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San Francisco Bay Area Welcomes Lynne
Stewart
by Jeff Mackler / June 2005 issue of Socialist Action
SAN FRANCISCO—Progressive attorney Lynne Stewart, recently convicted
on false “terrorism” charges, completed a successful April 21-28 speaking
tour in the Bay Area to publicize and raise money for her defense. As part
of the tour, she was the featured speaker at a mass rally and concert for
death-row
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Stewart faces 30 years in prison. She was convicted on Feb. 10 in a
frame-up trial by a New York federal district court jury that had been
inflamed throughout
by the prosecution with crude, illegal, and false insinuations that
Stewart was associated with terrorists, if not the 9/11 Twin Towers
bombing.
She was found guilty on five felony charges of conspiracy to aid and
abet terrorism, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and making false
statements to the government, Stewart, currently on $500,000 bail, had to
fight prosecution efforts to bar her from visiting the Bay Area.
The charges brought against Stewart stemmed from her 1995
representation of Sheik Omar Abdel Rachman, the blind cleric and leading
opponent of the U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt. Stewart's
open and public act of issuing a media release on behalf of her client
constituted the basis of her prosecution.
Stewart spoke at 18 meetings and media engagements
organized by the Northern California Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
and the San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
Stewart's Bay Area tour opened with a major media conference at the
law offices of famed criminal defense attorney John Burris. All major media
attended as Stewart presented an account of the charges against her that
shook the reporters present and resulted in favorable coverage of her
efforts to reverse her conviction.
Pacifica Radio's KPFA featured Stewart on its three major talk
shows, “Living Room,” “Flashpoints,” and the “Morning Show.”
Stewart was the main speaker at a rally and concert that attracted
more than 350 people to celebrate Mumia Abu-Jamal's 51st birthday and his
22-year struggle for freedom. She was joined on the platform by Carlos Villarreal,
Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild, Pam Africa, leader of the
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mel
Mason, president of the Monterey Peninsula NAACP. The musical performance
by Michael Franti and his Spearhead band members rocked the house.
Stewart was the opening speaker at the St. Joseph the Worker Church
conference in Berkeley entitled,
"From Attica to Abu Ghraib." Over 300 attended.
A dinner/reception at Barbara Lubin's Middle East Children's Alliance
drew some 75 people and raised approximately $6600. A Marin Peace and
Justice
Coalition forum attracted 80 people and raised about $800. Noelle Hanrahan's Prison Radio Project
organized a televised session of Stewart being interviewed live from death row
by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Canadian author Professor Isaac Saney, author of the new book,
"Cuba: A Revolution on the Move," joined Stewart at a San Francisco
Mission Neighborhood Center forum co-sponsored by several Bay Area Cuban
solidarity groups and Socialist Action. The forum was entitled
"Human Rights in Cuba and the U.S."
The San Francisco Gray Panthers organized a reception/brunch at the
Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco. About $800 was raised, with
40 people attending. A Peninsula Peace and Justice Center reception and
rally in Palo Alto attracted 110 people and raised $1000.
An enthusiastic National Lawyers Guild reception at the San
Francisco firm of Levy, Ram and Olson drew 80 attorneys and legal workers
and raised $3300.
Attorneys Marc Van Der Hout, Susan Jordon, Stephen Bingham, NLG
Executive Director Carlos Villarreal and NLG President Noreen Farren
detailed the legal stakes involved and the importance of the case to the
legal
profession.
More than 50 people attended the Oakland Fellowship House African
People's Solidarity Committee rally, with Lynne as a featured speaker along
with Omali Yeshatela, the committee’s spokesperson.
Stewart spoke at a noon rally at San Francisco State University
sponsored by several campus groups, including the Campaign to End the Death
Penalty,
International Socialist Organization, and the Campus Antiwar
Network. More than $300 was raised and some 40 attended, including former
San Francisco Board of Supervisors president and Green Party member Matt Gonzalez,
who supported Stewart’s defense efforts.
At UC Berkeley's Dwinelle Hall Stewart addressed a rally of 80 students
and community members. The event—sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild
campus chapter, the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, the ISO, and
others—raised $500. Pam Africa spoke at both campus events.
The tour ended with Stewart appearing live via a telecast format
from Berkeley to a meeting of Cornell Law School students and faculty.
The Bay Area tour raised $13,000 for the Lynne Stewart Defense
Committee, which is currently planning to publish a full-page ad in The New
York Times a few weeks before her Sept. 23 scheduled sentencing date. A text
is now in preparation.
Contributions can be sent to Lynne Stewart Defense Committee,
350 Broadway, Suite 700, New York, N.Y. 10013, (212) 625-9696, web: www.lynnestewart.org/.
*Jeff Mackler is the West Coast Coordinator of the Lynne
Stewart Defense Committee.
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