September 9 is the anniversary of The Attica Prison Massacre in 1971. A group of over 1200 prisoners rose up and took control of the prison. They didn’t ask for their freedom, they demanded humane treatment. The occupation lasted for 5 days, and ended as it usually does with the brutal US regime.

Although slavery is commonly thought to have been banned in the US for over 100 years at this point, an exception was still given for prisoners. As a result, black men are much sought after for serving prison terms. Attica prison was a hard labour camp consisting of a majority black prisoner population, with a nearly all white set of guards. Black prisoners were given the worst jobs, worked for 16 hours per day, terrible food, and little in the way of medical facilities. Racism from the guards was normal and encouraged.

On September 9, a conflict between a prisoner and a guard boiled over, and the black prisoners rose up en masse. One guard was killed during the uprising, the rest were kept as hostages.

The prisoners had 30 demands which summarised could be described as basic human rights and dignity. Unsurprisingly, this was too much to ask, and negotations broke down. The military was called in to shoot people indiscriminantly, including with weapons banned by the Geneva Convention. They killed 30 prisoners and 9 of their own men. Hundreds more were maimed. News reporters of course immediately blamed the deaths on the inmates, telling gruesome stories of how the inmates cut their throats.

The truth is of course that the massacre was planned. In Nixon’s words:

You see it’s the black business…he had to do it.

The truth came out that all but the one guard and three prisoners who were killed in the initial riot were all killed by the military. The media grudgingly put out their retractions. Rallies were held in support of the governor’s actions anyway.

However, prisoners kept in similar conditions across the country were inspired by the heroism of these prisoners, and they similarly rebelled. As more and more people learned of the true conditions that they suffered, eventually the government was forced to improve things in their prisons via a series of prison reforms. A lawsuit paid $8 million to the inmates and their families in 2000. $12 million was given to the guards and their families in 2005.

During the 80s and 90s, most of the prison reforms were repealed in order to be tough on crime. Prisoners are still demanding basic human rights under the murderous and racist regime.