https://themilitant.com/2018/08/18/join-fight-against-censorship-in-illinois-florida-prisons/
Join fight against censorship in Illinois, Florida prisons!
By Brian Williams
Vol. 82/No. 32
August 27, 2018
Jo in fight against censorship in Illinois, Florida prisons!
The Militant urges readers to join in winning support for the
newspaper’s fight to overturn a ban imposed on the paper to a subscriber
at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ medium security facility in
Greenville, Illinois.
Warden Tom Werlich justified the ban in his July 12 rejection of the
Militant, saying the paper “is a newsweekly journal associated with the
Socialist Workers Party and encourages change by protesting and
striking. Such publication can encourage inmates to protest and conduct
work strikes which become a institution security matter.”
“Banning the Militant because it covers the views and activities of the
Socialist Workers Party and its candidates is an unconstitutional attack
on political rights and freedom of the press,” said Militant editor
John Studer. “It can set a dangerous precedent for broader prison
censorship of the Militant and other publications with points of view
any warden disagrees with throughout the entire prison system.”
David Goldstein, from the noted constitutional rights law firm
Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman, filed an appeal of
the ban Aug. 7.
“The Militant has been delivered to all its subscribers in federal
prisons since at least the 1950s,” Goldstein noted, except once, and
that was overturned on appeal. “The ban must be reversed and the
rejected issues delivered to the inmate subscriber.”
Organizations and individuals concerned about freedom of speech and the
rights of workers behind bars have been writing to Federal Bureau of
Prisons Regional Director Sara M. Revell asking for the ban to be
reversed.Fight prison censorship
“This misguided action strikes at the heart of fundamental rights of
Americans,” wrote Bruce Levine, professor of history at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Aug. 12, “rights that in truth should be
enjoyed by all human beings. To suppress this one periodical constitutes
a danger to anyone who cares about freedom of thought, inquiry and
expression.”
Fred Whitehead, an author and historian from Kansas City, Kansas, wrote
to express, “my severe condemnation for the recent banning of the
Militant.” He added, “Prisoners are still citizens and should receive
the benefit of freedom of the press.”
Among those who have spoken out against prison censorship of the
Militant are the American Civil Liberties Union, National Lawyers
Guild, Amnesty International, PEN America, other newspapers and prisoner
rights, church and other groups.
More issues censored in Florida prison
While the Illinois anti-censorship fight unfolds, the Militant is also
dealing with prison officials’ impounding the paper from subscribers in
Florida.
“Florida prison officials must think that sooner or later we’ll get
tired of fighting censorship, but we won’t,” Studer said after receiving
notices Aug. 7 from a subscriber at the Florida State Penitentiary in
Raiford.
Ironically, the July 9 and July 16 issues were banned, according to the
warden there, because they reported on the Militant’s ongoing fight
against censorship in Florida state prisons!
This, the impoundment notice claims, “presents a threat to the security,
good order or discipline of the correctional system or the safety of any
person.”
The July 30 issue cites as the reason for rejection “Page 2-3” with no
indication which articles or content requires impoundment. The articles
on these two pages include “Ukraine Miners’ Strikes, Protests Win Back
Wages” and “Books by SWP Leaders Perk Interest at Librarians’ Meet,” as
well as coverage of a salt miners strike in Ontario, Canada, and a July
12 rally in Columbus, Ohio, by thousands of miners, Teamsters and other
unionists protesting pension cuts.
But authorities there never informed the Militant about the
impoundment, as they are required to do by state prison regulations. The
paper found out from one of its subscribers who had his papers taken.
“Florida regulations require that a Correctional Institution must
provide written notice to both the inmate and the publisher,” Goldstein
wrote in a letter to Warden Barry Redish Aug. 7. The Militant has
appealed to the Department of Corrections Literature Review Committee
over every such impoundment in the state, with the vast majority overturned.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Gov’t immigration raid sparks Nebraska protests
•Socialist Workers Party: ‘Amnesty for immigrants!’
•15,000 Uber drivers strike over pay cuts in Australia
•SWP: Fight for independent working-class political action
•Join fight against censorship in Illinois, Florida prisons!
•Primaries expose ongoing crisis wracking both capitalist parties
Feature Articles •Venezuela: Workers, farmers face effects of capitalist
crisis
Also In This Issue •Protests hit Quebec festival move to shut musical revue
•Parties like the SWP are ‘tribunes of the people’
•Argentine supporters of right to abortion say ‘we will win’
•TSA ‘Quiet Skies’ spy program targets passengers
•US, EU rulers clash over trade, spending for NATO
•Support grows for fight to jail cop who killed Antwon Rose
Books of the Month •'A revolution is occurring among the women of our
country!'
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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