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<h1>Radical Philosophy and the Free Alabama Movement</h1>
<div id="single-date" class="date">April 23, 2014</div>
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<div class="tags"><a href="http://prisonbooks.info/tag/work-strike/"
rel="tag"><b><small><small>http://truth-out.org/speakout/item/23241-radical-philosophy-and-the-free-alabama-movement</small></small></b><br>
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<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">By Lisa Guenther/From <a
href="http://truth-out.org/speakout/item/23241-radical-philosophy-and-the-free-alabama-movement"
target="_blank">Truth Out</a></p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Last summer, thousands of prisoners in
California launched a 60-day hunger strike to protest and transform
oppressive policies in the California Department of Corrections. One
member of the organizing team called their strike action a “<a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://sfbayview.com/2013/why-i-joined-the-multi-racial-multi-regional-human-rights-movement-to-challenge-torture-in-the-pelican-bay-shu/"
target="_blank">multi-racial, multi–regional Human Rights Movement to
challenge torture</a>.”</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This weekend, another prisoner-led
human rights movement is gaining momentum in Alabama. The Free Alabama
Movement (FAM) seeks to analyze, resist, and transform prison slavery
from within the Prison Industrial Complex.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Both of these movements challenge us,
as philosophers and as people, to interrogate the meaning of slavery,
torture, human rights, and political action. What does it mean to
struggle for one’s human rights as an “offender” in the world’s first
prison society? What can philosophers and political theorists learn
from the example of incarcerated intellectuals and political actors
whose everyday lives are situated at the dangerous intersection of
racism, economic exploitation, sexual violence, and civil death? What
would it mean to respect the specificity of the Free Alabama Movement,
and at the same time to recognize that even the freedom of
non-incarcerated philosophers may be bound up with the freedom of
Alabama? What is freedom, after all? What – and where – and who – is
Alabama?</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In what follows, I will share what I
have learned about the Free Alabama Movement over the last couple of
days. But don’t take my word for it! Check out the FAM <a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);" href="http://freealabamamovement.com/"
target="_blank">website</a>, which includes photos and videos of
degrading prison conditions, as well as this brilliant <a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://freealabamamovement.com/recording-fam.mp3" target="_blank">spoken
word</a> analysis of prison slavery. Follow the movement on <a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-alabama-movement/1428198110745581"
target="_blank">Facebook </a>and <a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="https://twitter.com/search?q=free%20alabama%20movement&src=typd"
target="_blank">Twitter</a>. And read the 100-page <a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://freealabamamovement.com/FREE%20ALABAMA%20MOVEMENT.pdf"
target="_blank">manifesto </a>written by prisoner-organizers about the
situation in Alabama prisons and the movement to end prison slavery.<span
id="more-4573"></span></p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So: What is the Free Alabama Movement,
and how did it begin?</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">As FAM organizer Melvin Ray explains in
an online manifesto, the Free Alabama Movement is a prisoner-led
movement calling for a “statewide shutdown on Free Labor in the form of
a Non-Violent and Peaceful Protest for Civil and Human Rights” (<a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://freealabamamovement.com/FREE%20ALABAMA%20MOVEMENT.pdf"
target="_blank">p. 9</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Earlier this year, FAM organized a
non-violent labor strike at St. Clair Correctional Facility. The strike
action spread to three prisons across the state, and since then, Melvin
Ray has been held in solitary confinement for his role in the strikes (<a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/04/we_dont_want_to_be_slaves_for.html"
target="_blank">AL.com</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Most prisoners in Alabama are <a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/01/alabama_department_of_correcti_1.html"
target="_blank">not paid for their work</a>, and all able-bodied
prisoners are required to work. Prison labor in Alabama includes food
preparation, laundry, and facility maintenance, as well as the
production of furniture, license plates, and chemicals (more
information <a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/04/post_144.html" target="_blank">here</a>).
Since 2012, <a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.wkrg.com/story/21593766/alabama-bill-would-let-businesses-use-prison-labor"
target="_blank">private corporations</a> have been allowed to set up
shop within prisons, and in 2011, there was even talk of replacing the
labor power of <a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/06/382852/alabama-agriculture-department-promoting-plan-to-replace-immigrants-with-prisoners-to-farmers/"
target="_blank">undocumented workers</a> with prison labor.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Speaking on behalf of the Free Alabama
Movement, Ray explains: “they’re running a slave empire” (<a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/exclusive_prison_inmates_to_strike_in_alabama_declare_they%E2%80%99re_running_a_slave_empire/"
target="_blank">Salon</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This reference to slavery is not a
metaphor; after all, the Thirteenth Amendment does not abolish slavery
completely, but rather maintains the possibility of slavery and
involuntary servitude “<a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=9&title.raw=13th+Amendment+to+the+U.S.+Constitution%3A+Abolition+of+Slavery"
target="_blank">as a punishment for crime</a>.”</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In response to the material conditions
of 21st-century prison slavery, the Free Alabama Movement has declared:
“We don’t want to be slaves for this system” (<a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/04/we_dont_want_to_be_slaves_for.html"
target="_blank">AL.com</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">FAM is committed to a non-violent
struggle against the institutional violence of prison slavery and the
structural violence of racism and poverty. The FAM manifesto states:
“Free Alabama Movement knows that non-violence is not only our best
strategy, but it is our only strategy capable of producing our desired
goals” (<a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://freealabamamovement.com/FREE%20ALABAMA%20MOVEMENT.pdf"
target="_blank">manifesto, p. 9</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In an interview with Salon, Ray adds:
“Violence is what has drawn most of us into the prisons — and that’s
what we’re trying to stop” (<a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/exclusive_prison_inmates_to_strike_in_alabama_declare_they%E2%80%99re_running_a_slave_empire/"
target="_blank">Salon</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">He continues: “We decided that the only
weapon or strategy… that we have is our labor, because that’s the only
reason that we’re here… They’re incarcerating people for the free
labor” (<a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/exclusive_prison_inmates_to_strike_in_alabama_declare_they%E2%80%99re_running_a_slave_empire/"
target="_blank">Salon</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In reaching out to other prisoners who
may be reluctant to join a resistance movement within a system that is
designed to crush resistance, Ray says: “We have to get them to
understand: You’re not giving up anything. You don’t have anything. And
you’re going to gain your freedom right here” (<a
style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/exclusive_prison_inmates_to_strike_in_alabama_declare_they%E2%80%99re_running_a_slave_empire/"
target="_blank">Salon</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">For an incarcerated person to join in
the movement is to engage in a collective project of self-organization
and mutual empowerment: “No one is going to do anything… so we have to
do it ourselves” (<a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/exclusive_prison_inmates_to_strike_in_alabama_declare_they%E2%80%99re_running_a_slave_empire/"
target="_blank">Salon</a>).</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’ll conclude this brief introduction
to the Free Alabama Movement with an outline of their platform, which
can be read in full in the <a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://freealabamamovement.com/FREE%20ALABAMA%20MOVEMENT.pdf"
target="_blank">manifesto</a>.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">WHY WE ARE PROTESTING</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1. To Put An End To The System Of Free
Labor Within The Alabama Department Of Corrections.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2. To put an end to the inhumane living
conditions under which Alabama prisoners suffer, including overcrowding
and the warehousing of large amounts of people for no purpose.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">3. To abolish life without parole
sentences and to overhaul Alabama’s current parole system to provide
more deserving people with an opportunity to earn their release from
prison.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">4. To put an end to arbitrary
sentencing practices that has resulted in the targeting of specific
race groups.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">WHAT WE WANT</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1. We want an end to the system of free
labor within the Alabama Department of Corrections.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2. We want to end to the inhumane
living conditions under which Alabama prisoners suffer, including
overcrowding and the warehousing of large amounts of people for no
purpose other than to extract free labor.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">3. We want control of our resources and
the money our families send to us.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">4. Reform in youthful offender law.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">5. Repeal of the Habitual Offender Act
and other laws.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A<a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://freealabamamovement.com/recording-fam.mp3" target="_blank"> spoken
word</a> performance on the FAM website ends with these powerful words:
“Because freeing Alabama is freeing our lives.”</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Let me repeat that.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“Because freeing Alabama is freeing our
lives.”</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">To those of us with a stable location
within the academy, it might seem like the struggle to free Alabama is
a distant struggle which – however inspiring – does not implicate our
own freedom. But we would be wrong.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In a nation that incarcerates more
people than any other society in world history – a nation that was born
in slavery, and that to this day permits slavery and involuntary
servitude “<a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=9&title.raw=13th+Amendment+to+the+U.S.+Constitution%3A+Abolition+of+Slavery"
target="_blank">as a punishment for crime</a>” – a nation that
chronically underfunds public education for the sake of punishing,
controlling and incapacitating prisoners – none of us are free until
all of us are free.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Philosophers have been talking about
freedom for centuries. It’s up to us to grapple with the implications
of our own intellectual and political commitments in response to the
Free Alabama Movement and to other prisoner-led liberation movements.
What is freedom? Where is Alabama? Who could we become, as
philosophers, if we followed the lead of radical intellectuals behind
bars?</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You can donate to the Free Alabama
Movement <a style="color: rgb(156, 22, 46);"
href="https://fundly.com/iww-incarcerated-workers-organizing-committee-support-the-free-alabama-movement"
target="_blank">here</a>, and by helping to amplify their voices in
your own communities.</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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