International Workers’ Day 2025: The Workers’ Flood for Palestine, Against Genocide and Imperialism

“The sons and daughters of the popular classes of Palestine, the workers, the farmers in the villages, the refugees of the camps, have always been the leaders and the driving force of our Palestinian national liberation movement. The Palestinian popular classes have been the freedom fighters, the strugglers and the resisters on the front lines, confronting the occupation and Zionist colonization in Palestine. And so it is the case that the popular classes of Palestine fill the ranks of the Israeli prisons, the builders of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement continuing on the front lines of resistance, building the ongoing Palestinian revolution.” – Kamil Abu Hanish, imprisoned Palestinian struggler, 2017

This International Workers’ Day, 1 May 2025, is a day of workers’ struggle that comes amid the ongoing imperialist-Zionist genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine, as the war machine of capitalism and imperialism aims to grind the flesh and blood of the Palestinian people to fuel its plunder and profits around the world. International Workers’ Day also comes this year amid Al-Aqsa Flood and the ongoing resistance to Zionist-imperialist colonialism and genocide; let this day be a day for the workers of the world to join the people’s great flood against the common enemies of humanity.

On this International Workers’ Day, we salute the Palestinian workers, and the working people and popular masses of the region, who are those who create the ranks of the resistance, who form its popular cradle, who are imprisoned in the dungeons and torture camps of the occupier, and who are targeted for assassination, imprisonment and massacre for carrying out their work: civil defense workers, doctors, nurses and health workers, farmers, fishers, construction workers, aid workers, journalists and media workers, electricians, technicians, security workers, the teachers and domestic workers — all of those whose labor creates the structure of Palestinian society. We salute the workers of the resistance who toil with love and faith below the ground to manufacture the weapons that allow Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and all of the forces of the resistance to defend themselves against the occupier, the imperialist and the genocidaire.

We salute the workers of Yemen, who set an example for the workers in the world in their popular, national and military mobilization that is shutting down the supply lines of genocide in the Red Sea. Today, Yemen, whose workers live under the bombs of the U.S. war machine, presents the greatest example to the world of the implementation of the boycott of the Zionist project and of upholding international law and its absolute prohibition against genocide.

We salute the dockworkers of Morocco, who despite the normalization regime, refused to load and unload the Maersk ships carrying the products of the U.S. war machine to arm the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people. We salute the strugglers of Palestine Action, who put their bodies and freedom on the line to shut down, damage and impose a cost upon the factories that manufacture the weapons of the imperialist-Zionist war machine, particularly Elbit Systems. We salute the tech workers who raise their voices and refuse to participate in the AI and surveillance products being used to target and massacre the Palestinian people and direct the bombs of death and destruction. We salute the Palestinian workers of UNRWA, who are fighting internal repression, criminalization, assassination and destruction to aid their people and defend their right to return. We salute all of those workers of the world who continue to strike and boycott, to confront normalization, to ensure their labour unions and international federations exclude the genocidal “Histadrut,” boycott Zionist bonds, and stand with the Palestinian people and their just cause. We salute the workers who face firing, repression and imprisonment around the world for standing up for Palestine and confronting the genocide.

We echo the call of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, to the Palestinian workers of the world: “We, the Palestinian workers in exile and diaspora, are part and parcel of the workers of the world. It is long past time to escalate our participation in this struggle to a material level that can shut down the trade routes of genocide, occupation and colonialism, cutting off the flow of weaponry, bombs and artillery that allows the Israeli regime to slaughter Palestinian men, women and children,” and that of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza to workers in the United States: “Your struggle for workers’ rights in the United States is inseparable from our struggle against occupation and colonialism. True labor solidarity is demonstrated through actions, not just words, and we count on your awareness and determination to take concrete steps to end this tragedy.”

This International Workers’ Day, we call upon the workers of the world to manifest their material solidarity with the imprisoned, massacred, targeted Palestinian workers under genocide, occupation and colonization, to confront the war machine of imperialism and capitalism, and to constitute an international popular cradle of the Resistance defending humanity by taking real, serious and meaningful collective action to shut down the workplaces, ports and factories that continue to fuel genocide. Examples already exist of the dockworkers in Morocco, South Africa, India, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Italy, Belgium and even the ILWU on the United States West Coast refusing to handle the occupier’s cargo, shipped by ZIM, Maersk and other complicit profiteers of genocide.

The Zionist entity is an advanced base of U.S. and Western imperialism in the region, and it targets not only Palestinian workers, but the workers of the world. The road to the liberation of the international working class, the defeat of imperialism and capitalism, runs now, centrally and clearly, through ending the genocide, the victory of the Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. 

We know that the Palestinian workers in Gaza, with their minds and hands, will rebuild all that has been destroyed by the occupation, as they have many times over the years and indeed, the centuries. It is our responsibility to act now to bring about that new day.

On 1 May 2025, we call upon workers and labour organizations around the world to affirm clearly their position against genocide and with the Palestinian people through:

• General strikes, wildcat strikes and widespread workplace and civil disobedience against genocide and imperialist war crimes. Demand a complete end to the genocide in Gaza, the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, and full boycott and divestment from all Zionist corporations and imperialist war profiteers complicit in genocide.
• Enforce and impose grassroots and popular sanctions — in the example of Yemeni workers — by refusing to handle the weapons shipments and cargo of ZIM, Maersk and their fellow war profiteers
• Boycotting the Zionist “labour” federation, the Histadrut, “Israel Bonds,” and complicit corporations and organizations
• Acting collectively to defend workers and students targeted for repression, firing, silencing and imprisonment for their action, organizing and speech for Palestine

(We have revised and updated the following text for International Workers’ Day 2025. All images are classic posters of the Palestinian revolution via the Palestine Poster Project.)

Palestinian workers and the popular classes have always played the key, leading role as the force of the Palestinian liberation movement, inside and outside Palestine. The prisoners’ movement is no exception; indeed, the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners come from the working and popular classes, the refugee camps and the villages, and it is these workers who put their bodies and lives on the line for freedom. Today, it is Palestinian workers and popular classes on the front lines confronting a genocidal assault for over 18 months, after 77 years of ongoing genocide.

Palestinian workers: A history of leadership in struggle

Palestinians have engaged in labor organizing from the early days of the 20th century, organizing unions, defending their work against Zionist attempts to exclude Palestinian labor from Palestinian land, and taking action to defend their rights as workers and as indigenous Palestinians.

General strikes have always been a key mechanism of Palestinian resistance, from the earliest revolts of the Palestinian people against British and then Zionist colonialism. In the 1936 revolution, Palestinian workers’ six-month general strike was at that time the longest in the world. This continued over the years, as Palestinian workers in exile built the Palestinian liberation movement and its organizations, and as Palestinian workers and labor unions led in the organizing of the first intifada. UNRWA workers and others in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon paved the way for the modern revolution, as revolutionary leaders like Abu Maher al-Yamani organized refugees for liberation and return on the basis of their trade union work before the Nakba in Palestine.

In the 1950s, Palestinian labor organizers in occupied Palestine ’48 were jailed as they attempted to keep their organizations intact under martial law. At least seven Palestinian trade union leaders were deported from the West Bank between 1969 and 1979. These attacks happened as Palestinians inside Israeli jails fought to end forced labor, a victory that was achieved only through great sacrifice. Omar Shalabi, a Syrian prisoner, was killed under torture in October 1973 during the protests against Israeli forced labor.

Targeting and imprisonment of Palestinian workers

Palestinian workers are regularly subject to colonial forms of imprisonment, from the political targeting of workers’ organizations to the mass criminalization of Palestinians seeking employment inside occupied Palestine ’48. Palestinian workers are frequently arrested for “entering Israel without a permit,” despite the fact that many of these same workers are Palestinian refugees denied their right to return to their original homes and lands for the past 74 years. The systematic siege and subjugation of the Palestinian economy, from the texts of the Paris Protocols to the so-called “Abraham Accords” promoted by U.S. imperialism through their sponsorship of reactionary Arab regimes, has forced thousands of Palestinians to seek work with or without permits as day laborers, often in construction.

At any given time, there are approximately 1000 Palestinians arrested, detained or fined for seeking to work in their own homeland; they are not classified in the Israeli colonial system as “security” prisoners and are thus missing from the statistics related to Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. However, it is clear that everything about these workers’ situation is deeply political – they are imprisoned for their Palestinian existence on Palestinian land, specifically as Palestinian workers. Palestinian workers from Gaza working in the West Bank — as well as those abducted from Gaza — have been subjected to the most extreme and severe forms of torture and abuse, from beating to rape and sexual assault to starvation and sleep deprivation — in the notorious prison and torture camps like Sde Teiman and Anatot.

Palestinian workers are subjected to ongoing abuse at checkpoints, systemic discrimination on the job from the river to the sea, and economic isolation, starvation and siege meant to compel workers into becoming construction workers and servants in illegal settlements. For over 18 years, the siege on Gaza has served as yet another attack on Palestinian workers. Even before the escalated genocide, the Gaza Strip had the highest levels of unemployment in Palestine due to the deliberate targeting of the Palestinian economy and its productive basis, including workers, fishers and farmers. Today, hundreds of thousands more have been forced into unemployment and are targeted daily for death and destruction.

There are currently over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners jailed by the Zionist regime, including over 3,600 jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Confronting torture, abuse and starvation inside the Zionist jails, which has led to the martyrdom of over 65 prisoners over the past 18 months, the Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of Palestinian resistance on a daily basis. They are leaders in the Palestinian, Arab and international camp of resistance — and like the freedom fighters and martyrs of Palestine, they represent the workers and popular classes of Palestine, those who face multiple forms of exploitation and oppression at the hands of the Zionist regime. The liberation of the prisoners is so precious to the Palestinian people and their resistance that it was a central goal of Al-Aqsa Flood and the great crossing of struggle. Freedom for Palestinian prisoners is essential to the liberation of the Palestinian working class and popular masses — the central feature of the liberation of Palestine from imperialism and Zionism, from the river to the sea.

The Histadrut: A colonialist entity that must be boycotted

The drive to exclude Palestinian workers has always been part of the Zionist colonial project. This has been reflected in the founding principles and continued operation of the Israeli Histadrut, a trade union federation founded with the explicit purpose of promoting Zionist colonization of Palestinian land and excluding Palestinian labor. Despite having a fraternal relationship with the AFL-CIO and other major labor unions worldwide, it actually exploits Palestinian workers inside “Israel” by deducting fees from their salaries while denying them benefits, let alone its ongoing and systematic role as part of the Zionist-imperialist machine of genocide. Its role predates the Nakba and continues to reflect this colonial relationship. Today, it must be more clear than ever: any relationship with the Histadrut is complicity in genocide, and those responsible for complicity in genocide must be held accountable — first and foremost, by the workers.

Palestinian workers in exile and diaspora fight back

Palestinian workers in exile also continue to struggle against exploitation and oppression. In Lebanon, amid the targeting of Lebanon, its people and its Resistance by the Zionist attacks that daily violate the ceasefire, the imperialist powers and financial exploiters, Palestinian refugees continue to be denied access to numerous professions, leading to massive unemployment and frequent despair among the working class. Palestinian refugees forced to flee to Europe, North America and elsewhere from Lebanon, Syria and occupied Palestine confront racist, repressive policies that inhibit their right to work and threaten them with deportation, detention and exclusion.

They confront the racism of “Fortress Europe” and criminalization of refugee workers alongside fellow migrants and workers seeking safety and refuge from the military, social, environmental and economic disasters forced upon their home countries by the very imperialist states that then deny their rights. They face severe exploitation in black market labor. Still, these workers continue to struggle despite all odds not only to confront racism and exclusion in the imperialist countries but also to organize to confront imperialism and win their liberation. Palestinian workers are marching in, leading and organizing the demonstrations that took massively to the streets of the world to confront the genocide and stand with the Palestinian people, and are the first to be targeted for these actions by police and state repression. Workers around the world, and particularly in the imperial core, have been fired, dismissed and imprisoned because they speak out for Palestine, and Palestinian workers in exile and diaspora have been among the foremost examples. Inside and outside Palestine, the workers and popular masses are protecting Palestine and pushing the struggle forward, without compromise.

Confronting imperialism, Arab reactionary regimes and the Oslo Palestinian Authority 

Zionist genocidal colonialism reflects the sharpest edge of capitalist exploitation for the Palestinian working class, backed up fully by the most powerful and dangerous imperialist powers, especially the United States. However, they also face Arab reactionary regimes, such as Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, that are complicit with the exploitation and marginalization of Palestinian workers even as they are complicit with the genocide of the Zionist regime through normalization and direct participation. Palestinian workers are exploited by the ruling class of these states directly in exile and diaspora as well as through their direct engagement with and promotion of the colonial economy of Zionism, and Arab workers are themselves threatened with imprisonment and harsh repression when they take action to defend the Palestinian people.

Palestinian workers also confront Palestinian capitalists and the Palestinian Authority, formed as a security subcontractor to the Israeli occupation. The Jordanian monarchy acted in the 1970s and 1980s to repress union organizing in the interests of Palestinian capitalists, while ultra-wealthy Palestinian capitalists like Bashar al-Masri are on the first lines promoting normalization and undermining the boycott of Israel.

Imperialism is on the attack around the world, using its military might and its weapons of siege and sanctions against peoples around the world. As always, it is workers and the impoverished classes who bear the heaviest brunt of these assaults. Fighting back against imperialism, including U.S., Canadian and EU sanctions on Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and indeed, nearly one-third of the world, in addition to its direct involvement and armament of genocide, its bombing of Yemen, its military interventions, warmongering and ongoing violent attacks on all forms of resistance to imperial domination, is essential to building the movement for Palestine.

A call to the workers’ movements of the world

On International Workers’ Day, we once again amplify the words of Kamil Abu Hanish, speaking from Israeli prison, urging the escalation of the boycott movement: “Today, we call upon you, the fighters for freedom and justice in the world, the workers’ movements, the strugglers for socialism, the movements of revolution, to escalate your support for our struggle, for the Palestinian people and for the Palestinian prisoners. We urge you to act to isolate the occupation state, to hold it accountable for 70 years of crimes against the Palestinian people…The workers’ movements, the movements of the popular classes, the movements of the oppressed, can and must take part in this battle around the world, as part and parcel of the struggle against racism, imperialism and capitalism.”

International workers’ solidarity with Palestine has a long and proud history, including in the heart of the imperial core. See, for example, in the United States — the leading sponsor of the Zionist regime, together with its imperialist partners in Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and elsewhere — the important role of Black and Arab autoworkers who struck in 1973 in Detroit against their union’s purchase of “Israel Bonds.” Today, amid the ongoing genocide in Palestine, as the bombs create belts of fire, as dozens of Palestinian workers are martyred daily, this moment is perhaps more urgent than ever.

We also express our solidarity with the struggling workers of the world, including the imprisoned labor union and workers’ movement leaders who are held behind bars or face death threats and repression for their role in defending oppressed workers. From India to the Philippines to France, from Colombia to Egypt and Morocco, we stand with these labor movements targeted for repression. The liberation of Palestine is fundamentally linked to the liberation of all from imperialism, exploitation and capitalism.

On International Workers’ Day, these struggles must become an occasion to escalate our work to support Palestinian workers, end the genocide, uphold the resistance, free the prisoners, and liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Source: https://samidoun.net/2025/05/international-workers-day-2025-the-workers-flood-for-palestine-against-genocide-and-imperialism/

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18848

#colonialism #imperialism #mayDay #palestine #palestinianAuthority #prisonStruggle #samidoun #westAsia #workers

Historical Tracking: Milestones from the Struggle of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement by Ahlam Tamimi

The following article, by liberated prisoner Ahlam Tamimi (under constant threat from the United States) was published in Arabic on April 23, 2025 in Etar Online, examining the history and development of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement over the decades. We are republishing it in English translation below in order to highlight the intellectual contributions and historical record of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, as documented by the prisoners themselves. 

Ahlam Tamimi is a Palestinian-Jordanian journalist and writer, originally from the village of Nabi Saleh in occupied Palestine and born in Zarqa, Jordan, in 1980. One of the first women to join the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, she escorted the martyr Izz el-Din al-Masri inside occupied al-Quds ’48 to carry out a resistance operation at a Sbarro restaurant. She was arrested and sentenced to 16 life terms in occupation prisons, and was liberated in the Wafa’ al-Ahrar prisoner exchange achieved by the Palestinian Resistance in 2011. She was deported to Jordan; later, in 2017, the U.S. government announced that it was adding her to its most-wanted list and issued a $5 million reward for her capture. The U.S. has repeatedly demanded she be extradited from Jordan, despite Jordanian courts’ ruling that she must not be turned over.

Historical tracking: Milestones from the struggle of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement

Ahlam Tamimi

Introduction

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement is considered to be one of the most important elements of the Palestinian national struggle, as prisoners have, over the last decades, constituted an important dimension in the resistance against Israeli occupation. Israeli prisons have turned into arenas for struggle and confrontation that have led to the formation of a collective consciousness and a culture of resistance inside the prison cells, and have contributed to the elaboration of the concepts of freedom, resilience and national belonging. This article seeks to examine the historical development of the prisoners’ movement since 1967, and analyze its political, organizational and militant role.

Historical Background

Zionist gangs have adopted the policy of summary execution after arrests and violent interrogations during the 40’s. In 1949, five Israeli soldiers arrested a Palestinian girl in her twenties, they then murdered this girl after raping her and subjecting to her to a violent interrogation, and the soldiers have admitted during their trial that the murder and the rape came as a result of clear and explicit orders. [1] And between the years of 1948 and 1967, the Israeli occupation used many of the camps that they inherited from the British mandate, and in it they imprisoned tens of thousands of Palestinians, leading to the spreading of disease and epidemics due to the poor treatment and the overcrowding.[2]

Phases of the History of the Prisoners Movement: The First Phase: 1967-1970

Since the 1967 occupation of the West-Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation authorities started arresting thousands of Palestinians and Arabs after the launch of armed resistance inside and outside the country, which overshadowed the reality of the prisoners’ movement. Researchers started documenting the history of the prisoners’ movement since the year of the Naksa. In an exclusive interview conducted by the researcher during her preparation of her Master’s thesis on March 15, 2019, with Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi, the first Palestinian prisoner to be liberated after having been incarcerated in the isolation cells of al-Ramla prison[3], he talked to her about the detention conditions he was subjected to during his first incarceration. This incarceration lasted from January 17, 1965 to February 21, 1971, and during it, he was completely isolated from the outside world and put under constant surveillance by the jailer who was replaced once every 8 hours. He added: “After my arrest I was subjected to physical torture and mental pressures to push me to snitch on my colleagues, and I was also aching from the wound I sustained while clashing with the Israeli army. With the start of 1967, the number of imprisoned fedayeen increased. I was never allowed to live with them or to meet them, and I used to loudly call to them to raise their morale. I was under constant surveillance and I was not allowed to be in contact with anyone.”[4] The occupation sentenced Mahmoud Hijazi to death, making him the first Palestinian prisoner to be given the death penalty, after the execution of Ata al-Zeer, Mohammad Jamjoum and Fuad Hijazi in Akka prison in 1933, and Sheikh Farhan al Saadi [1937] and Youssef in 1939[5]. Hijazi’s death sentence was subsequently overturned in the appeal hearing and he was liberated on February 28, 1971.

The treatment of female prisoners at that time was not any better than that of the male prisoners. Liberated female prisoner Fatima Bernawi, who was arrested by the occupation forces in October 1967, says that the Prison Services forced female Palestinian prisoners to work in the laundry rooms and in agriculture in the fields of al-Ramla prison. They were put together with the penal female prisoners arrested for prostitution and drug-related charges. It was not easy for female prisoners to extract their rights during the 1960’s, which forced them to wage multiple hunger strike campaigns to gain some basic rights in detention.[6]

We can say that the first conditions of detention were harsh, that they constituted a form of slavery and a tool to practice violence and terror with the objective of cementing its monstrosity in the mind of the Palestinian, and of dissuading any militant action, paving the way for the elimination of the project of liberation struggle before it even started.[7] Liberated prisoner Aisha Odeh, who was arrested on March 1, 1969, documented her experience in prison in her book Dream of Freedom. She described the heinousness of the first conditions of interrogation, characterized by constant physical beating alongside spitting, insults, threats of sexual assault and the use of electro-shock, as well as hearing other prisoners being tortured in neighboring cells, and her seeing corpses dragged on the floor, as she herself was on the verge of dying.[8] She explained that the reason behind all this cruelty was the shock of the occupation at the qualitative and successful participation of women in the resistance efforts, confirming that the year 1969 had seen multiple successive militant operations led by women such as Aida Saad, Mariam al-Shakhshir, Lutfiya el-Hawari and Rasmea Odeh, among others.

In this time period, the prisoners endured the effects of the harsh treatment by the Israeli Prison Service, and their systemic targeting through the policies of starvation and anonymization, in an attempt to erase the militant self and replace it with an exhausted, compliant and surrendered self. They were deprived of sufficient quantities of food that was prepared by the “criminal” prisoners in the worst ways possible, such as the “Goosefoot soup” which consisted of a few leaves of herbs inside a large quantity of water, alongside half of an old boiled egg that was served for breakfast[9]. As for the dress code, there was a single uniform for all inmates, and it was not allowed to bring in one’s own clothes. They also made sure to grant them the least amounts of rights stipulated by the 4th Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of the Prisoners of Wars, such as granting each prisoner two blankets and a thin leather mattress instead of a bed, and they were restricted in their sleep due to the number of times inspections were carried out on a daily basis, starting at 5:30 a.m., and during which the prisoner is forced to tidy his bed and prevented from going back to sleep. The prisoner is also forced to reply with “Yes Sir”. As for the yard time, it did not exceed 30 minutes or at best, an hour a day.

As for forced labor, it was, according to the writings of liberated prisoner William Nassar in his book Taghribat Bani Fatah, characterized by the following: [10]

1- Forced cleaning works; including the cleaning of the cells, the hallways and the jailers’ offices under the threat of punishment or solitary confinement.

2- Workshops; such as furniture maintenance workshops or the manufacture of tank nets used by the soldiers for the purposes of camouflage.

3- Hard labor in prison yards; such as shoveling dirt, moving rocks and tidying up the yards for free.

4- Mandatory Services; such as ironing the military uniforms of the jailers, offering them coffee, tea and food, or executing humiliating personal orders.

There was no presence of factionalism or organizational distinctions in this period because the prisoners considered themselves the upholders of a common revolution. Quietist and regionalistic policies sprang up with covert support from the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) in order to achieve their objective of getting the prisoners’ minds caught up with anything besides the homeland and its liberation.[11]

This phase, despite its harshness, constituted the main focal point of the upcoming rebellious undertakings and instances of disobedience in Israeli prisons, as well as the use of hunger strikes which we will be discussing later on.

The Second Phase: 1970-1973

After the increase in the incarceration rates in the ranks of the revolutionaries with organizational backgrounds, they refused the policy of forced labor imposed upon them. In retaliation, they were subjected to the penalty of solitary confinement, as well as the banning of family visits and constant beating. With the constitution of an organizational nucleus among the prisoners from Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the rebellion against forced labor erupted and the number of those opposed to it increased, and hunger strikes were used as a tool to extract rights under detention.

It is during this phase that the prisoners launched their first hunger strike on February 18, 1969, in al-Ramla prison. The strike lasted for 11 days before it eventually failed because the prisoners were subjected to repression, isolation and sanctions. [12]During this strike, the strike leaders, including Abdulhamid al-Qudsi, Kamel al-Nemri and William Nassar, among others, were placed in solitary confinement, and were subjected to violent beatings by the Ramla prison director until they were moved to Asqelan prison.[13] The Kfar Yona prison hunger strike was simultaneously launched and it lasted for 8 days, and ended up successfully achieving some of the demands such as the prisoners getting writing implements and stationery, and them not having to respond with “yes sir” anymore, something which was exclusive to Kfar Yona.[14]

Liberated prisoner Shawqi Shahrour says: “I was transferred, alongside the leaders of the strike, to Asqelan prison. It is a prison specially designed to break morale and humiliate the prisoner and discipline him. We were welcomed with a series of beatings that we called “al-tashrifah” (the bestowing of honors); we had to walk through a long hallway, with soldiers on both sides holding batons and electric wires. While naked, we were almost beaten to death under the pretext that we are criminals. I remember that my head was swollen and my body was bleeding. We were then sprayed with DDT and were locked up in rooms with twenty prisoners each, without getting treatment or sufficient quantities of food, as we continued getting beaten while inside the rooms depending on the mood of the jailer, whom we were only able to address by saying “yes sir.”[15]

The detention conditions in Asqelan prison were humiliating. Prisoners were forced to launch a hunger strike on July 5, 1970, which lasted for around a week. Thanks to this hunger strike campaign, the prisoners were able to achieve some meagre demands such as the increase of the duration of yard time and allowing the inmates to receive clothes from their families and allowing them to have writing implements and stationery. Despite the extreme difficulties, the prisoners were able to limit the scope of the aggressions that were committed against them.[16]

The Third Phase: 1973 – 1980

This phase was characterized by the effort to consolidate the factional system inside prisons, and its imposition upon the jailers as an internal system of life, turning the prisoners’ life from chaos into order. The prisoners also emphasized the necessity to extract the rights that were stipulated by international charters which pushed them to launch multiple hunger strikes during this phase, including:

• The strike in Asqelan prison which lasted from April 13, 1973 up until October 7, 1973.
• An open hunger strike that was launched from Asqelan prison on December 11, 1976, and spread to all other prisons. It lasted around 45 days, after they organized themselves so that each room had its own representatives who spoke at its behalf, and a general representative was elected in every prison to speak on behalf of the prisoners of all factions. Moreover, a list of demands was presented to the Asqelan prison service on top of which was the end of the policy of constant beating. Some of these demands were granted, such as the prisoners managing the library and the replacement of the prisoners’ rotten mattresses with new ones, while the prison administration violated the other agreements which led the prisoners to launch another hunger strike on February 24, 1977, to demand the implementation of these promises, and this strike lasted 20 days. [17]

The Fourth Phase: 1980 – 1985

The IPS realized the impactful role played by the Palestinian organizations inside prisons, and it grew aware of the cultural level that the prisoners developed, as they used to hold cultural sessions and issue monthly magazines written on the back of food packages; these included the Thawra (Revolution) magazine and the Hurriyah (Freedom) journal which gave the prisoners the opportunity to write articles about various topics.[18] Therefore, the IPS decided to open Nafha prison in 1980. In it, the IPS incarcerated the leaders of the prisoners’ movement in harsh conditions including bad food both in terms of quantity and quality. In addition, the highest possible number of prisoners were crammed up in rooms with no ventilation, writing implements and stationery were confiscated and the prisoners were totally isolated from the outside world, leading them to coordinate with the prisoners of Asqelan and Bir al Saba’ to wage a hunger strike campaign that started on July 14, 1980 and lasted for 33 days. [19]

Talking about his hunger strike, liberated prisoner Azmi Mansour says: “During this hunger strike, prisoners Rasim Halawa, Ali al Jaafari, Ishaq Maragha and Anis al Dawla were martyred; Ali was my friend and we were in the same room.[20] They killed him by force feeding him with a laryngeal tube and then claimed that he had committed suicide.”[21] Then, the hunger strike spread into all prisons, and it ended up achieving all the prisoners’ demands, especially that of getting beds and increasing the area of the rooms. This strike was also characterized by the popular and media solidarity movement that followed the martyrdom of the four prisoners.

In 1984, prisoners of the Juneid prison extracted a higher number of demands after waging a 13-day hunger strike that was met with widespread solidarity from the Palestinian population which made it successful. Subsequently, televisions, radios, earphones and cassette tapes were introduced into the  prisons, as well as blankets and pajamas that were given by the families of the prisoners, which significantly impacted their general life, and provided them with a degree of stability that enabled them to prioritize their culture and advance their militancy.

The Fifth Phase: 1985 – 1993

After the al-Jalil operation which oversaw the liberation of over 1000 Palestinian prisoners amonَg those sentenced to long sentences or to life in prison in 1985, the prisoners sought to reconstruct Palestinian organizations, especially after the emergence of Islamic organizations. Thus, the IPS decided to overturn the previous achievements of the prisoners and bring them back to square one, forcing them to launch a hunger strike on March 27, 1987 led by inmates from Juneid prison, which were then followed by those of the other prisons, ultimately lasting 20 days but did not achieve their demands.

Thousands were arrested in the early days of the first Intifada in December 1987, and the battle overshadowed the prisons which saw heavy repression and the overturn of previous achievements. This went on until 1992, after the prisoners had launched a hunger strike on June 23, 1991 that was met with failure, mainly because of the Gulf War and the instability of the general regional political situation.

The prisoners decided to launch a crucial hunger strike on September 25, 1992 which included prisoners from all prisoners that had around 7000 participants in total. This strike saw a great deal of success and restored the balance of life in detention after the prisoners extracted a number of gains, including: The end of strip searches, the closure of the solitary confinement section of Ramla prison, the resumption of visits by family members and the extension of the duration of these visits, as well as allowing private visits, the extension of the list of purchases and introducing cooking tiles and equipment into the rooms [22], as well as allowing the pursuit of university education in the Open Hebrew University. [23]

The Sixth Phase: 1994 – 2000

The signing of the Oslo Accords and the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) impacted the situation of the prisoners in Israeli prisons. The prisoners were divided into sections: one that is comprised of those in support of the accords, thinking it will lead to their release, and another comprised of Marxists and Islamic thinkers who opposed the accords and did not believe that they were going to lead to the emptying of the prisons. [24]

This phase was characterized by the economic stability of the prisoners, in particular after the creation of the Palestinian Prisoners Club and, later on, the Ministry of Detainees and ex-Detainees Affairs. The prisoners gained rights as the general peaceful situation reflected on them. The regular visits of the lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners Club and the Ministry of Detainees bridged the relationship with the PA which contributed to achieving some of the prisoners’ demands, on top of which was the resumption of university education and the arrangement of the financial support of the prisoners and their families outside and inside the prisons according to a special salary scale, which provided the prisoners with relative stability. Despite this, the question that reoccurred in the minds of the prisoners revolved around the possibility of their release in the light of the Oslo Accords and the peaceful relationship between the PA and the Israelis, which led to a downfall in the internal organizational presence and a decrease in the levels of organizational culture and the general situation. [25]

Some prisoners were liberated after the Oslo accords, under “good will” initiatives, but these releases did not include many of the veteran prisoners or those with long sentences, leading to a decrease in the morale of the prisoners and their disillusionment in the PA leadership. Liberated prisoner Israr Sumrain says he was heavily disappointed after seeing prisoner Ahmad Abu al-Sukkar who was not liberated by the Oslo Accords, leading him to question: “If Abu al-Sukkar was not liberated, then when are we getting liberated?” This led the prisoners to wage a political strike under the slogan of “The Oslo Accords did not liberate them: releasing the male and female prisoners without exception” on March 18, 1995, lasting 18 days. This strike had the aim of delivering a political message to the PA and the Palestinian people in the light of the current quiet state of affairs. [26]

This phase was characterized by political strikes, which delivered multiple messages to the Palestinian Authority. The 1995 strike was followed by another on February 5, 1998, which lasted just 10 days and was only waged by PLO prisoners without the participation of the prisoners from the Islamic movements. Then, yet another strike followed on May 1, 2000, lasting 30 days. This strike started after the opening of the Hadarim prison and the isolation of a number of prisoners and the attempt to replace the dividing net with glass during the family visits to the prisoners. This strike saw a wide-scale popular solidarity movement that led to the martyrdom of some Palestinians. These strikes spread further as prisoners in Asqelan, Nafha and Shatta joined in, increasing the number of prisoners on hunger strike to around 1500, ultimately leading to the granting of the majority of humanitarian demands, such as; removing the prisoners under solitary confinement from isolation, allowing university education and stopping the policy of naked searches. However, all of these achievements were later completely overturned after the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada in the year 2000. [27]

The Seventh Phase: 2000 – 2006

After the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada on September 28, 2000 and the arrest of large numbers of Palestinians, the IPS opened new prisons and prison sections and even reopened old prisons such as al Ramla, Kfar Yona, Hadarim, Gilboa and Ramon. Most of the achievements of the prisoners were overturned and a policy of daily searches of the prisoners’ rooms was enforced. The situation of female prisoners in Ramla prison worsened, leading them to wage a hunger strike for 8 days starting on June 26, 2001, followed by their participation in the general prison strike on August 15, 2004, which led to the achievement of some basic demands after 19 days on hunger strike.

The arrest of large numbers of Palestinians in the wake of this Intifada led to the deterioration of relations between them and older prisoners, as well as the presence of a gap in their communication and harmony. Liberated prisoner Fakhri al-Barghouti says: “It was a difficult phase, one in which the prisoners of the PA security services didn’t wish to take part in the general organization in prison. This period saw the prioritization of personal interests at the expense of the general interest, and it was said that it exhausted the older prisoners because of the age and intellectual and organizational gap between them and the new prisoners.” [28]

The Eighth Phase: 2007 – 2019

Inter-Palestinian division overshadowed the prisoners movement. The prisoners’ lives in Israeli prisons was divided on the basis of the organization they belonged to, and now, every organization had its representatives and sections and private life, which weakened their position in the face of the IPS. The national ranks of the prisoners were divided, which led a number of prisoners from different Palestinian organizations to launch a conciliatory initiative on June 27, 2007, known as the National Reconciliation Document of the Prisoners. However, this initiative did not succeed in settling the internal disputes of the prisoners. And after the arrest of a large number of children after the 2015 al Quds Intifada, the IPS launched an offensive against the prisoners across all prisons, costing the prisoners a great effort to accommodate and support the new prisoners and safeguard their rights. This phase was characterized by the weakening of the internal unity of the prisoners, as well as weak strategic plans and general position. [29]

The year 2011 saw the release of more than 1000 Palestinian male and female prisoners on October 18, after the exchange agreement between the Israelis and Hamas. And after a few months, the Hamas and PFLP prisoners in solitary confinement led a hunger strike on April 17, 2012, with the goal of putting an end to their isolation and to rejoin other prisoners in the collective cells. This strike saw a state of organizational solidarity which, although it did not include all organizations, ultimately culminated in the success of the endeavor. Nevertheless, the exchange deal also led to a feeling of frustration felt by those who remained in prison for not being included among those released. Liberated prisoner Amjad Abu Latifa says: “After the deal and the implementation of the Shalit law, disciplinary measures were restored and most benefits were terminated, especially when it came to prisoners from the Gaza Strip, who were subjected to measures that were twice as harsh, and were completely deprived of family visits, and were isolated in their sections.” [30]

The effects of the intra-Palestinian division on the general state of the prisoners led the prisoners under administrative detention to decide to launch a hunger strike on April 24, 2014, demanding the abolition of administrative detention. This strike saw a wide solidarity movement, and lasted for 63 days, becoming the longest hunger strike led by prisoners under administrative detention in the history of the prisoners’ movement, and it was subsequently ended after a limit of just one year of administrative detention was set. [31]

This phase saw the emergence of individual hunger strikes, which some prisoners were led to undertake due to the division in the ranks of the national prisoners’ movement. Some of these strikes lasted for hundreds of days and more. The year 2012 saw multiple individual hunger strikes such as that which was led by Khader Adnan throughout 66 days, the hunger strike led by Thaer Halahleh for 76 days, Hana Shalabi who went on hunger strike for 44 days, or Samer Issawi who exceeded all expectations by going on a hunger strike for 265 days, which is considered to be the longest individual hunger strike in the history of the prisoners’ movement. [32]

The Ninth Phase: 2020 – the aftermath of Al Aqsa Flood War

The prisoners of this phase suffered from the coronavirus which spread among their ranks, as they lacked any sterilizers or antiseptics as well as precautionary measures. This led to the increase in the numbers of infected prisoners. This period also saw an attempt by six prisoners to escape from Gilboa prison on September 2021, and these prisoners are: Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud al Ardah, Yacoub Qadri, Ayham Kamamji, Mohammad al Ardah and Munadil Nafa’at. This was followed by a series of heightened security measures after their recapture. This forced the prisoners to wage two hunger strikes in 2022 that culminated in the meeting of their demands after the prisoners threatened to dissolve their organizations and structures and enter a complete rebellion. [33]

In the wake of the Al Aqsa Flood War beginning on October 7, 2023, the number of prisoners increased and exceeded the 16,000 mark, while around 59 prisoners were martyred since the eruption of the flood. [34] The IPS used new and unprecedented torture methods against male and female prisoners, which included rape and sexual harassment, using dogs for intimidation purposes, overturning all the achievements of the prisoners’ movement and bringing it back to square one. It also opened the Sde Teiman prison which it specifically designed to incarcerate prisoners from the Gaza Strip against whom it committed war crimes that violate international law and the Geneva conventions, and it did not reveal the names of the detainees to any legal entity. Lawyer Khaled Mahajneh transmitted the testimonies of multiple prisoners that were locked up in Sde Teiman, which included: The 24h chaining and blindfolding of the prisoner, not allowing prisoners to change their clothes, the spread of diseases and epidemics, skin diseases in particular such as scabies, subjecting the prisoners to maximum security and assaults by armed guards, not allowing the prisoners to communicate between each other or to practice their religion, only allowing them to shower once a week or even less, reducing the food quantity and the continuous and sudden beating of prisoners. [35] As for the other Israeli prisons, the IPS has isolated the veteran leaders of the prisoners’ movement and brutally assaulted them, and denied them treatment and medical operations, while also attempting to assassinate many of the prisoners and the leaders of the prisoners’ movement, confiscating their belongings and dispersing them between the prisons. [36]

And despite the release of Palestinian prisoners in seven successive batches as a result of the first phase agreements of the al Aqsa Flood deal between Hamas and the Israelis, the arrests are still ongoing, and the conditions inside the prisons keep deteriorating day after day as the war rages on.

Conclusion…

The history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement boasts of a long record of sacrifices and developments, which reflects the resilience of the Palestinian people and its determination to achieve liberation, and which constitutes a focal point to understand the development of the Palestinian national struggle, as it reflects the scope of the transformation of the concept of resistance inside the prisons. And despite the attempts for repression and exclusion that were exercised by the jailer, the prisoners were able to cement their presence in the national collective conscience. And from here on, it is indispensable to study this movement in order to grasp one of the most important pillars of the modern Palestinian struggle, and to maintain the prisoners’ cause as a priority on a Palestinian and on an international level.

[1] Al-Tamimi, Ahlam Aref, Communication Activities for Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Occupation Prisons: Towards a Theoretical Concept of the Prisoners’ Information Concept, Master’s thesis published, 2019, Middle East University, Jordan.

[2] Liddawi, Mustafa Yousef, the Free Prisoners, Hawks in the Nation’s Sky, First Edition, 2013, Dar Al-Farabi, Beirut, Lebanon.

[3] Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi died on March 22, 2022 in Ramallah.

[4] Al-Tamimi, previous source.

[5] The Prisoners and Editors Affairs Authority website, “The prisoners’ movement origin and development,” was published on 3/29/2019, visiting the site on 4/13/2025, https://2u.pw/6ZiuGML.

[6] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Fatima Bernawi, the site was visited on 4/13/2025, https://2u.pw/MCmyl.

[7] Qaraqe, Issa, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons after Oslo 1993-1999, published Master’s thesis, 2001, Birzeit University, Palestine.

[8] Odeh, Aisha, Dreams of Freedom, 2004, Muwattin: Palestinian Foundation for the Study of Democracy, Ramallah, Palestine.

[9] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Shawki Shahrour, the date of visiting the site 4/13/2025, https://2u.pw/iBDHh.

[10] Nassar, William, Ghariba Bani Fath: forty years in the Fathawi maze, 2005, Dar Al Shurouk Publishing and Distribution, Jordan.

[11] Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, previous source.

[12] Palestinian National Information Center, most famous hunger strike, date of site visit 4/14/2025, https://info.wafa.ps/pages/details/32928.

[13] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Abdul Hamid Al-Qudsi, the date of visiting the site 4/14/2025, https://2u.pw/t9lUL.

[14] Palestinian National Information Center, previous source.

[15] Memory of Palestine site, previous source.

[16] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Azmi Mansour, the date of visiting the site 4/14/2025, https://2u.pw/UJIBG.

[17] Al-Azza, Muhannad, the date of the hunger strike in the prisons of the Israeli enemy, Al-Adab magazine, the date of visiting the site on 4/14/2025, https://2u.pw/7Eu7o.

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] This tube that enters the prisoner’s stomach through the nose, in a coercive way to force him to break the hunger strike, and pass through it a liquid substance for forced nutrition

[21] Memory of Palestine, previous source.

[22] These cooking implements include the “tile,” a burner used by the prisoners to cook their food.

[23] Hamdouna, Raafat Khalil, Creative aspects of the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ national movement between 1985-2015, a published research study, 2018, Ministry of Information, Palestine.

[24] Ziyad, Ziyad Musa, the impact of the Oslo era on the unity and achievements of the prisoners’ movement in Israeli prisons 1993-2012, published Master’s thesis, 2012, Palestine, https://2u.pw/7ov4x.

[25] Al-Tamimi, Nizar, a phone interview dated 4/15/2025.

[26] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner, Israr Sumrain, the date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/15kTZ.

[27] Al-Tamimi, previous source.

[28] Memory of Palestine site, previous source.

[29] Abu Mohsen, Jamal, History of the Prisoners’ Movement, 2024, published by Arab American University, Palestine.

[30] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Amjad Abu Latifa, the date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/T3KXI.

[31] Sadiq, Mervat, “Suspension of the prisoners’ strike after an agreement with the Israeli intelligence,” Al-Jazeera website, date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/nZr4J.

[32] Rajoub, Awad, “The most prominent individual strikes of Palestinian prisoners,” 2022, Al-Jazeera website, date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/ySlcD.

[33] Al-Asa, Fadi, “Palestinian prisoners flee Gilboa Prison,” 2021, Al-Jazeera website, date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/sX0JuEh.

[34] Palestinian Prisoner Club Statistics, 2025.

[35] “The first lawyer to visit “Sde Teman”,” a report published on the Arab TV website, 2024, the date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/bjJIq.

[36] Abu Mohsen, previous citation.

Source: https://samidoun.net/2025/04/historical-tracking-milestones-from-the-struggle-of-the-palestinian-prisoners-movement-by-ahlam-tamimi/

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18740

#AhlamTamimi #alQassam #history #jordan #palestine #prisonStruggle #westAsia

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day: The Experience of Struggle Inside the Prisons by Wael Jaghoub

The following article, by Wael Jaghoub, liberated Palestinian prisoner freed in the Toufan al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, was originally published in Arabic in Al-Akhbar on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2025. 

Born on 23 May 1967, Wael Jaghoub was active in the Palestinian struggle from an early age. Amid the great popular Intifada of the Stones, he was arrested by the occupation in 1992 and sentenced to six years in occupation prisons. With the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, he became one of the active leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Nablus. He was arrested on 1 May 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment. During his years in prison, he was subjected to solitary confinement and denied family visits; he became a writer behind bars and published several books as well as many articles and studies, including this 2016 article. When he was released, he said: “I did not lose hope for 24 hours that the resistance would liberate me…and I continue to have hope that the resistance will liberate those left behind.” 

The Palestinian Prisoners’ National Movement, First and Always! 

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day: On the Experience of Struggle Inside the Prisons

Wael Jaghoub

It is inevitable that the experience of struggle of Palestinian prisoners inside the Zionist prisons—a natural extension of the overall Palestinian condition—must take into account the particularity of this arena, and accordingly, the importance of the concepts produced by this specific experience, which carry and represent this dimension.

The experience of struggle inside the prison is a daily and direct engagement with the colonial system in all of its components—political, security, judicial, and medical. At the same time, it is a confrontation and a defense of the moral and intellectual system that the imprisoned human being represents, which the colonial system works to control in a specific and stereotypical manner, stripped of its human and moral dimensions. The act of engagement emerges at this level when the prisoner confronts the jailer and defends these essential human and moral dimensions, making this a fierce confrontation at the level of consciousness.

It is worth noting that the concepts governing the struggle were produced by the specific experience inside the prisons, foremost among them hope—as both a moral value and a principle—relying equally on the dimension of will and the dimension of consciousness.

Collective consciousness is a vital and central link in the struggle; achieving the  goals of the prisoners is impossible outside of its framework or isolated from it. One primary requirement for confrontation is an affiliated, organized and engaged leadership, alongside the practical model of work on the ground and the daily program—all of which are factors working together to translate vision and strategy into practice. The limited and defined reality inside the prison is governed by these concepts and the current reality of struggle requires them to be read and contemplated seriously.

The Experience of Struggle Between the Freedom Tunnel and October 7

Undoubtedly, the “Freedom Tunnel” represents one of the pivotal moments in the history of the prisoners’ movement and its long experience, with what it symbolizes and the repercussions and effects it has had on the broader national level, primarily in breaking down the walls of myth that had taken root in people’s minds—that we cannot overcome this enemy, nor can we defeat it or achieve victory over it. Victories of any size represent an important step in any people’s struggle: they instill hope, strengthen the will, and raise consciousness. This is exactly what this pivotal event represented, influencing also the context of the prisoners’ movement and its experience, becoming a significant and qualitative turning point. It shifted the prisoner once again from a focus on the daily, immediate, and personal to the broader strategic and national struggle, linking the prison with the entire homeland. It also correctly redefined the relationship between prisoner and jailer, removed all ambiguities, reinstated the effective presence of the prisoners’ movement, and restored the value of national unity as the true lever for every confrontation with its value, position, and impact.

It was a material translation of the collective dimension of the struggle. This is part of the Freedom Tunnel’s impact on the struggling reality of the prisoners’ movement. The prison administration considered the moment suitable to launch an assault on the prisoners’ movement, seeking to dismantle it and to thwart the anticipated impacts of the Freedom Tunnel on the prisoners’ movement internally as well as its engagement with the broader national liberation struggle. Therefore, multiple measures were taken: attempts to restrict daily living conditions, tighten oppression against prisoners, withdraw achievements, and apply repressive policies. This stemmed from a conviction that had become entrenched among the jailers—claiming that the prisoners’ movement was fragmented and could not resist or confront these policies, particularly given the Palestinian internal political division’s effects on the reality of the prisoners’ movement.

However, the prisoners’ movement possessed the necessary awareness to realize the importance of reconstituting the struggling dimension of the confrontation, rising above trivial or petty matters, and committing to a central mission: repelling the comprehensive aggression and the general offensive launched by the Zionist colonial security and political apparatus.

This must be considered the central task and the first step of struggle. This means setting aside all disputes and committing entirely to the mission, reflecting an advanced state of awareness that requires practical translation, embodied in the formation of an emergency leadership from across the political spectrum, forming an effective leading and guiding body for the entire prisoners’ movement, drafting a daily action plan for confrontation and resistance, and adopting the choice of resistance to repel the attack. This materialized through the formulation of a daily confrontation program—through daily protest steps—which reflected the unity of will and action and confounded the prison administration’s calculations. The preparation for launching an open hunger strike forced the prison administration to retreat from its measures and repressive steps.

The Stage Before October 7

For nearly two years, a crucial period in history and in the experience of the prisoners’ movement unfolded. Its main achievement was the establishment of a state of national unity and the adoption of the path of resistance. This opened the way for new ideas concerning the questions of imprisonment and its continuation, and the struggle for liberation and its possibilities. This led to the proposal of the “Freedom Strike,” aiming to seize prisoners’ freedom or embrace death, presenting a project and a plan in this regard, from which several important lessons and conclusions were drawn:

First: Confronting aggression can only be achieved through the formulation of a comprehensive united state, based on the foundation of resistance, defiance and confrontation. Unity must be founded on a clear, specific program within a clear framework and vision.

Second: Clarifying the goal of repelling aggression and focusing on what must be defined, without succumbing to the residue of disputes, divisions, and conflicting political stances, and instead formulating common ground.

Third: The condition of the leadership, providing the will to identify and comprehend the national situation and offering a model through its leadership of the confrontation.

Fourth: Collective participation by prisoners lies in formulating the unified path, supporting it, and reflecting the harmony between leadership and the grassroots bases.

Fifth: Repelling aggression is not achieved through absorbing it but through confronting and engaging it using all possible—and legitimate—tools at the moment of confrontation.

Sixth: Formulating consciousness and its changing concepts, including understanding the role and status of consciousness in the struggle.

These are some conclusions from an important phase preceding October 7, during a moment when the prisoners’ movement faced a fierce and widespread attack, during which the prisoners proved their worthiness of the challenge.

The Stage After October 7

This date marks another turning point in the form and level of the fierce assault on the prisoners’ movement. There was a transition from a stage of gradual cumulative targeting to the imposition of the so-called “Gilad Erdan Committee” decisions— named for Gilad Erdan, the Minister of Internal Security in 2017–2018, who formed the committee to study the measures to be taken against Palestinian prisoners in Zionist prisons.

At the time, the committee issued a report that included several measures, foremost among them dismantling the political presence of prisoners inside the prison, meaning ending the existence of organizations and collective representation of prisoners, targeting cultural and academic programs, and withdrawing all the achievements of the prisoners’ movement related to the conditions of daily life. These objectives, along with the plans to implement them, were already prepared by the prison administration. After October 7, they moved to the stage of comprehensive war against the prisoners’ movement, launching a savage assault based on a set of policies and procedures, summarized as follows:

First: The Policy of Deterrence

One of the components of the Israeli security doctrine, practiced against prisoners even before October 7, but its intensity drastically increased afterward. It became part of the framework of comprehensive war against the prisoners, manifested through the use of severe explosive violence against them—daily physical assaults inside the prisons, without distinction between a male or female prisoner, or between child or elder.

These violations led to thousands of injuries among prisoners, and even the loss of life for some, such as prisoner Thaer Abu Assab, who was martyred in the Negev prison as a result of beating. In addition, there were continuous raids day and night on prisoners’ rooms and sections, maintaining a constant state of fear and extreme tension, continuous transfers, and the confiscation of all belongings, including clothes, shoes, watches, electrical appliances, televisions, and radios, turning rooms into barren cells devoid of any minimum components of human life.

Additionally, the prison administration doubled or tripled the number of prisoners per room, as a form of abuse, harassment and intimidation.

This policy aimed to prevent any attempt at resistance by prisoners and to break their collective spirit by ending organizational existence, abolishing collective representation and ending the prisoners’ daily vital cultural and study programs. However, one of the main goals, as openly stated by prison officials, was revenge. This component is central to analyzing the behavior of this apparatus and understanding its effect on the prisoners.

Second: The Policy of Starvation

Starving prisoners by reducing food quantities by approximately 80% from normal levels was the first immediate step of this policy, followed by the confiscation of all foodstuffs from prisoners’ rooms and sections, forcing prisoners to rely solely on the scant daily meals provided. This resulted in severe weight loss among all prisoners, visible through the emaciation and physical weakness observed among released prisoners. A simple comparison between a prisoner’s image before October 7 and after release shows the severity of what prisoners are enduring, the horror of the prisoners’ lives and the cruelty of the prison authority’s starvation policy. The quantities of food provided to a section that housed ninety prisoners were drastically reduced, even though the section now held about 250 prisoners. Moreover, the food served was of poor quality, lacks salt, spices, or oil, and is often undercooked.

The aim of the starvation policy was to destroy the prisoner’s morale and body alike, limiting any capacity for resilience or resistance and trying to reduce prisoners’ thinking to mere survival instincts—what could be termed “hunger consciousness.” In this way, hunger governs the prisoner’s behavior and narrows his consciousness to a survival instinct. This is part of the prison administration’s vengeful assault on the prisoners.

Third: The Policy of Isolation

This policy was implemented through several measures, including the suspension of Red Cross visits to prisons, halting family visits, severely restricting lawyers’ visits, and confiscating televisions, radios, and any means of communication, isolating prisoners entirely from the outside world. The goal was to dismantle prisoners’ morale and push them to abandon options for resistance, making prison officers the sole source of information—most of which consisted of misinformation aimed at misleading and sowing confusion and tension among prisoners. This was one of the most dangerous policies employed.

Fourth: The Policy of Medical Killing

The previous policy of deliberate medical neglect was replaced by a policy of deliberate medical killing, through halting the majority of medicines provided to prisoners and stopping serious medical follow-ups that existed before October 7.
This led to the spread of skin diseases—most notably scabies—as well as respiratory illnesses, causing the martyrdom of a number of prisoners.
Available figures indicate that approximately 69 prisoners have been martyred so far due to these policies.

This policy is the most dangerous, aiming to inflict chronic diseases on prisoners, leading to death. The implementation of these practices constitutes an ongoing war crime inside the prisons, supported and endorsed by the political, judicial, and security levels in Israel, and continues to this day without interruption. Prisoners’ testimonies continue to highlight this terrifying reality within the prisons, threatening the prisoners’ lives.

What Is Urgently Needed Now?

In this context of ongoing aggressive war and genocide against our people everywhere—and foremost among those locations, inside the prisons themselves, where daily, ongoing and escalated torture has not stopped for a single day but has intensified—the urgent question “What is to be done?” reemerges. The answer remains generally confusing, regarding the forms of confrontation of this aggression, equally applied to the prisoners’ situation and to exposing it. There is disorganized, scattered effort without proper accumulation of achievements, in addition to the absence of planning, defining objectives, determining the goals of struggle and how to achieve these goals. Perhaps this stems largely from the absence of a general national strategy of confrontation, especially regarding the prisoners, based on the belief that they will eventually be freed. However, this does not negate the crimes that have occurred, nor the importance of struggle around this cause.

This responsibility places us before the urgent need to organize and plan the struggle around the prisoners’ cause, aiming at:

First: Attempting to repel the declared war and aggression against the prisoners, confronting it, and exerting pressure by all means.

Second: Highlighting the ongoing crimes, widely disseminating them, and presenting the Palestinian narrative in a broad and organized manner.

Third: Documenting the living memory of prisoners regarding this historical phase.

Fourth: Working to broaden the base of global solidarity, amplifying the voice of the prisoners, advocating for the justice of their cause, and building a serious Palestinian movement.

Achieving these goals requires broad, collective effort to achieve them, as well as a general will to strive for liberation, to achieve these and other goals. This requires expanding ties among institutions, movements, activists, and forces to build an effective international coalition as a mechanism and a bloc, based on clear objectives related to the prisoners, their freedom, the suffering they endure, and their struggle for their liberation and to repel the aggression against them.

Such a coalition necessitates a serious initiative to address several tasks within a action plan, the most prominent of which include:

First: Launching an escalating international campaign with the participation of institutions and forces at regional and international levels, organizing periodic public and mass events for the prisoners’ cause.

Second: Working to form a multi-party entity—Palestinian, regional, and international—whose primary task would be to document and register every prisoner’s experience after October 7 as a project of collective, struggle-based, authentic living memory, a real testimony to the crimes of the occupation, to be disseminated as widely as possible.

Third: Working to establish an entity, initiated by institutions, to provide support and care for released prisoners, especially those who suffered psychologically after their detention experiences post-October 7.

Fourth: Focusing on organizing media efforts on social networks, launching a “Before and After” photo campaign for each prisoner, and creating a traveling exhibition of photos both physically and electronically.

Fifth: Working within sectoral campaigns to highlight the cases of women prisoners, child prisoners, administrative detainees, the sick, and the elderly, portraying each prisoner as a story—not just a number.

There are many tasks and ideas that can contribute to repelling the aggression against prisoners, but they require thought, effort, will, and initiative.
It is not enough, on this day, to merely address the prisoners’ issue alone. Rather, we must consider Palestinian Prisoners’ Day a day for evaluating our role—what is required of us, what we can do, and what we need—so that the cause of the prisoners does not remain present only seasonally or incidentally.

Source: https://samidoun.net/2025/04/palestinian-prisoners-day-the-experience-of-struggle-inside-the-prisons-by-wael-jaghoub/

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18731

#FreedomTunnel #October7 #palestine #PalestinianPrisonersDay #pflp #prisonStruggle #WaelJaghoub #westAsia #zionistEntity

Malik Muhammad: Update from the Hole

Today is 3/29/25. Saturday. I was first brought to the hole, getting ready for Juma, on Friday the 28th of February. I was given no cause nor warning. When they took me, they stole my envelopes and address book, my copy of the zine that was made of some blog posts, and my request to be on Snake River’s [SRCI] list for our Eid meal after Ramadan.

You are supposed to be allowed to take your address books and envelopes to the hole with you, that’s standard. That’s why people who expect to do hole time, like activists, we carry these things. I always walked around with at least 6 envelopes and my address books. Cuz I know the drill. It’s isolation within isolation. They want to whisk you away and trap you on a desert island till your dying day. Or your brain decays, whichever comes LAST.

Everywhere I went, they tried to tell me NOT to have them. Why, despite there being no rule against it? Cuz they want you isolated. So of course, I keep them on me anyway.

They stole them, then got mad when they were processing me into intake for not saying I DIDN’T have them. I did. They kept pressing me to say I didn’t, even though they took them. Of course, my refusal to comply sent them railing. I later filed a grievance which was “Returned for corrections,” accompanied with my envelopes and address books. I took it as, “Here, leave it alone.” I acquiesced because I was sure that was only a mild fight, and more was in store. I choose my battles.

I was in the hole without answers until 3/7/25, when I got notice I was “under investigation.” For what, it did not say. They requested a hold for 90 days. On the 9th, I got a disciplinary review that told me my “crime” was “allegedly” organizing a general strike at SRCI. Their whole supposed “evidence” apparently rested on a “CI” (confidential informant, aka “snitch”) and a paper one of my friends had written articulating changes he’d like to see at SRCI. Vague and inconsequential. I was writing proposals for special interest groups and programs for inmates at SRCI as it has NONE. It is desolate and remote, racist and confrontational, from ALL sides, even the “counselors.” The “mental health” staff are probably the second worst humans in the institution.

But I’ll get to that in a second. The next day, 3/10/25, I had my hearing for my “investigative” hold. Because ANY request for longer than 30 days HAS to have substantial reason. The pig during the hearing said, “I don’t see grounds for a 90 day hold, especially since you got your disciplinary review already.” (His words, remember.) So he dropped the investigation.

I did not have a hearing for the disciplinary review until the 19th, the day my lawyer came to visit, hoping I’d be out of the hole by then. Evidence of their intent to hinder my legal representation. Nothing new. I just feel bad she came all the way out to this Klan land, just to see me behind glass again, after the last year of it. Further hindrance was them “accidentally” taking me to the wrong room. I was waiting, cuffed to a wall for about five minutes, before they came back and said, “Oh, wrong room, sorry.” Then made show of fumbling with the keys, acting like they didn’t work.

When they brought me to Lauren [my lawyer], they refused to open the pass slot, as is a right for attorney client privilege. Their response was simple: “We were told not to for you.” Then they left. Mind you, the pass slot was open in the previous room I was in.

But moving on, or back, at the hearing, after reading my statement, which will be released, the pig said, “I want you to know, despite you getting your disciplinary review on the 9th, I did not receive it until the 12th, and I had to review the ‘evidence,’ which is why it took me so long.” Then he found me guilty of “unauthorized organization” and “disturbance.”

How? If A. the paper is NOT mine (as he clearly pointed out that the handwriting was different), B. the paper mentioned NOTHING of a “strike” on “April 16th” as alleged, C. my papers were full of proposals and programs, labeled as such AND to boot were presented to the counselor and the head of the special interest groups liaison. Yuraguen and whatever the white lady’s name was, they had full knowledge of what I was doing — NOT planning a strike.

I said as much, and he said, “Well, the CI says you were.” So I asked to hear WHAT the CI said, as is my right. He would not tell me. He gave me 30 days, and 30 days loss of privileges [LOP].

LOP is nothing more than the hole on “mainline,” same thing, except you get to walk to get your food. But no phone, no tablet, same cell, same racist pigs, and isolation, still. Same hell.

I immediately filed a request for review with the Inspector General, on the grounds that the facts and merits of my case were unsubstantiated. On the 25th, nearing my release from the hole on the 29th, I got notice I was in P-5 status. Saying I’m being remanded for IMU 180 day “Intensive Management Unit.” Segregation. The SHU [Segregated Housing Unit] under another 3 letters. Like “RAGE” and “DOGE,” “Yarvin” and “Musk,” the Klan, the state, and pigs go hand in hand, an extension of the state’s bromance with white supremacy, patriarchy, and oppression.

The order was put in 3/2/25. Two days after I got in the hole. Two days before I even got a disciplinary review, twenty three days before I got found guilty of anything. And twenty five days after the order was given. I later found out that it was JUST the day before (Tuesday the 29th) that the SNIEC Committee (Special Needs Inmate Evaluation Committee) decided that I was going to IMU. You’re supposed to receive notice, so you can write the SNIEC or request a review. I got notice that I was BEING considered the day AFTER it was already decided. It’s their dirty game. As a soldier, I lick my wounds and struggle on. Pick my battles.

I filed my request for review. I wrote the Inspector General for my review, and I filed grievances. None will go anywhere cuz this place is a bunch of “good ol’ boys,” backwater stick hicks, and the “Inspector General” sides with the oppressor every time. So, “fine,” I’ll get MINE on the back end in litigation. In raising awareness and documentation.

But yesterday and today are what invoked me to act. I can NOT, and I WILL not take disrespect of my religion. I am Mujahideen, which means fighting FOR the weak and oppressed with EVERYTHING you have. “Beat back the oppressors whenever you find them!”

Yesterday 3/28/25, I received a kyte from Chapelain “Suh,” who has been a bastard since I got here. “Suh” is an Asian man, a Christian, not a Muslim. YET he is in charge of the Muslims, with zero knowledge of Islam and blatant contempt for it.

Every facility has chaplains for every religion. They have texts (religious doctrine), special package authorizations, etc. They are free to practice their faith as they see fit. Not us. Muslims get an ineffectual, effete debutant who loathes our very existence. While Christians have a plethora of books to choose from, Jews, Satanists, Buddhists, spiritualists, Muslims are given one. It’s NOT a Quran. It’s not a substitute for a Quran. No. It is a mere subjective translation of selected passages by one Muslim scholar. Not to discredit his fine work, but it is NO Quran. There is but one Quran. It has not once been replicated, as you cannot regenerate such a perfect text.

So we don’t get real Qurans. Me, I have one from all the way back in county, when I had it sent to me. So it has made it, as well as my Tajweed. I requested while I was in the hole to get my real Quran. His response, “Forward to security.” I asked “security” DSU stait [?] who ignored me. I filed a grievance. I tipped when the chaplain yesterday told me I would NOT get the Eid meal because I did not turn in the form for requests. This despite the fact that it was taken from me the day I came to the hole AND I told him in a kyte! So I was furious.

Today, they came to my cell and told me to get up cuz I’m getting out. I was in disbelief and told them to check cuz they’re wrong. They still said I had to go, they refused to take my Ramadan snack with. They gave NO explanation. So I said fuck it, I grieve it. They got me as far as processing before saying, “Oh no, you’re staying. The Lieutenant [McClean] said so, my bad.”

They brought me back, and I asked, will my fucking food still be there? He said yea. When I got back, this racist, horrible, bar mustache, balding Klansman said he was throwing it all away. I, of course, protested and told him that’s my Ramadan food. To which he replied, “Ramadan’s over, sorry.” I informed him it’s NOT, and even if it were, I have a right to my food.

He said, “You’re not supposed to have it after Ramadan.” I said that’s NOT an OAR doc rule, I know, and I’ve been a Muslim all my life, so I know it’s a religious law. (Cuz they always think that we can’t eat ANYTHING but the sacks they give us when I’m fasting. The specific request meal is Eid when NOT fasting, we can eat whatever. And I know when Ramadan is over.) His retort was, “I don’t give a fuck what you’ve been all your life, I promise you.” Of course, that was the straw.

I, in so many words, asked him to “clarify” himself and tell me what the actual fuck HE promised ME cuz I KNOW that I can whoop his ass and cut through those two other pigs to do it, all while still cuffed. The pig slammed me against the wall and said, “Listen, don’t do it, please. He’s not worth it.”

Ordinarily, I don’t give a FUCK about what a pig says. But I didn’t hear him, then I heard my lover, Devin, my friend Hay Bales, Chris, JP, Mo, Lauren, Madds and Madi, Kate, Kat, Amir, Rio, and so I did not do what I wanted. I thought about it, on the verge of tears. How DARE I call myself a “Mujahideen,” if I won’t defend my religion? I wrote furiously. Then I calmed down.

I remembered an important fact. Ramadan is NOT over. I will not let these racist fucking hicks ruin my blessings. Nor my relationships. However, I still feel the need to act.

[Regarding the Eid meal sign up] They refused everyone else, they refuse blacks the fastest. They pretend they don’t hear us and speed walk through the unit at 6am, holding their keys quietly because that’s the only time you can sign up. If you’re not up, you don’t get it. If you’re black, they say, “they didn’t hear you,” or, as they did with me today, they curse and try to goad you into “giving them a vocation.”

If they could kill us, they would for sport. They’d spit on us for pleasure. They ARE the Nazis at the work camps. They are the ones herding people to the “showers,” they’re the ones keeping your mail and you hostage. Stripping you out. Taking what little you have. They’re the ones who will beat you bloody, then go home and laugh, talking to their wives about work or their friends about the game. Drinking a beer, then going back to sadistic torture. They are some of the worst human beings on Earth.

So back to that, I created a proposal for a peer companion/mentorship counselor program, which involved schooling for aspiring counselors, therapists, etc. to get clinician hours, and on the job training, working for BHS [mental health services] here. Also earning degrees to take to the streets and help guys in here. Cuz no matter what, you only know what it’s like if you lived it.

Others can empathize, those who care, like people who do prisoner solidarity relationships. But BHS can’t even do that. They barely sympathize. They hold hate in their heart and contempt, too. Be wary of ANY who step in the oppressor’s shoes or stands next to them, claiming to “HELP” you. BHS does little EVERYWHERE, and much less than nothing here at Snake River. No. See, they are on the oppressor’s side. Right next to them in bed. Literally and metaphorically. We NEED better mental healthcare. The “counselors” might as well abhor you, you know they don’t care. They do… What do they do? Especially at a facility with NO programs? What could they possibly be doing all day? Standing in the hallway, talking up the wall. Literally, that’s where you can find them, talking up the wall. With taxpayer dollars.

But of course, taxpayers pay for the violence inflicted on us day and night, that doesn’t disturb them. Counselors, BHS, medical. These “professionals” are the scum of the Earth, the bottom of the barrel. See, the pigs can ONLY hold this job. They’re racist and not smart. But individuals with degrees, master’s degrees, clinicians, doctors, people with essential skills, they thrust themselves into debt for… how far can you fall to work here? You couldn’t even be a school counselor or therapist? You couldn’t be a REAL nurse? You couldn’t be a real doctor or prescriber? So THIS is where you landed. I don’t believe in “useless” degrees, I believe in useless people. These people are useless. These nurses lack the care essential for a hospital, there’s no semblance of bedside manner or any care. Same with the doctors. BHS and counselors, too. Not useless degrees or professions. Useless, feckless people.

So please call, write, yell at the Inspector General Rowley and Lieutenant Joseph McClean, the hearings officers, the Special Needs Inmate Evaluation Committee, Counselor Yuraguen, the special interest groups coordinator, chaplain “Suh,” all the chaplains for their feckless hatred for us Muslims. DSU staff, “Rainwater” or “Handlebar Hick,” put a spotlight on these fucks. Make them uncomfortable. Until they put me on the Eid meal list. Until they get me my one, true Quran. Until they bring my Tajweed with it. Until the SHU is under scrutiny here, too, as the racist fucking hell it is.

“I am always motivated by the actions of my enemies. When I make them uncomfortable, I know I’m doing something right.” — said an awesome person. I gotta make them uncomfortable again.

https://malikspeaks.noblogs.org/post/2025/04/28/maliks-update-from-the-hole/

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18728

#abolitionist #AnarchistPrisoners #malikMuhammad #northAmerica #prisonStruggle

Hunger Strike in La Modelo Prison in Cúcuta, Colombia

Since April 15, 2025, more than 4,000 prisoners of the La Modelo prison in Cúcuta have gone on hunger strike, protesting the poor food service they receive. Prisoners have shared videos showing rations consisting of a glass of rice, half a sausage and a glass of lemonade, which has generated outrage, both in the prisoners and their families, in human rights groups, as well as in those who know that prisons are overcrowded with innocent and revolutionary people.

The relatives have made complaints that this situation represents a violation of the constitutional rights to life, health and dignity of the prisoners, a problem that has persisted for many years. In addition, corruption has been denounced within the penitentiary, where prisoners must pay exorbitant prices for wanting to bring in decent food for their own consumption. Those who can’t afford to pay suffer even more, with reports of spoiled food and sometimes maggots.

Although this situation met with an organized response from the prisoners of the La Modelo prison in Cúcuta, the truth is that in the rest of the 132 dungeons in the state, distributed in 28 of the 32 departments of the country, they also suffer from the terrible conditions of the judicial and penitentiary system, exacerbated by the problem of overcrowding. There are approximately 150 thousand prisoners crammed into an infrastructure with capacity for only 82,232 according to the reports of the Agency of Investigative Journalism, statistics that allow us to understand why decent food, health care, infrastructure, cultural and recreational activities, etc., are not guaranteed in prisons, denounced by the National Prison Movement.

This serious prison crisis is the reflection of a Colombian state, completely disinterested in building a more dignified country where problems such as hunger, poor education, lack of health, unemployment, labor exploitation, repression, etc., which have led to the degradation of Colombian society and consequently to nourish these prisons, are solved at the root. The prisons are also filled not only with bandits who are no longer functional to their project of death, but also with innocents and people who have not received a sentence, as well as thousands of fighters and rebels who are kidnapped by the state for wanting to transform this country.

By: Antony Beltrán and Orlando Cienfuegos, correspondents of Antorcha Estéreo.

Source: https://insurgenciaurbana-eln.net/huelga-de-hambre-en-la-carcel-la-modelo-de-cucuta/

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18637

#colombia #hungerStrike #prisonStruggle #southAmerica

France: Wave of Attacks Against the Prison System

No less than nine attacks took place throughout France against prisons on the nights of Sunday 13 to Tuesday 15 April. This is unheard of since the great mutinies that took place in French prisons in the 1970s.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, seven vehicles were set on fire in the parking lot of the National School of Penitentiary Administration in Agen. This establishment trains future guards. The FO penitentiary union speaks of an “act of extreme gravity in the ENAP car park. One or more individuals arrived in a car, shouted before setting fire to seven vehicles, causing a fire.”

The following night, it was in Réau, in Seine-et-Marne, that the vehicle of a supervisor was set on fire and that three other cars were covered in flammable liquid. Then, seven other establishments were targeted. In front of the Nîmes prison, a car was burned. In front of the Toulon prison, heavy weapons fire targeted the door of the establishment, and fifteen impacts were noted. In Villepinte, in Seine-Saint-Denis, cars were also set on fire in front of the prison, as well as in front of Nanterre, in the Hauts-de-Seine.

In Aix-en-Provence, two vehicles caught fire and the gate of the Regional Intervention and Security Teams (ERIS), a particularly violent police unit specialising in prison interventions – was targeted. In Marseille, guards’ cars were tagged and another set on fire near the premises of the judicial protection of young people. The initials DDPF appeared on the bodywork, for “Rights of French prisoners”, a mysterious acronym. Finally, in Valence, two cars of guards also burned up in front of the prison.

These actions targeting prisons are coordinated, numerous and visibly organized. “Is this a provocation by drug bandits in the face of Gérald Darmanin’s prison policy? The act of members of the ultra-left? Nothing has been claimed at this stage,” wonders the newspaper Le Parisien. The investigators say they have “identified a Telegram channel” entitled “Rights of French prisoners” which is “suspected of being linked to ultra-left groups”. Info or fake news?

In any case, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office has taken hold of an investigation for “terrorist criminal association with a view to the preparation of one or more crimes of attack on the person and degradation or deterioration of the property of others in an organized gang and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise”. Highly invasive means of surveillance and investigation are therefore deployed.

The situation in French prisons is terrible. In February 2025, the number of prisoners broke a record, reaching the figure of 81,599. The threshold of 80,000 prisoners was crossed for the first time in November 2024, and it is only increasing. 21,631 people locked up are only defendants, i.e. people awaiting trial and considered innocent in the eyes of the courts.

There are currently 62,363 “operational places” in prisons. The calculation is quickly made: 130.8% occupancy rate. This rate even climbs to 200% in some establishments, where nearly 4,500 people find themselves sleeping on the floor. This prison overcrowding places France in third place among the worst pupils in Europe, just after Cyprus and Romania.

Every year, several dozen prisoners commit suicide behind bars – 149 in 2023. The suicide rate is 6 times higher among people locked up than outside. At the end of January 2025, the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin announced the creation of a “super prison” for “super delinquents”, where the “100 biggest drug traffickers” would be kept. More and more means to monitor and punish rather than find solutions to the root of the problems.

Could the fires of the last few days be a backlash?

More figures on the prison here.

Source: https://contre-attaque.net/2025/04/15/attaques-en-serie-contre-le-monde-carceral/

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18421

#DirectAction #europe #France #prisonStruggle

On Genocide, Zionist Propaganda and Student Activism – by Grim

“I held my gun so that the generations after me could hold a sickle…” -Palestinian song, Ahd Allah Ma Nerhal (By God We Won’t Leave)

“…[W]e have hope because we know, now more than ever, that these horrors in the name of upholding a racist settler-colonial occupation are not going to last forever. Anyone who ever thought it would will be astounded in hindsight.” -Rawan Masri, “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood Was An Act of Decolonization”

I, like most of Our comrades who organize behind the gulag walls, have been following the ongoing genocide carried out by the Zionist entity upon the people of Palestine with varied mixtures of feelings, with the number one emotion being unadulterated rage alongside an equal amount of awe at the steadfast courage of the Palestinian resistance and their allies throughout the Levant, or the “Middle East”.

You might think that the rage stems from the atrocious conduct that sadly has been par for the course of the Zionists since at least 1947 in the beginnings of what would become the Nakba carried out by the various Zionist terror organizations such as the Haganah, Irgun and LEHI who most infamously were responsible for the April 9, 1948 Deir Yassin massacre in which 250 defenseless Palestinians were slaughtered, including 100 wimmin and children, and then the village was subsequently looted and plundered. While I cannot deny that the daily depredations of the Zionist occupation forces raises my ire profoundly, the rage actually stems more from the stunning ignorance of the so-called “friends and supporters” of “I$rael” who voice their profoundly inaccurate, and most of the time entirely false statements, “hystory lessons on the so-called ‘conflict’,” (non)interpretations of international law, and most importantly their insistence on not calling the Zionist entity’s actions and policies what they’ve been since the start of the ethnic cleansing under Plan Dalet beginning in April 1948: genocidal. Many of these people are probably of the opinion as well that the vast majority of other settler-colonial projects (such as the United $nakes, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, etc.) were also not genocidal from their beginnings, likely using the age old excuses of blaming the so-called “savages” for provoking the “reasonable” and “peace loving” settlers into defending themselves and the land they mistakenly believe they didn’t steal thanks to their belief that God gifted or promised it to them in perpetuity because “he’s God” and “what he says goes.”(1) These “friends and supporters” of “I$rael” will do absolutely no research into the validity of their statements, instead choosing to equate the Palestinian struggle to liberate all of the hystoric Palestine and finally be free to return to their lands, with a genocidal Arab conspiracy to wipe out the Jews.

So in the interests of correcting the misinformation and lies, and cutting through the Zionist propaganda it stems from and in full solidarity with Our comrades across hystoric Palestine, in the diaspora, on campuses and in the streets, this article will attempt to deconstruct some of the most common discourse that is parroted in the bourgeois media which has fueled this latest round of anti-Arab hysteria and Islamophobia and crucially, the pattern of Amerikan rejectionism to Palestinian Liberation and indifference to the crimes of its client state.

It behooves all of us to study history, and studying the hystory of what has become known as the Palestinian-I$raeli conflict and the principal actors and organizations is not an exception to this rule.

So in that context, I will begin with one of the Zionists’ more devious lies; the so-called “I$raeli” “purity of arms” and its common usage, that “I$rael” never targets civilians or civilian infrastructure. Although any cursory observation of I$rael’s conduct from the 1948 Nakba to the present day would prove otherwise, We can look to none other than Zionist hero and first prime minister David Ben-Gurion for the proof. In his Independence War Diary, he set down on paper the military doctrine that would become standard protocol throughout the history of the Zionist project.

There is no question as to whether a reaction is necessary or not. The question is only time and place. Blowing up a house is not enough. What is necessary is cruel strong reactions. We need precision in time place and causalities. If we know the family – [we must] strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action there is no need to distinguish between guilty and innocent.(2)

This specific entry was written on January 1, 1948, one day after the Haganah occupied the Palestinian village of Balad al-Shaykh, the burial place of Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (one of Palestine’s most revered resistance leaders of the 1920’s and 30’s), massacring over 60 Palestinian civilians, men, wimmin, and children, most while they were asleep in their homes. This massacring of civilians in their sleep over 75 years ago lines up exactly with the countless stories told by survivors of today’s indiscriminate bombings to the doctors that have been working nonstop within the largely destroyed remains of Gaza’s hospitals.(3)

Let us also remember that when Ben-Gurion wrote those words, the Zionist leadership at the time was working on “Plan Dalet”, finalized on March 10, 1948, which was the military blueprint for the ethnic cleansing of hystoric Palestine.(4)

To illustrate before moving on to the next topic, lets look back at two of the lesser known massacres during the initial Nakba; “Lydda and Ramla” and “Safsaf.”

On a blistering hot Ramadan day in July 1948, a Haganah general named Yitzhak Rabin (who would later become ambassador to Washington D.C., then “I$raeli” Prime Minister, then sign the Oslo accords on the White House lawn, then be assassinated for it by “I$raeli” reactionaries) descended upon the Palestinian towns of Lydda and Ramla with his unit and violently expelled approximately 50,000 men, wimmin and children.

In Lydda, dozens of Palestinians were gathered and detained in the Dahmash mosque and church premises, all unarmed, and were subsequently gunned down. Afterwards the Zionists gathered an additional 20 to 50 Palestinians to clean up the mosque and bury all of the bodies. After they had placed the bodies in their graves, they themselves were shot into the open graves and left there to bleed out and die. In total between 250 to 400 Palestinians were massacred in Lydda. An additional 350 more died after being expected and forced to march to the frontlines of the Arab armies in what would become known as the Lydda Death March.(5)

As a sidenote, the events that occurred at Lydda and the subsequent death march after, were a formative event in the life of a young George Habash, who was from Lydda, and in 1948 at age 19 left the American University in Beirut, Lebanon where he was a medical student and returned to Lydda during the war to help his family. The Haganah attacked the town soon after, and in the subsequent death march, without water or food, during Ramadan no less, his sister died before they reached the Arab army’s frontlines. This could possibly be one of the reasons which fed his uncompromising leadership and opposition to the Zionist regime as a pivotal leader of first the Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab (Arab Nationalist Movement) and then of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Lastly, we come to the massacre at Safsaf during the initial Nakba. Though this is one of the lesser known atrocities of the Nakba, it is vital to the overall understanding, as a quarter of the 12 well documented instances of rape by the Zionists were recorded here. Those who remember the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War will know what happens next.

The Zionists started by cleansing the town by using their “patented” strategy of surrounding the town on 3 sides, firing into the air and into the sides of buildings in the hopes of driving the population out of the fourth, open side of the town. Then they entered the town, gathering up all of those who still remained in their homes, initially shooting and killing 12 young men. The remaining 52 men were caught, then tied together and thrown into a pit the Zionists dug, then subsequently shot and killed. Seeing this, the remaining wimmin of the town came and asked the Zionists for mercy. The Zionists told several of the wimmin to go and fetch water to the town. Once they moved away from the others, they were followed by the militiamen and raped, two of the women being killed in the process. The womyn who survived was a child of fourteen years old.(6) These are just a few of the massacres of civilians by the Zionists during the initial Nakba. If we line them up alongside others, for instance, the October 1953 massacre in the West Bank village of Qibya by Ariel Sharon’s (another past war criminal made prime minister) infamous unit 101 of the “I$raeli” Offense Forces (IOF) special forces, the October 1956 Kafr Qasim massacre, the full IOF support given during the 1982 Lebanon war to their proxies, the Christian Phalangist and Maronite militias, to massacre 2,000 civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila (which in hindsight was probably the last time there was mass protests within “I$rael” by Jews over their regime’s crimes against Palestinians), to the more recent wars, such as during “Operation Cast Lead” in 2008-09 which the UN’s fact finding report (Goldstone report) called a “deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population”, a certain pattern starts to emerge; one of ethnic cleansing and genocide, funded and with political cover by Amerika.

Genocide & Denial

Genocide, the word as well as the action hangs heavy over Amerika and “I$rael”, so much so that it has stopped many from speaking out and acknowledging the Zionist regime’s actions against Palestine as genocidal.

A comrade over at Slingshot Collective in Berkeley, CA wrote an article for their latest newspaper issue, trying to elaborate on the reasons behind the silence during an active genocide, and though I agree with many of their conclusions (not wanting to sound “anti-Semitic”, general Amerikan apathy and indifference to the suffering of others and not wanting to split the Democratic Party base leading to a Trump victory this election year), I think there are other, deeper explanations for this, as well as outright genocide denial.(7)

When most Amerikans and “I$raelis” think about the word genocide, it is inevitable that they will first think of the Holocaust. The mass shootings carried out by the Einsatzgruppen (Nazi SS mobile death squads) and the gassing and immolation of millions of Ashkenazi Jews are rightfully called genocide; and yet many of these same Amerikans and “I$raelis” forget the genocide of approximately half of the 2 million Sinti and Romani peoples (Gypsies) of German occupied Europe known as the Porrajmos in the Romani language, nor do they seem to remember the systematic massacres of Slavic, LGBTQ+, and disabled peoples along with many political dissidents during the same time period by Nazi Germany.(8) And so, the benchmark for both countries for some act to count as genocide is something which looks like the Holocaust; a massive extermination of people in a relatively short amount of time.

And yet, the Nazi genocide and Zionist genocide do not resemble each other structurally or in any other meaningful way.

Like the settler colonial regimes of the United $nakes, Canada, New Zealand and Australia among others, the genocides that took place upon the indigenous First Nations have taken place over many decades, a small act here, a large act there, and this is what the genocide of the Palestinian Arab people by the Zionist regime has looked like and continues to look like to this day.(9)

As this practice of genocide continues against the people of Palestine, so too does Amerika continue this practice upon the internal semi-colonies of New Afrikans, Chican@s, and the First Nations here on occupied Turtle Island. Amerika also has a very interesting, as well as appalling, history relating to the UN Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide that bears mentioning.

After its founding convention in San Francisco in 1945, the United Nations set about sponsoring the creation of an international legal instrument for the prevention and punishment of genocide. The job for drafting this document was handed down to the Economic and Social Council of the UN General Assembly (GA) which retained several international legal consultants foremost among them Dr. Raphael Lemkin; an exiled Polish-Jewish jurist who had in 1944 coined the term ‘genocide’ in his work “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.” Lemkin, who authored most of the draft, submitted it in June 1947, and a month later it was rejected by several member states of the General Assembly, foremost among them the United $nakes, because of “important philosophical disagreements.” It was edited and then finally adopted by the GA on December 9, 1948. By 1951 enough countries had ratified it to afford it the status of binding international law; except for a partial ratification (with conditions and edits) in 1988 by the Reagan Administration, the U.$. has still not ratified the convention in its entirety.(10)

First off, lets look at what parts of Lemkin’s draft were so “philosophically disagreeable” to the United $tates. Lemkin was extremely thorough in the draft document, where he included linguistic and political groups under currently protected groups of racial, national, and religious groups. Also importantly, he included in the list of punishable acts (enumerated in Article 3 of the current convention) engaging in a number of “preparatory” acts such as developing techniques of genocide and setting up installations for the purpose of committing genocide.

Already we can see that if the above made it into the final draft, both Amerika and “I$rael” would have been in the ‘hot seat’, so to speak.

Lemkin also included preventing the “preservation or development” of the above groups as a punishable act as well as policies that would bring about the disintegration of the political, social, or economic structure of a group or nation (author’s note: Settlers & Neocolonialists Beware!).

Lastly and most crucially, Lemkin detailed 3 distinct and specific forms of genocide: physical, biological, and cultural. For physical genocide he included “slow death” measures such as the “subjection to conditions of life which, owing to lack of proper housing, clothing, food, hygiene and medical care… are likely to result in debilitation or death of individuals”, as well as “deprivation of all means of livelihood by confiscation of property, looting, curtailment of work, and denial of housing and supplies otherwise available to the other inhabitants of the territory concerned.” Biological genocide, apart from compulsory abortion and sterilization, included segregation of the sexes and obstacles to marriage. Cultural genocide included forced and systematic exile of individuals representing the culture of a group, as well as the destruction of a groups hystorical or religious monuments and the destruction of a group’s hystorical, artistic, and religious documents or objects.(11)

If one looks to the UN Genocide Convention today, it would be entirely accurate to say it no longer resembles in any meaningful way the original intentions of the author(s).

One might ask what the consequences of this are, and though there are many, I’ll only go into one.

Consequently, it has continued to further obfuscate what constitutes genocide, further allowing imperialist and reactionary regimes to continue policies of genocidal oppression, domestically as well as in the Global South. Yet as a direct result of this in the case of “I$rael”, many countries in the Global South have had enough of the genocidal Zionist regime. Most importantly South Africa (where the Zionists supported the apartheid regime before its collapse) charged the Zionist entity with genocide at the ICC (International Criminal Court) in the Hague. Many Central and South American countries, like Chile and Honduras, who both had to deal with genocidal reactionary regimes propped up by the support of both Amerika and “I$rael”, have both said enough is enough, and recalled their ambassadors to “I$rael” over the Amerikan funded genocide.(12) And also extremely important, and as a great way to segue into my last topic of this article, it has set off an explosion of support for Palestine from within the belly of the imperialist beast, in the U.$. but also all across Europe; vital to this effort has been Our comrades on college campuses across Turtle Island.

Student Activism and U.$. Attempts

to “Silence the Intifada”

When the first encampments and building occupations were setup, from Columbia University to campuses across occupied Turtle Island all the way to UC Berkeley, though I wasn’t surprised, (and forgive me for my emotional subjectiveness) tears of joy and pride sprang to my eyes as I watched the moving images on CNN move across the screen. Not since the Vietnam War and organizations like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) have we seen the anti-war movement, nor the BDS movement since its iteration against South African apartheid, consolidate into such a huge outpouring of love, rage, and solidarity on college campuses.

I was sadly also not surprised when the Pro-Zionist reactionaries sent the pigs in to silence the movement, nor have I been surprised at the Zionist propaganda campaign attempting to label the entire Palestinian solidarity movement “anti-Semitic” and “violent”, even going so far (a la Stop Cop City activists) as calling all protesting for Palestine “terrorists” and “supporters of terrorists”. Here in the Bay Area, there have been lies spread saying that the BDS strategy is no longer viable or legally possible for UC Board of Regents to boycott/divest from the Zionist entity, which has been uncovered as a lie to get Our comrades at Berkeley to abandon their camp and goals. Whether divestment is possible, we can look to the success of the anti-apartheid movement in 1986 at Berkeley to finally pressure the UC to divest $3.1 billion from companies doing business with apartheid South Africa.(13) Aside from this it’s also been insane to watch the bipartisan effort, from Genocide Joe to the outer reaches of the far right, to attempt to get the masses concerned with some of the alleged rhetoric of individuals on campus and the violence at the encampments (which from numerous sources have been proven to be incited by Zionist counter-demonstrators and the pigs), to try to get everyone to somehow forget his “ironclad” support of “I$raeli” genocide. Sadly for Genocide Joe and his Pro-Zionist rabble in Congress, students on campuses across Turtle Island have dug in and refused the false images the imperialists and their media have tried to paint of them, and have let the imperialists know 3 things: We are NOT going anywhere, We will NOT be silenced, and PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!

As the college term wraps up for the summer and many in the Palestine Solidarity Movement, on and off campus, set their sights this summer on an explosive confrontation at the Democratic National Convention alongside many other avenues for protest and action, I’d like to give one bit of advice if any students or other outside comrades may be reading: I think aside from the also important avenues of protest and actions here in the belly of the imperialist beast, it would be extremely beneficial to send as many comrades (students or otherwise) to the West Bank this summer, to live and learn among the Palestinian people themselves. Black Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton saw the importance of this, which led him to visit Palestine as well as revolutionary China. So did our recently passed elder and comrade SeKou Odinga, member of both the New York Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army (BLA), who met several times with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other resistance factions under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) umbrella at the time while building the international chapter of the BPP in Aligiers, even finding time to train with the resistance fighters in guerrilla warfare. SDS and what would become the Weather Underground Organization (WU) also saw the importance of this in the 60’s and early 70’s meeting with revolutionaries from Cuba, Vietnam, and other countries to learn about them, their life and their struggle from their own points of view and in their own voices.

As the Zionists have only continued the ramping up of repression in the occupied West Bank since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, you could also play an integral role in getting the stories of Palestinians there back to the masses here in the U.$. as well as help in the already ongoing humanitarian efforts going on there. Just something to think about as we move into the summer.

In case you weren’t aware, We behind the gulag walls admire your unshakable and uncompromising support for Palestine’s liberation, and your unwavering courage in the face of wave after wave of attacks by Zionist reactionaries and their pig helpers. You inspire Us behind the wall and We can’t wait to see what you do next.

From the river to the sea,
Palestine will be Free!

Glory to the Martyrs

Freedom to the Prisoners

Healing to the Wounded

Revolution until Victory

Notes:

1. Patrick Wolfe, December 2006, “Settler Colonialism and the elimination of the native”, Journal of Genocide Research, 814
   2. Noam Chomsky, “The Fateful Triangle – The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians, ( Haymarket Books, 2014), pp. 200
   3. Irfan Galaria, February 23, 2024,”Doctor in Gaza sees only annihilation”, San Jose Mercury News
   4. Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappe, “Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S. Israeli War on the Palestinians” (Haymarket Books, 2013), pp.69
   5. Nur Masalha, “The Palestinian Nakba: Decolonizing History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory” (Zed Books, 2012), pp. 86
   6. Adel Manna, “Nakba and Survival: The Story of Palestinians who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956” (University of California Press, (2022), pp. 75-80
   7. Kermit, “Watching and Waiting?: On Speaking Out & Being Silent During Genocide”, Slingshot Issue 140 Summer 2024, pp. 2-3
   8. Ward Churchill, “A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present” (City Lights Books, 1997), pp. 36-49
   9. Patrick Wolfe, December 2006, “Settler Colonialism and the elimination of the native”, Journal of Genocide Research, 8/4
   10. Ward Churchill, pp. 363-364
   11. Ward Churchill, pp. 265-266
   12. FP Explainers, 3 May 2024, After Colombia, now Turkey: Which other nations have cut ties with Israel over Gaza war?, FirstPost.com
   13. DD, “Resisting the Neoliberal University & Unethical Investment”, Slingshot Issue 140 Summer 2024, pp. 5

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18348

#bayArea #Encampements #genocide #northAmerica #palestineSolidarity #prisonStruggle #propaganda #students #zionism

Texas Direct Action Report – by Comrade Z

In the midst of organizing the community, and succeeding in creating the perfect storm with community members, the TDCJ has felt the Warmth of True Resistance by Inmates all over the State, and its going to continue because of the brutality, and retaliation on families and inmates alike. This community is kicking ass in fighting back, and I’m proud of them for taking my suggestions and utilizing them however they see fit, as long as its towards the Agency and the Secret Society of Slaveholders, (ACA). Connally Unit is in desperate need of an uprising, and its a Tinderbox as we speak, so I’ve come to the conclusion that the Community be helped in phone zapping and mass emailing the Highest Federal Courts to Force the Appointment of Special Masters to come fix the TDCJ once and for all!!!

While they retaliated on me using the same officer, he’s destroyed my property twice, sexually harassed me to further intimidate and humiliate me into acting out. I’m acting out by asking for help in requesting that I be allowed to file a report on him, I’ve reported it to a Captain, Risk Management, Major Harrol, Warden Puente, all top officials and I have received no help. The same officer has been allowed to file a disciplinary case on me for reporting him, “Threatening an Officer”, he filed this because I reported him twice maybe three times for abuse of authority.

We are a voice against violent predator officers, and this one attacked me while I was asleep, began by destroying my property and then shining his flashlight on my private parts while asking me to submit to restraints, which I quickly refused.

Yes, this is really happening on Connally unit, and I’m still being targeted for political lynching, and worse for reporting sexual assault for inmates set hip by Intelligence officers here, we are seeking solidarity in the coming weeks to begin community action in contacting the states Governor, US Dist. Courts, Texas Supreme Court, Even the Dept. Of Justice to Appoint Special Masters so the community can see the reality of a corrupt institutions, don’t take no for an answer, start right here, you are the ones getting robbed by these people, this unit is falling apart and has been for years, yet billions in funding is given to the Agency for repairs and it never reaches South Texas Region, in its entirety, but if you look at the Stevenson Unit Furniture Factory, its in prime shape, its easy to see the corruption and the ugliness, you only have to be willing to accept this truth.

We need the community to help us bring College Courses, Rehabilitation programs, medium custody programs, and/or shut this unit down forever. It’s the community’s choice, its bleeding your taxpayer money and it’s out of control.

Please register on Securustech.net and or Write me :

Julio A. Zuniga “Z” #1961551
Connally Plantation
899 FM 632
Kennedy, Texas 78119

Solidarity and Sabotage, Z

Texas Direct Action Report – by Comrade Z

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=17829

#1961551 #northAmerica #prisonStruggle #texas

The Bittersweet Taste of Freedom: an Interview with a Former Palestinian Prisoner

On the cold morning of February 15, 2025, hundreds of Palestinians gathered at the Ramallah Cultural Palace to receive the sixth batch of released prisoners as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. This group was the smallest of the prisoner exchanges, as only nine Palestinians were released into the West Bank. At noon, the white minibus marked with the Red Cross logo approached the entrance of the municipal building, and the crowd began to press forward to get closer to the vehicle.

The door opened, and a thin figure emerged. Wearing a light gray sweatshirt, head shaven, and with a light white beard, the man exiting the bus took his first breath of freedom in 23 years. His name was Amir Abu Raddaha. He was arrested by the Israeli army in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison.

Before he touched the ground, the released prisoner was lifted on the shoulders of people in the crowds. He was soon wrapped in a jacket and carried toward the inner courtyard. Hands reached out to touch him, and chants resonated as the next released prisoner came out of the bus and was carried through the crowd.

During his time in Israeli prison, Raddaha went through it all; search raids, restrictions on living conditions, hunger strikes, denial of family visitation, deliberate medical neglect, and much more that he prefers to keep to himself -especially regarding the period following October 7, 2023.

At one point, Abu Raddaha coincided with his two other brothers, Amin and Mousa, in Israeli detention, although they were separated most of the time. He lost both his parents while in prison, and his mother never got to visit him.

While most of the media coverage of the prisoner exchanges focused on Israeli captives, their names, their stories, their testimonies, and their health conditions, very little media attention has been given to Palestinian prisoners emerging from conditions that have never been worse in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. Detention, imprisonment, and release is almost a rite of passage in Palestine, making up one of the most important collective experiences in Palestinian society. Palestinian prisoners appear in Palestinian art, literature, and everyday language, and they have devised special rituals of community support, celebration of release, and coping through anguish.

Since 1967, more than a million Palestinians have been detained — almost half of the male population of Palestine. A common saying in Palestine is that not a single household doesn’t have a member that was imprisoned at one point in their lives.

This is why the current prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel marks one of the most important episodes of the long story of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. Mondoweiss sat with Amir Abu Raddaha after his release in his home in al-Am’ari refugee camp in Ramallah to listen to this part of the story.

Mondoweiss: How was your life before your first detention in 1990?

Amir Abu Raddaha: I was a regular child growing up in the camp. People were very close to each other, and everybody was like family. In my house, nobody was allowed to eat unless we were all at the table. I played in the streets and began to see the difference between the refugee camp and the rest of the city. As a teenager, I worked with my brother in his metalworking shop. I first realized what the occupation was at the age of 14 during the First Intifada, and I became active in the Intifada. I was first arrested at the age of 17 and was released in 1999 at the age of 27 as part of [the wave of pardons that were part of] the Oslo Accords.

How were you arrested the second time?

Amir Abu Raddaha: In the Second Intifada, I was working in the Palestinian security forces, and I joined a cell belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah. In 2002, during the Israeli invasion of Ramallah, I was besieged alongside a group of fellow fighters at the headquarters of the Palestinian Preventive Security Forces in Beitunia in southern Ramallah. We were besieged for three days while Israeli Apache helicopters opened fire at us. I prepared to die because I didn’t think that we would come out alive. But then the Israeli army threatened to bomb the building if we didn’t give ourselves up, and since there were employees and civilians in the building, we decided to surrender. Later, I was given a life sentence for taking up arms against the occupation.

How did you rethink your own life when you have a life sentence?

Amir Abu Raddaha: It is difficult to survive prison while thinking of the life you left outside, so you need to adapt. Prisoners have created their own society in jail. We had our own library, which we built through books that prisoners at the time could receive during family visits, and we had courses and classes. I used my time and continued my studies until I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in political sciences and a Master’s degree in sociology.

How were your years in prison before October 2023?

Amir Abu Raddaha: For the first three years, I wasn’t allowed to receive any visitors. I lost my mother during this period before she could visit me. A prisoner one day came from a family visit and he was whispering something to other prisoners, so I asked him what had happened, and then he told me that my mother had died. My father kept visiting me until 2008. He was losing his hearing and had a lot of difficulties visiting me, so I told him to stop coming. My sisters were the ones who visited me after that. One day, another prisoner came from a visit and brought me the news that my father had died.

In the last two years before October 7, prison conditions were deteriorating. The prison service cut off many food items, replaced the daily bread with low-quality and leftover bread, and reduced water time. Room raids were increasing, with increasingly more violent search sessions. They would take us out of the room and spend up to six hours searching every detail, including our personal things, in a room 7 meters by 4 meters.

There were administrative detainees with me in prison, and I remember Bahaa Sharawneh from Dura, near Hebron, who is still under administrative detention for the fourth or fifth renewal in a row. We had won many rights throughout the years, including our right to study in prison, to have books, to self-organize, and to have collective representation through hard struggle. There was the big mass hunger strike of 2004, then those of 2012 and 2017, and many rounds of confrontation in between. We felt that the occupation was trying to take those hard-won rights away. We felt that a big attack on prisoners was on the way, and had actually begun, and we were preparing to face it.

How did things change after October 7?

Amir Abu Raddaha: On October 7, there was news that an attack happened from Gaza and that Israeli soldiers were captured. The first thing I thought was that there was finally hope for a prisoner exchange that could get us released. Then the news began to report increasing numbers of Israelis captured; 30, then 60, and it kept going up. Then I understood that we were heading towards war.

The next day, and it was a Sunday, we began to face the reaction of the occupation’s prison services. They raided the rooms and confiscated all electronic devices. They also took all the books that we had gathered for years and threw them in the garbage, only leaving us copies of the Quran. They also suspended the yard time we previously had, and for six months after October 7, we had no yard time at all. We spent the entire time inside the rooms. They also informed us that they were not going to recognize any collective organization or prisoner representation and that each prisoner spoke only for himself.

They closed the “cantine,” or the prison store where we bought our food with the balance that our families topped up in our names to make up for the lack of food items in the prison system. It was all gone. In my cell block, we were lucky because the officer in charge allowed us to take the remaining food in the cantine before closing it for good, and that food helped us get through the first months of the war. Other cell blocks didn’t have that chance.

“I saw prisoners fainting in front of me because they hadn’t eaten enough.”

Food quality in the meals given to us dropped immediately. For breakfast, they began to bring one spoon of yogurt of less than 100 grams and a piece of bread for each person. At noon, they bring lunch for each room. The quantity is so small that every prisoner gets a share of three to four spoons of rice, and the same quantity of soup. The soup itself is just boiled water with some vegetables in it, without any flavor. It was only enough to keep us alive. I saw prisoners fainting in front of me because they hadn’t eaten enough.

The cells began to become overcrowded. In the beginning, we were six people in a 7×4 meter room [23×13 feet]. Then more detainees were brought in, and the number kept rising until we were 14 people in the same room. Fourteen men in 7 meters by 4, without being allowed out for a single minute, for six months straight. We took turns standing and walking.

We weren’t given clean clothes either, and I spent these six months with the same underwear, washing it manually. Some prisoners got scabies, and it was a horrible thing to witness. One prisoner couldn’t sleep at night because of the pain, and his skin was in such bad condition that it looked perforated. He couldn’t stand up or walk properly.

After the first six months, they began to allow us to have some yard time, and we were able to shower. However, because there was only one shower for the entire cell block, we took turns by day, so each day, six of us would shower. We also began to be given changes of clothes.

Did you know what was happening outside, especially in Gaza?

Amir Abu Raddaha: We were completely cut off from the world. We had no radio, television, or newspaper. Our source of information about what was happening outside was the prisoners who had court hearings and could talk to the lawyers, and then came back and told us the news. After the first six months, we began to be allowed to receive lawyer visits, but not family visits, and then we received more news. That’s how we learned about the raid on al-Shifa hospital or the invasion of Rafah, for example, and that’s how we knew that the number of dead in Gaza had reached 10, then 20, then 30 thousand.

How did you learn about the ceasefire?

Amir Abu Raddaha: The day of the ceasefire I was summoned for an interrogation session, and I asked the Israeli intelligence officer what the news was, and if the war was ever going to end. He told me that he didn’t know anything, and then he received a message which was obviously important news, because he reacted as such, but he didn’t tell me anything. Shortly after I was back in the cell, the news arrived in another cell and then spread that there was a ceasefire agreement. We all felt a huge relief and celebrated. Many kneeled to the floor thanking God.

We had no information about the names of those who were going to be released. There was a first round of prisoners being exchanged, and we all had high expectations. A week later, the officer in my cell block came to our room and told me to gather my things. I asked him if I was being transferred to another prison. He said no and then asked me not to ask any more questions. There were five more in the same cell block who were informed in the same way, and we all understood we were the next batch of released prisoners. I said goodbye to my roommates, gathered the little clothes I had, and left with the guard.

How did you feel in that moment?

Amir Abu Raddaha: I didn’t feel the way I thought I would. My sadness and anguish for leaving the others behind in these conditions was much greater than my joy of leaving prison. They all told me to keep advocating for them, at least to ease the conditions of their detention.

What was the release process like?

Amir Abu Raddaha: First, we were taken to the Rimon prison in the south. There, we were strip-searched. They took all our clothes and gave us jail overalls. Then they put us in a waiting room where I met prisoners from other jails, and we chatted a little before we were led to a bus. Neither I nor anyone else from the prisoners knew for sure that we were being released, so we began to take guesses. I have been transferred many times to and from the Rimon prison, so I knew the way almost by heart. I told the other prisoners that if the bus turned left, then it was taking us to the Naqab desert to the prison there. But if it turns right, then we’re going to Ramallah. Fortunately, it went right.

“The interrogator showed me video footage of the destruction of Gaza and told me that it all was our fault, we, the prisoners. I asked how it could be my fault if I was in prison for twenty years, and he replied that all those people died just so that we could be released.”

As we approached Ramallah, the weather became increasingly cold, and we had nothing on us but the jail overalls, and as we approached Ramallah it got colder, and we began to shake. Then we arrived at the Ofer prison, outside of Ramallah. I was interrogated again there, and the interrogator showed me video footage of the destruction of Gaza and told me that it all was our fault, we, the prisoners. I asked how it could be my fault if I was in prison for twenty years, and he replied that all those people died just so that we could be released. I told him that I didn’t kill those people and that his government did.

Then I was taken to a medical check-up and was put in a room, which was my final station before being released. I stayed there for 18 days, from January 29 to February 15, waiting for my turn. Two other batches were released before me, and we began to worry that the ceasefire deal might have collapsed, but a prison guard told us that we shouldn’t worry and that if we made it this far we would be released.

“Before leaving, the prison guards gave us gray sweatshirts with an inscription on it that said, ‘We do not forget, we do not forgive.’”

Finally, one morning, the deputy director of the Ofer prison came and called on the names of seven of us, and we were taken to another waiting room for several hours until the Red Cross employees came. Then the guards brought us breakfast. The Red Cross took all our personal information, and from that moment on, we were no longer in the custody of the occupation army, but in that of the Red Cross. Before leaving, the prison guards gave us gray sweatshirts with an inscription on them that said, “We do not forget, we do not forgive,” and took off our handcuffs. I told the prisoners with me that these were the last handcuffs we would wear. Then we got on the Red Cross bus, which began to drive us to Ramallah.

What was the atmosphere on the bus?

Amir Abu Raddaha: In the bus we felt like little boys on a school trip, excited and almost in disbelief. I was counting the seconds, and everybody was talking at the same time. When we arrived at the Ramallah Cultural Palace, I was the first one to leave the bus. I was free for the first time in more than twenty years. My family didn’t recognize me, and my sister fainted when she saw me because she didn’t recognize me.

How are you adapting to your new life so far?

Amir Abu Raddaha: The first night at home, I didn’t sleep. I stayed awake, trying to fathom the fact that I was not in jail. I couldn’t believe that I had my head on a pillow, which I had been deprived of for a year and a half. It was a strange feeling to be able to shower freely the next morning, not to have to stand for count, and to see my little nephews instead of jailers.

I still struggle to get accustomed to it. I also think of the prisoners that I left behind. Not a day goes by without me thinking of them, and of what they are going through right now.

The bittersweet taste of freedom: an interview with a former Palestinian prisoner

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=17526

#ceasefire #palestine #PoliticalPrisoners #prisonStruggle #westAsia

Interview with Kuwasi Balagoon

#RepublicOfNewAfrika #BLA #KuwasiBalagoon #BlackAnarchism #AntiColonialAnarchism #WeatherUnderground #Panther21 #BlackPanthers #ClassicInterviews #JailHouseInterviews #Attica #PrisonStruggle

Rattling the Cages Zines

The rattling the cages: oral histories of north american political prisoners zines –– transcriptions of all of the panel talks, glossaries, & letter-writing info are available at https://archive.org/details/@rattling_the_cages_zines

Published by AK Press, Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners is a project of abolitionists Josh Davidson and Eric King. The book is filled with the experience and wisdom of over thirty current and former North American political prisoners. It provides first-hand details of prison life and the political commitments that continue to lead prisoners into direct confrontation with state authorities and institutions.

For the last year, Firestorm Books, Eric, and Josh have been hosting virtual panel conversations with a host of contributors to the book and a wide variety of steadfast revolutionaries whose knowledge, experience, and guidance are invaluable for deepening our collective commitments for liberation. Each conversation is now lovingly available in zine form to print and share with all who need it––especially our comrades behind bars.

1. “Political Prisoners, Mass Incarceration, & Abolition” (Eric King, Herman Bell, David Gilbert, Susan Rosenberg)

Four contributors to Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners discuss their experiences with imprisonment, the changing nature of mass incarceration, the importance of solidarity both inside and outside the system, and the ongoing imprisonment of movement elders.

2. “Continuing the Struggle Inside & Out” (Eric King, Ray Luc Levasseur, Ashanti Alston)

Three contributors to Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners discuss their experiences with imprisonment, education behind bars, organizing with fellow prisoners, and the ongoing importance of international solidarity with captured revolutionaries.

3. “Antifascism Behind Bars” (Eric King, David Campbell, Alissa Azar)

Eric King and David Campbell, both contributors to Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners, discuss their experience behind bars, exploring the political and physical implications of opposing fascism and white supremacy while living under state control. This event was a fundraiser for the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund.

4. “Black August & Prisoner Support” (Harold Taylor, dequi kioni sadiki, Eric King)

In this fourth Rattling the Cages panel discussion, Eric King, dequi kioni-sadiki, and Harold Taylor discuss the significance and relevance of Black August today, and the importance of political prisoner support. This event was a fundraiser for the Jericho Movement.

5. “Eric King In Conversation with James Kilgore” (Eric King, James Kilgore)

In dialogue with Rattling the Cages co-editor Eric King, James Kilgore discusses his history as an activist, underground fugitive, political prisoner, and author of books on mass incarceration. Together they explore the state of international solidarity, the abolitionist movement, and James’ recent collaboration with artist Vic Liu on The Warehouse: A Visual Primer on Mass Incarceration.

6. “Post-Prison Activism & Archiving Resistance” (Eric King, Claude Marks, Jake Conroy)

In conversation with Rattling the Cages co- editor Eric King, former political prisoners Jake Conroy and Claude Marks discuss their experiences in prison and how they’ve stayed active and engaged in liberation struggles after being released, including through the collection and archiving our histories of resistance. This event was a fundraiser for the Freedom Archives.

7. “Until All Are Free!” (Eric King, Jason Hammond, Jeremy Hammond)

In this Rattling the Cages panel talk, former political prisoners Eric King and Jason and Jeremy Hammond discuss state vs. federal prisons, solidarity inside and out, and readjusting to life once released. These three antifascists were imprisoned for very different actions and faced very different circumstances and environments, and yet all three came out of prison determined to fight back against the carceral system until all are free.

8. “Revolutionary Women Behind Bars” (Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, Nicole Kissane)

Eric King speaks with former political prisoners Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, and Nicole Kissane about their experiences in underground and abolitionist movements. Together they explore the repression, the resistance, and the resilience of women fighting back in US prisons.

9. “Becoming Politicized In Prison” (Hector “Bori” Rodriguez, Farham Ahmed, Eric King, Josh Davidson)

All too often we separate political prisoners from the other people incarcerated alongside them. While it is necessary that we support those incarcerated for fighting back against the system, abolition means supporting all those locked up as we fight for a better world. Rattling the Cages creators Eric King and Josh Davidson talk with Hector “Bori” Rodriguez and Farhan Ahmed, both of whom spent decades imprisoned in New York where they became politicized as they fought for their freedom.

10. “How We Did It & How You Can Too” (Eric King, Sarah Falconer, Josh Davidson)

Hear from Rattling the Cages creators Eric King, Sara Falconer, and Josh Davidson about creating this oral history project, the importance of inside-outside collaboration, and how replicating these oral histories is something you can do, too. Members of the Certain Days calendar collective, Sara and Josh talk about a quarter century of creating this calendar, building relationships with our political prisoners, and why our support matters.

Received by email

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=14086

#AnarchistPrisoners #ericKing #northAmerica #PoliticalPrisoners #prisonStruggle

Text by Imprisoned Comrades Marianna M. and Dimitra Z. about the Struggle of Prisoners in Agia Prison

Solidarity with the struggle of prisoners in Agyia prison in Chania

Since the beginning of November, prisoners of Ayia prison in Chania, Crete, have engaged in various kinds of mobilizations claiming the obvious. From the hunger strike they conducted denouncing revenge behaviors from prison officials and the administration to Christmas Eve where 60 prisoners escalated their mobilizations refusing to return to their cells and abstaining from the food. Claiming the obvious once again. Water available throughout the day, heating and adequate medical care. Demands slandered by the vulgar Union of External Guard Employees of Chania Detention Facilities, which was not ashamed to undermine the collective struggle of the prisoners. The inhumane conditions aggravated by the degrading behavior of the Agyia Prison administration have been known since 2022, when five prisoners died / were murdered in a period of six months.

In conditions of complete unfreedom, zero self-determination, social isolation and vindictive punitiveness, living conditions determine coexistence within the walls. In a suffocating environment, the fact that access to basic daily needs is not guaranteed intensifies insecurity and the feeling of helplessness. As prisoners, you are called upon to treat incarceration as a violent uprooting from everyday habits, a violent detachment from your people. In this context, access to a decent living unexpectedly affects your daily life. Even the smallest improvements within confinement seem like a luxury.

Prisons are another field of struggle. A field where the collectivization of prisoners was and continues to be able to claim and win battles large and small. Fight for the improvement of living conditions, against the devaluation of prisoners’ lives, against degrading penitentiary/penal codes and the impunity of administrations. For our part, we stand in solidarity with the struggle of the prisoners in the prison of Agia, Chania, to claim decent living conditions. Until the demolition of the last prison.

NO ONE ALONE IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE

IMMEDIATE SATISFACTION OF THE DEMANDS OF PRISONERS IN AGYIA PRISON

HANDS OFF COMRADE POLA ROUPA

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF COMRADE NIKOS MAZIOTIS

Marianna M.

Dimitra Z.

Korydallos Women’s Prison

Athens Indymedia

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=13536

#AnarchistPrisoners #europe #greece #prisonStruggle

Toni Chavero, a prisoner in Extremera prison, Madrid, has begun a hunger strike as an act of solidarity with the autonomous subversive prisoner Marcelo Villarroel, the only prisoner in $hile convicted under military justice, the same one that Boric’s government has made seem obsolete and non-existent, hiding the fact that it still maintains under that regime a comrade who fought against the dictatorship and the repressive apparatuses of the false transition.

Below we share text sent to La Zarzamora from Madrid, territory occupied by the Spanish state.

“With some delay, we received a letter from the extermination center of Estremera – Madrid VII, from our comrade Toni Chavero. He informs us that yesterday, October 1, he began a hunger strike in solidarity with Marcelo Villarroel, for his immediate release. It is the second hunger strike that he has initiated, demanding the freedom of Marcelo, who completed his sentence in December last year and is still being held hostage in the Gonzalina prison-company, in Rancagua, a territory dominated by the Chilean state. He had started fasting last September. Since the 15th of last month and the 1st and 15th of each month, before starting this hunger strike, for the 14 points of the protest table “in case someone joins. I will continue even if it is alone.”

As in the previous hunger strike, Toni shouts again for “… THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF MARCELO VILLARROEL SEPÚLVEDA, KIDNAPPED BY THE CHILEAN STATE, WHOSE CURRENT “PROGRESSIVE” GOVERNMENT IN COLLABORATION WITH THE JAILERS OF CHILE, APPLIES TO HIM THE LAWS ALREADY REPEALED BY THE MILITARY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF THE DICTATOR PINOCHET IN CONJUNCTION WITH LAW 321 PROPOSED BY THE SAME JAILERS WHO SERVED THE DICTATOR, LEGISLATED AND HAPPILY APPLIED BY THIS SELF-STYLED LEFT-WING GOVERNMENT…” addressing again to his ambassador in Spain to ask for “a response from his embassy in Madrid to my complaint to the Chilean state, for allowing the forced and illegal confinement that keeps my comrade kidnapped.

That is why I will continue to demand his immediate release. I will fast in solidarity with my comrade Marcelo for an indefinite period of time, on the same terms as my previous demands of last year. I want his immediate release, as well as the immediate disappearance of the dictator Pinochet’s use of military laws in the present and in the future. It is enough to take over the tools of the dictator’s horror of the past to camouflage them in a false Democratic government. The Chilean embassy must listen to me, as part of the Chilean state. Marcelo Villarroel’s current situation must cease immediately, so that he can resume his life from the position in which you want to leave him.”

He has also sent letters to the Congress of Thieves and to the Defensor de Nadie (Defensor del Pueblo) with the same points of demand.

He sends a greeting to the comrades who continue to remember him and ends his letter like this:

FOR THE ANNULMENT OF THE CONVICTIONS OF THE MILITARY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF THE GENOCIDAL MURDERER PINOCHET TO OUR COMRADE MARCELO VILLARROEL!

AS LONG AS THERE IS MISERY THERE WILL BE REBELLION!

MARCELO TO THE STREET NOW!

Source: La Zarzamora

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/10/08/anti-prison-internationalism-toni-chavero-begins-hunger-strike-in-solidarity-with-marcelo-villarroel/

#chile #europe #hungerStrike #internationalism #marceloVillaroel #prisonStruggle #southAmerica #spain #ToniChavero

”We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, other people of color, and all oppressed people inside the United States.” (1)

Huey P. Newton made an accurate comparison when he stated that police in Black communities are an occupying army, no different from the foreign militaries that invade and occupy the communities of people of color in underdeveloped countries. Stan Goff, a retired member of the U.S. Army’s special operations units who has written many critiques and exposés on the crimes and imperialist bent of the U.S. military, made an equally important observation when he pointed out that every branch of domestic U.S. ‘law enforcement’ aspires to be and imitates the U.S. military, this includes prison guards.

VIRGINIA’S MILITARIZED PRISON GUARDS

Within the Virginia prison system, which disproportionately targets communities of color, there operates a select group of guards who are both organized like and think themselves to be an elite military unit. They are called the ‘Strike Force’ or SRT group. They dress in special uniforms cut like military fatigues, tuck their pant legs in their boots like Nazi SS stormtroopers and wear special patches with insignia that look like neo-Nazi symbols. Their culture imitates special operations groups: they operate independent of ‘normal’ prison rules and protocols, engage in closed circle physical training (which like the military they call PT), train with special combat weapon systems (including assault rifles) and in close quarter physical combat (with and without weapons), which regular guards do not receive. They are supposed to serve as a rapid response special intervention force in ‘crisis’ events like hostage situations, riots, special targeted contraband and weapon searches, and so on. But they are actually used, just like occupying armies abroad and police in the communities of people of color and the poor in Amerika, as a force to violently terrorize, brutalize, kill and contain us, to suppress any independent efforts on our part to challenge our abuses, control our own lives, and have our needs met.

Like today’s US mercenary military forces, the SRT is an all-volunteer unit drawn from guards across the state’s prison system who are accepted based upon passing a high-intensity training course, and receive an additional wage for their SRT-related activities. Also like the military they refer to their field engagements as ”Ops.” As Stan Goff observed of most military-idolizing domestic law enforcement units, the SRT’s performance and imitation of actual military units is often laughable (2), however this Unit’s treatments and abuses of prisoners is no less lawless, heinous and murderous than actual military occupation forces in foreign lands.

Furthermore, within the Virginia prison system SRT guards operate as powers unto themselves. They enter any prisons at will and have no accountability to anyone working in them, including the wardens. Their ‘controllers’ are two white men working out of Virginia Department of Corrections (sic!) [VDOC] headquarters, Marty Bryant and another man named Fletcher. Fletcher I personally knew as a racist and abusive guard at Virginia’s notoriously abusive rural supermax Wallens Ridge State Prison, from the early 2000s.

Recent events which exemplify their abusive impunity occurred here at Virginia’s Greensville Correctional (sic!) Center where I am presently imprisoned.

THE ASSAULT OF JOE HARRIS

At around 3am on August 14, 2024, as Joe Harris, III, #1444683 was sleeping, some 20 SRT guards along with a prison investigator and a drug dog rushed his cell. Three of the SRT guards escorted Joe to a shower and ordered him to strip naked. He complied. When nothing was found on him or in his cell, one of the SRT guards claimed he’d swallowed something. Joe protested that he did not swallow anything.

The head investigator of the prison, Loki, appeared at the shower and told the guards to spray Joe with tear gas, although he was cooperating and no force was warranted nor justified. Two of the SRT guards repeatedly and maliciously sprayed the completely naked and defenseless man in his face and genitals. If there were a legitimate belief that Joe had swallowed anything the prison has an airport-style body scan machine that can detect most any foreign object inside or on one’s person. This wasn’t used.

Joe was not decontaminated of the gas, as is standard procedure by VDOC policy and federal Constitutional law anytime caustic agents are used on a prisoner.

He was put in a dry cell, an empty cell with no property or clothing, for 72 hours. The cell was filthy, with mice running around in it, and the commode which he could not flush was full of someone else’s urine and feces. No one ever came to check the toilet to see if he passed anything that he’d supposedly ingested. After he was able to contact his family and they called the prison, Joe was released back to general population, having received no disciplinary infraction, no incident report having been filed, etc. The entire event was swept under the rug as if nothing happened. This is typical SRT behavior.

AN INTENTIONAL ACCIDENT

In fact I recently experienced treatment at the hands of SRT guards that was just as lawless.

On June 21, 2024 I was chained up and transported to the Medical College of Virginia hospital (MCV) in Richmond, for a cardiology appointment. Five SRT guards were specially assembled from across the state to take me on this and other medical appointments outside the prison. This as an ongoing use of these guards, since my recent 71 days long hunger strike, as an attempt to harass and intimidate me from bringing undesired attention to abuses in the Virginia prison system.

I was transported in a ”Freddie Gray Van,” namely a transport vehicle the entire inside of which was lined with unpadded thick steel. This despite that the VDOC is under a federal consent agreement (a still-binding contract), to not transport prisoners inside unpadded vehicles, because of the known dangers of serious injury. (3)

Not only did these guards deliberately take me to the wrong location causing me to miss my appointment, (I was supposed to have been transported to a cardiac clinic in South Hill not Richmond), but they crashed the transport vans into each other in route back to the prison. The van I was in was rear ended by another SRT van that was trailing us. I was caused injuries during the crash from impacts with the steel surfaces inside the van. Worse still, upon advice of Fletcher, these guards immediately fled the scene of the accident, preventing any State Police investigation of the crash site as required by law to impartially determine what happened, why, and any potential liability. In Virginia it is a crime to leave the scene of an accident in this manner. (4) But of course SRT and Virginia prison officials deem themselves to be above the law (lawless law enforcement), which is the nature of occupation forces.

Since this event and upon obvious and valid concern for my safety in the hands of these abusive guards, I have since declined transport runs with SRT guards, which has now been used by VDOC officials to falsely claim that I have been refusing my outside medical appointments related to life-threatening illnesses, when I have not. Since my hunger strike in 2023-2024, I have been repeatedly targeted with special supervision by the SRT unit. Indeed by the same SRT guards who planted a street weapon in my cell at Sussex 1 State Prison on Oct 19, 2023, then assaulted me with tear gas because I asked them to honor medical orders for oversized handcuffs when they were sent to transfer me on October 30, 2023 to the notoriously abusive Virginia supermax Red Onion State Prison. VDOC administrators have used SRT guards to specially target me and others with abuse. Indeed most guards who sign up for SRT membership are people who have an especial bent to abuse others and seek out specialized positions where they can use violence against others under pretexts of enforcing the law, which as demonstrated is the opposite of the function of Virginia’s militarized SRT unit.

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!

_____________________

Endnotes:

1. Point 7 of the 10 Point Program of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party

2. See, for example, Kevin ”Rashid” Johnson, ”Militarized Virginia Prison Guards Believe Amerika Was Fighting Space Aliens in Afghanistan” (2023) https://www.prisonradio.org/commentary/militarized-virginia-prison-guards-believe-amerika-was-fighting-space-aliens-in-afghanistan-text-2023/

3. In a federal class action lawsuit brought by VA prisoners in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, VA styled Brown v. Sielaff, Civil Action # 81-0853-R, the VDOC entered into a settlement agreement where it stated among other things at paragraph 26:

”The DOC agrees to maintain four (4) inch padding in appropriate places in transportation vehicles and will make a good faith effort to explore other possible measures designed to prevent accidental injury to prisoners during transportation.”

4. Under Virginia Code section 46.2-894 any driver who is involved in an accident causing injury or death must stop at the scene or as close thereto without obstructing traffic and summon and report the accident to the state police or local law enforcement agency. Violation of this provision is a class 5 felony punishable by 1 to 10 years in prison in Virginia.

Received  by email.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/11/kevin-rashid-johnson-striking-abuses-of-militarized-guards-in-virginia-prisons/

#1444683 #kevinRashidJohnson #northAmerica #prisonStruggle #virginia

Attica was built to break men brutally, particularly Black men. Orisanmi Burton’s book, Tip of The Spear, draws a direct line from the “European trade in enslaved Africans,” to the bowels of D block Yard in Attica, during contemporary times where the cruelty is still ongoing and fresh. Humanhood required a response to this brand of oppression. “ATTICA! ATTICA!” The world came to shout.

Tip of The Spear speaks in the narrative voice of those men in Attica who refused to be vanquished. One of those voices is mine, although echoed from afar in time. The “Long Attica Revolt” sits inside a timeless context of human suffering and revolution. It “speaks to the very essence of this psychological war,” Burton wrote. Tip of The Spear captures this war of ideologies fought on the base level of society, where the bottom is filled with beaten Black flesh, gray ash, and rusty red coagulated blood. Over 40 years after the Attica uprising, Burton wrote my life on the pages of his work with their pain. This book review is my lineage, link and lock to the legacy of resistance! ATTICA! ATTICA!

Attica is a “site of war,” writes Burton. Attica was one of America’s last strongholds for patriarchal pride and white supremacy to operate with complete immunity to the law. After the Jim Crow era, Attica was the criminal justice system end game for Black men who resisted neo-slavery as a substitute for their civil liberties.

The societal structure for Jim Crow didn’t crumble. Instead, it evolved to criminalize being Black and poor. Then came mass incarceration. It began during the 1970s when former President Nixon declared a war on drugs and crime, thus Black people. Christian Parenti’s Lockdown America exposes former President Nixon as a racist when he, “invoked the specter of street crime, political chaos and narcotics abuse––much of which was thinly veiled code for “the race problem.” The political and social climate was akin to the social lynching Hilter launched on the Jewish people during the Holocaust through concentration camps.

Attica as a physical structure was designed to contain a human body in a cage. Each cell was meant to break the man inside those bodies it imprisoned. Finally, the overall desired effect was to breed what was left inside the body into a beast of burden. This process was all the more brutal when the bodies were Black. Burton calls this process of making a man into an object, “thing-a-fication.”

The prison’s organic culture of normalized cruelty against its influx of Black men as a result of Nixon’s war on crime and drug policies, produced prisoners like George L. Jackson. He was a revolutionary and theorist who was murdered in August 1971 by prison guards at San Quentin prison. Burton offers Jackson’s insight as to how Black people were to survive in prison under such conditions. “The Black commune is capable of nurturing a revolutionary culture and alternate modes of collective life.” Burton, George Jackson, and I don’t glorify the violence of the uprising on either side. Rather, we are romanticizing the humanity involved that came with struggling to survive the massacre.

No one heals in a steel cage. Instead you survive, and become further broken inside of it. Or, you harden from building yourself up against the bars. “It’s the other kind of killing, the kind that assails the body but truly targets the personality, spirit,” Burton reports. I agree because I was “one of those boys.” Burton wrote that people never came back the same.

In 1994, I was 16 years old, incarcerated, and sentenced to one to three years for drug possession. While detained on Rikers Island, I mentally and emotionally snapped after being locked in solitary confinement and repeatedly sexually assaulted by the Emergency Service Unit (ESU), while there.

“They herded us in like animals and forced us to lie on top of each other while guards made cruel and racist remarks like ‘Put that dick in him n**ger.’ Prisoners who refused were beaten mercilessly,” reported Black Panther Albert Woodfox. It’s the same way they did it to me. Except we were made to stand up naked and heel to toe.

From Rikers Island, I was shipped to an adult male prison, where I was supposed to be rehabilitated. No such thing happened. Instead, I was further animalized and released back into society, an 18-year-old wounded animal. A year later in 1997, I became a 19-year-old killer and was sentenced to 25 to life. Next stop for me was Attica.

Within the 30-foot-high gray walls of Attica Correctional Facility, brown and orange bricks stand sturdy, stacked and stained with human blood. Inside these draconian cell blocks, close and far-off screams shattered the mandate for silence while you suffer slow. Seeing the photos of Attica in Burton’s book transported me back to the first night I arrived there.

In 1998, the bright white lights of the newly renovated hospital were a fake out for what laid down the hall. The heat came rushing at me from the hallway and yelled! “WELCOME TO HELL ASSHOLE!” Upon stepping out the hospital corridor, any hope I had of leaving Attica alive evaded me.

The ideology of Attica has always been one of human torture. White guards habitually raped, murdered and brutalized Black flesh to emphasize terror and maintain control directly over the prison population. Burton elaborates that, “The White man’s ongoing effort to maintain racial and gender dominance helps explain why the political repression of Black men often takes explicitly sexualized forms.” Tip of The Spear collapses how we think about time, space, and the sequence of events that connect them. Instead it offers a narrative of a timeless suffering and struggle that roars in a single voice of resistance against an on going oppression. ATTICA! ATTICA!

One of those voices was mine. After numerous racist and sexual remarks about my anatomy during strip frisks, I rebelled.

“HEY FUCK FACE. ON THE NOISE OR ELSE I’M GOING TO TAKE ARTHUR’S DICK AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT,” yelled a guard to another prisoner being strip-frisked in the booth next to me.

Another time a different guard said to me during a strip frisk. “Arthur not for nothing, but if another Attica happens, just don’t fuck me up the ass with that n**ger stick huh.” Then he spit some tobacco off to the side and threw my underwear at me.

That’s where I drew the line. There would be no next time. I decided to wage my own personal war for dignity and respect. “They will never count me among the broken men,” George Jackson wrote. I would fall into the ranks of my revolutionary forefather and resist the strip frisk.

In November of 2002, I refused to be strip frisked after a visit with two women friends of mine. I said “No!” when I was ordered to remove my clothing in the small secluded booth. This activated the actors of the carceral state to beat me up, forcibly rip the clothing from my body, and probe my body cavities for contraband. No contraband was ever found. Yet, I laid there beneath the soles of their steel toe boots, a Black massive heap of hurting flesh. I recovered my pride as a man, because I took a stand.

“I became a man in Attica.” Despite its horrific history, “it’s where I grew up.” In 2015, that’s what I told journalist Alexander Nazaryan from Newsweek about my 13 years at Attica. It’s where I refused to be any longer what Burton refers to as “one of those boys that something happened too.” ATTICA! ATTICA!

In 2010, I left Attica hard as the rock I carried in my soul (see below), and wounded. Upon entering Coxsackie Correctional Facility, I found that the tension of Attica had tapered off somewhat. Things looked different, but inwardly felt the same. Despite the “Programming Pacification,” Burton explains, the atrocities didn’t stop. The oppression just changed appearance to the same effect. “The war was not over. . . it had only transformed in sophisticated ways,” Burton wrote.

Burton has convincingly proven that what happened at Attica in 1971 and the events leading up to its eruption wasn’t just a shameful episode in time. “State actors waged an imperialist war, a war of capture and conquest that had the production of slaves as its unspoken object,” Burton wrote about the premise of systematically putting Black men in prison. Attica also represents a deeply encoded strand of resistance within our DNA to oppression. I encourage everyone intent on taking a stand for what Burton calls “humanhood” to read this book.

Oppression and revolution go hand and hand. Burton’s work gives us a deeper and more profound look at, not just what happened at Attica, but also why Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor during the Attica uprising, described the state’s massacre of Black men in prison as a “really beautiful operation.” Eventually, if left unchecked the white patriarch imperialist will come to operate on you and your loved ones next. “Everybody is a n**ger,” if you’re not aligned with the white man, explained one survivor of Attica.

“Revolution must be a love inspired act.” That’s how George Jackson put it. That’s how it went down in the Attica uprising. Today I’m evolving the resistance, by the wisdom of Black lesbian feminist Audre Lorde. “You can’t use the master tools to tear down the master’s house.” Lorde also theorized “Black life as warfare,” writes Burton, who continues to make a brilliant use of Lorde’s “The Erotic” as proof that George Jackson’s theory of Black communal life laced with love is a reality.

Those men survived the Attica massacre because they practiced feminism, mutual aid, social care, and brotherly love. Albeit unconsciously, Burton’s interview with an Attica uprising survivor reports that “he witnessed someone spontaneously break into tears because he could not remember ever being so close to other people.” Decades later when I was in Attica I felt the same with my brothers in arms. Little did those brothers back then in the uprising, or I decades later would know, but we were being forged by feminism.

In 2020, the finer points of George Jackson’s and Aurde Lorde’s words would find me and force me to finesse my resistance with feminism. That same year Covid clapped the world. I led my prison community at Fishkill Correctional Facility as their Inmate Liaison Chairman through the pandemic while still resisting the carceral state without a single violent act. I employed love universally across the board to every human being on the compound. This is what Burton calls, “Humanhood.” This is how we all survived the COVID-19 crisis.

It’s also how I further resisted the state by beginning a movement with an art exhibit called “She Told Me To Save The Flower.” It’s my plea to use feminism as a way to heal in the carceral state as opposed to brutal cruelty. The global community heard my call and clicked up to crash the carceral state.

The Long Attica Revolt still resides with us today, although it has significantly evolved. New “technologies are also facilitating new forms of surveillance and control,” Burton asserts, and I agree. This book review has been censored by this same technology––JPay. Since you are reading this, we have successfully resisted the carceral state once again. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. The Tip of The Spear still needs sharpening by our strongest hearts and most brilliant minds. For every cry of oppression, there will always be someone resisting and shouting. . . ATTICA! ATTICA!

Corey Devon Arthur is an incarcerated writer and artist who is part of the Empowerment Avenue Collective, with his work published in venues including, The Marshall Project, Writing Class Radio, The Drift, and Apogee. He exhibited his art at 2 galleries in Brooklyn, New York in early 2023. You can check out more of his work at dinartexpression on Instagram, and on Medium.

From: Study and Struggle

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/30/corey-devon-arthur-always-attica/

#attica #feminism #georgeJackson #northAmerica #prisonStruggle

After the last uprising, which at the end of May had destroyed the blue area of the CPR of Gradisca, on July 10 it was the same area that burned again: several dormitories were destroyed again and some prisoners managed to reach the roof.
The riots continue to follow one another unabated – the last one in the so-called “green area” on the evening of August 4 – increasingly undermining the structure of the Gorizia administrative prison and even forcing the cops’ unions to ask for its temporary closure, naturally to allow it to be restored.

In the meantime, following the greetings brought under the walls of the CPR in recent months, 10 expulsion orders have currently been served from Gradisca (ranging from 6 months up to 2 years), motivated by dozens of complaints received only later against as many supporters.

While continuous riots are making many of the CPRs of the peninsula increasingly unusable, thus affecting the system of expulsions whose blackmail function they constitute the physical emblem, the upcoming “security package” – which could be approved by the end of the year – introduces new crimes and aggravates others in an attempt to put a stop to a situation that is increasingly less manageable also for the stability of the selection-exploitation-blackmail-imprisonment-expulsion.

This is the case of the sentence of imprisonment from 1 to 6 years for each prisoner who, within a CPR or other so-called reception facility, “through acts of violence or threats or through acts of resistance, even passive, to the execution of orders given by the authorities, carried out by three or more people together, promotes, organizes, directs a revolt”. For the mere fact of participating in the revolt, the penalty ranges from 1 to 4 years, while there is also an aggravation of the penalty if the act is committed with the use of weapons or if someone is killed or suffers serious or very serious injuries in the revolt.

It is evident that for the legislator it is completely indifferent from which side the action capable of causing injury or leading to death comes and, consequently, who the victim is.
Since it is usually the cops who beat and kill the prisoners in prisons and “administrative” detention camps – unfortunately the opposite does not often happen – during but also in the absence of riots, it is easy to imagine what kind of free hand this law can guarantee to future actions of repression of riots and to the completely summary violence inside the camps by the guards.
Since the practicability of those who act covered by a uniform must become increasingly total (inside prisons and CPRs as well as outside), the aforementioned aggravating circumstance also exists in the hypothesis that the killing or injury occurs “immediately after the revolt and as a consequence of it”. In fact, prisoners often die as a result of beatings or escape attempts – just to stay in Gradisca, think of Majid El Kodra or Vakhtang Enukidze – not to mention the punitive expeditions often conducted in the days following the riots.
In short, the clear message seems to be “even if you risk killing them, don’t think twice, as the fault will always be of those who remain”.
The inclusion among the ordinary practices of managing CPRs of lethal methods of containing riots and protests constitutes, in fact, a huge legal-repressive leap forward, such as to go even far beyond what is provided for in ordinary prison regimes, except for situations that risk becoming irrecoverable, such as when in 2020 and not for the first time, the State did not hesitate to shoot at the prisoners in the prisons in revolt.

The logic of war, to eliminate at the root, when deemed necessary, any form of insubordination to the deprivation of freedom, in the broader framework of the systemic war waged against marginal, irregular, rebels, irreducible to the imposed order.
While trying to break the bonds of solidarity between inside and outside, the intent therefore appears clear: to restore order and further strengthen the machinery of detention and expulsion.
In the meantime, the list of sites designated to host the new deportation camps planned in each region is expected to be announced by the end of the summer.

Finally, a new tender for the management of the Gradisca CPR was opened a few days ago after the previous one, dating back to 2022, ran aground due to the judicial flaws of various participating coops without reaching a conclusion, thus remaining for the moment the usual Ekene to manage the field. The new tender provides for a capacity of 150 seats, for an estimated contract amount of about 17 and a half million euros.
For information, the coops in the running for the assignment in the previous tender were, in May of this year: Officine Sociali of Priolo Gargallo (SR), Martinina srl of Pontecagnano Faiano (SA), Azzurra srl of Varese with administrative headquarters in Omegna (VB), Associazione San Marco Onlus of Palma di Montechiaro (AG), La mano di Francesco onlus of Favara (AG), Coop Stella of Roasio (VC) and again Ekene of Battaglia Terme (PD).

Solidarity with the rioters in prisons and in the CPR

FIRE TO ALL THE PRISONS
FREE THEM ALL

Comrades

From: https://nofrontierefvg.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/10/ancora-da-gradisca/

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/11/prison-riot-at-cpr-of-grandisca-in-italy/

#europe #italy #prisonStruggle #riot

Black August study, fast, train, fight: Nurturing Militancy and Preparing for the Day of Action.

Black August holds a profound significance for abolitionist prisoners, as it serves as a time to honor the resistance of our fallen comrades and reflect on the ongoing struggle against the carceral system. During this month, we not only deepen our political education but also prepare ourselves militantly, inspired by the spirit of George L. Jackson, for a day when conditions may require militant actions. As members of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak [the more militant segment of our membership], we understand the importance of utilizing Black August as a catalyst for growth, education, and collective preparation.

Within the confines of U.S.A prison system, nurturing militancy becomes a pivotal aspect of our resistance. Black August provides a space for abolitionist prisoners to foster a mindset of militant preparedness, drawing inspiration from past resistance campaigns. We recognize that the struggle against the carceral system may demand actions beyond peaceful advocacy. Therefore, during this month, we engage in rigorous physical and mental training, fortifying ourselves for a day when conditions may necessitate militant resistance.

Through physical fitness routines, martial arts training, and mental conditioning, we prepare ourselves to confront the oppressive forces that seek to silence our voices. Embracing the spirit of George L. Jackson, we study his writings, such as “Soledad Brother” and “Blood in my Eyes” which not only provide us with insights into the prison-industrial slave complex but also pushes us to challenge the status quo through bold and militant actions. We understand that true liberation may require us to transcend the limitations imposed upon us and be ready to seize opportunities for radical change.

Black August serves as a potent reminder that our struggle extends beyond the confines of prison walls. It is an opportunity for abolitionist organizers to recognize the need for militant preparation and to stand in solidarity with individuals who are actively engaging in this process.

During this month, we actively seek to build bridges of solidarity and create networks that transcend the razor wires. By connecting with organizations and individuals outside the prison walls, we amplify our collective voices and join the global struggle against the carceral system.

We encourage organizers to continue centering the experiences and lessons from people like George L. Jackson. Organizers can help build a movement that understands the importance of militant preparedness as a means to challenge oppressive structures and pave the way for transformative change.

Long Live The Spirit of George L. Jackson…

Big Sike,

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak

** Big Sike is a JLS member currently confined is FBOP

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/09/abolitionist-militancy-in-the-spirit-of-black-august/

#abolitionist #BlackAugust #georgeJackson #JailhouseLawyersSpeak #militancy #northAmerica #prisonStruggle

“To the Ministry of Justice
To the Surveillance Magistrate of Trento

The imprisoned population of the prison of Trento, due to an undignified standard of living, the inefficiency of services, inhuman overcrowding, the rigidity of surveillance, proposes a peaceful protest to the bitter end that will include a strike of the ministerial food trolley and beating in the hours 12.00-12.30 and 21.00-22.00.
This protest is aimed at finding a common ground with the institutions: we ask for a more decent lifestyle and the willingness of the surveillance to grant benefits to those who meet the requirements quickly.

01/08/2024”.

This text was signed by a large number of prisoners of the Trentino prison of Spini di Gardolo.
The protest, with noisy beatings and the trolley strike (i.e. the refusal of food provided by the prison) involved several sections and lasted until August 5.
On one of these evenings, a group of supporters went under the walls to support the protest and talk to the prisoners.

The reasons for the protest are the same as in other Italian prisons where there have recently been protests and riots: Trieste, Sanremo, Turin, Alessandria, Genoa, Bolzano…
Revolts repressed with tear gas and batons (as well as with expulsion orders to solidarity supporters): in Trieste a prisoner died, officially of an “overdose” (like the 9 deaths during the Modena uprising in 2020…).

In the meantime, with Bill 1660 still under discussion, they would like to establish the crime of prison revolt for simple disobedience to orders and equate passive resistance with active resistance, as well as putting those who protest inside and those who bring solidarity outside on the same level.

The climate of war means that the State wants to steamroll over the struggles, inside and outside the prisons.
For this reason, it is even more necessary to bring out the voice of the prisoners and bring in the warmth and concreteness of our solidarity.

Against the Security Package!
Alongside the prisoners in struggle!

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/07/declaration-of-strike-at-prison-of-spini-di-gardolo-in-italy/

#europe #italy #prisonStrike #prisonStruggle

This is second Black August words for Sun…

The significance and important part of Black August is that those who have joined in, with what it’s commemorations are inspired by, and identify with the deep sense of commitment and sacrifices made by this specific group of brothers, (Black men) who had grown up out of the degradations of California’s racist prison system and proclaimed their humanity in extraordinary form; to the extent that they declared and took their freedom or death in furtherance of Black people’s historical struggle plus the attempted liberation of themselves and other comrades/prisoners to further the political demands being made on Amerika by Blacks across the country and inside its prison walls. Thing is, this sort of thing builds pride in our history as a people, commemorations, builds traditions which builds cultural (group) identification and awareness of common destinies. All of our COMMON DESTINIES…

We celebrate these brothers and others of our peoples who have likewise sacrificed lives and brought progress which made this month of August worthy of standards to be emulated.

TAKE A STANCE, MAKE A DIFFERENCE MEASURED BY YOUR OWN STANDARDS ACCORDING TO THE TIMES OF TODAY. WE HAVE NO TIME NOR BROTHERS AND SISTERS TO WASTE… OUR STRUGGLES CONTINUE…

The following incidents are part of the origins of Black August’s commemorations:

On August 7th, 1971 young 16 year old Jonathan Jackson stepped into one of America’s court rooms, short trench coat with guns of liberation hidden; as he approached his position he announced “all right gentlemen I’m taking over now” and took control of the court with intent to liberate prisoners of San Quentin there going to trial. They eventually took hostages of judge and jury to further demand that other San Quentin prisoners (freedom fighters) be released including Jonathan’s brother George Jackson. Jonathon died that day August 7th, under a hail of bullets (from San Quentin’s guards and other law agencies) along with other freedom fighters; William Christmas, James McClain; one survived, Ruchell Magee, [who was eventually paroled and died]; of the hostages, the judge died; a district attorney and three female jurors survived their wounds, and the highest tribute to events of that day was given by George Jackson, Jonathon’s brother in his published book “Soledad Brothers” last pages of his letter to Joan, quoted as follows

Dear Joan

WE reckon all time in the future from the day of the man child’s death.

Man-Child, Blackman Child with submachine gun in hand, he was free for a while, I guess that is more than most of us can expect. I want people to wonder at what forces created him, terrible, vindictive, cold, calm man-child, courage in one hand, the machine gun in the other, scourge of the unrighteous “an ox for the people to ride”!

Go over all the letters I’ve sent you, any reference to Georgia (their mother) being less than a perfect revolutionary’s mama must be removed. Do it now! I want no possibility of anymore misunderstanding her as i did. She didn’t cry a tear. She is, as I am, very proud. She read two things into his rage, love and loyalty…

I cant go any further, it would just be a love story about the baddest brother this world has had the privilege to meet, and it’s just not popular or safe to say I love him. Cold and Calm, “all right gentleman, I’m takin over now” Revolution…!

(note that last sentence was George quoting Jonathan’s statement to the court on August 7th.)

On August 21st, 1971 Jonathon’s brother comrade George Jackson; having a righteous love for the People and perfect hate for the enemies of the People chose August 21st’s confrontation with the guards of San Quentin’s adjustment center to exact retribution plus to fulfill his destiny of liberation/freedom or death.

The exact unfolding of events on that day is not public knowledge : what is known is after an attempted search of George returning from a visit, an unidentifiable gun emerged, source unknown but the gun became the object of confrontation between the guards and George, who gained its possession, subdued the guards then demanded that the doors of prisoners locked in the adjustment center be opened. The aftermath of that was that two avowed white racist prisoners were killed along with three guards; before George was gunned down by San Quentin’s gun tower guards as he and Larry Spain made their way out of the adjustment center towards the North double walls of San Quentin (an unlikely route for escape attempt as the prevailing claims has it). Larry Spain was also out on the path and captured. He later won freedom and release from prison.

Black August resistance and commemoration encompasses much more as other contributions will be put forward.

CANT STOP – WONT STOP

DOC

** Doc at the time of this communication in late July 2024 was housed at FBOP USP Hazelton.

Commemorating Our New Afrikan Revolutionaries:

The FLEA Days in Black August is important as we recognize and commemorate the revolutionaries who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the liberation struggle. Within the framework of Black August, there are four significant days known as FLEA days in Weusi Agosti: the 1st, 7th, 13th, and 21st. These days hold special significance as we honor our fallen.

On the first FLEA day, August 1st, 1978, we remember the assassination and medical neglect of Khatari Gaulden. His untimely death serves as a stark reminder of the injustices faced by revolutionaries and the price they pay for their unwavering commitment.

The second FLEA day, August 7th, commemorates the Marin Court Rebellion of 1970. It is a day to reflect on the lives lost, including Jonathan Jackson, James McClain, and William Christmas. Their courageous actions during the rebellion exemplify the spirit of resistance and the lengths individuals will go to challenge oppressive systems.

Moving to the third FLEA day, August 13th, we honor the memory of W.L. Nolen, Alvin Miller, and Cleveland Edwards. These individuals were assassinated by prison guards on January 13, 1970. Their lives serve as a testament to the brutal repression faced by those who dare to fight back against white supremacy and speak truth to power.

Lastly, on the fourth FLEA day, August 21st, we pay tribute to George Jackson, who was assassinated by prison guards in 1971. His unwavering dedication to the cause of liberation and his powerful writings continue to inspire generations of activists.

These FLEA days hold immense significance within the Black August observance. They remind us of the sacrifices made by our revolutionaries and serve as a call to action to continue their legacy. As we participate in Black August, we honor their memory and reaffirm our commitment to the struggle for justice, equality, and liberation.

In conclusion, the FLEA days in Weusi Agosti are an integral part of the Black August. They provide us with opportunities to reflect, commemorate, and draw inspiration from the lives of our fallen comrades. As we engage in the fasting, abstinence, educational pursuits, and symbolic gestures of Black August, let us also remember and honor our fallen during Black August Memorial- BAM. Through our collective efforts, we strive to build a world that recognizes and upholds the ideals for which they fought and sacrificed.

New Afrikan Political Prisoner,

Sundiata Jawanza

Black August Mutual Aid

Black August mutual aid goes 100% directly towards people inside that need commissary, law books and phone time. This mutual aid will be distributed through the Jailhouse Lawyers Speak national network.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/03/jailhouse-lawyers-speak-salute-black-august/

#BlackAugust #blackLiberation #georgeJackson #JailhouseLawyersSpeak #northAmerica #prisonStruggle

Many years ago, while imprisoned at SCI-Smithfield, and struggling to keep our study groups afloat, I received an e-mesage from Casey Goonan. I had no clue whom he was. He said he reached out because he heard about the work I was doing inside and wanted to offer any assistance he could. He did, and he continued to do so. Casey has been one of the most consistent and ready allies/accomplices of imprisoned people. Whether producing zines that center imprisoned voices, mailing zines to imprisoned people at no cost, coordinating phone zaps to combat repression by prison officials, raising funds for mutual aid, building social media presence for imprisoned folx or just lending an attentive ear to the concerns of imprisoned people, Casey has been unstinting in his support of anyone, anywhere, who is being oppressed.

My friend, my comrade, my brother, is currently being held in a county jail in CA. I wish I were out there to do more for him, to manifest by love and solidarity for him. What I want everyone to know is that Casey Goonan is an amazing ally/accomplice of oppressed people everyone. In this, his time of need, he should be supported and cared for. I ask people to keep close tabs on the situation, show up for Casey and make sure that while he is inside, jail officials do not harm him or exacerbate his condition. I don’t ever claim to speak for all imprisoned people, but I feel confident in saying that thousands of imprisoned people across this land have benefited from Casey’s efforts. We ask you support our comrade and care for him.

Always,

Stevie

In the Belly

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/01/statement-of-solidarity-with-casey-goonan-by-stevie-wilson/

#CaseyGoonan #northAmerica #PoliticalPrisoners #prisonStruggle #Solidarity #StevieWilson