Several days ago, a press report surfaced that was among the most astounding I’ve ever seen.
The headline bore a curious equation: “85=3.5, 000,000,000.”
At first, it made no sense until I read the body of the article. It explained, eighty-five people in the U.S. had wealth and assets equal to three and half billion people the world over.
I had to re-read it; eighty-five individuals had personal wealth equal to three and a half billion people – or, half the world.
Isn’t that amazing?
Isn’t that unbelievable?
Isn’t that astonishing?
If ever we doubted how unequally wealth is distributed in the world, along comes this fact.
If the Occupy Movement hadn’t been beaten back into the shadows, their remarkable call, “We are the 99%!”, or “Down with the 1%!” would have to be revisited.
For instead of 1%, it’d be one hundredth of 1%, 85 people? Maybe a thousandth.
Rome – infamous for its rich and corrupt Senate, never saw such inequality as this.
Marx, for all of his acumen, never saw this coming.
This vast wealth is especially obscene in an era of austerity, when budgets are cut, schools are closed, and prisons experience population booms.
The politicians, who serve this tiny, wealthy class, cut more and more, as Congress fills its own ranks with more and more millionaires.
They are those who scream, ‘No New Taxes!’ on the wealthiest people in the world.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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