We stand with struggles of oppressed peoples around the globe! Black Lives Matter!
The Solidarity Fund for Imprisoned and Persecuted Militants is a political structure established in 2010. Our aim is to provide regular, consistent support to those persecuted or imprisoned for participating in social and class struggles, and for subversive action in the revolutionary struggle, including struggles in prisons.
"Our basic aim is to ensure decent living conditions for imprisoned comrades by political action, taking material solidarity a step beyond close family, friendly and comrade relationships. ... Our imprisoned comrades are a vital part of the broader antagonistic movement. Solidarity isn’t only material, but also ethical and political." ...
"In the current pandemic and restrictive measures imposed by the state, we face an unprecedented situation domestically and globally. ... Overcrowding of Greek prisons, inadequate or non-existent medical care, few personal protective measures, continued confinement even for the most vulnerable – all created conditions for significantly high mortality rates, which may amount to the death penalty for many prisoners.
"Consequently, a series of prison mobilizations escalated to the women’s prison in Thiva in response to a prisoner’s death and spread throughout other prisons. Prisoners abstained from work and meals and refused to enter cells. The key demands were decongestion of prisons and implementation of basic protection measures."
Alejo Stark, Michigan, Michigan Abolition and Prisoner
Solidarity (MAPS) and Rustbelt Abolition Radio (RAR)
MAPS emerged in the wake of the 2016 nationwide prison strike. Our focus that year was to support those immediately facing retaliation for striking on the inside. We slowly started supporting other prisoner self-activity and organizing on the inside. RAR formed as an independent but parallel collective to MAPS. As a movement-building media project, we also support abolitionist comrades on the inside, interweaving their analysis, thoughts, and experiences with those outside.
In March we got news from a comrade, Bruce X, at Macomb, a prison just North of Detroit, saying “Look the virus is already in here ... They have to take immediate measures now.”
Two weeks later, Bruce tested positive, and was put on quarantine. Quarantine means solitary. So here is this 34-year-old asthmatic – who has been telling us that this was going to happen – sitting in a solitary cell, literally gasping for air. We’re seeing this tragedy unfold right before us.
Our immediate response was to put out the interview along with demands and activate our support network. Abolitionist comrades with Free Toxic Prisons heard the interview and immediately organized a phone zap. The demands were to release everybody over age 50, the immunocompromised, the pregnant, and those with health problems as well as free phone calls and commissary.
YoNoFui is a feminist and popular political organization made up of women and non-binary people, some have been previously incarcerated. Founded in 2002, it organizes art, communications and skills workshops inside and outside prisons and also operates a worker-managed textile cooperative, publishes a regular magazine and hosts a weekly radio show.
"We are the type of people who are left out of emergency plans. Foreign bodies. We are the waste of a society that treats us as second class citizens under any circumstances, discarded. For them, we are the virus."
Thus opens a statement from the collective YoNoFui in the early days of the pandemic in Argentina. YoNoFui is a feminist and popular political organization made up of women and non-binary people, some of whom have been previously incarcerated.
"The pandemic rendered visible the terrible conditions of confinement for those who have been deprived of their freedom in our prisons, especially the women and children. There are no state policies to care for that population. On the other hand, the pandemic brought the overcrowding and overpopulation to a true social explosion. With the appearance of Covid-19, requests for house arrest increased and, at the same time, life within the prisons became increasingly unbearable after the quarantine was decreed and visitation prohibited. The detained people started going hungry, and with the hunger, revolts began demanding sanitary measures, food, and hygiene products that are generally provided by visiting family members. On the other hand, prison staff did not respect the protocols, they would come and go without taking any care to avoid exposing the entire prison population to the risk of contagion. Today the debate has polarized, there are rumors of strikes in the prisons, it is an ongoing conflict.
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