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Vol. 78/No. 27      July 28, 2014

 
L.A. rally marks anniversary
of prison hunger strike

 
 
Militant/Wendy Lyons

LOS ANGELES — More than 70 people joined a spirited picket line and rally here July 8 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the start of a hunger strike by 30,000 California prisoners demanding an end to the state’s use of indefinite solitary confinement. The strike ended last September.

Connie Pedroza, whose son Gabriel Reyes was locked in a tiny windowless cell for 15 years, and Sylvia Rogokos, whose brother Frank Reyna was in solitary for 23 years, told the crowd that Reyes and Reyna, both of them participants in the hunger strike, were among those who have been released into the general prison population. They described the impact of being able to touch their relatives for the first time in all those years.

Thousands are still being held in solitary confinement across California. “We have to continue the fight for everyone,” Rogokos said. Rallies and vigils were also held in Oakland, San Bernardino, Eureka/Humbolt and Santa Cruz.

— WENDY LYONS

 
 
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