Resolution Supporting California Prisoners’ Hunger Strike & Work Stoppage So As To Protest Inhumane Conditions In California Prisons

WHEREAS The Prisoners of Pelican Bay Prison have declared a prison hunger and work strike starting on Monday July 8th 2013 based off their 5 basic demands;

WHEREAS, in July 2011 and in October 2011, California state prisoners organized two statewide hunger strikes as a protest against inhumane conditions as maintained for decades by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”);

WHEREAS, as a result of the solidarity created by the two 2011 statewide hunger strikes, prisoners throughout all of California’s state prisons formed an “Agreement to End Hostilities” among all racial, ethnic, political, and social groups organized among California’s state prisoners;

WHEREAS, as a result of the “Agreement to End Hostilities”, the peace agreed upon by all statewide prisoners in California has been maintained since the formation of the agreement on about August 12, 2012;

WHEREAS, despite this progress with the “Agreement to End Hostilities”, and despite the earlier progress on the part of the prisoners’ with their two massive hunger strikes, California Governor Jerry Brown and the CDCR refuse to comply with the California prisoners’ reasonable demands which simply call for humane conditions to be provided for and established throughout California prisons;

WHEREAS, in May 2013, California prisoners call for a massive hunger strike and work stoppage on the part of all California state prisoners and also on the part of all prisoners incarcerated throughout the United States, with this mass hunger strike and work stoppage to begin on July 8, 2013;

WHEREAS, in May 2013, California state prisoners call for their nationwide prison strike to continue until Governor Brown and CDCR agree (1) to eliminate all forms of group punishment of prisoners, (2) to abolish entirely the practice of interviewing or of “debriefing” individual prisoners, (3) to abolish the classification and the surveillance of prisoners regarding their alleged “gang” affiliation, (4) to comply with recommendations made by the United States Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons (2006), (5) to provide to all California prisoners safe, humane, healthy, and perfectly nutritious food and beverages, and (6) to establish constructive educational and other programs and privileges for prisoners incarcerated in the Special Housing United (or solitary confinement) inside California state prisons; and

WHEREAS, the California state prisoners believe that this nationwide strike as called for July 8, 2013 would establish humane standards for the treatment of all state and federal prisoners throughout the United States.

BE IT RESOLVED That organizations, movements, collectives and/or individuals adopting this resolution call for universal support for the California state prisoners’ demand for their incarceration to be entirely humane and respectful.

5/26/13

ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS:
Free Us All
Blazing Arrow Organization
Radical Prisoner Support Portland
Oregon Jericho
Portland Anarchist Black Cross
Portland Books to Prisoners
The Jericho Movement