N E W S R E L E A S E For Immediate Release Contact: Marlene Bertke, OSB (814) 453-4724 Erie City Council Calls for a Halt to Executions, Joining Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in Moratorium Campaign ERIE, PA (August 16, 2000) - At a standing room only meeting, the Erie City Council this evening voted 6-1 resolution calling for a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania until a study can be conducted to determine if the death penalty is being applied fairly. Erie, the third-largest municipality in the state and hometown of staunch death penalty proponent Governor Tom Ridge, joins Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in demanding that state officials suspend the signing of death warrants while the commonwealth's death penalty statute is scrutinized. Both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia passed similar resolutions earlier this year. While August is normally a slow month for municipal government business, Erie's City Council chambers had an overflow crowd of supporters for the moratorium resolution sponsored by City Council President Rubye Jenkins-Husband. The 96 seats reserved for the public were filled, with an additional 30 people standing along the sides and in the back of the room. The moratorium resolution - originally scheduled to be the sixth item of business -- was moved to the top of the agenda. When the floor was opened for public comment, numerous speakers called for adoption of the resolution. There were no opposing comments. Speakers included local clergy, NAACP representatives, and college professors; a statement of support from Bishop Donald Trautman of the Erie Catholic Diocese was also read. Following the public statements, the resolution was brought to a vote. Council members Rubye Jenkins-Husband, Melvin Weatherspoon, Chris Maras, Richard Fillippi, Mario Bagnoni, and Gail Wright voted in favor of the moratorium call. Councilman Joe Borgia was the lone dissenter. Supporters believe the Erie resolution provides further evidence that the death penalty moratorium movement is gaining momentum. Recent polls indicate that a majority of Americans favor a moratorium on executions. "Gov. Tom Ridge continues to propagate the myth that he is simply pursuing what Pennsylvanians favor," said Jeff Garis, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. "He clearly wasn't listening when the city councils for the two largest municipalities in the state called for a halt to the signing of death warrants. Perhaps the people from his hometown can talk some sense into him." Since taking office in 1995, Gov. Ridge has signed 205 death warrants, several of them for mentally retarded individuals. From 1962 to 1995, the governors of Pennsylvania signed a combined total of 29 execution warrants. Pennsylvania has the fourth largest death row in the U.S. with 228 men and 4 women sentenced to death. #### **************************************************************************** * PENNSYLVANIA ABOLITIONISTS United Against the Death Penalty P.O. Box 58128, Philadelphia, PA 19102 Phone: 215-724-6120 Fax: 215-729-6189 **************************************************************************** * From: d machine Ive come across an interesting page, from Chicago, with footage of their March for Mumia Rally. Video contains a few speaches, including former death row inmates, students, a chicago teachers union member, civil rights lawyers and mothers of death row inmates. There's also march footage which clearly shows some instances of police agression and arrests. Worth the time to check out. http://www.supersphere.com/FrontPage/Politic/Page.html?ID=Mumia thanks 762 ================================================> From: "Greg Butterfield" Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- As Clinton/Gore speak of 'democracy' LOS ANGELES POLICE RIOT Convention protests continue despite tear gas, rubber bullets By Workers World Los Angeles bureau Hundreds of heavily armed police rioted outside the Democratic Convention Aug. 14, attacking peaceful demonstrators and concert-goers as President Bill Clinton delivered his nationally televised speech to the delegates. The police assault was a further escalation of the government's war against the new anti-capitalist, anti- racist youth movement following the arrests of more than 450 protesters during the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. While Clinton praised himself and Vice President Al Gore inside the plush Staples Center, police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades at 10,000 youths and others who gathered outside to hear a free concert by Rage Against the Machine and Ozomatli. Between 10 and 15 people were reported arrested. Paramedics treated three dozen for serious injuries. Many more suffered head wounds from rubber bullets, the effects of tear gas and other injuries. "Scores of people [were] hit by rubber bullets or other projectiles," reported the Aug. 15 Los Angeles Times. "Many of those who were hit were bleeding or displayed deep, silver-dollar sized bruises." The police "fired indiscriminately for more than an hour," according to the Times. There was no condemnation of the LAPD brutality by Clinton, Gore or other Democratic leaders. "All along the media have been praising the so-called 'restrained, peaceful' role of the Los Angeles Police Department," said Workers World Party presidential candidate Monica Moorehead, "especially during the Aug. 13 demonstration demanding a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. "Tonight the police showed their true colors," she charged. "The LAPD is a repressive force against workers, the oppressed and young people. "This kind of blatant police repression won't stop us from protesting," she added. "It will only serve to make this new movement more determined and militant." LEGAL ASSEMBLY The Aug. 14 concert was the culmination of a day of protests against capitalist globalization, the National Missile Defense program and economic injustice. The actions converged for the concert, a legal assembly, in the fenced- off "protest pit" outside the convention center. Earlier, police attacked a 2,000-strong street protest targeting Gore's ties to Occidental Petroleum. That Big Oil monopoly threatens the sovereignty and environmental safety of the Indigenous U'wa people in Colombia. Ten people were arrested. The crowd at the concert was multinational, including many Latino youths. There were young Nigerians working with the Service Employees union and a Korean drum corps. The Chicano students' group MEChA, the Filipino group Bayan and the U.S. Out of Colombia Committee hoisted banners. There were also hundreds of youths and community people who came just to hear the music, not expecting a confrontation with police. Rage Against the Machine performed songs of protest and solidarity with political prisoners and international people's struggles. The band led the audience in chants of "Free Mumia!" Then the East LA band Ozomatli took the stage. Imani Henry, a national coordinator of Rainbow Flags for Mumia, described what happened next. "The police got on the loudspeaker and said, 'This is now an illegal demonstration. You have 15 minutes to disperse.' But they didn't let people disperse. "The band was defiant. People in the crowd started putting up banners. Many people left marching and chanting," Henry said. 'OVERWHELMING FORCE' Richard Becker, West Coast co-director of the International Action Center, described what followed as "overwhelming force" by "teams of 120-150 cops in military formation." The cops appeared to have timed their riot to coincide with Clinton's speech, when the fewest TV cameras would be trained on the protesters outside, he said. "The main orientation of the police was not arrests, but punishment," Becker told WW. "This attack was intended to create the idea that if you go anywhere near the Staples Center, punishment will be inflicted on you." As people tried to leave the concert site, riot police on horseback charged the crowd, splitting it in two. The largest group marched up Olympic Avenue and was eventually able to disperse. However, hundreds of people trapped inside the protest pit found themselves under siege. "Everyone was being funneled out between concrete posts when we were told to disperse," recalled Linda Young, a youth activist with the San Francisco IAC chapter. "A friend and I were following instructions and trying to disperse. But when we were about to exit, the mounted police charged through and almost crushed us. "We got through another exit," Young told WW, "and people were being pushed down Figueroa Street. "Suddenly the police opened fire with rubber bullets. I was shot twice and my friend was shot four times. "Everyone started running. Then some people started saying we should slow down, running will make it worse. So we started walking and tried again to disperse. There was no way to disperse because the side streets were all blocked off. If you tried to go back, you ran right into these charging police. "The police continued to charge us. They followed us for awhile and then started shooting again. "This continued for over an hour," Young said. Eventually the group on Figueroa Street was able to escape through the Pershing Square Metro train station. "Even in the face of tear gas and rubber bullets, people were organizing to try and get everyone to safety," reported Forrest Schmidt, a Workers World Party activist who was caught in the police riot. "I saw many people who had been hit in the back of the head by rubber pellets," Schmidt said. "The police were firing high as the crowd was running away. They were aiming at people's heads, not their legs. "One woman I saw was hit directly in the eye," he said. "The entire side of her face was swollen and she couldn't see out of that eye. I saw another person severely trampled by a horse." Besides rubber bullets and pepper spray, Young said, the cops fired "big cork bullets, half-dollar-size and very thick. "Some guy had the back of his head split open by one," she said. The Los Angeles Times reported that homeless-rights activist Ted Hayes was struck in the chest with a "beanbag" projectile. Hayes was knocked to the ground gasping for breath. He had to be taken to the hospital. Schmidt said the cops seemed to target legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild and the American Civil Liberties Union. The progressive lawyers had helped protest organizers hand the LAPD a defeat by winning a court injunction permitting marches to the convention site. Not even Democratic Party delegates were safe. Police outside the convention center reportedly manhandled Los Angeles County AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Miguel Contreras. New York Public Advocate Mark Green and some other New York delegates were also treated roughly. Throughout the night LAPD spokespeople offered several excuses for their riot. First local television stations reported that police had been angered by "one or two bonfires" lit inside the concert area. Then the cops claimed that 10 to 20 people at the edge of the concert were throwing chunks of dirt, rocks and bottles at them--over a 13-foot-high chain link fence. Another story had it that two youths who scaled the fence holding a black flag were "endangering" the riot-gear-clad LAPD. The Southern California ACLU quickly condemned the LAPD. Spokesperson Dan Tokaji said, "Had the police cooperated with rally organizers, the night could have ended calmly and smoothly. "Instead, the police response tonight created huge risks. When people see batons raised, riot gear and mounted police clearing the area, a tense situation becomes a volatile one." "I was there in the middle of all this, enjoying the sound of Ozomatli, when all of a sudden the plug was pulled with the excuse that people would not get off the 'security' fence," wrote Cisco, a concert-goer who posted a personal account on the Los Angeles Independent Media Center Web site. "People got angry, and rightly so." - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org) _________________________________________________ =================================================================== Pan-African News Wire, Weekly Dispatch III, Tuesday 15 August 2000 =================================================================== Cuban Trade Union Leader Speaks On Mumia Abu-Jamal and Shaka Sankofa Detroit forum addresses Cuban Suppport for US political prisoners DETROIT, 14 Aug., 2000 (PANW)--Cuban trade union leaders visited the city of Detroit on August 13 and 14 at the invitation of the US/Cuba Labor Exchange. The delegation was hosted at UAW Region 1-A on Monday evening where they addressed a range of political and labor issues involving the United States and Cuba in particular and the international situation in general. During the question and answer period, one local trade union leader, David Sole, president of UAW Local 2334, asked about Cuba's involvement in the international movement to support Mumia Abu-Jamal and the past efforts aimed at saving the life of the late Shaka Sankofa, who was executed in Texas on June 22. In response to this question, Leonel Gonzalez Gonazalez, International Secretary of the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC), made the following comments: "In the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, this is our perception.. We believe that in the case of Shaka Sankofa, it was and it should have been possible, to grant him a new trial with all the witnesses involved, all those who knew about the case, who participated in the case. Why not give him a second chance? Where there was so much doubt. The number one witness saw him in the night more than forty feet away behind the windshield of an automobile. Why would they not grant him a second chance? The same doubts prevail today with Mumia. Why not a new trial? We say that he should be free. We could demand that. We are only saying, give him a second trial. But the legal system in the US is very complex. We believe in joining the struggle that is being waged around the world in favor of a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. (applause) I have seen demonstrations in Germany, in Sweden, or in France or Italy, demanding a new trial for Mumia. We believe that he should have the right of having that opportunity. They have to demonstrate in a fair trial that really he is guilty of the crime or not." This visit by Cuban trade unionists was the first in nine years to the United States. The delegation left from Detroit on Tuesday morning to return to Cuba. They had traveled to several states and regions of the US.* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================= Pan-African News Wire articles may be broadly forwarded for non-profit educational and research purposes. ======================================================================= ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION CENTER 211 SCB BOX 47, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY DETROIT, MI 48202-- E MAIL: ac6123@wayne.edu ====================================================================== ********* Related Web Sites: ************** http://www.cc.utah.edu/~pks1019/tips.html http://www.freemumia.org http://www.zimpapers.co.zw http://www.cosatu.org.za ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: benjamin ramos PUEBLO/PEOPLE, COME OUT AND SUPPORT BLACK AUGUST!! THE WORK THEY HAVE DONE RAISING CONCSIOUSNESS AROUND MUMIA ABU JAMAL, THE PUERTO RICAN POLITICAL PRISONERS AND THE OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS HAS BEEN INCREDIBLE!! Monifa Akinwole wrote: New Black August info Black August 2000 - a celebration of hip hop and our freedom fighters Wednesday, August 30 @ 7PM @ New Age Caberet 23 St. Mark's Place (8th street) bet. 2nd and 3rd Aves who Dead Prez Tony Touch Black Thought Talib Kweli & Dj Hi Tek Reflection Eternal The Dwellas Rise & Shine Imani Uzuri Welfare Poets & more all tickets $20 - proceeds to benefit political prisoners in the united states $60 to table for more info call the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement at 718.622.8292 peace free all political prisoners ============================================= > OWC CAMPAIGN NEWS - distributed by the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights, c/o S.F. Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109. To UNSUSCRIBE from this list, send a message to . Phone: (415) 641-8616 Fax: (415) 440-9297. Visit out new website at . (Please excuse duplicate postings, and please feel free to re-post.) ------------------- [OWC Update, 8/18] Int'l Campaign to Save Mumia! Greetings from International Committee to Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal to the August 13 Free Mumia demonstration/rally in Los Angeles [Note: The following greetings were read to the 3500 participants at the Free Mumia rally in Los Angeles on August 13 by Alan Benjamin, editor of The Organizer newspaper and member of the Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference.] The International Committee to Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal sends greetings to all those assembled in Los Angeles on August 13 to demand a new trial and freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Our Committee was formed close to a year ago at an international rally in Paris, France, of close to 10,000 workers and youth who came together to build support for the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights, which took place in San Francisco last February. Our Committee was founded just a few months before the scheduled December 2 execution of Mumia. In response to this threat, the Committee decided to circulate an "Open Letter to Bill Clinton" urging him, given the powers of his high office, to intervene to guarantee a new trial for Mumia, one in which Mumia could fully demonstrate his innocence. Specifically, the Committee called on Clinton to direct Janet Reno to order a federal investigation into the 29 violations of Mumia's due process, Constitutional and civil rights. This Open Letter has gathered more than 1.5 million signatures in 70 countries on all continents. On the basis of this Open Letter, an international delegation of trade union leaders, political figures, and elected officials traveled to Washington, DC, on January 12. The delegation was received by top-level officials at the U.S. Department of Justice, who told the delegation that, yes, Clinton and Reno do have the power to intervene - and that, yes, it is fully within the purview of the Justice Department to open an investigation into the violation of Mumia's rights. The International Committee to Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal also participated actively in the May 13th International Day of Action to Free Mumia, with demonstrations, rallies and delegations to U.S. embassies and consulates in 70 countries. In France alone there were demonstrations in the streets of more than 50 cities. Today a concerted media campaign is being promoted internationally to prepare world public opinion for the assassination of Mumia Abu-Jamal. From the pages of Time magazine and the columns of prominent mainstream newspapers, we are being treated to article after article with the following message: Yes, the struggle against the death penalty may have merit, but Mumia is guilty. "Good Cause, Wrong Guy" is what they call it. Le Monde, one of France's major dailies, carried a feature story on Mumia on August 3 focusing on a young activist in Philadelphia named Frank, who allegedly was a member of the Free Mumia coalition on his college campus before "realizing" that his efforts were misdirected. The paper quotes Frank as saying that now that he has looked more closely at Mumia's dossier, he realizes Mumia is guilty. This is just one of the many recent sophisticated hit pieces. In the aftermath of the heinous June 22 assassination of Shaka Sankofa, and as the presidential elections approach, they want to convince world public opinion - based on the same old lies and without any mention of all the new evidence pointing to Mumia's innocence - that Mumia should not be defended, as he is "guilty." Mumia is in critical danger! Let us renew our pledge that we will not let Mumia be assassinated! A few weeks ago, the convention of the California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO) unanimously voted a resolution which calls upon Justice Yohn to hear Mumia Abu-Jamal's new evidence and witnesses. In the event Yohn refuses to set a new trial, the resolution continues, "the President of the United States should [then] intercede and order a new trial." This resolution points the way forward. Yes, Clinton must intervene -- immediately. He was the authority to do so! Let us mobilize in greater numbers, winning support from our trade unions and community organizations, from our campus and high school committees, to demand that Clinton intervene. The International Committee to Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal calls upon all workers and activists around the world who are engaged in the fight to free Mumia: If Judge Yohn refuses to hear Mumia's new evidence and witnesses, let us organize a broad-based delegation to the White House in Washington to tell the president directly, in the name of millions of people across the globe, that he must use his high office to order a federal investigation into the violation of Mumia's rights. Such an investigation, without a doubt, would pave the way for a new trial! For a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal! Stop the Execution! ********************* International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143 Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6160/ E-mail - icffmaj@aol.com To communicate directly w/Mumia please write to him at: Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335 SCI-Greene 175 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370 Stop the execution! New trial for Mumia! Youth & Students for Mumia http://www.mumia2000.org