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An Injury to One Is an Injury
to All!
The 4 class-war prisoners described below receive monthly stipends from the PDC. [Up to date as of October 2021]
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a former Black Panther Party spokesman, a well-known supporter of the MOVE organization and an award-winning journalist known as “the voice of the voiceless.” Framed up for the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer, Mumia was sentenced to death explicitly for his political views. Federal and state courts have repeatedly refused to consider evidence proving Mumia’s innocence, including the sworn confession of Arnold Beverly that he, not Mumia, shot and killed the policeman. In 2011, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office dropped its longstanding effort to legally lynch Mumia, condemning him to life in prison with no chance of parole. In 2016, attorneys for Mumia filed a petition under Pennsylvania’s Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) seeking to overturn the denial of his four prior PCRA claims by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On 27 December 2018, Judge Leon Tucker of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas granted Mumia’s petition, allowing him to argue before an appellate court for reversal of his frame-up conviction. Mumia's appeal is now back in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where the Philly DA Larry Krasner is fighting tooth and nail to get the appeal dismissed and keep Mumia buried in prison for life.
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is a fighter for Palestinian rights and determined opponent of imperialism. Held in French prison since 1984, Abdallah has spent more time behind bars than any other class-war prisoner in France and most likely all Europe. A leading member of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, he was convicted on trumped-up charges of complicity in two murders of a CIA agent and a Mossad agent, as well as the attempted murder of an American consul. From 2004 to 2020, nine parole applications have been denied under direct pressure from the U.S. State Department. A new application filed last year is pending. Abdallah has always denied any involvement in these killings and should have never spent a day in prison.
Leonard Peltier is an internationally renowned class-war prisoner. Peltier’s incarceration for his activism in the American Indian Movement has come to symbolize this country’s racist repression of its Native peoples, the survivors of centuries of genocidal oppression. Peltier was framed up for the 1975 deaths of two FBI agents marauding in what had become a war zone on the South Dakota Pine Ridge Reservation. The lead government attorney has admitted, “We can’t prove who shot those agents,” and the courts have repeatedly denied Peltier’s appeals while acknowledging blatant prosecutorial misconduct. Before leaving office, Barack Obama rejected Peltier’s request for clemency. The 77-year-old Peltier is not scheduled for a parole hearing for another three years. Peltier suffers from multiple serious medical conditions, including a heart condition which led to triple bypass surgery in 2017. He is incarcerated far from his people and family.
Alvaro Luna Hernandez (Xinachtli) is a Mexican American initially framed up in the 1970s for a murder he did not commit. He was politicized in prison where he helped lead a movement for prison reform and became an effective jailhouse lawyer. Hernandez spent nearly a decade in solitary confinement. After the frame-up was exposed by the Houston Post, Hernandez was freed in 1991, but the state continued to target him for his activism on behalf of Mexican Americans. He founded the National Movement of La Raza and led a successful campaign to free Ricardo Aldape Guerra, a Mexican national framed for killing a Houston cop, from Texas’ death row. In 1996, the Brewster County Sheriff attempted to arrest him. When Hernandez challenged the legality of the warrantless arrest, the sheriff pulled a gun compelling him to disarm the sheriff in self-defense. Hernandez was railroaded for “aggravated assault” and outrageously sentenced to 50 years. He has now been continually confined in solitary for more than 19 years in Texas dungeons.
Contribute now! All proceeds from the Holiday Appeal events will go to the Class-War Prisoners Stipend Fund. This is not charity but an elementary act of solidarity with those imprisoned for their opposition to racist capitalism and imperialist depredation. Send your contributions to: PDC, P.O. Box 99, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013; (212) 406-4252.
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