challenging injustice - the millions for mumia march

8/14/2019 Challenging Injustice - The Millions for Mumia March

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Challenging Injustice:

the millions for mumia protest march

Eric HensonFolklore 412

Daniel Wojcik, Prof.

UH 11:00 - 12:20May 3, 1999

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner of the United States of America who was jailed in1982 for a crime (which has since been proven) he did not commit. As a result of his involvement with

the Black Panthers and his occupation as a leftist journalist, Jamal continues to reside in prison on

Death Row without any further chance of appeal. Since the rejection of his final appeal (in October,

1998), justice advocates and activists have worked diligently together to give Jamal back his freedom.On April 24th, 1999 (Mumia's birthday) people all across the country asserted their stance on the issue

in the form of protest rallies and the Millions for Mumia march.

Larger cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco, as well as smaller cites such as Eugene, alltook part in raising their communities' awareness about Mumia's current situation. Beginning at noon

on the corner of 7th and Pearl, the grounds of the local Federal Building, protesters began to rally in

support of justice for Mumia. At one o'clock the Eugene segment of the Millions for Mumia marchbegan, overtaking the streets of the city. Over 150 people representing various subcultures attended the

event, although Anarchists, Environmentalists, Punks, Hippies, and other leftist subcultures composed

the majority of the marchers.Bound together in societal and governmental subversion, these different subcultures combined

with ease against the unjust impending death of a man unafraid to speak out against the system.

Through their conglomeration, these various subcultures became one--a primarily leftist subculture

consisting of those who do not favor the death penalty, who believe that injustice based upon racialinequality should be condemned, and who encourage democracy in the hands of the people (not in the

pockets of politicians). Mumia Abu-Jamal's situation eloquently illustrates all of these ideals, and thus

the leftists came out publicly to state their opinion.Over a period of 3 hours, leftists overtook many of Eugene's busiest streets. Pearl, 8th Street,

East Broadway, Willamette, Olive, 13th Street, Franklin Boulevard, Oak, and 5th Street all had to have

their traffic diverted because of the demonstrator's presence. Eugene city police attempted to stop themarch, but found themselves instead redirecting traffic and passively videotaping rather than actively

causing an end to the demonstration. The march raised the awareness of hundreds of commuters,

attendees to the Downtown Saturday Market, students on the U of O campus, private residents, and

many others through direct observation or post-event news media coverage. Awareness raising, beingthe primary goal of the event, was accomplished through both standard institutional and non-standard

folkloric means.

Signs and chants were methods used to express the protesters' views. During both the march andrally people carried signs depicting Mumia's portrait, as well as that of Leonard Peltier (another renown

political prisoner). Along with the faces behind the cause were accompanying slogans: "End the Death

Penalty Now!", "We Are All Political Prisoners", "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal", "Free Leonard Peltier","Honor All Life", "No One Is Free When Others Are Oppressed", "Injustice Hurts Everyone", "Are

You Ready To Die For Global Capital?", and others. The three main chants shouted amongst the

marchers were: "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal", "Brick by Brick, Wall by Wall, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal",and lastly, "There's No Government Like No Government".

These various slogans represent the diversity of subcultures participating in the event. While

some people protested solely to express their views about wrongful imprisonment and death, others


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used the situation as a vehicle to assert their stance on a variety of issues concerning other political and

environmental injustices. However, all of the protesters' propaganda expressed their liberal political

ideologies, and thus the leftist views of the various individual subcultures participating in the event.

While the primary goal of the march was to raise awareness about Mumia's situation in the community,intentions (such as the advocation of a smaller government, the promotion of localization not

globalization, and the support of an anti-corporate capitalism) of the individual punk and anarchist

subcultures all found their place in the march. Hippie and environmentalist subcultures also used themarch as a platform for the promotion of their subcultures' values, exhibited in signs such as "Honor

All Life".

These elements of the event, and the event as a whole, explicitly characterizes grass-roots folkactivism. Rather than communicate to people through institutional structures like television and formal

public announcements, the Millions for Mumia march was mainly advertised through word of mouth.

Black and white hand-written flyers and small-scale subcultural publications such as The Student

Insurgent, to promote the event. By taking to the streets with signs and chants to raise publicawareness, as opposed to television advertising or other formal means of communication, marchers

made their voices heard through (as some would see) non-institutional means. Like the grass-roots

demonstrations against the English before this country's revolution, the Millions for Mumia march usedthe power of the voice and body to express the ideology concealed within.

The participants of the march also found themselves in a liminal state while protesting: going

through a situation which could be construed as ludic recombination. At the rally, people made aformal break from the rest of society. Rather than being the voiceless commuters who drove past,

participants held signs and cast their opinions loudly and firmly to all who would listen. Speakers using

megaphones expressed their anger at Mumia's imprisonment and the justice system as a whole. All ofthe rally's participants, including myself, learned more about Mumia's current situation as well as how

poorly his case reflects upon our government. At the rally participants left the normality of the ordinary

world around them (through listening to public speakers and declaring their opinions loudly) and

ventured into a metaphorical state where equality and justice were of the utmost importance.The march became the transitional state, where roads (as characterizations of institutional

behavior, i.e. driving) were instead used as sidewalks. The actions of the participants led to this

liminality, whereas rather than quietly walk down the sidewalk keeping one's ideas to one's self,participants loudly voiced their opinions as they strolled down the middle of the street; through

puppets, signs, and voices, the ordinary world of individual silence found itself inverted into a place of

collective disquiet. In this transitional state, the police who monitored (and followed) our activitiesbecame agents of suppression rather than officers of peace.

Upon reaching the jail, the final destination for the marchers, participants discovered

themselves slowly retreating back into normality, but with the effects of the protest still resonating in

their hearts and minds. After the protesters collectively sang "Happy Birthday" to Mumia (and thusshowed both their reverence and irreverence for societal convention), many began to disperse and re-

enter the world they had left. For myself, this meant returning home to treat a second degree sunburn.

However, I truly didn't enter into the same reality I had left at the rally. Instead of walking down themiddle of the street, I had to use the sidewalk: this was very awkward, as moments before the street

was my sidewalk. However, the chants and the vigor instilled in me by the march remained even

though I found myself reimmersed in the institutions of our society. My new reality (as well as that ofthe other participants) wasn't the same as the one I had left, but was rather a combination of both the

liminal state I had passed through and the original reality I had left before the rally.

Although the effects of the march have yet to free Mumia from his death row cell, theawareness that it raised both in Eugene and abroad has definitely made more people conscious of the

atrocities committed by our government's injustice system. As evidenced by the march, non-

institutional means of communication are often as powerful as their counterparts. Both participants and


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observers found themselves celebrating their revolutionary folk heritage, taking part in a contemporary

example of an age old tradition: revolt against the system.

challenging injustice - the millions for mumia march

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