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northland college 4 mumia!
On Wednesday, May 16th a coalition organization on the Northland
College campus in Ashland, WI succeeded in getting the student government to
pass a resolution calling for a new trial for the internationally recognized
political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. This coalition was made up of
students, young workers, peace activists, and the members of Youth for
Socialist Action (Ashland chapter.)
The reason this resolution is considered a key victory is because the
amount of work that went into it. The idea to pass a resolution through the
Northland College Student Association (NCSA) was attempted last year by a
similar group of students. Due to the rabidly reactionary student
bureaucracy the debate was held up for three weeks in discussions where the
written resolution, supported by over 350 students, was voted down. An NCSA
committee was then set up to write their own watered down resolution. In an
excellent display of bureaucratic maneuvering the committee wrote and passed
their own impotent document that called, basically, for Judge Yohn to do his
job. As a coalition we defined this outcome as a failure and retired for
the Summer break.
In November of 2000 Grinnell College in Iowa held a presentation on
Mumia's case and the death penalty with Mumia's former attorney Leonard
Weinglass. The talk was utterly inspiring and gave a fresh perspective to
the Ashland YSA. In early December a benefit concert (Jams 4 Justice) was
held by YSA and the campus Native American organization to raise money and
awareness of Mumia and Leonard Peltier. The event was a success and it only
fueled our momentum.
By February 2001, Lake Superior Socialist Action and Ashland YSA had
set up the Northern Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal with other regional
activist organizations. In Ashland, on the Northland College campus, the
Mobilization decided to rekindle the resolution and put more effort into it.
Armed with more energy and a better understanding of how to build a united
front we made great progress. Through petitioning, tabling, film showing,
and discussions we were able to reach a large section of the student
population and win many supporters, not to mention our fair share of
opponents (one being the County Sheriff!)
In early May, the Mobilization felt it had all it needed to approach
NCSA in the hopes of passing a new resolution. Despite a formidable amount
of support the student bureaucracy was hesitant to pass such a strong
resolution on a "convicted killer." It was then posed by the Mobilization
that a referendum be set up for all the students to cast their own vote on
the issue. This was agreed to, so on May 7th voting tables were set up and
ballots were cast. The following Wednesday NCSA announced that the
resolution had passed by nearly 100 votes!
Northland College is a very small school (800 students) but much can be
deduced from this victory. The main lesson we (YSA) learned is that united
front coalitions, set up and run properly, can be very effective in winning
a broad strata of the selected population. That is exactly what we were able
to do and in the process we found ourselves educating many people on the
facts of Mumia's case, the U.S. injustice system, and the racist death
penalty.
STOP THE EXECUTION! NEW TRIAL FOR MUMIA NOW!
written by Rob Welsh
