Transatlantic labor solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal

Credit: NUMSA

A South Africa labor meeting to build solidarity for Mumia Abu-Jamal was held in Durban, South Africa, during the last week of January 2023. This picture was taken in Johannesburg at the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) headquarters during the meeting.

South Africa’s largest union welcomed a 14-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) delegation, with strong support for innocent U.S. political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Pictured here (L-R) are David Newton, Oakland longshore worker and nephew of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton; Irvin Jim, general secretary of NUMSA; and Jack Heyman, retired member, ILWU Local 10, which represents longshore workers in Oakland and San Francisco, California.

“Mumia Abu-Jamal’s situation has long struck a chord in light of the history of our own freedom struggles in South Africa,” said Irvin Jim, “and the long struggle for Black liberation in America, that goes back to the days of slavery.” Jim recently sent a long open letter to Judge Lucretia Clemons, who is overseeing Abu-Jamal’s current appeal, urging the release of “America’s most well-known political prisoner” and “undoing this grave injustice that has visited Abu-Jamal for more than four decades.”