PRESS ALERT
Dec 2, 2016
CONTACT: Tiffany Robbins 484-343-2172; Dr Suzanne Ross 917-584-2135; Joe Piette 610-931-2615
GATHERING ON 35th ANNIVERSARY of MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ARREST TO CALL FOR HIS FREEDOM, CLEAN WATER, HEP C TREATMENT FOR PRISONERS & TO DELIBERATE ON JUSTICE UNDER TRUMP
News reporters and community members are invited to a day of action on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9 in Philadelphia to demand the constitutional right to clean water, hepatitis C treatment and freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, unjustly imprisoned since 1981, and to witness deliberations on what a Trump Administration will mean for community activists.
The gathering is taking place just weeks after Philadelphia City Council passed an Oct 22 resolution “Calling upon Governor Wolf and the Pennsylvania State Legislature to ensure that individuals incarcerated and working in state prisons have access to clean water and proper health services.”
In weeks, the racist billionaire administration of Donald Trump is set to begin. How will people respond to his regressive policies? “As the Trump presidency takes shape… Let us build movements. Let’s lift our hearts. Let us remake our history with the brick and mortar of struggle.” Abu-Jamal said on Prison Radio Nov 21.
The meeting occurs 3 months after the Federal Court decision (Abu-Jamal vs. Kerestes) on August 31 declared it was unconstitutional for the Department of Corrections to refuse to give hep C-infected prisoners with medicines boasting a 95% cure rate. “There are 3.2 million people in the United States living with Hepatitis C. This is unacceptable when there is a cure for the illness,” said Teresa Sullivan. “People living with Hepatitis C should not have to wait for access to treatment because getting early treatment will prevent long term damage from liver cancer and liver fibrosis.”
Reports will detail other developments impacting unfairly-convicted Pennsylvania prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal:
Abu-Jamal is experiencing increased symptoms of the deadly hepatitis C virus. His deteriorating health is again approaching alarming levels as occurred in March, 2015 when he was rushed to the hospital unconscious. For Mumia Abu-Jamal and nearly 7,000 other prisoners with hep C, prison authorities continue to refuse effective treatment until inmates are near death. Why is the DOC continuing its deadly protocol of “deliberate indifference”?
Prisoners at Mahanoy Prison had to bathe in dirty, brown water, and were limited to inadequate rations of drinking water for weeks until recently. Is the water safe to use, especially for hep C inflicted prisoners with skin complications? Why does the DOC do so little to protect prisoners from unsafe water at SCI Mahanoy, SCI Frackville, SCI Graterford and other prisons?
A new lawsuit by Abu-Jamal’s attorneys has been filed, based on a recent Supreme Court decision (Williams vs PA) that a prosecutor in a case cannot sit as a judge over the same defendant he prosecuted. A ruling in Abu-Jamal’s favor would reopen all of the legal decisions in the case made since 1998. Acting as prosecutor and later Judge for both Abu-Jamal and Terrence Williams, why did former PA Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille refuse to recuse himself?
Individual endorsers include:
Angela Davis;
Betty Davis, New Abolitionist Movement
Estela Vazquez, Executive Vice President, Local 1199 SEIU*
Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka, US Green Party Presidential Ticket;
Juanita Young, Stolen Lives*
Lynne Stewart, former political prisoner and people’s lawyer, Lynne Stewart Organization
Martha Grevatt, Trustee, UAW Local 869*;
Minnie Bruce Pratt, UAW Local 1981/ National Writers Union *;
Monica Moorehead & Lamont Lilly, US Presidential & Vice-Presidential Candidates, Mundo Obrero/Workers World Party;
Ralph Poynter, New Abolitionist Movement
Rev CD Witherspoon Baltimore SCLC President*;
Robin Laverne Wilson, US Senate Candidate (NY – Green);
Royce Adams, International Longshoremen ‘s Association Local 1291 -AFL-CIO*;
Susan E. Davis, National Writers Union, UAW 1981*;
Wadiya Jamal;
*For Identification Only
Triangle Unity May Day Coalition
WHAT: Press Conference to announce mass rally
WHEN: 6:00 PM, Thursday, December 1
WHERE: State Capitol building (Morgan Street side), Raleigh, N.C.
WHO: Triangle Unity May Day Coalition
Press contact: Manzoor Cheema, Muslims for Social Justice, at 919-355-8026 or Dante Strobino, Triangle Unity May Day Coalition at 919-539-2051
Following the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, the country has witnessed a resurgence of hateful rhetoric and violence aimed at immigrants, Muslims, Black people, workers, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Trans people, women, disabled people and all oppressed people. On Dec. 3rd, the terrorist Ku Klux Klan, are scheduled to hold a “victory” parade in North Carolina to celebrate the electoral win of Donald Trump.
The Triangle Unity May Day Coalition – composed of dozens of grassroots community and workplace organizations – will be hosting a mass rally on Saturday, December 3rd from 12:00pm to 2:00pm at Moore Square Park located at 200 S. Blount Street in downtown Raleigh to showcase the power of grassroots movement to challenge the forces of hate and oppression. The best way to oppose KKK and Trump presidency is building a stronger grassroots social justice movement.
As Trump and his followers, including the KKK, plan to demonstrate their unabashed hate for marginalized groups, we will demonstrate our unity with an unrelenting fight for justice.
We refuse to back down against the endless police murders of Black people. We stand in solidarity with the Black community in Charlotte as they protest against the non-indictment of cop Brentley Vinson who killed Keith Lamont Scott. We stand in solidarity with our immigrant friends who now fear threats of deportation by Trump. Our movement for not one more deportation will keep fighting ahead!
We stand against hate crimes and racist violence against our friends who are labeled terrorists by the state and Trump by virtue of being Muslim. We are also workers fighting for $15 per hour and for collective bargaining rights for public workers! We oppose any new wars that Trump threatens to create. We move forward to advance our struggle for quality public schools and to defend all public services that Trump has threatened to shut down. We won’t let him shut anything down!
We invite people from all backgrounds to join and support our coalition of workers, Black, Brown, Muslim, immigrants, and other marginalized groups, called the Triangle Unity May Day Coalition.
We invite the press to a press conference on Thursday, December 1 at 6:00pm at the Morgan Street side of the State Capitol building as we announce our plans for a mass rally.
#ThisIsOurNC #NCAgainstIslamophobia #NCAgainstRacism #NC4WorkersPower #Not1More
RALEIGH, NC, December 3, 2016: Shut Down Trump and the KKK! No white supremacy & state violence
National Call to Action – Come to North Carolina on December 3!
Joint Call to Action from Triangle Unity May Day Coalition and the Charlotte Uprising:
THIS STATE BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE, NOT TRUMP AND THE KKK! No white supremacy and state violence! We won’t go back!
12-3 P.M., Moore Square, 200 S Blount Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
GREENSBORO, NC, December 3, 2016: Triad March Against Trump and the KKK: No Hate in Our Streets
Windsor Recreation Center, 1601 East Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro, NC 27401
Seguido Por Traduccion en Espanol:
Greensboro has a rich tradition of resisting the Klan and racism in ALL its forms. Trump’s election has emboldned yet another wave of vicious racists attacks with promises for much worse. It is our duty to SHUT IT DOWN!
With the KKK planning a parade celebrating Trump’s victory in NC we must come together in force to show that their hateful public presence will never be welcome in our communities. An injury to one is an injury to all, and we will not tolerate hate in our streets. Join us for a rally and a March from the Windsor Community Center to 1979 Greensboro Massacre historical marker as we invoke our painful yet radical history of resistance against the Klan, racism, and all forms of injustice. Bring Family and Friends!
—–
Greensboro tiene una larga tradición de resistir el Klan y el racismo en TODAS sus formas. La elección de Trump ha envalentonado otra oleada de ataques racistas viciosos con promesas de muchas cosas peores. ¡Es nuestro deber detenerlo!
Con el KKK planeando un desfile celebrando la victoria de Trump en Carolina del Norte, debemos unirnos para demostrar que su odiosa presencia pública nunca será bienvenida en nuestras comunidades. Una lesión a uno es una lesión a todos, y no toleraremos el odio en nuestras calles. Únase a nosotros para una manifestación y una marcha desde el Centro Comunitario de Windsor al El marcador histórico del Greensboro Massacre de 1979 donde invocamos nuestra dolorosa pero radical historia de resistencia contra el Klan, el racismo y todas las formas de injusticia. ¡Traiga a la familia y a sus los amigos! Necesitamos solidaridad mas que nunca.
[col. writ. 11/27/16] ©’16 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Fidel Castro, father of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, has died, after 90 years of a life of rebellion and resistance. That this bold revolutionary figure lived as long as he did is itself a victory, for he outlived at least 11 assassination attempts launched by the CIA.
11 times that the US gov’t has admitted!
As a young man, he earned a law degree, but he never practiced; he took the revolutionary path–and began a struggle against the US-supported Cuban dictator, Fulgencia Batista. That struggle, which led to the fall of Batista, inspired people all around the world.
One of those inspired was the late Huey P. Newton, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, who, in a 1967 jail interview, noted:
“When Fidel Castro started the Revolution, along with Che Guevara, with 12 of them altogether, they realized that they wouldn’t be able to topple the, uh, oppressive regime in Cuba. What they were essentially was an educational body. They engaged with the Army, they fought with the Army, and, uh, they showed the people that the army was not bullet-proof, that the police were not bullet-proof. And that Batista’s regime was not a regime that was impossible to topple, so the people began to feel their strength.” —-Dr. Huey P. Newton.
Fidel was a friend of Malcolm X, and a life long friend of Africa. The racist regime of Apartheid South Africa got whipped in Angola, with tens of thousands of Cuban troops in the field. The notorious battle of Cuito Carneval, Angola was where South Africa saw the bloody handwriting on the wall.
Castro once said:
“African blood flows in our veins. Many of our Ancestors came as slaves from Africa to this land. As slaves they struggled quite a great deal. They fought as members of the liberating army of Cuba. We’re brothers and sisters of the people of Africa and we are ready to fight in their behalf.”
Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution never bowed to the US Empire–not once in over ½ a century.
The Cuban Revolution produced the finest educational system in the Caribbean and much of the world. They have sent their doctors all around the Earth.
The world mourns the passing of a giant.
Fidel Castro-Ruz, Commandante de la Revolución. ¡Presente!
–©’16maj
