Humanism in Prisons and Outside: the Struggle for a Different Future

Humanism in prisons and outside: the struggle for a different future.

The need for human solidarity has never been clearer in the face of fascist nationalisms worldwide. Can we learn from prisoners, who were set against each other by the prison system and who overcame those divisions and worked out an "Agreement to End Hostilities." Their solidarity transformed their lives and ended use of indeterminate solitary confinement in California. It also opened new discussions of the meaning of the movements for freedom, which go way beyond the struggle for better conditions of imprisonment. The reason of women prisoners has also won important victories and opened new discussions on how human solidarity can make a difference in today's world.

Marxist-Humanist and prison rights activist with California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the Prisoners' Human Rights Movement (formerly Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Support Committee), Urszula Wislanka, will lead off this discussion.