Join the Militant in fighting to reverse the impoundment of two issues of the paper — no. 28, impounded in September, and no. 36, a month later — by the Missouri Department of Corrections. No substantive reason is given for the ban, a clear violation of prisoners’ constitutional rights and the right of the Militant to reach its subscribers behind bars.
For both issues prison authorities sent a “Censorship Notification” informing a Militant subscriber at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, “that the security of this institution will be at risk if the material is delivered to you” because it “contains information which can be used to instill violence or hatred among the offender population.”
For issue no. 28 the notice further stated the paper “promotes, incites, advocates, facilitates or otherwise presents a risk of lawlessness, violence, anarchy or rebellion against a government authority.”
Militant attorney David Goldstein requested authorities provide specific information about what they were objecting to in issue no. 28. He received a voicemail response claiming the issue was banned because it “discusses lynching and encourages strikes.”
On Oct. 17 Goldstein filed an appeal calling for the ban to be overturned. Three days later authorities impounded Militant issue no. 36.
PEN America: ‘Reverse the impoundment’
“I am writing on behalf of PEN America, the U.S. branch of the world’s leading international literary and human rights organization, to call upon the Missouri Department of Corrections to reverse its decision to impound the Aug. 11 and Oct. 13 issues of the Militant,” wrote Tim Richardson, the group’s program director on journalism and disinformation, in an Oct. 28 letter sent to the MDOC.
“Prisoners have a right to read the Militant’s reports of prison conditions and protests around the globe,” he said. “The impounding of the specified issue of the Militant serves as an unwarranted restriction of freedom of the press and prisoners’ rights.”
Since the Militant began publishing 97 years ago, it has proudly supported the labor movement and promotes solidarity with workers on strike against boss attacks on wages and conditions. Still, “the MDOC has never previously censored the Militant,” Goldstein wrote in the paper’s appeal, which “routinely reports on labor strikes in each weekly issue.”
“The Militant currently has 338 subscribers in at least 163 state, federal and municipal prisons in 32 states,” he noted. “No other facility in the U.S. with subscribers to the Militant, including other MDOC facilities, found Vol. 89 No. 28 to constitute a threat to prison security, or otherwise to present a reason for censorship.”
Issue no. 28 ran an article headlined, “Build solidarity with Teamsters in strike battle with Republic Services,” reporting on the fight of union sanitation workers in the Boston area for improved pay, health care and working conditions. There were four other articles in the “On the Picket Line” column.
The only mention of authorities’ other objection, the word “lynch,” is from a short Aug. 8, 1975, excerpt in the weekly “25, 50, and 75 Years Ago” column about a “lynch-mob terror” attack in South Boston by enemies of school desegregation there.
The banning of the Militant by the Missouri Department of Corrections is “discriminatory and arbitrary,” Goldstein wrote. It’s “in violation of the Militant’s rights to Due Process and Equal Protection under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.”
So why did Missouri prison authorities impound issue no. 36? All they’ve told the inmate subscriber is the issue is banned because, “1. constitutes a threat to the security, good order or discipline of the institution; 2. may facilitate or encourage criminal activity; or 3. may interfere with the rehabilitation of an offender.”
No indication of which article is the guilty party. Goldstein has requested prison officials provide more information about the reason for the impoundment, and the Militant will be appealing it as well.
Join with PEN America and others in defending constitutional protections. Get letters from unions, defenders of free speech and others, asking that the ban on both issues of the Militant be overturned. Letters should be sent to:
DAI Director, Department of Corrections, 2729 Plaza Drive, PO Box 236, Jefferson City, MO 65102. Please email a copy to the Militant at themilitant@mac.com.