Attica brothers settle suit and Amerika murders more prisoners

Mumia Abu Jamal discusses the police massacre of MOVE members

After more than 25 years of legal battles, the Attica brothers'
suit has reached its final stages, even as prisoner strikes and
rebellions continue throughout Amerika to regain the privileges
for which Attica brothers died fighting. Those struggles include
the Indiana hunger strike (see Under Lock and Key in this issue).
Amerika has reacted to these struggles not with compassionate
reforms of the prison system, but with brute force and political
repression.

The Amerikan criminal injustice system is a tool of imperialist
control enforcing national oppression and submission. MIM at times
works to improve immediate conditions prisoners face, but we
maintain that it is not possible to gain lasting reforms or
justice under the current system. The only means to end the prison
beatings, rapes, torture, and inadequate prison facilities is
through fundamentally changing the power relations in Amerika --
through Maoist revolution.

The Attica settlement awards the Attica brothers $8 million, plus
$4 million to pay for legal fees.(1) The agreement does not force
New York State or Amerika to admit fault in the 1971 Attica
massacre that left 43 dead and more than 80 wounded.(2)

Guards abuse and kill prisoners.

January 12, two jail guards pleaded guilty to killing a prisoner
last year in Nassau County, New York. The guards fatally beat
Thomas Pizzuto, who was serving 90 days for traffic violations.
The guards now admit that they planned to attack Pizzuto before
entering his cell, but claim they had not intended to kill him --
so they want manslaughter (with a 3.5 year sentence) instead of
murder (with a 30 year sentence).(3)

MIM does not spend time organizing for the sentencing of pigs
convicted of crimes; most of their crimes never reach the courts.
Yet, the handling of pigs' crimes reveals another repulsive aspect
of Amerikan prisons. When a guard accuses a prisoner of rules
violations, it is the guard's word that's assumed true. In the
rare cases of indicted pigs, the pigs are still assumed to be
truthful. Hence the all-out acquittal of Diallo's murderers in an
Albany County court as this issue goes to press. In the case of
the Nassau guards, until the week of their trial the guards
vehemently denied ever beating the man. Only after other pigs (who
had watched and covered up the fatal beating) testified, did the
two pigs admit their actions.(4)

In Florida, a guard has been charged with the murder of a death
row prisoner. After the prisoner's death in July, the Florida
State Prison suspended nine guards. The guards originally said the
prisoner threw himself off of a bunk bed. The medical examiner
said that the prisoner had been beaten to death and that there
were boot marks on his body.(5)

Recent reports have revealed that California Youth Authority
guards have continued abuses similar to those exposed at Corcoran
two years ago. As MIM Notes 177 reported, Corcoran prison guards
set up prisoners to fight one another for guard entertainment. At
the Youth Correctional Facility in Chino, investigators found that
guards set prisoners up to fight, beat handcuffed prisoners, threw
prisoners into cells with urine and feces on the floors, forcibly
injected them with psychotropic medications, and shot them at
close range with 37-mm riot guns. The Los Angeles Times also
revealed last fall that Stanford University violated state law
when it tested psychiatric drugs on dozens of teen prisoners.(6)

A guard murdered another prisoner on December 27 at Angola's
Louisiana State Penitentiary. Angola's main concern after the
murder centered on tougher security to avoid prison escapes.(7)

Just like Attica, Pelican Bay Prison has its own "turkey shoot"

February 23, Pelican Bay guards opened fire on prisoners, wounding
eight and murdering one. Prison officials have completely locked
down Pelican Bay, worsening its already repressive conditions. The
shooting came on the same day that two former Pelican Bay prison
pigs were indicted on federal civil rights charges for allowing
guards and prisoners to attack "disliked" prisoners. The previous
week, another Pelican Bay pig was convicted of violating a
prisoner's civil rights by shooting and wounding him.(8)

Pelican Bay State Prison is part of California's immense prison
industrial complex. Built for 2,280 prisoners, it now warehouses
3,400 prisoners, at least 1,200 of whom are permanently locked
down in the notorious Security Housing Unit (SHU). Prisoners in
the SHU are caged for 22.5 hours in windowless, white cells, alone
or with one other hostage. Prisoncrats claim that it is only
violent prisoners who are housed in the SHU. However, we have
investigated and know that many prisoners are locked down because
of their political beliefs, as was Geronimo ji Jaga.

Prisoncrats claim that the turkey shoot(9) at Pelican Bay was the
necessary means to stop a prison "riot". Pigs claim that prison
gangs were fighting one another. Even if this is true, nobody died
during the fight, but guards killed one prisoner breaking it up.
Furthermore, conditions in Amerikan prisons promote despair,
anger, and violence. As noted above, guards often create conflicts
between prisoners to better "manage" them. Guards are afraid of
the power inmates have when they unite. They know that prisoner
rebellions such as the one at Attica are inevitable outcome of
humyn beings locked down, overcrowded, tortured and dehumanized.
Amerika should expect nothing less than continued prison
rebellions under such conditions.

Prisoners do not have a right to organize

Starting on December 24, New York state pigs locked down two
prisons to prevent prisoners from striking. The lockdown, in this
and most cases, meant pigs confined prisoners to their cells for
23 hours a day. Prisoners had been planning strikes in eight
prisons, attempting to bring attention to rigid state parole
policies.(10)

In Amerika, prisoners do not have the so-called right to organize
peaceably. In fact, prisoners are punished for organizing even
their own educational groups, let alone peaceful strikes. This
demonstrates one of MIM's repeated criticisms of imperialism:
there are no rights, only privileges that protect the interests of
the bourgeoisie or victories won for the masses through struggle.

As New York pigs shut down prisoner demonstrations against unjust
conditions, a federal judge negotiated the Attica settlement.
Originally, the 1,281 Attica brothers filed a class action civil
suit in 1974, asking for $2.8 billion. The final settlement,
$2.792 billion short, will most likely be distributed among the
few living prisoners by the end of the year with an average amount
of about $20,000 each.(1)

The Attica brothers fought for basic needs and privileges. The
prisoners' demands included an end to prison slave labor, freedom
to be politically active, uncensored access to publications and
mail, open communications with the outside world, a healthy diet,
freedom to practice religion, modernized education, adequate
medical attention and genuinely rehabilitative programs within the
prisons. For this, prisoners lost their lives or were tortured
during the New York State Troopers' retaking of D-yard.

The mainstream media admits that Attica shed light on the abuses
and unfair treatment of prisoners throughout Amerika. But the
coverage depicts Attica's demands and the brothers' minimal gains
as things that are taken as a matter of course in Amerikan prisons
today. Some of their demands were met, but most prisons throughout
Amerika have rescinded those gains.

The 2 million prisoners throughout Amerika have a lot to organize
against: Increased sentence lengths, summary punishments by
gestapo guards, inadequate medical care, slave labor, denial of
education, and brutality at the hands of guards. MIM advocates
that prisoners strengthen ideological unity against prison
oppression and imperialism while seeking legal remedies to prison
injustice. Though MIM knows that some battles cannot be walked
away from, whenever possible it is best to adhere to draconian
prison laws and regulations to avoid intensified state crackdown.
The only genuine way to end the Amerikan lockdown is through the
abolition of Amerikan imperialism itself. For that task, we need
warriors alive with sharp minds. -- edited by MC12

Notes: 1. New York Times, 5 Jan. 2000, pp. A1 and A23; 15 February
2000, p A27. 2. See MIM's historical account and analysis of the
Attica rebellion in MIM Notes 193. 3. New York Times, 13 Jan.
2000. 4. New York Times, 5 Jan. 2000. 5. New York Times, 3 Feb
2000. 6. Los Angeles Times 24-25 Dec 1999. 7. New York Times, 1
Jan. 2000.8. CNN website: www.cnn.com. 9. Turkey shoot is used
notoriously to describe the Attica massacre because prison guards
opened fire upon prisoners who were locked in a place they could
not escape. It is applicable to the brutality used by other prison
guards on unarmed prisoners. 10. New York Times, 14 January 2000,
p. A23





In a few moments we will bring you a commentary by Mumia Abu 
Jamal. Mumia is a Black Nation revolutionary fighting for his life 
on Pennsylvania's death row. Mumia was framed for the murder of a police officer because 
he is an outspoken opponent of Amerikan imperialism.  


[Man is the bastard track 4 may 13th remembered 5:09]


A prisoner in NJ writes that gang units repress political education

I just finished reading MIM Notes for June and July and i see
where someone had written in about the STG unit in Northern State
Prison in New Jersey. I was one of the first prisoners grabbed off
the yard in January 1990 to be held until March of 1998 when the
unit opened up. On March 4, 1998 we were shipped here from all
over the state. Most of us did nothing except belong to what they
call a gang but to us it's political education to fight the abuse
these pigs use on us!

They hold our mail for two to three weeks before giving it to us,
and when i was expedited to South Carolina in July of 1998 for a
parole hearing they took a large amount of money out of my
account, and stole my radio. This is one form of their abuse on us
by these pigs.

Cold showers and cold food are another. They try to make us give
in but i for one am stronger for my eyes are open to the abuse
they puton us. I will continue to fight for prisoner's rights even
if i have to spill every bit of my blood! I'd like to say
Decorazon to all my brothers!

-- a New Jersey Prisoner, 27 July 1999.