BY JOHN STUDER
DES MOINES, Iowa - "We are pleading to your sense of human rights and justice to free Mark Curtis from prison," Don Timmerman wrote the Iowa State Board of Parole November 2, on behalf of Adoption Group #106 of Amnesty International in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "Mark is a political activist who was arrested on March 4, 1988, after he was beaten by police and charged with rape and burglary and has served seven years in prison."
Curtis is a union activist and member of the Socialist Workers Party. He was framed up by Des Moines cops while in the middle of a public campaign to defend 17 of his co- workers at the Monfort meatpacking company in the city. They had been seized by federal immigration cops in a raid on the plant. Hours before his arrest he had spoken out in Spanish in their defense at a public meeting.
Hundreds of supporters of human rights, union activists, and others have written to the Iowa parole board this fall to urge Curtis's release. For the first time in three years, the board has agreed to convene a hearing, on November 21 at the Iowa State Penitentiary where Curtis is being held, and allow him to make a presentation about why he should be freed.
Curtis's attorney, William Kutmus, will be present to explain how Curtis meets all the requirements under Iowa law to be released on parole. In addition, nine of Curtis's supporters will be able to attend the hearing as a demonstration of the widespread public support for his release.
Nick Castle, Hollywood writer, director, and film-maker, whose most recent film was Major Payne, agreed to participate in the delegation on Curtis's behalf. He will be joined by Frankie Travis, a unionist locked out by A.E. Staley in Decatur, Illinois; Larry Ginter, a family farmer from Rhodes, Iowa; Hazel Zimmerman, secretary-treasurer of the Mark Curtis Defense Committee; and others.
The defense committee is urging supporters of Curtis's fight to write to the parole board urging them to free him.
"The increasingly long time that Mark has served, the number of victimizations of Mark carried out by prison authorities, the increasingly untenable refusal of the parole board to free Mark, all these combine to make it clearer and clearer that the reason Mark Curtis is in prison today is because he remains a political activist," the committee wrote to supporters October 24.
On top of the recent wave of revelations of cop racism and frame-ups, "these factors all combined in pressing the board to grant Mark a hearing," the committee added. "The decision registers the Board's first step toward granting Curtis his release. It opens the process that will ultimately lead to Mark's freedom."
Unionists have been an important component of the parole effort this fall. "On behalf of the 9,300 members of UFCW Local 428 I am writing to respectfully request that you grant parole to Mark Curtis," wrote Ronald J. Lind, director of organizing for the local in San Jose, California. "We have been following the Mark Curtis story since his imprisonment in 1988. We are absolutely convinced of his innocence and given the time that he has served for a crime that he did not commit, and his good behavior while in prison, it is clearly time for his release."
Roger Warren, a gold miner in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in Can-ada who was framed up and sentenced to life on charges arising from his participation in a strike battle, wrote: "I am writing to beseech you to parole Mark Curtis.
"The facts are that Mr. Curtis is a model prisoner, from all reports, and has used his time constructively. The further argument for his release is that he has served more time than would be usual in these circumstances. This individual poses no threat to society and the sensible and humane course for the state of Iowa would be his parole so that Mr. Curtis can continue what was once a productive life.
"There is abundant support in Iowa for Mr. Curtis and indeed there are individuals and groups world-wide who stand ready to vouch for him," Warren added.
"Please add my voice to the many others who are urging you in the strongest possible way to grant parole to Mark Curtis at the earliest possible moment," wrote Albert Carson, President of Local 255 of the Glass, Plastic and Molders Workers Union in Birmingham, Alabama.
"On behalf of the University, College and Research Branch and the District Students Committee of the Education and Science Union (Oberpfalz District, Bavaria) within the German Congress of Trade Unions, we declare our support to the Mark Curtis Defense Committee," began a letter the defense committee received November 6. "The commitment for helping active trade unionists threatened, intimidated and persecuted by state and employers power, is a fundamental duty of every trade unionist. The response to events like the unjust treatment and political persecution of colleague Mark Curtis has to be international in approach."
Support for Curtis is also growing among immigrant and Latino groups.
"I am very familiar with all of the literature pertaining to the Mark Curtis case," wrote Augustine Tujillo, director of the Center for Ethnic Students Affairs at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "This being the situation I would like to go on record as being a very strong advocate for the parole of Mark Curtis. I should also mention that I am the sponsor of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan (MEChA) at the University of Utah and the Chicano/Latino students are also strongly endorsing the same action on behalf of Mark Curtis."
The letter was also signed by C. Ross Rocha, MEChA president.
"I am writing to respectfully urge you to grant parole to Mark Curtis," wrote Stacy Kono, campaign coordinator for Asian Immigrant Women Advocates in Oakland, California. "Curtis has met the requirements for release on parole under Iowa law for a number of years and it is unclear why he is still in prison. I would appreciate a response. Thank you for your time."
Support continues to grow in Iowa. "From what I've read I do not believe that Mark is guilty. But that is something that cannot be changed, it is in the past," wrote a 14-year-old student from Cedar Rapids. "What can and should be done is to make Mark Curtis a free man again, that much he deserves. Set Mark free!"
For more information, or to send a letter to be delivered to the Iowa State Board of Parole, contact the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa, 50311. Tel. (515) 246-1695.