Strike Supporters Set Up Occupy Camp Outside Florida Prison

Allies, comrades and supporters of striking prisoners across the U.S. have set up an “Occupy Camp” outside a prison work camp in Gainesville, FL.

The camp has been rolling strong since the strikes began on August 21st, and has received unanimously positive support and responses from prisoners inside the prison and passerby alike.

The occupiers not only have been engaging directly with the prisoners, who can see the camp, but have accepted music requests from them communicated with large signs which they’ve blasted inside using large speakers.

Passerby have shouted and honked their support for the camp. Many have stopped to engage the campers and even take the mic. to speak across the loudspeakers to the campers and prisoners in support. One ex-prisoner stopped and spoke to the prisoners, encouraging them to continue the strike for months.

Even the police who’ve been charged with keeping an eye on the encampment have not intervened, but shown interest in the issues the occupiers have been agitating around.

Occupiers report having been asked by cops what they envision a world without prisoners to look like. There actually exists a sort of alienation of cops towards guards which occupiers have seen reflected in the cops’ attitudes and general disinterest in countering the protesters.

The occupiers have also engaged in direct disruption by preventing trucks from leaving the prison.

The camp was inspired and has incorporated tactics employed by the Occupy ICE Movement that set up barricades outside ICE detention centers in response to migrant roundups.

The prison occupy camp has received round-the-clock coverage on the itsgoingdown.org website and on the IWOC site where visuals of the camp and its activities can be seen. The occupiers call on others to assemble similar camps at prisons around the US to raise awareness on both sides of the razor wire and in support of the strikers and their demands.

Dare to struggle dare to win!
All Power to the People!