strike action – #DeeperThanWater

August 31, 2018August 31, 2018

Flyers/Stickers/Media

Download, print and plaster all over!

August 28, 2018January 5, 2019

8/23 day of action in solidarity with the National Prison Strike

Thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday, August 23, 2018 for our demo in solidarity with the National Prison Strike, happening 8/21-9/9. The morning began with a banner drop on the bridge over the Science Park MBTA station, overlooking Storrow Drive/I-93.

The evening had a demonstration at Nashua Street Jail, a county lockup that is also used for prisoners awaiting trial. The evening was kicked off hearing from #DeeperThanWater organizer Wayland “X” Coleman, speaking live from NCCI Gardner, a medium security prison in central Massachusetts. Many of the speakers at this rally were currently incarcerated, whose voices were fed live through a sound system into an array of 3 50-watt megaphones that could be heard for nearly a mile. Participants also included a live brass band, and Siham Byah, who was detained and eventually deported by ICE for her activism in the greater Boston area. Please support Siham here.

We want to thank all our comrades: endorsing organizations, medics, banner droppers, and everyone who supported us with logistics, promotion and running of this event.

Please stay tuned for what comes next in the National Prison Strike and support the strike! Next: IWOC providence is holding an event on Sept. 1st, and IWW CT will be holding another one between Sept. 7th-9th. Also please join our comrades at the Harvard TPS coalition as they fight for Rigoberto, and Hungry4Justice as they rally outside South Bay.

Wayland “X” Coleman kicks off the festivities for August 23rd demo. X finishes with a salute to a comrade who was stolen by the state, and is currently being held as a political prisoner. One of the main charges against him is the use of the phrase “shut this shthole down.”*
Second Line Brass Band provides a musical interlude and noise demo at the entrance to the facility.
A #DeeperThanWater organizer addresses the crowd and the guards directly about the hypocrisy of mass incarceration in a country that lays such claim to “freedom” and “liberty.”
Doris, from the Harvard TPS coalition speaks about family separation through prisoners, jails and deportations. Doris connects all struggles for liberation.
Siham Byah, an organizer who was deported by ICE fascists earlier in the year speaks to the crowd from Morocco about the intersection of wage theft, prison slavery and racist deportations.

August 15, 2018August 16, 2018

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

"Rise up, resist, no cops, no nails / the whole damn system is guilty as hell" #PrisonStrike rally in Boston is over
"brick by brick wall by wall, free the prisoners, free them all". Prisoner in window waves as crowd departs pic.twitter.com/CFU2R8OvB0
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) August 24, 2018

Day 3 of the #prisonstrike! Join #DeeperThanWater at Suffolk County Jail at 7 PM to show solidarity and #StopSolitaryMA! pic.twitter.com/tdi3ByhCUq
— The Democracy Center (@DemocracyCnter) August 23, 2018

Don’t set foot in a McDonald’s. Encourage others to do the same.
Flyer outside a McDonald’s to let them know that one of the reasons they are so massive, is their unending commitment to using products made with prison slave labor.
Cancel bank accounts and credit cards. When they ask why you are cancelling, tell them that you don’t want to support modern slavery.
Take those credit card applications you get in the mail, leave it blank and write “END MODERN SLAVERY” (or custom message) and mail it back, postage already paid. Please note: the barcode at the bottom of the return envelopes allow them to trace where it is coming from. Please do at your own risk.
Find your local ongoing anti-eviction group. Boston folks: join City Life / Vida Urbana, which fights the predatory practices of banks like Bank of America every single day.
Participate in eviction blockades.
Use alternative gas stations. Major GPS applications make it easy to find alternative gas stations in your area.

We recognize that there are various levels of commitment to a boycott. For example, under capitalism, many people are forced to patron a specific company for a special food or medicine.
If you are voting for a boycott of a particular medication manufacturer, for example, please be explicit in your support for those who need these to survive. True solidarity includes finding ways to make boycotted products available without contributing to spending.
Do NOT shame those that need these services to survive. If comrades who must use these services are interested, help them identify other actions they can take to participate in the BDS campaign. As you can see, the list is depressingly endless of target companies.

(508) 660 – 5900, ext. 299, ask for Deputy Superintendent Tiana Bennett

Deputy Director of the Central Inmate Disciplinary Unit, Christopher Langlois (508) 660-5990

Governor Baker’s office: (617) 725-4005

Sample call script

Hello, my name is ____________________ and I am a friend of Wayland Coleman’s. He has been thrown in solitary confinement yet again and has not received any information about why. 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?

Not sure what to write? Click below to load our template:

send with template (opens email client)

Did you already send an email? Let us know!

Let them know how you feel about injustice:

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

Bruce I. Gelb
Deputy Commissioner
Tel: (508) 422-3495
Fax: (508) 422-3385
Bruce.Gelb@massmail.state.ma.us

Charlie Baker
Governor of Massachusetts
Contact his office directly through this form
Tel: (617) 725-4005

Today through Monday morning, we will be flooding MA Department of Correction Commissioner Turco and DOC Chief of Staff John O’Malley’s inboxes to demand Alex immediately be released to his family.

Find below a sample email and a photo - please download and embed this photo of Alex to your email, so that Commissioner Turco has to look at the man they are killing.

email them!

Template

Dear Commissioner Turco and Chief of Staff O’Malley,

I am outraged at your administration’s decision to cruelly sentence Alexander Phillips (W92949) to death by prison. The MA Department of Correction is to blame for Alex’s stage 4 cancer, which is a direct result of systematic medical neglect and toxic conditions at MCI Norfolk.

You testified against Alex’s compassionate release, sealing his death sentence and signing off on the provision of inadequate medical care. The DOC has demonstrated it is willing to turn a 15 year sentence into a death sentence. I demand you free Alex immediately.

Sincerely,
[name]

Send to:

Thomas.Turco@massmail.state.ma.us
John.A.OMalley@MassMail.State.MA.US

Hello, I’m a [ concerned citizen/friend/loved one ] calling about Romano Newball, MA DOC prisoner W41909. Romano has been suffering from a debilitating flesh-eating skin rash and has been asking to see an outside physician for some time now since the treatment offered by prison medical has been ineffective.

We are deeply worried about his health, and ask that the DOC send him to an outside doctor for treatment right away. Can you confirm that Romano will see an outside physician?

[If so] how quickly can he see a doctor?

Who should I call to make sure that this has happened?

[ Note: the DOC has been telling callers that information is inaccurate but that they cannot tell you which information they believe is wrong. Here is a possible response: ]

Can you confirm that Romano has seen a doctor who is not part of the prison medical staff?

Centerville – Alex J. Phillips, 31, died on November 24, 2018 after a nine month journey through the harsh landscape of cancer. He died peacefully at home under the loving care of his family and VNA Hospice. Alex is survived by his mother Ann Burke, his father Dennis Phillips and step-mother Dale Phillips, his brother Justin Phillips and sister-in-law Emily Phillips. Alex was a loving uncle to his niece Grace Phillips and nephew to Melody and Mark Burke and his aunt Dawn (Phillips). He also leaves several cousins. Alex earned his BA, graduating magna cum laude from Boston University this past June. Writing and debating were two of his passions and he was the featured speaker at the graduation ceremony where he urged his classmates to “stand up and make a difference for the better”, and to see graduation not as an end but as the story of a new beginning. His family trusts that now his struggles are over. He has a new and peaceful beginning held in the loving arms of those who passed before him. Donations in his memory can be made to VNA Hospice, 434 Route 134, Suite D3, South Dennis, MA 02660. Visiting hours will be on Saturday, December 1, 2018 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm with a funeral service to follow at John Lawrence Funeral Home, 3778 Falmouth Rd., Marstons Mills, MA.

Obituary and funeral information: found here.