FOR INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS ACTION TO FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
The Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (RWG-Z), section of the International Leninist Trotskyist Tendency (ILTT), stands in solidarity with workers in the US and globally at rallies in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and Oakland on 15 and 16 December respectively demanding the immediate release of Mumia Abu-Jamal. International protests by trade unions and activists prevented his execution in 1995 and today we need to escalate labor actions to end his incarceration.
While Mumia and his legal team pursue every option the courts allow, workers and the oppressed must reject any reliance on judicial processes which camouflage the class character of the legal system. The capitalist class, its judiciary and its historic COINTELPRO program are determined to punish Black America for rebelling in the 60’s and 70’s. Mumia and other class war prisoners like Leonard Peltier have been paying that price for decades.
Mumia is innocent and he was framed. Mumia was targeted because of his political association with the Black Panthers and the MOVE organization in Philadelphia, and because he was not afraid to speak out against injustice and oppression as the “voice of the voiceless”. We know Mumia did not murder Officer Daniel Faulkner. The real killer, Arnold Beverly, confessed to the killing.
The evidence that should free him has now come to light, after being kept in the dark by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. On 26 October 2022 the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge denied Mumia’s appeal for hearing the newly revealed evidence that challenges his conviction and post-conviction appeal denials. Mumia is challenging the judge’s “tentative opinion”, and on 16 December 2022 the judge will issue her decision.
African workers recognise Mumia as a class war prisoner and demand his release. Today he fights for a new trial but the capitalist courts deny the evidence that exonerates him. We join workers internationally who call for Mumia’s immediate release. We call for class conscious unions to coordinate international labour actions against US imperialism to win freedom and expunge all the charges and his conviction.
In Zimbabwe, the legal system has been weaponised to persecute, harass and jail workers, trade unionists and activists by an authoritarian and anti-worker regime at the service of imperialism. Job Sikhala, a leading member of the mainstream petit bourgeoisie opposition, the Citizens Coalition for Change, is languishing in jail for many months now in an attempt by the regime to send a clear message especially to workers and trade unionists that it would not tolerate any opposition to the neo liberal policies being shoved on the working masses for the benefit of all wings of imperialism, especially the China/Russia wing. We are calling for working class action to Free Job Sikhala and all other political prisoners, defeat dictatorship, capitalism and imperialism.
Black liberation in the US like that of all oppressed peoples and nations cannot be won short of the socialist revolution. Black oppression in the imperialist countries and in the semi colonies ensures super profits for imperialism leading to human and environmental catastrophe that can only be averted by a socialist revolution.
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now!
For a New Revolutionary Workers International to overthrow capitalism and imperialism internationally!
Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (RWG-Z), Harare, 12/14/2020
Endorsed by:
Communist Workers Group USA
Grupo de Trabalhadores Revolucionários do Brasil (Revolutionary Workers Group of Brazil)
Communist Workers’ Group of New Zealand/Aotearoa
