See more up-to-date list of actions at ItsGoingDown.org.
#PrisonStrike Resistance to Slavery Across the World
This week, on the 45th Anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising, prisoners across the US will go out on strike on September 9th against prison slavery while in North Dakota, the National Guard is being called in as a court decision approaches on the same day regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline. In both cases, the State attempts to present itself as neutral; merely a third party mitigating between corporate bodies, local governments, and concerned groups of citizens. But in all cases, the State instead is an apparatus of domination and control that protects these systems of industrial neo-colonialism and slavery. It does this to ensure that both the class-rule that is inherent within this system is preserved and ensure the passivity of the poor and working population. How does it do this? Simply: through massive amounts of violence, surveillance, police, and above all, prisons.
On September 9th, thousands of people on both sides of the prison walls are going to be taking to the streets, taking to town squares, and taking action, both as individuals and as collective groups. At the same time, there is a call for solidarity actions with the indigenous water protectors in North Dakota, and cities across the globe are currently mobilizing as the National Guard has already been sent in to conduct check points. Water protectors are calling for backup, as thousands have now created a living communal defense camp along the Missouri River. Meanwhile in Florida, hundreds of prisoners have already kicked things off with a round of riots, smashing the prison and taking over four dormitories. According to local news reports, 400 prisoners were involved in the uprising and guards from up to 5 other facilities were brought in to put down the revolt.
This resistance comes not from the Democratic Party nor the pro-capitalist labor unions that support it, the NGOs or non-profits which act as a wet blanket on revolt during every uprising, or the self-appointed activist leaders who seek to manage and contain social movements and struggles, but instead has built itself from ground up through endless and tireless hours of letter-writing nights, noise-demonstrations, community meetings and conferences, call-in campaigns, bloody riots, nights spend wheat-pasting and spray painting, and mass strikes.
Now, this force awakens. This grassroots and horizontal confederation of collectives, organizations, crews, individuals, and networks; organized for the purpose not of speaking truth to power, electing a politician, or creating a third party, but instead in breathing life into a movement aimed at the destruction of prisons, policing, white supremacy, and the capitalist State that protects their existence. This page will document this unfolding resistance and chronicle it as it happens. For a list of events across the United States for the #PrisonStrike, go here. For information about action in solidarity with #NoDAPL, go here.
To submit your actions and reports anonymously, go here. You can also email us at:
info [at] itsgoingdown [dot] org
How to Help the Strike
- Share these concrete tools with prison strikers and those taking action.
- Make a donation to IWOC and buy a t-shirt from Free Alabama Movement.
- Cover the walls with graffiti and posters.
- Organize an action and send in a report to IGD.
- Expand the strike, deepen it, and make it grow.
Prisoner Resistance in the United States
Bonifay, FL:
- September 7th: Riot at prison. 4 dormitories taken. Corporate news report here.
Solidarity and Resistance in the United States
Bloomington, ID:
- September 8th: Rally and disruption of DNC office. Report and photos here.
Worldwide Solidarity and Resistance
- September 9th: Actions and assemblies called for. More info here.
- September 9th: Actions called for in solidarity. More info here.
Kaunas, Lithuania:
Statement of Solidarity for the Sep9th Prison Strike
We stand in unconditional solidarity with the demands and tactics of our comrades (both inside and out) who have joined arms to abolish the prison system and with it the tyranny of capital. Here in Lithuania we face the highest rates of incarceration in Europe. The world is a giant high-security prison. Impoverished by predatory markets and repressed by merciless states; we are left without choices. And so we enter this struggle with you. In solidarity, with care and love.
Power to the US prison strikers.