A Forum: OVERTURN THE BAN OF REVOLUTION NEWSPAPER! End Political Censorship in Prisons Nationwide
Sunday December 12 at 3pm, information 213-840-5348 MRF 340 (Third Floor) Social Work Building (near corner of Jefferson and Hoover, across from Shrine Auditorium on USC Campus - Plenty of street parking on Sunday) University of Southern California (USC) Featuring Speakers: Clyde Young, Revolution Newspaper on the ban of Revolution newspaper at Pelican Bay State Prison and other US prisons Stephen Rohde, Chair, ACLU Foundation of Southern California on "Prisoners and the First Amendment" Laura Magnani, Interim Regional Director, Pacific Mountain Region, American Friends Service Committee on "Ending Torture and Racism in CA Prisons" Should prison officials have the right to politically censor newspapers they subjectively do not agree with? If discussion of actual alternatives for the economic and social structure of society and news that deviates from the dominant mainstream media can be banned, then what is left of the meaning of freedom of speech? Do prisoners, as human beings, have a right to develop as critical thinkers and explore alternative solutions to the plight of the people and of the planet itself? Do prisoners have the right to educate and transform themselves in prison? What is the reality in CA prisons in the "Security Housing Units" and "Behavioral Modification Units" and what will it take to end political retaliation, torture, racism and cruelty in CA prisons? In early 2010, Revolution newspaper voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party -- was banned at California's Pelican Bay State Prison and Chuckawalla Valley State Prison. Prison authorities alleged that Revolution newspaper "has been determined to be contraband because it promotes disruption and overthrow of the U.S. government and incites violence to do so " and, further, that the newspaper "incites racial violence and promotes governmental anarchy." The banning of any newspaper, especially alternative voices that challenge and expose the status quo, is chilling and intolerable. It is even more so when censorship is done by officials and agencies of the government. As this forum and cultural program will reveal and explore, through reading and debating Revolution newspaper, "racial" barriers between prisoners have come down. In fact, through reading Revolution newspaper men living in dungeons dominated by pornography and fundamentalist religion have come to understand and oppose the oppression of women and all of humanity and have learned to understand the world and the possibilities to radically change it. At this event, a special multi-media cultural performance Letters from the Hellholes of Prison will bring this to life. At the forum speakers will explain why prisoners, like the rest of us, should have the right to explore alternative analyses and solutions. They will clarify that any infringement on this right has ominous implications throughout the prison system in the U.S. and for the broader society at large. The forum will explain that the ban of Revolution newspaper is an immediate and serious threat to freedom of speech and of the press and it will uphold the right of prisoners to engage in critical thinking and to have a "life of the mind". It will also feature a presentation on solitary confinement as torture. A unique first-hand account of torture, cruelty and racism at High Desert State Prison will be presented and panelists will be encouraged to promote "new paradigms" for reaching a world beyond such prisons, for reaching the kind of world we'd all really want to live in. Event Co-Sponsors: Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund Dramastage-Qumran Forensic Social Work Caucus, USC ACLU of Southern California Interfaith Communities United For Justice and Peace (ICUJP) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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