“We support the courageous inmates participating in the nationwide prison strike.They are organizing themselves for better conditions and an end to slave labor under extremely difficult conditions behind bars,” said presidential candidate Gloria La Riva.
Inmates held in dozens of prisons in at least 24 states across the U.S. began their strike on the 45th anniversary of the historic Attica Rebellion. The strike is being coordinated by inmates in the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and the Free Alabama Movement.
La Riva continued: “The striking inmates are demanding an end to the practice of forced labor in prisons, where inmates are made to work for little or no pay, often for the profit of private corporations.
“Our socialist electoral campaign demands an immediate end to the use of torture in prisons including solitary confinement and the death penalty, the release of all political prisoners and the dismantling of the racist prison-industrial complex and its replacement with a humane system emphasizing the rehabilitation and human rights of inmates.
“This strike is the latest in a series of recent actions by inmates organized from within the prison system itself. This burgeoning movement must be supported by a movement in the streets mobilized in support of the rights of inmates and against the institutions that deny them their basic human rights. We call on all of our supporters to support this strike.”
To learn more about the La Riva for president campaign, visit the campaign website.
