Mumia Abu-Jamal is an African-American journalist and Black Panther who has been imprisoned in Pennsylvania, USA, since 1981 for an alleged police murder. Since his youth with the Panthers, Mumia has reported on racism, exploitation and resistance in the USA. At the time of his politically motivated conviction, he was chairman of the African-American Association of Journalists in Philadelphia. He reported us-wide on murders of unarmed teenagers of color by police officers on the news programme NPR in the 1970s. His work earned him the honorary title of “The Voice of the Voiceless” in PoC communities at the time.
After the conviction of 1982, which was criticized as class and conviction justice, hundreds of thousands worldwide protested for many years against the planned execution of Abu Jamal. In 2011, the death penalty against him was finally overcome. Since then, a melange from the ultra-right police lobby association Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), local and US judicial celebrities, law and order politicians from both state parties in the USA, right-wing media networks and, more recently, even a once hopefully started reform prosecutor named Larry Krasner, has been trying to keep Mumia in prison for the rest of his life. Everyone involved knows that he did not commit the alleged crime for which he was convicted. The latest “rule of law” in this context took place at the end of October 2022, when a judge noted that there had been racism in his earlier trial and witnesses may have been paid for their statements, but concluded that the evidence for the former was insufficient and had also been submitted too late. Incredibly open, she said that even if the jury had known that the witnesses had received benefits for their testimony against Mumia, that would not have changed the outcome of the trial… political persecution in a Criminal (Justice) System.
However, Mumia is actually guilty of one offense: since his arrest in 1981, he has been reporting from the depths of the US prison system that has replaced the old and officilally abolished slavery. Along with Angela Davis, he is one of those who has given us an understanding of the devastating social impact of privatizing the prison system and of the prison industry. Mumia gives many prisoners a face and shows the fundamental relations of violence in society with their examples. At the same time, he reports on hope in the darkest dungeons of society, showing that we can always and under all circumstances resist. He is now one of the most published journalists from the US and is translated into many languages. We understand what those, who keep Mumia further imprisoned after 41 (!) years, are afraid of.
But there are also some who believe that it’s all about one person – the many activities just for him? We see it differently. When we take to the streets for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s freedom, we know that we are doing this for the freedom of all thrown into modern US slavery, some 2.14 million prisoners who have to stand on the assembly lines of a state/private prison industry for decades due to racist and classist reasons.
When we take to the streets for Mumia, we do so for all those who are threatened with the death penalty, a dangerous instrument of terror by the rulers due to racist and classist reasons.
When we take to the streets for Mumia, we do the same for tens of thousands of struggling prisoners across the U.S. who, according to their own labor strike statement of 2016, have renounced “being slaves.”
If we take to the streets for Mumia, then also for all sick prisoners, because
Mumia’s legal successes in this area and the pressure of the street have already enabled thousands more prisoners to receive medical treatment.
When we take to the streets for Mumia, we do the same for the fighting prisoners in the US, whom the state prefer to bury alive forever: Freedom for Leonard Peltier, Veronza Bowers, Kenny Zulu Whitmore, Mutulu Shakur, Ed Pointexter, Kamau Sadiki, Rodney Reed, Ruchel Cinque Magee, Rob Will – Free Them ALL!
Of course, we cannot replace the struggles of prisoners, but we can support
them here on the outside by making their demands visible. We can show the rulers that we will not allow steel, concrete, bulletproof glass and barcets to obstruct our view. Prisons, along with war, are the ultimate threats to all of us if we don’t want to fit into self subjugation and our exploitation. Until everyone is free!
Come to the demo on Friday, December 9, 2022 at 6 pm to the Weltzeituhr –
U2/U8-Alexanderplatz -> from there to the US Embassy – Pariser
Platz/Brandenburg Gate.
FREE MUMIA – FREE THEM ALL!
Take care of yourself and others – wear masks and keep your distance!
more information online: mumia-hoerbuch.de & freiheit-fuer-mumia.de
