https://web.archive.org/web/20040623113248/http://www.charm.net/~claustro/la_red/IWW_ali_khalid.html
Published in “La Red” #7, summer 1998
Prisoners throughout the Untied $nakes of America are working for slave wages for their captors. They are working in these state and federal death kkkamps as cooks, dishwashers, porters/janitors, painters, clerks, teachers’ aides, and in various factories within the prison death kkkamps for pennies per hour. Prisoners are making millions of dollars for their captors, not even realizing the importance of their own potential power. Yes, prisoners have power, but it is a displaced and unrealized power.
Prisoners are working under harsh conditions that exhaust and tax their emotional and psychological being and health. While they are given no paid vacations, no over-time pay, no sick pay, no health insurance, and no retirement plans, they have become Amerikkka’s newest exploited labor market. This is evident by the new prison growth industry (Prison Industrial Complex – PIC) that has expanded across the nation as prison death kkkamps have mushroomed into existence and become warehouses for slave labor, while huge profits on Wall Street for private and state interest groups are being made.
If prisoners were to take the initiative and band together to work in solidarity, there could be an end to this Amerikkkanized sweat shop labor exploitation.
In the past, there were prisoners in North Carolina and in the state of Texas who attempted to organize their labor to become recognized either by a union or as a union of their own. However, in their pursuit through the courts they were defeated. Why? Because these brave pioneers did not have the full weight and support of fellow workers and revolutionaries on the outside. They were unable to reach the minds of the average citizens out there who are ignorant of what is really happening behind prison walls. The average citizen simply does not stop to think what is happening to prisoners and where all that money is going from the sales of the many various products prisoners make for state and federal death kkkamps. They do not question the physical conditions and psychological stress under which prisoners must work. All the public knows is what corrections officials tell them. The 20 second sound bytes on TV or radio, or the small print at the back of the local newspaper — that is, if the story is big enough to make the so-called “news” media.
Now is the time prisoners across this nation can and should make a difference. For it is a fact that many of the incarcerated will be coming out soon and will need employment and representation. Therefore, this would be a good time for prisoners to contact the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) and become members. Become Wobblies and have their representation. I am convinced that if prisoners were to link up with the I.W.W. (the only revolutionary, anti-authoritarian, anti-boss union in the world today) that a difference could and would be made. The prisonkkkrats would no longer have the ability to control the livelihoods of prisoners within their system by forcing prisoners to work under any and all conditions. They would no longer force prisoners to work as slaves receiving major misconduct’s for refusing to be exploited as slave laborers. They would no longer tell prisoners that if they quit their jobs they would be punished, losing “good time” for standing up against tyranny and harassment. But to achieve this, prisoners must become consciously aware of their situation and have the desire to “FIGHT BACK” in a manner that would produce positive results rather than negative and repressive ones.
Therefore, fellow prisoners, i call upon you all to contact your local I.W.W. chapter or the national headquarters and join the I.W.W. today. Become members and friends and develop the interest of fellow worker friends and supporters so that prisoners can make a difference. Just imagine if all prisoners went on strike. If no prisoner went to work. If no prisoner cooked or served the food. If no prisoner picked up the trash or went into the factories. What would happen. Man, a bloodless revolution overnight would take place. Heads of state government would be coming down the pike trying to find out what the prisoners wanted. Then prisoners, united in action and cause, could proudly refer them to the I.W.W. spokesperson representing them in the name of Wobbly solidarity.
Ali Khalid Abdullah #148130
Saginaw Correctional Facility
9625 Pierce Road
Freeland, MI 48623
Industrial Workers of the World
103 W. Michigan Ave
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
313-483-3548