Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prize-winning journalist and former Black Panther, has been the
target of a racist police/judicial vendetta which extends from the Fraternal Order of
Police thugs all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Mumia has been on
Pennsylvania’s death row since being framed for the December 1981 killing of police
officer Daniel Faulkner.
On 9 November 2010, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing in
Philadelphia to consider whether to reinstate the death penalty or order a new sentencing
trial. Supporters of the International Bolshevik Tendency participated in the
demonstration outside the courthouse as well as in protests held in various cities around
the world.
In Oakland, California our comrades took part in a demonstration of over 150 people
initiated by the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. In London, an IBT
supporter addressed a rally of 200 people that was organized by the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Defense Campaign UK. In Wellington, New Zealand IBT comrades initiated a small
united-front protest. A similar demonstration was organized in Hamburg by the IBT and the
Antikrisen-Bündnis. In Toronto, an IBT-initiated united-front rally, endorsed by over
30 organizations, drew more than 250 participants—the biggest Mumia event held in
Canada for 15 years.
As a follow-up, on 13 December the IBT, along with Socialist Action (Canadian affiliate
of the United Secretariat) and the anarchist group Common Cause, organized a Toronto
showing of Justice on Trial, an important new film which presents a great deal of
evidence that the courts have refused to hear, including an admission of perjury by a
witness as well as photographic proof of police tampering with the crime scene. One thing
left out of the film, unfortunately, is the most powerful proof of Mumia’s
innocence—the sworn confession of Arnold Beverly that he and an accomplice shot
Faulkner (see our pamphlet, The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal).