JULY 3, 1999 - In coordinated actions on both coasts, 122 activists were arrested today during nonviolent civil disobedience protests demanding liberty, a new trial and urgent medical attention for award-winning African-American journalist and Pennsylvania death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. At Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, amidst 100-degree heat, 95 protesters from all over the country disrupted business as usual and closed the building for the afternoon, during a weekend with the heaviest tourist presence of the year. In San Francisco, after a mass march to Union Square from the Federal Building, 27 activists blocked the street and were arrested. Taken together, the demonstrations amount to the largest civil disobedience action against the death penalty in U.S. history. The unprecedented actions, accompanied by support vigils of hundreds nearby, were sponsored by broad coalitions of progressive activists and marked 17 years to the day after Abu-Jamal's death sentence was imposed in a trial deemed grossly unfair by Amnesty International and many other observers worldwide.
Dennis Brutus, South Africa's poet laureate and anti-apartheid former political prisoner, explained the need for the dramatic demonstrations on behalf of Abu-Jamal. "In struggling for justice, we are discovering that our voices are not heard, our efforts are ignored, and in fact what is confronting us is injustice." Brutus attacked the Effective Death Penalty Act, a 1996 federal law sharply limiting the appeal grounds of death-row inmates, including the ability to introduce new exonerating evidence and testimony by defense witnesses.
The Philadelphia demonstration began when four people went inside the Liberty Bell Pavillion and unfurled a banner reading "Let Freedom Ring for Mumia" next to the historic icon. Within minutes, several activists chained themselves to the two entrance doors, and dozens from peace, lesbian/gay, AIDS, African-American, Latino and student movements rushed to sit down in front, while U.S. Park Police looked on helplessly. Two student activists clambered onto the building's awning and held a banner reading "Liberty for Mumia" for three hours, until they were removed by police using a forklift. Participants in the civil disobedience included Rev. Lucius Walker, Executive Director of IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization) and Pastors for Peace, Zayid Muhammad, founder of Frontline Artists, and activists from such organizations as Student Liberation Action Movement, Women for Justice and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition. Two blind people and a woman in a wheelchair were among those arrested. It took police several hours to clear all 95 protesters, who were released within ten hours after being charged with failure to obey a lawful order. They are now facing fines of $250 each, which will be contested.
Along with the Philadelphia and San Francisco protests, over 100 people attended a Providence, Rhode Island prayer vigil and rally against the death penalty and in support of Abu-Jamal, held in conjunction with the national General Synod of the United Church of Christ. In a statement of solidarity read to the Philadelphia demonstration, UCC President Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry said, "We recognize the critical urgency of Mumia's case and his role as a figure of international importance." Also read at the Liberty Bell vigil was a support statement from Puerto Rican nationalist Rafael Cancel Miranda, who connected Abu-Jamal's case with that of the Puerto Rican political prisoners; another statement linked the plight of Abu-Jamal as a political prisoner with that of American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier, falsely imprisoned for life and in severe ill health inadequately treated by prison authorities.
The three U.S. protests followed hard on the heels of two demonstrations in Paris demanding demanding immediate medical care and a Justice Department investigation into violations of Abu-Jamal's civil rights during his original trial. On June 16, twenty-three American, French and African activists were arrested after storming the American Library in Paris during President Clinton's visit with President Jacques Chirac. Five days later, a demonstration for Abu-Jamal greeted Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was visiting. (Jackson was targeted for the demonstration because of his role as spiritual advisor to President Clinton and his own history of civil disobedience.) Jackson later told former first lady of France Danielle Mitterand, who has visited Abu-Jamal, that he too will soon visit the death row inmate. Among the activists arrested June 16 was writer Julia Wright of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Ms. Wright, daughter of renowned author Richard Wright, said, "We wanted to show the officials who get elected on death-penalty platforms and go on diplomatic trips abroad outside the American ghetto that they won't be able to travel without being confronted by the Mumia Abu-Jamal file wherever they go." She promised further protests.
Last October, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court denied Abu-Jamal's bid for a new trial, upholding the ruling of Judge Sabo, the original trial judge. Abu-Jamal, an author and activist, was convicted in 1982 of the shooting death of a Philadelphia police officer in a trial tainted by the flagrant bias of Judge Sabo, by the deliberate exclusion of 11 Black potential jurors and by a court-appointed lawyer who, by his own admission, was inexperienced in criminal law. In addition, witnesses came forward during the 1995 Post-Conviction Relief Appeal hearings, saying they were coerced by police to lie, suppress or change their initial accounts of the December 9, 1981 incident.
According to Brutus, "At this point,despite all efforts by the legal team, the system has denied Mumia his due-process rights. Now, we have to take this matter to the streets for the Court of the People to judge. July 3 is only the beginning of massive civil disobedience actions countrywide. I will be a part of that planning process."
For more information on upcoming activities, contact Herman Ferguson and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition at (718) 949-5153.

-pictures from protest-
arm chain around paddy wagon
"freedom rings for mumia" banner on ledge