http://themilitant.com/2016/8046/804605.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 46 December 12, 2016
(front page)
Attica officials claim ‘Militant’ appeal
‘incites disobedience’
BY SETH GALINSKY
Karl Marx wrote that many things appear twice in history, “the first
time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Proving Marx’s point, the
Attica Correctional Facility Media Review Committee impounded the
Militant Nov. 16 for the second time in a month.
The pretext? That the article “‘Militant’ challenges Attica prison
censorship” in the Oct. 31 issue, which reports on the Militant’s
decision to appeal prison authorities’ impoundment of the Oct. 3 issue
reporting on the 45th anniversary of the historic Attica inmate uprising
in 1971, “could incite disobedience” to prison personnel.
So if the Militant follows prison guidelines to appeal censorship and
reports on it, the paper “incites disobedience!”
The second article reported that the Militant’s lawyer, David Goldstein,
from the prominent civil liberties law firm of Rabinowitz, Boudin,
Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman, was preparing the appeal, charging that
the ban on the issue violated both freedom of the press and the right of
workers behind bars to get the news they want.
New York State Department of Corrections regulations say that its policy
is “to encourage inmates to read publications from varied sources if
such material does not encourage them to engage in behavior that might
be disruptive to orderly facility operations.”
State prison authorities put new rules in place after a lawsuit by the
Fortune Society in 1970 overturned a ban on the group’s newsletter
Fortune News. The court ruled prisoners do not lose their constitutional
protections just because they are behind bars. Banning the newsletter
could only be justified by showing “a clear and present danger to prison
discipline or security,” the court said.
“No reasonable, fair minded reading” of the Militant articles could
conclude that they incite disobedience, much less pose “a clear and
immediate” risk of rebellion, said the paper’s Nov. 3 appeal.
“Workers behind bars have the right to read different political views
and to form and hold their own opinions,” John Studer, the Militant’s
editor, said after Attica impounded the Oct. 3 issue.
“The Militant will appeal this latest act of censorship and readers can
help us win this fight,” Studer said. “Letters from unionists, activists
in the fight against police brutality, from church groups and other
organizations in support of the Militant’s fight against censorship can
put the spotlight on the violation of constitutional rights at Attica.”
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