MOVE member Delbert Africa, held in prison since the confrontation of Aug. 8, 1978, has walked out of a Pennsylvania prison after 42 years. Delbert, in his 73rd year of life, came out to meet other members of the MOVE Organization, who greeted him with a hearty chant of “Long live John Africa!” and a MOVE salute. Del was in a good mood and high spirits, cracking jokes and eating sandwiches.

Aug. 8, 1978, was a date of infamy, for it marked an attack on the MOVE house in West Philadelphia’s Powelton Village, where hundreds of cops shot thousands of shots into the structure where men, women and children were huddled in the basement. Gunfire was followed by water cannons, where MOVE people had to fight to stay alive from being drowned.

When Delbert exited the house, he was beaten by several cops – rifle-butted, stomped and kicked viciously. When several of these cops were charged with assaulting Del, they had nothing to worry about, thanks to Judge Stanley Kubacki. Ignoring video tapes, he acquitted the cops, citing, among other things, Delbert’s muscles as justification for the beating.

Ironically, one of those cops charged might have been luckier if he were sent to prison. Several weeks after the trial, he was shot and paralyzed by his wife, who also happened to be a cop. 

Delbert Africa, MOVE member, walks free after 42 years in the joint.

From Imprisoned Nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Listen to Mumia’s commentary at Prison Radio

Free all political prisoners!

In mid-December 2019, the Socialist Unity Party/Partido de Socialismo Unido, the San Diego Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice hosted two very special “Free All Political Prisoners” forums. They welcomed Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Carlos Africa and recently released MOVE 9 women, Janine Africa and Janet Africa to Southern California.

This trip to California was one of many “firsts” for Janine and Janet Africa, released on May 25, 2019—African Liberation Day—after spending over 40 years in prison. These courageous Black women, along with Debbie Sims Africa, released in June 2018, were the longest-held women political prisoners in the United States. Another MOVE woman, Merle Africa, died in prison under suspicious circumstances in 1998.

The San Diego forum was held at the Malcolm X Library on Dec. 14. Pam Africa, Janine Africa, Janet Africa and Carlos Africa flew in from Philadelphia, arrived in Los Angeles at midnight Friday and made the two-and-a-half hour trip to San Diego mid-morning on Saturday, arriving with just enough time for a short tour of the Malcolm X Library before speaking.  

San Diego’s Black August Organizing Committee has held annual Black August events at the Malcolm X Library for the last three years, where we have discussed the case of the MOVE 9, researched, posted and viewed footage from the 1978 attack and the 1985 bombing, yet none of our previous discussions can compare to hearing the stories directly from Janet and Janine.

The San Diego Committee Against Police Brutality (SD-CAPB) has hosted birthday celebrations, educational forums and commemorations in April and December in honor and recognition of the “long distance revolutionary” Mumia Abu-Jamal for the last 20 years. We have had discussions, have shown video documentaries, and have read Mumia’s essays at local spoken-word events and student forums. 

Mumia was an honorary member of the African American Writers and Artists and for many years his essays were read at AAW&A monthly meetings. Yet nothing can compare to hearing the voice of Pam Africa — who has spent 38 years fighting for Abu-Jamal’s freedom — speak about how she met Mumia, his journalism and his commitment to justice for everyone.   

Power of the people unleashed

This was a historic day for the Malcolm X Library and the people of San Diego. Many came out to witness this rare occasion. A big, beautiful portrait of Mumia Abu-Jamal, made and donated to the SD-CABP by local artist Mario Torero, was at the center of the room for all to view. 

A collection of Abu-Jamal’s books, and Leonard Peltier’s book “Prison Writings: My Life Is a Sundance,” were on display. Pam Africa and Carlos Africa brought some MOVE T-shirts and several copies of the informative pamphlet “25 Years on the Move.”

The majority of people in the seminar room were in their thirties or early forties. Many were not yet born when the MOVE 9 were incarcerated in August 1978. Many were still in grade school when the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb on MOVE headquarters, destroying an entire predominantly African American neighborhood, in May 1985.

The program began with a warm welcome to our guests, followed by an update on Indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier’s fight for freedom from Zola Fish, organizer for the San Diego Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.  

Before we handed the program over to the MOVE 9 members, we gave gifts to all the guests to commemorate their first visit to San Diego and also to show them how much we appreciate the sacrifices they have made to make a better world for all of us. Pam Africa was presented with a copy of the new Struggle-La Lucha book, “Black August 1619-2019,” which includes essays by Mumia.

Pam, Janet and Janine all agreed that Mumia Abu-Jamal will be free.

Why do they believe this so strongly? They said it is the power of the people that will free Mumia and all political prisoners. This system did all it could to kill Mumia while he was on death row. When he was removed from death row and given life in prison without parole, the system tried again to kill him, by denying him hepatitis-C treatment and other health care. 

The people responded. They did not bow down. They never did, they never will. Mumia received treatment for himself and for many other prisoners as well. Now it is time to plan the next steps to free Mumia and all political prisoners.

The meeting ended with a book signing of “25 Years on the Move” with cameras flashing as people took pictures with these courageous women in front of Mumia’s portrait.

Next, the visitors were taken to the historic World Beat Cultural Center to meet longtime San Diego activist and WBCC founder Makeda Cheatom, and then on to the Red Sea Restaurant, where Janine and Janet experienced another first — the taste of delicious traditional Ethiopian food.

Black and Brown unity

It was close to midnight when Pam, Janet, Janine and Carlos arrived back in Los Angeles to prepare for the next day’s forum at the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice.

On Sunday morning, Dec. 15, Janet and Janine experienced another first: visiting Venice Beach, where they toured the boardwalk, walked in the sand and gazed at the vastness of the Pacific Ocean and the mountains of the California coast.

Mario Torero’s portrait of Mumia Abu-Jamal was hung up at the Harriet Tubman Center for the afternoon forum, and delicious food was awaiting when the honored guests arrived. The center was filled to capacity as Jessica Moneà Evans performed a high-energy West African dance to begin the program. 

The crowd swelled to the point that meeting chairperson Rebecka Jackson-Moeser had to ask for more chairs to be brought out in an attempt to seat everyone before handing the program over to the featured guests Pam, Janine, Janet and Carlos.

Nearly 100 people crowded into the event, publicized through social media and hundreds of posters taped up around the city near locations where progressives gather, near colleges and high schools, especially those with large Black and Brown attendance, and at major intersections. 

Many of the participants said they learned about the event from a poster, including Manuel F., who was Carlos Africa’s cellmate and whom Carlos hadn’t seen since 1988: “I saw his picture on a poster at a lightpost and I had to come.”

RadioJustice L.A. recorded the entire meeting to be rebroadcast at a later date. The audience included many youth, activists and organizations representing Black liberation struggles in Los Angeles.

Afterward, some of the participants came to a meeting of the Harvard Boulevard Block Club — a neighborhood block association representing Harvard and Hobart Boulevards in South Central L.A. Folks enjoyed cornbread and chili before hearing the featured speakers, who had to catch their breath, just coming from the previous meeting. The packed meeting was held at the home of Maggie Vascassenno and John and Sekou Parker. 

The neighbors had many questions and were inspired deeply by the reports of Janet, Janine, Pam and Carlos. Carlos also emphasized the links between the historic struggles of the Latinx community and organizations like the Young Lords with the struggles of the Black Panther Party. 

Block club members especially appreciated that emphasis on Black and Brown unity since the block is mixed between the two ethnicities and continues to fight attempts by the police and politicians to divide the two. In the words of Block Club President Joe Crosby, the meeting was “history in the making.”

Ona Move — our sisters in the struggle!

For updates on the freedom struggle for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and remaining MOVE 9 prisoners Chuck Africa and Delbert Africa, visit Struggle-La-Lucha.org.

John Parker contributed to this report.

It was an early morning in December 1969 when a joint FBI-Chicago police crew raided an apartment building, ostensibly for weapons charges.

In fact, they came to kill Fred Hampton, chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party, and the man chosen by the party’s central committee to become the new chief of staff of the national organization. Hampton, barely 21, would be shot to death in his bed. In his sleep. 

Also killed was Mark Clark, a captain from Peoria, Ill., who was security for the apartment.

The killing of Fred made him a martyr for Blacks in Chicago and for Panthers across the nation.  

This year marks 50 years since his assassination.

How many cops were sent to death row in Illinois for this most premeditated of murders in Chicago?  I think you know the answer — zero.

Fred’s wife worked for Black freedom movements for years.

His son, sleeping in her belly while his father was assassinated by the state, became an outspoken freedom fighter for the Black Nation.

And Fred Hampton, though gone, is not forgotten. He remains a martyred symbol of resistance.

From Imprisoned Nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.Listen to Mumia’s commentary on Prison Radio

“Close Rikers now! No new jails!” The chant was loud, the demand was clear, as hundreds of prisoners’ family members, former prisoners and prison abolition activists rallied and marched at New York’s City Hall on Oct. 17. That day, the City Council was set to vote on a proposal backed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to close the city’s notorious Rikers Island prison complex by 2026  — but only to replace it with four new high-rise jails at a cost of at least $8 billion.

Another popular chant was, “If they build it, they will fill it!” — recognizing that building new jails would in no way lead to less racist policing and mass incarceration. Protesters also called out de Blasio, who styles himself a progressive, as “Trump’s mayor,” to point out that with his moves to build new jails and privatize public housing, he serves the very same big capitalist interests as Trump.

Cops and corrections officers were ushered into City Hall to testify against closing Rikers, while opponents of Rikers and the new jails plan from the No New Jails campaign were kept out. Outside, the New York Police Department acted aggressively toward the protesters, and used dirty tricks like pulling up an armored police truck with lights flashing to a City Hall gate to justify arresting activists for “blocking an emergency vehicle.”

When some prison abolitionists finally got inside the council hearing, they heard many liberal and progressive council members using abolitionist language like “decarceration” and invoking the name of Khalief Browder—who killed himself in 2015 after spending three years in Rikers without trial or a hearing—to justify voting for building new jails. Angry protesters unfurled banners and spread leaflets before being ejected. 

The “progressive” support by the mayor and the City Council for building new jails echoes that of big nonprofit foundations which have backed the plan. During a September appearance in New York, former political prisoner and prison abolitionist Angela Davis threw her weight behind the No New Jails campaign, calling out the head of the Ford Foundation for supporting the plan to build new jails. Afterward, 100 former Ford Fellows issued an open letter condemning the new jails and a protest was held outside the Ford Foundation headquarters.

“I support closing Rikers and I separate that from the new jails,” said Councilmember Inez Barron, a Black liberation activist who voted against the plan. She pointed out the hypocrisy of her fellow councilmembers, many of whom voted in 2015 to give $100 million to the racist NYPD to hire 1,300 more cops to lock up Black and Brown New Yorkers, but now were claiming progressive credibility for the new jails plan. “Where did this great epiphany come from?” she asked.

Others pointed out that the plan does not guarantee that Rikers would actually close by 2026, if at all, while the construction of new jails in the boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens moves forward. The council approved $391 million for “community-based resources to address the root causes of incarceration” — a pittance compared to the $8 billion pledged for building new jails, and which opponents of the plan say is likely to balloon to $11 billion or more. 

The plan to build new jails was passed by the City Council by a vote of 36-13. 

While corporate media headlines echoed the mayor and City Council line about “closing Rikers” while leaving out the reality of new, expensive jails, the No New Jails campaign stated: “These jails are not built, and they will not be built. We are more committed than ever to closing Rikers immediately with no new jails. The fight is just beginning. Join us.”  

And on Oct. 19, two days after the vote, the group crashed an “open house” held by AECOM, a company which already has a $100,000 contract to design the four new jails, in a gentrified area of Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The struggle to liberate two lifelong Black freedom fighters and longtime political prisoners from Philadelphia is gearing up, and your help is needed.

Delbert Africa will soon have a new parole hearing after serving nearly 42 years in prison. One of the MOVE 9 political prisoners, Brother Delbert was unjustly imprisoned after a Philadelphia police attack on the MOVE family in 1978 resulted in the death of a cop from “friendly fire.” 

Two of the MOVE 9 died in prison: Phil Africa and Merle Africa. Five have been released on parole since last fall. Delbert’s parole hearing will take place this fall, followed by Chuck Africa in December.

Over the summer, hundreds of supporters wrote letters to the parole board urging Delbert’s release, while his recently freed MOVE 9 comrades — Janet, Janine and Eddie — spoke out at public events. 

Now “Phase II” of the Bring Delbert Home campaign is underway. Supporters are asked to take a selfie with a sign that says, “I support parole for Delbert Africa,” and post it on social media with the hashtag #BringDelbertHome. 

“Our community has supported those who came home to excel and we are committed to doing the same for Del,” explains the MOVE family website. “From having one of his daughters murdered during the bombing of MOVE headquarters by the government to having his eldest daughter battling breast cancer, it’s overdue for him to be with his family.”

For more information on Delbert Africa and updates on the parole campaign, visit OnaMOVE.com. 

Mumia fights to have new evidence heard

Meanwhile, renowned people’s journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal is fighting to have new evidence heard about the unfair, racist nature of his 1982 trial. 

On Sept. 3, Abu-Jamal’s attorneys submitted two documents to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. One is a brief on the constitutional violations and discrimination that marred his trial. The other is a motion containing new evidence of these violations, including bribery of witnesses by the prosecutor and racial bias in jury selection.

Abu-Jamal was originally sentenced to death for the killing of Philadelphia cop Daniel Faulkner. He has always maintained his innocence. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison after a worldwide outcry and powerful protest movement on his behalf.

Attorneys are asking the Superior Court to send Abu-Jamal’s case back to the Court of Common Pleas “so that he may present newly discovered evidence.” This follows last year’s ruling by Judge Leon Tucker reinstating Abu-Jamal’s post conviction relief action petitions. 

Mumia, known as “the voice of the voiceless,” has also been fighting for his health after almost four decades in prison. He was finally granted treatment for hepatitis C after years of protest. It took another prolonged fight, including petitions and direct actions at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, to win cataract surgery for his failing eyesight. Abu-Jamal received surgery on his left eye on Aug. 29, with a follow-up operation on the other eye expected later in September.

“I just got released from prison after 41 years in May,” said Janine Africa of the MOVE 9. “I want to say, everyone work hard to bring Mumia home so he can be taken care of and get proper medical care. He don’t deserve to be in jail from the beginning.”

For more information on how to get involved and for legal updates, visit Mobilization4Mumia.  Listen to Abu-Jamal’s commentaries at Prison Radio.

Photos: MOVE #BringDelbertHome campaign

The auditorium of the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center in East Elmhurst, Queens, N.Y., was filled on Aug. 24 for the 24th Annual Dinner Tribute to Political Prisoners.

Organized by the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee and the National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party, the event raises funds for freedom fighters held in U.S. prisons and brings attention to their cases.

Among those in the audience were former political prisoners, including Janet Africa and Janine Africa of the MOVE 9, who have just been released from jail after 41 years of imprisonment. Their comrades Chuck Africa and Delbert Africa are still imprisoned. Other members of the MOVE family, including Pam Africa, also attended the event.

People rejoiced when Nelson Mandela walked out of an apartheid concentration camp after nearly 28 years of hell. Yet political prisoner Ruchell Cinque Magee is still in jail after 56 years in California prisons.

It was shocking that political prisoner Woo Yong Gak spent 41 years in solitary confinement in U.S. occupied south Korea before being freed in 2015. But it was vile that Black Panther Party member Herman Wallace spent nearly 42 years in solitary confinement at Louisiana’s Angola prison only to die from liver cancer three days after being released. His comrade Albert Woodfox is now free after spending 43 years in “the hole.”

Just as the United States jails more people than any other country on the planet, its political prisoners are serving the longest sentences. 

Black Panther Party member Ed Poindexter has been in Nebraska prisons for 49 years. Black Panther Jalil Muntaqim has spent 47 years in jail. Black Panther Sundiata Acoli is 82 years old and has been jailed for 46 years. American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier has been incarcerated for 43 years. Former SNCC chairman Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, then known as H. Rap Brown, will soon be 76 years old and has been locked-up for 19 years. 

The annual dinner was initiated by the late Herman Ferguson, who died in 2014. He had been a  member of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which was founded by Malcolm X.

Ferguson himself spent time in prison on ludicrous charges—cooked up by the FBI—of planning to assassinate civil rights leaders. He helped start the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee after getting out of jail in his seventies.

Mumia is going blind

Zayid Muhammad chaired the meeting and welcomed the audience. He reminded everyone of how the late Safiya Bukhari worked tirelessly to free political prisoners. 

Zayid Muhammad noted that this was the first year the dinner was held during Black August, the month when Jonathan Jackson and his brother George Jackson were killed. At the end of the program, Regtuiniah Reg read a dramatic poem entitled Black August.

Charles Mitchell gave the libation, invoking the names of freedom fighters like Nat Turner and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s doctor, Dr. Joseph Harris, gave a somber report on Mumia’s health. After almost 38 years in jail, Mumia is effectively blind. Dr.  Harris cited a paper about how people in prison age much faster than those outside the walls. That’s all the more reason to free them.

Ksisay Sadiki gave a moving spoken word and dramatic presentation about her father, the political prisoner Kamau Sadiki. She described getting letters from her dad as a little girl when he was first framed up in the 1970s. Ksisay Sadiki was seven years old when her father finally came home from prison.

Kamau Sadiki went back to school and worked for 18 years as a telephone worker and member of the Communication Workers of America. But in 2003, he was framed again and sentenced to life for the 1971 killing of an Atlanta policeman.

Sadiki was railroaded to jail because he refused to cooperate with authorities in a scheme to lure Assata Shakur out of asylum in Cuba. The pigs told Kamau Sadiki that if he didn’t help them capture Shakur, he would die in prison. Kamau Sadiki was already suffering from liver diseases when he was arrested. 

Mother of the late political prisoner Abdullah Majid, 94-year-old Queen Mother Rose LaBorde, attended the dinner tribute and was honored at it.

Traffic lights won by revolutionaries 

Bullwhip, who was a member of the East Elmhurst-Corona branch of the Black Panther Party, spoke about the struggles in the surrounding community, which was known at the time as “the other Harlem.”

While the event’s venue, the Langston Hughes Library, is at 100th Street and Northern Boulevard, Malcolm X lived with his family less than a mile away at 23-11 97th St. The nearby home of Louis Armstrong at 34-56 107th St. has been turned into a museum.

A block away from Armstrong’s house, at 108th Street and 36th Avenue, the Dominican honor student Manuel Mayi was lynched on March 28, 1991.The white racist mob used baseball bats, pipes and a fire extinguisher to beat “Manny” to death. He was just 18 years old. No one was sent to jail for this murder.

Back in the 1960s, East Elmhurst didn’t even have a library. The Panthers and other activists fought to get one, which was named after Langston Hughes. It opened on April 26, 1969.

Both the Queens and Northern boulevards are still death strips with pedestrians and bicyclists being killed. It was worse 50 years ago.

Bullwhip described how drivers would speed on Northern Boulevard headed to their homes in suburban Long Island. Children would be killed.

Community residents pled with authorities for some protection. It took the Panthers to lead people into the streets, blocking Northern Boulevard, before City Hall did anything.

That’s how traffic lights were installed from 112th Street to Junction Boulevard. 

Just as the School Breakfast Program exists because of the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children program, so were the traffic lights on Northern Boulevard won by the Panthers.

That’s part of the wonderful legacy shared at the Tribute to Political Prisoners that the capitalist state and its media want to erase. All the Trumps want political prisoners to die in jail and be forgotten. We must fight to free them.

For more information about political prisoners see: /thejerichomovement.com/  

George Jackson was killed by prison guards on August 21, 1971.

At age 18, Jackson was convicted on dubious evidence of a gas station robbery of $70. Based on prior arrests, Jackson was sentenced to between one year and life in prison and shipped off to California’s notorious San Quentin prison. He was never released from prison for the rest of his life.

During his first years at San Quentin State Prison, Jackson became involved in revolutionary activity.

In 1966, Jackson met and befriended W.L. Nolen who introduced him to Marxist ideology. In speaking of his ideological transformation, Jackson remarked “I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels, and Mao when I entered prison and they redeemed me.”

Jackson was appointed “field marshal” by the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party.

On January 13, 1970, Nolen and two other Black prisoners were attacked by the “Aryan Brotherhood” and then killed by a corrections officer at Soledad prison. Three days after the killings were ruled justifiable homicide, a guard named John V. Mills was killed. Despite a lack of evidence, Jackson and two other prisoners — Fleeta Drumgo and John Wesley Clutchette — were charged.

Together, the three became known as the “Soledad Brothers.”

On August 21, 1971, Jackson was shot and killed by guards at San Quentin Prison.

Following is an excerpt from George Jackson’s “Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson“:

We must accept the spirit of the true internationalism called for by Comrade Che Guevara. … We need allies, we have a powerful enemy who cannot be defeated without an allied effort! The enemy at present is the capitalist system and its supporters. Our prime interest is to destroy them. Anyone else with this same interest must be embraced, we must work with, beside, through, over, under anyone, regardless of his or her external physical features, whose aim is the same as ours in this. Capitalism must be destroyed, and after it is destroyed, if we find we still have problems, we’ll work them out. That is the nature of life, struggle, permanent revolution; that is the situation we were born into. There are other peoples on this earth. In denying their existence and turning inward in our misery and accepting any form of racism we are taking on the characteristic of our enemy. We are resigning ourselves to defeat. For in forming a conspiracy aimed at the destruction of the system that holds us all in the throes of a desperate insecurity we must have coordinating elements connecting us and our moves to the moves of the other colonies, the African colonies, those in Asia and Latin Amerika, in Appalachia and the south-western bean fields.

We must establish a true internationalism with other anticolonial peoples. Then we will be on the road of the true revolutionary. Only then can we expect to seize the power that is rightfully ours, the power to control the circumstances of our day-to-day lives.

The fascist must expand to live. Consequently, he had pushed his frontiers to the farthest lands and peoples. This is an aspect of his being, an ungovernable compulsion. This perverted mechanical monster suffers from a disease that forces him to build ugly things and destroy beauty wherever he finds it.

We must fall on our enemies, the enemies of all righteousness, with a ruthless relentless will to win! History sweeps on, we must not let it escape our influence this time!!!!”

The MOVE ORGANIZATION would like to take the time right now to provide people with an update on our Brother Delbert Africa.

Yesterday, August 8th, Delbert returned to SCI Dallas and after processing was placed in the infirmary; Delbert was able to get a phone call to his MOVE Family where he was able to update us on everything.

This morning Family and supporters led a car caravan to both Geisgenger Hospital and SCI Dallas. Family was able to secure past work which we can utilize to obtain his medical records.

The second part of the caravan was to SCI Dallas, where Carlos and Will Africa were able to visit Delbert. Delbert appeared in good spirits but still very weak on the visit and was able to fill people in on everything.

At this point Delbert wants to focus on his parole hearing in September and getting out of prison. Delbert and family are waiting to obtain copies of the medical report and will take it from there.

Right now Delbert is taking his time to make the right choice and is leery after seeing what happened with Phil Africa and what is currently happening with Chuck.

We are in the process of preparing a second home plan for Delbert in the outlying areas of Philadelphia. If people have any suggestions on a second home plan if the first is denied or need more information you can call Sue Africa 215 387-4107 or Janine Africa 610 704-4524.

At this time Delbert and The MOVE Family would like to thank everyone who made calls, who shared the information through many networks etc. We greatly appreciate your support.

The MOVE ORGANIZATION

• PA DOC Attempt Murder of MOVE Member Delbert Africa

On July 23, supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal from up and down the East Coast gathered at Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections headquarters in Mechanicsville, Pa., to deliver petitions to the department head requesting that they give Mumia the medical treatment he needs.

In her statement, Suzanne Ross of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal detailed the current problems that have led to a loss of vision for Abu-Jamal. She attempted to persuade Capitol police to allow a three-person delegation into the headquarters. The group of supporters, including Pam Africa, had traveled from New York City, Philadelphia, Delaware and Baltimore.

Originally told they would be allowed in, the police later told the group that the department head was no longer in the building. They then refused to ask the second in command to come to the door to get the petitions, insisting instead that the petitions had to be left with them.

The police went as far as padlocking the doors to prevent them from getting in, even though no one had even attempted to get past the four of them. As a result of the padlocked door, the police were forced to turn away both FedEx and a second delivery person effectively shutting down the building. Mumia supporters vowed to return with a larger group of supporters. 

Pam Africa, representing the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, exclaimed that protesters will make sure that the secretary of corrections, John Wetzel, hears our demands. “We will go wherever he is at,” she said.

Mumia Abu-Jamal has been in prison for over 37 years, framed for the death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Jamal’s real “crime” in the eyes of authorities was to be a journalist exposing police brutality, and earlier as a teenager, a member of Philadelphia’s Black Panther Party chapter.

He was saved from death row by a tremendous campaign of support for two decades that resulted in the death sentence being overturned. His guilty conviction, however, was allowed to stand and was converted to life in prison.

Efforts to get a new trial due to prosecutorial misconduct continue. His first trial was noted for the overwhelmingly racial bias of Judge Albert Sabo and prosecutor Joseph McGill.

Despite having been Philadelphia’s district attorney during some of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeals, former Pennsylvania state Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille ruled against Abu-Jamal in subsequent court cases. Proper ethics rules should have called for Castille to recuse himself from those hearings. Mumia continues to maintain his innocence to this day.

Supporters around the world will continue to fight for proper medical treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s vision just as they previously fought for treatment of his hepatitis C. Every fight that is won for Mumia’s medical care is also a victory in the ongoing battle to force the state of Pennsylvania to provide proper medical care to all of its prisoners.