20/07/2020
A few weeks ago, Rethink Incarceration x Free People Strike started an email campaign to the President of Haverford College, Wendy Raymond, to demand that she make a statement of support of the Free People Strike on behalf of the College. She has yet to directly respond to them.
Below is our letter in support of the Free People Strike that we have emailed to Haverford College’s President, Wendy Raymond, this morning. To be clear, this is not our work and we should not receive any praise for releasing this letter. We are posting this on social media to raise further visibility of the Free People Strike and their demands. This is the work of the members, many of whom are Black people who have constantly been at the forefront of this work, of the Free People Strike, Rethink Incarceration x Free People Strike, Rethink Incarceration and Black Students Refusing Further Inaction (Bsrfi_haverford). They have been committed to advancing anti-racism and abolition work at Haverford in far more significant ways than this letter. Please visit their pages to learn more about their work and how you can support them.
Our statement (link to Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UcnGTTNmLwyaY9isdIHInuulBx8eyXvQc9F4Xlf8Hrk/edit?usp=sharing)
We as the 2020-2021 Haverford House Fellows share this letter as a statement of support for the Free People Strike (1). As fellows, we operate as both Haverford College employees, and more specifically, employees of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC). We are committed to anti-racist action and recognize that to do this we must speak out and act in support of abolition groups like the Free People Strike. Supporting the Free People Strike is in direct alignment with not only our own personal values, but with the stated values of the CPGC, given its commitment to action that advances social, and specifically, racial justice (2).
Rethink Incarceration has joined forces with the Free People Strike (3) to demand the release of 1,800 incarcerated individuals that were given reprieve in April 2020, but have yet to be released. The Free People Strike also demands that Governor Wolf expand his reprieve order to include as many individuals as possible, so as to limit the spread of COVID-19. In the words of Rethink Incarceration, “Prisons and jails have no ability to meet the healthcare needs of a global pandemic. There is no way to socially distance in prison. Crowded conditions, drastically insufficient medical care, and incredibly restrictive lockdowns combine to make living through the COVID-19 pandemic a nightmare in prisons and jails. The only way to keep our incarcerated loved ones safe is to bring them home” (Rethink x Free People Strike).
We call on the College, and specifically President Wendy Raymond, to take actionable steps on Haverford’s commitment to “contribut[e] to the greater good,” one of the College’s guiding principles, by clearly stating and publicizing the explicit support of Haverford as an institution for the Free People Strike. On June 1st, President Wendy Raymond wrote an open letter to the Haverford College community where she “invite[d] all of us [white people] not yet on this path to join our students, faculty, staff, and alumni who already actively practic[ing] anti-racism, recognizing that the goal of anti-racism sits firmly in the educational mission and values of Haverford College, including the Quaker value of equality” (4). When a coalition of Black Haverford and Bryn students, Black Students Refusing Further Inaction, wrote a letter to the presidents of both Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges extensively outlining actions that must be taken to address the anti-Blackness present within both institution, they demanded that “Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges take an active role in Police and Prison Abolition" (5).
As Rethink x Free People Strike members have already brought to attention, President Wendy Raymond wrote in her July 1 response to the open letter that she would be “happy to discuss...potential ways forward on [taking an active role in police and prison abolition],” (6) but as of July 17th has not addressed Rethink x Free People Strike’s demands. Until President Raymond agrees to meet with Rethink x Free People Strike and move the college towards actively supporting abolition work, her silence speaks volumes. The College has argued against making political statements by claiming that Haverford only acts in ways that center education, while still touting Haverford as a beacon of wider-spread social change (e.g., President Raymond's query “If not at Haverford, where?”). The College has previously been quick to criticize unjust government action (7) and this inconsistent behavior speaks volumes.
In summary, as staff members of Haverford College and the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, we support the Rethink x Free People Strike’s immediate demands that:
Wendy Raymond meets with Rethink x Free People Strike.
Wendy Raymond write and publicize an open statement of support of the Free People Strike on behalf of Haverford College, as an institution.
We recognize that making this statement and demanding that Wendy Raymond meet with Rethink x Free People Strike and release an official institutional statement of support on behalf of Haverford College are the bare minimum that we can do to support the Free People Strike. To support the Free People Strike further we will be participating in their solidarity fasts and call-ins to Governor Wolf’s Office and PA prisons. To see how you can best support the Free People Strike, please visit their website or fill out their registration form (8).
In Solidarity,
Haverford House Fellows of 2020-2021
Ari Katz
Cecil Ross
Lina Klose
Sarah Savonis
Luke Aylward
Sarah Curtis
Sources:
(1) https://freepeoplestrike.net/
(2) https://www.haverford.edu/peace-and-global-citizenship/center
(3) https://freepeoplestrike.net/
(4) https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications-president/news/president-raymond-becoming-anti-racist
(5) https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ZIi4QtlyU5C9mVP1heyBD7rrI44k_F1nUbjHYhvR_o/edit #
(6)https://www.haverford.edu/sites/default/files/Office/President/Wendy-Raymond-Reply-to-Open-Letter_July-1-2020.pdf
(7) https://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-sue-trump-administration-over-unlawful-presence-policy/540577/
(7) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/us/student-visas-coronavirus.html
(8) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSePDAaba7FgCrzkfUkSv45GpFgfsiMwIzMDA3p_sbU1fj1CRg/viewform
free people striking to free people“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”— Toni Morrison Why A Hunger Strike? There are currently over 45,000 people locked in Pennsylvania state prisons, where social distancing is impossible and access to medical care is severely limited. Incarc...
