Mumia Abu-Jamal is a revolutionary journalist and former Black Panther, who has been incarcerated in the US since December 1981, when he was arrested on a trumped-up charge of shooting dead a Philadelphia police officer. Known as ‘the voice of the voiceless’, Mumia has continued to write, campaign and make radio broadcasts from behind bars. Despite increasing censorship of his incoming mail, including the repeated rejection of copies of FRFI, Mumia has repeatedly asserted his right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution to allow him to broadcast and communicate to external audiences. On 26 April 2024 he spoke to the student encampment for Palestine at Columbia University in New York City (CUNY) via a phone link with academic and activist Johanna Fernandez. We publish his words to the students below:
Brothers, sisters, comrades, friends. I greet you from the American system of mass incarceration. What we are involved in right now, I think, is something called mass education, and City College and Columbia and Emory and USC are all part of that process right now. That education is about the repression that Gaza is suffering under. It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes. So, you are part of something massive. And you are part of something that is on the right side of history.
You are against a colonial settler regime that steals the land from the people who are indigenous to that area. And you are saying that this is wrong. I urge you to speak out against the terrorism that is afflicting Gaza with all of your might, all of your will and all of your strength. Do not bow to those who want you to be silent.
It is time right now, this day, this hour, this moment, to be heard. And to shake the earth so that the people of Gaza, the people of Rafah, the people of the West Bank, the people of Palestine can feel your solidarity with them.
I am a student of the late, great Frantz Fanon. And I read him every day and think about his ideas. And when I see what is happening in Gaza right now, I know that right now the people of Gaza are ‘the wretched of the earth’. And they are fighting to be free from generations of occupation. So it is not enough, brothers and sisters, students, it is not enough to demand a ceasefire. How about this: make your demand Cease occupation! Cease occupation! Cease occupation!
Let that be your battle cry because that is the call of history, of which all of you are a part. You are part of something magnanimous, magnificent, and soul changing, life changing, history changing. Do not let go of this moment. Make it bigger. Make it more massive. Make it more powerful. Make it echo up into the stars. I am thrilled by your work. I love you. I admire you. On the move!
Palestine is tied to all of us
This is a moment that was made possible because of the technology that exists in the pockets of millions of people, billions of people, all around the world. Your phones. Think about this. Think about what happened with a brother named George Floyd who was being asphyxiated with a knee on his neck just a few years ago. It sparked an international movement that has not been seen in generations. What you are seeing now on your phones, not on your TVs, but on your phones, is a kind of unseen repression against an essentially powerless people, a people who’ve been behind the walls of Palestine for generations, who suffered 75 years of occupation. People who do not have the freedom to turn on their water or to repel air attacks by F18 (jet fighters). So, when you see that kind of repression, it magnifies what is happening and it moves you. Because if you do not have a heart, you would not be moved, but you have a heart. You are looking at that and it is moving you. It is moving your soul. So that is what connects us. Right? As human beings: oppression. The Koran says: ‘Oppression is worse than death’, because oppression destroys the soul, the spirit, the hope of being human. So, keep on, keep it on!
Independent journalism
This is the moment for independent journalism because corporate journalism is falling short. You know, corporate journalism is kind of propaganda, right? It is a message for the powerful, not a message for the poor and the oppressed. Corporate journalists are selling soap. Independent journalists are speaking out because they are free. If I were a corporate journalist, I could not say anything, or if I did say what I was saying, I would be fired in a heartbeat. And that happened in the old days. I got fired from every station I ever worked at because I refused to shut up and not say the thing they did not want me to say.
Framing me has not stopped me. ‘The beat goes on’ to quote Fred Hampton.
To the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners I would say that I am with you. That we are with you. And that all Palestinian political prisoners should be free. Most important: Palestine must be free.
Mumia has continued to support the student protests, speaking again on 6 May to students at the University of Pennsylvania. We need to also support Mumia in his quest for release from the racist US prison system. More information and transcripts of all his speeches can be found at www.prisonradio.org/correspondent/mumia-abu-jamal/
Write to Mumia at
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335
SCI Mahanoy
c/o PO Box 33028
St Petersburg, FL 33733
Under current prison regulations, mail takes 10-20 days to reach Mumia. Any mail that is sent is scanned and copied, and the copies are then delivered to him.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 300 June/July 2024
