A-Infos (en) Prison Radio Update

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
           http://www.ainfos.ca/
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             * PRISON RADIO PROJECT/QUIXOTE CENTER *
                            Box 5206
                       Hyattsville, MD 20782
                    E-mail: radioqc@sirius.com
                  - Thursday, 12 February 1998 -
 
                              -----
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                       PRISON RADIO UPDATE
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                              * * *
 
     Please forward!
 
     Prison Radio (a project of the Quixote Center) challenges
     mass incarceration and racism by airing the voices of men
     and women in prison. Our educational materials serve as a
     catalyst for public activism. 
 
     "If Mumia Abu-Jamal has nothing important to say, why are so
     many powerful people trying to shut him up?"
     - John Edgar Wideman, author 
 
                                  *
 
February 12, 1998
 
Dear Friend,
 
     Together we are lifting the veil of censorship from
America's prisons. While 5.1 million people are under
correctional control - you have made sure that their perspectives
and their voices are heard.
 
     For over eight years, the Prison Radio Project has been
airing the voices of prisoners. We dared to produce
groundbreaking radio programs from the depths of America's
prisons, in the face of increasing censorship.  
 
     I remember heat rising up from the pavement on a sweltering
mid-summer day in July of 1992. As we pulled up to the fortress
gates of Pennsylvania's 100-year-old Huntingdon State Prison, I
realized that a strong and prophetic voice lay just inside those
massive walls. Hearing the first of Mumia's radio essays had a
powerful impact on me and everyone who has heard them. When we
started recording, it became clear that after years of solitary
confinement, Mumia's humanity is still intact; his brilliant
analysis is still infused with hope.
 
     It is the same sense of awe I experienced as Jane Henderson
of Equal Justice USA and I rode down the elevator, fresh from a
meeting with Ellen Weiss at National Public Radio's "All Things
Considered." Mumia Abu-Jamal had just been hired as a regular
commentator. Yet you have not heard Mumia on ATC. That victory
was too powerful to go unnoticed and unchallenged. Bob Dole and
the Fraternal Order of Police waged a war of words against the
airing of those commentaries. They both knew that support for the
death penalty would be weakened if the American public and the
international community of 17 million NPR listeners were able to
hear a man speaking live from death row. To this day the ten
unique and irreplaceable essays recorded on April 16th, 1994
remain under lock and key at NPR. 
 
     In spite of increased censorship and repression, your
actions have succeeded in changing the terms of the debate. In
just over five and a half years, millions of people across the
world have heard Mumia's voice - and his name has become a
household word. Together we are building a rising tide of
abolition. (See Prison Radio Highlights, in the next email.)
 
     Radio Documentary Released on 100+ Radio Stations worldwide
 
     "WAMC (Northeast Public Radio) aired it during prime time. A
large audience across five states heard the facts of the case.
Congratulations."  - Betty & Herman Liveright
 
     This winter, millions of public radio listeners heard "Mumia
Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt," a riveting 58-minute
radio documentary produced by the Prison Radio Project. Released
on the NPR Satellite and made available free of charge to any
public radio station, many of NPR's flagship stations (including
WGBH Boston) broadcast this hard-hitting program. 
 
     The documentary is based on a film produced by John
Edgington and Otmoor Productions, available from David Barsamian
at Alternative Radio - (303) 444-8788.
 
     At a time when public discourse on the rights of the
imprisoned is withering, Prison Radio/Quixote is reclaiming the
First Amendment. We have an absolute right to broadcast
prisoners' views without being subjected to political attacks or
threats. And you, the American public, have a right to hear this
information and make your own decisions. That is what it means to
live in a democracy.
 
PRISON RADIO APPEALS NPR LAWSUIT SETBACK
 
     "This appeal is designed to counter NPR's attempt to silence
     me, and is a defense of First Amendment rights - not just my
     own but those of all people, of youth, of NPR listeners, and
     of all those who truly want to hear 'All Things
     Considered'." - Mumia Abu-Jamal
 
     In September the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia dismissed our lawsuit for First Amendment violations
against NPR and "All Things Considered." We are battling with the
mightiest of America's lawyers: NPR has hired former White House
Counsel Lloyd Cutler to argue its case. The law firm of Bernabei
& Katz is in the process of filing our appeal.
 
     When this suit is heard and discovery is granted, the direct
political pressure used to force NPR to ban Mumia's voice will be
revealed. By its actions NPR - and now the courts - have
attempted to relegate Mumia to the customary place for America's
over-3000 death row inmates: silent oblivion.
 
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ON COMPACT DISC
 
     Rising on the college charts is a split compact disc of
Mumia Abu-Jamal (spoken word) and the southern California punk
band Man Is the Bastard (music). Seminal punk icon Jello Biafra
pressed this collection on his Alternative Tentacles label, using
Mumia's eloquence to make a stinging indictment of the U.S.
system of "justice."
 
     Featured are six of Mumia's essays, as well as: 
 
   * Bob Dole's Senate-floor attack on Mumia
   * A statement from Assata Shakur (Black Panther living in
     exile in Cuba)
   * Allen Ginsberg
   * Jello Biafra
 
     One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of this
compact disc will benefit Mumia Abu-Jamal's legal defense fund.
 
WILL MUMIA'S VOICE BE SILENCED FOREVER?
 
     Why are the simple facts of life in prison perceived as such
a threat? The answer lies in the fact that Mumia's words, if
heard, would threaten the smooth and orderly function of both
state-sanctioned murder and modern slavery. Mumia Abu-Jamal's
perspective is a serious threat to the hegemony of the
"corrections industry." Through his voice, over one-and-a-half
million prisoners in America are humanized. Mumia's disclosure of
torture and human rights abuses serves to slow productivity and
expansion in one of the U.S.'s largest growth industries: human
storage and slave labor.
 
     If you can donate $35, $50 or $100, you will receive, in
addition to our deep gratitude, a copy of the new compact disc
featuring Mumia's commentaries. Please know that we feel honored
with each gift that you provide, and the donations will be used
to take us further on this journey towards justice. 
 
     Mumia has the rare ability to speak for so many who languish
- anonymous, illiterate, or disabled - on death row. As we
continue to strive to make prisoners' voices heard, and to
document their life and humanity, your assistance and commitment
are key.
 
     Every step we take with Mumia is against immeasurable odds,
yet with your help we will continue and prevail.
 
Towards Justice and Freedom, 
 
Noelle Hanrahan
Director, Prison Radio Project
 
     P.S.: In order to be on the ZAP alert e-mail list send your
     email address to radioqc@sirius.com.  
 
     P.P.S.: Your donation of $35 means that we will be able to
     reach out to a growing number of radio stations, each one
     representing tens of thousands of new listeners. Each new
     listener is a potential activist for freedom and justice. 
 
     Prison Radio (a project of the Quixote Center) challenges
     mass incarceration and racism by airing the voices of men
     and women in prison. Our educational materials serve as a
     catalyst for public activism. Prison Radio/Quixote P.O. Box
     5206 Hyattsville, MD 20782
 
                              * * *
 
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        to subscribe e-mail Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.org>
 
          ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
   ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++
  ++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++


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