https://themilitant.com/2019/11/02/ufcw-union-local-says-no-to-any-prison-ban-of-militant/
UFCW union local says ???No!??? to any prison ban of ???Militant???
By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 83/No. 41
November 11, 2019
???While you can imprison the person, you cannot imprison their mind,???
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770 President John Grant wrote
Florida prison officials Oct. 16. ???We call on you to do the right thing
and respect the constitutional foundations of our country and society:
stop censoring the Militant?? and other publications.??? (See sidebar for
full letter).
The Los Angeles unionist said his local???s members believe the bans on
the Militant newsweekly earlier this year are ???abhorrent??? and
???unacceptable.???
The letter puts prison officials on notice that any new steps to ban the
socialist newsweekly will be met with a growing outcry of public
protest. Florida authorities overturned most of the bans and haven???t
seized any further issues since mid-August. Fourteen out of 16 issues
before then had been impounded over three months, a serious attack on
the constitutional rights of both the Militant and its prisoner
subscribers.
Prison officials claimed ??? without any basis in fact ??? that articles
reporting on conditions in other prisons around the U.S., on campaigns
against solitary confinement, and even articles reporting on the
Militant???s fight to overturn prison bans were a threat to the ???security,
good order, or discipline??? of the prisons or encouraged ???physical
violence or group disruption.???
The Militant?? won broad and growing support in the fight against
suppression of the paper.
More than 40 letters from a wide range of national and local
organizations and individuals were sent to the Florida prison system???s
Literature Review Committee urging the bans be lifted. As a result, the
committee reversed the last six prison bans in a row, and not a single
issue has been impounded since.
Along with UFCW Local 770 other groups that wrote included Amnesty
International USA, PEN America, National Lawyers Guild, American Civil
Liberties Union Florida, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press,
the National Coalition Against Censorship, Florida Press Association,
American Booksellers for Free Expression, Riverside Church Prison
Ministry, American Library Association-Office for Intellectual Freedom,
Southern Center for Human Rights, and more.
Numerous individuals sent letters, including unionists; professors;
teachers and other school workers; over 80 workers at Walmart stores in
Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Quebec and Washington; and factory workers
in England.
Several of the Militant???s subscribers behind bars in Florida filed
grievances against the impoundments. A number wrote in to let the
Militant?? know they are getting the paper once again and to congratulate
us on our common success.
???This is a great victory,??? one prisoner wrote. ???Thanks for your support
in this struggle for our rights.???
???Our paper???s subscribers know that the Militant?? will never give up its
defense of the rights of workers on both sides of the prison walls,???
said Militant?? editor John Studer. ???As a result of our successful fight,
more prisoners are subscribing and the Militant?? is better known.
???And it???s an example that will help all those fighting to end prison
suppression of other books and publications,??? he said.
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?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxxx
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David Hume
??? In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable
degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral
evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. ???
??? David Hume,