Boycott now! Aug 21 – Sept 9


As you know, we launched a poll to ask you all who YOU wanted to boycott for the duration of the National Prison Strike. Per ask from national organizers, we selected 3 companies. However, as the 3rd place was a tie, and we had a sincere request to really target Bank of America based on the role predatory lending and eviction are used as tactics to round up undocumented comrades to fill detention centers, we have agreed that we have no choice but to call for all 4. The “winners” of our poll are Amazon.com, Exxon/Mobil, McDonald’s and Bank of America.

Amazon’s overwhelming lead in the poll is in large part a result of Amazon’s recent disgusting announcement last month that they are “proud” to continue to provide logistics and material support to the mass incarceration and deportation machine.  Amazon is not only a massive distributor of prison-made goods, but they own companies that directly source to prison workers for pennies an hour. Their role in developing facial recognition software for police, ICE and prisons has been crucial to making the world a substantially more dangerous place for marginalized people.

 

#prisonstrike boycott poll

The national call for action has asked that local groups pick three companies to boycott. We have compiled this list from Popular Resistance , as suggested in the national call. Please pick up to three companies you both patronize and would be willing to boycott for 8/21 – 9/9.

Please note that we have also only included in this poll companies that are locally accessible. There is a shocking number of total complicit organizations. We have also included Amazon.com. We see Amazon’s direct dealings with ICE as a massive pillar of the prison industrial complex and the prison slavery machine. As Cosecha has pointed out undocumented migrants are often forced to work for no pay in private prisons during their detention. This is slavery.

 

Please note that the full list is available at https://popularresistance.org/identifying-businesses-that-profit-from-prison-labor/ For the sake of localizing our boycott endorsements, we have tried to only include companies that people in and around Massachusetts would be able to boycott directly. If something is missing from this list that is of local interest, please contact info@deeperthanwater.org

 

Prison strike actions

On August 21, the 187th anniversary of Nat Turner’s Rebellion, prisoners around the country will participate in an all-out wildcat strike to demand an end to prison slavery. This will involve walk-outs, sit-ins, work strikes and boycotts. The strike will last until September 9th, the 47th anniversary of the Attica Uprising. The strike is being endorsed by over 140 different organizations from around the world, including the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) via their Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). This strike is a massive showing of prisoner power and all organizations involved must take direction explicitly from people inside. Please see #DeeperThanWater’s endorsement here.

On August 21st, the Boston May Day Coalition will kick off the strike locally with a vigil at South Bay Detention Center. Those of you that have been following Cosecha Boston’s work will know that this site reprehensibly doubles as an ICE detention facility. We strongly encourage everyone to turn out to this event, to kick off what promises to be one of the most important strikes in worker history.

On the 23rd, Deeper Than Water will be holding a second rally and action outside of the Nashua Street Jail in conjunction with the Massachusetts National Lawyer’s Guild. Our local organizers inside have stated that one of the biggest problems facing prisoners right now in MA is the extensive use solitary confinement, particularly against prisoners who speak to the press. The 23rd has historically been chosen as an action date to draw attention to the barbarity of the practice, where prisoners are kept in a miniscule closet for 23 hours a day, only let out for a maximum of 1 hr to walk (in a different cage) to keep blood clots from forming due to inactivity.

Please reach out if your organization is interested in endorsing the Aug. 23rd rally. See below:

CALL FOR ENDORSEMENTS FROM ORGANIZATIONS!
to endorse email deeperthanwater@protonmail.com

Endorsing means:

  • your organization must accept the national strike demands (below)
  • call for the total end of solitary confinement in any circumstance
  • committing to turn out 4-10 (or 100, or 1000…) of your members
  • share this event on your email, social media, etc lists

Coalition members:

Black Lives Matter Boston
Black and Pink
SURJ Boston – Showing Up for Racial Justice
Toxics Action Center
PSL Boston – Party for Socialism and Liberation
Young Abolitionists
individual current and formerly incarcerated organizers

Endorsing organizations [8/23]:

National Lawyers Guild – Massachusetts Chapter
Boston Democratic Socialists of America
FIRE Boston
Workers World Party-Boston
Jericho Movement: Boston Branch
Harvard TPS Coalition

Official endorsement of the #August21 National Prison Strike

 

Endorsement:

#DeeperThanWater is proud to endorse the National Prison Strike and their associated demands called for August 21, 2018. Read the full call and list of demands here.

We recognize prison, police, and parole as primary tools in the machine of white supremacy and white supremacist capitalism. The animating spirit of prison, police, and parole is the idea that Black and brown and poor people are not human, thus paving the road for the reprehensible practice of caging our fellow humans and the specific atrocities that inexorably follow.

Workers held captive in state, federal, and immigration prisons have called on us to support them in withdrawing their labor from the system that grinds down their humanity. As we draw on 500 years of abolitionist movement building from Beacon Hill to MCI Norfolk, we oppose this modern day system of slavery and segregation. In the demands put forward by these held captive  illustrate, there is so much we can do to keep building toward abolition.

To our supporters on the outside, look for an action during the strike (August 21-September 9), follow the strike online and wherever possible direct mainstream media attention to it.

Write to prisoners. There will be retaliation, when there is – show up and hold the jailers accountable.

As one of our beloved friends and incarcerated organizers is fond of saying – we see this strike as the loosening of nuts and bolts in the prison system. Eventually, it will collapse.

And with it, so will one more leg of white supremacy.

 

Demands as laid out by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, April 23, 2018:

  1. Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
  2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.
  3. The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned humans a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their rights.
  4. The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and parole. No human shall be sentenced to Death by Incarceration or serve any sentence without the possibility of parole.
  5. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole denials of Black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular problem in southern states.
  6. An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting Black and brown humans.
  7. No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at their place of detention because of their label as a violent offender.
  8. State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation services.
  9. Pell grants must be reinstated in all US states and territories.
  10. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called “ex-felons” must be counted. Representation is demanded. All voices count.

Download demands: PDF

NPS resources:

Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) – A revolutionary arm of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) comprised of formerly and currently incarcerated workers collaborating to abolish prisons and the prison state. Statement on @IGD_News here.
[ site: 
https://incarceratedworkers.org/ | twitter: @IWW_IWOC ]

Amani Sawari/Sawari MI – Organizer with the #August21 movement, home of the Solid Black Fist newsletter, the official National Prison Strike newsletter (see issue 1 for a recap of May 19 rally in honor of Malcolm X). Listen to an interview with Amani talking about the strike on Final Straw Radio here.
[  site: http://sawarimi.org/national-prison-strike | twitter: @sawarimi ]

 

 

 

prison heat update

Despite Wayland being thrown in solitary and transferred to another prison, he has been provided with no explanation nor means of redress. Meanwhile, the state has released their inspection reports of the three facilities chosen by DPH.

The reports leave out copious details, and selectively include pieces of irrelevant information, such as the placement of air conditioning in a single room out of hundreds. The one very notable detail not subject to debate is the inside temperature reading. As you can see, the inside reading placed MCI Cedar Junction at 89°F, despite the inspection having been carried out on a 78°F day. Remember that heat amplifies in enclosed spaces. Consider that a car in 100°F heat has an internal temperature of 116°F after one hour. While the space inside units is larger, the experiments were conducted on vehicles with silver exterior, similar to the sheet metal and concrete that comprises Cedar Junction.

Additionally, the reports do, in fact validate prisoners allegations that the ventilation systems weren’t working.

Many of the units at MCI Cedar Junction are largely windowless. Broken ventilation/exhaust units means that there are 45 people in a small enclosed space with no climate control and no moving air in the middle of the heat wave.

Read #DeeperThanWater’s 8/3 statement on Facebook here:

 

Thanks to hundreds of phone calls you made to the Governor’s office and Department of Public Health starting July 9, we forced the state to act.

DPH inspected MCI Concord, MCI Norfolk, and MCI Cedar Junction. The inspections were conducted on a 74 degree day and produced citations for ventilation issues at Cedar Junction and Concord and reported indoor temperatures 10 degrees higher than outdoors.

Within one week, the Boston Globe published the story, and two weeks later we heard from prisoners at Cedar Junction, where our people report temperatures of 115 degrees heat index at the height of the heat wave, that they were being moved cell by cell to allow for fan installation.

Our comrades doing long bids and life remind us that conditions have been scorching in the summer and freezing in the winter for decades. It is your work and dedication to following the leadership of prisoners that resulted in this marginal gain…and we do not stop here.

Today, the National Weather Services has issued a Heat Advisory from 1-3 pm this afternoon; heat index values outside will climb into the high 90s. This means we can reasonably predict that people inside will experience heat in the 100s, again.

Fans will help some people bear it. But we know that this is nowhere near enough.

We know that elderly prisoners will not be moved to cooler areas, that people suffering from heat exhaustion will be punished for requesting medical care, and that the inhumanity of the prison system will continue.

We must keep fighting – join us for the long haul. This is #DeeperThanWater.

 

 

RETALIATION ALERT – CALL FOR WAYLAND!

Update 7/20: X was moved in the middle of the 
night to another facility. Told he was seeing the 
Lt. Never received a single ticket or reason. 
Please keep calling. This time demand to know 
why he was moved.
Update 7/19: X is still in solitary. 
Still no charges. See here or visit our FB 
for more.

As you all know, MA state prisons are sweltering this time of year, with prisoners passing out from heat exhaustion. In response to our call-in campaign to Gov. Baker’s office and the Dept. of Public Health (DPH), Wayland “X” Coleman has been put in solitary yet again in retaliation.

Please click here when you have made your calls! 

DPH performed a surprise inspection of three prisons due to public pressure last week, and subsequently delivered an unpromising report from Norfolk, covered by the Globe. They have conspicuously refused to release their findings at MCI Cedar Junction, where temperatures can spike above 115 degrees inside. 

The day after the DPH inspection of Norfolk (Thursday, 7/12), Wayland, an outspoken activist for improved conditions in the prison, was handcuffed and thrown in solitary confinement for the second time in 4 months in retaliation for his activism. He still has not been informed of the formal charges against him.

 

Update 7/17:

Wayland has still not received charges. Yesterday 
the DOC claimed within the same hour that CORI 
prevented them from releasing charges while another 
caller was told that a statement would be 
forthcoming. Please keep calling!

 

Update 7/19:

One of us was able to visit with Wayland last night in solitary confinement. Despite what Norfolk is telling many of us on the phone, he still does not know why he is in solitary. Deputy Superintendent Tiana Bennett’s office is 10 feet away from the solitary unit and she could easily swing by Wayland’s cell at any time to tell him what he is being investigated for.

Please join us as we make calls to Commissioner of the DOC, Tom Turco, to demand that Wayland be informed of the charges and immediately released from solitary. See script below.

Please stay tuned and engaged as we continue to build for action in defense of our friends inside.

 

Sample script

Thomas A. Turco III, Commissioner: (508) 422-3330
Fax: (508) 422-3385
Thomas.Turco@massmail.state.ma.us

Hello, my name is ____________________ and I am a concerned individual/friend of Wayland Coleman’s. He has been held in solitary confinement for over a week and has not received any information about why. MCI Norfolk administrators have repeatedly lied to callers, saying that a reason has been given. We understand this to be part of a pattern of retaliation against prisoner activists. I demand his immediate release!

Why is Wayland in solitary? Will you confirm he will be released immediately? If not, why and when will you release him?

heat emergency call-in

 

The past week rocked MA with heat emergencies and high humidity. In MA prisons, without AC temperatures remained above 100 in cell blocks, measured as high as 115. We call on Gov. Baker to address this situation!

Please don’t forget to submit the form to help us keep track of volume. This is essential to managing the flow of calls.

On top of the dirty water at every institution we have heard from, this is another example of environmental racism, of prisons’ fundamental disinterest in rehabilitation.

We demand that all MA prisoners be released to seek safe and adequate housing and medical care.

We hold DOC Commissioner Thomas Turco responsible for the situation and are calling on Governor Baker to immediately terminate him. Until this demand is met, we insist that MA DOC immediately install air conditioners and fans in all units, while providing free access to clean, bottled water and personal fans.

 

Sample call script

Hello, my name is _________. And I am a concerned voter in [your town/neighborhood]. I have been informed that prisoners in MA do not have access to air conditioning, fans, or clean water. This is yet another example of environmental racism on the part of the state of Massachusetts and the DOC.

I demand that you immediately terminate Commissioner Turco. Further, you must instruct the DOC to install air conditioning and fans in all units and provide prisoners with free, clean bottled water and personal fans.

optional

 

 

EMERGENCY: EXTREME HEAT INSIDE MA DOC

Update: on July 12 and 13th, Mass DPH did a surprise inspection as a result of your efforts. The following day, Wayland Coleman was put in solitary confinement. The following week, Wayland was put in a van in the middle of the night and shipped to MCI Gardner.  Read more here.

Earlier this week, incarcerated loved ones reached out to tell us about the extreme heat happening at MCI-Norfolk and MCI-Cedar Junction (Walpole). While temperatures outside have been a worrisome 100 degrees, inside they have reached a staggering 115°F, with 80% humidity.

While prisons are largely without air conditioners, most prisoners can buy fans at the commissary if they can afford them. At MCI-Cedar Junction, where some units have no opening windows, fans are banned. Prisoners have been provided with a 3 gallon cooler of ice for 45 men once a night. Those who have tried to reduce the amount of clothing on their body, such as wearing only boxer shorts, have been threatened with discipline. All guards have personal fans over their desks.

One prisoner passed out, and prior to taking him to medical, guards cuffed him while he was unconscious.

To add insult to injury, this flyer has been posted on the walls at MCI-Cedar Junction:


July 10, 2018 update (day 2)

Thank you to everyone who has called, faxed and emailed to get the Governor’s attention on this matter. As we enter another scorching July day, we urge you all to keep calling, and please, do not relent. If you have called, but are still wanting to do more, please consider using a fax service. If you don’t have a fax machine, you can use the free services below (there are dozens of such free services).

Free fax services:

https://www.myfax.com/free/ – can send up to 2 faxes free every 24 hours. Simply upload your document and press send. No account or sign-up needed.

https://faxzero.com/ – 5 free per day, max 3 pages per fax. No account or sign-up needed.

For more free services, plus reviews and tips, see this Lifehacker article.

When We Have A Voice

When We Have A Voice
June 10, 2018
Wayland “X” Coleman

When we have a voice, those whom we speak against will act to suppress it.

I often tell Christine that you can’t be an activist if you’re not willing to get arrested. The strongest tool that any system of oppression and repression has against the people it’s designed to control, is fear.  Fear of punishment. Fear of suffering. Fear of being made uncomfortable. Fear of death.

Fear is not only used to break a person’s will to resist, it’s also used to turn people against you when your will cannot be broken. In other words, when your own fear cannot be used against you, other people’s fear will be used. So, with that said, I want to talk a bit about countermeasures.

First, it’s important for us to understand that those who are in power don’t want anything to change within the operations of the systems that gives them their power and control. When there is a strong message that speaks against the power structure of this country effectively, countermeasures are applied in order to minimize – or diminish altogether – the strength of the message. When government counteracts, then you know that you have something of value to say or to move out on. It means that you struck a nerve within the control system, because, whatever the message, it threatens their structure of authority and creates a platform for change in a particular way of doing things.

The Black Lives Matter movement – for example – did just that. The message was so direct, and carried with it so much threat to expose the ugly and hidden truths about the racist practices and attitudes within this country’s police force. The movement had the power to expose the police for the bullies, racists, and public safety frauds that they are. Because there was so much potential for damage there, and because this potential had the ability to create change in the operations of the system that was being critiqued, a counter movement was designed – the form of “Blue Lives Matter”, “White Lives Matter”, and “All Lives Matter” – in order to neutralize the exposure of the violent discrimination and unjust practices within the policing system. They sought to strategically take the attention off of race.

The statement, “Black Lives Matter” had so much impact on society that nationwide conversation sparked regarding police accountability. This lead to the suggestion of having body cameras on policemen, which is not a solution to police corruption and racism, and really doesn’t matter since there are no consequences for cops even when they are caught on camera killing, but it did show that there was enough power and voice there to create a significant change within the operations of their system.

The movement and organization became so strong that key members of Black Lives Matter- in conjunction with other organizations- were able to organize Massachusetts to March Against White Supremacy, and effectively. Why wouldn’t a white supremacist powerhouse such as Donald Trump want such a powerful counter organization to be labeled as a terrorist group?

So, has Black Lives Matter effectively struck terror into the hearts of racist bigots? I’d say so. An entire white supremacist movement was stopped in its tracks last summer, and that sent a message to the world.

When you have something to say, and you have a powerful message, a message that has the strength to change something within the system of control, the government, or the power structure that you are challenging will implement a countermeasure in order to turn the people against you. Since 9-11, the Amerikkkan public has become extremely fearful of the word “terrorist”, so the countermeasure here was to create a law that would label Black Lives Matter, and other black activists, “terrorists”, the most dreadful word in the existence of Amerikkkan fear. When someone is considered a terrorist – or “extremist” – as the federal government so colorfully put it – our society’s fear responds, and people say “A terrorist, oh no! Please do what you must to rid us of that!” Your fear gives the government, and it’s policing system, the authorization to kill, illegally incarcerate and disappear the people who have effectively challenged them.

Our government is designed to silence voices against it – and I’ll just cite Amerikkka’s history as a reference. The First Amendment is a lie, mainly because the people haven’t protected it enough. You allow government expectations to impede its application, and eventually, because of your entertainment of government needs and exceptions over people needs, we risk one day being completely voiceless by way of the first amendment.

Let’s consider the current threats to our athletes, who simple exercised their first amendment rights to protest and speak out against police brutality and racism, by kneeling during the national anthem. In addition to the disgraceful, and disrespectful countermeasures employed against black activists – being call “Black Identity Extremists”, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean- a recent countermeasure was also employed against – and I’ll say here – primarily black athletes, in the form of “Stand for the National Anthem, or stay in your locker room.” In other words, recognize and submit to the political dominance over you, or don’t show your face. The argument – going all the way back to John Carlos and Tommy Smith – has been that athletes shouldn’t make sports a political arena. The problem with that is that anytime the Amerikkkan flag, the national anthem, and the military are involved, it is political. If the government wishes to extract politics from sports, why not remove those components? Let’s make it completely nonpolitical. No anthem, no military, and no flag. Just sports.

Athletes have a tremendous voice and influence. What they think and feel about things can spread all over the world, so that power must be suppressed. Because if it is ever fully tapped into, it can literally reshape our political structure. Because our athletes can effectively change the conditions and behaviors in this country, and because they have the power to change the operations within political and social power systems, a countermeasure is necessary against them, even in violation of the first amendment. Essentially, there won’t be an NFL without the athletes, so they hold all the power. Hopefully, they will not allow themselves to be bullied.

In the struggle,

 

In struggle, Wayland "X" Coleman

Full text [ download as PDF ]

 

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