THE UNDISCIPLINED

AND PUNISHMENT:

On Line Resistance to the Prison
Industrial Complex in the U.S.

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In the past several years a lively list serve has evolved that addresses issue of incarceration and justice in the United
States. Each night | log on to messages that range from desperate pleadings for someone life to cautious discussions of
what the slogans should be on the posters for the next Mumia march. There are technical descriptions of prison architec-
ture and quests for herbal cures to cell block bronchitis epidemics. It is the underside of what is one of our leading
industries: locking people up.

Prisons are a big business here: construction of cells, outfitting of facilities, training and equipping guards are some of the
expenses of an industry that is sapping state and local funds for education and welfare. In the past seven years California
has increased prison spending by 500 per cent, while scaling back higher education by 25 percent. In the state capital of
Sacramento, the prison guard union is the biggest lobby force, out-flanking tobacco and agribusiness. The prison con-
tractors, law enforcement suppliers (stun guns, barbed wire, restraint suits, etc) and the guards’ union were able to join
forces to pass the Three Strike Law to ensure long terms and full cells. The US has more people per capita behind bars
than any where on earth. At present almost two million people are behind bars: five million are in the system if you include
those awaiting sentencing or on parole. Women are the fastest growing sector. And especially women of colour. Finally
equal justice under the law.

Prisons have become a key source of labour, with many transnational corporations contracting with states to manufacture
goods and set up telemarketing stations. TWA and Eddie Bauer Sporting Goods use prisoners to work their phone reserva-
tions and orders. Microsoft Windows 95 was packaged, shrinkwrapped and shipped by incarcerated workers. The State of
California put it this way: “Why go abroad, when you can have a disciplined workforce here at home?” in a video to entice
more corporations to join the “Joint Ventureship Program” of placing factories in prisons. As more and more U.S. busi-
nesses become entwined in this booming industry, it seems harder and harder to reverse this trend, even though crime
fates are low every where but on television.

However, in response to these conditions there are a variety of resistant activities that range from grass roots demonstra-
tions to full page ads in the New York Times to save Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal is the first internationally recognised
U.S. Death Row prisoner since the Rosenbergs were executed during the Cold War (http:/www.mumia.org/) For many in the
United States, Mumia is The Voice of the Voiceless (the title of a radio show which he hosted before his arrest), the sym-
bol of those masses behind bars, and a figurehead for the broad movement of those who are resisting the prison industri-
al complex.

The counter prison movement is perhaps the most focused and viable of activist groupings in the U.S. at the present time.
The people involved are ex-prisoners, families of prisoners, Quaker and other religious peace activists, victims for recon-
ciliation, human rights workers, Vietnam vets, the Bruderhof (a Christian Communist network of communities numbering
several thousand), academics from sociology to geography to cultural studies, philosophers, lawyers, parole officers and
guards. For this diverse crew the internet has become a major tool.

There are countless web sites for individual prisoners and pages for organisations and coalitions. An organisation in
Berkeley, The Prison Activist Resource Center, has been a central node (http://www. prisonactivist.org) in much of the
activity, maintaining both a list serve and a web site with numerous links. The Center was one of the central organisers of
the successful Critical Resistance Conference in Berkeley in September, 1998, a gathering of over 4,000 prison activists

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