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On Tuesday, December 26, 2023, several prisoners confined at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison began a hunger strike to protest the continued use of long-term solitary confinement within the institution.Despite critical concern, outcry from the public and prisoner populations in the state, incarcerated people are still subjected to this brutal practice which has been renamed “restorative housing” since July 1, 2023 when measures were passed to limit its use in the state.   Leading these prisoners in this effort is longtime prison activist, revolutionary writer and artist, Kevin “Rashid” Johnson. Rashid has stated that no one will take any food at...

It is with great sadness that we have learned that former political prisoner and longtime communist and anti-prison organizer Ed Mead has died. Ed passed on November 6th, his birthday. As many know, he had been struggling with cancer for many years, continuing to live way beyond expectations and projections, making it seem like maybe he would be with us forever. Sadly, not to be the case. He died on his 82nd birthday, at home and surrounded by loved ones. We encourage you to read the statement written by some of his closest comrades here: Ed Mead Joins the Ancestors. We worked with Ed on-and-off for years;...

“Regardless of when a general change in political consciousness may come to the U.S., the fact remains that the march of history and the forces of progress are on our side. Through the process of our struggle we will make important changes right now, changes that will also help to propel that much needed rise in consciousness right here in the belly of the beast.”— Ed Mead (1941–2023)  A photo of the George Jackson Brigade in 2010. Ed is in the foreground, to the left. Above, from left to right, is Mark Cook, bo brown, and Janine Bertram. On November 6,...

On October 30,2023, I was transferred to Red Onion State Prison (ROSP), a Virgina prison with an extensive history of racism and abuse. Red Onion’s notoriety goes back to when the prison first opened, with a 1999 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). I was held at ROSP when HRW investigated and reported on it, and I witnessed and suffered all the abuses and racism revealed in the report. In fact, I spent many years afterward resisting and continuing to report on abuses at ROSP. In response, Virginia officials exiled and bounced me between numerous other state prison systems, landing...

August 19, 2022 by Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch Mirrored from: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/19/black-august-jalil-muntaqim-on-the-black-liberation-struggle-inside-and-outside-prison-walls/Jalil Muntaqim was first imprisoned in 1971, when he was only 19 years old, after being involved in revolutionary Black liberation groups the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the Black Liberation Army (BLA). Jalil spent 49 years behind bars before himself and his supporters won his freedom in October 2020.Revolutionary activists in the US, particularly those involved in struggles to free political prisoners and to end mass incarceration, celebrate and honor the tradition of Black August. According to these activists, Black August is a month to remember those who have died...