Day 35 of Shine White's Hunger Strike
"Do more to support Shine and all PPs/POWs who are fighting at the tip of the spear in this war being waged inside colonial imperialist prisons from the US to the UK to occupied Palestine."
“Komrade George changed me, he Revolutionized me...I had become politicized!”
— Shine White
In the midst of Prisoners for Palestine’s historic collective hunger strike in UK prisons, I wanted to highlight a case that has received very little attention.
Imprisoned in the United States since 2001 for social crimes, Joseph “Shine White” Stewart became politically active in prison and is known for his activism and efforts to organize and raise awareness about prison conditions and prisoners’ rights.
On 7 October, he was transferred from Foothills prison to Marion prison because of his activism. Upon arrival, he was restrained, tear-gassed, tasered in the face, and beaten by guards, suffering injuries to his shoulder and ribs. This is in addition to existing injuries inflicted by guards at Foothills, for which he has been denied medical care, on top of the ongoing medical neglect of his pre-existing chronic health conditions.
In response, Shine began a hunger strike on October 11, grew weaker by the day, and was transferred to the hospital on October 28. He is demanding to be transferred out of the jurisdiction of the Western Regional Director, LaDonna Browning, whom he holds responsible for this increased repression, and to receive proper medical care. He is asking supporters to intensify their appeals. (Source: Secours Rouge)
In this context, I interviewed a member of Shine’s support team. Please be sure to:
Calla: Can you give us some brief background on why Shine is locked up, and how he became so politicized, and a citizen of New Africa, while in prison? What distinguishes a politicized prisoner from a political prisoner?
Shine’s Support Team: To begin, a political prisoner is someone who has been incarcerated as a result of political activity. A politicized prisoner is someone incarcerated for social crimes and later becomes political while in captivity. Shine is technically a politicized prisoner, though he also considers himself a political prisoner because of the repression he has faced for his organizing behind the walls. Shine was locked up for social crimes, specifically street gang activity. In 2012, he was politicized by the writings of George Jackson after being placed in solitary confinement at a county jail. He recounted this experience in a 2021 interview with The Final Straw Radio:
Placed in the cell with nothing but the jail uniform I had on there was nothing to do but reflect on life and what the future would look like if I continued living the way I was, engaged in lumpen activities failing to realize that imposing the oppression I was subjected to on others made me a proxy of those I claimed I hated…
As the days passed, boredom began to set in. I decided to get down and do some push ups. As I was on the ground I happened to look under the bed and noticed a book in the far corner. Crawling under the bed, retrieving the book I noticed the words “Blood In My Eye.” Assuming that it was an urban fiction book that was based on the Street Formation I was representing, I quickly got back on the bed and attempted to read the book.
I say attempted because at the time I was unable to read or write past the 6th grade level. I spent most of my adolescent years in and out of state-institutions. An education wasn’t the primary focus of those who ran these reform schools, group homes, etc…
Unable to read or comprehend the book, I became frustrated and threw it to the side. By this time I had been told by the guards who would bring me my three meals a day that I wasn’t leaving that cell unless I made bond or was sent to prison.
My days were spent trying to read George’s book. Weeks had passed and I was still unable to read the majority of the book. I began to write all the words I could not pronounce or understand on the walls of the cell. This went on for two months before anyone noticed. One morning a Sergeant of the jail who I have known my entire life brought me my breakfast tray, noticed the walls covered in writing, questioned what I had going on. I explained that the words on the wall were out of a book I was trying to read, I wrote the words on the walls to memorize them so once I had access to a dictionary I would look them up. He asked me what I was reading, I showed him the book that had been thrown across my cell many times, bent up and been cursed by me out of frustration stemming from my inability to read it.
Weeks had passed before this same Sergeant came back to visit with me. Bringing me my breakfast he had two books in his hand and a note pad. He said if I agree to stop writing on the walls and clean off what I had written, he would give me the books and the notepad. Quickly agreeing, I was handed over a Webster’s dictionary, “Soledad Brother” and a notepad.
Neglecting to eat my tray there was a word that I was dying to look up the meaning of.
“Revolutionary: one engaged in a Revolution”
Quickly moving on to search for the word Revolution.
“Revolution: a sudden, radical or complete change”
I asked myself “Am I a Revolutionary? What am I changing?” Not fully comprehending what revolution was at the time, I moved on to other words, but the question “Am I a Revolutionary?” continued to enter my mind. I wanted to make a change, I wanted to be a Revolutionary because George had been a Revolutionary and he spoke highly of other Revolutionaries. A Revolutionary is smart, I wanted to be smart. Revolutionaries fought, I wanted to fight. I had to become a Revolutionary. I didn’t fully understand what a Revolutionary was, but yet I knew to become one I had to become smart. The dictionary became my best friend. Reading George’s books was painstaking in the beginning. I had to stop every other word to look up its meaning.
Komrade George changed me, he Revolutionized me in a small cell secluded from everyone for 9 months. I had become politicized! Sentenced close to twenty years, I’ve been feeding my consciousness ever since. I don’t tell a lot of people but I have a learning disability that becomes discouraging at times. It’s difficult for me to grasp what I’m reading the first time, I have to read it over and over before I am fully able to comprehend it. I am self-educated…
He went on to become the National Spokesperson for the White Panther Organization, an affiliate of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party. He later came to identify as a New Afrikan Nationalist based on the writings of James Yaki Sayles in Meditations on Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth. He wrote about this experience here. I will add, it is not unheard of for a non-Black person to join the New Afrikan Independence Movement. We can recall that Yuri Kochiyama — a Japanese American — was also a citizen of the Republic of New Afrika.
Calla: Shine is now on Day 33, which is extremely serious and warrants hospitalization, but as far as we know, he has received no medical treatment. Can you tell us about Shine’s past hunger strikes and how they went? What led to Shine going on hunger strike? How have his fellow prisoners responded?
Shine’s Support Team: Shine began his hunger strike after being brutally beaten upon transfer from Foothills CI to Marion CI in retaliation for organizing against arbitrary repression by prison officials. Outside supporters performed phone zaps at his request. That was in September. At that time, prisoners on F-Unit at FCI had only received rec time 3 times in the last month and hadn’t had outdoor rec time for three months, which is in direct violation of NC DAC policy. As of November 7, he was transferred to Central Prison in Raleigh, likely to the healthcare wing. Though, we have not received confirmation that he has received medical attention. Even if he is treated, he has been clear that he will not end his hunger strike until he receives written confirmation that he will be transferred outside of the jurisdiction of the Western Regional Director, LaDonna Browning.
Shine’s fellow prisoners have been supportive. Some have even floated the idea of joining him on hunger strike. They have primarily helped him communicate with outside supporters. Shine has the ability to circumvent censorship through his connections and relationships inside and always finds a way to communicate regardless of the circumstances.
Calla: How has the prison responded to outside campaigning in support of Shine? How can outside supporters take action?
Shine’s Support Team: As expected, the prisons have responded to our phone zaps by providing conflicting information and lies. Outside supporters can support by continuing to harass NC DAC prison officials until Shine’s demands are met. As stated above his primary demand is to be transferred out of the Western Region. Follow the @shinewhitesupport Instagram for updates. From there you can find his Substack and other ways to support him.
Calla: Once again, we see the silence of much of the progressive “movement” in the US about our prisoners and people facing repression in general. Very few organizations have said anything about Shine’s strike or the ongoing collective hunger strike in the UK. What does Shine have to say in terms of his critiques of the political prisoners’ movement in North Carolina and the US more broadly?
Shine’s Support Team: On 17 October, we published his Open Letter to North Carolina Prison Support Groups, which I encourage everyone to go read and re-read. This iteration of the text was sent to us not long before the heightened repression at Foothills. It is a necessary intervention not only in our movement here in NC, but the US as a whole. None of us are beyond critique. We all have a responsibility to do more for our PPs/POWs, as well as social prisoners subjected to everyday human rights abuses in the “razor wire plantations” (to use Shine’s language) across the country. Shine has repeatedly said that by supporting him, we are supporting all prisoners in NC because they are who he fights for.
Though there may be a sincere desire to help prisoners, Shine sees the state of the NC prisoner support movement as a disparate assortment of groupings locked in a state of comfort and unwillingness to accept criticism. I will let his words speak for themselves:
The prison movement here in NC is nonexistent and the struggles centered around prisoners have been trivialized to represent a recreation or a hobby by those of you who profess to be abolitionists, anarchists, activists etc… To say that you are for something — such as prisoners rights — but to have no strategy or willingness to actually ameliorate the living conditions prisoners find themselves subjected to can only raise questions.
…If you are involved simply because you are chasing the emotional impact of being rebellious and confrontational, then by all means continue as you have, however you should let the prisoners whom you “support” know that you are not actually for ameliorating the lives of prisoners but that you are chasing an emotional high and you have no intentions of stepping outside your comfort zone.
Shine goes on to stress the need for organization:
Prisoners need organization. Organization unites, gives direction, and breadth to particular work. The lack of organization affects all other problems. It leaves prisoners with no place to go to join the struggle, no way to connect to something larger than ourselves, no form for struggling and resolving our problems. The failures and the dissolution of previous organizations have served as an excuse for anti-organizational tendencies: attacking and undermining all forms of organization. The idea prevails that organization means giving up individual integrity, or is irretrievably sexist/male dominated, or is by definition oppressive. Like every other revolutionary movement on earth, we desperately need a good organization, strong and healthy, to embody the struggle and direct our energies like a spear. Twos and threes is not good form for anything — it won’t put out a newsletter, organize campaigns or force administrators to compromise.
As alluded to above, prisoner support in NC is fragmented, mirroring national trends. There is little to no state-wide coordination. In a 2023 interview with a supporter, he stated:
There are individuals who are prison activists who are a part of groups… Then you have organizations…who only show up when there’s a media platform, portraying themselves as prison activists. The latter groups mustn’t be allowed to represent prisoners when they are not engaged in the struggle. The former must replace these neoliberal groups. The former must unite to engender a meaningful prison movement that makes abolishing these conditions a reality.
In this same interview, he described his vision for the NC prison movement through building a united front, which he then referred to as “SWAP” or Serving With A Purpose:
SWAP is a North Carolina community-based united front that provides a structure under which preexisting community-based groups, organizations, or associations can be structured to build community-based support. For prisoners and ex-offenders returning to their communities, SWAP embraces diversity in ideological, political, cultural, and spiritual tendencies and beliefs. All that is required is unity in carrying out and coordinating programs and campaigns that address the needs of prisoners and ex-offenders returning to society.
SWAP entails resisting a litany of human rights abuses, such as cultural genocide, social isolation, torture by way of indefinite solitary confinement; institutional racism, police brutality, inadequate food and nutrition, inadequate medical and mental health care. Once SWAP is organized, we will have a prison movement in North Carolina.
As far as I know, nothing resembling SWAP has been organized since this interview was released.
It’s the duty of those who profess to be in the prisoner support movement to take these criticisms seriously and do more to support Shine and all PPs/POWs who are fighting at the tip of the spear in this war being waged inside colonial imperialist prisons from the US to the UK to occupied Palestine.
Take action for Shine with this toolkit
Go to the rally at the Division of Prisons in Raleigh, NC on Friday if you’re in the region
Piece on Shine White by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, Minister of Defense New Afrikan Black Panther Party
Follow Shine’s Substack @shinewhitespeaks and read his writings:
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