News update: Victory over prison ban in Pennsylvania!
https://themilitant.com/2021/02/13/support-fight-to-overturn-prison-ban-on-militant-in-pennsylvania/
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 85/No. 7
February 22, 2021
A victory has been won. On Feb. 12 Diana Woodside, director of the
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ office of Policy, Grants and
Legislative Affairs, informed Militant attorney David Goldstein Feb. 12
that upon review Militant issue no. 1 “will be added [to] our Reviewed
Publication List as ‘Permitted.’” and the paper will be delivered to the
inmate.
It has been over a week since David Goldstein, the lawyer for the
Militant, emailed Pennsylvania state officials asking them to overturn
the impoundment of the paper from an inmate-subscriber at the Camp Hill
State Correctional Institution. So far there’s been no response.
Prison authorities there banned the Jan. 4 issue of the paper. The
Militant only found out about this when the inmate sent the editor a
letter with a copy of the denial form. He said he planned to file an
appeal of the ban and asked the paper to challenge it as well. The
Militant did so.
“I understand that you will notify me if the Denial is reversed,”
Goldstein wrote Diana Woodside, director of the Department of
Corrections’ office of Policy, Grants and Legislative Affairs, Feb. 1,
“or if your office requires a substantive appeal.”
The denial form claims an article on page 2 could “create a danger
within the context of the correctional facility.” The only article on
that page is “Workers in Scotland Speak Out Against Economic, Health
Crisis.”
Then, in a “Brief Description” of the problem with the issue, the form
says, “Socialist Workers Party Action, speaks on social unrest and
standing against law enforcement.” Prison authorities are most likely
referring to the “Socialist Workers Party Action Program” that appears
on page 3, the election campaign platform of the SWP that the paper has
run dozens of times over the past year for its candidates in both 2020
and 2021.
“We urge supporters of prisoners’ rights to join in urging the
Department of Corrections to overturn this impoundment of the Militant,”
said John Studer, the paper’s editor. “At issue are the rights of
freedom of speech and of the press and the right of subscribers behind
bars to have access to news and opinions that allow them to form and
advocate political opinions.”
Some Militant readers and supporters of political rights have already
written to Woodside. A letter from a prisoner-subscriber from Illinois
said he had read the SWP Action Program in the paper and saw no problems
with how it “spoke out against police brutality and social unrest within
the country.”
“It would seem to me that your penal system would encourage your
prisoners to engage in intellectual discourse relative to the proper
function of government,” he wrote. “It should be the goal of every
person — incarcerated or free — to see that the police are not killing
unarmed citizens, and when they do, they should be held responsible for
their crimes.”
The debate on these questions has been an important part of politics and
media coverage across the country over the last year.
“More letters are needed,” said Studer. “Wherever the Militant has been
banned by prison officials, the paper and supporters of political rights
have fought back,” he said. “We’ve been successful in forcing the
authorities to back off in most cases.”
Among those who have spoken out against previous efforts by prison
authorities to bar the Militant are Amnesty International USA, National
Lawyers Guild, PEN America, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press, Florida Press Association, American Civil Liberties Union of
Florida, union officials and many others.
Letters urging the ban be reversed can be sent to Diana Woodside, 1920
Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050. Email: dwoodside@xxxxxx.
Please send copies to the Militant.
Front Page Articles
As bosses go after workers, gov’t attacks political rights
Workers need to organize to defend wages, conditions
Workers must build our own party, a labor party
SWP files for Dallas ballot, looks to file in Nebraska
Tens of thousands defy military, protest against coup in Myanmar
Montreal meeting celebrates 62nd anniversary of the Cuban Revolution
News update: Victory over prison ban in Pennsylvania!
Feature Articles
GameStop, stock market frenzy shows crisis of capitalism
Also In This Issue
India farmers broaden fight against Modi gov’t attacks
‘Stimulus’ fund for ‘Militant’ goes over $71,000!
Socialist Workers Party files for ballot in Dallas
‘The ‘Militant’ lets me know what workers are doing’
New Zealand rally: ‘No to military takeover in Myanmar’
Ohio cop charged with murder of Andre Hill
Montreal cops brutalize Mamadi Camara
On the Picket Line
Minn. Marathon oil workers fight for safety, no subcontracting
Ohio auto-parts workers fight for union, against bosses’ disdain
Books of the Month
Why Lenin declared war on ‘Great Russian chauvinism’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Corrections
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Emmett F. Fields “ Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do
not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is
an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively,
fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
” ― Emmett F. Fields