On October 30 people across the country will be wearing orange – as a powerful visible symbol of opposition to mass incarceration.
On campuses, in the streets, in high schools, at work, on public transportation – everywhere you go that day, wear orange. Gather in public spots in your city town or campus with groups of people in orange, challenging others to join you and be part of the crew.
We will be wearing Orange because it is the color prisoners are forced to wear – from the torture chambers in Guantanamo, to the infamous SSHU units in California, to the work gangs on Texas prison farms, to teeming youth detention centers coast to coast. We’re wearing orange and turning this around – orange will become the color of resistance, and knnown for that far and wide in society. It will help galvanize and give expression to our opposition.
This country has the highest incarceration rate in world history. 2.4 million people, a huge number of them Black and Latino youth are in prison. Black men are incarcerated at a rate over 6 times that of white men, and given on average much higher sentences for the same offenses. We live in a society that offers no future to masses of Black and Latino youth except prison and punishment.
This is unacceptable! Throughout October resistance has been mobilized to the slow genocide of mass incarceration and police terror The month was opened by taking the Pledge of Resistance in cities across the country. This was followed by sermons in dozens of religious institutions; symposiums at Columbia Univ, UC Berkeley and other campuses; more than a thousand people gathering for Ferguson October and now we’re coming off a successful mobilization for October 22, the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. October 30 will be a day to make our resistance resonate further thruout society and deliver a message to one and all that mass incarceration and all its consequences must be stopped; and that we are determined to STOP it!
Be creative. Be bold. Be determined. Make a lot of noise, get a lot of attention.
WEAR ORANGE OCTOBER 30! STOP MASS INCARCERATION!