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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><b>Remarks - Sam Jordan
- July Fourth Demonstration <br><br>
for Mumia Abu Jamal <br><br>
Place de la Concorde, Paris France 2005<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2>(Not a verbatim
transcript.)<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br><br>
<br><br>
Free Mumia! Free Mumia Abu Jamal! Free Mumia!<br><br>
<br><br>
I am Sam Jordan and I bring you greetings from our brother, the
undefeated revolutionary, Mumia Abu Jamal!<br><br>
<br><br>
I also bring you greetings from the undefeated revolutionaries Leonard
Peltier, Assata Shakur and the great Kurdish leader, Abdullah
Ocalan!<br><br>
<br><br>
It is ironic that on today, the people of the US prepare to celebrate
what is called Independence Day on the Fourth of July. Yet, never
before has the need for revolution in the US been more urgent!
<br><br>
<br><br>
Not only the people of the US, but the people of the world would be free
from the greatest threat to peace and security with a people’s revolution
in the United States of America. <br><br>
<br><br>
The surest signs that the US needs a revolution are easy to see!<br><br>
<br><br>
Of course, there are many reasons to revolt - after all, one percent of
the population owns 48 percent of the total wealth in the US and the
standard of living has begun to reverse for the majority of the
people. <br><br>
<br><br>
But, there are other signs that the US needs a revolution: When
graduating college students ask for a speaker who can tell them of the
world and how they can best use their energy and idealism for justice,
for the environment and for peace, they ask for Mumia, not for the
President. <br><br>
<br><br>
Mumia gets requests to speak at 25 to 30 graduations every spring even
though he must broadcast from his cell on death row. <br><br>
<br><br>
When youth seek leadership from Mumia on death row rather than from their
President at the White House, we have a sure sign that America, the US,
needs a revolution! <br><br>
<br><br>
When Nelson Mandela visits the United States or the UN in New York, he
makes a special point of expressing his deepest respect and solidarity
with Mumia Abu Jamal, but gives only his most formal greetings for
President Bush.<br><br>
<br><br>
It is a sure sign that the US needs a revolution when the most respected
public figure in the world, Nelson Mandela, expresses contempt for the
President of the US and his war in Iraq and the greatest praise for the
work and political courage of a death row inmate, Mumia Abu Jamal.
<br><br>
<br><br>
When the native and indigenous people of the Amazon seek a spokesperson
for their dreadful loss of rain forest and ancestral culture, they appeal
to Mumia Abu Jamal whose radio broadcasts and essays reach millions of
activists weekly. They don’t ask George Bush who refuses to sign
the Kyoto Treaty on the environment and global warming.<br><br>
<br><br>
When we look at the atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at
Guantanamo in Cuba, Bargram in Afghanistan and the daily detentions and
kidnapping of men and women right off the streets of the US; when we note
the use of depleted uranium in the war in the Middle East, the uncounted
casualties among the Iraqi civilian population, we are looking at the
work of one of the greatest violators of international law - a man who
rules by threat of force alone. There is no consensus of support
whether domestic or international for the policies of George
Bush.<br><br>
<br><br>
This is the irony, that proves the need for revolution in the US on this
Fourth of July: Mumia, a death row inmate is innocent and should be
freed. Yet, George Bush remains a free man - the most dangerous on
the planet - although he has violated every law of the nation and the
international community. Mumia is innocent of the murder of Officer
Daniel Faulkner of the Philadelphia police department in 1981, but George
Bush is guilty of the murder of at least 40,000 innocent Iraqi
civilians. Mumia should be free and George Bush should be in
prison! <br><br>
<br><br>
Mumia, the revolutionary and a major force for respect for human rights,
survived in the shadow of death while George Bush ordered the execution
of 152 men and women as Governor of Texas. That’s right, Bush
executed one person every two weeks for five years!<br><br>
<br><br>
The situation in the US is upside down! That demands a revolution
on this July Fourth!<br><br>
<br><br>
Back in 1852, Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, the greatest
force for freedom of his era asked, “What to the slave is the fourth of
July?” We should ask the same question, on July Fourth 2005,
"What does Independence Day mean to Mumia Abu Jamal?" Let
me help you answer this question, “What does the fourth of July mean to
Mumia Abu Jamal?”<br><br>
<br><br>
In the first instance, it is a day with its celebrations and fireworks
that reveals to him more than any other day of the year, the gross
injustice and cruelty of which he is the constant victim. To Mumia,
this celebration is a sham. The bloated boast of liberty and
national greatness and power is a swollen vanity. The sounds of the
marching bands and cheering of the crowds are empty of meaning and have
no passion The constant US denunciation of tyrants and dictators,
its shouts of liberty and equality are hollow mockeries, full of
deception, fraud, hypocrisy - a veil of words and ceremony -
a veil too thin to cover up crimes which would, as Frederick Douglass put
it, “disgrace a nation of savages!” <br><br>
<br><br>
Mumia would say that there is not a nation on earth guilty of practices
more shocking and bloody than those committed in the name of the people
of the United States at this very hour! <br><br>
<br><br>
Mumia would say to anyone - go where you may, search where you will, roam
though all the monarchies, despotisms, and empires of the Old World -
Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, the Mogul Emperors of India, the Mings of
China - and when you find those facts, lay them side by side with the
everyday practices of the United States and you will say with Mumia that
for sheer, repulsive barbarity, shameless hypocrisy and crushing, inhuman
brutality, the United States has no equal and no rival in the world of
today or of yesterday. That’s what the 4<sup>th</sup> of July means
to Mumia Abu Jamal. <br><br>
<br><br>
He languishes in prison innocent of all crimes charged against him and
George Bush, the President of the United States, the greatest threat ever
known to a world in need of peace, economic stability and respect for
humane laws - is a free man. The situation is upside down!
Mumia should be free! Bush should be behind bars!<br><br>
<br><br>
Let me speak about Mumia’s case. Mumia is innocent! After 23
years, not one scintilla of evidence has been produced by the
prosecution, the police or the courts linking Mumia in any way whatsoever
with the murder of the police officer, Daniel Faulkner<br><br>
<br><br>
State and federal courts have seen the power of the movement to free
Mumia. They can’t ignore the power of the people! As a
result, they have made decisions lately that are directed at the
movement, not only at Mumia. For example, in 2001 federal Judge
Yohn ordered a stay of execution to give the state of Pennsylvania and
Mumia’s defense a chance to argue the controversial sentencing phase of
Mumia’s trial. Judge Yohn made it appear that Mumia had escaped the
threat of execution. Many in the movement still believe that Mumia
has been commuted to life in prison. Nothing could be further from
the truth! Make sure that your friends and colleagues get the facts
right! At any moment, Governor Ed Rendell can issue a death warrant
for the execution of Mumia Abu Jamal. We are still racing against
the clock!<br><br>
<br><br>
Judge Yohn questioned the jury selection process in Mumia’s trial in
his decision in 2001 and said the issue could be appealed.
However, he did not challenge the finding of guilty. His action was
deceptive. He knew that the concern of many in the movement was for
Mumia’s physical safety. He created the illusion that Mumia was
free from the death penalty.<br><br>
<br><br>
Judge Dembe in the state appeals court refused to hear any criticism of
the actions of Judge Sabo who presided at Mumia’s trial. Yet, Sabo,
has sent 31 men to death row in Pennsylvania - more than any other judge
in the history of the nation - 26 of the men were
African-Americans. <br><br>
<br><br>
Sabo was overhead saying that he would help the prosecution fry Mumia,
and used a most indecent, racist reference to an African American.
Dembe ruled that it was not important what Sabo said, since the jury
makes the decision. But this wasn‘t just any jury! This was a
jury that was carefully selected with Sabo’s help to minimize the
presence of African Americans and to maximize the presence of
whites! <br><br>
<br><br>
The one juror selected by Mumia when he could act in his own defense was
replaced by Judge Sabo by a juror who said when questioned, that he could
not be fair. That juror became the jury foreman! That’s what
Mumia thinks of the Fourth of July!<br><br>
<br><br>
A man named Arnold Beverly has come forward and confessed to the murder
of Officer Daniel Faulkner That is not unusual. 20 of the 119
men and women who have been released since 1973 from US death rows due to
innocence were released because someone else confessed Twenty of
them!<br><br>
More than have been released from death row because of DNA science.
<br><br>
<br><br>
We are not saying that Arnold Beverly killed Faulkner. That’s not
our job! The police and courts are supposed to find out who killed
Faulkner. And while they’re at it, they should find out who shot
Mumia. But it is the court’s responsibility to get at the truth and
examine Arnold Beverly’s testimony Judge Dembe refuses to examine
Beverly’s testimony - abdicating her duties as a judge. She has to
do her job! We’re gonna do our job!<br><br>
<br><br>
Our movement has twice saved Mumia from the executioner’s poison.
We must maintain the pressure and build our movement! The court has
directed its attention to the power of the movement - to weaken it with
deceptive decisions. We must counter this deception with the
facts!<br><br>
<br><br>
A recent US Supreme Court decision - in the case of Thomas Miller-El who
is on death row in Texas - bears directly on Mumia‘s case. In
Miller-El’s case as in Mumia’s, the prosecution and the judge seated a
jury that assured a conviction and death sentence. The jury was
selected on the basis of race and sympathy to the prosecution. Just
like Mumia’s jury! <br><br>
<br><br>
91% of the prospective African-American jurors in Miller-El’s trial
were challenged but only 12% of the white prospects were
challenged. The US Supreme Court, the same conservative court that
crowned George Bush President said a blatantly racist jury selection
process violated the US Constitution.<br><br>
<br><br>
The Miller-El case indicates that the <u>legal system will yield to
constant pressure</u>, but that pressure must grow and we must be
unrelenting! We must not divide into camps and ideologies.
There is only one ideology with Mumia. He is innocent and must be
freed!<br><br>
<br><br>
There are other Supreme Court decisions that if applied to Mumia’s case
as they should be, would lead to his release. But the courts don’t
act in a vacuum The power of an international movement will give
the courts a political context and sense of urgency leading to the
justice that is long overdue. <br><br>
<br><br>
If we keep our pledge to Mumia and fight until he is free to speak right
here in the Place de la Concorde, he will keep his pledge to us and fight
for the truth in his books, essays and broadcasts. Mumia will keep
the fire burning proving that you can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t
jail the revolution! <br><br>
<br><br>
That’s what the Fourth of July means to Mumia Abu Jamal! <br><br>
<br><br>
Free Mumia! Free Mumia! Free Mumia Abu Jamal! Thank
you.<br>
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