[Ppnews] National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners

[Political Prisoner News]

Friends,

Last night the Occupy Oakland General Assembly 
passed the proposal below to have a National 
Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners on Monday 
February 20th.  In the Bay Area there will be a demonstration at San Quentin.

Hopefully there will be many, many others all 
around the country.  Please spread the word.

for more info go to: <http://www.occupy4prisoners.org>www.occupy4prisoners.org

Diana
********************************

Proposal to Occupy Oakland General Assembly

This is the proposal that was passed at the 
Occupy Oakland General Assembly, on Monday, 
January 9th, and a list of endorsers in formation.

For more information and/or to endorse, email 
occupy4prisoners [at] gmail [dot] com.

ENDORSERS (list in formation)

Angela Davis
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Jack Bryson
Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu Jamal
Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu Jamal
National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
Occupied Oakland Tribune
Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression
Prison Activist Resource Center
Prison Watch Network
San Francisco Bay View Newspaper
Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network

PROPOSAL

Summary

We are calling for February 20th, 2012 to be a 
“National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners.”

In the Bay Area we will “Occupy San Quentin,” to 
stand in solidarity with the people confined 
within its walls and to demand the end of the 
incarceration as a means of containing those 
dispossessed by unjust social policies.

Reasons

Prisons have become a central institution in 
American society, integral to our politics, economy and our culture.

Between 1976 and 2000, the United States built on 
average a new prison each week and the number of 
imprisoned Americans increased tenfold.

Prison has made the threat of torture part of 
everyday life for millions of individuals in the 
United States, especially the 7.3 million 
people—who are disproportionately people of 
color—currently incarcerated or under correctional supervision.

Imprisonment itself is a form of torture. The 
typical American prison, juvenile hall and 
detainment camp is designed to maximize 
degradation, brutalization, and dehumanization.

Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow. Between 
1970 and 1995, the incarceration of African 
Americans increased 7 times. Currently African 
Americans make up 12 % of the population in the 
U.S. but 53% of the nation’s prison population. 
There are more African Americans under 
correctional control today—in prison or jail, on 
probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a 
decade before the Civil War began.

The prison system is the most visible example of 
policies of punitive containment of the most 
marginalized and oppressed in our society. Prior 
to incarceration, 2/3 of all prisoners lived in 
conditions of economic hardship. While the 
perpetrators of white-collar crime largely go free.

In addition, the Center for Economic and Policy 
Research estimated that in 2008 alone there was a 
loss in economic input associated with people 
released from prison equal to $57 billion to $65 billion.

We call on Occupies across the country to support:

1.  Abolishing unjust sentences, such as the 
Death Penalty, Life Without the Possibility of 
Parole, Three Strikes, Juvenile Life Without 
Parole, and the practice of trying children as adults.

2.  Standing in solidarity with movements 
initiated by prisoners and taking action to 
support prisoner demands, including the Georgia 
Prison Strike and the Pelican Bay/California Prisoners Hunger Strikes.

3.  Freeing political prisoners, such as Mumia 
Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Lynne Stewart, 
Bradley Manning and Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, a 
Black Panther Party member incarcerated since 1969.

4. Demanding an end to the repression of 
activists, specifically the targeting of African 
Americans and those with histories of 
incarceration, such as Khali in Occupy Oakland 
who could now face a life sentence, on trumped-up 
charges, and many others being falsely charged 
after only exercising their First Amendment rights.

5. Demanding an end to the brutality of the 
current system, including the torture of those 
who have lived for many years in Secured Housing 
Units (SHUs) or in solitary confinement.

6. Demanding that our tax money spent on 
isolating, harming and killing prisoners, instead 
be invested in improving the quality of life for 
all and be spent on education, housing, health 
care, mental health care and other human services 
which contribute to the public good.

Bay Area

On February 20th, 2012 we will organize in front 
of San Quentin, where male death-row prisoners 
are housed, where Stanley Tookie Williams was 
immorally executed by the State of California in 
2005, and where Kevin Cooper, an innocent man on 
death row, is currently imprisoned.

At this demonstration, through prisoners’ 
writings and other artistic and political 
expressions, we will express the voices of the 
people who have been inside the walls. The 
organizers of this action will reach out to the 
community for support and participation. We will 
contact social service organizations, faith 
institutions, labor organizations, schools, 
prisoners, former prisoners and their family members.

National and International Outreach

We will reach out to Occupies across the country 
to have similar demonstrations outside of 
prisons, jails, juvenile halls and detainment 
facilities or other actions as such groups deem 
appropriate.  We will also reach out to Occupies 
outside of the United States and will seek to 
attract international attention and support.

We have chosen Monday, February 20, 2012 at San 
Quentin, because it is a non-weekend 
day.  Presidents’ Day avoids the weekend conflict 
with prisoners’ visitation, which would likely be 
shut down if we held a demonstration over the weekend.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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