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300,000 in Cuba hear Mumia?s son - In U.S., protests planned at Dem/Rep gabfests
July 14, 2000 @ 05:00:00 am
/ WW / - The "summer of resistance" to save Black freedom fighter Mumia Abu-Jamal is gathering strength on both sides of the Florida Straits. Gary Graham/Shaka Sankofa's June 22 execution made the death penalty a red-hot issue--one Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore are trying like hell to avoid talking about.

But activists in the United States don't plan on letting them sweep the plight of 3,600 death-row inmates under the rug. They plan big demonstrations at the Republican and Democratic conventions to step up the pressure.

The summer protests will demand a new trial for Abu-Jamal, the revolutionary journalist on Pennsylvania's death row, and an end to the racist death penalty.

Meanwhile, Cuba's socialist government is pressing ahead with its plan to bring Abu-Jamal's case to that country and the world.

On July 1 Mazi Jamal, Abu-Jamal's son, was the invited guest speaker at a rally of more than 300,000 people protesting the U.S. blockade and the Cuban Adjustment Act in Manzanillo, Cuba.

The protesters, many of them youths and students, celebrated Eli?n Gonz?lez's homecoming.

Jamal scoffed at the U.S. government's claim to be the "land of freedom," noting the tremendous disparities in death sentences and prison terms based on race.

After thanking the Cuban people for their support, Jamal added, "With that support I know my father will one day be free, as your child Eli?n is free."

Earlier, on June 19, Cuba broadcast the first in a series of national roundtable discussions on the U.S. death penalty.

Leading U.S. activists participated in the discussion, including Pam Africa of International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Monica Moorehead of Millions for Mumia, and Abu-Jamal's attorney Leonard Weinglass.

The transcript was rapidly published and distributed across the island. It also went to Cuban diplomatic offices worldwide.

Convention protest controversy

In Philadelphia, site of the Republican National Convention, and Los Angeles, site of the Democratic National Convention, police and government officials are trying to suppress the right to protest.

The big-business politicians are scared. They worry that the militant style of protests seen at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington will spill over onto their carefully choreographed shindigs.

They are especially determined to squelch death-penalty protests. It's the issue where Gore and Bush--both backers of legal lynching--have the most to lose as they try to court workers and people of color for Election Day.

Philadelphia police have granted a few protest permits. Millions for Mumia and other groups plan a major Free Mumia/anti-death-penalty contingent in one of these, the July 30 "Unity 2000" march.

A coalition of groups, including the New York Free Mumia Coalition, has called for a day of mass civil disobedience at the convention's Aug. 1 opening.

Los Angeles cops haven't given any permits. They want to push protesters into a deserted, fenced-in lot far from the Democratic Convention.

The Los Angeles Coalition to Free Mumia and the International Action Center have called for a national demonstration for Abu-Jamal on Aug. 13.

The groups are working with the American Civil Liberties Union and others to secure a permit. But, Preston Wood of the IAC told Workers World, the march will go forward with or without a permit.

As Abu-Jamal's supporters prepare for the showdown, they can take heart from the words of Cuban President Fidel Castro. In a written message to the rally where Mazi Jamal spoke, Castro said, "Whoever may be the new president of the United States should know that Cuba is and will be there with its ideas, its example, and the unbendable rebellion of its people."

For more information on protests at the conventions, readers can visit the Web site www.mumia2000.org or call Millions for Mumia/IAC in New York at (212) 633-6646 or San Francisco at (415) 821-5782.

- 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 contactWorkers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: @workers. org.">ww @workers. org. For subscription info send message to: @workers. org.">info @workers. org. Web: https://www.workers.org

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