W.E. A.L.L. B.E.: Mumia Speaks: STATE AGAINST PEOPLE

Monday, May 31, 2010

Mumia Speaks: STATE AGAINST PEOPLE

STATE AGAINST PEOPLE

[col. writ. 5/16/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal

There is, at the heart of American society, a profound disquiet about the overwhelming powers of government, one which waxes and wanes according to the felt needs of the time.

That's partly because, while we say the government was formed to support freedom, we know that this wasn't true. We know that the government was an instrument of despotic and tyrannical power - especially when it comes to Black people.

This government began in slavery, not in freedom - unless one argues it was begun to protect freedom of some to enslave others.

Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes On the State of Virginia, describing slavery, called it a system of "unremitting despotism."

That he was, at once, an alleged freedom fighter and, an owner of several hundred slaves gives us some sense of the contradiction at the core of the United States.

Government then, and now, supports the efforts of the wealthy, at the expense of the many. It is an instrument of wealth and corporate power - period.

Those who saw the quicksilver response to Wall Street's problems, and the half-hearted responses to the unemployed, the foreclosed, the hungry and the homeless should take that lesson to heart.

How else could any government support efforts like NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement), which destabilized millions of middle class workers (not to mention poor folks in Mexico), and please financial speculators and investors on Wall St.?

Former President Bill Clinton sold NAFTA like a carnival barker, and promised good jobs for all.

It didn't exactly work out that way, did it?

The neo liberal project of globalization was never intended to provide good jobs - for anybody, but elites. It was designed to maximize corporate profits, unhindered by any government restraints.

The bubbling light crude poisoning the waters of the Gulf of Mexico - right now - is the direct result of neo liberal deregulation - which frees business to profit - but also to create multinational disasters. It's government in hock to capital, and capitalism run wild.

And while the media hypes about environmental damage to Louisiana, Texas or even Florida, have you noticed no one has even mentioned Mexico's east coast, or Cuba's west coast?

Globalization is here - and it ain't pretty.

Only great and sustained struggle and resistance can change that tune.

--(c) '10 maj

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The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

URGENT Need for Petition Signatures at: http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition/

Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org

http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/

Mumia's got a podcast! Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays - Subscribe at the website or on iTunes and get Mumia's radio commentaries online.

Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released! It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090

If you are planning to organize an event or would like to order in bulk, you can also receive a 45% discount on any bulk orders of 20 copies or more. The book retails for $16.95, for orders of 20 copies or more the discounted price would be $9.32 per book, plus shipping and handling. Prepayment would be required and books are nonreturnable. If you or your organization would like to place a bulk order, please contact Stacey Lewis at 415.362.1901 or stacey@citylights.com

Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant, moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!

Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).

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