San Jose- On February 7, MIM and the Barrio Defense Committee hosted a statewide organizing meeting was to push forward the struggle to shut down Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons. The meeting which was attended by representatives of numerous organizations from across the state working to oppose the injustice system, as well as unaffiliated individuals who were new to the issue of Control Units/SHUs. Participants in the meeting included family of SHU inmates and former prisoners.

MIM opened the meeting with an introduction to the campaign, briefly describing the torturous conditions of isolation and how the SHU is being used to target politically active and oppressed nation prisoners. We followed with a summary of actions that have been taken by the various groups involved over the past few years including demonstrations, petitioning and legal struggles. Recent responses from the state have indicated that there is a small amount of sympathy for at least reforming the use of the SHU, with the caveat that those sympathizers do not have the power to even make such reforms.

California Prison Focus (CPF) was unique among the attendants in its involvement in the courtroom. At this stage MIM sees, and most attendees seemed to agree, legal struggles as a vital method of putting pressure on the state and winning small battles. In the long run legal battles will prove limited and will help build extralegal means of organizing. One of CPF's legal representatives went over the three ways people are being put in the SHU in California: 1) by being HIV + 2) thru a disciplinary offense 3) thru gang validation. The third method leads to indefinite sentencing and is used to target anyone who may be organized politically as well, since it is completely arbitrary and up to prisoncrat discretion.

The CPF discussed their recent legal battles including one where the California Department of Corrections (CDC) has banned 5 languages (including Swahili, Naohtl, and sign language) claiming they are used as codes. Effectively, they are banning the cultures of the oppressed, most of which have already had their culture repressed and erased by colonizers for hundreds of years. The state court upheld this law and it will be going to appeals court in the future.

The second half of the meeting involved planning to coordinate our efforts on this campaign. Our goal is not to create a new organization, but to build a United Front to shut down the SHU involving organizations and individuals who can unite behind this goal. As a result, an important outcome of the meeting will be a system of communication between all who are interested in joining this SHU fight.

At the meeting participants divided into groups to focus on several areas of organizing: Media, legal/legislative, outreach/activism, and mobilization of prisoners. The subgroups came back with suggestions for actions and ideas for coordinating our work.

Everyone agreed to initiate regular monthly public actions to shut down the SHU the first Saturday of every month in cities across the state. These actions will start March 6th and are currently scheduled in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay, and Los Angeles. These coordinated actions will focus on distributing literature and collecting petition signatures, bringing the struggle to the attention of the people on the streets. The need to train people in doing outreach and tabling was stressed and MIM agreed to head up that effort. In addition we will be building for a conference or tribunal on the SHU later in the year and organizing forums at colleges attended by meeting participants.

There is a legal battle in the courts scheduled to reach trial in Federal Court on April 26 in San Francisco. The case is based on a first amendment challenge to the Security Housing Unit classification regulations. Meeting participants decided to schedule a protest that day outside the court house.

Discussing the need to involve prisoners in the struggle, participants agree on the importance of encouraging prisoners to get families involved and using our networks to build networks of family support. We will also continue our efforts to provide our comrades behind bars with much needed legal and political information in print and through radio broadcasts.

If you are in California, contact MIM to find out how to participate in one of these cities or to get information and materials to help make your efforts successful in your own town.