political prisoners

At this writing, Róisín McAliskey is not free, but confined in a hospital. Still, she is out of prison, where she spent several hellish months while seriously ill and pregnant. Now she and her baby daughter will get proper medical care, which McAliskey was denied during incarceration.

Below are excerpts from “Memoirs of a Communist Childhood: The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti” written by Murry Weiss and originally published in the Spring 1982 edition of the Freedom Socialist newspaper. Weiss was one of Trotskyism’s founders in the U.S. A theoretician and writer of great heart and vision, he joined the FSP a few years before his death in 1981.

Interviewed on Prison Radio (http://www.prisonradio.org)

One of the least reported things was the Amnesty International report on my case.

It’s unprecedented for Amnesty to really get involved in individual cases — but their report says quite clearly . . . that there’s a “Mumia rule.” What used to be called precedent does not apply in this case; that the courts will make one rule and then make another rule when it comes to my case and then afterwards make another rule again. And they’ve done this repeatedly.

Mumia Abu-Jamal, renowned political prisoner framed for the killing of a Philadelphia police officer, was dealt a life-threatening blow on January 19. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision favorable to the prosecutors who want him executed.

A former Black Panther and journalist, Mumia was wrongly convicted in 1982. In his 28 years on Pennsylvania’s death row, he has earned a reputation as the “Voice of the Voiceless” for his prolific writings and frequent broadcasts on behalf of disenfranchised people everywhere, from Afghanistan to New Orleans.

On October 29, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied the appeal of African American journalist, radical and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal for a new trial, thereby clearing the way for his imminent execution. This must not happen!

Supporters of Abu-Jamal all over the world have long recognized that the courts framed this innocent man for the shooting of a Philadelphia cop in 1981. As the years have passed, the evidence showing that Mumia was not the killer has only mounted.

The sense of urgency in the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal skyrocketed in October 1998, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied him a new trial. Hopes for Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and renowned journalist who has been on death row since 1982, now rest on the federal courts — and, most of all, on an intensified and unyielding public outcry for justice.

To meet the need, international defense committees have planned teach-ins, rallies, concerts, and more. On April 24, huge demonstrations called “Millions for Mumia” are planned for San Francisco and Philadelphia.