- News from the struggle to Free Mumia!
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- compiled by Refuse & Resist!
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May, 2000
Vienna, Austria
May 13 – The Austrian Committee „Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal“ organized on May 13th in Vienna a meeting and a demonstration to the US-American embassy in solidarity with Mumia. Starting at 2 pm we had a rally on the main shopping street in Vienna in front of Virgin Megastore which is mainly visited by young people. With music, posters and speeches we informed the passer-by (surrounded by a lot of policemen who were in the background).
A second demonstration against political repression in Turkey joined at 3.30 pm and 400 activists started the march to the US embassy. In these times of new right populist government in Austria it is a duty for every demonstration to pass the federal-state court and prison where a lot of push-prisoners are arrested. We know that it is an important moral impetus for them to hear from outside the calls of solidarity! Near the embassy (the street in front of the embassy building is blocked) we held final speeches and presented our petitions to the two representatives of the embassy. One year ago the US-embassy in Austria answered to another petition of the Independent Unionists within the Austrian Union Federation OeGB and of LabourNet-Austria. The US embassy argued together with the Department of State in Washington on the rassists base of judge Sabo of 1982. Now we answered again and asked the Ambassador of the USA, Mrs Kathryn Walt Hall, to take into account at least the arguments of the High Federal Court of Pennsylvania October 1998 or the last decision of Federal Judge William John. The representatives of the embassy accepted silently our message and the embassy probably will respond to this once more. Of course we will immediately inform you about this.
April, 2000
Oslo, Norway
April 5 (AP) – Embassy-occupation in support of Mumia -The Support-comitee for Mumia Abu-Jamal in Oslo, Norway, situated at the autonomous youth house Blitz, occupied the roof of the US Embassy in Oslo at april the 5th. Seven activists entered the roof while other activists held the Security-guards away. At the roof, the activists lowered the US-flag to the
half-pole position, to pay tribute to all the prisoners that have been executed in the USA. Then they held up a banner with the words „Free Mumia“, where a picture of Mumia is painted, bared behind the stripes of the US national flag. Huge amounts of Riot Police arrived and arrested the activists holding a illegal manifestation in front of the Embassy, but the police couldn’t really find out what to do with the activists at the roof. Because of this, the occupation went on for more than 2 hours, before the police came up with a specialbuilt vehicle that is usaly is against aeroplane-hijackers. The 7 activists where arrested and kept for 17 hours in detention, then released, waiting for their case to come to court.
There will be a new demonstration for Mumia in Oslo on Saturday.
March, 2000
Paris, France
March 11 – (AP) — Several thousand people marched through Paris on Saturday to press for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther on death row in Pennsylvania for the 1981 shooting of a police officer. The demonstrators marched peacefully through the Right Bank from the Place de la Republique to the Place de la Madeleine. They held a banner reading „Liberty and Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal.“ Police said that some 2,000 people took part in the march, while organizers put the figure at 8,000. Dozens of groups, unions and some leftist political parties backed the demonstration, organized by the National Collective in Support of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The group claims to have gathered 100,000 signatures in support of freedom and a new trial for Abu-Jamal.
February, 2000
Calgary, Canada
February 28 – This is a short action update on the feb 28th solidarity action that the Calgary Coalition to Free Mumia! organized. This was our second demonstration for Mumia since the Coalitions inception in November of 1999. The demonstration started at Memorial Park at 4pm, where about 65-75 people gathered to rally in support of Mumia. After a short rally where the statement from Mumia was read, a short history on his case was given, and an impassioned yet short speech addressing the links between Mumia’s struggle and the Diallo murder, the oppression of Native Americans and the death penalty, we took the streets.
It was impressive. A huge puppet of Mumia had been created by the Coalition, along with a large banner (both creations needing three people to operate them) that read: Justice Demands The Release of Mumia Abu-Jamal! The march route was about 30 minutes long and we ended at the U.S. Consulate where a representative from the labour council offered words of support for Mumia and we continued chanting and handing out information on Mumia. The demonstration was a success because we almost doubled the turnout from our previous demo (jan 18 when 40 people rallied at the consulate), marched through the downtown streets without a permit (and without a ticket or arrests by the cops!) and definitely demonstrated that the movement to free Mumia and to end the death penalty is getting larger, and more militant.
Calgary Coalition to Free Mumia – calfreemumia@hotmail.com
New York, NY
February 18 – The Emergency National Conference to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal was attended by 650 people from the U.S., Canada, England, France, Germany, Norway, and Japan. A report from this conference is being prepared, but a major concern of the conference was the coming period leading up to the federal district court hearing on Mumia’s petition to have his state court conviction overturned. As Mumia’s lead counsel, Leonard Weinglass put it, the next 90 days are the critical period in Mumia’s legal battle. The conference planned and endorsed a range of stepped up activities, including the February 28 civil disobedience actions on both coasts, an emergency national mobilization to Philadelphia on the first day of Mumia’s court appearance, the May 7 rally at Madison Square Garden, and the May 13 West Coast mobilization.
Berlin, Germany
- February 5 – On the 5th of Feburary more than 8,000 people from all parts of Germany – some from Holland and Denmark – converged on Berlin by bus, car and rail to take part in the third national demonstration in protest against the intended state murder of Mumia Abu-Jamal and to demand his release. The number of people present at the demonstration was twice that of the demonstration in Berlin in 1995 (4,000+) and much larger than the one in Hamburg last
- year (5,500). A large number of fliers and brochures were distributed, not only from the organizers but also from many others groups. In the opening speech of the rally a spokeswoman for the organizers gave a brief recount of Mumia’s case, Mumia as an
- example of political repression in the USA and to the role of international solidarity. The theme of the following speakers concentrated on political repression in Germany. Carry a multitude of banners and placards calling for the release of Mumia, Leonard Peltier, Abdullah Ocalan and all political prisoners a very mixed, colourful and loud demonstration of young and old, Germans and immigrants, Turks and Kurds, punks and pensioners, women with children, whole families, and, and, and, wound its way from 2 pm to 6 pm from Rosa Luxemburg Square through the streets of Berlin to Gendarmen Market. During a stop in front of the US Embassy Mumias Attorney, Len Weinglass, gave an update on the latest events in Mumia’s case. There was an attentive silence as a recorded statement from Mumia was played, which was in marked contrast to the applaus and cries of solidarity after his ending words „From death-row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal“.
- More information and photos from Germany.
Los Angeles, CA
February 10 – About 40 demonstrators carried placards and chanted slogans in front of public radio station KPFK-FM (90.7) for two hours late Monday afternoon, protesting what they characterized as KPFK’s censorship, as well as statements by Marc Cooper, a major on-air personality, about Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row in Pennsylvania for the slaying of a policeman in 1981. „Free press, free speech, free Mumia“ was a frequent chant, as protesters reacted to a Jan. 6 article in New York Press by Cooper — host of a daily show from 4 to 5 p.m. on KPFK and the syndicated show „Radio Nation“ (Fridays at 7 a.m.) — which was the focal point of Monday’s demonstration. While arguing against the death penalty — „even for the guilty“ — he wrote, „If I go to one more lefty event, and see one more ‚Free Mumia‘ poster, I might just have to switch sides. . . . What collective affliction
has overcome my fellow pinkos?“ John Martinez, a former volunteer producer-host of „Radio Chicano,“ an arts and public affairs show that was dropped by the station last fall, and a spokesman for the Los Angeles Coalition for Free Speech Radio, which organized the protest, said that the free speech argument does not prevail in this case, calling Cooper’s attack on Mumia „biased [and] vicious.“ A long list of other complaints not tied to
Cooper were outlined in a Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship letter dated Jan. 24 to Mary Frances Berry, chairwoman of Pacifica Foundation, and distributed during the protest.
Martinez said the protest was timed to coincide with the opening day of an on-air fund-raising drive at the Los Angeles Pacifica outlet. It was part of a nearly yearlong fight by grass-roots community groups, which has included at least seven staged protests, against the Pacifica network and KPFK over programming and on-air dissent, he added.