No More Locked Doors Conference, Sat May 16th Oakland

Announcement of May 16th Conference

In commemoration of the horrific bombing of the MOVE Organization by Philadelphia police 30 years ago, on Saturday, May 16th in Oakland, CA, people will come together at the radical community center Qilombo for the ‘No More Locked Doors’ conference. During the day, groups will be tabling and there will be workshops. In the evening, there will be a panel of former political prisoners. After the panel, revolutionary hip-hop artists will perform.

The conference will highlight the work of supporting political prisoners in a variety of movements for liberation. All struggles – whether they are against colonialism, capitalism, the exploitation of the earth or of animals, the State, prisons, and any and all other repressive apparatus – have a need to practice long-term support for those incarcerated. These practices of solidarity need to be maintained and generalized.

No More Locked Doors invites organizations, groups, and individuals involved with political prisoner support, revolutionary anti-prison organizing, and anti-repression organizing within our struggles to participate in the conference. Tabling by organizations will begin at 11am and go until 6pm and we encourage people who are interested to contact us. Currently we are not charging for tables, but do request that those tabling make a donation to Qilombo to help cover the cost of the space.

We are also soliciting proposals for workshops throughout the day. Potential topics include case updates about specific prisoners, strategies for anti-repression work in current social movements, prisoner struggles, or other topics relevant to the struggle of political prisoners or against prisons. Workshops will take place in the main hall, in the garden (weather permitting), and also in the bookstore. Workshops will happen from 12 PM – 1:45 PM, 2 PM – 3:45 PM, and 4 PM – 5:45 PM. Space may be limited, so please send us your proposals as soon as possible.

At 7 PM, we will have a panel with former political prisoners, representing various social movements. This is a chance to analyze the repressive strategies that have been used against different liberation struggles, to build understanding and communication across movements, to connect revolutionaries across generations and to, most of all, celebrate the spirit of people’s resistance that the prisons cannot extinguish.

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For both table and workshop proposals, please send a message to nomorelockeddoors [at] riseup.net and include your group’s name, a website (if one exists), the nature of your project and/or a description of the workshop that you are proposing.

The Qilombo Collective has graciously opened their doors to this event and we encourage everyone who attends to consider donating to the project and the check out their website at qilombo.org.