Attica, Prison Strike, Millions for Prisoners, and Beyond

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On the anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison rebellion we reflect on the intensifying political struggles behind bars by examining two extraordinary flashpoints: Amerika’s nationwide September 9, 2016, prisoner strike, and the August 19, 2017, Millions for Prisoners march.

Firehawk, of Unstoppable, and Ben Turk of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World discuss strategies developing within the contemporary prisoner resistance movement during The Fire Inside zine tour, while Krystal Rountree of the iamWE Prison Advocacy Network explains the organizing efforts inside and outside that made the August 19 Millions for Prisoners March possible. We close the episode with D, an incarcerated organizer with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak who tells us about what went down inside in the wake of August 19 — and what’s next.

For more reporting on the prisoner resistance movement check out Michigan’s Kinross Prison Strike: Reflections from Inside, an exclusive audio archive we’ve created with the help of correspondents behind bars and MAPS: Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity.

Photo from Kit O’Connell 

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Rustbelt Abolition Radio is an abolitionist media and movement-building project based in Detroit, MI. Each episode amplifies the voices of those impacted by mass incarceration and explores ongoing work in the movement to abolish the carceral state (that is, prisons, police, courts as well as racial domination and capitalist exploitation).

The show seeks to strengthen community collaboration and undermine the common sense that putting people in cages and shackling them with electronic devices solves the problems produced by racial capitalism. As such, we aim to expand our ability to struggle against the ways in which the carceral state impacts our daily lives and to create a space where we can both imagine and remake our world anew.