------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the March 8, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- CRITICAL RESISTANCE EAST TO TAKE UP PRISON CRISIS By Sarah Sloan New York Hundreds are expected to attend "Critical Resistance East," a conference examining many aspects of the U.S. prison- industrial complex, in New York March 9-11. Conference organizers define the prison-industrial complex as "encompass[ing] human-rights violations, the death penalty, exploitative industry and labor, policing, courts, media, community disenfranchisement, the imprisonment of political prisoners and prisoners of war and the elimination of dissent. Additionally, the PIC intersects with and depends upon the oppressive systems of racism, classism, sexism and homophobia." The conference is expected to feature dozens of workshops on a wide range of topics, including racism and the phony "war on drugs," youths and the prison-industrial complex, women in prison, lesbian/gay/bi/trans people in prison, the corporate connection to prison profits and the cases of famed political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier. The New York conference follows a 1998 gathering in Berkeley, Calif., that drew 2,000 people from the region. Its objective: "to raise consciousness [about] the prison industry and, in turn, to galvanize action to resist the Prison-Industrial Complex." Among its goals is "to tear down the Prison-Industrial Complex!" There are now over 2 million people, disproportionately people of color, imprisoned in the United States. This represents 25 percent of the world's prison population, drawn from the U.S. population that is 5 percent of the world's total. Those expected to attend the conference include students, youths and other activists from the Northeast who were involved in organizing for the Jan. 20 protest at George W. Bush's inauguration, the campaign to free Abu-Jamal, and the demonstrations coinciding with the meeting of the Free Trade Area of the Americas set for April in Quebec City. For more information about Critical Resistance East, readers can visit the Web site www.criticalresistance.org/creast. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
