<< I do find it remarkable that Reed liked Cooper's article though. Have
you, Doug, or anyone else read the Z Magazine editorial? What do you
think? Also, Mumia has consistently supported working class efforts and
refused to do an interview when network workers were on strike. His
essay on fathers in Z also did not strike me as the work of any sort of
off the wall person.
>>
I normally respect Reed. I agree with his general points that (a) there is no clear evidence of which I am aware that Mumia is in fact innocent, as opposed to the clear evidence that he received an unconstitutionally unfair trial, (b) we shouldn't gloim on to the personalities involved in cases like these--I mean, it's nice if the cause celebres are genuinely noble, like Mandela, but us less than noble ordinary folk deserve due process and fair treatment too, and besides, it's bad politics, (c) Mumia wasa member of MOVE, which, so far as I knwo about it, was pretty bizzare.
All that said, Reed has apparently not bothered to acquaint himself with any of Mumia's easily accessible writings, which are the best evidence of his own ideology, and which seem generally pretty sensible--in fact, hard to square with association with MOVE, but in any case that provide the best evidence of his actual views. There are precedents: Malcolm X's Nation of Islam speeches and writings were also generally sensible and free of the noisesome taint of the NOI's loony tunes ideology, for which he was the best propagandist. I don't know to what extent Mumia remains an advocate of MOVE. I also don't think it matters to his case.
I don't know this first hand, but Solidarity folk who are involved in the Mumia movement report that the main problem with the Mumia movement is that lack of involvement from the Black community. The churches and other organized African-Ameriacn groups have not come on board. No dount this has left a good deal of room for sectarian left groups to dominate the movement, which makes it less inviting to religious and liberal support. But there is a chicken-and-egg problem that I don't know the answer to. Perhaps Mumia's radicalism or his MOVE association contributes, maybe these groups don't want to risk their respectability. I don't know.
I will say that I doubt whether any political pressure that is likely to be generated in the next while is likely to make much a difference. As someones whose job it is in part to draft determinations in habeas petitions. I think I can say from the inside that unless the E.D. Pa. operates very differently from the N.D. Ill., the case will be decided on the law as the judge sees it. The kind of political pressure that has been generated so far would be seen in my court as an annoyance at most and maybe even counterproductive. Likewise in the Third Circuit, where everything depends on the panel. The Supremes are hopeless: they might decline to hear the grant of a habeas petition, but the current Court would never reverse the 3C on an affirmance of a denial or reversal of a grant.
--jks