Prisoners

Robert “Seth” Hayes

Robert Seth Hayes was born in Harlem, New York in October 1947. His father, John Franklin Hayes, was the child of sharecroppers and came to New York Cityfrom South Carolina; his mother, Francine Washington Hayes, moved to New York from Pittsburgh. Both of Mr. Hayes’ parents worked for the U.S. Postal Service, trying to provide a better life for Seth and his four brothers and sisters. They also instilled in their children the desire to work for the betterment of their community. Seth writes, “My mother taught me to visualize family universally, not individually.” Seth’s father was a World War ...........READ MORE

The Censorship and Persecution of Former Black Panther Jalil Muntaqim

Jalil Muntaqim, one of the longest held political prisoners in the world today, has been in the SHU at Attica prison in upstate New York, since December 6th for teaching Black History — a course approved by the Attica prison administration. Jalil had been teaching Black History for almost 2 months, and had gotten up to the point in of teaching about the 1960’s, the anti-Vietnam War movement and the Black Panther Party.

Supporters believe Jalil was written up because the authorities didn’t like what he was teaching, so he was placed in the SHU — isolation torture — with ...........READ MORE

Certain Days 2017 Call for Submissions: SUSTAINING MOVEMENTS

What: A call for art and article submissions on sustaining movements for the 2017 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar

Deadline: May 15, 2016

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective (www.certaindays.org) is releasing its 16th calendar in the Fall of 2016. Over the years, we’ve turned our attention to various themes: grassroots organizing, resisting repression, and visions of justice. The theme for 2017 is focused on what it takes to sustain our movements.

We are looking for 12 works of art and 12 short articles to feature in the calendar, which hangs in more than 2,000 ...........READ MORE

Texas Prisoners’ Plan Work Strike, April 4th

Prisoners in Texas are planning a work strike, to commence this April 4th. Their top five demands are:

Meaningful Work Time – Applied retroactively, when our Flat Time and accrued Good/Work Time equals 100% we should be ENTITLED to Mandatory Supervision I Parole.
We want a “Presumptive Parole System” which requires the release of a Prisoner at their earliest release date, unless there are valid objective reasons not to do so. Those reasons might include poor institutional behavior or refusing to participate in programming. The nature of the crime or any other “Static Reason” (things prisoners can NOT change) would ...........READ MORE

January 2016 Letter from Zolo Agona Azania

“Success means doing something sincerely and whole-heartedly. And you have to have the help of other people to achieve it.” – Bruce lee

Zolo Agona Azania #4969
Indiana State Prison Minimum Security Unit
201 Woodlawn Avenue
Michigan City, Ind. 46361

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

GREETINGS TO ALL:

On August 11, 1981, i was charged with killing a Gary, Indiana police lieutenant during an armed bank robbery . i was convicted after an all-white jury trial and sentenced to the penalty of death on May 25, 1982. My case was bounced up and down the appellate process before the death sentence ...........READ MORE

From inside Attica: Interview with Jalil Muntaqim (By Mitchell Jones)

In the communities of Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y., there is a growing campaign to support Jalil Muntaqim, Black liberation activist, revolutionary, writer and political prisoner. He has spent 45 years behind bars.

Known as Anthony Bottom at the time of his arrest, Jalil Muntaqim is currently incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility, or as he calls it, “Apartheid Attica.” He was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was arrested in 1971 along with Albert “Nuh” Washington and Herman Bell (who is still incarcerated in New York state) and convicted on largely circumstantial evidence. Their ...........READ MORE

A Message from Tanguay Women’s Prison: Against Capitalist Austerity

All United Against Austerity !

Slashing public services, the Couillard government is taking one more step to advance the neo-liberal capitalist project. It aims to make waged labour more precarious and to privatize essential services, like healthcare and education, by submitting them to the market and throwing the burden on to families. Austerity measures are embedded in a reorganization of the world-wide capitalist economy, designed to increase the profit rates of the ruling class and investors. In doing so, the economy is shifting away from the Quebec model of capitalism, which the State used in the 1960s as a tool ...........READ MORE

ALERT! Guards harassing LBTQ2+ Prisoners at GVI Women’s Prison!

At Grand Valley Institute for Women (GVI), a federal prison in Kitchener, Ontario (in Canada) there has been a recent crackdown against LBTQ2+ prisoners and/or prisoners in relationships amongst themselves. Intimate relationships between prisoners are being attacked by a clique of guards acting without apparent direction or oversight from the Corrections Canada administration. We need your support with a call-in campaign to end these practises.

Harassment of prisoners includes throwing them in solitary as punishment for being in a relationship, threatening them with transfers to remote parts of the country, separating partners by placing them in different parts of the ...........READ MORE

Medical Emergency: Robert Seth Hayes

We recently received this distressing information about the ongoing persecution of comrade Robert Seth Hayes.

As many of you know, Seth has had a chronic cough since May of this year for which he did not receive any diagnosis or treatment for many months.

When Seth finally saw the pulmonologist at Coxsackie on Monday, November 2, the doctor wanted to know why the medical personnel at Sullivan (the prison where he is being held) had waited so long to bring Seth for a pulmonary exam. The pulmonologist intends to schedule for Seth a CT scan, a CT scan of his ...........READ MORE

Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar 2016

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal and Toronto and three political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York State: David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes and Herman Bell. We are committed to doing work grounded in an anti-imperialist and anti-racist perspective. We work in solidarity with anti-colonial struggles, political prisoners and the rights of undocumented citizens and migrants. We are queer and trans liberationist. We raise awareness of political prisoners and prisoners of war (PP/POWs) in North America and abroad, many of whom are now ...........READ MORE