https://themilitant.com/2018/11/03/militant-fights-florida-prison-censorship/
‘Militant’ fights Florida prison censorship
By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 82/No. 42
November 12, 2018
The Florida prison system’s Literature Review Committee informed the
Militant Oct. 24 that they had upheld the ban on the Sept. 17 issue of
Militant. As usual, they didn’t give any reason for the decision, much
less point to a single sentence in the paper to justify this violation
of the constitutional rights of both the paper and of subscribers behind
bars.
In response, the Militant is asking defenders of democratic and
political rights to send letters to Florida prison officials asking them
to reverse this decision and to halt the baseless ongoing impoundments.
Letters from union officials and members, church groups, community
organizations, student groups and anyone who believes that workers
behind bars have a right to read the material of their choosing and
think for themselves are welcome.
“This is the sixth ban the Literature Review Committee has upheld in the
last two years,” noted Militant editor John Studer. “While we appreciate
the fact that the committee has overturned most of the impoundments, the
number that are being upheld is on the rise. Not one of the bans is
justified.”
Under Florida rules, if one prison impounds an issue, every other
Florida prison follows suit.
Prison officials use a multiple choice form to check off their
rationalizations for impounding a publication. Authorities at Florida
State Prison in Raiford had checked off two boxes, claiming with no
basis whatsoever that two articles in the Sept. 17 issue are a “threat
to the security, good order, or discipline” of the prison and encourage
“insurrection.”
One article reported on a public protest against solitary confinement in
California, an issue that the Militant and many other papers have
reported on frequently. The other article was on the hunger strike by
Crimean movie director Oleg Sentsov, who was framed up, tortured and
jailed in Siberia by the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia.
The Militant’s lawyer, David Goldstein, of the Rabinowitz, Boudin,
Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman civil rights law firm, noted in his appeal
of the impoundment that Florida has impounded at least 19 issues in the
last year and a half “four times as many as in the entire rest of the
nation, state and federal prisons combined, in the past decade.”
The Militant is not the only publication fighting censorship in Florida
prisons. The Prison Legal News has been completely banned since 2009,
allegedly because prison officials say they object to many of the paid ads.
Editor Paul Wright, himself a former prisoner, says the ban is in fact
aimed at keeping content critical of the prison system out of the hands
of inmates.
With the backing of dozens of media, free speech and prison rights
organizations, Prison Legal News filed an appeal Sept. 14 asking the
U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision upholding the
blanket ban.
Join the fight to end censorship of the Militant! Send letters to Dean
Peterson, Library Services Administrator, Florida Department of
Corrections, Attn: Literature Review Committee, 501 South Calhoun
Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500, and via email to
Allen.Peterson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Send a copy of your letter via email
to themilitant@xxxxxxx.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Workers need unions, solidarity, a labor party
Vote Socialist Workers Party in 2018
•Join in denouncing Jew-hatred, a deadly threat to working class
•Tens of thousands protest anti-Semitic assault, killings
•SWP: Push back limits on franchise! Restore voting rights to ex-prisoners!
•US capitalist rulers seek bloc against Tehran amid Middle East rivalries
Feature Articles •‘Women’s liberation is a vital part of the
working-class struggle for emancipation’
Also In This Issue •‘One job should be enough,’ Marriott hotel strikers say
•Women workers in Glasgow lead battle to win equal pay
•Solidarity boosts Ky. concrete workers strike
•‘Militant’ fights Florida prison censorship
•Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive Oct.6 - Dec. 4 (Week 3)
•Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books Oct. 6 - Dec. 4
(Week 3)
Books of the Month •How fight to end Vietnam War transformed politics in US
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
© Copyright 2018 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New
York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxx
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_________________________________________________________________
Isaac Asimov
“Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in
telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after
death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst
out "Don't you believe in anything?"
Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement,
and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how
wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous
something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”
― Isaac Asimov
