WW News Service Digest #313
1) Mumia Supporters to Converge Sept. 14, 15
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) South Africa, World Remember Govan Mbeki
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) Fidel Castro to Racism Conference
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) After Murder of PFLP Leader
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 6. syyskuu 2001 05:52
Subject: [WW] Mumia Supporters to Converge Sept. 14, 15
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WITH MORE NEW EVIDENCE SHOWING RACIST
CONSPIRACY: MUMIA SUPPORTERS TO CONVERGE IN
PHILLY SEPT. 14 AND 15
By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Philadelphia
With more dramatic new evidence surfacing in his case and
the time for appeals growing shorter, supporters of Mumia
Abu-Jamal will be returning to Philadelphia on Sept. 14 and
15 for activities demanding a new trial and freedom for the
imprisoned revolutionary Black journalist.
On Aug. 28 Abu-Jamal's new legal team filed yet another
important piece of evidence on his behalf in state and
federal courts here in Philadelphia.
It was an affidavit signed the day before by Terri Maurer-
Carter, a stenographer who had worked for the Court of
Common Pleas in the County of Philadelphia during 1982.
After stating her qualifications as official court
stenographer, she wrote:
"In 1982, a few months after I started working at the Court
of Common Pleas, I was sent to a courtroom different than
that I usually worked in because the judge I was assigned to
was going to be doing VOP (Violation of Probation) and post-
verdict motion hearings there that day. I went through the
anteroom on my way to that courtroom where Judge Sabo and
another person were engaged in conversation.
"Judge Sabo was discussing the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
During the course of that conversation, I heard Judge Sabo
say, 'Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the n----r.'
There were three people present when Judge Sabo made that
remark, including myself."
This racist comment by Judge Albert Sabo is no surprise to
those familiar with Abu-Jamal's case. Sabo, who presided
over Abu-Jamal's first trial and his post-conviction
hearings, is infamous for the high number of prisoners he
has sent to death row, which has earned him the nickname
"Hanging Sabo."
His racist rulings during Abu-Jamal's hearings are well
known to those attending those court proceedings. His past
affiliation with the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police
and his bias against the defense make him a prosecutor in
judge's robes.
The racist remark Maurer-Carter overheard is another fact in
a mountain of evidence gathered lately that proves beyond
doubt the flawed, racist and unjust process that sent Abu-
Jamal to death row.
Its surfacing should automatically grant Abu-Jamal at least
a new, fair trial and should offend the judicial
sensibilities of all those involved in the "legal justice
system." Instead, it has been used by the mainstream media
to vilify and discount the credibility of the witness and of
Mumia supporters.
During a press conference after the filing, held in front of
the mayor's office at Philadelphia's City Hall, an
unprecedented number of corporate media attended on very
short notice. While their presence shows the importance the
case has to the ruling class, the coverage afterwards was
another matter. It was used to accuse Maurer-Carter of being
a Mumia supporter and anti-death penalty opponent. The
content of her statement was virtually ignored.
In this case, which represents the essence of the capitalist
judicial system, witnesses and testimonies have been
suppressed, ignored and threatened. The racist maneuvers of
judges, prosecutors and police have all but dominated every
court proceeding, with complete complicity of the capitalist
media. Judge Sabo may have retired, but the state and
federal court judges on Abu-Jamal's case, who try not to
appear as vicious and outspoken as Sabo, so far have
accepted none of the filings by his defense team.
Now Mumia Abu-Jamal faces his last round of appeals. But his
case will not be won in these courts. Only the constant
mobilization of masses of people demanding his freedom will
bring about justice--as in 1995, when a massive
demonstration in Philadelphia stopped his execution.
The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-
Jamal are planning an event on Sept. 14 focusing on the
death penalty, to be held at the Friends Center at 1515
Cherry St. beginning at 6 p.m.
Then, on Saturday the 15th, there will be an Emergency
Action for Mumia mass demonstration at Philadelphia City
Hall starting at 1 p.m. For information contact the ICFFMAJ
at (215) 476-8812.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 6. syyskuu 2001 05:52
Subject: [WW] South Africa, World Remember Govan Mbeki
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SOUTH AFRICA, WORLD REMEMBER GOVAN MBEKI
Special to Workers World
Durban, South Africa
Govan Mbeki died Aug. 30, one day before the opening of the
World Conference Against Racism. He was 91 years old. Mbeki
was memorialized by mass rallies across South Africa,
including at a huge march and rally by the Congress of South
African Trade Unions here in Durban. Mbeki devoted much of
his life to building the South African labor movement. His
funeral will be held Sept. 8 in Port Elizabeth.
Mbeki, known as Om Gov by the South African people, was the
father of South African President Thabo Mbeki. He was also a
great leader of the struggle against apartheid. He was a
founder of the African National Congress and a lifelong
member of the South African Communist Party.
Born in Transkei in 1910, he became active at the age of 15
with the Industrial and Commercial Union, South Africa's
first mass organization of Black workers. In his life he was
a peasant organizer, a writer and an editor of the
liberation newspapers New Age and Spark.
In 1962 Mbeki was declared a "banned person" by the
apartheid regime. Rather than remain cut off from the
struggle, he went underground and helped organize the armed
struggle against apartheid. He was arrested and sentenced to
life imprisonment along with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu,
Ahmed Kathrada, Dennis Goldberg and other ANC leaders. He
was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1961 until the mass
struggle won his release in 1987.
Upon leaving prison, he immediately returned to the work of
the ANC. He wrote several books, including "South Africa:
The Peasants Revolt." In 1980 the ANC conferred upon him the
time-honored title of Isithwalandwie.
- END -
(Copyright 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)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 6. syyskuu 2001 05:52
Subject: [WW] Fidel Castro to Racism Conference
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FIDEL CASTRO TO RACISM CONFERENCE: "WE ARE ON THE
VERGE OF A HUGE GLOBAL CRISIS"
Excerpts from the key address by Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, president
of the Republic of Cuba, at the World Conference against Racism,
Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban,
South Africa, Sept. 1
Excellencies:
Delegates and guests:
Racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia are not
naturally instinctive reactions of human beings but rather a
social, cultural and political phenomenon born directly of
wars, military conquests, slavery and the individual or
collective exploitation of the weakest by the most powerful
all through the history of human societies.
No one has the right to boycott this conference, which tries
to bring some sort of relief to the overwhelming majority of
humankind afflicted by unbearable suffering and enormous
injustice. Neither has anyone the right to set preconditions
to this conference or urge it to avoid the discussion of
historical responsibility, fair compensation or the way we
decide to rate the dreadful genocide perpetrated, at this
very moment, against our Palestinian brothers by extreme
right leaders who, in alliance with the hegemonic
superpower, pretend to be acting on behalf of another people
which throughout almost 2,000 years was the victim of the
most fierce persecution, discrimination and injustice that
history has known.
Cuba speaks of reparations, and supports this idea as an
unavoidable moral duty to the victims of racism, based on a
major precedent, that is, the indemnification being paid to
the descendants of the Hebrew people who in the very heart
of Europe suffered the brutal and loathsome racist
holocaust. However, it is not with the intent to undertake
an impossible search for the direct descendants or the
specific countries of the victims of actions occurred
throughout centuries. The irrefutable truth is that tens of
millions of Africans were captured, sold like a commodity
and sent beyond the Atlantic to work in slavery while 70
million Indigenous people in that hemisphere perished as a
result of the European conquest and colonization.
The inhuman exploitation imposed on the peoples of three
continents, including Asia, marked forever the destiny and
lives of over 4.5 billion people living in the Third World
today whose poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and health
rates as well as their infant mortality, life expectancy and
other calamities--too many, in fact, to enumerate here--are
certainly awesome and harrowing. They are the current
victims of that atrocity which lasted centuries and the ones
who clearly deserve compensation for the horrendous crimes
perpetrated against their ancestors and peoples.
Actually, such a brutal exploitation did not end when many
countries became independent, not even after the formal
abolition of slavery. Right after independence, the main
ideologists of the American Union that emerged when the 13
colonies got rid of the British domination at the end of the
18th century, advanced ideas and strategies unquestionably
expansionist in nature.
It was based on such ideas that the ancient white settlers
of European descent, in their march to the West, forcibly
occupied the lands in which Native Americans had lived for
thousands of years, thus exterminating millions of them in
the process. But they did not stop at the boundaries of the
former Spanish possessions; consequently Mexico, a Latin
American country that had attained its independence in 1821,
was stripped of millions of square kilometers of territory
and invaluable natural resources.
Meanwhile, in the increasingly powerful and expansionist
nation born in North America, the obnoxious and inhumane
slavery system stayed in place for almost a century after
the famous Declaration of Independence of 1776 was issued,
the same that proclaimed that all men were born free and
equal.
After the purely formal slave emancipation, African
Americans were subjected during one hundred more years to
the harshest racial discrimination, and many of its features
and consequences still persist after almost four more
decades of heroic struggles and the achievements of the
1960s, for which Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other
outstanding fighters gave their lives. Based on a purely
racist rationale, the longest and most severe legal
sentences are passed against African Americans who in the
wealthy American society are bound to live in dire poverty
and with the lowest living standards.
Likewise, what is left of the Native American peoples, who
were the first to inhabit a large portion of the current
territory of the United States of America, remain under even
worse conditions of discrimination and neglect.
Needless to mention the data on the social and economic
situation of Africa, where entire countries and even whole
regions of sub-Saharan Africa are in risk of extinction, the
result of an extremely complex combination of economic
backwardness, excruciating poverty and grave diseases, both
old and new, that have become a true scourge. And the
situation is no less dramatic in numerous Asian countries.
On top of all this, there are the huge and unpayable debts,
the disparate terms of trade, the ruinous prices of basic
commodities, the demographic explosion, the neoliberal
globalization and the climate changes that produce long
droughts alternating with increasingly intensive rains and
floods. It can be mathematically proven that such a
predicament is unsustainable. ...
There are enough funds to save the world from tragedy.
May the arms race and the weapons commerce that only bring
devastation and death truly end.
Let be used for development a good part of the one trillion
U.S. dollars annually spent on commercial advertising that
creates false illusions and inaccessible consumer habits
while releasing the venom that destroys national cultures
and identities.
May the modest 0.7 percentage point of the Gross National
Product promised as official development assistance be
finally delivered.
May the tax suggested by Nobel Prize Laureate James Tobin be
imposed in a reasonable and effective way on the current
speculative operations accounting for trillions of U.S.
dollars every 24 hours; then the United Nations, which
cannot go on depending on meager, inadequate, and belated
donations and charities, will have one trillion U.S. dollars
annually to save and develop the world. Given the
seriousness and urgency of the existing problems, which have
become a real hazard for the very survival of our species on
the planet, that is what would actually be needed before it
is too late.
Put an end to the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian
people that is taking place while the world stares in
amazement. May the basic right to life of that people,
children and youth, be protected. May their right to peace
and independence be respected; then, there will be nothing
to fear from UN documents.
I am aware that the need for some relief from the awful
situation their countries are facing has led many friends
from Africa and other regions to suggest the need for such
prudence as would allow something to come out of this
conference. I sympathize with them but I cannot renounce my
convictions, as I feel that the more candid we are in
telling the truth the more possibilities there will be to be
heeded and respected. There have been enough centuries of
deception.
I have only three other short questions based on realities
that cannot be ignored.
The capitalist, developed and wealthy countries today
participate in the imperialist system born of capitalism
itself and the economic order imposed on the world based on
the philosophy of selfishness and the brutal competition
between people, nations and groups of nations which is
completely indifferent to any feelings of solidarity and
honest international cooperation. They live under the
misleading, irresponsible and hallucinating atmosphere of
consumer societies. Thus, regardless of the sincerity of
their blind faith in such a system and the convictions of
their most serious statesmen, I wonder: Will they be able to
understand the grave problems of today's world, which in its
incoherent and uneven development is ruled by blind laws, by
the huge power and the interests of the ever growing and
increasingly uncontrollable and independent transnational
corporations?
Will they come to understand the impending universal chaos
and rebellion? And, even if they wanted to, could they put
an end to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
other related issues, which are precisely the rest of them
all?
>From my viewpoint we are on the verge of a huge economic,
social and political global crisis. Let's try to build an
awareness about these realities and the alternatives will
come up. History has shown that it is only from deep crisis
that great solutions have emerged. The peoples' right to
life and justice will definitely impose itself under a
thousand different shapes.
I believe in the mobilization and the struggle of the
peoples! I believe in the idea of justice! I believe in
truth! I believe in humanity!
Thank you.
- END -
(Copyright 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:
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 6. syyskuu 2001 05:52
Subject: [WW] After Murder of PFLP Leader
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AFTER MURDER OF PFLP LEADER: OUTPOURING OF ANGER
AND SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE
By Richard Becker
The Israeli Army assassinated Abu Ali Mustafa, general
secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, on the morning of Aug. 27 as he sat at his desk
in Ramallah, Palestine. The murder weapon was a U.S.-
supplied attack helicopter, which fired two missiles into
his office.
Three other people were wounded in the assault on the
building, which housed more than 50 residents.
The cold-blooded killing of Abu Ali Mustafa evoked a massive
outpouring of grief and anger in several Middle East
countries, as well as an escalation of the Palestinian armed
resistance movement fighting Israeli occupation. A three-day
period of national mourning and general strike was declared
by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority.
More than 50,000 joined a militant funeral march in Ramallah
on Aug. 28, despite the near total sealing off of West Bank
and Gaza cities and towns by the Israeli army. A PFLP
military honor guard accompanied the coffin, while the chant
"Abu Ali Mustafa-Your blood will not be wasted," rang
through the streets. Demonstrations were held in many other
Palestinian cities on the same day.
Tens of thousands marched defiantly in the Ein al-Hilweh,
Bourj al-Bourajaneh, Shatila and other Palestinian refugee
camps in Lebanon. Lebanon Information Minister Ghazi Aridi,
speaking at the Mar Elias refugee camp, said: "We are
overwhelmed by the feeling that the orders for assassinating
Palestinian leaders, destroying infrastructure and hitting
at the Palestinian people come from the White House. They
are American orders carried out in Israel."
The Lebanese Communist Party issued a statement saying,
"Washington keeps encouraging the butcher, Israeli Premier
Ariel Sharon, to continue to liquidate Palestinian leaders."
More than 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians had been killed
in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, carried out under
Sharon's direction.
Yarmouk, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, was
shut down by a strike and mass protest of more than 10,000
people. All Syrian broadcasting was interrupted on Aug. 27
to carry an announcement of the assassination.
In Jordan, 13 unions declared a strike on the day of
Mustafa's funeral and demonstrations took place in the many
Palestinian camps in that country. Palestinian refugees and
their descendants comprise two-thirds of Jordan's
population. At the Baqaa camp, protesters chanted, "No to an
Israeli Embassy, no to an Israeli ambassador in Jordan."
MORE THAN 60 LEADERS MURDERED
Abu Ali Mustafa was the most prominent of more than 60
Palestinian leaders and activists assassinated by the
Israeli military since the new Intifada, or uprising, began
11 months ago.
The PFLP, which is usually slandered as a "terrorist"
organization in the capitalist media, is the largest
Palestinian Marxist party and has wide influence throughout
the Middle East and beyond. In a statement released the day
of his murder, the PFLP leadership said:
"Abu Ali Mustafa, the head of the second largest group
within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was
murdered by Sharon and his government. Sharon, however, acts
with the full support and backing of the U.S. administration
who bears full responsibility for the new escalation in the
Middle East, due to its uncritical, unconditional and blind
support of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
"Abu Ali Mustafa presented the vision of an all-encompassing
Palestinian state where people would live together in
freedom regardless of their race, religion, or color. He
called for a true democratic society where the rights of the
majority are protected by the fulfillment of the rights of
the minorities. He called the Palestinian resistance
movement against the Israeli racist, colonialist occupation
a duty for every Palestinian and for every person who
believes in equality, justice and peace. Abu Ali Mustafa
lived and died defending the Palestinian cause and the
rights of the Palestinian people.
"Dear comrades! Although the loss of Abu Ali Mustafa seems
too great to bear, you should not be discouraged. The PFLP
has a solid history, strong party structures, and popular
support to sustain it. Our struggle for freedom and
independence continues! We will not surrender, and neither
should you. Victory is coming!"
A LIFE OF POLITICAL WORK AND STRUGGLE
The PFLP statement was accompanied by a brief outline of the
life of their slain leader:
"Abu Ali Mustafa (Mustafa Ali Al-Ali Zabri) joined the Arab
National Movement in 1955 and became a member of the Arab
National Association in Amman. Together with his comrades
and colleagues, he confronted the Jordanian government,
calling for the annulment of the Jordanian-British pact and
the dismissal of British officers from the Jordanian army.
"In April 1957, he was arrested and imprisoned for several
months, shortly after the Jordanian parliament was dissolved
and the Suleiman Nabulsi government was dismissed. During
that time, political parties were banned and Abu Ali was
arrested again with many others who were tried in a military
court. He was sentenced to five years in Jafer Prison in
east Jordan.
"After being released from prison in 1961, Abu Ali Mustafa
continued his political work with the Arab National Movement
and became responsible for the Northern District of the West
Bank. He founded and built two organizations, one public,
and one underground.
"In 1966, Abu Ali was arrested again during a widespread
operation organized by the Jordanian government against the
Arab National Movement. Abu Ali was imprisoned without trial
for several months in Zarka Prison in Jordan.
"After the 1967 War, Abu Ali Mustafa joined Dr. George
Habash in forming the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine. He led the first commandos through the Jordan
River inside Palestine and started forming the underground
body of the PFLP. The Israelis searched in vain for him
while he was hiding out in the West Bank. After several
months, he secretly returned to Jordan.
"In addition to being responsible for the PFLP in the West
Bank, Abu Ali Mustafa became the commando-in-chief of the
PFLP military forces (including the period comprising the
battles in Amman in September 1970 and the battle of Ajloun
in July 1971). Afterwards, he left secretly for Lebanon.
"In 1972, at the Third National Conference of the PFLP, Abu
Ali was elected deputy general secretary. From 1987 until
1991 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO.
At the PFLP Sixth National Conference in July 2000, Abu Ali
was elected general secretary."
STATEMENT BY GEORGE HABASH
George Habash, founder and long-time leader of the PFLP and
Mustafa's predecessor, issued a statement that read in part:
"Today I received with great sadness the news about the
assassination of the leader Abu Ali Mustafa by Sharon and
his Zionist gang. This heinous crime that has robbed us of
our long-standing comrade for over half a century, reaffirms
that the Zionist enemy is determined to annihilate the
leaders of our revolution and its cadres in order to force
us to surrender.
"This enemy has apparently not learned the lessons of
history. The enemy has not yet learned that the Palestinian
people, who have offered hundreds of leaders and thousands
of fighters, will not kneel in surrender. On the contrary,
we will persevere in the struggle no matter how long it
takes to regain our rights and the rights of our nation. We
will remain steadfast in the struggle until the Zionist,
colonialist project is defeated.
"On this day we remember Ghassan Kanafani, Guevara Gaza, Al
Amassi, Abu Jihad, Abu Iyad, Faisal Husseini; and before
them we remember Al-Qassam and Abd al-Qader Al-Husseini, and
countless others who have fallen in the battle for
Palestine. Their sacrifice and their memory motivates us to
persevere.
"As I convey to our people and to the Arab Nation the loss
of Abu Ali Mustafa whose determination, courage and strength
distinguished him over so many years, I assure you that the
shedding of his blood will not be in vain. His comrades and
his people will inhale the strength of his soul and become
stronger and more determined to continue the struggle for
freedom and independence."
Leaders of all Palestinian organizations met with
Palestinian Authority President Yasir Arafat to pay tribute
to Mustafa, and representatives of Fatah, Hamas, the
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other
organizations joined in the militant funeral march.
SOLIDARITY FROM MANY COUNTRIES
Messages of condolences and solidarity were sent from
progressive and revolutionary organizations in many
countries (see WWP message in this issue).
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that it
"strongly condemns the dastardly assassination of Comrade
Abu Ali Mustafa. The missile attack on the PFLP office at
Ramallah targeting its leadership is the latest incident of
the brutal aggression by the Israeli government. The real
face of the Sharon government is seen in their heinous
assassination program."
The Workers Party of Belgium (PTB) pointed out: "Murdering
Palestinian leaders and activists who oppose Israel's
policies is an act of terrorism that sharply contrasts with
the Israelis' democratic pretensions. ... The escalation of
Israel's total war against the Palestinian people is leading
to gradual re-occupation and a further colonization of
Palestine, and shows that Israel does not want peace."
Ziad Asali, president of the American Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee (ADC) in the U.S., said: "This
latest assassination once again demonstrates Israel's
determination to use any method, no matter how brutal or
illegal, to enforce its 34-year occupation of Palestinian
lands and impose its will on the Palestinian people. It is
this occupation which is the cause of the conflict."
- END -
(Copyright 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)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 6. syyskuu 2001 05:52
Subject: [WW] Los Angeles Solidarity with Palestine
