Feature Archives

UPDATE 7/12: Hunger Striker’s Health Rapidly Deteriorates | 7/14: Vigil to support the Prisoner Hunger Strikers

Thousands of California prisoners have come together in solidarity with the prisoners at Pelican Bay SHU. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s own figures acknowledge 6,600 prisoners participated in the hunger strike across 13 prisons in California this past weekend. The first solidarity actions were held on July 1st on both sides of the SF Bay. Further solidarity actions were held in Oakland on July 8th and San Francisco on July 9th.

Bay of Rage writes Last Friday [June 17th], we marched on downtown banks behind a bloc of book shields in an anti-capitalist defense of the Oakland libraries. Tensions were high throughout the afternoon and the action quickly escalated into a showdown with police that took many off guard. We started assembling at Broadway and Telegraph in downtown Oakland at 3pm last Friday. There were about 60 of us. It was immediately clear that OPD had been monitoring the Bay of Rage website and was out in full force to crush the march.

Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California announced that they are beginning an indefinite hunger strike on July 1st to protest the conditions of their imprisonment, which they say are cruel and inhumane. An online petition has been started by supporters of the strikers. Key demands include the elimination of group punishments, modification of active/inactive gang status criteria, and the provision of adequate food.

Dozens of Bay Area activists rallied on June 16th in front of the Federal Building in downtown Oakland to “resist government attacks against activists”. On May 17, 2011 the SWAT Team of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and members of the FBI raided the home of Carlos Montes, a long time Chicano activist and active member of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. Courage to Resist activists joined the rally to support Bradley Manning Support Network organizer David House who refused to answer questions from a Grand Jury in Virginia on June 15th.

The National Lawyers Guild filed a class action lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department on June 13th, in the United States District Court. The lawsuit asserts constitutional violations stemming from the November 5, 2010, mass arrest of 150 peaceful protesters following the sentencing of Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer who killed Oscar Grant. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief as well as monetary damages for those 150 people who were unlawfully corralled by police and incarcerated in overcrowded holding cells for up to 28 hours.

Bay of Rage writes: Thanks to everyone for coming out to Anticut 1 on Friday [June 3rd]. The consensus seems to be that this was a very successful evening, a promising opening act to what we hope will be a long, hot summer. There were probably about 100 of us in the streets — good turnout for something organized with only a couple of weeks of notice, especially after a period of relative quiet. Let's see if we can double this next time [on June 17th].

A community protest was called for the day that Johannes Mehserle was to be released from jail. Mehserle is the former BART police officer convicted of killing Oscar Grant, a young unarmed African American man, on New Years Day 2009. The Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant called for two protests in Oakland the day Mehserle was released: the first at Fruitvale BART at 3:00 pm and then at Broadway & 14th Street at 5:30 pm. Hundreds protested in Oakland on June 12th. Mesherle was released from Los Angeles County Jail just after midnight on June 13th.