Tag Archives: action

Anuncian Huelga Nacional Coordinada por Prisioneros para el 9 de septiembre del 2016. (Sept 9th Call to Action)

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Anuncian Huelga Nacional Coordinada por Prisioneros para el 9 de septiembre del 2016.

Prisioneros a través de los Estados Unidos (EEUU) acaban de lanzar un llamado de acción para una huelga nacional coordinada por prisioneros contra la esclavitud en las prisiones para el 9 de septiembre del 2016.

Esto es un Llamado Contra la Esclavitud en América.

En una voz, alzada desde las celdas de largos aislamientos, resonando en los dormitorios y celdas desde Virginia a Oregón, nosotros, prisioneros, a través de los EEUU juramos a finalmente acabar con la esclavitud en el 2016.

En septiembre 9 del 1971 prisioneros tomaron y cerraron Attica, la prisión de Nueva York más notoria. En septiembre 9 del 2016, empezaremos una acción para cerrar las prisiones a través de este país. No solo demandaremos un fin a la esclavitud prisionera, lo acabaremos nosotros mismos dejando de ser esclavos.

En la década de los 1970’s el sistema estadounidense de prisiones se derrumbaba. En Walpole, San Quentin, Soledad, Angola, y muchas otras prisiones, la gente se levantaba, peleaban y recuperaban sus propias vidas y cuerpos de las prisiones esclavizadoras. Por los últimos seis años hemos recordado y renovado la lucha. En lo interino, la población de prisioneros ha explotado y las tecnologías para controlar y encarcelar se han desarrollado al nivel más sofisticado y represivo en la historia del mundo. Las prisiones se han vuelto más dependientes en la esclavitud y la tortura para mantener estabilidad. Continue reading →

“This was about unity”: A Wave of Protest Spreads Through the Michigan Prison System

foodOver the last month, thousands of prisoners at three different prisons in Michigan have taken part in mass protests against the conditions of their confinement and as a demonstration of their collective strength. Prisoners at Kinross Correctional Facility began the wave of protests on March 20th and 21st with 1,000 of the prison’s 1,300 prisoners refusing meals. The strike then spread to Chippewa Correctional Facility, also in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on March 26th through 28th where at least 800 prisoners refused meals for the entire weekend. Then, on April 12th, prisoners at a third facility, the Cotton Correctional Facility, joined in with about 660 prisoners refusing meals. According to the media, the protests are sparked by problems with food quality, but according to the prisoner whose reportback is below, “this was about unity.”

According to the Detroit Free Press:

Both protests were characterized by extremely high participation rates among inmates, which disturbed Michigan Corrections Organization officials and also got the attention of the prisons’ administration, Gautz said. “It’s definitely something the facilities took seriously,” Gautz said. “It is unusual in a high school or a prison, because there are different groups or cliques that form, to have everybody on the same page. It takes some coordination.”

When the strike spread to a third facility, The Detroit Free press reported that the MDOC suspects that “the protest at Cotton may have been instigated by a prisoner who was transferred there for assaulting a prisoner who chose to go to the chow hall during an earlier food protest at Kinross Correctional Facility in the UP, Gautz said.” On March 20th, as at least 1,000 prisoners at Kinross were refusing meals, the MDOC had this to say:

These protests are happening simultaneously with work strikes in Texas prisons as well as ongoing resistance in Alabama prisons, which recently saw a series of riots at Holman Correctional and where prisoners are currently calling for a work stoppage on May 1st. All of this is happening in the lead up to a call by prisoners across the country for a national prison strike on September 9th, the anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. Continue reading →

Call for May Day Work Strike in Alabama Prisons

Believe it or not, the entire country is looking at Alabama. Specifically, the Alabama Prison System and its Leadership. Right Now- We have a spotlight on the National stage to show & prove the Effects of:

Alabama’s draconian Habitual Offenders Statute,
Alabama’s Mandatory Life without Parole Capital Offense Statute,
Alabama’s arbitrary Parole Board,
Alabama’s parasitic policy of Warehousing & Economical Exploitation rather than Education, Rehabilitation and ReEntry Preparedness.

Believe it or not,
the entire country is listening– OUR COLLECTIVE ACTION/INACTION will speak louder than words.

As in all Emergency Distress Calls… “MAY DAY , MAY DAY”

May 1- May 31… 30 DAYS OF NOTHING!

… No Work No Talk!

Tipping Point in Texas Prison Strikes? New Wave of Lockdowns, Threats

From IWOC

April 16th, 2016

TX. Since April 4th, prisoners in at least 4 Texas prisons have been on strike for better conditions and an end to slavery and human rights abuses. This strike is but the latest in a nationwide mass movement inside prisons for dignity and freedom. Minimum wage in Texas prisons is 00/hr. Access to medical care requires a $100 medical copay.

“My son and others are literally sitting down to say – ‘Stop killing us. Stop enslaving us. We are human. This has got to stop’” said Judy, whose son’s prison is on lockdown. “I think the strike should spread. I believe prisoners and families together have the power to collapse this system.”

Continue reading →

#EyesOnTexas Solidarity Call in!

From IWOC.NoBlogs.org

As of Monday, April 18th, prisoners in Texas have been a labor strike for two weeks. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is retaliating by locking the prisons down and depriving prisoners of even the standard abysmal human necessities they are forced to provide. Retaliation against people who refuse to work for free is one of the tools prison administrators use to assure that prisoners can continue to be exploited in today’s modern day slave system.

If you have a minute, please call the following administrators and read the scripts below:

*Brad Livingston, Executive Director, TDCJ, (936) 437-2101 or (512) 463-9988
*Bryan Collier, Deputy Executive Director, TDCJ, (936) 437-6251 or (512) 463-9988
*Jay Eason, Deputy Director, TDCJ, (936) 437-6318 or (512) 463-9988
*TDJC Ombudsman Office (936) 437-4927 ombudsman@tdcj.texas.gov
*TDJC Office of the Inspector General (936) 437-5030 oig@tdcj.texas.gov
*TDCJ Executive Director (512) 463-9988 exec.director@tdcj.state.tx.us

EASY Script: “Hi I’m calling in support of striking prisoners in Texas and their demands for good time, an end to $100 medical copay, an independent grievance procedure and an end to human rights abuses. Stop enslaving our brothers and sisters, eyes on Texas!”

CHALLENGING Script: “Hi I heard about the prisoners labor strike and I’m calling to find out what sort of progress you are making toward meeting the prisoners demands.” Here is the list of demands for you to discuss. Continue reading →

Urgent: Call to support tortured hunger-striking prisoners in Louisiana

From SF Bayview

April 15, 2016

by a prisoner at David Wade Correctional Center, Homer, Louisiana

Written April 11, 2016, received April 15, 2016 – This is to notify you that several prisoners have begun a hunger strike openly while others are on a silent hunger strike, which may endanger their safety.

The three active prisoners who began the hunger strike on April 9, 2016, are now also on what is called “extreme suicide,” which is where they place you in FULL RESTRAINTS (chains) – that is, shackles and handcuffs attached to a waist chain. This is done for days at a time. They are also on “strip” – dressed only in a paper gown.

The torturous punitive conditions here at David Wade Correctional Center have gone on long enough. The sadistic practices by security and the administration are a violation of human rights and decency.

The administration has admitted to the infliction of corporal punishment against prisoners on lockdown. Just now as I write, they sprayed a prisoner while he was on his knees and struck him several times. They also sprayed and beat another prisoner who is mentally ill and has been on for over a year. He has also been on food loaf for a long time.

We badly need some help and support down here.

Please call if you can – just a phone call will spook them. Thank you!

  • Department of Corrections Secretary James M. LeBlanc, 225-342-6740
  • Deputy Secretary Eugene Powers, 225-342-6744
  • Undersecretary Thomas Bickham, 225-342-6739

The Bay View thanks Claude Marks, director of Freedom Archives, for this message. Contact him at 522 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 863-9977, www.Freedomarchives.org or claude@freedomarchives.org.

It Ain’t Over Yet – Reportback on Holman Uprising

From AnarchyLive!

Friday, Feb. 12, 2016 – Monday, Feb. 15, 2016

What began as a confrontation between prisoners from different regions of Alabama – namely, B’ham and Montgomery, with B’ham being the largest – escalated into two short riots against the pigs. After the prisoners squashed the beef among themselves without any violence, two pigs ran into C-dorm, which houses 114 prisoners and was informed that there was no problem and everything was under control.

One pig (Tate) tried to bogart his way through a crowd of prisoners and was immediately stabbed a number of times. After the two pigs ran out the dorm, one bloodied the warden, Carter Davenport, who has a reputation as an extremely sadistic, disrespectful, and nasty scumfuck fascist, who was recently removed from his post as warden at St. Clair maximum security prison for assaulting a prisoner, and reassigned as warden at Holman in 2015. He was stabbed after entering C-dorm like some kind of god. Continue reading →

Texas Strike Day 1 Update.

 SUMMARY:According to (probably dishonest) reports from Texas DCJ seven institutions were locked down at least part of the day yesterday, three remained on lockdown last night. These lockdowns were likely used to control or retaliate against the striking workers, so it gives some evidence of the size of the action.

We need to wait to hear from the prisoners to get a more complete picture.

Details, from IWOC

Strike Roundup Day 1: Texas Prisons Shook by IWOC Initiated Strikes

CONTACT: Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a committee of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 816-866-3808, iwoc [at] riseup.net.

April 5, 2016

Houston, TX — Today, in a historic action, members of the Industrial Workers of the World’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) shook Texas prisons with strikes in seven prisons.

According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials as of 7:45pm on Monday (4/4), three prisons remain locked down (Wynne, Mountain View, Lynaugh)–on strike–while 3 others were but are no longer on lockdown (Torres, Polunsky, Roach). Robertson Unit officials refused to report in the evening and is therefore almost certainly still on strike/lockdown as they were when they confirmed earlier in the day.

Any information from TDCJ officials must of course be taken with a grain of salt, as the main office has been denying strikes and lockdowns all day. Concealing the strike as lockdowns is a strategy known by both prisoners and wardens.

A March 23rd letter from an IWOC Texas in-prison organizer notes that prisoners were given “reliable information” that authorities would use lockdowns “to create the public perception that we are locked down for administrative purposes and not because of the Texas Work Stoppage.”

At stake is the future of slavery in America, and the human rights of the more than two million prison slaves, including more than 143,000 in Texas. Prisoners in Texas are paid a minimum wage of $0.00/hr. Their labor is making Texas billions of dollars and “outsourcing” jobs to US companies.

“Slavery is a horrifying institution,” said Nicholas Onwuke, IWOC Co-Chair and former prisoner. “Violence is the last gasp of an evil system against people standing up, demanding their dignity. It took mass struggle to end historical slavery and Jim Crow, so will it to end prison slavery today.”

Demands specifically mentioned by the prisoners include objective timelines for release on good/work time, an end to a $100 medical co-pays that prevent access to health care, an independent grievance committee, and an end to a vast array of human rights abuses. Texas prisons lead the nation in sexaul assault of inmates and have seen a spree of overheating deaths due to lack of air conditioning.

From the March 23rd letter–“We need as many freeworld people as possible to contact the media and inform them that that [‘administrative lockdown’] is not the case and that we are in fact locked down as a direct result of our workstoppage.”

You in the free world. This is your time for action. Spread the mass movement in prisons to the free world. Stand with Texas prisoners: call, act, donate, or get involved.

Support Striking Texas Prisoners #EyesOnTexas

Today Prisoners in Texas Went on Strike Against Slavery Conditions.

 

texas strike

In early March we received word that prisoners in Texas were planning a work stoppage to occur April 4th. You can read this announcement and their demands here. Here is a flyer put out by Texas prisoners and circulating through multiple facilities. Here is the announcement and demands laid out in easy to print and mail formats. 1 sheet 2 sides. 5 pages.

Prisoners can face severe repercussions from the authorities when they stand up for themselves. Outside support and solidarity are essential to let the guards and admins know they cannot attack, starve, provoke, torture or otherwise retaliate against these striking prisoners without consequence. Here are three things you can do to show solidarity and support: Continue reading →