Iowa authorities have decided to allow union and political activist Mark Curtis to appear before the state Board of Parole on November 21, the first time in three years. This decision is the product of growing pressure on the state as more and more people are asking, "Why is Mark Curtis still in prison?"
Even though Curtis has met the requirements for release on parole under Iowa law for a number of years, the authorities have refused to let him go. Curtis has served more than seven years in state prison. Two years ago he served out his frame-up conviction of rape. He is now being held solely on a charge of burglary, tacked on by county prosecutors weeks after his arrest to add the threat of a longer sentence.
For the last seven years, prison and parole officials have treated Curtis as a "dangerous man." Their goal has been to break him, to destroy his defense, and to set an example to intimidate others who are active in their unions and coming into politics today.
The decision of parole officials to grant Curtis a hearing November 21 is a break with this pattern. Under the pressure of the length of time Curtis has served, the fact he has remained a political activist and has won respect defending the rights of prisoners, and the growing public attention to his case, parole officials have been forced to initiate the process that will ultimately lead to Curtis's freedom.
The stakes in this fight are important for unionists, working farmers, and all fighters. The rights and conditions of immigrant workers-from Proposition 187 in California to raids in the packinghouses of the Midwest-are becoming an increasingly important question for working people.
In Grand Island, Nebraska, for instance, workers at IBP struggled for years to organize into the United Food and Commercial Workers, to protect their health, wages, and working conditions. As the workers got close to forcing a vote in 1993, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, in collusion with the company, organized to raid the factory, seize hundreds of workers from Mexico and other countries, and deport them. The organizing drive had to start over and confront divisions in the workforce sown by the raid. Finally last month, despite the raids and fierce resistance by IBP, they succeeded in voting in the UFCW.
This question is at the heart of the Curtis fight. He was arrested hours after speaking out in Spanish in defense of 17 coworkers from Mexico and El Salvador who had been taken into custody in an immigration raid on the Monfort packing plant in 1988. When he was taken to the Des Moines City Jail, he was brutally beaten by city cops who yelled at him that he was a "Mexican lover, just like you love those coloreds."
Curtis is still in prison because he is an example of what the rulers fear today, a rank-and-file militant worker who is willing to fight to unify the working class-native and foreign-born, Black and white, women and men-against the employers' offensive.
In addition to Curtis's refusal to be broken by the bosses' prisons, state officials must take into account the impact of this year's widespread revelations concerning cop beatings, racism and frame-ups. From Mark Fuhrman in the O.J. Simpson case to revelations of cop frame-ups in Philadelphia and Atlanta, police victimizations like that of Curtis are more difficult to defend politically.
In response to the stepped-up economic and political offensive of the rulers, new layers of activists have entered politics. Curtis's fight has won a response from those who stepped forward to demonstrate October 14 and 21 against the U.S. embargo against Cuba; who have been forced on strike by the Detroit News, Firestone, and Caterpillar; and who have moved into action to defend abortion rights, among others.
The fight to win freedom for Mark Curtis has reached a new stage. Let's use the last few days before the November 21 hearing to put more pressure on the authorities by demanding: Parole Mark Curtis now!