BY JACK WILLEY
NEW YORK - As part of a stepped up defense campaign in
support of Mumia Abu-Jamal two successful events took place
here May 21. Jamal was a radio reporter in Philadelphia in
1982 when he was convicted and sentenced to death for the
murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
More than 300 people attended a public reading of his recently published book, Live from Death Row, at Cooper Union. The event was produced by the Equal Justice USA/Quixote Center and WBAI public radio, and sponsored by the International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu- Jamal and the Free Mumia Coalition of New York City.
A broad array of speakers addressed the crowd, including Melvin Van Peebles, director of the movie Panther; attorney William Kuntsler; Leonard Weinglass, Jamal's chief counsel; and Ramona Africa from MOVE. Abu-Jamal sent an audio tape in order to speak to those at the meeting who had come out for his defense.
The Cooper Union meeting touched on a number of topics relating to Abu-Jamal's case, including the role of the FBI and its Cointelpro campaign against the Black Panther Party, of which Abu-Jamal was a member. The readings also addressed the way the U.S. government uses the death penalty against political prisoners and members of oppressed nationalities.
That same evening at the Atlantic Theater dozens of Abu- Jamal's supporters turned out for a $250-a-head fund-raiser for his legal defense fund.
Outside of the Atlantic Theater event, about 50 police officers from New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia marched in protest. Cops and others have been waging a counter- campaign demanding that Abu-Jamal be executed. They have organized demonstrations and are promoting a boycott against Addison-Wesley, the publisher of Live from Death Row.
Maureen Faulkner, the widow of the slain policeman Abu- Jamal is accused of murdering, is leading a campaign for his execution and opposes his right to publish a book. "He's a convicted murderer," she declared. "Just as felons lose their right to vote, I think that by taking another man's life he forfeits the right to freedom of speech.
"I think it is immoral to reward a convicted cop killer financially," she added.
Abu-Jamal, who denies killing Daniel Faulkner and whose defense notes that several witnesses saw another man fleeing the scene of the crime, was assigned by National Public Radio (NPR) to do six monthly commentaries last year. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police and Maureen Faulkner organized a public campaign to force NPR to cancel the program.
Jack Willey is a member of the Young Socialists in
NewYork.
The following is a message from Mark Curtis that was read at the March 28 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, rally in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
I join with you in condemning Pennsylvania's moves to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal. Demanding blood for the death of a policeman, the capitalist legal system demonstrates the class nature of "justice" in this country.
Abu-Jamal worked to expose the government slaughter of the MOVE group. The Clinton administration used very similar actions against the followers of the David Koresh cult in Waco, Texas. We can expect further such attacks against unpopular targets.
The increase in death penalty laws around the U.S. and the so-called anti-crime packages of state and federal governments are aimed at narrowing our democratic rights and intimidating working-class fighters and young rebels like Abu-Jamal.
Stop the execution!
Justice for Abu-Jamal!
End the death penalty!
Mark Curtis
Iowa State Penitentiary
Fort Madison, Iowa