Skip to content

Hunger Strike

Lack Of Government Response Imperils Life Of Hunger Striker

By Ashley Zarbatany for Vancouver Media Co-op. After staging a 20 day hunger strike against BC Hydro’s construction of the contested Site C Dam, Kristen Henry was forced to end her fast last night due to serious health complications. Henry, an SFU alumna, began her hunger strike on March 13th in protest of the B.C. government’s failure to respect the Treaty 8 First Nations in northeastern B.C., who have launched legal challenges to the project. Henry, who was rushed to the hospital on the evening of March 31st, has suffered serious health consequences as a result of her lengthy strike. On Thursday evening her heart rate dropped to a mere 35 beats per minute, and despite breaking her fast, it remains at a low 45 beats per minute. She will remain in hospital under observation for at least the next 24 hours and may suffer long-term kidney damage. She is overwhelmed by the amount of love and support she has had and says that she is proud of the awareness she and her supporters have raised about the project.

Update From Menard Prison Hunger Strike

By Alice and Staughton Lynd for Popular Resistance. Menard, IL - On September 23, 2015, at least 19 (and possibly as many as 22) men in Administrative Detention at the Menard Correctional Center began a hunger strike that ended on September 28. It was nearly a week after the hunger strike ended before we received any mail from them. The following is a composite account based on what they sent us, written on the first and last days of the hunger strike. Alice Lynd. Day 1, September 23, 2015 “On 9-23-15, after filing multiple grievances dealing with my diet tray, indeterminate seg hearings, yard conditions as well as living conditions, . . . and no response or action taken, I declared a peaceful hunger strike. . . . I declared my hunger strike only after trying multiple ways to bring relief to my issues which were and still are being completely ignored.”

Break-Fast. Literally.

By Eleanor Goldfield in Art Killing Apathy - This morning, activists with Beyond Extreme Energy plus partnering groups and individuals broke their 18 day fast outside of FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). Their fast represents a ramp up of action aimed at FERC’s wild disregard for people or planet. At the event, activists, fasters, faith leaders, and people from fracked communities came up to share their stories, their experiences and offer up inspiration for a continued fight against big oil and gas and their bought off agencies. People sang, played, danced, marched and literally broke bread with each other.

FERC Fast: ‘The Time For Reasonable Has Past’

By Steven Norris - Many people, FERC employees and passersby, walk past and ignore us. But many also stop and talk, ask what we are doing, give us a victory signs, say "Thanks" or "God bless you", ask for a flier, or simply smile. Many have also stopped and asked probing and important questions, thanking us when they leave. A group of students from a nearby high school in a peace studies class came by, and wanted to learn more. We took them with us to CNN headquarters which is next door to FERC. We were trying to deliver a letter to CNN asking for the moderator of CNN sponsored Republican Presidential debate to ask the candidates about climate change. CNN refused to talk with us or accept the letter. So on the way out, in the fancy cavernous and echoing CNN lobby we chanted "CNN: Ask about climate change," giving these youngsters a small taste of real world activism.

Fasters Lay It On The Line To Stop Gas Pipeline Permits

By Anne Meador and John Zangas in DC Media Grou - It’s come to this. Eighteen days of virtual starvation to draw a line under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s intransigence, its refusal to do much of anything to address controversy, protest, and mass mobilization against the stream of permits it issues to greenlight gas. In other words, rubberstamp approval for the infrastructure projects it takes to transport fracked gas from the shale fields. The hunger strikers, organized under the name Beyond Extreme Energy, have already attended public hearings; made comments on the FERC dockets; organized petitions; disrupted Commission meetings; protested outside of FERC headquarters for two full weeks with banners, props and art displays; and blockaded its doors, resulting in more than 100 arrests.

Emergency Call To Fast For Tariq – Sept 18

By Chrissy Nesbitt - Witness Against Torture is calling for an emergency fast to highlight the case of Guantánamo prisoner, Tariq Ba Odah, a Yemeni man who has been detained at the prison without charge since 2002 and cleared for release in 2009. According to his attorneys, Tariq, who at 74 pounds—56% of his ideal body weight– is gravely ill and on the “precipice of death” according to three health officials. Please consider fasting on Friday, September 18, 2015 in solidarity with Tariq Ba Odah and the remaining 115 Guantánamo prisoners. If you plan to fast, send an email to witnesstorture@gmail.com. Please include in the email where you live and a brief statement as to why you are fasting. If you cannot fast on Friday, feel free to choose another day this week to fast.

The Criminalization Of The Hunger Strike

By Rob Bryan in Truth Out - Seven years ago, Barack Obama pledged to close down the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, telling the crowds that flocked to his campaign speeches that the United States must "restore habeas corpus" in order to "lead by example." Though the Department of Defense is still weighing options on how to close the facility before Obama leaves office, the process seems to be going nowhere. Some of this blame rests on Congress, which has repeatedly refused to lift restrictions on moving detainees even though nearly half of them are cleared for transfer. Despite Obama's professed concern for civil liberties, his administration is currently challenging the habeas corpus petition of a Guantánamo detainee on hunger strike.

Organizing, Not Activism: Dyett HS Hunger Strikers

By Bruce A. Dixon in Black Agenda Report - The years long struggle on the part of parents and students and community members around Dyett High school on Chicago's historic south side is a stellar example of long-term community building and organizing, which differs greatly from the mere activism some currently herald as “the movement.” Black Agenda Report's Bruce Dixon interviewed Jitu Brown, a member of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High Schoolon August 26, 2015, the tenth day of a hunger strike staged by parents and community residents resisting the closing and privatization of their neighborhood high school and the intransigence of Chicago's City Hall apparently determined to disperse and destroy their community and rebuild it for someone else.

In Chicago: Dyett Hunger Strike Day 14 – Supporting & Defending

By Michelle Gunderson in Living in Dialogue - Those who fully understand the impact of a neighborhood losing an open enrollment high school often ask what they can do. First of all, call Mayor Emanuel’s office (312 744-3300) in support of the Dyett coalition’s proposal for a Global Leadership and Green Technology school. Second, call the office of Alderman Will Burns (773 536-8103) and explain that even though this might seem like a local issue to him, the eyes and hearts of the nation are following this story. If you are in Chicago, please follow the Teachers for Social Justice website(www.teachersforjustice.org) for information about the hunger strike. Come to sit with the strikers outside their circle, listen to their stories, and support them with the power of your presence. And finally for those of you who follow a faith or spiritual tradition, Pastor Jones said to us today, “There is no such thing as praying for a person too often.”

Israel Suspends Detention Of Hunger-Striking Prisoner

By Associated Press - Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended the detention order against a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for 65 days, releasing him while he receives medical care in a ruling that his relatives and supporters hailed as a victory. The decision means that Mohammed Allan will no longer be shackled to his bed and his family will be able to visit him in the hospital, where his lawyer said he remains sedated and unconscious. The court's action did little to resolve a debate over Israel's practice of holding suspects without charge, known as administrative detention, or a new law that permits the force-feeding of hunger strikers. Before he fell unconscious Aug. 14, Allan had appeared set to be the first test of the law. Since then, he has been given fluids and nutritional supplements while the case went to court, although those treatments were not considered to be force-feeding.

Eleven Parents Launch Hunger Strike

By Empathy Educates - Eleven parents from Bronzeville and allies from communities across Chicago launch a hunger strike in front of Dyett High School to call out the injustice suffered at the hands of CPS and the appointed Board of Education and to demand the adoption of the Global Leadership and Green Technology plan for Dyett. Stall tactics and patronage politics from CPS have driven everyday people to use their bodies to stand in the way of further injustice. Instead of honoring their commitment to the process they outlined, CPS and the new education chair for Chicago’s City Council, Ald. Will Burns, have subverted the rules to “grease the rails” for an underperforming contract operator to acquire Dyett High School. The sabotage of and fight for Dyett has raged since CPS decided to convert a highly-successful middle school to a high school over a 3-month period in 1999.

Support Jus, Hambach Forest Defender On Hunger Strike In Jail

By Hambach Forest in Earth First Journal - One person remains in custody after our last remaining living tower barricade, an essential tool for peaceful resistance against deforestation and climate collapse, was evicted. Our living tower barricade, which was situated at the entrance to the Hambach Forest, was named Rémi’s Tower in memory of Rémi Fraisse, bringing attention to the increasing deaths and oppression of Earth defenders. A UK-based group Global Witness reported that at least 116 environmental activists died last year while campaigning against mining, logging, water and land grabs. The amount of oppression, incarceration and deaths is rising. On July 22nd at around 8am, as the eviction of Rémi’s Tower began, Jus was the only activist occupying the tower.

Social Worker Blows Whistle On Private Prison In Texas

By Franco Ordoñez in McClatchy DC - Olivia López thought she’d be working with migrant mothers and children in a group-home setting when hired as a social worker at a Texas family detention center. But when she arrived at the concrete facility and the doors were unlocked to let her in, she was startled by the cacophony of cell doors clanging. “I walked in and thought, ‘oh my Lord, this is really a prison,’” she said. In an exclusive interview with McClatchy, López shared an inside perspective of troubling operations at the Karnes County Residential Center, which has been at the center of controversy over the Obama administration’s family detention policy. She described a facility where guards isolated mothers and children in medical units, nurses falsified medical reports, staff members were told to lie to federal officials and a psychologist acted as an informant for federal agents.

2 Yrs After Hunger Strike, What’s Changed For People Inside The Prison?

By Victoria Law in TruthDig - Two years have passed since people confined in California's Pelican Bay State Prison initiated a 60-day hunger strike to protest the conditions associated with the prison's "security housing unit," or SHU. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) continues to claim that "there is no 'solitary confinement' in California's prisons and the SHU is not 'solitary confinement,'" but people inside the Pelican Bay State Prison's security housing unit say they remain locked in for at least 23 hours per day. Meanwhile, in June 2015, the CDCR released proposed new regulations around its use of the security housing unit and administrative segregation - regulations that may, in part, curb participation in future strikes and other prison protests.

200 Detainees Stage Hunger Strike At Eloy Detention Center

By Phil Benson in KPHO - More than 200 immigrant detainees launched a hunger strike Saturday at the Eloy Detention Center. At 9:45 a.m., the men sat down in the recreation yard and declared a hunger strike over what they call brutal and inhumane conditions, according to grassroots justice organization Puente Arizona. Protesters stood outside the detention facility all day Saturday, holding signs to show their solidarity with the strikers. The group said it is demanding improved conditions, access to legal resources and court hearings and an independent investigation into two recent deaths after what it calls “guard abuse.” "The deaths of these two men has triggered outrage of people that have nothing but their bodies as a way to demand justice,” supporter Francisca Porchas said.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.