http://themilitant.com/2017/8127/812705.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 27 July 24, 2017
(front page)
Florida prisons reverse ban on three ‘Militants’, uphold it on two
BY SETH GALINSKY
Florida prison officials have informed the Militant that they have
reversed their censorship of three issues of the paper, after the
Militant and at least three prisoners filed appeals. But they upheld the
ban on two other issues, in violation of the constitutional right to
free speech and freedom of the press.
The Militant first learned May 23 that Santa Rosa Correctional
Institution had impounded three issues that reported on and publicized
May Day actions called to protest deportations and urge amnesty for
immigrant workers in the U.S. Prison censors falsely claimed that the
articles encouraged “activities which may lead to the use of physical
violence,” “riot, insurrection, disruption” or the “commission of
criminal activity.” All Florida prisons followed suit, per their
regulations.
The Militant fought and won reversal of previous impoundments of the
paper by Florida prisons in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
Prison authorities “do their best to pass the buck to another source for
the cause of potential trouble when most of the blame is truly generated
from within the prisons,” one Florida prisoner wrote June 7 after his
paper was banned. “It’s almost never from what we see on TV or read in
books and newspapers.”
The charge that the Militant presents any threat to the security of the
prison or encourages disruption is just not true, he wrote. These are
“fabricated and vague excuses just because they don’t agree with the
political position this newspaper has.”
Roger Bunger, a worker behind bars in Florida State Prison in Raiford
who said we should use his name, wrote, “I and my paper are being
targeted!” He also filed an appeal.
A few weeks after the Militant’s lawyer David Goldstein, of the civil
liberties firm Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman, filed
the paper’s appeal, the Florida prisons impounded issues 23 and 24,
targeting articles covering the censorship fight.
Supporters of political rights, including the American Civil Liberties
Union of Florida, Pen America, and Stop Prison Abuse Now, sent
statements supporting the Militant’s appeal of the unconstitutional
censorship.
On June 29 Florida prison systems’ Literature and Review Committee
member Charles Huber informed Goldstein that the ban on issue no. 16 had
been reversed, and on July 7 he reported that issues 23 and 24 had been
cleared as well. The committee gave no explanation for their decisions.
That leaves issues 15 and 18 still barred from the Militant’s 48 readers
in Florida prisons.
“The Militant will continue to fight for the right of prisoners to read
the literature of their choosing, so they can be part of the world and
make up their own minds about issues of importance for them and the
working class,” Militant editor John Studer said. “We can expect to see
and to fight against more arbitrary censorship as the crisis of
capitalism — and the rulers’ fear of the working class — deepens in the
months and years ahead.”
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