The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.59/No.45           December 4, 1995 
 
 
Curtis Parole: Victory For Workers  

The November 21 decision by the Iowa Board of Parole to release Mark Curtis from prison registers a hard-fought victory for fighting workers, youth, and many others around the world. The decision to parole Curtis after more than seven years of incarceration on frame-up rape and burglary charges was by no means a given.

The frame-up of Mark Curtis was designed to punish him severely and to break him as a political person, branding him as a rapist in the process. The authorities sought to make their punishment of Curtis an example that could be used to intimidate workers from defending their rights. They also hoped to tar the Socialist Workers Party, Curtis's party, in the eyes of fighting workers and to demoralize Curtis supporters everywhere.

Instead Curtis will leave prison in several weeks with his head high. He is today held in esteem by a layer of fighters not only in the United States but around the globe - from South Africa to Cuba, from New Zealand to Brazil.

Iowa officials threw repeated obstacles in the path of parole for the union militant. Parole board members argued for several years that Curtis should attend the prison system's Sexual Offenders Treatment Program (SOTP). Curtis maintained his innocence throughout and refused to let his dignity be dragged into the SOTP mud, where inmates are pressured to "admit their guilt."

In 1993, after Curtis had served out the frame-up rape charge, the board declined to grant him a hearing and ordered that he be sent to a psychiatric prison. But officials at that prison refused to accept him, saying no psychiatric issues were involved in his case.

In August 1994, shortly after he received a "gate-pass" and was working in the prison hospital, the authorities used a minor incident to throw Curtis into punitive lockup for the next eleven months, claiming he assaulted another inmate.

At his parole hearing this year, parole board member Joanne Lorence warned Curtis, "If you stub your toe, you're going to be back in here."

But these efforts to break Mark Curtis as a political person with his integrity intact and to demoralize his supporters failed.

Curtis's intransigence and continuing political activity behind prison walls stand as an example for working-class fighters the world over. No matter what penitentiary prison authorities transferred the political activist to, he battled for prisoners' rights. He fought along with other inmates - often successfully - to establish prisoners' ability to receive materials in languages other than English, to ensure they can participate in political activities inside jail, and to maximize his and others contact with the class struggle beyond prison bars.

The determined effort by Curtis supporters to explain the facts of his case and to work for his release also paid off. Nearly 500 people wrote the parole board since July asking, "Why is Mark Curtis still in prison?" An additional 5,000 letters from peasants in Brazil who were attending the convention of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers were sent in this summer.

The length of time Mark Curtis served in jail, now more than 86 months, and the support he received for his request for parole, which was measurably growing with each passing month, were factors that contributed to the parole board's November 21 decision.

Supporters of this fight for justice must remain vigilant over the next several weeks and be prepared to respond immediately to any further attempts by the Iowa or prison authorities to delay Curtis's release from prison.

Curtis supporters should make their top priority to inform those who wrote the board about the victory they helped win.

The Mark Curtis Defense Committee also needs funds for the legal costs of the parole effort as Curtis works with his attorneys to organize and make secure his conditions of release to parole within two months.

Supporters of Mark Curtis everywhere should press forward along these lines, continuing above all to sell the pamphlet Why is Mark Curtis Still in Prison?, discussing the case with fighters on the picket lines from Detroit to Sydney and Belfast, and reaching out to youth attracted to defending the Cuban revolution and involved in other political activities.

This kind of consistent effort over the next several weeks and beyond will ensure the best possible conditions for Curtis when he leaves the Iowa State Penitentiary.

In the meantime, the Militant joins the celebrations with intransigent communist militant Mark Curtis and the thousands of other fighters around the world who made possible this victory for working people worldwide.

 
 
 
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