Prisoners Call Out: Freedom – From Behind the Walls of Auburn Concentration Camp [pre-Attica prison publication]

Buffalo, New York: Prisoners Solidarity Committee, 1971. Saddle-stapled in illustrated wraps. 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. 52 pp. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs. Item #10409

Rare prison solidarity publication full of writing by Black inmates, produced after the Auburn uprising and before the Attica revolt – illuminating a direct predecessor to the most well-known and influential prison uprising of the 20th century.

In New York State, a series of jail and prison uprisings in late 1970 presaged the Attica rebellion of 1971; in New York City, two jail uprisings shook the state, followed by the Auburn uprising in November 1970. At Auburn, a group of incarcerated individuals took control of a wing of the prison, with hostages, for eight hours. When the state informed them of plans to send in armed state troopers, the prisoners surrendered. Many of the Auburn organizers were then transferred to Attica, which was purported to be “riot-proof,” as Ann D’arcangelo Driscoll testified to the Attica Task Force.

Produced by the Prisoners Solidarity Committee, all proceeds from this production went to the defense funds of Auburn prisoners. Illustrated throughout, Prisoners Call Out: Freedom describes conditions in Auburn, the history of racist prison labor, the use of prisons for class oppression, and the state response to Auburn from first.

Though the Attica rebellion sparked the production of solidarity publications around the country and the world, the Auburn uprising went relatively unnoticed in broader radical circles; publications, such as this one, produced in the aftermath of Auburn but before Attica are scarce.

An extraordinary primary source document of Black prison organizing in New York, just before the Attica uprising.

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