[From nobody Wed Sep 6 10:23:10 2017 Received: from igcb.igc.org (igcb.igc.org [192.82.108.46]) by mail.ilstu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id TAA23707 for <cbcox@mail.ilstu.edu>; Thu, 31 Dec 1998 19:18:23 -0600 (CST) Received: from igc2.igc.apc.org (root@igc2.igc.org [192.82.108.39]) by igcb.igc.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA18000; Thu, 31 Dec 1998 17:06:52 -0800 (PST) Received: (from root@localhost) by igc2.igc.apc.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA14830; Thu, 31 Dec 1998 17:06:50 -0800 (PST) Received: (from amcgee@localhost) by igc2.igc.apc.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA14016; Thu, 31 Dec 1998 17:01:27 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 17:01:26 -0800 (PST) From: Kiilu Nyasha <kiilu@sirius.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.981231165838.13190D-100000@igc.apc.org> Precedence: bulk Reply-To: mumia@aol.com Sender: owner-brc-all@igc.org Subject: [BRC-ALL] NON-BRC; DEATH PENALTY; INTERNATIONAL; International Focus on US To: "undisclosed-recipients:;"@igc.org Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Death Penalty/Julia Wright To: brc-all@igc.org X-Sender: amcgee@igc Afrikan.net News Service www.afrikan.net ========================= UNITED STATES EXECUTIONS MAKE THE FRONT PAGE HEADLINES OF ONE OF EUROPE'S MOST INFLUENTIAL NEWSPAPERS - By Julia Wright, Paris, France Ten days after the United States first bombing of Iraq, the leading French daily "Le Monde" - the equivalent of our New York Times -- carried the following front page headlines: THE DEATH PENALTY: THE POPE'S CRUSADE - * IN HIS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE, THE POPE HAS RADICALIZED HIS OPPOSITION TO THE DEATH PENALTY * IN THE UNITED STATES WHERE HE IS DUE TO TRAVEL ON JANUARY 26TH, 500 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN EXECUTED SINCE 1976 * 3517 PRISONERS AWAIT THEIR DEATH SENTENCE ON THE DEATHROWS OF 38 AMERICAN STATES Even though the death penalty in the United States has been regularly documented and monitored since 1977 by human rights groups, abolitionists and a growing momentum of radical activism, the moderate French mainstream press has been noticeably reserved, not to say reluctant, to target American executions. UNTIL NOW! Some of the many factors which may account for the fact that the death penalty in the United States is now becoming prime time subject matter for overtly critical front page headlines in France are: - The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights coinciding - sad irony or sordid provocation? - with the 500th execution in the United States; - American peevishness towards the reinforcement of an independent European Defence/Security Network perceived by the U.S. as competitive with NATO; - Europe's stated disapproval of the United States' bombings of Iraq; - A series of European Parliament Resolutions pushing more and more firmly for a worldwide abolition of the death penalty through a Universal Moratorium Resolution scheduled for the next 1999 United Nations General Assembly Session; - The classification of the United States in the company of Iran, Saudi Arabia and China - governments America is so morally critical of ...; - The favourable reception given on December 16 and 17 (before and during the first American strikes against Iraq) to a delegation of respected African American activists and freedom defenders who gathered in front of a packed audience of members of the European Parliament to testify uncompromisingly on the racist and classist use of the death penalty inside the world's self-proclaimed "leading democracy"; - The emphasis placed by the members of the delegation (Angela Davis, Bobby Castillo, Ramona Africa, Wright, etc....) on the unproclaimed but very real existence of political prisoners in the United States as exemplified by Mumia Abu-Jamal's seventeen year ordeal on the threshold of death and Leonard Peltier's inhumanely critical state of health; - The specific focus on the death penalty in the United States in many of the clauses of the most recent 12-17-98 European Parliament Resolution against Capital Punishment; - The mention in that same resolution of a human rights clause to be invoked and included in trade/cultural/scientific/educational agreements to be negotiated by European community members with other countries. All these developments, and more, point to an increasing willingness to finger the United States on the basis that it flaunts its practice of cruel and unusual punishment at home while preaching and teaching human rights and democracy abroad. Last but not least: the Pope noticeably reassured last week-end's Italian abolitionists demonstrating in Rome that "The death penalty must be banished." This new firmness of the papal tone will not be lost to those who know that THE POPE IS POISED FOR A TRIP TO MEXICO AND, SIGNIFICANTLY, TO MISSOURI ON JANUARY 26-27 AT A TIME WHEN ANOTHER STATE KILLING IS SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE THERE!* (According to "Le Monde") The opportunity will not be lost on our united front of American abolitionists, human rights defenders and political prisoners defenders to crowd the site of the Missouri execution and assemble in the city of St. Louis to show the Pope and the international press covering the papal presence that our own momentum against our racist, classist and overtly politicized death penalty is on the move and will become manifest wherever there are carceral killing fields in the land. Julia Wright International Concerned Family and Friends for Mumia Abu-Jamal France 12/29/98 mumia@aol.com *A calendar of pending US executions as reported by the Supreme Court Clerk's office does carry a January 13 execution date in Missouri for Kelvin Malone but this date, as others, are highly subject to change due to stays and appeals. The next Missouri execution date according to the calendar is on Feb. 10th for Darrell Tease. (end) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BRC-ALL: Black Radical Congress, International Discussion (Open) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subscribe: Email "subscribe brc-all" to <majordomo@igc.org> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unsubscribe: Email "unsubscribe brc-all" to <majordomo@igc.org> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Questions/Problems: Send email to <owner-brc-all@igc.org> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Want To Start Your Own List? Go To: http://www.igc.org/igc/services/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ]