Mumia ' s Kolumnen (Archiv)
A Matter of the Mosque
[col. writ. 8/22/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
In Manhattan, the controversy over the placement
of a mosque (or Islamic house of worship) just a few mere blocks from what is
now known as 'Ground Zero' -- the site of the New York plane strikes on 9/11,
rages on.
Sides have been assembled, and arguments have been hurled like
mental Molotov cocktails on both sides of the fray.
The argument, no
matter how resolved, shows us how empty is the Constitution, which has an
express provision protecting free religious practice.
What an argument
for those who claim fealty to the Constitution!
For a right that can't be
practiced is no right at all.
One is reminded of how the Constitution
'protected' the rights of Blacks after the Reconstruction Amendments to the
Constitution were passed from 1865 to 1870. It looked fine on paper, but over a
hundred years later they had no reality in the lives of millions of Blacks, who
couldn't vote, couldn't sit on juries, serve in public office, or who lived in
segregated housing.
The 'rights' existed on paper, but such rights being
practiced offended the sensibilities of southern whites.
Sound familiar?
Americans treat the actual document (the Constitution) as Holy Writ, papers
protected from the ravages of time and temperature, and held behind
sophisticated security systems.
As for what is says: not so much.
--(c) '10 maj
From 'Shock & Awe' - to 'Aw, Shucks!'
[col. writ.
8/19/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
With the withdrawal of some 50,000 U.S. troops from Iraq
after nearly 7 1/2 years of carnage, mass destruction and death, we see that
even powerful empires have limits.
The withdrawal of the world's last
superpower from a nation shattered into pieces, and riven by ethnic and
religious enmity, is in sharp contrast to the (quite literally) bombastic entry
of the U.S. former U.S. President George W. Bush famously boasted of America's
capacity to "Shock and Awe" both Iraq and the region with the world's most
destructive forces.
Seven and a half years later, after years of deadly
insurgency and crushing internecine warfare that pushed Iraq to the very brink
of civil war, which killed thousands of U.S. soldiers, an uncounted number of
Iraqis, and caused the flight of millions of Iraqis to enter the unenviable life
of refugees, the war showed how an empire can come in like a lion, but leave
like a lamb.
Iraq is a nation in shambles, its infrastructure is toast.
Its politicians are little more than western tools, with a few revealing a feel
for the breadth and scope of the nation.
Electricity, vital to a modern
state, averages about 4 hours a day.
Its very existence, made possible by
the U.S. invasion, changes the regions' geopolitical balance, but not the way
Americans intended. The invasion led to the rise of a Shi'a state, in a sea of
Sunnis, and thus it naturally buttresses Iran, a predominantly Shi'a state.
Thus, Shi'a strength and influence is augmented.
As Britain showed in
India, and the USSR showed in Afghanistan, America is now showing in Iraq;
empires, like people, can get tired.
--(c) '10 maj
The Passing of a Legend: Abbey Lincoln
[col. writ.
8/15/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
In the long chain of musical creativity that
characterizes Black American music (and increasingly, American music), jazz
played a pivotal role.
Although it is now the stuff of college radio,
and concerts for the well heeled, middle class intelligentsia, there was a time
when it was a radical, and indeed, a revolutionary music, carrying within it the
seeds of rebellion and protest.
Among the artists who personified
these attributes were the drummer and composer, Max Roach (1924 -2007) and his
beautiful, talented wife, jazz singer, Abbey Lincoln.
The power of
their performance can be seen in the radicalization of Black revolutionary
nationalist, Muhammad Ahmed (fka) Max Stanford, Jr.) who, in his work, We will
Return in the Whirlwind: Black Radical Organizations: 1960-1975),explains the
potential political impacts of the works of Roach, Lincoln and other jazz
artists in the late '50's:
First was going to see Max Roach and Abbey
Lincoln present their "Freedom Now" suite at the national convention of the
NAACP.....I had been raised on Jazz and had done my homework with Eddie Collier
while listening to John Coltrane's Giant Steps.... But this was the first time I
had heard "Message music" so direct for my generation. The "Freedom Now" suite
immediately raised my political/cultural consciousness {p.xxvi}
Noted
musicologist, Dr. F. Ricky Vincent has credited Roach and Lincoln as being among
the forerunners of the 'Funk' movement in jazz and later Black popular music;
the 'funk' being the realness, earthiness and Africanity that fueled dozens of
groups from James Brown to Parliament Funkadelic, and beyond.
Although jazz is a relatively small slice of CD sales these days (2% according
to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) FOR 2006), it sells more
than classical, but less than children's music for the same period; it has had a
powerful and outsized impact on music, politics and culture.
Abbey
Lincoln, with her moving and memorable contralto, certainly played a leading
role in that march, and she will be remembered.
Lincoln was 80 years
old.
(c) '10 maj
Marilyn Buck: Presente!
[col. writ. 8/14/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
For nearly 30 long, tortuous years, Marilyn
Buck was a political prisoner of the state, a captive in the federal prison
system for her role in the liberation of former Black Panther, Assata Shakur.
She wrote gripping lines of radical poetry, often about the lives and
plights of her fellow imprisoned women, as well as of prisoners who were active
in the Black Freedom and Nationalist movements.
For example, back in 2000
she wrote "Black August", an excerpt of which follows:
Would you hang
on a cliff's edge
Sword-sharp, slashing fingers
While jackboot
screws stomp heels
on flesh peeled bones
and laugh
"Let go!
die, damn you,die!"
could you hold on 20 years, 30 years?
20
years, 30 years and more
brave Black brothers buried
in US
concentration camps
they hang on
Black light shining in torture
chambers
Ruchell, Yogi, Sundiata, Sekou
Warren, Chip, Seth,
Herman, Jalil
and more and more they resist:
Black August....
Marilyn wrote that poem in 2000.
She was released in July
2010, and recently passed away from the ravages of cancer.
Marilyn Buck
was imprisoned so long because of her support of the Black Liberation Movement,
which made her a traitor, of sorts, to the White Nation. Like John Brown, she
fought to free the unfree.
Her spirit of resistance never left her.
Marilyn was 62.
--(c) '10 maj
Wikileaks and the
Imperial Press
[col. writ. 8/1/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The release of some 70,000 + files
from the Afghanistan War has been treated by most corporate media as, at best, a
minor irritant, and worst, an act of treason.
The instincts expressed by
these outlets betrays the same mind set that whipped the nation to war in the
aftermath of 9/11. Media as servant of presidential power. Media as servant of
the defense industries - and Empire.
Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of
Wikileaks, has been lashed for not caring sufficiently for U.S. soldiers or
secret Afghanistan informants.
His other offense? Counting the deaths of
Afghan civilians killed by U.S. troops. For most of the media, that's a no-no.
This is what the Imperial media sounds like.
As it stands, American
corporate media is fast becoming a vanishing breed, for less and less people
watch TV news, or read newspapers. Furthermore, young people are leading the
trend. According to some reports, the average U.S. newspaper loses at least 10%
of its readership every year.
While technology undoubtedly plays some
role in this process, the lack of trust must also be a factor.
Their
flag-waving, martial music and lies led the nation into disasters in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
When an outfit like Wikileaks comes along, with raw files
from the battlefield, the corporate media seems superfluous.
And now,
like underfed pit bulls, they attack Wikileaks for not playing their imperial
game.
They are barking, but Wikileaks is biting.
--(c) '10 maj
===============
Bro. Charles
(1951-2010)
[col. writ.
7/25/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
His name was Ali Shabazz, but most people called him
Bro. Charles.
Born Leslie Charles Beasley, in June, 1951 in Phila, PA, he
was drawn, like many boys his age, to gang life.
As anyone knows, gang
life is a hard life, and Charles, despite his relatively short stature, was as
hard as they come. Few saw his sensitive side, but he had a wonderful sense of
humor, a rich belly laugh, was a talented artist with a caring heart for younger
people.
In 1980, after a series of stick-ups that went badly, he was sent
to Death Row, and it was there that Bro. Charles died, not by the hangman's
noose, but by "natural causes" (as if any death or life on death row could be
considered natural)
His health deteriorated seriously in the last few
years, and substandard treatment by prison health personnel certainly didn't do
much to arrest that deterioration.
He was a longtime member of the Nation
of Islam, from whence came his names: Charles X, and Ali Shabazz.
Bro.
Charles was 59.
--(c) '10 maj
==============
When Massacre
Is No Crime
[col. writ. 7/22/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Recently, when members of the MOVE
Organization filed a criminal complaint in the Philadelphia. trial court, the DA
argued against the filing, citing the extraordinary length of time, 25 years,
since the May 13, 1985 bombing of the MOVE home by city police, where 11 men,
women and children were massacred.
The trial judge, Frank Palumbo, agreed
with the prosecutor's arguments, and refused to accept the case for prosecution.
Imagine this: the same office which claimed that 25 years ago was too long
ago, tried to convict an elderly man in Philadelphia for a shooting that
occurred over 40 years ago.
It's been several months since 74 year old
William Barnes was acquitted in a murder trial stemming from the shooting of a
cop in 1966. The DA had no problem spending thousands of dollars to try Barnes,
44 years later.
That proves, if anything can, that time wasn't an issue.
What made the case "un-prosecutable" to the judge and DA was who the killers
were, as well as the identity of the killed. For the killers were cops (who
donate thousands of dollars to their campaigns): and the killed were mostly
Black, all money-poor, and members of the MOVE Organization.
So much for
"equal justice under the law"!
Ramona Africa, the sole adult survivor of
the Mother's Day Massacre (May 13, 1985), spent 7 years in prison for surviving
the bombing; and when she argued to her jury that police and the politicians
that commanded them should be on trial for bombing MOVE people, the prosecutor
told jurors not to worry about that, for other judges and juries would determine
their fates, on other dates, in other courtrooms.
It's been 25 years, and
except for Ramona Africa, no one even remotely connected with this carnage, has
ever seen the inside of a prison cell.
And now this new, offensive
'ruling': "Sorry, too late."
As ever, MOVE will rumble on.
(c) '10
maj
============
Punishing Lynne
[col. writ.
7/18/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Lynne Stewart, the activist lawyer, was
recently sentenced to 10 years in prison.
This outstanding lawyer, a 70
year old grandmother, who is facing the serious threat of breast cancer, was
originally sentenced to 2 years and 4 months, but the federal appeals court
apparently felt that wasn't enough.
The same appeals courts that
traditionally reverses the convictions of cops who torture or kill Black
citizens, and who traditionally rely on the judgements of the trial courts,
reversed Stewart's sentence as not tough enough.
So much for judicial
tradition.
For Lynne's tradition wasn't that of the tony, tie and tails
law firs of downtown Manhattan. She didn't represent the rich, the powerful, the
well-heeled.
She represented the poor, the oppressed, the destitute and
the dispossessed; the Black, the Latino, the Arab, the damned; those whom Frantz
Fanon famously called 'the wretched of the earth.'
A juxtaposition: Many,
many lawyers on the Office of Legal Counsel, in the White House, the CIA, and
the Defense Dept. violated criminal laws, the military legal code, the Geneva
Conventions, and the Convention Against Torture (CAT) [not to mention the U.S.
Constitution!] to aid and abet violations of law -- for years.
Guess how
many of them faced trial? Guess how many of them will in future?
How many
of them will ever face prison?
None, None -- and none.
For their
crimes were on behalf of the powerful; the state; hence their immunity.
Or consider what is know in international law as the 'supreme crime': wars of
aggression.
Iraq will be a basket case for generations, thanks to
American arrogance and greed.
Will anybody be brought to book for this
crime, that shattered a nation, that sent millions into exile, and killed
perhaps a million men, women and children?
Don't hold your breath.
There are still black sites, secret prisons, where tortures happen daily.
There is still extraordinary renditions - clear violations of the Convention
Against Torture (CAT)
But politicians are doing it - not to 'protect' the
nation -- but to secure elections. Torture for votes.
And a 70 year old
grandmother, a lawyer, is sent to prison for 10 years - for violating a prison
rule that is an unconstitutional relic of the so-called war on terror.
This is what an empire in decline looks like.
--(c) '10 maj
OUT NOW!
[speech writ.
7/19/10] (c)
'10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Ona Move!
It's been two years now into the Obama
administration, and despite the hopes of millions who voted for him, the wars
are getting worse -- not better.
The Obama administration is engaged in
more predator attacks than the Bush administration, and there are rumblings for
a war with Iran.
Meanwhile, the anti-war movement has been quiescent, as
if Obama bombs are somehow better than Bush bombs!
Isn't it time to
heighten the anti-war movement?
War poisons everything; for the state
expands its reach and powers through war.
NOW IS THE TIME; NOW IS THE
SEASON:
ANTI IMPERIALISM IS THE PERFECT REASON;
IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN WERE
FALSE WARS FOR OIL,
IT'S TIME TO BRING THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT TO A BOIL!
These wars aren't against foreign countries alone; they're against you, your
communities, your schools, your civil liberties. These wars have resulted in so
called black sites (secret prisons), torture, extraordinary rendition, attacks
on Arab-Americans and American Muslims, equally under Bush and Obama.
They have bankrupted the treasury, destabilized the region, and created
conditions for horrific 'blowback'.
NOW IS THE TIME; NOW IS THE SEASON;
ANTI IMPERIALSM IS THE PERFECT REASON.
IRAQ - AFGHANISTAN WERE FALSE WARS FOR
OIL,
IT'S TIME TO BRING THE ANTI WAR MOVEMENT TO A BOIL!
Thank you,
Onamove!
Mumia Abu-Jamal
The Man Called
Robert C. Byrd
[col. writ.
7/4/10]
(c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The Longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate would've been a
title cherished by Robert Carlisle Byrd, who became, among many other things, a
respected historian.
Byrd's beginnings were from the white southern
poor, and he hailed from a family of coal miners. Despite this poverty, Byrd had
a prodigious memory, and he excelled in high school.
But Byrd, being
politically ambitious, was much more than a bright schoolboy. By his young
adulthood he was a ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, the white terrorist arm
of the southern Democratic Party. In West Virginia, this was a ticket to high
political office, and Byrd punched his ticket well.
He began, as a
member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1953. Six years later he entered
the Senate and except by death, never left. From 1959 to 2010 he became the
embodiment of West Virginia, and the state became a reflection of him. There are
so many roads, schools, airports and government buildings named after him that
the state might best be known as Byrdsylvania, or, perhaps better, Byrdistan.
His biographers cite his KKK membership as a youthful indiscretion, a
passing fancy almost. But Byrd, historian that he was, made history of sorts
when he opposed the elevation of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court in 1967.
Marshall was, at that time, one of the most successful lawyers in America,
winning 29 of 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (including Brown v. Bd. of
Education) He was a Federal Appeals court judge for the 2nd Circuit (up in New
York) for 5 years, and he was U.S. Solicitor General for 2 years.
Why
did Byrd oppose Marshall, perhaps the most distinguished lawyer of his
generation? Because he didn't want to see a Black man on the court. Period.
Youthful indiscretion? Byrd was 50 when he voted against Marshall's
confirmation.
Two years before, when riots erupted across America, Sen.
Byrd would opine on the Senate floor that perhaps planned parenthood should be
introduced to Blacks so that they wouldn't have so many children who would grow
up and be unemployed.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, born Cornelius Calvin Sale,
Jr., in North Carolina, was a man of his time and place.
Perhaps he
distinguished himself from the pack best when he rose to the floor, a copy of
the Constitution in his shaking hand, and denounce the Bush regime's mad march
to war in Iraq, as a violation of the constitution. He voted against
authorization for war, saying it was the duty of the Congress to declare war -
not the president.
He rose from humble beginnings, with pluck, smarts
and dogged determination. He held his office like a pit bull on a bone. He
played the fiddle with considerable skill.
But he was a Klansman at
heart.
-(c) '10 maj