Our readers speak out
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Socialist Action urges our readers to join the defense of Mark Curtis, a member of the Socialist Workers Party in Des Moines, lowa, who was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison on frameup rape charges. The following letter is from a defense supporter.
Dear editor, In October, the Mark Curtis Defense Committee appeared before our union executive board (UAW Local 2071 at Wayne State Univ.) in an attempt to win more solid support for his defense. But our Chief Steward, a supporter of the Workers League (WL), used the meeting to demagogically attack the defense committee.
Material published by the Workers League has confused some potential defense supporters about the facts of the case. Other people do not want to be associated with what appears to them to be a dispute among leftists.
The Curtis Defense Committee has recently made available a video of parts of the Curtis trial. The video was produced by a TV show in Des Moines called "On Trial." It's similar to Judge Wapner's TV court except that the people are not actors but real.
Joseph Gonzalez, the same cop who beat Curtis and broke bones in his face, is shown on the tape lying his head off. Yet, no clear evidence was presented in the trial or anywhere else connecting Curtis with the alleged rape. The medical examiner admits this in the video.
Most cops, with the ideological support of those who rule, take the attitude that rape is caused by women-by our manner or clothing. Now, enter Joseph Gonzalez, and reality is stood on its head!
We are to believe that the cops suddenly came to the rescue of a damsel in distress. They say that Mark Curtis, a socialist gone berserk, allegedly foreswore his life's work of defending women, Blacks, and workers, and sought out the victim—a total stranger-after attending a rally in defense of immigrant workers. Give us a break!
I listened carefully to Mark's moving testimony and to that of a Black woman friend of his who said he called her at the same time he was supposedly at the victim's house. His wife Kate likewise gave the truth a brief televised airing. No, he was not hostile to women, she said. He has worked on a daily basis to end their degradation.
As the jury foreman read the verdict-"guilty"—my blood ran cold. The cops, the judge, and the FBI wanted a conviction and they got it. "On Trial" should have been called, "Day in Kangaroo Court."
The video and other materials explaining the facts of the case are available from the defense committee for use in your union or organization. The address of the Mark Curtis Defense Committee is P.O. Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311. Telephone (515) 246-1695.
Barbara Putnam, Detroit, Mich. that the Fourth International exemplifies is paying off. If it is exciting for me to read about it, I can only imagine how it will feel to be a Soviet worker confronting this history for the first time.
I wish Socialist Action the best during the coming year, and I hope the year brings unity among the groups representing the Fourth International in the United States.
G.K., Lancaster, Texas