From Revolutionary Alliance of Trans People Against Capitalism – Puget Sound
In 8 days (9/9/16), the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison Rebellion, there will be a coordinated work stoppage by prisoners across the US.
Prisoners are among the most acutely oppressed and exploited workers. Mass incarceration, historically speaking, has direct continuity with Southern chattel slavery (and under the 13th Amendment, slavery remains legal so long as the slave is convicted of something first. The criminal “justice” system, of course, has always been complicit in maintaining racialized enslavement.) Whether it’s private prisons, large-scale deportation (thanks Obama!), or prisoners being hired out to work for pennies at gunpoint, prisons exist to serve the ruling class. They enforce and reproduce white supremacy, and show brutally directly that the state does not stand outside capitalism, systemic racism, and the power of the ruling class – it administers and enforces them. Nothing short of prison abolition must be revolutionaries’ goal. Continue reading