Enough Is Enough! Freedom For Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Stop The Construction Of The Youth Prison In Berlin-Lichtenrade!
On the night of 13.8.95, we carried out simultaneous attacks on
the corporate headquarters of Helit & Woerner in Charlottenberg
(Badenallee) as well as their depot in Neukolln (Maybachufer) by
fireboming trucks belonging to the firm and leaving behind leaflets.
We see our action as part of the international solidarity
movement to save the life of ex-Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal and to win
his freedom.
The firm Helit & Woerner is responsible for the planning,
construction, and financing of the new prison for youths between the ages
of 14-17 which is presently being built in the Lichtenrade section of
Berlin. When the prison is built, it will be turned over to the state
senate who will pay back the construction costs to the firm within 10
years. The youth prison in Lichtenrade will carry out supposedly liberal
custody methods.
Here, as in the USA, prisons are full of people from the lower
classes. This number also includes a high proportion of "foreigners" and
non-white prisoners. This situation is an expression of capitalist
society. People who are no longer needed in the "labor market" are pushed
out by the ruling powers according to their class, gender, skin color, or
nationality. The bosses and their lackeys in the unions, political
parties, and the media condemn these people as "welfare bums" who
"refuse to work", sometimes even branding them as "potential criminals".
Then the state can force people to work irregular hours at substandard
pay. At the same time, the state balances its budget and the poor bear
the brunt of all the cuts. A similar situation has been true for the past
several years with all those people forced into "crime" by social
conditions. Such people are made to work for next to nothing, behind
bars. There are already 7 million people out of work, and as the labor
market becomes more international and increasingly technological, the
ruling classes are planning on increasing this number. Before, people
used to complain about the so-called "Third World", but now its
fashionable among German middle class careerists to speak of Germany
becoming overpopulated.
Friends, let's smack these shitheads right in the face! The fact
that the proletarian class go around spouting racist crap is proof of
what power capitalist/racist ideology has over the hearts and minds of
large segments of the population. But it also points out the weaknesses
of the politics of the predominantly middle class left, and it shows just
how important it is that we turn our slogan "Borders don't run between
people, rather between the top and the bottom!" into reality.
So, a few words now about new "leftist" trends. It's easy and
cool to be in "solidarity" with Mexican natives who are struggling far
away, or to debate about triple oppression theory while losing all
practical intervention in the society around us, or the latest trend, to
organize as animal rights activists, because animals have no
consciousness so we don't have to talk to them or argue with them, but
still we have the feeling that we're doing something noble. How pathetic!
The cry for "law and order" and the death penalty for
"criminals" in the USA are slowly becoming acceptable here in Germany
among the upper and middle classes (even within the Green Party). Behind
this lies the knowledge that the worsening capitalist crisis can no
longer get the same results from the system's previous methods of
integration. This is resulting in a great fear that increasing numbers of
people from the proletarian class will themselves begin questioning
capitalist conditions and stop being played off against one another and
direct their hate and anger against capitalist injustice and once and for
all bring an end to the egotistical lifestyles of the upper classes
instead of just trying to imitate them.
There are more than 1 million (!) people in prison in the USA,
and many millions more live in poor rural areas or city ghettos outside
the realms of middle class life. Don't imagine that similar tendencies
aren't recognizable here in Germany, as more and more prisons are being
built as benefits to the unemployed and people on welfare keep getting
cut. Proletarian youths, especially the "foreign" ones among us, are in
an especially difficult situation. It starts with trying to find a spot
in school and doesn't end with trying to find a place to live. Youths are
constantly bombarded with the "values" of capitalist death-culture by
their parents, teachers, bosses, and the media: competition, the "rights"
of the strong, self-satisfaction through performance and consumption, and
so on. In our cities, its "every man for himself", coupled with traces of
social disadvantage and exclusion, which gets expressed in such things as
proletarian neighbors breaking into each other's cars and homes, or
outbreaks of violence, often with a sexist or racist motive. Then there
are the problems of drugs and the increasing influence of right-wing
nationalists, or Islamic groups among youths from Turkey or Yugoslavia.
Against a background such as this, it's very difficult to build
up true friendships and social emancipatory relationships on a broader
level which can be the basis for a new international fighting class. But,
friends, enough of this talking!
To fight against the contemporary tendencies of powerlessness and
resignation, we should orient ourselves towards people such as Mumia
Abu-Jamal, who is sitting in a cell on death row, or Gulnaz Baghistani,
the Kurdish comrade who died during the hunger strike. Their thoughts and
actions, their determination and perseverance in the most difficult of
circumstances, can give us strength and the inspiration to continue on
the path we're taking. Those people who aren't being discouraged by the
fact that the cops have arrested their friends in connection with the
publication Radikal are also exhibiting great courage, or the Passau
Youth Initiative, who are determined not to lapse into resignation
following the "suicides" of four of their friends, rather they continue
to struggle to create an autonomist youth center. There are plenty of
positive examples both here in our country as well as internationally!
From Gaziomanpasa to Kreuzberg! From Panama City to South Central Los
Angeles! For the War of Class Against Class!
