From: "C. Clark Kissinger" To: Save Address Subject: Report from Clark Kissinger's probation appointment 6-6-00 We Refuse to be Banned! “They’re doing to us is what they did in South Africa during the apartheid regime, where they “banned” people to stay in their village, not allowed to travel anywhere or have connections with the political movement. They’re trying to create banned people here, and we’re refusing to be banned.” Clark Kissinger announced Tuesday that he would not comply with a fishing expedition by US probation officials. June 6th was definitely not business as usual as thirty chanting supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal marched into the U.S. Parole and Probation Office in Brooklyn. The head official came out and threatened to call 911. A series of cops arrived. No one was impressed. No one left. People had come out to protest the restrictions placed on eight activists by a federal judge that are designed to stop their work for justice for Mumia. Three of the restricted activists were present: C. Clark Kissinger, Frances Goldin, and Mitchell Cohen. Their restrictions include having to surrender their passports, no travel without permission, visits to their homes by probation officers, and no contact with convicted felons -- meaning of, course, Mumia. Dennis Brutus, former political prisoner in South Africa, sent the following message, “As someone who suffered various restraints in South Africa, including loss of passport, restraint of travel, investigations by Secret Police and imprisonment in South Africa, I am profoundly troubled to see Apartheid replicated in the United States. This is cause for unified and persistent protest until these processes are ended.” June 6 was the deadline for Clark to turn in the pages of forms that the probation services demanded. He didn’t. In fact, the Probation Office was so unstrung by the chanting demonstrators filling their waiting room, that Clark was told to leave and not come back until next month. But, he was told that if he brought anyone else along aside from an attorney the next time, he would be considered to be in violation of his probation. In the meantime, supporters are writing federal district court judge Kaufmann to overturn the conviction and probation imposed on Clark and the others. Clark’s attorney, Ron Kuby, sent a message to gathering saying: “The federal magistrate’s imposition of highly restrictive conditions of probation, unprecedented in a case of this type, are an attempt to prevent Mr. Kissinger from engaging in lawful, constitutionally protected activity For years, Mr. Kissinger has traveled the country organizing support for Mumia Abu Jamal. The Court’s restrictions upon Mr. Kissinger’s travel and prohibition on association with Mr. Abu Jamal, if adhered to, would seriously hamper these efforts. In addition, the Court’s requirement that Mr. Kissinger disclose the names and details of all organizations to which he belongs is designed to chill his exercise of the First Amendment right to freedom of association.” Before going into the Probation Office to demand an end to the restrictions, a number of people addressed the crowd. Frances Goldin, Mumia’s literary agent, described her response in these words: “The Probation Officers are trying to teach me to be an upstanding citizen and go to work every day. When you’re on probation you have to work. They don’t understand that when I go to work, I go to visit Mumia, I talk to him, write to him, I sell books for Mumia, I get contracts for Mumia…that is my work. And they are telling me that unless I get permission from my Probation Officer, I can’t see him on death row as I usually do. I can’t associate with a convicted felon. This was written to mean Mumia Abu-Jamal. Are they going to stop me? Hell, no!” Mitch Cohen from the Green Party, also under the restrictions, told supporters: “The reason Clark is here today is that we’re supposed to turn over to the government everything about our lives. We’re supposed to sign a waiver of our rights to allow the government to look into all our financial and medical records.” He spoke about the government increasing pressure on activists all over the country by preventive detention of demonstrators. Pam Africa of International Family & Friends of MAJ came from Philadelphia to provide support. She said, “This points to what was done to Veronica Jones. She was sitting in a cell by herself with no support. And Mr. Singletary was by himself. This movement has forced this government to do what they had been doing behind doors, before the whole world. This is nothing new that they’re starting, it’s just something that’s being exposed. Veronica, Singletary, Pamela Jenkins, the list goes on and on of the people in Philadelphia they’ve gone after. It’s fear that’s running these people [in power] and it’s fear that’s going to take them down.” Jack Heyman from the ILWU in San Francisco was on hand to lend his support: “We recognize that those supporters of MAJ are being harassed and intimidated by the state, and it’s incumbent on all of those who fight for justice in this country to stand behind these defendants in the Liberty Bell case. Our slogan in the ILWU is “an injury to one is an injury to all”. We ’ll stand behind you. We want the charges dropped, and we want Mumia out.” He relayed news that support for Mumia expressed last year by the ILWU shut down of ports on the west coast, is spreading to the east coast. Longshoremen in Charleston SC have come out for Mumia, while they joined protests against the confederate flag at the state capitol. “This is significant, because the ILWU on the east coast is fairly conservative. But from Delaware south, the longshoremen are mainly Black. They have tremendous power. The power of the labor movement can be used to free MAJ.” Prof. Mark Taylor from the Princeton Theological Seminary said: “This is a move against Mumia Abu-Jamal. It needs to be seen in the way state power in centered today in Philadelphia, its nervousness about Mumia and about what we activists for Mumia might do as the RNC is coming. I was told by lawyers I consulted that they see the sentences received by Frances and Clark as an administrative decision of the powerful in Philadelphia to target Mumia activists and to send a message to all of those who would act up to target Philadelphia dramatically.” And Miles Solay from the Refuse & Resist! Youth Network added: “Not only are the authorities tyring to silence some of the most ardent, dedicated and outspoken supports of Mumia Abu-Jamal, but they’re also trying to send a message out to everyone else who supports Mumia Abu-Jamal that we shouldn’t, and if we do, this is what will happen. We have a slogan that “Mumia is fearless, so are we, we won’t stop until he’s free” and these people who are being persecuted right now are putting that slogan into practice. We have to fight this, and turn this into something they wish they never did, and have our movement become a lot stronger in fighting for justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Before going up to the office together with supporters, Clark Kissinger emphasized that: “I want you to know that what happened to us has absolutely nothing to do with the Liberty Bell. It has to do with the work that all of you have done over the last two years in building an international movement for justice for Mumia.” He promised to never accept any conditions that would restrict his ability to defend Mumia, and after coming back out, he invited the assembled activists to join him again next month at for his next appointment.