Dear Colleagues, Dear Esteemed Members of the National Lawyers Guild,
As the Occupy Wall Street movement rolls across America, no organization will face more challenges than the National Lawyers Guild, for the law looks backward for its precedents. I think we are in a new era of social movements where the precedents will fall short of where society needs to go.
That is because social movements break new ground and raise new questions that have not been posed heretofore.
The NLG must therefore be creative in anticipating legal strategies that both expand the realms of human freedom and give life to one of our most treasured mottos: human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.
Occupy Wall Street challenges us to make that motto real. In this duty we must not fail.
I am convinced that the NLG, in areas near and far, will succeed admirably.
Thank you,
Mumia Abu-Jamal
National Vice President