UPDATE (10/10/2022): As we post this, the strike by prisoners in Alabama continues in prisons across the state. Even the authorities, who have been trying to claim the strike is folding, admit several prisons are completely shut down. The prisoners continue to fight to stay strong in the face of every kind of adversity. One of the strike organizers on the inside, Robert Earl Council, known as Kinetic Justice, was beaten and placed in segregation. Other prisoners report threats and violence by the authorities to force them to go back to work. There are depraved mind games from the authorities, like serving one decent, healthy meal out of the blue, and then going back to starvation rations of combinations of bread, uncooked hot dogs, cheese, bologna, prunes and coleslaw. Visitations have been cut off; prison laundries are not operating; trash is piling up; and this on top of already unlivable conditions in the prisons.

The prisoners are setting an heroic example, struggling to rise above the dog-eat-dog degradation imposed by the prison authorities, and the whole nature of this society, which has no future for millions of poor Native American, Latino, and Black people. An article by the prison reform group The Marshall Project on October 8 reported “dozens of men in prisons in other Southern states have begun talking about whether they could replicate Alabama’s work stoppage.”

A line has been drawn. The Alabama prisoners‘ strike is a which-side-are-you-on moment. Statements of “concern” over prison conditions, promises by elected officials or wannabes (Republi-fascist and Democratic), to appoint commissions are worse than meaningless. The prisoners’ demands, focusing on a legitimate and just parole system and an end to death camp conditions must be met, totally, now.

Supporters outside the prison are organizing people to come out for an October 14 rally at 9:00 am at the Alabama State Capitol, 600 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama. We encourage readers to go if they can or to find ways to support this struggle, spread the word of it (contact @bothsidesofthewall.com). And to find ways to introduce and challenge people to step into the movement for an actual revolution in whatever ways they can.