Kite Line

As the 2018 National Prison Strike quickly approaches, we have news of hunger and work strikes already underway. We have updates on the successful, 108 day hunger strike of Mapuche Shaman Celestino Cordova, who had been denied access to his ceremonial altar while in Chilean prison. We also get updates from Siddique Abdullah Hasan and Greg Curry on the hunger and work strikes happening at the Ohio State Prison. Also in this episode, we give a broad overview of the 2016 National Prison Strike and its impacts on the prisoners who participated, and the ways various prisoners chose to be involved in it, which at the time was the broadest and longest-running prison strike in U.S. History.

As we approach the August 21st launch of the national prison strike, Kite Line is focusing on the historic and recent precedents for the current prisoners’ movement.  This strike, called by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak along with a growing coalition of grassroots prisoners’ groups, is grounded in four decades of organizing, symbolized by George Jackson’s state assassination in 1971 and the Attica prison uprising which kicked off in response.  More recently, it builds on and learns from the 2016 strike.  Outside supporters are learning lessons too, and prioritizing anti-repression organizing.  Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is already reporting that organizers are being thrown into solitary in South Carolina, as have many other prisoners who will be mentioned later in the episode.  We open today with a short history of the Lucasville uprising in Ohio, then move to a statement from Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, and end by speaking with an organizer with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and The Fire Inside collective, who shares with us an important introduction to the prisoners movement.

In last week’s episode, we introduced Johdy Polk, who spoke to us about her time behind the prison walls, and urged audiences to see the other ways that people are confined by society.  Now, we continue to hear more of Johdy’s story- about the relationships she built while on the inside, her transition to daily life after her release, and the organizing she’s currently engaged in.

Johdy was a law clerk during her time in prison, and she speaks to the way that impacted her time inside, including how it informed her relationship with other women prisoners. These days, she works with the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, which seeks to end the incarceration of women and girls. As we lead up to the National Prison Strike on August 21, it’s important to see the outside support systems that are in place for those on the inside, and the ways that incarcerated & formerly incarcerated people and their allies are trying to make a difference.

This week, Johdy Polk, from Gainesville, Florida, describes her time inside a women’s prison, while sharing cutting observations on growing up as a black woman in a white supremacist society. She also makes an urgent call to tear down our inner prisons, a call that we think resonates with the torrent of news we are sharing this week. Prisoners across the country are breaking down the mental and material walls which isolate them, producing new forms of solidarity and collective organizing. For the first time, we could not include all the news sent to us for lack of space in the episode, so we will at least give a shout out to the prisoners in the Orange County jail on hunger strike, and to Malik Washington in Texas, who remains in administrative segregation as retaliation for his dignity and dissent. This rush of organizing on the inside bodes well for the National Prison Strike called for this August 21st, as caged human beings across the US evaluate which prisons – whether built of concrete, steel or just of prejudice – they will be able to challenge.

Last week, Aren Aizura guided us through the history of colonialism in Australia, including racist measures to control non-white immigration, and later, in the 1980s, the implementation of mandatory detention for refugees. He focused on his experiences in an occupation outside the remote Woomera Detention Center, and the way that supporters on the outside grew in numbers, intensifying pressure on the authorities. Now, he walks us through the 2002 mass breakout of refugees there, all the way through the following standoff and its aftermath.

As we reflect on the inspiring actions at Woomera, we are also tracking the occupations underway across the US right now.  Occupy ICE in Portland has been subjected to a brutal eviction, during which police shot occupiers with pepperballs at close range.  Likewise, there was a mass arrest in San Francisco, following more than a week of occupation outside the ICE regional headquarters which halted all deportations in northern California.  Occupations continue in Los Angeles, Tacoma, and Louisville, as well as many other cities.