Appeals to Obama’s Top Cop Eric Holder Spread Deadly Illusions
Mumia’s Life Is On the Line: Mobilize Labor/Black Power to Free Him Now!
The threat to Mumia Abu-Jamal’s life is increasingly ominous. His lead attorney, Robert Bryan, warns: “There is an escalated effort by the authorities to see him die at the hands of the executioner. This is the most dangerous time for Mumia since his 1981 arrest.” The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down Jamal’s two appeals. If it were to rule in favor of the prosecution’s appeal, this would open the way for Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell to issue a third warrant of execution, which he has vowed to do.Contrary to the misplaced expectations of many, the Obama administration is not about to save Mumia. Around the world, hundreds of thousands have marched for this courageous champion of oppressed. Trade unions representing millions of members have rallied to the defense of Mumia. It is urgent to expand this support into powerful labor/black action, appealing to the integrated union movement to join with the black, Latino and immigrant poor to demand that he be liberated.  Mumia’s Life Is On the Line: Mobilize Labor/Black Power to Free Him Now! (25 November 2009)

Brazilian Teachers Strike Again
for Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal
For a second time, the teachers union of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, SEPE-RJ, set an important example in calling a strike this past May 7 in defense of public education and demanding freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The SEPE has fought for Mumia’s freedom since 1999, when at the initiative of the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil (LQB) and its affiliated Class Struggle Committee (CLC) the teachers union called the first-ever labor action for Mumia. During a two-hour work stoppage, events were held at schools around the state to publicize Mumia’s case and denounce the racist death penalty. The next day, dock workers in the United States shut down all West Coast ports for ten hours demanding freedom for Jamal. In the face of the worsening legal situation for Jamal, whose appeal for a new trial was rejected by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the SEPE voted to again stop work, calling on other unions to join it in demanding freedom for Jamal. A special issue of the union newspaper on Mumia was put out for the strike recounting the facts of his case and the SEPE’s 1999 work stoppage for his freedom. Brazilian Teachers Strike Again for Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal  (May 2008)

Federal Court Reaffirms Frame-Up Conviction, Orders Life Behind Bars or Racist Legal Lynching
Ruling Against Mumia Shows: No Justice in the Capitalist Courts
Mobilize the Working Class to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!
On March 27 [2008], the U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia reaffirmed the frame-up conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther Party spokesman and world-renowned radical journalist who has been locked up on Pennsylvania’s death row for more than a quarter century. After previously rejecting Mumia’s request to present evidence of his innocence, as well as a host of issues showing that he was railroaded by a racist court, the Court turned down Mumia’s request for a new trial. It upheld the 2001 ruling by a federal district judge that ordered a new hearing on the sentence, but limited the “choice” to the living hell of life imprisonment without parole ... or execution. Mumia is innocent. He was declared guilty and sentenced to die because of his revolutionary politics and because for years he had been a thorn in the side of the racist rulers of the misnamed “city of brotherly love.” Around the world, millions have come out in defense of Jamal. This latest ruling, like all those that preceded it, shows that the exploited and oppressed must have no faith in the racist injustice system. We call on the workers movement to mobilize its power to free Mumia now! Mobilize the Working Class to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!  (28 March 2008)

Mobilize Workers’ Power to Free Mumia!
Hundreds March for Mumia Abu-Jamal Outside Court Hearing in Philadelphia
Over 500 people turned out to demonstrate on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal outside the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on May 17 [2007]. In the packed courtroom another 200 heard the prosecution demand that the death sentence against Jamal be reinstated while defense lawyer Robert Bryan asked for a new trial. While some had illusions that a new trial could be fair, many protestered declared that the entire “justice” system was racist to the core. Outside, a spokesman for the Internationalist Group addressed the crowd, saying: “Mumia’s case today illustrates the way in which black people are kept down, particularly in the northern ghettos, in the wake of the civil rights laws, which supposedly outlawed legal discrimination, but did nothing for blacks in the north.... A lot of times you hear people say they are “talking truth to power.” There is no point in talking truth to power. The judges in that court over there don’t need us to tell them the truth. They are meting out class justice, capitalist class justice. We need to talk power to power, the power of the working class, which makes this society run, and can also bring it to a halt. We need to mobilize that power to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Hundreds March for Mumia Abu-Jamal Outside Court Hearing in Philadelphia  (21 May 2007)

A Quarter Century on Death Row –
No Justice in the Capitalist Courts
It Will Take Workers’ Power to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!
Twenty-five years ago last December in the city of Philadelphia, Mumia Abu-Jamal was shot, arrested and beaten to within an inch of his life while in police custody. For a quarter century, the former Black Panther and renowned radical journalist has been kept in isolation on Pennsylvania’s death row. The ruling class is determined to silence this innocent man who has powerfully exposed their crimes and championed their victims, for which he became known as the “voice of the voiceless.” Mumia’s life is in danger. With defense and prosecution appeals before a federal circuit court panel, the death sentence (overturned in 2001) could be restored at any time. Democratic governor Ed Rendell, who was Philadelphia district attorney at the time of Jamal’s arrest and engineered the 1981 frame-up trial, has pledged to sign a third death warrant. Oral arguments have been scheduled for May 17. The Internationalist Group urgently calls to rekindle mass protests and particularly to bring out the power of the working class to abolish the racist death penalty and win freedom now for Mumia!  It Will Take Workers’ Power to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!  (17 March 2007) 

Statement of the Internationalist Group to Sept. 15 Oakland Rally
Mobilize Workers Power to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Mumia Abu-Jamal is the foremost class-war prisoner in the United States today. He was framed and sentenced to death for his calls for revolution. The threat of execution continues to hang over his head 25 years later because the racist rulers are determined to silence the eloquent “voice of the voiceless.” The Internationalist Group, section of the League for the Fourth International, has fought since its inception for workers action to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. Our comrades of the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil in April 1999 initiated the first labor action for Mumia’s freedom. Mumia’s conviction was no aberration but the normal working of the legal system designed by the slave masters to keep black slaves in the chains of perpetual bondage. We call not for a “new trial” by this bourgeois injustice system which has condemned thousands of innocents to die, while U.S. imperialism lays waste to Afghanistan and Iraq. Rather, we appeal to the working class to mobilize its tremendous class power to free Mumia and defeat the imperialist war abroad and the bosses’ war against the poor, minorities, working people and immigrants here.  Mobilize Workers Power to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!  (15 September 2006) 

Federal Judge Upholds Frame-Up Conviction, Orders New Hearing on Death Sentence
Battle Escalates for Jamal’s Freedom
Mobilize Workers Power to Free Mumia Now!
The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther and crusading journalist, framed-up and sitting on Pennsylvania’s death row for the past 20 years row sums up the racist essence of American bourgeois “justice.” On December 18 a federal judge for the first time declared that the death sentence against Jamal was the product of judicial misconduct. Yet his narrow decision accepted only the most limited point raised in Jamal’s appeal, while dismissing out of hand the other 28 issues raised, as well as endorsing Janak's frame-up conviction and refusing to hear dramatic new evidence of his innocence. The Internationalist Group and League for the Fourth International warn: this ruling does not lift the threat of Mumia’s execution. It must spur efforts to mobilize the working class and the oppressed to free this courageous fighter against injustice from the claws of the capitalist state that seeks to silence his powerful “voice of the voiceless” forever. Battle escalates for Jamal's freedom  (9 January 2002)

Brazilian Workers Mobilize for Freedom for  Mumia Abu-Jamal
Over the last month Brazilian workers have undertaken a series of strikes and demonstrations that have begun to translate calls for freedom for death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal into labor action. A November 10 work stoppage by the CUT labor federation of the state of Rio de Janeiro made freedom for the renowned U.S. black journalist one of its demands. On November 22, a labor-centered march in Rio for the "Day of Black Conscioiusness" also raised the call to free Mumia as one of its key demands, as did a strike by bank workers two days later. On December 7, Rio teachers struck for half a day, including among their demands freedom for Jamal. This display of internationalist labor solidarity shows the potential to mobilize powerful working-class action to free Mumia and block the capitalist state murder machinery.  Brazilian Workers Mobilize for  Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal (9 December 1999) 

International Call to Action
Brazil: Rio Strike Demands Freedom for  Mumia Abu-Jamal
On October 26, a federal judge signed a stay of execution for Mumia Abu-Jamal until a decision is handed down on his appeal. This only buys some time for defenders of the renowned radical black journalist on Pennsylvania's death row to organize. Petitions, resolutions, demonstrations are not enough against the power of the capitalist state. Work stoppages by Brazilian teachers and U.S. West Coast longshoremen last April demanding Jamal's freedom were a first step toward mobilizing the power of labor. Now the CUT labor federation of the state of Rio de Janeiro has made freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal one of the demands of its November 10 work stoppage. Initiated by the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil, this step is a call to action to the workers movement internationally.  Brazil: Rio Strike Demands Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal (7 November 1999) 

Mexican Student Strikers Demand
Freedom Now for Mumia Abu-Jamal!
On October 13, Pennsylvania governor Ridge signed a death warrant setting December 2 as the date for the execution of the renowned black radical author and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Hours earlier, students at the National University of Mexico, on strike for the last six months and facing heavy repression from the bourgeois state, passed a resolution calling to mobilize working-class action to free Jamal. Mumia is the symbol of the worldwide fight against the racist derath penalty. The time to act to save this courageous champion of the oppressed is now.  Mexican Student Strikers Demand Freedom for Jamal (13 October 1999) 

ILWU, SEPE: First Labor Stoppages for Mumia
Brazil Education Workers Stop Work Demanding Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Demanding freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and protesting against racist death penalty, workers in Brazil and the United States carried out work stoppages on April 23 and 24. The actions by the Rio de Janeiro state teachers union (SEPE) in Brazil and the West Coast longshore union (ILWU) in the U.S. were the first union stoppages for Jamal, key to mobilizing the power of labor worldwide to win his freedom from the capitalist injustice system. Brazil Education Workers Stop Work for Mumia (May 1999) 

Free Mumia! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!
Brazilian Teachers to Stop Work for Mumia Abu-Jamal
In January, the national congress of the Brazilian educational workers federation, CNTE, passed a motion demanding Jamal be immediately freed. In March the Rio state teachers union (representing 150,000 teachers) voted to have stop-work protest meetings in schools throughout the state. The Class Struggle Caucus (affiliated with the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil) presented both resolutions and has spearheaded the campaign to mobilize this first-ever labor action to free Mumia. Brazil Teachers to Stop Work for Mumia (22 March 1999) 

Mumia Abu-Jamal in Danger
Mobilize Workers' Power to Free Mumia
On October 30, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the appeal by Mumia Abu-Jamal of his death sentence, refusing a new trial. Statement by the Internationalist Group calling for workers action to win freedom for this former Black Panther. Don't let them silence the "voice of the voiceless"! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty! (6 November 1998) 

Workers in Brazil's Steel City Demand:
"Freedom Now for Mumia Abu-Jamal!"
On Saturday, November 7, workers in Volta Redonda, Brazil demonstrated to demand "Freedom Now for Mumia Abu-Jamal!" and "Down with the Racist Death Penalty!" Initiated by the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil (LQB), section of the League for the Fourth International, the rally was held in front of Latin America's largest steel plant. Brazil Workers Demand Free Mumia Now! (11 November 1998) 

Black Panthers in America's Capitalist Dungeons 
Geronimo Is Out! Now Free Mumia!
Behind bars for more than half of his 49 years, on 10 June 1997 Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt) was released. The former Black Panther Party Minister of Defense has been jailed for the last 27 years after being set up on murder charges by the LAPD and FBI as part of the sinister COINTELPRO campaign targeting black radicals. While still in prison, ji Jaga wrote: "I urge everyone to concentrate and focus all their energies into a united effort to save Mumia Abu-Jamal's life." Greeting Geronimo's release, Mumia said: "His only crime in the words of the authorities was 'he is still a revolutionary.' That is why they cased him, framed him and held him so long." We must build on the impact of Geronimo's release to intensify the fight to win freedom! Geronimo Is Out! Now Free Mumia! (16 June 1997)
 

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