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cision. That is, it involves the principle, essentially of the Dred Scott case that an innocent human being, if somehow you don't believe he's a human and you must give him the benefit of the doubt, can be defined as a nonperson and subjected to death. I suggest any person who holds that position and maintains that position as a matter of public policy should not be placed in the office of President or Vice President of the United States.

Senator ALLEN. I agree with the opinion expressed by the chairman and Senator Griffin that you would not be serving the right to life cause well to assert that the question of confirmation of Governor Rockefeller is a referendum on the right to life issue or movement, because I believe the right to life issue is much stronger than is the opposition to Governor Rockefeller. I feel you would do your cause a disservice to place too much emphasis on the view that it is a referendum. Certainly I, myself, agree with you on the extent that the Supreme Court decision was wrong and that the Governor's position on population control is wrong. But that wouldn't necessarily mean that I would vote against his confirmation. I believe you will find many others in that same position.

Professor RICE. I believe that involves, Senator, the centrality of the right to life issue in the Governor's nomination.

What we are saying is that Members of the Congress may conclude that while he has this position that the position can be put to one side and he can be considered with respect to his other positions. That is the stand with which we disagree, because, in our opinion, the life issues, particularly the abortion issue, are so essential, they overshadow everything else. We still, contrary to your position, strongly maintain that this constitutes a committee referendum.

Senator ALLEN. As to the abortion issue, many of us feel it would be overshadowed by the question of inflation, the question of détente, the question of fiscal responsibility, the question of patriotism, honor, and integrity. All of these matters would be entitled to consideration and even paramount consideration to the consideration of the abortion issue, important as it is.

Professor RICE. If I may, sir, I suggest that there can be no issue, at least in the domestic terms, which even approaches, let alone overshadows, the very basic question of whether our law is going to extend its protection to all innocent human beings. When the protection of law is withdrawn from innocent human beings by the technique of defining them as nonpersons I suggest this overshadows everything else and that seems to be the point of disagreement.

Senator ALLEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Williams.

Senator WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We on this committee will probably have the first opportunity to vote on the question of confirmation.

You suggest that the confirmation is or will be interpreted as a referendum on the right to life issue and obviously all of the Senators who address themselves to you have indicated they don't interpret that that way. And I would associate with my colleagues in that regard because I don't look at my vote on this question as a referendum on that issue.

Professor RICE. Right.

As I said to Senator Griffin I'm not talking about the internal disposition of any member of this committee or the Senate. What I am talking about is the symbolic impact of this vote. Again, I think it resolves into a difference of opinion as to the centrality of the life issue.

In our opinion these are just overwhelming, catastrophic issues in the domestic field. It is impossible to say that anybody who takes the antilife position can be good because of his position on other issues any more than you can say that Mussolini should be supported because he made the trains run on time.

I think this overshadows the issue.
Senator WILLIAMS. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much.

The next witness is Ms. Angela Davis, cochairperson of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. [Applause.]

The gallery will remain in order or the hall will be cleared. Ms. Davis, will you stand and be sworn. Is your companion to be a witness also?

Ms. DAVIS. NO. He is just with me.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?

Ms. DAVIS. I do.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you.

You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF ANGELA DAVIS, COCHAIRPERSON OF THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE AGAINST RACIST AND POLITICAL REPRESSION

Ms. DAVIS. This is Rev. Ben Chavis. He is accompanying me. He is the vice chairperson of the national alliance.

The CHAIRMAN. We are happy to have you here today.

You may proceed.

MS. DAVIS. My name is Angela Davis and I am a cochairperson of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

My purpose here today is to state the position of the national alliance in opposition to the nomination and confirmation of Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President of the United States.

The national alliance is a broad based coalition of church, political, labor, civic, student, and community organizations committed to organizing millions of people to repel the growing racism and the repression of leaders and activists in movements for freedom, peace, and justice. We are further committed to changing the inhumane, unjust, and punitive character of prisons in our country.

A major focus of our organization's work is the defense of the men who are indicted in the aftermath of the uprising in Attica prison. I will begin my testimony with remarks having to do with Nelson Rockefeller's role at Attica.

On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,000 men, black, white, Indian, and Puerto Rican prisoners, rose up against the intolerable conditions at Attica State Prison.

According to the official report of the New York State Special Commission on Attica; and I quote:

Forty-three citizens of New York State died at Attica Correctional Facility between September 9 and September 13, 1971, 39 of this number were killed and more than 80 others were wounded by gunfire during the 15 minutes it took the State police to retake the prison on September 13th . . . . With the exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th Century, the State police assault which ended the 4-day prison uprising was the bloodiest single day encounter between Americans since the Civil War.

The key issue which would have prevented the blood bath at Attica was amnesty. Governor Rockefeller assumed a rigid position against amnesty for the prisoners, insisting that to grant them immunity from prosecution would be a gross abuse of executive power.

Ironically, Mr. Rockefeller, recently commenting on President Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, called Mr. Ford's action "an act of conscience, compassion, and courage." He held no such views on September 13, 1971, when the lives of over 1,000 people, most of whom were black and Puerto Rican, were at stake. With 43 people dead and 80 wounded, Governor Rockefeller "complimented the police on their restraint" and said "that the results were actually better than he thought they might be," according to the official special commission report.

It staggers the imagination to speculate on what Mr. Rockefeller thinks is wholesale killing and bad results.

As early as July 2, 1971, the State administration of New York knew there were myriad problems at Attica. Prison Commissioner Russell G. Oswald received a communication from the prisoners with a list of grievances, most of which the McKay commission's report stated were strikingly reasonable.

The prisoners demanded legal representation before the parole board; improvement in medical care; visiting facilities; food and sanitary conditions in the mess hall; personal hygiene; clothing; recreational facilities and humane working conditions in the shops. They wanted a uniform set of rules in all prisons; adjustment of commissary prices, and end of the segregation of prisoners from the mainline population because of their political beliefs.

Governor Rockefeller received a copy of that letter. His response was silence. It was for these things that the men at Attica rose up on September 9. When the negotiations had reached a standstill, they even surrendered these demands for a human environment at Attica and asked only that they not be subjected to reprimands for their efforts to speak publicly about their suffering and grievances.

The most powerful man in New York State, Governor Rockefeller, turned a deaf ear permitting State police and prison guards to stage one of the most wanton massacres in the history of the United States. We have every reason to conclude that Governor Rockefeller's view of justice depends on the color of a person's skin and his economic status in life. His support of Richard Nixon's pardon while at the same time being responsible for the Attica massacre, clearly exposes his contempt for equal justice under the law, his callousness and complete willingness to adopt the most lethal and brutal solutions to desperate social crises born of human misery.

Governor Rockefeller told the McKay commission that granting amnesty to the Attica inmates-and I quote the Governor's words:

Could lead to a very serious breakdown both of the structure of government, the freedom of the individual and the security of the individual.

How profoundly hypocritical and how revealing of Rockefeller's true concept of justice and law. The regime of Richard Nixon did more to undermine constitutional government, subvert the democratic processes and endanger the liberties of the people than any other single event in recent history.

Yet, the man most responsible for those acts is due compassion, forgiveness, says Rockefeller; while poor, black and Puerto Rican prison inmates who tried every means possible to get a hearing of their grievances received bullets, tear gas, beatings, and prosecution.

Today 61 people face a variety of charges stemming from the Attica uprising. Every single one of them is or was a prisoner at Attica. Not a single correctional officer, State policeman, or National Guardsman, who, by official report, were responsible for all of the deaths, has ever been reprimanded.

While the alliance has devoted the bulk of its comments to exposing Nelson Rockefeller's role in the Attica massacre, we are not unmindful of his role in international politics, in Latin America and Africa in particular. But to understand Chile in 1973, the Congo in 1961, Iran in 1953, the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Guatemala in 1954, Indonesia in 1965, Brazil in 1964, and South Africa, Greece, Bolivia, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia, one must also understand the Rockefeller domestic policy as best expressed at Attica in 1971.

With the exception of Cuba, in every one of the countries I mentioned there were coups d'etat which overthrew progressive democratic governments in favor of fascism, reactionary, and military regimes with the resulting bloodshed, murder, and destruction as at Attica.

In every country the financial interests of the Rockefellers were threatened. In every instance we have evidence that the Central Intelligence Agency was involved.

The directors of the CIA, Allen Dulles and John McCone, for example, have come from Standard Oil and other Rockefeller corporations. John Foster Dulles himself, one of the chief architects of "brinkmanship" and nuclear holocaust was a Standard Oil executive. Henry Kissinger has long been a close political associate of the Rockefellers. Nelson Rockefeller has been part of almost every administration since the end of World War II regardless of the party in power. With controlling interest in such multinational corporations as Standard Oil, IBM, American Telephone and Telegraph, the Chase Manhattan Bank, American Express, Anaconda Copper, and Eastern Airlines, the Rockefeller dynasty plundered the world. Since the end of World War II it is in the interests of such corporations as these that the U.S. foreign policy has been shaped. This is the secret of Nelson Rockefeller's remarkable bipartisanship. In our opinion the record will show that Nelson Rockefeller has not occupied Government positions out of recognition of his responsibilities as a public servant but rather reflects his intent to control the policies of government.

Nelson Rockefeller's nomination for the Vice Presidency of the United States of America for all these reasons must be overwhelmingly rejected.

Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you for your statement, Ms. Davis.

Did you have the opportunity to see or to hear Governor Rockefeller's response to the Attica questions that were asked of him by the committee?

MS. DAVIS. I have been able to read some of his testimony which was given on Tuesday.

The CHAIRMAN. I wonder, do you take issue with the things that he stated; one, as to his authority under the circumstances to grant amnesty; and secondly, the issue as it finally arose, which I think in summary was that in the final instances that the hostages were paraded out in the yard with knives at their throats and that some ultimatums were given, and that's when the action was taken by State police? Ms. DAVIS. It is my opinion that Mr. Rockefeller stated that his refusal to complete the negotiations with the prisoners had to do with this feeling that if he discussed anything with the prisoners, as long as the hostages were being held, then this would give rise to many, many more prison revolts throughout the country. And I think the facts have borne out the fact that despite the failure of negotiations with the prisoners at Attica the rebellions and revolts and uprisings which in fact did occur throughout the country had to do with the conditions at the prisons themselves. And had the massacre not been ordered I do not feel that that would have substantially changed the situation regarding the conditions in prisons themselves and so therefore for those reasons we cannot accept Governor Rockefeller's explanation of his failure to intervene.

The CHAIRMAN. But you think if he had agreed to go there and negotiate with the prisoners it might have been the means of saving those lives?

MS. DAVIS. Oh, I'm convinced. Had he been convinced and serious in considering the demands which on the face of it are very just, very human, very elemental demands having to do with the ability of humans to survive, then certainly the prisoners would have been true to their original statements.

All they wanted was a hearing of their grievances and a response to such things as their problems with medical care, food, and all of these basic things.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you.

Senator Scott.

Senator HUGH SCOTT. Ms. Davis, do your figures, referring to the 43 citizens who died on the night of the 13th of September, include the injuries which resulted in the fatality of Don Quinn who was thrown down the stairs in the prison and later died in the hospital, is he included in your figures?

MS. DAVIS. I think if you check the official report done by the commission you will see that the figures they gave are 43.

Senator HUGH SCOTT. I'm sorry. You say it is included?

Ms. DAVIS. Yes.

Senator HUGH SCOTT. Who comprised the commission? Who was the chairman?

MS. DAVIS. The chairman of the commission was Robert McKay. The others on the commission were Edwin Broterick, Robert L. Carter, Mrs. Amalia Guerrero, Amos Henix, Burke Marshall, Walter Rothschild, Mrs. Dorothy Wadsworth, and William Wilbanks.