[Pnews] Texas Prisons Shook by IWOC Initiated Strikes

[Prisoner News]

*Strike Roundup Day 1: Texas Prisons Shook by IWOC Initiated Strikes* 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=3471c0974f&e=e9f3d86b9a>

*https://iwoc.noblogs.org/post/2016/04/05/strike-roundup-day-1-texas-prisons-shook-by-iwoc-initiated-strikes/*

CONTACT: Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a committee 
of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 816-866-3808 
<tel:816-866-3808>, iwoc [at] riseup.net 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=d11757fffd&e=e9f3d86b9a>.

*April 5, 2016*

*Houston, TX —* Today, in a historic action 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=f5a8e26283&e=e9f3d86b9a>, 
members of the Industrial Workers of the World’s Incarcerated Workers 
Organizing Committee 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=f98ac5a595&e=e9f3d86b9a> 
(IWOC) shook Texas prisons with strikes in seven prisons.

According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials as of 7:45pm 
on Monday (4/4), three prisons remain locked down (Wynne, Mountain View, 
Lynaugh)–on strike–while 3 others were but are no longer on lockdown 
(Torres, Polunsky, Roach). Robertson Unit officials refused to report in 
the evening and is therefore almost certainly still on strike/lockdown 
as they were when they confirmed earlier in the day.

Any information from TDCJ officials must of course be taken with a grain 
of salt, as the main office has been denying strikes and lockdowns all 
day. Concealing the strike as lockdowns is a strategy known by both 
prisoners and wardens.

A March 23rd letter from an IWOC Texas in-prison organizer notes that 
prisoners were given “reliable information” that authorities would use 
lockdowns “to create the public perception that we are locked down for 
administrative purposes and not because of the Texas Work Stoppage.”

At stake is the future of slavery in America, and the human rights of 
the more than two million prison slaves, including more than 143,000 in 
Texas 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=68d24d3eb6&e=e9f3d86b9a>. 
Prisoners in Texas are paid a minimum wage of $0.00/hr 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=ee61a12629&e=e9f3d86b9a>. 
Their labor is making Texas billions of dollars and “outsourcing 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=8244dffc3d&e=e9f3d86b9a>” 
jobs 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=aecc40682b&e=e9f3d86b9a> 
to US companies.

“Slavery is a horrifying institution,” said Nicholas Onwuke, IWOC 
Co-Chair and former prisoner. “Violence is the last gasp of an evil 
system against people standing up, demanding their dignity. It took mass 
struggle to end historical slavery and Jim Crow, so will it to end 
prison slavery today.”

Demands specifically mentioned by the prisoners include objective 
timelines for release on good/work time, an end to a $100 medical 
co-pays that prevent access to health care, an independent grievance 
committee, and an end to a vast array of human rights abuses. Texas 
prisons lead the nation insexaul assault of inmates 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=b5ef923bd8&e=e9f3d86b9a> 
and have seen a spree of overheating deaths due tolack of air 
conditioning 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=7ff5e1f2bc&e=e9f3d86b9a>.

 From the March 23rd letter–“We need as many freeworld people as 
possible to contact the media and inform them that that [‘administrative 
lockdown’] is not the case and that we are in fact locked down as a 
direct result of our workstoppage.”

*You in the free world. This is your time for action. Spread the mass 
movement in prisons to the free world. Stand with Texas 
prisoners:**call* 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=9e8a26b308&e=e9f3d86b9a>*, 
**act* 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=980920c855&e=e9f3d86b9a>*,**donate* 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=9b05484437&e=e9f3d86b9a>*, 
or **get involved* 
<http://jerichony.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=f7dfc182ba&e=e9f3d86b9a>*. 
*

-- 
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863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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