URGENT//petition: Defend the life of comrade Mumia Abu-Jamal!! Hep-C treatment for Mumia and all prisoners!!

Mumia in a visibly healthier state & high spirits, but his health and physical condition has suffered severely since.

Last year, when Mumia was abducted by prison authorities at SCI Mahanoy and taken to an area hospital and strapped to a bed on the edge of death, the outcry and action of local allies and comrades all around the world shook the earth beneath the feet of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections (PA DOC). Not only did Mumia get the basic medical attention he required, his general quality of life has noticeably and meaningfully improved, thanks to the people’s massive intervention.

Unfortunately, the medical tests he so desperately needed revealed that he has had hepatitis-C since around the time of his capture 35 years ago.

Hep-C is a life threatening condition, one which more than 10,000 Pennsyvlania prisoners struggle with every day. While a treatment does exist, its expensiveness and the inhumanity of the US prison-camp system mean that the illness of every one of these prisoners goes untreated. In response to this, Mumia’s legal team and hardest working supporters are taking decisive and urgent action to save his life from this slow execution-by-neglect. They are working to raise $18,000 for the movement to save Mumia.

The breakdown of these expenses and other information can be found in the petition, below.

Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes: Treatment Now for Mumia!

Support PrisonRadio.org further by watching and spreading their following PSA widely!

 

Also listen & share more Prison Radio Commentaries here:

http://www.prisonradio.org/audio-listings

 

DEFEND THE LIFE OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Solidarity with sex workers – statement on the occasion of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

(This is the abridged and slightly edited version of a piece RSCC-PHL released earlier this year to encapsulate our understanding of sex work and proletarian feminism from the standpoint of social reproduction.)

We recognize sex work as work, in response to the bourgeois feminist perspective, which denies the value assigned sex work and its importance to (re)producing the patriarchal, capitalist society. We also reject the liberal perspective of the sex-liberationists, which seeks to rehabilitate sex work as a means of individual empowerment and liberation, because within a capitalist patriarchy, the performance of our labour for a wage cannot, in itself, be emancipatory.

As materialists, we recognize that the fundamental social relationship which oppresses women is patriarchal capitalism, the economic dominance of men. As Silvia Federici recounts in her investigation of the European witch hunts and the rise of the capitalist mode of production, Caliban and the Witch (2004), women’s sex work historically became massified and normalized in the developmental stages of capitalism, thriving off the pauperization and genocide of European peasant women, and fueled by selective extension of the money-wage to men. (Federici, 2004:68, 92-94)[1]

Because of this history, the history of patriarchal capitalism, we cannot escape the reality, today, of women’s sexuality as labour. As Federici theorized in her 1975 essay, Why Sexuality is Work:

“…whether in its liberalized or its more repressive form, our sexuality is still under control… fathers, brothers, husbands, pimps all have acted as agents of the state, to supervise our sexual work, to ensure that we would provide sexual services according to the established, socially sanctioned productivity norms. Economic dependence is the ultimate form of control over our sexuality.” (Federici, 1975)[2]

Considering this irreconcilable antagonism, between women’s labour and the capitalist patriarchy which commands it, RSCC-PHL calls for nothing less than sex workers’ total liberation from the commodification of their bodies and their work.

Stigmatizing sex workers does not aim for liberation. It does not provide new avenues for sex workers to sustain themselves, and it does not resolve the social relationships of patriarchy and capitalism which commodify sex workers’ and women’s bodies. Stigmatizing sex work is the strategy of the state. It is an attempt to mystify the contradictions between sex workers and the rest of the working class, the resolution of which will drive us jointly towards a universal emancipation from work, and the commodification of our bodies.

This liberation movement must be led by sex workers themselves; communists and feminists must support them.

---

[1] Federici Silvia. (2004) Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2009.

[2]                  (1975) “Why Sexuality is Work.” Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2012.

MEDIA ADVISORY: Million Student March – Community College of Philadelphia contingent ✊✊✊

CONTACT: Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee – PHL (rsccphl@gmail.com); Rina Mascitti, Deputy Chair (302.354.9767)

WHEN: 11/12/15 (Thursday) @ 2:30PM; march begins at 3:45

WHERE: Rally in front of CCP’s Student Life building, march to City Hall

WHO: Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee – Philly chapter (RSCC-PHL) with allied students and workers; CCP Students for Justice in Palestine (CCP SJP); Philly Socialists; 15 Now Philadelphia

SOUND & VISUALS: Students will be holding signs and banners and playing music while engaging with the community. RSCC-PHL will then lead a contingent of allied individuals and campus organisations with their own signs and banners, chanting slogans.

DETAILS: Students, faculty and workers across the city of Philadelphia will be taking part in a national day of action Thursday, November 12, against heightening exploitation on our campuses. At CCP, we will be demanding an open campus, the abolition of tuition, the cancellation of all student debt, $15/hr for campus workers, the abolition of the Board of Trustees, democratic community control of the college, and an end to repression against student activists.

Year after year, our institutions of higher education are being privatised. Less and less do they serve the needs of the communities whose labour they are exploiting and whose land they are gentrifying. Rather than serving the needs of the people, universities and colleges in Philadelphia serve the needs of the ruling class.

At the Community College of Philadelphia, contrary to the promise of a “pathway to [petty bourgeois] possibilities,” we are confronted as students by the reality that ⅔ of us will neither graduate from our two-year degree programmes, nor transfer to a four-year university; only 2% of us will graduate on time. These results are heavily skewed along racial lines, with more than twice as many white students as Black students succeeding at CCP, despite there being more than twice as many Black students as white students enrolled. (nces.ed.gov) In this way, we can see that the Community College of Philadelphia, whose community is predominantly those of working-class Black and Brown people in Philly, is reproducing white supremacist capitalism before our very eyes.

This is because the Board of Trustees exists to enrich themselves through their investment in the Community College, and to satisfy the needs of a capitalist and racist labour market.

At CCP, we are also dealing with an out-of-control administration, which is more interested in grabbing and holding bureaucratic power over campus decisions and serving the Board of Trustees, than helping students succeed, or fairly remunerating its workers. Over the past several weeks, for example, the administration has militarised our campus, directing security to intimidate students into handing over identifying information simply to enter school buildings. This new policy treats community members like criminal suspects and potential terrorists, and creates unnecessary antagonism between campus security and our campus community. We want our open campus back, in the interests of community accessibility and student/worker/faculty safety from meddling police and security.

The administration at CCP has also used its power to crack down on political activity on campus. When RSCC-PHL members and allied faculty disrupted police recruiting on our campus as part of the larger Black Lives Matter movement against the racist police, the administration handed down suspensions on all students and faculty who participated. Another of our campus-specific demands at CCP is an end to retaliation against student and faculty who do political work on campus.

The Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee also wishes to stress the importance of abolishing the board of trustees, and replacing them with direct democratic control of the college as a public institution, held in joint interest by students, faculty, workers and the community. This democratisation of our campus is essential to meeting the demands of the Million Student March.

As student revolutionaries, we see it as our duty to break down the walls that insulate these privatising institutions from the struggles which are raging outside them. Our colleges must become bases of people power in order to fight these systems of oppression.

THE COLLEGE BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Community College of Philadelphia cracks down on dissent, militarises campus.

Following RSCC, PHL’s success at driving Philadelphia police recruiters off Community College of Philadelphia main campus, the administration has fired back with a clumsy and desperate attempt to silence faculty and student political voices, suspending one adjunct faculty ally (professor of English Divya Nair) and student/RSCC member Jim for participating in the rally & action.

#PIGFREECCP

As countless video and eyewitness testimony will corroborate, RSCC, PHL and our comrades demonstrated on our campus within our full legal right to do so. After a public speak-out, in which several comrades and community members (including Ms. Nair) expressed their political reasons for opposing the presence of the police on our campuses, we entered the cafeteria portion of the Pavilion building where the PPD had set up their recruiting table and began chanting slogans. We also used this opportunity to hand out fliers listing our organisation’s demands. Students were highly engaged in this action; few to none left the scene to avoid us and many gathered to hear us.

RSCC, PHL’s immediate demand, the reason we organised this action, was simply to make it impossible for the PPD to recruit on our campus. At all times, we relied solely on the use of our voices to peaceably make our point to both the police and the institution. We provided our student information when asked to do so, we did not harm any persons or property, and we were not disrupting a learning environment — the cafeteria is not a classroom, it is a place for students to gather and associate freely.

Comrade Jim and others running the pigs off of campus.

The College has lost no time in retaliating against those of us it could identify. Divya Nair has been suspended from her teaching position without pay and is still being required to develop make-up material. A new student at the West regional campus was suspended and cannot attend classes. The campus is no longer an open campus, as it had been in most of our living memories; we must now swipe our IDs to enter buildings, and police presence is becoming more regular. These emergency operations are in place well after the alleged shooter was apprehended with no firearm or other weapon on his person.

Post-action rally, victory for the people!

With its actions, the school’s administration has shown that it is capable and willing to make sweeping unilateral decisions about our learning environment. As students, faculty and workers who make up the community of this campus, we believe it is within our rights and privileges to disagree with this state of affairs, and to push back not only with our words, but with our actions. A community college that does not respect nor protect political speech and action on its campus is an institution which does not truly serve the community.

Support Divya Nair, suspended without pay from CCP, by signing this change.org petition.

Join us in attending Divya’s disciplinary hearing 3:00 TOMORROW (Thursday 10/15/15)

(h.t Philadelphia South Asian Collective for organising solidarity actions and resources for Divya.)

Yankee at Home: Militarization of College Campuses in Philadelphia

Police apparatus occupying community college after ignoring demands to close the campus.

The past few days could have been much safer and sane in Philadelphia. On October 4th, when an anonymous threat was made by an unknown individual online, so soon after the massacre at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, the Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee issued a call to #CloseTheCampus at every major higher educational institution within our capacity in Philadelphia. We hoped allies would join and follow suit.

Same asshole, different uniform.

Revolutionaries serve the people. As revolutionaries operating in a college setting, our people are the community, workers, students, and progressive faculty. The repressive state apparatuses (FBI, ATF, and Philadelphia Police Department) serve to protect ideological state apparatuses (educational institutions at all levels), the illusion of security, and the illusion of invincibility (or at least the capacity to act with overwhelming violent retribution from any threat).

On October 6th, at the Community College of Philadelphia main campus, there was an alleged altercation involving a weapon that has not been found. The police – having already established itself as an occupying army – quickly swooped in on the scene to feign heroism and apprehend the suspect. All of this could have been avoided if the community had control over the campus to shut it down indefinitely.

Pigs can fly.

The untold story has been the student and faculty reports of being scared shitless at the presence of assault rifles, uniforms, tactical gear, ID checks, and undercover police with poor acting skills. Pigs murder with impunity, and at a campus with a student composition that is over 78% oppressed nationality (Black, Latinx, Asians, and others), having an armed force that has been routinely murdering & jailing them at an atrocious rate is hardly a choice when faced by the threat of a lone anti-social violence fetishist or a personal beef getting settled at a bad time.

The pig army is now confident and experienced enough to militarize and occupy wherever they please. We say that we will not play by their rules. We say that now is the time where a side has already been chosen for us. Either you support the genocidal neoliberal state’s armed hitmen and neocolonial reality, or you support community-worker-student control of our campuses and our own power. The time is over for #CloseTheCampus, the dividing line is now #PigFreeCCP.

Our actions now will show on which side we stand.

#NeverForget Imperialism: Light a Flag for 9/11

RSCC, PHL Comrades burned a usAmerican flag in the middle of lively, gentrified templetown to the amusement of the people going in and out of shoppes, and to the horror of the reactionaries who uphold the flag of slavery, colonialism and genocide. 

 This action highlighted RSCC, PHL’s demand that the armed forces recruitment offices leave temple university campus, where they cynically profit in the trade of people displaced and exploited by templetown, temple university’s realty wing, which is a primary actor for the apartheid regime of gentrification in this part of North Philly.

 While this political action was totally within legal rights to do, it was met with repression for threatening the armed forces recruitment office and templetown’s major commecial corridor. Temple pigs flexed their unbridled power to kidnap people in handcuffs and carry weapons, not as employees of the city but as the private thugs of temple university. Even as they detained two activists, some pigs self-righteously boasted they had fought for the right to freedom of expression, at the same time as they forcefully abridged that right.

The presence of the US armed forces on temple campus and in North Philadelphia is utterly intolerable! We demand an end to the imperialist wars of extermination against people across the globe! We demand that templetown cease its campaign of ethnic cleansing in North Philly and relinquish its resources to the people! These demands aren’t idle — as have demonstrated by these actions, and trouble will intensify as long as they haven’t been met! 

 Below, you can view the flier which was handed out after this symbolic action

Fuck the Troops: The Military are the mercenaries of Imperialism.

As the contradictions of the world situation sharpen, we are seeing the disastrous effects of the US Armed Forces, and how they are the enemy of the people everywhere. Over half a million dead in Iraq. Over 200,000 dead in Afghanistan. Both countries bombed into the stone age. Unmanned drones raining death from the skies in Yemen, Pakistan, and clandestine operations all over Africa and Latin America. All in the name of “defending our freedoms” and “national security.” Considering the U.S. military budget is $610 billion dollars, more than the rest of the world combined, this logic is a complete paranoid farce.

The US armed forces not only terrorize innocent people abroad. It is also an enemy of the people here at home. Just as it acts abroad, so it acts on the American people as well. From the 1970 Kent State massacre of students in Ohio by the National Guard, to the sending of troops recently in Baltimore and Ferguson. Decked out with the highest-grade military gear, one can safely assume they were to serve as trigger-happy backup in case the murderous police lost control of the situation.

The military is by design an exclusive group of armed thugs in service of the state. It is placed above and separate from the masses of the people. It is isolated from the masses and not accountable to them, and therefore is not built to serve them. The need for an exclusive armed force arises when a state arises. The state needs armed bodies to enforce the laws and overseas policies it enacts, and so it creates them and gives them a place of privilege within society. Whichever class controls that state also controls this armed forces, bearing in mind that even though this armed force is sustained by taxes the masses pay to the state, just as the usage of their tax money, the masses have no control over these armed forces. 

Military recruitment centers have no place near our universities. Students may be enticed by benefits such as GI bills, healthcare, subsidized necessities, a guaranteed income, all things that a State should provide without requiring you to kill for its empire abroad and at home. Instead of useless degrees that cater to the whims of the “free market” that give you no other option. It is no surprise that that this recruitment center is located in lower North Philly, where systematic racism has not allowed oppressed nationalities opportunities for a stable life, and therefore they are perfect prey for the lies and swindles of the recruiters. Students and community must join together to shut down the Armed Forces recruitment center.

FIGHT IMPERIALISM, AT HOME AND ABROAD!

FIGHT FOR OUR FUTURE!

Take it to the Streets and Fuck the Police!: Philly Demands Justice for Mike Brown on the One Year Anniversary of His Martyrdom

On Monday, August 10^th, over one hundred members and supporters of the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice took over Broad Street to demand justice for all victims of police murder. This demonstration in particular was organized to mark the one-year anniversary of Mike Brown’s vicious execution by then Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson, Missouri PD.

This action was one in which a decidedly militant tone was adopted by all present. It is clear that the battle-hardened veterans of this struggle in attendance that day had lost all patience. The movement has reached a high stage and the people are ready to fight back.

The march began at roughly 6:30pm at the intersection of Broad and Erie, and swiftly took over all four lanes of traffic while the marchers broke into elevated chants. Gone was the familiar “Hands up, Don’t shoot!”, replaced by “Fists up, Fight Back!” Even further, the people began to roar “Take it to the Streets, and Fuck the police!” It was quite clear that this was not a funeral procession. These people were alive, and fighting for their lives and the lives of all those victimized by the police in the US. There was no compromise on this march and the politics of confrontation were on full display by its participants.

The action came to a close at the intersection of Broad and Cecil B. Moore, where the Temple University is located. The people were quick to point out the seizure of large swaths of this area of North Philly by Temple, along with the displacement of long time residents by the gentrification schemes of the university.

The intersection was held for at least thirty minutes, during which time the names of dozens women murdered by the police were read off in succession. In addition to this, 4.5 minutes of silence were observed to honor the memory of Mike Brown, whose body was maliciously left to rot in the street for 4.5 hours after his execution by then Officer Wilson on August 9^th, 2014. Shortly after the people dispersed, though not without leaving an indelible mark in the history of the struggle to disarm, disempower and disband the PPD.

OFF THE PIGS!

BLACK LIBERATION MATTERS!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

The Movement Triumphs: Morgan Malachi Acquitted of All Charges

    On July 23^rd, 2015, Philly’s tireless warrior for Black liberation Morgan Malachi was brought before Judge Flynn M. Owens in Baltimore, MD. As a founding member of Action Against Black Genocide and a prominent leader in the Philly REAL Justice Coalition, Morgan has been at the forefront of the struggle to disarm, disempower and disarm the police in Philadelphia. As a member of the Lawncrest 10, Morgan was in part responsible for the release of the names of the two officers responsible for the police murder of Brandon Tate-Brown. She has waged a relentless struggle for a militant and uncompromising line within the movement against the PPD. Her commitment to the struggle for Black liberation and against the police state
in the USA led her to become an active participant in the Baltimore rebellion, during which she was arrested by the BPD on April 25^th, 2015.  It was for two charges stemming from this arrest that Morgan was forced to return to Baltimore to face trial, though not without the support of her comrades. Twenty-five members of the Philly REAL Justice Coalition drove in a caravan from Center City Philadelphia to stand with their embattled compatriot.

Morgan and her supporters, including members of RSCC, PHL, arrived in Baltimore at roughly 8am to find a group of local activists already holding a demonstration in support with Morgan outside the courthouse. Morgan and her supporters from Philly joined in this outpouring of solidarity until it was time to enter the courthouse.

Veteran attorney Steve Beatty, who has previously fought for legal justice for other victims of police repression during the Baltimore Rebellion, represented Morgan. Andrew Costinett represented the state of Maryland. From the start, Costinett presented a case that was circumstantial at best. The witnesses called by the prosecution were unable to prove that Morgan was guilty of anything except acting within the bounds of her legal right to demonstrate. In fact, the last witness called by the prosecution, Tactical Flight Officer Andre Smith, inadvertently drove the final nail into the coffin of the prosecution’s case.

In the end, the prosecution could not prove that Morgan acted in a disorderly manner towards the police. Further, they could not prove conclusively that Morgan failed to comply with a direct order from the police. With a look of consternation and defeat on his face, Judge Owens launched into a five-minute tirade against Morgan and her legally defensible actions on April 25^th. It was after this temper tantrum that Judge Owens acquitted Morgan of all charges. It was at this point that Morgan’s supporters in the courtroom broke into cheers and applause for their comrade’s second victory against the US injustice system.

We in RSCC, PHL recognize in individuals like Morgan the emergence of a new leadership in the struggle for Black liberation in the USA. Without this new leadership the struggle would inevitably end up being channeled into the liberal NGO and non-profit model that has stopped short of advocating liberation and self-determination for New Afrikans in North America. We salute Morgan and all those fighting against US apartheid and the continuing incarceration and repression of all oppressed nationalities within the US colonial-settler state.

FTP!

BLACK LIBERATION NOW!

DOWN WITH U.S. APARTHEID!

The People Speak, Though Not Always In Unison: A Report Back on the Philly Charleston Solidarity March

On June 17^th, 2015, a white supremacist named Dylann Roof massacred nine innocent Black people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. Mr. Roof made his intentions clear that night; he was there to murder Black people. This act was in full conformity with the status quo. There can be no question of the class and racial composition of the rulers of this country. The USA is a white colonial settler state built upon the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the enslavement and subjugation of Africans. The war being waged by the white colonial elite and their foot soldiers like Dylann Roof is to defend their political and military power against the revolt of the colonized being waged in the streets on a daily basis.

Dylann Roof’s target was a church founded by formerly enslaved people in 1816. In 1822 the co-founder of Emanuel AME, Denmark Vesey, was hanged for allegedly planning a slave revolt, which would have encompassed Charleston and the plantations surrounding it. This revolt was sold out by informers, leading to dozens of arrests and executions of enslaved and formerly enslaved people associated with Denmark Vesey and Emanuel AME church. The revolt was planned for June 17, 1822. Dylann Roof chose the 193^rd anniversary of this foiled insurrection as the date of his attack, in order to remind the descendents of those who might have fought that day that their chains were just as real as ever, and that the white man could still get away with murder when he so chose.

There has been an escalation in the activity of the masses in response to this assertion of white male dominance. Some have called for prayer, some for self-defense, and some for both. People have gotten out into the streets to demand justice for the Nine in Charleston. Philadelphia was no exception to this rule. On June 27^th, members and supporters of the REAL Justice Coalition met at the historic Black and Nobel cultural shop in north Philadelphia to rally and march for justice for the Nine in Charleston. The weather was atrocious, but that did not deter the dedicated servants of the people who ventured out to support the masses in Charleston in their struggle against a Confederate government that only ceased to exist in name following the US Civil War.

RSCC, PHL was present at this event and we were proud to stand with courageous individuals like Del Matthews, whose son Frank McQueen was murdered by the police last year in Chester, PA. Del posed a thought-provoking question in her speech to the crowd: “If a race war broke out tomorrow, how many of you white people would stand with me?” The answer to this question will in many ways determine who the friends of the people are. The USA is a prison house of nations, and the time has come to decide if you side with the colonized or with the colonizer.

After a rally lasting roughly one hour, the Coalition supporters took to the streets. The procession marched behind by cars driven by Coalition supporters. This was in order to avoid being forced to march behind PPD pig patrol cars. A line of marchers carried placards bearing the names and photos of those slaughtered by Dylann Roof. The route was a straight shot down Broad Street from North Philadelphia to Center City, with marchers occupying four lanes of traffic. The march was joined by a contingent from the US Social Forum, and this is where the message became confused. Line struggle was apparent as white liberals from the Social Forum attempted to infuse their social democratic politics into an otherwise militant and focused expression of rage on the part of a contingent lead by oppressed nationalities. A large blue flag, bearing the single word “occupy” was visible, and the Social Forum people initiated the tired liberal refrain “we are the 99%”. This was picked up by a segment of the crowd, though thankfully not for long. Those chants which resonated the most loudly and strongly were those related to the fight back against white supremacy and police murder.

The procession ended at Philadelphia’s Municipal Services Building. In the shadow of a statue of former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo, speakers from the Coalition denounced the former mayor and his successors, recalling the murder of eleven unarmed members of the MOVE organization in May of 1985. In addition to this, the orators called for the immediate release of those members of the MOVE organization who are currently held in PA prisons, as well as US political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The white capitalist power structure and its supporters in the labor aristocracy were also denounced. In the end, a vow was made to fight for the living, but time was reserved to mourn those individuals martyred by white supremacist foot soldiers like Dylann Roof.

We are living in a time a time of polarization and upheaval, both domestically and internationally. We cannot afford to vacillate or waver in our commitment to overthrow the system, nor cling sentimentally to the old ways proscribed for doing so. Still, members of RSCC, PHL stood in the rain and the wind to bear witness to the martyrdom of the Nine of Charleston, and in these lines we will do so again.

Sen. the Rev. Clementa Pinckney
Depayne Middleton Doctor
Cynthia Hurd
Susie Jackson
Ethel Lance
Tywanza Sanders
Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons Sr.
Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
Myra Thompson

WE HONOR YOUR NAMES. REST IN POWER.

“We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. Enemies surround us on all sides, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighboring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but also to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don’t clutch at us and don’t besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are “free” to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!”

-V.I. Lenin

Trans and Queer, migrant and Latinx activists confront family detention in Pennsylvania.

On Monday, 22 June, progressive activists representing many sections of society stood face to face with the United States’ largest family detention programme since the internment of Japanese families in World War II.

The demonstration took place outside Berks Family Detention Centre, in Leesport, PA, one of three prisons in the nation designed specifically to imprison entire families of migrant people. That morning, NGO reps and other carceral specialists were touring Berks in the hope of using it as a model for facilities specifically to imprison migrant trans people; activists from across the trans and queer Latinx community were in militant opposition to the presence of those planning the mass incarceration of migrant trans people, and to the continuance of operations at Berks. This action was hosted and led primarily by GALAEI, Juntos, and the Migrant Power Movement, whose vision of queer liberation pushes for the liberation of trans and queer migrant people from incarceration and deportation.

The detention centre in Berks County is itself a model of the abuse and routine violation of human dignity that characterise the US migrant detention regime. Abuses of women and children by staff are regular; children languish with inadequate nutrition, healthcare, and opportunities for self-fulfillment, suffering from a bevy of poorly treated and untreated physical and mental conditions as a result. As RSCC, PHL stood in solidarity with activists and prisoners, at least fifty childreen stood in the prison yard waving to us, chanting with us, cheering for us and holding their own signage, proclaiming “WE WANT TO BE FREE.” Unfortunately, we were not allowed within 50-100 yards of the detained families, accenting the reality of their profound physical isolation.

 The Berks Family Detention Center has also been a site of intense political struggle on the inside. Detainees are forced to work for absurd and super-exploitative low wages (a dollar a day), and many children in the prison have been coerced into this work, some as young as 13 years old. In response to the conditions inside Berks, thirteen women went on strike 8 June, demanding the release of their families; they have been subject to brazen political repression by ICE, including threats of deporation, and they’re all in serious jeopardy as long as the prison remains standing.

Children at the prison, carrying their message: “WE WANT TO BE FREE and JUSTICE”

Read the official statement of groups protesting HERE
Donate to the Berks women’s strike fund HERE