Not a whisper, not a sound, from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, about the US prison strike, now in its third week. In one prison even the guards failed to turn up for work. The US prison system, like others around the world, is creaking at the seams, brutality, corruption, over crowding, and the blatant injustice of the whole festering cancer, is becoming more and more evident day by brutal day. Those incarcerated in the state's cages are fighting a very unequal fight, they face the state at its most brutal stage, confined within walls and cages, under constant surveillance, their rights stripped away and at the mercy of the state's armed minders, but still they resist. There actions demand our solidarity, we built those prisons, we can pull them down.
It is being reported that last week while at the prison after attending the funeral of the pig who was stabbed here on September 1st and died from his injuries, the REGIONAL COORDINATOR Grantt Culliver, stated to several prisoners that he was going to bring the CERT, the department of corrections’ special response squad to Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama on the 1st of Octobeter and that they will be here for the next ninety days to search the prison for every knife and cellphone, and that are going to take the prison apart piece by piece until they have found every weapon and phone.
This is an attempt at intimidation and move to reestablish authority and total control. Control over human beings who have been resisting and saying fuck your authority! Humans who no longer accept the narrative that they are worthless and that the state has a right to punish and use violence without it being returned. No longer will we allow the gross injustices to go unchecked.
We want you all out there in the open air prison called the free world to keep an eye on what happens here. We know that the pigs are angry about the death of their colleague at the hands of a prisoner and all the resistance that has sprung up here within the last year and have / are planning to crush the resistance. Keep an eye on Holman and continue to show solidarity through direct action.
No gods, no masters!
Death to the state!
Long live anarchy!
Prisons can be, and often are, grotesque exaggerations of the patriarchal system that exists in society at large, magnifying problems with gender issues.
This from Anarchy Live:
The web has been abuzz with information about the recent riots here in Alabama at Holman prison – the stabbing of a warden and correctional officer, the fires that were set, the overcrowding, etc. – but what has been left out of this narrative is that the catalyst for the riots was a fight between two queer prisoners about queer relations. After quelling their beef, a pig and the warden attempted to intervene and was stabbed.
No one wants to mention that out of the six prisoners who were charged with the stabbings of the warden and correctional officer, four are queer. Historically, attempts have been made to write queer resistance out of history. But, despite all the attempts, queer folk have refused to allow these stories to go unknown.
What I think most people refuse to acknowledge is that prisons are extensions of patriarchal control. Male prisons are hyper-macho environments with very hierarchical structures and class divisions. In the prisons, queer prisoners have taken on a submissive and passive persona, because they themselves are not immune to all the psychological bullshit that society teaches about gender, sex, and class, and how that gender should be lived – you know, ‘females are weak and only to use, and control.’ The queer prisoner is on the bottom of the social ladder, just above snitches. The life of the queer prisoner is one of gross disrespect, violence, and oppression, from prisoners and pigs alike. Most prisoners look at being queer as an abomination, as something nasty and weak.
But on March 11, 2016, that narrative was shattered after queer prisoners went on the offensive against the pigs.
One queer prisoner went from dorm to dorm inviting, exhorting, and encouraging prisoners to come out of their cells and join in tearing the prison down. One dorm refused and placed a lock and chain on their dorm’s cell door, successfully locking themselves in and everyone else out. The queer prisoner started calling these guys on this and called them pigs, Uncle Tom, etc. all while brandishing a knife.
And this is not the only instance of queer resistance against the pigs:
– In 2012, a stabbing of a guard in the segregation unit at Holman was taking place while showers were being done, and Fredricka, a queer prisoner’s, cell door hadn’t closed and she ran out the cell, down the stairs and into the control unit. She kicked the pig down who was in the control unit, handcuffed him and opened some of the segregation cell doors, allowing other prisoners to come out their cell and attack the police.
– Also in 2012 at Holman prison, queer prisoners formed the “Gay Militia” as a prison gang for the protection of themselves against homophobes.
– At Donaldson prison in Alabama, queer prisoners form F.A.G. as a self-defense organization.
– In 2015 at Holman prison, a queer prisoner set fire to a guard in the segregation unit.
The history of queer resistance is long and beautiful. It didn’t start with Stonewall.
In Solidarity,
Queer Resistance
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