from Instagram
#prisonstrike September 9th
#PrisonStrike Sticker
Prison Strike Posters
from Instagram
Saw some wheat pasted posters for the September 9th #prisonstrike in the Point Breeze neighborhood today. #iwoc #attica
Art and Banner Making Hangout for Sept 9th Prison Strike
from Facebook
Come out to paint banners, make signs, and eat snacks.
We’ll be getting ready for the upcoming prisoner strike on September 9th, and preparing for a noise demonstration on the same day in support of the striking prisoners.
Bring paint, markers, banner material, brushes, and anything else you want to work with.
Noise Demonstration:
https://www.facebook.com/events/615768345272416/
Learn more about the strike:
https://iwoc.noblogs.org/
https://supportprisonerresistance.net/
https://www.facebook.com/events/585509798294138/
[September 4 from 3 to 7PM at LAVA Space 4134 Lancaster Ave]
PHLA Discussion: Community in the Carceral State
from Facebook
Black August is a period of reflection and action on prisons and resistance to it, in the spirit of people like Jonathan and George Jackson. In this discussion, we’ll focus on what prison means for community and what community means for prisoners.
[August 24 from 7PM to 8:30PM at 704 n5th St #311]
22 Mothers in Deportation Jail Launch Indefinite Hunger Strike
from Latino Rebels
The following is an open letter of demand to Jeh Johnson written by 22 mothers detained at Berks Family Residential Center:
The reason for this letter of demands is to make it known to you that since Monday August 8th we have started an “INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE.”
The Immigration Department has made a public announcement stating that in family detention center parents and children are detained no longer than 20 days.
WE WANT TO DISPROVE THIS INFORMATION!!
We are 22 mothers who are detained at Berks Family Residential Center, being mothers who have been from 270 days to 365 days in detention with children ages 2 to 16 years old, depriving them of having a normal life, knowing that we have prior traumas from our countries, risking our own lives and that of our children on the way until we arrived here, having family and friends who would be responsible for us and who are waiting for us with open arms and that immigration refuses to let us out.
Seeing these injustices, we have decided to go on an indefinite hunger strike until we obtain our immediate freedom because all of us left our countries of origin fleeing violence, threats and corruption that not even the government of each of our countries in Central America can control.
On many occasions our children have thought about SUICIDE because of the confinement and desperation that is caused by being here. The teenagers say BEING HERE, LIFE MAKES NO SENSE, THAT THEY WOULD LIKE TO BREAK THE WINDOW TO JUMP OUT AND END THIS NIGHTMARE, and on many occasions they ask us if we have the courage to escape.
Other kids grab their IDs and tighten them around their necks and say that they are going to KILL themselves if they don’t get out of here. The youngest kids (2 years old) cry at night for not being able to express what they feel. For a long time, the children have not been eating well, but they have never paid attention to our complaints about the food until now.
We are desperate and we have decided that: WE WILL GET OUT ALIVE OR DEAD.
If it is necessary to sacrifice our lives so that our children can have freedom: WE WILL DO IT! Putting aside the threats we are receiving from one of the psychologists and some doctors in this facility.
We are calling on the government to take action on this matter and open their eyes, letting them know that IMMIGRATION is acting against the law and is mocking them, making arguments that are false; besides our children are entitled to freedom according to the case of Flores, and still they are here with us.
We hope that our voices are heard, so that we can have the FREEDOM that we NEED so much.
Signed,
The following call to arms is via immigration lawyer Carol Anne Mauer Donohoe:
HEY! Everyone who pretends to, or actually does, care about the fact that our government has imprisoned mothers and children who have committed no crime but to ASK FOR SAFETY, here’s your chance to actually DO SOMETHING. Call Field Office Director Thomas Decker at 215-656-7164 and tell him to release these families. Call your spineless Berks County Commissioners at 610-478-6136 and ask why they’re spending our tax dollars to make this suffering continue. Email Ted Dallas from the PA Department of Human Services, in charge of the WELFARE OF CHILDREN in the Commonwealth and ask why they are allowing the refugee prison to remain open even though the license has been revoked at [email protected].
#PrisonStrike on Springfield St Bridge
Submission
#PrisonStrike at Springfield near 51st
Eric McDavid at the Wooden Shoe
from Facebook
Eric McDavid is a green anarchist who was entrapped by an FBI informant and charged with a single count of conspiracy to use fire or explosives to damage corporate and government property.
After serving nearly 10 years in prison his judgment and sentencing were vacated when it became known that the FBI had failed to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense. Eric pleaded guilty to a lesser charge that carried a 5 year maximum sentence. He was released almost immediately.
Come hear Eric tell his story.
Presented by Burning Books. BURNING BOOKS is an artist-run, weirdness-driven organization dedicated to the production and publication of unmuzzled literature, music, and art. It was founded by writer/editor Melody Sumner Carnahan and artist/designer Michael Sumner in Oakland, California, in 1979.
Event is handicap accessible and free, though donations are very appreciated, as Eric is traveling all the way from Northern California with almost no funding.
[August 15 at 7pm at Wooden Shoe 704 South St]
Graffiti: Sept 9 Prison Strike!
from Instagram
A beautiful day in the #italianmarket #prisonstrike #sept9 #cleanup
Over Ten Years to Talk About: Eric McDavid’s New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Speaking Tour
from It’s Going Down
Eric McDavid, a former Anarchist prisoner will be talking about ten plus years of experiences including federal prison time, the post release period and moving forward as well. The importance of supporting political prisoners will be brought up along with so much more. If you are in the area of any one of the locations listed at the bottom, please come, check it out and tell a friend!
[7pm, Monday, 08-15-2016
Wooden Shoe Books
704 South Street, Philadelphia, PA
https://www.facebook.com/events/655433154607268/]
Black DNC Resistance March against Police Terrorism and State Repression
from Facebook
The Philadelphia Coalition for REAL Justice presents:
Black DNC Resistance March against the Capitalist & Racist Government: We Have Nothing To Lose But Our Chains!!
The Democratic Party has consistently betrayed their promises to the Black community and the 2016 presidential election is not going to be any different. The presidential election is the largest electoral process in the country, and the Black community can no longer watch a few control the lives of many. Black communities have been underfunded for centuries. Black communities are under siege with militarized police terrorism, assault and murder; public schools are underfunded and do not properly educate our children; economic development means black displacement through gentrification; prison privatization and the school to prison pipeline; raising the minimum wage to a living standard; the right to proper access of quality healthcare, food, shelter and the essential means of life; protection and inclusion of the LGBTQ community, as well, the releasing of all political prisoners and the right to self-determination and control of our communities. This can only come from the unification of our voices, understanding the intersectional connections, education and support of one another and not the democratic process.
Philadelphia is a historically Black city, as well as the birth of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Both documents have kept the Black community subjugated. The American political system was organized and created by white men who supported and upheld the enslavement of Black people. These documents continue to function under the order of white supremacy and neo-liberal reformists politics. Black liberation cannot occur in a reformist society. White supremacy must be abolished and Black liberation must become a priority.
[from 2pm July 26 to 6pm July 28 at Broad & Diamond St]
Maroon Sues DOC and Wins! Settlement Reached
from Free Russell Maroon Shoatz
Settlement reached in Shoatz v. Wetzel
July 11, 2016: Pittsburgh PA —A settlement has been reached in the case of Shoatz v. Wetzel, which challenged the 22-year solitary confinement of Abolitionist Law Center client and political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz. This brings an end to litigation begun in 2013. In February 2014, following an international campaign on behalf of Shoatz, he was released from solitary confinement.
In exchange for Shoatz ending the lawsuit the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) has agreed that it will not place Shoatz back in solitary confinement based on his prior disciplinary record or activities; Shoatz will have a single-cell status for life, meaning he will not have to experience the extreme hardship of being forced to share a cell following decades of enforced isolation; a full mental health evaluation will be provided; and the DOC has paid a monetary settlement.
Russell Maroon Shoatz had the following to say about the settlement: “I have nothing but praise for all of those who supported me and my family for all of the years I was in Solitary Confinement, as well as helped to effect my release. Since joining the struggle for Human Rights in the mid 1960s, I have always chosen to fight! Frederick Douglass was right when he said ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.’ So have no doubt that I see this Settlement as anything but the latest blow struck, and you rest assured that I will continue in the struggle for Human Rights. Straight Ahead!”
Some Posters at Pride
Submission
Benefit Feast for Marius Mason
from Facebook
An all-you-care-to-eat vegan smorgasbord with items from Blackbird Pizzeria, Crust Bakery, Dotties Donuts and Grindcore House for $5-$15 sliding scale. All proceeds benefit long-term anarchist prisoner Marius Mason. More to come, soon…
[June 11 from 5 to 7pm at Grindcore House 1515 South 4th st]
From supportmariusmason.org: Marius Mason is an anarchist, environmental and animal rights activist currently serving nearly 22 years in federal prison for acts of property damage carried out in defense of the planet. After being threatened with a life sentence in 2009 for these acts of sabotage, he pled guilty to arson charges at a Michigan State University lab researching genetically modified organisms for Monsanto, and admitted to 12 other acts of property damage. No one was physically harmed in these actions. At sentencing the judge applied a so-called “terrorism enhancement,” adding almost two years to an already extreme sentence requested by the prosecution. This is the harshest punishment of anyone convicted of environmental sabotage to date…Marius came out to his friends, family and supporters as transgender in 2014. Previously known as “Marie Mason,” he changed his name, uses male pronouns, and embarked on a course to get a medical diagnosis that would allow him to seek gender affirming surgery and hormone therapy.
I’m curious why I don’t see more outright…
from Anarchadelphia
I’m curious why I don’t see more outright solidarity from the self-proclaimed “reds” in the city with local striking workers. I’ve seen them attending every possible kind of demonstration, but never supporting strikes (like some west coast anarchists have done in recent years in the ports), taking actions against scab sites and employers (like some of the union members with some sort of teeth), or reaching out to the frustrated at more reformist rallies (the way the insurrecto-oriented have been doing against prisons and the police, locally).
I don’t find any promise in the possibility of the (ever-dwindling) working class uniting and rising up to overthrow anyone, let alone even pursuing a non-hierarchal society —and even if I did, I don’t believe unions would be the medium to achieve this. But, red anarchists purport to believe just that, suggesting it would be in their interest to participate in such a way. Yet, they seem more likely to be organizing with college kids and liberals at a $15 & a union rally — or so it seems to me.
This crosses my mind with the passing of May Day, as I remember picketing workers infiltrating a car show and trashing it at the convention center, as I watch the CWA striking against verizon again, and further reports of sabotage unsanctioned by said union against Verizon’s fiber optic infrastructure circulate. Whether the CWA does not, in fact, condone the sabotage or is trying to keep its hands clean begins to illustrate its limitations, and the complete absence of radical unions like the IWW from anything substantial since the first red scare illustrates theirs. The last local news of note we’ve had from the IWW, in fact, includes an absolute failure around organizing a South Street Workers’ Strike (was that in the ’90’s?), to scandals resulting in the booting of certain “esteemed” local anarchists over financial discrepancies, to an article in support of striking Santander Bank employees in Spain. This is hardly the stuff of a restless, growing, anticapitalist mass.
The Prison General Strike this September, as called for by some Texan prisoner wobblies, could bring about the first functional endeavor of the IWW in almost a century, however, and I’m excited to see it happen. Maybe this is the long overdue tactical transition the reds have been searching for in response to the recuperation of workers as increasingly comfortable consumers?
I would love to be proven wrong in such a way. I don’t agree with many red anarchist goals or tactics, but please make a go of it and prove me wrong; show me why these things are a good idea. Don’t tell me, I cut my anarchist teeth on Berkman and Goldman and abandoned a union that proved useless to my needs, but try to make these things happen if that’s what you actually believe in.
And sometimes I wonder what it would look like for such ideas to come to fruition. For red anarchists acting in kind with striking workers against fiber optics developing a temporary, tangible, action-oriented affinity with green anarchists, for instance. What other avenues might we find intersections on?
Autonomous March in Solidarity with Prisoners in Philly
from It’s Going Down
Across the country, prisoners have been pushing back against the indignities of prison. In Texas, prisoners have been on strike against slave labor for almost one month. Bubbling tensions in Holman, Alabama have erupted into prison riots at least twice and are now taking the form of a work stoppage. Three facilities around Michigan have seen mass protests, with inmates refusing meals and skipping meetings with the prison staff in protest against food quality. Louisiana has also seen hunger strikes recently. All of these actions lead toward a nation-wide prison strike on September 9th, the anniversary of the Attica uprising.
On May Day, between 15 and 20 people gathered for a short autonomous march through West Philly in solidarity with prisoners’ struggles and against prison society. The demonstration moved east behind two banners, “Prisoners to the Streets” and “REVENGE”. Music from a sound system kept the atmosphere playful.
Pamphlets expressing solidarity with struggles in prison were given to people in cars and in the street who were curious about what was happening. Stickers and tags against police and prison were put up along the way. A police substation received a few splashes of paint as the march passed it. People generally seemed enthusiastic about the demonstration and expressed their support from the sidewalks and cars.
The march ended and dispersed without incident at a nearby park. It had been promoted in a way to decrease the possibility of police presence at the meetup and no police were around for the entirety of the brief march.
Some takeaways:
-Avoiding reliance on Facebook and building networks of friends and comrades in less mediated ways makes repression harder.
-More dialogue between participants — especially during the demonstration — can make events like these less confusing in the future.
-As long as an escalation is not too drastic, sharing tools (like paint, stickers, flyers, etc) can welcome and encourage people to take action in a friendly setting.
-Bad weather is not the end of the world.
