25TH ANNIVERSARY OF ATTICA UPRISING:
A SHINING MOMENT IN THE STRUGGLE------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Sept. 19, 1996 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- By Judi Cheng Sept. 9-13 is the 25th anniversary of the Attica Prison uprising of 1971. Today, with prisons in this country overflowing and conditions inside them worse than ever--with ruling-class officials pushing for more prison construction and throwing more and more working-class youths, especially Black, Latino and Native, into the prisons--it's worthwhile to look back to Attica. Because when 1,500 men in Cell Block D took over Attica Prison in a courageous act of rebellion, they provided an example of class solidarity, unity, and worker consciousness that is more relevant than ever today. They showed that the workers, including the most oppressed, those literally in chains, have the potential to shake the ruling class and fight the system. The uprising came in a period of upsurge. The Black community was rising against racism. The Black Panther Party was organizing African Americans to challenge the racist ruling class. Young people were fighting to end the Vietnam war. The women's and the gay-liberation movements had begun. There were bitter clashes. Altogether, the National Guard was called on 324 times between 1968 and 1970 to crush various struggles and protests. Troops shot and killed students at Jackson State and Kent State Universities in 1970 for protesting the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. Armed guards in Ohio suppressed a Teamsters strike. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King had both been assassinated. All this was reflected inside the prisons, where racist oppression was expressed most intensely. And prisoners' struggles were increasingly finding support on the outside. In California, the Soledad Brothers had won wide support in their struggle. UNBEARABLE CONDITIONS Eighty-five percent of Attica's prisoners were Black and Latino. Attica, like most U.S. prisons, was a concentration camp. A ghetto. A factory. The prisoners were political prisoners. Oppressed and poor. Victims of a history of racism and discrimination. The prisoner never sees a lawyer. He is prevented from defending himself. He is isolated, raped, harassed, murdered. Hygienic conditions were atrocious. Medical care was practically non-existent. Mail was read and censored. Prison life had become unbearable. New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller--grandchild of the most notorious robber baron of them all, and himself a direct representative of the billionaire ruling class--ran the state prisons as forced labor camps. In New York's prisons as in the rest of the country, labor is practically free. This helps hold down wages for employed workers on the outside. Attica, like all prisons, was a sweatshop. The average pay was 40 cents a day for manufacturing mattresses, shoes and license plates. Today, 25 years later, this situation has intensified tremendously. In 1971 at Attica, things came to a head. Increasingly, there were confrontations between the shock troops of the racist oppressor class--Attica's all-white correctional staff--and the prisoners. The prisoners seethed with anger. They were bitter about conditions in their communities and the injustice of the criminal system. At the same time, social awareness among inmates was spurred by the development of groups such as the Black Panthers, Young Lords and Nation of Islam. Discussions and meetings took place in the exercise yard. Authorities reacted by transferring and punishing suspected leaders and "troublemakers." When news came that the state had killed George Jackson at San Quentin Prison in California on Aug. 21, Attica inmates organized a hunger strike. Many wore black armbands. Jackson was the most famous political prisoner of the day, as a leader of the Black Panther Party. His book "Soledad Brother" was passed from prisoner to prisoner inside Attica. His revolutionary writings had a tremendous impact on the prisoners' consciousness, and his death led directly to the uprising that came a little over two weeks later. Finally, as with any group of workers working under unbearable conditions, the prisoners decided to go on strike. Among other things, they were fighting for an eight- hour work day and union rights. But in prison, when workers strike it is a direct rebellion against the authority of the state. PRISONERS ORGANIZE On Sept. 9, the prisoners in D Block took over Attica. They seized prison guards as hostages to force the state to address their demands. All the prisoners--Black, Latino and white--stood united. A number of politically conscious white prisoners, some of them in Attica for crimes of opposition to the Vietnam war, recognized the leadership of the Black and Latino brothers. They presented a list of 27 demands covering legal rights and repression, work, food and hygiene, and other crucial issues regarding prison conditions. Four key demands went to the crux of the rebellion--and demonstrated the prisoners' high political consciousness. They demanded that the warden be removed. They demanded that all participants in the uprising receive full amnesty. They demanded union recognition. And they demanded safe passage out of the United States to a non-imperialist country. Fully aware that the state authorities were enraged and preparing to crush the rebellion, the prisoners then called for an observers' committee to come to Attica. The committee was to be made up of representatives of independent organizations. They would come to D yard to monitor negotiations between the prisoner representatives and New York state prison officials. The year before the Attica uprising broke out, a group called the Prisoners Solidarity Committee had been organized by Youth Against War and Fascism, the youth arm of Workers World Party. The PSC was formed in response to a request for help from prisoners at Auburn, N.Y. When the Auburn 6 went to trial, PSC members had demonstrated in support of them, even in blizzard conditions. When the Attica rebellion broke out, the PSC moved quickly to raise money and rent buses so prisoners' relatives could get to the prison compound. When the Attica brothers in D Block called for formation of the observers' committee, they requested a PSC representative be part of it. Prisoners trusted the PSC delegate, Tom Soto, to get their messages to their families and friends. Also in the observers' committee were representatives of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Party, New York State Assemblymember Arthur O. Eve, lawyer William Kunstler and others. ROCKEFELLER THE BUTCHER Outside, the PSC was working with others to help get legal assistance to prisoners and their families. PSC organizers helped give voice to the prisoners' demands. While Soto was inside with the prisoners, a PSC delegation was outside demonstrating unconditional support for the prisoners' demands. Throughout, the pressure on the prisoners was unbelievably high. They knew their lives were at stake. But their solidarity and unity never wavered. They never broke ranks. And they never gave up. On Sept. 12 the prisoners announced there could be a peaceful resolution to the conflict if Rockefeller would open negotiations with them. Instead, he dispatched National Guard, state troopers and deputized prison guards to re-take the prison by armed force. The assault came on Sept. 13. Rockefeller ordered a military attack on the prison. It was a murderous assault that even meant killing 10 of the state's own, its prison guards. This was an acceptable sacrifice in the larger interests of protecting the state and the ruling class. A thousand state troopers, sheriff's deputies, and prison guards armed with automatic weapons and nausea gas stormed the prison. After 15 minutes, the assault had left 28 people lying dead and hundreds wounded on the 55-acre grounds. State officials, aided by compliant news media, put out the lie that the prisoners had slashed the throats of the 10 guards who died. Autopsies later proved that, like the 18 murdered prisoners, they had all been killed by gunshots from the state's assault, ordered by Nelson Rockefeller. A GLIMPSE OF WHAT CAN BE What were the Attica prisoners fighting for? Freedom from oppression for all poor and working people. Their demands were simple, reasonable, and just. The prison authorities tried to divide the prisoners--but they remained united, even in the face of death. And their valiant insurrection inspired prisoners around the country to fight on. A wave of prison rebellions spread like wildfire. Walpole, Mass. Leavenworth, Texas. Atlanta, Ga. Terre Haute, Ind. Wayne County, Mich. Alderson, W.Va., Comstock and Elmira, N.Y. In all, some 200,000 prisoners expressed solidarity with the Attica brothers and their fighting spirit. Today, the prisoners' struggle for freedom continues to be part of the working-class struggle. As jobs disappear and wages fall, more and more of the poorest workers end up in prison. Prisoners are the most oppressed, most ill-treated, most brutalized segment in this racist society. But Attica proved that revolutionary people can change the world. In five days in 1971, thanks to the brothers at Attica, workers and oppressed people got a glimpse of what could be possible, if the workers could take over in a struggle with the ruling class: working to create a humane society, unity and class solidarity, rejection of racism, and workers' control. Just as July 14 is marked in France as Bastille Day-- commemorating the 1789 day when the masses stormed the hated Paris prison, freeing inmates and propelling the French Revolution forward--the Attica rebellion should be recognized in this country. Instead, the ruling class has tried to consign Attica to a lesson in prison mismanagement. But it was much more than that. It was a shining moment in the history of the working-class struggle against racism and repression. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)