Remembering the Scottsboro Case

By Yoshie Furuhashi, 9 February 2000

Note: this quote was taken from a discussion which occurred on the LBO-TALK mailing list run by Doug Henwood. The quote is being posted here with permission from it's author.

Political competition over the Mumia case reminds me of a similar competition over the Scottsboro boys. In my opinion, most of those who are criticizing the Free Mumia movement are acting like the officials of the NAACP trying to wrest control of the case from the Communist Party. They did not take up the cause as quickly as communists, did not put in as much work as they did, are unhappy that the defendant may be, God forbid, guilty (for they want an easy job of defending only a person who the proverbial general public immediately agree is the unjustly accused innocent—no such thing in criminal justice, however), and complain of “sectarianism” while themselves engaging in a sectarian behavior (e.g., [Marc] Cooper writing a rotten article in a liberal magazine, doing all he can to discourage those who may want to get involved in Mumia's defense or other important issues of criminal justice; [Adolph] Reed writing a—to put it mildly - poorly researched article, calling Mumia's politics into question without offering any evidence; an unnamed e-mail writer trying to discredit those who are working on Mumia's defense).

It's fine with me if those who feel like Cooper don't want to get bothered by having to work with the RCP. From my experience, working with the RCP members is no fun. That, however, doesn't mean that they have the right to sabotage the work of people who are still involved in the Free Mumia movement (which is in no way limited to the RCP members).

They love calling other political activists “sectarians,” but what they are doing is more sectarian than the RCP.