[lbo-talk] future generations

Chuck chuck at mutualaid.org
Thu Dec 13 10:31:27 PST 2007


Dennis Claxton wrote:
>>That's what I keep saying: the prisons are important, even key, to a
>>left platform.
>>
>>Joanna
>
> You're not alone in thinking this. This is from an interview with
> Ruth Wilson Gilmore. Gilmore's bio blurb and a link to info about
> her book Golden Gulag Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in
> Globalizing California is at the bottom of this post:
>
> http://www.yourblackeye.org/1Q05/Gilmore_YBE_Interview_1Q05.html

Thanks for posting this email with the list of organizations doing prison abolition and prisoner support work. I hear that Critical Resistance is doing good work and I've seen the comic book published by RCPP. In fact, our infoshop just ran out of those comics.

Let me point out that anarchists have been doing the lion's share of work on the prison abolition front, as well as doing solidarity work for prisoners. There are anarchists involved in Critical Resistance, as well as various Book Through Bars projects around the country. The international Anarchist Black Cross network has been doing prisoner support and prison abolition activism for some time.

I'll toot my own horn here and point out that Infoshop News is an excellent source of information about prisoner campaign and anti-prison activism (news.infoshop.org). We also have a more specifically prison news site (http://www.infoshop.org/prisons/public_html/) which is looking for more volunteers. I've worked on plenty of campaigns and even won a few. A friend reminded me recently that Infoshop News was instrumental in getting the State of West Virginia to change a prison rule which was sending prisoners to the hole if people were posting news and information about their case on the Internet. This was a minor campaign, but it made a big difference in the lives of a few prisoners.

If people are looking for one campaign relating to prisons which needs extra help right now, I'd suggest that people lean on their local politicians and their state Department of Corrections to ease restrictions about books, magazines and printed materials being sent to prisoners. The regulations on sending printed materials to prisoners have gone insane in the past 15 years. Families can't even send books to their loved ones behind bars. They have to arrange for publishers to send materials directly. If more people get active on this issue, we can roll back these regulations.

Another campaign that needs attention is the effort to fight the phone companies which make obscene profits off of calls between prisoners and families.

Chuck



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