CAMPAIGN to Bring Mumia Abu Jamal Home

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The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home

(released, May 31, 2014 by The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home)

Legal Update

 In 2011, the international movement to free Mumia scored a major victory. After having stopped Mumia’s execution in the 1990s, it assembled the legal team and mounted the political pressure that forced the courts to declare Mumia’s death sentence unconstitutional. Mumia was transferred to general population in early 2012.He is now serving a life sentence. The appellate process in his case has been exhausted.

 In order to bring Mumia home, we need to popularize the fact of Mumia’s innocence and create a political crisis in the streets over the injustice of his continued incarceration. Our movement continues to link the fight for Mumia’s freedom with the fight to free all political prisoners and end mass incarceration.

 Political Climate: The Recent Attacks on Mumia

 For 32-years, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and allied politicians have sustained an uninterrupted demonization and political conspiracy against Mumia that has influenced the judicial process and kept the facts of Mumia’s innocence from surfacing.

 Recently, the FOP mounted a campaign of persecution against Mumia in order to block President Barack Obama’s nomination of Debo Adegbile to head the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. The FOP cited Adegbile’s previous defense of Mumia as grounds for his disqualification and steamrolled over the right to counselby smearing Adegbile with the crime for which Mumia was wrongfully convicted in 1981.

 The FOP demonized Mumia with racially coded language like “thug” and “cop killer,” and lied about the facts of his case. In the end, seven Democratic senators from predominantly white states voted against Adegbile to avoid being associated with Mumia’s case in the upcoming elections.

 The ideological campaign of the FOP is proof of how the conservative right has used racist law-and-order policies and the criminalization of former Black Panthers like Mumia to energize a rightwing agenda against the gains of the civil rights movement (voting rights, fair housing, affirmative action and more).

 The FOP’s campaign of lies, racism and hysteria against Mumia and Adegbile was also a desperate attempt to bury the possibility of any future investigation of police conspiracy in Mumia’s case and of police abuse in Philadelphia and across the country. Unfortunately, through all this,Mumia’s lawyers at the Legal Defense Fund/NAACP failed to defend him vigorously, in the mediachallenging neither the factual lies nor the demonization of their client.

 Campaign to Bring Mumia Home Activities

 In light of these events, the Campaign encourages activists to participate in two major areas of work:

 1. Popularize the fact of Mumia’s innocence through a series of grassroots actions and the development of a media campaign.

 The FOP depicted the case as open and shut sweeping aside the record of violations and innocence. One third of the 35 officersinvolved in Mumia’s case were subsequently jailed for extortion and evidence tampering. Four witnesses identified a fourth person at the crime scene as the shooter, and though police and prosecutors themselves knew there was a fourth person, Mumia’s trial prosecutor suppressed this evidence at trial.

 Mumia was convicted in the absence of material evidence. In addition, the photos of Pedro Polakoff, the freelance journalist who took the first photographs of the crime scene, corroborate the eye witnesses’ testimony of the presence of a fourth person, show police tampering with evidence, and disprove the key points of the prosecution’s case.

 2. Challenge DA Seth Williams to reopen Mumia's case. His newly-created Conviction Review Unit is well-suited to review the weight of evidence supporting Mumia's innocence and to expose the dangerous political power of the FOP and its allies.

 The reopening of Mumia’s case is overdue. During the 1995 Philadelphia police corruption scandal, former Philadelphia DA Lynne Abraham told the Legal Intelligencer that she would discard “any cases where evidence surfaces that even one officer involved in an investigation lied in court or in written reports.” Documentation of police violations, lying and evidence tampering by not one, but several officers and prosecutors, exists in this case.

 To divert attention from this, the FOP mounted a campaign of lies. As “the world's largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers," it wields lobbying influence over Congress and the judiciary comparable to the NRA.

For more information or to join either of these projects email the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home at bringmumiahome@gmail.com or call 866-745-6963

PAINTER JAMES GAYLES BOOK ON ART AND LITERATURE

COMING SOON!!!
My first book "Reflections" will be out in July. It will be a collaboration between my artwork and 25 local, national and international poets and writers.

BLACK ART BY JAMES GAYLES

Maya Moves On to Higher Ground, dancing with Amiri Baraka, et al.

Dance Maya dance

You and AB cuttin' a rug

so smooth

in tune

flying high

in the Upper Room

Dance Maya dance

swing low sweet chariot

comin' fa da take me home

let her rise now

let her rise now

rise ta touch da sky

see Amina laughin

what a moment

don't take da J out ma joy devil

not in da eternity of things.

Dance Maya dance

poet to poet

something special

Dance Maya dance

no more caged bird

fly black bird fly.

Peace Maya dance

--Marvin X

5/28/14

Oaktown Cali

Pianist Alfie Politt at the Henry Box Brown Festival, Philadelphia

"The voice of the intelligence...is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished by anger. Most of all, it is silenced by ignorance." --Dr. Karl Menninger "Birthing" by Stanley Squirewell The Henry Box Brown Festival, Phase Six Black Male Jazz and Classical Music Virtuosos, Ages 17 to 71: A Multigenerational "Knight" of Live Music in Celebration of Our Brother Of the Year E. Mitchell Swann May 31, 7:15 P.M. Please reserve your space today You are invited to join The Brothers' Network for an evening of fine jazz music and our annual honor for our Brother of the Year, E. Mitchell Swann, on the Avenue of the Arts on May 31. Our Henry Box Brown Festival program at the Philadelphia Theatre Company is an "out of the box" jazz concert featuring the stylings of Alfred "Alfie" Politt.   Pianist, composer, producer, arranger, and educator Alfred “Alfie” Politt penned his first song, “15th Street,” in 1958.  Over his career, Politt has written more than 500 songs. Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1943, Politt started playing piano at the age of three. He is a versatile musician that performs jazz, Latin, R & B and other music genres. His music, composition, style and performance are influenced by John Coltrane, Horace Silver, Joe Loco, Bud Powell, McCoy Tyner, Sun Ra, Jimmy Smith, Elvin Jones, Cecil Taylor, Barry Harris, Bobby Timmons, Herbie Hancock, Jimmie Merritt, Mtume, Kashif, Leon Sylvers, Alfredo, Leon Huff, Stevie Wonder and Prince. During his music career, Alfie has performed with a long list of jazz greats. They include Slide Hampton, Carlos Garnett, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Gregory Herbert, Earl and Carl Grubbs, Sunny Murray, Bootsie Barnes, J.J. Johnson, Odean Pope, Rufus Harley, Sonny Fortune, Byard Lancaster, Archie Shepp, Lex Humphries, Edgar Bateman, Rashid Ali, Ron Everett, John Gilmore, Khan Jamal, Lee Morgan, Rashan Roland Kirk, Norman Connors, Johnny Hartman, Bobbie Humphries, Bill Barron, John Blake, Bob Pollitt, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Jimmy Garrison, Donald Byrd, Reggie Lucas, Bobby Durham and others. Politt has also worked with many of the R & B greats that made "The Sound of Philadelphia" famous, such as Barbara Mason, Billy Paul, The Blue Notes, Sister Sledge, The Tymes, The Majors, Stephanie Mills, and Lloyd Price’s Big Band. He was the keyboard player on Teddy Pendergrass’ platinum-selling album “Teddy Coast to Coast Live” as well as his album “This One’s for You.” In 1980, Alfie organized the R & B band OUCH, and he formed Alfie Pollitt and his All-Star Musical Friends in 1985. As an educator, Alfie teaches music and has conducted songwriting workshops in New Jersey and correctional facilities in Pennsylvania, including the Philadelphia House of Correction and Holmesburg and Graterford Prisons. In addition, both of his bands performed concerts at the correctional facilities. Alfie’s lifetime goal has been to maintain his positive message in music universally, in his own words, “by the Divine permission and help of the Almighty Creator.” The Brothers' Network is proud to partner with the Philadelphia Jazz Project to present Alfie Politt as part of the Henry Box Brown Festival.       Our evening of jazz will also feature Atamosi (French horn, above left) and Atamanu(viola, above right) Hagins, rising seniors at Julia Reynolds Masterman School who sit second and first chairs respectively in the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. The Brothers' Network is pleased to present this intergenerational interplay of music and conversation juxtaposing classical music with classic jazz.   The Henry Box Brown Festival introduces more diverse audiences to the performing arts by creating a multidisciplinary festival that features black male choreographers, filmmakers, actors, writers and composers. The festival is inspired by the life of Henry “Box” Brown, an enslaved African who shipped himself to Philadelphia in a wooden box to gain his freedom in 1849. The wooden box serves as an artistic metaphor to explore the pedagogy of oppression and to examine the notions of liberation through symposia, dialogue and artistic interpretation. The Henry Box Brown Festival is funded by a Knight Arts Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Brothers' Network will also present our Brother of the Year Award in a post-concert ceremony. The musical selections are a tribute to E. Mitchell Swann (pictured above) and his love for music from the classics to jazz. Our Brother of the Year, E. Mitchell Swann - that's "E" as in "erudite": highly educated, knowledgeable, and worldly - has traveled around the globe: Spain, Switzerland, Brazil and beyond, taking with him the love of music he too acquired growing up in West Philadelphia. That love formed the foundation of a lifetime commitment to the arts that has nourished his soul on his journey through the engineering profession. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, 480 South Broad Street (at Lombard), on the Avenue of the Arts in Philadelphia. Please reserve your space for this extraordinary evening of classical and jazz music and the celebration of outstanding brilliance using this link The Miami Foundation serves as the fiscal agent of The Brothers' Network.

Marvin X speaks on KPOO 89.5FM (kpoo.com), tonight, 10pm (pst) Terry Collins Show

Marvin X speaks tonight on KPOO radio at 10pm. kpoo.com. Accompanied by his star student Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Marvin will discuss The World According to Marvin X at 70 (May 29, 1944). Marvin and Dr. Nzinga will read from their original writings.

Dr. Nzinga was a student of X's when he taught theatre at Laney College, 1981. She directed and performed in his play In the Name of Love, 1991, and his docudrama One Day in the Life, 1996-2002 (Recovery Theatre), the longest running Black play in the Bay. Ishmael Reed said, "One Day in the Life is the most powerful drama I've seen."

Dr. Nzinga has established her own theatre in West Oakland and is producing the entire cycle of plays by August Wilson with her Lower Bottom Playaz.

 Terry Collins of KPOO will interview Marvin and Ayodele

Miles Davis - Time After Time (Live 1985)

If you fall I will catch you

time after time....--Cyndi Lauper



If you are by yourself and fall, who will lift you up, so two are better than one.--Ecclesiastes

HUNGER STRIKE FOR SYRIA, AMERICA, NIGERIA, PALESTINE, AFGHANISTAN, YEMEN

I will hunger strike for three days for Syria and the world. This world needs help. JB said hep! Imagine the young man committing mass murder because he couldn't find a girlfriend, but alas, he wasn't in tune with himself, how could he connect with a girl/woman?

The power hungry fight for the cause of continued oppression, not freedom. There are multiple fighters in Syria for multiple causes, few of them give a damn about the Syrian people, they are obsessed with their cause, for this or that ideology or sectarian theology. In three days I will be 70 years old. The world was at war when I was born, May 29, 1944, and there has been war ever since. I suspect there shall be wars and rumors of war after I am long gone, for some war is money, good for the economy of the globalists, who have no loyalty to anything or anyone except greed, who seem to enjoy the crushing of bones and spilling of blood. And then they wonder why their children are going stark raving mad. Baldwin said the murder of my child will not make your child safe.
--Marvin X

The war in Syria is part of the world war against the freedom of human beings. Freedom is for all, not a family, a sect or religious group. The rape and torture of men, women and children is a reality in Syria as well as Nigeria and America. The children kidnapped in Nigeria are no different from the sexually exploited children in Syria and the children on the  streets of America, especially Oakland's International Blvd, where children of all ethnic groups (10, 11,12 years old) are sexually exploited day and night. We must all transcend religiosity, sectarianism and dogmatism. From Syria to America, the patriarchal mentality of domination must be uprooted and cast into the dustbin of history!
--Marvin X 
5/25/14

Comment:

Tell it, my friend. All people of conscience, and especially those who dream of a day of equal citizenship for all in a truly free and pluralistic, human-rights-respecting, secular, sovereign Syria, appreciate your stand.
--Dr. Mohja Kahf, Syrian poet/professor for non-violence in Syria

Obama slips into Afghanistan to extend the permanent war

Obama slips into Afghanistan to visit US troops

 

By JULIE PACE10 hours ago

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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AP) — President Barack Obama, on a surprise holiday visit to this sprawling military base, said Sunday he was close to a decision about the number of U.S. troops who will remain after year's end in America's longest war.

"We are aware of the sacrifices so many have made," Obama said after a briefing by Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, the top American commander in Afghanistan. "We'll probably be announcing some decisions fairly shortly."

The decision may come Wednesday when Obama delivers the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

Air Force One landed at Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, after an overnight flight from Washington. Obama was scheduled to spend just a few hours on the base and had no plans to travel to Kabul, the capital, to meet with Hamid Karzai, the mercurial president who has had a tumultuous relationship with the White House.

Obama's surprise trip came as the U.S. and NATO withdraw most of their forces ahead of a year-end deadline.

Obama is seeking to keep a small number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to train Afghan security forces and conduct counterterrorism missions. But that plan is contingent on Karzai's successor signing a bilateral security agreement that Karzai has refused to authorize.

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President Barack Obama, right, is greeted by US Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham, center,  …

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Obama had not finalized the troop decision and no announcement was expected during the Afghanistan visit.

At least 2,181 members of the U.S. military have died during the nearly 13-year Afghan war and thousands more have been wounded. There are still about 32,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a high of 100,000 in mid-2010, when as Obama sent in additional soldiers to quell escalating violence.

Obama said he saw a poster of the Twin Towers, downed in the 2001 terrorist attacks, when he arrived at the briefing building. "It's a reminder of why we're here," he said.

This was Obama's fourth visit to Afghanistan as president, but his first since winning re-election in 2012.

Rhodes said Obama was passing on a meeting with Karzai in order to avoid injecting himself into Afghanistan's presidential elections. Karzai was given advance notice of Obama's trip, Rhodes said, though it was unclear how far ahead of time.

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President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One after arriving at Bagram Air Field for an unannounced …

In addition to the briefing by U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, Obama planned to speak to troops at Bagram and visit the injured being treated at a base hospital.

Obama was accompanied by a few advisers, including senior counselor John Podesta, whose son is serving in Afghanistan. Also along was country singer Brad Paisley, who was to perform for U.S. troops.

As is typical of recent presidential trips to war zones, the White House did not announce Obama's visit in advance. Media traveling with Obama for the 13-hour flight had to agree to keep the trip secret until the president arrived at the air base.

Obama's visit was taking place against the backdrop of growing outrage in the United States over the treatment of America's war veterans. More than two dozen veterans' hospitals across America are under investigation over allegations of treatment delays and deaths, putting greater scrutiny on the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency already was struggling to keep up with the influx of forces returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama has staked much of his foreign policy philosophy on ending the two wars he inherited from his predecessor, George W. Bush.

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President Barack Obama walks with US Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham after arriving at Ba …

The final American troops withdrew from Iraq in the closing days of 2011 after the U.S. and Iraq failed to reach a security agreement to keep a small American residual force in the country. In the years that have followed the American withdrawal, Iraq has been battered by resurgent waves of violence.

U.S. officials say they're trying to avoid a similar scenario in Afghanistan. While combat forces are due to depart at the end of this year, Obama administration officials have pressed to keep some troops in Afghanistan after 2014 to continue training the Afghan security forces and undertake counterterrorism missions.

Pentagon officials have pushed for as many as 10,000 troops; others in the administration favor as few as 5,000 troops. Obama has insisted he will not keep any Americans in Afghanistan without a signed security agreement that would grant those forces immunity from Afghan law.

U.S. officials had hoped plans a post-2014 force would be well underway by this point. But Karzai stunned U.S. officials this year by saying he would not sign the security agreement even though he helped negotiate the terms. The move signaled that Karzai does not want his legacy to include a commitment to allow the deployment of international troops in his country any longer.

Karzai's decision compounded his already tense relationship with officials in Washington who have grown increasingly frustrated by his anti-American rhetoric and decision to release prisoners over the objections of U.S. officials. Obama and Karzai have spoken just once in the past year.

Karzai, the only president Afghans have known since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban's Islamic rule, was constitutionally barred from running for a third term this year. An election to choose his successor was held this month, with the top two candidates advancing to a June runoff.

Both of those candidates, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have promised a fresh start with the West and pledged to move ahead with the security pact with the U.S.