Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Broadcasts
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Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal/Prison Radio
"Speech for Fight for Lifers Philadelphia "
rec 5-11-05
1) 8:04 Speech Mp3
SPEECH TO FIGHT FOR LIFERS, PHILA.
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[Speech Writ. 5/12/05] Copyright '05 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Ona Move!
Greetings to Fight for Lifers, Inc.!
Thanks to Kristi Brian, Wm Goldsby, & Hakim 'Ali for this kind invitation.
I’ve read, re-read, and thought deeply about the questions you’ve raised about the question about life without parole (LWOP) as a viable alternative to the death penalty.
When I think about this question, I am compelled to look at it through the illuminating lens of history, and of various social and political movements that came before.
What this reminds me of, is the struggle over slavery in the nineteenth century, when people called abolitionists demanded freedom for those in bondage. They were bitterly opposed by people, reformers, who argued for 'gradualism', or a phased emancipation.
Of course, it took a war to resolve that issue, but the central point is: where would abolitionists have been if they pursued the safe, moderate, gradual course? Where would African-Americans be?
Lincoln said he expected slavery to last another century!
That’s because he was a gradualist, who was pushed, forced into more radical positions by abolitionists.
The moral of this little story?
Fight for what you believe in.
If you believe in life and freedom, why would you support this cousin of slavery?
The question isn’t what a guy on death row thinks about a life sentence; it is what do *you* think about it?
Pennsylvania has the second highest lifer’s population in the country.
Ask any of those thousands men and women what they think about sentences of forever.
Life in Pennsylvania is a half-life on Life Row.
It is a lifeless life.
It differs from the death penalty only in degree, with Time as the executioner.
If you don’t believe in it, don’t support it.
There will be gradualists among you, some who claim to be of your number, that they are 'just being realistic', and that they are 'really on your side.'
They are gradualists, and their gradualism really means, 'never.'
Movements, especially radical and revolutionary movements, are always upsetting, always seen as ahead of their time, always disturbing. That’s because they seek to shake-up the status quo.
Do not allow FFL to become a part of the status quo.
Movements that organize the people around their ideas don’t follow public opinion; they create public opinion, for they expand their influence.
Don’t compromise your deeply held beliefs on a program that isn’t your own. You’ll end up defeating your beliefs and objectives, and winning what you really didn’t want to win.
Politicians ain’t leaders; they are followers. They now follow the dictates of the rich and powerful few, instead of the poor and plentiful.
If the people who have family in these joints would unite and organize, it would be a powerful social force.
Their interests would be more freedom, not more legalized slavery.
We are, all of us, the grandchildren of that great fiery abolitionist, Fredrick Douglass, who taught us: “Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has, *and it never will*.”
Change will never come, without struggle; without protest; without us organizing for change.
Fight for Lifers is a great beginning!
That said, I would be dishonest if I didn’t share with you instances of when I’ve heard men, on Death Row, wish for life sentences.
Yet, that is often more the work of the rigorous and repressive conditions of Death Row, than the appeal of Life Row.
One guy, Joe, was schizin' because on Death Row, he couldn’t smoke, while in population, he could light up to his heart’s content.
As I've said, that’s the fruit of repression, not the result of any intrinsic attraction to a life bit.
Don’t choose one repression over another.
Choose life; and choose freedom.
I know that this is a Pennsylvania question, but sometimes it’s necessary to look at the larger picture, to get a true sense of the scope of the problem.
Americans sentence people to life with greater frequency, and with more restrictions, than any other industrialized nation in the world. According to a recent comparative study of the U.S., England, Wales and Germany(1), the English and Welsh systems used life sentences against 8.4% of its prisoners; Germany used it against 3.1% of its prisoners.
The U.S., which is already the Prisonhouse of Nations, sends 10.7% of its prisoners to life. Of that percentage, a full quarter are doing life without parole (LWOP) sentences. In Europe, by contrast, the use of such a sentence is exceedingly rare.
In Britain, for example, there are 4,206 life prisoners, all but 23 of whom are, or will be, parole eligible. Norway and Portugal have recently abolished life imprisonment entirely.
Slovenia has decreed a maximum sentence of 20 years, and Germany’s Constitutional Court has ruled that life terms must generally include the possibility of parole.
Now, I know this ain’t Europe. I say all that to say, that activists here should look at international trends to help build movements here, not go backwards, into more repression.
Indeed, as a revolutionary, it is my duty to push you further, beyond the comfortable boundaries established by the crippling status quo.
Former political prisoner, now scholar activist, Angela Y. Davis, has called, not for 'less prison' -- but for *no prisons*!
She has become one of the leading voices for the prison abolition movement, inspired by those brave and radical souls who peopled the original abolitionist movement.
Her recent book, *Is The Prison Obsolete?*(2) makes her case, quite well, I think.
She critiques the growth of the prison industry, and recounts the history of the original abolition movement, and what lessons it holds for us, today.
She decries, what we all know, the damning sense that prisons are an inevitable stop in life’s road. She writes:
"The dominant social expectation is that young Black, Latino,
Native American and Southeast Asian men -- and increasingly women
as well -- will move naturally from the free world into prison,
where it is assumed, they belong. Despite the important gains
of the antiracist social movements over the last half century,
racism hides from view within institutional structures, and its
most reliable refuge is the prison system." [pp. 103-04]
History, it is said, repeats itself; and if the repression of slavery resurrects itself in this age under the cloak of prisons, then abolitionism must too, resurrect itself from the dusty shelves of the nation’s attics and closets.
We need deep, and broad movements to transform America from the repression of fear, to the expression of hope.
It begins with us all.
I thank you! Ona Move! *Long live John Africa!*
Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
(1) Mauer, Marc, Ryan S. King, and Malcolm C. Young, *The Meaning of "Life": Long Prison Sentences in Context* (Wash., D.C.: The Sentencing Project, May 2004), p. 28.
(2) Davis, Angela Y., *Is the Prison Obsolete?* (New York: Seven Stories Press [Open Media], 2003), pp. 103-4]
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
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"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is
just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die.
And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about
justice." - Mumia Abu-Jamal
MUMIA'S COLUMNS NEED TO BE PUBLISHED AS BROADLY
AS POSSIBLE TO INSPIRE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT AND
HELP CALL ATTENTION TO HIS CASE.
The campaign to kill Mumia is in full swing and we need you to
**please** contact as many publications and information outlets as
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**especially off-line**)!! The only requirements are that you run
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THANK YOU!!!
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The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!
PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180
E-mail - icffmaj@aol.com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
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175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Submitted by: Sis. Marpessa
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The Power of Truth is Final — Free Mumia!
PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180
E-mail - AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Submitted by: Sis. Marpessa
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