STOP THE TORTURE!
The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS) has helped launch Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement (SCATESC) to start Monday, March 23, 2015.
Actions will happen on the 23rd of each month. In Los Angeles, we will have a vigil from 12 noon til 1:00 PM on March 23 outside the Reagan State Building on Spring Street at Third St. in downtown L.A., where people frequently gathered during the prisoner hunger strikes against the SHUs. #ShutSHU #IsolationIsTorture L.A. action facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1542572716014948/
This date emphasizes the 23 or more hours every day that people are kept in solitary confinement.
PHSS Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Prisoner-Hunger-Strike-Solidarity/117053298383319
Statewide Coordinated Actions every month respond to the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers’ Proposals (November, 2013). They stated:
“We want to consider the idea of designating a certain date each month as Prisoner Rights Day. On that date each month prisoners across the state would engage in peaceful activities to call attention to prison conditions. At the same time our supporters would gather in locations throughout California to expose CDCR’s [CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] actions and rally support efforts to secure our rights. We can see this action growing from month to month as more people inside and out become aware of it and join our struggle.”
These coordinated actions will acknowledge the importance of organized, community-based pressure as a core strategy (along with courts and legislators) of our work outside the walls to end solitary confinement.
Actions are planned in CA from San Diego to Eureka (including San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland,Santa Cruz, Eureka…); also, nationwide and internationally.
CO-SPONSORS & ENDORSERS:
Statewide, nationally, and internationally, we invite all organizations and prominent individuals to:
endorse the Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement; or
co-sponsor: help plan statewide, national, international, and local actions; do outreach, attend, and/or speak out.
Co-sponsors and Endorsers are listed HERE on the PHSS website https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/ and HERE at the facebook event page, Statewide Coordinated Actions to End Solitary Confinement (SCATESC) https://www.facebook.com/events/945390712172967/
Please let us know at phssoutreach@gmail.com if you will endorse or what you will do to co-sponsor, and describe action(s) in your locale.
If you want to be part of the Outreach Group organizing this effort, please email Verbena and Willow. Verbena ; Willow
LOCATIONS & TIMES:
Each locale participating in the Statewide Coordinated Actions will decide their locations and the time of day/night. We suggest places and times where and when there are plenty of people so that the actions are visible, and we can reach people with leaflets/information. If people-heavy locations also happen to be strategic for other reasons (e.g., a CDCR parole office in a busy area), all the better.
FLIERS & HANDOUTS:
There will be a universal flier for all actions, with a space for each area to insert local logistics. Also, there will be handouts that can be used by everyone for these actions. PHSS can send out packets of these fliers and handbills by request at phssoutreach@gmail.com. Local groups can hand out additional literature, as well.
These actions will help keep hidden torture in the public eye, build the movement to end solitary confinement, and serve as one way to update people as to the conditions inside and about the needs and goings-on in this human rights struggle. Organizations outside of CA and outside of the US are already joining and supporting this effort.
The courage that prisoners continue to demonstrate—after leading two hunger strikes in 2011 and a third, the largest hunger strike in history in 2013– while upholding their Agreement To End Hostilities across racial lines should give us all the strength to organize in our own communities.
HERE you can find details about March 23rd Actions in your locale (i.e. L.A., Oakland, San Jose) More will be posted as we receive the information from various locales
Co-sponsors and endorsers as of morning of 3-17-15:
Co-Sponsors
California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC)
California Prison Focus
Food Not Bombs
Global Women’s Strike
Human Rights Pen Pal program
LA Laborfest
Payday Men’s Network
Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community (PARC)
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS)
Project: Pollinate
Santa Cruz Resistance Against Militarization (SCRAM!)
Sin Barras
Women of Color/Global Women’s Strike
Endorsers
Ramona Africa and The MOVE Organization
Anti-Racist Action-LA
Dr. Nancy Arvold, PhD, MFT, member Psychologists for Social Responsibility
Black and Pink – San Diego
Cabrillo College Justice League
Cafe Intifada
California Peace and Freedom Party
Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) Restorative Justice Institutions
Darrell and Karen Darling
Family of Frank Alvarado Jr., killed by Salinas Police, July 10, 2014
Freedom Archives
Free Our Minds, Free Radio Santa Cruz
Rabbi Borukh Goldberg
Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace
Justice for Palestinians, San Jose
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)-Santa Cruz County
National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)
Dylcia Pagán, former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner held in US prison
Leonard Peltier Support Group Silicon Valley
Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC)
Queer Strike
Redwood Curtain CopWatch
San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper
South Bay Committee Against Political Repression (SBCAPR)
United Against Police Terror – San Diego
US PROStitutes Collective
Donna Wallach
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