* *  The Maoist Internationalist Movement  * *

     -   MIM Notes 111, April 1996  -

RAIL AND MIM LEAD PROTEST:
MASSES RALLY AGAINST PIG OCCUPATION AND EXPANSION 
IN SPRINGFIELD, MA


Springfield, MA--RAIL and MIM held a rally in 
central Springfield in February to protest 
expansion of police and prisons, and to demand an 
end to lockdowns in Massachusetts prisons. The 
event was timed to mark both the second anniversary 
of a racist murder by Springfield cops and a 
national day of action in support of Black 
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal who remains on death row 
in Pennsylvania. On February 7, 1994, Benjamin 
Schoolfield, a young Black man, was gunned down in 
the street by racist Springfield cops. The incident 
received some media attention thanks to the outrage 
expressed by his family and his community, but the 
murderer was exonerated by his superiors (surprise 
surprise) and rewarded with a party and a gift of a 
ham by fellow officers (a southern KKK tradition to 
congratulate the killer of a black person). Now in 
1996, Springfield's new mayor Albano has announced 
plans to increase the police force by 100 hogs, 
from approximately 500.

RAIL, MIM and other Massachusetts organizations 
that have worked with RAIL's prison campaign 
addressed the public and the assembled pigs in 
English and in Spanish. The cops were the first on 
the scene and the last to leave, and continuously 
videotaped and photographed the demonstrators. The 
public, some attracted by advance publicity and 
some who were passing by and stopped to join in, 
held placards and chanted slogans. RAIL circulated 
a petition demanding that Albano retract his 
planned police force expansion, and distributed 
revolutionary literature. Passers by who spoke with 
RAIL were most attracted to the event by the 
remembrance of the Schoolfield murder and the 
opposition to police expansion. Several expressed 
anger at the proposed source of funding for the 
extra pigs--a transfer from a surplus in the City 
Water Department. RAIL responds that budgetary 
shenanigans are bad, but that we oppose police 
expansion regardless of how it is paid for.

Local television crews were also in attendance, but 
RAIL was not surprised at the lack of substantial 
coverage of the issues. One local TV reporter 
contacted RAIL by telephone several days before the 
event, but was uninterested in what a RAIL comrade 
had to say about prisons, police and their function 
in Amerikan society. He wanted personal information 
about RAIL members and a personal interview, which 
RAIL refused. The RAIL comrade ignored the 
reporter's questions about RAIL and MIM and 
repeated important information from RAIL's flyer 
advertising the event--Police brutality is national 
and purposeful in character; Prisons have expanded 
in the last twenty years while crime has not, 
contrary to the widespread lies that dominate the 
media. The RAIL comrade challenged the reporter to 
investigate and report on those questions, 
especially the myth of "rising crime rates," and 
offered to send information and citations. The 
reporter's response was "But I'm interested in you. 
What's your name? Where are you from?" As far as 
RAIL knows, no story on the myth of rising crime 
rates has resulted.

Oppressed people across North America have been 
resisting government repression for hundreds of 
years. Sentiment is strong against pig brutality 
and other racist crimes. RAIL is committed to 
developing and expanding this struggle. Through 
events like this rally we challenge the people to 
move through and beyond reform goals and join with 
us in building for the utter defeat of the 
oppressive system.

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