WorkingWor king ttoo EExtendx ten d D Democracyemocracy ttoo All VolumeVlVolume 1, 1N1, NNumberum ber 2 AugustAugus t 2018 2018 THE NEW PRISON MOVEMENT THE CONTINUING STRUGGLE TO ABOLISH SLAVERY IN AMERIKA (2018) By Kevin “Rashid “ Johnson oned has prompted increasing numbers of 10 civilians, then tortured hundreds more, The Rising Prison Movement prisoners to unite in resistance proclaiming sparking international outrage and expo- cross Amerika (home of the “no more!” And the momentum is building. sure of the inhumane conditions in U.S. world’s largest prison population) This “new” Prison Movement is seeing prisons. Agrowing numbers of the impris- growing waves of open resistance to slave In a rare admission of the actual political oned are coming to realize that they are labor and conditions of abuse, which is purpose of subsequent high security units, victims of social injustice. eroding the structures put in place begin- Ralph Arons, a former warden at Marion, Foremost, as victims of an inherently ning nearly 50 years ago to repress the Pris- testifi ed in federal court: “The purpose of predatory and dysfunctional capitalist- on Movement of that era, such as solitary the Marion Control Unit is to control revo- imperialist system, which targets the poor confi nement. lutionary attitudes in prison and society at and people of color for intensifi ed polic- large.”[1] ing, militaristic containment, and selective From Yesterday’s Suppressed Alongside this repression also came con- criminal prosecutions. While denying them Prison Movement cessions to the Prison Movement, includ- ing prison offi cials granting prisoners more access to the basic resources, employment During the earlier wave of the Prison privileges and the federal courts opening and institutional control needed for social Movement (of the 1960s-70s), when the their doors to prisoner litigations challeng- and economic security. Deprivations which courts barred their doors against prisoners’ ing their living conditions. But this did not generate “crime”: economic crimes, crimes lawsuits seeking redress against the inhu- last. of passion, and crimes of attempting to mane conditions that pervade U.S. prisons, As the U.S. prison system expanded cope (through drug use and addictions). the prisoners rose up in resistance. eight-fold and solitary confi nement units Secondly, once imprisoned they become In a dialectical relationship their move- contained prisoner resistance the conces- victims of inhumane abuses, warehousing, ment both informed and was informed by sions were rolled back and the courts soon and one of the most decadent and dehu- revolutionary ideas then prevalent in the made rulings like Turner v. Safl ey[2] and manizing forms of social economic injus- broader social movements of the time, laws like the Prison Litigation Reform tice: slavery. which exposed and challenged the capital- Act[3] were enacted, that in eff ect rein- This rising awareness among the impris- ist system. At the forefront of that move- stated the courts’ old “hands off ” doctrine ment was the original Black Panther Party towards prisoner lawsuits. and allied groups on the outside and Com- CONTENTS rades like George Jackson who formed the Oppression Breeds Renewed The New Prison Movement......1 BPP’s fi rst prison chapter on the inside. To suppress that movement and stamp Resistance Arousing Thought, Part 2 .........4 out its revolutionary consciousness, the Es- With these reversals abuse conditions in- tablishment began constructing and operat- tensifi ed especially with the vastly expand- Carceral Ableism ......................7 ing solitary confi nement prisons and units ed use of solitary confi nement, a condition (called Supermaxes and Control Units) at which the U.S. Supreme Court found to be Nothing New ............................8 an unprecedented level. Beginning with cruel and unusual and constituted torture Letters ......................................9 the Marion Control Unit which opened back in the late 1800s,[4] and the attendant in 1972, after the assassination of George enlargement of prison labor pools to be ex- Editorial Comments..................9 Jackson by guards, and the peaceful 1971 ploited as free workers. Under these condi- uprising at Attica State Prison that offi cials tions of heightened abuse and exploitation suppressed by murdering 29 prisoners and a new Prison Movement has emerged and is only growing. term solitary confi nement policies and re- Outside protests took place in various cities At each stage of this new movement re- lease some 2,000 prisoners to general pop- across the U.S. in support of the prisoners. cord numbers of prisoners have joined and ulation in 2015. In response to the rising voices of pris- forged unity across racial and tribal lines Inspired by the 2010 GA prison strike, in oners resisting slave labor and abusive that the system has traditionally been able 2013, prisoner leaders of the Free Alabama treatment, on August 19, 2017, a March to keep prisoners divided and controlled Movement (FAM) called for a strike in pro- on Washington was undertaken in support by. Even more monumental is unity in test of Alabama’s “running a slave empire” of prisoners and against the 13th Amend- these struggles has been achieved not just and “incarcerating people for free labor”. ment which, enacted at the end of the Civil within individual prisons, but across entire In January 2014, prisoners at four Alabama War in 1865, legalized enslavement of the prison systems and now across the country, prisons took up the strike. As a result of criminally convicted, in violation of inter- with public support spanning the country FAM’s organizing eff orts and collaborating national law written and ratifi ed by the U.S. and reaching international levels. with the Industrial Workers of the World after World War 2, which forbids all forms This has and can only inspire greater (IWW), a committee within the IWW was of slavery and involuntary servitude.[6] levels of resistance and help us refi ne our formed called the Incarcerated Workers Or- Shaken by the protests of September forms of resistance, and methods of orga- ganizing Committee (IWOC), which now 2016, in an unprecedented move states like nizing and communication. has over 800 imprisoned members in 46 Florida locked down their entire prison sys- To these ends I’d like to summarize the states. The IWOC has since played an im- tem hoping to head off any possible upris- major events in today’s growing waves of portant support role in subsequent strikes ings attending the August 19, 2017, Wash- prison resistance and call on readers to join and building public support. Shortly after ington March. Florida went even further to and support the struggles to come. the IWOC’s founding, the IWOC and the serve its prisoners special gourmet meals New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison during the entire four day lockdown (from And Resist We Have! Chapter united as allies in this work, and I August 18-21). When in 2008 a migrant Jesus Manuel as a co-founder of the NABPP and numer- Despite this move Florida prisoners Galindo was left to die in a solitary con- ous other NABPP members joined IWOC. made an end run around offi cials and still fi nement cell from untreated epilepsy, hun- [5] undertook a strike codenamed Operation dreds of detainees at Reeves County Deten- In 2014, all 1200 detainees at the North- PUSH, beginning February 12, 2018, on tion Complex in Pesos, TX took over the west Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash- Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. PUSH complex and put it to the torch. Over $2 ington, went on a 56 day hunger strike, involved prisoners across the state refus- million in damage was reported in an upris- which spread to the Joe Corley Detention ing to turn out for work and boycotting the ing that united detainees from Cuba, Nige- Center in Conroe, Texas, all protesting prison commissary. They were protesting ria, Venezuela, and Mexico. oppressive condi-tions at the facilities. unpaid slave labor, price-gouging in the During December 2010, prisoners in Outside protesters or-ganized in support of system’s commissary and packaging ser- six Georgia prisons went on a mass strike, the strikers. vices, the gain-time scam that replaced pa- role, compounded by extreme overcrowd- protesting unpaid slave labor; solitary con- At each stage of this new fi nement, and other oppressive conditions. ing caused by extreme sentencing, causing Latinos, Blacks, whites, prison tribes of all movement record num- inhumane conditions. orientations, Muslims, etc. united in this bers of prisoners have As Florida prison offi cials scrambled protest. Following the week-long strike, joined and forged unity to replace men who refused to work with two years later at Jackson State Prison, across racial and tribal more compliant ones and transferred and where many of the 2010 strike leaders were lines.... carted off strike participants to solitary con- transferred to, a 44 day hunger strike was fi nement, they falsely reported to the me- staged as guards violently retaliated. In April 2016, prisoners in seven Texas dia that no strike and no retribution against In 2011 and 2013 three historical mass prisons went on a work strike at the call participants occurred. An outright lie. hunger strikes were undertaken by Cali- of leading comrades of the NABPP’s TX As one of Operation PUSH’s main out- fornia prisoners protesting indefi nite soli- branch and IWOC. The month before a side supporters informed me in a letter dur- tary confi nement and other abuses, where spontaneous uprising took place in Ala- ing latter January 2018: 6,000, 12,000, and 30,000 prisoners re- bama at Holman prison, where the new “I am receiving mail daily from prisoners spectively participated. Prisoners in other warden, Carter Davenport, known for his all over FL who are either participating in states also joined the strike – in Virginia, role in physical assaults on prisoners, end- Push or being retaliated against for having Oregon, Washington state, etc.