Tag Archives: call to action

Call for Renewed Actions in Solidarity With the Prison Strike, October 15-22

From It’s Going Down

It hardly seems necessary to summarize what has gone down inside U.S. prisons since September 9th. Hunger strikes, work stoppages, and riots have spread throughout the country on a scale that we likely aren’t even fully aware of yet. Some uprisings appeared took us by surprise, such as in several Florida prisons, while others presumably grew from recent organizing endeavors on the inside, such as at Kinross in Michigan or Holman in Alabama. By rough estimates, over 20,000 prisoners were involved in some way. That’s huge.

On the outside, solidarity burned so brightly all over the world. Banner drops, graffiti slogans, noise demonstrations and more showed that we had the backs of all who would partake in the strike. It is worth noting however that the vast majority of this took place the first weekend of the strike. But this prison strike—and the struggle against prisons more broadly—is about more than a day or a week. It didn’t start on September 9th and it isn’t ending any time soon. Some prisoners may return to work while others decide to stop working for the first time. It’s easier when there is a definitive date to take action on, to build momentum towards, but that’s not going to be enough.

Therefore, we would like to offer a call for renewed actions in solidarity with the prison strike and the struggle against prison society. Right now many are organizing anti-repression campaigns for striking prisoners and that is of course very necessary and not nearly as exciting work. But it would be a mistake to conceive of this struggle in a linear fashion—that is to say, a single wave where we demonstrate as it crests and write letters as it crashes. How many prisoners hadn’t heard about the strike until after it had started? How many knew but didn’t think people would actually be there to support them? Three weeks after the start of the strike, inmates in Turbeville, South Carolina rebelled against a guard and took over their dorm. How can we stop while inmates are still risking their lives for freedom? Continue reading →

Message from Keith ‘Malik’ Washington Spokesperson for End Prison Slavery in Texas

[The following is an open letter from a comrade associated with End Prison Slavery in Texas addressed to IWOC; all typos, etc, remain as in the original letter.]

Revolutionary Greetings Comrades!

I hope all of you are doing well.Today is August 8th, 2016 – yesterday I was notified by a friend that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles DENIED my release on Parole for the 5th time!

My Good Time, Work Time, and Flat Time calculations equal to 100% of my current 20 year sentence – yet here I remain.

And this is one of the key issues we are challenging in Texas – I am a Text – Book example which exposes the Flaws in a system which continues to enslave the poorest cross-section of Amerikan society.

I would like to thank the IWW – IWOC for referring Free-Lance Journalist John Washington to me. Hopefully we will see a detailed essay in The Nation Magazine which highlights our strength to abolish Prison Slavery.

The Grassroots organizing for the September 9th action is going well. Texas Prisoners are not just suffering from physical enslavement. Many are psychologically enslaved. This makes my job and Rashid’s job of awakening the lumpen difficult but not impossible. Continue reading →

Hunger-Strike Launched by 22 Mothers in Deportation Jail

From It’s Going Down

The following is an open letter of demand to Jeh Johnson written by 22 mothers detained at Berks Family Residential Center:

The reason for this letter of demands is to make it known to you that since Monday August 8th we have started an “INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE.”

The Immigration Department has made a public announcement stating that in family detention center parents and children are detained no longer than 20 days.

WE WANT TO DISPROVE THIS INFORMATION!!

We are 22 mothers who are detained at Berks Family Residential Center, being mothers who have been from 270 days to 365 days in detention with children ages 2 to 16 years old, depriving them of having a normal life, knowing that we have prior traumas from our countries, risking our own lives and that of our children on the way until we arrived here, having family and friends who would be responsible for us and who are waiting for us with open arms and that immigration refuses to let us out. Continue reading →

ALERT! Call in to defend Hasan now!

hasan deskSiddique Abdullah Hasan, of the Free Ohio Movement has been transferred to the hole and denied access to communication and property.

Please call OSP immediately and daily 330-743-0700 until they release him.

Ask to speak to the warden and demand that Hasan be allowed back into his regular cell and regain access to his property. The person they connect you to may pretend they only know Hasan by the name Carlos Sanders, even though his name was legally changed to Siddique Abdullah Hasan decades ago. His prison number is R130-559.

Hasan is one of the few public spokespeople for the national protest that will start on September 9 of this year. Last week he was visited by law enforcement who inaccurately described Sep 9 as a plot to harm people and blow up buildings.

It is important that we stand up to repression and terror-baiting as soon as it rears it’s head. Please call the prison and share this alert as widely as possible.

Thank you.

Appel à l’arrêt du travail des prisonnier.e.s aux USA

French version of the Sept 9th call to action.

Depuis différents états des USA, des prisonnier.e.s viennent de lancer cet appel à un arrêt du travail des prisonnier.e.s contre l’esclavage carcéral. Cet arrêt du travail aura lieu le 9 septembre 2016 et sera coordonné à l’échelle nationale.

Ceci est un appel à l’action contre l’esclavage aux USA.

D’une seule voix, qui s’élève des cellules des quartiers d’isolement, et qui résonne dans les dortoirs et les quartiers des prisons depuis la Virginie jusqu’à l’Oregon, nous, prisonnier.e.s dans diverses régions des USA, faisons le serment d’enfin éradiquer l’esclavage en 2016.

Le 9 Septembre 1971, les prisonniers ont pris le contrôle et fait fermer Attica, la plus célèbre prison de l’état de New York. Le 9 septembre 2016, nous allons entamer un mouvement pour faire fermer les prisons à travers tout le pays. Nous n’allons pas seulement exiger la fin de l’esclavage carcéral, nous allons cesser d’être nous-mêmes des esclaves. Continue reading →