Podcast: Play in new window | Download
50th Anniversary Of The Attica Prison Uprising
September 9th marks the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising and the subsequent massacre by New York State police and prison guards. The rebellion at Attica prison, a medieval looking place near Buffalo New York, began on September 9, 1971 and ended four days later with governor Nelson Rockefeller, and aspiring presidential candidate, ordering the massacre. It resulted in the most people ever killed in a civil setting in the history of the USA.
The rebellion was inspiring to many around the country and around the world in that it represented a growing movement fighting for prisoners and human rights.
Civil rights attorneys, many from the National Lawyers Guild, came from around the country to immediately respond to the massacre. They provided legal representation to inmates who were charged with crimes due to their involvement in the rebellion.
Many of the participants, particularly key organizers, were subject to abuse and torture by the prison guards after the rebellion was suppressed.
Guest – attorney Michael Deutsch from the Peoples Law Office in Chicago. He along with the late attorney Elizabeth Fink were the main lawyers for the Attica brothers. He represented several Attica brothers in criminal lawsuits and the brothers in a class action civil rights lawsuit which lasted over 20 years and settled in 1999 for $12 million.
—-
Cuban Uprising: Analysis
The Cuban revolution of 1959 was a blow to the American empire from which it has never recovered. The Cuban revolution was basically a nationalist one. Before the revolution most of the land was owned by American corporations and the country was run by an American puppet dictator. Cuba nationalized American owned property, which was their right under international law. Cuba offered to reimburse the American owners. They refused and responded by refusing to refine oil for Cuba to purchase. So the Cubans nationalized the American oil refinery. Then the American owned telephone company and the American owned nickel mines and so on. The Cubans took control of their own resources. This was the beginning of the Cuban revolution.
It has been the 61 year policy of USA to destroy and reverse the revolution by setting up a economic financial and commercial blockade of the island. The American policy was cruel and intentionally set out to cause suffering and misery. In this thing have succeeded.
The Cuban people are hungry. Covid19 is spreading on the island. The blockade,which was accelerated under Trump and continued under Biden, is preventing them from even getting adequate number of syringes to vaccinate the population.
Protests broke out on July 11. The protesters were Cuban workers fed up with their terrible conditions, intellectuals protesting restrictions, and American paid for counterrevolutionaries seeking to destabilize the government.
Guest – Arnold August is a Canadian journalist who has traveled often to Cuba and has written three books on the subject including his latest, Cuba – US relations: Obama and Beyond. In recognition of his unending efforts to publicize the realities in Cuba, Arnold August was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the Cuban Institute for Friendship. In March of 2019 August was banned from entering United States on account of his support for Venezuela.
——————————————–