuing
organized mass resistance to their attempts to silence
Abu-Jamal though a legal lynching.
Activists from all over the country are being encouraged to
bring their sleeping bags, tents, food and water to camp out at
City Hall in Philadelphia. The encampment will begin at 5 p.m.
on May 11. A hip-hop concert in support of Abu-Jamal will begin
some time that evening.
Organizing meetings for the encampment are taking place on
Wednesday evenings in Philadelphia. The International Concerned
Family and Friends for Mumia Abu-Jamal and the National
People's Campaign are sponsoring these meetings.
Betsey Piette, a leading member of the NPC, told Workers
World: "There seems to be a high level of enthusiasm for the
encampment. This past Wednesday's meeting was very well
attended, including members of a hip-hop group who will be
performing on May 11. They belong to a group called AWOL, an
anti-military group that is involved in anti-Junior-ROTC work
in area high schools.
"These multinational youth are organizing an activity for
May 10 to help build the encampment. Calling it 'guerrilla
artists in action', they want to go around the communities in
Philadelphia with a small truck and a small group of hip-hop
artists and others to do outreach for the encampment,
particularly targeting high schools."
A welcoming committee for the May 11-13 encampment is also
being organized out of these meetings to help organize
logistics, including portable toilets, food, housing
alternatives, medical and legal teams and much more. Readers
can call 215-476-5416 or 215-724-1618 for more information
about joining this committee or attending the meetings.
Besides the hip-hop concert, there are two other important
activities being organized in Philadelphia for that weekend. On
May 12, there will be a march and rally to build support for
Abu-Jamal. And on the final day of the encampment, there will
be a program in tribute to those 11 children, women and men who
were slaughtered by the Philadelphia authorities during the
infamous MOVE bombing on May 13, 1985.
Readers can go to www.mumia2000.org or www.iacenter.org to
download the May 11-13 leaflet.
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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