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Saturday, October 8, 2011


Hungerstrike News
October 7, 2011 - Day TwelveVol. 2, No. 7
 

Medical Conditions of Hunger Strikers Worsen, Strikers & Supporters Keep Fighting Back

 
Image by Pete Collins, imprisoned at Bath Prison, Ontario, Canada
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Numbers of hunger strikers began to drop this week after the CDCR intensified retaliation on the strike. The hunger strike representatives at Pelican Bay who were kept in the D Corridor of the SHU were moved to Administrative Segregation at Pelican Bay. Lawyers who were finally able to have one visit last week (after some lawyers of the prisoners’ mediation team have been banned) report that the CDCR has the air conditioning on high in 50 degree weather. The hunger strike representatives continue to be willing to risk their lives in order to win the 5 core demands.
  
The CDCR’s numbers also appear to be low due to guards falsifying records of hunger strikers. At Calipatria, for instance, hunger strikers report they were finally given their liquids after filing medical requests (even though they were still denied liquids for the first several days of the strike). Now, however, guards have been delivering liquids on the prisoners’ food trays.  Once strikers take the liquids off of the trays, the guards record they are not striking (CDCR counts strikers based on who touches the state-issued food trays and who doesn’t).
 
Medical conditions are also worsening for strikers throughout the state. We’ve received reports that after 12 days of no food, prisoners are once again losing severe weight and fainting. One hunger striker at Pelican Bay was denied his medication and consequently suffered from a heart attack and is now is an outside hospital in Oregon.
 
Family & community members continue to support the hunger strikers by holding rallies, community events and vigils, publicizing the courageous action inside prison and building pressure on representatives to intervene  in the CDCR’s handling of the strike.
 
Families of SHU prisoners are calling for supporters everywhere to hold mass vigils in support of the hunger strikers on Thursday nights. If you can organize a vigil in your community, please email prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity[at]gmail.com. For more events, check out our events page here.
 

Hip hop community,
support our hunger strike!

 
by Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, for the Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We prisoners held in Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (PBSP SHU) seek support from all hip hop celebrities, fans and supporters to assist us in shutting down all solitary confinement units – i.e. Administration Segregation (Ad-Seg), SHU and Maximum Security units and the like – that hold New Afrikan prisoners and other races in solitary confinement indefinitely.
 
We embarked Sept. 26, 2011, on a peaceful hunger strike here in PBSP and throughout the state of California in order to obtain our civil and human rights. We are being denied our five core demands (submitted prior to the first phase of the hunger strike in July).
 
Prisoners are being held in solitary confinement indefinitely on the word of a prison debriefer – i.e., snitch, informer, rat, turncoat – or some false prison gang validation. Therefore, we seek your support and give you all the right to advocate on our behalf:
  • MC Lyte
  • Baby
  • Keyshia Cole
  • Lil Wayne
  • Eve
  • Jay-Z
  • Goapele
  • Scrappy
  • Lil Kim
  • Kam
  • Yoyo
  • Kwame Kweli
  • Nicki Minaj
  • The Coup
  • Erykah Badu
  • The Game
  • Foxy Brown
  • Kanye West
  • Free
  • Mos Def
  • Diamond
  • Chuck D
  • Queen Latifah
  • MOB Deep
  • Rashida
  • E-40
  • Terez McCall
  • Snoop Dogg
  • Jada Pinkett
  • Rihanna
  • Scarface
  • Lena
  • Ryakin Rip
  • Slim Thug
  • Solange
  • Tyrese
  • Solē
  • Bun B
  • Jamie Fox
  • Will Smith
  • Chris Brown
  • Jadakiss
  • Gorilla Zoe
  • Black Rob
  • Rev Run
  • Busta Rhymes
  • Ice-T
  • Ice Cube
  • WC, Mack-10
  • Ti
  • Dr. Dre
  • Joe Budden
  • Eminem
  • T-Bone
  • LeCrae
  • Drake
  • Too Short
  • Flame
  • 50 cent
  • Loyd Banks
  • Raphael Saadiq
  • Maino
  • Terrence Jenkins
  • Rosci Diaz
  • Big Boi
  • KRS-One
  • DMX
  • 2-Mex
  • Gucci Mane
  • JT The Bigga Figga
  • Chino XL
  • Chingo
  • Bling
  • Rebel Diaz
  • Fat Joe
  • Tego Calderon
  • Pitbull
  • Bubba Sparks
  • Cypress Hill
  • Nas
And all the original hip hop heads etc.
 
We ask that you all support us in our struggle to be liberated from these man-made torture chambers by doing the following:
 
1. Support the peaceful hunger strike by having your fans contact the governor of California, Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., and the president of the United States of Amerika, Barack Obama, to end torture in California prisons, where prisoners are held indefinitely in solitary confinement – in PBSP SHU, Corcoran SHU, New Folsom SHU and Tehachapi SHU.
2. Donate $10 or more to our Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition, via California Prison Focus’ PayPal account, which can be accessed at www.prisons.org, and mark it for the hunger strike coalition, or mail your donation to California Prison Focus, 1904 Franklin St., Suite 507, Oakland CA 94612. Watch our blog, www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com, for information.
 
3. All of you have power, and that power is in your voice. We ask that you lend that power to our hunger strike. Yes, we will make the sacrifices. There are countless prisoners held in solitary confinement throughout this nation, who come from exclusively poor communities, being tortured. Contact the following New Afrikan prisoners who have been held in SHU since as long ago as 1976 to 2011:
  • Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996, PBSP, D-1-117, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Michael Mutawally Cooperwood, C-46411, PBSP, D-1-214, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Abdul Olugbala Shakur, s/n J. Harvey, C-48884, PBSP, D-4-212, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • James Baridi Williamsun, D-34288, PBSP, D-4-107, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Yafeu Iyapo-I, s/n Leonard Alexander, B-73388, PBSP, D-3-104, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Marcus Tashiri Harrison, H-54077, PBSP, D-3-122, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Abasi Ganda, s/n Clyde Jackson, C-33559, PBSP, D-2-101, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Kubaua Gitu, s/n Rubben Williams, B-72882, PBSP, D-2-121, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Paul Redd Jr., B-72683, D-2-117, PBSP, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • J. Heshima Denham, J-38283, COR SHU, 4B-1L-46, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
  • Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, D-83611, COR SHU, 4B-1L-53, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
  • Kambui Robinson, C-82830, COR SHU, 4B-1L-49, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
It is important that you in the public know that all of us come from the very communities you all come from. Unfortunately, we have been held in these solitary confinement units from 10 to 40 years, simply put, for nothing. The CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) has used every strategy and tactic to get us to debrief, as the only way for us to get out of solitary confinement.
 
Since we refuse to be emasculated and become the prison stoolie for the prison gang intelligence unit, CDCR has sanctioned the torture of each and every last one of us. Therefore, we prisoners, all races, decided to come together in order to end this cruel and unusual punishment.
 
Yes, many of you have heard or know firsthand of the horror stories CDCR officials have used to propagate us to the world in order to label us the “worst of the worst” held in Pelican Bay state prison solitary confinement units. Yet ALL RACES – i.e., New Afrikans, Mexicans South and North, and whites etc. came together to end and fight against the torture we all have endured for 21 years here at PBSP SHU by way of a peaceful hunger strike, which we intend to carry out indefinitely.
 
END SOLITARY CONFINEMENT THROUGHOUT CALIFORNIA and THIS NATION!
We, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, George Franco, Arturo Castellanos and Todd Asker, the four principle negotiators and representatives of the Pelican Bay hunger strike, are requesting for all bodies and minds who are participating in the Sept. 26, 2011, human rights movement to be mindful that we prisoners are in a protracted struggle so that no other prisoners will be held in solitary confinement. All California-held prisoners can be subjected to inhumane, torturous and intentional harsh treatment by CDCR officials, enforced by their subordinates, if the use of solitary confinement is not stopped.
 
For this struggle to go forward, we need supporters to donate $10 or more to our prisoners’ cause, to shut the SHUs and all solitary confinement units within the state of California and spread this resistance across the U.S. by way of peaceful hunger strikes and other peaceful demonstrations.
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity is a coalition of non-profit organizations that have been working many years on prisoner rights issues and shutting solitary confinement units throughout California and the U.S. We prisoners appreciate and continue to need their legal support.
 
Note: California Prison Focus is the member of the coalition responsible for meeting with the spokesmen for the prisoners. Donations will be used to travel to Pelican Bay once a week and to travel to the other SHUs as often as possible this winter in order to report to the state legislature and to protect the spokesmen as much as possible. Each trip costs $300 to $400 for two investigators for two days for gas and lodging only.
 
Recent Media Coverage
 
 

Needless to say, a link to an article does not imply endorsement.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

 
 
 
Upcoming Events

 
 
In the US:

California

 
San Francisco
 
Saturday October 8th from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m: social gathering and potlock with Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition members, local activists, friends and family members of incarcerated loved ones in California prisons, to meet and socialized. Come and join us and share your favorite treat with us. Mosswood Park, 3612 Webster Street, Oakland, CA.
 
Thursday, October 13, 5-7 p.m.: Vigil at 24th  & Mission, SF.
 
Thursday, October 20, 5-7 p.m.: Vigil at Fruitvale BART, Oakland.
 
 
Santa Cruz
Saturday, October 8, 6:30pm: Noise Demonstration in solidarity with hungerstrikers. Marching from Louden Nelson Park to County Jail. Bring Noisemakers! Click here for mor info.
 


 
New York
New York
Saturday, October 8, 11am-2pm: Letter and card writing for PPs, POWs, and prisoners on hunger strike in California. @ Zuccotti Park (Liberty Street and Broadway, New York, New York). Organized by Anarchist Black Cross NY and Resistance in Brooklyn.
 

 
 
 
This list is of upcoming events we know of. If you are organizing an event in your area, let us know!
 
 
Hungerstrike News can be reached at hstrikenews@yahoo.ca
Throughout the month of July, 2011, thousands of prisoners across California participated in a hunger strike against torturous conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit.
 
Hungerstrike News documented their struggle and the actions of those who stood in solidarity with them.
 
As we enter this new period, Hungerstrike News will continue to support the prisoners and report on their struggle.

Has Your Mail to Someone in Prison Been Refused?

From Julie Tackett:
 
Having your mail rejected is one of the most upsetting things to have happen when you have a loved one in prison. Whether is just a mistake on your part, a concerted effort cut family bonds or blatant retaliation for things like the Hunger Strike, it will help to keep track of trends. I have a spread sheet to record mail rejected by CDCR. I will watch for trends of increased rejections by facility, type of rejections, reasons for rejections, and otherwise keep an eye on things.

If you ever have a piece of mail rejected by CDCR for any reason, just message me, email me at tackett.julie@gmail.com or call 206-214-8208.

Thanks, Julie

Palestinian Prisoners on Hungerstrike in Israeli Prisons

Isolation torture is a worlwide scourge, often directed at political prisoners and others who resist oppression. In some contexts these people are accused of being "gang members", in others they are accused of being "terrorists". In all cases, this dehumanization is used as a justification for the unjustifiable: the purposeful attempt to scientifically drive a human being insane.
 
As of September 27, Palestinian prisoners have begun a hunger strike against the abusive conditions they are made to suffer. Their demands are:
 
"1. End the solitary confinement and isolation of our comrade, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the PLO Central Council, Ahmad Sa'adat, Abu Ghassan.

2. End the policy of isolation for all prisoners;
 
3. End the policy of systematic humiliation by the occupation army against the Palestinian people at checkpoints and crossings, particularly targeting visitors to prisons, and end the arbitrary denial of visits to the prisoners, especially the prisoners from the Gaza Strip. End the humiliation and abuse of prisoners during transfer."
 
For more information on this struggle:
 
 
UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUES IN DEPTH:
POWERPOINT BACKGROUNDER ON HUNGERSTRIKE
 
 
MAKE CALLS AND
WRITE LETTERS OF PROTEST TO:

Secretary Matthew Cate
CDCR
1515 S Street
Sacramento
95814
TEL: (916) 323-6001
 
Governor Jerry Brown
State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
 
CDCR Public Affairs Office: (916)445-4950
 
& DON'T FORGET TO SIGN THE PETITION ATCHANGE.ORG!
GET SUBSCRIBERS

If you have a website or blog and would like to help promoteHungerstrike News, get in touch.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
follow the Prisoner Hungerstrike Solidarity Coalition on twitter:
 
 
 
 Reply
 Forward
Posted by prisoner art at 3:08 PM 0 comments

Monday, October 3, 2011

Nature of Religion - just a taste of it...

http://www.panpublishinggroup.com/?p=157
Check it out - I think you'll get something out of it - and like I said, anyone who wants a free pdf of this - just ask me, OK ?
You got it .
Posted by prisoner art at 9:39 AM 3 comments

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Hungerstrike Is On Again !

Hungerstrike News
September 29, 2011 - Day Four Vol. 2, No. 2
 

Round 2, Day 4: Strike Expands & Exposes ‘Perfect Storm’ in CA
 
Image by Pete Collins, imprisoned at Bath Prison, Ontario, Canada
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As released yesterday, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity has confirmed that at least 6,000 California prisoners in jails, General Population, Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg/ASU) and Security Housing Units (SHUs) are hunger striking for the human rights of California’s SHU-status prisoners. We have confirmed prisoners are striking at Pelican Bay, Calipatria, CCI Tehachapi, Centinela, Corcoran, Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, and West Valley Detention Center.
 
The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) has not released the total number of prisons, or which prisons prisoners are striking at. The CDCR withheld accurate numbers for several days after the first round of the strike in July until we pressured reporters to investigate and force the CDCR to release information. We know the CDCR is not releasing accurate numbers, and that many more prisoners are participating and supporting the strike in various ways.
 
The CDCR has also upped retaliation on the strike by deeming the entire strike a prison “disturbance” under Title 15. The CDCR has delivered memos to prisoners at each state prison threatening that any participation or support for the hunger strike will result in disciplinary actions, such as placement in Ad-Seg/ASU or SHUs (for prisoners currently in General Population), increased destructive cell searches, removal of canteen items, and worse.  We know that a number of prisoners lost their jobs as added punishment for supporting the strike in July.
 
The spreading strike and overwhelming international support for it demonstrate the seriousness of torture throughout the prison industrial complex. It is no coincidence that the first round of the hunger strike followed the US Supreme Court’s finding that CA’s prison system is in violation of the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Not surprisingly, the CDCR is criminalizing the strike and insisting that the hunger strikers are violent gang members that deserve to be tortured. Meanwhile, we face similar struggles against criminalization outside prison, as cities across CA are stepping up suppression policing tactics, such as gang injunctions, youth curfews and loitering ordinances, inevitably sweeping more people from working class communities of color into prison.
 
On top of all of that, the state’s realignment plan gives us a huge opportunity to get people out of prison but also adds the threat of unprecedented jail construction to this landscape.
 
Given this “perfect storm,” we can and must connect our struggles and continue to vigorously defend our communities and unleash our will to resist and organize.



 

Strike Spreads Rapidly, At least 6,000 prisoners resume strike
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
September 28: Today (9/28/11) lawyers & mediators of Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity’s mediation team confirm that at least 6,000 prisoners throughout CA are resuming the hunger strike that originally began in July. The CDCR refuses to release where prisoners are striking exactly, and how many prisoners are striking at each prison.
 
We know that hundreds of prisoners in the General Population at Calipatria are joining the hunger strike for one week in solidarity with 200 hunger strikers in Calipatria’s two Administrative Segregation Units (Ad-Seg & ASU), bringing Calipatria’s numbers up to 500-1,000 hunger strikers.
 
Family members have also reported prisoners are striking at CCI Tehachapi’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), demanding that the five core demands written by hunger strikers at Pelican Bay be implemented for all SHU-status prisoners in CA. Prisoners at Centinela have also joined the hunger strike again in solidarity with SHU-status prisoners across the state.
 
Prisoners at West Valley Detention Center are refusing state-issued food in solidarity with SHU-Status hunger strikers across the state as well. (West Valley prides itself as being one of the largest county jails in CA. The majority of people locked up at West Valley are pre-trial prisoners.)
 
From Security Housing Units to County Jails, conditions of imprisonment in California are horrendous, ridden with medical neglect & overcrowding as condemned by the US Supreme Court in the May ruling that found the CDCR to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition cruel and unusual punishment. The expansion of the strike demonstrates that CDCR’s atrocious practices and brutal conditions are in fact a system-wide issue and endemic of the CDCR.
 



 
Recent Media Coverage
 
 

Needless to say, a link to an article does not imply endorsement.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 



 

 
Upcoming Events

 
 
In the US:

California

 
Sacramento
 
Wednesday, October 5th, 12pm-2pm: Rally! at CDCR, 1515 S St, Sacramento.
 
 
 
San Francisco
 
Thursday, October 6, 5-7 p.m.: Vigil at UN Plaza, SF.
 
Saturday October 8th from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m: social gathering and potlock with Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition members, local activists, friends and family members of incarcerated loved ones in California prisons, to meet and socialized. Come and join us and share your favorite treat with us. Mosswood Park, 3612 Webster Street, Oakland, CA.
 
Thursday, October 13, 5-7 p.m.: Vigil at 24th  & Mission, SF.
 
Thursday, October 20, 5-7 p.m.: Vigil at Fruitvale BART, Oakland.
 

 
 
In Canada:
 
Montreal
Friday, September 30 12-1:30pm: Picket at the American Consulate. 1155, rue Saint-Alexandre, corner Rene Levesque, metro Place des Arts. For more info, contact: montrealcontreprisons@gmail.com
 
 
 
This list is of upcoming events we know of. If you are organizing an event in your area, let us know!
 

 
Hungerstrike News can be reached at hstrikenews@yahoo.ca

Throughout the month of July, 2011, thousands of prisoners across California participated in a hunger strike against torturous conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit.
 
Hungerstrike News documented their struggle and the actions of those who stood in solidarity with them.
 
As we enter this new period, Hungerstrike News will continue to support the prisoners and report on their struggle.

Has Your Mail to Someone in Prison Been Refused?

From Julie Tackett:
 
Having your mail rejected is one of the most upsetting things to have happen when you have a loved one in prison. Whether is just a mistake on your part, a concerted effort cut family bonds or blatant retaliation for things like the Hunger Strike, it will help to keep track of trends. I have a spread sheet to record mail rejected by CDCR. I will watch for trends of increased rejections by facility, type of rejections, reasons for rejections, and otherwise keep an eye on things.

If you ever have a piece of mail rejected by CDCR for any reason, just message me, email me at tackett.julie@gmail.com or call 206-214-8208.

Thanks, Julie

Palestinian Prisoners on Hungerstrike in Israeli Prisons

Isolation torture is a worlwide scourge, often directed at political prisoners and others who resist oppression. In some contexts these people are accused of being "gang members", in others they are accused of being "terrorists". In all cases, this dehumanization is used as a justification for the unjustifiable: the purposeful attempt to scientifically drive a human being insane.
 
As of September 27, Palestinian prisoners have begun a hunger strike against the abusive conditions they are made to suffer. Their demands are:
 
"1. End the solitary confinement and isolation of our comrade, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the PLO Central Council, Ahmad Sa'adat, Abu Ghassan.

2. End the policy of isolation for all prisoners;
 
3. End the policy of systematic humiliation by the occupation army against the Palestinian people at checkpoints and crossings, particularly targeting visitors to prisons, and end the arbitrary denial of visits to the prisoners, especially the prisoners from the Gaza Strip. End the humiliation and abuse of prisoners during transfer."
 
For more information on this struggle:
 
UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUES IN DEPTH:
UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUES IN DEPTH:
MAKE CALLS AND
WRITE LETTERS OF PROTEST TO:

Secretary Matthew Cate
CDCR
1515 S Street
Sacramento
95814
TEL: (916) 323-6001
 
Governor Jerry Brown
State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
 
CDCR Public Affairs Office: (916)445-4950
 
& DON'T FORGET TO SIGN THE PETITION AT CHANGE.ORG!
GET SUBSCRIBERS

If you have a website or blog and would like to help promote Hungerstrike News, get in touch.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
follow the Prisoner Hungerstrike Solidarity Coalition on twitter:
 
 
 

Posted by prisoner art at 9:03 PM 0 comments
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