Spartacist Black History Month Educational

Free. Two presentations with discussion and lunch break. Refreshments available.

12 noon:
Race, Class and Socialist Revolution:
Class-Struggle Road to Black Freedom

Speaker: Don Cane, Spartacist League Central Committee

America’s capitalist rulers left New Orleans’ blacks and poor to die in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, laying bare the class and race divisions in America. The revulsion over this racist atrocity blows to shreds the “national unity” patriotism that has been whipped up under the guise of the “war on terror,” which is really a war on the rights of labor, blacks, and immigrants. At the same time, the recent New York City transit strike shows the power of the integrated working class, the power that a revolutionary leadership would link to the anger of the black ghetto masses in struggle against racist capitalism.
Since the days of slavery blacks have been an integral part of the working class. Black oppression, the forcible segregation of masses of black people at the bottom of society’s economy, is intrinsic to American capitalist rule. We seek to mobilize the multiracial working class on the program of revolutionary integrationism, for the full integration of black people in an egalitarian socialist order where those who labor rule. For us, the study of black history, a key part of the history of class struggle, is not a passive endeavor: We seek to understand the world in order to change it.

3 pm:
Mumia is an Innocent Man!
The Fight to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

Speaker: Rachel Wolkenstein, Partisan Defense Committee, former counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal

The fight for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, black revolutionary and America’s foremost political prisoner, is part of the fight for black equality in America, which itself is part of the broader fight against the capitalist system. Today Mumia’s case has reached a critical juncture. His new appeal, to be filed February 17, could lead to vastly different outcomes, from overturning his conviction to reinstating his death sentence.
The overwhelming evidence of his innocence includes the confession of Arnold Beverly that he, not Mumia, killed the Philadelphia policeman that Mumia was framed-up for killing in 1981. In 1982 Mumia was sentenced to die explicitly because of his revolutionary views and his past membership in the Black Panther Party.
The courts have repeatedly refused to allow Beverly’s confession to be heard and February 17 will be no exception. Issues that will be heard are the racist jury-rigging in the 1982 trial, the outrageous bias of the “prosecutor in robes” Judge Sabo, and the DA’s closing argument that erased the “reasonable doubt” standard.
Mumia’s scheduled execution in 1995 was stopped in the context of mass international protests involving unions representing millions of workers. As his case enters the fast track, it is urgent to mobilize on the basis that Mumia is an innocent man. Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Abolish the racist death penalty!