March for Mumia steps off in Philadelphia on November 28

Philadelphia

November 29 — A rally at the Market Square Monument in Philadelphia’s Germantown on Nov. 28, followed by a 7.1-mile march to Miles Park in LaFayette Hill, Pennsylvania, kicked off day one of the 12-day, 103-mile March for Mumia from Philadelphia to State Correctional Institute (SCI) at Mahanoy, in Frackville.   Around 100 people participated, including many elderly activists who have been in the streets fighting to win Mumia’s release for decades and just as many younger activists marching for him for the first time.

Political prisoner and activist journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal has been imprisoned for over 42 years, enduring medical neglect and facing serious health challenges. His case is not an isolated injustice — it is a mirror reflecting the systemic abuse, racial bias and silencing of dissent that plagues U.S. prisons.

For nearly half a century, communities across Philadelphia, the United States and the international community have stood strong in unwavering solidarity against a corrupt and racist system — demanding freedom for Mumia and all political prisoners.

Mumia is in imminent danger of permanent blindness. He has required cataract surgeries and treatment for diabetic retinopathy, unnecessarily delayed by prison authorities for nearly a year. Every day of delay increases the risk of irreversible damage.

Speakers at the opening rally included Sophia Williams with Campaign to Bring Mumia Home; Dr. Ricardo Alvarez, Mumia’s medical adviser; Saleem Holbrook with Abolitionist Law Center; and Cindy Lou with Mobilization4Mumia. Ant Smith, a young activist targeted by the federal government for his participation in a Philadelphia demonstration demanding justice for George Floyd in May 2020, gave the main talk.

Smith opened with a shout-out to the elders who have served as inspirations to youth activists, noting his remembrance of actions in the pouring rain and the blistering snow for Mumia,  “Our job is to step into their shoes.”

He continued: “It is interesting how the people with the most to lose are always on the front line. Mumia has the most to lose under his circumstances, but I have never once seen Mumia say I won’t talk about Palestine. Every issue that I’ve read about when other journalists want to play on both sides, I have never seen Mumia do that, even when his health has been the worst.

Smith quoted Mumia’s words, ‘Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to.’”

Smith also addressed the struggle of activists Assata Shakur and Sundiata Atoli who unfortunately are no longer with us. “Assata Shakur did not fly out of that prison. How did she get free? Sundiata was not just dreaming about a free Assata Shakur. He said, ‘I’m going to get her free,’ and she got free. If you want it bad enough, then we have to go get it.”

The march in the streets along Germantown Avenue included activists taking turns leading chants, calling both for freedom for Mumia and all political prisoners and for a free Palestine. It ended with a gathering at Miles Park in Lafayette Hills, where the second day of the rally kicked off on Nov. 29. 

A tribute to Palestine

Dedicated to the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine, several dozen activists rallied to demand freedom for Palestinian political prisoners. The event began with four Palestinian children, waving a Palestinian flag and leading chants at the edge of the park. 

A speaker for Students for Justice in Palestine explained why the prisoner exchange negotiated by Hamas with the Zionists was critical in winning the release of several thousand Palestinians unjustly imprisoned by the apartheid system. Brother Zayid Muhammad, with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, stressed the importance of supporting political prisoners from Philadelphia to Palestine. The rally, staged at a busy intersection, received widespread support by drivers honking their horns.

Following the rally, participants again traversed 9.5 more miles, mostly along hilly roads with only sporadic sidewalks, breaking for a midday meal provided by volunteers and ending at a high school in Eagleville, where the day three march began on Nov. 30. The 12-day event will end on Dec. 9 with a march on the prison.

Justice for our elders!

Mumia has languished in a cell for 44 years. The state is attempting to kill this veteran Black Panther through elder abuse and medical neglect within the prison system, and it’s time for him to come home. The march demands are: Justice for Our Elders! Justice for All Political Prisoners! Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal!

Very few of the incarcerated have voices that go beyond the walls. It has been Mumia’s life’s work to be their voice, and it is now our work to amplify Mumia’s voice and demand his freedom. The time is now. We will not and cannot stop until Mumia is home, until our elders are treated with dignity and until political imprisonment is a relic of the past.

Press coverage included ABC News 6, the Peoples Dispatch, photos by Joe Piette on flickr and video by Sunny Singh at youtube.com/hate5six. Daily coverage of the march can be found at instagram.com/march4mumia and march4mumia.org.