MUMIA BENEFIT SENDS MIXED MESSAGE TO MIXED CROWD
by RC93
reprinted from MIM Notes 186, 15 May 1999

On January 28, Rage Against the Machine(RATM) brought together 
popular acts including the Beastie Boys, Bad Religion, Black Star, 
and Public Enemy's Chuck D and Professor Riff for a show in New 
Jersey.(1) The concert was organized to raise money for the legal 
battle of Mumia Abul-Jamal, who was framed for the murder of a 
Philadelphia pig, Daniel Faulkner. There was great controversy 
over this concert among government officials and the mainstream 
media. Radio talk-show host Howard Stern and Faulkner's widow, 
Maureen, were among those to express their outrage, resulting in 
New York's K-ROCK to drop its endorsement of the concert.(2) 

The controversy surrounding the concert led K-ROCK to offer 
refunds to those who did not wish to support Mumia's case. 
Mainstream media reported that 2,000 of the 19,000 tickets were 
returned in protest of Mumia, while Zack de la Rocha of RATM 
quoted the number at 567.(1)

Nonetheless, the tickets were quickly resold. But it is 
interesting to ask how many of the 19,000, mostly young, mostly 
white people attending the concert did support Mumia's case. From 
previous experience RAIL can assume that a majority of the people 
attending the mainstream concert were not concerned with the case. 
One informed reviewer wrote, "I wasn't the only one though; every 
single person that I saw get interviewed was well informed about 
the case and to my surprise all gave solid answers."(1) It is good 
to hear that young people are aware of Mumia's case, and that 
others were informed by the controversy surrounding this concert.

Unfortunately, organizers of the show downplayed the political 
importance of Mumia's case, misleading the mass of young fans. In 
a press release Zack stated, "Let me say straight up that 
tonight's benefit is not to support cop killers, or any other kind 
of killers, and if there were no question about the guilt of Mumia 
Abu-Jamal, we would not be holding this concert. But whether Jamal 
is guilty, or is himself the victim of an outrageous miscarriage 
of justice, is precisely what is at issue."(3) The Beastie Boys 
made similar statements. This only gives credence to the 
Amerikkkan injustice system, which has the goal of eliminating 
activists such as Mumia, and has no interest in giving him a fair 
trial.

Young activists who want to create a truly just society should 
work with MIM and RAIL, who actively oppose police brutality as 
well as the repression carried out by other sectors of the 
injustice system, with goal of replacing it. While MIM does not 
encourage the killing of individual police as a means of obtaining 
revolutionary goals, we would support Mumia whether he did it or 
not. The fact is that Mumia's brother was being beaten by Faulkner 
prior to the shooting, and if Mumia had been the one to shoot the 
pig (which is very unlikely) it would have been in defense of a 
violent attack.

The reviewer quoted above was disappointed that RATM did not open 
with their cover of NWA's "Fuck tha Police" as they had at their 
Mumia benefit in 1995. In this song Zack raps, "and when I'm 
finished/bring tha yellow tape/ to mark off the scene of tha 
slaughter... A young nigger on a warpath/ and when I'm finished 
there's gonna be a bloodbath/ All cops dying in L.A./ Yo, I got 
sumfin' to say/ FUCK THA POLICE!" MIM prefers this message to the 
reformist ideas Zack preached at the recent concert. This goes to 
show the wishy-washy line that can result from anarchist ways of 
thinking, which also led RATM to work with the reformist group 
Amnesty International on this concert. 

Notes:

1. Rage benefit concert for Mumia. Review by J. Moreno. 
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/mumiabenefit.htm
2. Morello, widow of slain police officer debate Rage/ Beasties 
benefit. http://www.mtv.com/news/headlines/990121/story10.html
3. Zack de la Rocha's complete press conference statement 
regarding the Mumia Abu-Jamal benefit concert in New Jersey on 
January 28th, 1999. 
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/zackbenefit.htm