After the upcoming new film on Mumia's case (premiering in Philly on Sept. 21), please mark in your calendars OCTOBER 9th for being in Philadelphia. That is the best way to observe the WORLD DAY AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY. As you know, some in the anti-death penalty movement have tried to exclude Mumia from the list of those who need vigorous advocacy and defense. This special day is a chance to call for 100 percent abolition of the death penalty, for everyone, including Mumia Abu-Jamal. You can find further information, complete with flyers and dates, at The Free Mumia Coalition (NYC). Also, read at this our own EMAJ site, two boxes below, the EMAJ statement on the importance of the Mumia movement for the entire abolitionist movement. See you in Philadelphia on October 9!

Actually there are two new movies, a slick, propagandistic hatchet job supported by the FOP, called "The Barrel of a Gun," and a new one that is a fresh powerful statement about Mumia's struggle for justice, the cogency of his case, all the while allowing police and prosecutors also to talk on camera. It will be an educational and powerful alternative to the Hollywood-type entertainment drama served up by the FOP film on the same day. This new movie will be shown at 8:00 p.m. at the Ritz East in Philadelphia. Look for EMAJ to host later showings of the film on college campuses in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Progress on this new movie is running on schedule. Those who have screened portions of it are excited. BUT HERE'S HOW YOU CAN MAKE AN ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE RIGHT NOW. Please consider donating to this very important film's production. One of the EMAJ coordinators, Johanna Fernandez of Baruch College, is serving as Producer of the film, Kouross Esmaeli as Director, and Aljernon Tunsil (of the Freedom Riders documentary) as Editor. Read here, the LETTER OF APPEAL FOR FUNDS which EMAJ has posted. Weigh the issues in this letter carefully. Mumia's life, and justice for him, are hanging in the balance. Thanks everyone! . . . from Tameka Cage, Johanna Fernandez, and Mark Taylor, the EMAJ Coordinators.

Reports have leaked of a secret memo in which some US anti-death penalty activists showed reluctance to advocate on behalf of Pennsylvania’s death row journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal. The memo was entitled, “Involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal Endangers the US Coalition for Abolition of the Death Penalty.” It reveals what has been called the “throw Mumia under the bus” tendency of the larger effort to abolish the death penalty. We have seen this before.

Every once in awhile someone on the allegedly liberal left tries to drive a wedge between abolitionists of the death penalty generally, and those struggling for Abu-Jamal. One of the more memorable instances was in 1998 when Marc Cooper, a Nation magazine writer, wrote in The New York Press about how the movement for Mumia Abu-Jamal is “a bane” on the more solid committed folk trying to end the US death penalty.

This year’s memo is a special affront, presuming that there is some virtue in abolitionist movements “cultivating” relations with the Fraternal Order of Police [FOP], which long has been a vigorous advocate for Mumia’s execution and which keeps a “list” of individuals and organizations that support Mumia’s struggle. EMAJ condemns any such planning between abolitionist movements and the FOP. For anti-death penalty movements to cultivate relations to a police union like the FOP, which is unabashedly lobbying for Mumia’s execution, is at best ineffective, at worst a collusion with the forces that keep state-sanctioned killing in place in this country. Moreover, it overlooks the long history of egregious violence and violation, which law enforcement in the U.S. has visited upon communities of color in the U.S.

To be sure, police, prosecutors and others of the criminal justice establishment have spoken out for Mumia and against the death penalty. Ronald Hampton’s advocacy for Mumia, as Executive Director of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), is a clear example. As an organization the NBPA protests the death penalty in all circumstances, even when a police officer has been murdered. These are the only kinds of voices from members of law enforcement that a truly anti-death penalty movement should welcome. State-sanctioned murder of anyone is an affront to an authentic abolitionist movement. Abolitionist movements must resist the temptations of big money and stand strong against the powerful pressures by which law enforcement officials today try to co-opt elements of the abolitionist movement, seeking to preserve the death penalty for its purposes.

Generally, Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal (EMAJ) opposes any division that is created between the Mumia movement and the broader effort to abolish capital punishment. The struggle for Mumia is one with the struggle of the broader abolitionist movement. EMAJ published in 1998 an essay by Mark Taylor, one of the signers of this statement, under the title, “Mumia and the 3400: Why Stopping Mumia’s Execution Helps End all Executions in the US.” In this new 2010 statement, EMAJ vigorously reaffirms the unity of the movement for Mumia and of the broader abolitionist movement.

1.      Every one of the some 3200 men and women presently on US death row, whatever we think of their guilt or innocence, or of the nature of their alleged crimes, warrants advocacy and our best efforts to prevent their execution. Even though various ones of us may need to concentrate our advocacy in ways that highlight different figures (say, Mumia, or Troy Davis, or Reggie Clemons, or any of the many others), this concentration of effort on one should not be seen as a disparagement of any other death row prisoner’s struggle for life and justice.

2.      Mumia’s struggle and his writings (rarely about his own case and usually about broader political issues) have dramatically personalized the issue of the death penalty for especially youth in urban communities of color, but also in other regions of the U.S. and internationally. His story of resistance and political struggle has caught the imagination of many and so brought new voices into the struggle against the death penalty. This was dramatically evident in the April 2010 gathering at the EMAJ event at Barnard College (Columbia University), where a lecture hall was packed out with more than 500 people, mostly young people of all backgrounds, to hear not only a “phone-in” from Mumia, but also discussions by Cornel West, Vijay Prashad, and film-maker Jamal Joseph about the importance of Mumia’s case and struggle.

3.      Mumia’s arrest, conviction, and continual denial of appeals crystallizes and distills – thus makes more readily apparent – the plagues at work in maintaining our broken death penalty system: racial bias in judges and juror selection, inadequate legal counsel, lack of funds for investigations for defendants, police corruption and prosecutorial misconduct. Thus, Mumia’s case can be seen as a kind of primer of how the death penalty fails to work justice, and on how the larger systems of U.S. mass incarceration, policing and prosecutorial procedures are broken, dysfunctional, and unjust.

4.      Mumia’s struggle dramatically exhibits the agency of death row prisoners themselves in waging their struggle. Mumia’s death row cell in the prison system is an organizing site within the system. However necessary our efforts are from “the outside,” Mumia’s trenchant voice inside death row confirms that the abolitionist movement is not just a condescending or paternalistic act of concern of outsiders “for,” or “for the sake of,” those on death row. Recognizing Mumia is one way to recognize the agency of those in struggle on death row. His voice, as a voice within, is crucial to our abolitionist movement’s authenticity.

5.       Mumia’s mode of struggle enables those in the abolitionist movement to keep the struggle against the US death penalty as part of a larger political struggle, in which other issues are always at play in our struggle to end capital punishment. We will not abolish the death penalty, and keep it abolished, if we cannot articulate the broader issues of power - class domination, environmental destruction, white racism, transnational globalization, torture at home and abroad, militarist imperialism, and neocolonialism – all being issues that Abu-Jamal has addressed in relation to capital punishment and mass incarceration.

6.      Although there is a temptation in some quarters to make of Mumia an icon, just a “cool guy” mentioned in the Boondocks cartoon strip, Hip Hop magazines, rock concerts, and in films of different sorts – the lifting of Mumia’s struggle to the level of a media spectacle can be an advantage to the abolitionist movement. It enables us to engage the media, not only with Mumia’s struggle but also with broader efforts to end the death penalty, block police brutality, and expose the corruptions of racialized power at every level. One of the reasons political officials of the establishment are so keenly opposed to Mumia is precisely because he has this capacity to ignite media attention, nationally and internationally. We should welcome this and use it.

7.      Finally, the Mumia movement positions resistance to the death penalty around the U.S. national shrine center in Philadelphia. This places debate about capital punishment (the state-sanctioned murder of citizens) in a city that is the very symbolic heart of Americans’ self-understanding of their nation and its history. The Mumia movement – those of us in it as well as Mumia’s recordings and writings – is not silent about the general problem of state-sanctioned killing as part of the very meaning of “America” and its history. The persistence of the death penalty is, at least in part, due to the nation’s dependence on policies of war and killing, policies that date from the devastation of Indian peoples and slave populations, to the colonization of, and war against, Asian, Arab, African and Latin American countries, up to the often deadly and disheartening discrimination meted out against immigrants from these lands in our midst today.

The focus of Mumia’s struggle in Philadelphia, then, dramatizes how central the commitment to state-sanctioned killing is to the forging and maintenance of this nation. It has always been appropriate, then, that the festivals of July 4^th celebration in Philadelphia are routinely matched by a smaller and fledgling, but vigorous, counter-march for Mumia and as critique of every death-dealing policy of the U.S. - whether applied in the killing fields of indigenous peoples lands, in the desserts of Iraq, or the mountainous ravines of the Afghan/Pakistani border.

Let there be no more division between the advocates of a general abolition of the death penalty, and the advocates in the movement for Abu-Jamal. As Educators, in Pennsylvania, across the U.S. and the world, we reassert our firm opposition to the death penalty in the U.S., and thus especially to the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal.  [Signed: Coordinators of Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal - Tameka Cage, Johanna Fernandez, Mark Lewis Taylor]

 

 

 

 

-New York City. April 4, 2010. Over 500 people packed out the Event Oval at the Diana Center at Barnard College campus at Columbia University on Saturday night, April 3. Headliner speaders featured Cornel West of Princeton University's Religion Department, Vijay Prashad of Trinity College's International Studeis Department, and Jamal Joseph of the Columbia University.

The three-hour event was attended by many students, and attendees of all ages. The organizers for the event, EMAJ, were supported by other veterans of the movement who also were on hand, Pam Africa, Suzanne Ross, and others. The evening speakers were asked to address the conference theme,  “Live from Death Row: Mumia at the Crossroads in the Age of Obama.”  Essential administrative work was done for EMAJ by Anjeanette M. Allen, and at Columbia by Zoe Willmott. 

The conference was co-sponsored by a wide array of other groups from Columbia University: Lucha, Black Students Organization, Muslim Students Association, Intercultural House, Arab Student Association at SIPA, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, African Diaspora Literary Society, and Black and Latino Student Caucus at the School of Public Health. 

In speaking to the packed auditorium at Barnard, Cornel West situated Abu-Jamal in a host of fore-runners, a “cloud of witnesses,” a “black tradition,” he said, that has always been about the task of “emancipating democracy.” West emphasized, “this is not just democracy  for blacks or for any few groups, it is for all. It spills over to free the many peoples from the chains upon them.” He reiterated, during a conference call that came in from Mumia himself, that he could feel in Mumia’s struggle that fusion of justice with love, the latter giving us our special power to resist.

"Love, that's it," repled Mumia. "After all, what did Che remind us all at his UN speech?" Jamal Joseph, also in front of the conference speaker phone, then recited Chi's remearks verbatim. "That's it," said Mumia, "love as political force for long-distance running in the way of justice."

Another speaker stirred the crowd with an international perspective on Mumia’s struggle. Vijay Prashad likened Mumia’s voice, often hailed as the “voice of the voiceless” to a “voice in the wound.” The wound of which he spoke was one afflicted by power today and which consigns ever larger groups to the category of “disposable peoples.” Mumia on death row, and in the US mass incarceration system, is rendered as one of those disposable ones. And yet, stressed Prashad, Mumia and those like him refuse to be disposed of. They assert their humanity. “That’s why they inspire us,” Prashad said driving home his point, because we all are at risk of being made disposable.” Prashad could also say, then, “Mumia is Gaza,” “Mumia is the Congo.” He concluded with a two line poem from Akbar Illahabadi: “We were people, with great difficulty we became human.”

Jamal Joseph, in his opening remarks, drew the links between his previous years of Black Panther organizing, and the practice of love. Joseph showed up also with to youth, whose spoken word performance lad bare the agony, the resistance and the hope of the young and their hopes for the future.

EMAJ plans to take this kind of event on the road. Watch for announcements of similar events at another university this Fall.

* VIJAY PRASHAD * CORNEL WEST *                                * JAMAL JOSEPH *

Main speakers for the upcoming conference at Columbia University on the theme, "LIVE FROM DEATH ROW - MUMIA AT THE CROSSROADS IN THE AGE OF OBAMA."

ADMISSION IS FREE, BUT YOU NEED TO GET YOUR TICKETS HERE, FOR THESE SPECIAL PLENARY SPEAKERS. THEY SPEAK WITH MUMIA PHONING IN AT 7:00 P.M.

The evening plenary speakers will be speaking in the new Diana Center, in the Oval Event Room, on the Barnard College campus, 3009 Broadway at 117th Street (off the 116th Street on the 1 train). But don't forget to get your tickets as soon as you arrive.

IF YOU ARE DOING THE WORKSHOPS, YOU NEED TO SIGN UP FOR AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS HERE, AND TAKE PLACE FROM 1:00 TO 5:00 P.M.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR APRIL 3, 2010, SATURDAY.

**FOR ALL NECESSARY INFORMATION AND SIGN-UP GO TO THE CRUCIAL EVENT WEB SITE: MumiaCrossroadsEvent.tumbler.com **

NOTE ON WORKSHOPS. All Workshops are in Kent Hall on the Columbia campus, at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and College Walk ("College Walk" is a major campus walkway between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. See the map that is on the above Event Website).

1 - "Mumia 101 - Introducing Mumia's Case" - Kent Hall Room 411

2-  "Mumia in the Classroom" - Kent Hall 423

3.  "The Campaign for a Civil Rights Investigation into Mumia's Case" Kent Hall Room 424

4.  "Campus Organizing for Mumia" Kent Hall Room 411

5.  "Mumia's Battle in the Courts" - Kent Hall Room 423

6.  "Media-Building a Viral Campaign for Mumia" - Kent Hall Room 424

Again for all details and information on this event, and for Facebook and Twitter connections, go to the MumiaCrossroads event shown above. See you there!

Over 200 people packed out the Labyrinth Bookstore in downtown Princeton on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, to hear Mumia phone in for a brief dialogue with Princeton University Professors Cornel West and Patricia Fernandez-Kelley from the Sociology Department. The event was video recorded by BOOK TV and by DEMOCRACY NOW!. Lively exchange erupted especially between Mumia and Dr. West, as West has been an outspoken advocate for Mumia and of his innocence as far back as his arrest and trial in 1981/1982. Mumia also read aloud a passage from the introduction of his latest book, Jailhouse Lawers. EMAJ coordinators had prepared a new "Fact Sheet and FAQs on Mumia Abu-Jamal.", EMAJ was present with its banner by labor muralist Mike Alewitz, and coordinators Mark Taylor and Johanna Fernandez addressed the audience about EMAJ's work and upcoming conference on April 3rd at Columbia University. Present at the Princeton event also were Pam Africa, who also spoke, Linn Washington, Jr., who was introduced and highlighted, and numerous activists in New Jersey prisons and anti-death penalty work.

Kudos out to the Labyrinth Bookstore for hosting this event, and to store owner, Dorothea von Moltke and general manager Virginia Harabin. The bookstore also featured a large window display of the writings of Howard Zinn, the radical historian and author of The People's History of the United States, along with texts by other well-known progressive historians. Watch for the complete event on BOOK TV and/or DEMOCRACY NOW!

Temple University journalism professor, also writer for the Philadelphia Tribune, Linn Washington, Jr., has just finished an essay on the politics and legal ramifications of Mumia's case.  Washington writes: "Why, people wonder worldwide, does Mumia Abu-Jamal remain imprisoned when mounds of evidence unearthed since his 1982 trial undermine all aspects of the controversial conviction that sent this acclaimed journalist to death row? The answer to this justice-denying/logic-defying question is simple: “The Mumia Exception.”  Read this excellent essay in full, "The 'Mumia Exception' - Explaining Injustice,"   -mlt

Dave Lindorff's essay considers some of the various processes that may be awaiting Mumia. Lindorff writes: "The Supreme Court order sending Abu-Jamal's case back down to the Third Circuit, right or wrong, hardly means Abu-Jamal's battle is over, much less lost, depite his already having spent an astonishing 28 years in solitary confinement on PA's hellish death row." See "Mumia Abu-Jamal Case is Stuck in Hellish Limbo."

Pam Africa, Ramona Africa, Fred Hampton, Jr., and others, will be on a vigorous tour for Mumia on the Westcoast this month and next. Westcoast area EMAJ members are invited to attend and support these events sponsored by Noelle Hanrahan and Prison Radio. To get the schedule, check the Prison Radio web site announcement, or write Prison Radio in San Francisco at info@prisonradio.org. -mlt

 

On Saturday, January 23rd, the EMAJ Consulation - entitled "Live on Death Row - Facing Execution in the US" - met on the campus of Princeton University. In the wake of the US Supreme Court's ominous rulings in Mumia's case, EMAJ called the Consultation for the express purpose of better organizing a cadre of teacher-activists on college and university campuses. The Consultation was organized by EMAJ coordinators Tameka Cage, Johanna Fernandez and Mark Taylor. Able administrative oversight was provided by Ms. Anjeanette M. Allen.

In additon to the EMAJ leadership team, present were Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other leaders of organizations for Mumia, such as the Free Mumia Coalition in New York, and then also a variety of teachers and students from regional schools. Special presentations were made by Judith Ritter of Widener University and a key attorney on Mumia's legal team, as well as by Linn Washington of Temple University and a columnist with the Philadelphia Tribune. Ritter's and Washington's presentations were key orientations to our present political moment, and the dialogue between them displayed the continuing strength, vigor and unity of the movement on behalf of Mumia and on the issues distilled in his case and struggle.

The afternoon was marked by a 15-minute phone call from Mumia himself. Mumia took a couple of questions and then read a fine statement on "the rules" which have always constrained the lives of the Haitian people and which are are also operative in the US legal realm in which his current struggle is being played out.

Most significantly, EMAJ spent the bulk of the afternoon organizing itself into four key workgroups each having a distinctive task in working with teachers and students: (1) THE MODULES TASK FORCE - creating modules for use in teaching and in campus activism (contact person: Ibram H. Rogers), (2) THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOLARS TASK FORCE - galvanizing theological students and teachers in broad religious and humanistic contexts (contact person: Mark L. Taylor), (2) THE COMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE - reinvigorating EMAJ communication and resource access (contact person: Anjeanette M. Allen), and (4) THE CIVIL RIGHTS TASK FORCE - mobilizing students and teachers in support of the broader movement's civil rights campaign for an investigation by the US Attorney General's Office into Mumia's case (contact person: Susan W. Ross).

If you desire more information about these Task Forces, or wish to join in the work, please contact Mark Taylor at mark.taylor@ptsem.edu.

The American Law Institute (ALI), which is made up of about 4,000 judges, lawyers and law professors, and which has for over 50 years tried to issue model codes to structure and give coherence to the federal legal system – this Institute, has now given up its support and rationale for the death penalty. Law professor Samuel Gross of the University of Michigan summarizes the importance of this : “Law students who take first-year criminal law from 2010 on,” he said, “will learn that this same group of smart lawyers and judges — the ones whose work they read every day — has said that the death penalty in the United States is a moral and practical failure.” Read the recent analysis in the New York Times here. 

Poet and activist, Dennis Brutus, has passed on to join the ancestors whom he extolled in so many of his poems for social justice and liberation. Dennis was a helpful advisor and supporter to EMAJ in its earliest days of the 1990s, when Dennis was on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh. He was also regularly present at so many of the events organized for Mumia by the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. For commentary on the entirety of his full and inspiring life, see the statement released by his friends and family. He will remain an inspiration and a presence to all of us. -MLT

Thanks to the fine organizing of the New York City Coalition for Mumia Abu-Jamal and International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, thousands of petitions were delivered to the Office of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington, D. C., on November 12th, 2009. The petitions call for a full and vigorously-pursued civil rights investigation in the case of Mumia. The fullest report of the spirited event by which the petitions were delivered, is now available at the Free Mumia Coalition (NYC) HERE. See the other announcements here at this site, and encourage your colleagues, friends and students to send in their letters of support for this petition. -MLT

Pam Africa wins the Betty Bahiyah Shabbaz Award, sharing the honor with co-winner, Myrlie Edger-Williams, widow of Medger Evers, author and former chairperson of the NAACP.  A special award ceremony and celebration will be held in New York City on Novemeber 7. For more information see the SPECIAL INVITATION. -mlt

See this important update on revived efforts of the neocons, the FOP and Philadelphia radio journalist, Michael Smerconish, to drum up support - national and international - for Mumia's execution. Go to Indymedia here.

EMAJ is looking for volunteers who can help us build and rebuild our email contact list of EMAJ supporters. We have many names on our "Educators' List" (GO HERE) for which we do not have email addresses. We need a few volunteers to go through the Educators' List and compile those email addresses. If you can do that, please let me know, immediately, at mark.taylor@ptsem.edu. Even if you cannot do so, if you are reading this and know the current email addresses of any of those on that list, please forward them to me. If you read the notices at this site - immediately above and below this notice - you know how urgent the hour is, and how much we need to be effectively mobilized. Thanks in advance to any who can step forward to assist. -Mark Taylor

The Philadelphia Tribune has a new story in its pages. It also reflects the success of the pressure for an investigation into Mumia's case by the U.S. Attorney General. See the fine collection of photos taken by Bud Korotzer of Next Left Notes on the web HERE, showing some of the many Mumia supporters who have been active recently in pressing Obama and Holder for the inverstigation. In addition, read the information below on the urgent need to sign the petition supporting that investigation. Keep the pressure on and continue circulating the petition.

At the EMAJ site we are not able to post information about every incident that intersects with the struggle on behalf of Mumia and his case. But as EMAJ has always stressed, and as Mumia's own writings always take pains to show, his and many other struggles are connected. A long standing activist against police violence in New York City and nationally, and a stalwart spokeswoman for Mumia amid the broad struggle for justice, Juanita Young's case now deserves special mention and solidarity. Juanita Young lost her son, Malcolm Ferguson, to a police killing in 2000. Now, her home on Saturday night was reportedly broken into and another son of hers beaten when cuffed and hauled away. Read up on THE REPORTS HERE, where you will also find background information on Juanta Young's organizing against police brutality. Still more information, with numerous photos, here. We'll keep you updated as we are able. -MLT

Mumia's life is again hanging in the balance. What we need to do now is keep the pressure on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a civil rights investigation into Mumia's case. You can support that process by taking two steps: (1) sign the petition to Holder at the International Action Center web site, and (2) use the sample letters for writing your congressional representatives, with the sample letters available here.  Linn Washington has a NEW ESSAY on the egregious violations of Mumia''s civil and human rights. Hans Bennett's essay also explains why this federal investigation is so necessary. You can also check out this video by J. Patrick O'Connor explaining some of the reasons why it is important to approach Holder. EMAJ's Johanna Fernandez and Anita Rosenblithe have been in Washington, DC, seeking to lobby congress people for their support to this campaign. EMAJ, along with the rest of the movement for Mumia, is doing every thing possible to support this petition. Sign the petition and write your letters of support now. We need thousands of signatures. -MLT

With the NAACP offering also a statement on Troy Davis at its major convention in New York City, we all would do well to keep in touch with the "I AM TROY" website. Check it out here.

U.S. House Representatives Charles Rangel and Cynthia McKinney have both released the letters they have written to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Let's keep building the momentum behind these two House representatives. Read about their OPEN LETTERS HERE.

Read here the latest update on legal and other efforts on behalf of Mumia, penned by his attorney, Robert Bryan. This summary includes discussion of the appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court and before the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. There are also summarized here the efforts underway for Mumia in France, Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

EMAJ Coordinators Tameka Cage (U. of Pittsburgh), Johanna Fernandez (Baruch College, NYC) and Mark Taylor (Princeton Theological Seminary), together with lawyer and activist Martha Connelly, spoke at the Homewood Library in Pittsburgh on the evening of May 8th. It was a spirited event celebrating community youth's reading projects. Fernandez spoke on the present state of Mumia's case, Cage on on the history of violence in communities of color, Taylor on the "Mumia Exception" (see also Patrick O'Connor's recent article on that theme), and Connelly played clips of the film on Mumia, IN PRISON MY WHOLE LIFE. The next morning, Fernandez, along with Chiseko Matambanadzo of Slippery Rock University in PA, visited Mumia and "Sugar Bear" (aka Robert Lark) in Waynesburg, PA, as did Cage a few days later. Thanks to the Homewood Library and Tameka Cage for organizing the event.

Troy Davis's case needs whatever attention we can give it - yes, again! Let's keep on and get the threat over Davis' head removed once and for all. Go here to sign an online petition and find out more information. For still additional information about the case and regular updates about Davis' struggle, see the Georgia Anti-Death Penalty site. Scroll down, also, for the previous information boxes on Troy Davis on this web site.

Activist, author and educator Angela Y. Davis recently spoke in San Francisco on behalf of Mumia. She has done this numerous times for him over the years, but check this out for her latest interpretation of the struggle for Abu-Jamal in the context of today's "new arena of struggle." Davis says at one point, "We have to inhabit our histories differently." Hear more at this site.

The organizations fighting for Mumia have launched a campaign to demand that a civil rights investigation into Mumia's case be opened by the U.S. Office of Attorney General in the Obama administration. You can sign the petition supporting this effort, and also find a sample letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about the matter, at the INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER WEB SITE. Sign up now, and do all you can to support this important effort.

Mumia has just released a new column on the economic "recovery." Read it at the EMAJ site and elsewhere. It is entitled WORLD TO COME.

Jeff Mackler has provided a succinct and clear statement on the recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court against Mumia. We have posted it on the EMAJ website HERE.  Also, see Mumia Abu-Jamal's recent essay on the Batson v. Kentucky case, the precedent-setting case that courts now refuse to invoke on behalf of Mumia. Mumia's essay is entitled, "Beating Back Batson."

Have you signed the petition currently circulating on behalf of Mumia? The petition is now nearing 3,500 signatories. We need to build that number, especially in this moment as Mumia moves into ever greater vulnerability to the State's power to execute him. Find the PETITION HERE, sign it, and then circulate it widely to colleagues and friends.

On April 6th, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Mumia's claims on appeal. For background on the basic decision, check out the report at the Free Mumia Coalition site. Just this morning, too, journalist Hans Bennett has additional information, complete with a brief interview with Linn Washington, Jr., and a commentary by Mumia himself on the recent ruling.

In keeping with EMAJ's commitment to building a broad coalition of public organizations for Mumia Abu-Jamal, we are pleased to include here a recent statement by the San Romero de las Americas Church - UCC. It is a clarion call for Mumia, and for solidarity with the movement that struggles with and for him on the broad array of issues touching his case. Read it here in both the English version and the Spanish version. Please refer to this widely in work you do, especially when bridging between educational and religious institutions.

The District Attorney in Philadelphia recently announced its decision to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, trying to turn back the earlier Federal District court decision that any execution of Mumia would require holding a new penalty-phase hearing for him. The D.A. wants to proceed toward execution without being required to hold a new penalty-phase hearing (if they don't hold a new penalty hearing, Mumia's sentence commutes automatically, according to the previous ruling, to life in prison). Meanwhile, Mumia's attorney also is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, still fighting for a complete new trial, a first fair trial. For more of the legal details, laid out in a very instructive and clear manner, see the LATEST FLYER FROM JOURNALISTS FOR MUMIA. Other important issues are summarized there. Read and then keep your movement work for Mumia as strong as you can in these times. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear Troy Davis's appeal. "Terrible injustice" and "outrage" are all terms that apply. Revisit our earlier postings here at EMAJ, and check out the editorial on Troy Davis in the NJ Star Ledger. Check also the latest update from Amnesty International. Keep writing those persuasive protest letters to Georgia! -MT

From Amnesty International. THIS LETTER WAS WRITTEN BY TROY DAVIS on September 22. Two hours before he was to be executed, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to consider his appeal. Their decision is expected soon. Stop the execution of Troy Davis!

In his latest legal update, Mumia's attorney, Robert Bryan, announces he has set several more issues before the U.S. Supreme Court, and these are in addition to an appeal of the Batson claim on racial prejudice in selection of Mumia's jury. Read the LEGAL UPDATE HERE.

International Concerned Family and Friends featured a Town Hall Meeting this Saturday, 12 noon to 5 pm. Energy was high and planning intense. Minutes of the meeting will be posted here as soon as they are available. Speaking at the meeting were Johanna Fernandez and Mark Taylor of EMAJ, Suzanne Ross of the Free Mumia Coalition in New York City, and Monica Moorehead of the International Action Center. All stressed the need to move forward with new ways of impacting a broad public. EMAJ came to the meeting with a new flyer, distilling the key points of Third Circuit Court judge Thomas Ambro's dissenting opinion on Mumia's case. Read the flyer, AMBRO'S DISSENT here.

Last night the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal held an emergency meeting in Philadelphia to discuss the present state of Mumia's struggle, in the courts and among the wider public. Read the MINUTES of that meeting here at the EMAJ site and elsewhere. These minutes were forwarded to EMAJ from ICFFMAJ. For Mumia's July 31st response to some of the ideas in these Minutes, see the follow-up report from ICFFMAJ about its recent visit with Mumia.

The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia denied Mumia's appeal to have the March 2008 ruling reconsidered. The March ruling was a 2-1 decision against Mumia. Mumia's attorney had asked the entire Third Circuit to meet en banc in order to reconsider the March ruling. It is this that was denied by the Third Circuit Court today. Read more in the essay by Emilie Lounsberry. For Mumia's attorney's response to this decision, read Robert Bryan's letter here, too.

In our statements and release section you can read a thorough report from Hans Bennett of Journalists for Mumia concerning the July 4th observance for Mumia in Philadelphia. The energy and creativity was running high. So check out the texts, the photos, the videos and the speeches HERE AND COURTESY OF HANS BENNETT.

On April 22, 2008, the New York Times published a highly-flawed column in which a Professor Levitts raised a number of questions about Mumia's fight for due process and freedom, and about the movement that is supporting Mumia. The column made simplistic use of the recent book by Smerconish and Faulkner, Murdered By Mumia, and displays a breezy ignorance about the facts of Mumia's case. Read the response by EMAJ co-coordinators, Cage, Fernandez and Taylor.

Read HERE for Robert Bryan's commentary on the decision of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to grant his request for an extension for filing matters before the circuit court.

On March 26, the Third Circuit of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, released its 118-page ruling on the latest claims by Mumia, which had been pending since May 2007, when the Third Circuit heard arguments. The ruling denies all Mumia's claims, save the one concerning the penalty hearing, which the Federal District Court had already granted. The result is that the ruling mandates a new penalty hearing, to determine life imprisonment or execution. One circuit judge, Ambro, dissented vigorously on the Third Circuit's rejection of Mumia's Batson claim. The majority ruling of the Third Circuit is still an outrage, especially because it went against the knowledge it had through this dissenting colleague, and dismissed Mumia's Batson claim (that Black jurors were discriminated against in the process of juror selection). Mainly, the Third Circuit ruled against the Batson claim for two reasons: (a) because the claim was not submitted in a "timely" manner, contemporaneous with prosecutors' discrimination against black jurors, and (b) because Mumia's lawyers had not made a prima facie (apparent and even minimal) argument for the discrimination. Concerning the first reason, dissenting Judge Ambro points out that in finding Mumia's claim to not be timely simply because it wasn't "contemporaneous," the Third Circuit went against its own precedents. In other words, on other cases, the Third Circuit had not been so strict. Ambro nails the point: "Our Court has previously preached the merits of Batson claims on Habeas reveiw in cases where the petitioner did not make a timely objection during jury selection ... and I see no reason why we should not afford Abu-Jamal the courtesy of our precedents" (p. 87, emphasis added). Concerning the second reason, Ambro develops his dissenting view even further by turning to the McMahon training tape, a video produced by a previous Philadelphia prosecutor's office about how to keep certain kinds of Blacks off of a jury where there is a black defendant. Ambro reads this video as sufficient grounds for establishing a prima facie case for discrimination. Ambro especially notes prosecutor McMahon's insulting and blatant assertions in the training video about younger Black women and why they should be avoided when selecting jurors. Said McMahon in that tape: "In my experience, black women, young black women, are very bad. There's an antagonism...and so younger black women are difficult, I've found" (91). Nevertheless, the Third Circuit could overlook such language, and rule against their dissenting colleague and against Mumia. It is outrageous, and we need to be in the streets and in other venues, firmly and intelligently exposing the political regime that produces such "legal" decisions. Go HERE for information on demonstrations and events for Mumia.  [Mark Taylor, EMAJ.]

The MOVE 9 - now a remaining 8 members - come up for parole in 2008, with the crucial parole hearings occuring in April 2008. Go HERE to Hans Bennett's Journalists for Mumia site to find out how you can write letters on behalf of MOVE members. Journalist and Temple University journalism professor, Linn Washington, Jr., has also been giving interviews and lectures on the treatment of MOVE in Philadelphia. Check out his material and write your letters today. You can also sign an online petition for the MOVE 9.

Read here the 21 FAQs on the Polakoff Photos, the earliest photos of the crime scene of Officer Daniel Faulkner's death. To produce these FAQs, EMAJ and Journalists for Mumia (J4M) worked together, in consultation with Professor Michael Schiffmann who discovered them. Many people have been asking questions about the photos. What are they? What is their significance? Where have these photos been ever since they were taken at the crime scene? Read these carefully and print them out as you wish.

One of the coordinators of EMAJ, Mark Taylor of Princeton Theological Seminary, reviews the new book by Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish, Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice. Read the FULL REVIEW here on the EMAJ site, or at OpEd News which has just picked it up.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The New Jersey Assembly approved legislation Thursday to abolish the state's death penalty, making Gov. Jon S. Corzine's signature the only step left before the state becomes the first in four decades to ban executions. Assembly members voted 44-36 to replace the death sentence with life in prison without parole. The state Senate approved the bill Monday. Corzine, a Democrat, has said he will sign the bill within a week.  Read more on the story from the NJ COALITION TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY, members of which have been working strenously and effectively for years. On how this victory might enable other states to follow in New Jersey's steps, read the COMMENTARY HERE, and see also the reflections on the campaign by Celeste Fitzgerald, Director of the NJ Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

The Today Show interviewer, Matt Lauer, referenced the Polakoff photos that EMAJ has been trying to get into the press this year, and that Journalists for Mumia (JMAJ) has been pursuing so successfully of  late with their press conferencing and press contacting. Kudos to JMAJ ! Let's all keep the pressure on. The Today Show, the highest rated morning news show in the country, even displayed the Polakoff photos briefly and raised the issues of the photos in interview with Smerconish and M. Faulkner. Moreover, street protestors for Mumia were outside the studio in NYC, leading the interviewer to ask Maureen Faulkner if she ever thought the protestors might have a case. So, good work, New Yorkers for Mumia. Watch the TODAY SHOW VIDEO HERE. (for more on the Polakoff photos, see the EMAJ site boxes below).  Read Hans Bennett's superb and rich account of the entire Today Show event, and how it emerged from previous organizing for Mumia. There's also a strong review of the Faulkner/Smerconish book, by Dave Lindorff, here

Rueters news has done a story on the press conference held by Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal (JMAJ) to counter the distortions being circulated by Michael Smerconish and Maureen Faulkner in their new book, Murdered by Mumia. Read the Reuters story HERE. The press conference on Tuesday, December 11, was moderated by Hans Bennett of JMAJ, and featured some of the best writers and organizers who have studied Abu-Jamal's case for years: David A. Love, Dave Lindorff, Linn Washington, and Pam Africa. You can hear an audio recording of the press conference HERE. 

 * See the box immediately below, on this web site, about the Polakoff photos discovered and analyzed by University of Heidelberg scholar, Michael Schiffman. The Polakoff photos, never considered formally by any judge or jury, were taken at the crime scene before the police photographers arrived at 13th and Locust Sts.

Other special features below include: 

- a trailer for an upcoming film on Mumia.

- information about the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals deliberations on Mumia's case.

- guidelines for how you can add your name to the campaign asking U.S. House of Representative, John Conyers, to open investigations into Mumia's case.

- essays by educators, Paul Robeson Ford (U. of Chicago) and Tameka Cage (U. of Pittsburgh), on key aspects of Mumia's case.

EMAJ here posts a special PRESS RELEASE about Michael Schiffman's 2007 discovery of photos, the Polakoff photos, which show the crime scene where Officer Faulkner was killed and where Mumia was beaten and arrested for the killing. These were taken before any of the police photos that were used at Mumia's trial. The police and prosecutors refused all offers from the photographer to use these photos. The Polakoff photos show a crime scene in 1981 that was almost completely unsecured by police, with officers holding crime weapons in their bare hands though they denied doing so at trial, and, with someone evidently having changed the position of Officer Faulkner's hat at the scene for later dramatic effect at trial. These photos constitute more evidence which jurors never saw, adding to the sense of public analysts and leaders in human rights organizations, in the U.S. and abroad, that Mumia did not receive a fair trial. Read the PRESS RELEASE HERE. (The final page of the press release offers a one page summary of the key points regarding the existence of these photos.) To actually see some of these photos, go to the Journalists for Mumia web site at Abu-Jamal-News.com.

Come October a new movie on Mumia Abu-Jamal appears at the London Film Festival and then Rome Film Festival. View the TRAILER HERE. Amnesty International has endorsed the film as part of its standing call, since 2000, to grant Mumia his first, fair trial. Among Amnesty's comments on the film are these words: "We've documented Mumia Abu-Jamal's plight several times before and we strongly welcome this film as a fresh opportunity to focus attention on his situation. We hope that the film's viewers will back our call for a fair retrial for Mumia Abu-Jamal - and also support our work opposing the death penalty in the US and around the world." The film will be showing on U.S. colleges and universities.  * The 90-minute film profiles Mumia Abu-Jamal's case through the eyes of 25-year-year-old William Francome, born on the day of Abu-Jamal's arrest.  The film, entitled In Prison My Whole Life, was directed by Marc Evans and produced by Livia Firth and Nick Goodwin Self. EMAJ has yet to screen the film, but hopes to organize around it on U.S. campuses in the future.

Mumia's attorney and the movement are expecting a decision on Mumia's case to come down any day (certainly this Fall), from the Third Circuit court. Go HERE for more information.

For folks who haven't heard, Kenneth Foster's death sentence was struck down today by Texas Gov. Rick Perry after a 6-1 recommendation by the Perry appointed Board of Parolees. This is just a tremendous victory for those of us around the world who fought to make sure today wasn't the day Kenneth was put to death. READ HERE. 

Now that the May 17th hearing has come and gone, the U.S. Third Circuit Court continues deliberation on Mumia's briefs. It may take weeks before the Circuit Court's ruling is released. Read the full brief (124 pages)submitted by the lawyer team, and also the NAACP Amicus brief (31 pages) submitted by NAACP Legal Defense Team Lawyer, Christina Swarns, who also argued for the NAACP brief at the May 17 hearing. Keep in touch with all the Mumia sites about developments (LINKS, above).

EMAJ held its Teach-In on Mumia's case at Drexel University on May 16. In spite of hard-driving rain, 55 people attended. The real success was securing campus space in Philly, where the FOP has frightened so many other sponsors out of providing space. Kudos to Jeffrey Rousset, Drexel Senior, who worked with Johanna Fernandez (EMAJ, Carnegie Mellon Univ.) to nail down this space. Tameka Cage, also a Teach-In speaker, helped us plan the event. Stay tuned for word about EMAJ's next steps. Mark Taylor.

Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a new support group for Mumia organized by Hans Bennett and Michael Schiffman, announced yesterday that the U.S. Third Circuit Court has ruled against the Philly D.A. Office which had asked that all judges on the Circuit Court be disqualified. The Court also granted Mumia's attorney's request for a half an hour extra time to make oral arguments on May 17th. Read HERE the communique from Journalists for Mumia. Keep planning to be in Philadelphia on April 24th and May 17th. MT

The FOP intimidated the Cleff Club sufficiently to force them to cancel the planned birthday observance for Mumia. But the meeting will continue at the American Friends Service Committee building at 15th St. and Cherry Street. Danny Glover, Sonia Sanchez, and Ramona Africa will be present. Read more HERE. Journalist LINN WASHINGTON shows why the FOP's bullying tactics are "perilously close to terrorist threats." See "Imus Isn't the Only Issue to Address."

Recently the D.A. of Philadelphia filed a motion seeking to disqualify all judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mumia's lawyer has responded (read here). The lawyer is interviewed in a very helpful essay by independent journalist HANS BENNETT, "Interview: Mumia's Attorney Responds to D.A.'s Attorney."

EMAJ draws from all disciplines, with a number of its educators coming from theological and religious studies, including such figures as James Cone, Harvey Cox, Cornel West, Mark Cladis, Dwight Hopkins, Anthony Pinn (and myself, Mark Lewis Taylor). Here we feature a new essay by University of Chicago Divinity School doctoral student, PAUL ROBESON FORD. Ford explores Mumia's theology in "FAITH SEEKING UNDERSTANDING, LIVE FROM DEATH ROW."

Read Tameka L. Cage's Go Tell It On the Mountain," about teaching Mumia's life and work. Cage writes, "When Mumia was unjustly convicted for murder in 1982, I was five years old, preoccupied with imagination and doused with the innocence and curiosity of a toddler. Twenty-five years later—the number of years Mumia has been on death row—I remain filled to the brim with imagination." Read the full essay to see how Cage, now a visiting professor of English at Bucknell University, critically teaches Mumia today.

See the IMPORTANT NEW MESSAGE about the Fraternal Order of Police's recent targeting of U.S. House member Donald Payne (Dem., NJ) for his principled "No" vote against U.S. House Resolution 1082. Payne voted against this Resolution (passed, Dec. 2006), which sought to punish the French suburb of Paris, St.-Denis, because it had named a street in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Then, see the box immediately below and sign the Open Letter to Conyers to protest that Resolution. Please, whether or not you are in Don Payne's congressional district, please fax to him a word of thanks, using our form letter HERE. Or phone him directly at (202) 225-3436.

You can affix your name to the Open Letter circulating in the U.S. and the world, demanding that John Conyers of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary open formal hearings to reconsider the House Resolution, passed, December 6, 2006, that condemns St-Denis, France, for naming a street in honor of Mumia. Signatures for this Open Letter are being collected in France and it is now on the way to Africa, even as it circulates in the U.S. READ & SIGN THE OPEN LETTER TO CONYERS HERE.

Read Philadelphia Tribune columnist and Temple University journalism professor, Linn Washington, Jr.'s new column, "Abu Jamal's Agony: 25 Years and Counting," in THE BLACK WORLD TODAY.  Washington exposes the hypocrisy of PA Congressmen passing resolutions against St. Denis, France, while doing nothing about racist drug laws in the USA. Article available HERE.

368 U.S. Congress people voted for H. R. 1082, censuring St. Denis, France, for naming a street after Mumia. Our struggle for Mumia will not be won simply by writing congress, but these congressional Representatives also need to be challenged. Check the Roll Call Here, and find out how the Rep in your district voted. EMAJ provides here A SAMPLE LETTER to use as content for your own fax or phone contact. Find out who your Representative is here, then find contact info for your Congressperson HERE. Keep on!

The Independent journalist who has been analyzing Mumia's case for five years, HANS BENNETT, has a new essay out on two new reports alledging now, after 25 years, that Mumia confessed to killing Faulkner in 1981. Bennett ably challenges these reports, exploring why they are being offered up now. Rest assured, those working to execute Mumia will serve up these latest voices and spread the false claim that Mumia confessed. So, read Bennett's essay here, and be ready to respond.

Read FIVE RECENT COLUMNS from Mumia, now posted on the EMAJ web site. Mumia writes on "The Taming of the Democrats, " "John Kerry and the Politics of Wusses," "Saddam's Sentence,"  "Iraq: Echoes of Vietnam," and "The Road to Oaxaca." Check out these and more columns by Mumia at other sites, too.

Read Temple University Professor Linn Washington (also writer for the Philadelphia Tribune), and his reporting on the latest ways Philadelphia cops have been contradicting themselves about Mumia, departing now even from the script of the prosecution at Mumia's trial. Linn Washington's article is "Still More Keystone Kops Antics: The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case after 25 Years."  Check out the very latest updates from Mumia's attorney HERE.

A key effort is underway to name another street for Mumia, now in Harlem. A PETITION (click here) is online, soliciting names to support this action. Signers from outside NYC are also urged to add their names to the petition. On naming streets and Mumia's struggle, see Mark Taylor's column,  "Why Naming Streets for Mumia Makes the Powers Rage." 

A gala fundraiser will be held for Pam Africa as she turns 60 on this November 18, 2006. READ HERE the information about the event at the Salem Methodist Church in Harlem. This link will also enable you to download a flyer about the celebration. See you there!

HERE ON OUR WEB SITE you can read Robert Bryan's latest report on the legal proceedings in Mumia's case. This is his summary of a brief filed on the previous day, including the text of the brief itself. Mumia's case may move especially quickly in the coming months, so stay closely attuned to this and other Mumia web sites. Check for one example, Michael Schiffman's site in Germany.

Follow THIS LINK to read a recent interview with Mumia. It is a Block Report Interview, conducted by Minister of Information JR of the POCC. To listen to the interview, find THE AUDIO HERE.

MUMIA: MORE LIES FUEL MOVEMENT FOR FREEDOM By Linn Washington Jr.  Washington's article begins this way: "A vivid example of abject stupidity is the outraged reactions of some local, state and federal officials to the April 2006 naming of a street in a suburb of Paris, in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal." READ ALL OF THE ESSAY HERE.     Also, from Mumia's attorney, read his latest LEGAL UPDATE about the appeal in the Third Circuit Court.

Musician, Michael Franti's new CD, YELL FIRE, brings beauty and inspiration to our struggles for justice and peace today. A steady advocate for Mumia over the years, Franti focuses in song many issues of Mumia's life and work. Read on this site, Mark Taylor's 2000 EMAJ interview with Franti. Keep up with Franti at his SPEARHEAD VIBRATIONS web site.

Over 130 of the UK’s most distinguished lawyers are signatories to a letter initiated by Ian Macdonald QC and Legal Action for Women, to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals about the racism in the original trial and subsequent hearings of Mr Mumia Abu-Jamal. Find the UK PRESS RELEASE HERE. The international support for Mumia continues to grow, with support generated by members of the general public and by distinguished jurists and scholars. 

Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal's struggle, represented by the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (FMAJC) held a press conference on June 1st in Philadelphia. Click and VIEW THE VIDEO HERE. For more information about the controversy over "Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal," the new street named for Mumia in St.-Denis, France, see the announcements and links in the below panels.

A new report documents the culture of violence and abuse plaguing many U.S. prisons and the damage they do to the wider society. The 2.2 million imprisoned suffer the consequences, and often so do whole communities when traumatized returnees are released, as are some 600,000 prisoners each year from U.S. prisons. The report, Confronting Confinement, is a 126-page document that is a new important resource.

The Philadelphia City Council and two U.S. Representatives from Philadelphia, urged on by the Fraternal Order of Police, have waged a new, more intensive campaign against Mumia since the naming of a street in Mumia's honor in St.-Denis, France ("Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal"). The F.O.P. has issued angry press releases, and two Pennsylvania congresspeople have proposed House Resolution 407, with the Philadelphia City Council backing, which calls for the U.S. to sanction, condemn and/or boycott the French city. Both the French city Mayor and its City Council have refused to back down in the face of Pennsylvania authorities' pressure. Check out the UPDATE from International Concerned Family and Friends. In their update you can also learn how you can write to express your support for Mumia. (See also the previously posted essay by Ed Herman about the Philadelphia Inquirer's "sheer editorial bias" on this matter.)

Check out Ed Herman's trenchant critique and summary of the way The Philadelphia Inquirer has written about Mumia in the most recent weeks. The controversy now has centered on the naming of a Paris Street for Mumia, but much more is involved. Herman is a Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania. Herman is an expert on media ideology, has authored several books, and co-authored Manufacturing Consent with Noam Chomsky. See his article now, here.

EMAJ is now online with its web site. For the latest GOOD LEGAL NEWS ABOUT MUMIA (12.06.05) see this site's legal update HERE NOW. Check the "Educators List" to confirm that your name is listed as you wish it to be.  Read Mumia's recent columns on this web site at Mumia Columns in our  "Mumia Index." The most recent is "The United States of Torture."

As a new academic year begins, let us make sure Mumia's writing and work are referenced in our teaching and publishing. Let us keep him foregrounded as the colleague he is - in our shared ventures of inquiry, teaching, communication and political struggle for justice and peace. The U.S. wars abroad and the wars at home make his struggle and perspective as important as ever. Many educators have found that Mumia's work is one resource that often catalyzes student reflection upon the linkages between the U.S. prisons and the U.S. military, between those doing prison time and all those suffering this war time.

In the spirit of Mumia's own writings, this site does not just foreground Mumia's stuggle, but also the larger struggle for justice and peace of which his is a part. For one entry into the connections between Mumia and a larger struggle of our time, go to the above right and click on Mumia's recorded speech under "Images of Incarceration" to listen to his commentary on the Abu-Ghraib prison/torture facility. EMAJ ONLINE will change the homepage image of incarceration periodically. 

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Ona Move!

This is just a note to send my hearfelt thanks to all of you; you from every corner of the nation and globe, in your hundreds, and tens of thousands, have gathered, protested, marched and sat in . . . how I thank you!

Your loving yet militant support has been an inspiration.

We are not done yet!

As we struggle on, the issues of unfairness remain; an unfair judge; an unfair process, a jury unfairly stripped of people of color.

These injustices have still not been fairly and truly redressed.

With your help, we'll not just struggle, but win!

Only in America can a court reporter hear a judge say, "I'm going to help them fry the nigger!" report it, and the judiciary turns a blind eye!

And yet, we struggle on, for life and liberty, which, with your help, we'll gain.

Thank you.

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Summer 2005