* * 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. MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when redistributing or referring to this material. Subscriptions are $12 for 12 issues, U.S. mail or e-mail. Send cash, stamps or check made out to "MIM Distributors." Write: MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576. E-mail: mim@nyxfer.blythe.org. http://ursula.blythe.org/mim