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Attica

By VVAW

On September 13, 1971, over 1000 storm troopers under direct orders from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, assaulted D-Yard in Attica Prison and murdered 43 people. The reason for this brutal attack was not to free 38 hostages: they were being well-treated by the brothers--and 10 of them were killed by the Rockefeller troops. The reason was to attempt to destroy the tremendous unity which had grown up among the 1280 prisoners in D-Yard, a unity which had overcome the racism which prisons use to keep the people divided.

The Attica Rebellion was not the first uprising in prison. It was certainly not the last. The killing which became so public at Attica goes on daily in the prisons of America; sometimes the murders become public knowledge--as in the cases of Whitney Hurst, one of the Leavenworth Brothers, murdered in the Wyandotte County Jail, or Robert Forsythe, gassed to death by guards at McAlester, Oklahoma. More often, prisoners are quietly murdered in their cells; their deaths, if anyone hears about them at all, are covered up a illness or suicide.

The same brutality is going on in the streets, where third-world and poor people are shot by police. A few of these cases, also, become public knowledge--cases like Tyrone Guyton in Oakland, or Clifford Glover in Noew York City--when the people unite against police tactics. But the back pages of any major city newspaper give daily examples of the "legal" murders in the ghetto prison of this county.

ATTICA MEANS ALL OF US. And what happened at Attica prison is still happening to us all. Though the tactics have changed, the same system of repression is still trying to crush the 61 indicted Attica Brothers, now through the courts. Just as the Brothers in Attica united during the Rebellion, more and more people are united behind the fight against the prison/court/legal system called "justice."

Conditions in Attica were the spark that set off the Rebellion: 25 cents a day wages; five-minute parole hearings (the parole board is seen as a vitally important door to freedom by many prisoners--to be dismissed immediately simply underlines the jive nature of the whole system); constant abuse by the all-white, small-town guards (2/3s of the prisoners were third-world, the great majority from the cities). As a result, on September 9, 1971, the prisoners took control of their prison; for four days, black, brown, and white prisoners worked together, struggling against their common enemy.

Rockefeller refused all pleas for him to go to Attica to negotiate and avoid the bloodletting. He ordered the attack. Guards and state troopers, armed with inaccurate shotguns and hunting rifles (with "dum-dum" bullets--illegal in international warfare under the Geneva convention), charged D-Yard; one out of ten people was hit by gunfire. Rockefeller said of his storm troopers: "I think they did a superb job." Nixon went on TV to congratulate Rockefeller on his handling of the situation. Even then, however, the massacre wasn't over; leaders of the Rebellion, seen alive after the attack, were later found dead, bringing Rockefeller's body count to 43. Despite guarantees from prison administrators that there would be no physical reprisals, 45% of the men in the yard had, according to doctors who examined them, "bruises, lacerations, and broken bones."

The Rockefeller forces did not count on the public outrage at their acts. All their cover stories collapsed. For instance, the story that hostages had their throats cut by prisoners, the first story to hit the media, was shown to be a lie after medical exams were completed. Rockefeller's own appointed commission could only find evidence of state brutality and violation of basic human rights.

An all-white grand jury handed 42 indictments against 61 Brothers; the racist nature of the jury was so obvious that the court was forced to move the trails from Attica to Buffalo. People throughout the country are aware that there have been no indictments against the guards and troopers who did the killing. And the real criminal is now vice-president nominee.

In the three years since the Rebellion, none of the original 28 demands of the prisoners have been met; instead, the state has constructed new guard towers and has armed the guards with M-16s. But the Attica Brothers, and the people around the country who work in their support, are struggling for more than just a few improvements at Attica. In the words of one of the Brothers, discussing reforms, "Our cry goes far beyond these realms. In effect what can happen is 'the placing of the cart before the horse.' What good is having TV in our cells, tasty food, programs, conjugal visits, etc if we are still coming in with 25 years? When our freedoms are still deprived? When as a class we are considered 3rd or 4th class citizens? No, the changes have to be back further than concentrating on the criminal justice system. And even further than when police place handcuffs on a person. The changes must be focused upon the road from which the horse and cart came from, and where it leads. Reform cannot do that."

The immediate battle of the Brothers is in the court where the racist, repressive system is still trying to silence them and all that they have come to stand for. And the Brothers still need the support of the people. They need the visible support such as the Rally in Buffalo on September 14 in Commemoration of those who died 3 years earlier. Financial support is also needed; Attica Brothers are available to speak. Money from their speaking tours has gone a long ways toward financing a defense against the $9 million of state funds spent in prosecuting the Brothers. Attica News, and films on Attica--as well as further information--can be obtained through the Attica Brothers Legal Defense, 147 Franklin St., Buffalo, NY 14202. And, around the country, people are confronting Rockefeller with his Attica crimes.

Prisons and the role they play in repressing and exploiting the people of the country are one link in the chains of imperialism. Imperialism needs prisons--both Attica and the ghetto. Imperialism's strongest enemy is UNITY among the people.