REPORT ON FREE MUMIA DEMO EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 6TH NOV
25-30 people held a successful picket of US-owned businesses McDonalds and
American Express in support of Mumia on Sat 6th November in Princes St.,
Edinburgh's main street.
The pickets lasted for one and a half hours and around 700 leaflets were
distributed. The American Express window was decorated with posters and
leaflets. Small groups entered McDonalds and American Express and
leafleted workers and customers inside.
The police came and took everyone's names, but there were no arrests.
Following is the text of the leaflet to be distributed at the demo at the
US consulate -
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Radical black journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on death row
in Philadelphia USA since 1982, on a completely fabricated charge of
killing a policeman. His trial was a farce. It disregarded the forensic
evidence and relied on phoney and perjured testimony from intimidated
witnesses.
In December 1981, in Philadelphia, Mumia rushed to a scene of a police
officer beating up his brother who had been stopped for a traffic
violation. The street was full of people as the bars had just closed when
Mumia ran to his brothers' defence. Someone fired on Officer Daniel
Faulkner and fled and Mumia took a bullet in the abdomen and was left
bleeding on the curb when the police backup arrived.
Witnesses say Mumia was beaten by police officers as he lay there, hospital
staff say Mumia was beaten by officers at the hospital. When Mumia filed
police abuse charges for being beaten, the cops "suddenly remembered" that
Mumia had allegedly "confessed" to killing the officer that night. In
reality Mumia has always denied killing the officer.
NO EVIDENCE
No forensic evidence was presented linking Mumia to the crime he was
sentenced for - the murder of Daniel Faulkner. The state claimed the
murder weapon was a gun legally registered in Mumia's name. Yet, police
ballistics experts failed to match this gun to any of the bullets found in
the officer's body.
Police interviewed 125 witnesses, but in court, they produced only 3, who
contradicted each other. Witnesses describe the killer in different ways,
the most common, as a short, fat man with an afro haircut. Mumia is tall,
thin and has very distinctive dreadlocks. Witnesses also have come forward
and revealed they were coerced by the police into lying.
NO JUSTICE
A former Black Panther and supporter of the black radical MOVE
organisation, Mumia has been targeted by Philadelphia police and the FBI
since he was a teenager. In 1995 an international outcry against this
racist travesty of justice led to his execution being postponed - 10 days
before it was due to be carried out. There must be a repeat of 1995 as
part of the international protests to defend Mumia.
On Wednesday October 13th 1999 Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Ridge, signed a
new death warrant with an execution date of December 2nd. A federal judge
has since signed a stay of the execution, but the struggle must go on to
defend Mumia. Mumia believes that "the system will not free him, the people
will ultimately free him."
Today we are demonstrating for Mumia's freedom at the US Consulate. Last
Saturday, 6th November, we demonstrated at US-owned businesses in
Edinburgh. This is not for nationalistic, anti American reasons. It is
because the owners of US multinationals and the US government and judical
authorities are all part of the same ruling class. This elite are
ultimately responsible for the unjust legal system, biased against poor
people, black people and political dissidents, which has condemned Mumia to
death. (Black men make up 40% of death row prisoners, although they make
up less than 6% of the US population.)
As long as Mumia is under threat of execution, as long as Mumia is unjustly
imprisoned, people world-wide will be taking action against US-owned
companies and US government buildings.
SAVE MUMIA
If you would like to help save Mumia please contact : Mumia must live! c/o
Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 W. Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA
Tel 0131 557 6242 ace@punk.org.uk
More info also from * International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, PO Box 19709, Philadelphia PA 19143 USA
* www.callnetuk.com/home/mumia/
Write in support of Mumia to Hon. William H. Yohn Jr., c/o Leonard
Weinglass, 6 West 20th Street, Suite 10a, New York, NY 10011 , USA. He is
the US Federal Judge currently considering Mumia's case.
-- Autonomous Centre, Counterinfo and Edinburgh Claiments and ACE user groups: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~lothian/ - If you want to add us to your mailing list please do so but at autonomy@exl.co.uk