ألف تحة للعمال … عاش كفاحك يا محلة

My name is Alan Wilde from the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC) in the U.S. We have issued a letter protesting the brutal repression meted out against the Mahalla workers and political oppositionists in Egypt by the government. The letter can be found at: http://www.partisandefense.org/pubs/letters/2008-04-08egypt.html

We note in the letter, “The PDC stands in complete solidarity with the struggles of Egypt’s working masses.” We have also called on the international labor movement to come to the defense of the Egypt’s workers. We would appreciate it if you could forward the letter to the workers in the Gazl el-Mahalla textile plant.

I am also writing you about the case of America’s foremost political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on death row since 1982. Perhaps you are already familiar with his case. Mumia is a former Black Panther Party spokesman, a supporter of the MOVE organization and an award-winning journalist known as the “voice of the voiceless.” He was framed up for the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer and sentenced to death explicitly for his political views. Mountains of evidence prove his innocence, including the confession of one Arnold Beverly that he, not Mumia, killed the cop. But the courts have refused to consider them. On March 27, a federal court upheld his conviction while ordering a new sentencing hearing. Mumia faces the death penalty or the living death of life in prison.

We are currently on a campaign for Mumia’s freedom and have called united-front protests in several cities in the U.S. and internationally to demand freedom for this innocent man and the abolition of the racist death penalty in the U.S. To learn more about the demonstrations, go to: http://www.partisandefense.org.

It would be very powerful if the workers in Mahalla issued a statement in defense of Mumia, a longtime fighter against black oppression in the U.S. and American imperialism abroad. Mumia has always stood on the side of the international working class, including through his many columns written while in prison. We have emphasized that his freedom will not be won by appealing to the courts but through the mobilization of the working class. A statement by the courageous Mahalla workers would re-affirm the link between the struggle against capitalist repression and capitalist exploitation. Such a statement could be read at the upcoming protests for Mumia. We would also welcome a statement from you.

The PDC is a class-struggle, legal and social defense organization associated with the Trotskyist Spartacist League (SL), U.S. section of the International Communist League (ICL). To learn more about the ICL, including the SL’s Marxist paper, Workers Vanguard, go to: http://www.icl-fi.org. You can always reach me by email at: partisandefense@earthlink.net.

–Alan Wilde
9 April 2008