‘Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it’s insane not to.’
— Mumia Abu- Jamal
On Friday 28 November activists, community leaders and families of the incarcerated gathered in Philadelphia to embark on a March for Mumia, a 12-day mobilisation demanding freedom for journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, and calling attention to the systemic crisis of elder abuse, medical neglect, and politically targeted incarceration.
The participants are walking 103 miles over 12 days until they reach the SCI Mahanoy Corrections Facility in Frackville on 9 December, where Abu-Jamal is incarcerated. There participants will present a list of demands to the facility’s Superintendent, Bernadette Mason.
Mumia Abu Jamal is 71 years old and suffers from chronic health conditions – including heart disease and vision loss – worsened by what his family and supporters describe as medical neglect by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
On 27 November, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly known as Black Power activist H. Rap Brown), died after 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Al-Amin’s and Abu Jamal’s conditions reflect the broader crisis of the US’ aging prison population amid decades of medical neglect, as older prisoners are routinely denied adequate care and proper food.
The March for Mumia seeks to highlight these abuses and demands an end to the systemic neglect of elderly and sick incarcerated people across the US and the immediate release of Mumia Abu-Jamal and other political prisoners.
Born in 1954, Mumia Abu-Jamal grew up in Philadelphia amid racial segregation and police violence. As a teenager, he joined the Black Panther Party and later became an award-winning journalist known for exposing systemic racism and police abuse. His reporting challenged Philadelphia’s power structure, earning him recognition – and hostility – from local authorities.
Mumia was arrested on 9 December 1981 for the shooting death of a Philadelphia police officer. His 1982 conviction was tainted by racial bias, coerced testimony, and judicial misconduct. Although a federal court overturned his death sentence in 2011, he remains imprisoned for life without parole. Despite decades of appeals and evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional violations, the state has blocked every attempt to grant him a fair trial.
Visit marchformumia.org for more details of the US mobilisation.
Comrades in Britain will also be marking 44 years since Mumia Abu Jamal’s arrest, alongside the Mumia UK campaign at their meeting at the CLR James Library, Dalston Square, London E8 3BQ, 6-7.30pm. Facebook Free Mumia UK
