Solidarity with the September 9th National Prisoner Strike
Thanks to a loophole in the 13th amendment, prisoners across the US are being forced to work for pennies (or often nothing at all) while being denied food, health care, and even access to basic hygiene. Prisoners who refuse may face punishments like loss of privileges, more prison time, sexual and physical abuse, solitary confinement, torture, and worse. More than 150 years after the end of slavery, there are more black and brown skinned people performing mandatory unpaid hard labor in the US today than there were in the 1800s.
Corporations, governments, prisons, and detention centers are working together to make billions of dollars in profits.
For-profit prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group maintain deals with government agencies that guarantee a minimum number of filled beds in private prison facilities and immigration detention centers - giving them access to an easily exploited labor force who can't say no and incentivizing racist criminal justice and immigration law.
State and city governments charge prisoners exorbitant prices for things like beds, phone calls to their families, toilet paper, life-saving medical care, and even food - taking as much as 80% of the meager wages prisoners receive for forced labor and making it increasingly common for them to finish their sentences in debt.
Corporations regularly shut down factories and lay off thousands of union employees all over the country in favor of much cheaper prison slave labor.
When prison profiteering is multi-billion dollar per year industry is it any surprise that the U.S. has the largest incarcerated population in the world?
Thanks to the War on Drugs, three strike laws, mandatory minimums, and slashed spending on welfare, food stamps, social security, and other social safety net programs, the American prison population is currently 10 times the size that it was in the 1970s - even though violent crime rates have been steadily decreasing for decades. Today nonviolent offenders - people locked up for things like selling weed or unpaid fines - make up more than 86% of the incarcerated population in the US. Meanwhile, Black folks and Natives are arrested, charged, and convicted at rates much higher than their portion of the population while receiving longer sentences than white offenders for the same crimes.
Far from keeping us safe, the American ‘justice’ system has been designed to systematically strip Black, Native, undocumented, poor, and disabled people of their humanity and connection to society while ensuring greedy corporations have guaranteed access to exploited labor.
Who’s Using Slave Labor Today
AT&T, Microsoft, Nintendo, UPS, Victoria’s Secret, Starbucks, Wendy’s, Well’s Fargo, Autozone, Wal-Mart, and many, many more companies all use prison slave labor. Wait, did we mention McDonald’s? Cuz yup, McDonald’s uses prison slave labor too. Prisoners are forced to make McDonald’s uniforms, knives and forks, cups, to-go containers, frozen beef patties, milk and poultry products, and more.
How to Help Stop Prison Slavery
Support prisoner resistance! Organize in solidarity with the National Prisoner Strike!
Vote with your dollars! Refuse to buy from corporations - like McDonald’s, AT&T, Victoria’s Secret, and Starbucks - who use slave labor. Here’s a full list. Write letters to their investors and shareholder, picket their storefronts, and shut down their businesses.
Spread the word! Share articles, news, and graphics about the National Prisoner Strike on social media and distribute flyers at school or work. Use the hashtags #EndPrisonSlavery, #PrisonStrike, and (if you’re in Portland) #September9thPDX. Read It’s Going Down and Support Prisoner Resistance to stay up to date.
Talk to incarcerated friends and loved ones about supporting or joining the National Prisoner Strike
Become an endorsing organization or individual and pledge your support for the National Prisoner Strike publicly.
Commit to help organize support for the strike beyond September 9th - attend a September 9th coalition meeting or share your skills
For more info visit Support Prisoner Resistance and bit.ly/September9thSolidarity.
Strike against prison slavery!
Strike against white supremacy!
No life in chains! Free em all!
