Tag Archives: prison strike

Financial Impact of the Prison Strike in California

From Solidarity Research Center

Authors: Solidarity Research prison-strike-in-california-10-06-16Center and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Date: October 2016

September 9, 2016 was the start of the largest prison strike in U.S. history. Over 72,000 incarcerated workers in 22 states refused to provide their labor to profit the prison industrial complex. California forces 5,588 incarcerated workers to labor in exchange for little or no compensation. The financial losses to the California prison system are as much as $636,068 in revenue or $156,736 in profit for every day of the prison strike.

 

Download the full report here.

Call for International Anarchist Action in Solidarity with US Prison Strike

From 325

On September 9th, prisoners across the United States will begin a strike that will be a general work stoppage against prison slavery. In short, prisoners will refuse to work; they will refuse to keep the prisons running by their own labors. Prisoners are striking not just for better conditions or changes in parole rules, but against prison slavery. Prisoners state that under the 13th Amendment which abolished racial slavery, at the same time it allowed human beings to be worked for free or next to nothing as long as they were prisoners.

Prisoners see the current system of prison slavery to thus be a continuation of racial slavery, which is a system that generates billions of dollars in profits each year for major corporations in key industries such as fossil fuels, fast food, banking, and the US military.

Soon after the passing of the 13th Amendment, many former slaves were soon locked up in prisons on petty offenses, quickly returned to their former roles as slaves. Over a century later, the Drug War sought to deal with the growing unemployment rate brought on by changes in the economy (outsourcing, financialization, deregulation, etc), as well as the threat of black insurrection which grew in the 1960s and 70s, by throwing more and more people in prison. At the same time, the state and corporations continued to look towards prison labor as a source to generate massive profits. Continue reading →

Providence: September 9 Solidarity Action

ON FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH, we are calling on people across Rhode Island to converge in Downtown Providence to hold a rally and march in solidarity with the US-wide prisoner work-strike against prison slavery.

Slavery is legal in America. Written into the 13th Amendment, it is legal to work someone that is incarcerated for free or almost free. Since the civil war, tens of millions of people – most arrested for non-violent offenses – have been used as slaves for the sake of generating massive profits for multi-national corporations and the US government. Today, prison labor is a multi-billion dollar industry which helps generate enormous wealth for key industries such as fossil fuels, fast food, telecommunications, technology, the US military, and everyday house hold products.

The strike, which starts officially on September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, is historic. The strike is being led by groups such as the Free Alabama Movement, Free Texas Movement, Free Ohio Movement, Free Virginia Movement, Free Mississippi Movement, and many more. Prisoners have asked that supporters hold noise demonstrations outside jails and prisons, protest, disrupt, and demonstrate outside of corporations that profit from prison labor, and also support the strike that is happening across the US. Continue reading →

Durham: Solidarity Action with September 9 Prison Strikers

March Against Prison Slavery, an ad hoc action in Durham, NC in support of prison strikers.

On September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, prisoners all across the country, from Alabama to California, from Texas to Ohio, from North Carolina to Washington, will go on strike. Called for and self-organized by prisoners as a struggle “to end prison slavery,” this may be the largest coordinated prison protest in American history.

Those on the outside have been working for months to spread the word and deepen networks of solidarity and support.  Above all, prisons are designed to isolate; the degree to which prisoners avoid violent reprisals and repression is directly related to how widespread and forceful our actions are on the outside.

This is also an opportunity to continue to challenge the racist regimes of policing and social control that govern our daily lives. The fires set in Milwaukee burn also at Holman Prison in Alabama. When Texas prisoners refuse to be slaves, that is also a refusal to be policed, and it echoes all the way to the streets of Durham. Continue reading →

September 9 Announcement in Portugese

From Mulheres abolicionistas

Pessoas, está rolando um chamado geral para diversas ações de resistência nas prisões dos EUA. Traduzimos o documento abaixo (junto com o amigo Fernando Henrique) e estamos divulgando. Leiam. O texto é uma preciosidade.

***

>> Este é um chamado à ação contra a escravidão na América <<

Em uma só voz, que se ergue das celas de confinamento solitário de longa duração e ecoa pelos dormitórios e pavilhões da Virginia ao Oregon, nós, presos dos Estados Unidos, decidimos, finalmente, acabar com a escravidão em 2016.

Em 09 de setembro de 1971, presos tomaram e fecharam Attica, a prisão mais conhecida do estado de Nova York. Em 09 de setembro de 2016, nós vamos iniciar uma ação para fechar as prisões de todo o país. Não vamos apenas exigir o fim da escravidão carcerária, vamos acabar com ela deixando de ser escravos.

Nos anos 1970, o sistema prisional americano desmoronava. Em Walpole, San Quentin, Soledad, Angola e muitas outras prisões, as pessoas se levantaram, lutaram e retomaram, das colônias agrícolas, o controle sobre suas vidas e seus corpos.

Durante os últimos seis anos, nós relembramos e renovamos aquela luta. Neste ínterim, a população carcerária inchou e as tecnologias de controle e confinamento se desenvolveram como as mais sofisticadas e repressivas da história mundial. As prisões, para se manterem estáveis, tornaram-se mais dependentes da escravidão e da tortura. Continue reading →

New Orleans: September 9th Prison Strike Banner Drop

From It’s Going Down

As residents of New Orleans, the incarceration capitol of Louisiana, and Louisiana, the incarceration capitol of so-called Amerikkka, we greatly look forward to seeing prisons across the country go on strike on September 9th. For those trapped within Orleans Parish Prison, we dropped some banners to lift y’all’s spirits; to those who drove by on their morning commute, it’s time to start acting out. This is also to let OPP’s head-pig-in-charge, Sheriff Gusman, know that this city is sick of taking his shit.

BURN DOWN THE AMERICAN PLANTATION!

LET THE CROPS ROT IN THE FIELDS!banner-1

On Non-violence, Part 1

Source: Anarchy Live

Every time you see some major action being planned by prisoners, they always state that it is a “peaceful” and “non-violent” action.

I think this is because a lot of Black prisoners who are basically behind a majority of these actions come from an Islamic/Black cultural nationalist background and it seems as if they look at the Civil Rights Movement as a model and frame of reference as opposed to the Black Liberation Movement, to which most claim to be heirs. They think it’s safer and can get more participation and good propaganda to induce those who adamantly oppose violence to get on board.

I bring this up because a few ‘rades on the outside has brought it up recently and it’s constantly being debated by prisoners at Holman. It’s a debate that will keep rearing its head.

Continue reading →

Call-in for Comrades Held in Segregation at Holman

From Anarchy Live

On August 1, 2016, following rebellion in one of the dorms, the riot squad attacked individuals at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, placing multiple individuals in segregation. In violation of Department of Corrections policy, the prisoners have not received a 72-hour investigation notice of the reason for their being placed in segregation, and have not had their personal property returned. The comrades have had to go without shoes, clothing, deodorant, and toothbrushes, and have not had access to their addresses and phone numbers.

Call Warden Mitchell and demand that those put in segregation after the recent riot be released and have their property returned.

Phone number: 251-368-8173

Continue reading →

A Challenge: Spread the Strike to Every Jail, Juvie, and Prison!

From It’s Going Down

This is a challenge to anyone who is supportive of the September 9th prisoners’ strike but who has remained on the sidelines until now.

In order for this strike to not be snuffed out by a handful of prison censors and violent guards, it needs to spread uncontrollably beyond their reach. And because prisons strictly forbid communication between prisoners, it is our responsibility on the outside to facilitate this contagion.

The first obvious step is to begin sending in word of the strike, immediately. If people on the inside are to be able to meaningfully act, they are going to need some time to begin spreading the word to their friends and formulating a plan. To that end, we are suggesting that outside accomplices begin printing the strike announcements (below) and mailing them inside en masse.

Spanish: http://insurgenttheatre.org/sprdocs/prisoncalloutSpanish.pdf

English: http://insurgenttheatre.org/sprdocs/sept9clean.pdf

English (half-sized booklet): http://insurgenttheatre.org/sprdocs/septstrikepamphletalt.pdf

(For all, print double-sided and “flip on short edge.”) Continue reading →

Block Report Radio with Greg Curry

From BlockReportRadio.com

Lucasville Rebellion Survivor Greg Curry speaks on the September 9th National Prison Strike, his comrade Saddique Hasan being placed in the hole by the prison to disrupt his part in organizing the national prison strike, and the personal plight of Greg Curry. Tune in for more at BlockReportRadio.com. Free’Em All!

https://soundcloud.com/blockreportradio/ohio-prisoner-greg-curry-speaks-on-september-9th-natl-prison-strike