Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays

Imperial Power

Address to the Rosa Luxemburg Conference, Berlin Germany 1/10/09 'Imperial Power & Counter-Power':(M.A. Jamal's Remarks to the Rosa Luxemburg Conference in Germany / Jan. 10th, 2009 [SP. WRIT. 12/30/08] (C) '08 MUMIA ABU-JAMAL If one is to address the reactions to the recent election of Illinois Senator Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency, this can perhaps be best encapsulated by the term, exultation. For if ever a political figure rode the currents of a stellar alignment, Barack Obama di...

Huey: A Memory (1942-1989)

written 4 POCC 1/15/09 Huey P. Newton's name, and more importantly, his history of resistance and struggle, is little more than a mystery for many younger people in their 20's. The name and works of a third rate rapper is more familiar to the average Black youth, and that's hardly surprising given the failure of the public school system. For the public school system is invested in ignorance, and Huey P. Newton was a rebel -- and more, a Black Revolutionary. Inspired by the civil r...

Death In A Cell

36 HOURS: Death in a Cell 1/12/09 Mumia Abu-Jamal The strangulation death of 19 year old Ronnie L. White in a jail cell in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Maryland, after 36 hours confinement has confronted Ron Harris, the teenager's father. A month ago Harris told reporters, "it's been six months, and still nobody can tell me who killed my son or what happened leading up to his death." Harris added, "I want to know why there is still so much secrecy in this case and why, after a...

James Main, Jr

Bombing For Moderates

EARTHA KITT -- (1928-2008)

For generations, the name, Eartha Kitt, was synonymous with sexy, sultry, and outspoken. In an industry where careers can sometimes be measured in minutes, Eartha Kitt was the real thing, for quite a while; dancer, singer, actress, and on occasion, a comedian. Since the tender age of 14, she worked the stage, and for nearly 7 decades, she left her indelible imprint by her work on the big screen, TV, and on recordings. On Jan. 26, 1928 she was born in South Carolina as Eartha Mae Kitt. She...

Inheriting an Empire

JR of POCC Interviews Mumia

Somalia Woes of peril of Intervention

Deregulation Nation

Politics of the Present

Message to December 6 Philadelphia Rally

Message to PDC Holiday Event for Class War Prisoners

False Freedom

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

A Secret Recession?

More Money for Masters None for You

Blames the Takers Not the Makers

Blames the Takers Not the Makers

Masks of Empire

Miriam Makeba The Great

Mumia Interview with JR Block Report Radio re: Election/Obama

Mumia Interview with JR Block Report Radio re: Election/Obama www.blockreportradio.com

Bailing Out the Boys

African Views on U.S. Presidential Campaign

When The Dragons Come Home

A Day of Days

The Meaning of Victory

Free the Atenco 14

Socialism for Some

Socialism for Some

Clash of Titans GM Chrysler Merger

Time for Troy Davis is Now

Of Bubbles and Busts

Behind the Money Crash

For millions of people, the economic crash and crisis seems almost mystical. What happened? Why did it happen? How did it happen? It seems more complex than it really is. That's because the corporate media is, more often than not, a contributor to confusion, rather than a source of clarity. The media thrives on conflict, chaos and controversy. That's why I found in the {British} left press what I've never seen in the corporate media: the text of a 2002 open letter from U.S. fi...

Markets On Fire

Jericho at Ten

Ona Move! I greet you all who've gathered here today, at the 10th anniversary of the Founding of Jericho-the Movement to free all political prisoners -- and also to remember the life and work of an extraordinary sista -- the late, great, Safiya Bukhari. When she was here, all we could see was her in motion, working, leafleting, explaining, organizing -- all of these things -- ceaselessly! She was a quiet, intense, ubiquitous presence who seemed like a force of ...

Scare Tactics

With the passage of the Wall St. bailout bill, a major line has been crossed in U.S. economic and political history. The rulers can do anything, as long as they leaven it with fear. Just like the Iraq War authorization, with enough fear Congress will roll over, and say, "Uncle." And there was an avalanche of fear. The corporate media sold oceans of fear and dread, just as it sold facile patriotism, the Iraq War and the so-called "War on Terror." Using individual tales of fallen ...

The Fall of the House of Capital?

By the time you read this the $700 billion bailout will have been old news, one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history. But it will not heal that which ails the nation as it trips and stumbles like a drunken sailor on shore leave. The reasons are simple. For the problems are systemic, built into the rapacious nature of the machinery humming all around us. The Rube Goldberg-like contraption of democratic forms at the service of the financial services industry is a bottomless maw, a...

A Time for Union Power (the case of Harrison & Ruffin ILWU)

It's been over a year since two members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), Local 10, were harassed, beaten and busted while trying to call their union rep on a cell phone. The men, Aaron Harrison and Jason Ruffin, were beaten by maritime security and West Sacramento cops, for the fake offense of parking -- while Black. They are days away from trial in Yolo County, California on bogus "resisting arrest" charges, really cover charges--to cover up the fact that they were ...

The Fear Bomb Again

If Congress has shown us anything, it is that when they are scared, they'll do anything. Seven years ago, in the twilight after 9/11 and in the wake of the anthrax attacks, Congress passed sweeping authorizations to the White House for war on a whim, and signed the so-called Patriot Act in record time. Some members admitted that they didn't even read the bill before voting "aye." One man, a prominent and even legendary congressman admitted, "We were afraid; they told us we had to pass the ...

Empire on E

In a matter of months, a new man will take the oath of office for the presidency. Whether he is the oldest in history, or the first Black one, of one thing we may be certain. He will be hobbled by a sea of red ink, and therefore bereft of most of the resources to bring his campaign promises to reality. For as the fires continue to rage throughout the financial markets, they will turn tax returns into smoke. Don't expect any of them to tell you this, but...

Jury of Peers

From Deregulation to National Guarantor: In a Blink

Silent Riots on Wall Street

Obama & The Bubba Vote

Beating Back Batson (Batson v. Kentucky U.S. Supreme Court 1986)

For those who read court opinions, few can ignore the U.S. Supreme Court's 1986 Batson v. Kentucky decision. Essentially, it prohibited the State from removing Black jurors for racial reasons. It re-wrote the rules from the Swain v. Alabama ( 1965) case, where the court required systematic discrimination over a number of cases, over a period of years. Needless to say, such a challenge was clearly beyond the resources of most people, and relatively few were made, and even fewer s...

Items off the Table: (Presidental Speeches and the Economy)

As the national political conventions fade into the fog of our short-term memory, few items seem to have penetrated the made-for-TV presentations. We remember a few snippets (if we're lucky), a few disparate images, an emotional impression, perhaps. I'm willing to bet that few of us remember any meaningful discussion of the real economic problems faced by the U.S. That's because none of the major presidential candidates have even the remotest solutions to the economic pr...

Power to the Peaceful: 10th Anniversary Message

The McCain Gambit: The Politics of Gender

If you ever needed proof that politics is a kind of war, the next-day's selection of Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, to join the presidential campaign ticket of Sen. John McCain should erase all doubts. Putting aside the political positions of Palin, her choice was a transparent attempt to exploit disaffected women voters, who felt burned by the decision of the Democratic nominee to choose someone other than Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-NY) for the number two spot. But transparent doesn't necessa...

The Nomination

From the maelstrom of ambition, politics and power, something new in symbol emerged from the Mile High City; Denver. In a national political convention that was, until then, undistinguished, few saw the political sleight-of-hand that led Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's bitterest rival, New York's Democratic Sen. Hillary R, Clinton to seize the moment to move the convention to suspend the rules, and vote by acclamation that Obama be named the Party's nominee for President. It was a political ma...

Fear The Engine of Politics

Although little discussed by major political figures, there is an acidic undertow in the eternal sea of politics. This subterranean issue is immigration, especially from Mexico, and the Latin South. Such voices suffuse the airwaves and the blogosphere, and can reach a fever pitch. At their core is a profound fear, of a dark, brown flood, washing away all that went before of America. As long as there has been a United States (and, in fact, a good while longer), such a fear has found expres...

Obama Biden Change? Not so Much

The choice of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as the Vice Presidential pick of Sen. Barack Obama (D.IL) and his presidential campaign challenges the central theme of the run, and suggests that the constant critique of inexperience is finding its target. For, no other analysis makes sense. Biden is a likable guy, but his past presidential runs have had all the oomph of a ham sandwich. He has been a Washington insider for several generations! He hails from the tiny...