Internationalist Prison Books Collective

By Sal Rodriguez, Solitary Watch

The family of Christian Gomez, the 27-year-old prisoner who died while on hunger strike at California’s Corcoran State Prison, is speaking out about the loss of their family member in the hope that similar incidents in the future are avoided.

In a phone call with Solitary Watch, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Terry Thornton confirmed that Gomez had been placed in solitary confinement in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) pending investigation of assault on another inmate with a weapon on January 14, 2012. Thornton would not confirm the status of this investigation. Gomez was serving a life sentence for first degree murder and attempted murder.

Christian Gomez had not told his family members of his intentions to participate in the January 27-February 13 hunger strike held by ASU inmates in protest of their conditions. According to an interview with Gomez’s sister, Y.L., she “found out when the coroner Tom [Edmonds] implied that there was a possibility of a chemical imbalance due to a hunger strike he was participating in. That’s the first I heard of this. Back in [September or October] when he first was transferred there he did tell me that they were having a hunger strike to fight for their rights but he was in general population.” Read more…

On February 20th, Durham joined dozens of other cities around the US as part of a national day of action against the prison-industrial complex. At 5:30 a little over 50 people gathered around in front of the Durham jail to express our love and solidarity with prison rebels everywhere.

People waved black flags, banged on drums and pots and pans, chanted, and held banners, while prisoners in orange jumpsuits filled the windows to look and wave. Read more…

From Common Dreams

by Bill Quigley

Today US Army Private Bradley Manning is to be formally charged with numerous crimes at Fort Meade, Maryland. Manning, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by members of the Icelandic Parliament, is charged with releasing hundreds of thousands of documents exposing secrets of the US government to the whistleblower website Wikileaks. These documents exposed lies, corruption and crimes by the US and other countries. The Bradley Manning defense team points out accurately that much of what was published by Wikileaks was either not actually secret or should not have been secret.

The Manning prosecution is a tragic miscarriage of justice. US officials are highly embarrassed by what Manning exposed and are shooting the messenger. As Glenn Greenwald, the terrific Salon writer, has observed, President Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers for espionage than all other presidents combined. Read more…

On December 16^th, 2011, sixteen prisoners who work in the kitchen at Central Prison in Raleigh sat down on their shift. The prisoners, who are forced to work seven days a week, ten hours a day, with no breaks, refused to continue to work until receiving answers to concerns regarding hours and gain time.

An administrator in charge of the kitchen refused to address their concerns and ordered the men to, “Get their sorry asses back to work.” After that, eight guards came in, threatening the use of force. Eight of the prisoners stood strong, and were immediately locked up. Read more…

The following is a piece written by a woman imprisoned at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, located in Raleigh. A new hospital has been under construction at the facility, though another woman wrote that the “hospital” is a “monstrosity,” and that it’s opening has been pushed back a year because it can’t pass inspection.

A Woman’s Cry for Help

I am an inmate at NCCIW, and behind these razor-wire fences egregious medical neglect has been a concern for decades. The health care inside this prison is grossly inadequate, unconstitutional, and has been ignored for far too long. The quality of the health care here has been questioned since as early as the 1990′s, and it continues to get worse. Read more…

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — As part of a cost-reduction plan, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn wants to close a prison that opened just 14 years ago as a cutting-edge facility for the state’s most dangerous inmates.

But his plan to shutter the Tamms “supermax” lockup is raising questions about how the crowded correctional system could safely absorb its inmate population.

Tamms is an infamous prison in the state of Illinois, highly controversial and the subject of numerous lawsuits alleging prisoner abuse. It is a closed maximum custody prison, with no mess hall and prisoners all doing solitary time 23 hours a day. Read more…

from Red Bird Prison Abolition

On Wednesday evening, twenty-five prisoners at Ohio’s super-max prison ate their first meal since Sunday night. The hunger strike was inspired by the Occupy4Prisoners National Day of Action called by Occupy Oakland. According to Siddique Abdullah Hasan, one of the hunger strikers, they initially intended a one day fast as a “symbolic gesture, a way of locking arms with the people on the outside.”

By Monday evening, the prisoners had decided to issue demands and continue refusing food. Their demands included specific changes in the conditions of their confinement at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) as well as calls for broader reforms. They resumed eating after Warden David Bobby agreed to grant a number of their demands including: Read more…

From the Bay View

Editor’s note: This comes from the brilliant minds – locked away in one of the most restrictive prisons in the U.S. – who brought you “California prison hunger strikers propose ‘10 core demands’ for the national Occupy Wall Street Movement,” the Bay View’s most read story, with 9,980 pageviews, from Dec. 6, 2011, to Feb. 19, 2012.

by J. Heshima Denham, Zaharibu Dorrough and Kambui   Robinson of the NCTT Corcoran Security Housing Unit (SHU)

“But beneath this conventional enthusiasm and amid this ingratiating ritual toward the dominant power, you can easily perceive in the wealthy a deep distaste for the democratic institutions of their country. The people are a power they both fear and despise.” – Alexis De Tocqueville, “Democracy in America”

Greetings, brothers and sisters. A firm, warm and solid embrace of revolutionary love is extended to you all.

As we proceed in this period of evolution in our struggles for substantive social change in the U.S. via the national Occupy Movement, the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Movement, the Anti-Imperialist Movement etc., it is imperative that we not only understand that we are all representative of a single socio-political and historic motive force, but those in opposition to our democratic aspirations are the very same political, social and economic powers that this nation has relied on to ensure the integrity of democracy, social justice and economic equality. This is a contradiction.

This historic contradiction will NOT be resolved via our disparate efforts. Substantive change will only be realized through a comprehensive strategic approach, coordinated and conducted by us all. Simply put, we are a single movement, and for us to have the social impact necessary to compel progress we must proceed with this realization as out guiding ethos. We of the NCTT (New Afrikan Collective Think Tank) in the Corcoran SHU (Security Housing Unit) have a proposal on effective strategic organizing we’d like to share with you here, but before we do so we think it is imperative that you all understand the historic significance of what we are all a part of.

It is our assessment that what is occurring today as it relates to the national protest movement (i.e., Occupy Wall Street, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity etc.) is the unfinished legacy of the struggle for social justice necessary for the U.S. to fulfill its democratic potential. This struggle is part of the rich and courageous legacy of abolitionists, women’s rights activists, organized labor, populists, human and civil rights activists and other democratic struggles of the nation’s past.

Social revolution has always been imperative to this type of substantive change. This calls for the recognition and coming together of people – citizens from different cultural, economic and ideological backgrounds – realizing the common interest inherent in this truth: that we all inhabit the same planet, breathe the same air, are part of the human family.

READ THE REST AT THE BAY VIEW

Sean Swain is an anarchist political prisoner imprisoned in Mansfield Correctional Institution.

In 2007, in a published interview I observed that if Ohio prisoners simply laid on their bunks for 30 days, the system would collapse. I wasn’t talking about just the prison system, but Ohio’s entire economy.

I came to that conclusion because I recognized that 50,000 prisoners work for pennies per day making the food, taking out the trash, mopping the floors. We produce parts for Honda and other multi-nationals at Ohio Penal Industries (OPI), making millions of dollars in profit for the State. If we stopped participating in our own oppression, the State would have to hire workers at union-scale wages to make our food, take out the trash, and mop the floors; slave labor for Honda and others would cease. Read more…

Tuesday, February 21, old friends and new will be gathering at Internationalist Books to celebrate the life of Bob Sheldon, who continues to inspire countless people, even 21 years after his murder.

We will begin festivities around 7pm, there will be speakers sharing their Bob Sheldon stories with us. We will also be giving out this year’s Bob Sheldon award (to the Human Rights Center, or HRC). Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe will be providing the food.

If you have a story that you would like to share with everyone, please let us know! (email us at ibooks@internationalistbooks.org) This event is all about Bob and his legacy, so the more people who come out to share, the better!

Thank you and we hope to see you all soon!

<3 and Rage,

Internationalist Books Co-managers, Volunteers and Board Members