Interview by Amy Goodman

Prisoners across the United States launched a strike on August 21, demanding improved living conditions, greater access to resources, and the end of what they call “modern day slavery.” Prisoners in at least seventeen states are expected to participate in the strike, coordinating sit-ins, hunger strikes, work stoppages, commissary boycotts, from today until September 9 — the forty-seventh anniversary of the deadly Attica prison uprising in New York.

Prisoners first called for the strike in April, after a bloody altercation broke out at the Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina, leaving seven prisoners dead and seventeen others seriously injured. It was the deadliest prison riot in the United States in a quarter of a century. Six of the seven prisoners killed were African-American. The violence was allowed to continue for hours. One witness described bodies of dead prisoners, “literally stacked on top of each other.” No guards were hurt.

The Lee Correctional Institution riot became the rallying cry for a movement. In the weeks after that, prison advocacy network Jailhouse Lawyers Speak issued a list of ten demands, among them greater sentencing reform, more access to rehabilitation programs, the right to vote, and the end of “prison slave labor,” what they called “prison slave labor.”

The weeks-long strike began on the forty-seventh anniversary of the killing of Black Panther George Jackson, who was shot and killed by guards during an escape attempt from San Quentin prison. The strike is expected to be the largest prisoner action since the 2016 prison strike, which saw at least twenty thousand prisoners participating in collective action across eleven states, the largest prison work strike in US history.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! recently spoke to three leaders of the prison justice movement to learn more about the strike. Cole Dorsey is a former prisoner and activist who helped organize the strike. He’s joined by Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy; and Amani Sawari, a prison strike organizer working on behalf of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a network of prisoners who are helping organize the nationwide strike.

They discussed the prisoners’ demands, the crucial history behind the strike, and what people on the outside can do to stand in solidarity with striking prisoners.