| Mumia responds to the 3rd Circuit decision |
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| by: The Minister Of Information JR | |
| Wednesday, 16 April 2008 | |
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 When young people took the mic at the Oakland rally on March 28, it was clear that Mumia is a hero to youth of all colors. Show your love for Mumia at the next rally this Saturday, April 19, 2:30 p.m., 14th & Broadway, Oakland Ch. Fred: Ona Move! Free ‘em all! Mumia: What’s up, Fred Jr.? I saw you on PBS a few nights ago, talking to a bunch of kids on a bus. Ch. Fred: Right On. We’re trying to get the word out through every venue possible, you know? Mumia: That’s exactly what you said. Ch. Fred: Yes indeed, yes indeed. We believe that we have to continue to reiterate the fact that we have to do our thing out on the streets to get the word. It’s going to take the pressure from the people to get the desired results, but what tactics do you think we can tweak or what should we touch on or really stress to up the ante about this campaign?
And as fate would have it about five minutes before he said that, someone received a text message. It was about 11:00 in the morning on the 27th, and they received a text message telling them what the 3rd Circuit had done. This is a guy who is recognized as an expert, not only in capital case law but in “the law.” He is a famed expert.
So having read the cases and read the briefs, he was sure, you see, but he was wrong. Because even lawyers who are very smart and very good, what they don’t factor in is politics in the law. What they don’t factor in is personality in the law. What they don’t factor in is the power of the law to change itself like a chameleon. I’m not going to tell people what to do or how to organize. They know how to do that. They need to trust in their own instincts. I believe in the people. I have always believed in it since I was a young teenager. The people never let you down. They do what is right because they know in their hearts what is right. And I commend them for it. I just did a piece yesterday about how we have a history that we forget about sometimes: a history of the courts being on the side of repression, being on the side, not of freedom, but on the side of enslavement. Literally, that is what Dred Scott was all about. If you look at Plessy v. Ferguson, that is what that was all about. A lot of people still believe that Brown v. the Board of Education changed everything. Well, it changed some things for some people. If you were well to do and your parent is a lawyer or a doctor or a professor or something like that, then you’re OK; you still have problems but you are OK. You have the resources to take care of your family and do what have to do to live a very good life, one that your parents and grandparents couldn’t even think of. But if you are Black and poor in this society, things have not really changed for you. In fact, in some ways they’ve gotten worse. I mean we talk about Brown v. Board of Education, decided in 1955 or 1953, which ended segregation in law in the United States. But I went to high school in the ‘60s in a segregated school, I’d been in a segregated elementary school or segregated junior high school. The only real integration I received in my schooling was in summer school or college. And the same schools I went to as a kid are not very different for people who are the age of my grandkids or teenagers today. Segregation in law is one thing. Segregation in real life is another. So we have to remember what we know and act on what we know. Remember what the elder Fredrick Douglas said: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” Ch. Fred: This has been addressed on a number of occasions, by you and other forces. Would you like to say something about what the case, Mumia Abu-Jamal, represents and why we have every apparatus from rappers being reprimanded when they speak about you in videos, to certain media outlets being reprimanded, to even the fact that the governor of California on page 5 when he denied clemency for Stanley “Tookie” Williams, he pointed out the fact that Tookie Williams identified with such forces as Field Marshal George Jackson and including that of Mumia Abu-Jamal. What is this, what you represent is it a symbol? Would you state that for us?
Mumia: I think for many people, especially for those in the establishment, I represent in many ways their biggest nightmare. For many people who don’t know, who have not lived … They are still fighting for their 40 acres and 2 mules because they ain’t got nothing. And on top of that they now have the contempt of the Black bourgeoisie, which is now married with the contempt of the political class. But what they fear is Black … Concentration Camp Voice: You now have 60 seconds remaining Mumia: What they fear is the Black revolution re-igniting/ You see, that is why we have the present politics we have, the politics of acquiescence where Black people are apologizing about what the Black preachers tell them in church. And that used to be one of the few sites where people could speak about freedom, could speak truth to power. Now it has to be politically watered down so that outsiders – people who have never been in a Black church – are going to dictate … Concentration camp voice: You now have 30 seconds remaining. Mumia: what Black people listen to. It’s madness. Ona Move! Ch. Fred: Ona Move! If you hear that calmer out there in different languages from Scandinavia to Africa throughout the world, that loud noise is to let them know that people out there are saying, “Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Free ‘em all!” Mumia: Give my love and tell ‘em, Ona Move! Ch. Fred: Ona Move! Mumia: Thank you all! Ch. Fred: Thank you! You were just listening to the voice of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal as he responded for the first time publicly to the 3rd Circuit Court decision to not give him a trial. We are asking our listeners to get involved in the Free Mumia campaign now because your help is needed to get this former Black Panther out of the cross-hairs of the United States government, which wants to kill this freedom fighter and prolific journalist who many know as the voice of the voiceless. This is the Minister of Information JR and Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. on POCC Block Report Radio signing off. Free ‘em all!
Free Mumia & the SF 8!
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