Hunger Strikes

Immigrants Launch Hunger Strike To Demand Drivers Licenses In NJ

November 28, 2018 Staff, LaHuelga.com Resist! Hunger Strikes, Immigration, New Jersey (NJ), Undocumented

Trenton, NJ - Immigrant families, activists and allies launched an indefinite hunger strike, billed as the “Fast for Licenses” at the statehouse on Monday, calling on state legislators to pass pending legislation that would allow half a million undocumented immigrants in the state of New Jersey (NJ) to drive without fear of being ticketed, arrested or transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 12 immigrant leaders are participating in the hunger strike, and more are expected to join as momentum grows. The Governor of NJ and Democrats in the State Legislature have promised to pass legislation by the end of the year, and immigrant communities are calling for the bill sponsors to make good on their promises to the immigrant community.

Prisoners Refuse To Compromise On Food: Hunger Strike At Clallam Bay Corrections Center

November 8, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org Resist! Hunger Strikes, Prisons

During the National Prison Strike Jailhouse Lawyers Speak inspired incarcerated and outside activists across the country. Activists on the outside were inspired by prisoners leadership on the inside, their ability to work effectively through limited communication and the threat of retaliation. After the strike incarcerated people were inspired by the activism that happened across the country on the inside. Prisoners from each corner of the country are realizing the power that they have to influence positive changes in their environments.

Cindy Sheehan Is On A Hunger Strike In Solidarity With The People Of Yemen

November 8, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance. Resist! Hunger Strikes, Solidarity, US Imperialism, Yemen

Cindy Sheehan wrote on her Facebook page on November 3: “I am announcing my hunger strike in solidarity with the horrible humanitarian crisis in Yemen and to expose the US empire's role in it. I am accepting the baton from @pamelabennett who has been on hunger strike for 26 days for the same thing. #YemenRising “Sheehan wrote on November 5: 13,000,000 Million Yemeni are ON THE BRINK OF STARVATION. With the help of the US government in the Saudi genocide of the people of Yemen. “We CANNOT sit by and allow this to happen. “WMOP will be calling on solidarity hunger strikes over the #noTHANKSgiving weekend, or just on Thanksgiving. “If your family needs to be educated, EDUCATE THEM! You think it's hard to talk to your relatives? How are would it be to watch your children starve?

American Woman Turns To Hunger Strike To Break Media Blackout On Yemen

November 1, 2018 By Whitney Webb, Mintpressnews.com Resist! Hunger Strikes, Media, Women, Yemen

SAN FRANCISCO — In Yemen, 18 million civilians are now at the brink of starvation, including 5 million children. The situation in the country, widely considered to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, is entirely man-made – the sordid result of the Saudi Arabia/UAE coalition’s war to control the Middle East’s poorest nation, a war that deliberately targets civilian infrastructure and the civilian food and water supply. Despite the fact that these are clear war crimes, and despite the mass suffering it has inflicted on Yemen’s innocents, this effort continues to receive U.S. and U.K. support. In the face of the enormity of this completely preventable crisis, some international activists have taken matters into their own hands...

With US Prison Strike On Third Day, Reports Of Hunger Strikes And Work Stoppages Nationwide

August 25, 2018 By Julia Conley, Commondreams.org Resist! Class Struggle, Hunger Strikes, Prison Strike, Prisons

"Prisoners are boycotting commissaries, they are engaging in hunger strikes which can take days for the state to acknowledge, and they will be engaging in sit-ins and work strikes which are not always reported to the outside." Details of the nationwide prison strike, now in its third day, are gradually emerging from institutions where inmates are staging hunger strikes, refusing to work, and participating in sit-ins to protest unjust sentencing laws, poor living conditions, and the continued existence of slavery within the nation's carceral system. The strike began on Tuesday, with organizers reporting that incarcerated Americans in 17 states had pledged to join the action. According to a statement from organizers including Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), at least six direct actions had taken place at U.S. prisons in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Washington, and California.

Immigrant Mothers Are Staging Hunger Strikes To Demand Calls With Their Separated Children

July 20, 2018 Debbie Nathan, Theintercept.com Resist! Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, ICE, Immigration, Mothers

AS THE JULY 26 deadline approaches for the government to reunite some 3,000 immigrant parents and children separated under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” program, one immigrant detention center in South Texas has been releasing a few people weekly, after they pass their “credible fear” interviews, in which they describe why they are afraid to return to their countries and need asylum. Those who remain have begun resisting the hurtful and disordered conditions of their captivity, some with extreme measures such as hunger strikes. The Port Isabel Service Processing Center is located about 35 miles from Brownsville and minutes from the Gulf of Mexico, on lonely potholed roads.

Reflections On A Hunger Strike

April 2, 2018 Bruce K. Gagnon, Space4peace.blogspot.com Resist! Hunger Strikes

I began the hunger strike on February 12, a few days after the first Taxation Committee work session on LD 1781. I was laying in bed talking with MB and told her I had come back from Augusta so upset that I knew if I didn't calm down I was going to have a heart attack. I knew the bill would be slow moving through the halls of the capital so I needed to do something. Twice in the past I fasted for two weeks in solidarity with a hunger strike by Yang Yoon-Mo from Jeju Island, South Korea and another time in solidarity with friends in the Czech Republic who were opposing a US missile defense radar. I always felt serene while doing them. So the decision was made largely for that reason - to stay focused, sane and calm during this campaign. I also knew that as an organizing strategy hunger striking can draw others closer to the effort which is something we needed to do if we hoped to have any impact.

Conditions Worsen For ICE Detainees Following Hunger Strike

September 6, 2017 Robin Urevich, www.capitalandmain.com Resist! Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, ICE, Immigration, Undocumented

By Robin Urevich for Capital and Main - Conditions at Adelanto Detention Center, a privately operated prison currently used to detain undocumented immigrants, are said to be grim. Nine detainees, all of whom came to the U.S. seeking asylum, were so fed up that they staged a hunger strike. Guards responded with violence and pepper spray. Adelanto, Calif. – Nine Central American immigrants sat at a table in their dormitory at the troubled Adelanto Detention Center and asked an officer to deliver a list of their demands to higher-ups. The officer at the for-profit facility in the high desert, north of San Bernardino, refused and ordered them to return to their bunks for an inmate count. Instead, the men linked arms and refused to budge. “We wanted to be heard,” said Josue Lemus Campos, 24, from El Salvador. He said he and his fellow protesters had been quiet and peaceful during their June protest. But when the men refused to move, the officer immediately called for reinforcements who rushed in armed with pepper spray. They began shouting orders in English, a language the men don’t fully understand. Minutes later, the guards doused the nine with pepper spray, aiming at their faces.

Archdiocese Defends Work With Immigrants In Response To Hunger Strike

August 24, 2017 Camille Padilla Dalmau, www.voicesofny.org Resist! Church, Hunger Strikes, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities

By Camille Padilla Dalmau for Voices of NY - After activist Félix Cepeda staged a hunger strike denouncing the Catholic Church for not opening its New York houses of worship as “sanctuaries” for immigrants, Executive Director of Catholic Charities Kevin Sullivan responded that the Archdiocese’s parishes, schools and organizations have welcomed immigrants to the Big Apple for more than 200 years. Last Friday, Cepeda conducted a 24-hour hunger strike in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, and this Tuesday he repeated his fast, this time outside Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s house. “Catholic Charities has been at the forefront of this welcoming – protecting and integrating immigrants and refugees in their new homes. The regrettable and inacceptable rhetoric and actions of the past months have compelled Catholic Charities to intensify its efforts to ensure that immigrants and refugees get the support, guidance and protection that they need now more than ever,” said Sullivan. The monsignor added that the services they provide include legal representation, English classes, job safety training and information on civil rights, as well as help funding proper documents.

100-Plus Immigrants Detained In Tacoma On Hunger Strike

August 18, 2017 Kenny Ocker, www.thenewstribune.com Resist! Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, Immigration, Undocumented

By Kenny Ocker for The News Tribune - More than 100 immigrants detained at the Northwest Detention Center on Tacoma’s Tideflats started a hunger strike Monday to protest conditions at the facility, according to an immigrant rights group. The three-day strike, which started at noon, is intended to get concessions in terms of food, care and legal access, according to a letter from detainees released by the NWDC Resistance. The immigrant rights group held a protest outside the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement site, during which the letter was read aloud. About 30 people attended. The detention center holds more than 1,500 immigrants whose deportation proceedings are ongoing. Geo Group, a private for-profit prison corporation, runs the facility. “It is very likely that ICE and Geo will try to retaliate by switching them (the striking detainees) to other pods or sending them to solitary,” NWDC Resistance leader Maru Mora Villalpando told the crowd. ICE regional spokeswoman Rose Richeson said the office will not retaliate against participants in the “purported ‘hunger strike.’” “ICE fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference and does not retaliate in any way against hunger strikers,” Richeson said.

Women In California’s Largest Immigrant Prison Hold Hunger Strike

June 28, 2017 Victoria Law, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! California, Deportations, Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, Immigration, Undocumented, Women

By Victoria Law for Waging Nonviolence - On June 14, 33 women who have been detained and incarcerated by ICE in California’s Adelanto Detention Facility launched a hunger strike. They were protesting the poor conditions at the facility as well as the policies that were keeping them away from their children and loved ones. The Adelanto Detention Facility, with a capacity of 1,940, is the largest private immigration detention facility in the United States. Run by the GEO Group, ICE pays $111 per person per day for the first 975 detainees, thus guaranteeing GEO a minimum of $40 million each year. If more than 975 people are detained inside Adelanto, the daily rate drops to less than $50 per day. Immigrant rights organizations, such as Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement, or CIVIC, and Detention Watch Network, have sharply criticized Adelanto for its widespread and systemic abuses towards immigrants in custody. Since March 2017, three people have died at Adelanto. Others have reported medical neglect and, on at least one occasion, being punished for seeking medical care. Norma Gutierrez, one of the women on hunger strike has suffered multiple strokes during her incarceration at Adelanto. Instead of receiving proper medical care, she was placed in solitary confinement.

Yale Graduate Teachers Launch Hunger Strike Over Bid To Unionize

June 17, 2017 Roqayah Chamseddine, www.mintpressnews.com Resist! Higher Education, Hunger Strikes, Unions, Yale University

By Roqayah Chamseddine for Mint Press News - Graduate teachers at Yale University decided to unionize on February 23, after a vote by secret ballot administered by the National Labor Relations Board. They are now being stonewalled by an administration that refuses to negotiate with them. In light of the university’s rejection of first contract negotiations, graduate teachers launched an indefinite fast aimed at pressing the administration into negotiations. One of the teachers taking part in the fast is Emily Sessions, a graduate teacher at Yale from the History of Art Department. Sessions told Shadowproof that they began fasting on April 25 “because we have waited for years for the Yale administration to come to the negotiating table.” The Yale administration has kept them waiting. “So we decided to wait without eating,” Sessions said. All those taking part committed to fasting until the Yale administration agreed to negotiate, “unless a doctor said they are at risk of permanent damage to their health.” Some teachers, including Sessions, went as long as 14 days without eating or drinking anything but water. Sessions indicated on May 22 they celebrated the breaking of the fast with “thousands” of allies in “a Commencement Day demonstration.” The message of the demonstration was this is “just the beginning, Yale.”

Victory For Palestinian Prisoners As 80% Of Strike Demands Met

June 1, 2017 Staff, www.telesurtv.net Resist! Hunger Strikes, Palestine, Prison, Prisoner rights

By Staff of Tele Sur - “We know that there is a long struggle to come, for liberation for the prisoners and liberation for Palestine,” stated a solidarity network. After more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners staged a a mass, historic hunger strike for 40 days, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners' officials confirmed Sunday that nearly 80 percent of the prisoners’ demands were met as the strike ended Saturday. Issa Qaraqe, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission, spoke at a press conference Sunday, declaring the victory “an important achievement to build on in the future on the basis of the protection of the prisoners’ rights and dignity.” Among the many conditions prisoners wanted to be improved that the Israeli Prisons Service agreed to include expanding access to telephones; lifting the security ban on hundreds of family members of Palestinian prisoners, including the 140 children who were denied visits from parents; allowing distant family members to visit their imprisoned relatives; and improving the conditions of both women and children prisoners.

Israel Treats Prisoners Worse Than Apartheid

June 1, 2017 Adri Nieuwh, www.electronicintifada.net Resist! Hunger Strikes, Israel, Prison

By Adri Nieuwh of for Electronic Antifada - On 15 May, many South Africans fasted in solidarity with more than 1,300 Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike in Israeli prisons to demand their basic rights. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, more than a dozen members of the government, trade union leaders, icons of the liberation struggle, celebrities and others joined the one-day fast, sending a powerful message of support to imprisoned Palestinians. During apartheid, South African political prisoners also used hunger strikes to protest their inhumane conditions. The prisoners on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada and other leaders were held, were forced to work in a lime quarry in all weather with unsuitable clothing, insufficient food and violent prison guards. Mandela and his fellow prisoners launched a protest hunger strike in 1966. Their prison commander felt compelled to address the grievances after only a week, former Robben Island prisoner Sunny Singh recalls. But now, even as the Palestinian mass hunger strike approaches 40 days, many prisoners have been hospitalized, and yet Israeli prison authorities are refusing to negotiate. Instead, Israel has reacted with punitive brutality, including placing leaders in solitary confinement.

Folsom Prisoners Declare Hunger Strike, Mainstream Media Silent

May 29, 2017 Staff, www.liberationnews.org Resist! California, Corporate Media, Hunger Strikes, Prisons, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of PSL - Folsom State Prison, also known as Old Folsom, is the second oldest state prison in California, behind San Quentin, and is highly recognized as one of the first maximum security prisons. Folsom State Prison is also known for the executions of over 90 inmates over the course of 20 years in addition to being where former Black Panther, Eldridge Cleaver, was held for a short period. The decades of oppression behind bars has never failed to produce resistance by those most affected. This most recent hunger strike was declared in response to the harsh conditions that prisoners in Administrative Segregation Units are facing. Prisoners are given food without plates or bowls and they’re not given any cups to drink water from thus being forced to eat from plastic bags and drink from old milk cartons. Mail is withheld from prisoners for months without any explanation. The prison refuses to provide them with basic rehabilitation programs or even cleaning supplies for their cells. Prisoners have reached out to multiple people and have received no response or help for the conditions that they are forced to live with on a day to day basis.

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