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Nationwide Prison Strike Launches in 24 States and 40 Facilities over Conditions & Forced Labor
Today prisoners in at least 24 states are set to participate in a nationally coordinated strike that comes on the 45th anniversary of the prison uprising at Attica. Much like the prisoners who took over New York’s infamous correctional facility in 1971, today’s prisoners are protesting long-term isolation, inadequate healthcare, overcrowding, violent attacks and slave labor. We feature an excerpt from our interview in May with one of the organizers, Kinetik Justice, who joined us by phone from solitary confinement in Holman Correctional Facility. He is co-founder of the Free Alabama Movement. He was serving his 28th month in solitary for organizing a similar protest in 2014.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Today prisoners in at least 24 states are set to participate in a nationally coordinated strike that comes on the 45th anniversary of the prison uprising at Attica. Much like the prisoners who took over New York’s infamous correctional facility in 1971, today’s prisoners are protesting long-term isolation, inadequate healthcare, overcrowding, violent attacks and slave labor.
Today’s actions follow similar protests earlier this year. In March, thousands in Michigan prisons launched a hunger strike after private vendor Aramark Correctional Services served them unrefrigerated meat, and then the company called Trinity, that was brought in to replace them, served small portions of watery food. The same company prompted protests in Georgia when it underfed prisoners to the point that one resorted to eating toothpaste.
AMY GOODMAN: In May, men in several Alabama prisons began a 10-day strike on International Workers’ Day over unpaid labor and poor conditions. Organizers said guards retaliated by serving meals that are significantly smaller than usual, a practice they call "bird feeding," and by putting the facilities on lockdown, partially to allow guards to perform jobs normally carried out by prisoners.
During the strike, Democracy Now! spoke with Kinetik Justice, who joined us by phone from solitary confinement in Holman Correctional Facility, co-founder of the Free Alabama Movement, one of the organizers of today’s strike, as well. He was serving his 28th month in solitary for organizing a similar protest in 2014.
KINETIK JUSTICE: These strikes are our method for challenging mass incarceration. As we understand it, the prison system is a continuation of the slave system, and which in all entities is an economical system. Therefore, for the reform and changes that we’ve been fighting for in Alabama, we’ve tried petitioning through the courts. We’ve tried to get in touch with our legislators and so forth. And we haven’t had any recourse. Therefore, we understood that our incarceration was pretty much about our labor and the money that was being generated through the prison system, therefore we began organizing around our labor and used it as a means and a method in order to bring about reform in the Alabama prison system.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Kinetik Justice, speaking by phone from solitary confinement in Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama in May. ... Read More →
National Guard on Standby in North Dakota Before Court Ruling on Dakota Access Pipeline
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has activated the National Guard ahead of today’s ruling on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. government over the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is set to rule today on an injunction in a lawsuit challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to issue permits for the pipeline, arguing it violates the National Historic Preservation Act. This comes as over 1,000 people representing more than 100 Native American tribes are gathered along the Cannonball River by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to resist the pipeline’s construction. It’s been described as the largest unification of Native American tribes in decades. We go to North Dakota for an update from Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin today’s show in North Dakota, where Governor Jack Dalrymple has activated the National Guard ahead of today’s ruling on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. government over the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. Dalrymple said the National Guard will be deployed to a checkpoint along Highway 1806. As many as 100 additional guardsmen from the 191st Military Police Company will be on standby and could be deployed at any moment. The governor made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday.
GOV. JACK DALRYMPLE: Because of the increased and prolonged need for law enforcement resources, I have asked General Dohrmann to make available some North Dakota National Guard personnel to support law enforcement and augment their public safety efforts.
AMY GOODMAN: U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is set to rule today on an injunction in a lawsuit challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to issue permits for the pipeline, arguing it violates the National Historic Preservation Act.
This comes as over a thousand people representing more than 100 to 200 Native American tribes are gathered along the Cannonball River by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to resist the pipeline’s construction. It’s been described as the largest unification of Native American tribes in decades. This past weekend, the Dakota Access pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted the construction of the pipeline on a sacred tribal burial site.
PROTESTER 1: This guy maced me in the face. Look, it’s all over my sunglasses. Just maced me in the face.
PROTESTER 2: These people are just threatening all of us with these dogs. And she, that woman over there, she was charging, and it bit somebody right in the face.
AMY GOODMAN: The dog has blood in its nose and its mouth.
PROTESTER 2: And she’s still standing here threatening us.
AMY GOODMAN: Why are you letting their—her dog go after the protesters? It’s covered in blood!
VICTOR PUERTAS: Over there, with that dog. I was like walking. Throwed the dog on me and straight, even without any warning. You know? Look at this. Look at this.
AMY GOODMAN: That dog bit you?
VICTOR PUERTAS: Yeah, the dog did it, you know? Look at this. It’s there. It’s all bleeding.
AMY GOODMAN: To see our live report on the ground in North Dakota, go to democracynow.org.
For more, we go directly to North Dakota for an update from Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth. She’s Ojibwe from the Couchiching First Nation.
Tara, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you explain what’s happening on the ground, with the governor calling out the National Guard today?
TARA HOUSKA: The sense on the ground is one of kind of—you know, we know that this is happening. We know that the governor has called in the National Guard, that they are waiting for this court decision just like we are. I think that, you know, we are still very hopeful and resilient. And, you know, just last night there was a concert with True Pride Music, Nahko Bear and Immortal Technique, and, you know, hundreds and hundreds of tribal youth turned out for that. We’re still here. We’re still fighting. And at the same time, while this National Guard announcement was made, you know, we also saw that Bernie Sanders put out an amendment to, you know, stop this pipeline from happening by calling for an environmental impact statement. He has chosen to throw in and show his support for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and indigenous people generally.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tara, the protests have gotten much more attention this week than they did earlier in the week—big stories on the CBS Evening News and other national news networks. The New York Times has a front-page story today about how the Army Corps of Engineers basically removed hundreds of members of the Standing Rock Nation when they built the dam in that area. Your sense of how the attention now is focused in terms of possibly winning your fight?
TARA HOUSKA: This is a historic moment for indigenous people. They have come from all over the country to stand here with the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and to say, "No more. Enough is enough." So, to see this moment, I think that people are aware that indigenous people are still here. They’re aware that we have treaty rights, that we are no longer accepting any type of environmental injustice of a pipeline being sent through drinking water. You know, this is a moment in which we are standing up together.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you, Tara. You mentioned Bernie Sanders. What about presidential candidate Jill Stein, the Green presidential candidate, along with her running mate, Ajamu Baraka? They were—the county sheriff just issued misdemeanor charges against them, the pictures showing, and video, Jill Stein spray-painting on a bulldozer "I approve this message," you know, like a presidential candidate says on a commercial. So you have the county sheriff issuing charges against the presidential and vice-presidential candidate of the Green Party. But what about the—not clear who this security was on the ground on Saturday, who unleashed dogs who bit Native Americans, who had come to honor their tribal burial ground. Have there been any charges issued against any of these attackers?
TARA HOUSKA: I haven’t seen any charges issued against the attackers, as the North Dakota state—North Dakota police were actually standing there and not doing anything while these horrible attacks were occurring. This was, you know, deadly force, excessive force, used against people that were there to protect our sacred sites, to protect instead a easement for a pipeline. And nothing has been filed against them. You know, we’ve seen the sheriff painting Native—continuing to paint Native Americans as violent, as dangerous, as, you know, needing excessive police force and all of these different—you know, all these different aspects that are brought out essentially to silence our voices. And that doesn’t seem to be working very well for them.
AMY GOODMAN: Tara Houska, we want to thank you for being with us. We’ll continue to follow this. National campaigns director for Honor the Earth. When we come back from break, who is profiting from this pipeline? We’ll look at the banks and the oil companies. Stay with us. ... Read More →
Who Is Funding the Dakota Access Pipeline? Bank of America, HSBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo
We continue our conversation Food & Water Watch’s Hugh MacMillan about his new investigation that reveals the dozens of financial institutions that are bankrolling the Dakota Access pipeline, including Bank of America, HSBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. "They are banking on this company and banking on being able to drill and frack for the oil to send through the pipeline over the coming decades," MacMillan says. "So they’re providing the capital for the construction of this pipeline."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Juan, in a moment we’re going to be talking about the Attica prison uprising, but right now we’re going to be looking at the banks and who is funding the $3.8 billion pipeline, the Dakota Access pipeline.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, we’ll continue to—on Wednesday in Minneapolis—what we want to do is continue to cover the coverage of the standoff at Standing Rock over the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline with a look at who is profiting off of it. On Wednesday in Minneapolis, dozens protested at U.S. Bank Plaza, demanding U.S. Bank stop funding the pipeline. According to an investigation published by LittleSis, U.S. Bank has extended a $175 million credit line to Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, Saturday was the first day of a two-week call for actions against the financial institutions that are bankrolling the Dakota Access pipeline project.
We turn to Part 2 of our conversation with Hugh MacMillan, a senior researcher with Food & Water Watch whose new investigation reveals the dozens of financial institutions that are bankrolling what’s called DAPL, the Dakota Access pipeline. I began by asking Hugh what’s most important to understand about the corporate structure of the pipeline company.
HUGH MACMILLAN: Dakota Access, LLC, is a joint venture of Phillips 66 and a joint venture of two members of the Energy Transfer family—Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics. Enbridge and Marathon Oil have bought into this, this joint venture. Together, they now have about a 37 percent stake in the pipeline, in the Dakota Access pipeline.
AMY GOODMAN: How are the banks involved?
HUGH MACMILLAN: Well, that’s—they are banking on this company and banking on being able to drill and frack for the oil to send through the pipeline over the coming decades. So they’re providing the capital for the construction of this pipeline.
AMY GOODMAN: And explain what the banks are. Which banks are they? And how are they involved?
HUGH MACMILLAN: Well, I’ve got a list of the 17 banks that are specifically providing financing for this project. And it’s also coupled together with a Energy Transfer—Energy Transfer Partner project to convert an existing pipeline that would connect to the south end of the Dakota Access pipeline and run oil all the way down to the Gulf Coast, where there are refineries and also export infrastructure.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us that list of 17 banks?
HUGH MACMILLAN: I can. Citibank is the bank that’s been running the books on the project, and that’s the bank that beat the bushes and got other banks to join in. So, we have Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, SunTrust, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Mizuho Bank, TD Securities, ABN AMRO Capital, DNB First Bank—and that’s actually a bank based in Philly; it’s not the DNB Bank based in Norway, which is actually provided several hundred million to the Energy Transfer family separately—and ICBC London, SMBC Nikko Securities and Société Générale.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, it’s Citibank—is that right?—that’s running the books, as the report points out, for Energy Transfer and Sunoco Logistics, which own the Dakota Access pipeline?
HUGH MACMILLAN: That’s right, by and large. So they have the largest share, and they’ve spearheaded the effort. So, what we published in LittleSis was the 30-plus banks that have provided general financing for Sunoco Logistics and Energy Transfer Partners. Through working with Rainforest Action Network, we were able to—who has access to Bloomberg Terminal, we were able to determine these 17 banks that I just listed, who are providing the direct financing for the Dakota Access project and, in addition, for an Energy Transfer Partners project to extend this pipeline on down to Texas. So, collectively, this pipeline would run from near the Canadian border on down to the Gulf Coast of Texas over 1,800 miles.
AMY GOODMAN: I was just talking to an oil trucker in the plane back from North Dakota, and he trucks from the Bakken fields to other areas of North Dakota, just locally. And he said it is stunning to see the drop in demand for oil just in this past year. He has been trucking for four years. What about this decline in demand and what this will mean?
HUGH MACMILLAN: Well, you know, if you ask Morgan Stanley, they said a year ago that the oil producers are getting into prison shape—and without irony. So, you know, this is a long-term—these are long-term investments from the banks. There’s fully the—they fully expect the United States to maximize its production of oil and gas through widespread fracking.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, "prison shape"?
HUGH MACMILLAN: Well, I have a note here. They explain that "Some prisoners"—and I quote—"contrive clever equipment in workouts that result in fitness levels that surpass the traditional gym shape." And so they’re speaking in—they’re drawing an analogy to prisoners getting in good shape, drawing an analogy from that to oil and gas companies, fracking companies, learning how to do things more cheaply and more efficiently.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Hugh MacMillan, as we wrap up, what do you think is most important for people to understand about the corporate structure of the company, Dakota Access pipeline, that is building the Dakota Access pipeline?
HUGH MACMILLAN: Well, I think it’s important to see the forces behind this particular pipeline as the same forces behind numerous other pipelines across the country, both for—both to support fracking for tight oil as well as fracking for shale gas, all toward maximizing production of oil and gas, when the science is clear that we need to maximize what we keep in the ground. Our current policy has not made that switch. And if you look at the Department of Energy’s Quadrennial Technology Review published a year ago, you’ll see, under clean energy technologies, permeability manipulation is included, along with improved understanding of well integrity and improved understanding of injections and how they’re causing earthquakes, such as occurred over the weekend. The Quadrennial—
AMY GOODMAN: In Oklahoma.
HUGH MACMILLAN: That’s right, in Oklahoma. The Quadrennial Technology Review speaks of a future mastery of the subsurface toward maximizing production.
AMY GOODMAN: Hugh MacMillan, senior researcher with Food & Water Watch. His new investigation reveals the dozens of financial institutions that are bankrolling the Dakota Access pipeline. We’ll link to it at democracynow.org. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. ... Read More →
45 Years After Legendary Attica Prison Uprising, New Book Reveals State Role in Deadly Standoff
Today prisoners in at least 24 states are set to participate in a nationally coordinated strike that comes on the 45th anniversary of the prison uprising at Attica. Much like the prisoners who took over New York’s infamous correctional facility in 1971, they are protesting long-term isolation, inadequate healthcare, overcrowding, violent attacks and slave labor. We speak with the author of an explosive new book about the four-day standoff, when unarmed prisoners held 39 prison guards hostage, that ended when armed state troopers raided the prison and shot indiscriminately more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. In the end, 39 men would die, including 29 prisoners and 10 guards. We are also joined by David Rothenberg, who was a member of the Attica observers’ committee that was brought into Attica to negotiate on behalf of prisoners. He is founder of The Fortune Society.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, prisoners striking today say conditions are not much different from those that prompted the largest prison rebellion—one of the largest prison rebellions, 45 years ago at Attica. It was September 9, 1971, when state police raided the upstate New York prison, ending a protest against racism, officer beatings, rancid food, no rehabilitation programs and forced labor. For four days, the unarmed prisoners held 39 prison guards as hostages. On September 13th, then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered armed state troopers to raid the prison. Troopers then shot indiscriminately more than 2,000 rounds. In the end, 39 men would die, including 29 prisoners and 10 guards.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we’re joined by two guests, I want to turn to Attica prisoner Frank "Big Black" Smith. He died in 2004 at the age of 70. "Big Black," as he was known, became a chief spokesperson of the prisoners during the uprising. In 2000, he and other prisoners won a $12 million agreement from the state of New York. During the uprising, he was forced to lie on a table while officers beat and burned him. He was also threatened with castration and death. This is an excerpt from the film Ghosts of Attica, a Lumiere production, made by Court TV, that features Frank "Big Black" Smith and the late Liz Fink, who served as the lead attorney for the former Attica prisoners. The first voice you hear is Big Black.
FRANK "BIG BLACK" SMITH: People laying all over, and they’re all bleeding and bloody and stuff. You know, so everybody know now that it’s real, that this is it. You know, they’re here now. They’re in the yard now. They got control.
ELIZABETH FINK: State troopers just took their clubs and beat them down the stairs, broke people’s legs, hit them on the tibia and broke tibias. On their back, on their head, in their genitals, on their front, you know, wherever they could hit them, that’s where they beat them.
FRANK "BIG BLACK" SMITH: I’m telling you, my name is being called: "Where is Big Black? Where is Big Black? Get up, Black! Get up!" And he’s busting me with a [N-word] stick, pickaxe, and got a .38 in his hand. And I gets up. And he—bam! In my side, in my back. And made me run with my hand on my head over to the side. And before I got over there, two, three more correction officers with him now, and everybody’s hitting me.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Attica prisoner Frank "Big Black" Smith. He became a chief spokesperson for the prisoners during the uprising.
For more on Attica and its legacy, we’re joined by two guests. David Rothenberg is with us, member of the Attica observers’ committee, one of the 35 people who was brought into Attica to negotiate on behalf of the prisoners. He went on to found The Fortune Society. And Heather Ann Thompson joins us, an American historian, author, activist, who has written an explosive new book. It’s called Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. She’s professor of history at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her book opens with an epigraph from Attica correction officer Edward Cunningham. He says, quote, "You have read in the paper all these years of the My Lai Massacre. That was only 170-odd men. We are going to end up with 1500 men here, if things don’t go right, at least 1500."
Heather Ann Thompson, explain why you begin with that.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, it’s really important for folks to realize that this rebellion of nearly 1,300 men for basic human rights ends brutally when the state of New York retakes the prison. And even the hostages were, at the end of this rebellion, begging the governor not to come in with force and to do the right thing—improve conditions in the prison. And that quote and several others in the very beginning of the book really reflect the desire of all participants to come to a peaceful resolution and finally do something about the terrible conditions in Attica.
AMY GOODMAN: For so many years, that 39 number, 39 men dead, the state authorities said that the prisoners slit the throats of their hostages. That turned out not to be true in even one case. Were they all killed by the state troopers?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Yes. On the day of the retaking, every death was at the hands of trooper or correction officer bullets. And the state stood out and told the entire world that the prisoners had in fact killed the hostages. And that story had a devastating effect on the long-term—on the future of criminal justice policy in this country. It really fuels the engine of punitive policy. And to this day, citizens will tell you that the prisoners killed the hostages at Attica.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, one of the interesting things, this was at a period in American history when racial conflict was perhaps at its strongest, but yet Attica represented an interracial rebellion.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: That’s right.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: There were white inmates and Latino inmates and African-American inmates who banded together. You tell the story of Sam Melville, the Weather Underground member who was in Attica at the time and participated in the rebellion. There were many Latinos. And, in fact, when we were in the Young Lords, we actually had a Young Lords group in Attica prison.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: That’s right.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And we had two of our members, Jose "Fi" Ortiz, who was a leader of the Young Lords, and then Jose Paris, "G.I.," who had come out of Attica, who went up there as part of the negotiating committee. So this was really an example of racial solidarity among an oppressed group.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Indeed. And that’s why it was so threatening to the state. Somehow, you have 1,300 men, who are otherwise divided by language or political persuasion or ethnicity or race, and they come together over the basic fundamental desire to be treated as human.
AMY GOODMAN: David Rothenberg, you were called in by the prisoners, one of the 35 people, along with William Kunstler and others, the late great lawyer. Talk about what your involvement was, why the prisoners wanted you there and what you found there.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Well, I had been—Fortune Society had just started, and we were a volunteer organization at the time. But we were in—I was in correspondence with Roger Champen and Herbert Blyden, two of the men who emerged as leaders. And we had a little, simple newsletter, which was banned. And we went to court and won. The federal courts ruled, Fortune v. McGinnis, who was the commissioner, that they had no right to censor the inmate reading material. So I think they thought that we were this powerful organization that could make changes. And when they took over and they asked—they didn’t trust the state in the negotiation; in the demand, they asked for a list of people to come in and act as observers, and my name was on the list. So I got a call from Arthur Eve, who was an assemblyman from Buffalo, saying, "Will you come up to Attica?" And I said, "Not alone." And two other guys from Fortune, Kenny Jackson and Mel Rivers, we flew up into the yard.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, David, the importance of having that group there? Because in most prison uprisings, there are no outside witnesses, but here you had this group of people, and not just Kunstler and you, but there were elected officials, Tom Wicker—
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Herman Badillo.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Tom Wicker of The New York Times. There was a large group of people that went up there and actually then had a different version of events than the official version.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: This was a politically sophisticated group of inmates, which is why the state thought that outside revolutionaries were sponsoring—were igniting the trouble. What in fact caused the trouble is you can’t put 2,000 people in cages, treat them brutally and not think there’s going to be repercussions. That’s what happened at Attica.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe some of these pictures you brought in? And especially, as you know, because you’re on WBAI in New York, speak for a radio audience, describe in detail.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Well, these—this is the—that’s Commissioner Russell Oswald meeting with some of the leaders. I recognize L.D. Barkley and Roger Champen and Herbert Blyden. That’s people that I know. I think that’s Flip Crowley there. And—
AMY GOODMAN: And another picture is prisoners naked in the yard.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Oh, this was horrible. They stripped everybody. And then they put them—when they brought them inside, they smacked them with—in their ankles and their knees and their testicles, so that it was brutal. It was—you know, they could have taken over the institution by gassing it, which they did. They didn’t have to fire a bullet.
AMY GOODMAN: Frank "Big Black" Smith, when he was laid out—
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —describe. They made him hold a football with his chin—
DAVID ROTHENBERG: For hours.
AMY GOODMAN: —laid out naked on a table, as they beat him. Why the football?
DAVID ROTHENBERG: It was there.
AMY GOODMAN: Heather Ann?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, it was there. And he was—he was one of the players on a football team. And he had been targeted because the state accused him of having castrated a guard. So they tortured him to say that if he dropped that football, they were going to shoot him. And he had every reason to believe it, since he had just witnessed, over the course of 15 minutes, another massacre.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Heather Ann Thompson, the—not only was the scandal of the actual massacre that occurred there that—at the rebellion itself, but then the cover-up afterward. If you would talk about your quest to find out what actually happened?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, so, for 45 years, the majority of the records for Attica remain sealed by the State Attorney General’s Office, or at least very difficult to get. And the reason is that for all of the death at Attica, no member of law enforcement was ever held responsible. So, the book was the journey to figure out who had created so much trauma; what had happened in the Governor’s Office to lead to this retaking; who were the members of law enforcement that not only shot their weapons, but indeed the highest levels of the state police, who worked very had to tamper with evidence, to conceal evidence and to protect their own. And that was a key journey for finding out that information.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you traced the chain all the way up to Washington, D.C., and the White House, right? In terms of—
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Indeed. The story of Attica resonates nationally and internationally, both because it was televised and people cared very much what happened there, but also because at every level, for the next 45 years, from the lowest-level workman’s comp bureaucrat to the presidency of the United States, the Supreme Court, the Justice Department, everyone turned a blind eye to the torture that continued to go on behind the walls of Attica in the wake of the rebellion. And so that story is very important.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: There are heroes in her book, and one of them is Malcolm Bell—
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Indeed.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: —who was a conservative Republican who was hired by the state to be an investigator. And he couldn’t remain quiet, because he saw the cover-up.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: That’s right.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: And he emerges from your book as a really heroic figure.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Yes.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: It changed his life, because he discovered the truth.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: There are a few heroes, and they really stand out—the coroner, who went public, at great expense to himself, to tell the world that, no, in fact, the prisoners hadn’t killed the hostages, that it was trooper bullets. Malcolm Bell is a hero because he blew the whistle on the inside of the Attica investigation, that in fact they were not going to go after the police, no matter that all the deaths were at the police’ hands.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about that call you received from a clerk in Buffalo about this trove of documents?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, indeed. I had been looking and looking for Attica documents, combing upstate New York, and happened upon a whole series of documents that happened to just be in a random room in a courthouse. And, frankly, I don’t think that they knew what was there. It was a wall full of Attica documents. And the most important in those were evidence from the state’s own investigation, its own records about who had done what at Attica.
AMY GOODMAN: And we’re going to talk about who did what after this break. We’re speaking with Heather Ann Thompson, who wrote the book Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. David Rothenberg with us, who is a fixture in New York, is a writer and a WBAI producer, the Pacifica Radio station here in New York. At the time, though, in 1971, he was a member of the Attica observers’ committee, one of 35 people brought into Attica to negotiate on behalf of the prisoners. He’s founder of The Fortune Society. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: "Attica Blues" by Archie Shepp, here on Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. It’s the 45th anniversary of the Attica uprising, one of the largest prison uprisings in U.S. history, began September 9th, 1971, over prison conditions. On September 13th, five days later—four days later, the New York governor, Nelson Rockefeller, called out the state troopers. They opened fire, killing 39 men, prisoners and guards, critically wounding scores of others and injuring hundreds more.
Our guest is the woman who’s written the definitive book on this. It’s just out, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. Heather Ann Thompson, a professor, American historian at University of Michigan. And David Rothenberg, who, back in '71, was a member of the Attica observers' committee, one of 35 people brought into Attica to negotiate on behalf of the prisoners. He would go on to found—no, he went—he was—founded already, right?
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: The Fortune Society, for people coming out of prison, to help them transition. The Muslim prisoners, David?
DAVID ROTHENBERG: They—well, and in your book, you validate what we witnessed. It was the Muslim brothers that protected the guards that were the hostages. They surrounded them to make—they knew that they had to be protected and saved.
AMY GOODMAN: Heather Ann?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Indeed. I mean, the yard was peaceful, the yard was organized, in no small measure to the Muslim brothers in the yard, the Attica brothers, who were insistent that the hostages were important and that the men sitting there in that circle would have mattresses to sleep on and food to eat. And that was crucial, because, at the end, that’s why the guards are asking Rockefeller to try to help these guys and do the right thing, rather than gun them down, which, of course, is what happens.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yet, you also write in your book that Minister Farrakhan, who the prisoners had requested to be one of the negotiators, declined to do so, because, supposedly, the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, had told him not to.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, that was certainly evidence that I found. But it was interesting, because a lot of people were asked to come, and, for a variety of reasons, they couldn’t be there. And yet, there are so many observers, such as David, and those folks played a remarkable role. I mean, they kept insisting again and again that they stick to the negotiations, that the state negotiated in good faith, and, indeed, at the very end, were calling Rockefeller, insisting that he at least come to Attica, at least assure these guys that if they surrendered, that they would not be harmed. And he refused to do it. And in—
AMY GOODMAN: Why?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, for multiple reasons, but not the least of which was his own political ambitions. His party had moved very much rightward. He wanted to impress the Republican Party that he was tough on crime. But also it was a black rebellion, and—
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Describe what you write in the book about the breakfast. I’m reading the book, and I just threw it down when she was describing the planning strategy by the state.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Yeah, well, they were very clearly intent on going in with force from the very beginning. The only reason, incidentally, they didn’t go in earlier was because of the observer team there. And when they finally do go in, I discovered that they deliberately don’t tell the prisoners that it’s going to be a bloodbath if they don’t give up. They don’t give them an ultimatum. And while it’s happening, Rockefeller is eating a scrambled egg breakfast with bacon in his mansion and is being congratulated by Richard Nixon for having handled this so beautifully.
AMY GOODMAN: What was Richard—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about Oswald, the warden, his role?
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Yeah, the commissioner.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, Oswald was a very tragic figure.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Yes.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: He was a liberal, a prison reformer. It was, really, at his insistence that negotiations continued as long as they did with his own people in the Department of Corrections. But at the end of the day, he proves very ineffective in halting what has been decided above his pay grade, which is there’s going to be a retaking.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: I always said he was a good man who failed history.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Yeah, I think that’s right.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: He didn’t rise, because he had been parole—he became commissioner of correction because of his progressive position—
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Right.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: —as parole head. And he was considered a leader. And the fact that he went up there was unprecedented. He went—one of the pictures is him sitting with the—he went in the yard. But he was—he didn’t understand them.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Exactly, exactly.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: He was—he was a—I don’t know how you describe a progressive academic—no, I don’t want to blame the academics.
AMY GOODMAN: Why—I want to ask about the negotiating team, you and the negotiating team. If you had stayed in the yard, would the state troopers have opened fire? What word did you get? Were you told to leave?
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Well, we were in and out. And eventually it was reduced down to five people—Clarence Jones, Kunstler, John Dunne, Herman Badillo—because we felt we were too cumbersome of a group. But there were points in the—we would meet after the takeover for months and months at Kunstler’s house. And the feeling was, we would have been killed had we stayed there.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: One of the most important things in the book that I discovered was there was a myth for years after Attica that the hostages that were killed was—was a mistake, accidental, shouldn’t have happened. And it’s very clear that the state knew the hostages were going to die. They discussed it before they went in. And their own state employees were dispensable. I think it’s pretty clear that had the observers been in there, that there was no controlling this once it was unleashed. These prisoners were at the mercy of people who had been, for four days, passing out weapons indiscriminately. And when they went in, these troopers took off their identifying badges so that they would not be held accountable for what then happened.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: They used some—some of them used their personal guns, as well?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Absolutely.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you also seem to—talk about this question of when some of the prisoners were killed. Was it all in the initial shooting, or were some deliberately killed by the guards afterwards?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, I think the evidence is pretty clear that, as David has said elsewhere, law enforcement had control of this prison from the moment they dropped the gas. The gas is a powder. It clung to people’s nasal passages, made them sick, incapacitated everyone in the yard. Then the shooting begins. For 15 minutes, it continues. And what is significant is that all of the observers reported later that they could still hear gunfire many hours later that day. And many of the prisoners reported that not only had people been killed after the retaking, but the very specific men had been targeted by law enforcement.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Barkley and Melville, people have told me that they had seen them alive after the takeover. L.D. Barkley, who was so eloquent and whose voice was heard on national television during the protest, was targeted, as was Sam Melville, who was perceived as a traitor to his race because he was white.
AMY GOODMAN: The second epigraph in the book is a quote from the national guardsman James O’Day, who describes an incident at Attica. This is the national guardsman: quote, "The officer pulled out a Phillips screwdriver and told the naked inmate to get on his feet or he’d stab the screwdriver into his rectum. ... Then he just started stabbing him."
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: That’s right. In the aftermath is when the real brutality begins. The doctors are trying to help prisoners, while guards are dumping them off of stretchers, kicking them, urinating into wounds, making the most horrific scene unfold. And, indeed, this national guardsman, among many, was trying to tell people outside what was happening. This particular man tried to get the Justice Department to look into this. He called the FBI. He called the Justice Department. And again, at every level, people abandoned these guys to this fate.
DAVID ROTHENBERG: Why the book is so powerful is, a lot of these stories I heard over the years, one by one, from individuals, as they came out. To see it collected at one time gives you that overwhelming sense of what the state did—and didn’t have to do.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you also say that there were some of the records you found, investigators concluded that particular guards killed particular prisoners, but never pursued any attempts to charge them with those.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: That’s right. And, of course, there are many more records we have yet to see. But the records I did see indicated that despite the attempts of the state police to tamper with evidence and conceal evidence, there was evidence. And that evidence not only indicated specific troopers that had killed specific inmates, but also specific troopers who had killed specific hostages. And those people could have been indicted, and instead the state chose to indict 62 prisoners for all that had gone wrong at Attica, again sending the message to the world that Attica was about prisoner barbarism and that those sorts of people don’t deserve basic human rights.
AMY GOODMAN: And the names you name have never been named publicly before.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: That’s right. And indeed—
AMY GOODMAN: What surprised you most? Who did you talk about?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: What surprised me most was actually not the lower-level troopers who I name, but actually the highest-level troopers, the head of the New York State Police, who—people who would literally step in to make a low-level trooper resign rather than face prosecution, top police officers who are tampering with photographs. But again, the responsibility still lies with the state of New York. They are the ones that sent these guys in and then, afterwards, allowed these guys to investigate the retaking that they had just carried out.
AMY GOODMAN: And the settlement?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: The settlement against the state?
AMY GOODMAN: With the prisoners.
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, the settlement was very important. It took 30 years. It took determination on the part of these men, such as Frank "Big Black" Smith, to stick with it. But I think the nation was also feeling like they finally got justice. No brother feels like they got justice. It was a pittance for some people. It was $6,500 for a death, at the end of the day. And the cost was still there, because the state still has not admitted responsibility, still denies that anything happened at Attica.
AMY GOODMAN: A comment on the prison strike today?
HEATHER ANN THOMPSON: Well, I think we are back here. And we are back here in no small part because the nation failed to learn the lessons of Attica, and we created one of the most brutal prison societies in the world. And as was the case in Attica, when you treat people as animals, and they are human beings, they will resist. And we are seeing that across the country again today.
AMY GOODMAN: Heather Ann Thompson, we want to thank you for being with us, author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. And, David Rothenberg, member of the Attica observers’ committee, thanks for joining us, and founder of The Fortune Society.
That does it for the show. Tonight, Nermeen Shaikh and I will be speaking at 6:30 at the Toronto International Film Festival at the premiere of All Governments Lie, documentary world premiere. On Saturday, we’ll be at 1:30. Check democracynow.org for details. ... Read More →
Headlines:North Korea Tests Nuclear Weapon
North Korea said today it successfully tested a nuclear weapon in what’s believed to be the country’s most powerful nuclear blast to date. In a statement, North Korea claimed today’s underground test proved it had a weapon standardized to fit on a ballistic missile. A news reader with state-run television KRT made the announcement.KRT news reader: "Our scientists and technicians of the Nuclear Weapons Institute carried out a nuclear explosion test at the northern nuclear test ground to check the power of a nuclear warhead which is newly studied and manufactured. It was confirmed that there was not a leak of radioactive substances during the test, therefore, it did not have negative effects on the ecological environment of the surroundings."
The U.S. Geological Survey says it monitored an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 at North Korea’s nuclear test site. South Korean officials says the blast appeared to be twice as powerful as a test in January, but much too small to be a hydrogen bomb. Japan’s prime minister called the nuclear test a "grave threat" and promised action at the U.N. Security Council. And South Korea’s military issued a warning to North Korea. This is Leem Ho-young of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Leem Ho-young: "Our military will not tolerate North Korea conducting a nuclear test again. As we warned it before, we will take all available measures to make North Korea abandon its nuclear program."
The White House says President Barack Obama spoke with his counterparts in Japan and South Korea about the nuclear test. Spokesperson Josh Earnest said "provocative actions" by North Korea would be met with "serious consequences."
TOPICS:
North Korea
Nuclear Weapons
North Dakota: Governor Calls Out National Guard over Pipeline Protests
In North Dakota, Governor Jack Dalrymple has activated the National Guard ahead of Friday’s ruling on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. government over the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The move comes as U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is set to rule today on an injunction in the lawsuit, which is challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to issue permits for the pipeline, arguing it violates the National Historic Preservation Act. Thousands of people representing more than 100 Native American tribes have traveled to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to resist the pipeline’s construction. On Saturday, September 3, the Dakota Access pipeline company unleashed dogs and pepper spray on Native Americans as they attempted to stop the company from destroying a sacred tribal burial site. The bulldozers and company security guards were forced to retreat. On Thursday, Governor Jack Dalrymple said the National Guard will be deployed Friday to a checkpoint along Highway 1806.Gov. Jack Dalrymple: "I have also placed additional guardsmen on standby alert, in the event they are needed to assist with response efforts. The Guard members will provide valuable personnel, resources and equipment necessary to support local, tribal and state officials. Public safety has always been and continues to be paramount."
TOPICS:
Dakota Access Pipeline
Natural Gas & Oil Drilling
Native American
Indigenous
Anti-Pipeline Solidarity Actions Swell Across the U.S.
Protests against the Dakota Access pipeline continue to grow nationwide. In Denver, hundreds marched Thursday evening in a protest in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The rally was led by Native American activists who converged onto the steps of the State Capitol building from four directions. This is Shawnee and White Mountain Apache activist Sky Roosevelt-Morris.Sky Roosevelt-Morris: "There were a lot of people in the last week, week and a half, that wanted to do something in support of Standing Rock, because tomorrow there’s going to be court decisions, and depending how those go, we could see a continuation of what we’ve already seen going on up in Standing Rock—with private security, the use of dogs, pepper spray—or, hopefully, their permits will be revoked, and we will win this battle."
In San Francisco, meanwhile, scores of demonstrators marched on the offices of Citibank to protest the bank’s role in financing the Dakota Access pipeline. At least two activists were arrested after they used PVC pipe to lock their arms together to block an intersection. Large demonstrations were also held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Omaha, Nebraska. And more celebrities are calling for a halt to the pipeline, including actor and comedian Chris Rock, who posted an Instagram message in support of the Standing Rock protests with the message, "This is no joke."
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Dakota Access Pipeline
Native American
Indigenous
Florida: Prisoner Uprising Quelled by Riot Squads, Chemical Agent
Officials in Florida say hundreds of prisoners took part in an uprising that saw damage to virtually every part of the Holmes Correctional Institution overnight Wednesday. The Miami Herald reports that 400 of the facility’s 1,100 prisoners took part in the uprising, stuffing blankets and sheets over windows and smashing surveillance cameras. Prison officials said riot squads and guards from five other prisons used canisters of gas to quell the uprising. Prisoners at Holmes say they’ve been confined to their dorms in recent weeks, denied recreation and allowed out only for meals, because the prison is woefully understaffed.TOPICS:
Florida
Prison
45th Anniversary of Attica Prison Uprising Observed
The prison strike comes on the 45th anniversary of the uprising at Attica state prison near Buffalo, New York. It was September 9, 1971, when state police raided the Attica prison, ending a protest against inhumane conditions at the facility. For four days, the unarmed prisoners held 39 prison guards hostage. On September 13, then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered armed state troopers to raid the prison. Troopers then shot indiscriminately more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. In the end, 39 men would die, including 29 prisoners and 10 guards.TOPICS:
Attica
Prison
New York: Activists Call on Gov. Cuomo to Close Attica Prison
On Thursday, dozens of activists held a protest outside the Manhattan office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, calling for the closure of Attica prison. Scott Paltrowitz of the Correctional Association of New York said conditions at Attica haven’t improved in more than four decades.
Scott Paltrowitz: "The brutality, the racism, the torture, the abuse that’s happening in Attica continues to this day. I’ve interviewed people at Attica this year. We get correspondence at the Correctional Association all the time from people incarcerated, and the atrocities are still occurring. So this prison needs to be closed down, and not only to end the abuses at Attica, but also to send a clear message that this kind of abuse will not be tolerated at any of New York state’s prisons."
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Attica
Prison
Argentina: Former "Dirty War" Junta Members Sentenced for Kidnapping, Torture
In Argentina, a court has convicted the former head of the country’s Air Force on charges of kidnapping and torture committed during the U.S.-backed dirty wars. Ninety-year-old Omar Graffigna received a 25-year prison sentence for the disappearance of activists José Manuel Pérez Rojo and Patricia Roisinblit. Two other officials were sentenced, including Francisco Gómez, who raised the couple’s infant son after abducting and torturing the boy’s parents. Patricia Roisinblit’s mother, Rosa, is vice president of the group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. She said the ruling provides a measure of justice.Rosa Tarlovsky de Roisinblit: "You already know that I am quite old, but I never thought I’d live to see this moment come. I can’t say it’s a triumph, but it gives me satisfaction. That is all."
An estimated 30,000 activists were tortured and "disappeared" in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Argentina’s right-wing dictatorship.
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Argentina
Syria: Government Forces Recapture Parts of Aleppo
In Syria, fighting raged around Aleppo as government forces recaptured part of the besieged city. The Syrian military says the victory restores key supply lines linking government-held parts of Aleppo. Doctors in the city said this week more than 120 were sickened when government forces deployed chlorine gas.TOPICS:
Syria
Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson Asks, "What is Aleppo?"
In the U.S. presidential race, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson stumbled on national television when asked about the war in Syria. The gaffe came as Johnson appeared on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" on Thursday. Johnson was questioned by host Mike Barnicle.
Mike Barnicle: "What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?"
Gary Johnson: "About?"
Barnicle: "Aleppo."
Johnson: "And what is Aleppo?"
Barnicle: "You’re kidding.”
Johnson: "No.”
Barnicle: "Aleppo is in Syria. It’s the—it’s the epicenter of the refugee crisis.”
Johnson: "OK, got it. Got it."
Barnicle: "OK."
Johnson: "Well, with regard to Syria, I do think that it’s a mess. I think that the only way that we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russia to diplomatically bring that at an end."
Johnson isn’t the only public figure to show confusion over Aleppo. Christopher Hill, a former United States ambassador to Iraq, called Aleppo "the capital of ISIS." There is no significant presence of ISIS in the city.
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Syria
Gov. Mike Pence Backs Trump Claim That Putin a Better President Than Obama
Donald Trump’s campaign has doubled down on the Republican presidential candidate’s support for Vladimir Putin. On Thursday, Trump’s running mate, Governor Mike Pence, echoed Trump’s comment that the Russian president was doing a better job than his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama. Pence was speaking with CNN’s Dana Bash.Gov. Mike Pence: "I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president of the United State of America."
Pence’s comments follow similar remarks made by Trump at a national security forum Wednesday night. Speaking from North Carolina, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called those remarks "scary."
TOPICS:
2016 Election
Donald Trump
Secretary of State John Kerry Meets Russian Counterpart in Geneva
Meanwhile, in Geneva, Secretary of State John Kerry is discussing a proposed ceasefire agreement in Syria with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.TOPICS:
Russia
Wells Fargo Fined $185 Million for Creating Phony Accounts and Credit Cards
Wells Fargo will pay $185 million in fines after it was caught illegally manipulating customers’ bank accounts in order to rack up fees and other charges. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found Wells Fargo employees secretly opened phony bank accounts and issued credit cards to customers who did not want them. These practices led to overdraft charges, late fees and other penalties. The bank has fired at least 5,300 employees involved in the illegal activity.TOPICS:
Wells Fargo
Ferguson, MO: Protest Leader Darren Seals Found Shot, Burnt
Police in St. Louis say they’re investigating the death of Ferguson, Missouri, protest leader Darren Seals as a homicide. Seals’s charred body was found in the wreckage of his car on Tuesday, and investigators say he had been shot at least once. There’s no known motive in the killing. Seals led protests against the killing of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown after Brown was fatally shot by white police officer Darren Wilson in 2014.TOPICS:
Ferguson
More NFL Players Join Colin Kaepernick in National Anthem Protest
And more pro football players are joining a protest against racial injustice and police brutality. The protest began in August, when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem ahead of a preseason game, saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color." On Thursday, Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall became the latest to join, when he took a knee during the singing of the national anthem ahead of a victory over the Carolina Panthers. He told Denver station CBS4 he immediately received hateful comments on social media.Brandon Marshall: "I’m against social injustice. You know, I’m not against the military, the police or America at all. You know, I’m against social injustice. And I feel like this was the right thing to do. I feel like this is the right platform. This is our only platform, you know, to really be heard. And I feel like a lot of times people want us to just shut up and entertain them, you know, shut up and play football. But we have voices, as well. We’re actually educated individuals that went to college. So, when we have an opinion and we speak it, I feel like a lot of people bash us for what we have to say."
Other athletes, including women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe, have joined the protest. And members of the Seattle Seahawks say the entire team may join in a protest ahead of their game against Miami on Sunday.
TOPICS:
Sports & Politics
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