FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—June 29, 2011
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros
Communications Director, Critical Resistance
Office: 510 444 0484
Cell: 510 517 6612
What: Press Conference
When: Thursday, June 30, 2011, 11:00am
Where: Elihu M. Harris State of California Office Building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, CA
Oakland—Prisoners at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, CA will initiate an indefinite hunger strike on July 1st, 2011 to protest condition in the prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU). Lawyers and advocates who have been in contact with the prisoners will hold a press conference Thusday June 30th at the Oakland Federal Building, at 11am to rally support for the strike and put pressure on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to respond to the prisoners’ demands. Prisoners have delivered their demands to Pelican Bay warden Greg Lewis, the CDCR, and to Governor Jerry Brown. Their demands include an end to long-term solitary confinement, collective punishment, and forced interrogation on gang affiliation. The prisoners have also stated that they are willing to give up their lives unless their demands are met.
"The prisoners inside the SHU at Pelican Bay know the risk that they are taking going on hunger strike,” says Manuel LaFontaine, of All of Us or None, an organization that supports former prisoners and part of a Bay Area-based Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition supporting Pelican Bay’s prisoners. La Fontaine continues, “The CDCR must recognize that the SHU produces conditions of grave violence, such that people lose their lives in there all the time." U.S. and international human rights organizations have condemned Security Housing Units as having cruel, inhumane, and torturous conditions. SHU prisoners are kept in windowless, 6 by 10 foot cells, 23½ hours a day, for years at a time. The CDCR operates four Security Housing Units in its system at Corcoran,California Correctional Institution, Valley State Prison for Women as well as Pelican Bay.
Recent work and hunger strikes in Georgia and Ohio prisons were successful in both winning some concessions and alerting the public to the conditions inside US prisons. "People who are in prison are already being punished. They are still human beings and should not have to lose their civil and human rights" says Karen Shain, a lawyer with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.
Pelican Bay’s hunger strike begins amidst the recent landmark Supreme Court ruling condemning California’s prison overcrowding and order the reduction of its population by at least 33,000 people. At the center of the overcrowding ruling were dozens of prisoner deaths a year due to the lack of basic medical and other healthcare. Thursday’s Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity press conference will touch off several events happening in cities across North America in the coming weeks.
Legal workers, advocates, and experts on the California prison system will be available for comment and interviews.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Montréal- Manif de bruit en solidarité avec les grévistes de faim des prisons en Californie
(for english, scroll down)Dimanche 3 juillet 2011
12 h
Rendez-vous au coin des rues Renée-Lévesque et Mackay, métro Guy-Concordia.
Nous voyagerons en autobus nolisés vers les prisons.
Envoyez un courriel à montrealcontreprisons@gmail.com
12 h
Rendez-vous au coin des rues Renée-Lévesque et Mackay, métro Guy-Concordia.
Nous voyagerons en autobus nolisés vers les prisons.
Envoyez un courriel à montrealcontreprisons@gmail.
si vous êtes de la partie pour que nous soyons certainEs d'avoir assez de place dans le bus pour tout le monde.
Visitez le section calendrier pour vous mettre à date des autres événements en solidarité à Montréal.
Le 1er juillet 2011, entre 50 et 100 prisonniers de la Pelican Bay
State Prison en Californie résidant dans le couloir D des unités de
logement sécuritaire (ULS) commenceront une grève de la faim illimitée.
Le couloir D (aussi appelé le « petit » couloir) a le plus haut niveau
d'incarcération restreinte de l'État et quelques-unes des conditions les
plus strictes des États-Unis. Les conditions de leur séquestration sont
extrêmement sévères dans le but de les forcer à fournir de l'information
sur d'autres prisonniers à propos de leurs activités criminelles ou
reliées à des gangs.
Les ULS sont conçues pour détruire le restant d'humanité d'un individu,
en plus de leur capacité de résister les contraintes de leur
emprisonnement qui les torturent. En commençant une grève de la faim
illimitée, ces 50-100 prisonniers contre-attaquent les conditions de
leur incarcération -- si irrépressible est le besoin d'agir avec sa
propre vie, à n'importe quel prix.
C'est avec ce désir de résister que nous vous invitons à participer à
une manifestation de bruit visitant des prisons dans la région de
Montréal en solidarité avec les grévistes de la faim; parce que les cages de la
Californie et les cages de Québec, foyer des ULS du Canada, c'est bonnet
blanc et blanc bonnet.
Pour plus d'information en anglais à propos de la grève de la faim (et
non à propos de cette manif en solidarité), consultez :
www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity .wordpress.com
State Prison en Californie résidant dans le couloir D des unités de
logement sécuritaire (ULS) commenceront une grève de la faim illimitée.
Le couloir D (aussi appelé le « petit » couloir) a le plus haut niveau
d'incarcération restreinte de l'État et quelques-unes des conditions les
plus strictes des États-Unis. Les conditions de leur séquestration sont
extrêmement sévères dans le but de les forcer à fournir de l'information
sur d'autres prisonniers à propos de leurs activités criminelles ou
reliées à des gangs.
Les ULS sont conçues pour détruire le restant d'humanité d'un individu,
en plus de leur capacité de résister les contraintes de leur
emprisonnement qui les torturent. En commençant une grève de la faim
illimitée, ces 50-100 prisonniers contre-attaquent les conditions de
leur incarcération -- si irrépressible est le besoin d'agir avec sa
propre vie, à n'importe quel prix.
C'est avec ce désir de résister que nous vous invitons à participer à
une manifestation de bruit visitant des prisons dans la région de
Montréal en solidarité avec les grévistes de la faim; parce que les cages de la
Californie et les cages de Québec, foyer des ULS du Canada, c'est bonnet
blanc et blanc bonnet.
Pour plus d'information en anglais à propos de la grève de la faim (et
non à propos de cette manif en solidarité), consultez :
www.
Montreal- Noise Demo in Solidarity with California Prison Hunger Strikers
July 3, 2011
12 pm
12 pm
Meet at the corner of René-Levesque and Mackay. We will be travelling by chartered bus to the prisons from there.
Please RSVP if you will be attending so we can be sure we have enough seats on the bus for everyone: montrealcontreprisons@gmail.
Check the calendar section of this site for more solidarity events in Montreal.
On July 1, 2011, between 50 and 100 prisoners in California's Pelican Bay State Prison, in the Security Housing Unit (SHU), D Corridor, are going on an indefinite hunger strike. The D corridor (also known as the "short" corridor) has the highest level of restricted incarceration in the state, and among the most severe conditions in the United States. The conditions of their confinement are extremely harsh in order to force them to offer up information about criminal or gang activity of other prisoners. These prisoners will be joined in their hunger strike by other prisoners across the state.
SHU's are designed to destroy human beings, along with their capacity to resist the constraints of the imprisonment by which they are tortured. By going on an indefinite hunger strike, these 50-100 prisoners are striking back at the conditions of their incarceration - so compelling is the need to act on one's own life no matter the cost.
It's with this desire to resist that we invite you to participate in a noise demonstration at Montreal-area prisons in solidarity with the hunger strikers: because the cages in California are no different from the cages in Quebec, home to Canada's own SHU.
SHU's are designed to destroy human beings, along with their capacity to resist the constraints of the imprisonment by which they are tortured. By going on an indefinite hunger strike, these 50-100 prisoners are striking back at the conditions of their incarceration - so compelling is the need to act on one's own life no matter the cost.
It's with this desire to resist that we invite you to participate in a noise demonstration at Montreal-area prisons in solidarity with the hunger strikers: because the cages in California are no different from the cages in Quebec, home to Canada's own SHU.
Monday, June 20, 2011
July 9: Toronto ABC - 24 Hour fast in solidarity with Pelican Bay hunger strike
Time:
Saturday, July 9 · 12:00am - 11:30pm
Location:
Wherever you are
On July 9, members of Toronto ABC will be taking a 24-hour fast in solidarity with participants of a hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California). They are protesting deplorable prison conditions - see below for details.
We invite you to participate, wherever you are, however you are able (for example, people with health restrictions can modify the fast as needed). The important thing is to express our solidarity, to reflect on the physical sacrifice of our imprisoned comrades, and to take the opportunity to explain the reasons for your fast to your friends, family and co-workers.
We will be sharing our solidarity statements on http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/. We encourage you to write about the fast, and your reasons for participating, and email us at torontoblackcross@gmail.com.
Toronto ABC
Saturday, July 9 · 12:00am - 11:30pm
Location:
Wherever you are
On July 9, members of Toronto ABC will be taking a 24-hour fast in solidarity with participants of a hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California). They are protesting deplorable prison conditions - see below for details.
We invite you to participate, wherever you are, however you are able (for example, people with health restrictions can modify the fast as needed). The important thing is to express our solidarity, to reflect on the physical sacrifice of our imprisoned comrades, and to take the opportunity to explain the reasons for your fast to your friends, family and co-workers.
We will be sharing our solidarity statements on http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/. We encourage you to write about the fast, and your reasons for participating, and email us at torontoblackcross@gmail.com.
Toronto ABC
Montréal, 1 juillet: Présentation du documentaire Unlock the Box
Dans le cadre des Rendez-vous de la Maison Norman Bethune:
Grève de la faim à la Pelican Bay State Prison: À bas l’isolement carcéral!
Le 1er juillet prochain, en Californie, entre 50 et 100 prisonniers de la Security Housing Unit (SHU), Corridor D, à la Pelican Bay State Prison, vont entamer une grève de la faim indéfinie. Ils protesteront ainsi contre les conditions de détention inhumaines qu’on leur impose, notamment le recours systématique à l’isolement carcéral. Pour l’occasion, nous présenterons un documentaire, Unlock the Box (Reel Soldiers Production, version originale anglaise avec traduction chuchotée), qui expose justement la lutte contre l’isolement carcéral. Nous annoncerons également les actions de solidarité avec la grève de la faim qui auront lieu dans la région de Montréal.
Le vendredi 1er juillet à 19h00
1918, rue Frontenac
Montréal (métro Frontenac)
Entrée libre • Info: 514 563-1487
Toronto, Sunday June 26: ABC letter night in support of Pelican Bay hunger strike
Time:
Sunday, June 26 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
Beit Zatoun
612 Markham Street
Toronto, ON
Join Toronto Anarchist Black Cross for a night of inspirational discussion and prisoner support.
We will be supporting the participants of a hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California). They are protesting deplorable prison conditions - see below for details.
A vegan dinner will be provided, courtesy of Food Not Bombs. Please note that on July 9 we will also be observing a 24-hour fast... in solidarity with the hunger strike.
Hope to see you soon!
Toronto ABC
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170133589717534
Sunday, June 26 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
Beit Zatoun
612 Markham Street
Toronto, ON
Join Toronto Anarchist Black Cross for a night of inspirational discussion and prisoner support.
We will be supporting the participants of a hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California). They are protesting deplorable prison conditions - see below for details.
A vegan dinner will be provided, courtesy of Food Not Bombs. Please note that on July 9 we will also be observing a 24-hour fast... in solidarity with the hunger strike.
Hope to see you soon!
Toronto ABC
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170133589717534
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