Tag Archives: letter

Letter of support from Quebec prisoners on strike, September 9

From Prison Radio Show

The letter reads:

A Letter in Support of Prisoners in the US who are striking against prison slavery

First, we want to tell you that you are not alone! We are keeping our eyes on your struggles. We support you!

In your call for a strike on September 9th you evoke the uprising in Attica that began on September 9, 1971. You write about ending prison slavery by ceasing to be slaves yourselves. We see you. We hear you. We support you.

We are a group of people, some in prison, some not in prison, and some who are in between. We are critical of the prison system and all its trappings. We would like to share with you some stories of our struggles. Continue reading →

Open Letter from Keith ‘Malik’ Washington

Peace and Blessings to all – my name is:
Keith ‘Malik’ Washington. I am one of the key spokespersyns for the End
Prison Slavery in Texas Movement. I am from Houston, Texas, specifically
the 3rd Ward. There are many Prison Authorities and Law Enforcement
Officials who will attempt to characterize our movement as violent.
I have never endorsed or promoted violence in this Movement simply because
it plays right into the hands of the individuals and Agencies who oppress
us.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, F.B.I., D.H.S., and numerous
Federal and State Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies are fully
equipped to deal with violence.
However as prisoners finally become visible in the media we must use this
opportunity to convey our thoughts and demands in an intelligent,
pragmatic, and respectful manner.
What scares T.D.C.J. about this movement is not the violence – it is the
prospect of two things:
1.) The threat of losing money from having to stop or slow operations of
the numerous Texas Correctional Industry Factories which generate millions
of Dollars.
2.) Being exposed in the main-stream media as an Agency which exploits,
oppresses, and abuses human beings in their care.
On top of being a spokespersyn for our movement I am also a proud member of
the Industrial Workers of the World and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing
Committee. Before I leave you I want to briefly state our Demands:
1.) On a National Level we want Presidential Candidates Hillary Clinton or
Jill Stein to craft Legislation that will Abolish Prison Slavery by
Amending the 13th Amendment.
2.) In Texas we want the Following:
A.) Good Time & Work Time credits which actually reduce our prison terms –
All of us, not some!
B.) An Oversight Committee for T.D.C.J.
C.) Right to an Attorney on Habeas Filings
D.) Abolish the $100 Medical Co-pay System
E.) Humane Living Conditions & Treatment

There are no Racial issues we have – it is well understood that there are
Black, White, Latino – Asian and Arab human beings who SUFFER inside Texas
Prisons.
We are pleading with the World to hear our cries for Freedom and Humane
Conditions. I leave you all as I came in Peace.
In Solidarity – Malik

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 →

Staten Island Against Racism and Police Brutality (SIARAPB) September 9 Endorsement

We are Staten Islanders who were shocked, saddened, angered, and ultimately moved to action by the NYPD’s harassment and murder of Eric Garner which took place on July 17th, 2014, and the subsequent miscarriage of justice when one of his murderers, Daniel Pantaleo, received a non-indictment in December of that year. Staten Island Against Racism and Police Brutality (Siarapb) subsequently formed as a diverse multi-racial and multi-ethnic group of students, faculty, and members of the community on the eve of the non-indictment that had had enough with the harassment, murder and impunity of the NYPD, and the larger patterns of police brutality, mass incarceration, and Stop & Frisk, Broken Windows, and Quality of Life policing which disproportionately targets people and communities of color here in Staten Island and across the United States.

As we write this, we are coming up on two years of justice denied, as Eric’s children are deprived of their father, while the officer that killed him walks free. It has also been two years of justice misplaced, as his friend, Ramsey Orta, who filmed and released the video of Eric’s murder, continues to be subjected to a prosecutorial witch hunt for challenging the authority of the NYPD. Two years later we are still calling for justice to be brought to the parties responsible for Eric Garner’s death and for greater accountability from our justice system.
Continue reading →

Peace Action of Staten Island (PASI) September 9 Endorsement

Peace Action of Staten Island (PASI) is a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting the nonviolent resolution of conflict, the abolition of nuclear weapons, and the promotion of culture based on human rights and economy rooted in human needs. To us, violence, and in particular state-sanctioned violence, is not simply the act of war and expanding militarization. It also encompasses degradation of our environment, policing which criminalizes, harasses, humiliates, and brutalizes communities and people of color through the bogus War on Drugs, and the deprivation of freedom through surveillance and imprisonment. It is also the economic exclusion of exploitative wages and wage theft, which are exacerbated within prisons and prevent people from meeting their basic needs.

It is a tragic fact that our country has chosen to value corporate interests over the well-being of its residents. That it supports the profitability of privately-run prison industries over the ability of individuals, both incarcerated and within low-income communities, to make a fair living and fully participate in society. That it willingly undercuts the lives of millions of people in order to drive corporate profits through a system of forced uncompensated or barely-compensated labor. Continue reading →

Wisconsin Prison ‘Dying to Live’ Hunger Strikers Continue Quest to End Prolonged Solitary Confinement – LaRon McKinley Bey

From Arawak City Anarchist Black Cross, by Laron McKinley Bey, #42642

In a nation that would not tolerate shutting in zoo animals 23-24 hours per day the State of Wisconsin has no compunction confining prisoners to indefinite isolative Administrative Confinement (AC) alone in a parking-space size cell for 164 of the 168 hour week.  Such prolongued social, environmental, and occupational isolation and lack of stimulation is well known to pose a substantial risk of harm to mental and physical health.

Norman Uhuru Green and I, 2 of the longest standing Wisconsin prisoners held in this type of endless isolation at 18 years, and nearly 28 years respectively, together with Cesar DeLeon, form the 3 remaining original ‘Dying to Live’ movement hunger strikers who continue to refuse to eat or drink in hopes of forcing an end to the state’s practice of indeterminate seclusion.

On June 7, 2016, a group of 10 Wisconsin prisoners in solitary confinement at the Waupun and Columbia correctional institutions began refusing nourishment to expose the inhumane conditions of their confinement, and to facilitate dignified treatment of all humans.  Within a few weeks the Department of Corrections had obtained court orders to force-feed Uhuru, DeLeon, and I 3 times daily which entails being placed in full restraints, and then strapped into a ‘restraint chair’ and having a nasal-gastro tube inserted in one nostril to the stomach where a liquid mixture of nutrition is funneled.  Besides violating the sanctity of our bodies, this procedure is an invalid state response to a dignified struggle and it can cause significant internal injury.

Continue reading →

Letter on the March 11th Lockdown, Stillwater Prison, MN

from Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee

Salutations to my fellow soldiers of our rights,

I would like to share some vital information that may be pertinentPICfamily-624x874 to anyone who is interested in fighting for the working/lower class of America. This is a clear example of unity. It is proof that if we all come together we can be a force to be reckoned with.

As I sit on lockdown in Stillwater after the events that took place on March 11th, 2016 in the chow-hall, I feel a real feeling of contentment. A-west stood up for the rights of our community, the small rights we have left that is. They have taken so much from us in the past, things that I have never had the privilege to experience, but loved ones who have been incarcerated for years have explained. At a time there used to be so many things that have been snatched away from our community, such as quality food, the 4th of July picnic, freedom to watch adult rated movies and magazines, and a curfew set by 9:25pm. I would like to touch on each of these topics. Continue reading →