Socialist Action /August 2000
Mumia's Message to LA Protesters:
Why not a Party of those who Labor?
Ona Move!
Long Live John Africa!
The L.A. Convention is but an echo of the recent
convention in Philadelphia. It is a convention bought and paid for by corporate
capital. It is a convention of the well to do and wealthy, not of the workers
or the poor, and Philadelphia shows us that politicians are nothing but
public relations spokesmen for their bosses.
Whether one votes for the Democrats or Republicans,
ultimately one votes for their own repression. The prisons that dot our
landscape, 2 million men, women, and children held in American jails and
prisons, the 3600 men, women, and juveniles facing death at the hands of
the state are each and all the political result of the politics of repression,
estrangement, of separation and of isolation.
We are not used to seeing politicians, or for that
matter police, as tools and instruments of political ill will, but they
are that. We need to think outside the box of the two-headed dog of American
politics.
Why not a party of those who labor? Why not a party
which includes the interests of youth, mothers, students, or the growing
poor?
You will see none of those interests represented
on the stages of the two-party system. Isn't it time to create an alternative?
Both parties are parties of death, of war, of alienation and of unending
conflict.
Why not a party of peace and justice, of life and
our common humanity? Why not a party that speaks to our hopes instead of
our darkest fears?
The need for change was never more obvious than
now. To quote John Africa, "Revolution means change. Revolution is
doing it or it ain't getting done."
Let's do it.
Ona Move!
All my love.
Free the Move 9!
Long live John Africa!
- Mumi Abu-Jamal
Socialist Action /August 2000 |