OVER THE WALL is a twice-annual newsletter about strikes, actions and struggles going on inside or around Ontario prisons. The purpose of this newsletter is to share information about prison issues and prison-related actions with supporters and potential supporters on the outside. Over the Wall is put out by End the Prison Industrial Complex (EPIC), a prison abolition group based in Kingston.
Issue 1 (Spring 2014) focuses on the federal prisoners strike against major pay cuts to prison labour, and strikes in the immigration unit in Lindsay against indefinite detention.
Issue 2 (Fall 2014) features report-backs, statements and analysis from Prisoners Justice Day 2014.
We would like to release this issue in anticipation of International Workers Day (May 1st), also known as May Day. We are looking for submissions on anything related to struggles inside or against prisons in Ontario, but here are a few suggested topics to get your wheels turning:
– Ongoing resistance to prisoner pay cuts and elimination of CORCAN incentive pay;
– How prisoners could be affected by provincial COs going on strike;
– The skyrocketing incarceration rates of Native women and Black men;
– Initial experiences in new units becoming operational now;
– The public debate about segregation and how prisoners contest its use… etc.
If you have a story or article that you’d like us to include, or if you’d like to receive the newsletter by mail, email us at epic [at] riseup [dot] net, or write to:
EPIC
427 Princess St, Suite 409
Kingston ON K7L 5S9.
Please send submissions for this issue so we receive them by April 1, 2015. This is an ongoing project, so feel free to send us news and information for future issues whenever you like.
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About May Day: On May 1, 1886, 40,000 workers in Chicago—and half a million across the United States—participated in a three-day general strike demanding an eight-hour work day. A week-long struggle resulted between protesters and police, and ultimately eight protesters were arrested, convicted without evidence, and executed. Their executions are widely regarded as some of the most overt political assassinations of radicals in North America, and May 1st has since been marked as International Workers Day in their honour. Since 2006, May Day has also been widely marked as a day to protest racist immigration policies in Canada and the United States and demand status for all. Strikes, pickets and protests take place around the world on May 1st to honour and celebrate the struggles of workers, immigrants, and poor people all over.