Crux
21st January 2011, 17:03
Interview: Inside the Historic Prison Strike in Georgia (http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article10.php?id=1510)
The Struggle Continues: Stop the Violence Against the Georgia State Prisoners
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/print.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifPrinter-Friendly (http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/printerfriendly/1509.html)
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/friend.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifE-Mail This http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif Jan 18, 2011
By Eljeer Hawkins, Bronx, New York http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
“Prison riots change with time and place. They are shaped by the political events and issues of the day, the prevailing ideas about imprisonment, and the political struggles in and around prison…”
(Bert Useem and Peter Kimball, States of Siege: U.S. Prison Riots 1971-1986, pg. 9)
The Georgia state prisoners’ strike of December 9-16, 2010 should not be classified as a prison riot. It was a political uprising using the tactic of non-violent civil disobedience with programmatic demands against injustice and inhumane conditions that the Georgia state penal system is inflicting on inmates. The strike must be placed in the wider context of a declining global system of capitalism and a combative international working class and poor, as the ruling elite attempts to place its crisis on the backs of working people and the poor through austerity and cutbacks to social and public spending.
The Georgia state prisoners’ strike and the hunger strike by four prisoners held in Ohio State Penitentiary, a supermax prison, was organized to protest the highly restrictive and discriminatory conditions they have been subjected to, the latter since they were moved to the prison in 1998 following the 1993 Lucasville prison uprising. From this uprising, all four inmates had received wrongful convictions and death sentences when the uprising resulted in deaths. These events showcase the possible signs of a rising political consciousness and organizing among the most downtrodden of our society, and its ripple effect.
The corporate media will not report or investigate the conditions of prisoners in the most advanced capitalist country in the world that speaks of ”democracy” and ”freedom,” but warehouses more human beings than any society in world history. The mouthpieces (Atlanta Journal-Constitution and New York Times) of big business and the prison system have only sought to fan the flames of public fear with talk of inmates using contraband cell phones to organize the strike.
Only through the work of grassroots organizations and the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights, which has conducted fact-finding missions to investigate the daily conditions prisoners face, has the physical brutality and retaliation inflicted upon inmates like Terrance Dean of Bibb County, Georgia, been exposed. His condition and location was withheld from family and activists for hours by Macon State Prison authorities. There are 37 inmates missing as a result of the strike.
The Georgia state penal system and big business are attempting to silence the movement for human rights and teach the prisoners the price you pay for standing up for justice. While public scrutiny is coming down on the prison authorities concerning violence by the prison guards, they are reinforcing the divide/conquer tactic of indiscriminate violence and murder. As one Georgia state inmate states: “[Prison] staff are compensating inmates, primarily so-called gang members who want to be thugs, to attack and beat and stab whomever they select. This way, the corrections can’t be blamed. Also they are holding mail that is being sent to organizations or people supporting us in the movements.”
The Movement Must Spread
The work of Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights and website journals and activists like Black Agenda Report are invaluable in publicizing the demands of the prisoners and shining a bright light on the business of mass incarceration. The struggle for prisoners’ rights and the need to abolish the New Jim Crow must be a central demand of our movement to end class and racial oppression. There is a great need for inmates and prison guards to organize for their rights and to be able to defend themselves against the prison authorities, and link up with the wider labor movement. The struggle against the massive level of incarceration in U.S. society and the conditions facing prisoners must be linked with the broader social crisis facing working people, poor, and youth, and in particular youth of color. The greatest lesson the Georgia state prisoners’ strike provides is an example of united and collective action to transform our reality and conditions.
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/cornerbl.gif
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
Shut ‘Em Down - Georgia State Prisoners on Strike for Human Rights
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/print.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifPrinter-Friendly (http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/printerfriendly/1490.html)
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/friend.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifE-Mail This http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif Dec 21, 2010
By Eljeer Hawkins, Bronx, New York http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
"The stark and sobering reality is that, for reasons largely unrelated to actual crime trends, the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history." (Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness; p.8)
A Rotten Peach
The power of collective action across race, ethnicity, religion, and gang affiliation is on display as the Georgia state prisoners went on strike. According to Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther Party leader and mother of a Macon State prisoner: “the inmates are protesting the lack of fruits and vegetables in their meals, no pay for their work, poor living conditions and parole decisions.”
The inmates are also demanding adequate medical care, real access to family and education opportunities.
The work stoppage and non-violent civil disobedience by the prisoners began on December 9th to oppose the inhumane conditions within the Georgia State prison system. The state prisons on lockdown are Hays State Prison in Trion, Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, Telfair State Prison in Helena and Smith State Prison in Glennville. That is the tip of the iceberg as the organized resistance has reportedly reached other state prisons.
The Georgia penal system has the highest incarceration rate (16%), surpassing the national average. According to the State of Georgia's own statistics, over 8,000 prisoners, or almost a quarter of the prison population, are incarcerated for drug crimes. 66% of those newly incarcerated in 2009 were black. There are 30 prisons in the state system, housing almost 53,000 men and women.
Slavery by Another Name
As the racist segregation policies known as “Jim Crow” were dismantled by the gains of the militant black freedom movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, the prisons were increasingly used by declining U.S. capitalism as a method of control for African-American surplus labor in society. “Between 1970 and 2000 the number of people incarcerated in the United States skyrocketed from 200,000 to 2.3 million, a ten-fold increase. In 1930, 75% of all prison admissions were Caucasian and 22% were African-Americans. In 1992, 29% of the prison admissions were Caucasian; while 51% were African-American and 20% were Hispanic. Today, two-thirds of the prisoners are African-Americans and Hispanics.” (Avakian S, “Racial Disparity Among the Incarcerated,” Law, Social Justice& Global Development Journal)
This is a complete reversal of the incarceration rates under the racially segregated U.S. society of the 1930s. Today, the rate of incarceration of black men is four times higher than in pre-Mandela apartheid South Africa.
Prisons are warehouses for the working class and poor, left behind by the neo-liberal agenda of American capitalism. The onset of the economic downturn, a weak and jobless recovery, and the resulting perpetual mass unemployment have created conditions of misery and uncertainty for millions of working people and youth, particularly for people of color.
It is important to remember that the incarcerated population is not counted in unemployment statistics. The building of prisons as a way of creating jobs in many economically depressed rural communities has been a boon to local elites. Prisons have been increasingly outsourced to private corporations for profit while also enabling the true face of unemployment to remain hidden.
Organizing in Prison
Organized through the use of cell phones, text messaging, and word of mouth, the refusal of the prisoners to leave their cells to carry out the unpaid labor duties around the state has exposed the stark realities of being a prisoner in America. The inmates’ core demands are for decent living conditions, adequate medical care and nutrition, educational and self-improvement opportunities, just parole decisions, an end to cruel and unusual punishments, and better access to their families. The strike is a tactic historically used by the labor movement. It is a militant call to stop business as usual and challenge the bosses. The prisoners have also shown their power in this strike by stopping business as usual, cutting across the divide-and-conquer tactics of big business and the prison system, finding commonality in the quest for human dignity, justice and reintegration into their communities.
During the prison strike in Georgia, prisoners’ property has been destroyed, hot and cold water have been shut off, some prisoners have been physically attacked, and some have been placed in solitary confinement in “the hole.”
Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, stated: “We are asking for involvement from the Department of Justice to ensure that the civil rights of these prisoners are protected. It is essential that the Georgia state prison system find a peaceful resolution to this non-violent work stoppage. The inmates’ requests for educational opportunities, pay for their work and access to their families are not unreasonable. Providing these opportunities can help reduce recidivism and ensure that people who have paid their debt to society can return to their communities and become responsible citizens.”
Protest and solidarity campaigns must be built to support the strike, like the newly formed Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights. Governor Sonny Perdue and Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens must get the message loud and clear: “Hands off the prisoners!” These campaigns should help encourage mass participation by organizing a march on the Georgia state house and governors’ office to demand justice for the prisoners. This type of strike must spread throughout the country to every prison, where the core demands of Georgia prisoners should be taken up and adapted by other struggling inmates to serve as a rallying cry against the inhumane conditions facing all prisoners.
In order to safeguard the prisoners from abuse and avert another Attica, we must build a mass movement to end the new Jim Crow of mass incarceration as social policy. It is urgent that community organizations, unions, social justice activists and the left support full funding for education for prisoners, abolishing the death penalty and ending the racist drug war. We need a broad movement that will enlist young people and working people, particularly people of color, to challenge the naked class rule and racial oppression of big business capitalism. We must break from the parties of big business – both Democrats and Republicans – who are openly promoting the horrible conditions of poverty, unemployment, and violence in our communities, and start to build a mass working-class political alternative. A movement that demands economic justice and real social uplift will strike a mighty blow to decaying American capitalism.
The Georgia prisoners need urgent solidarity campaigns to support their struggle. We must say to Governor Sonny Perdue and Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens: “Hands off the prisoners!” Call them to protest:
Georgia Department of Corrections
http://www.dcor.state.ga.us
478-992-5246.
Wardens’ numbers at these prisons…
Macon State Prison: 478-472-3900
Hays State Prison: 706-857-0400
Telfair State Prison: 229-868-7721
Baldwin State Prison: 478-445- 5218
Valdosta State Prison: 229-333-7900
Smith State Prison: 912-654-5000
Attica
“This is not a race riot. We are all in this together; there are no white inmates, no black inmates, and no Puerto Rican inmates. There are only inmates….”
Inmate from Attica on a bull horn. (Attica 1971-1975, Annette T. Rubinstein, Published by The Charter Group For a Pledge of Conscience, December, 1975)
Next September will mark the 40th anniversary of the Attica state prison uprising, rooted in the political and social awakening of the militant black freedom movement. The Attica uprising called for reform of the physical conditions of prisoners – the basic and moderate reforms denied by the Attica prison leadership and the state under the leadership of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. The 1,300 prisoners occupied yard D, taking 39 prison guards as hostages (who remained unharmed), to demand justice and implementation of their demands. Rockefeller decided to take back the prison. On September 13, 1971, a massacre was unleashed by state police. This action was meant to stomp out the revolutionary impulse of the prisoners and within wider society.
The Struggle Continues: Stop the Violence Against the Georgia State Prisoners
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/print.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifPrinter-Friendly (http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/printerfriendly/1509.html)
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/friend.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifE-Mail This http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif Jan 18, 2011
By Eljeer Hawkins, Bronx, New York http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
“Prison riots change with time and place. They are shaped by the political events and issues of the day, the prevailing ideas about imprisonment, and the political struggles in and around prison…”
(Bert Useem and Peter Kimball, States of Siege: U.S. Prison Riots 1971-1986, pg. 9)
The Georgia state prisoners’ strike of December 9-16, 2010 should not be classified as a prison riot. It was a political uprising using the tactic of non-violent civil disobedience with programmatic demands against injustice and inhumane conditions that the Georgia state penal system is inflicting on inmates. The strike must be placed in the wider context of a declining global system of capitalism and a combative international working class and poor, as the ruling elite attempts to place its crisis on the backs of working people and the poor through austerity and cutbacks to social and public spending.
The Georgia state prisoners’ strike and the hunger strike by four prisoners held in Ohio State Penitentiary, a supermax prison, was organized to protest the highly restrictive and discriminatory conditions they have been subjected to, the latter since they were moved to the prison in 1998 following the 1993 Lucasville prison uprising. From this uprising, all four inmates had received wrongful convictions and death sentences when the uprising resulted in deaths. These events showcase the possible signs of a rising political consciousness and organizing among the most downtrodden of our society, and its ripple effect.
The corporate media will not report or investigate the conditions of prisoners in the most advanced capitalist country in the world that speaks of ”democracy” and ”freedom,” but warehouses more human beings than any society in world history. The mouthpieces (Atlanta Journal-Constitution and New York Times) of big business and the prison system have only sought to fan the flames of public fear with talk of inmates using contraband cell phones to organize the strike.
Only through the work of grassroots organizations and the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights, which has conducted fact-finding missions to investigate the daily conditions prisoners face, has the physical brutality and retaliation inflicted upon inmates like Terrance Dean of Bibb County, Georgia, been exposed. His condition and location was withheld from family and activists for hours by Macon State Prison authorities. There are 37 inmates missing as a result of the strike.
The Georgia state penal system and big business are attempting to silence the movement for human rights and teach the prisoners the price you pay for standing up for justice. While public scrutiny is coming down on the prison authorities concerning violence by the prison guards, they are reinforcing the divide/conquer tactic of indiscriminate violence and murder. As one Georgia state inmate states: “[Prison] staff are compensating inmates, primarily so-called gang members who want to be thugs, to attack and beat and stab whomever they select. This way, the corrections can’t be blamed. Also they are holding mail that is being sent to organizations or people supporting us in the movements.”
The Movement Must Spread
The work of Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights and website journals and activists like Black Agenda Report are invaluable in publicizing the demands of the prisoners and shining a bright light on the business of mass incarceration. The struggle for prisoners’ rights and the need to abolish the New Jim Crow must be a central demand of our movement to end class and racial oppression. There is a great need for inmates and prison guards to organize for their rights and to be able to defend themselves against the prison authorities, and link up with the wider labor movement. The struggle against the massive level of incarceration in U.S. society and the conditions facing prisoners must be linked with the broader social crisis facing working people, poor, and youth, and in particular youth of color. The greatest lesson the Georgia state prisoners’ strike provides is an example of united and collective action to transform our reality and conditions.
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/cornerbl.gif
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
Shut ‘Em Down - Georgia State Prisoners on Strike for Human Rights
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/print.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifPrinter-Friendly (http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/printerfriendly/1490.html)
http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/friend.gifhttp://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gifE-Mail This http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif Dec 21, 2010
By Eljeer Hawkins, Bronx, New York http://www.socialistalternative.org/graphics/spacer.gif
"The stark and sobering reality is that, for reasons largely unrelated to actual crime trends, the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history." (Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness; p.8)
A Rotten Peach
The power of collective action across race, ethnicity, religion, and gang affiliation is on display as the Georgia state prisoners went on strike. According to Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther Party leader and mother of a Macon State prisoner: “the inmates are protesting the lack of fruits and vegetables in their meals, no pay for their work, poor living conditions and parole decisions.”
The inmates are also demanding adequate medical care, real access to family and education opportunities.
The work stoppage and non-violent civil disobedience by the prisoners began on December 9th to oppose the inhumane conditions within the Georgia State prison system. The state prisons on lockdown are Hays State Prison in Trion, Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, Telfair State Prison in Helena and Smith State Prison in Glennville. That is the tip of the iceberg as the organized resistance has reportedly reached other state prisons.
The Georgia penal system has the highest incarceration rate (16%), surpassing the national average. According to the State of Georgia's own statistics, over 8,000 prisoners, or almost a quarter of the prison population, are incarcerated for drug crimes. 66% of those newly incarcerated in 2009 were black. There are 30 prisons in the state system, housing almost 53,000 men and women.
Slavery by Another Name
As the racist segregation policies known as “Jim Crow” were dismantled by the gains of the militant black freedom movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, the prisons were increasingly used by declining U.S. capitalism as a method of control for African-American surplus labor in society. “Between 1970 and 2000 the number of people incarcerated in the United States skyrocketed from 200,000 to 2.3 million, a ten-fold increase. In 1930, 75% of all prison admissions were Caucasian and 22% were African-Americans. In 1992, 29% of the prison admissions were Caucasian; while 51% were African-American and 20% were Hispanic. Today, two-thirds of the prisoners are African-Americans and Hispanics.” (Avakian S, “Racial Disparity Among the Incarcerated,” Law, Social Justice& Global Development Journal)
This is a complete reversal of the incarceration rates under the racially segregated U.S. society of the 1930s. Today, the rate of incarceration of black men is four times higher than in pre-Mandela apartheid South Africa.
Prisons are warehouses for the working class and poor, left behind by the neo-liberal agenda of American capitalism. The onset of the economic downturn, a weak and jobless recovery, and the resulting perpetual mass unemployment have created conditions of misery and uncertainty for millions of working people and youth, particularly for people of color.
It is important to remember that the incarcerated population is not counted in unemployment statistics. The building of prisons as a way of creating jobs in many economically depressed rural communities has been a boon to local elites. Prisons have been increasingly outsourced to private corporations for profit while also enabling the true face of unemployment to remain hidden.
Organizing in Prison
Organized through the use of cell phones, text messaging, and word of mouth, the refusal of the prisoners to leave their cells to carry out the unpaid labor duties around the state has exposed the stark realities of being a prisoner in America. The inmates’ core demands are for decent living conditions, adequate medical care and nutrition, educational and self-improvement opportunities, just parole decisions, an end to cruel and unusual punishments, and better access to their families. The strike is a tactic historically used by the labor movement. It is a militant call to stop business as usual and challenge the bosses. The prisoners have also shown their power in this strike by stopping business as usual, cutting across the divide-and-conquer tactics of big business and the prison system, finding commonality in the quest for human dignity, justice and reintegration into their communities.
During the prison strike in Georgia, prisoners’ property has been destroyed, hot and cold water have been shut off, some prisoners have been physically attacked, and some have been placed in solitary confinement in “the hole.”
Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, stated: “We are asking for involvement from the Department of Justice to ensure that the civil rights of these prisoners are protected. It is essential that the Georgia state prison system find a peaceful resolution to this non-violent work stoppage. The inmates’ requests for educational opportunities, pay for their work and access to their families are not unreasonable. Providing these opportunities can help reduce recidivism and ensure that people who have paid their debt to society can return to their communities and become responsible citizens.”
Protest and solidarity campaigns must be built to support the strike, like the newly formed Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights. Governor Sonny Perdue and Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens must get the message loud and clear: “Hands off the prisoners!” These campaigns should help encourage mass participation by organizing a march on the Georgia state house and governors’ office to demand justice for the prisoners. This type of strike must spread throughout the country to every prison, where the core demands of Georgia prisoners should be taken up and adapted by other struggling inmates to serve as a rallying cry against the inhumane conditions facing all prisoners.
In order to safeguard the prisoners from abuse and avert another Attica, we must build a mass movement to end the new Jim Crow of mass incarceration as social policy. It is urgent that community organizations, unions, social justice activists and the left support full funding for education for prisoners, abolishing the death penalty and ending the racist drug war. We need a broad movement that will enlist young people and working people, particularly people of color, to challenge the naked class rule and racial oppression of big business capitalism. We must break from the parties of big business – both Democrats and Republicans – who are openly promoting the horrible conditions of poverty, unemployment, and violence in our communities, and start to build a mass working-class political alternative. A movement that demands economic justice and real social uplift will strike a mighty blow to decaying American capitalism.
The Georgia prisoners need urgent solidarity campaigns to support their struggle. We must say to Governor Sonny Perdue and Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens: “Hands off the prisoners!” Call them to protest:
Georgia Department of Corrections
http://www.dcor.state.ga.us
478-992-5246.
Wardens’ numbers at these prisons…
Macon State Prison: 478-472-3900
Hays State Prison: 706-857-0400
Telfair State Prison: 229-868-7721
Baldwin State Prison: 478-445- 5218
Valdosta State Prison: 229-333-7900
Smith State Prison: 912-654-5000
Attica
“This is not a race riot. We are all in this together; there are no white inmates, no black inmates, and no Puerto Rican inmates. There are only inmates….”
Inmate from Attica on a bull horn. (Attica 1971-1975, Annette T. Rubinstein, Published by The Charter Group For a Pledge of Conscience, December, 1975)
Next September will mark the 40th anniversary of the Attica state prison uprising, rooted in the political and social awakening of the militant black freedom movement. The Attica uprising called for reform of the physical conditions of prisoners – the basic and moderate reforms denied by the Attica prison leadership and the state under the leadership of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. The 1,300 prisoners occupied yard D, taking 39 prison guards as hostages (who remained unharmed), to demand justice and implementation of their demands. Rockefeller decided to take back the prison. On September 13, 1971, a massacre was unleashed by state police. This action was meant to stomp out the revolutionary impulse of the prisoners and within wider society.