WW News Service Digest #250
1) Youth for Mumia: "Pack the Courtroom"
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Markets Yo-yo as Jobs Disappear
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) All Out Against the FTAA!
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) Power Monopolies' Profit Grab
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
5) Efforts to Free Mumia into High Gear
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
YOUTH FOR MUMIA SAY: "PACK THE COURTROOM"
By Imani Henry
Philadelphia
More than 150 young people gathered March 24 at Temple
University for a daylong "Mumia Is All of Us" youth
conference. The event was held to help organize the
continuing fight to free African American political prisoner
Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The Youth National Coordinators' Com mittee organized the
conference. This coalition brings together youth activists
from organizations within the U.S. Mumia movement.
The conference drew people from Baltimore; New York, Albany
and Ithaca, N.Y.; and from Philadelphia and surrounding
areas of Pennsylvania. Youth activists from Germany sent
messages of solidarity to the conference.
Leslie Jones, a national youth organizer for International
Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia, was a leading
organizer of the conference. She told Workers World, "With
so many young people leading the struggle to save Mumia's
life in this country it is critical that we as young people
strategize about ways to mobilize people for Mumia's
appearance in Pennsylvania federal court."
Abu-Jamal will appear in federal court when Federal District
Judge William Yohn sets a date to begin the process to
determine whether he will have an evidentiary hearing. Out
of this conference came a new steering committee of youth
activists to work on logistics to mobilize people to pack
the courtroom.
Young people at the conference also participated in
roundtable discussions linking Abu-Jamal's case to issues
like fighting police brutality and freeing political
prisoners. Workshops addressed the struggle of the people of
Vieques, Puerto Rico, to get the U.S. Navy off their island,
and organizing for Abu-Jamal's freedom within the anti-
globalization movement.
Ben Ramos of Pro-Libertad and Jason Corwin of the League of
Indigenous Sovereign Nations of the Western Hemisphere led
the panel on political prisoners. They called on activists
to support the struggle to free the six remaining Puerto
Rican political prisoners.
They also urged support for American Indian Movement
prisoner of war Leonard Peltier, who was passed over for
clemency by former President Bill Clinton on Jan. 20.
Peltier will not be up for a new parole hearing until 2002.
Those on hand for the conference included young New York
filmmaker Tania
Cuevas Martinez, whose film "Voice of the Voiceless"
features Mumia Abu-Jamal's stepdaughter and rap artist
Goldii Lokks.
MOVE member Ramona Africa, former Black Panther Kathleen
Cleaver, Democracy NOW's Amy Goodman, hip-hop legend Chuck
D, and the political hip-hop groups Dead Prez, BlackThought
of the Roots, Bonz Malone and Channel Live were all there.
Pam Africa from the U.S. International Concerned Family and
Friends of Mumia and Julia Wright from the Paris chapter of
the organization also took part.
THE YOUTHS OF MOVE
A highlight of the conference was the Mumia 101 panel, led
by the youths of the MOVE organization and local
Philadelphia activists. This panel gave an overview of Abu-
Jamal's case. It also provided a historical perspective on
the racist police repression against MOVE and the African
American communities of Philadelphia.
Michael Africa is a MOVE youth whose parents are political
prisoners--two of the MOVE 9. He spoke about how Abu-Jamal
used his ability as a journalist to tell the truth about the
police beatings and arrests of the nine MOVE members on Aug
8, 1978.
Blizzard Africa raised the 1985 police firebombing of the
MOVE house that killed 11 men, women and children. She said:
"Clinton can get on TV after Columbine to tell young people
'to learn to settle their differences without violence'? All
the time the U.S. government was bombing children, women and
men in Kosovo or can drop a bomb on an entire community of
Black people."
Also in the works is organizing for the upcoming May 12
International Day of Solidarity with Mumia. The
International Action Center has initiated a call for a May
11-13 encampment in Philadelphia in support of Abu-Jamal.
Youth activists were excited about these plans, which will
bring activists from all over the East Coast to converge on
Philadelphia.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
LAYOFFS RISE, FIRMS CUT BACK; MARKETS YO-YO AS JOBS
DISAPPEAR
By Fred Goldstein
On March 28, a day on which the Dow Jones average on the
stock market rose 282 points and consumer confidence was
said to have gone up considerably, a number of ominous
economic developments were announced.
Nortel, the world's largest maker of telecommunications
equipment, announced it would lay off 5,000 workers in
addition to the 10,000 who have been laid off since the
start of the year.
Walt Disney announced 4,000 layoffs in the face of the
slowing economy.
Ericsson, the giant Swedish telecommunications company,
announced 3,300 layoffs in Sweden and Britain and the
stopping of production at two British mobile phone plants.
American Greetings, the largest publicly traded greeting
card maker, announced 1,500 layoffs.
MarchFirst, a global technology consulting firm, laid off
3,500 workers on top of the 2,000 that it had already laid
off over the last six months.
Two California-based specialized chip-making companies that
supply Internet equipment makers like Cisco Systems
announced layoffs. Conexant Systems said it would lay off
1,500 regular workers and 125 contract workers. And PMC-
Sierra announced 230 layoffs.
Palm Inc., maker of Palm Pilot handheld computers,
projecting fourth-quarter profit losses, plans to lay off
650 workers.
LAYOFFS ALL OVER THE GLOBE
In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
announced that Japanese retail sales fell 0.6 percent in
February, after rising for the first time in 45 months in
January. Japanese capitalism is struggling to raise itself
out of its worst recession since World War II.
On the same day Aiwa Co., majority owned by Sony Corp.,
announced it would shut down eight of its nine plants in
Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Wales and cut its 10,000 work
force by about half.
If so-called consumer confidence was rising, as announced
that day, banker confidence was not. "For the first time
since the 1998 financial crisis," wrote the Wall Street
Journal on March 27, "the Federal Reserve Board conducted a
survey of senior loan officers-usually a quarterly report-
ahead of schedule."
This survey followed a plea from Federal Reserve Board Chair
Alan Greenspan to the bankers to loosen credit. It came
after Greenspan lowered interest rates, giving banks more
leeway to lend.
"Of the 54 domestic banks and 22 U.S. branches of foreign
banks included in the Fed study," continued the Journal,
"not a single one reported easing lending standards."
According to the survey 52 percent of U.S. banks had
tightened credit for large and midsize companies and 43
percent had tightened credit for small businesses.
SALES ARE DOWN
On the same day the Commerce Department announced that new
home sales fell 2.4 percent in February and existing home
sales fell by 0.4 percent. It also announced a decline in
durable goods shipments of 0.2 percent, which turned out to
be 4 percent after excluding Pentagon orders and aircraft-in
other words, shipments of things that consumers buy.
This selected one-day snapshot illustrates that, while the
fate of the stock market is ultimately rooted in the
economy, on any given day--or week, for that matter--there
can be a total disconnect based on the speculative interests
of the giant institutional investors and brokerage houses
that manage to make money no matter which direction the
market goes in.
But these negative currents deeply affect the workers and
the oppressed. The layoffs, no matter how limited at the
present, are still devastating to the workers and the
communities affected.
When Proctor & Gamble announced 9,600 layoffs last week, it
came as a blow to the working class and middle class of
Cincinnati, the site of P&G's world headquarters. When
Boeing announced its intention to move its headquarters out
of Seattle, it came as a destabilizing shock to the whole
city.
And for every large-scale layoff that gets announced in the
headlines, there are the hundreds of layoffs of five, 10, 50
or 100 workers that never get announced and often do not
appear in government statistics.
But aside from the immediate problem of the present layoffs,
the greater danger that must be watched is the possible
unfolding of a much larger downturn, driven by worldwide
capitalist overproduction.
No one can tell what the short-term evolution of the present
economic situation will be. The ruling class certainly does
not know. And it is even more difficult for the working
class to know, because it is divided and fragmented and does
not have access to economic data.
The advisers to the capitalist class, as well as the bankers
and the bosses themselves, are all in the dark. The
industrialists know that their profits are down and that
their orders are shrinking. The bankers know that production
is down and lending is riskier. The analysts are divided
between those who see a big recession coming and those who
think the worst is over.
But on one thing they are all united: whether the crisis is
major or minor, profit margins must be protected at all
costs and workers and their families must pay the price.
The workers must be made aware that the bosses, in the
struggle to overcome each other with larger and larger
profits, fight their battles by expanding production, paying
the workers as little as possible, and selling to make the
highest profit possible. This is an iron law of capitalism.
When the goods cannot be sold at a high profit, they cut
back production or shut down altogether. It is a sign of
capitalist overproduction.
This battle has been raging at a furious and brutal pace in
the past decade. Tens of millions of people in Asia were
devastated by it in 1997 and 1998. The giant capitalists
were able to contain the crisis in Asia and keep it from
spilling into the big imperialist countries. In fact, the
U.S., Germany, France, England, Italy and other imperialist
countries took advantage of that crisis to enrich
themselves. They bought up bankrupt companies, thereby
obtaining exploitation rights over millions of Asian
workers.
Now, after 10 consecutive years of this kind of global
competition by the giant transnational corporations, which
have spread to every corner of every continent in search of
profits, there is an economic slowdown that is affecting
companies and workers all over the world--in Europe, Japan
and the U.S. as well as in the oppressed countries.
AT WHAT POINT IS IT A GENERAL CRISIS?
It is impossible to tell yet whether or not this is the
moment when the world market has become so saturated with
commodities that a massive global contraction is in the
offing that will spill over into the centers of world
capitalism.
But one thing is certain. The long period of capitalist
stability, based on the continuous expansion of capitalist
production and the steady upward movement of profits in the
imperialist countries, is over. The triumphal expansion of
the capitalist market and all the ideological garbage about
the so-called end of history is over. The period of
capitalist instability is being ushered in.
The Federal Reserve Board and Alan Greenspan have moved
quickly to put money into the economy by lowering interest
rates. They have prevailed upon most of the world's central
bankers, with the exception of the European Central Bank, to
do the same. The ruling class has restructured President
Bush's tax cut proposal to put $60 billion into the economy
right away. The U.S. financial authorities are pressuring
the Japanese government and ruling class to pour money into
its economy to start people buying again.
These are rapid-fire reactions by the ruling class to
forestall the kind of disastrous crisis that they know is
inherent in their system. In the statement issued after its
March 20 decision to lower interest rates from 5.5 percent
to 5 percent, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors noted
the global character of the downturn.
But the working class and the leadership of all the
organizations of the workers and the oppressed have to be
keenly aware of, and prepare for, the possibility of a
catastrophic development. The capitalist downturn may be
relatively mild at present, but it is widespread. The
saturation point will come eventually, as surely as night
follows day. The system based on profit cannot avoid it
indefinitely.
The leaders of the working class must not be taken by
surprise. The time to begin strategizing over how to combat
the crisis is now.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
HUGE PROTESTS EXPECTED IN QUEBEC CITY: ALL OUT
AGAINST THE FTAA!
By Gery Armsby
Quebec City, Canada
Labor unions, environmental groups and anti-capitalist
activists from across Canada and the U.S. are heading to
Quebec City April 19-22 to stage mass demonstrations at the
barricades of the Summit of the Americas--a meeting of CEOs,
trade officials and heads of state of all the countries of
the Western Hemisphere except socialist Cuba.
At the summit, 34 heads of state will begin the process of
adopting the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a plan to
extend the super-exploitative imperialist policies of the
North American Free Trade Agreement onto an additional 31
countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Three and one-half kilometers of concrete and barbed-wire
barricades are being erected around a central portion of
Quebec City to keep protesters away from the high-level
meetings. Seattle-style police deployment is also planned to
confront anti-FTAA demonstrators.
Many local community members are outraged at the blockade of
their neighborhoods and plan to join street actions in what
may be the largest protests here in recent history.
Two hundred protest planners from Quebec along with
organizers from all over Canada and the U.S. packed a
gymnasium in Quebec City March 24-25 to design actions to
disrupt the April summit. In New York City, over 250 people
filled a March 27 meeting of the NYC Coalition to Stop the
FTAA.
Similar large meetings have been held in communities and
campuses across the Northeast. Organizers, students and
youths are hungry for information about the demonstrations,
how to cross the borders and where to get housing during the
Quebec City protests.
First Nations along with groups like the Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty have voiced support for protests against the
Summit of the Americas and are mobilizing a "Day of Rage" on
April 19 to demonstrate Native sovereignty over the
illegitimate international border. The Mohawk Nation's
Akwesasne reservation straddles the U.S./Canada border at
the Three Nations Bridge Crossing near Cornwall, Ontario,
and the "Day of Rage" is also aimed at helping U.S.
protesters cross the border.
More border actions are planned for Vermont, where
protesters are intent on crossing to get to Quebec.
Solidarity demonstrations will be held in cities such as
Buffalo, N.Y.; Tijuana, Mexico/ San Diego, Calif.; and other
international border locations.
Quebec's Laval University is extending housing to thousands
of out-of-town activists during the protests as a result of
coordination efforts by students and local organizers that
welcome the anti-FTAA actions.
[More information about anti-FTAA protests is available from
the International Action Center. Contact the IAC at (212)
633-6646 on the East Coast or (415) 821-6545 on the West
Coast; email [EMAIL PROTECTED]; or see www.iacenter.org.]
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
HUGE PROFIT GRAB
POWER MONOPOLIES TELL MILLIONS: "YOUR MONEY OR
YOUR LIGHTS!"
By Tahnee Stair
San Francisco
On March 25 the Public Utilities Commission in California
dropped a bombshell. It announced that two days later
electric and gas rates would increase by 46 percent.
Corporations that trade and produce natural gas have
pocketed billions in super profits at the expense of
consumers over the last 10 months. Power wholesalers like
Enron, El Paso and Dynegy sold natural gas to California
utilities for $6.2 billion above the usual market rate.
This most recent price gouging comes on top of rate hikes of
9 percent and then 13 percent in recent months. On March 22,
the Independent System Operator, a non-profit entity of the
state that runs the power grid, filed a report with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission exposing details of the
scams. The ISO hoped to recoup some of the state's losses by
nullifying agreements between utilities and wholesalers.
The ISO report says that wholesalers sold electricity at
higher rates than it cost them to produce and withheld power
supplies by not even bidding for proposed sales, further
driving up costs.
The power crisis, more aptly called the power scam, has
seriously hurt poor and working people. The inflated cost
for power is directly passed on to consumers through
skyrocketing power bills. But the workers also are the
ultimate source of state funds used to purchase power to
meet the state's needs, as well as a pending state bailout
of the utilities.
California has spent $4.2 billion since January to purchase
power for the utility companies. The two largest utilities
in California, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern
California Edison, claim they are $13 billion in debt. The
utilities are lying, hoping for a bailout by the state.
Between 1997 and 1999 the utility company PG&E funneled $4
billion to its parent company, PG&E Corp., for out-of-state
ventures. State officials recently said that the state needs
to spend $23 billion to buy power by the end of the year.
Already, many people cannot afford to pay their bills and
have been forced to forego the use of electricity and gas.
The ISO has enforced rolling power outages, not seen in
California since the World War II era.
The situation is especially serious as the hot California
summer approaches, bringing greater power demands and
dangerous heat waves.
A major cause of California's power crisis is electricity
deregulation, or "letting the market work." It has worked
very well for the electric power generating and distribution
industries. Their profits have increased by up to 900
percent on investment, according to none other than
California's pro-big business Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Deregulation was passed by the state legislature in 1996 and
signed by then-Republican Gov. Pete Wilson after a heavy
lobbying effort by the big utility companies. Deregulation,
the utility monopolies and other energy capitalists
preached, would give California residents and businesses the
"freedom"to select the power company of their choice.
Residential and small business electricity rates were frozen
for four years at 50 percent above the national average. In
exchange, the law stated that once the debts were paid off,
the rate freeze would end and consumers would receive a
"guaranteed" 20 percent rate reduction.
Ratepayers have paid Edison $9.3 billion so far under this
"competition tax." As part of deregulation, the big
utilities had to begin selling off their generating plants.
The plants were purchased by about a dozen power companies,
the biggest of which included Enron, Duke Energy, Reliant,
Southern Energy and Dynegy. The California utilities used
much of the proceeds from these sales to build new
generating plants--in other parts of the country.
Duke, Enron and the other power-generating companies now
sell their power to the Power Exchange, California's
centralized electricity market. California utilities, in
turn, are required to buy their energy from the Power
Exchange.
California hospitals have been put on and taken off the
power-outage list, only to be put back on and taken off
again because, according to an ISO spokesperson on National
Public Radio's March 20 California report, "they might
encourage other public services to ask for exemptions."
Other public institutions include schools, elder homes and
public transportation, all of which are deeply affected by
this crisis.
State Controller Kathleen Connell, complaining that the
state's surplus was being drained, blocked the transfer of
$5.6 billion into a collateral fund to impress Wall Street
as the state gets ready to issue tens of billions of dollars
in bonds to support the power buys.
The transfer, which will eventually be enforced by law, will
leave the state a $2.4 billion debt. Another crisis will hit
California and the nation this summer.
What are the people going to do? The "Personal
Responsibility Act" signed by Clinton in 1996 put a lifetime
limit of five years on welfare entitlements. With these new
rates, an untold number of poor people will be added to the
hundreds of thousands who are being kicked off welfare into
the streets with nowhere to turn for food and shelter.
WHAT THE STATE COULD DO
Through the power of eminent domain, the state of California
has the legal right to seize the power plants and run them
itself. The state should be spending money preparing for the
summer crisis by issuing and funding a moratorium on welfare
cuts, creating jobs, providing rent and food subsidies, and
insuring power to hospitals and other public centers.
Instead it is lining the pockets of the power corporations
with outrageous payments.
As of March 27, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has
made no ruling on the ISO's report on this immense scam. The
commission has a history of barely regulating the energy
market and the report was expected to be dismissed as soon
as it was filed.
Even the business writer of the New York Times, Paul
Krugman, wrote in a March 25 article, "The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, which is supposed to act as the
nations' watchdog over the energy industry, lately seems
more like a lapdog."
The politicians are in the deep pockets of the corporations.
The only public government response to the evidence of the
power conglomerates' monopoly and price fixing was a
whopping 46 percent rate hike by the state, which is still
planning to buy power from them.
On the federal level the White House has suggested expanding
oil drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to deal with the
problem. Oil drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge would do
absolutely nothing to increase the natural gas supply for
California or the country, or even decrease the cost of oil.
In trying to boost the efforts to drill for oil in the
Arctic Wildlife Refuge, one Republican senator went so far
as to threaten, "Do we want to fight another war over oil?
We fought one once."
There is a real solution to this absurd crisis. Energy
resources should be publicly owned and used to meet people's
needs, not provide profits for a few.
Heat and electricity are a right! Join Workers World in the
fight demanding: No shutoffs! Roll back the rates! No state
bailouts of the corporate profiteers!
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EFFORTS TO FREE MUMIA GO INTO HIGH GEAR
By Monica Moorehead
Revolutionaries and anti-racist activists all over the
world, including inside the United States, are preparing for
a new round of important protests to demand the freedom of
African American political prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-
Jamal.
Abu-Jamal has languished on Pennsylvania's death row since
July 3, 1982. The state convicted him of killing a white
Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner.
But millions of supporters across the United States and
around the world maintain that Mumia Abu-Jamal was
railroaded to death row by a racist conspiracy carried out
by the courts, the Fraternal Order of Police and the
government.
Why was he targeted? Because of his revolutionary political
beliefs as well as his close association with MOVE, a
predominantly Black, anti-system, pro-communal organization.
MOVE has been, and continues to be, a main target of
government repression in Philadelphia since the late 1970s.
Mumia Abu-Jamal has become an international symbol of the
struggle against the racist, anti-poor death penalty, police
brutality and other forms of political repression inside
the United States. He has also become known as the "voice of
the voice less," speaking out on behalf of millions who have
been victimized by racism, bigotry and the capitalist system
in general.
During the last weekend in March, an East Coast organizing
conference will take place in Washington, D.C. Its goal is
to bring together the activists who already support Abu-
Jamal. And it aims to attract new layers of activists from
the Black churches and Black colleges to help broaden
support for Abu-Jamal's case.
U.S. Rep. John Conyers from Michigan, hip-hop artist Chuck D
and International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia
leader Pam Africa are scheduled to speak at an opening event
at the Lincoln Theater on March 30. The theater is located
at 1215 U St., NW.
The conference will take place at First Congressional Church
at 10th and G Streets, NW, on March 31. Registration will
begin at 9 a.m. The conference is free.
A number of workshops will take place during the conference
that will help bring activists up to date on Abu-Jamal's
legal status along with encouraging people to get involved
politically with his case.
GO GET YOUR CALENDAR!
An important rally and march demanding freedom for Mumia Abu-
Jamal will take place in New York on April 4, the 33rd
anniversary of the assassination of civil-rights leader Dr.
Martin Luther King. This protest will take place at 30 Foley
Square from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The fact that Abu-Jamal's legal appeals are currently in the
federal courts is one reason this protest is being held in
front of the federal court building.
Sponsors include the International Action Center, the New
York City Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, the Jericho
Movement, Patrice Lumumba Coalition, Asians for Mumia, Haiti
Support Network, International Concerned Family and Friends
of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Campaign to End the Death Penalty and
Refuse and Resist!
The main political reason for this protest is explained in a
call to action that was sent out by the International Action
Center to thousands of people contacting them about April 4.
It stresses: "When the U.S. government targets any one of
our leaders, it's targeting more than one individual, it's
our move ment that they seek to destroy. On April 4, 1968,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered by the government
because he posed a threat to the racist status quo. Mumia
Abu-Jamal is another leader that the government has targeted
because they fear his revolutionary influence."
Another bold action has been set for May 12. That day has
been designated as an international day in solidarity with
Abu-Jamal. It comes one day before the 16th anniversary of
the bombing of MOVE by the government. That racist
firebombing resulted in 11 men, women and children being
massacred, and an entire Black neighborhood in West
Philadelphia being destroyed.
The IAC, along with other organizations, is initiating a May
11-13 encampment in Philadelphia for Abu-Jamal's freedom.
People are encouraged to bring tents, sleeping bags, and
enough food and water for a few days. This encampment will
let the courts and government know that the movement will
not rest until Abu-Jamal is free to walk among the masses of
people where he belongs.
The political movement is also still preparing to mobilize
to come to Phila delphia to pack the streets and the
courtroom once Federal District Judge William Yohn has
announced what day oral arguments will begin on whether Abu-
Jamal will have a right to an evidentiary hearing. For more
than a year Abu-Jamal and the movement have been awaiting
word of this date.
His case entered the federal appeals process in December
1999. Since then four amicus briefs have been filed on Abu-
Jamal's behalf. Yohn has denied all.
Two of the briefs make powerful arguments about the extent
of collusion among Abu-Jamal's original lawyer, the district
attorney and the judge in his first trial. And they point
out that the original judge--"hanging judge" Albert Sabo--
denied Abu-Jamal's right to defend himself and to have John
Africa serve as co-counsel.
The briefs argue that these violations of Abu-Jamal's
constitutional rights to due process are so huge and so
egregious that they alone should be grounds for overturning
the original verdict and setting him free.
Those seeking to undermine Abu-Jamal's fight for freedom
will no doubt seize on another development in his legal
battle.
On March 6, Abu-Jamal filed a petition to the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to allow him
to dismiss his legal counsel, Leonard Weinglass and Dan
Williams, for "conflict of interest" and violation of client-
lawyer confidentiality. By filing this petition, Abu-Jamal
hopes to be allowed enough time to reconstitute a new legal
team.
The conflict of interest was based on an "inside account"
book on Abu-Jamal's case written by Williams that is
scheduled to be released in April. Williams wrote this book
without Abu-Jamal's prior knowledge or consent. Many of his
key supporters also were not informed about the book.
The book reportedly raises criticisms of Abu-Jamal's
political supporters. It also delves into differences
between Abu-Jamal and his lawyers about legal strategies in
his case.
Some in the bourgeois media--like Dave Lindorff, a writer
for Salon magazine--are using the Williams book as an excuse
to politically attack Abu-Jamal and to characterize many of
his supporters on the left as a "fringe element." These
reactionary and diversionary attacks should be countered--in
writing and in the streets.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's life is at stake. The repressive
capitalist state and the media want to legally lynch him
with little direct intervention from the political movement
or from any sector of the masses of workers and oppressed
peoples.
Abu-Jamal should have the final say in terms of who
represents him as legal counsel and what his legal strategy
should be. It is important for political activists not to
second-guess him in his decision to change his legal
counsel.
Instead, supporters need to keep a clear focus on the task
at hand--building broad political support for Mumia Abu-
Jamal.
Just as there were powerful movements during the 1970s to
free Huey P. Newton, Angela Davis and other political
prisoners, the movement here and worldwide must continue to
build momentum to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The IAC call to action for April 4 concludes: "It is our
movement's efforts, around the country and around the world,
that have made more people aware of who Mumia Abu-Jamal is.
It is because of our movement that thousands of people are
outraged at the racist frame-up of this innocent man.
"And it is our movement, committed to fighting to save his
life, that will make the difference, that will liberate
Mumia from death row and bring him back to his family and to
us."
For more information on the April 4 rally and march, May 12
encampment in Philadelphia, and Abu-Jamal's day in court,
contact IAC at 212-633-6646 or go to www.iacenter.org or
www.mumia2000.org.
