Greetings to everyone from the struggle here in Alabama, Free Alabama Movement. My name is Bennu Hannibal, and we send out greetings to all of our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated inside of the prison system inside of the United States of America.
Free Alabama Movement is organizing on the inside of the prisons. We’re organizing the labor. We’re organizing the institutional labor, which means the kitchens, the maintenance crews, the laundry workers, the lawn workers; and we’re also organizing the industry workers, which work in the factories that are producing the products for state agencies and private corporations that are generating hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, and these dollars are being used to finance our own incarceration. Here in the Free Alabama Movement we have been organizing work strikes since January 1, 2014.
We also use social media in our struggle. We encourage brothers and sisters who have access to cell phones, video recorders, to use those recorders and use those devices to project the true images about what’s actually going on inside of these prison systems; be it solitary confinement, general population, the cruel and inhumane living conditions, the inadequate space, the filth, the rodents; anything that you see that will help shed light on the truth about what incarceration is really like in America; the epidemic of overcrowding and mass incarceration for prison, slavery, human trafficking, and human warehousing that is going on right now. We encourage you to take an active role in getting this message out.
We’re in the process of organizing nationally. We’re like to organize with our brothers and sisters from around the country. We already have a Free Mississippi Movement. There’s a Free California Movement. There’s a Free Pennsylvania Movement. There are other movements that are organizing around the country, and we’re asking everyone to participate, because the system’s organized. All of these corporations are organized. The politicians are organized around the country. The companies that have the political action committees; these people are all organized, and the only way that we’re going to have an impact against them is if we organize in a likewise manner. We have been seeing resistance going on from California, the hunger strikes, the work strikes; Georgia, the work strikes, the historic work strikes; the hunger strikes in Washington and Texas; the resistance out of Texas at the immigration facilities, Nebraska, Arizona. We see all this resistance, and we want to bring it all together.
We work off a platform called the 6-step program. One of the things that we emphasize is drafting what we call a Freedom Bill. You can find a copy of our Freedom Bill on our website, which is www.freealabamamovment.com, and we encourage everyone to draft a Freedom Bill in your state for your freedom movement that addresses the particular legislation that is being used to perpetuate mass incarceration. Alabama has the most overcrowded prison system in the country, and within our Freedom Bill the first provision calls for an immediate reduction, down to the design capacity of the prison. We also call for reforms to the parole boards, and other avenues of education and rehabilitation, that will help return people back to society, and prepare to be productive members of society. So, we encourage everyone, if you want to reach out to Free Alabama Movement you can reach us at freealabamamovment@gmail.com, you can find us on Facebook, we’re on Twitter, we have a blog, freealabamamovment.wordpress.com, and we’re anywhere and everywhere, you can find us on social media, and we want to connect with our brothers and sisters behind the fence, because we have to organize. This is our movement, and this is our struggle.
In summation, I just want to say for the family members and supporters and people on the outside who are supporting the struggle, supporting the movement against mass incarceration, we ask that you all help us bring this struggle to the prisons. We’re not calling for protests at capitals. We don’t want marches in downtown Madison Square. We want to create a critical mass of protesters at the prisons. We want to create protests to send that energy on the inside; to let the brothers know, the sisters know there is a support group and network out there, and to also send the message that we must organize this labor if we must attack the economic system. It’s no longer a political system. It’s an economic system of mass incarceration for prison slavery. And we certainly invite anyone who is interested in organizing a Freedom Movement charter in your state to please contact Free Alabama Movement. Reach out to us. Our phone number is area code, (256)-384-4326, again, it’s (256)-384-4326. From the struggle here in Alabama, Free Alabama Movement. My name is Bennu Hannibal, peace, love, struggle.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
