It's long past time that Americans put an end to Slavery! The
Empire's current position on imprisonment is adding to that portion of
our population that is trapped beyond any hope of release from the
broader prison, abject poverty.
The treatment of prisoners of Color or of low economic standing,
signals to us just who our Law Enforcement is set in place to defend.
More and more our local and state police are prowling the poorer parts
of their communities, bringing in citizens who have violated laws that
are ignored when those same law enforcers cruise the Upper Class
neighborhoods. Once in the System, a prisoner becomes the property of
the state or community. Their services can be put to use either by
renting them out or by being placed in menial jobs for the State or
Community. When the prisoner is released, it is usually with
conditions such as pay back for costs to the state during time served.
A prisoner is released with little or no money, no job, in debt to the
System and with orders to not be seen in the company of former
friends. It's not hard to understand why the return rate is very
high.
Meanwhile, the taxpayers are billed for services actually being
covered by the rental of the prisoner to a private contractor.
Someone(s) is pocketing our money. In a People's System, these
vultures and blood suckers would be serving prison time.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/1/18, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://socialistaction.org/2018/08/31/socialist-action-candidate-calls-for-solidarity-with-u-s-prison-strike/
Socialist Action candidate calls for solidarity with U.S. prison strike
/ 1 day ago
Sept. 2018 Prison (Bradley Allen : Indymedia)By FRED LINCK
Below are remarks by Socialist Action Senatorial candidate Fred Linck to
an Aug. 25 Connecticut rally in solidarity with the national prison strike.
Organizers reported in the first days that incarcerated people in 17
states had joined the strike—risking severe punishment for their effort.
Some were engaged in refusals to work, in hunger strikes, and in
sit-ins. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), the main
outside group supporting the strike, reported that “thousands” of
prisoners were participating.
The actions were carried out to protest unjust sentencing laws, poor
living conditions, and the continued existence of slavery within the
U.S. penal system. Solidarity rallies have taken place in at least 21
cities, as we go to press.
Good afternoon everyone, Thank you for being here to stand in solidarity
with incarcerated people across the country who went on strike on Aug.
21. My Name is Fred Linck and I am running for the U.S. Senate as
Socialist Action’s candidate in Connecticut.
Incarceration is a business—a business that, like war, makes some people
exceeding wealthy but does not make our world a better place. Americans
are 5% of the world’s population, but we house 25% of the world’s
incarcerated people—2.3 million people in total. Some 536,000 of these
are in pre-trial detention. One in five of these people are locked up
due to a non-violent drug offense. A good portion of those 2.3 million
people work for pennies on the dollar, making super-profits for the
companies they work for.
Last October, Frank Dwayne Ellington, an Alabama state prison inmate on
work assignment, showed up at a chicken factory; he was assigned to a
cleaning position at a plant run by the major poultry company, Koch
Foods. But when a machine he was cleaning ensnared his arm, it pulled
him into the machine and killed him on the spot.
The exploitation of prison and immigrant labor are two central features
of labor in the United States today. Whether hounded by immigration
authorities or incarcerated by the state, these workers’ rights are
shredded in order to squeeze extraordinary profits from their labor.
This strike is a step towards changing that.
Prisons appear to be paying incarcerated people less today than they did
in 2001. The average of the minimum daily wages paid to incarcerated
workers for non-industry prison jobs is now 86 cents, down from the 93
cents reported in 2001.
In Colorado, for example, it costs an incarcerated woman two weeks’
wages to buy a box of tampons, maybe more if there’s a shortage. Saving
up for a $10 phone card takes almost two weeks for an incarcerated
person working in a Pennsylvania prison.
This is how exploitation of prison labor works. The workers are paid
next to nothing for their work while the prison charges exceedingly high
amounts in fees for that labor, as well as high prices at the commissary
for necessities, or what might make life behind bars a bit more bearable.
At last count, an estimated 6.1 million Americans (1.4 million of whom
are still incarcerated) remain barred from voting due to a felony
conviction. This is one way to expand the disenfranchisement of many
communities. The state targets Black, Latino, immigrant, and poor
communities, ensuring that more felonies come from these areas. And then
they take away the voting rights of those caught in the net.
These are some of the reasons prisoners are striking across the country.
This is why it is so important for us to be here in solidarity with them.
Our society is split into two classes. The owners of the largest
business and banks, and those that sell our labor to be able to sustain
our lives. We are all oppressed one way or another, but solidarity can
give us the strength and understanding essential to break the hold this
outmoded system has on our lives.
Solidarity teaches us that our oppression is linked, that we have more
in common with the workers all over the world than we do with those
right here who maintain an order which allows them to extract massive
profits from our work.
Solidarity can also form the basis of a new society. A society that uses
the abundance of this world, that uses the creativity and ingenuity of
all people to ensure that no person goes without food, clean water,
health care or education.
When we come together like the incarcerated are coming together for this
strike we can make this new society a reality.
Photo: Prisoners solidarity march in Oakland, Calif. (Bradley Allen /
Indymedia)
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August 31, 2018 in Chicago, Prisons, Vote Socialist Action.
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