MIM Notes 193 
September 1, 1999

MIM commemorates Attica struggle
by MC45 & MC53

September 9 marks the 28th anniversary of the Attica prisoners' 
rebellion against both inhumane conditions within the New York 
State prison system, and repression of political struggle 
throughout Amerika. The rebellion occurred in the context of 
increasing anti-imperialist organizing and brought Amerika's 
attention to the needs of prisoners. The struggle at Attica Prison 
in upstate New York also led radicals outside Amerika's gulags to 
examine the treatment of prisoners within the anti-imperialist 
movement.

In remembering Attica, MIM honors the masses murdered by Amerika. 
We take this opportunity to build upon historical revolutionary 
lessons, and to continue the struggle against Amerikan imperialism 
entire and its internal domination through police occupation and 
the prison system. We urge prisoners to join United Struggle from 
Within, study Maoist political economy and philosophy and develop 
an historical materialist analysis. Such study will give prisoners 
the best tools to build anti-imperialist revolution toward 
socialism.

Prisoner members of the BPP, YLP, Weatherman and other groups 
organized within Attica, and some prisoners participated in Maoist 
study groups. Prisoners formed the Attica Liberation Front (ALF) 
and presented a list of demands to Russell Oswald, New York State 
Commissioner of Correction Services, in May 1971. The prisoners 
wrote: "We are firm in our resolve and we demand as human beings 
the dignity and justice that is due to us by right of our birth. 
We do not know how the present system of brutality and 
dehumanization and injustice has been allowed to be perpetuated in 
this day of enlightenment, but we are living proof of its 
existence, and we cannot allow it to continue."(1)

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.

MIM and prisoner activists continue to fight for such basic 
demands in Amerika. But the idea of prisoners as humyn beings who 
deserve "dignity and justice by right of [their] birth" as the 
Attica prisoners wrote is anathema to imperialism. Prisons are a 
vital component of this stage of Amerikan capitalism. The gulags 
restrain independent activism of the internal semi-colonies by 
splitting up families and communities, wrecking the continuity of 
social life that can nourish political dissent. We must recognize 
the level of repression directed at would-be revolutionary groups. 
Organizing at this time must build foundations for revolution. We 
can build on the gains in education around Attica and similar 
movements by building independent institutions of the oppressed. 
Reforms within the system will be bundled up and burned by the 
imperialists at the next opportunity.

In the wake of the Attica rebellion, prisoners were to be granted 
nearly all their 28 demands except amnesty and repatriation to a 
Third World country.(2) In 1991 Akil Aljundi, a prisoner injured 
during the Attica massacre, told MIM "in a lot of ways, [prison 
conditions have] gotten worse. What has happened is the state has 
had an opportunity to learn off of Attica, so they've adopted 
measures that are more repressive. In a lot of cases, they've 
given prisoners things that look like panaceas, you know, quick-
solution stuff which basically is to keep people from stating what 
the problems really are."(3)

During the year from August 1970 to August 1971, there were nine 
rebellions and strikes at other New York State jails and prisons. 
Beginning with the Tombs (Metropolitan Corrections Center, renamed 
by the prisoners in recognition of the many men killed there), 
uprisings over brutal conditions and treatment spread throughout 
the state.(1) At Attica, prisoners were allowed only one shower 
per week. They were allowed visits only through wire mesh, and 
interception and censorship of mail was the norm. In the metal 
shop, prisoners worked for $.29/day.(2) That prisoner warehousing 
and conditions under the Amerikan lockdown have worsened since.

MIM remembers the brothers who were murdered by New York State 
Troopers and vindictive prison guards on September 13th. Ten 
hostages and 29 prisoners were murdered in the retaking. The 
premeditated murders took place with the knowledge and explicit 
non-interference of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. This was the same 
Rockefeller who passed New York State's infamous mandatory minimum 
drug laws in 1973 and moved from the Governorship to the u.$. Vice 
Presidential campaign.

Outside observers sequestered from the yard where the massacre 
took place reported being incapacitated by CS gas that was thrown 
down in the yard. The observers believed there was no way the 
prisoners -- the direct targets of the gas -- could have been a 
threat to anyone. Yet the only rationale the state ever offered 
for shooting so many people dead was that these prisoners were 
aiming to hurt their hostages.(2)

MIM argues that the massacre was not necessary to the prison 
retaking, only to the prison's function of social control. Like 
the brutality of imprisonment itself, this type of retribution 
against protest is the state's method of deterring future 
organization and rebellion.

Before any autopsies were done, the state announced that prisoners 
had killed the hostages with spears, and attempted to bury the 
hostages' bodies. The coroner came out with the truth about their 
deaths independently.(2) The state's mercenaries also planted 
weapons next to prisoners to create the myth that prisoners were 
armed. Such myths serve to put finishing touches on Amerika's 
justifications for treating prisoners as animals.

MIM has organized talks by former Attica prisoner, Frank "Big 
Black" Smith. He describes how even after the massacre, Attica 
prisoners were tortured and threatened with mutilation and death. 
To get back to their cell wing, the prisoners were run between two 
rows of baton swinging C.O.s, barefoot and naked over broken 
glass. National Guards reported that wounded prisoners were