Join us at East­ern State Pen­i­ten­tiary SUNDAY at 1PM to remind Gov­er­nor Wolf that #Incar­cer­at­edLives­Mat­ter. We are tak­ing to the streets to call for the imme­di­ate release of thou­sands of vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple who are at risk of death while in prison dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

We rise up to protest the death of George Floyd, a man who was killed dur­ing an arrest for an alleged forged $20 check. We must do the same for the peo­ple in pris­ons who have been ter­ror­ized by state vio­lence for years! Many of them are held behind bars for pet­ty charges, tech­ni­cal vio­la­tions, and wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Many are held for crimes of pover­ty such as what George Floyd was accused of. None of them deserve to die in prison because of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. THIS IS THE SAME FIGHT.

There are over 45,000 peo­ple locked in PA state pris­ons, where social dis­tanc­ing is impos­si­ble & access to med­ical care is severe­ly lim­it­ed. There are also infants, chil­dren and fam­i­lies locked up in ICE Deten­tion Cen­ters who are at risk from COVID-19. Incar­cer­at­ed peo­ple are already more med­ical­ly vul­ner­a­ble than the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion, often for the same sys­temic rea­sons that made them vul­ner­a­ble to the prison indus­tri­al com­plex. An out­break of COVID-19 will turn the pris­ons into death camps! 

We must nev­er for­get our Black polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rus­sell “Maroon” Shoatz, Arthur “Cete­wayo” John­son, Omar Ask­ia Ali, Joseph “Jo-Jo” Bowen and so many oth­er Black rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies behind the walls. Many of these peo­ple are elder­ly and have pre-exist­ing ill­ness­es due to years of bru­tal treat­ment and tox­ic prison con­di­tions. We refuse to allow the State to mur­der our Black revolutionaries!

GOVERNOR WOLF HAS THE POWER TO PREVENT THESE DEATHS. We must do every­thing pos­si­ble to push him to use his unlim­it­ed pow­er of Reprieve to bring peo­ple home immediately.

SUPPORTING ORGS:
CADBI (Coali­tion to Abol­ish Death By Incar­cer­a­tion) — Philly + DelCo
HRC (Human Rights Coali­tion) — Phillly
Black Lives Mat­ter — Philly
Philly for REAL Justice
Mike Africa Jr — MOVE
Refuse Fas­cism Philly
Move­ment Alliance Project
Free Peo­ple Strike

WHAT IS THE FREE PEOPLE STRIKE?
Free Peo­ple Strike is a col­lec­tive of peo­ple on the out­side who hunger strik­ing to free peo­ple from prison dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. We are using the hunger strike as tac­tic know­ing that peo­ple on the inside have used it exten­sive­ly all over the world. We know that our lives have equal val­ue on either side of prison walls. With so many lives on the line, how could we not fight with ours? No one should be in a cage. No one should die in a cage. We are refus­ing food until this point is clear and peo­ple are released home. We began our hunger strike on May 28, 2020 and we will con­tin­ue until Gov­er­nor Wolf meets our Demands!

DEMANDS: bit.ly/freepeoplestrike
To learn more vis­it: www.freepeoplestrike.net

8 of the 12 hunger strik­ers of the Free Peo­ple Strike will be present, along with speak­ers from CADBI, HRC, BLM Philly, the MOVE fam­i­ly, and Philly for REAL Justice.

#Black­Lives­Mat­ter
#Jus­tice­for­Bre­onaTay­lor
#Jus­tice­for­Ge­orge­Floyd
#Jus­tice­forAh­mau­dAr­bery
#Black­Lives­Mat­ter­In­Prison
#Shut­Down­Berks
#Abol­ishICE
#Abol­ish­Po­lice
#Abol­ish­Prison
#FreeThe­Vul­ner­a­ble
#FreeAllPo­lit­i­cal­Pris­on­ers
#FreeThe­mAll