Talk Show Host Calls Committee to Action About Poll Problems
By Mercia Williams-Murray
WI Staff Writer
Rep. Robert A. Brady (D-PA), chairman of the House Committee on Administration, called to order a hearing focused on addressing problems that voters nationwide have at the polls.
Among those that testified in front of the committee was the executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund, Gregory T. Moore and famed syndicated radio host, Tom Joyner.
“The ‘My Vote’ hotline has received 40,000 calls in 2008,” Brady said. He added that Joyner’s leadership has worked to “educate and inform voters.”
Joyner helps oversee the hotline, 1-866-MYVOTE-1, which was developed and is monitored by InfoVoter Technologies, so people with questions about voting and people with problems at the polls in their communities can be aided.
Before Joyner began his testimony, an audio featuring people calling into the MYVOTE hotline from many states--but most coming from the Columbus, Ohio and Atlanta areas--was played.
Protestors World-Wide Seek Justice for Mumia
By the PDC
Special to the Informer
As part of the international campaign initiated by the Partisan Defense Committee to free death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, united-front protests took place on April 19 in Oakland, Toronto and London under the slogans: “Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent!,” “Free Mumia Now!,” and Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!”
The same day, a protest initiated by the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal in Philadelphia drew some 600 people, and another called by the Collectif unitaire national “Ensemble, sauvons Mumia”
in Paris drew some 200 demonstrators, while 50 people came out for a protest in Mexico City called by Amig@s de Mumia.
The protests were called in response to the March 27 U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding Mumia’s frame-up conviction. The united-front protests have been initiated by the PDC and Labor Black Leagues in the U.S. and the PDC’s fraternal defense organizations, which have been internationally endorsed by over 300 individuals and organizations, including trade unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers.
Some 200 protesters mobilized in Oakland. Among those addressing the demonstrators were Richard Brown, Hank Jones, Francisco Torres and Ray Boudreaux of the “San Francisco 8,” former Black Panthers who are now being dragged through the courts on frame-up charges of killing a police officer that had been dismissed 30 years ago.
A letter to Mumia from political prisoner Leonard Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, was read at the protest. It stated: “Given the choice of lying down to die or standing up to live, we chose to live. Standing up and living is our only crime.”
Kate Klein, the PDC speaker at the London united-front demonstration, which drew over 100 protesters, said “Since he was a 15-year-old in Philadelphia, Mumia has been in the cross hairs of the Philly cops and the FBI because he was a leader of the Black Panther Party as a youth, an eloquent journalist who fought day in and day out for the oppressed, and a supporter of the MOVE organization.”
Chanting “Mumia is innocent! Free him now! Labor has the power to make the courts bow!”, the PDC and LBL-organized Class-Struggle Contingent in the Philadelphia protest drew some 150 people, including trade unionists from NYC’s powerful Transport Workers Union Local 100. The contingent marched under the slogans, “Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent! Free Mumia Now! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty! There Is No Justice in the Capitalist Courts! Mobilize Labor’s Power—For Mass Protest!”
Philadelphia police officers acted to protect those who came to attack the demonstration. Marshals from the PDC/LBL contingent effectively held off provocation against the protesters. As PDC Labor Coordinator Gene Herson said, “It is not an accident that the race-terrorist fascists, the deadly enemies of labor, Blacks and all the oppressed, have come forward as the storm troopers for those who seek Mumia’s legal lynching. It affirms that the cause of Mumia is the cause of labor, the cause of Black freedom, the cause of all the oppressed.”
PDC counsel Rachel Wolkenstein, who served on Mumia’s legal defense from 1995 to 1999, said, “The fight for Mumia’s freedom is at a critical juncture. The statements in defense of Mumia must be turned into mass action, centered on labor’s power. We call on everyone to redouble their efforts to build the upcoming united-front demonstrations.”
United-front protests took place in Sydney, Australia on April 23 and Mexico City on April 24. The next protests will take place in Chicago and L.A. on April 26. For more information: www.partisandefense.org.
