As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer under both Democrats and Republicans, police repression, prisons and the death penalty are more and more important as tools to keep the workers and oppressed in line. The fight to free political prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal is just as much a part of labor's struggle against capital as the defense of our picket lines against scabs, and the bosses cops and courts. Mumia Abu-Jamal is probably the most censored commentator of our time. Many party members were killed in shoot-outs, or framed up and put away. My offense is painting an uncomplimentary picture of a prison system that eats hundreds of millions of dollars a year to torture and main tens of thousands of men and women.
Workers have the power to break the system of racism and exploitation.
With militant union action, up to an including strike action, we can free Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal has been organized to educate workers about Mumia's case, and promote labor action in solidarity with his struggle. Despite the attacks on labor, decline in union membership, etc., basic worker solidarity still lives. In recent times, longshoremen on the West Coast have honored picket lines and refused to unload ships in solidarity with black South African workers, Liverpool dockers, Australian wharfies and strikers at Oregon Steel. UPS workers showed that labor still has the ability to bring rapacious corporations to their knees.