Re: Mumia Abu-Jamal

[dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx (Doug Henwood)]

At 7:48 AM 6/5/95, Alfred Joseph wrote:

>It really doesn't matter if Mumia Abu-Jamal is "innocent" or not.  He
>should be defended and supported against the law machine of the capitalist
>state.  What does guilty or innocent mean divorced from the class question?
> Some racist cop is no longer with us, so what?  He is no longer stopping
>young black and latino men just because of who they are.  They don't have
>to lie face down in the street.  He is not beating and arresting strikers.
>A pity he won't be able to shoot or stomp another child of the
>working-class.  Too damn bad.  All police are the enemy of the working
>class.  They are the shock-troops of the capitalist class.  When you start
>thinking about guilt or innocence think about the civil rights workers
>being clubbed, think about all the workers beaten and gassed trying to form
>unions, think about all the students beaten and jailed because of their
>opposition to the war, think about Fred Hampton-murdered as he slept, along
>with Mark Clark.  Is Mumia Abu-Jamal guilty or innocent?  Please!!!!!

I haven't heard a tantrum like that in years.

I'm not about to defend the bourgeois state and its special bodies of armed
men, but it sure makes a difference for your rhetoric and political
strategy whether Mumia shot the cop or not.

Unless the cop has a gun pointed at you or a comrade, I'd say shooting cops
is a juvenile and self-defeating strategy. Maybe I've just turned into a
squishy social democrat in my old age, though.

Doug

--

Doug Henwood
[dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx]
Left Business Observer
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New York NY 10024-3217
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