Tag Archives: solidarity

Call-in For Zolo Azania

Dear Friends,We are writing to you today on behalf of political prisoner Zolo Azania. After 35 years of incarceration, 27 of them on death row, Zolo is finally due to be released in February, 2017. Regrettably, this final year has been made difficult for him. Zolo has brought to our attention a number of troubling matters and has requested that concerned individuals contact the Indiana Department of Corrections on his behalf.

It is our understanding that in recent months, violations of Zolo’s basic rights have included:

Confiscation (or destruction) of his personal property including his Holy Qur’an, dictionary, prayer cap and beads, art supplies, toothbrush and other items.

Prevention from participation in religious programming: Islamic faith based programs such as Jumu’ah service (Friday prayer) and Taleem (Muslim study class).

Irregular payment or denial of compensation at his minimum wage prison job, a job guaranteed to him by IDOC Commissioner Lemmon.

Zolo has consistently demonstrated good conduct and has received above average work evaluations. He does not deserve to be treated in this manner.

Please contact the Indiana Department of Corrections at 317-233-5541 or 232-5755 or email Commissioner Lemmon (blemmon@idoc.in.gov) and ask that Zolo’s concerns be addressed and remedied.

You can write
Zolo Azania #4969
Miami Correctional Facility
3038 West 850 South
Bunker Hill, IN 46914-9810

Bend the Bars Conference Update on Asheville FM

from The Final Straw on Asheville FM

[Listen here]

This week we spoke with Alex about Bend the Bars conference which is taking place in Columbus OH on the weekend of August 26th-29th. This is a gathering which was called for in direct support for the September 9th national prisoner work strike, and is one of the only gatherings that we know of which explicitly centers the work of people doing direct support with incarcerated folks as opposed to NGOs and non profits. In this conversation we speak about the intentions for the conference as well touching on the prison condition in the US, the National Work Strike, and many other things.

You can learn more about this event by visiting https://bendthebars.noblogs.org/, and you can RSVP to this event or correspond with the organizers by emailing bendthebars@riseup.net

And, to visit the news sources that our guest mentioned, and to learn more about the upcoming national prisoner work strike to be called on September 9th, you can visit the following websites:
Free Alabama Movement
Support Prisoner Resistance
IWOC
Additionally there is Prison Legal News, which is a resource for folks who want more information about the day to day litigation that affects convicts and their families.

A Letter from Mothers and F.A.M.ilies

[Editor’s Note: what follows is an open letter to those incarcerated in Alabama from the organization Mothers and F.A.M.ilies.]

Greetings from Mothers and F.A.M.ilies:

May this letter find you in the best of spirit and health in spite of
your circumstance of being incarcerated in Alabama. We hope to lift your
spirit by letting you know that we are in this fight with you for
freedom, justice, and civil and human rights until the end.

Over the past 3 years, we have been fighting relentlessly alongside FREE
ALABAMA MOVEMENT and all others for justice in Alabama. Among our many
activities have been:
Continue reading →

Call for solidarity with USA prison strike on the 9th of September

by Bristol Anarchist Black Cross

On September 9th, 2016 prisoners across the United States will be conducting work stoppages, hunger strikes and other forms of action in a call to end prison slavery. The call was originated by organizers from the Free Alabama Movement. A national coalition of community groups associated with the IWW’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Anarchist Black Cross chapters and others throughout the country have come together to build a national support network to push for a final end to prison slavery.

To achieve this goal, we need support from the international community. We hope that prisoner support groups in the across the globe will hold solidarity demos and inform prisoners they are in contact with about the September 9th day of action. This spring and summer will be seasons of organizing, spreading the word, building networks of solidarity and showing that we’re serious and what we’re capable of. We ask that you organize some sort of solidarity action and help spread the word to prisoners in your area. We hope that the fires of prison rebellion spread from the United States to prisons across the globe! With one unified voice of rebellion we can send a strong message to captors across the globe that the iron bars of their cage cannot contain our thirst for freedom! Continue reading →

Strike Against White Supremacy: Mobilize for the September 9th Prisoner General Strike

by It’s Going Down

Across the country freeways are blocked, people take the streets, law enforcement officers are confronted and their buildings are occupied, and more and more people are questioning the institutions of policing and incarceration. In the past month, nearly every major city and many smaller ones have seen some sort of protest, demonstration, or disruption in the wake of ongoing police murders that have recently included two African-American men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Helping set the context for this rebellion has been growing anger at both Trump and Clinton and ongoing resistance to white nationalist and fascist organizing which becomes more and more confrontational. At the same time, talk of abolishing the police and the prison system is no longer a fringe idea, as these positions are being discussed more and more broadly by wide segments of popular social movements. Continue reading →

Action Round Up July 7th!

Prisoner supporters across the country are keeping up the pressure on prisons!

In New York people gathered for a fundraiser on the 3rd, and a noise demonstration on the fourth. They gathered outside a federal prison in Brooklyn which houses federal pretrial, federal sentenced, and a lot of immigration cases. Also at this prison are a number of the 120 people arrested during a raid of public housing project in the Bronx a couple of months ago.
“Outside we chanted “brick by brick, wall by wall, we will make this prison fall” and inside, over the fence, we saw fists raised and heard others banging on their cell windows.”

‪The demo was co-organized by mothers and organizers up in the bx at the houses, iwoc, and abc. Here is video and pictures, from the facebook event.

In Wisconsin, folks turned out lots of solidarity for their comrades on hunger strike. They held banners over the freeway all week, and spent from 8 am to 1 pm at busy intersections outside the WI DOC central office, creating a very visible presence, then they delivered a letter, including new rules for solitary confinement, written by the hunger strikers, as a way to move toward resolution.

Video is online here.

July 5th Solidarity Action Against Wisconsin Torture Practices

On Tuesday July 5, employees of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) will return from a long holiday weekend of cooking out and summertime patriotism to a day of protest at their workplace. Starting before the office opens and continuing until the DOC commits to stepping down from the use of long term solitary confinement, we will protest in fierce solidarity with the prisoners who have been refusing food since early June.

Cesar DeLeon, LaRon McKinley Bey, Uhuru Mutawakkil kicked off a hunger strike on June 5^, they called it the “Dying to Live Humanitarian Food Refusal Campaign Against Torture.” Dozens of prisoners were ready to join them initially, but DOC retaliation, harassment, transfers and threats divided and repressed many of them. Ten or so prisoners were on board on June 10 and 11, when supporters held the first rallies in Milwaukee and Madison. Continue reading →

Call to Action (A Statement in Solidarity with the National Prison Strike)

From Planting Justice

by Maurice “Big Moe” Bell

This solidarity statement was written in response to the call for a National Prison Strike found here.

I am now speaking on behalf of myself, my fallen brothers who were once incarcerated (RIP), and on behalf of all the other brothers and sisters who are still in the struggle. Stay strong!

1971 — Attica

Source: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/01/nyregion/SUBjpATTICA4/SUBjpATTICA4-superJumbo-v4.jpg

Wow, 35 years. Just in case you don’t understand what’s going on, let’s do a short history lesson: Attica. In 1971, I was 2 years old, but I remember hearing stories about the uprising at Attica Prison in New York. Once known as one of the most dangerous and notorious prisons, mostly for its torture and killing of unarmed prisoners/men, there was this massive riot and prison takeover, one of the biggest in the history of the prison system. A lot of people died during that prison riot/massive takeover. The takeover was so extensive that it got a lot of media coverage and lots of exposure of the deplorable and inhumane treatment of human beings/prisoners. These men came together in solidarity and risked their lives (some gave up their lives) in support of overthrowing a corrupt system, leading up to one of the biggest prison riots in the history of prisons in the United States.

2016 — Mass Incarceration

Continue reading →

Upcoming Dates for Prisoner Support.

Below is a list of dates when people on either side of the prison fences may want to mobilize support and demonstrate power building up to the Anniversary of Attica. Some of these are specific actions called by prisoners or organizers that could be replicated or supported through solidarity actions. Others are holidays that resonate with freedom struggles, when demonstrations of solidarity may be extra visible or resonant. We have also included times when the authorities are gathering for conferences and conventions, which could be confronted like the recent CCA meeting in Nashville.

June 10th – Prisoners in Wisconsin initiate a food refusal against solitary confinement.
June 11th – the International Day of Solidarity with Long Term Anarchist Prisoners.
June 11-13 – the national convergence of the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, Washington, DC.
July 11-13 – United States Deputy Warden’s Association Annual Conference, Des Moines, IA
June 19th – Juneteenth Independence Day celebration of the (supposed) end of slavery.
June 25th – First #IncarceratedLivesMatter rally in Birmingham, AL.
July 4th – Celebration of America’s (supposed) freedom.
July 14th – Bastille Day, commemoration of a French prison break that kicked off the revolution there.
July 18-21 – Republic National Convention, Cleveland, OH
July 25-28 – Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, PA
August 10th – Prisoner’s Justice Day (Canada)
August 5-10 – American Corrections Association Annual Congress of Correction, Boston, MA
August 12th – One year anniversary of Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell’s assassination.
August 28-September 1 – Association of Correctional Food Service Affilliates Annual International Conference, Minneapolis-Bloomington, MN
September 9th – Anniversary of Attica, Nationally Coordinated Work Stoppage and Protest.
November 8 – Election Day
October 22nd – International Day Against Police Brutality and Terror
October 22-26 – National Conference on Correctional Health Care, Las Vegas, NV
January 20 – Presidential Inauguration
January 20-25, 2017 – American Corrections Association Annual Winter Conference, San Antonio, TX

May Day Strike and Solidarity

Prisoners at multiple facilities in Alabama initiated a work stoppage on Sunday May 1^st. Prisoners at Holman, Elmore, and St Clair announced the strike, there are reports of shut downs elsewhere in Alabama, and the administration denies that any facility other than Holman is on strike. Holman Prison, outside of Atmore Alabama has been the site of ongoing resistance since two back-to-back uprisings took over the facility in early March.

Holman houses the tag plant, a factory that produces license-plates for the State of Alabama with coerced labor of prisoners.
Perhaps more impact than shutting down the tag plant, striking prisoners are refusing to do the various jobs needed to maintain the prison itself. Everything from menial tasks of laundry and cleaning to preparing food and skilled maintenance jobs are typically done for free by prisoners themselves.

When they refuse, ADOC is forced to pay people- either correctional officers, or scabs, to maintain the prison and feed the prisoners. As a result, already unsanitary and substandard conditions at these prisons are degrading further. Paying staff overtime, or hiring outside workers will strain the already tenuous budget of the Alabama prison system. ADOC can hardly afford to operate it’s prisons with the help of compliant prisoner-slaves, so by refusing to work, the prisoners render their continued confinement impossible. Continue reading →