Excerpts from a speech © 2005 by Mumia Abu-Jamal
As the Iraq War continues to lurch from disaster to disaster, from scandal to scandal, and from puppet to puppet, people are beginning to see the futility of this mad scheme to remake other nations in our image.
As more and more people, from more and more social strata see the futility of this imperial grab for lands and oil, it becomes clearer and clearer that people must join together and resist.
Mayday presents a perfect opportunity for us to do so. It’s a time chosen by workers over a century ago to mark the triumph of an 8-hour work day with a full day’s pay.
The setting aside of May Day, as International Workersí Day, reflected a real social gain of the workersí movement, and the realization that the working class exists in all nations, and that the world was our home.
It is precisely that sense of internationalism that is needed now, to reclaim that high water mark of social activism, and to turn away young folks from the mindless struggle for empire. As capital is globalized, the poor and working people, the majority of the people of this earth, must be globalized in internationalism, and in defense of the many, not the few.
What is necessary for this to prevail is the realization that.. war… is, in reality, a war against the future generation here; a war against education, a war against decent health care; a war against decent housing; and a war against good jobs which pay living wages.
The bombs may burst… ëover thereí, but the human wreckage, the social dislocation, the destruction of communities, and the decimation of …rights, is happening right here — in the heart of the Empire. It is therefore imperative that we join together, across our perceived boundaries, against the Empire of Eternal War…
…Itís time to come back together, to fight against the war against life! We can do it, and we must do it, to change the course of this imperial messianic militarism.
Let us give a new birth to the meaning of May Day; as a day of wide and deep solidarity against the Empire!
Those who will follow us will one day look back to us, and ask: ìWhat did they do when the Empire went mad?î We must be able to say, ìWe did everything in our power!î
That is what we must say; and that is what we must do, to ensure a livable future for later generations. When we fight against this mad imperial enterprise, we fight for ourselves: our real selves. As workers; as builders; as fathers; as mothers; as the human family. Letís unite and fight — against Empire!
For May Day, and every day!
Mumia Abu-Jamal is ill in prison in Pennsylvania as authorities try to silence and kill him through medical neglect and mistreatment.
Call John Wetzel, PA DOC, 717-728-4109, and Thom Wolf, PA Gov., 717-987-2500 to demand Mumia see his own doctor, family and lawyers. Check http://www.prisonradio. org for info on how to save and free Mumia.
Write him: #AM- 8335, SCI Mahanoy, 301 Morea Rd., Frackville PA 17932.
