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Mumia
supporters protest Philadelphia, June 16-- An emergency demonstration was held outside Philadelphia's City Hall to protest the latest legal setback in the struggle to free death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The anti-death-penalty activists passed out leaflets to hundreds of passersby and motorists that explained what was behind the May 27 ruling made by the Common Pleas Court. This state appeals court outlined its intent not to grant Abu-Jamal an evidentiary hearing that would have allowed suppressed testimony to finally be heard that could prove he did not kill a white policeman on Dec. 9, 1981. The African American revolutionary journalist has been languishing on death row since July 1982 as a result of a first-degree murder conviction reached after a sham of a trial. Besides the mass leafleting, a rally took place for several hours. The speakers included Pam Africa, leader of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Sundiata Sadiq, vice-president of the Ossining chapter of the NAACP; Monica Moorehead and Dustin Langley of the International Action Center; Suzanne Ross and Gwen Debrow of the New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal coalition, and many more. Throughout the day, delegations of Abu-Jamal supporters visited the office of Mayor John Street to demand that he come out publicly in support of Abu-Jamal's right to a new trial. Abu-Jamal's attorneys filed a reconsideration brief on June 16 in response to the May 27 ruling. This brief raised convincing arguments as to why Abu-Jamal should be granted an evidentiary hearing which should lead to him being granted a new trial.
International
Action Center web: www.iacenter.org phone: 212 633-6646
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March
3, 2024 Update
On
April 20 A.N.S.W.E.R coalition scenario
We are
heartened by the large volume of positive responses
to the announcement issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. steering
committee (February 27) that the coalition was shifting
the date of its demonstration to Saturday, April 20. The
change to April 20 was in turn a response to a large
number of requests asking for a united date for anti-war
forces to converge this spring in Washington DC. The
A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition has been and continues to be in
communication with other groups organizing on the weekend
of April 19-22 for a variety of activities.
The demonstration
couldn't come at a more important
moment. We are focusing the political protest against the
Bush administration's expanding war against oppressed
peoples all over the world. The Bush program represents
the extreme right wing of corporate America. It represents
a violent assault on people's rights at home and abroad
and a dangerous assault on the environment.
On April
20, anti-war activists, workers, trade unionists,
communities of color, women, lesbian, gay, bi and trans
communities, communities of faith, and others will take to
the streets of Washington DC to say that Bush cannot speak
in our name as his administration carries out the
anti-people, pro-corporate, militarist agenda.
WE WILL
ASSEMBLE AT THE WHITE HOUSE AT 11 AM ON SATURDAY,
APRIL 20 in order to protest against the real "axis of
evil": war, racism and poverty.
In the
early afternoon of April 20, we will MARCH from the
White House, east on Pennsylvania Ave. directly in front
of the White House, and proceeding on Pennsylvania Ave. to
the Justice Department. At the Justice
Department--directly across the street from the J. Edgar
Hoover FBI building--we will rally in defense of civil
rights and civil liberties and to demand the repeal of
Ashcroft's USA Patriot Act.
Following
the rally at the Justice Department, it will be
our goal to link up with the other anti-war coalition that
is planning activities on April 20. We recognize that the
anti-war movement includes people and organizations from a
range of traditions, beliefs, and political currents. But,
we also recognize that thousands and thousands of people
must march shoulder to shoulder in the streets in
Washington DC if we are to build an anti-war, anti-racist
movement strong enough to dismantle the Bush perpetual war
machine.
MASS ASSEMBLY AT THE WHITE HOUSE - 11 AM
At the
White House, we will condemn the massive bombing of
Afghanistan that has killed thousands of civilians. At
this moment, U.S. forces have launched a new offensive in
Afghanistan using experimental "thermobaric" bombs that
suffocate all living things. During the war, the U.S. has
used fuel-air explosives, cluster bombs and other weapons,
the use of which, by definition, constitutes a war crime.
The Bush administration has used the war in Afghanistan as
a springboard to establish new U.S. military bases in
South/Central Asia. We will demand that these bases be
dismantled and that the troops be brought home
immediately.
At the
White House, we will show our solidarity with the
besieged people of Palestine, who are at this very moment
resisting fierce aggression in the Balata and Jenin
refugee camps in the occupied West Bank. Ariel Sharon is
giving the orders to carry out these massacres - but he
could not do it without the support of the Bush
administration. U.S.-backed-and-financed Israeli forces
are today bulldozing the homes of civilians in Occupied
Territories, they have intentionally destroyed the sole
source of water into the Balata camp, and they have
deliberately destroyed the electrical system. These
Israeli war crimes are being sponsored by the Bush
administration.
At the
White House, we will show our solidarity with the
people of the Philippines and Yemen, where Bush has
already dispatched a growing number of U.S. Special
Operations forces to occupy and wage war in their
countries. In the same manner, we will show solidarity
with the people of Somalia, who fear a repetition of the
murderous U.S. military actions taken against them in
1993. The Bush administration seeks to portray these
interventions as "limited police actions in the war
against terrorism." Let us never forget that that is
precisely how the Kennedy administration initially
explained the introduction of U.S. troops into Vietnam in
the early 1960s.
At the
White House, we will condemn the new aggression
waged by the Colombian government and its paramilitary
proxies against the people. The Pastrana government is
giving the orders to cancel negotiations and wage war -
but we well know that the Colombian government would never
dare to have taken this step if it had not been given the
money, the weapons and the political support for this
aggression given by the Bush administration.
At the
White House, we will raise our voices to demand "No
New War Against the People of Iraq" and we will demand the
immediate elimination of all sanctions on Iraq that in the
last decade have taken the lives of more than 1.5 million
Iraqi civilians.
At the
White House, we will stand with the people of
Korea, who reject the new threats delivered by Bush in his
State of the Union message. The Korean people want the
removal of the 37,000 U.S. troops that occupy South Korea.
The Korean people must be allowed to pursue their own
destiny, including the right to the reunification of their
divided nation.
At the
White House, we will extend a hand of solidarity to
the people of Iran who too are threatened by Bush's "axis
of evil" stratagem that seeks to demonize in advance the
potential targets of U.S. military aggression.
At the
White House, we will demand an immediate end to the
U.S. blockade of Cuba. We will protest the wrongful
designation by the U.S. government of Cuba as a "terrorist
state" and demand freedom for the five U.S.-held Cuban
political prisoners, who have been given harsh prison
sentences for defending their country from U.S.-sponsored
terrorism.
At the
White House, we will demand that the Bush
administration immediately move to extend unemployment
benefits for the millions of workers who are suffering
unemployment. We will tell Bush "HANDS OFF SOCIAL
SECURITY." We will demand money for jobs, education,
health care and housing - not for wars of aggression in
the Third World. We will stand against union busting.
At the
White House, condemn the Bush administration's
reintroduction of a form of apartheid in law enforcement
through the USA Patriot Act that strips non-citizens of
essential democratic rights and legalizes racial and
religious profiling. We will make it clear that we will
not allow the Bush administration to use the "war on
terrorism" to implement the long-standing agenda of the
ultra-right and corporate America to stifle progressive
dissent.
At the
White House, we demand an end to the use of methods
of racist terror in the United States, most notably the
death penalty. George Bush, while governor of Texas,
executed more people than any governor in U.S. history
(152 human beings). He is the face of the death penalty.
The people of the world have let it be known that they
consider the use of the death penalty in the United States
to be an unconscionable abrogation of fundamental human
rights.
FOR MORE
INFORMATION see
http://www.internationalanswer.org, or email
ANSWER@afgj.org, or call New York 212?633?6646, Washington
202?543?2777, Chicago 773?583?7728, San Francisco
415?821?6545
TO ENDORSE,
GO TO
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a27/a27-endorse.html#endo
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