US socialist wins freedom

By Norm Dixon The decision of the Iowa Board of Parole to release US socialist Mark Curtis is being celebrated by his supporters. "This is a tremendous victory", said an ecstatic Curtis, who will be freed sometime after December 7. Curtis has spent more than seven years in jail on trumped-up rape and burglary charges. Curtis, a meatworker, was employed by the Swift plant in Des Moines, Iowa. As a union activist and member of the US Socialist Workers Party he was active in defending the rights of 17 migrant workers who had been arrested by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service in collusion with the Swift management. On March 4, 1988 Curtis attended a protest meeting. On his way home, a distraught woman asked him for help. He drove her home and waited on her verandah in case the man was inside. She went inside and Curtis never saw her again. Thirty seconds later a police officer, Joseph Gonzalez, grabbed Curtis, bashed him inside the house and again at the police station shattering his cheekbone. Curtis was charged with rape even though no evidence was presented in court. The prosecution case relied on the evidence of the arresting officer Gonzalez, who had previously been suspended for brutalising suspects. The court disallowed evidence that the FBI had been illegally spying on Curtis because of his work in support of the rights of immigrant workers. After the conviction, a juror stated she believed Curtis was innocent and would have maintained her not guilty vote had she known a new trial would have been ordered without a unanimous verdict. Curtis was convicted despite clear evidence that he was the victim of a police operation. Socialist and labour movement activists around the world have been organising a solidarity campaign for Curtis' release. Curtis will now fight to win the release of other US political prisoners including native American activist Leonard Peltier and former Black Panther activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is fighting for his life on death row in Pennslyvania.