Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Cecily McMillan on Prisons, Profit, Protest, and Privilege

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, November 17, 2014

Cecily McMillan on Prisons, Profit, Protest, and Privilege

Click here to access article by Mickey Z. from World News Trust.

Recall that McMillan was an activist in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in which she was groped by a cop, fought back against the cop, and was subsequently arrested for assaulting a policeman, a felony for which she was facing a sentence of seven years. However, she was lucky.

Following an international leniency campaign, McMillan was sentenced to 90 days at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility. In July 2014, she was released on good behavior after serving 58 days.

In the interview she gives us a very moving and realistic picture of what it is like to be in prison, who ends up there, how the justice system really functions, the overwhelming stigma attached to prisoners, some of the real reasons why they are there, and other astute observations about ruling class prisons for those who cannot, or refuse, to adapt to a dog-eat-dog, racist capitalist society.