Solidarity with women behind bars
By E. Ransom-Hazzard
New York
A call for unity and action was the dominant
theme of the International Working Women's Day celebration held
at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 8. The
program-"Women in Prison: Our Sistas-Ourselves"-brought
activists and supporters of various struggles together to focus
on the issue of women in U.S. prisons.
Several speakers commented on why so many women are
incarcerated. Monique Washington from Community Advocates for
Educational Excellence addressed the unfair sentencing of women
because of tough drug laws. She also cited laws in several
states that convict mothers whose children have been abused by
the women's mates.
Speakers slammed the judicial system's attitude toward
violence against women. Nan Tinki Rose from the American Indian
Movement recounted instances where she and other women victims
of abuse were jailed.
Safiya Bandele, director of the Medgar Evers Center for
Women's Development, offered a dramatic reading, accompanied by
dance and drum. In it she attested to the "madness" experienced
by women as a result of oppressive institutions like the church
and the nuclear family. She saluted women political prisoners
for their ability to internalize that madness, using it as a
weapon to fight against the system and challenging those on the
outside to do the same.
Vondora Jordan, co-chair of Workfairness, focused on the
economic conditions that stigmatize poor women as criminals.
Workfairness is an organization that fights for the dignity and
rights of workfare workers.
Jordan cited New York Gov. George Pataki's proposal to
automatically cut off benefits from people who fail to comply
with their workfare assignments. Single women and their
children make up the majority of welfare recipients.
So, Jordan said, Pataki's plan and the New York City Housing
Authority's move to assign people on public assistance the
lowest priority for public housing assures that more women will
be incarcerated for "crimes of survival."
She stressed the need for poor people to fight back,
announcing to those gathered, "I may be a political prisoner in
the future because I refuse to stop fighting!"
Jericho '98
Safiya Bukhari, national coordinator of Jericho '98 and a
former political prisoner, said that although women do most of
the work around prison issues, women prisoners are not talked
about. They are rarely visited and are, for the most part, a
forgotten population.
"March 27 is just the beginning," Bukhari promised. She was
referring to plans for Jericho '98-a major demonstration in
Washington, now being organized by as many as 63 committees
across the nation.
"We want to make the government own up to the existence of
political prisoners and raise the issue of human rights
violations in the United States," she said.
Bukhari emphasized the importance of telling the stories of
those political prisoners whose names are not well known. She
also stressed communication with those behind the walls-both to
increase solidarity and to educate those on the outside about
conditions inside.
Ramona Africa, minister of information of the MOVE
organization, pointed to the 1985 police firebombing of her
family's residence in Philadelphia to show how the capitalist
government doesn't care about life. "We have to start caring,"
she said, "because we, as women, have consistently been the
backbone of any revolution."
Africa called for a strong showing at the Jericho '98 march
even though March 27 is a weekday. She reminded the audience,
"We are obligated to stand against injustice."
Other speakers included Suzanne Ross, Rosemari Mealy, Yuri
Kochiyama, and Jacki McKinney.
The Medgar Evers Women's Center, Jericho '98 and the
International Working Women's Day 1998 Committee sponsored the
program.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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