Dear Friends,
The stealth vote in the House of Representatives denouncing Saint-Denis for naming a street in honor of Mumia, introduced by suspending the usual congressional process of going through the Judiciary Committee and limiting debate, will not go to the Senate and has no power of implementation. Yet it achieved an important goal for the "fry Mumia" camp. It succeeded in intimidating Philadelphia's House Representative Chaka Fattah. Fattah, who represents the district Mumia comes from, led the original Congressional Black Caucus Letter of June 1995 demanding: a stay of the then scheduled August 17th execution, a new trial for Mumia, and a recusal of Hanging Judge Albert Sabo. It also stated that there was strong evidence of Mumia's innocence. Fattah recently announced that he will give up his seat in the Congress and seek the Mayoralty of Philadelphia. No sooner had he announced his intentions to become Mayor, when the Fraternal Order of Police began its attack on him as a supporter of a new trial for "cop-killer" Mumia Abu-Jamal. The FOP actually sent an observer to the House when the vote on the Saint-Denis came up. Sadly, Chaka Fattah collapsed under that pressure and voted "yes" -- to support the anti-Mumia resolution. He said he still supported the idea of a new trial for Mumia, but felt it was wrong to honor someone convicted of so horrible a crime. Logical? Certainly not. A victim of police intimidation? Certainly, yes. The FOP has stated that they will still not support Fattah even though they were pleased with his vote, because he supports a new trial for Mumia. What can we expect next?
The Free Mumia Coalition is sending letters of appreciation to the 31 Congressional Representatives who opposed the Resolution. See the list of votes linked below. And we are urging all Mumia supporters to check out how their reps votes. If they supported the resolution send them a letter of criticism. The sample letter linked below, by Mark Taylor is an example of an excellent letter you can feel free to use. Pam Africa is out of the country, attending a political prisoners/torture/isolation conference in Athens, with Ramona. She was part of this discussion before leaving, and feels strongly that we
should "educate" and challenge those who went along with that ridiculous yet outrageous resolution.
A LUTA CONTINUA, ona move!
Suzanne Ross, Co-chair, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coaliltion (NYC)
TO VIEW THE LIST OF CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES WHO VOTED FOR AND AGAINST THE RESOLUTION AND FOR THE SAMPLE LETTER PLEASE GO TO:
http://www.freemumia.com/houseofreps.html
