Chris Hedges: The New Slave Revolt - Chris Hedges - Truthdig
A nationwide prison work stoppage and hunger strike, begun on Sept. 9,
the 45th anniversary of the Attica uprising, have seen over 20,000
prisoners in about 30 prisons do what we on the outside should do—refuse
to cooperate. “We will not only demand the end to prison slavery, we
will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves,” prisoners of the Free
Alabama Movement, the Free Ohio Movement and the IWW Incarcerated
Workers Organizing Committee wrote in a communique.
This round of prison strikes—there will be more—has had little
outside support and press coverage. There have been few protests outside
prison walls. Prison authorities—unlike during the 1971 Attica uprising
when the press was allowed into the yard to interview the rebellious
prisoners—have shut out a compliant media. They have identified strike
leaders and placed them in isolation. Whole prisons in states such as
Texas were put on lockdown on the eve of the strike. It is hard to know
how many prisoners are still on strike, just as it is hard to know how
many stopped work or started to fast on Sept. 9.
Before the strike I was able to speak to prisoner leaders including Melvin Ray, James Pleasant and Robert Earl Council, all of whom led work stoppages in Alabama prisons in January 2014 as part of the Free Alabama Movement, as well as Siddique Hasan,
one of five leaders of the April 1993 uprising at the Southern Ohio
Correctional Facility at Lucasville, Ohio. (The Ohio revolt saw
prisoners take control of the facility for 11 days after numerous
grievances, including complaints about deaths allegedly caused by
beatings from guards, went unanswered.) Now, authorities have cut off
the access of these and other prisoner leaders to the press and the rest
of the outside world. I have not been able to communicate with the four
men since the strike began.
