Catherwood LibraryILR School

The current prison labor strike has garnered far more media attention than the national prison strike in 2016. Major news outlets including the New York Times, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, and the Washington Post have covered the story in sympathetic op-ed’s. Prison historian Dan Berger attributes several factors to the sudden newsworthiness of prison militancy, including the efforts of millions of activists. Groups of formerly incarcerated activists including All of Us or None, Just Leadership USA, and the National Council of Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls have done substantial work in bringing attention to issues of mass incarceration. Activism around incarceration has grown with the radical labor movement, the most prolific example of solidarity between the movements is the Incarcerated Workers’ Organizing Committee. The IWOC is closely tied to unionists of the Industrial Workers of the World and other radical labor groups.