Support the striking prisoners in Georgia

Quick update. to this blog,  I just got off the phone with Elaine Brown and she said the prisoners are continuing for the third day. She urges that we call the governors office, the state dept of corrections.  She said that we should call the NAACP , Amnesty International and Congressman John Lewis's office and demand "Where are you in this". http://www.house.gov/formjohnlewis/contact.html

She said they have cut off the heat and the hot water, trashed cells, entering with guns.  Here agains are numbers:
Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900.
Hays State Prison is at (706) 857-0400
Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721
Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218
Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900
Smith State Prison is at (912) 654-5000

The Georgia Department of Corrections is at http://www.dcor.state.ga.us and their phone number is 478-992-5246

The multi-racial prison strike that began Thursday continued on Friday, you can read more about it here or click on the link for the Black Agenda Report on the right.  The media is pretty much ignoring this and for obvious reasons; class unity, the multi-racial nature of the strike.  If this were a riot between races, if blacks and whites or blacks and Latinos were killing each other, the capitalist media would be using the event to show how racism is an inherent part of human nature, a part of our makeup. It would be used to encourage people to retreat in to separate racist camps regardless of class. Divide and conquer.

We should remember that Malcolm X was not killed when he lumped all whites together. As he moved towards a socialist position talking about a revolution will not be based on the color of people's skin but between the oppressed and the oppressors and appealed to a much wider class base, he became a real threat.

This country was built on racism.  Malcolm X also said that we should consider how this country got so rich so quickly.  It was based on the wiping out of the native people, slavery, where workers were producing without wages for 300 years, and exploitation of workers in the factories, the textile mills, the floating factories (ships) of the rising industrial giant.

Racism has a brutal legacy.  When they teach history, they cannot avoid this issue but always teach it in a way that will keep people apart; that it is human quality to be racist, it is an individual not a social issue; that the white worker and the white boss or slave owners are the same. The white racist bosses have used this to divide workers and continue their brutal attacks on non-white workers with great success, but despite that, there are still great moments in Labor history where workers have overcome this barrier.

The capitalist class that controls education always deal with racism in a way to make white workers feel guilty and obscure their own role.  This does  not work much with white workers whose history is also one of great sacrifice, struggle and mostly poverty. But the white middle class is very prone to it as they feel guilty about their class privilege.  But an ally that supports you because they feel guilty and sorry for you is a weak and unreliable ally.  The strongest bond is the class solidarity that all workers feel despite the history of racial, sexual and religious oppression designed to keep us apart.  It is important to be inspired by the struggle of black workers for example under incredibly violent conditions. This does not mean workers should not appeal to middle class people who want to join our struggle and be part of it, but we must recognize their history affects their consciousness.  The ideology of the bourgeois is strong in them.

Guilt is a worthless and poisonous emotion.  White workers like myself have to recognize history for what it is and the role that white workers have played, or not played.  Much of this is due to the leaders of the worker's movement who still today put forward polices that divide workers and weaken all of us, from policy on immigration to trade and the environment.  The top leaders of the workers' movement, the Union leaders have the same world view as the employers, they support the market and see no alternative to it.  Consequently, they have no independent position that will serve the interests of all workers, only policies taken from the  more liberal wing of the capitalist class that also are our enemies.

The GA prison strike is a positive development and you can be sure the bosses will be doing what they can to split the racial unity that exists. The civil rights movement blunted some of their more open racism, but they never stop this, never.  Here are some contact numbers.  Valerie Porter, 229-931-5348, lashan123@att.net; Faye Sanders, 478-550-7046, reshelias@yahoo.com

There are other numbers from a previous blog here as well as the website for the dept of corrections and the demands of the striking prisoners.

Get your Union or organization to send an email supporting the prisoners demands and urging the authorities to concede them, more importantly call the authorities suggested above. For our readers abroad this would be especially helpful