Prison Strike

National Prison Strike Solidarity: Next Steps

September 14, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Prison Strike, Worker Rights

We made it! I appreciate everyone's efforts in making the National Prison Strike a national headline for three weeks. Your solidarity and support has been a huge reason why the NPS flooded the media and transformed the national narrative surrounding prisoners' human rights. While the symbolic end date of the national prison strike past on Sunday's 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, prisoners take the lead in determining whether to continue striking depending on their individual circumstances at their institutions: some extending the call, others placing a new date on their call and even striking indefinitely.

Beyond The Prison Strike, Alex Jones Won’t Be The Last + Israel Targets BLM

September 12, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com Resistance Report Black Lives Matter (BLM), Israel, Prison Strike

Black Lives Matter is no longer a target for domestic oppression. The threat of their human rights work has now peaked the interest of oppressive entities abroad – and the documentary that proves it has faced hard censorship. Speaking of censorship, let's all cheer the ban on Alex Jones on almost all platforms – right?! No. And here's why. Finally, Amani Sawari joins us to discuss the National Prison Strike that just ended.

New Confirmed Prison Action, Reports From The National Prison Strike’s Final Days

September 12, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons

September 9th has passed, but it is up to the people in each prison who are participating in boycotts, hunger strikes, work strikes or sit-ins to determine the right day and time to close out their actions — from the outset, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and national organizers have endorsed local strikers to set their own end dates, or strike indefinitely. With ongoing communication repression (including heightened censorship of mail, lockdowns, and constant searches and seizures of prisoner property), there is undoubtedly a great deal of information on strike activity that has not yet traveled outside. As organizers have said from the beginning of this process, there is a wall of silence around prisons in the US, which should itself be of great concern for the human rights of those held inside.

Prisoners Strike For Civil Resurrection

September 10, 2018 Kelly Hayes, Truthout.org Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons

Forty-five years ago today, imprisoned people began one of the largest prison rebellions in the history of the United States. A few days later, New York State Police and hundreds of sheriffs would end that rebellion by raiding the Attica Correctional Facility and firing more than 2,000 rounds at prisoners and hostages alike. In the massacre that ensued, the police killed 29 prisoners and 10 guards, brutally establishing to the world at large that prison officials would rather kill dozens of prisoners, as well as their own employees, than meet the demands of imprisoned people who were seeking the most basic means of survival and sanity. Attica has since become a rallying cry for prison abolitionists and imprisoned organizers fighting for the rights of the incarcerated.

Reports Back From The Second Week Of The National Prison Strike

September 8, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org Resist! Prison Strike, Prisons

New word of protest action within the prisons continues to reach us almost every day (see “Strike action roundup” below) as the National Prison Strike enters its third and final week.We expect to continue getting reports from inside in the coming months as lockdowns and communication restrictions ease. Speaking to a small group of journalists and activists at a press conference call on September 1st, “Eddie”, an inside Jailhouse Lawyers Speak representative, said: “On behalf of the inside organizers of this particular prisoner-led movement, you have to understand that a lot of prisoners don’t really want to communicate openly. A lot of prisoners are fearful — this is not a normal situation. I think a lot of people [..] don’t understand that prisons are barbaric and they are not transparent at all.”

Solidarity With Striking Prisoners Of Colombia And North America

September 8, 2018 Alliance for Global Justice. Organize! Colombia, Human Rights, Prison Strike

We, the People’s Human Rights Observatory (Observatorio de los Derechos Humanos), declare our solidarity with the worldwide resistance to prison imperialism and reject the expansion of the United States model of mass incarceration. Likewise, we express our support for the demands of the prisoners of La Tramacúa Penitentiary in Valledupar, Colombia, and of the prisoners of various North American penitentiaries, and their desires for dignified lives. The prisoners of La Tramacúa waged a hunger strike for more than a month, beginning on July 11, 2018.

Inside The Prison Labor Strike: New Tactics Pay Off In Mainstream Coverage

September 6, 2018 James Kilgore, Truthout.org Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons, Slave labor

“Fundamentally, it’s a human rights issue. Prisoners understand they are being treated as animals. Prisons in America are a warzone. Every day prisoners are harmed due to conditions of confinement. For some of us it’s as if we are already dead, so what do we have to lose?” –Pre-strike statement from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak. When the 2016 US prison strike kicked off, the media barely whispered. Despite efforts by the Free Alabama Movement, an organization centered around the men inside Holman prison, to spread the message through social media and compelling video footage taken inside prisons, mainstream journalists weren’t biting. While independent media outlets covered the strike, an action that ultimately involved thousands of people in two dozen states drew virtual silence from mainstream media.

Prisoner Strike Exposes An Age Old American Reliance On Forced Labor

September 4, 2018 By Calvin Schermerhorn, Theconversation.com Resist! Exploitation, Labor, Prison Labor, Prison Strike, Prisons

Prisoners in 17 states and several Canadian provinces are on strike in protest of prison labor conditions. Their demonstrations are compelling Americans to understand that some everyday foods are produced behind bars, for cents on the hour, in a system many call “modern slavery.” Prisoners in the U.S. harvest and process eggs, orange juice, ground beef and fish. They also staff call centers, fight wildfires and make sugar. For this work, they receive, on average, 86 cents a day, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, an advocacy group. Some formerly incarcerated people disagree with the comparison of prison work to slavery, saying that prison jobs teach real skills that may reduce recidivism. But the prisoners’ strike, underway since Aug. 21, shines a light on a troubling American habit of consuming, often thoughtlessly, the products of forced labor.

Massive Prisoners’ Strike In US Continues Amid Bids To Suppress It

September 4, 2018 By Pavan Kulkarni, Peoplesdispatch.org Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons, Slave labor

The prisoners’ strike launched in the US on August 21 might have expanded beyond the 17 States where the action was originally planned. This was revealed by Amani Sawari, a member of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS) – an anonymous prisoners’ collective providing legal support to the incarcerated – which had given the call for the strike. The strike, possibly the largest ever in US history, is expected to continue till September 9. It was launched in protest against the use of prisoners as slave labor – which is a multi-billion dollar industry serving private profits, as well as US military production. Other issues include the extortionist prices charged for prison services such as phone calls, poor living and working conditions, and racial discrimination in the implementation of laws.

Prison Strike: Inmates Accuse Officials Of Retaliating With Solitary Confinement

September 3, 2018 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams Resist! Prison Strike, Prisoner rights

As a nationwide prison strike demanding an end to brutal conditions and slave labor continues into its second week, inmates and advocates are accusing prison officials of retaliating against participants in the non-violent action by revoking communication privileges and subjecting demonstrators to solitary confinement. "Prisoners are facing repression right now as we speak and it is our duty on the outside to do whatever we can to shield them from that violence of the state."

Prison Strike Solidarity In Liberal, Progressive ‘Utopia’

September 2, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org. Resist! Police, Prison Strike, Privilege, Racism

Racists exist everywhere in this country because along with racism, it is comfortably maintained by our culture. The old white couple that I met during a demonstration were the nicest yet most offensive racists I’d ever met. Racism is like an invisible venom here, it penetrates deeper because you didn’t even think it would bite. I was approached by a couple during a noise demo outside of the King County Correctional Facility that had just exited the facility and were curious about why we were outside. They told us that they were missionaries that went in on a regular basis and volunteered to pray...

Freedom Rider: Prison Strike 2018

September 1, 2018 Margaret Kimberley, Blackagendareport.com Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons

Incarcerated people and their advocates are the very definition of a resistance movement. The United States leads the world in many shameful measures, and mass incarceration is at the top of an infamous list. No other nation has as many people behind bars nor applies such overt racism in maintaining its penal system.One out of every eight incarcerated people in the world are black Americans. That is why the prison strike declared by the incarcerated and their supporters is so crucial. Their actions prove that this country lies when it claims to be an upholder of human rights. The 2018 prison strike commemorates two anniversaries, the murder of George Jackson in San Quentin prison on August 21, 1971 and the Attica uprising and massacre which ended on September 9, 1971.

Prisoners Participating In Elections Through The National Prison Strike

September 1, 2018 By Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org Resist! Electoral Politics, Prison Strike, Prisons, Strikes

In hotbed areas like Florida where elections are coming quickly there are as many as 5 prisons participating in the National Prison Strike. There are several demands listed in the strikes official call that require political action and policies to be made on behalf of prisoners’ rights. Prisoners are calling for the public to make these demand to materialize into legislation on their behalf. However demand number 10 calls for something that many may consider radical and revolutionary, the ability for prisoners to vote. Prisoners having the right to vote gives them the access to the political realm needed in order to make the necessary changes that their lives depend on.

A Labor Day Call To Action

August 31, 2018 Staff, Incarceratedworkers.org Organize! Class Struggle, Prison Labor, Prison Strike, Prisons

This is a call to establish encampments and coordinate direct actions surrounding the Labor Day weekend at the site of prison labor camps. Inspired by the recent wave of #AbolishICE organizing, prison abolitionists and labor activists have joined forces to call for an escalation of the movement to defend public service unions, stop prison slave labor, and end mass incarceration. As prisoners launch what is anticipated to be the largest national prison strike in U.S. history, between August 21- September 9, we on the outside must also ask ourselves, what are we willing to do and how much are we willing to risk to demonstrate our solidarity to fellow workers? Earlier this year, the Supreme Court announced one of the most devastating blows to union membership in decades.

National Call-In Day To Support Hunger-Striking Prisoners

August 30, 2018 Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. Resist! Hunger Strike, Prison Strike, Prisoner rights

Several inmates in the Secure Housing Unit(SHU) at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility are initiating a hunger strike in protest of their already starvation-level meal portions, their lack of access to basic necessities like adequate clothing, and access to commissary items . Food portions are extremely small, imagine a high school lunch tray where the section for your main course isn't even half full. The food they receive is already lacking in nutrition and comes in boxes labelled "not for human consumption." Food services in the IDOC are managed by the private corporation Aramark, and food served to inmates lacks...

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