Prison officials in Florida have banned an issue of the Militant in violation of inmates’ constitutional rights and the right of the Militant to reach its subscribers behind bars. Aided by the Militant’s attorney, David Goldstein, we are fighting to overturn the ruling. Join us!
On May 17 the paper received a notice from authorities at the Jackson Correctional Institution in Malone, Florida, that they had impounded issue no. 17, dated April 29, for running a photo they claim “shows dead person being paraded around on a motorcycle; magazine depict hatred toward a specific race.”
What they don’t say is that this widely printed Associated Press photo illustrates an article opposing Jew-hatred. It shows the body of a Jewish man murdered by Hamas in its Oct. 7 pogrom in Israel and driven around to cheering among the Islamist group’s supporters in Gaza City.
The same picture has appeared in other news media in the U.S. and worldwide, including the Boston Herald, U.S. News & World Report, Spectrum News NY1, and Proceso Mexico.
The charge that the Militant is spreading “hatred toward a special race” is an outrage. The photo is part of a Militant feature reprinting the first chapter of the new Pathfinder book The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class.
The newspaper each week has been campaigning against Jew-hatred and in defense of Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews.
They claim this issue of the paper “is dangerously inflammatory” and “advocates or encourages riot, insurrection, rebellion, organized prison protest.”
Florida prison authorities have attempted to ban the Militant on numerous occasions over the last decade, but the socialist newsweekly challenged each attempt and in the overwhelming majority of cases the bans were overturned. Our appeals have won support from the National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN America, Amnesty International, Florida Press Association, American Civil Liberties Union Florida, and unions and prisoners’ rights groups.
This is the first time Florida officials have tried to impose a ban on the Militant in 15 months.
“Join us in pushing back this blatant attempt to violate the right of workers behind bars to read the news they want and freedom of the press,” said Militant editor John Studer.
Letters can be emailed to Saritza.Legault@fdc.myflorida.com or to Florida Department of Corrections, Literature Review Committee, 501 South Calhoun St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500, with copies to themilitant.com.