Mumia Abu-Jamal’s letter written on paper plates

A bitter political row has erupted across the global left following the publication of an open letter in The Guardian on 20 August 2026. The statement, addressed directly to Iran’s political prisoners, framed incarcerated activists as being trapped between two blades of a scissors, facing domestic repression from the Islamic Republic on one side and ongoing US-Israeli military strikes on the other. However, within days of its appearance, the document’s credibility unravelled under allegations of unverified signatures, public retractions, and editorial negligence. Prominent intellectuals are now accusing the British broadsheet of allowing an ideological distraction to slip onto its platform during an active war of aggression, prompting urgent calls for an internal investigation into how the publication verified its signatories.

The controversy deepened as serious irregularities regarding the statement’s signatories came to light. Left-wing author and intellectual Vijay Prashad revealed that American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal never gave consent for his name to be attached to the letter. Questioning who could have signed on Abu-Jamal’s behalf while he remains incarcerated, Prashad shared a handwritten message from Abu-Jamal, penned on paper plates, which expressed a starkly different political view. In that message, Abu-Jamal praised Iran’s defense against imperial powers, comparing the regional resistance to Vietnam’s fight against the United States. 

His letter on the paper plates went like this:

‘My young friends,

Iran is showing the world (especially the 3rd world) how to fight against the Empire. Their drones are rewriting the rules of war. And countries across the Global South are studying this phase of the war for that use!

They remind me of Vietnam poor country that whipped the most powerful army on earth… That’s where we are today.

Love…

Mumia”

Further damage to the letter’s legitimacy occurred when key initial supporters began publicly distancing themselves from the published text. Renowned American historian Robin DG Kelley announced he had formally removed his name, describing the circumstances surrounding the collection of signatures as shady. Kelley acknowledged his error in signing and explained that the statement published by The Guardian was not the text originally shown to him.

Kelley said this in a video statement: “Today is my wedding anniversary. But I’m posting this because I feel an urgent need to let people know that I had taken my name off of the letter purporting to be a statement of anti-imperialist solidarity with political prisoners. That was my mistake. The circumstances in which we were asked to sign that letter were a bit shady. What appeared you know in print wasn’t exactly what I’d initially seen.

But I take full responsibility for that. That’s the meaning of mea culpa, me culpable. So with that, I hope people can give forgive me and all those who signed it. Know my politics are crystal clear and you know, I want to just be able to enjoy the next two days with my wife before I go back to work.”

These revelations have led critics to question why The Guardian’s editorial team failed to verify the signatures through direct correspondence, emails, or prison letters before publishing such a consequential political declaration. Prashad publicly asserted that the newspaper permitted a poorly executed intelligence operation to bypass its journalistic standards, demanding that the management conduct a thorough internal review.

Beyond the procedural breakdowns, the content of the letter has ignited a fierce ideological debate over anti-imperialist principles. In a detailed response published on the International Peoples’ Assembly website, titled Against the False Symmetry of the Scissors, Prashad strongly challenged the letter’s analytical foundation. He argued that the scissors metaphor creates a false moral equivalence by placing the Western imperial aggressors and the nation under attack in the same frame.

According to Prashad, this framing strips away crucial historical context, ignoring decades of foreign encirclement, crippling sanctions, and direct military aggression endured by Iran. 

Prashad also rejected the letter’s characterisation of Iran’s actions as hollow anti-imperialism, pointing out that Iranian strategic defenses have successfully disrupted US and Israeli dominance in West Asia. He noted the paradox of Western signatories addressing a critique of internal carceral policies to Iranian prisoners while relegating demands against their own governments’ war efforts to a single closing sentence.

Apart from Mumia Abu-Jamal and Robin D.G. Kelley, the signatories who also signed the letter are Alberto Toscano, Angela Davis, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Cherríe L. Moraga, Dan Berger, Hossam el-Hamalawy, Jairus Banaji, Jason Stanley, Judith Butler, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Michael Löwy, Michael Mansfield, Nadia Abu El-Haj, Rashid Khalidi, Ricardo Jiménez, Ruha Benjamin, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Sinan Antoon, Walden F. Bello, and Yasin al-Haj Saleh.