USA

After Year of Mobilization on Both Sides of the Bars, California Prisons End ‘Gladiator Fights’ Program

Submitted by R Totale on Sep 28 2019 10:02
Loved ones of people impacted by integrated releases have been holding protests

Statement from Oakland Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) and family members of California prisoners on recent news announcing the end of the bloody “Gladiator Fight” program, known as “Incremental Release.”

“This is overdue”: Interview with a striking General Motors worker

Submitted by R Totale on Sep 19 2019 16:45
Striking GM workers rally in front of the Lexington Avenue plant in Rochester, N

As General Motors reaped $8.1 billion in profit and paid its CEO $22 million, nearly 50,000 GM workers have been on strike since Monday. While workers gave major concessions during the previous recession the company is digging in it’s heels over wages and has even cut off healthcare plans for workers. Marianne Garneau of Organizing Work interviewed Lynn, a rank-and-file UAW and Black Rose/Rosa Negra member, on strike at a components plant in Rochester.

Question of Forces: Interview on Community College Labor Struggle in Philadelphia

Anarchists in Philadelphia conducted an interview with a teacher at a community college following a successful contract fight. This interview was first published by It's Going Down.

Abstention: A Class Response to Capitalist Elections

Submitted by Internationalis... on Sep 12 2019 19:56

By abstaining from bourgeois electoral politics and building our own revolutionary organizations we are best placed to build our own political forces up to take advantage of the political crisis of bourgeois rule that manifests itself in disaffection from the ruling parties. For workers, elections are an exercise of ritual humiliation perpetrated upon them by those who exploit them.

"When You Saw Us, You Didn't Want Us": Tenant Struggles in Pasadena

Submitted by R Totale on Aug 29 2019 20:39

As part of their ongoing coverage of the tenants struggle in Los Angeles, Erik Adams from working class paper Salvo caught up with organizers and residents of an apartment complex in Pasadena fighting to hold on to their home.

Retaliation 101: Requesting Access to Respite Areas at the Allred Unit in Texas is a Big No No

Submitted by R Totale on Aug 24 2019 15:48

In an article the mailroom tried to censor, Texas inmate Jason Walker describes the repression and retaliation directed against prisoners trying to get relief from the extreme summer heat.

Former child detention center staff speaks out: “This is Legalized Kidnapping”

Submitted by R Totale on Aug 20 2019 18:34

Recently, It’s Going Down was approached about publishing a testimony by a former Child Detention Center staff employee, Ramona Benitez. Their report details what they saw during several years inside one of the facilities operated by a non-profit currently running a child prison in Chicago: the Heartland Alliance. What follows is their story.

“They Say in Harlan County… ”: A Look At the Miners’ Blockade Stopping Coal in its Tracks

Submitted by R Totale on Aug 15 2019 18:56

An interview from the Earth First! Journal about the ongoing coal blockade in Harlan County, Kentucky.

"17-17-17" - Reflections at the End of the Vaughn 17 Trial

Report from Dwayne "BIM" Staats of the Vaughn 17 who reflects on the end of the trial, lessons learned, and some of the biggest hurdles that needed to be overcome.

North Carolina hunger strikers thank supporters after winning concessions

Submitted by R Totale on Aug 13 2019 18:16

Last week, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) put out a call to participate in a phone zap campaign in support of a hunger strike to win better conditions at the Scotland Correctional Institution in North Carolina. What follows is a message from one of the hunger strikers thanking people for taking part in the action.