https://themilitant.com/2019/04/06/end-solitary-confinement-voting-rights-for-ex-prisoners-2/
Socialist Workers Party Campaign Statement
End solitary confinement! Voting rights for ex-prisoners!
Vol. 83/No. 15
April 15, 2019
The following statement was released April 3 by Seth Galinsky, Socialist
Workers Party candidate for New York City Public Advocate.
The capitalist rulers’ so-called criminal justice system and its prisons
have absolutely nothing to do with “rehabilitation.” They have
everything to do with breaking the spirit of those caught up in it and
sending a message to all working people to “stay in our place.”
But as the crisis of the capitalist system intensifies, the rulers more
and more fear the working class, and the glimmers they see of labor and
social explosions coming in the future. That’s why there are more
prisoners in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.
And that’s why you hear current and former prisoners say the authorities
“treat us like animals.”
That is no exaggeration.
Working people are railroaded to prison, guilty or not. Some 90 percent
of those behind bars never went to trial, but were pressured into
signing plea bargains under the threat of longer sentences.
On average some 60,000 or more are in solitary confinement every year,
sometimes for decades — like Albert Woodfox and his two fellow prisoners
and Black Panthers known as the Angola 3.
Workers behind bars are given rotten food and woefully inadequate health
care. They’re beaten by guards. There are constant attempts to censor
what they read, including the Militant newspaper. They face lack of
books and culture. And they face ridiculous fees and charges for
anything they can get.
Here in New York hundreds protested during the coldest days this winter
when word got out that prison authorities had done nothing to restore
heat and lights at the federal jail in Brooklyn.
And when our brothers and sisters behind bars get out of prison, they
face discrimination in hiring, housing, education and denial of their
rights.
But the capitalist rulers and their prison bosses underestimate us. When
Woodfox won his freedom after nearly 44 years of solitary confinement,
he was proud, unbroken and determined to get out the truth. That’s what
he’s doing, touring around the country and promoting his new book about
prison conditions and the fight for dignity behind bars. I urge you to
go hear him or read the book. I did and it was well worth it.
Prisons are a “grotesquely magnified reproduction of the social
relations, values, and ‘business practices’ of the dog-eat-dog
capitalist world that have spawned the US ‘justice’ system,” Socialist
Workers Party leader Mary-Alice Waters explains in her introduction to
“It’s the Poor Who Face the Savagery of the US ‘Justice’ System”: The
Cuban Five Talk About Their Lives Within the US Working Class.
Growing numbers of working people are looking for ways to fight the
exploitation and oppression of the capitalist rulers and show solidarity
with each other today. Fellow workers behind bars are an important part
of this battle and deserve our support.
That’s why my campaign speaks out against moves by the government in
Florida to undermine implementation of Amendment 4 of the state
Constitution, passed overwhelmingly last November, which restores voting
rights to over a million former prisoners.
Voting rights for all former prisoners! End the barbaric use of solitary
confinement!
Related Articles
Woodfox shines light on prison abuse, solitary confinement
NEW YORK — Albert Woodfox spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement
in a 6-by-9 foot cell in Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison. He and
fellow prisoners Herman Wallace and Robert King came into the sights of
authorities there after organizing…
Outcry hits attempt to gut Florida voting rights victory
Working people and other supporters of democratic rights are standing up
to attempts to undermine a popular victory for the voting rights of
ex-prisoners in Florida. Amendment 4 to the state Constitution, which
passed by 64.6 percent last November, restores…
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Uber drivers fight bosses’ pay cuts across California
•SWP launches drive to expand reach of books and ‘Militant’
•Cease-fire can open political space in Israel and in Gaza
•New Jersey protest: ‘Driver’s license is a necessity for immigrant workers’
•Two-year-long anti-Trump ‘Russia collusion’ witch hunt fizzles out
•Ongoing trade rivalry between US and Chinese rulers ripples worldwide
Feature Articles •Woodfox shines light on prison abuse, solitary confinement
Also In This Issue •New Zealand rulers use mosque attacks to target
political rights
•Help us go over the top in $115,000 Militant Fighting Fund
•Kurdistan debate on road to women’s emancipation
•Iraq protests win firing of governor in ferry disaster
•Outcry hits attempt to gut Florida voting rights victory
•End solitary confinement! Voting rights for ex-prisoners!
On the Picket Line •Chicago hospital workers rally to protest short
staffing, low pay
Books of the Month •Fidel: ‘Without Che’s ideas, communism can’t be built’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
© Copyright 2019 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New
York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxx
--
---
Christopher Hitchens
“ What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
”
― Christopher Hitchens,