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<header><a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=3471c0974f&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"><strong>Strike Roundup Day 1: Texas Prisons Shook
by IWOC Initiated Strikes</strong></a><br>
<br>
<small><small><small><small><strong><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://iwoc.noblogs.org/post/2016/04/05/strike-roundup-day-1-texas-prisons-shook-by-iwoc-initiated-strikes/">https://iwoc.noblogs.org/post/2016/04/05/strike-roundup-day-1-texas-prisons-shook-by-iwoc-initiated-strikes/</a></strong></small></small></small></small><br>
</header>
<div>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">CONTACT: Incarcerated
Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a committee of the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), <a
href="tel:816-866-3808" target="_blank" value="+18168663808"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color:
#2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;">816-866-3808</a>,
iwoc [at] <a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=d11757fffd&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">riseup.net</a>.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong><span
class="aBn" data-term="goog_1113730633" tabindex="0"><span
class="aQJ">April 5, 2016</span></span></strong></p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong>Houston, TX —</strong>
Today, in a <a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=f5a8e26283&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">historic action</a>, members of the Industrial
Workers of the World’s <a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=f98ac5a595&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee</a>
(IWOC) shook Texas prisons with strikes in seven prisons.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">According to Texas
Department of Criminal Justice officials as of <span
class="aBn" data-term="goog_1113730634" tabindex="0"><span
class="aQJ">7:45pm</span></span> <span class="aBn"
data-term="goog_1113730635" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">on
Monday</span></span> (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.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">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.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">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.”</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">At stake is the future
of slavery in America, and the human rights of the more than
two million prison slaves, including more than <a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=68d24d3eb6&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">143,000 in Texas</a>. Prisoners in Texas are
paid a minimum wage of <a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=ee61a12629&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">$0.00/hr</a>. Their labor is making Texas
billions of dollars and “<a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=8244dffc3d&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">outsourcing</a>” <a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=aecc40682b&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">jobs</a> to US companies.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">“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.”</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">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 in<a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=b5ef923bd8&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"> sexaul assault of inmates</a> and have seen a
spree of overheating deaths due to<a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=7ff5e1f2bc&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"> lack of air conditioning</a>.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">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.”</p>
<p style="color: #000000;font-family: Arial,"helvetica
neue": ;,helvetica,sans-serif: ;font-size:
16px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height:
100%;text-align: left;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong>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:</strong><a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=9e8a26b308&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"> <strong>call</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=980920c855&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"><strong>act</strong></a><strong>,</strong><a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=9b05484437&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"> <strong>donate</strong></a><strong>, or </strong><a
href="http://jerichony.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=f7dfc182ba&e=e9f3d86b9a"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"><strong>get involved</strong></a><strong>. </strong></p>
</div>
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