But what really amazes me is that someone would think that a clenched
fist is a gang symbol. That is, if they really thought that. Gangs would
not want it because too many other groups use it, so many groups that a
gang may as well just use a hand wave if they were going to use a
clenched fist.
___
Steven Pinker
“It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer.
But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming
naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's
highest callings.
[Can You Believe in God and Evolution? Time Magazine, August 7, 2005]”
― Steven Pinker
On 5/16/2020 12:51 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Far more than a victory for The Militant, this decision reminds us
that censorship is the weapon of Aggressors, and has no place in an
open democracy.
We should remember that this issue only surfaced because of our
primitive approach to "Crime and Punishment". In a society where
Might makes Right, we should not be surprised that those people who
have been convicted of crime will be denied any sort of Human
Treatment. And not only while "serving their time", but for the
remainder of their lives. We live in a society that believes in never
letting up when we have you down.
And before someone jumps up and yells that the "liberal courts" lean
toward giving too many second chances, that's untrue. Check it out.
The courts may not order a person to serve time, but in returning them
to the same environment from which they came, it is offering only a
short pause before the next appearance and eventual jail.
Might makes Right is a proven failure. Why do we try over and over to
make it work? Perhaps it's a sign that we're all nuttier than the
proverbial fruit cake.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/16/20, Roger Loran Bailey<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://themilitant.com/2020/05/16/victory-florida-prison-officials-ban-on-militant-is-overturned/
Victory! Florida prison officials ban on ‘Militant’ is overturned
article
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 84/No. 20
May 25, 2020
The Militant was informed May 12 by Florida’s Department of Corrections
that the prison ban on issue no. 13 had been overturned. This victory is
important
for the rights of both the working-class paper and of prisoners.
After receiving numerous protest letters and an appeal filed by the
Militant’s attorney, David Goldstein, the DOC’s Literature Review
Committee informed
him that they had reversed the impoundment of the April 6 issue at their
meeting May 7. “As a result of that decision the issue will be allowed
into Florida
correctional institutions,” wrote committee administrator Dean Peterson.
“I’m not surprised we won this,” said Militant editor John Studer.
“Barring the paper because it showed pictures of nurses, shipyard
workers and meatpacking
workers raising a fist as part of their struggles was particularly
egregious.
“Workers behind bars have the same rights as those outside prison walls,
to read about the world, consider different views and form their own
opinions
without interference by prison authorities.
“We’ll fight every time prison officials anywhere try to ban us,” he said.
The paper has had to fight Florida prison efforts to suppress the
Militant for the last few years and has won the lion’s share. With this
victory the Militant’s
53 subscribers in 24 prisons in Florida, and many others who read it as
the paper makes its way around the prisons, will now have access to this
issue.
Prison authorities at the Jefferson Correctional Institution in
Monticello, Florida, attempted to justify the ban by claiming the photos
of raised fists
by workers in struggle were just “gang signs.”
Many letters from prominent civil liberties organizations and by
individual workers and others alike were sent to the Literature Review
Committee and they
helped win the decision to overturn the ban.
They included protests from Amnesty International USA, National Lawyers
Guild, American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Reporters Committee
for Freedom
of the Press, union officials and many others.
“I recently became aware the Militant newspaper is, again, being
suppressed in a Florida state prison,” wrote Vonie Long, president of
United Steelworkers
Local 1165 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.
“The raised fist is a long recognized symbol of solidarity in the labor
movement and is not a gang sign,” he said. “The steelworkers union, the
labor movement
and our partnerships strive every day for unity and solidarity in the
working class and our communities and I ask the Jefferson Correctional
Institution
to end the suppression.”
Long attached a photo of himself holding a steelworkers placard, raising
his fist.
“The justification offered for the ban is unsupported by the contents of
the impounded issue,” wrote Samuel Morley, general counsel for the
Florida Press
Association, which represents all the daily and most of the weekly
newspapers in Florida. The impoundment “infringes upon the First
Amendment rights of
both the Militant’s publisher and its incarcerated subscribers.”
In his appeal Goldstein pointed out that attempting to ban the Militant
based on its pictures of workers’ struggles was unconstitutional. “The
raised fist
has a long and proud political history,” wrote Goldstein, “from at least
as early as 1848 worker protests, early 20th century worker protests,
and anti-fascist
protests in the 1930s, to modern political protest movements, especially
in the civil rights movement that overthrew Jim Crow segregation. For
over a century,
the raised fist has been a symbol of worker solidarity, just as it is
commonly used by workers today.”
“Too many times prison authorities have arbitrarily and unjustly
trampled upon rights of the incarcerated,” wrote retail workers Joye
Beaman and Salm Kolis
from Chicago. “The Bill of Rights is not void within prison walls.”
To contribute to the Militant Prisoners’ Fund, which makes it possible
for the paper to send workers behind bars reduced price subscriptions,
send a check
payable to the Militant to 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New York, NY
10018, or
donate at themilitant.com.
article end
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IN THIS ISSUE
Front Page Articles
list of 6 items
• Fight for jobs! Act now to protect wages, conditions
• Fight for gov’t-funded public works program to create jobs
• From Panama to El Salvador workers fight for jobs, relief
• ‘Militant’ gets out the truth about working class struggles
• Vigilantes charged for killing Ahmaud Arbery as cover-up comes apart
in Ga.
• Victory! Florida prison officials ban on ‘Militant’ is overturned
list end
Feature Articles
list of 1 items
• How the Teamsters union organized owner-drivers in 1930s
list end
Also In This Issue
list of 9 items
• Opponents of Assad in Syria protest Islamist rule in Idlib
• DC picket protests US rulers’ attacks against Cuba
• Cops’ brutalities ‘serve and protect’ capitalist exploitation
• SWP ‘stimulus’ appeal fund at $71,717 and growing
• School, municipal, cleaning workers win strike in Iceland
• Independent truckers protest in DC against brokers’ rates, gov’t red tape
• New Orleans sanitation workers strike for safety, pay
• Judge backs Gibsons in fight over privacy rights
• Campaign to expand reach of 'Militant,' books, fund April 4 - June 2
(week five)
list end
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--
___
Steven Pinker
“It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a
designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the
earth. Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is
one of humanity's highest callings.
[Can You Believe in God and Evolution? Time Magazine, August 7, 2005]”
― Steven Pinker
