The empty vows of "brotherhood" and "good will toward all" that the bosses and capitalist politicians dump on us at this time of year sound particularly hollow to workers and farmers behind bars--the 2 million human beings who bear the brunt of the American "justice" system, with its everyday frame-ups and brutality.
Their seasonal talk of "peace" is even less credible as the billionaire rulers of this country prepare to launch a war of plunder against the peoples of the Mideast.
The Militant stands in a long tradition of labor solidarity with prisoners. On both sides of prison walls, working people share common oppressors and common interests. "Don’t be shocked when I say I was in prison," said Malcolm X in 1963. "You’re still in prison. That’s what America means: prison."
We salute those who find themselves in jail because they have refused to stop fighting for justice. Their ranks will grow as working people resist the consequences of the wars, brutality, economic depression, racism, and women’s inequality bred by capitalism today.
Among them are five Cuban revolutionaries framed up and convicted in June 2001 of "conspiracy" charges. They are Gerardo Hernández, Tony Guerrero, René González, Ramón Labañino, and Fernando González. Their real "crime" was that of obtaining information on counterrevolutionary organizations that operate on U.S. territory and have a record of launching attacks on Cuba with Washington’s complicity.
Another militant jailed in recent months is Farouk Abdel-Muhti, an outspoken Palestinian rights fighter in New York. He was arrested in April, locked up in an immigrant jail in New Jersey, and now faces the imminent threat of being deported to Egypt or Israel, where his life would be in danger at the hands of the authorities. He has continued to speak out from his prison cell.
Hundreds of other U.S. residents born in Middle Eastern or South Asian countries have been swept up since Washington launched its war drive 15 months ago. More than 1,200 were arrested in the initial Ashcroft Raids. Just days ago Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) cops rounded up more than 500 people from select countries, many of them applicants for permanent residence, who had lined up at the INS offices in Los Angeles to register and be fingerprinted in compliance with a government decree. In face of an outpouring of protests by Iranians and others, who carried signs reading "What’s Next? Concentration Camps?" the cops were compelled to release some. The apt comparison to the herding of Japanese-Americans into internment camps in 1942 is a reminder of how, as imperialist governments go to war, they always crack down on workers’ rights at home.
Likewise, we extend our solidarity to the 600 men from 40 countries who remain locked up at the concentration camp in the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo on occupied Cuban land. We demand their immediate release.
Washington has also jailed at least two U.S. citizens, José Padilla and Yasser Hamdi, classifying them as "enemy combatants" to deny them their constitutional rights. Several U.S. citizens of Yemeni origin are being framed up on "terrorism" charges in Lackawanna, New York.
Veteran class-war prisoners
Besides these brothers and sisters behind bars, the Militant has campaigned for the release of prisoners who have spent years or decades in prison. They include:
We also extend solidarity to the countless other political prisoners throughout the world, from Irish republicans fighting for the unification of their country, to Palestinians waging a battle for a homeland.
This defense of political prisoners follows the long working-class tradition going back to the example set by the International Labor Defense. Established in 1925, the ILD defended class-war prisoners regardless of their political affiliation or views, such as Sacco and Vanzetti, who were framed up and executed in 1927. Later, a similar defense campaign was waged for the 18 Socialist Workers Party and Teamsters union leaders jailed on sedition charges for their opposition to the second imperialist world slaughter. Among these was James P. Cannon, the Militant’s first editor.
In recent decades the Militant has defended class-struggle fighters ranging from soldiers court-martialed for their activity against the U.S. war on Vietnam, to union and political activist Mark Curtis.
Those locked up in U.S. prisons are overwhelmingly workers and farmers. Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans are disproportionately represented. As the U.S. rulers have accelerated their assault on working people, they have used Rockefeller-type drug laws, mandatory sentences, and other measures, leading to a doubling in the U.S. prison population in the past decade. One of every three young Black males today is either in prison, on parole, or on probation. Likewise, the escalation of INS factory raids and other roundups has increased the number of immigrant workers arrested. The ongoing fight against the deportation of Róger Calero, a Militant staff writer and Perspectiva Mundial associate editor, has struck a chord because tens of thousands of workers face the same situation that he does.
Fighting for rights behind bars
Those who are thrown in prison are told they forfeit all their rights once the steel doors are locked. But prisoners constantly assert their humanity and fight for their constitutional rights, such as the right to an attorney, to read books and newspapers, and to correspond with the world outside prison walls. And the Militant has been part of many of such fights by those behind bars who view the paper as a source of facts and revolutionary political perspectives they need.
The Militant’s Prisoner Fund helps make that possible by allowing prisoners to receive a subscription at reduced rates: a six-month Militant subscription for $6 and a one-year subscription for $12. Checks or money orders, earmarked "Prisoner Fund," can be made out to the Militant and sent to 410 West St., New York, NY 10014.
The brutality of prisons is a mirror on the criminal character of the capitalist system itself. The Militant is part of the fight to build a revolutionary movement through which working people can overturn capitalist rule and take political power--the biggest jailbreak in history. That course will open the road to building a socialist society, based not on safeguarding the wealth and privileges of a few billionaire families, but defending the interests of the vast majority of humanity.
As socialist leader Eugene Debs, who spent years behind bars for his revolutionary activity, put it: "Socialism and prison are antagonistic terms."
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