Letter from Mutope Duguma (s/n James Crawford):

This Hungerstrike is Far From Over

It is a sincere pleasure to once again extend my hand to my beautiful New Afrikan people. I have been recuperating from not eating for 20 days straight and I can tell you based on my personal experience that it was hell! I could feel the life gradually being sucked out of me.
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It had been as cruel as I imagined it would be, but we had guys falling out every day and me and my celly lost 40 pounds. My celly is Sitawa (R.N. Dewberry), who sends his regards. He had to be shipped out to Corcoran SHU due to how frail he had gotten. He’s 6 feet 1 inch and weighed 206 pounds, and he went all the way down to 166 pounds. And I am a 6-foot-3-inch frame, weighing 250 pounds. I went down to 210 pounds.

But it was definitely a scary event because you never knew when it was your time to fall out due to starvation. I noticed if you have a fast metabolism your weight will fall off real quick, because Sitawa looked scary thin. I was worried about him.

When you love your people, you always are concerned about them. I told him to just stop moving around so much, but he’s a revolutionary. We argued about trying to save one another throughout the whole time while we both was slipping away very slowly.

Now we are trying to get our weight back up because this hunger strike is far from over. You know Sitawa is one of our four principal negotiators. He represented all of the New Afrikans held in solitary confinement throughout California.

Right now due to the negotiations on July 20, 2011, the hunger strike was called off temporarily because CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) Undersecretary Scott Kernan and Secretary Matthew Cate begged our negotiators to call off the hunger strike and give them two to three weeks to implement our five core demands. We’re still waiting as of Aug. 7, 2011.

Then these two idiots propagate that our negotiators settled for a watch cap, proctor and calendars when many of us been held in solitary confinement on the word of a prison snitch for 10 to 40 years. And we settled for this crap? Be for real.

So our negotiators are not worried because the only thing important is what they do and say in this next negotiation. He promised all five of our demands along with progressive change. So if he came empty-handed, then it’s back to the beginning: hunger strike.

We have 500 prisoners who literally didn’t want to get off the hunger strike, but we have to be mindful that these prisoners, including ourselves, are willing to sacrifice our lives – because what other choice do we have outside of being subjected to torture for the rest of our lives?

So does it matter to us? No, because for 21 1/2 years we have been quietly held in Pelican Bay State Prison solitary confinement under some of the most horrible conditions known to man. So we continue to struggle to be treated like decent human beings.

I’ll keep you all posted because this hunger strike hasn’t even got off the ground yet!

The system cannot play us because we are going to make peaceful demonstrations in order to resist this torture, and the hunger strike is definitely a peaceful stance we can continue to exercise.

It’s been my pleasure!
One love, one struggle.

This letter was received by the San Francisco Bay View on Aug. 12. Send our brother some love and light: James Crawford, D-05996, D1-117U, PBSP-SHU, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532. He is the writer of “ The Call,” the formal announcement that alerted the world to this massive hunger strike, in which 6,600 prisoners participated, according to CDCR’s own records. As the strike was about to begin, he wrote “ SHU prisoners sentenced to civil death begin hunger strike,” explaining the reasons for the strike.

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Join and Support the Statewide Mobilization to Sacramento August 23rd

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

On August 23rd, San Francisco Representative Tom Ammiano and the Public Safety Committee in the State Assembly of CA will hold an informational hearing on conditions and policies of the Security Housing Units at Pelican Bay. This is a major opportunity for supporters outside of prison to support the hunger strike and to pressure state legislators and the CDCR to make substantial changes.

Support families & community members to give testimony on the conditions of the SHUs and amplify the voices of the thousands of prisoners across California!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
If you’re in California or on the West Coast:

1. Join the Statewide Mobilization to Sacramento!

Come to Sacramento on August 23rd for a day of action to support the hunger strike! If you need a ride, contact prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity@gmail.com as soon as possible.

• Pressure your Legislators! Call and/or visit your legislators and urge them to attend the hearing on August 23rd, as well as visit the hunger strikers at Pelican Bay and other prisons
• Make Some Noise! Organize demonstrations, events, rallies in a city near you targeting your legislators’ local offices leading up to the hearing or during (if you’re legislators are not attending)!
• Support Transportation for supporters across the state!
• Contact prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity@gmail.com if you can drive a car from where ever you are in CA to Sacramento and have room for more passengers.
• You can also donate funds to Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity so that families and community members across CA can get to Sacramento on August 23rd. Donate by going to California Prison Focus’ website, on the left-hand side there’s a donate button that will link you to CPF’s paypal account. Or, write a check and mail it to California Prison Focus/ 1904 Franklin Suit 507/ Oakland CA 94612. Make sure to put a note on your check or paypal transaction “hunger strike” or “coalition.” If you’re outside of California:
  1. Support transportation for supporters across the state!

  Donate funds to Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity so that families and communities members across CA can get to Sacramento on August 23rd. Donate by going to California Prison Focus’ website, on the left-hand side there’s a donate button that will link you to CPF’s paypal account. Or, write a check and mail it to California Prison Focus/ 1904 Franklin Suit 507/ Oakland CA 94612. Make sure to put a note on your check or paypal transaction “hunger strike” or “coalition”

• Pressure your Legislators! Contact your state legislators and urge them to get every CA state legislator they know to attend the Legislative Hearing on the 23rd, as well as visit hunger strikers at Pelican Bay and other prisons.
• Make some Noise! Organize local rallies, demonstrations and events in solidarity with the hunger strike near or on August 23rd to help spread awareness about the strike, the hearing, and local struggles against imprisonment. **For Supporters Everywhere: We encourage all supporters to continue spreading the word about the strike and the upcoming hearing, through emails, facebook, text-messages, twitter–all tools of social media and communication. We also encourage supports to continue writing prisoners and sharing words of support, encouragement, and updates on the strike and statewide mobilization to Sacramento for the hearing. Click here for more info to write to the hunger strike leaders.