GA: Prisoner Strike Continues for Second Day

From the Socialist Worker:

Inmates in at least six prisons across the state of Georgia began a strike [this week] to demand better conditions, more educational opportunities, improved access to their families and decent pay for their prison labor.

According to news reports, prisoners were refusing to leave their cells or perform their jobs. As SocialistWorker.org was published on December 13, the state of the strike was unclear--there were reports of increasing provocative violence by prison authorities in an attempt to regain control. Elaine Brown, a former leader of the Black Panthers and now a prison reform activist, said she had been in touch with several hundred prisoners via smuggled-in cell phones that are banned at the prison, but were used to organize the rebellion. Bruce A. Dixon, managing editor of the Black Agenda Report, reports on the state of the fight. . .

The Georgia Green Party has called for negotiation with rather than retaliation against peaceful strikers.