30,000 Prisoners on Hunger Strike in California

[GiantMonkeyMan]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/09/california-prisoners-hunger-strike


An estimated 30,000 inmates in jails across California (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/california) are participating in a hunger strike to protest against solitary confinement and other conditions they say amount to torture.

Prisoners refused meals for a second day on Tuesday in about two dozen jails, signalling what was thought to be the biggest protest of its kind in California's history.

The campaign is a ramped-up sequel to hunger strikes in 2011, which shone international attention on the state's troubled penal system but failed to wring significant concessions from authorities.

A group of inmates at the maximum security Pelican Bay state prison (http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Facilities_Locator/PBSP.html) in Crescent City has organised the protest, saying they will starve themselves unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agrees to meaningful negotiations.

At any one time, California holds about 12,000 inmates in extreme isolation, including some who have been in windowless boxes known as security housing units (SHUs) for decades. They are allowed out for an hour a day to exercise – some in a yard, others in a kennel-size cage.

Supporters say the strike is a legitimate response to cruel and inhumane conditions. "The use of prolonged solitary confinement is a form of torture," said Laura Downton, director for US Policy and Program at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (http://www.nrcat.org/). "We stand with them in their call for five core demands."

The strikers have issued a number of demands, including the end to group punishment, an overhaul to the policy of identifying suspected gang members, an end to long-term solitary confinement, better education and rehabilitation programmes, and the provision of adequate and nutritious food.

Anyone in California know anymore about this? Sounds like a brilliant effort on behalf of the inmates.

[Le Socialiste]

A comrade forwarded this email she'd received a couple days ago, might be of interest to comrades who are also in the area. It contains a couple of things folks can do at the moment, though the July 13th mobilization seems to be the 'big' organizing thing/focus right now:


Dear Friends,

Thanks you for your continued support for the California Prison Hunger Strikers and their struggle to win their 5 Core Demands.

As you probably know, they will be resuming their strike on Monday July 8th, unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) enters into accountable and good faith negotiations with them. We need your support now more than ever!

To add your voice to our updated petition, please click here: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51040/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11455

To learn more about the strike visit: www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com

To take a Pledge of Resistance, visit: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51040/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=8133

To get involved in the July 13th Mass Mobilization, please visit: http://bit.ly/19PaFBA

To plan a solidarity action, please visit: https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/take-action-2/add-your-event/

To donate, visit: http://prisons.org/Donateinstructions.htm

In Solidarity,

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

I can almost hear the Daily Mail readers' blood boiling...'Criminals demanding things?? Hope they starve! They're a burden to us tax payers anyway'..i know the DM is a British paper, but not sure what the US version would be..(other than FOX News of course).
Anywho, solidarity to the inmates; if we're stuck with the prison system for the foreseeable, at least treat the incarcerated as humanely as possible.

[MarxArchist]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/09/california-prisoners-hunger-strike



Anyone in California know anymore about this? Sounds like a brilliant effort on behalf of the inmates.
What do you think their organizing tactics entailed? Spontaneous autonomous horizontal democracy or a strict militarized hierarchy? When the state ignores them this could turn into mass riots in CA prisons. This will be interesting to watch unfold. The Governor has had a few issues as of late with the prison system and I have a feeling he's going to come down hard in order to "maintain control". I can't see them giving any sort of power to inmates or legitimizing inmate solidarity - I can't see the state rewarding collective action with capitulation. This is how riots start though. If that happens all solidarity evaporates.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

What do you think their organizing tactics entailed? Spontaneous autonomous horizontal democracy or a strict militarized hierarchy? When the state ignores them this could turn into mass riots in CA prisons. This will be interesting to watch unfold. The Governor has had a few issues as of late with the prison system and I have a feeling he's going to come down hard in order to "maintain control". I can't see them giving any sort of power to inmates or legitimizing inmate solidarity - I can't see the state rewarding collective action with capitulation. This is how riots start though. If that happens all solidarity evaporates.
I think this is an opportunity for revolutionaries to point out the hypocricies of the state and also show the potential power of collective struggle. Simply saying 'the state won't cave, riots will happen' is detrimental to the prisoners struggle. Everyone in California who claims to be a revolutionary should be utilising this opportunity to form new links with communities and reach out to the wider working class about the irrationality of capitalism and how we can, and should, fight against it. The state probably won't cave and there's potential for riots to happen as a result but it's the riots that could happen outside prisons that really have an opportunity to change society and revolutionaries need to ensure that this is channelled into something positive.

[MarxArchist]

I think this is an opportunity for revolutionaries to point out the hypocricies of the state

Regarding prisoners, anyone willing to listen will pretty much already be on our side. Part of the reason these situations exist in the first place is because all of these "tough on crime" initiatives that are pushed in the media whenever some psychopath kidnaps a child and chops them to pieces. This is then held up by the state as a need to "crack down", public outrage is fed and then laws are passed that predominantly impact the poor. The majority of Californians have a warped sense of what crime is, what the causes are and what the punishments should be in part because of a complete lack of class consciousness and because the worst psychopaths are paraded around in the media as "the norm". Most people in prison, in reality, don't even deserve to be there even under the standards of bourgeois jurisprudence.



and also show the potential power of collective struggle.

A good scenario would be to have prisoners contact family members on the outside and somehow organize from there. Start with a base of people with an immediate emotional and material connection to the issue. What the state will say in it's defense is it's the "worst of the worst" in isolation. That they're gang leaders and extremely violent inmates who need to be separated from the rest of the population for the safety of other inmates and staff. They have a "level" system in place where a level 1 is minimum security. You gain "points" with each rule you break. At a certain amount of "points" (usually achieved through violence) one can end up in a level 4 "supermax" facility. In reality just being rumored to be a member of certain high profile gangs can land you there, an inmate "snitching" or an encounter with guards. Possession of "contraband" which can also arbitrarily be deemed a threat to a prisons security etc.




Simply saying 'the state won't cave, riots will happen' is detrimental to the prisoners struggle. Everyone in California who claims to be a revolutionary should be utilising this opportunity to form new links with communities and reach out to the wider working class about the irrationality of capitalism and how we can, and should, fight against it.

Again, unfortunately, at this point, Californians are largely apathetic to conditions in prison. In fact, they see it as being in their material interests that a new prison is being built every year. This region of the world needs to walk before it can run and expecting the below is expecting some miraculous instantaneous awakening that simply isn't going to happen. Opportunism of this sort would have no impact, wrapping the flag of communism around this would be ineffectual (although 90% of the inmates are indeed in CA prisons because of capitalism). This is an issue I'd use reform/the courts to fight on the basis that isolation is torture. Riots in the streets in support of the Aryan Brotherhood, NAZI Lowriders, Black Gorilla family and Mexican Mafia probably aren't going to happen as that's who the state is going to say fills supermax isolation prisons such as Pelican Bay.




The state probably won't cave and there's potential for riots to happen as a result but it's the riots that could happen outside prisons that really have an opportunity to change society and revolutionaries need to ensure that this is channelled into something positive.


In a case such as we saw with Oscar Grant I would agree 100% and prisoners should indeed get out support but you have some pretty high expectations here.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Regarding prisoners, anyone willing to listen will pretty much already be on our side.[...] Again, unfortunately, at this point, Californians are largely apathetic to conditions in prison. [...] In a case such as we saw with Oscar Grant I would agree 100% and prisoners should indeed get out support but you have some pretty high expectations here.
The point I was making comrade was that this is an opportunity to engage in something that would reveal the bourgeois state for what it is. 30,000 prisoners is nothing to sneeze at and I think you might be surprised by some of the response from working class people out on the streets. Even if it's just one or two people you manage to form good rapport with, that's one or two more people to help organise in the future. I always get high hopes about the potential of some things to spark off a movement because I look at the Arab Spring which only took one guy setting himself on fire to spark the whole of the Arab world into revolt, Brazil where all it took was an increase of ~10p busfare to have thousands out on the streets, and the prison system in America is a disgusting beast that needs smashing. Just hope for the best, plan for the worst etc. ;)