OAKLAND COMMUNITY TO RALLY IN SUPPORT OF GEORGIA PRISONER STRIKE

Oakland, CA – Friday, December 17, 2010 – Community activists will take to the streets again this Friday to show support for an ongoing prisoners strike in Georgia, the largest prison strike in U.S. history. Supporters of the strike will rally at North County Jail (6th street between Jefferson and Clay) at 4pm before marching over to City Hall for a convergence at 6pm. Activists say they chose to rally at North County Jail because they claim the demands raised by the Georgia strikers affect prisoners in jails across the country.

“Prisoners in Georgia are striking over basic human rights such as compensation for their work, healthy meals, and adequate medical care. These horrible conditions are taking place right here in California too and the community can no longer ignore these abuses,” said Zak Solomon, a student organizer.

Activists say this is just the beginning of a larger campaign started by the Georgia strikers. The campaign will include an array of tactics including organized boycotts of companies contracting prison services, public demonstrations and educational outreach.

Clifton Rashad, another organizer who was previously involved with the Oscar Grant protests said that the movement against state violence couldn’t end at arrest: “being killed is not the end of the story. The police brutality that we’ve seen with Oscar Grant and Derrick Jones and countless others, doesn’t stop there. It continues in the silent stories of most every incarcerated person, disproportionately drawn from working class communities of color all over the country”.

For more information please contact: Anastasia Gomes at 347-576-3621.

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Community organizations endorsing the rally include: UC-Berkeley Student Worker Action Team (SWAT), Community Action Project (CAP), La Voz de los Trabajadores (http://www.lavozlit.com), Laney College Student Unity & Power (SUPLaney.wordpress.com), Laney College Black Student Union (BSU) , Bay Area United Against War Newsletter (bauaw.org), ,Socialist Viewpoint magazine (socialistviewpoint.org), Workers International League (http://www.socialistappeal.org), Bay Area ISO (norcalsocialism.org), We Are the Crisis (UC Davis Chapter), Bicycle Barricades (UC Davis), Socialist Action, Socialist Organizer, San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper (sfbayview.com), UC-Berkeley Black Student Union (BSU), SF State Black Student Union (BSU), SF State Student Unity & Power (SUP), Advance the Struggle (AS), Bail Out the People Movement

Addendum: the Georgia Prisoners’ full list of demands:

* A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK
* EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
* DECENT HEALTH CARE
* AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS
* DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS
* NUTRITIONAL MEALS
* VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
* ACCESS TO FAMILIES
* JUST PAROLE DECISIONS