Home  
Hintergrund 
Aktuelles / Artikel
 ºMumiaartikel Deutsch
 ºMumiaartikel English
 ºStopp Todesstrafe
 ºBündnis
 ºVerteidigung und
      Legal Update
 ºMonatlicher Rundbrief
 ºOury Jalloh
 ºMumias eigene Worte
 ºAnti-Repressions-
      Nachrichten

Petitionen
Download/Materialien
Radio Beiträge
Termine/Radio
 
Demonstration 
3 + 12
Bündnisse weltweit
 
Bücher,Filme +
   Musik von/
   über Mumia
Hörbuch 
 
Kontakt
Links
 
Archiv

Junge Welt vom 14.12.2009 / Ausland / Seite 6
Im Sinne des Erfinders
Warum es konsequent ist, dem Kriegsherrn Obama den Friedensnobelpreis zu verleihen

Inheriting an Empire

[col. writ. 2/21/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Of all the myriad things to inherit, perhaps the worst is an empire, for such a transmission brings with it the duty of defense, which, in time, invariably becomes defending the indefensible.

For empires are constructed of crimes, and similarly so maintained.

They are birthed in invasion, nursed on occupation and raised on the cruel gruel of repression, torture and brutality.

That is their intrinsic nature as shown by the abundant examples of history.  This was shown best by Rome, which ravaged the then-known world to enrich the 'eternal city'. Nations were invaded, their nobles either slain or enslaved, puppets were installed, and the natural resources extracted to feed the ever-hungry maw of Rome.

For millions of Blacks, the Obama election has sparked a new way of thinking and speaking of an America that has, heretofore, been a subject of considerable ambivalence. For perhaps the first time in U.S. history (certainly since Reconstruction), millions speak of the U.S. as "we", instead of "they."

This may well be a turning point in American history.

But is the American Empire "ours" simply because a Black man is the nation's chief executive?

Did we vote it into being, or did we merely inherit it?

Most who voted for Obama certainly didn't vote for the Iraq War, one of the most overt imperial projects in modern U.S. history. They supported a quick and decisive end of the war - not its continuation nor its expansion.

Indeed, of all Americans, Blacks opposed the war the most vehemently, according to national polls.

Perhaps it was the deep memory of national oppression that made it so unseemly to support such an oppressive occupation against the Iraqi people; perhaps it was the clumsiness of the government's lies used to 'sell' the invasion.

But empires begotten by violence and exploitation are poisonous things that damage both sides of this deadly duo.

The British Empire toiled for generations to conquer and exploit over 1/2 of Africa, most of Asia and two-thirds of the Americas. But all of that crumbled when the nation was almost broken under the weight of the Germans, and she was too weak to hold her colonies. Indeed America, as the strongest to emerge from the war, inherited much of Britain's loss, as well as other European powers.

It inherited the Vietnam War when the French could no longer sustain it, and paid a heavy price of death and defeat.

Empires shouldn't be inherited lightly, like knick-knacks from an elderly grandma.

This is especially so in democracies, where the people allegedly determine public policy, for what public policy could be more dire than imperial war?

--(c) '09 maj

Mumia über Oscar Grant

OSCAR GRANT -- and YOU
[col. writ. 1/17/09  (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Like you, I've seen the searing phone-camera tape of the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, of Oakland, California.

And although it's truly a terrible thing to see, it's almost exceeded by something just as shocking. That's been how the media has responded to this police killing, by creating a defense of error.

This defense, that the killer cop who murdered Grant somehow mistook his pistol for his Taser, has been offered by both local and national news reporters - even though they haven't heard word one from Johannes Mehserle, the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cop who wasn't even interviewed for weeks after shooting an unarmed man!

If you've ever wondered about the role of the media, let this be a lesson to you. You can see here that the claim that the corporate media is objective is but a cruel illusion.

Imagine this: if the roles were reversed, that is, if bystanders had footage of Grant shooting Mehserle, would the media be suggesting a defense for him?

Would Grant have been free to roam, to leave the state a week later?

Would he have made bail?

The shooting of Oscar Grant III is but the latest, West Coast version of Amadou Diallo, of Sean Bell, and of hundreds of other Black men - and like them, don't be surprised if there is an acquittal - again.

Oscar Grant is you - and you are him, because you know in the pit of your stomach that it could've been you, and the same thing could've happened.

You know this.

And what's worse is this: you pay for this every time you pay taxes, and you endorse this every time you vote for politicians who sell out in a heartbeat.

You pay for your killers to kill you, in the name of a bogus, twisted law, and then pay for the State that defends him.

Something is terribly wrong here - and it's the system itself.

Until that is changed, nothing is changed, for we'll be out here again (in the streets) - chanting a different name.

--(C) '09 MAJ

Time for Troy is Now!

[col. writ. 10/22/08] (c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

As these words are written, Troy Davis's life may be measured in hours, if Georgia has its way.

His case is proof positive of how easy it is for a state to send someone to the death house, and how hellishly difficult it is to fight one's way out.

His case is ripped throughout with false testimony, with 80% of his trial witnesses now admitting as much. Of 9 people who testified at trial, 7 have recanted, saying they were forced by the cops to lie on him.

One, Jeffrey Sapp, swore by affidavit that "The police came and talked to me and put a lot of pressure on me to say 'Troy said this' or 'Troy said that.' I got tired of them harassing me, and they made it clear that the only way they would leave me alone is if I told them what they wanted to hear. I told them that Troy told me he did it, but it wasn't true. Troy never said that or anything like that."

But these recantations have fallen on deaf judicial ears, both in Georgia, and in Washington. Indeed, there has never even been a hearing on these recantations."

In another era, Davis would've had a new trial. But that was before the draconian AEDPA (Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act), of 1996, (signed into law by Bill Clinton, by the way), that makes it increasingly difficult for judges to grant relief - or even to get hearings.

In fact, even the state court judge, Georgia's Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears, in her dissenting opinion, noted that the bar has been set so high for granting a new trial that no one could meet it.

Not even Troy Davis - an innocent man.

If Troy Davis is to be saved, it will take the People to demand it.

For more information, contact: here... or here...

Mumia on BLACK AUGUST month of action

"I would like to leave behind me the conviction that if we maintain a certain amount of caution and organization we deserve victory... You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future."
Thomas Sankara, 1985 - The spirit of Black August moves through centuries of Black, Indian and multi-cultural resistance. It is an emblem of the spirit of freedom. It is a long smoldering spark of the fire in the hearts of a people, hearts burning and yearning for freedom. - Mumia abu Jamal

Junge Welt vom 16.08.2008 / Schwerpunkt / Seite 3
"... die Mauern zwischen uns einreissen"
Zur 400. Kolumne von Mumia Abu-Jamal in junge Welt: Ein Telefongespräch mit dem Gefangenen. Exklusiv aus dem Todestrakt der US-Strafanstalt Greene, Waynesburg/Pennsylvania

Junge Welt vom 16.08.2008 / Ausland / Seite 6
Ein historischer Irrtum
Schwarze Gesichter in hohen Ämtern bedeuten noch lange keine politische Macht für die Schwarzen

Eine Rede für Schüler_innen, die der ehemalige Mitschüler Mumia Abu-Jamal wohl beinahe jährlich an die neuen Schüler_innen seiner ehemaligen Schule hält. Aus bekannten Gründen muss sie immer eingespielt werden.

Goddard IMA Commencement Speech by Alumni Mumia Abu-Jamal

By Taína AsiliWatch

video of introduction
Listen to full speech

This year's graduating class of the Individualized Master of Arts program at Goddard College proudly invited Mumia Abu-Jamal to be the keynote speaker of their commencement this past Sunday, August 10th 2008. It was a unanimous decision made by all of the graduates to invite Abu-Jamal, alumni of the college, to shed his wisdom and insight as a renowned journalist, freedom-fighter, and scholar. Mumia Abu-Jamal first walked upon the grassy hills of Vermont's alternative college as a student working towards his BA in the 1970's. Unable to complete his degree work then, it was Goddard who he once again approached in the 1990's, yet this time as a U.S. political prisoner. He chose Goddard because, "Goddard was ahead of the curve, transforming individuals and their respective communities by expanding the realm of knowledge based on the fundamental principles of democracy."

It was during this work that he met his adviser and ally, Margo MacLeod, who guided Abu-Jamal through the difficult process of completing his BA degree from behind prison walls. Years later, MacLeod became the founder and Program Director of the IMA program, which these graduates have just completed, helping to support a unique form of education for hundreds of students, just as she had for Abu-Jamal. It is for this reason MacLeod, who is no longer working at the college as of this year, was chosen by the graduates to introduce Abu-Jamal during their commencement. In her introduction MacLeod shares, "It seems to me that Mumia has achieved the kind of integration of body, mind, and spirit that we strive for within this program, and that each graduate today has achieved in some measure in their work."

Following MacLeod's introduction, Abu-Jamal's voice rang strong through two large speakers facing the audience, a packed house of eleven graduates, their family members, fellow students and college faculty. Some graduates had worried that not having his physical body present might create a vacant atmosphere. However, this fear was dispelled, as evidenced by the resounding standing ovation following his speech by a great majority of those in attendance.

During this passionate speech Abu-Jamal shared his fond feelings towards the college, and his appreciation for what he termed "one of the finest and most unique colleges in the country." He also warned the graduates, "You leave Goddard at a time when the nation and the world faces serious challenges, as do indeed you all. What the nation needs, and indeed what the world needs as well, is new clear thinking about the challenges facing us." Later adding, "But as Goddard grads you are all fully equipped with the ability to think, a faculty I might add not much in evidence in our national political life I'm afraid. But this ability when used critically and flexibly may yet result in finding sane, humane solutions to our problems."

One graduate, James Rose, reacted to Abu-Jamal's speech by stating, "I was inspired by Mumia's speech. His voice and words invoked a renewed commitment to truth and compassion, a commitment I need to practice every day. As a graduate with the privilege of a higher education, he reminded me of my new roles of teacher, leader, and an open-minded thinker." As one of the graduates myself, my hope is that Mumia Abu-Jamal's voice at our graduation will help to shed light on his unjust incarceration reflecting the work he has done to shine light on us all.

Listen to Mumia Abu Jamal's 2008 Goddard College IMA Commencement speech here.

View clips of the introduction by Margo MacLeod here.

For more info on Mumia Abu-Jamal go to...

On July 22, the US Third Circuit Court ruled against Mumia's en banc appeal, thereby affirming the court's March 27 decision denying him a new guilt-phase trial, or even a preliminary hearing that could have led to a new trial. Mumia is now appealing this to the US Supreme Court. The DA is expected to appeal to the US Supreme Court regarding the component of the March 27 ruling that overturned the death penalty and requires a new sentencing-phase jury trial for the death penalty to be reinstated.

Read the response from Mumia's attorney

and articles by Linn Washington Jr

Jeff Mackler

and the Philadelphia Inquirer

Mumia Abu-Jamal
# AM-8335
SCI Greene
175 Progress Drive
WAYNESBURG, Pennsylvania 15370-8082
USA

18. Juni 2008

Dr. Winfried F Schöller
Frau Sabine Kebir
PEN-Zentrum
Deutschland, Berlin

Meine lieben Freunde und Schriftstellerkollegen,

als ich erfuhr, dass Mitglieder des PEN-Deutschland im letzten April aus einigen meiner Werke gelesen haben, wollte ich kaum meinen Ohren trauen.

Das war zugleich ein Geburtstagsgeschenk und ein Geschenk des Lebens, das mich mitten ins Herz traf.

Noch vor wenigen Jahren hätte ich es mir nicht träumen lassen, dass meine einsam geschriebenen Essays aus dem engen, isolierten Raum einer Todeszelle so weit reisen würden, wie sie es letztlich taten.

PEN-Deutschland hat uns wahrlich gezeigt, dass "Literatur keine Grenzen kennt...". Schreiben ist schon für sich genommen ein einsames Unterfangen. Schreiben aus der Todeszelle aber ist so ähnlich wie der buddhistische Brauch, etwas in den Sand zu zeichnen.

Nachdem ich erst jüngst Mitglied des PEN-America geworden bin, vermag ich kaum die Gefühle zu beschreiben, welche die Solidarität, die mir von Mitgliedern aus aller Welt entgegengebracht wurde, in mir ausgelöst hat.

Als gefangener Schriftsteller verbindet mich eine besondere Seelenverwandtschaft mit allen, die auch hinter Gefängnismauern schreiben - sowohl in den USA als auch anderswo.

Eure Arbeit ist ein profunder Ausdruck der Opposition gegen die Todesstrafe und der Solidarität im langen, harten Kampf für die Menschenrechte.

Ich danke euch allen!

Mumia Abu-Jamal,
aus der Todeszelle
Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika

(Übersetzung: Jürgen Heiser)
Dieser Brief wurde zuerst auf der Webseite des Bremer IVK
veröffentlicht.

Interview mit Mumia über die schwarze Bürgerrechtsbewegung und die Black Panther Party 1996

zum Video

Kommentar über Ralph Nadar, 2007

zum Video

May Day against Imperialist War!
(message writ. 4/27/08) @'08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Ona Move!

To all the German people who stand against imperialism, racism, and the resurgence of fascism-I greet you!

To our friends in Hamburg, in Kreuzberg, and beyond, it is a joy to join you on May Day, if only in spirit, and this day of celebration and remebrance of the power and sacrifice of labor.

I write these words in knowledge that a great American labor union, the International Logshoreman & Warehouse Union (ILWU) will mark May Day by an 8-hour shut down of all ports on the US West Coast, from Mexico to Canada! This labor action is against the imperial war in Iraq and for peace!

I salute you in Germany on May Day, as you battle against imperial war, against fascism, against racism, and for solidarity among the peoples of our world!

Aus die Tödeszelle,
(From Death Row)
hier sprecht,
Mumia Abu-Jamal

Grussbotschaft als Datei

"The Idea of a Black President" by Mumia Abu-Jamal

* The Idea of a Black President *

* [col. writ. 12/18/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal *

For much of the US populace, the very idea of a Black president is one so new, so novel, that it forces many people to think of it as if it is barely possible; as if it is the stuff of fiction, not fact.

Fiction has indeed been the realm of this idea, as in movies, and television series, actors have played the part, but that, of course, is on TV.

Of course, time will tell if that is more than imagination, but for millions of people who share this vast land space we call North America, the idea is neither new nor ground-breaking.

That's because there are some 100 million people living in Mexico, and that country had a Black president (albeit briefly) --some 173 years ago.

It was during their war for independence from Spain, when a warrior emerged, a Black Indian named Vicente Guerrero.

In his first battle, he was commissioned a Captain. As the independence war raged on, many of the leading revolutionaries were either killed, or captured. Guerrero fought on, leading some 2,000 men into the Sierra Madre mountains to continue the fight.

By 1821, the Mexicans were prevailing over the Spanish, and Guerrero was hailed as an incorruptible independence fighter. In 1829 he became President of Mexico, and as scholar William Loren Katz writes in his 1986 book, Black Indians :

He began a program of far-reaching reforms, abolishing the death penalty, and starting construction of schools and libraries for the poor. He ended slavery in Mexico. Yet, because of his skin color, lack of education, and country manner, he was held in

contempt by the upper classes in Mexico City.

This president who had, according to {US. historian M.H.} Bancroft, " a gentleness and magnetism that inspired love among his adherents." was still " a triple-blooded outsider."

Black historian J. A. Rogers summarized Guerrero's striking accomplishments by calling him 'the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of Mexico."[p.48]

Guerrero, who in his youth was an illiterate mule driver, once bitten by the bug of Mexican independence, rose to the highest office in the land.

He learned to read when he was about 40, and helped craft the Mexican Constitution, of which he wrote the following provision: "All inhabitants whether white, African, or Indian, are qualified to hold office." He wrote this in /1824/, over 30 years before the US Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision, which announced, emphatically, that"...a black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect." and that black people weren't, /and could never be/ citizens of the United States.

In that era of revolution and social transformation, a Black man became president of the second largest country in North America.

Today, 178 years later, we still wonder if such a thing is possible.

What does that say about the United States?

--(c) '07 maj

{Source: Katz, William Loren, Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage (New York: Simon Pulse, 1986 [Simon Pulse/pb ed.,2005], p.42

October 30, 2007

The Law That Promotes Punishment (Instead of Education)

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

It's been 5 years since the No Child Left Behind law was put into place, and around the nation, it has left wreckage in its wake.

That's because, like many such laws pushed by the paranoid right wind, what a law is called has little (or nothing) to do with what a law does.

Calling it No Child Left Behind gave it the benign imagery of caring for children and their futures. It's like the so-called Patriot Act - an act, to be sure, but one so patently unconstitutional in its evisceration of the 4th Amendment (and other constitutional provisions) that no true patriot could ever support it.

While the imagery of a catchy title might've helped in it's selling, the lesser known side of the law is now about to kick in - and it threatens to transform public schools into private businesses, transfer them into charter schools, allow state takeovers -- or close them.

This law is of a piece from the right's central array of evils - an attack on the very idea of public education, and a fixation with privatizing everything.

Who will suffer more from these transformations? School staffs, or children?

For No Child Left Behind was but another example of business uber alles, and the poor be damned.

Can the same states that made boot camps into squalid hellholes of torture for children, somehow make schools pristine halls of learning? Indeed, in many states, the 'business' of boot camping children has been tried, and while it has made money, it has been the epicenter of abuse, mistreatment, and actually, state-subsidized child abuse.

So much for the business model.

The law was both a punishment for the poor, and a cold, calculating recognition that some children have no real place in the post-industrial society being built, and thus, were to be left behind.

Uneducated, left to the tender mercies of the streets, to stew in a hopeless funk, or to feed the cavernous maw of prison...how left behind can you get?

According to a recent report in the New York Times, Florida faces the closing of 441 schools; Baltimore has 9 schools on the failure list; in New York State, 77 schools face so-called restructuring; and in California, over 1,000 schools have been designated chronic failures.*

By the year 2014, all of the schools located in California's poorest districts, some 6,063 schools, are expected to be on that list!

No Child Left Behind was designed to fail, to deliver the coup de-grace to public education, and also to disable or destroy the hated teacher's unions.

It was a law designed to fail, not to solve a pressing social problem.

The question shouldn't be whether this new (and supposedly 'improved') Congress should tinker with the law.

Congress should repeal it.

(c) '07 maj

{*Source: Schemo, Diana Jean, "Failing Schools Strain to Meet U.S. Standard," New York Times, Tues., Oct. 16, 2007, pp A1, A21.}

Homepage

Original Content at OpEdNews

Listen to the Radio-Essay Here.

Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana [col. writ. 7/21/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

recorded 7/21/07

I you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called 'Jena', I would've drawn a blank. Jena? Never heard of it. It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Janin, that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago. I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').

But, that's it.

When a friend sent me several internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted. I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a 'white tree', called that not because the leaves are white, but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.

In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the 'white tree.' The principal answered that he could sit where he liked. So, they did. The next day, the 'white tree' was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.

In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning -- they are threats of death. People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared. Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled. The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3 - day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, "Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody." (Perhaps he meant anybody important - or white). For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.

Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the 'white tree' to protest the light suspensions given to the 3 white noose-hangers. When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called 'New South'). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this 'prank' he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, "I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen." Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students 'niggers', got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.

Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled. The 6 teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000. Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial. And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys? Again -- out of the question. That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court. For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy. Bell now awaits sentencing which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years. The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness. The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon? Tennis shoes. Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us.....What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."

To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:
P.O. Box 2798
Jena, Louisiana 71342

Or on the web:
ena6defense@gmail.com.
--(c) '07 maj [Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu.
Mangold, Tom, "'Stealth racism' stalks deep South",
BBC News, 5/24/07 online]
[Mr. Jamal's recent book features a chapter on the remarkable women who helped build and defend the Black Panther Party: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]