Interview with Mark Curtis: An update on socialist activist's fight for freedom and justice

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Mark Curtis, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, is serving a 25-year sentence for rape and burglary. His 1988 frame-up conviction was based mainly on the false testimony of the arresting police officerwho had previously been reprimanded by his own superiors for lying.

Recently, the family of the alleged rape victim launched a legal attack against the Mark Curtis Defense Committee that is designed to cripple the committee's efforts to expose the frameup conviction.

A phone interview with Mark Curtis was conducted by Socialist Action National Committee member Carl Finamore in September 1990.

Socialist Action: Mark, how long have you now been in prison?

Mark Curtis: I was in the county jail after I was convicted in September of 1988, and I was sentenced in November around the 18th. On the same day, I was sent down to the "medical classification center" and from there, after about three weeks, 1 was sent to the Men's Reformatory in Anamosa (lowa]. So basically, since November of 1988.

SA: So you're now approaching two years in prison. What have been your experiences over these last two years?

Curtis: Well, there have been several things. One was almost immediately-a fight with the prison system over attempting to deny me foreign-language materials, starting with the magazine Perspectiva Mundial and some books in Spanish.

So I went through a fight to force the administration to back down and to allow foreign-language materials in, not just for me personally, but to change the policy they had of denying these materials just on the basis that they were in a foreign language. So they still had to be reviewed, but now it was possible to get foreign-language materials in.

SA: How did the other prisoners respond?

themyou have any opporumity in talk with them?

Curtis: Very favorably. In fact, I was surprised to learn that more people were trying to get material than I had believed before. Just the fact that it was being denied for no good reason, and especially the Spanishspeaking prisoners were really glad that someone was trying to get Spanish-language materials in. Some of them had been denied correspondence with their families.

SA: Do you think that any of your political activity in prison, such as being elected an officer of the Martin Luther King Committee, had anything to do with your Mark Curtis in 1988 transfer from Anamosa?

Curtis: I think it was an attempt to get out of the hole they had dug for themselves in Anamosa because every time they tried to limit the prisoners, basically they were unsuccessful.

SA: Is the political atmosphere different in the prison you've been transferred to?

Curtis: There aren't as many political organizations here, but there still are many inmates who are interested in the same political questions that were raised in Anamosa.

SA: Have you found that your political ideas, as a member of the Socialist Workers Party and a long time political activist, have been used to isolate you?

Curtis: Oh, it's exactly like it would be at any job that I've worked at. There are right-wingers, there are people who are open to your ideas, and so on.

oseph Ryan/Socialist Action SA: What is the status of your appeal right now?

Curtis: We have filed notice with the Federal Court of Appeals. That's the next step after the Supreme Court of Iowa hears my appeal. So we will very shortly file an actual appeal in that court system.

SA: Can you comment on the lawsuit against your own defense committee and describe the nature of this attack?

Curtis: It's a lawsuit aimed directly at myself and my wife, Kate Kaku, who is also my most active supporter on the defense committee, and aims to break me financially with a heavy decision which I wouldn't be able to pay.

Through that suit, the lawyers for the plaintiffs are seeking to depose the defense committee itself under the guise that the committee has supplied me regularly with Howard Wallace is a long-time trade union and gay rights activist in the San Francisco Bay area. He first drew national attention several years ago when he served as Northern California AFL-CIO director of the Coors' Boycott.

Coors sued Wallace for "conspiracy to put Coors out of business" and for being in "violation of the Sherman AntiTrust Act."

Boycott activities, it was alleged by Coors, were limiting competition in the beer industry. After a protracted legal battle, the suit was finally thrown out of court.

Concerned about the implications of the lawsuit directed against the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Wallace recently sent Curtis the following message.

I'm glad you have a wife and active supporters who are organizing to clear your name of the phony charges brought against you. It's clear that the recent lawsuit against your defense committee is designed to divert its energies, exhaust its treasury, and scare off support.

The suit is a threat to every defendant in the United States who appeals a conviction. There could have been no Sacco-Vanzetti or Rosenberg defense committees if such a grotesque law had prevailed in the past.

The plaintiffs have shown their utter contempt for the First Amendment.

money, which is not true, and that the defense committee could be liable for the damages [of my alleged assualt]. So it's a direct attack on any organization that's fighting for the rights of working people.

Many times, a lawsuit that's aimed against any effective committee has to try and bankrupt them, to try to pry open their finances, their records, mailing lists, and so on. Regardless of whether anyone agrees or disagrees about the fight to overturn my frameup, I think many people will rally against this attack because it violates the privacy and necessary functioning of a committee like the Mark Curtis Committee.

SA: What message would you like to send to your supporters? What can they do to help in the immediate future?

Curtis: First of all, thank you for everything that has been done. And immediately, helping to stop this lawsuit by any means that we can, but particularly by sending messages of support to the defense committee such as the one sent by Howard Wallace. It's very much appreciated.

Readers can write the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Box 1048, Des Moines, IA 50311.

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Howard Wallace's message to Mark Curtis