The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.19           May 17, 1999 
 
 
Letters  

Abuse of women in prison
In the March 29, 1999, issue of the Militant, you ran a letter that I wrote concerning prisoners' rights. Enclosed is an article that was run in the March 29 edition of the Connecticut Post. The article [on two female prisoners who have filed petitions protesting the pat-down searches that they are subjected to by male guards at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut] is exactly representative of the abuses and issues that I had in mind when I wrote my original letter.

The women prisoners mentioned in the article must be commended on their effort to stand up and fight for a change in a system that clearly holds the upper hand, because they must live in that very system.

Support must be given to these women and to all those that stand and fight for what is right and to change what is going on.

I want to comment on the fact that the staff writer for the Connecticut Post who wrote that article (Michael P. Mayko) had to be critical of these two women and make the comments about their crimes, as if to imply that what happens to them now as convicts is justified because of the crimes that they committed.

I don't know Trinia Holder, one of the plaintiffs, but I do know that trying to slander her by writing about the crimes that she committed is wrong and I cannot see what bearing her crimes have on the crimes now being committed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons against her and other women.

I do know Beatrice Codianni-Robles very well, and I have watched from the very beginning of her ordeal the repeated attacks on her by the press in Connecticut. Beatrice Codianni- Robles is my mother, and I say to Mr. Mayko and to the rest of the press that slander her: Find your integrity and report on the real and true issues and facts, not on the mistakes and false accusations that envelope Beatrice and all the other women of her integrity, determination, and character that must endure the pain and blatant sexual abuse that they are trying to stop.

The press will protect the victim of sexual abuse by keeping the name of the victim confidential. But when a woman is brave enough to use her inner pain and suffering as the catalyst for change and she is a prisoner, it is her past deeds that are focused on - deeds that have nothing to do with the issue at hand.

Support these brave women in their struggle!

A prisoner

Niantic, Connecticut

Faculty reject contract
"I may have a Ph.D., but I'm not stupid." Sentiments like this were common as Cal State Long Beach faculty voted 183 to 70 to reject the tentative agreement between the California Faculty Association (CFA) and the chancellor's office of the California State University (CSU) system. Statewide, the agreement was defeated by a vote of 2,230 to 1,748, or 57 percent to 43 percent.

Acceptance of the agreement would have meant that faculty -and the union - relinquished control of the university to the chancellor and to the idea that the university should be run like a business. Academic freedom would exist in name only.

For 16 years student fees have steadily increased, as have class sizes. The percentage of full-time tenured faculty has steadily declined, as nearly one-half of the faculty are now temporary, part-time lecturers. Chancellor Charles Reed is also proposing year-round CSU operation.

The salaries of CSU faculty have declined 8 percent in terms of buying power since 1991. CSU faculty salaries lag 11 percent behind that of comparable universities. While the contract proposal offered a 3 percent pay raise for professors, most CSU campus presidents and other top administrators received pay raises of 12 percent or more (the second of 3 planned annual raises).

Perhaps the most galling feature of the tentative agreement was the so-called "merit pay" scheme being forced on faculty. As a CFA flyer noted, "Most CSU faculty are repelled by the increased use of `merit' pay raises as promoted by Chancellor Reed and the CSU Trustees. Faculty reject their distortions of the terms `accountability' and `merit.' Faculty who have done excellent work for 10 to 30 years deeply resent the idea that they will `perform better' if they dance the tune of the campus president so as to gain scarce, discretionary (`merit') pay raises." This unfair system is divisive and destructive for faculty morale.

In response to Chancellor Charles Reed's unilateral imposition of work rules following the rejection of the contract, CFA's statewide assembly voted to authorize a range of job actions, up to and including a strike, at CSU's 22 campuses. This is the first imposition and strike vote in the institution's history.

The vote was taken after consultation with professors, librarians and counselors around the CSU system revealed nearly unanimous support for the work actions.

CFA will now ask the AFL-CIO, county central labor councils, the Teamsters union and the California Teachers Association for strike sanction.

Gene Ruyle

Long Beach, California  
 
 
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