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The
fight for
a new trial for
Mumia Abu-Jamal reaches new level
NEW
YORK, May 7—The Theater at Madison Square Garden was sold out
three days in advance of a 3-hour rally here today to demand a
new trial for African American journalist and radio commentator
Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The
multinational, mostly youthful crowd was brought to its feet as
speaker after speaker denounced the railroading of Abu-Jamal to
death row in Pennsylvania. “Mumia is all of us,” said Monica Moorehead,
a co-chair and organizer of today’s event. “(He) is the defining
figure in the racist, criminal justice system today.”
Well
known figures like actors Ossie Davis and Ed Asner, attorneys
Leonard Weinglass, Dan Williams, Johnnie Cochran, and Ron Kuby,
as well as former New York City Mayor David Dinkins and comedians
Dick Gregory and Marga Gomez, all appeared.
The
event was a major step in the struggle to break through the campaign
of silence, vilification and lies against Mumia in the mass media,
where if his case is mentioned at all, he is usually referred
to as a “convicted cop killer.” Larry Holmes, speaking for the
Millions for Mumia/ International Action Center campaign which
organized the event, roused the crowd with an appeal to turn this
coming summer into a “freedom summer campaign, like the freedom
summer when youth traveled to the South to break the back of racist
segregation in the 1960s.”
Holmes
said, “Our first task is to pack the courtroom in Philadelphia
when Mumia comes for a hearing in federal court. Then we have
to organize to be at both the Republican National Convention in
Philadelphia, July 29-30, and in Los Angeles at the Democratic
National Convention in August.”
Among
the many other speakers at the event were: Kathleen Cleaver, attorney
and former leader of the Black Panther Party; Sonia Sanchez, a
nationally acclaimed poet and professor at Temple University;
Leslie Feinberg, a transgender author and co-founder of Rainbow
Flags for Mumia; as well as Will Villainova and Mos Def, popular
hip hop artists.
A
number of the speakers at the rally went over the growing evidence
that shows that Mumia was denied even the most basic constitutional
rights to legal representation and a fair trial.
Also
appearing were the family of Patrick Dorismond, the Haitian man
recently gunned down by New York City police, as well as other
families of victims of police terror.
A
youth contingent also took the stage, with speakers from Evergreen
College and Antioch College, where Mumia was invited to be the
commencement speaker in 1999 and 2024, respectively.
Sarah
Sloan, a youth organizer for the International Action Center,
spoke on the need for militant action to challenge the power of
the Prison Industrial Complex, racism and police brutality, just
as youth challenged institutions like the World Trade Organization
and International Monetary Fund in Seattle last year and in Washington,
DC this April.
Speakers
also addressed the demand to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques,
Puerto Rico as well as the struggle to send Elian Gonzalez and
his family home to Cuba.
Outside
the Garden, a group of about 50 police from the Patrolmen’s Benevolent
Association and the Fraternal Order of Police picketed the rally,
calling for Mumia’s execution.
While
some of the media in New York City focused more on the police
picket line outside than on the inside rally of thousands, organizers
of today’s event characterized it as a tremendous victory and
a major step forward in bringing the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal to
the broad public.
Millions
for Mumia (mumia2000.org)
International
Action Center
39 West 14th Street
Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email:iacenter@iacenter.org
web:
www.iacenter.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax:
212 633-2889
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