Why Anti-war Mumia Contingents? The March 20th Global Protests Supporters of U.S. political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal are organizing contingents to be present at the anti-war and occupation protests which will occur in hundreds of cities worldwide on March 20th, 2024. International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal urges everyone who supports Mumia to join or form a contingent for Mumia on March 20th at the scheduled protest in their area to demand that justice be served for Mumia, and all other victims of war, criminalization and oppression. We would like to make it very clear that our definition of war implicates not only U.S. foreign policy but U.S. domestic policy. At its foundation, war is about power and control. War is bombs dropping on Iraq and Afghanistan, but war is also two million people in U.S. prisons and the neo-slavery of corporate prison labor where people of color and poor whites are better represented than in almost any other institution. It is five hundred years of occupation of American Indian lands and it is Black and Latino people being shot down by police in disproportionate numbers on U.S. city streets. War is the domestic war on drugs, and it is millions without healthcare and even homes in the world’s richest nation. War is the media images and talking heads which convince far too many people that the government couldn’t stop this if it wanted too. We believe strongly that Mumia’s struggle cannot and should not be separated from the conventional anti-war movement. It is the same struggle—or should be. The movement for Mumia’s freedom is a struggle against the war machine of prison expansion, police violence, the racist death penalty and criminal in-justice system and the very arrangements of white supremacy and capitalism on which they stand--the same foundations on which the imperialism of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan rest. In the age of globalization, what happens in U.S. prisons and what happens in Baghdad streets is linked by corporations and powerful institutions of war and profit making. Mumia is a victim of a very well documented and very violent campaign of U.S. government disruption of social movements working for justice and self determination, particularly those lead by people of color. Now, infiltration, surveillance and intimidation similar to that which Mumia faced as a Black Panther in the 1960’s is being directed as well at antiwar groups and activists working against U.S. foreign policy. Even this very small taste of what Mumia and others of his time went through should alone be reason for all who oppose war in any form to support Mumia. Writing over seven hundred news columns from a cell of Pennsylvania's Death Row, Mumia has focused the majority of his commentaries after the 9/11 WTC attacks on issues relating to the war on Afghanistan and Iraq, the “war on terror” and the U.S. foreign policy which is the leading “terror” campaign worldwide, all the while maintaining his famous journalistic coverage of the issues affecting everyday people which go unnoticed by the radar of the mainstream media. Mumia has now written as much about the U.S. war machine as he has about the prison system. We again urge all of Mumia’s supporters to join or form Mumia Abu-Jamal contingents during the March 20 global actions against war and occupation. Please bring signs, banners, and information on Mumia’s case, including copies of his anti-war columns like the one included below. Make it loud and clear that Mumia’s case is inseparable from the anti-war movement. Information about the March 20th anti-war protest can be found at www.internationalanswer.org. Actions are listed in numerous U.S. cities. For a look at more of Mumia’s anti-war columns go to www.prisonradio.org. [Col. Writ. 3/29/03] A War for Soldiers or for Empire? By Mumia Abu-Jamal from deathrow "I believe that War is Murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong, and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength..." --W.E.B. DuBois, *Darkwater* (1920) The War is On in earnest, and "Bombs over Baghdad" is no longer just a toe-tapping jam by that creative hiphop duo from Atlanta, Outkast. The American People have been dragged, kicking and screaming into a War with a nation that has never attacked the United States, by a government that has been itching for a global demonstration of its military prowess from day one; and now, it has begun. And because it has begun, people are being asked by the corporate media to support the war effort, if only for the soldiers. Rarely has such madness been foisted on a people such as this tripe. 'Support the troops!' is the latest mindless mantra, as if troops ever decided to fight a war, or indeed, in a democracy, should ever be able to decide. Soldiers, by the very nature of military organization, decide nothing, for isn't that the very essence of democracy; that civilian, elected authorities decide? So 'support the troops' really means support the politicians who are in power, *even if unelected*, for they have decided to send the troops — even if their ideas were boneheaded, stupid, or just plain wrong. If you deeply believe it is wrong, are you really supposed to fold up your picket sign, run a weather-beaten flag up the pole, and paste a false smile on your face? The military is not a democracy (This government isn't one either, but that's another story). There has never been an army where the troops made military decisions. Those decisions are made by officers; and supposedly by the politicians who appoint them. Therefore, 'support the troops' is a subterfuge for supporting the warmongers in Washington who are hell-bent on sparking World War III. As bombs burst over Baghdad, it is comforting to believe that this will be an end to a pressing American problem; but, in truth, this is but the beginning. No matter what the outcome in Baghdad, a world full of people will now view the U.S., not as a 'liberator', but as an invading alien, who cares nothing for the will of the United Nations, nor that of any other entity outside of itself. Before the Iraq Adventure was launched, prowar commentators were assuring an anxious public that the Iraqis would greet the Americans with flowers and kisses. Some kisses. And since when do flowers have the blossoming aroma of cordite, and gunpowder? We are witnessing a New Age of Colonialism; the opening salvo of a New World Order. This kindler, gentler 'humanitarian imperialism' features the promise of 'liberation', but what if the natives don't meekly accept such 'liberation'? They will be branded as terrorists by the corporate media, and the U.S. will 'liberate' them from their bodies. The ghost of Vietnam, where 4 million people were slaughtered by the Americans, gives us some idea of what 'liberating' a people means. During the War, the saying went, "In order to save the village, we had to destroy it." Will the Americans 'save' Iraq, as they 'saved' Vietnam? No conquerer announces his true intentions when he invades a nation. They always give rosy reasons for invasion and conquest. They bring "enlightenment." They bring 'freedom'. They promise the "Rights of Man." For 5 centuries such sweet lies justified the ravaging of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Behind those lies lay exploitation, stolen labor, man-theft, and brain-numbing brutality. Whole nations have become stepping stools for other nations, ostensibly, for their own benefit. If you really want to 'support the troops', fight for an end to Empire. For that way, you support yourself, your future, and your posterity. ## # Check out Mumia's NEW book: "Faith of Our Fathers: An Examination of the Spiritual Life of African and African-American People" at www.africanworld.com The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia! PLEASE CONTACT: International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ P.O. Box 19709 Philadelphia, PA 19143 Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180 E-mail - AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES! Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at: Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335 SCI-Greene 175 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370