March Against Prison Slavery, an ad hoc action in Durham, NC in support of prison strikers.
On September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, prisoners all across the country, from Alabama to California, from Texas to Ohio, from North Carolina to Washington, will go on strike. Called for and self-organized by prisoners as a struggle “to end prison slavery,” this may be the largest coordinated prison protest in American history.
Those on the outside have been working for months to spread the word and deepen networks of solidarity and support. Above all, prisons are designed to isolate; the degree to which prisoners avoid violent reprisals and repression is directly related to how widespread and forceful our actions are on the outside.
This is also an opportunity to continue to challenge the racist regimes of policing and social control that govern our daily lives. The fires set in Milwaukee burn also at Holman Prison in Alabama. When Texas prisoners refuse to be slaves, that is also a refusal to be policed, and it echoes all the way to the streets of Durham.
September 9th Durham Central Park 7:30pm, find the facebook event here.
ItsGoingDown.org | IWOC.noblogs.org | FreeAlabamaMovement.org
For prison strike news specific to the Southeast, check out:
https://supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org/post/tag/southeast/
Some words from NC Prisoners:
“I’ve been cursed like a dog and forced to work like a slave on the side of back-roads with shotguns pointed at me. They treat us like animals everywhere up here in the Western District of NC. These guards call Black prisoners ni***rs out in the open and treat them so bad, and they pick on old men like me who hardly have a voice…If there were marches or picket signs outside of our prison we would gladly join September 9th.”
“I have received your booklet concerning prison slavery, and been letting people read it. I’ve been in prison over 19 years and 20 years left…I am in the kitchen here at XXXXX. The kitchen runs the whole prison. If we don’t show, we can make a stand. I’m with it 100%.”
“It doesn’t stop ‘til every cage is empty, and being in here for the time span that I have I recognize it for exactly what it is: a CAGE. But not only a cage of bodies, but of ideals, dreams, and resistance to the established status quo that has kept everyone underfoot for so long. The shit has to stop and every element that is working toward that end is welcome.”