Leonard Peltier + Working within the system

[Chuck0]

Gordon Fitch wrote:
> 
> > A Pressler writes: << I think he did kill the agent.  >>
> 
> Gregory Geboski:
> > No real evidence has been presented to establish this, even at his trial.
> > ...
> 
> It would not be surprising to find that Peltier had received
> an unfair trial, as Mumia Abu-Jamal certainly did, regardless
> of what he may have actually done.  The cops would see to
> that.  Such cases are guaranteed to excite them with or without
> the facts.
> 
> However, a thing I find curious in these two cases and in some
> others is that, in selecting poster children for its causes,
> many on the Left seem to prefer people associated with violence
> to others.  I refer not only to the above but to many other
> cases, going back many years; Eldridge Cleaver the presidential
> candidate, for instance, previously a rapist and subsequently
> a Republican.  There are other cases I need not name.  Meanwhile
> the non-violent labor on uncelebrated in their accustomed
> obscurity.  Theoreticians and agitproppers, is this the best
> way to accomplish our common purposes?  This is not necessarily
> a rhetorical question.

I find this curious too. A few years ago, after Mumia has received a
stay of execution and the amount of activist interest in his case
settled down, there were more than a few Mumia activists who suggested
that perhaps more credibility could be gained for Mumia's case if the
Mumia movement did more work on behalf of other prisoners on death row.
Surely a movement that turns out 10,000+ for a Mumia rally could have
some impact on a few selected death penalty cases.

There were some attempts to do this, but I never saw this strategy
tried. It wasn't the Mumia movement which sat down and started looking
at death penalty cases in Illinois. It was students who did that and
their basic work created the conditions for a state moratorium on the
death penalty. Their work also started generating more awareness around
the country about death penalty convictions and evidence.

After my experiences with a local split several years back, I pulled my
energy out of the movement and spent some time reflecting on it. Most of
you have heard some of my thoughts on the movement. I think the Left
groups which spend so much time on Mumia's case do it for several
reasons. The main one is that it is a campaign which draws plenty of
radicalized people and activists, who are potential recruits. Secondly,
their work on Mumia's case lends their group with much needed
"revolutionary authenticity," especially with people of color. It's hard
to get down with "black panthers" if your little sect is predominantly
based in White academia. Mumia is an articulate African-American
revolutionary, so would be "revolutionaries" gravitate to his defense.

You can't get much "revolutionary authenticity" by working on behalf of
a death row inmate who isn't political and killed some convenience store
clerk.

Chuck0