Victory For Mumia Abu-Jamal & All Inmates With Hepatitis C

Great news from the MumiaNYC website today:

Dear Friends, Comrades and All Mumia Supporters:

I have yet to read Judge Mariani’s ruling, but did get the amazing news from Bob Boyle, one of the two attorneys fighting relentlessly for almost a year now for Mumia to get the treatment he needs, by telephone, that the judge ruled in FAVOR OF MUMIA: that all those with Hep C are entitled to the Hep C cure!

As soon as I get to read the ruling, or hear a more detailed analysis from Bob, I will send out more detailed information. For now, BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Bob Boyle and Bret Grote for their superb legal work and a fantastic congratulations to our world wide movement that hung in there all this time.

Thank you to everyone who sent an e-mail, who signed a petition, who called or faxed the Department of Corrections or the Governor of Pennsylvania, who came out into the streets in Philadelphia and across this country, in France, Mexico, Germany and wherever else and thereby contributed to this victory.

Thank you to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Minister Louis Farrakhan and the hundreds of well known individuals who twice wrote letters to Governor Wolf.

And thank you to all those groups and individuals who have fought so hard for prisoners and non-prisoners infected with Hep C to get the treatment they have been denied that would cure them. This is a victory for all of us who have joined hands in this struggle for justice in the area of health care.

Our movement is strong, unified, militant, and absolutely consistent: it never stops. It is not by chance that this decision came down less than a month after our powerful protest in Philadelphia on December 9th. The fact that we were never going to stop until victory was absolutely clear on that day, both inside and in the streets.

Now a word of sobering analysis. The struggle even for getting the medicine for Hepatitis C is not over. The Department of Corrections will surely appeal the judge’s decision. That will delay Mumia and others getting the treatment. But we’ve passed a major hurdle with flying colors and now we continue the struggle as always, until Mumia and everyone else with Hep C gets the “cure”, until Mumia is free, until we FREE ‘EM ALL AND BUILD A NEW SOCIETY WITH FREE MEDICAL CARE FOR ALL, AN END TO MASS INCARCERATION, AND THE BEGINNING OF A NEW WORLD!

ONA MOVE,

Suzanne Ross, for the International Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal