Public Speak - Out: Free All Political Prisoners! - 10 April 2010 in Australia
Posters featuring “Lynne Stewart, radical lawyer, jailed in New York for fearlessly defending her client; Palm Island Indigenous leader, Lex Wotton, jailed in Queensland for leading a protest against a police killing; Leonard Peltier, Native American elder, framed by the FBI and held in numerous U.S. prisons for 33 years; Mumia Abu-Jamal, framed by racist police and currently on death row in Pennsylvania” formed a backdrop to a rally called by Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), and Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (MACG) on Saturday.
From the callout (posted to this site http://indymedia.org.au/public-speak-out-free-all-political-prisoners):
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
MUMIA IS INNOCENT!
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Abolish the Racist U.S. Death Penalty
In the United States and Australia, activists are incarcerated for the --crime-- of opposing injustice. Come to a speak-out to demand that revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all other political prisoners,
....
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an innocent man, framed and convicted for the killing of a police officer in Philadelphia, USA, in December 1981 and sentenced to death. He was targeted for the frame-up because of his long history of political activism in the black community and opposition to police
brutality.
Mumia--so trial was a travesty of justice. The prosecution rigged the jury to minimise the number of black jurors, the judge openly displayed his racism and his contempt for the defence, and Mumia was assigned an incompetent lawyer. Numerous witnesses were corrupted or intimidated into silence.
Since the trial in 1982, Mumia--so innocence has been proven comprehensively.
The entire prosecution case has been discredited, from the ballistics evidence, to the intimidated witnesses, to the supposed --confession-- he made in hospital.
Mumia has been fighting his conviction, both inside the courts and out, for nearly 30 years. The US courts, however, have systematically sided with the police.
While his death penalty was commuted in 2001, the courts have refused to listen to evidence of his innocence and the US Supreme Court, on appeal from the prosecution, has now opened the way for the death sentence to be re-imposed.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Speakers included Greg from MACG, Peter Murray from FSP, Marisa and Peter from ABC, Cheryl from ISJA, Alison Thorne from Radical Women, and Neil from ILC/Spartacist League. There is a full account with more photos on Melbourne Protests - http://melbourneprotests.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/public-speakout-mumia-...
Public Speakout – Mumia is Innocent, Free all Political Prisoners! – 10 April 2010 April 11, 2010
Posters featuring “Lynne Stewart, radical lawyer, jailed in New York for fearlessly defending her client; Palm Island Indigenous leader, Lex Wotton, jailed in Queensland for leading a protest against a police killing; Leonard Peltier, Native American elder, framed by the FBI and held in numerous U.S. prisons for 33 years; Mumia Abu-Jamal, framed by racist police and currently on death row in Pennsylvania” formed a backdrop to a rally called by Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), and Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (MACG) on Saturday.
Protesters gathering before the rally
Greg of MACG gave a summary of Mumia’s trial and subsequent appeals (see e.g., the 2006 pamphlet from Partisan Defense Committee):
while Peter Murray of Freedom Socialist Party argued that while petitions and letters to politicians are all very well, only concerted actions such as that of the longshoremen on the West Coast of the US have the power to actually get him out of jail (see account in The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal):
They were followed by two speakers from ABC:Marisa Sposaro, who gave an account of that organisation’s work (see the ABC blog) and the 3CR Community Radio program Doin Time, and Peter, who touched on the case of long-term prisoner Jaan Laaman, with particular reference to his podcasts, as well as Mumia’s “Radio Essays”:
The rally was endorsed by ISJA (Indigenous Social Justice Association — Melbourne), which has, of course, been prominent in the campaigns against Aboriginal deaths in custody and on behalf of imprisoned Palm Island elder Lex Wotton – an ISJA banner hung behind the speakers at the rally. ISJA was represented on this occasion by Cheryl Kaulfuss:
Alison Thorne spoke on behalf of Radical Women, who also endorsed the rally; referring back to the case of the Rosenbergs, executed for espionage in 1953, she repeated the point made by others also, that it was not that the legal system failed in such cases, but rather that it was doing exactly what it was meant to do, suppress dissent and uphold the capitalist system (see http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/816):
She also read a stirring poem by feminist revolutionary Nellie Wong (see http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/276).
Another group supporting the rally was The International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist):
Spokesperson Neil rejected the illusion of appeals to Royal Commissions and governments, instancing the failure of the commission into black deaths in custody; the only effective answer is mass protest through the mobilisation of the labour force ( a pamphlet handed out at the rally can be found at the website of the Partisan Defence League, and there is a detailed account of an earlier protest meeting in support of Mumia in Australasian Spartacist No. 201:
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