Solidarity Action in New York City

 

 

 

25 May 2012
NYC Youth and Students Picket in Solidarity with the VA Prison Hunger Strike

“R-O-S-P is on strike! N-Y-C says fight, fight, fight!”
“1-2-3-4, open up the prison doors! 5-6-7-8, liberate Red Onion State!”

NEW YORK CITY – On Friday, May 25, students at the City University of
New York (CUNY) and others in NYC participated in an informational
picket in downtown Manhattan to build support for the prisoner hunger
strike at Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) in Virginia. Prisoners at ROSP
began their strike on Tuesday, May 22 to demand basic human rights and
an end to torture in the form of indefinite solidarity confinement.

Several students carried a large banner that read, “Victory to the
Virginia Prison Hunger Strike! Turn Every Prison into a Trench of
Heroic Struggle!” Others distributed copies of the prisoners' press
release published when the strike began on Tuesday, as well as the
strikers' list of ten demands, with a link to the website of the
solidarity committee in VA: virginiaprisonstrike.blogspot.com. Chants
rang out on the street in lower Manhattan, as many pedestrians and
drivers in cars took the printed materials.

Addressing the gathered supporters, a Co-Chair of the Revolutionary
Student Coordinating Committee (RSCC) said, “People in prison are our
brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, our cousins, our family
members, they are our people. And we must support them in their
struggle for liberation.” RSCC is a student group based in CUNY that
mobilized its membership for the action. Individuals from several
different organizations also came out to support the picket and spoke
about the need to struggle against the mass incarceration of working
and oppressed people.

As the hunger strike moves into Day 5, we must continue to support the
heroic struggle of the ROSP hunger strikers through phone calls,
emails, the Change.org petition, op-ed articles, pickets, and other
mass actions. Keep spreading the word! Seize the time!