Author Archives: Editor

‘Enough Is Enough’: Prisoners Across The Country Band Together To End Slavery For Good

From ThinkProgress.org

by Carimah Townes Jun 15, 2016 1:26 pm

CREDIT: Industrial Workers of the World

Siddique Hasan, a current prisoner at the Ohio State Penitentiary, types in his cell block.

Siddique Hasan, a self-described revolutionary from Savannah, Georgia, has been waiting for a moment like this one, when prisoners across the country band together and say “enough is enough” when it comes to being treated like a slave.

“It’s time for a broader struggle,” he told ThinkProgress during his daily phone time in Ohio’s supermax prison. “People have to lift up their voice with force and determination, and let them know that they’re dissatisfied with the way things are actually being run.”

So far this year, prisoners have been doing just that. Continue reading →

Wisconsin Prisoner Hunger Strike

mke rallyFrom SolitaryTorture.blogspot.com

FOOD REFUSAL UPDATES AND ACTIONS

UPDATE TUESDAY June 14 2016
 1)Phone Zap schedules for Tuesday, June 14,2016 on facebook:

2)Sign our petition at: https://www.change.org/p/wi-doc-secretary-jon-litscher-waupun-prisoners-begin-food-refusal-to-protest-solitary-torture
3)List of Demands made by striking Prisoners : http://solitarytorture.blogspot.com/2016/06/demands-of-food-refusers-june-2016.html

4) Also, Consider sending a card or letter to one of these prisoners -it would lift their spirits. FFUP offers forwarding service too, if you do not w ant to use your own address. Call 608-536-3993 for more information. Addresses and info on prisoners needing cards below.

5)ACTION Alert for 6 14 16: PRISONERS HAVE BEEN MOVED-NOW THREE PRISONS House Strikers Continue reading →

Refrendar el 9 Sept A nivel nacional coordinada prisionero del bloqueo del trabajo y la protesta!

This is the Spanish language version of this post.

Esto fue creada con el traductor de google, nos disculpamos por los errores gramaticales o de cualquier defecto y estamos trabajando en una traducción apropiada.

Los presos en los EE.UU. han pedido y están planeando un paro de actividades coordinadas a nivel nacional como protesta el 9 de septiembre. Lea la llamada a la acción aquí.

Esta acción se merece y se beneficiaría enormemente de apoyo externo robusto. Si usted está involucrado en cualquier tipo de trabajo contra la encarcelación en masa, ya sea como un individuo u organización, por favor considere apoyar la huelga.

Envíe sus avales y compromisos de apoyo a PrisonerResistance@gmail.com y las publicaremos en este sitio y asegurarse de que está recibiendo actualizaciones acerca de maneras de hacer esa promesa.

Si tiene inquietudes o dudas, por favor, echa un vistazo a las preguntas más frecuentes a continuación o póngase en contacto con nosotros y estaremos encantados de discutir con usted o su organización. Gracias.

preguntas frecuentes Continue reading →

Forget Hunger Strikes. What Prisons Fear Most Is Labor Strikes

Prisoners throughout Alabama and Texas reclaim their humanity—and power—by shutting down the economic infrastructure of their prisons.

Raven Rakia For Yes!

On May 1, prison labor came to a halt in multiple prisons in Alabama, including Holman and Elmore prisons. Starting at midnight that day, prisoners stayed in their dormitories—refusing to show up for work at their assigned posts: the kitchen, the license plate manufacturing plant, the recycling plant, the food processing center, and a prison farm.
The prisoners’ demands were pretty simple: basic human rights, educational opportunities, and a reform of Alabama’s harsh sentencing guidelines and parole board.
The labor strikes are a turn from the most familiar type of political protest behind bars: the hunger strike. 
The strike in Alabama was just the latest in a series of strikes at U.S. prisons. On April 4, at least seven prisons in Texas staged a work strike after a prisoner sent out a call with the help of outside organizers. About a month earlier, prisoners in multiple states including both Texas and Alabama, as well as Virginia and Ohio, called for a national general strike among prisoners on Sept. 9, 2016, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion, where guards and inmates died during a prison revolt in upstate New York. Continue reading →

This Week in Prisoner Action…


URGENT SUPPORT:
Today Monday June 6th is a call in day to support Texas prisoners facing retaliation for their work stoppage in April. See that here: https://www.facebook.com/events/553013341537855/

Friday June 10th is the first phone zap to support a hunger strike against long term solitary confinement by Wisconsin prisoners. See that here: https://www.facebook.com/events/237354093311429/

Please take action on these things, it takes just a few minutes to read the suggested scripts and then call in.


BUILDING TOWARD SEPT 9TH:
There are many ways to get involved right now with organizing for the nationally coordinated prisoner work stoppage and protest. Here are three:
Continue reading →

#EyesOnTexas Support Call Against Retaliation


From IWOC

https://www.facebook.com/events/553013341537855/

Details:

Eric Bergstrom and several other inmates at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville, TX are facing severe retaliation after demanding their basic human rights be met. Estelle is especially notorious for their excessive use of physical violence against inmates. Currently, the Prison Justice League has an open case against them. Read the report here: http://prisonjusticeleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Cruel-Usual-Punishment-PJL-Final.pdf

Eric’s wife wrote to us, detailing this specific incident.

On April 27th, work was called off due to heavy rains and the field bosses came in to shake down the wing. The inmates starting voicing their concerns and talking about how they were the next unit to go on a worker’s strike*. The inmates were forcibly extracted from their cells, tear gased, and one man was nearly beaten to death by a guard. According to his wife, the senior Warden, Tony O’Hare came to their wing to supervise the situation. She states “Eric spoke about getting their good time, unsafe working and living conditions, and the other fact that other states pay their workers and that all that had happened that day was partially his fault because he was not there for all of it. Eric was then singled out from everyone to either become a martyr or to be used as an example by the warden. He was pulled from the cell the warden hit him in his knees with a baton, which was documented by medical, then Eric was given disciplinary charges, for ‘inciting a riot’ all his property was confiscated”
Continue reading →

Wisconsin hunger strikers to take aim at long-term solitary confinement

From WisconsinWatch.org

About a dozen inmates at Waupun vow to bTalib Akbar at Wisdomegin refusing food June 10 to protest administrative confinement, in which prisoners are held in isolation for years, even decades

By

Dee J. Hall/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Talib Akbar, who spent several years in solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons, speaks during a Feb. 4 listening session in Madison sponsored by Wisdom, a statewide faith-based prison advocate group. “Believe me it was torture. When you are released, you are dysfunctional.”

About a dozen Wisconsin prisoners plan to launch a hunger strike beginning next week aimed at ending a form of indefinite solitary confinement that officials use to keep order in the institutions, according to an inmate advocacy group.

Laron Mckinley

Wisconsin Department of Corrections

LaRon McKinley Bey has sued the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, alleging his 25 years in a form of solitary confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Continue reading →

Endorse the Sept 9th Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Work Stoppage and Protest!

(esta pagina en Espanol aqui)

Prisoners across the US have called for and are planning a nationally coordinated work stoppage and protest on September 9th. Read the call to action here.

This action deserves and would benefit greatly from robust outside support. If you are engaged in any kind of work against mass incarceration, whether as an individual or organization, please consider supporting the strike.

Send your endorsements and pledges of support to PrisonerResistance@gmail.com and we will publish them on this site and make sure you’re getting updates about ways to make good on that pledge.

If you have concerns or misgivings, please check out the frequently asked questions below, or contact us and we’d be happy to discuss it with you or your organization. Thank you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Sept 9th?
Why 2016?
Who is calling for the strike?
Why does the language refer to prison slavery?
This action has the potential to put incarcerated persons in extremely dangerous situations if it isn’t well-backed and thought through. What about the danger?
What about demands, tactics and strategies?
How many / which prisoners are on board with the strike?
Who is coordinating outside support for this effort?
 What is IWOC, how did it start?
What kind of support is needed?
Any other questions or concerns?
 Continue reading →

sIgnOtHeTiMeS Blogtalk w/Queen Tahiyrah and Guest Benjamin M. Turk INSURGENT

Listen here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nupowerradionetwork/2016/06/02/signothetimes-blogtalk-wqueen-tahiyrah-and-guest-benjamin-m-turk-insurgent

Tonight Thursday June 2 2016 6pm est 5pm central Benjamin Michael Turk, from Insurgent will speaking on the Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Work Stoppage for Sept 9 and on Friday we are featuring the Brothers of the Sun Free Alabama Freedom Movement with Bob Witnek of Decarcerate the Garden State. Mass Incarceration and over prosecution is a systemic, social, economic and political problem, that has allowed for the legal enslavement of generations of black, brown and economically challenged individuals and families. Please join in the solution . LISTEN and Participate via the web at www.blogtalkradio.com/nupowerradionetwork or call in 917-889-8059! Don’t forget to push 1 to come into the conversation! See you on the airwaves!!! QT See you on the airwaves!

New Prisoners On Ferguson Site

From Prisoners On Ferguson

INTRODUCTIONS

“For freedom we want and will have,
for we have served this cruel land long enuff,
and we are full able to conquer by any means.”
-correspondence between slaves, 18th century

“Those who are locked up
know better than their jailers
the taste of free air.”
-Hélène Cixous

Presented here is a series of interviews with and articles by prisoners on the recent wave of Black-led riots, uprisings, direct action, and protest against the police across the US. The conversations and correspondence that resulted in these pieces took place mostly in the spring of 2016, marking some time since the beginning of the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, Missouri. Reflecting on the ongoing rebellions that have reverberated on both sides of prison walls since that summer almost two years ago, the insights and clarity of these pieces feel no less immediate. While a print version exists so that people can mail copies into prison or table copies on the outside, I also wanted to have an online venue to continue to feature new pieces by prisoners with whom I write.
Continue reading →