On December 6-8, I spoke on building labor support for Mumia Abu Jamal in three Ontario cities in three days. This mini-tour was arranged by Brother Bruce Allen, Vice President of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 199 in St. Catharines. Evening meetings there, in Toronto and in Hamilton drew about 25 people each night. There was also a live radio interview and the last two sessions were tape recorded for later broadcas.

Overall, the talks were quite successful, revealing considerable work that has already been done to win support for Mumia in the Canadian labor movement, and a readiness to move forward in building the case.

THE TALK

My talk, which ran about a half hour, began by drawing the connections between the mistreatment of my postal co-workers and myself during the recent anthrax crisis, and the railroad of Mumia–notably the fact that the rich and powerful are willing to sacrifice the lives of workers as well as Mumia’s if they think it serves their interests. Mumia’s powerful recent statement on the anthrax situation was distributed.

Then I laid out some reasons why workers and trade unionists in particular should support Mumia. First, his union membership and unwavering support of workers’ struggles. Second, the labor movement’s founding principle: An injury to one is an injury to all. Third, the fact that if they can do it to him, they can do it to any of us, a statement which seems a lot less 
rhetorical in light of the savaging of civil liberties in the US and in Canada since 9/11. Fourth, the fact that it is a key battle in the struggle against the death penalty.

I called on those present to work to make Mumia’s case the property of the Canadian trade union movement, aiming both up, in the sense of getting support from elected leaders and bodies of the movement, and down, in the sense of making co-workers aware of the case and making them really care about it.

Finally, I laid out a fifth reason–that Mumia’s case, like those of Sacco and Vanzetti and of the Rosenbergs, is one of the rare battles which engages the attention of the world’s people and is being fought for the highest stakes. In each city, a long, spirited discussion and question period 
followed.

THE UNIONS

In St. Catharines, the meeting was chaired by Brother Bruce Allen and also addressed by a representative of Amnesty International, which has criticized the railroad of Mumia, and by Sister Sue Hotte who heads the St. Catharines &District Labour Council. Unions with members and/or retirees present included CAW, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Hotel and Restaurant Workers (HERE). There were also local college students from Brock University and activists from the local coalition against war and racism. The local newspaper, the Standard, carried a good article on the meeting the next day, the first mention of Mumia in its pages anyone could remember.

In Toronto, the turnout was a bit disappointing, owing in part to the fact that the Ontario Federation of Labour had just completed a long convention and folks were meetinged out. Still, in addition to local folks from the Teachers union, CUPE, and the militant Ontario Citizens Against Poverty (a mass organization of the poor which has worked closely with organized labor), two national leaders were present from Ottawa. One was a top staffer from CUPW and the other shared the platform with me– Hassan Yussef, who is First Vice President of the whole Canadian Labour Congress. Brother Yussef challenged those present to organize a trade union committee capable of developing a program that can be used to turn the CLC’s formal support of Mumia into practical measures to build the movement to free him.

In Hamilton, even though the event was sponsored by the Public Interest Research Group on a local campus, and there were good contingents from two schools, there were still folks present from CAW, USW, CUPE and CUPW locals.

WHAT NEXT?

This is really for the Canadian sisters and brothers to decide, but there was a real jolt of interest in stepping up activity among those present in all three cities, and supplies of Labor for Mumia ribbons and stickers were snatched up by folks with plans to use them, even though our stuff spells it “labor” unlike the Canadian “labour.” An email address has been obtained – torontolabour@yahoo.com and a website is in the works.

The biggest challenge is that laid down by Brother Hassan Yussef: the Canadian Labour Congress is on record as supporting Mumia, but it has any number of projects and problems it is dealing with. Until a committee of trade unionists gets together to make some plans and give some direction to the CLC the resolution will remain a paper document and not a living one.

For more information on labor support for Mumia Abu Jamal, visit the Labor for Mumia website: http://www.aspenlinx.com/labor