Youth Take on the World and Protest Globalization at DNC

The vast numbers of students and young adults among the protesters in Los Angeles this week can only point to one thing: youth can not be silenced; not by corporate control on a global level, or massive police presence. Amid riot gear-wearing polic officers on foot, in cars, helicopters, on motorcycles, and bicycles, youth started off the week by making their presence known at two of the week's larger protests, one to fight globalization and another to further awareness about Mumia Abu-Jamal's imprisonment.

The fun started on Sunday, when vast numbers of socially conscious young people showed up to take part in the 4,000 person-strong Free Mumia Abu-Jamal march.

The protest was sponsored by organizations such as the Los Angeles Coalition to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, South Central Solidarity, an L.A. community organizing group, and the National Lawyer's Guild, a progressive bar association. The protest drew activists from a wide spectrum of political causes; from the United Farm Worker's union to Rainbows for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The participants themselves were a diverse bunch and were of all ages and numerous ethnic backgrounds, but the young people here exhibited an overwhelming stamina, proving that while some young become activists because it's cool or trendy, many of them are willing to stick it out until they get results.

Speaking at a rally before the march on the disproportionate number of people in color in prison in the U.S., United Farm Worker's co-founder Dolores Huerta, said, "Mumia is a symbol of the growing apartheid system of people of color in the U.S." And, indeed, the crowd was filled with youth of color.

Prominent activist Pam Africa of the group MOVE, was among many of the featured speakers to criticize Democratic National Convention Chair Ed Randall. Mumia activists charge that Rendell is implicated in Mumia's incarceration for being the District Attorney in Philadelphia when Mumia was sentenced to death in 1982.

Abu-Jamal, a radio journalist, was charged with killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, and has been on death row for 18 years. An ever-increasing number of Mumia supporters maintain that his trial was unfair, arguing that Mumia was allegedly targeted by the police for his investigative articles about racial issues, and that he was convicted by a racially unbalanced jury make-up, and by witnesses who have reversed their original testimonies.

Kotrisha Nicholls, a 16-year-old student at Garfield High School in San Diego, said she attended the Mumia protest because she says she doesn't "want the same thing that happened with Malcolm X [to happen with Mumia]" she said.

But why, after all these years, is the sentiment to free Mumia from prision and get him a retrial so strong?

"He's a brilliant, articulate, man who really tends to have his finger on the pulse of what's happening in our society," offered rally speaker Medea Benjamin, director of Global Exchange and Green Party U.S. senatorial candidate. "It's not often that we have people on death row with that kind of access to the public."

Nefta Pereda, a senior at the University of California, Santa Cruz, attributes Mumia's staying power to the increasing network of people talking about his case. "The Mumia protesting groups have gotten larger," he said. "It's a growing realization of what's going on." And the fact that this protest took place within the larger context of the Democratic National Convention also says a lot about the number of youth taking part in the attack on institutionalized racism in this country. Many of the youth at the march, such as University of Massachusetts student, Hanna Jones remarked on seeing Mumia as a symbol of the "racist" and "classist" U.S. economic, and justice systems, echoing much of the discussions going on within this week's Shadow Conventions.