> > WW News Service Digest #49 > > 1) Anger at State Repression Grows > by [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Mar. 9, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >POLICE MURDERS, EXECUTIONS, MASS ARRESTS: ANGER AT >STATE REPRESSION GROWS > >By Leslie Feinberg > >The debate is on--but not among the capitalist >presidential candidates. The real debate and discussion is >taking place in work places, campuses, supermarkets, >restaurants, video stores and gas stations--wherever >working people gather. > >Angry discussion is raging about the brutality of the >police and complicity of the courts, the unprecedented >swelling of the prison population, and the use of the death >penalty. Everyone is talking about police state terror. > >But not Gore, Bush, Bradley or McCain. There's not a peep >from them about the tip-of-the-iceberg exposures of police >frame-ups in Los Angeles or Philadelphia. Or about the >youths shot down in cold blood by cops--from Jersey City to >Riverside, Calif. These are "non-issues" in their >campaigns. > >Even at a time when broad and diverse segments of the >population are demanding a moratorium on the death penalty, >it's not just Mr. Serial Killer Bush--governor of the state >of Texas known as "the killing machine"--that supports this >legal lynching of the poor and oppressed. All these guys >are lined up in favor of it. > >Those seeking to monopolize political power in the United >States would like to sweep the issue of escalating state >violence under the rug. But while they're fiddling, the >population is burning with righteous rage. > >And this mass anger is beginning to spill into the streets >in increasingly militant protests that are drawing together >many more nationalities and ages and walks of life into its >ranks. > >Thousands marched through the streets of Albany, the Bronx >and midtown Manhattan in the days after the acquittal of >the four white cops who pumped 41 shots at unarmed African >immigrant Amadou Diallo. Brutal tactics by the NYPD and >mass arrests did not intimidate the multi-national >protesters. > >Even students at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, N.J., >could not sit idly by after the verdict. They organized a >school walk-out in protest. > >On Feb. 28 thousands massed on the steps of the U.S. >Supreme Court in Washington and choked off traffic in >surrounding streets. They voiced their demands loud and >clear: justice for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and >stop the death penalty. > >That call for a moratorium on the death penalty, which is >used as a state weapon against the working class, >especially those from nationally oppressed communities, is >resonating from ever-widening sectors of society. > >This movement against state repression shows no signs of >running out of steam. On the contrary, it appears to be >gaining momentum and determination. > > - END - > >(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to >copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but >changing it is not allowed. For more information contact >Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message >to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
