OAKLAND COMMUNITY TO RALLY IN SUPPORT OF GEORGIA PRISONER STRIKE
Activists to March from North County Jail to
City Hall
Oakland, CA – Friday, December 17,
2010 – Community activists will take to the streets again this Friday to show support
for an ongoing prisoners strike in Georgia, the largest prison strike in U.S.
history. Supporters of the strike will
rally at North County Jail at 4pm before marching over to City Hall for a
convergence at 6pm. Activists say they chose to rally North County Jail
because they claim the demands raised by the Georgia strikers affect prisoners
in jails across the country.
“Prisoners in Georgia are striking
over basic human rights such as compensation for their work, healthy meals, and
adequate medical care. These horrible conditions are taking place right here in
California too and the community can no longer ignore these abuses,” said Zack
Solomon, a student organizer.
Activists say this is just the
beginning of a larger campaign started by the Georgia strikers. The campaign
will include an array of tactics including organized boycotts of companies
contracting prison services, public demonstrations and educational outreach.
Clifton Rashad, another organizer
who was previously involved with the Oscar Grant protests said that the
movement against state violence couldn’t end at arrest: “being killed is not
the end of the story. The police brutality that we’ve seen with Oscar Grant and
Derrick Jones and countless others, doesn’t stop there. It continues in the
silent stories of most every incarcerated person, disproportionately drawn from
working class communities of color all over the country”.
For more information please
contact media contact: Anastasia Gomes at 347-576-3621.
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Community organizations endorsing the rally include: UC-Berkeley
Student Worker Action Team (SWAT), Community Action Project (CAP), La Voz de
los Trabajadores (www.lavozlit.com),
Laney College Student Unity & Power (SUPLaney.wordpress.com),
Laney College Black Student Union (BSU) , Bay Area United Against War
Newsletter (bauaw.org),
,Socialist Viewpoint magazine (socialistviewpoint.org), Workers International
League (www.socialistappeal.org),
Bay Area ISO (norcalsocialism.org),
We Are the Crisis (UC Davis Chapter), Bicycle Barricades (UC Davis), Socialist
Action, Socialist Organizer, San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper (sfbayview.com),
UC-Berkeley Black Student Union (BSU), SF State Black Student Union (BSU), SF
State Student Unity & Power (SUP), Advance the Struggle (AS), Bail Out the
People Movement
Addendum: the Georgia Prisoners’
full list of demands:
* A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK
* EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
* DECENT HEALTH CARE
* AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS
* DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS
* NUTRITIONAL MEALS
* VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
* ACCESS TO FAMILIES
* JUST PAROLE DECISIONS