Peoples Assembly, New Orleans Workers Group Rally at OPP
By AP
On August 21 the Peoples’ Assembly and the New Orleans Workers Group called together a protest and march in solidarity with the nation-wide prison strike just a few weeks before the 41st anniversary of historic prison uprising at Attica. People gathered outside the Orleans parish criminal court to call for action against a system that only seeks to incarcerate workers in order to put them under an even more unfair system of modern day slavery: prisons. Around the corner from the courthouse is the Orleans Parish Prison where more than 1500 working class people in New Orleans are locked up.
The aim of the protest was to bring solidarity with prisoners to the public eye. Many held signs up to the streets while other passed out flyers and newspapers, ensuring that everyone who drove past or stepped out of the courthouse could see that the prisoners and their pain would never be forgotten no matter how hard the ruling class tries to drown out their cries.
As a whole procession, protestors moved down the street towards the sheriffs office and OPP, calling for the police to be jailed and the people freed. Using megaphones, calls for action were made alongside the prison so that those inside could hear the voices of support outside. Police who had followed sat and watched as demands were made on behalf of the prisoners, dealing with things like quality of food and healthcare to the treatment of prisoners by guards. It was made clear that the things that were asked for were bare essentials that every human deserves but that the prison system makes inaccessible.
The system of policing and imprisonment in New Orleans and all around the United States is not only cruel and inhumane to the humans that are shoveled into jail cells, but it is also a gross misuse of public money. While people starve and fight over the tiny crumbs they are allotted, the government uses public money to increase policing and keep the industry of prison labor going to keep their deep pockets filled. We must demand that our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters are spared from this sinister scheme! This system only benefits the wealthy and only looks to keep poor and black people down by profiting from their blood sweat and tears!