Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Messages for Mumia from Benin, Mexico, and Germany
Message prepared for Dec. 6 International Day of Action for Mumia.
From Berlin:
Dear Mumia supporters gathered in Philadelphia today,
we are glad so many people around the globe are taking to the streets today and
in the coming days to demand Mumia's freedom.
We are fighting for a man, who's been in a small hole they call death row for
almost 27 years.
For a man, who's been restricted of almost any contact for that time.
Who's been inspite of this involved in any important global and local
discussion, who's been naming the injustices and corruption directly.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Voice Of The Voiceless!
We are fighting for a man who is very much alive inspite isolation, racist
abuses, censorship and political oppression.
No government has the right to murder prisoners!
We demand: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal now!
We are sending tons of best wishes over the big water and wish you a powerful
demonstration today.
Berlin Coalition to FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
From Mexico City:
Here are two messages from Mexico in case you'd like to read them at the march. Hope everything goes well. We're hoping to have our rally tomorrow without getting removed from the zócalo, where the son of Giuliani, Marcelo Ebrard, has got quite a little circus going on--an ice skating rink, gigantic Christmas tree, Ice castle, Igloo, etc ., (Does this sound surreal or what?), taking up nearly all the space that's historically been our space for protest and resistance. Anyway, we're all set to give it our best shot. Somethng new-- some compañeros in San Cristobal de las Casas are going to have a film screening and informational event next Tuesday.
OnaMOVE Carolina
First message, short and sweet:
Solidarity and love from the land of Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa and Ricardo Flores Magón to all of you at the Philly march and other actions in the world. The verdict from this small part of the international peoples' court is in. Free our compañero Mumia and jail all the cops, DAs, judges, governors, presidents who've done their best to kill him. NO forgiving, NO forgetting, NO impunity for them. They must be brought to justice. And Mumia must walk free in the streets again.
¡Mumia libertad!
Amigos de Mumia, Mexico
-----------
Next, a profound one from Mexican political prisoner Gloria Arenas Agis. She and her husband, the revolutionary artist Jacobo Silva Nogales, former members of the guerrilla called the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI), were arrested and tortured in 1999 and have spent almost a decade in prison.They haven't been allowed to see each other in all this tim e. The courts were forced to throw out most of their charges, and they've already served their time for the charges left standing against them--rebellion and property damage, but the courts refuse to let them out. From their cells, Gloria and Jacobo are active in the Zapatista Other Campaign.
This is what Gloria wrote:
A True Story about a True Man
Forty years ago, in the country that was the center of worldwide military and economic hegemony, an organization emerged that not only demanded the rights of Black people, but showed them how to use them. The Black Panthers founded schools, carried out community projects and, from the ground up, breathed life into autonomous power and practiced self-defense against police racism and brutality. In the middle of the Cold War with everything against them, they were able to overcome conformity in the Black communities and extend their organization to many important cities in the United States. The system felt threatened and in 1969-70 launched a persecution that included armed searches of the organization’s offices, raids, imprisonment, shooting people down in the streets and where they lived, torture, harassment and a smear campaign.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was only fifteen years old when he joined the Black Panthers. Several years later, in 1981, when they arrested him, he was President of the Black Journalists Association of Philadelphia. He had denounced police attacks against the ecologist organization MOVE, as well as the legal machinations used to jail nine members of the organization. The honorable and steadfast stance of John Africa must have left a deep impression on the journalist who covered the trial of this activist in 1981, the same year that Mumia was jailed. But Mumia’s story is an amazing tale of a true man.
Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?
He’s the boy who joined the Black Panthers, the committed journalist, the radio broadcaster, the social activist, the writer, and also the political prisoner who’s spent twenty-seven years––yes, twenty-seven years in prison!, the man who said “Many people say it’s insane to resist the system, but actually it’s insane not to.”
As a political prisoner, Mumia is the example of a free, insubordinate spirit. He’s written several books, including We Want Freedom. A Life in the Black Panther Party, and has written numerous essays and articles in which he lays out, in a convincing, agreeable style, the world reality and the imperialist nature of United States interventions in many different countries. He’s the political prisoner who, before thinking of himself, stands up for other political prisoners in the United States and the world.
Mumia has been on death row, a step away from capital punishment, for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s now officially sentenced to life im prisonment, but despite his executioners, finds a way to speak out from death row, explaining with extraordinary political clarity that “The people of Oaxaca should be supported, not just with words, but with similar organizing against flawed and corrupt elections, from folks all over the world. It should begin with the people of the U.S.”
Mumia is the political prisoner who, even as he awaits a possible execution order, writes. Not to ask for mercy, not to complain, but to criticize power groups in the United States and the invasion of Iraq: “It is ironic that a government that is profoundly autocratic, that relies on elite authoritarianism, secrecy, wireless wiretaps, secret prisons and torture, can claim to be fighting for something that is becoming so rare in the U.S. (ahem -- democracy).”
Mumia has the gift of speech. From the time he was very young he began to develop it, and it was his weapon against racism and capitalism. Now he uses it to speak of the invisible ones, the excluded, the oppressed. With it, he demands justice for Acteal and Atenco just as he does for Palestine. It doesn’t matter what he’s writing about; with admirable simplicity he always gets to the bottom of exactly where imperialism’s hand is to be found.
He is a political prisoner among tens of thousands in the world, but his ethical stance makes him an exceptional being, a star whose light shines in many faraway prisons. The political prisoners of Mexico can’t give way to defeatism, to discouragement, or inactivity, knowing that there’s a prisoner under threat of death who’s been imprisoned for twenty-seven years and still keeps on struggling.
I lift my voice together with all the other voices from México demanding Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Freedom, as well, for Leonard Peltier and John Graham of the American Indian Movement; for Marilyn Buck, the ex guerrilla held prisoner in California; for the Puerto Rican Independence fighters Oscar López Rivera, Carlos Alberto Torres and Haydee Beltrán Torres; for the Chicano Álvaro Luna Hernández; for Jalil Muntaqim, Herman Bell, Mutulu Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, Jalil Al-Amin, Veronza Bowers, Sekou Odinga, Russel Maroon Shoatz, Hugo Pinnell, Ruchell Cinqué Magee, Ojore Lutalo, Chip Fitzgerald, Seth Hayes and Zolo Azania of the Black movement; for Tom Manning, Jaan Laaman and David Gilbert; for the ecologists Jeff Luers, Daniel McGowan and Eric McDavid; for the MOVE prisoners; for Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, and René González, the five Cuban patriots held prisoner in North American jails.
Freedom for all political prisoners in the United States!
Gl oria Arenas Agis, Chiconautla Prison, Ecatepec, December 2008.
translation--Amig@s de Mumia, Mx
From Benin:
Dearest Sister Pam & Sister Ramona
Hope this message finds you in the best shape as you are preparing to conquer Babylon-Philadelphia tomorrow to demand the liberation of Brother Mumia.
I just wanted to convey to both of you in person, your Comrades of MOVE and the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal-ICFFMAJ the message of solidarity of the JAH FAMILY from Ouidah in Benin.
The JAH FAMILY is a Diasporan Family (from Guadeloupe) who has definitely repatriated (back) to the Continental Motherland. Since more than a decade, they have resettled in Benin, West Africa and operate as Embassy of the Diaspora. Among other activities, they have created and manage a very successful Educational Project which hosts, provides and cares for more than 150 children among the orphans, abandoned and most deprived of the local (impoverished) communities.
As a Rastafarian, Pan African and Afrocentric Community, the Jah Family has made it a duty to inform, sensitize and educate local populations, especially children and youth on the life and struggles of their Diasporan Sisters and Brothers. As such, they have been teaching the people about Mumia ABU-JAMAL and other political prisoners. Thus, their website has a link with all Mumia-related sites and one of their daughters who is a passionate film-maker has made a little piece on Brother Mumia out of the material they could get from the internet and other sources of information. With these tools and through frequent interventions on local and national media, the Jah Family has been able to mobilize some grassroots support in Benin for Brother Mumia. They are determined to continue to do so until our Brother and all other political prisoners are free and we are all reunited in a liberated Africa.
The Jah Family wants you and the entire Black Community in Philadelphia and in the US to know that on this Saturday, December 6, they will be marching with you in spiritual connection to demand the immediate and unconditional liberation of Mumia Abu Jamal. And with the same uncompromising determination of Nubian Warriors that you have been demonstrating all these years, they will stand by you and fight this fight with you until complete and total victory.
Their contacts are:
Fondation Nouvelle Création
Ambassade Culturelle de la Diaspora Panafricaine et du Peuple de JAH
Bureau Spécial pour le REPATRIATION
BP 330 Ouidah - BENIN
Tél: (+229) 95 96 03 05 or (+229) 97 16 96 93
Email: diasporafrica [at] yahoo.com
http://www.diasporafricajah.com
May the Ancestors continue to inspire, protect and bless Brother Mumia, Sister Assata, all political prisoners, the Jah Family, the MOVE and ICFFMAJ, as well as all the children of the Kemetic Nation in Babylon-United Snakes and worldwide.
Brotherly and Panafricanly,
Senfo, on the way to Babylon-Philadelphia
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!=2 0
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 - icffmaj@aol.
com
Web - http://www.freemumia.com
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
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe [at] topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj [at] aol.com!
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
Dear Mumia supporters gathered in Philadelphia today,
we are glad so many people around the globe are taking to the streets today and
in the coming days to demand Mumia's freedom.
We are fighting for a man, who's been in a small hole they call death row for
almost 27 years.
For a man, who's been restricted of almost any contact for that time.
Who's been inspite of this involved in any important global and local
discussion, who's been naming the injustices and corruption directly.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Voice Of The Voiceless!
We are fighting for a man who is very much alive inspite isolation, racist
abuses, censorship and political oppression.
No government has the right to murder prisoners!
We demand: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal now!
We are sending tons of best wishes over the big water and wish you a powerful
demonstration today.
Berlin Coalition to FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
From Mexico City:
Here are two messages from Mexico in case you'd like to read them at the march. Hope everything goes well. We're hoping to have our rally tomorrow without getting removed from the zócalo, where the son of Giuliani, Marcelo Ebrard, has got quite a little circus going on--an ice skating rink, gigantic Christmas tree, Ice castle, Igloo, etc ., (Does this sound surreal or what?), taking up nearly all the space that's historically been our space for protest and resistance. Anyway, we're all set to give it our best shot. Somethng new-- some compañeros in San Cristobal de las Casas are going to have a film screening and informational event next Tuesday.
OnaMOVE Carolina
First message, short and sweet:
Solidarity and love from the land of Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa and Ricardo Flores Magón to all of you at the Philly march and other actions in the world. The verdict from this small part of the international peoples' court is in. Free our compañero Mumia and jail all the cops, DAs, judges, governors, presidents who've done their best to kill him. NO forgiving, NO forgetting, NO impunity for them. They must be brought to justice. And Mumia must walk free in the streets again.
¡Mumia libertad!
Amigos de Mumia, Mexico
-----------
Next, a profound one from Mexican political prisoner Gloria Arenas Agis. She and her husband, the revolutionary artist Jacobo Silva Nogales, former members of the guerrilla called the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI), were arrested and tortured in 1999 and have spent almost a decade in prison.They haven't been allowed to see each other in all this tim e. The courts were forced to throw out most of their charges, and they've already served their time for the charges left standing against them--rebellion and property damage, but the courts refuse to let them out. From their cells, Gloria and Jacobo are active in the Zapatista Other Campaign.
This is what Gloria wrote:
A True Story about a True Man
Forty years ago, in the country that was the center of worldwide military and economic hegemony, an organization emerged that not only demanded the rights of Black people, but showed them how to use them. The Black Panthers founded schools, carried out community projects and, from the ground up, breathed life into autonomous power and practiced self-defense against police racism and brutality. In the middle of the Cold War with everything against them, they were able to overcome conformity in the Black communities and extend their organization to many important cities in the United States. The system felt threatened and in 1969-70 launched a persecution that included armed searches of the organization’s offices, raids, imprisonment, shooting people down in the streets and where they lived, torture, harassment and a smear campaign.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was only fifteen years old when he joined the Black Panthers. Several years later, in 1981, when they arrested him, he was President of the Black Journalists Association of Philadelphia. He had denounced police attacks against the ecologist organization MOVE, as well as the legal machinations used to jail nine members of the organization. The honorable and steadfast stance of John Africa must have left a deep impression on the journalist who covered the trial of this activist in 1981, the same year that Mumia was jailed. But Mumia’s story is an amazing tale of a true man.
Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?
He’s the boy who joined the Black Panthers, the committed journalist, the radio broadcaster, the social activist, the writer, and also the political prisoner who’s spent twenty-seven years––yes, twenty-seven years in prison!, the man who said “Many people say it’s insane to resist the system, but actually it’s insane not to.”
As a political prisoner, Mumia is the example of a free, insubordinate spirit. He’s written several books, including We Want Freedom. A Life in the Black Panther Party, and has written numerous essays and articles in which he lays out, in a convincing, agreeable style, the world reality and the imperialist nature of United States interventions in many different countries. He’s the political prisoner who, before thinking of himself, stands up for other political prisoners in the United States and the world.
Mumia has been on death row, a step away from capital punishment, for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s now officially sentenced to life im prisonment, but despite his executioners, finds a way to speak out from death row, explaining with extraordinary political clarity that “The people of Oaxaca should be supported, not just with words, but with similar organizing against flawed and corrupt elections, from folks all over the world. It should begin with the people of the U.S.”
Mumia is the political prisoner who, even as he awaits a possible execution order, writes. Not to ask for mercy, not to complain, but to criticize power groups in the United States and the invasion of Iraq: “It is ironic that a government that is profoundly autocratic, that relies on elite authoritarianism, secrecy, wireless wiretaps, secret prisons and torture, can claim to be fighting for something that is becoming so rare in the U.S. (ahem -- democracy).”
Mumia has the gift of speech. From the time he was very young he began to develop it, and it was his weapon against racism and capitalism. Now he uses it to speak of the invisible ones, the excluded, the oppressed. With it, he demands justice for Acteal and Atenco just as he does for Palestine. It doesn’t matter what he’s writing about; with admirable simplicity he always gets to the bottom of exactly where imperialism’s hand is to be found.
He is a political prisoner among tens of thousands in the world, but his ethical stance makes him an exceptional being, a star whose light shines in many faraway prisons. The political prisoners of Mexico can’t give way to defeatism, to discouragement, or inactivity, knowing that there’s a prisoner under threat of death who’s been imprisoned for twenty-seven years and still keeps on struggling.
I lift my voice together with all the other voices from México demanding Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Freedom, as well, for Leonard Peltier and John Graham of the American Indian Movement; for Marilyn Buck, the ex guerrilla held prisoner in California; for the Puerto Rican Independence fighters Oscar López Rivera, Carlos Alberto Torres and Haydee Beltrán Torres; for the Chicano Álvaro Luna Hernández; for Jalil Muntaqim, Herman Bell, Mutulu Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, Jalil Al-Amin, Veronza Bowers, Sekou Odinga, Russel Maroon Shoatz, Hugo Pinnell, Ruchell Cinqué Magee, Ojore Lutalo, Chip Fitzgerald, Seth Hayes and Zolo Azania of the Black movement; for Tom Manning, Jaan Laaman and David Gilbert; for the ecologists Jeff Luers, Daniel McGowan and Eric McDavid; for the MOVE prisoners; for Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, and René González, the five Cuban patriots held prisoner in North American jails.
Freedom for all political prisoners in the United States!
Gl oria Arenas Agis, Chiconautla Prison, Ecatepec, December 2008.
translation--Amig@s de Mumia, Mx
From Benin:
Dearest Sister Pam & Sister Ramona
Hope this message finds you in the best shape as you are preparing to conquer Babylon-Philadelphia tomorrow to demand the liberation of Brother Mumia.
I just wanted to convey to both of you in person, your Comrades of MOVE and the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal-ICFFMAJ the message of solidarity of the JAH FAMILY from Ouidah in Benin.
The JAH FAMILY is a Diasporan Family (from Guadeloupe) who has definitely repatriated (back) to the Continental Motherland. Since more than a decade, they have resettled in Benin, West Africa and operate as Embassy of the Diaspora. Among other activities, they have created and manage a very successful Educational Project which hosts, provides and cares for more than 150 children among the orphans, abandoned and most deprived of the local (impoverished) communities.
As a Rastafarian, Pan African and Afrocentric Community, the Jah Family has made it a duty to inform, sensitize and educate local populations, especially children and youth on the life and struggles of their Diasporan Sisters and Brothers. As such, they have been teaching the people about Mumia ABU-JAMAL and other political prisoners. Thus, their website has a link with all Mumia-related sites and one of their daughters who is a passionate film-maker has made a little piece on Brother Mumia out of the material they could get from the internet and other sources of information. With these tools and through frequent interventions on local and national media, the Jah Family has been able to mobilize some grassroots support in Benin for Brother Mumia. They are determined to continue to do so until our Brother and all other political prisoners are free and we are all reunited in a liberated Africa.
The Jah Family wants you and the entire Black Community in Philadelphia and in the US to know that on this Saturday, December 6, they will be marching with you in spiritual connection to demand the immediate and unconditional liberation of Mumia Abu Jamal. And with the same uncompromising determination of Nubian Warriors that you have been demonstrating all these years, they will stand by you and fight this fight with you until complete and total victory.
Their contacts are:
Fondation Nouvelle Création
Ambassade Culturelle de la Diaspora Panafricaine et du Peuple de JAH
Bureau Spécial pour le REPATRIATION
BP 330 Ouidah - BENIN
Tél: (+229) 95 96 03 05 or (+229) 97 16 96 93
Email: diasporafrica [at] yahoo.com
http://www.diasporafricajah.com
May the Ancestors continue to inspire, protect and bless Brother Mumia, Sister Assata, all political prisoners, the Jah Family, the MOVE and ICFFMAJ, as well as all the children of the Kemetic Nation in Babylon-United Snakes and worldwide.
Brotherly and Panafricanly,
Senfo, on the way to Babylon-Philadelphia
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!=2 0
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 - icffmaj@aol.
com
Web - http://www.freemumia.com
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
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe [at] topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj [at] aol.com!
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
For more information:
http://freemumia.org
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$140.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network