Dear Bay Area Community,
This month we’re reflecting on the life and legacy of Oakland legend, Lil’ Bobby Hutton. On April 6, 1968, 54 years ago, Bobby Hutton and other Oakland Chapter members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP) were protesting Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination and were targeted by the Oakland Police Department (OPD), leading to a shootout. While surrendering and unarmed, Lil’ Bobby Hutton was murdered by OPD.
In the Oakland Chapter of Critical Resistance, we see our work as building on the analysis formed by the BPP, and carrying on their legacy of organizing, and Lil’ Bobby Hutton’s contributions in particular, as we fight against the same forces in Oakland and beyond, and for the same demands of health, community self determination and liberation of oppressed peoples globally.
Critical Resistance Oakland, along with our sister chapter in Los Angeles, are part of a statewide campaign to close 10 prisons by 2025. These prisons were the very ones that so many Panthers were & still are locked up in; we understand that as the prison industrial complex (PIC) is engineered to repress dissent, prisons are made to disappear freedom fighters and our community members. We aim to advance the struggle by taking out a significant chunk of the state’s power to disappear our community members and leaders.
In memory of Little Bobby Hutton, and all the freedom fighters throughout the world whose bravery, love of their people, and unconquerable imagination continue to inspire us and push us forward, let’s close CA prisons now!
Yours in struggle,
-Critical Resistance Oakland
Close CA Prisons, NOW!
CR Oakland members have been working with organizers across the state to shut down 10 prisons by 2025. Since the summer of 2021, we’ve been:
- Spreading word about prison closure and building connections with organizations across the state. If your organization would like to support this work, sign-on to the campaign. and if you’re an individual check out our petition for prison closure!
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Mobilizing community members to give public comment at recent Sub 5 Committee hearings to demand no more CDCR infrastructure funding & additional prison closures. Sign up to support with public comment at future hearings and mobilizations!
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Uplifting what really happens inside cages in CA from those imprisoned insideand what CDCR’s ridiculous spending is used for – highlighting that the only real solution to our state’s problems is to stop CDCR spending & close these prisons for good.
Learn more about CR Oakland and its work here
Check out upcoming events with CR Oakland here.