PHRM Reps Nobel Peace Prize Nomination: A Reflection on the Struggle for Prisoner Human Rights

By: CALIFORNIA PRISON FOCUS / K.A.G.E. Universal / ArtivistKadre/ LIBERATE OUR ELDERS/ A.I.M. / Dareal Prison / Debug /PHRM steering committee / Block/ Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back / BOSS/ BAOC / Cell Block 2 City Block 

The Prisoner Human Rights Movement (PHRM) represents a milestone in the global fight against human rights abuses within the penal system, particularly solitary confinement. As advocates for justice celebrate PHRM’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination, it is essential to understand the movement’s journey, achievements, and the critical resources supporting its ongoing struggle.

A Movement Rooted in Unity and Solidarity

PHRM emerged from California’s prison system, uniting incarcerated individuals across racial and gang divides to challenge the systemic use of solitary confinement and other human rights abuses. Central to this movement was the Agreement to End Hostilities (AEH) in 2012, a groundbreaking truce brokered among prisoners that sought to dismantle the violence often perpetuated by the system. This agreement became the foundation for subsequent hunger strikes that captured global attention and demanded an end to inhumane practices.

Key Strike Documents: Foundations of the Fight

The hunger strikes of 2011 and 2013, led by prisoners in California’s Secure Housing Units (SHU), relied on a strong framework of key documents that outlined their demands and principles. The Summary of Ashker v. Governor of California Settlement Terms and the Blueprint Core Document became pivotal tools in the fight against prolonged solitary confinement. These documents not only exposed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)’s tactics but also provided a roadmap for reform and accountability.

Evidence of Torture and Retaliation

Central to PHRM’s advocacy is exposing the CDCR’s retaliatory measures and the psychological toll of solitary confinement. Articles like “PTSD SC: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Solitary Confinement” by Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa and Baridi J. Williamson reveal the long-term trauma inflicted by isolation, echoing calls for accountability and restorative justice. The harrowing experiences detailed by strikers and their supporters underscore the urgent need to reimagine the penal system.

Amplifying Voices: Articles and Media Coverage

Publications like the San Francisco Bay View have been instrumental in amplifying the voices of incarcerated individuals. Articles such as “My 10-Year Prison Journey After the Agreement to End Hostilities” by Donald “C-Note” Hooker and “Hunger Striking for True Freedom” by Louis Powell highlight the resilience of prisoners in the face of systemic oppression. The broader media landscape has also taken note, with features like “The Short Corridor” in the LA Review of Books and NPR’s “How Four Inmates Launched a Statewide Hunger Strike from Solitary” bringing mainstream attention to their plight.

The Role of Books in Advocacy

Books such as Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s Golden Gulag and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow have become foundational texts for understanding the prison industrial complex and its racialized impacts. These works provide critical context for PHRM’s efforts, illustrating the systemic nature of mass incarceration and its intersection with broader social justice movements.

A Legacy of Resistance

The PHRM’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination is a testament to the transformative power of unity and nonviolent resistance. Their struggle serves as a reminder that even within the most oppressive systems, hope, solidarity, and resilience can pave the way for meaningful change. As the movement continues to advocate for the end of solitary confinement and other human rights abuses, it inspires a broader call for justice and equity in society.

To learn more about PHRM and support their mission, visit their website at Prisoner Human Rights Movement or explore the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity site at PHSS. Together, these platforms keep the fight alive, ensuring that the voices of the incarcerated are heard and their humanity recognized.

Overstand The Power Of The Treaty

A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement concluded by sovereign states in international law.[1][2] International organizations can also be party to an international treaty.[1] A treaty is binding under international law.

The Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty, on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, is believed to be the earliest example of any written international agreement of any kind.

See:  Coptic Book PS.133

The Treaty of Versailles[ii] was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the war. The other Central Powers on the German side signed separate treaties.[iii] Although the armistice of 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, and agreed certain principles and conditions including the payment of reparations, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. Germany was not allowed to participate in the negotiations before signing the treaty.

1967

“ Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution. “

George L. Jackson

1992

What was the impact of the truce?

• The truce led to a decline in gang violence in South Los Angeles, especially in Watts 

• Within days of the truce, most African-American gangs in the city declared themselves at peace 

• Shortly after the treaty was finalized, gang homicides in the neighborhood dropped by 44% 

2012

We can no longer allow CDCR to use us against each

other for their benefit!! Because the reality is that collectively, we are an empowered, mighty force, that can positively change this entire corrupt system into a system that actually benefits prisoners, and thereby, the public as a whole… and we simply cannot allow CDCR/CCPOA – Prison Guard’s Union, IGI, ISU, OCS, and SSU, to continue to get away with their constant form of progressive oppression and warehousing of tens of thousands of prisoners, including the 14,000 (+) plus prisoners held in solitary confinement torture chambers [i.e. SHU/Ad-Seg Units] for decades!!!

2013 

Artivist Ending Hostilities Curriculum

Consequently, we think that true civil rights of men and women alike emanate from the laws of nature, that all human beings are created equal. However, their rights are being capriciously usurped by the powers that be. These woes are being imposed on the proletarian class, the “lower” class.

— Declaration Of K.A.G.E. Universal

INTO THE LIGHT OF DAY: 

On Fighting to Build A Parallel Society 

From Cell Block 2 City Block

An email dropped in my inbox today, with the headline:

“CIA” release docs on Latino civil right-era surveillance.”

It in part read. “The documents primarily relate to Operation CHAOS, a CIA domestic espionage project targeting American Citizens, that operated under former Presidents Johnson and Nixon” from 1968 to 1983.

It is hard to imagine these ordinary citizens grouped in with the likes of Kronsteen, Auric Goldfinger and Ernst Stavro Blofeld—

Villains from the James Bond legend. Apparently true life can be Stranger than fiction.

I grew up in this era. I remember the 1968 Latino high schoolers Walkout. I remember the cop killing of Ruben Salazar that sparked East LA’s version of Watts ‘65. I don’t remember any Los Angeles, long standing, deep seated animosity, or acrimony between New Afrikan Blacks and Latinos.

The memory began me wondering. Is there a lesson here for the united mind that birthed California prisoners’ 2011 historic Hunger Strike, and its associate part, The Agreement to End Hostilities (AEH)? Of course it is.If the united mind holds dear; the clarity it took twenty-two years buried to forge. “Don’t get it twisted.” The Fight to free ourselves from the indeterminate SHU sentence of Pelikan Bay’s solitary confinement unit required planning, unity and cooperation amongst the groups permanently held there.

The ripple effect of the fight, opened all SHU dungeon doors throughout the state.

The challenge in front of us today, is to be conscious of from whence We came, and where we are. Our victory though 10 years old, it is not consolidated, and history teaches, we must anticipate unseen agents conspiring to undo it. We’ve already witnessed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reverse Judge Wilkens’ governing precedent in the Ashker case.

Divide & conquer, is a subtle, pervasive, insidious, mindful control tactic, employed by rulers against their imagined subjects. If we aren’t careful We will be fighting this fight again. I need you OGs and Veteranos to lean in. Those with the memory of what it took, to kick open Pelikan bay’s SHU Dungeon door. And discredit its backward notion of solitary confinement.

As we embark on a campaign to build AEH Street, and its associate Community Safe-Zones (CSZ)— help us, help you.

For those who think relative peace in streets, and CSZ’s likely will not be perceived Activists threats, take a moment and ask yourself: “What is the cia’s classified activist threat here?”, except a sense of entitlement, theorized in the country’s creed. Those at the  Highest level of the government put their foreign intelligence agency on LA high Schoolers, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, Cesar Chavez and who knows who else, for speaking clearly so as to be heard. 

We know this agency was working from the J.E. Hoover playbook — that is; prevent The rise of leaders who could unite a movement, by survelling, infiltrating, discrediting and disrupting groups and individuals.

The AEH put to bed something like the “Hundred Year War”,I estimate 45 years of calcified unyielding belief, accompanied by intermittent warfare between the California Prison rival groups. The dialectic is never dormant. It is either growing, or decaying.Hopefully we will avoid being thrown back into the relations used as a pretext to justify Our Pelikan Bay placement.

Mindful “we have everything to gain, and nothing but our chains to lose.

Cellblock 2 Cityblock FYK 

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