Dear all,
we are sorry to bother you with a "personal" interest but we in the FREE MUMIA Movement are still outraged about the unbelievable stunt taken by so called anti-death penalty activists and organizations such as Renny Cushing and others in 2009/2010.
Their attempt to exclude an invitation for Abu-Jamal to speak at the IV. World Congress Against the Death Penalty last year in Geneva luckily has found little resonance in the world wide abolition movement. Cushing and others wrote to the organizers of the event in Dec. 2009 to cancel Abu-Jamal's adress to the conference in order "not to alianate" the US based Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), who is pushing for Mumia Abu-Jamal's, Troy Davis' and many others' execution. Their attempt failed and Mumia Abu-Jamal was speaking at the closing event via phone from death row which found wide acceptance and excited response in the audience.
However, afterwards not many members of the world wide abolition movement dared to touch this issue. Only a few authors wrote about it.
One was Dave Lindorff: “The Politics of Death: Throwing Mumia Abu-Jamal under the Bus”
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/117
Did people hope noone would mention this nasty episode anymore or did they simply forget about it? Whatever the reasons are, they are not known to many activists around the world who are committed to abolish the death penalty.
Recently, as Renny Cushing came to Mexico in order to take part in a march for "Peace and Justice with Dignity" he wasn't welcome for everyone involved. Please read the article and the related links to the secret memo signed by Cushing and others:
Anti-Mumia “abolitionist” Renny Cushing tries to clean up image in Mexico
http://elenemigocomun.net/2011/05/renny-cushing-mumia-mexico/
What do you think should be a meaningful response by people who signd this secret memo to exclude a death row inmate? Why haven't they apologized to the inmate and tried to bridge divisions and move forward together? Why are they silent for all this time?
Of course we need unity in order to achieve abolition, not just in the US. For this internal discussion is as necessary as to know who is an ally and who is not.
"You know the one group that abolitionists never bothered to recruit?
Slave-owners. They knew that this was a waste of time." (Mumia Abu-Jamal, 2010)
"Abolitionists should deeply study the history of their forbears—and learn these lessons of history. That history is struggle—sometimes unpopular, always controversial, but socially transformative. They can’t make deals with the devil and expect anything other than hell." (Mumia Abu-Jamal, 2010)
In solidarity
Berlin Free Mumia Coalition