by Mumia Abu-Jamal www.freemumia.com

The presidential elections are over, but the real battle over Mexico's future is being fought outside of electoral politics. Two powerful figures have launched other kinds of political campaigns here. The multibillionaire Carlos Slim and the guerrilla leader Subcomandante Marcos are facing off in the struggle between the Mexico above and the Mexico below. Carlos Slim is the richest man in Latin America and third richest man in the world. He made most of his fortune off of the controversial privatization of the national telephone monopoly, TELMEX. Slim has used his profits from TELMEX to build a massive economic empire that stretches across Latin America and into the US and Canada. DENISE DRESSER: We have witnessed a massive transfer of wealth from the citizens of this country into his coffers. It's frequently said that Mexicans could not carry out an economic transaction on a daily basis without encountering one tentacle or other of Carlos Slim's multifaceted empire. The Zapatistas have fought off the Mexican military for 12 years and have built an independent territory outside of government control. Marcos and the Zapatistas have become the inspiration for left-wing movements across Mexico.

So much history that is unknown to most people. History doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. I wonder why this history never makes it to our/the history text books? "You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously. They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead." Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun http://hnn.us/articles/31332.html

The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal confronts the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) in Philadelphia to defend Mumia Street in St. Denis, France, May 2006. Support legal arguments for a new trial for Mumia, Philly,Penn. 5/17/07, 9AM http://freemumia.com

What we are witnessing in this hour is a New Imperialism. Iraq is reduced to rubble, and American corporations make a mint by rebuilding it. All of this, we are assured, is to benefit 'the People of Iraq. What we are witnessing in the shattered ruins of Iraq is the spoils of war; spoils that are the seeds of vast wealth. Of course, Administration officials are putting quite a different spin on this development. In a speech made several months ago before the conservative American Enterprise Institute, neoconservative thinker, Richard Perle observed, "What I think we have won on the battlefield is the right to try to establish consistent policies that are for the benefit of the people of Iraq." He hastened to add, "It's not that we are looking for anything for ourselves..." The U.S. role was described as a "stewardship" over the conquered territory. The U.S., of course, doesn't have to ‘look [...] for anything.' It already has what it wants. I guess you could make an argument that the administration is using the war as an opportunity to hand out more subsidies to American businesses (shutting out foreign bidders), but it's not like Iraq is all that great a prize as a market. Nor is Afghanistan. Yes, the war has been bullshit from the start, but someone does have to rebuild that country. hmmm...So all the Heroin and Opium in Afghanistan isn't big business. Billions in Oil and cheap labor in Iraq? Another Masterpiece. Well done!

This is statecraft (or should I say, stagecraft?); the use of illusions to keep the rabble in line. In biblical lore, the Pharaoh did the same thing when he ordered his priests to hurl down their staffs, to transform them into vipers. Princes, since antiquity, used stagecraft to calm the People, to reassure them of the power of the State. What State? -- When the lives of so many slides deeper into debt and despair? What Union? -- When the government acts as a collection agency for the ruling corporate class?

The Pioneers of a Warless World are the Young Men (and Women) Who refuse military service. Albert Einstein. Possibly your interests blind you... Lincoln It is precisely that sense of internationalism that is needed now, to reclaim that high water mark of social activism and to turn away young folks from the mindless struggle for Empire. As capital is Globalized under the WTO and the IMF, the poor and working people, the majority of the people of this earth must be Globalized in Internationalism, and in defense of the many not the few. What is necessary for this to prevail. is the realization that this mad war in Iraq is in reality, a war against the future generation here. A war against education. A war against decent health care. A war against decent housing. And a war against good jobs which pay living wages. good information here. I like the intro and how the Media Controls the information and how bias they are.

Video message from Harry Belafonte to the people of St. Denis, France, on the naming of a street for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Support legal arguments for a new trial for Mumia, Philly,Penn. 5/17/07, 9AM www.freemumia.com

"A nation that asks nothing of its government but the maintenance of order is already a slave at heart -- the slave of its own well-being, awaiting but the hand that will bind it. By such a nation the despotism of faction is not less to be dreaded than the despotism of an individual. When the bulk of the community is engrossed by private concerns, the smallest parties need not despair of getting the upper hand in public affairs. At such times it is not rare to see upon the great stages of the world, as we see at our theaters, a multitude represented by a few players, who alone speak in the name of an absent or inattentive crowd: they alone are in action whilst all are stationary; they regulate everything by their own caprice; they change the laws, and tyrannize at will over the manners of the country; and then wonder to see into how small a number of weak and worthless hands a great people may fall." [From: de Tocqueville, Alexis, *Democracy in America* [2 vols.] (New York: Bantam Classic, 2004) [orig. publ. 1835] ]

Robert R. Bryan, Mumia Abu-Jamal's defense attorney holds a press conference after the appeal hearing 5/17/07

We are but an echo of what came before, with recycled lies used over and over again, to pull the young into service of the Empire, in defense of mass murder and government-industrial corruption.

and how those beliefs relate to the poor. -maj

The graduates of the SOA have proven relentless fighters to be sure; who are masters of the dark arts of torture, cruel interrogations, rape and mass murder. And who do they fight but their own people. To millions of people in Latin America the school is known by the popular name "La Escuela de Golpes"---the school of coups. There is scarcely an infamous massacre that can not be traced to its graduates. The Uraba massacre in Columbia. The El Mozote massacre, the rape and murders of four U.S. church women and the Jesuit massacres in El Salvador, the La Cantura massacre in Peru, and hundreds more. When the U.S. brays about a war on terrorism, there are millions in America to the south who snort in derision for they know another America which breeds state terrorism. While it takes a very narrow view, it does tell some hard truths. But to counter the typical leftist claims, the so called "war on terror" is about a lot more than oil. This way of over Simplifying is just as wrong as saying it all about Freedom and democracy… true true true.

The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service. Albert Einstein. Many and diverse are the reasons for war, and rarely are the truest reasons publicly espoused by the politicians who rattle their sabers to the maddened throng. Another Masterpiece. Well done!

This isn't just a War on Iraqis or Afghanis or even Arabs or Muslims. It is ultimately a war on us all. That's because the billions and billions of $dollars$ that are being spent on this war—the cost of tanks, rocketry, bullets, and yes, even salaries for the 125,000-plus troops— is money that will never be spent on education, on health care, on the reconstruction of crumbling public housing, or to train and place the millions of workers who have lost manufacturing jobs in the past three years alone. Mumia once again hits the nail on its head...not only is he telling the truth of the current but he does so with great grace. I wish I could communicate his message in the same eloquent fashion. I applaud the internet one will never hear such rhetoric on CNN/Fox/CBS...etc a.k.a. Corporate Propaganda. Sometimes the Truth is Stranger than Fiction…. Another Masterpiece. Well done!

But the Bush regime has used that fear, that anxiety, that sense of being under attack to stoke the fires of war and now the US is involved in building and protecting a colony in the heart of the Middle East. That's why. It isn't enough to simply say "bring the troops home" as some have said. For to do so only means bring them home today and unleash them on some other unsuspecting people tomorrow. That is the recipe for postponing war, not ending it. War is indeed big business, but it more than that. It is a social tool by which governments have always mobilized larger social forces for their political ends. The ends of government- what has this always been? Power Why do you think the Bushites have unleashed the somber Ashcroft upon the American people- a man who lost a senate election to a dead man is now the ultimate arbiter of who may exercise civil rights in this new era? one of my favorites...

During the hard-fought Haitian Revolution, which occurred roughly a decade after the U.S. Revolution, the government of George Washington, which talked about 'liberty to all men', entered the conflict, but not on the side of liberty. The Washington Administration authorized the grant of $400,000 — a vast sum in the 1800s — not to support the forces of freedom, but to the white planters. They sent money to the French for arms and food to support their resistance to the uprising. America's secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Constitution, did the actual paperwork. When it came to slavery or freedom, the Americans, slaveowners themselves, chose slavery to support.

Video from the Partisan Defence Committee. Free Mumia NOW!! Mumia is an innocent man! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!! (Part 3 of 3) More info @ http://icl-fi.org/ I, MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, declare: 1. I am the Petitioner in this action. If called as a witness I could and would testify to the following from my own personal knowledge: 2. I did not shoot Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. I had nothing to do with the killing of Officer Faulkner. I am innocent. 3. At my trial I was denied the right to defend myself, I had no confidence in my court-appointed attorney, who never even asked me what happened the night I was shot and the police officer was killed, and I was excluded from at least half the trial. 4. Since I was denied all my rights at my trial I did not testify. I would not be used to make it look like I had a fair trial. 5. I did not testify in the post-conviction proceedings in 1995 on the advice of my attorney, Leonard Weinglass, who specifically told me not to testify. 6. Now for the first time I have been given an opportunity to tell what happened to me in the early morning hours of December 9, 1981. This is what happened: 7. As a cabbie I often chose 13th and Locust Street because it was a popular club area with a lot of foot traffic. 8. I worked out of United Cab on the night of 12/9/81. 9. I believe I had recently returned from dropping off a fare in West Philly. 10. I was filling out my log when I heard some shouting. 11. I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw a flashing dome light of a police cruiser. This wasn't unusual. 12. I continued to fill out my log/trip sheet when I heard what sounded like gun shots. 13. I looked again into my rear view mirror and saw people running up and down Locust. 14. As I scanned I recognized my brother standing in the street staggering and dizzy. 15. I immediately exited the cab and ran to his scream. 16. As I came across the street I saw a uniformed cop turn toward me gun in hand, saw a flash and went down to my knees. 17. I closed my eyes and sat still trying to breath. 18. The next thing that I remember I felt myself being kicked, hit and being brought out of a stupor. 19. When I opened my eyes, I saw cops all around me. 20. They were hollering and cursing, grabbing and pulling on me. I felt faint finding it hard to talk. 21. As I looked through this cop crowd all around me, I saw my brother, blood running down his neck and a cop lying on his back on the pavement. 22. I was pulled to my feet and then rammed into a telephone pole beaten where I fell and thrown into a paddy wagon. 23. I think I slept until I heard the door open and a white cop in a white shirt came in cursing and hit me in the forehead. 24. I don't remember what he said much except a lot of "n-----s", "black motherfuckers" and what not. 24. I believe he left and I slept. I don't remember the wagon moving for a while and when it did for sometime. 25. I awoke to hear the driver speaking over the radio about his prisoner. 26. I was informed by the anonymous crackle on the radio that I was en route to the police administration building a few blocks away. 27. Then, it sounded like "I.D.'d as M-1" came on the radio band telling the driver to go to Jefferson Hospital. 28. Upon arrival I was thrown from the wagon to the ground and beaten. 29. I was beaten again at the doors of Jefferson. 30. Because of the blood in my lungs it was difficult to speak, and impossible to holler. 31. I never confessed to anything because I had nothing to confess to. 32. I never said I shot the policeman. I did not shoot the policeman. 33. I never said I hoped he died. I would never say something like that. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the above is true and correct and was executed by me on 3 May, 2001, at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. (signed) MUMIA ABU-JAMAL (more)

The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service. Albert Einstein. "There is one powerful reason why the judicial system should not permit the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The evidence is now overwhelming that there have been deadly errors made in sending prisoners to the death chamber. Again and again, it has turned out that prisoners pronounced guilty and sentenced to death have proved later to be innocent. In the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the evidence is conflicting, and there is certainly more than a reasonable doubt of his guilt. The history of executions in this country shows the system biased against poor people, people of color, and political activists. Mumia Abu-Jamal fits all three categories. To allow Mumia Abu-Jamal to die at the hands of the judicial system would be a terrible commentary on a system that claims to dispense "equal justice before the law." The whole world is watching to see if our country will live up to that claim." This is truly a Great job you've done here on spreading many of Mumia's cause's. I to have taken it upon myself in spreading this man's work to break any and all ill conceived ideas of who he is and what stands for. Another Masterpiece. Well done!

Video from the Partisan Defence Committee. Free Mumia NOW!! Mumia is an innocent man! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!! (Part 2 of 3) More info @ http://icl-fi.org/ I, MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, declare: 1. I am the Petitioner in this action. If called as a witness I could and would testify to the following from my own personal knowledge: 2. I did not shoot Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. I had nothing to do with the killing of Officer Faulkner. I am innocent. 3. At my trial I was denied the right to defend myself, I had no confidence in my court-appointed attorney, who never even asked me what happened the night I was shot and the police officer was killed, and I was excluded from at least half the trial. 4. Since I was denied all my rights at my trial I did not testify. I would not be used to make it look like I had a fair trial. 5. I did not testify in the post-conviction proceedings in 1995 on the advice of my attorney, Leonard Weinglass, who specifically told me not to testify. 6. Now for the first time I have been given an opportunity to tell what happened to me in the early morning hours of December 9, 1981. This is what happened: 7. As a cabbie I often chose 13th and Locust Street because it was a popular club area with a lot of foot traffic. 8. I worked out of United Cab on the night of 12/9/81. 9. I believe I had recently returned from dropping off a fare in West Philly. 10. I was filling out my log when I heard some shouting. 11. I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw a flashing dome light of a police cruiser. This wasn't unusual. 12. I continued to fill out my log/trip sheet when I heard what sounded like gun shots. 13. I looked again into my rear view mirror and saw people running up and down Locust. 14. As I scanned I recognized my brother standing in the street staggering and dizzy. 15. I immediately exited the cab and ran to his scream. 16. As I came across the street I saw a uniformed cop turn toward me gun in hand, saw a flash and went down to my knees. 17. I closed my eyes and sat still trying to breath. 18. The next thing that I remember I felt myself being kicked, hit and being brought out of a stupor. 19. When I opened my eyes, I saw cops all around me. 20. They were hollering and cursing, grabbing and pulling on me. I felt faint finding it hard to talk. 21. As I looked through this cop crowd all around me, I saw my brother, blood running down his neck and a cop lying on his back on the pavement. 22. I was pulled to my feet and then rammed into a telephone pole beaten where I fell and thrown into a paddy wagon. 23. I think I slept until I heard the door open and a white cop in a white shirt came in cursing and hit me in the forehead. 24. I don't remember what he said much except a lot of "n-----s", "black motherfuckers" and what not. 24. I believe he left and I slept. I don't remember the wagon moving for a while and when it did for sometime. 25. I awoke to hear the driver speaking over the radio about his prisoner. 26. I was informed by the anonymous crackle on the radio that I was en route to the police administration building a few blocks away. 27. Then, it sounded like "I.D.'d as M-1" came on the radio band telling the driver to go to Jefferson Hospital. 28. Upon arrival I was thrown from the wagon to the ground and beaten. 29. I was beaten again at the doors of Jefferson. 30. Because of the blood in my lungs it was difficult to speak, and impossible to holler. 31. I never confessed to anything because I had nothing to confess to. 32. I never said I shot the policeman. I did not shoot the policeman. 33. I never said I hoped he died. I would never say something like that. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the above is true and correct and was executed by me on 3 May, 2001, at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. (signed) MUMIA ABU-JAMAL (more)