Sep 18, 2016
Greg Curry
This week Bursts speaks with Greg Curry, a prisoner serving time
for alleged participation in the Lucasville Prison uprising of 1993
where prisoners took over the Ohio prison, leading to the death of
10 inmates and one guard. For the hour, they speak about
incarceration in the U.S., intersections of race and class, the
prison strikes, capitalism and resistance. More on Greg's case can
be found at https://gregcurry.wordpress.com/
Prison Strike, Week 2
Here is another roundup of week two of of the National Prison
Strike. This information was pulled from Mask Magazine, It's Going
Down, Support Prisoner Resistance, and the Incarcerated Worker's
Organizing Committee.
September 12th
Hunger strike begins at Lucasville and Ohio
State Penitentiary, called by the Free Ohio Movement.
South Carolina prisoners release video of
insects in their food.
Columbia, SC: Confirmed strike at Broad River
Correctional Institution:
Florida: More prisoner uprising broke out on
Monday night. According to the Miami Herald:
Florida’s state prisons have resumed “normal”
operations despite a disturbance Monday night at Columbia
Correctional, the fifth inmate uprising in less than a week,
officials said. About 40 inmates engaged in civil disobedience by
refusing officers’ orders and taking control of at least one dorm
Monday evening. Columbia — one of the state’s most violent prisons
— remained on lockdown Tuesday.
Since Thursday, inmates have caused trouble at
four other prisons, all in the state’s Panhandle, including Gulf
Annex Correctional, Mayo Correctional and Jackson Correctional. The
most serious melee was at Holmes Correctional, where 400 inmates
destroyed several dorms on Thursday.
Inmates involved in any incident have been moved
to other prisons.
September 13th
Chelsea Manning ends hunger strike that she
began on September 9th. The army has agreed to grant her demands of
gender affirming surgery.
September 14th
Support Prisoner Resistance reports prison
lockdowns in Arizona. Perryville, Yuma, Tuscon, Douglas, and
Phoenix. It is unclear whether these are related to the strike,
more information is forthcoming.
September 16th
Merced, CA: Supporters report another block
joins hunger strike. You can hear full coverage of this situation
on the most recent IGD Cast
here.
September 17th
Holman Prison, AL: Free Alabama Movement issues
press release calling for an end to the humanitarian crisis at the
prison. They state through social media that many guards are not
reproting to work and that much of the prison remains unguarded.
This is from a press release which came out yesterday:
A serious humanitarian crisis is developing at
Holman prison as correctional officers continue to walk off of the
job amid concerns about safety and apathy from Warden Terry Raybon
and the office of ADOC Commissioner Jefferson S Dunn, as violence,
including deadly stabbings and assaults continue to mount.
Several officers expressed dismay and fear after
learning that two of their fellow officers, Officer Brian Ezell and
another officer, reported to Warden Raybon that they had knives
drawn on them and their lives threatened, and that neither Warden
Raybon, nor Commissioners Jeff Dunn and Grantt Culliver would take
any action to ensure their safety. Both of these officers then
quit.
Several other officers have also quit in the
past three weeks after witnessing a stabbing of a fellow officer in
the temple and who had remained hospitalized with life threatening
injuries until he was pronounced dead earlier today. This after a
former warden, Carter Davenport, was stabbed in March amidst back
to back riots and other violence at Holman.
Now, after seeing Warden Raybon release
approximately 20 people from segregation on September 13, 2016,
most of whom were all in segregation for violent incidents (only to
see several stabbing take place, including one critically injured
and another losing an eye), a total of eight more officers have e
ither quit or turned in their two week notices. Officers are
expressing concern that the Commissioners of the ADOC are
intentionally exacerbating violence at the expense of human life in
efforts to push forward their plan to extort the public for 1.5
billion to build new prisons in next years Legislative Session.
Officers have began to express support for the
Non-Violent stance of FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT and their efforts to
expose corruption, violence and other issues plaguing Holman and
other Alabama prisons, and have went so far as to make repeated
requests to Warden Raybon for the release of F.A.M. co-founder and
organizer Kinetik Justice from solitary confinement, because
officers now feel that he is being wrongfully detained and because
he has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to conduct peaceful
demonstrations at Holman prison to bring attention to issues within
the ADOC and Holman prison.
We are asking that everyone call Commissioner
Dunn and Warden Raybon and demand that they post daily reports of
the staffing levels and incidents of violence taking place at
Holman as a matter of public safety.
Warden Terry Raybon
Holman Correctional Facility
251-368-8173
Commissioner Jefferson Dunn
Commissioner Grantt Culliver
334-353-3883 (switchboard operator)
We close with this update from inside prison walls in
SC:
"Comrades up here having an inside meeting to
critically analyze the Prison strike strong and weak positions. For
many it didn’t go far enough. Crucial points of resolution are not
addressed. Certain regions didn’t feel the love, so the fire didn’t
burn where they were at. Strong points, it was time. Unity was
found on the outside. More people are talking about prison issues.
Inside prisoners found unity in certain units or prisons. We too
are talking more. These are just samples of what we need to start
discussions around, particularly the prisoners. Because this will
tell us how to add this moment in the movement, to the collective
of prison rebellions to strengthen it, and toss the weak
points.
Big UPs to the Prisoners thats always refused to
comply. I’m one. For over a decade I’ve been punish with little
privileges do to my insistent stance not to work. So the prisons
close us off from the working prisoners. Its good to see others
joining. But its not enough. They’ll let the few of us lay. So to
be truly effective, time to plan and prepare for the next
phase."
Call for solidarity from IWOC
Meanwhile, the IWOC is making every effort to track the strike in
the hopes of continuing this resistance and locating forms of
solidarity and calls for assistance. If you would like to help in
this effort, there is a comprehensive phone zaps list that includes
a rundown of phone numbers, some context for the specific
struggles, and suggested scripts to read if and when you get the
pigs on the line. You can see this Google Doc
here.
Also, if you hear anything, or are able to call prisons and ask
about lockdown status, please let IWOC know via email at:
iwoc@riseup.net If you make calls for a given state and hear no
lockdowns, please report that too.
Stay tuned all around for updates on the strike. Love and
solidarity!
Legal fund donations to AVL and ATL
And finally (tho not lastly) just to plug, and to yet again express
our love for our jailed NC and GA comrades, people here in
Asheville and in Atlanta still need donations for legal funds. All
of these folks were arrested while expressing solidarity with
the Prison Strike, and the folks from Atlanta are facing some
insane felony charges. All of them are out of jail now, but are
beginning the long, slow battle with the criminal injustice system
and they need your support.
To donate to comrades in Asheville, and to see a pretty sweet write
up of the events of the day in our town, you can visit:
https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/legal-support-for-wnc-sept-9-solidarity-activists
And to express solidarity to Atlanta, you can visit:
https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/bail-out-prison-strike-supporters
Some anarchist audios not to be missed
I'd like to share a few notes on recent anarchist audio and video
media in english that I've been appreciating in hopes of enticing
you, dear audience, into checking them out.
Crimethinc's The
Exworker has begun rebroadcasting. This most recent episodes of the
podcast focuses on the September 9th strike with a conversation
with Azzurra of the ABC in Houston, TX, and Ben Turk of IWOC based
in Wisconsin. Episode 49 also includes a review of Captive
Nation: Black Organizing In The Civil Rights Era, an interview with
an anarchist in the UK about Brexit and other tidbits. #50
also includes a segment mourning the death of Jordan MacTaggart, an
American anarchist who died on the front lines in Rojava recently,
a segment celebrating the death of former police chief and
all-around king-bastard John Timoney and a rebroadcast of a Crna
Luknja interview with members of DAF about Turkey after the
attempted Coup. These ExWorkers are well worth a listen and
available at http://crimethinc.com/podcast/
Also, submedia's most recent episode on strikes, the DAPL pipeline
and more entitled Burn Down The Plantation features a great
interview with Melvin Ray of the Free Alabama Movement. This
sits alongside a second video installment explaining anarchist
fundamentals, this time featuring the concept of Mutual Aid, short
videos on continued struggles in France against the #LoiTravail,
direct action against fascists in Athens. These and more can
be found at https://submedia.tv/stimulator/
It's Going Down is now producing the IDGcast which can be found at
http://itsgoingdown.org/ and include thus far timely interviews on
the uprising in Milawukee, words from the Red Warrior Camp at
Standing Rock against the Dakota Access pipeline, the state of the
alt-right or new white nationalist movements in North America and a
discussion on communes and struggle with Morgan and El Errante. The
most recent episode features an interview with a woman on hunger
strike in Merced, California, in solidarity with hunger
striking prisoners against the deplorable situation in this poor
and rural county's jails. The jails have witnessed abuses, deaths
and injuries among those imprisoned in adult and juvenile detention
at the hands of sadistic CO's. Find the IDGcast at
http://itsgoingdown.org/podcast
Resonance Audio Distro,
or RAD, is a source for radical and anarchist audio of zines, books
and essays and, among other things, produced an awesome and lengthy
interview with Sylvie Kashdan and Robby Barnes to give context to
two plays by these rapscallions that Resonance put online.
Robbie and Sylvie are longtime anarchists living in the Seattle
area who have been involved in The 5th Estate magazine for decades
and have tons of stories and experiences to share. Check out
Resonance at https://resonanceaudiodistro.org/
Season two of The
Brilliant Podcast has begun and is apparently headed towards a new
format. The most recent episode features a conversation with
Isaac Cronin, curator of the Cruel Hospice imprint at Little Black
Cart, talks about his experiences of Situationism, pro and
post-Situ ideas and play in the U.S. since the 1960's. Check
this and more out at http://thebrilliant.org/
Finally, hip hop artist Sole is continuing to put out interesting
discussions on his podcast SOLEcast. Most recently, Sole
talked to Franco "Bifo" Berardi on Capitalism, Mass Killings,
Suicide & Alienation. Episodes can be found at
http://www.soleone.org/solecast
More suggested media to come in the near future!
Playlist: http://www.ashevillefm.org/node/17566