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Three prisoners die in hunger strike related incidents: CDCR withholds information from family members, fails to report deaths
November 18, 2011
Prisoners who participated in the hunger strike are being severely retaliated against with disciplinary actions and threats. Hozel Blanchard’s family said that he felt that his life was threatened and had two emergency appeals pending with the California Supreme Court at the time of his death.
On state violence, white male privilege and ‘Occupy’
November 13, 2011
I am not about to trust a “movement” that offers no critique of the role of state violence in upholding capitalist economic interests. I am not about to get arrested with some “white” guys whose interests are just their own, who only noticed injustice when they were the ones who got laid off, arrested, beat down or tased.
We dare to win: The reality and impact of SHU torture units
November 11, 2011
If this second hunger strike effort has taught us anything, it is that the power to transform an intransigent CDCR must come from the will of the people, from exercising your limitless power. Prison authorities were fully content to let us die this time and even modified their medical responses to maximize the chance of permanent injury or death to hunger strikers, which makes the broader aspects of this struggle so significant. Who dares to struggle? Who dares to win? We do, and we hope you do too. Join us! The power to shape history and the future of the society is in your hands.
Fire Inside: 15 years of giving voice to women and transgender prisoners in California
October 14, 2011
For 15 years the California Coalition for Women Prisoners – activists on the outside together with prisoners on the inside – have published an extraordinary newsletter called the Fire Inside. Hear Angela Davis keynote the anniversary celebration, hosted by our own Wanda Sabir, Friday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m., at the Women’s Building, 3543 18th St. at Valencia, San Francisco.
The road from Attica
September 9, 2011
Sept. 9 marks 40 years since the uprising at Attica State Prison in upstate New York and the deadly and sadistic retaking of the prison – and mass torture of hundreds of prisoners all the rest of the day and night and beyond – by state police and prison guards on the morning of Sept. 13, 1971. Attica and its aftermath exposed the powder kegs ready to explode inside the U.S. prisons.
Real talk on three strikes
August 27, 2011
For many years, the “three strikes” law has rained havoc and waste over the state of California, plunging its state debt increasingly deeper each and every year, which the taxpayers are paying for without any real justification.
People are being tortured inside these places
August 23, 2011
I first of all want to say that this, what you all are doing, is long overdue and needed if we are ever going to change the direction of this unjust system. I know that for a lot of you the idea of resisting and speaking truth to power is instinctive, and we have to figure out a way to inject this spirit into more people.
Facebook caves to the prison-industrial complex
August 19, 2011
In a decision setting back prisoners’ rights and helping to advance the interests of prison bureaucrats and their guard union allies, Facebook announced plans to work with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to shut down pages set up for prisoners.
Racial imprisonment
May 16, 2011
“We must call for, agitate for and, if all else fails, create a new popular movement that struggles to break this caste system once and for all.” Mumia Abu-Jamal addresses the “Imprisonment of a Race” Conference at Princeton University.
Help for homecoming prisoners: Second Chance, Last Chance to Succeed at City College
May 13, 2011
Second Chance is a unique program at City College of San Francisco that provides academic and other services to parolees. It’s the birth child of the Extended Opportunity Program or, as one of its founding fathers calls it, the Experienced Oppressed People’s Program, hard won by Third World students in the ’60s.
Gang validation: The new inquisition
February 18, 2011
It is prisoners’ identification with George Jackson that makes him symbolically powerful and very much alive. And for this, he must be vilified and punished, over and over again – suppressed and chased away from anyone who dares consume his words.
Locked down, exploited and mistreated
January 10, 2011
Inmate beatings by prison guards occur across Georgia following an eight-day peaceful protest to highlight inhumane conditions in the prisons. These protesting prisoners must be silenced because a whole range of corporate interests has found that they can profit from caging human beings.
‘The New Jim Crow’
November 2, 2010
Michelle Alexander’s most salient point in her book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” is her finding that America’s Black population constitutes a “racial caste” that feeds and perpetuates mass incarceration.
Defunding public education: an arresting development
October 12, 2010
Americans are facing the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression. States like California have responded by pulling the plug on public education. Policy makers are faint to trim any fat from the criminal justice system.
Gray-Haired Witnesses bring shocking case of the Scott Sisters to Washington
July 9, 2010
The Scott Sisters received double life sentences each in an alleged armed robbery of $11 in which no one was harmed or injured, and for which they have steadfastly maintained their innocence.
Gray-Haired Witnesses to hold fast, challenge America's conscience
May 20, 2010
On June 21, the Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice will undertake a fast and appear at the Department of Justice and the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2010, calling upon the nation to exercise an authentic system of justice in the case of Gladys and Jamie Scott and all other women who have been incarcerated wrongly and egregiously over-sentenced, punishing and destroying our families and children.
Remembering Althea Francois, beloved Louisiana Black Panther, prison abolitionist, ‘pillar in our struggle’
March 12, 2010
Althea, I see and visualize you walking around heaven with Harriett, Martin, Malcolm, John Brown, Nat, George, Clara, Billie etc. You fed the hungry – mentally, spiritually and physically – and clothed the needy. You gave the blood of your intellect for the liberation and spiritual salvation of all the oppressed and exploited people, the masses.
BMW: Black Man Working
March 11, 2010
The BMW – Black Man Working – campaign is underway. It is no longer acceptable to take money out of our community without putting some back. We will make this an uncomfortable business environment for those who do not return community benefits as we define them. The Bay Area Black Builders meet Saturday, March 13, 12 noon, at 1099 Sunnydale, SF – contractors, workers, jobseekers welcome.
To serve the people: Angola 3 celebrates common cause with Common Ground
September 18, 2009
We are not surprised that Malik Rahim is being hailed as one of the heroes of Hurricane Katrina. In 1997, Malik rediscovered information on our case and made it his mission to bring attention to the plight that Albert, King, myself and so many other Louisiana prisoners have endured in being unfairly convicted and sentenced. The Angola 3 went from obscurity to international recognition thanks to Malik’s efforts.
Moving off the lie of the budget cut into community reparations
July 18, 2009
Where do we go now? Yes, keep up the struggle for budget justice, but let’s look at another frame based in our own gifts, our thrival, not just survival – a plan of action to move off of the grid of philanthropy pimps, globalization pimps, non-profit pimps, to reject the lie of budget cuts, to reclaim our land and resources stolen from us so long ago!
