Support Keith LaMar’s Hunger Strike

From Lucasville Amnesty:

Keith LaMar is on hunger strike protesting conditions at OSP. Find full details of his demands here.

Things you can do to support the hunger strike.

1. Contact OSP Warden Christopher LaRose and his boss, The North East Regional Director Todd Ishee.

Script: “Hello, My name is _____. I am calling in support of Keith LaMar’s hunger strike. Please meet with Keith and meet his very reasonable demands. It is unjust and inhumane to take away Keith’s property like this, please do not do it.”

Contact info:
Christopher LaRose
Phone: (330) 743-0700 ext 2006 *note: the warden’s office is closed for the 11/11 holiday, and the extension doesn’t accept voicemails.
Fax: (330) 743-0841
Laura.Gardner@odrc.state.oh.us
Gina.Wylie@odrc.state.oh.us

Todd Ishee
Phone: 330-797-6398
Fax: 330-744-3512
Todd.Ishee@odrc.state.oh.us

2. Write to Keith. Letters of support not only lift Keith’s spirits at this time, they are also a tangible way to demonstrate to OSP staff how much support he has.

Keith LaMar
317-117
OSP
878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd
Youngstown, OH 44505

3. Spread the word and raise funds. The twitter tag for Keith is #FREEKeithLaMar, his facebook page is here, there’s an online fundraiser here, a 1/4 sheet flyer to hand out to people here. You can also share his letter detailing the current situation, as well as some essays and recent statements about developments in his case for backstory and context.

Or you can also send a money order or a check to:
Campaign for Justice for Keith LaMar
PO Box 3656
Youngstown, OH 44513

Lyon, France: “Gaza Beach” action calls for end of siege, freedom for Palestinian prisoners

From Samidoun:

On 5 September 2015, over 1,000 people in Lyon, France came out to the “Gaza Beach Lyon” to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and on hunger strike in Israeli jails. Organized by Collectif 69 Palestine, the afternoon gathering included a speech by Gilles Devers, a lawyer from Lyon, on Israeli violations of international law, the International Criminal Court and administrative detention, as well as Palestinian songs and a speech from Gaza by Ziad Medoukh.

The event, demanding an end to the siege on Gaza, the rebuilding of Gaza, freedom for Palestinian prisoners and an end to administrative detention, also included flags and banners demanding freedom for the prisoners and supporting those involved in the “Battle of Breaking the Chains,” since 20 August.

 

Take Action – Join hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners to say: End Administrative Detention

From Samidoun:

Five Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention without charge or trial in Israeli jails are about to enter their second week on hunger strike, demanding an end to administrative detention. Take Action to support the hunger strikers and call for freedom for administrative detainees!

Nidal Abu Aker, Ghassan Zawahreh, Shadi Ma’ali, Badr al-Ruzza, and Munir Abu Sharar launched their hunger strike on 20 August 2015, protesting their administrative detention without charge or trial. All have had their arbitrary detention orders renewed multiple times. On Monday, 31 August, they were removed from their prison cells and thrown into isolation – Abu Aker in Asqelan, Zawahreh and Ma’ali in Ella prison, and Ruzzah and Abu Sharar in the Naqab prison.

Khader Adnan supports the hunger strikers.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association reported that the five have consumed only liquids since 20 August and are boycotting the occupation military courts along with 50 other administrative detainees, exposing the sham nature of these hearings relying on secret information that neither Palestinian prisoners or their lawyer can review. “Addameer calls upon solidarity organizations, human rights organizations and individuals all around the world to join the campaign to end administrative detention while emphasizing the necessity of popular support for Palestinian prisoners and detainees,” the organization urged.

In addition, Kayed Fawzi Abu Rish, 42, from Nablus, has been on hunger strike for 26 days. Held in administrative detention since December 2014, the order against him was renewed in June 2015 for an additional six months. He was transferred to hospital yesterday after being held in isolation in Megiddo prison.

Prisoner support tent at the entrance to Dheisheh refugee camp.

There are approximately 480 Palestinians held without charge or trial in administrative detention in Israeli prisons. Israeli military commanders issue orders for up to one to six months of detention, which are indefinitely renewable. Introduced in Palestine by the British colonial authority, administrative detention is used in a routine and frequent manner. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies, 85% of administrative detention orders are renewed at least once. Israel’s widespread and systematic use of administrative detention violates the Geneva Conventions and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The five detainees have been on hunger strike for thirteen days and are about to enter their third week on strike, while Abu Rish is nearing a month on strike. They are demanding an end to administrative detention in this “Battle of Breaking the Chains.” They are threatened not only by the risks to their health and lives by hunger striking, but also threatened with the new Israeli force-feeding law that legitimizes force-feeding torture against hunger striking prisoners, which led to the death of four Palestinian hunger strikers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Video (Press TV News report):

Layla (Um Samer) Issawi and Malika (Um Nidal) Abu Aker, mothers of Palestinian prisoners

In Dheisheh refugee camp, the home of three of the strikers, a permanent solidarity tent has been set up.

Khader Adnan, former administrative detainee who won his freedom twice through long-term hunger strikes, visited the solidarity tent and met with members of the prisoners’ families; Layla (Um Samer) Issawi also met with the strikers’ families, urging support and solidarity with the strike. She is the mother of Samer, Shireen and Medhat Issawi, all imprisoned in Israeli jails; Samer was previously freed in a long-term hunger strike.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strongest solidarity with the striking prisoners, and calls for international actions, mobilizations and events to demand their freedom. We cannot wait until these brave strugglers are facing death to act and demand not only their freedom as individuals, but the abolition of administrative detention – on the road to freeing every Palestinian prisoner held in Israeli occupation jails. It is not the case that Israeli military courts are any more legitimate, fair or acceptable than administrative detention – they are just as arbitrary, racist and illegitimate. But administrative detention is a weapon of mass terror used against the Palestinian people, and it is critical to bring this practice to an end. These Palestinian prisoners have put their bodies on the line in order to end administrative detention – and it is imperative that we act to support them. These prisoners’ struggle is not only about their individual freedom – it is part of their struggle for return and liberation for Palestine.

Take Action!

1. Sign on to this statement in support of the prisoners’ demand to End Administrative Detention. Organizational and individual endorsements are welcome – and organizational endorsements particularly critical – in support of the prisoners’ demands and their actions. Click here to sign or sign below: http://bit.ly/EndAdministrativeDetention

2. Send a solidarity statement. The support of people around the world helps to inform people about the struggle of Palestinian prisoners. It is a morale booster and helps to build political solidarity. Please send your solidarity statements to samidoun@samidoun.net. They will be published and sent directly to the prisoners.

3. Hold a solidarity one-day hunger strike in your area. Gather in a tent or central area, bring materials about Palestinian prisoners and hold a one-day solidarity strike to raise awareness and provide support for the struggle of the prisoners and the Palestinian cause. Please email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to inform us of your action – we will publicize and share news with the prisoners.

4. Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy in your area.  Bring posters and flyers about administrative detention and Palestinian hunger strikers and hold a protest, or join a protest with this important information. Hold a community event or discussion, or include this issue in your next event about Palestine and social justice. Please email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to inform us of your action – we will publicize and share news with the prisoners.

5. Contact political officials in your country – members of Parliament or Congress, or the Ministry/Department of Foreign Affairs or State – and demand that they cut aid and relations with Israel on the basis of its apartheid practices, its practice of colonialism, and its numerous violations of Palestinian rights including the systematic practice of administrative detention. Demand they pressure Israel to free the hunger strikers and end administrative detention.

6. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. G4S, a global security corporation, is heavily involved in providing services to Israeli prisons that jail Palestinian political prisoners – there is a global call to boycott it. Palestinian political prisoners have issued a specific call urging action on G4S. Learn more about BDS at bdsmovement.net.

 

“Our Day Will Come” : In solidarity with Evi Statiri and CCF – Imprisoned Members Cell (Book)

From 325:

Attending to the solidarity call to Evi Statiri we share with you a book which speaks about what was triggered after the arrest of the fugitive Christos Xiros, the discovery of an escape plan by Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – Imprisoned Members Cell; the subsequent manhunt against comrade Aggeliki Spyropoulo and her detention with relatives and friends of CCF comrades, and finally, the hunger strike for over 30 days in which they put their lives at risk.

This book also contains a prologue by CCF- Imprisoned Members Cell.

We are interested that the experiences of CCF`s escape attempt and subsequent hunger strike could be transmitted as an expression of anarchic ability to build our offense in an autonomous way, as a part of
our defense and dissemination of every indomitable and antagonist attitude against Power.

The most of the text were taken from the related anarchic webs.
Also, this book has a Spanish version, with translations made by us and other comrades.

Comrades interested in the edition of this book on their own territories, could write to our e-mail.

Without another word, we share this book with you.

Our Day Will Come_title page

Our Day Will Come_book

Sin Banderas Ni Fronteras, núcleo de agitación antiautoritaria.
sinbanderas.nifronteras@riseup.net

Chile/ Septiembre 2015.

Call in Successful! Sean is at 3A!

From seanswain.org:

Last week, we sent out an urgent request that supporters call Warren Correctional and demand that Sean be moved to a 3A level cell block. He left SOCF in mid August, he was supposed to be sent to 3A, but was instead “accidentally placed in a 3B unit. 3B is a disciplinary unit, where prison gangs ran things and young guys who were only in for short stints and had nothing to lose would pick fights and cause trouble a lot. At SOCF and OSP Sean was on higher security levels, which means 23 hour a day lock-down and not many opportunities for open conflict. A 3B unit is the place Sean would be most likely to run into hassles with other prisoners. Admins could use any conflict to justify putting him back in long term solitary on level 4 or 5.

This weekend, Sean’s 3B unit was transitioned to housing 3A prisoners, the level Sean was supposed to be in. But they didn’t leave him there, they transferred him with the 3B prisoners to another 3B unit.

So, to avoid whatever provocations and nonsense that administrators are attempting to make happen, Sean decided: “I am remaining in my cell until transferred to 3A-level housing. I’m not going to chow or to the shower or the phone or kiosk or commissary or chapel or library or recreation. 24/7 in the cell to avoid shenanigans and traps that administrators intend to use for upping my security to 3B. I’m fueled on coffee and Raman noodles.” Sean also “sent kites to relevant fuckweasels: warden’s assistant, unit management administrator, unit manager, case manager, unit sergeant, etc., letting them know I have to stay holed up in my cell indefinitely since I’m moved onto a 3B level unit around 3B prisoners. When I run out of noodles, I can start by eating my own big toe. Without coffee, I can drink my own urine. Or, I suppose, I could just drink the water from the sink.”

Sean’s refusal, combined with all the outside calls we flooded in on Friday and Monday, finally got the goods and he is now finally in level 3A housing. Unfortunately, his old neighbor at SOCF, Robert Mahone is in dire need of help. Please read about that, and lend some support!

CA Prisoners Win Historic Gains with Settlement Against Solitary Confinement

From Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity:

Agreement reached in Ashker v. Brown ends indeterminate long-term solitary confinement in CA, among other gains for prisoners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 1, 2015
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

Oakland – Today, California prisoners locked in isolation achieved a groundbreaking legal victory in their ongoing struggle against the use of solitary confinement. A settlement was reached in the federal class action suit Ashker v. Brown, originally filed in 2012, effectively ending indefinite long-term solitary confinement, and greatly limiting the prison administration’s ability to use the practice, widely seen as a form of torture. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of prisoners held in Pelican Bay State Prison’s infamous Security Housing Units (SHU) for more than 10 years, where they spend 23 hours a day or more in their cells with little to no access to family visits, outdoor time, or any kind of programming.

“From the historic prisoner-led hunger strikes of 2011 and 2013, to the work of families, loved ones, and advocate, this settlement is a direct result of our grassroots organizing, both inside and outside prison walls,” said Dolores Canales of California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC), and mother of a prisoner in Pelican Bay. “This legal victory is huge, but is not the end of our fight – it will only make the struggle against solitary and imprisonment everywhere stronger.” The 2011 and 2013 hunger strikes gained widespread international attention that for the first time in recent years put solitary confinement under mainstream scrutiny.

Currently, many prisoners are in solitary because of their “status” – having been associated with political ideologies or gang affiliation. However, this settlement does away with the status-based system, leaving solitary as an option only in cases of serious behavioral rule violations. Furthermore, the settlement limits the amount of time a prisoner may be held in solitary, and sets a two year Step-Down Program for the release of current solitary prisoners into the prison general population.

It is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 prisoners will be released from SHU within one year of this settlement. A higher security general population unit will be created for a small number of cases where people have been in SHU for more than 10 years and have a recent serious rule violation.

“Despite the repeated attempts by the prison regime to break the prisoners’ strength, they have remained unified in this fight,” said Marie Levin of CFASC and sister of a prisoner representative named in the lawsuit. “The Agreement to End Hostilities and the unity of the prisoners are crucial to this victory, and will continue to play a significant role in their ongoing struggle.” The Agreement to End Hostilities is an historic document put out by prisoner representatives in Pelican Bay in 2012 calling on all prisoners to build unity and cease hostilities between racial groups.

Prisoner representatives and their legal counsel will regularly meet with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials as well as with Federal Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas, who is tasked with overseeing the reforms, to insure that the settlement terms are being implemented.

“Without the hunger strikes and without the Agreement to End Hostilities to bring California’s prisoners together and commit to risking their lives— by being willing to die for their cause by starving for 60 days, we would not have this settlement today,” said Anne Weills of Siegel and Yee, co-counsel in the case. “It will improve the living conditions for thousands of men and women and no longer have them languishing for decades in the hole at Pelican Bay.”

“This victory was achieved by the efforts of people in prison, their families and loved ones, lawyers, and outside supporters,” said the prisoners represented in the settlement in a joint statement. “We celebrate this victory while at the same time, we recognize that achieving our goal of fundamentally transforming the criminal justice system and stopping the practice of warehousing people in prison will be a protracted struggle.”

Legal co-counsel in the case includes California Prison Focus, Siegel & Yee, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, Chistensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, and the Law Offices of Charles Carbone. The lead counsel is the Center for Constitutional Rights. The judge in the case is Judge Claudia Wilken in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

A rally and press conference are set for 12pm in front of the Elihu M Harris State Building in Oakland, which will be livestreamed at http://livestre.am/5bsWO.

The settlement can be read on CCR’s website, along with a summary. CCR has also put up downloadable clips of the plaintiffs’ depositions here.

 

Political Prisoner Birthday Poster For September 2015 Is Now Available

From Prison Books Collective:

Hello Friends and Comrades,

1) Here is the political prisoner birthday poster for September. As always, please post this poster publicly and/or use it to start a card writing night of your own.

2) We’ve put the text online of our new zine How To Start A Prison Books Collective. We hope that this humble contribution will help other prison books groups get started and expand the important work of sending political, legal, and self-educational resources to prisoners. You can find the text here.

3) The Prison Ecology Project has extended its online fundraiser. They are creating tools to dismantle toxic prisons. So far, they are the only group focused on the intersection of environment and mass incarceration. Currently they are building a database of the five thousand prisons and jails around the country, finding the weak points in the environmental realm, and providing tools to organize locally. You can donate here.

4) Michael Kimble is up for parole in December and we are trying to get people to write letters to the parole board on his account.

Michael is a gay, black anarchist imprisoned in Alabama since 1986 for murdering a racist homophobe. He has been active for much of that time in prison organizing and rebellion. In recent years, he has been involved in hunger and work strikes in Alabama, working with the Free Alabama Movement. Michael has suffered severe consequences for his uncompromising attitude, including numerous stints in solitary (where he currently is held). Despite this, he remains committed to struggle against prison and the state.

Please, if you can, write the parole board and help get Michael free. Also, please spread this information using whatever media have available to you. Here’s a link to Michael‘s website, with a write-up on how to support his parole.

5) On Wednesday, August 12th, long term political prisoner, Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell was murdered. The context for his murder remains unclear, save for the fact that it happened in the midst of a prison riot.

In the early 1970s, while imprisoned in San Quentin State Prison, Hugo Pinell made contact with revolutionary prisoners such as George Jackson, one of the Soledad Brothers, and W.L. Nolen. On August 21, 1971, there was a prisoner uprising in Pinell’s housing unit at San Quentin, led by George Jackson. On that date, Jackson used a pistol to take over his tier in the Adjustment Center. At the end of the roughly 30 minute rebellion, guards had killed George Jackson, and two other prisoners and three guards were dead. Of the remaining prisoners in the unit, six of them, including Pinell, were put on trial for murder and conspiracy. Together, they were known as The San Quentin Six. Three of them were acquitted of all charges, and three were found guilty of various charges. Pinell was convicted of assault on a guard. For more on Hugo Pinell’s life and death see this excellent article from the San Francisco Bay View.

6) Be sure to check out the latest Political Prisoner/Prisoner Of War every-other week update by the  NYC-Anarchist Black Cross. There are lots of important updates on many political prisoners. This one includes updates on Jeremy Hammond, Barrett Brown, Memorials for Hugo Pinell, poetry and more.

Until Every Cage Is Empty,

The Prison Books Collective

Eric King: New Support Material and Update on fundraiser

From Support Eric King:

So first of all I would love to announce that our primary fundraiser goal has been met thanks to his amazing comrades! We are so excited overwhelmed by everyone’s solidarity be it donating to the fundraiser,  making sure Eric stays connected by dropping him a letter or even by sending him a book. We will continue to be taking donations and also “selling” t-shirts on his fundraiser.

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/0yoZc/ab/a4jVK6

We received an amazing zine that was beautifully put together and sent to us by Causerie Publishing. We wanted to share it with all of Eric’s supporters. Take a second to read it, pass it on, or print it out for tabling. It is a great collection of his poems and writings.

eric king writings zine

We do want to add that we had a little bit of outdated possible sentence info up and he is actually facing life. Luckily thanks to the group Supporting Vegans in the Prison System Eric never had to go on the hunger strike!

Re-arrested Palestinian former prisoners plan protest steps, hunger strike

From Samidoun:

The six Palestinians whose sentences were re-imposed. Via Wattan TV

Palestinian prisoners released in the Wafa al-Ahrar agreement and then rearrested are considering taking steps toward an open hunger strike, said Palestinian lawyer Jawad Boulos on Sunday, 23 August.

Boulos visited the re-arrested prisoners from Jerusalem – who were rounded up in mass arrests in summer 2014 and then had their original sentence reimposed by a secret Israeli military commission without charges and on the basis of secret evidence.

Adnan Maragha, Nasser Abed Rabbo, Jamal Abu Saleh, Alaa Bazian and Aref Fakhouri – as well as former long-term hunger striker Samer Issawi – are awaiting the decision of the Israeli occupation Supreme Court in their case against the reimposition of their sentences. They urged actions on the legal, political and popular levels to support their freedom.

63 former prisoners have been rearrested by the Israeli occupation army after their freedom in the 2011 exchange agreement with the Palestinian resistance which saw 1000 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Samer Issawi reported that he ended his solidarity hunger strike on Thursday with Muhammad Allan after several days, at the news of Allan’s own strike ending.

Palestinian prisoners on fifth day of hunger strike to end administrative detention

From Samidoun:

Munir Abu Sharar

The first six Palestinian administrative detainees to launch the collective hunger strike in Negev prison in the Naqab desert – who will be joined by new batches of detainees in the coming weeks and days – are now entering their fifth day of hunger strike. 250 Palestinians held without charge or trial in Israeli prisons have announced their intention to join the collective hunger strike against the policy of administrative detention.

The first six Palestinians to launch the strike are: Nidal Abu Aker, Ghassan Zawahreh, Shadi Ma’ali, Munir Abu Sharar, Bader El-Razzah and Thabet Nassar. On Sunday, 23 August, they rejected a request from the Israeli prison administration to postpone their strike for a week, in which the prison administration would study their individual cases with the intelligence service and provide individual answers. They responded with their rejection of this offer, stressing that their goal is to end the policy of administrative detention and demand their immediate release, while on the other hand the prison administration has isolated the strikers in an attempt to pressure them and isolate them from the Palestinian people.

Nidal Abu Aker (top), Ghassan Zawahreh (right), Shadi Ma’ali (left)

Protest tent in solidarity with the strikers being set up at the entrance to Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem

The prisoners stated that this confirms that the occupation and its intelligence service are recognizing at an early stage the seriousness of this battle and the support the prisoners will receive.

Former prisoner Adnan Hamarsheh issued a call for unified action to support the detainees, urging the construction of a permanent sit-in tent in each area raising the Palestinian flag to support the prisoners, weekly marches and press conferences updating on the prisoners’ situation, monthly workshops on the prisoners, and the involvement of schools and universities at all levels in the campaign to end administrative detention.

The striking prisoners issued a statement on their struggle:

Battle of Breaking the Chains

We enter the open hunger strike strongly and collectively with our aim to bring down administrative detention. This goal is at the forefront of our demands and is a priority to raise our collective struggle as a strategic challenge to the racist, fascist law which allows our people to be detained for long periods of time – for ten years and more over multiple arrests without charges, with no right to defend themselves in a fair trial, while the “process” is a sham intended to beautify the image of the occupation and its intelligence.

We believe that our demands must focus on the basis of the problem and not just its ramifications, in that we are aiming to bring down administrative detention as a law and as a policy which at this moment is depriving 480 administrative detainees and thousands of our imprisoned people of their freedom for many years throughout the occupation of our land.

Although we have clearly identified our goals, we in no way believe that this fight is easy, indeed it is even more difficult. Enough is enough, and we know that the occupier will tighten its grip over our main demand and will use all kinds of fascist tactics in order to thwart us from achieving our goal, but we know that the masses of our people and their organizations and institutions will be the first engine to build local, Arab and international pressure to build a broader case against the occupation and the policy of administrative detention and force the occupier to give in to our demands. Although we are convinced with ourselves to fight this battle and determined to win, despite our awareness of the difficulty and the severity to come, we aim to achieve our goals and should focus all efforts in order to involve more administrative detainees in this action as well as building the Palestinian popular movement support, the Arab masses’ support, and international support, all for the purpose of achieving victory and the best results in this battle.

The liberation of each of us is a right and a requirement, but as a target by itself it does not achieve our general interests: the occupation is easily able to turn around and re-arrest any of us after a brief period of freedom under the same policy of administrative detention.

We are not individual heroes and do not claim that we alone can achieve the strategic victory to bring down this policy, but we are determined to go into this fight until the last, and we are aware that the battle is open to all possibilities, our victory or our martyrdom for the sake of a strategically important achievement. Perhaps we may achieve part of our demands; in this case we will have fought our battle with honor and dignity. We are fighting a difficult and tiring battle to destabilize the whole system of arbitrary administrative detention. This battle aims to achieve the freedom of hundreds of administrative detainees held each year under the pretext of the “secret file” and the prosecution of the Zionist security forces.

This step comes in the context of the progressive and escalating struggle since the beginning of July, with the boycott of the occupation courts, we have continued this boycott and the occupation is attempting to pressure us by renewing our administrative detention for longer periods, and we know that the occupation recognizes the importance of this action in eroding and exposing its policy. We also emphasize the importance of breaking the force-feeding law, which is a decision for execution and forces us to escalate the pace of our struggle to bring down administrative detention. Our action now is “banging on the walls of the tank” [in reference to Ghassan Kanafani’s “Men in the Sun”] and opening the path for greater participation by administrative detainees and engaging all of the energies of our people at popular and official levels, and all of our international and regional friends and supporters to achieve victory in this battle, and in the long battle to remove the occupation from our land, our sea and our people forever.