June 23, 2011 Puget Sound Anarchists
Dear Friends and Comrades,
On July 1st, 50-100 prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern
California will begin an indefinite hunger strike to protest the tortuous
and inhumane conditions of their imprisonment. Pelican Bay is notorious
for it's repressive methods of solitary confinement (like the SHU, i.e.
Security Housing Unit). The CA Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation prides itself on Pelican Bay being "the end of the line,"
and is part of a continuation since the 1960's of prisons using solitary
confinement as a main tactic to crush rebellion and resistance.
As anti-authoritarians and anarchists, this is a crucial moment to show
our solidarity with those on the inside who are ready to die in their
fight for dignity and the most basic necessities of life that the state
continues to deny. This will be the third major hunger strike in a US
prison in the past year and those of us fighting on the outside need to
make a visible show of support for this wave of prisoner-led organizing.
"The passion for freedom is stronger than any prison"
This is a call out for any and all courageous and creative actions to
build our solidarity and confront the prison-industrial complex!
Requests:
• creative! inspiring! strategic! banner drops, billboard liberation,
propaganda distro, flash mobs etc.
• please make sure your action is well documented.
• the prisoners organizing the strike initiated contact with a number of
grassroots and anti-prison organizations in the Bay Area to support their
action. This led to the formation of Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
which will be providing some infrastructural support during the strike
such as legal and medical monitoring and visits. We want to be able to
communicate to the prisoners while doing weekly visits during the strike
that people outside are supporting them. We want to be able to tell them
about the creative ways people are showing their support and amplifying
the prisoner's voices. Please send photos, statements, and descriptions
(with your strategic discretion) to the coalition through email:
prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity@gmail.com. The coalition will also be
updating a page on demo's and actions on the coalition blog so info can go
on their too (prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com)
• If it's an action other people can participate in, please let us know a
head of time so we can help spread the word through our blog and facebook.
• amplify the voices of the prisoners-- this is a struggle initiated by
the prisoners themselves, calling for comrades and allies to make sure
their voices are heard outside prison, so solidarity will be stronger when
keeping this in mind.
THE STRIKE BEGINS ON FRIDAY JULY 1
so that would be a great day for an action, as well as one or two days
before it. The strike could last for quite a while so it'd be a good idea
to stay tuned to the blog for updates on how the strike is developing.
There will be rallies internationally on July 9th in San Francisco, Arcata
(or outside Pelican Bay), Montreal, Ontario and Vancouver. It'd be great
if there are more rallies and demos on that Saturday, and other
actions/demos leading up to that day.
If you have any questions or info to share, hit up Prisoner Hunger Strike
Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity@gmail.com.
Noise Demo in Solidarity with Pelican Bay Prisoners
Fri, 06/24/2011 - 12:21pm — Anonymous
http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/node/725
Noise demo at:
King County Juvenile Detention Center
1211 East Alder Ave
(12th Ave & Alder)in the CD
Meet on 12th at the corner of 12th and Alder.
3PM.
Saturday July 2nd.
Bring signs/banners, leaflets, noise makers, etc.
Solidarity with Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers!
Solidarity with all prisoners: youth and adult!
On July 1, 2011 prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican
Bay State Prison in California will begin an indefinite hunger strike to
protest the conditions of their imprisonment. The hunger strike is being
organized by prisoners in an unusual show of racial unity, their five key
demands are:
1. Eliminate group punishments.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status
criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and
Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to longterm solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate food.
5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite
SHU inmates.
This noise demonstration will be to express solidarity with the Pelican
Bay Prisoners as well as the youth imprisoned at King County Juvi to break
the isolation that is both a requirement and a function of prisons.
We want both, the youth and the hunger strikers, to know that they are not
alone that there are those of us in the outer walls who are saying fuck
prisons, down with every prison wall.
This prison society we live in, with every one of its laws, courts, cops,
prisons and networks of surveillance, has made it very clear that the
'life' we're supposed to accept is nothing more than a life sentence in an
open air prison and upon violation a 'life' of extreme alienation,
isolation, and degradation. The hunger strikers recognize this as they
continue to refuse the meek existence that the state and capital tries to
impose on them.
Prison has a long history within capitalism and governments, as being one
of the most archaic forms of prolonged torture and punishment. It has been
used to kill some slowly and torture those “undesirables” to the reigning
social order - who have do not fit within the predetermined mold of civil
society.
Youth, the most anti-establishment social group, are often used as the
definition of undesirable. Those in charge are correct in their assumption
that the youth are the last to submit, the last to be controlled. In
response, they build institutions like, the King County Juvenile Detention
Center. The same people that build these prisons are the ones that create
poverty and discrimination. They create the conditions of crime and then
build the prisons to contain their “criminals”. There is no solving the
prison problem because prisons are exactly what this repressive society
needs to function: social control and fear. This is why we are not only
against prisons but against the whole system that relies on them.
Solidarity with every youth who fights for freedom, and all prisoners,
around the world, who refuse to accept forced confinement, isolation and
abuse, who dream of the day that we together destroy these walls.
More information:
https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
http://www.prisons.org/hungerstrike.htm
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