Ulrike Meinhof Killed in West German Jail

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Ulrike Meinhof Killed in West German Jail W(JltltEItS ,,1NfifJl1lt' 25¢ + ...... No. 109 ......... )(·5:13 14 May 1976 S.F. Ci Workers Strike Knifed in the Back SAN FRA;\ICISCO. May 10--The 38- had sought the court order. Later day-old strike of 1.900 S. F. municipal accounts indicate that this group is craft workers collapsed Saturday. rep­ working in cahoots with hard-line anti­ resenting a stinging defeat for Ba~ labor supervisors Quentin Kopp and Area labor at the hands of the \icious John Barba1!elata. union-busting Board of Supervisors. The final ~hours of negotiations were The responsibility for this fiasco rests stalled over selection of the final squarely with the Central Labor Coun­ member of the "study committee." The cil (CLC) and the leaders of the striking Board insisted on Democrat Moscone crafts unions. as the "neutral," but CLC leaders had a The strike which began O\er the issue little trouble swallowing this .final of threatened cuts in city tradesmen's humiliation. Plumbers union leader .Ioe pay quickly became a pivotal test of Ma770la complained. "Moscone's been strength between the labor movement seen on the television time and time and city bosses. Yet the CLC misleaders again claiming the Supervisors are right continually refused to mobili7e S.F. and the unions are wrong" (San Francis­ union ranks for the necessary show­ c() Chronic/e. 8 May). Moscone also down battle. showing their April 6 brought in out-of-town scabs to repair general strike call to be an empty bluff. broken water mains and dispatched More than any other recent U.S. police to break up anti-scab demonstra­ strike. the San Franci~c(l cit\ I\orker~ tions. The irony is that \1oscone was strike has starkly re\caled the role of the elected last :"JO\ember with the help of union bureaucracy as trai,ors to the the labor leaders. who billed him as the working cia,s. and its Dcmocratic Party "friend of labor" successor to their pal trieods it\ ,worn enemie<; of all Iailor. Joseph :\linlo. HO\\c'\cr. in the end [he final back-to-work agreement CLC tops knuckitti umier and accepkd was nothing but a smokescreen for total the mavor as de facto arbitrator. surrender. All the issues in dispute are to In actuality. the haggling O\er the be turned over to an II-member "stud\' composition of the "study committee" committee" consisting of an equal was simply face-sa\ing for the labor number of labor and city represen­ traitors. since its recommendations are tatives. plus one mutuall~ agreed­ to be turned over to the Board of upon "neutral" ... strike-breaking may­ Supervisors for action by June 10. As or George Moscone' In return. the supenisor Diane Feinstein gloated, the supervisors agreed to remove Proposi­ Board was able to "settle without tions E and K from the .Iune 8 city putting any money on the table. I don't ballot. (Proposition E would require know of any jurisdiction that has been dismissal of striking city workers: able to accomplish that anywhere" (San Proposition K would spread the pro­ Francisco Examiner. 9 May). posed pay cuts ovcr three years.) However. as we go to press. Superior An Orgy of Backstabbing Judge Robert Drews has nullified the The final days of the strike were agreement dropping the anti-labor marked by an orgy of backstabbing as propositions. The San Francisco Exam­ the union leaders tried to make separate WV Photo iner today reported that "a group of city deals with the Board. The stampede was Strike pickets face cops at S.F. city hall last month. residents" including several attorneys continued on page 10 Ulrike Meinhof Killed in West German Jail MAY IO--West German authorities hof hanging at the window rails from a but the demonstration was banned by announced yesterday that Ulrike Mein­ piece of her prison toweling." The the police, on the grounds that it hoL one of the leaders of the Red Army official autopsy was performed instant­ "endangered public security." The cops Faction (RAF), referred to in the ly. without either the dead woman's next proceeded to viciously attack and capitalist press as the "Baader-Meinhof of kin or her lawyers having been disperse the protesters. Gang." on trial in Stuttgart for alleged permitted to examine the body. More­ From the outset it has been clear that terrorist activities, was found hanged in over, although not one shred of evidence the case against Meinhof and her co­ her cell yesterday morning. has been presented suggesting suicide, defendants is a frame-up orchestrated The circumstances of the Meinhof the ".I ustice" \1 inister of Baden­ by the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal killing are suspicious in the extreme. WUrtemburg. Traugott Bender, has Criminal Office) as part of a witchhunt Prison authorities labeled it a suicide, refused to permit an international campaign against. radicals of every ~ but then claimed to be "mystified" that commission to carry out an persuasion. The trial. in a specially ~ no suicide note was found even though investigation. constructed multi-million dollar securi­ she had been heard typing the night Bender also stated that "the claim that ty fortress, has been marked by reliance before. Moreover. a UPI dispatch Frau Meinhof was the victim of a on notorious informers, police invasion quoted the victim's sister saying Ulrike planned murder is slanderous" and of lawyers' offices, seizure of defense Meinhof had warned her against being threatened legal proceedings against materials. prosecution of defense attor­ taken in by any story of suicide: "She any defense lawyer who made such a neys for "contributing to a criminal said if it ever were reported that she charge. conspiracy." There has also been judi­ killed herself then I would know she had The official suicide story has met with cial gagging of the defendants. who are Keystone been murdered." widespread disbelief and justified out­ not permitted to confer with ,?ne Ulrike Meinhof Today's /Vell' York Times stated that rage. In Frankfurt some 600 demon­ another and whose attempts to make a prison guard had "found Miss Mein- strators protested against the killing. continued on page 9 Provocateur's Last Assignment: "Assassinate George Jackson" Spectacular Revelations in San Quentin SixT rial a CCS plant in the Black Panther Part\'. stationed. It also clashed with the ment." However. the judge's order for Free the San Quentin Melvin Smith. to recruit Panthers fro~ statement at the time of the murder by such minimal amelioration as daily LosAngcles for an attempt in late 1970 San Quentin associate warden Park that exercise time in fresh air and without Six, Victims of Cop to free George Jackson from a court­ "The only good thing that happened all chains has been stayed in higher court. Conspiracy! room where a connected case was being day was that we got George Jackson. Of the 26 surviving AC prisoners. the heard. Jackson and the other Panthers killed him. Shot him through the head" six chosen to stand trial were all MA Y 7 -~During the nine-month­ would have walked into a death trap, (see "Free the San Quentin Six!" WV militants hated by prison authorities for long trial of the San Quentin Six. but the plan fell through when a judge No. 71. 20 June 1975. for further details refusing to submit to the inhuman evidence has surfaced of a bralen refused to allow the imprisoned militant about the case). degradations of prison life. For overten government conspiracy to assassinate to testify in the other trial. years, San Quentin and Soledad prisons imprisoned Black Panther leader • A later police plot involved Capitalist Prisons on Trial have been centers of struggle George Jackson and other militant smuggling inoperative weapons and primarily by black prisoners. for ele­ black and Latin prisoners held in the phony explosives into the AC; a In nearly every respect. the trial itself mentary human rights. Protests. work prison's notorious maximum security defective .38 caliber revolver was secret­ is a microcosm of the racist barbarism stoppages and food riots have been "Adjustment" Center (AC). ly given by CCS agents to a San Quentin that marks the bourgeoisie's concentra­ directed against slave labor. punitive The case stems from what the prose­ guard on 2 August 1971. to be passed to tion camps. The courtroom has been "strip cells." rotten food. sentencing and cution labels an "abortive escape at­ (or planted on) Jackson. converted into a' small-scale prison. parole procedures. lack of recreational tempt" on 21 August 1971, allegedly by • Two weeks before the murder of Spectators pass through metal detec­ facilities and the indeterminate sen­ Jackson (who was shot down by guards Jackson a meeting was held at the CCS tors and are searched. their names tence. The San Quentin Six~Black that day) and other inmates. The office in Los Angeles. attended by FBI recorded and photographs taken. The Panther Johnny Spain. Fleeta Drumgo, assassination of George Jackson oc­ man Ed Burch and an agent named defendants and inmates called to testify Willie Tate. David Johnson. Hugo curred just two days before his trial as Barrens from the California attorney one of the "Soledad Brothers" was to general's Criminal Identification and have begun. The San Quentin Six Investigation (CII) section. The meeting defendants are charged with murder and decided that an agent in the prison conspiracy in the deaths of three prison would approach Jackson and other guards and two inmate "trustees.~ known militants with a plan for an Despite suppression of defense evidence attempted break-out on August 23 during the trial and last year's pre-trial during which the prisoners could all be hearings.
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