Struggle continues to free him and all political prisoners!
On Wednesday, December 7, Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams announced that he would not pursue a new trial for African political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Instead he has chosen to settle for a sentence of life without parole.
This decision came in response to the U.S. supreme court’s declaration that Mumia’s death sentence was unconstitutional (http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=world-wide-movement-beats-back-death-penalty-in-mumia-abu-jamal-case).
As a result of the supreme court’s decision, Williams was left with the option to pursue an entirely new trial, or to settle for a life sentence, without parole.
As a justification for the State’s retreat, and a way for Williams to save face, Williams claimed that the decision was based on his concern for saving resources for the city.
At a press conference in which he announced the decision, Williams claimed that he did not want to see the government forced to spend any more of the people’s money on the case.
This is ironic coming from the same DA’s office that, along with the police and prison system in Philly, wastes more than $1 billion of the people’s money every year on attacking the African community.
This is also a political defeat for Williams himself who, while running for district attorney, included in his campaign platform the promise to pursue Mumia’s execution.
However, the State could not risk holding a new trial for a number of reasons, one being the overwhelming material evidence and witness testimony proving Mumia’s innocence. Furthermore, a new trial would mobilize the masses in Philadelphia and worldwide to take to the streets demanding Mumia’s release.
While the movement’s ability to stop Mumia’s execution is a victory, it must be seen as only a partial victory for the African Liberation Movement. The fact is that life without parole is a death penalty.
Moreover, Mumia is not in prison based on his guilt or innocence. He is in prison because of his role in the movement to overturn the brutal and parasitic colonial relationship that the U.S. government has with African people.
Mumia didn’t do it, but he had a right to!
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) rejects the notion that Mumia is somehow the criminal and that his captivity in prison is an act of justice.
We reject the notion that we must prove his innocence to anybody, much less the U.S. government, the biggest criminal organization on the planet.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner, locked down because of his conscious opposition to the U.S. government’s war against the African community.
Mumia represented the voice of the African community in opposition to the terrorist attacks Philadelphia police waged against the community as seen in the brutal assaults on the MOVE house and the police bombing of the African community on Osage Avenue in 1985.
No matter how one may try to flip it, bounce it or turn it inside out, the U.S. government has no redeeming qualities.
The police, one of whom the State claims Mumia killed, have no more right to occupy and contain the African community than the U.S. marines have to invade and occupy Libya, Afghanistan and other lands of oppressed peoples.
This is why we say that, while the evidence clearly shows that Mumia did not do it, he had a right to resist, just as the people of Egypt, Afghanistan and the Philippines have a right to resist and permanently throw the yoke of U.S. oppression off their backs.
It is such resistance, which brims just beneath the surface of every ghetto in North America, that the State fears most.
It is out of fear of such resistance that the U.S. government finds it necessary to lock up, assassinate or force into exile all of our freedom fighters.
We say that African people have a responsibility to liberate all political prisoners and prisoners of war held in U.S. prisons.
And the masses of Africans who are also locked down by the colonial State for the purpose of weakening our people’s capacity to resist must also be set free.
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Free all African political prisoners and prisoners of war!
Join the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement today!
