Wednesday, November 15, 2006

US Political Prisoners Update: Mumia Abu-Jamal; Robert Seth Hayes; Maroon Shoats; Lynne Stewart

Update on Mumia Abu-Jamal's Appeal

We are very happy to announce that Ward Churchill will be joining us on December 9th in Philly to commemorate Mumia's 25 years of resistance, and our determination to get him out from the hell hole where he has been all these years. Ward and Natsu will then go to New York City with us for the "Ode" rally on behalf of Lynne Stewart. The day will be a day of unity for all these struggles, with speakers at each other's rallies, etc. Ward being there will only intensify the quality of the struggle and the unity it will build.

PHILADELPHIA assemble 11 am at the east side of Philadelphia City Hall
12 pm we begin marching
at the conclusion we encourage people to travel to NYC. China town buses offer trips for $10 located only blocks away at 11th and Cherry Sts, leaving Philly every hour.

NEW YORK CITY, 7pm till .......
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
New York, NY

Don't forget this Saturday! Celebrate Pam Africa and her work in defense of Mumia. Saturday, November 18th from 5-9pm, at the Salem United Methodist Church, on 129th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd in Harlem

Come celebrate revolutionary sister/warrior Pam Africa in a fundraiser on her 60th birthday. BRING YOUR CHECKBOOKS! Send Checks payable to: Pam Africa, PO Box 19709, Philadelphia, 19143

Below is info on the 12/9 Rally for Mumia, followed by info on the Lynne Stewart Program afterwards...
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Update on Lynne Stewart

I am writing to update you on that status of Lynne Stewart's case after her sentencing on October 16th. While we were all relieved that Lynne did not get 30 years, the Government has announced that it has gone to the Solicitor General of the United States Justice Department for authorization to appeal her sentence and that of her co-defendants.

They are not challenging the bail pending appeal but state that they will only agree to one 30 day adjournment of the filing of the appeal because they want everyone serving their sentences as soon as possible.

What does all this mean for Lynne? Lynne's attorneys are not
surprised that the government wants to appeal her sentence.
Although sentences are not usually appealed it does happen and case law in the 2nd Circuit which governs Lynne's case shows that although rare, when a sentence is appealed and the Circuit sends the case back for resentencing the result is a far longer sentence. We are hopeful that Judge Koeltl's meticulous sentencing decision will carry the day but we have no guarantees and must continue our vigilance in the face of this latest move by the government. Of course Lynne's attorneys will be filing the appeal of her conviction within the year.

Remember to save the date and join us in an "Ode to Joy &
Struggle". December 9th 6:30 to ? The evening will be held at the beautifully renovated Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (near Thompson St.) in the West Village, New York City. The event is mostly one of joy but of course the struggle continues. We will also be commemorating Mumia Abu Jamal's 25 years behind bars and to that end we will hear from.

Pam Africa Chair of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is currently
determining whether Abu-Jamal will be granted a new trial or sent back to death row, which is the district attorney's preference.

Speaking about this at our event is Pam Africa, who will be joining us after the annual rally in Philadelphia, which recognizes the day Mumia Abu Jamal was shot and framed.

and

Robert Meeropol
Executive Director, Rosenberg Fund for Children
for your support over these last 4+ years
and uniting for the struggle ahead

Saturday, December 9th
PHILADELPHIA assemble 11 am at the east side of Philadelphia City Hall
12 pm we begin marching
at the conclusion we encourage people to travel to NYC. China town buses offer trips for $10 located only blocks away at 11th and Cherry Sts, leaving Philly every hour.

NEW YORK CITY, 7pm till .......
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
New York, NY

Speakers:
Lynne Stewart, Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Robert Meeropol--Executive Director, Rosenberg Fund for Children

Music by:
Selah Eric Spruiell and The Fort Greene Project
Urbano Sanchez, Latin Jazz
Professor Louie and Fast Eddy
Professor Irwin Corey and Randy Credico
and MUCH more(comedy, Latin jazz, rap)

Great Food & Drink provided

Judson Memorial Church resides on the southern edge of Washington Square Park between Thompson and Sullivan Streets. Accessible by subway from the 8th Street / NYU N and R stop, the West 4th Street A, C, E, F and V stop or the Christopher Street / Sheridan Square 1, 2, and 9 stop.

Mobility Handicapped please enter through Thompson Street entrance.

International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal
P.O. Box 19709
Phila, PA 19143
215-476-8812
http://www.freemumia.com

Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
350 Broadway, Suite 700
New York, NY 10013
212-625-9696
http://www.lynnestewart.org

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
http://www.freedomarchives.org

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Update on the Case of Political Prisoner Robert Seth Hayes

hey folks,

Seth called me this morning and wanted to pass on some important information about his parole appeal and some harassment that he has been facing lately. I have uploaded the interview that I did with Seth on these issues to the Internet, and you can listen to what he has to say at:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20492

Please feel free to forward this information or to play parts of it on the radio if you have your own radio show. Seth is fine with this and he wants to get the word out.

If you're not able to listen to it over the Internet, the very short update is that Susan and Seth have prepared a parole appeal which will be submitted in the next few days. It will be important to gather letters in support of Seth for this appeal to let the authorities know that people have here support him and are aware of what is going on.

The issue around the harassment by the prison guards has to do with the fact that Seth while walking through the prison was stopped and harassed for having printed material taken off of the Internet. Later that same day he came back to his cell to find that it had been ransacked by prison authorities and that important personal information including contact lists and private mail had been removed. Also taken were this year's political prisoner calendar and last years. Seth refered to the fact that former Black Panther party member and political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoats, has been recently targeted as a "terrorist" by prison authorities and that they removed all of his personal effects from his cell, claiming that they were related to "terrorist activities".

Seth is concerned that something similar might be going on in his case, although it is also possible that it is just certain individuals going on a power trip within the prison.

It would be good if the folks in Buffalo could manage to go for a visit sometime soon so that the authorities know that we are in touch with Seth and just make sure that things are going all right for him.

If anybody has any more questions, please feel free to contact me. I will put out another update when I figure more details out about what is going on...

Tom

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Dear Friends,

The movement to free Mumia in France as well as the movement in this country must be doing the right thing! The City Council of
Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department are working on
trying to get the City of Paris and the City of Saint-Denis to
withdraw the respective honors they bestowed on Mumia. They are
sending a delegation consisting of four city council members and the
chief of police of Philadelphia, later this month to try to persuade
the French to do their bidding. The document linked below
demonstrates their totally hypocritical and damned lying arguments for withdrawing these awards, claiming they themselves do not support the death penalty. Rather, they say, waving the carrot before Mumia supporters and supposedly Mumia, they believe he should get life in prison without parole! Will they try to get the street naming project in Harlem stopped as well? Or have they aleady tried?

The movement in France is prepared to greet this delegation. And we
are surely ready to continue the struggle here.

DOCUMENT:
http://www.freemumia.com/Philly_City_Council_Delegation_Letter(2).doc

Ona Move

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In a letter received today, Maroon says that last Friday, November 3rd, the day after they took all of his reading material, literature, medical history etc., which they deemd "revolutionary material", except for his TV, radio and religious book, the guards returned everything. He says he believes the calls to the DOC and Sci Greene made this possible.

Maroon goes on to say that "the bottom line is their trying to set me
up as some kind of Homeland Security terrorist threat. That's in line
with the government saying the next threats to domestic security will
come from the prisons. Since that's basically crap, they need freedom fighters like me to try to use my history of fighting oppression of black people as a way to get in the door.I'm absolutely a FREEDOM FIGHTER, but aint no terrorist here!!!"

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