Category Archives: General

Bend the Bars Conference

From Bend the Bars 2016

On September 9, 2016, prisoners across the U.S. are initiating a wave of strikes and other forms of resistance to confinement and forced labor. It’s vital that we get organized on the outside to meaningfully support their resistance.

Bend the Bars will bring together a diversity of people who have a stake in supporting prisoners’ organizing and fighting against the prison system. We envision two days of workshops and discussions to share skills, meet each other, and build our strength. Throughout these days, we’ll highlight the voices of prisoners and ex-prisoners. And, importantly, there will be a public demonstration to make sure prisoners know that we have their backs.

More is coming soon! Details, invite, workshops, logistics, and more!

Save the date: August 26-29
Columbus, OHIO
bendthebars (a) riseup.net

Fight Toxic Prisons march blockades Bureau of Prisons

peltiermarusFrom Earth First Journal

(also see video here.)

Report back from FTP Convergence Day of Action

from Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons

Over the weekend of June 11th an incredible array of folks gathered in Washington, DC for the Convergence to Fight Toxic Prisons anwd Support Eco-prisoners. After two days of networking, strategizing and listening to the wisdom of black liberation fighters like Ramona Africa and Jihad Abdulmumit as well as former eco-prisoners like Eric McDavid and Daniel McGowan – and so many more, folks hit the streets the morning of June 13th to raise some hell in the belly of the beast.

The Fight Toxic Prisons march got started bright and early to make sure that the prison pushers at the BOP did not get off to a good workday. Chanting “Burn prisons, not coal” and “Break the locks, no more cops!” about 50 people shut down the intersection in front of the BOP and blocked the entrance to their parking garage, preventing workers from getting in. After holding the space for an hour, and hearing some inspiring words from folks like Linda Shosie, a mother whose son is stuck inside a highly toxic prison, the march moved on to the Dept. of Justice and FBI headquarters which sit across the street from each other. Continue reading →

‘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 →