We Should Not Be Waiting for Our Everyday Lives to Reflect ‘1984’, Because at That Point Most of Us Will Have Adapted.” Disclaimer

FIRE TO THE PRISONS

Issue 8//Winter 2010 An Insurrectionary Quarterly “WE SHOULD NOT BE WAITING FOR OUR EVERYDAY LIVES TO REFLECT ‘1984’, BECAUSE AT THAT POINT MOST OF US WILL HAVE ADAPTED.” DISCLAIMER:

ire to the Prisons is for informational and educational purposes only. This magazine in no way encourages or supports any illegal behavior in any way. This magazine looks only to provide a printed forum for con- F versation and news. We are report- ing not inciting. The entirety of the content in this magazine was found as public information, and later compiled or re-organized for this magazine. Nothing here is the original content of those responsible for this magazine. Any attempt by anyone to connect this publication to any illegal behavior is a complete fabrication by forces looking to impede the spreading of information such as this. The top- ics brought up in this magazine in no way reflect the perspective of any specific person allegedly involved with this publication. They also do not reflect the perspectives or outlooks of any individual or group mentioned in or receiving this publication.

WITH THAT SAID: “WE MIGHT NEED IT” CONTENT

his magazine is in NO-WAY WHAT AND WHY: a “for profit” publication; A quick briefing - Pg. 3 nor is it in anyway a for- TURNING THE TABLES mal enterprise or business. IN DEFENSE OF THE EXCEPTIONS: We encourage the re-dis- Advocating a revolutionary voice in defense of the tribution and re-printing of “cop-killer”. By Another Delinquent - Pg. 10 Teverything in this magazine, as well as the magazine in it’s entirety. Printable PDFs WE’LL GET WHAT WE CAN TAKE: are available for re-distribution or viewing A brief chronology of recent events in the on our web site included below. California Student-Worker Movement. - Pg. 17 THE BRICKS WE THROW AT POLICE TODAY WILL If your reading this, it means that this issue BUILD THE LIBERATION SCHOOLS OF TOMORROW is done. Please let us know what you think, By Three Non-Matriculating Proletarians - Pg. 23 if you would like to order more or become BLAST FROM THE PAST: a distributor, or if you have any questions, BLACK MASK AND by contacting us at the information listed at UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHERFUCKER the bottom of this page. The story of a small underground 1960’s Revolutionary group in New York City. - Pg. 28

This magazine is free to people currently OUR TEARS MAKE THE FLOWERS GROW incarcerated by contacting the prisoner On the situation in greece. - Pg. 37 support groups mentioned at the end of the repression chapter. This magazine is also RIOT: The Olympics are coming. - Pg. 41 free to other prisoner support or not-for- profit groups who share the outlook of this WE DID NOT HAVE OUR “BROKENHAGEN” magazine. We would hope in this case, any On the actions against the climate summit money made from selling this publication “Cop15” in Copenhagen. By Some Unwanted Children of Capitalism - Pg. 46 by these groups would go to benefit various projects and endeavors we may find REPRESSION: intriguing... Updates on the legal cases or situations of those enemy to the state. - Pg. 48

Special thanks to our proof-readers, both in REVOLUTIONARY SOLIDARITY the empire, and across the country in the Actions claimed in solidarity with other struggles, bay. Special thanks to those who provided arrested individuals, or unrest. - Pg. 73 the resources, space, and patience needed A CHRONOLOGY: for this publication to exist. Special thanks Of North American Prisoner Resistance. - Pg. 80 to all those who helped to produce the content in this issue; whether we know you or ANARCHIST RESISTANCE not. Special thanks to the Big Apple for Attacks claimed by Anarchists. - Pg. 84 your Nightlife. Without it we would never NATIVE CONFLICT: be able to go to print. Under reported actions of Indigenous and “Third” World struggles. - Pg. 87 Agitating till the grave, REMEMBERING IVAN KHUTORSKOY + RESISTING FASCISM - Pg. 90 Fire to the Prisons: www.firetotheprisons.com ETC: [email protected] Shout Outs, Further Reading, News. - Pg. 94 c/o Shoelacetown ABC P.O. Box 8085 Paramus, NJ, 07652, USA A QUICK BRIEFING

here are some things If we can’t work, we can’t eat. If we most of us can agree on. don’t behave, we go to jail. We reserve There are some things the serotonin in our minds and the love WHAT most of us dislike, but in our hearts for holidays, vacations, choose to accept. For weekends, or drugs. example: most people Thate the police and most people dislike Most of us accept this, and bite our work. Two things most of us can agree teeth, until the next moment we can on. But two things most of us accept. declare as ours.

Most people dislike the wars in the We don’t concern ourselves with what world. But in response all we do is it is that feeds us, we just keep work- voice our passive disagreement, “sup- ing, as long as our stomachs remain port the troops, and bad mouth the ad- full or there is a roof over our head. ministration at hand. What else can we do, right? Our job is our key to money, and money is the key to our survival. Otherwise Most people dislike that there are we would be starving and lost. Life is & starving children in the world, while just unfair. So we are told. others suffer with obesity. WHY We ignore our disconnection from our Some people have to steal food to sur- nourishment, and accept the industrial vive. While others donate to charity process that produces our menus. and struggle with new diets. If our stomachs are full, it is not our Most people prefer to spend their days hands that produced the ingredients, with the people they love. Most people it is our jobs that satisfied our hunger. end up spending most of their time Our understanding of nourishment is with coworkers, clients, or bosses. purely within the system of production the economy mediates. In this case Most of us have no choice. capitalism is what feeds us; at the same time it is also what starves us. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-What & Why-Pg. 3 The workplace is one scenario some of In the process of nourishing our social Even our rebellious urges are subject to us can agree on as a part of our lives desires, we are forced to calculate a a medium, before even being worthy of we don’t enjoy, but are forced to accept, self, making the dive in the social cess taking seriously. over and over and over again. pool of modern alienation more comfortable. In the case of questioning or challeng- Most of us despise our disconnection ing our conditions, we are forced to and dis-empowerment, where our con- We constantly strive for our sense of seek the approval of the same stan- ditions are determined by our role in uniqueness, to become an “I”, and dards, politics, and sciences that ratio- a global world as opposed to our im- separate from the “we”. We look for nalize our conditions to begin with. mediate realities. We choose to distract this distinction and identity in music, ourselves from these feelings and con- sports, art, spirituality, clothing, etc. We always have our own opinions. We ditions, and choose to absorb the numb- We are so alienated from one another, always have our own questions. We’ll ing opium of sitcoms, or film following that to reach out into the mass present- get drunk and discuss these perspec- a hard day’s work. We are too tired to ed before us without an identity, would tives or concerns with our friends, but play sports ourselves, laugh ourselves, be like a nightmare where we see our- that will be it, that’s as far as we go. We or experience action or adventure in our self in our middle school home room are encouraged to flirt with question- own lives, unless we are lucky enough class naked. able ideas or scandalous questions in to get paid for it. We watch others do the “appropriate” context. Our friends what it is we can’t. Whether or not its Culture makes for a diverse market are not the place for a serious dialogue real, whether or not we are doing it, we place. in this world, its the professors that can are too tired to do this ourselves, and tell us if we are wrong or right. The we accept our everyday visual as the In a world where you can constantly questions have all been asked by the boring alternative. be surrounded by people and still feel social scientists and philosophers of the alone, we rely on culture and the mar- world is what we are told. Our ideas Most of our conversations are filled ket place to help us design our “selves”. and questions are something to present with the stories of new episodes on tele- to academia, not our everyday condi- vision, news of the rich and famous, or In this world, the individual is calcu- tions. We have to rationalize them to those who have it worse. As opposed to lated by the trends of the market place. the intellectuals and inside the colleg- new episodes in our own lives. There is a niche for everyone, and es, before we can even rationalize our a price tag on all of it. We have our ideas to ourselves or the people we care “The war in Iraq.” “Gay marriage.” “own” restaurants, venues, channels, about. “Lost.” “H&M is having a sale.” drinks, bands, neighborhoods, grocery “Spare some change.” “No, sorry.” stores, diets, gyms, workout routines, We accept our era as the end of history, “I’ll have a copy of the times.” “One hobbies, clothing brands, or cars. In our because we are told that everything has coffee please.” “Thanks for the tip.” strife for individuality we further our been done. All the questions have been “You’re welcome.” alienation. The “individual” groomed asked and all the questions have been and fostered in the market place helps answered. Our minds are boring com- Everything is pre-determined. to further distinct us from one another, pared to the internet, our possibilities Everything is mediated. only being connected by the next ideas are boring compared to special effects. of the marketplace. Under capitalism, We are at the end of human possibility, The conditions beyond our control, set in the strife for individuality, we not and taught as if there is nothing more forth by the institutions that make up only further our alienation from each to learn. this society, act not only as the medium other, we further our alienation from for our physical nourishment and com- our own sense of sincere desire or self. If we do question, if we are not happy, fort, but also act as a force in determin- Our desires are in congruent with val- we adapt, under the assumption that we ing our inter-personal relationships. ued products someone else produced, if we don’t, we are failures, we have not We live harder in second life, and as opposed to valued experiences undertaken the opportunities set before feel less shy on facebook. Our social achieved by our own will and possibil- us. Whether or not the opportunities set lives have adapted to our lack of time ity. forth can go far enough to satisfy our for them. Our relations are now more ambitions. measured and more Our jobs are our predictable. We are faults if we don’t now more connect- Culture makes for a like them. Suc- ed, through the me- cess is for the kids diums that make it that paid attention possible for our lit- diverse market place. in school. For the eral disconnection. kids who could

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-What & Why-Pg. 4 afford college, or choose to stay the Some do not see satisfaction as feasi- police or military would be an example whole four years. If we don’t enjoy our ble before the opportunities available. of institutional violence we are told to jobs, we need to regret skipping out on Some have chosen to pursue the road accept and condone. There of course is a few classes in high school. If we are less taken, aware of the risk of experi- also the non-formal violence we com- not making as much as we want, we encing all the consequences that come monly hear of. Rape, torture, or armed chose the wrong profession. with it. Some have chosen to take ac- robbery being a few. These would be tion in their own hands, whether or not bad forms of violence, or a form of in- Although capitalism forces us to ex- they are granted permission. Some formal common violence we hear about change our time for money, so we can have decided that they are not in con- frequently. This unlike the police and survive, whether or not we like it, if trol of their lives, and to reclaim them military we are told is a negative vio- our everyday life is undesirable within requires going above and beyond the lence, and distinct. What in actuality capitalism, it is our fault. Capitalism opportunities and mediums we are giv- determines informal (“bad”) or insti- defines opportunity, if our ambitions go en to deal with them. tutional (“good”) violence is whether beyond its matrix of possibility, we are or not the behavior is approved by the failures within capitalism. Although some may have asked the existing state. As the state is deemed same questions or drawn the same frus- the only licensed provider of appropri- Are this simply the statements of a cyn- trations, the same people may be alien- ate violence in the process of it sustain- ical personality? Will our questions or ated by our reports of violent attacks ing itself and mediating inappropriate critiques be ignored as the obvious? If on institutions or companies cited in violence. this is obvious, if these are things we this magazine (if you haven’t read this ask ourself, then are they things we are magazine before, just start turning the The state in some cases allows instanc- just supposed to accept? pages). This is something we would es of non-formal violence like tenants like to confront here. and home-owners defending them- Some have asked these questions as selves against burglars, women defend- a pre-requisite to experimentation. In the realm of everyday life, there are ing themselves against rapists (in some Some have chosen to “materialize” specific situations of violence that we cases), or stores defending themselves the frustration that comes with such are taught to condone or disapprove of. against robbery, and so on. These are contemplation per-se. Some do not We see both informal or institutional vi- acceptable in the eyes of the law (in see conclusion in the means available olence in our everyday lives, or at least some cases), and those responsible for so-called “change” as we know it. on the news. The armed forces, whether for enforcing it, the police, military,

“Some have chosen to “materialize” the frustration that comes with such contemplation per-se. Some do not see conclusion in the means available for so-called “change” as we know it.

Some do not see satisfaction as feasible before the opportunities available. Some have chosen to pursue the road less taken, aware of the risk of experiencing all the consequences that come with it. “

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-What & Why-Pg. 5 or government. These to accept it. Why am acts are recognized in “If we are frustrated, if we do not like I special? Life isn’t some cases as self-de- fair. The statements fense by the state, and how were forced to live, we choose to we make to our- deemed appropriate by accept it. Why am I special? Life isn’t selves, are the same its courts. What defines cited in movies. The self-defense though? fair. The statements we say to our- questions we ask What defines appropri- selves, are the same cited in movies. ourselves when ex- ate non-formal violence amining our condi- and not? More impor- The statements we ask ourselves when tions, leave us adapt- tantly who is respon- questioning our conditions, leave us ing and accepting, sible for defining this? because acceptance adapting and accepting, because ac- and adaptation make If a more unique situa- ceptance and adaptation make this this society function. tion was to exist, where the same people we society function. Different questions need to defend our lives need to be asked. from were in control of Adapting and accept- the laws and the prisons DIFFERENT QUESTIONS NEED ing leave us with a that consequence us for compromised life. violating its standards TO BE ASKED. ADAPTING AND of right and wrong vio- ACCEPTING LEAVE US WITH A Of course some lence or self-defense, at choose the unique that point, this sort of COMPROMISED LIFE.” approach, or as some self-defense would be- call it, the “consci- come a struggle. entious” approach, We are either too disconnected from adopting the way of activism or poli- “these people” to even feel that it is At this point, if we felt the need to use tics. If we want change, “we have our place to judge, or we understand violence to defend our lives against to accept the mediums to achieve it; that these people hate us (depending regulating forces like the police or working within the system per-se” (is on who is reading this), because they military, we are criminals. If we found what we are told), whether or not the are attacking those who are appointed the need to deal more forcefully with mediums are determined by the same to represent us and protect us (depend- visible institutions responsible for me- thing we are looking to change. Writ- ing on who is reading this). But obvi- diating our lives in the process of de- ing letters to congress, raising money ously unconventional violence can be fending their quality and possibility, if for charity, or writing about specific is- seen in more scenarios than just what the state approves of the enterprises we sues we have with the world seems to the media and state deems as the “war are choosing to attack, we have chosen be the conclusions or purposes of the on terror”. to become an enemy of the state, and “conscious” minded; the activists or the run the risk of being consequenced for politicos. Violence is motivated by a set of condi- defending ourselves. Or the more com- tions; rape or abuse are two examples, mon term used today when self-defense But some, well in fact many people, occupation or unconsentual mediation becomes a conflict or struggle with the whether or not they are aware of it, could be two others. state, would be “terrorism”. have chosen an even more unique ap-

proach to change, or one could maybe Self-defense is usually only thought of Our first thought of inappropriate vio- say: satisfying their own sense of “jus- as an isolated incident, based on an iso- lence or self-defense is “terrorism”. tice”. lated conflict. People suicide bombing or sniping soldiers in the Middle East. We ignore Some have chosen different paths, But can self-defense only be justified the circumstances motivating these some have chosen to not utilize the me- in the immediate situation? Could desperate displays of violence, because diums for change or wait for approval, self-defense be a consistent battle and they are conducted against those who some have chosen to act on their de- struggle to defend our own lives against are licensed to be violent. In this spe- sires or feelings now, hoping others a forced set of conditions separate our cific case, those who declare or fund will support and repeat. Some people own doing? the war, are exempt from judgement are looking to work not with the forces because they are entitled to engage in of power, but the forces of themselves If we are frustrated, if we do not like war, they are the specialists in violence, and the communities that nurture them. how we are forced to live, we choose carrying the license of state approval. Some people are looking to re-appro-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-What & Why-Pg. 6 priate their conditions or everyday lives Coercion is not a positive word to any- Our intention with this magazine is to on their own terms. Some are reaching one. We accept formal coercion in the present a common enemy, and a com- out to those who share the conditions, form of armed police, restitutions, jail mon way of dealing with this. We look as opposed to those who mediate it. terms, or bail. We dislike non-formal to nurture learning opportunities for Some are looking for immediate grati- coercion like blackmail, robbery, or those interested in producing conflict fication, not compromise. rape. These are some specific exam- with the current “system” in place. We ples of where one could experience look to provide examples of others cou- Are these people terrorists? coercion. In each case, ranging in dif- rageous enough to attack that which is ferent forms of intensity, you would attacking them, especially when its not Because the state and media would be experiencing coercion, in all cases popular in the mainstream papers and have us see them this way. More im- you are dealing with a form of attack. blogs, or to avenge someone’s memory portantly, the state and media hope to There is an offensive act that leads to us before a demonizing media. We look have us see these people as separate of comply with what or who is conduct- to provide examples of people coming ourselves. As specialists as opposed to ing it. But again, can it go beyond the together against a common enemy, and us. Such an approach is too “extreme” specific? Can there be an entire system fighting it not on its terms. We are a to be accessible to the average person. in place built on formal coercion and us force for agitation in this society, and Because the average person is appar- adapting to it? look to help further an awareness and ently a pathetic person. Dealing with dialogue that will be in permanent our conditions directly, on our terms If the entirety of our everyday lives are conflict with the conditions created by is simply “insanity”. Something to be pre-determined by a system of produc- capitalist society, or civilization as we afraid of when you hear about it, as op- tion and mediation, and our lives are know it, as long as they are not on our posed to inspired. not exactly the way we want them to own terms. be, would the forces determining this In that case, is this approach to change set up be behaving in a coercive way? As the government isolates such a sen- or “justice”, when not conducted by the If the set up is a process of coercion, timent as “terrorist”. state, a strategy that celebrates terror- then the system determining it would ism? be a system that attacks more or less We support self-defense, in its most un- that which it is regulating. We are conventional form. Or could these people be us, our forced to accept this, and consequenced friends, our communities: us; or an op- if we don’t. We consider ourselves a quarterly portunity to learn new ways to appease magazine, but our intention is never our desires and frustrations on our own Some choose to view the current con- to continue. We are not interested in terms? ditions we are experiencing as a form becoming just another news source. of attack on our everyday life, and en- We are interested in helping to foster a Until the police come to our house, or gaging in resistance to it, violent or not, revolutionary and borderless solidarity put us in jail, they are defending us. would be an act of self-defense. among frustrated forces and communi- But at any point this could happen. ties in conflict with the current reality. Until we are starving and on the street, We have assumed this outlook. We are interested in connecting differ- we are the privileged ones. But at any ent movements, and identifying unrec- point this could happen. If our options We report on clandestine violence, il- ognized struggles. We are interested in are this thin, are we living the way we legal occupation of space, or riots be- exposing ruptures in the social frame- want to? cause we see this behavior as ruptures work, and not allowing them to be iso- in this social framework. We see this lated. We are a magazine for its own There is a social contract signed from as acts of defending lives against an destruction. Our content is intended birth, where we have to survive a cer- unconsentual arrangement. We will not to be read, but realized. We report tain way. Otherwise, we will starve or not disagree with the accusation that to inspire, and write for response. We be imprisoned. There may be “rights” these acts are violent or “criminal”, but aren’t looking to be heard by academia, with this contract, but if someone else we refuse to scoff or demonize them; the same way we are not looking to can take them away at any point, what on the contrary, we look to recognize be appreciated by journalists. We are do they matter? If we are not determin- them as positive ruptures before the discontent people, in conflict with our ing this framework, or if we are not normalcy of this constant attack we conditions, and in solidarity with those happy with the way things are, but have experience in our everyday lives. As who share them. We represent no dis- no choice other than to accept it, are we something that brings us closer to each tinct movement, we only wish to pres- dealing with a case of coercion? Are other, and avenges our possibilities lost ent resistance with a common enemy. we being attacked, and just constantly before the framework found in this me- looking to survive it? diated society. As we cited earlier, prison has helped to maintain the social framework as

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-What & Why-Pg. 7 we know it. In maintaining it, it is also special-interest, or whomever would tect itself, by liquidating anything that there to prevent us from trying to over- currently sympathize with whatever threatens its stability by isolating such come it. Bank robbery, drug dealing, motivations brought forth the “crimes” forces with prison or public deception fraud, or prostitution would certainly mentioned. Although the opportunities of them. be a few of the more common reasons and possibilities of American capital- as to why people are imprisoned. These ism do reflect the same appearance of We are not utilizing our right to free account for the majority of people in- any “Western Civilization”, sentencing speech. Whether or not we are putting carcerated. It is obvious that all of this guidelines for crime do not. By or- this magazine out in the United States, behavior stems from the same struggle der of the “constitution”, the paper so a place where literature is not taken se- - that being survival under capital- greatly praised by American national- riously. Whether or not we are immedi- ism. Some can’t get jobs, some do not ists, we are entitled to bear arms or take ately experiencing the repercussions of want to be limited to their jobs; these actions to preserve the “free state”. We being an insurrectionary voice in such are some of the attainable alternatives. do not remember the 1941 statute still a repressive era. It is a risk we always In this magazine, those imprisoned (or on the books (nor do we remember that face. Because if literature is taken seri- currently dealing with legal battles or such privileges were only designated to ously, if it becomes a threat or signifi- police harassment) we choose to men- a select few from the start; obviously cant, by this we mean, if it becomes a tion have chosen a more unique path in native and black communities were not reality or largely visible gesture, such a “overcoming” capitalist society. Like part of the constituted new club). Fol- right will and can be revoked. the outlaws and criminal entrepreneurs, lowing the industrial revolution, the Of course we all are aware of the those cited here have specifically cho- “Smith Act” was created. This act is a “War on Terrorism” and the patriot act. sen not to accept the means for survival United States federal statute that makes These are simply examples of state op- they are granted, and look for gratifi- it a criminal offense for anyone to portunism and continuing the inherent cation beyond the framework we are “knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, tradition of all governments: repression presented. This also goes for those advise, or teach the duty, necessity, de- to everything that threatens its own pro- mentioned who are currently in trouble sirability, or propriety of overthrowing tection. for aiding other lives or engaging in the Government of the United States revolutionary forms of solidarity. We or of any State by force or violence, Once vivisection companies were go- have taken responsibility for being a or for anyone to organize any associa- ing out of business from resistance different voice for those falling under tion which teaches, advises, or encour- conducted by animal liberation groups, the raining anvils of the state. We want ages such an overthrow, or for anyone we had the “Animal Enterprise Terror- to defend those choosing a different to become a member of, or to affiliate ism” act created. Individuals were go- path, and help realize the implications with, any such association.” This was ing to jail for making people aware of of really “overcoming”. first practiced in response to the dawn company behaviors, and encouraging of the American “communist” move- people who cared about animal suffer- War continues everyday, around the ment. In 1941, multiple members of ing to respond. Individuals were put in world. It is not just between nations, it the American communist movement jail for years, as soon as campaigns be- is also between classes, races, species, were put on trial for violating this act. came successful. religions, and other divisions produced This helped to indict multiple mem- to keep us apart. Pre-existing social bers of the Socialist Workers Party in The victory of “getting away with it” tensions remain as consistent as the Minneapolis at the time, and convict a was becoming too obvious to the po- social institutions predetermining our select few. The evidence against them lice regarding anonymous actions in existences. The United States is not was primarily based on the rhetoric of defense of the earth by “Earth Libera- unique to this. In fact the United States political leaders associated with the tion” groups in the last 15 years. Sen- is completely prepared for the fluctua- Communist movement. Excerpts from tencing a few people “caught” at the tion of this war’s intensity, and are ac- books by Trotsky and Marx were two dawn of their concerns to “rapist and tive in privately engaging in it. examples of evidence used to indict murderer” like prison terms for crimes and convict. Once the theories of such where only property was destroyed was Specifically, Americans are taught to be thinkers turned into a reality for parts of not enough. Infiltration and entrapment infatuated with its “constitution”. The the world, it became a violation of the helped to further intimidate. Groups of vital paper that sanctions the spectacle “constitution”; a threat to the stability people were being arrested for crimes of this liberal civilization, leading its of American culture. that happened years ago via wire-taps mass to accept its “imperfections”, and and paid snitches. Infiltration and in- feel far superior to its “less” desirable The era of repression has not ended. It timidation helped to spread distrust alternatives. Many of those arrested or is always here, and becomes more vis- and deception among people arrested in jail that we report on here, have fall- ible each time dissent becomes a real or interested in the cause; humiliating en into the cracks of information, and threat. If there is a state, there will be the same communities before on-look- made only available to communities of repression. The state will always pro- ers. Sentencing before the crime even

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-What & Why-Pg. 8 took place, became possible as the FBI be public displays of discontent; riots. facing insane charges. We see this in started to create spies to entrap and sen- Riots are a participatory violence that Western Canada, as anarchists, ab- tence individuals who were potentially act as a safe space for discontent. Now original peoples, and others opposed to interested in acting in defense of the they are just deemed as public “terror- the upcoming winter games suffer the earth by means of claiming “conspira- ism”, if done in direct conflict with the wrath of its “security” to come. We torial” intentions. This helped to create state or its public rituals (Republican see this in Greece as the new “social- a new style of pre-meditated arrests by National Convention or G20 being two ist party” begins to isolate and liqui- the state, using the “conspiracy” accu- examples). date “anarchists”. They are aware of sation as the entirety of its evidence. their potential, as they have continued Stopping this movement in its tracks, Even if no evidence exists, a grand jury to foster unrest before the state, since before even taking its next step. can always lock someone up for at least the death of a teenager sparked riots a year and a half before even having a across the country last December ‘08. Raids and indictments are coming out case. Millions of people are incarcerated in in response to the new momentum of prisons across the world. Uprisings are riots in the United States. This is seen When something starts to spread, when frequent and consistent inside prisons, as a manifestation of the new “insur- something becomes “serious”, the state as long as they exist. Without outside rectionary” and “anti-state” forces will be there to stop it. We have seen resources, these acts will remain isolat- sweeping Europe and South America this in the recent occupations of Uni- ed, and perceived only as routine. as well. Terrorism is no longer seen as versity campuses in California by stu- the standard “clandestine” actions done dents. Students being beaten by police, anonymously in the night, it can also arrested in mass, and some put in jail

Therefore we look to connect and foster conflict and agitation towards a common enemy. We want to prevent certain struggles from remaining isolated; while at the same time prevent individuals arrested for engaging in these struggles from being forgotten. We want to present a message both critical and frustrated with the conditions were forced to accept before this civilization, and hope readers will more then sympathize, but actually relate.

This is why we exist. This is why we will continue. But like we said, we hope to not be around forever, because like all revolutionary literature, we will only continue to exist until the current conditions we are frustrated with cease to.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-What & Why-Pg. 9 TURNING THE TABLES

IN DEFENSE OF THE EXCEPTIONS ADVOCATING A REVOLUTIONARY VOICE IN DEFENSE OF THE “COP-KILLER” By Another Delinquent

henever there is an attack on a police same choose to not be afraid. As some choose to take the officer or force, the spokesperson or risk of negating God and being damned to an eternity in hell; commissioner always mentions the some choose to negate the police’s power, and run the risk of courage the police officers had. Ap- being damned to an eternity in prison. parently its an understood thing that assaults and attacks on police are an As the police continue their careers of torment and repres- W inherent possibility and frequent ex- sion, the anxiety we all feel surviving their presence will cer- perience for street officers. We agree with this recognition of tainly lead some to break. Sometimes people choose not to courage the police so arrogantly spout. We see this courage flee the police, but to pursue them. So in some ways, yes we as the same one that would manifest in war. Like soldiers in agree that there is some bravery to being a police officer, but war, the police act as the enforcers of peace and normalcy we would say the same bravery is true for a bully. before our everyday conditions. They are the infantry preserving a stability for reality as we know it. They are the foot The Hollywood bully we all think of is simply a younger or soldiers of an institutional fear that maintains our everyday non-formal version of the police. As the police walk around relations and movements. The police are public evidence to lashing out on the poor or so called “minorities” in society, the low-intensity social war we experience everyday. they are looking out for the interests of the wealthy or the elite. As the bully walks through school tormenting the ugly The job of the police is to be at the forefront of mediation or weird, they are protecting the status of the popular and for all of us, to let us know that if we behave independent of normal. As the police walk around the streets looking for the norm, we will be further isolated, either through arrest victims to add to their quota, the bully wanders the cafeteria. or physical abuse. They realize that they are engaging in a Knowing nobody likes them, but taking money and causing constant war against everything and everyone that looks to tears, because they know everyone is frightened of them - disrupt the peace and silence before our current reality. They just like the police. It’s actually quite sad that the police and are the everyday visual for why it is that we choose not to the bullies of the world would ever take such pride in this question, but to adapt and survive. sort of courage, but unfortunately in this society, personal power and pride is recognized by your advantage or power The police realize that most of us appreciate them, similarly over others. Being respected through a common fear is not to the same way many appreciate god; through fear of what necessarily a positive thing for most people. In the case of would happen if we chose to not accept them. There are the bullies, bosses, politicians, or the police, it is the entirety of exceptions though. As some choose to not accept them, the their existence. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Cop Killer-Pg. 10 It is sad that revolutionaries have Similarly to the recent es- been so scared to celebrate. Will we calation of attacks specifi- “How often are we really indulge them with their own cally targeting the police sentimentality? Did they do this for in the United States, the made into suicide Billy Panas or Oscar Grant? Did they last ten years provides reports? shed tears when Sean Bell was shot 50 evidence of a common times in New York? They did not. In breaking point for the How often did our fact, any apology was dragged out of tormented youth of this them by our resistance to them. We country as well. Someone wallets look like guns? really only hear an apology when we is always going to break. How often did our riot. If Rodney King wasn’t caught Someone is always going on video, and L.A wasn’t in flames, to take the initiative of appearance seem would Rodney have just been another being the exception. The case of “resisting arrest”? If Oscar under dog that bit back suspicious?” Grant getting shot in the back wasn’t per se. We’ve seen this in caught on video, would it have been the case of Maurice Clem- self-defense? If Billy Panas wasn’t mons (accused of shooting 4 police of- bullies of the world; the police. And stumbling with friends when a drunk ficers in a coffee shop in , Lakewood, the possibility of an explosion in ten- off-duty Philadelphia police officer Washington) or Lovelle Mixon, (ac- sion, is always the case. shot him in a random outburst of drunk- cused of shooting four police officers en rage, would Billy have just been in the streets of Oakland, California on Whenever an attack is made on the po- another one of the “troubled youth”? March, 21st, 2009. This came shortly lice, anywhere in the world, it is an act These are some of the recent police on after the Bay Area Rapid Transit police of war. Because our people, our part of people murders that have had the privi- shot a black man named Oscar Grant in this war; the poor, the youth, the dis- lege to become media frenzies towards the back while he was on his stomach. content ones who the police protect, the end of 2009. Imagine all the “dead ). Just like we’ve seen this in the case of this society and those who rule it from, niggers” or “out-of-control youth” the 14 year old Elizabeth Catherine Bush are the targets of every officers gun. police have murdered in the shadows in Williamsport, Pa, or Eric Harris, and of this society, that no one was there to Dylan Klebold of Columbine, Colora- witness, that just became statistics. do. As some may trip the bully in front How often are we made into suicide of a large crowd, punch the bully while reports? There is an accountability in this war, he or she is not looking, or start a rumor How often did our wallets look like and it should be understood, that people to embarrass the bully, others in some guns? are going to break. Some of us can not cases have chosen to lose all hope. How often did our appearance seem handle the constraint, and its more im- Some have chosen to bring fully auto- suspicious? portant for some to strike back than it is matic weapons to school, and shoot the to continue to survive the heat. bully, and anyone who laughed at the The bullets of the police are made for bully’s shenanigans at their expense. us, and they will be used in any mo- If some dare to fight back (whether that ment where we try to stand up to them is individuals or communities) in any Of course we do not consider either or the system they protect. Realizing way, it is understood that they may be Columbine, the Williamsport, PA this, would anything other then a smirk killed by the cops, or stripped of their school shooting, or similar incidents of pleasure come onto our faces when livelihood by the justice system the as positive attacks on the current social we hear about this? Of course there are police represent. The police know as order. We also would like to add that less violent and more efficient ways to well, that some people are not cow- we do not support these acts, or under- prevent more arrests from being made, ards, and some will make it very clear stand why certain people were killed, and put a dent in the efficiency of the what side of the fence they stand on. and of course we do not like hearing police for a day or two (attacking po- Of course these exceptions, the Davids about teenagers dying or killing each lice communication and operation in- who try to take on the Goliath police other. But we do understand why they frastructure as opposed to the police forces of the world, will always be happened. We think that the scandal of bodies themselves). made out to sound like demons. Ap- violent ruptures in American schools, parently, anyone who shoots police, or takes a lot of the same forms of civilian For every dead cop, one of us is pro- really engages in any non-institutional defense against the police. Most peo- tected, one of us is avenged. For ev- violence against any facet of the current ple hate the police. Most people have ery dead officer, fear is driven into the social framework, will be destroyed by just adapted to them. The streets of the hearts of a thousand others, and for a the media presenting their case to the world are plagued with the formalized moment the tables are turned. world. No longer does this individual

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Cop Killer-Pg. 11 “There is an accountability in this war, and it should be understood, that people are going to break. Some of us can not handle the constraint, and its more important for some to strike back then it is to continue to survive the heat.” become an inspiration to youths and the deep-seeded resentment towards Maurice was killed by a cop, when he repressed people across the world to the police or prison system such an in- was pulled over for alledgedly driving stand up to the police. The individuals dividual would begin to experience. a stolen car following the incident. Be- become “Terrorists”, the communities fore Maurice was even found, he was become “Dangerous”, and our assump- After 11 years in prison, Maurice re- the scapegoat murderer of the 4 police tions and understanding all become turned to his home-state Washington officers, and wanted dead or alive. We routine. as a 27 year old man. In July 2001 managed to compile tons of news re- Maurice was convicted of another rob- ports about the situation and failed to Of course the individual was never act- bery case, and given 10 years in jail. find something mentioning that a gun ing in self-defense. The news informs He made bail 3 years later, on March was stolen from the scene of the crime. us that they were always acting in con- 18th 2004. The media has told us that In fact it seems relatively impracti- gruence with their own insanity. We it is believed that Maurice alledgedly cal to steal a gun from the scene of a want to say here that we will not bow committed other armed robberies since crime where one wounded officer is down to the sacredness the media fabri- his parole. They also throw in that he shooting at you. Its also obvious that cates for these dead cops. “may” have been drug smuggling. Of whomever it was who shot the four po- course on top of those unprovable ac- lice, had intended to get away from the We will have to be the exception, in our cusations, they don’t forget to throw in scene, making it seem relatively stupid support for the exceptions. that he was “talking crazy about god”, to have a firearm easily connecting you or thought “he’d been cursed by a devil- to the murder. But in the reports of the We are saddened by the death of “sus- worshipper”. What this has to do with officer who shot him, Maurice - appar pect” Maurice Clemmons; the man who murdering police; we have no idea, but ently had an odd wound visible on his killed 4 police in Lakewood, Washing- apparently its important information to stomach, and was armed with the hand ton this last November. We aren’t even throw in when discussing this man. Its gun of one of the officers. Interesting positive that this was the man who said that six months before the attack, that a man whose been in and out of jail committed the act. Maurice was killed Maurice was accused of “assaulting an for weapons charges would need to be before even being taken to trial or being officer” and “child rape”. As uncom- carrying a handgun from the scene of a heard from directly. fortable as it is to never have a conclu- crime he was alledgedly fleeing from. sion on the accusation of raping a child But as its reported, he fit the descrip- A little history about Maurice: (considering how vile we find the act), tion, and during a confrontation, Mau- Maurice is dead, and the accusation has rice was shot and killed by an officer Maurice was sentenced to 108 years in now become truth by the media, as it during a routine stop in the middle of Arkansas in 1989 when he was 16 years continues to demonize this dead man the night. old. His charges were aggravated as- who can only remain silent. sault, robbery, and firearms possession. We cannot imagine the high-fives and In 2000 he managed to get released 15 Its important that we add that Maurice vacation time the officer received for years before his original parole date of was out on bail, because his friends and killing Maurice. We imagine every of- 2015. Maurice claimed during parole family collectively put up the bond on ficer in the North West was hoping for hearings that his “crimes” from when his 150,000 dollar bail, and although the same opportunity to kill him. It he was 16 were motivated by a need to he was apparently an awful man, there didn’t end there though. Killing Mau- survive both logistically and socially were people that cared about him. Al- rice was not enough for the police, it in his high-crime neighborhood in Ar- though we also have no faith in trials, was time to get his family and friends kansas after moving there from Seattle we do find it interesting that they are so too. Darcus Allen who served time when he was a teenager. Not to men- important to the spectacle of American with Maurice in Arkansas, was accused tion that he was 16 years old, and more “integrity, justice, and freedom”, but of driving Maurice to and from the inci- or less given life for crimes where no- when cops are shot, there is no need for dent in Lakewood. Prosecution against body was even killed, we can’t imagine them. Darcus states that he was questioned

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Cop Killer-Pg. 12 following Maurice’s death, Maurice is not an isolat- and denied having a relation- PICTURE BELOW: ed incident. The month ship with Maurice for some One of the Police cars Christopher Monfort is accused of destroying. prior in Seattle had some time. Although his original frightening moments for statement was this, and he the local police. On Oc- continues to claim inno- tober 22nd, the same day cence, following his arrest, of a local anti-police bru- its now stated (following tality march in Seattle, police custody) that Darcus three police cars were set admits to driving Maurice ablaze. It was said that to the scene, but was forced a six foot man wearing a into helping Maurice. He is back pack was seen run- currently being held without ning from the three cars. bail. Five other people have Following this incident, also been accused of aiding on October 31st, veteran Maurice, most of whom are officer Timothy Brenton relatives. Although Darcus was killed in a drive by was denied bail, some rela- shooting. At the scene tives accused of providing of his death, pamphlets Maurice with assistance were left citing a recent have been released out on beating of a fifteen year bail fees ranging up to five- old black girl by two hundred thousand dollars. white officers in a Seattle jail cell. The incident the We don’t know if it was pamphlets are referring to Maurice who killed those is when two officers, Paul four police, or if the five Schene and Travis Brun- people accused of helping ner were escorting a 15 Maurice did either. All that year old black girl to her we have are the statements holding cell. In response of the police and the media. to the teenager kicking We understand that Mau- her shoe off at them when rice, although painted as a they got her inside, the scoundrel of a human be- two officers punched her ing by the media, clearly in the face, then threw had friends and family who her against the concrete cared for him. If friends and family neighbors accounts of Maurice’s living wall, then onto the floor. One officer were not only willing to have bailed situation be true, when one neighbor proceeded to punch her in the back of him out of jail and been there for him mentions the consistent police intimi- the head three times while the other of- his whole life, and the state is correct dation on Maurice by the local depart- ficer held her on the cement floor. She that his friends and family were there ment? Saying that undercover police was then handcuffed her, had her face to help him, allegedly being aware of were outside his house watching and smashed her face into the floor, fol- the repercussions, he clearly had peo- following him everyday, being so ob- lowed by being picked up and dragged ple who unconditionally cared for him. vious about it that the neighborhood out of the cell by her hair, The incident Were they also demons? just accepted it as routine. Could his was caught on camera, and since the ar- surveillance cameras have been out of rest, the “rookie” officer was sentenced It is unclear what motivated this act. If a fear that the police were going to at- to 5 days unpaid suspension, while the it was Maurice though, was it an act of tack him one day? We will never know other officer faces fourth-degree as- insanity? Or was it an act of revenge the answers to these questions. But it is sault. We have seen this video, and for years of police abuse and torment, important for us to shatter the fear we could respond with nothing but tears in prison and on the streets? Could it have to ask them. Its important for us to and anger ourselves. have been that he was sentenced to 108 go beyond the reactionary understand- years at the age of sixteen by a 1980s ing were taught to have on violence Since the drive-by shooting, one man southern jury? Could it have been the against the police. When understand- was quickly made suspect when he guards he encountered as a black teen- ing the cop-killer he allegedly was, it was arrested for threatening an officer ager and man during his 11 year prison seems like these questions should also following the incident. That man was term in an Arkansas prison? Could the be part of the equation. released on 30,000 dollar bond. Fol-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Cop Killer-Pg. 13 lowing this original scapegoat, Seattle police cars? Could it have been wit- the line of duty. Since writing this ar- police questioned a man named Chris- nessing the beating of a fifteen year old ticle, one man tried to add one more to topher Monfort. While questioning as we described earlier? Was Chris- the list. Christopher, police say he tried pull- topher maybe fed up with the bureau- ing a gun out on them, and in turn they cracy and deception of trying to pur- Raymond Martinez, a young New shot him in the head. It is not cited in sue a career in being a “lawyer of the Yorker died while trying to flee police original reports, following his arrest, people”? Whatever it was, this or that, in Times Sq. on Thursday, December but it now says that pamphlets threat- whether or not he did it, these are the 10th, 2009. He was a rap artist who ening police and citing prior incidents questions we choose to ask. sold CDs on the street in Times Sq., of police abuse like the 15 year old girl, New York City. When two undercover were also left at the arson on police ve- Christopher is currently on trial for police approached him for selling his hicles prior to the murder of Timothy murder and arson. Although he still CDs on the street without a Vendor’s Brenton. claims innocence, as a result of the bul- permit, he chose to run instead of go- let to the head, he is paralyzed from the ing to jail. After running a few blocks, Christopher, who is half black and half waist down. in the parking lot of the Marquis hotel, white man, living in a notori- Raymond pulled out a Mac- ously racially segregated city 10 semi-automatic pistol. He like Seattle, was someone fired two shots and the gun dedicated to confronting “ju- jammed. The bullets broke dicial racism”. He took the 2 store windows, but didn’t “justice program” at the com- IS THIS hit either of the police chas- munity college he attended, ing Raymond. Although his although this class has been gun jammed, the officers known to educate many fu- continued to fire, wound- ture cops, it was understood ing his arm, and killing him by people that his intention with a shot to the stomach. with the class was not to When the officers ran over help create his career as a to his dying body, Raymond police officer, but to “make a continued to struggle, and change in society.” Monfort NOT continues to try and resist the ended up graduating from the officers. At this point, Ray- University of Washington in mond’s brother ran up to the 2008, with a degree in “Law, REVENGE? officer to hold his murdered societies, and justice”. Fol- brother. Raymond’s brother lowing his education, he ap- was arrested as well, but was plied for a minority-scholars program. Like Maurice, Christopher chose to released shortly after due to there being For years, Christopher Monfort was attack the police. In both cases they no charges. According to mainstream active in trying to create a career for were shot by police before being able papers Raymond’s brother chose only himself as someone fighting the system to make a statement. We do not know to comment on his hatred for the po- from the inside. Something all frustrat- the truth about whether or not either of lice and pain over his brother’s death. ed youth are told to do. them had anything to do with the acts. Following reports include a statement Although the officers who shot Mon- We do understand the acts though, and from NYPD commissioner Raymond fort in the head claim they found the choose to draw more unique questions Kelly stating that they found a business firearms used in the killing of the officer from them. card in the wallet of Raymond with a in Monfort’s house, as well as booby hand-written message that said: “I pity traps and explosives in his kitchen, and Will we just accept these acts as iso- the cop that tries to put me in his paddy- the car used in the scene of the killed lated situations of insanity? Or will we wagon”. officer’s death; we do not know if this ask ourselves this: why would anyone is all true. We can never know. But if it want to attack the police? More impor- Since the shooting, street peddlers have were true, we choose to ask ourselves, tantly, why would anyone want to, for been coming together. The police have why would someone do this? once, be on the offensive? always represented starvation for them and those who rely on them, as street Could discrimination by police for Unfortunately its hard to read about vendors in New York run the risk of being half-black his whole life have all the attacks on the police that occur. losing all of their merchandise to the driven him to want to help blacks in the Since 1792, when the first American police at any moment. The police have American justice system, or brought police force was created, something always tormented them, bribed them, him to kill an officer and blow up some like 19,000 police have been killed in and pushed them off the streets, hop-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Cop Killer-Pg. 14 ing to clear the way for a more visu- The social geography of our global Sometimes they have to sacrifice offi- ally comfortable place like Times Sq. era has come about through the same cers to deceive us into believing in their or Soho, two places that act as a cross- conduct, because the social order of justice. roads for the international wealthy and our global era is maintained by the elite. For Raymond Martinez, enough police and militaries of the world. If Lets of course remember Roger Maga- was clearly enough. agitation is something that we look to na, an officer in Lane County, Oregon. generalize, the implication of these ran- An officer who the police had to sacri- In the cases of those like Lovelle dom outbursts should suggest nothing fice in 2004 when a serial rapist inves- Mixon, Andres Raya, (a 19 year old but excitement. We should be looking tigation led police back to themselves. ex-marine who shot 2 police officers, out for the families of these individu- From 1997 to 2003 officer Roger killing one and wounding the other, fol- als, and comforting them, letting them Magana would cruise Lane County, lowing his return from his time served know that they are not alone. Provid- Oregon looking for prostitutes to sexu- as a Marine in Iraq. The incident came ing financial aid and legal support, and ally coerce. Demanding blow jobs and after he also broke into a school, burn- screaming over the voice of the media, sex in exchange for not arresting them. ing American flags and spray-painting to prevent further demonization. If they didn’t respond to his threats “Fuck Bush” throughout the building. of arrest he would pull out a gun and After his original shoot out with two Its sad to know that the police will threaten to kill the women if they didn’t officers, he went on the run. While fu- shatter any solidarity among the street respond to his requests. gitive, he was shot 18 times during a peddlers. We know that they will tor- confrontation with police, who were ment and raid all of their stands to de- Throughout his police career, multiple conducting a stake out with the inten- monize Raymond’s memory. To create woman contacted the police to com- tion to find him.) Christopher Monfort, more division between struggling street plain about being raped or threatened. or Maurice Clemmons, the frustration vendors, and help to further mediate One woman who called the police on was too strong, and the consequences and maintain a normal market place officer Magana was ignored by the were worth sacrificing for the moment for tourism and the wealthy. It’s the Lieutenant at the time, Pete Kerns - of attempted revenge. In a society that responsibility of the active minority of she claimed. We’re assuming she was tolerates only the institutional forms of revolutionary minded folks to be there ignored because of her assumed occu- intolerant behavior, not allowing our- to shatter such harassment and make pation: prostitution. The case became selves to feel joy or empathy when we sure that his memory is not demon- too scandalous to be ignored, and after hear of this type of self-defense (that is ized. It is also their responsibility to six years, Magana was put on trial and violence against the police) is simply ensure that people realize that it is not convicted of 52 counts of rape and ha- preserving the normalcy of their brutal Raymond fining, arresting, or harassing rassment. existence. How could revolutionaries them - it’s the police and the state that ignore this pattern, the unique ones who produces them. Since then, the officer who ignored the have had the courage to break away original complaints of Magana’s polic- from the acceptance of state control? When someone is killed by the po- ing has been promoted to the police How could we savor even the thought lice, due to the institutional power that chief of the Lane County police de- of mourning for these police officers? comes with the uniform, “it is never partment. Magana somehow became Such a concern should bring nothing the fault of the state”. All responsibility the exception, but just like all the ex- but a vile taste in our mouths. Is this is projected onto the individual killed ceptions were told to look at when ac- not revenge? for violating a pre-determined social cepting the validity of the police and contract were all forced to sign from the justice they protect, imagine all the Revolutionaries must be responsible birth. That is to follow the law, accept woman who have been ignored. Imag- for assuming the role of not mourning your conditions, and survive. Anyone ine having a gun pointed at your head the police, but defending the memory that breaches this social contract is sim- and forced to give a police officer a and recognition of the individuals ply suicidal in the eyes of the state or blow job so you won’t be arrested or who choose to go out, instead of stand media. We are taught to see the bul- killed. Imagine how often this happens down. In all cases, the police represent let as self-inflicted by the law-breaker, and we don’t hear about it. Imagine all common frustrations we all feel. In all because the police are not people, they the kick backs and blow jobs the poor cases, the actions they conducted are are the material presence of the abstrac- and struggling are forced to give as they things many dream of, if not every motion known as law. There are the ex- try to survive off the scraps of the mar- ment, as soon they come face to face ceptions, as we mentioned earlier, like ket place the police protect and force with the backseat of a cop car, or the when the police murder and it is caught us to survive in. The police are there coldness of a jail cell. The institutional on tape. Or when the cops get sloppy to protect this market place, to mediate power that police or the military hold and the story is just too scandalous, the relations of it, and preserve its per- has only been able to exist through when it becomes too obvious to the manence. Prostitutes, street peddlers, generations of murder and repression. public as to who the police represent. convicts, or just discontent people are Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Cop Killer-Pg. 15 the enemy of police, because they own to further deceive us into ap- are the enemy of the state and the preciating their justice, we will be market place it protects. Revolu- a voice for ourselves, our friends, tionaries are also the enemy of the and our loved ones reminding each police, because they look to pro- other that this is what the police If our goals duce agitation against the social do, not one officer. It is a mani- are to framework the police are respon- festation of their entire reason for generalize sible for preserving. A solidarity existing: to coerce us into accept- can be found in this. ing them, and what supports and resistance and condones them, capitalist society. frustration It is important to shatter the morality and sacredness of these If our goals are to generalize resis- with the situations, and provide a light of tance and frustration with the com- common support for the underdog. Revo- mon conditions we face in our ev- conditions we lutionary communities should be eryday lives, revolutionaries must listening to these complaints, look- be an active voice of support for face in our ing for an opportunity to foster the attacks on the police. We need to everyday lives, frustration. The attacks mentioned be there asking different questions, here, as well as the attacks never sharing different feelings, and pro- revolutionaries reported on, are ruptures in the so- viding support for the individuals must be an cial framework of a policed soci- convicted or killed for attacking active voice ety, and are as wide-spread as the the police, or those affected by as- police. It’s important to recognize sociation. We should be fostering of support the conditions that provoke each memories of the demonized, and for attacks on rupture and be there to formally the so called murderers. “Folk he- connect them as not isolated inci- roes not murderers” may be a good the police. dents, but something that naturally start. The media and the justice generalizes before a similar repres- system can not conclude these in- sion. cidents as another story in history. We must preserve each moment of We need to be there so people like attack on the social order, and en- Maurice, Christopher, and Ray- courage others to understand them mond receive the support they de- from a different point of view. serve. We need to be there so when the police sacrifice one of their

We can not succumb to the morality of our op- pressors. The fight against the state is not pretty. To take on a society built by systematic or mili- taristic violence, there will have to be a violent force that grows just as rapidly as our mass misery before our everyday life conditions.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Cop Killer-Pg. 16 WE’LL GET WHAT WE CAN TAKE

A brief chronology of recent events in the California Student-Worker Movement.

ow does one chron- Mass layoffs of workers, increased icle a struggle? To student fees, and larger class sizes “And we have yet to locate the precise are just some of the more egregious invent confluence of events steps that the UC governing body in- Anything so pure as the that form a “move- tends to push though. guillotine, an instrument ment”, to force into In rapid succession, hurriedly cre- Hlinearity the collective memory of ated collectives of students, profes- Known also as the little window. But what shall masses of disparate experiences, all sors and union activists mobilize We hope to see there? of this obscures the power of what in protest. UPTE, the largest union The marriage of the really happened. It highlights the eu- at UC, calls for a one-day strike on beautiful phoria of success at the expense of September 24th and other groups And the trivial? That the the greater lessons taught by failure. rush to organize around this date. sky finally Events, complicated with contradic- In late September, as thousands of tion, resist analysis and struggle to students and university workers pre- Emptied of clouds must affirm themselves purely, quite apart pare for a state-wide walkout, a new now say a new thing?” from merely political concerns. A text emerges, Communiqué from an movement is more than the sum of Absent Future, written by an anony- -A Participant in the its parts. But is there something con- mous group calling itself “Research California Events[1] crete to speak of? The emergence of and Destroy”. Inspired by the stu- a student movement?. Such things dent occupations at the New School satisfy no one at this point... for Social Research which occurred earlier in the year, they argue that In the weeks ahead of the start of the the crisis of education is deeper than 2009-2010 school year, the Board of merely that of preserving a privi- Regents of the University of Cali- leged student-hood. The university, fornia announces a wave of austerity as a crucial site of domination, must measures, ostensibly in response to be undermined and its functions the economic crisis in California and blocked if its struggles are to have the looming state budget shortfall. any lasting meaning. “A free univer-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Get What We Can Take-Pg. 17 sity in the midst of a capitalist society struggle to have an immediate occupa- is like the reading room of a prison,” THE SPECTER APPEARS. tion of the space put up for a vote. Ex- it states, in opposition to the traditional ternal doors are left open for those who liberal ideal of an educational oasis free Meanwhile, 60 miles to the North, at wish to leave. from the repressive contradictions of UC Berkeley, a much different out- At that moment Ricardo Gomez, a society. come would emerge from a more am- leader of the liberally-oriented on-cam- Clearly placing itself within the larger bitious occupation attempt. An ongoing pus political party CALSERVE, rushed movement against the privatization of General Assembly, which had begun to to the stage to denounce the occupation higher education but going beyond the take shape over the weeks ahead of the as “undemocratic”. As a later statement paltry demands of the upcoming of- walk-out, announces a campus-wide about the events observed, what did un- ficial mobilization, they advise that as meeting . Created amid hopes that a dermine the power of the room was in students and workers new movement might accomplish com- fact plicated decision making free of the “we must act on our own behalf direct- standard politicking that pocks most “the proceduralism of the leadership [of ly, without mediation. We must break student campaigns, its qualities start to the GA] which refused to respect the with any groups that seek to limit the rapidly deteriorate. Internal leadership will of the people present. Gomez knew struggle by telling us to go back to work is quickly co-opted by internal factions what he was doing: he was consciously or class, to negotiate, to reconcile”[2]. and student political parties twisting destroying the radical energy of the the process to their own political ends. people gathered there. Rather than call- Immediately, students across California Many participants abandon the pro- ing a vote on occupation, he pushed the begin to buzz with the thought of fur- cess as hopelessly recuperated, more gullible to tears by insinuating that they ther escalation beyond that of a simple interested in forming endless commit- had been taken hostage when this was walk out. tees and voting on every possible sce- not the case. This was a disgusting and On September 24th, tens of thousands nario for what to do next time rather despicable case of the worst form of students walk out of classes across the than emphasizing what students can do opportunism, the effects of which are UC system in defiance to the proposed now, in the moment, in a self-organized only beginning to be felt.”[4] austerity measures. Within this context fashion. In spite of internal criticism, a some participants see an opportunity to massive meeting of the GA is convened Sixty minutes later, three UC police push harder. in Wheeler Hall, a UC Berkeley audi- officers were freely allowed to walk At UC Santa Cruz, a group splits off torium. Some participants, undoubt- in and cut the locks on the doors. The from the campus march and seizes the edly inspired by news of the recent potential for a radical outburst seemed Graduate Student Commons. Fences Santa Cruz occupation read the newly increasingly unlikely even as the oc- are ripped from the ground and dump- released communique over the micro- cupation by students to the south was sters overturned to block possible po- phone to the growing body. moving swimmingly along. lice movements. The occupiers block Chants of “Occupy, Occupy!” re- Over the next seven days the UC the entrances of the building with over- verberate throughout the auditorium Santa Cruz administration hesitates to turned tables, trip the elevators and at- in response. Feeling that the window send in the police and for the whole tach cable locks to all the doors. Setting for direct action is quickly presenting week, nightly dance parties rock from up a website, they post a communique itself, some of those present rush to the balcony, attracting hundreds of stu- which rapidly spreads across the state: lock down the doors, while those inside dents from across campus. The copy machines are expro- “As undergradu- priated and used to ates, graduate stu- “we must act on our own pump out a steady dents, faculty, and stream of insurrec- staff, we call on ev- behalf directly, without me- tionary literature eryone at the UC to thrown to the grow- support this occu- diation. We must break with ing crowds outside. pation by continu- Initially, the students ing the walkouts inside hope that their and strikes into any groups that seek to limit provocation would tomorrow, the next move other students day, and for the in- the struggle by telling us to and workers on cam- definite future. We pus to seize more call on the people go back to work or class, to university property of California to but this strategy occupy and esca- negotiate, to reconcile”[2]. proves a little pre- late.”[3] mature. Eventually,

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Get What We Can Take-Pg. 18 seeing the opportunity to leave with- Skype conference calls and exchange Campbell Hall, renaming it Carter- out being arrested and identified, they messages sharing tactics and discuss- Huggins Hall, after two Black Panthers abandon the occupation. ing strategy, such as the political nature assassinated there in 1969. They hold Over the next two months, partici- of demands and how to coordinate in the space until the evening, releasing a pants in both occupations reevaluated the future. statement declaring: their strategies, attempting to locate On October 24th, a mass conference how and why both experiences came up gathers in Berkeley to plan a state-wide “We will ask nothing. We will demand short. At Berkeley, a slightly less am- strategy to fight the budget cuts. Many nothing. We will take, we will occupy. bitious strategy of direct action would attendees leave unsatisfied as the usual We have to learn not to tip toe through be employed to build up excitement. sects of student politicians dominate a space which ought by right to belong Called “soft occupations” by some, a the proceedings; but throughout the to everyone.”[5] term which seems slightly unfortunate, students hold At Berkeley, after a rally a series of library “study- “We will ask nothing. in Sproul Plaza organized ins”, sleeping overnight in by the official student the Anthropology library, We will demand noth- leadership, a thousand an important student re- students march around source on campus that ing. We will take, we the city of Berkeley. As had recently had its hours the march arrives back on significantly reduced due will occupy. We have campus, a ring of bodies to cut backs. Once again, forms around California administrators hesitate Hall, the main campus ad- to send police in and stu- to learn not to tip toe ministration building. Im- dents are able to hold the mediately a small group space through the night through a space which of masked individuals before leaving willingly begin to crowd around the next morning. Though ought by right to be- the entrance, attempt- not technically an occupa- ing to force their way in. tion, as administrators and The two police officers police were allowed to long to everyone.”[5] stationed outside seem enter the space, for some overwhelmed and un- of those present this provides them day, hundreds of students pushing for sure of how to handle the situation. A their first experience in participating a more conflictual approach are able small projectile is thrown at the door as in an illegal tactic and proves to be a to network and coordinate actions for some administrators struggle to enter substantial boost to what they consider the next months. Shortly after the con- the building,. Eventually the cops pull possible. Meanwhile, a rapidly differ- ference, a separate Berkeley student back inside and block the doors. At this ent struggle, 5000 miles away, would group, the Solidarity Alliance, puts out point, official representatives of - stu have a considerable impact on how the a call for a three day strike beginning dent groups, upset that their control of movement viewed itself. on November 18th, the day of the Re- the situation is rapidly escaping them, gents meeting, at which the proposed direct the crowd to sit down and vote THE ACADEMY OF REFUSAL cuts are expected to be passed. Once on proposals. Many of those present again, buzz builds around the capacity react violently to this idea and chant In Vienna, Austria, striking students of for conflict. for the crowd to “tear down the fuck- the Academy of Fine Arts march tri- On Wednesday, November 18th, the ing door”. One demonstrator grabs the umphantly into an auditorium by the student strike spawns occupations, megaphone from the hands of a student thousands and declare it occupied, re- walk outs and mass demonstrations activist and attempts to rally the crowd naming it the “Academy of Refusal”. across the state. Occupation of stu- into doing “what working people have Among their first publically released dent and administrative spaces occur always done to win struggles, to make statements is a gesture of solidarity to at multiple schools. At UC Davis, rich people afraid of you!” Elements of the student struggle in California. Sud- an occupation of Mrak Hall results in the crowd rush back to the door but the denly, what had seemed to be merely the arrest of 52 students, shortly after moderators of the meeting have already a California-centric education move- their release they march back and re- succeeded in deescalating the energy. ment had become a global student oc- occupy the same building. At UCLA, A statement put out four days later de- cupation movement. The relationship as five thousand students rally outside scribes the way the student leadership between Austria and California contin- the Regents meeting and interrupt the intentionally re-routed the momentum ued to be mutually supportive as fac- proceedings inside with shouts and of the moment to avoid a situation they tions from the struggles hold extended civil disobedience, a group occupies couldn’t control:

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Get What We Can Take-Pg. 19 Berkeley City jail and booked on felo- riot outside Wheeler Hall, they are pre- “They [activists] forever need to stand ny burglary charges,. But the majority vented from doing so. As tensions con- on the edge of the reality that some- of the occupiers rush to the upper floors tinue to run high, and the pouring rain thing could pop off, because it is in that and sealed off the entrances, locking dampens spirits, the police are forced to possibility that they can control the sit- themselves in securely with u-locks, only cite and release the occupiers after uation and ensure that things do, in fact, chains and a blockade of metal chairs. the SWAT team moves in and breaks move in their way towards nowhere. They hold the space for nearly 18 hours through the barricades. A opinion piece When things get hot, the self-elected of as a a crowd of thousands slowly grows released the next day demonstrates the the student movement are waiting with outside. threat posed by the defensive crowd their trusty fire extinguishers ready in Throughout the day several masked outside: hand because they know that when peo- occupiers appear in a window and read ple act on their own and valorize their their demands to the students outside “Students who, by all outward appear- self-interest, their authority crumbles who throw food and water to their ance, could have been members of and everyone can see how bankrupt friends. They demand amnesty for all sororities or fraternities, demanded to their strategy of social containment those arrested throughout the strike. know where bodies were most needed actually is. The student activist stutter- They also demand the reinstatement of to maintain a strong and impermeable steps on the path of nothingness.”[6] recently fired custodians and the end to perimeter. Let this be clear: if the stu- the eviction of a student housing co- dents were arrested and carried out, But farther away on campus, another operative. there was going to be a fight. A riot? occupation is attempted. Thirty people The Berkeley administration, sensing Perhaps (this much depended on the rush into the offices of Capital -Proj that events are getting out of hand, call police). A fight? Mos def.”[7] ects, the university investment office, in Oakland police and Alameda Sheriffs and try to blockade themselves inside. who form a perimeter around Wheeler. Meanwhile, at UC Santa Cruz, hun- The vice-chancellor of Finance, pos- In defense a three deep line of support- dreds occupy Kresge Town Hall, and sibly the most hated administrator on ers rings the police line. A pouring rain vote to take another building. Without campus, locks himself in his office and begins to fall but the crowds continue to knowing their destination they begin calls the police who are able to force grow an eventually the police attempt to march in an effort to locate the best themselves inside before the students to push back the crowds to deescalate, possible target. Amazingly, the crowd can fully blockade the doors. They but to no avail, the students stand their manages to force its way into Kerr are cited and released. Once again, an ground, convinced that if they maintain Hall, the main administration building. ambitious occupation at Berkeley has a constant presence the administration For the first time in the movement, the failed. But during the hour long event will be forced to allow the occupiers to tactic of occupation is become expand- a substantial crowd of supporters gath- leave on their own terms. ed to that of taking over multiple build- ers outside and heartened by a such a Fire alarms are pulled in the surround- ings. At Kerr Hall, students take over strong base of support some elements, ing buildings, forcing thousands of the Chancellor’s office and rummage left unsatisfied with the recent turn of students to abandon classes and join through his refrigerator, eating his food events, sense this as a major develop- the crowd. At some point, interactions and watching footage from the recent ment and call a meeting to propose one between the two sides becomes violent Greek riots on the chancellor’s enter- last-ditch effort for a building occupa- with cops pushing through the crowd tainment system. They hold the space tion, one which would ultimately be- to get police vans into place for a raid. for several days and eventually force come the most combative action in the One graduate student has her hand bro- the administration to enter into nego- short history of the movement. ken by a police baton, requiring recon- tiations to allow them to leave without structive surgery. As one particularly being arrested. THE TAKING large cop beats back a group of dem- OF WHEELER HALL onstrators, one student is seen taking THE AFTERMATH OF a protest sign and beating the heads of NOVEMBER 20TH Early in the morning on November several riot police with its long wooden 20th, two days after the failed attempt handle before they push him back and Across the state, November 20th con- to occupy Capital Projects, 41 students beat him down. Other students rush to tinues to be the high point of events, but surreptitiously gain access to Wheeler his defense and pull him out of the way, this by no means fully eclipses the stern Hall a massive classroom building on allowing him to escape. After nego- student response that appears through- the Berkeley campus. One hour later, tiations with the occupiers break down out the Bay Area over the next month. as three people are reportedly push- due to their unrelenting stance on hav- During the last week of school being over vending machines to block ing their demands met, the administra- fore finals, known as “Dead Week” on ground-level doors, a group of cam- tion plans to have the police forcibly Berkeley campus because most classes pus police move in and trap them in a go in and then book them in County are given a break so that students may hallway. They are immediately taken to Jail, but due to the continued threat of a study for the upcoming exams, a sepa-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Get What We Can Take-Pg. 20 rate group retakes Wheeler Hall and breaking their earlier promise that they declares it an “Open University.” Po- would allowed to continue the study-in. WE ARE THE CRISIS lice and Administration agree to let Some are not allowed to put on their them stay through the end of the week. clothes and are loaded into awaiting California, the world’s fifth largest Poetry readings, teach-ins on the class police buses in their underwear. They economy, increasingly finds itself in a composition of the university system are released 12 hours later but charges deeper crisis, even beyond that of the and dance parties are held every night. are later dropped. general financial crisis now plaguing Two days later, on December 12th, The next night, outraged by the ar- global markets. Along with this will students occupy the Business Admin- rests, a torch-bearing crowd marches come further austerity, further repres- istration building at San Francisco on the Chancellor’s mansion, break- sion and further reconstruction of Capi- State and rename it Oscar Grant Hall, ing his windows, smashing planters, tal. California can be seen as a labora- after the the young black male shot in and hurling the torches at approach- tory of capitalism, experimenting with the back by police on New Years Day ing police vehicles. 8 bystanders are economic and political measures which 2009. Huge, interlocking piles of metal cornered and arrested by police and will soon become common place across chairs are seen stacked in front of the charged with felony attempted arson, the US as other states experience budget doors. Due once again to a quick mo- burglary, and assault. As they are be- crises. Public services will be among bilization of support outside, the occu- ing held on $132,000 bail, governor those first to be cut, and the opportunity piers are able to hold it for nearly 24 Schwarzenegger releases a statement this provides us now is to experiment hours. A series of small general assem- denouncing them as “terrorists” . with modes of refusal which also have blies spontaneously meet at entrances Once again, a post-action communique the potential to be employed by those around the building, discussing how to would emerge, placing the action in the resiting such austerity. mobilize defense. But by now police context of the larger student occupation While those of a leftist orientation forces have already learned the lessons movement: would like to think of this nascent of November 20th. Correctly anticipat- movement as the first reaction by the ing that a militarized stand-off with a “As students, we are supposed to be Left to the global economic crisis, to large crowd of students would result the embodiment of society producing look further one can recognize that in a riot, officers from the San - Fran its own future, but this society has no much of what has occurred has also cisco Police break through a ground future; there will be no “return to nor- been a reaction the response of the Left. floor window at 1 AM, when most of mal” and we must find ways to inhabit As students and workers across the state the outside supporting crowd had gone this reality. From Berkeley to Greece notice the vapidity and impotence of home for the night, and arrest the 28 in- and back around the other side, we are the official student, union and political side along with a small group of outside in civil war. This is the basis of mod- effort, self-directed activity has instead supporters who refuse to move out of ern life, and it is high time we illumi- begun to show what people are capable the way. Moving just as swiftly, sup- nate this fact for any who remain con- of once they abandon traditionally ac- porters of the occupation learn from a fused.”[8] cepted forms of protest and organize on similar tactic that had been seen at UC a more conflictual basis. Santa Cruz in Berkeley, that of physically blocking After being held for four days and hav- particular has been exemplary in this police vans by anticipating their posing their faces paraded on the local regard, even as some radical elements sible movements. For nearly an hour news, county prosecutors acknowledge have struggled to emerge from the re- a small crowd gathers in the street im- they have no specific evidence against pressive control of the official student mediately outside the campus leading those arrested and release the 8 to their movement, such as that at Berkeley to the police station. Later, a police supporters. and UCLA. Any future radical strategy captain would admit to a local news Following all of these actions across will need to contain these recuperative channel that they were indeed unable a time line, it is remarkable to notice factions and should strive to mobilize to get the police vehicles through the the natural escalation of tactics which students to act autonomously to dem- street blockade and were forced to happens after every action. What is onstrate the power of converging across wait out the crowd and hope that the unacceptable, even deemed “undemo- a set of shared conditions. tension would diffuse. Fortunately for cratic,” one week is suddenly common To go further, also to be abandoned is them, the crowd quickly lost steam and practice the next. From walkouts, to sit- the idea of the student as a distinct soci- the police vehicles were able to speed ins, to occupations, to property destruc- ological category and instead recognize through, leading one to imagine what tion, the genealogy of the movement is the interplay of identity that forms the would have occurred had the crowd perfectly demonstrative of how an ac- being of the student. 51% of Americans stood its ground and kept growing. tive minority of participants, acting not are former or current college students. One day later, the students gathered as a vanguard but as a material force, What must be avoided is not necessarily in the “open university” at Wheeler and pushing constantly harder, can student struggles themselves but rather Hall are awoken at 5 AM and arrested have an overwhelming effect on the in- the tendency of student-led movements by campus police, not surprisingly, creasingly radical nature of a struggle. to either directly or implicitly demand

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Get What We Can Take-Pg. 21 the protection or furtherance of a privi- To return to the Communique from FOOT NOTES leged student-hood. an Absent Future, a text to which this But just as California can be seen as a movement seems fortunately tethered: [1]Joshua Clover, The Totality for laboratory of struggle so it can also be Kids, 2007, UC Press seen as a laboratory of repression. As “the fact that today the economic crisis [2]Communique From an Absent the tactics and strategies of the student precedes the coming political uprising Future, Research and Destroy, ht- movement evolve so will those of the means we may finally supersede the wewanteverything.wordpress. police forces. What worked on Novem- co-optation and neutralization of past com/2009/09/24/communique-from- ber 20th in Berkeley as a mode of de- struggles”.[9] an-absent-future fense failed two weeks later at SF State [3]UCSC GSC Occupation Com- when police avoided the possibility of To either resign munique, www.occupyca.wordpress. day-long street conflict by moving in com/2009/09/24/occupy-california/ at night when most supporters and by- ourselves to defeat [4]“UC ‘Student’ Leaders Sabo- standers had left. Any evolution of tac- for fear of recu- tage Occupation of Wheeler tics will need to have a serious evalu- Hall”, www.indybay.org/news- ation of the strengths and weaknesses peration or hope items/2009/09/25/18623229.php of occupation and expand its arsenal to for the best in spite [5]UCLA Student Occupation Com- include that of the whole campus. To munique, www.uclaresists.blogspot. take the 1968 San Francisco Student of our failures will com/2009/11/communique-from-ucla- Strike as an example, students shut toll the death knell occupation.html down the campus for five and a half [6]The Bricks We Throw at Police To- months, resisting police attacks nearly of this new move- day Will Build the Liberation Schools every day. Does limiting the arsenal of ment; we can only of Tomorrow, included in this issue the movement to the tactic of occupa- [7]Behind the Privatization of UC: a tion impede its ability to adapt? What continue to scour Line of Riot Cops, George Ciccariello- other modes of refusal can participants the terrain for its Maher, www.counterpunch.org/ma- employ that have the capacity to gener- her11242009.html alize? These are just some of the many wider possibilities [8]A Torchlit Evening with Birge- prescient concerns as we enter the com- and new weapons. neau, www.indybay.org/news- ing semester. items/2009/12/12/18632362.php [9]Research & Destroy, op.cit.

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Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Get What We Can Take-Pg. 22 THE BRICKS WE THROW AT POLICE TODAY WILL BUILD THE LIBERATION SCHOOLS OF TOMORROW “If you’re scared today you'll be scared tomorrow as well and always and so you've got to make a start now right away we must show that in this school we aren't slaves we have to do it so we can do what they're doing in all other schools to show that we're the ones to decide because the school is ours.” -The Unseen, Nanni Balestrini

ays later, voices in uni- they could enliven the mandatory curricu- son still ring in our ears. lum in their repetitive 101 class, to the ser- “Who’s university?” At vice workers who can’t wait for their shift night in bed, we mumble to end, and to every other wage-earner on the reply to ourselves campus ensuring the daily functioning of in our dreams. “Our the school. NOTE Duniversity!” And in the midst of building occupations and the festive and fierce Last week, the actualization of our com- The following article skirmishes with the police, concepts like munal will gave us a new clarity. The was written by three belonging and ownership take the oppor- usual divisiveness of proprietorship was participants in the tunity to assume a wholly new character. forcefully challenged; cascades of hid- events mentioned in Only the village idiot or, the modern equiv- den meaning rush onto rigid notions of “We’ll Get What We alent, a bureaucrat in the university admin- possession and our eyes look past surface Can Take”. The ar- istration would think we were screaming appearances. So now when asked, “who ticle presents critiques about something as suffocating as property does the university belong to?” we can’t and ideas of and rights when last week we announced, “The fail to recognize that the college itself was around the UC Work- School is Ours!” When the day erupted, built by labor from generations past, the er-Student movement, when the escape plan from the drudgery notebook paper is produced by workers that stem from direct of college life was hatched, it was clear to in South America, the campus computers experiences. It was everyone that the university not only be- are the output of work in Chinese facto- was written only a longed to the students who were forcefully ries, the food in the student cafe is touched week after the last oc- reasserting their claim but also to the fac- by innumerable hands before it reaches the cupation was evicted. ulty, to every professor and TA who wishes plates, and all the furniture at UC Berke-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-The Bricks We Throw Today-Pg. 23 ley is produced by the incarcerated at therefore exploitation. It is human ac- want of the power structure is their San Quentin. Thus the university, its tivity animated for the sake of capital ascent to the top of it. By actively col- normal operation and existence, ought not for humanity itself. The condition- laborating with the administration and to be attributed to far more than it ing and preparation of students for a life police, by orchestrating arrests, by frit- regularly is. To claim that the school is crushed by regimented value creation is tering away the momentum of the an- ours requires our definition of owner- the essential purpose of the college: to gry, they validate the insults we flung at ship to not only shatter the repressive teach the young how to give and take them and they revealed themselves for myth that the college belongs to the orders. Nothing about the university is the “student cops,” “class traitors” and State of California and the Regents but neutral; its role in society is clear. The “snitches” they are. to also extend belonging past national lines are being drawn. For them it’s a knee-jerk reaction: and state borders and throughout time. challenge their power and they fall It’s clear, the entire university, for that You will always be offered dialogue back on identity politics. If they don’t matter, every university belongs to ev- as if that were its own end; it will die get their way they cry privilege. When eryone, employed and unemployed, all in bureaucracy’s stale air, as if trapped the actions escalate, when we begin to students and all workers, to everyone in a soundless room. In insurrection- feel our power, the self-appointed are of the global class that produces and ary times, action is the speech that can waiting to remind us that there may be reproduces the world as we now know be heard. -Slogan written on a Digital the undocumented present – the activ- it. The school is ours because it’s ev- Wall ist super-ego. Somehow in their tiny eryone’s and the destruction of the paternalistic brains they believe they property relation, with all its damaging Far before last week’s events, we’ve know what’s best for immigrants im- and limiting consequences, is implicit located them in the enemy’s camp. Stu- plying that the undocumented are too in the affirmation of this truth. It’s our dent activist-leaders shamed, begged, stupid to understand the consequences university... pleaded, and finally began to shriek of their actions and god granted the stu- and scream at us when we ignored dent leaders the wisdom to guide these …but, as of now, in its present configu- their megaphone-amplified orders. In lost souls. In their foolish heads, im- ration, who would want something so their last ditch effort to see their com- migrants remain passive sheep, black disgusting as a school? mands followed, they physically as- people never confront the police and sisted the police in blocking us from just enjoy the beatings they get, and the THE POVERTY OF STUDENT occupying buildings and protected the working class always takes orders from LIFE IS THE POVERTY OF outnumbered cops from our punches the boss. CAPITALIST SOCIETY and shoves. It’s obvious they’ve cho- In pseudo-progressive tongue they sen their side some time ago. These are speak a state-like discourse of diver- It’s now larger than any conspirato- the idiots who were telling people who sity; the groans of the student-activist rial plot by Thomas Huxley. In fact, he tried to break down the door of Cali- zombie is the grammar of the dead rev- could have never envisioned the extent fornia Hall on November 18th that they olutions of the past. Their vision of race to which contemporary class society should not do so because “there was no politics ignores the triumphs and wal- would transform education as such into consensus.” These are the same fools lows in the failures of the 60’s move- another separated activity, detached who sabotaged the attempted storming ments. The stagnant ghosts of yester- from the totality of life and devoid of of the Regents meeting at UCLA and day’s deadlocked struggle; they are the any practical worth or good, while, si- the occupation of Covel Hall, ruining hated consequences of the civil rights multaneously, being in perfect accord months of self-directed planning, after era that produced a rainbow of tyranny with the needs of capitalist production. declaring the crowd had become too with a Black president mutilating Af- “agitated.” The Cynthias, who later ghanis, Asian cops brutalizing students Learning is now sapped of all its con- that day went on to disrupt the occu- on campus, and Latino prison guards tent, education is but another part of the pation of Carter-Huggins Hall. These chaining prisoners. In this same way, assembly line in the social factory, and are the same politicians, who grabbed the opportunists act out their complic- the university itself serves an impor- the megaphone as students marched in ity with the structures of order. When tant function within the reproduction to the President’s office in Downtown students defy preset racial categories of disjointed life in this divided society. Oakland, prepared to raise utter hell and unify in order to take action on their While the collegiate apparatus infests and instead directed them into a dia- own behalf, the student cops attempt to countless minds with the logic and logue with middle-level administrators, reinforce the present day’s violent sep- technical knowledge of capital, the il- later issuing an order that the crowd arations and reestablish governance. lusion is being sold that somehow aca- must leave “peacefully.” Disgusting, They fail to recognize that divisions demic labor is divorced from the world yet typical. The only consensus they among proletarians are questioned only of work. Our apologies, but a term pa- want is rallied around the social peace within the struggle itself and the fester- per is not the production of autonomous and the preservation of the existent in- ing scissions between the exploited can and creative knowledge, it is work and stitutions and the only alteration they only be sutured with hands steadied by

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-The Bricks We Throw Today-Pg. 24 “Some may ask, “Why have these hooligans come to our campus?” “They’ve come to ruin everything!” the student leaders will say. AND FOR ONCE, WE AGREE.” combat with the exploiters. But we hope to turn the mob ‘democracy’ where the ‘stu- ence in the student move- Like a scalpel used to reopen against them. To seize their dent movement’ decides (or ment to break down the stitched wounds, the student megaphones and declare: is told to do so by student divisions between students activists’ brand of multi- “Death to Bureaucracy!” leaders) how to negotiate angry over fee hikes, work- culturalism is undoubtedly a Some may ask, “Why have with the power structure. ers striking against lay offs, tool of state repression. these hooligans come to our For us, Sacramento and its and faculty at odds with the During the scuffle with the campus?” “They’ve come to budget referendums are as administration over cuts and police in front of California ruin everything!” the student useless as the empty words furloughs. These are not Hall on the inaugural day of leaders will say. spewing from the mouths separate struggles over dif- the strike, one of the student of the union leaders and ac- ferent issues, but sections cops asked, “What’s going And for once, we agree. tivists on campus. Nothing of a class that have a clear to happen when we get into about the “democratizing” and unified enemy. We have the building?” For us, giv- WE ARE NOT the school system or forcing come for the same reason we en the social context of the STUDENTS, it to become better managed intervene in any tension: to strike, the answer is obvious, WE ARE DYNAMITE! or more “transparent” even push for the total destruction for them, even the question mildly entices us. No, we of capitalist exploitation and is problematic because of the A movement results from didn’t join the student move- for the re-composition of the risk it poses to their position combinations that even its ment to obtain any of these proletariat towards commu- of dominance. In the moment own participants cannot con- paltry demands. nism. of rupture, their role as man- trol. And that its enemies Last week, we began to at- And so, ask yourself how agers becomes void. Self-di- cannot calculate. It evolves tack the university not just could one even go about rected action crowds out the in ways that cannot be pre- because we are proletarians reforming something as de- programmatic. They forever dicted, and even those who scorned by and excluded bilitating as a university? need to stand on the edge of foresee it are taken by sur- from the UC, or that we hope Demanding its democratiza- the reality that something prise. -Paco Ignacio Taibo by resisting we may reduce tion would only mean a re- could pop off, because it is costs and thus join the UC configuration of horror. To in that possibility that they Many will ask then, why system and elevate our class ask for transparency is noth- can control the situation and have we thrown ourselves positions. Our choice to col- ing but a request for a front ensure that things do, in fact, into the ‘student movement?’ laborate in the assault on row seat to watch an atrocity move in their way towards We are not students, at least California’s school was driv- exhibition. Even the seem- nowhere. When things get not now and never in the UC en solely by our own selfish ingly reasonable appeal for hot, the self-elected of the system. It is not feasible for class interest: to take its shit reducing the cost of tuition student movement are wait- us to attend the UC in the and use it for ourselves. Oc- will leave the noose of debt ing with their trusty fire ex- first place, either because of cupied buildings become wrapped snuggly around our tinguishers ready in hand be- the cost or the lack of desire spaces from which to fur- necks. There’s nothing the cause they know that when to live the rest of our lives ther strike the exploiters of university can give anyone, people act on their own and ridden with overwhelming this world and, at the same but last week’s accomplish- valorize their self-interest, debt. time, disrupt and suppress ments show that there is their authority crumbles and We have not come to the the ability of the college to everything for us to take. If everyone can see how bank- university to make demands function. anything, our actions, as a rupt their strategy of social of the Board of Regents or Like any other institution means in themselves, were containment actually is. The the university administra- structured by class society, more important than any of student activist stutter-steps tion. Nor do we wish to the university is one of our the crumbs the UC system on the path of nothingness. participate in some form of targets. We made our pres- or the Regents Board might Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-The Bricks We Throw Today-Pg. 25 …And So It Must Spread

wipe off the table for us. During these studying becomes quite meaningless. buildings point the objective struggle days, we felt the need for obliterating Shamefully, the administration, terri- in the direction of the complete and to- renewal give rise to intense enthusiasm. fied they are losing control and super- tal negation of the university. That is, We felt the spirit irradiate throughout vision of the pupils they spent so much brick by brick smashing the academic campus and press everyone “to push time training, turn riot police on anyone monolith into pieces and abolishing the the university struggle [not only] to its ripping off their chains. At UC Santa college as a specialized institution re- limits,” but to its ultimate conclusion: Cruz, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, stricted to a specific segment of society. against the university itself. SF State and CSU Fresno the unlimited This will require the instillation of tech- occupations display the universal need nique known as learning to be wholly …And So It Must Spread for free and liberated space. The recal- subverted and recomposing education citrance is spreading. In Austria, stu- as a generalized and practical activity “It is surely not difficult to see that our dents left their occupied territory at the of the entire population; an undermin- time is a time of birth and transition Fine Arts Academy to march on the US ing through which the student shall to a new period. The spirit has broken embassy in solidarity with the police auto-destruct. with what was hitherto the world of its repression on California campuses. On Going halfway always spells defeat, existence and imagination and is about the same continent, the occupations in and so, the spreading of movement is to submerge all this in the past; it is at Greece have now extended outside the our only assurance against this stagna- work giving itself a new form.” -The universities into the high schools and tion. Complete self-abolition neces- Phenomenology of Spirit even the middle schools. Everywhere, sitates that the logic of revolt spill out the youth are recognizing the school as of the universities and flood the entire The stench that the university emits a vapid dungeon stunting their growth social terrain. But the weapons of nor- has become unbearable and students and, at the same time, they are refus- malcy are concealed everywhere and everywhere are reacting against the ing submission to the crushing of their especially within the most mundane institution that has perpetually rot- bodily order. All over, a new generation characteristics of daily life. The alle- ted away their being via an arsenal of is seeking the passion for the real, for giance to the bourgeois family structure disciplinary techniques. At campuses what is immediately practicable, here and interruptions by holiday vacations across California the corrosion of life and now. and school breaks threaten to douse the is brought to a quick halt when the col- The assaults on police officers, the fuse before its ignition and hinder our lege’s daily mechanism of power is giv- confrontations with the administration, momentum. en the Luddite treatment, and suddenly, the refusal of lectures, and the squatted

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-The Bricks We Throw Today-Pg. 26 LET US NOT LOSE SIGHT but rather a commune in which OF THE TASKS BEFORE power is built to destroy capitalist US. society. When faced with a university building, the choices are We must forcefully eject the po- limited; either convert it to ashes lice from the campus. Find their or begin the immediate material- “Take out your holes and burn them out. Block ization of the international soviet. their movements near occupied To all waged and unwaged work- hairspray and spaces. Build barricades; protect ers – students or not, unemployed, that which has been re-taken. precarious or criminal we call on your lighter”! We need only to look to Chile or you to join this struggle. The uni- Greece to see the immense ad- versities can become not only our vantage movements possess once playgrounds but also the founda- they seize territory and declare tions from which we can build a Tear down the it free of police. Blockade the partisan war machine fit for the entrances and gates of the cam- battle to retrieve our stolen lives. education pus as the students have already And to the majority of the stu- begun to experiment with at UC dents, from those paying their Santa Cruz. way to those swimming in debt, factory. We must also denounce and all used as collateral by the Re- destroy the student Left (the regents, who bravely occupied cuperative, the parasitic, the buildings across California and “representative”) that seeks to fought the police against the bar- Attack the Left de-escalate the movement and ricades – we say this clearly: we integrate it back into politics. Our are with you! We stood by you as and everything venom is not only directed at those you faced down the police in the who assisted the police in block- storming rain and defended the that it ing angry students from entering occupiers. Your actions are an in- California Hall at UC Berkeley spiration to us all and we hope to “represents.” or obstructed the crowds during meet you again on the front lines. the Regents meeting at UCLA In you we see the spirit of insur- but also of those who sought to gent students everywhere. negotiate with the police “on be- Attack the new half” of the occupiers of Wheeler As our Austrian friends recently Hall. It is telling that the police told us, “Take out your hairspray bosses before will negotiate with them, because and your lighter”! Tear down to the cops, they are reasonable. the education factory. Attack the they become the We are not, however, because we Left and everything that it “rep- seek the immediate annihilation resents.” Attack the new bosses of both the pigs and the activists. before they become the old ones. old ones. Renew the strikes and extend Life serves the risk taker – and their reach. Occupy the student we’re rolling the fucking dice! stores and loot them. Sell off the computers in the lab to raise For Anarchy + Life serves the funds. Set up social spaces for Communism. students and non-students alike to risk taker – and come in and use freely. Appropri- -Three Non-Matriculating ate the copy machines and make Proletarians we’re rolling the news of the revolt. Takeover the cafeterias and bars and begin pre- fucking dice! paring the communal feast. Burn the debt records and the construction plans. Chisel away the stat- ues and vandalize the pictures of the old order. In short, create not an ‘alternative’ that can easily make its fit within the existent,

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-The Bricks We Throw Today-Pg. 27 BLAST FROM THE PAST: BLACK MASK AND UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHERFUCKER

THE STORY OF A SMALL UNDERGROUND 1960’s REVOLUTIONARY GROUP IN NEW YORK CITY

handful of young eyes, cracked rictus skulls skewered guys and girls, hav- on stakes, BLACK MASK, swollen ing stalked up from to 15, marched from Canal Street New York’s Lower down Lower Broadway to Wall East Side scattering Street. Throwaways reading Traders leaflets calling for in stocks and bones shriek for New A the closure of the Frontiers. “Bull markets of murder Museum of Modern Art, are stopped deal in a stock exchange at death. just outside the Museum entrance by WALL STREET IS WAR STREET.” a whole phalanx of cops and crash The cops and the overdressed corpo- barriers. The story had leaked, and ration errand boys plain dumbfound- the cops, on the ball as ever, had ed; the only people to get really up- sensed a new and very real type of tight were, predictably enough, alas, threat months before anyone else: a group of straight proles showed up. the cops at least have got it clear just A relative flop, all in all. Too much whose side art is on. The director of sub-Committee of 100 stuff - Gros- the museum (largest collection of venor Square = Genocide Square, Dada in the world) out on the steps, etc. In fact all BLACK MASK’s “DESTROY THE MUSEUMS. wringing his hands, almost in tears, early experiments with Provo-type OUR STRUGGLE CANNOT only too anxious to plead: “Why are tactics were far more trenchant and BE HUNG ON WALLS. A NEW you doing this? We haven’t done original when applied to the culture SPIRIT IS RISING. LIKE THE anything.” The group, unheard of scene. It was official ‘experimental’ STREETS OF WATTS WE before this, called BLACK MASK. art rather than official left wing poli- BURN WITH REVOLUTION” Next, early one morning, black bala- tics that they’d broken out of. And -October 10th,1966//NYC clava hoods pulled down to their they loathed its guts.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 28 That first year BLACK MASK seized free food, free booze” - at the same lowed them to get through to Futurism every possible opportunity of fucking time and same place as the ambush, straight away - to the real Futurism: sci- up culture. They moved in at a mo- and handed them out to the hardest bas- ence, elegance, and violence, the most ment’s notice and improvised as they tards they could find in Harlem and the purely delinquent of all 20th century went along. They heckled, disrupted Lower East Side, eight hours before the art spearheads. Not the art of a Soffici and generally sabotaged dozens of art fun was due to start. or a Boccioni, but the post-artistic way congresses, lectures, exhibitions, and of life of a Marinetti. Marinetti beat- happenings. For a group that hailed Fu- The ambush was riddled like a colan- ing up Wyndham Lewis in an all night turism and Dada as its only forebears, der. All night really uptight black and urinal and hanging him up on some this type of shit was diametrically op- white down-and-outs were hammering adjacent spiked railings by his coat posed to the permanent, multi-dimen- on the doors, Intermittently crashing collar. Marinetti imprisoning a bevy sional revolutionizing of immediate them and furiously demanding their of wealthy culture-vultures in a bell experience demanded by all the high free food, drinks, and women. tent, and driving his motorbike over it points of modern art: See what you can full throttle time after time. Marinetti, make with a cathedral and a little dy- The interpretation of Dada was correct even at the end, at one of Mussolini’s namite. Probably their most notorious by even the strictest academic stan- galas, kicking over a banquet table on escapade was the wrecking of the three dards - hadn’t Huelsenbeck written, so top of Hitler, just to show that he really day marathon seminar on Modern Art long before, Dada is a club? All the couldn’t give a fuck. sponsored by the Loeb Student Centre. same, the scandal resulted in BLACK Howls of “ART IS DEAD”, “BURN MASK being ostracized right along the They grasped, almost intuitively, the THE MUSEUMS, BABY”, and “PO- line. Artists couldn’t understand the crux of the 1910-1925 art crisis: that ETRY IS REVOLUTION”. Tables politics, politicos couldn’t understand the content of modern art, the vision were kicked over, windows smashed, the art, and neither could stomach the of a totally re-created world stemming and scuffles broke out. Larry Rivers violence. The group was dealt with by from the first Romantics, was poten- was roughed up a bit in the best Futur- the normal avant-garde techniques of tially the most vitriolic attack on bour- ist manner. The theoretical dimension - repression: silence In the media, pruri- geois civilization ever made; while on “Fuck off, you cunt” - equally worthy ent whispers of fascism over the vernis- the contrary, its FORM straight jack- of the occasion. sage cocktails. Not that BLACK MASK eted it within a purely reactionary role. wasn’t pretty damn unrecognizable Taken literally it is dynamite. Taken Reaction wasn’t slow to follow. In fact when it hit in late ‘66. The two origi- culturally it is one of the system’s main it was the one systematic attempt the nal animators of the group, Ron Hahne supports. Kubla Khan can be taken official avant-garde made to deal with and Ben Morea, were kids straight off and used as a metaphor, a blueprint, them that allowed BLACK MASK to the streets, not middle class dropouts. of a real paradise; Kubla Khan can be pull off their neatest single coup. A Morea had been mixed up with the de- taken and used as a fantasy, a means of panel of experts on Futurism, Dada, linquent street gangs, been on H (her- evading the real hell in which we live, and Surrealism advertised a ‘Trap for oin) and done a stretch in Sing-Sing a compensation for it. Everything de- Black Mask’ throughout the Under- before he turned to painting and discov- pends on whether it is related to one’s ground (sic) press: a souped-up panel ered the Futurists. This background al- own everyday life or whether it is re- discussion on the true lated to the labyrinth of revolutionary meaning “BLACK MASK, ALONG WITH THE our Byzantine culture, of modern art, a bait to where no road leads which they imagined, FRENCH SITUATIONISTS, WERE THE to Xanadu. The quick correctly BLACK ONLY WHITES AT THE TIME WHO RE- of the 20th century MASK was bound to ALLY GRASPED THE REVOLUTIONARY cultural crisis: creativ- rise. They also imag- ity must break free of ined, far less happily, FEELING COMING TO THE BOIL IN THE all its previous fetters that their own erudition US ‘RACE’ RIOTS: THEY UNDERSTOOD and forms; it must stop and wit was such that being the creation of a BLACK MASK could THAT THERE WAS A REALLY POSITIVE separated and imagi- only be put down. Re- CONTENT TO THE LOOTING, ARSON nary world, and be- ally hard, once and for AND TENTATIVE GUNPLAY, SENSED THE come the transforma- all. BLACK MASK tion of real experience excelled themselves. REAL JOY AND AFFIRMATION IN WHAT itself. Thus Tzars: They ran off thousands THE WHOLE LEFT SHRUGGED OFF AS ‘Life and Art are One. of passably well print- The modern artist does ed “Invitations to a free COMPLETE NIHILISM.” not paint, he creates party - free sounds, directly.’ This Is why

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 29 “What is today the opium of the rebel will tomorrow be the opium of every normal slob in the street.” BLACK MASK was more advanced beggared by a mob of semi-illiterate Sweet fuck, all is happening. The lat- than the relatively more sophisticated teenage “nigras”. est goods and the latest poses are being ‘Rebel Worker’ or the Resurgence exhibited, envied, bought and exhibited Youth Movement’, or, for that matter, Not withstanding which they still again. As the Situationists have said, the great Marcuse himself. From the couldn’t break through the mistrust, “IT’S ALL A SHOW”. A show that can start they demanded complete identity on any, except the most personal basis, only go on because everyone pretends of theory and practice and really tried, of the Blacks of ‘67. They were stuck to be enjoying it - because everyone whatever their fuck-ups, to create an with the whites, and moreover, though thinks that he alone is the total misfit. organization in line with this. they had defined their own goal as a Conformity is a reign of terror. form of action which transcends the At the time, there was only one force separation between art and politics’, The Beatles, Zappa, the Crazy World of with which they could identify: the they were lumbered with precisely this Arthur Brown. Shit, the lot of it, prod- post-Watts[1] BLACKS. Only the separation: with the culturally oriented ucts like these mark nothing more than Blacks’ rejection of everything was Hippies and the politically oriented the furthest frontiers yet of consumer as high-handed and demonic as their New Left. society. Its most gratuitous, decadent, own. Only the Blacks were in a po- and self-destructive products. Its most sition where they had to really DO While they were utterly disgusted by snobbish pre-release, and no more something, not just sit on their asses everything about ‘Flower Power’, they than its pre-release. What is today and talk. BLACK MASK, along with recognized that out of the whole white the opium of the rebel will tomorrow the French Situationists, were the only opposition, the dropouts were the group be the opium of every normal slob in whites at the time who really grasped potentially closest to them. They too the street. Reynold’s Tobacco Corpo- the revolutionary feeling coming to had rebelled, in however half-assed a ration has already patented the brand the boil in the US ‘race’ riots. They way, against the whole of life as it is. names of every variety of pot. Twenty understood that there was a really posi- BLACK MASK completely agreed Acapulco Gold. Ten Congo Brown. tive content to the looting, arson and with their basic conviction that work They’ll be in the vending machines, tentative gunplay, and sensed the real was to be avoided at any cost, that the along with the ontology and bubble- joy and affirmation in what the whole American dream was so much crap and gum.’, from ‘Songs of the Black Hand Left shrugged off as complete nihilism. that life should be devoted exclusively Gang’, ‘Hapt’ 8. They quoted a couple of newspaper to experiment with the perimeters of clippings: ‘At times, amidst the scenes lived experience - to a new, post-in- BLACK MASK’s agitation snapped of riot and destruction that made parts dustrial life-style. Stirring up the Hip- into sharper focus: showing the Hippies of the city look like a battlefield, there pies meant really laying into the whole that their refusal to work was, however, was an almost carnival atmosphere.’ ‘Flower Power’ scene. In England, the unconsciously a perfectly accurate as- ‘New York Times’ 7/16/67 and ‘Said Black Hand Gang are the best critics of sessment of the freedom which could Governor Hughes after a tour of the Hippiedom: ‘In the desperate passivity be granted by automation and cyber na- riot blighted streets. “The thing that of a ‘groovy’ pad, the hell crawls down tion today - the eradication of all forms repelled me most was the holiday at- the walls and across the floor. The si- of involuntary labour - the creation of mosphere... It’s like laughing at a fu- lent circle in the candlelight pretends a society based on free creativity, on neral.’ ‘ ‘Time’ 7/21/67. One reporter to be absorbed, without success. The PLAY - that their fundamentally Uto- from Detroit described suddenly see- nightmare of· consumption consumes pian vision could, if only it were taken ing a huge bunch of gladioll skipping the consumer. You don’t smoke the seriously and no longer etherealized through the rubble. As it passed, a 7 hash, the hash smokes you. The record as drug and culture fantasy, but as one or 8 year old Negro kid poked his head on the box makes sure that nobody of the most highly explosive forces in out of the middle. “I am a sex maniac” sings or dances... And suddenly the play today. The Lower East Side was he yelled, and disappeared among the whole non-communication, the sense plastered with fly posters and littered gutted buildings. What is this if not the of being lost in the middle of nowhere with throwaway: ‘WE CONDEMN: consummation of modern art; its death snaps into focus: the ‘underground’ is Timothy Leary. Not for new ideas but and rebirth: DADA! And what 20th just another range of consumer goods, for organized religion. Not for expand- century avant-garde vision of Utopian of articles whose non-participatory ing the mind but for limiting the revolu- architecture can hold a candle to the consumption follows the same rules in tion. Allen Ginsberg. For embracing barbaric, almost elemental splendor of Betsy Coed as in Notting Hill: passivity Johnson in the face of death. For giv- Detroit in flames? Playing with fire - and through passivity, isolation. What ing ‘Time-Life Inc.’ a safe rebel. For purely aristocratic philosophy. Nero is happening? leading youth away from revolution.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 30 USCO. For adding new lights to old art. For a new media with the same message.’ With LACK MASK Detroit and Newark, BLACK MASK de- saw themselves cided to hold street meetings on the Lower as a catalyst: a East Side. They were a mixed success. They small, tightly- muscled in on local community meetings in knit guerrilla Tompkins Square Park, but they were really Bunit. It’s tactics

just too much. The local community leader- pre-planned, it’s objective to shit was more interested in getting progres- precipitate a state of mass hyp- sively minded College-boy cops to come nosis into a Reichian outburst of along and ‘help’, rather than getting mixed up anxiety, anger and festivity. They with a bunch of rabid anarchists. The major- began to be in and around SDS ity of the Hippies were still grooving on the (Students for a Democratic Soci- dreary vision of the ‘Barb’ and the ‘Oracle’, ety) and were one of the groups and felt much the same way. Specific groups most involved in the initial ex- like New York Provo actually went so far as periment of mobile tactics - the to denounce BLACK MASK to the cops. first steps towards any future urban guerrilla - taking place At the same time they tried desperately to at that time. The first time they snap the usual New Left rent-a-crowd mili- were involved practically in il- tants out of their inertia to get beyond count- lustrating the enormous tactical ing assholes. Intellectually, they lashed out superiority of small autonomous at the whole Vietnam and Third World indus- groups over huge remote-con- tries, and at the condition of mass hypnosis trolled crowds was during the big they sustained. Time after time they plugged Dean Rusk demo organized by the fact that the only effect of issue politics SDS in November: roving bands in general -- is to distract everyone’s atten- blocked the main traffic intersec- REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE.

tion away from the terrible fucking state they tions, took confrontation right off are in themselves. The whole “Third World” the area designated by the cops, vs. “First World” ratio in misery, has come to jumped isolated cops they’d be no more than the crudest monopolization lured down side streets, etc. of the meaning of the word poverty. Poverty is only allowed to mean hunger, disease, ex- The ‘mill-in’ at Macy’s (a huge posure, etc. (Also considered the poverty of department store) during the imperialistic exploitation or the last remain- Christmas shopping rush was ing pockets of 19th century western indus- even more effective. Large num- trial poverty) - while the atrocious modern bers of people, either alone or in poverty of the over-developed countries - the small groups, flooded the store sexual, pleasure, and general energy frustra- at its peak hour. None of them tion produced by a totally self-destructive looked like demonstrators, and and anti-life economy or the universal condi- they were free to impersonate tions of passivity, isolation, boredom, nausea normal shoppers, floorwalkers, and general crack-up in every direction - this and staff in various configura- modern poverty has become something com- tions. They moved goods around pletely intangible. TURN THEM ON TO in a business-like way. They soiled, broke, stole, and gave The idiot Left has allowed the specific ob- and euphoria of actually fighting it all, them away. Half-starved dogs jective phenomena of modern social alien- fighting it fully, here and now, fighting it and cats were let loose in the food ation to be passed over in terms of purely with their hands not only their minds. To department. A hysterical buzzard subjective neurosis. Practically, they tried turn everyone on to the fact that the only flew around the china section, to turn demos into riots. To turn everyone possible value, or pleasure today, the only smashing more and more hideous on to the complete shit of everything: the way to really get across to anyone else, to crockery as equally hysterical cars, the buildings, the goods for sale, ev- one’s self, is to join together to combat the sales girls either tried to catch ery aspect of their immediate experience. whole of reality. or escape from it. Decoys with To turn them on to the physical excitement flags and banners planted - them selves in the middle of groups

TO of straight middle-class shoppers

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 31 who were promptly roughed up and sounds I And everybody putting every- were a godsend: now no one could, or hustled outside by cops and floorwalk- body else down / And all the dead bod- would, shift the shit out of sight any ers. Utter chaos... With hindsight, one ies piled up around.’ This convergence more. Not only were they up against could say that it was at about this time, is a real process and has expressed it- the wall, they were quite literally in the winter 67/68 that the whole atmosphere self concretely in the formation of’ the trash can. From street to street they of the States began to change. A long- GHETTO. The ghetto: an ambiguous fired the spread-eagled mounds, drank time underground process began to and dialectical phenomenon par excel- and danced round them and when the break out into the open. And, as Bur- lence. Negatively, it stands for the dis- firemen finally arrived (there was a roughs remarks somewhere, whatever solution of everything. It’s no transi- big Firemen’s Strike at the same time) it is that has seeped and crawled its way tional experimental station or enclave: climbed on to the tenement roofs (roofs, out is enough to make an ambulance at- no Tangier, no Big Sur. It’s pure hell. like sewers are major unpatrolled tendant puke. Perhaps even 18 months One window, one door, four walls. A zones) and lobbed bricks, slates and ago it was possible to have some illu- dead end. The ghetto: the place you anything else to hand down on them to sions. Not any more, not with subur- go when there’s nothing else left to do, cries of ‘black-legs’. Unwashed and ban housewives practicing in the rifle- when there’s nowhere else left to go. ragged, dancing, singing, hammering range, and with cops patrolling every The prison without bars. The loony tom-toms, they ferried load after load subway train. America is on the brink bin so big no one can even see its there. of muck via the subway and dumped it of a disintegration unparalleled since Back rooms and endless nights. Neu- in glossy uptown Rockefeller Plaza. the collapse of the Middle Ages. And, rosis, inertia. The abyss opens ... The in this card house world, its fall will al- horror, the horror... Yet, at the same They were the perfect catalyst. Num- most certainly flip the rest of the planet time, dissidence becoming conscious, bers grew fast, and as they did, their over with it: global night and fire. an organizational problem, a problem activity really took off, it became per- of actual city space. Isolated individu- manent, polymorphic, a revolutionary To specify in terms of the ‘avant- als gathering into a mob, a mob in a life-style. They threw off a thousand garde’, the ‘youth revolt’, or whatev- distinctly desperate and ugly mood, gags to precipitate the crisis at the heart er. Politically, the fiasco of the huge and gathering permanently, everyday, of the modern ghetto -- its oscillation Whitehall demos in December (panavi- so it can’t be busted that easily just for between groovy zonked-out reserva- sion version of the October 27 panto in loitering. A state of mind claiming its tion and a real focused, sensual, com- London) not only spell out the futility own real space, its physical interplay, munal and aggressive underground - to of mass demonstrations in general but and thus, oddly· enough, the first step build up general iconoclasm and agita- also that their futility couldn’t solely be towards a revolutionary concept of the tion in a more systematic manner than put down to their tactics. The New Left city, of life together: a Heaven built in anyone before them, ATMOSPHER- was reduced to zero. Even the pretense Hell’s despite. The ghettoization of the ICS: revolutionary technique designed of an avant-garde sub-culture folded young white dropout allowed BLACK to exacerbate the contradiction between up, and really folded up, at much the MASK to grapple, concretely, with this what people apparently feel and what same time. It wasn’t even nihilistic or upsurge of a qualitatively different re- they really feel: to invert all the sym- vapid any more. It just wasn’t anything volt which has been rising clearly for bols and stereotypes in any given area. at all any more. Just another commod- at least 5 years now, a revolt without They ‘shot’ (with blanks, alas) the ity, like lilacs or beans on toast. And a name, ‘youth revolt’, ‘dropout’, ‘new ‘poet’ Keneth Koch as he was giving a we all know about the last days of the lumpen’, what you will. At last this reading In a local church to what he ac- drug scene - the twilight of the garland- new revolt became tangible: the Lower tually referred to as his ‘congregation’. ed TWA expense-account shamans, East Side in early ‘68 was a potentially They lumbered an entire lavatory down behaviorist lushes and Calcutta airport revolutionary COMMUNITY. to St. Marks Place and held a commu- hustlers trying to make the big time; the nity ‘shit-in’ which proved highly pop- soft drugs gone about as soft as putty; BLACK MASK - whose real axis was ular until a squad of infuriated, blush- then the speed scene, and first killings. still essentially abstract and ethereal: a ing, highly Protestant fuzz arrived. The West Coast kids are all on speed magazine - dissolved itself and a hard This was a perfect symbolical end of and most everyone else smacked out core of some 20 odd people reformed a perfect symbolical evening, literally just for a bit of peace. as the Lower East Side SDS chapter: beat it to pieces with their nightsticks. UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHER- They triggered off militant demonstra- A civilization coming down like the FUCKER... AND INTO THE TRASH tions outside the precinct nick every House of Usher and its slow motion fall CAN... time anyone was busted for drugs (at sweeping all forms of experience into the same time spacing out the more one - ‘Because when the smack begins The first thing they really got their inane heads and dealers all over town to flow / I really don’t care any more teeth into was the Lower East Side Gar- in search of phantasmal deals they had / About all the tensions in this town. bage Strike. As a metaphor the giant set up). They infiltrated the kitchens And all the politicians making crazy rat-infested heaps of rotting garbage of the most fashionable artsy cafes and

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 32 bars, spiking the more expensive drinks Their basic tactic in all of this was ment” once this was announced, ‘mobs and dishes with an assortment of drugs, sticking their neck right out - then try- of long haired gits regularly smashing violent emetics, sleepers, or hallucino- ing to work with anyone attracted to their way in, reasserted the conflict’s gens... A couple of the posh hangouts their extremism. In this they hoped to aim. In this instance specifically, the were forced to close down... pull the most desperate elements of the theatre became known as “The Were- Lower East Side together: to create en house”, and was then used as a com- They spearheaded the city’s first real embryo community. They hustled the munity center, with free food and drink, Hippy riot (during which they fought bread to set up a ‘free store’ (a “store” music, dancing, drugs, discussions of their way through a throng of cops where people can come in and take tactics and organization for resistance, guarding a squad car in which one whatever they want) called the Rathole. free karate classes, and a space for oth- of the Motherfuckers was locked, Although written off by some since er revolutionary activities. Moreover, wrenched the lock, freed him, and all as a mere ‘hip Salvation Army’ - it in their initial zeroing in on one specific got away)... They organized some 400 actuality was used as a general coordi- area, far from becoming stultifying, Lower East Side dropouts in the storm- nation and meeting point for both the getting them stuck in a blind alley, ing of the Museum of Modern Art for Motherfuckers (by now 30 hard core lead naturally through more and more putting on an exhibition ‘Dada, Surre- with a further 300 in and around) and far-flung connections along a sketchy alism and their heritage’ (heritage being anyone else who cared to fall by. An but thoroughly real national network. the usual crock of shit; Rauschenberg, experiment In re-occupying a fraction The ghetto is fast becoming one of the Funk et al). Struggling, dishevelled and of the land that has been stolen from most vital nerve centers of this fever- distinctly unbeautiful people scream- us. A move to erode the whole system ish doomed society. Crooks, middle ing obscenities, hurling paint, flour and of isolation that is the basis of hierar- class culture dropouts, immigrants, and smoke bombs at the First Night crowd chical power - a grid system holding working class delinquent street gangs with the cops defending them. They itself together by holding us apart - all all put right on the same intolerable printed invitations from one of the ma- the objective aspects of which are uni- spot. Not only did alliances with other jor ghetto stores offering, at a specified fied and summed up concretely in the dropout communities all over the States time on a specified day, as many free structure of the ‘city. Irradiating from spring up, but for the first time a group goods’ as their customers could carry this they tried to reinforce the dropout’s of young whites really got across to away. Fifty of the Motherfuckers set new belligerence, and to ward off the the Blacks; they were accepted as hav- the ball rolling. They had been training chill police heat it was calling forth. ing identical interests. This coalition in karate for over a year and had further They tried to infiltrate the local social reached the point of Eldridge Cleaver refined their street tactics with hot cop- services, to use them as a front to shel- offering the Vice-Presidency of the ies of the National Guard manual ‘How ter real militancy which, as it grew in Black Panthers to one of the Mother- To Deal With Civil Disorders’ (particu- strength, could afford to shatter them fuckers - and being turned down. Poli- larly attracted to the idea of unleashing and expose the purely repressive role tics is shit, man, deadpanned the Moth- Alsatians with hand grenades strapped they play. They became embroiled in ers. Anarchy realized it was black a to them). They were terrifying when ac- tenants’ struggles over rent strikes and century before the Third World. And tually in action. They would break out the idea of street and block committees. Lucifer, Prince of Morning, right in the of the main body of demonstrators like They helped set up a number of crash dawn of time. greased lightning, smashing windows, pads. They tried to turn hustling - dog kicking over trash cans and road signs, eating dog - into more organized liber- They also closed in on one of the rich- setting fire to anything that would burn, tarian forms of crime, by working out est sources feeding the ghetto and setting off a series of intersection traf- steady illegal supplies of everything which any ghetto organization must fic jams to disperse standard cop- dis from food and medical supplies to ac- embrace: the school and university sys- persion procedure, and then pick them tual hardware. Here as elsewhere co- tem. They systematically freaked out off one by one. They waded in using herent self-defense proved inseparable all the SDS summits they could get to; karate chops, brandishing knives and from actual aggression. they wreaked havoc on the various at- slashing with bicycle chains strapped tempts made to bureaucratize the New to their wrists, screaming: They stepped up the typical ghetto ten- York Teachers Strike. In both cases sion over public use of what are nomi- they used the same Durruti-like tactics “UP AGAINST THE WALL I MOTH- nally public places, and acted to turn of pulling together the extremists they ERFUCKER. They baptized this mer- the conversation into a dialogue used attracted and then leaving them to orga- curial street guerrilla, DIAL-A-PIG or in combat zones ‘True friendship is nize their own scene themselves. Their IF YOU’RE TAKING TWO STEPS made on the battlefield’. Announce- most notorious intervention was during BACK I FOR EVERY STEP FOR- ments of neighborhood conflict would the occupation of Columbia. Electric- WARD I TURN AROUND I AND GO help to invite those interested in aid- ity put out of commission, then some THE OTHER WAY.” ing the tension: “Raids on the Fillmore really swashbuckling radio dropout East Theatre are going on at the mo- over the university’s own broadcasting

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 33 system. Successful attempts to involve are a broadcast, a show, a spectacle don’t believe in Jead, you’re already the local Black and Puerto Rican youth that can only be consumed by a passive dead’ was much quoted - and most of gangs and to take the confrontation right spectator. Novel, film or symphony, the shooting on the white scene last out of its piddling academic context. you can’t talk back to any of them. And summer was inevitably Motherfuck- During actual fighting with the police, what communication can there be when ers. Not only were they responsible for they covered the front of the barricades one can never reply? Sweet fuck all, the sporadic, apparently Hippy roof- with the choicest items from the uni- comrade, sweet fuck all. What passes top sniping at cops on the Lower East versity collection of ceramics and old as communication is in fact the instal- Side, they were also toting the guns and masters, (headline: Policeman Smash- lation of total non-communication, of cocktails on the Berkeley and Haight- es Art Treasure) this finally got them passivity, isolation and abstraction - the Ashbury barricades. In September, they kicked out. Perhaps the most radical media is the material expression of par- blew up the Berkeley water supply as aspect of all during the summer of ‘68 ticipation in non-participatory society. a reprisal raid for Chicago. They were can be seen as their persistent attempt the unknown terrorists who since Janu- to create a new form of self expression The whole crock of shit comes down to ary have, deep in the country, at the beyond art and politics: a new revo- the assumption that communication is a dead of night, been dynamiting Cali- lutionary language. In the first place, matter of just talking. It’s nothing of’ fornia’s electricity grid (electricity, the they started to write in the language of the sort - it’s a matter of acting, of act- basis of the real power that keeps the the streets. What, a few months before, ing together. The Motherfuckers’ real machine running... Without it nothing had been ‘The poverty against which importance was that they were trying to can work... The world becomes black man has been constantly struggling, create this new revolutionary language. anarchy...). UP AGAINST THE WALL is not merely the poverty of material Language as collective action. This is MOTHERFUCKER began to pay for goods; in fact, in Industrially advanced why they got off so much on riots. Ri- the notoriety: What a good nights work countries the disappearance of mate- ots, probably the first significant break- pig did / Got his rocks off swinging rial poverty has revealed the poverty through in mass communication since clubs after being frustrated all Friday of existence itself’ became ‘Your com- Marconi (Italian creator of the radio- / Arrests a member of UP AGAINST munity represents death. You eat dead telegraph). Communication is a group THE WALL MOTHERFUCKER for food. You live dead lives. You fuck project and adventure - a shared pre- standing on the street. Charge: con- dead women. Everything about you is dicament, dangerous, illegal - a world spiracy In the 4th degree. Arrests a dead. The struggle is for real life....’ suddenly tense, expectant and tonic, a girl for protesting his arrest. Arrests a From the Situationist SALON down situation whose outcome depends sole- Yippee for standing on the street cor- to Skid Row. Form changed along ly on the verve and audacity of one’s ner. Charge: disorderly conduct. Ar- with style. The apparently Puritanical own intervention. Riot, like love, gives rests 8 people on Sixth Street for trying BLACK MASK switched into a stab- a brief taste of real surreality: the mo- to block the street to traffic after a kid bing crossfire of grotty leaflets, obscene ment everything totters on the brink, the was hit by a car. Arrests a guy carrying broadsheets, posters, comics, slogans, past and the personality gone, the pres- a drum. Arrests a guy for backing up spray can graffiti, banners, chants, ent and the body found, all the senses his car after getting 4 tickets. Charge: songs, tom tom tattoos. Sculpture, mu- called into play. If you want to find trying to run over a cop. Arrests a girl sic, literature, all forms dissolved and yourself, get lost. Violence seemed the trying to put up bail to get out the others regained their unity. Trails of slime only shock brusque enough to snap dis- arrested. The police are coming down and giant footprints meandered through sidents out of their trance and its dream heavy on the Motherfuckers. back-alleys. Snakes with propaganda syntax: a karate-trained Dadaist com- painted along their backs. Dogs and mando actually fighting in the gutter is By the end of the summer their hard core rabbits with similar tags. And the cops enough to complete the demoralization was up on countless criminal charges, trying to round them up, with nets. But of any intellectual, whether it’s Ay- with penalties ranging from 10 days to even the most inflammatory smut sheet ler or George Simmel he’s pickled in. 10 years - the worst of which was late remains trapped within the official ‘Revolution in dreams / Revolution in July when Ben Morea was arrested for definition of ‘communication’. The books/ Revolution in cars / Revolution having knifed a couple of servicemen, scene, wrote the Mothers, ‘is now go- In advertising / But everywhere re- a Marine and an airman. Them, along ing through a process of polarization - pression... Your biggest enemy is your with some 20 odd other right-minded those who want to continue the media OWN ASS / Pick it up / Let it move...” citizens had cornered 4 of the Mother- ‘blow-out’ and those who want to blow Inertia is the real enemy. fuckers in a Boston back alley and laid out the media’. For communication into them with bricks and clubs. His if it is to have any meaning at all, can As the summer drew on they entered trial opened in November and is still only be Inter-change and inter-play be- the realm of revolutionary folklore. going on at this minute. There was tween people, a dialogue, while all the Their enthusiasm for any kind of hard- paranoia the whole time, and there’s no mass media, however mixed, work by ware left all but the most rabid Panthers paranoia like New York paranoia. The definition in one direction only. They looking sallow. Huey Newton’s ‘If you uproar, the filth and neon, the sense of

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 34 being trapped. Politics or dope, it feels like they could come The depersonalization and anonymity of bureaucratic civili- and get you at any time. Telephones bugged, with a transmit- zation is the jungle of the urban guerrilla. ter picking up sounds all over the apartment. Smoking over the bog seat with one hand on the handle. People scared of Obviously violence has an enormous power, but as Reich even being seen with you. And the Motherfuckers prowling underlined time after time, a flood of pleasure, anxiety and around spitting at every cop they happened to come across fury, merely indicates the sweeping aside of the first major on the street. When the heat really began to move in a lot of level of inhibition, of character and body armor. One’s sense them split New York City. They traveled from one end of the of an enormous underlying manic-depressive swing with the country to the other. Fucking up things from Alaska to New Motherfuckers would seem to confirm Reich’s claim that the Mexico, and trying to link the various people they made con- fundamental question is one of re-connecting on a far, far tact with. Attempts to make a nationwide network of guer- deeper level - on the level of a primordial energy - and let’s rilla cells were put together during this period. Rounded off hope it is a slightly more serene and ineluctable trip. The by the formation of the I.W.W.E. The International Werewolf case of the Mothers raises the question of the aims, impera- Conspiracy - trade joke on the I.W.W. - which more or less tive, and pitfalls of a revolutionary affinity group. Behind a brings it up to now. hard, imaginative, and identifiable front, an occult network of resistance. Along with breaking through to the deepest The Motherfuckers are the classic ‘left-wing adventurists’ and most intoxicating levels of our real selves, a non-stop - that old alibi of the straight revolutionary, and his dam and intelligible harassment of the prevailing organization of against the visceral revolt in himself. Acting within a new reality. War, therapy, community. No part of the project can and completely unexplored theatre of operations - commu- be separated from the others. But these are practical prob- nity as opposed to factory organization and strife - and ex- lems, and they can never be solved on a big table covered posing themselves 1000% to police victimization, they have with pieces of paper. galvanized a vast area of the American scene. They shit on the ‘tactical’ ruminations of the usual left wing ass holes THE END. (only ‘adventurists’ are entitled to talk tactics) and pop the balloon of the Maoist’s straight faced absurdities with the *Taken from ‘Black Mask’, by Ron Hahne and Ben Morea. wild laughter of real aggression against a real enemy. And their extemporization has paid off as a catalyst: in the realm NOTE: of atmospherics they have changed the tenor not only of the whole post-Flower-Power underground, but also of SDS. [1]The term Watts Riots of 1965 refers to a large-scale riot And there is still a great deal to be done in this field. ‘The which lasted 6 days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Ange- positive aspects of the major hallucinogens, for example, is les, California, in August 1965. By the time the riot subsided, still submerged under the sales talk of the ‘87 psychedelic 34 people had been killed, 1,032 injured, and 3,952 arrested. merchants. Their rudimentary deconditioning, partial ego- It would stand as the most severe riot in Los Angeles history dissolving properties and stripping bare of the social struc- until the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The riot ostensibly was a turing of perception - these have still to be appropriated by reaction to a long record of police brutality by the LAPD and revolutionaries and put into terms of practical sensual activi- other racial injustices suffered by black Americans in Los ty’ (Marx). But the role of catalyst has its drawbacks, and the Angeles, including job and housing discrimination. group has now reached a turning point. With the Internation- al Were Wolf Conspiracy there is both an attempt to grapple with the problems of a large scale decentralized network, and an unequivocal desire to get at least a major part of the whole organization well out of the lime light. Personal audacity is of the greatest possible values in ending this bloody nightmare - is it me or them, that’s insane? In parading what one really feels - but putting the finger on oneself the whole time can only end up with the bastards sitting outside your door all day, setting you up for a five year stretch. Some of the least cool Motherfuckers are beginning to disappear from the front line - disappearing to re-appear with a changed name, a changed address, a changed persona. One day a scruffy wild eyed git, the next flashy executive with aerosol DNT in his briefcase, and a week later a mild mannered union official quietly fucking up the union comptometer. The whole vast problem of structuring open and closed organization.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 35 PICTURE “Full BELOW:

The picture below re- steam cords seconds before a member of the ruling class at the time, ahead was attacked with a shit-smeared blanket by the Motheruckers. The text included through over the picture is from a communique at the time that the shit” claimed the action. -Nechaev

.. • ~ " • f, • They encourage Ii “These ,. depravity smut and Irre- .i. sheets, sponsibility, are today’s " and they Molotov nurture a cocktails • breakdown thrown at in· the respect- continued ability and capacity of decency in the govern- our ment t0 nation... conduct an orderly and constitutional society.”

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Black Mask and U.A.T.W.M.F-Pg. 36 OUR TEARS MAKE THE FLOWERS

GROW

ON THE SITUATION IN GREECE BY KIRILOV

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Our Tears Make the Flowers Grow-Pg. 37 n a world drenched with im- On October 6, 2009, the greek socialist ages, like swirls of pictures party PASOK, led by now prime minis- dancing on strings, even that ter Papandreou, became the new ruling which is in plain sight, di- regime, and consequently, inherited rectly located within our vi- the problem of containing an uncon- sion, can become obscured. trollable revolutionary surge from the I incapable Nea Democratia party. Far “FIRE CAN Often, only a flash of negativity will better skilled in the art of state-craft allow us to see what is in all that is. than their predecessors, PASOK im- ONLY BE The “Broken doors, smashed shop mediately instituted a variety of social ANSWERED fronts, smoke from the torched build- control mechanisms to accentuate the ings, the chaos of the sabotages,” de- already present brute force, and often- WITH FIRE, scribed by the Conspiracy Cells of Fire times counter-productive, repression in an autumn communiqué, is not only characteristic of Karmanalis’s previ- “a network of communication beyond ous reign. In addition to the monop- VIOLENCE and outside the foreseeable,” but also oly of “legitimate” physical violence MET BY clarifies what stands right in front of essential to any State, the instillation us albeit always hidden. It’s the magic of corrective disciplinary techniques, VIOLENCE, of the makeshift explosive that cuts up the deployment of security measures, and collages, with the technique of a and the dissemination of false ideol- high-modernist, the endlessly gener- ogy (but filtered through recuperative AND HENCE THE ated stream of pictorial text called discourse unlike Nea Democratia) PROTRACTED society and thus it makes things un- quickly became the new weapons of derstandable; it adds appropriate punc- constraint used in PASOK’s recent STRUGGLE IS tuation to make words readable, and, counter-insurgent strategy. The more THE ONLY most importantly, it reveals what ev- refined and subtle methods of govern- eryone already implicitly knew. mentality marked the rise of socialist APPROPRIATE tyranny while, at the same time, re- RESPONSE TO In this same fashion, The Conspiracy shaped the battleground for the war Cells of Fire detonated a bomb during fought by other means. UNILATERAL ex-prime minister Karamanlis’s last TERROR.” and most important campaign rally set Less than a week after taking power, to take place two days before elections. the socialist administration ordered Everyone in greece was certain Kara- the police to occupy the Exarchia dis- manlis would not be re-elected once trict, perform random stop and search the votes had been counted, and so, the seizures of its residents, and establish nihilist guerrilla faction fittingly trans- checkpoints at all major entrances to formed the farcical campaign rally into Athens’ classically left-wing and in- a pyrotechnic farewell celebration. tellectual neighborhood. The massive The blast symbolized to all of greece quarantining effort, a literal police that Karamanlis’s right-wing and scan- swarming in a way never before seen dal-ridden Nea Democratia party, after in the country, was justified by the gov- its five year rule, had truly collapsed ernment as a response to a small – in into total disarray. Like salt sprinkled greek standards – solidarity attack on on a wound, the explosion emphasized a bank outside of Exarchia. Neighbor- the defeated party’s inability to con- hood residents were forced to kneel on trol the domestic insurgency that had the pavement before being subjected to grown in both quantity and quality in degrading bodily examinations; a tac- the past half decade - especially after tic which best exemplified the State’s the December insurrection. Almost new disciplinary approach aimed at dancing in the faces of the anti-terror censuring the movement and imposing police, the Cells of Fire once again docility into those who frequent the proved that they can only get better revolutionary hotbed. The police oc- with every attack; with each strike they cupation of Exarchia resulted in the de- are more confident and with each strike tainment of over a hundred people and they become more severe. became the first instance of the mass temporary arrests that would continue

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Our Tears Make the Flowers Grow-Pg. 38 throughout the fall and winter months. medicalization of social control took an extremely harsh sentence by greek Given the overwhelming State reac- an almost comedic literal significance standards as its length is comparable tion to a relatively minor bank attack, when the PASOK cordoned off univer- to those handed out here in america the socialist’s inaugural show of force sities all over greece under the pretense during the Green Scare. Although the can now be seen as a dress rehearsal for that the colleges had become infested list of repression seems endless, the their forthcoming preventive program. with the swine flu coincidentally only blood that soaked the concrete during Hoping to ward off the lingering phan- days before the scheduled nation-wide Alexi’s memorial demonstration stands tom of December 2008, the hallmark demonstrations in December. The bla- out among the cowardly and incessant of progressive containment centered tant biopolitical farce was of course violence attributed to the armed mer- on preemptive security measures in- motivated not by concern for the health cenaries of law and order. The Delta tended to block the eventual recurrence of greek citizens but targeted the spec- Force police squad, formed after the of the insurrectionary moment. Thus, ter of the koukoulafori, the prophesized December uprising, charged the march similar police occupations and detain- hooded-ones set to maraud the metrop- on their motorcycles leaving a veteran ment operations took place again be- olis in the days to come, and aimed at prisoner of the anti-junta struggle and fore the massive protests expected on dissipating the masked apparitions be- member of the militant Trotskyist par- the November 17th anniversary of the fore they even materialized. ty EEK, Ms. Koutsoumbou in critical junta’s collapse and again before the condition. During the week of demon- first year memorial of Alexi’s murder at An important corollary effect of subtle strations commemorating Alexis, the the end of the first week of December. bodily manipulation and preventive se- wave of terror perpetrated by the greek But while discipline produces order, curity is the consequential marking of police went unchecked by the govern- its complement is a security apparatus those resistant to correction, thus isolat- ment and the only opposition came that regulates disorder by asserting the ing uncontrollable segments to the bru- from the stones and molotov cocktails probability of the undesirable event, tal force of sovereign law. Throughout flying from behind barricades with the calculating the relations of risk and, the past few months, the fine tuning cadence of machine gun fire. lastly, segmenting the population re- of the State has made violent repres- lated to the results. sion much more acute but, at the same In any duel, a simple attack can only time, more widespread within the dis- be defeated by parry and riposte and To temper the street-conflicts that tinguishable revolutionary area. The the same goes for the clash between would inevitably spur from the up- police have gone on a witch-hunt for the State vs. the anti-State. Fire can coming demonstrations, the State con- suspected members of the Conspiracy only be answered with fire, violence ducted several anticipatory sieges on Cells of Fire and have arrested over met by violence, and hence the pro- greek universities; the deterritorialized half a dozen people, eager to tie them tracted struggle is the only appropriate home-bases of revolutionary activity to the clandestine guerrilla group, each response to unilateral terror. Always throughout the country. Recognizing time on flimsy evidence. Police- per in solidarity with imprisoned com- the university’s constitutionally grant- secution also refocused on the heroic rades, clandestine bomb attacks are on ed asylum from the police as one of the illegalist Yannis Dimatriks, who was the rise and almost every day a newly foremost tactical advantage of the in- scheduled for a retrial in December, formed group claims responsibility for surgency, the socialists attempted to the and huge rewards were offered for the the destruction of a symbol of capital- storm the headquarters of revolt with- capture of his alleged co-conspirators. ist tyranny. In the streets, the 17th of out the use of asphyxiating tear gas and PASOK also began new “anti-anar- November demonstrations proved to bone-shattering truncheons; a move chist” legislation and has gone as far be one of the largest since the tradition that intended to somewhat diminish the as proposing the very same laws they began in the 1970s and the revolution- future need for repressive weaponry in once denounced as fascist during the ary anarchist contingent numbered over the approaching days designated for Nea Democratia government. Before 4,000 despite any preparations made by street battles. And so, the bloodless the socialist victory, the now minister the State. Weeks later, after days of vi- conquest began by PASOK collaborat- of public order Chrisochoidis referred cious barricade fighting and close hand ing with the deans and rectors of the to the mask laws as “laughable in to hand combat with the police during schools to reconstruct a discourse to themselves, besides the fact that they Alexis’ memorial protests, the week shift the perception of the university are legally groundless” but now after ended with an equally large demonstra- from a center of the armed struggle securing power, PASOK reneged from tion proving that the growing mass of and return it to an academic institution. the left-wing coalition against the dra- the disobedient refuse to be thwarted by Even the Indymedia servers on campus conian regulations and sought to use intimidation and repression. became an issue of contention when them to tack 10 years on to the sen- the scholastic value of the network was tences of protesters arrested in a dem- While the greek police worry as to how made a topic of public debate. In their onstration in Nikea. The judicial sys- they will acquire their much dreamt last ditch effort to reclaim the public tem then used terror-enhancement laws about armored anti-riot tanks, those in schools, epidemiologic prevention and to imprison Ilias Nikolaou for 7 years; struggle should remember that the most

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Our Tears Make the Flowers Grow-Pg. 39 damaging weapon to the furtherance of JUMP CUT revolutionary movement is the retro- grade inertia of democracy – whether The Conspiracy Cells of Fire struck representative or direct. Similarly, the again on December 27, 2009, this time first law against partisan warfare is to placing an even more sophisticated, yet gain the populations’ “tacit support, its still homemade, explosive in the offices submission to law and order, its con- of the National Insurance Company. sensus – taken for granted in normal The blast, heard literally five miles times”; that is, instilling the techniques away, not only ripped whole chunks ...the of internal government within the social off the building but flattened every body, the auto-control of souls and flesh, car parked nearby. Like a dark amber and the individualization of subjects carnation, the color of deep oxygen- detonation with the police implanted firmly within. ated plasma, sprouting from a makeshift This double movement of capture is of configuration of factory-produced steel, symbolized the utmost importance in today’s greece, the detonation symbolized that life can where the parasitic PASOK, claiming spring from the void and announced that life to be anti-authoritarians in office, con- clearly that irreconcilable contradictions tinually try to leech the rebels’ power can never be laid to rest in the graveyard to turn cities into a blistering infernos of politics. The explosion was heard can spring and, thereby, redirect insurrectionary five miles away but could anyone feel potential into mediated demands set to it at a further distance? Did we get the from the be appeased in parliament. Considering message across the Atlantic? How do that our country’s proletariat is largely we respond back? Only through a force void and pacified seemingly though its own- vo equal or greater can meaningful dia- lition, the technologies of inner repres- logue begin. Our reply may not at this announced sion should also be of particular interest time necessitate the use of dynamite, but to the american reader. If we define the what, in fact, is essential is that you/us/ ideologically obscure term “radical” as we become the post-human manifes- clearly that a measure of practical break with the ex- tation of dynamite. A metamorphosis istent order of things, then we can easily shattering the boundaries between in- irreconcil- judge the undeniably reformist greek so- ternal and external, unleashing an affect cialist party far more radical than at least which pushes tender newborn skin to able con- 70 percent of the american revolution- pierce through the calloused outer-layer ary milieu. Considering that the greek of gangrened cadavers and recomposes communist party KKE, the third largest each appendage of our bodies into or- tradictions in the country, frequently rattles off par- ganic artillery aimed at everything. A tial critique never even put on the table rebirth, in which each of our limbs is fit can never in the States in a situationist discourse to strike with an intensity that makes ev- so perfect you would swear, its chair- erything stop; the clock, the personnel, be laid to woman, Aleka Papariga was the zombie the factory, the church. An eyes, hands, of Guy Debord, it could be easily assert- and kiss strike. A nobody breathe strike. ed that the Stalinists put 80 percent of A strike in which silence is born so that rest in the so-called revolutionaries in the states to we can hear with crystal clarity the Con- shame. Lastly, when the radical-left co- spiracy Cells of Fire, this time, answer- graveyard alition, constituting a small minority in ing one of our messages. parliament, is clearly more radical than of politics. 95 percent of self-described american revolutionaries, undoubtedly the question must be begged as to what extent do we here in the states go about policing ourselves? How does our perpetual self- regulation contribute to the obliteration of the possibilities of rupture before they have an opportunity to actualize? To what degree are we all complicit in the eternal return of sameness and nor- mality?

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Our Tears Make the Flowers Grow-Pg. 40 RIOT

THE OLYMPICS ARE COMING...

ince the beginning of One person has been deported for in conflict with the upcoming Olympic this magazine, the 2010 “overstay” following a film screening games have been subject to questioning, Olympics have been about the upcoming Olympics. Ameri- home raids, harassment, deportation, something cited at least can National Security agencies are ac- and multiple types of traditional police briefly in every issue. tively speaking more and more with the intimidation. The Vancouver 2010 In- The 2010 Olympics Canadian government, aiding its con- tegrated Security Unit, or VISU, is the Swill be taking place in cern and preparation for potential riots newly designed security unit that has British Colombia, Canada next Feb- at the upcoming events. been created to pressure 2010 critics. ruary. Although the Olympics have New offices and agencies are being Their responsibility is to exercise all of specifically sparked opposition and set up at different borders in Western these types of intimidation specifically agitation from misc. revolutionary and Canada to allegedly help mediate those around resisting the Olympic games. native groups, Canada will also be host- entering or leaving Canada before and VISU has been making sure to at- ing the G8 and Security and Prosperity during the Olympic games. Canadians tend public meetings, especially those Partnership in 2010. As the Olympics and Americans who have been accused by Native groups looking to resist the approach, their most typical effects of being critical of the Olympics, or vile gesture of further colonization. have already come into play. Before associated with groups resisting the They have also been sure to attend the 4,500 expected Canadian soldiers, Olympics have been subject to deten- meetings held by Vancouver’s east side 1,800 provincial cops, 5,200 Royal tion, interrogation, and refusal at the (the hood) community groups trying to Canadian Mounted Police, and 5,000 Canadian and American borders, even defend neighborhoods before planned private security personnel swarm West- harsher than the typical border expe- developments. They have chosen to ern Canada, being the largest domestic rience. Which, may we add, fucking make their presence completely visible police or military operation planned in sucks. In fact a brand new 4 million at meetings, hoping to intimidate those Canadian history, signs what is to come dollar communications office was built involved. have already been displaying. 45 miles south of the games. This was Months before the Olympics VISU solely to host different American Fed- has been visiting the homes or work- The Canadian police are beginning to eral law enforcement and emergency places of individuals associated with escalate repression and let individuals response teams during the upcoming the anti-olympic sentiment, as well as preparing to resist the Olympics know games. their friends or family members if they that they are paying attention to them. Native groups, anarchists, and others are unsuccessful with being direct.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Riot: The Olympics are Coming-Pg. 41 Individuals have been visited across Vancouver is also witnessing the devel- impossible for large amounts of home- Canada, not just in British Columbia; opment plans the Canadian province less people to stay where they are any- visits in Ontario and Quebec have also hopes to achieve with the upcoming way. The VISU is refusing to reveal been frequent. Dozens of security cam- games. Tenants specifically in -Van what neighborhoods they are closing eras are being put up in and around the couver or Victora are being evicted in until its closer to the Olympics. city of Vancouver. Police claim these mass from their homes, making space are temporary cameras that will only for Olympic tourists before an expect- As notorious officer Bud Mercer is ap- be used by a temporary security center. ed hotel scarcity. As people are being pointed key cop during Olympic secu- They do mention that the cameras may forced to leave their homes before the rity, we can understand what the Cana- remain for future “special events” or winter just starts to get colder in West- dians are planning. With a resume of “traffic control”. Clearly, the concern ern Canada, tenants can go online and repressive police conduct, specifically around the games is helping to rational- see their small tenement buildings be- during confrontations with Native or ize new opportunities in surveillance ing advertised for special Olympic student groups, we are assuming they by local officials under the guise of rates. One group of tenants discovered, want to provide the appropriate face for Olympic security. Vancouver police after being evicted from their 9 bed- what is to come. But with everything are beginning to stock-pile non-lethal room home, that it suddenly was going said here, we want to include some of crowd control equipment that has yet to for $11,900 for a minimum 2 week stay, the things that have happened in the last be used in their country. Similarly to or $34,000 dollars for the full 2 months few months. Resistance continues on the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in Sep- of the Olympics. all fronts before the upcoming games. tember 2009, Canadian police are plan- This sort of hyper displacement was Night time actions on corporate spon- ning to also use the LRAD “acoustic expected prior to the games. Although sors has not diminished whatsoever. weapon”, which uses deafening tones discussed by community groups with- Even though Canada plans to put a to clear crowds. Although it should be in the city, the displacement of a large crown on the few Chiefs embracing the noted that this was not successful in the part of Vancouver’s east side (consid- games, it is losing the support of some case of Pittsburgh, other than simply ered the Ghetto by some), has created of the most loyal tribal governments and annoying rioters the same way any in- a 373% increase in homelessness in chiefs, as frustration with the games be- credibly annoying car alarm would. Vancouver. It is now estimated that comes more and more popular among With all this planned for the upcom- 3000 people are living on the streets. Native groups across Canada. East side ing games, private security companies Police have handed over 2000 tickets Vancouver fears that the Neighborhood have been recruiting for the Olympics for minor by-law infractions like jay- as it’s known will be destroyed and ap- in towns specifically close to reserva- walking specifically in the East side propriated by the games. Protests of tions. Ignoring the implications of of Vancouver. This is most likely to the police are becoming more and more holding the Olympics in British, Co- drain and intimidate the homeless from attended and appreciated by the neigh- lombia, security companies are claim- feeling comfortable, but alas, clearing borhood as homelessness is rising and ing to provide opportunities for the ab- apartment buildings and fining are not police intimidation grows harsher as original communities of this province. enough. New laws are being passed as the Olympics grow closer. As they plan to hire 5,000 people across well to help clear the cities of its “scum” Canada to work as private security dur- or “undesirables”. Just months before The Olympics are helping to pave the ing the Olympics, they plan for 1,500 to the games, the British Columbia’s pro- way for a new dawn of surveillance for 2,000 of them to be of Native descent. vincial government passed a law allow- Western Canada, a more comfortable They claim that they will go through ing police in Vancouver and Victoria to tourist attraction for the wealthy of the an extensive training process, helping forcefully remove homeless people off world. Along with being another op- those without jobs to acquire skills they the street and into shelters. They claim portunity to help further spit in the face can use in the future. While clearly tak- the law only entitles them to do this of the aboriginal peoples of Canada, ing advantage of Aboriginal poverty in during extreme weather conditions, but that unlike the United States, had yet Canada, they are also creating divisions considering the timing, it is clear what to succumb to the European settlement among native groups in Western Can- the intentions are. Once this law was known as the Canadian government. ada. All together the security budget made public, it was a bit too ridiculous for the Olympics alone is 900 million to ignore. After a fuss was made, the Since the Olympics, the G8, and Secu- dollars. But what has been so unique law was reformed to only allow officers rity and Prosperity partnership meet- about this 2 year hype of resistance and to forcefully remove homeless people ings were set to take place in Canada. riot before the 2010 Olympics, is that off the street, and to the shelter, but Confrontation and clandestine resis- even before such intense state postur- they could not force the person to stay. tance have been helping to preserve ing, action and solidarity continues However they could just keep picking a discomfort for the games, and soli- to be stoic and uncompromising just them up and taking them there. It is ex- darity for those who are experiencing months before the planned Olympic pected that large parts of the city will be the repercussions of it across the na- police state in Western Canada. shut down for the Olympics, making it tion. The rituals of the political elite

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Riot: The Olympics are Coming-Pg. 42 will not be tolerated by the excluded, tacked an RBC on Cook st. We broke were attacked in Montreal. The Royal discontent, and revolutionary of Can- two windows and left into the early Bank is a sponsor of the 2010 Olympic ada. The spectacle of excitement and morning. We did this because we hate games which are a gross display of cap- comfort the public relation projects of banks, we hate the rich, and we hate the italism, colonialism, displacement, re- these events continue to fabricate are bosses and their Olympics. Solidarity pression, and overall bad taste. We did constantly shattered by the gestures of against the torch run that leaves here on this miniscule thing in solidarity with “violent” hooligans in the night, and the thirtieth! comrades on the West Coast of this vast mobs of hostility greeting every event occupied island. Fuck RBC and fuck specifically celebrating the games. -Anarchists. the Olympics - lets extinguish the colo- nizer’s flame and start some real fires! The Olympics are a historical event Week of December 10th, that celebrates the Nation-States of the 2009, Ottawa, Canada: Five October 28th, 2009, Athens, world. They provide governments with Royal Bank of Canada properties Greece: No statement of solidarity pride, and hosting countries with fund- vandalized. with specifically the 2010 Olympics in ing and opportunities for expansion and Canada was published, but a high ex- development with the influence of the Excerpt from the communiqué: plosive bomb was left around 4 a.m. at global world. The Olympics celebrate the Olympic games offices in the Pan- a time for governments and businesses No Olympics On Stolen Native Land! grati quarter of Athens. The explosion to come together. The Olympics were Starting February 12 the winter Olym- caused damage to the buildings struc- first practiced at the dawn of Western pics will take place in occupied ture, and to two vehicles parked nearby. civilization, and re-introduced into the British Colombia. The 2004 summer Olympics in Ath- modern world through the dreams of To date most Indigenous Nations in ens caused riots and resistance across a French aristocrat. They are a peace- British Colombia haven’t entered into the country. Similarly to the security ful war of Nations, competing for the treaties with the British Crown or the planned for the 2010 Winter Olympic place of best and most powerful. They Canadian government. games, the Greek government utilized celebrate the standards of capital, and This means that, according to Interna- the same concerns of unrest, as an op- foster the feelings of nationalism. They tional Law, most of British Colombia is portunity to escalate its already existing bring us together to divide us, and help illegally occupied by the Canadian repression to revolutionary anarchist us to further understand our humanity state... groups in Athens. In this specific -in only through borders. The Royal Bank of Canada is also a stance, the Greek government started sponsor of the 2010 Olympics. to test out its new anti-terror laws with In the case of the 2010 Olympics, there We say fuck RBC. Due to their spon- the support of international government seems to also be an opportunity for en- sorship of the Olympics, and the fact funding, and the little bit of National- emies of bother government and busi- that they are generally heinous, we van- ist support around the Olympic games. ness to come together as well, in riot dalized 5 RBCs in Ottawa, smashing Since then, the surveillance and new and resistance, and most importantly one of their branches windows in the laws the Olympics helped to rational- solidarity. early morning... ize for the Greek state have become the RBCs in Ottawa have been repeatedly norm of Greek police conduct. We compiled a short list of statements targeted with property damage, and we and news clips describing resistance felt that we should also do our bit. that has happened or is expected to con- We know that this action is just a drop TORCH tinue happening around the Olympics. in the bucket, but we also know RELAY Please visit the links included at the end that enough drops will fill that bucket of this article to stay updated with the up! DISRUPTIONS continued anti-Olympic momentum, or how to help out against the games. -The ‘damage to property is violent’ Following a call out by the Native collective. Youth Movement, demonstrations against the torch relay were organized CLANDESTINE Week of December 10th, across major cities in Canada that ACTIONS 2009, Montreal, Canada: were planning to hold large celebra- Two Royal Bank of Canada proper- tions greeting the Olympic ritual. Na- October 22, 2009, Victoria, ties attacked in solidarity against the tive groups also blocked or refused the Canada: Olympic sponsor, the Royal Olympic torch run. Torch from entering certain areas that Bank of Canada, has windows attacked. were cited on the torch path across the Communique: nation. Olympic torch relays were un- Communique: The Olympic Torch is in town! Last known until modern times. They have Last night in Victoria, Canada, we at- night, to celebrate, two Royal Banks their roots in flame races called - lam Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Riot: The Olympics are Coming-Pg. 43 padedromia held in ancient Greece to living on the land not dependent on Olympic torch arrived in a Canadian honour certain gods. But the first torch the invading governments for survival, military jumbo jet. It was first handed relay associated with the modern Olym- only needing clean land, air and water to token Indian chiefs who embrace pic Games did not occur until 1936 in for sustenance. The goal of the invaders Canada’s “Indian Act”. An act estab- Berlin. It was organized by the Nazis is to make us fully dependent on them lished by the Canadian parliament in who believed that classical Greece was to survive, giving us no choice but to 1876 to help mediate the aboriginal an Aryan forerunner of the modern live white. When we refuse we are ar- people of Canada. The Minister of German Reich and was intended to link rested or murdered. Indian Affairs and Northern Develop- the modern and ancient Games. The This is a unification call to the Proud ment are the formal department that Torch relay helped provide examples of and Strong Nations of the North, the administers the “Indian Act”. This was conflict to come, and an understanding Songhees, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu- established to determine who was and that the games will not be welcomed by chah-nulth, Halkomelem, Cowichen, was not native in the eyes of the Ca- many across Canada. We included the Tuchone Tlinget, Inuit, Innu, Mo- nadian state. It was created to deter- call out here, followed by a few news hawk, Six Nation Confederacy, An- mine who is eligible for Indian status clips regarding disruptions of the Torch nishinabe, Cree, Algonquin, MikM’aq, and who is not. The process of “afford- relay when it entered some of Canada’s Maliseet, Wabanaki, Siskita, Dakota, ing” native status before the Indian Act major cities. Nakota, Stoney, Dene, Gwich’in, Tahl- requires registering with the Canadian tan, Gitsan, Wetsuitan, Haisla, Nisga, government, and complying with a set Confront Invasion: Sekani, Dakelh, Tsimshian, Nux- of guidelines and standards created by Protest 2010 Olympic Torch alk, Heiltsuk,Tsilcotin, Secwepemc, the Canadian parliament. Relay Nlaka’pamux, Okanagan, Ktnuxa, St’at’imc, Stolo and all unmentioned Once the torch was given to the Chief, For the next 106 days the Olympic Nations. and brought in a canoe to a cauldron Torch will run over our Great Lands. representing the Olympic games. Fol- The Olympic torch, a flamed staff that When the Torch passes through your lowing this, the torch was given to ce- represents white supremacy, is running Lands and communities, this is your lebrity athletes, corporate employees, through Indigenous Nations and Terri- opportunity to let the world know what and “important” citizens to be flaunted tories, symbolizing their theft and dom- is happening in your land. It’s your op- around the city. At the same time, hun- inance of our Lands and Ways. For 106 portunity to tell them the true story and dreds of protestors were coming togeth- days every Indigenous Nation in these the real relationship between the Invad- er to shatter the praise of the torch and Lands has the opportunity to talk to ers known as KKKanada and your In- what it represented. About 400 people the world about your issues and show digenous Nation. Let the world know snaked through the streets of Victoria, Unity between all Nations here who the land and water can never be sold blocking intersections during Victoria’s have a common oppressor, and com- and natural law is more powerful than rush hour. They allegedly used marbles mon Invader, KKKlanada (“Canada”). man-made law. to help fight off police on horses trying Let us Unite voices and show the World to divide the march. Although helicop- we are a Proud and Independent People They fear our Unity. ters, roof-top snipers, and hundreds of who will never Surrender our Lands. police were also there to greet the dem- Not only is the Torch running our Plan some form of action when the onstrators, large portions of the torch Lands, they are also going to get Native torch passes your area, stop it or chase run that day were cancelled due to po- people to participate in their evil cer- them to the edge of your Lands and let lice concerns around the march. emonies. KKKanada wants the world the next Nation pick up where you left to think Native people are compliant off. December 11th, 2009: Torch and even eager to be assimilated into relay disrupted in Montreal. the white way of life. No Evil Invader Torch on Native Land! We call on all Native Nations of the In Montreal, 200 people came together North to show the World we are Strong -Native Youth Movement Warrior to hiss, boo, and embarrass the Torch and Dignified People, the Survivors Society relay as it entered the city. Confetti and of a 500 year old Holocaust that has literature were thrown onto the crowd taken 250 million Indigenous lives, October 30th, 2009: First day of there to greet the Torch, which lead whose Lands are illegally occupied and Olympic torch run disrupted: police to attack the mob. The group destroyed, who are a People who will of people forced an hour delay of the never accept defeat. After scandals of a Greek athlete who relay, due to police concern of a riot. Ever since their invasion we have re- has been accused of using steroids in Amazingly, the two and a half hour sisted. As this is written, indigenous the 2004 Greek Olympic games, the spectacle ended up being a 30 minute people are blockading roads to prevent torch arrived in the Victoria Interna- event without a planned finale includ- destruction. Original people are still tional airport in British Colombia. The ing fireworks. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Riot: The Olympics are Coming-Pg. 44 “We have this in common. We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter and a common discriminator. But once we realize that we have a common enemy, then we can unite--on the basis of what we have in common...” —Malcolm X, 1954

December 17th, 2009: To- CONCLUSION: ritual. It is blockades in the streets ronto Olympic torch run disrupted. and highways. It is the shattering NO CONCLUSION of comfort for Nationalism and In Toronto the Torch run was met wealth. It is anonymous and non- by 250 people holding a banner say- By the time this issue is printed, anonymous statements of solidar- ing “No Olympics on Stolen Land” there will not be another issue until ity that transcend a struggle solely gathered around a 15 foot tall make the Olympics in Canada are over. based on identity. It is the recog- shift torch themselves. Statements As you can see from news clips we nition of a common enemy, yet to against the Torch run were read in compiled here, or in prior issues, be discovered communities and solidarity with Six Nations or native attack and conflict have been con- friendships. groups struggling against the inva- stant. Revolutionaries around the sion of the Olympics in their terri- world should learn from this project Whether or not the Olympics get tories. Some protestors infiltrated against the 2010 Olympics. Simi- shut down. Whether or not the po- the crowds of support, passing out larly to the Mapuche and anarchist lice run a blood bath, or the city of information against the games, de- struggles in Chile against the entire- Vancouver is in flames; networks scribing the effects of Olympics ty of the state, the fight against this of solidarity against the state, that and popular disapproval over them year’s Winter games have helped transcend the typical leftist infra- specifically by Native groups. Ap- bring groups together to realize a structure, will remain. The build-up parently you could hear boos com- common enemy. to the games has already presented ing not just from the angry mob The Olympics are simply a hyper- a great deal of resistance. The mo- that had come to criticize, but also example of wealth and power in its mentum can only continue to grow. among the “supporting” crowd. As most vain form. But opportunities soon as the Torch event formally to create popular conflict with the began, the crowd of 250 took to the institutions of control in society are NOTE streets, immediately being chased everywhere at every moment. Its by the police. As the mob ran hiss- the responsibility of revolutionar- Just a few days before going to ing and booing the torch event, they ies to learn from this project, as the print, 8 arrests were made in Ontar- were met with a group of riot police. sentiment around the 2010 Olym- io, as a result of a group of people While all of this was going on, the pics has shattered divisions among trying to blockade a highway to dis- March in Honour of Harriet Naha- the discontent across Canada. The rupt the Olympic torch relay once nee, led by indigenous women, had No 2010 project was an accessible again. Those 8 have been released. split off to follow the torch. Dur- project of resistance. Unlike most But resistance and repression con- ing this, someone climbed an arch of the charity or activist groups you tinues everyday. Please visit the fol- directly opposite of the main stage would expect to jump on the con- lowing web sites to stay up to date: that was celebrating and welcoming sequences of the Olympic games, the torch, and hung a banner read- resistance to them has not been a ing “Gego Olympics Da-Te-Snoon specialized or passive task. Nishnaabe-Giing Ga-Gmooding” (No Olympics on Stolen Native There is not one organization fight- Land in Anishinaabemowin). The ing the games. There is not one NO 2010; Olympics on banner stayed up till the end of the group of people, isolated according Stolen Land festivities. One fight broke out be- to their identity, fighting the Olym- www.no2010.com tween a speaker against the games pics. It is the homeless fighting the and a citizen supporter. Two arrests police in East Vancouver, refusing Native Youth Media + were made. But the event did not to be taken from their make-shift Redwire Magazine go disrupted as it continued its way homes or further humiliated by po- www.redwiremag.com across the nation, and according to lice. It is Native defense of land. It the mainstream media, the Torch is violence against sponsors in the Olympic Resistance was “blocked”. night. It is theft of Olympic infra- Network structure and disruption of Olympic olympicresistance.net Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Riot: The Olympics are Coming-Pg. 45 THIS WAS NOT OUR BROKENHAGEN:

On the actions against the On the actions climate summit cop15 in against the copenhagen climate summit “COP15” in Copenhagen

he news we’ve heard before heading off for When we finally arrived in Copenhagen, fortunately with- the actions against the COP15-climate sum- out being controlled at the border, we heard that on friday mit definitely weren`t those you want to the 11th a lot of people were arrested already. When a hear when you plan to make the trouble this small demo under the slogan “don`t buy the lie” passed the city needed. “Hopenhagen” exhibition (the pro COP-15 campaign was called “Hopenhagen”), and more than 60 arrests were made. TWe all were pretty excited, seeing the need of turning this Immediately following this, whole busses of people were spectacle from a friendly, green capitalist theatre play by taken to jail and immediately deported. the United Nations into a raging festival of flames and dust. The city of Copenhagen and the cops installed a new law, When we arrived, all we got to know about the next day the “lömmelpakken”, wich should make it possible to pre- was that there was going to be an international anti-capital- emptedly arrest people for up to 40 days without any charge. ist block at the big demonstration on Saturday, meeting in Also the “Schengen-Agreement” got suspended for the time the very center of Copenhagen. When the demo was about of the summit. This made it possible for the cops of Sweden, to start, we arrived after being detained and searched on the Germany and Denmark to control the borders to keep the way. It became clear that we weren’t that many. A black dreaded “troublemakers” out. block of about 150 masked people, armed with stones and fireworks was formed in the demo of about 100.000 demon- The Danish press ran wild before the summit, creating sto- strators who obviously weren’t that happy about us show- ries about international hordes of anarchists who plan to ing up. The general attitude of the big demonstration as a destroy the city of Copenhagen completely. The group whole was awfully naive, claiming “climate justice” and painted as the face of this anarchist momentum was recog- promoting a “sustainable lifestyle”. nized by its slogan: “Never trust a COP”. For more info and the call to actions prior to the event check out: www.never- We weren’t in Copenhagen to find our friends among the trustacop.org. The “NTAC”-network dissolved right before international environmental NGOs. Right after the demo the summit, stating that the goal of mobilizing radicals to started, the small black bloc found its place behind the truck the summit in copenhagen was accomplished. Also there of the so called “radical” Climate Justice Action-Block. where rumors that the cops where trying to find out who After a few hundred meters the Danish Foreign Ministry formed the network so they could be arrested. building was attacked with stones and fireworks. Windows were smashed and we kept walking on in chains. The cops

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-This was not our “Brokenhagen”-Pg. 46 started immediately to split up the walls were damaged. All in all through- Noah was arrested on the street and mass demo behind the black bloc and out the time of the summit the cops has been charged with Violence To- attacked after a few minutes. We de- made around 1,915 arrests. The biggest ward Police, Destruction of Property, fended ourselves and tried to hide in the amount of them were administrative Disturbing the Peace, and Wearing next blocs. Some fucked up socialists which means without a suspicion. a Mask--in short, two felonies and pushed masked and black dressed com- two misdemeanors. He was origi- rades back towards the cops. A typical Our goals, to smash the spectacle being nally being held without bail and had gesture of solidarity that can be expect- put up by politicians and NGOs on one little chance of release before his trial. ed from NGOs or leftists. Since the hand and reformist activists and politi- Shortly before going into print, Noah Danish police borrowed German and cal parties on the other hand failed. We was released and must return to stand Swedish cop cars for the summit, some think that summits have nothing to do trial in March. Since public defenders German police cars -among others- got with everyday social war. They choose and pro-bono lawyers are not permitted smashed . So the German comrades felt the battlefield and we join the games. in Denmark, Noah will have to have a quite at home. The black bloc disap- But we also think that searching for es- state-appointed lawyer who he’ll have peared. People changed clothes and calation under other circumstances can to pay unless he wins on all counts. If headed away from the demo while the give us strength and experiences. Even Noah is convicted of either felony or cops started to make mass arrests. if we didn’t create the necessary disas- any additional charges, we are told to ter needed against the summit during expect a sentence of one year in jail After these few minutes of clash some those days we still stood strong against (all sentences are served concurrently). smaller fights with cops occurred their repression with revolutionary For the entirety of his imprisonment, around the former-squatted district of solidarity. There were a lot of solidar- we did not know how he was doing, but Christiania (now its nearly just a tour- ity demonstrations and actions every- from sources, we indirectly heard that istic place, where people sell and buy where. In Kiel (Germany) and Berlin he chose to remain strong, get some ex- drugs). The whole night through the comrades attacked the Danish embas- ercising, reading, and writing done, and cops controlled the area around Christi- sies. Even if this wasn’t our Brokenha- remained in good spirits. ania, a few times smaller troops of cops gen it was still an empowering battle. rushed into the district but left again. To remain up to date with Noah’s case Nearly everywhere people were either building up to his trial in March: detained, searched, or arrested. All in FOLLOWING THE all about 900 arrests during Saturday SUMMIT, SOME Donation and contact: were made. Of course there were some comrades among those arrested, but the ARE STILL FACING [email protected] majority of those arrested were people REPRESSION Noah’s Support that had been arrested during the mass- 1065 Lipan St, Denver CO 80204 demo. Regarding Denver Anarchist Noah Weiss: Also visit: The whole week through the cops held denverabc.wordpress.com to this tactic of arresting as many as Of the 1,500 arrests made during the possible and acted very violent. On COP-15 actions, 7 individuals were A huge thanks to Copenhagen ABC and December 14th, the clashes outside kept in prison for weeks after the events. everyone who looked out for our com- Christiania continued. The cops seized Facing multiple charges ranging from rade across the Atlantic. the district for hours, and finally they misdemeanors to felonies. One of them raided the district and made mass- was an anarchist from Denver named Social war is everyday. arrests. The night through there were Noah “Rockslide” Weiss. He was re- burning barricades and smaller clashes leased a shortly before going into print, For vengeance, pleasure, and social around Christiania, which the cops held but weeks after his arrest. Noah moved war! occupied for hours after making mul- to Copenhagen a few months before the tiple arrests. COP-15 summit for grad school and to -Some Unwanted Children of organize groundwork for anti-capitalist Capitalism // Anarchists from the On Saturday and the whole week actions and infrastructure during the North. through a large number of the arrested summit. He was arrested after police were held in make-shift jail cells de- spent months surveilling organizers, signed like big steel-cages, in which following them home, and so on. people were put in groups of up to 20. In the late hours of December 12th pris- The Danish legal system is confusing, oners tried to escape through the rest but this is how we understand things: rooms. A door was destroyed and some

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-This was not our “Brokenhagen”-Pg. 47 REPRESSION

UPDATES ON THE LEGAL CASES OR SITUATIONS OF THOSE ENEMY TO THE STATE

plete contempt for the snitch Brandon Darby flare all over SOME OF THE the internet, and an entire website exists (Brandondarby. com) to expose Brandon Darby to the world for the shameful human being he is, Katyanne fell victim to state opportun- BETTER NEWS ism. Her case was another attempt to make an example out of someone for acting out, in this case allegedly by email, frustrations with the state (considering Brandon Darby is an ally of the state). The alleged email reflected frustration with the KATYANNE MARIE KIBBY state’s infiltration of our communities of resistance, and resulting perpetuation of distrust and dysfunction among those ACQUITTED OF ALL in active conflict with everything the state protects.

CHARGES AGAINST FBI Katyanne was originally facing 20 years for allegedly email- INFORMANT BRANDON ing Brandon Darby a threatening message after he was ex- posed as an FBI informant when Brad Crowder and David DARBY! Mckay were both arrested and accused of possessing firearms. The firearms the state refers to are Molotov cocktails Katyanne Marie Kibby is a Texas woman who was accused allegedly planned for an attack on police cars around the of sending a “threatening” message via email to FBI infor- time of the Republican National Convention in 2008. The ar- mant Brandon Darby. Katyanne was acquitted of all charges rest was made based on Brandon’s testimony about the two. this past November. Although comments expressing com- Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 48 Katyanne chose to remain stoic and “handler,” Tim Sellers. Disgracing his of assaulting a drug dealer is to secure uncooperative during the trial as she friends and family was not enough to monies to finance one’s activities, and stuck with her story, and refused to ac- stop Brandon in continuing to torment to rid the oppressed communities of cept a plea deal, despite reports that the our community. The statements and drug dealers.” defense provided pages upon pages of personality of Brandon Darby should evidence of Brandon Darby’s embar- be a learning experience for all of us Ojore became an anarchist in prison af- rassing character and irresponsible who live in active conflict with the ter becoming disillusioned with Marx- demeanor. The prosecution, although state. More importantly, the behavior ism and reading anarchist texts suggest- pushing for a 20 year sentence, had and will of Katyanne should be an ined by Kuwasi Balagoon. His supporters nothing on the defense’s statements, spiration to all of us. are asking for financial assistance that leading to a unanimous not-guilty ver- will allow Ojore to transition more dict by the jury. To learn more about the case of the Tex- smoothly, giving him the needed time as 2 (Brad Crowder and David Mckay) to readjust to the life on the outside that Reports mention that the FBI stated please visit: he hasn’t experienced since 1982. during the trial that informant Brandon www.freethetexas2.com Darby was no longer a use to them, To make a donation, checks or money since he publicly claimed responsibil- To learn more about the egocentric tool orders payable to Tim Fasnacht can be ity on “activist” websites for turning box Brandon Darby visit: sent to: over Brad Crowder and David Mckay www.brandondarby.com to the police. He claims he found it Philadelphia ABCF more important to prevent a violent at- To stay up to date with informants, Post Office Box 42129 tack on the state, than to protect two snitches, and other ways the FBI and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101 young lives. Although most people state police are trying to infiltrate com- become FBI informants when selfishly munities of resistance visit: trying to avoid other charges, Brandon www.snitchwire.blogspot.com claims he chose to work with the state JEFF “FREE” at his own will, in fact voluntarily. With LUERS RELEASED this, one can understand the coercive and cowardly opportunism the state OJORE LUTALO FROM PRISON! showed when it asked Katyanne to co- RELEASED operate. The FBI offered Katyanne two In 2001, Jeff “Free” Luers was origi- alternatives to trial; the first was a plea Anarchist and New Afrikan political nally sentenced to 22 years and 8 deal where she would enter a separate prisoner, Ojore Lutalo, was recently months for burning 3 SUVs in Eugene, trial that can only carry a maximum of released from prison in Trenton, New Oregon. Sadly, only 40,000 dollars in four years; the other was becoming an Jersey. He served 26 years, most of it damage was done, and all 3 SUVs were informant, infiltrating specific groups in isolation, all in the service of revolu- fixed and eventually sold. Following and individuals in Austin, Texas, and tionary struggle and the Black Libera- year’s worth of attempts to file an ap- New York City. According to Katy- tion Army (BLA). Ojore’s own words peal, Jeff Luers was finally given a sen- anne, she was provided a long list of describe: tence reduction that allowed him to be people, many of which she didn’t even released after 9.5 years on December know, in New York and Austin, hoping “serving a parole violation sentence 16, 2009. He was originally released she would assume responsibility where (we received 14 to 17 years) stemming for one day on October 20, 2009, but Brandon Darby left off. Katyanne sim- from a 1977 conviction for expropriat- was snatched back by the state the next ply said no, and chose to go to trial. ing money from a capitalist state bank day. The state claimed there was a mis- (in order to finance our activities) and take, and that he was not supposed to It’s scary to hear about FBI attempts engaging the police in a gun battle in be released until 2 months later. This to infiltrate our communities of re- December 1975 in order to effect our was an obvious attempt to continue sistance. It’s incredible, however, to departure from the bank, and to ensure tormenting Jeff while they have him di- hear of someone staying strong, even success of the operation...After my rectly under their thumb. On a brighter before such intimidation by the Fed- parole violation sentence terminated note though, Jeff is out of prison. He eral government. It’s inspiring to hear in December 1987, I started serving a has chosen to remain stoic and uncom- about someone not backing down, be- forty year sentence with a twenty year promising throughout his time, and not ing smart, and not compromising her parole ineligibility (I was paroled in allowed his experience to break him. friends, or even those she didn’t know. 1980, and I have been back in captiv- We want to express our excitement and We send our regards and solidarity to ity since April 20, 1982) that I have re- joy for his release, as Jeff has been a Katyanne, and our utter disgust to the ceived in 1982 for having a gun-fight reminder of the courage some can dis- likes of Brandon Darby and his FBI with a drug dealer. The overall strategy play when overcoming the obstacles Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 49 set forth by the state, and resisting the Jesse James Forrey was sentenced in FCI Danbury society it exists to protect. An “official” September 2009 to 4 months in jail for Federal Correctional Institution media statement was sent out upon his property damage to a bank during the Route #37 release. We have included an excerpt 2008 Republican National Conven- Danbury, CT 06811 from this statement by Jeff, below. We tion in St. Paul, MN. He was finally recommend learning more about Jeff’s released early on December 1st. Jesse Kevin Kjonaas #93502-011 case and history. His experience helped was originally due to be released on Unit I to mark the dawn of much of the harsh November 30th, but was held an extra FCI Sandstone repression in recent years, conducted two days, during which his he was told P.O. Box 1000 in the shadows of American justice, he may be extradited to California for Sandstone, MN 55072 against similar cases of eco-influenced a separate warrant, and held for up to 3 resistance. At the same time, his consis- months waiting to see if the warrant is tency and strength throughout his time acted upon by authorities. Fortunately in prison should be an inspiration to us on December 1st he was released from LAST all. jail, and able to return to his home, CONSPIRACY friends, and family in California. Letters congratulating Jeff can be sent CHARGE IN THE to: Jesse James needs help covering over SAN FRANCISCO $18,000 in legal expenses. Information Jeffrey Free Luers on how to donate can be found on his 8 CASE HAS BEEN c/o Free’s Support Network support website at: PO Box 3 DROPPED! Eugene, OR 97440 www.supportjessejames.wordpress. com News clip: For more information on Jeff and his case please visit: “In court today, December 3rd, the www.freefreenow.org prosecution dropped the conspiracy JACOB CONROY charge against Francisco (Cisco) Tor- Statement from Jeff Luers and his law- OF SHAC 7 res, citing lack of evidence. The de- yer: fense has argued from the beginning RELEASED! that the conspiracy charges against “The last 9½ years have been difficult the San Francisco 8 from 37 years ago at best. I have witnessed things in pris- Jacob Conroy, one of the SHAC 7, was had no validity because the statute of on that I will carry with me for the rest released from prison on November 6, limitations passed long ago. The state’s of my life. I have endured hardship and 2009 after 3 years. The SHAC 7 is six motion to dismiss this count two (con- loss. Without a doubt, this experience individuals and a corporation, “Stop spiracy) tacitly acknowledges the de- has changed me. What hasn’t changed Huntingdon Animal Cruelty” who were fense arguments which had already led is my commitment to environmental given sentences varying from 1 to 6 to dismissing the conspiracy charges and social justice.” years in prison for promoting an essen- against Richard O’Neal, Herman Bell, tially legal activist campaign against Hank Jones, Ray Boudreaux, Richard “I would like to thank all the people Huntingdon Life Sciences, a notorious Brown, and Harold Taylor. In January who have supported me through the animal testing company. Of the six, 2007, the 8 were arrested for their al- years; especially the dedicated few only two remain inside prison now- leged involvement in the 1971 murder who worked tirelessly to get me out of Lauren Gazzola and Kevin Kjonaas. of Sgt. John V. Young at Ingleside sta- prison. I look forward to spending time tion, a thirty year old unsolved crime with my loved ones and continuing my To learn more about how to support the for which the men were originally education, as well as continuing my ac- remaining two SHAC7 defendants in charged for at the time, but the charges tivism.” jail, or about the background and impli- were dropped by the judge presiding cations of their case, please visit: over the case in response to the police torturing confessions out of them.” www.shac7.com RNC WINDOW Support the SF8 and donate to their le- SMASHER JESSE Don’t forget to write letters of support gal defense at: to Lauren and Kevin. They can receive JAMES RELEASED letters to the following address: www.freethesf8.org

FROM JAIL! Lauren Gazzola #93497-011

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 50 ARIEL ATTACK A year unsupervised is not a bad deal In August, I was taken into custody and SENTENCED TO considering the circumstances of Ar- charged with an attack on the head- iel’s arrest and their refusal to name quarters of the Colorado Democratic 11 MONTHS OF the ‘accomplice’. In case you’re just Party with another individual who was UNSUPERVISED tuning in, Ariel was involved in an at- never identified. For the curious--I tack against the Colorado Democratic got caught because, no lookout, a cop RELEASE Party Headquarters in August by means drove by, and my bike chain fell off all of hammers and the resulting media at once. “...allegedly.” Note: clusterfuck. We feel there has been a lot of luck mixed up in this situation, but After all that bad luck, my traipse The Democratic Party Headquarters in we’ll publish a narrative of the events through the halls of justice went well. Denver had eleven windows smashed so that anarchists out there can see if And now that I’ve made a plea in court out with hammers early on the morning there’s anything they can learn. Look to a lesser charge and received eleven of August 25, 2009. The damage was out for that in the next couple of weeks. months’ unsupervised probation as estimated at $11,000. It was exactly the punishment, now the case is closed, one year anniversary of the commence- Meanwhile, friends close by and far I feel some compulsion to address a ment of the 2008 Democratic National away are feeling the cold grip of state question that has been put to me many Convention in Denver. Police reported repression, and the struggle continues. times--the question of why. seeing two vandals who fled. A single There are two Denver-based anarchists arrest was made (the police witness facing felony charges and massive le- Well, who asks ‘why’ when hooligans and arrest seems to have been a case gal fees, and we extend our solidarity trash their school at night or prisoners of bad luck). That individual, Ariel to Jeff and Noah, along with Carrie and set their prison alight? It is appropriate Attack, was held in Denver City Jail Scott, David Japenga, the RNC8, all of to a political target that there must be for about 36 hours before a bail hear- our imprisoned comrades; the list is far a message, that the action is not for its ing and the full $5000 bail was raised too long to finish. own sake but for the purpose of com- quickly. Since then Ariel was sentenced munication and negotiation; such is to 11 months of unsupervised proba- While Ariel’s legal battle has wrapped the nature of politics. Well, politics is tion. The following article is a state- up, we are making one last request for something I admit to exist within even ment from her support group following donations to help cut away at Ariel’s while recognizing its destruction as the court’s decision. After that is an debt--about $6,000--and we still have necessary--just as I once existed within original statement from Ariel submitted some of these fly Hammer Time t-shirts schooling. But to the question of why, for this issue. to move. [email protected] to of messaging, there is no answer I can get hooked up. give that would be as satisfactory as Support team’s statement following the complete silence. Especially consid- ruling: A brief message from Ariel: “To every- ering the silence and anonymity of the one who has had my back these past missing accomplice. Theirs is an ap- Ariel Attack Still Livin’ at Large! months, with everything from letters propriate condition and one that I envy, and cash to screenprinting, fashion ad- and wish to return to soon. “Today in Denver, we have cause to vice, words, and all of that intangible “I celebrate as one warm body became got your back” stuff, Thank you! And, There is still the question of blood secure in its relative freedom--the sort yeah, it was fun.” and defense. The legal process I went of freedom that reminds us of what we through had a far better conclusion than still must do in order to be free. Yes- Freedom, however, is not something I originally feared, which says little of terday morning Ariel Attack plead to stable on which we can place our feet. the benevolence of the system and much Class 2 Misdemeanor (Criminal Mis- It is a struggle we fight day by day. Yes- about the pessimism I set up in prepar- chief) in return for the dropping of the terday was not a shallow victory--there ing myself for the worst, the choice original Felony charge, and the court is nothing shallow about the warmth of of a good lawyer who exerted himself set the sentence at 11 months (?!?) of friends’ arms, the taste of good food, toward my freedom and the decisions unsupervised probation and full pay- the drag of fingernails across skin. Still, I made to fuck with the courts even as ment of $5,600 restitution, allowing this sense of freedom is nothing com- I navigated them. I was able to assert Ariel to stay on the streets and in the pared to what we will experience when certain choices throughout the process arms of friends. This is much better we destroy the prisons.” and I was lucky to not have to com- than the possible 2-6 year bit they were promise. Seriously, I’m fucking tick- facing. The restitution had to be paid in The following is an original statement led that I never apologized to a judge full and up front (by taking out a loan) from Ariel for this issue of Fire to the or anybody. But seriously, I had little for the deal to go through. Prisons: pressure to do so, I got lucky, and we

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 51 need to make space for our comrades to Paramus, NJ 07652 insurrectionary in Europe, and across make their own decisions in how they -or- the world. Some of his more famous defend themselves (save snitching of ABC Pittsburgh writings have been: “The Anarchist course) and support those decisions. PO Box 9272 Tension” (which was actually a speech Pittsburgh, PA 15224 that was transcribed and published), Most of all, I was and remain over- “Lets Destroy Work, Lets Destroy the whelmed by the immensity of the Cassidy was sentenced to 99 months for Economy”, “Against Amnesty”, and support I received from people in the what the state dubbed “armed robbery” most notoriously, a pamphlet he served wake of my arrest. I cannot thank you and “assaulting an officer” for shoplift- 18 months in Italian prison for writing enough, the best I can do is get your ing a pair of socks and refusing to be in the late 70’s called “Armed Joy”. As back when the state comes for you. passive when the courtrooms cops beat of now, we only know that Alfredo and On that note, for the amount of atten- him for cursing the verdict. Despite the Christos are currently being held in the tion my case has received in the main- screws and Neo-Nazi inmates’ attempts Amfissa prison, a prison reserved spe- stream media and from anarchists, let’s to dissuade him, he has remained active cifically for individuals like Christos recognize that 11 months unsupervised throughout his incarceration. and Alfredo, where “convicts” are held probation aint nothin and there are so in cells with upwards of 20-50 other many others facing some serious re- For more information, email: people at all times. Since the arrest, pression, as I’m sure these pages testify [email protected] or Christos has claimed that Alfredo was to. So forget about me, and let’s make [email protected] unaware of the robbery, and that he ac- prisons a memory. cepts all responsibility for it. The judge has chosen to continue to prosecute Al- Forever onward, fredo anyway. Ariel. IN Obviously the response by the Greek Still get in touch with Ariel’s support state is tempered by Alfredo’s back- team for whatever reason, including a ground and associations. As Alfredo is fly Hammer Time t-shirt sold for her TROUBLE respected and loved by revolutionaries defense. across the world, he is the enemy of governments everywhere. He has been Contacts: framed and appointed as an “ideologi- [email protected] ALFREDO cal leader” by the Italian government 1065 Lipan St / Denver CO 80204 BONANNO AND during the notorious “Marini Trial”, www.denverabc.wordpress.com and penalized for simply communicat- CHRISTOS ing his perspective. Christos and Alfre- STRATIGOPULOS do both, of course, deserve our utmost support and attention across the world. ANARCHIST REMAIN IN JAIL! Alfredo specifically deserves our- ur PRISONER gent attention considering his health Alfredo Bonanno and Christos Strati- condition. It is unclear as to whether or CASSIDY gopulos both remain in Greek prison not the Greek government plans to de- WHEELER after being arrested for an alleged port Bonanno, but we’re assuming that, bank robbery earlier this year in Tri- considering he was out of jail for health RELEASED! kala, Greece. Police claim that Chris- reasons, being arrested for an alleged tos conducted the robbery, leaving the bank robbery in another country will Cassidy Wheeler was released from bank with 46,900 euros. They claim probably not help a positive greeting Twin Rivers after nearly 8 years incar- that when Christos left the bank he back in Italy cerated. He currently resides with his handed the money to Alfredo in a partner in Portland, Oregon and is in rented car. Following a citizen’s tip, We included below the closest thing good spirits. Monetary donations can Alfredo and Christos were pulled over we have found to a support website and still be sent through paypal to antiracis- near the town Kalambaka, where po- email address for Christos and Alfredo. [email protected] (please make lice say they found the money. Chris- We apologize to both Alfredo, Christos, note its for Cassidy) and cash, checks, tos, 46, is a respected Greek comrade and the reader for our lack of up-to-date and money orders (left blank, please) who was arrested in Italy years ago details or ways to support. Information can be sent to: and sentenced for a similar crime. Al- has been hard to find due to distance fredo Bonanno, 73, who was recently and language barriers. We do under- Shoelacetown Anarchist Black Cross released for health reasons from an Ital- stand that Alfredo and Christos are able PO Box 8085 ian prison is a well known author and to receive letters addressed to them at:

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 52 (Name) is to struggle along with the exploited ity that, so far, there has been no new TZAMALA 3 and push them to rebel against all abuse beginning as far as Eric’s physical free- 33100 AMFISSA and repression, so also against prison. dom is concerned. Some things remain GREECE What moves them is the desire for a painfully the same. Eric is still locked better world, a better life with dignity away by the state. Please remember You can send donations to: and ethic, where economy and politics that this time of year can be particular- Conto corrente postale n° 23852353, have been destroyed. ly difficult for folks who are locked up. directed to A. Medeot - C.P. 3431 - Take a minute to write Eric – or another Trieste (Italy), with a letter stating There can be no place for prison in that political prisoner – and let them know “sottoscrizione arresti in Grecia” world. that folks on the outside are still thinking of them and supporting them. The most important thing to understand That is why anarchists scare power. here, though, is that two anarchists were That is why they are locked up in pris- Appeal Update arrested for allegedly robbing a bank on.” intending to use the money to help fur- Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of news ther revolutionary projects. Therefore, about the appeal. The they deserve our utmost and uncondi- government’s response to Eric’s open- tional support during these hard times. AN UPDATE ON ing brief is currently due on Feb. 1 From the writings of Alfredo, and the ERIC MCDAVID (they’ve now asked for two exten- statements of Christos and friends of sions). We will let you know as soon as Alfredo, the most important support Eric McDavid is a political prisoner, we hear anything more. Once the gov- that can be shown are acts of revolu- currently serving a 19 year and 7 month ernment files their response, Eric’s law- tionary solidarity. We find inspiration sentence in federal prison for alleged yer will have two weeks to file his final for our discontent when hearing about “conspiracy” charges.” He was arrested response (more potential extensions two comrades suffering in prisons who in January 2006 after being targeted by notwithstanding ). Once everything is continue to struggle against the state, an undercover informant who formu- filed it could be more than a year before which is responsible for their suffering. lated a crime and entrapped Eric in it. a decision is made. Both have dedicated their lives to fight- Eric was targeted by the state for his ing against it. political beliefs, and his case is impor- How to Help tant for everyone who dares to stand Visit: up. He is currently filing for an appeal We recently added a PayPal button to www.arobberyingreece.blogspot.com of his sentence. At the point of his ar- Eric’s website (again). You can find it or rest no criminal damage has actually on the “Help” page: www.supporteric. www.aftertrikala.blogspot.com occurred. Please refer to back issues of org/howtohelp.htm Please consider Fire to the Prisons, or visit his web site making a donation to Eric’s support Email: below for more in depth description of fund. Currently the majority of these [email protected] Eric’s case. Included before his support funds are being used to help his partner information is the most recent state- cover the costs of going to visit him. From a letter by Christos to the new ment from his support group. Its dated These visits are incredibly important Greek “Minister of Justice”: January 13th, 2010. to Eric and his partner and are impera- tive for maintaining everyone’s sanity. “I do not wish to tire you with my “Dear friends, They would not be possible without all words, esteemed Minister of Justice, of the support that Eric has received. but I say to you directly that if I had Today marks the fourth year of Eric’s Our sincerest thanks to everyone who the possibility to decide for the prison incarceration. These are not the kind has donated in the past. If you would system personally I would destroy ev- of milestones we would like to be writ- like to donate but would prefer not to erything or at least close everything. ing about to you. While other people use PayPal, please let us know and we Personally, I have the possibility of have been celebrating the New Year, will send you the details about who to dreaming of a different form of social we have been incredibly conscious of make the check out to and where to restitution of debt, of so-called justice, the passage of time in an entirely dif- send it. that I cannot imagine you would ever ferent way. For four years, New Years be in a position to support.” has served as a reminder to us – as it If you cannot donate money, there are probably does to other ways you can help. Eric is locked From Alfredo M. Bonanno inside the millions of others - of how long we away from his loved ones and his com- Rebibbia prison, on March 20th, 1997: have been separated from our loved munities and he doesn’t have access to one. While others are celebrating new a lot of information. Receiving news “The revolutionary project of anarchists beginnings, we are faced with the real- from the outside helps him feel a little Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 53 more connected to the issues he cares center happened on Sunday, October Olympia in September 2008. He is also about. If you run across a good article 25th. The Tuesday after, one person being ordered to pay $15,000 in restitu- from an independent media source that was arrested, and the following day riot tion to US Bank and Bank of America. you think Eric might like, please send it police raided the apartment that person his way. Just keep in mind that Eric is shares with others in Fittja, arresting Please write Daniel in jail: still in the appeals process, and every- another nine people. The following Daniel Wilson thing he receives is read by the authori- weekend, they were all detained, and c/o Thurston County ties. Even unsolicited mail can result in charged with preparing arson. One of Corrections Facility sanctions against prisoners. Please be these people was also charged with ri- 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW prudent with your choice of material. oting. Police and media claimed from Olympia, WA 98502 the beginning that the arrested were Our thanks to everyone for all of your “known members of Antifascist Ac- support these last 4 years. tion” who had traveled to Fittja after the unrest began. UPDATES ON Yours, REPRESSION Eric’s Support Crew” Write letters of support to them. You can send letters through ABC, Box IN ITALY Subscribe to his email support list at: 4081, 102 62 Stockholm, Sweden and [email protected] they’ll forward the mail. You can also Daniele Casalini and Francesco Gioia send messages to abc-stockholm@an- are two Italian anarchists arrested on Please write Eric here: arkisterna.com. Remember that every- June 12, 2007 on suspicion of a Post 16209-097, FCI Victorville, Medium thing will be read by the prosecutor. Office robbery and “subversive con- II, Federal Correctional Institution, PO spiracy”. They were sentenced to 4 Box 5300, Adelanto, CA 92301, USA. You can also support them financially: years and 2 months. On October 29th, 2009, the charge of “subversive con- For further information and updates on IBAN SE12 9500 0099 6034 0873 spiracy” was dropped. They were both his case please visit: 8973 released immediately. Upon their re- www.supporteric.org BIC NDEASESS lease, they expressed the utmost ap- Nordea, Sweden preciation for the solidarity and support they had throughout their 3 years of SUPPORTING imprisonment. MAY DAY FITTJA 10 Leonardo Landi was facing the same FUGITIVE TURNS charges in connection with the robbery IN SWEDEN as well as “various terrorist attacks”. HIMSELF IN TO BE He was on the run until captured in Ven- A police intervention at a youth center SENTENCED timilia, a border town between France in Fittja, outside of Stockholm, resulted and Italy. His trial will start on March in three nights of unrest. Ten people are 5, 2010. Its been rumored that all three now charged with preparing arson; one Daniel Wilson is currently serving his sentence at the Thurston County Jail in anarchists are alleged members or for- of them was charged with rioting, as mer members of the Il Silvestre collec- well. Olympia, WA after pleading guilty to attacking a Bank of America and U.S. tive, a group responsible for publishing the Italian green anarchist publication, During the last year, riots and arsons Bank branch in Olympia on May Day 2008. After being a fugitive in Canada Terra Selvaggia (Wild Earth). Leon- have spread through urban areas in ardo Landi and Francesco Gioia spe- Sweden.Youth in poorer communities for several months, he is the last of four arrested on that May Day to be charged cifically are said to have been the main have started fires, and attacked - fire editors of Terra Selvaggia. They were fighters and cops on arrival. The unrest and sentenced. Largely as a result of his partner being pregnant with his child, originally sentenced to 3 years and 6 is clearly linked to a discontentedness months imprisonment, and 5 years and with the situation they face; the segre- he decided to turn himself in at the Canada-United States border in hopes 2 months imprisonment, respectively, gated cities, the poor living conditions in 2006, for alleged connection with in their areas, the discrimination they of clearing up his legal problems, and taking care of his child. He is currently the activities of the Marxist-influenced face in mainstream society. Wherever Revolutionary Offensive Cells (COR). they go they carry their areas’ reputa- scheduled to be released March 6th of this year, but may face additional time This was based solely on the evidence tion with them. that COR had sent Terra Selvaggia a for allegedly vandalizing a pro-life van during a critical mass bike ride in communiqué about its actions anony- The police intervention at the youth mously.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 54 On July 3, 2009 during an ROS opera- devices and other suspicious materi- 17th, 2009. Unfortunately, whether tion (Special Operation Team of Cara- als. The police took him into custody, due to language barriers or not, we binieri) called Operation “SHADOW”, took pictures of him, and discovered he have found very little information out- 40 houses across Italy were raided with was vegan. They brought him before a lining the details or providing updates the charge of “subversive conspiracy”. judge two days later where it was ruled of their arrest since we first discovered Two Italian comrades, Sergio and Ales- that there was not enough evidence to the news. A statement communicating sandro, were arrested. They are accused send him to a special prison for young a need for an international solidarity of “subversive conspiracy”, grand theft men under 18, and he was released to around the momentum of anarchist re- auto, and attempting to sabotage public his parents. He is suspected by the po- sistance in Mexico was sent out across transportation. Both of them are being lice of involvement in at least 6 arson the internet to sympathizers and com- held at Alessandria Jail, in the special attacks claimed by the Earth Libera- rades around the world immediately section for the anarchist prisoners. tion Front, Animal Liberation Front, or following the 3 arrests. This is the only “eco-anarchists”. message we’ve seen that cites the ar- Write these Italian comrades: rests. We have included this statement Recently, there has been a wave of eco- found on December 18th, 2009, signed Sergio Maria Stefani anarchist motivated bombings, arsons, by the “Coordinadora Informal Anar- Carcere San Michele and other actions in Mexico. While the quista”: Via Casale, 50/A Animal Liberation Front has been ac- 15122 San Michele (AL) tive in Mexico for a long time, the rhet- “Greetings comrades: Italy oric of their communiqués in the past few years reflects broadened horizons We are sending you a communiqué Alessandro Settepani of resistance, echoing anti-civilization from the Anarchist Black Cross of the Carcere San Michele tendencies. These actions have been Federal District inviting you to a soli- Via Casale, 50/A impressive quantitatively and quali- darity mobilization for the comrades 15122 San Michele (AL) tatively, signaling that there are defi- Abraham López, Carlos Orozco, and Italy nitely a good number of people doing Fermín Gómez; arrested yesterday the actions, with or without connection morning by Federal District authorities. Leonardo Landi to each other. It is important for the Carcere Sanremo Mexican state to deny this and blame Although this year has seen an exten- Via Armea, 144 as many actions as possible on the few sion of anarchist struggle in Mexico, 18038 Sanremo (IM) people they are able to arrest. It is also showing an undeniable qualitative leap Italy interesting to note, however, that while in libertarian insurrectional actions, the state is attempting to discredit ac- we have also had some defeats, such tions by claiming there is no movement as the arrest of these young comrades, behind them, they also unintentionally or the detention of comrade Emmanuel “OUR FIRE imply that a small number of people Hernández. All the same we are aware ILLUMINATES THE can have a hugely devastating impact. that state repression only demonstrates This serves as a testament to the power two things: 1) that insurrectional anar- NIGHT!”: UPDATES of individuals that act upon their desire chist antagonism is a concrete reality ON REPRESSION for a different existence. The state has in Mexico today, abandoning for good, almost always preferred to shift fears of reactionary immobility and nostalgic IN MEXICO AS mass revolt to fears of ‘lone wolves’. It activism; 2.) that now, more than ever, is the most common way the state has it is necessary to take precautions and ANARCHIST attempted to downplay movements, carry out actions carefully, planning RESISTANCE preferring to excite fear of ‘fringe ex- our activities well. treme elements’ than admit to general CONTINUES TO sentiments of dissatisfaction within the Today our imprisoned comrades know SWEEP ACROSS status quo. It is unfortunate for them that they are not alone, that solidarity that they sometimes have too little of a has stopped being a dead letter written THE COUNTRY grip on reality to effectively repress the in lower case, and is now a “DIRECT tendencies they wish to crush. SOLIDARITY” for our kidnapped 16-year-old Suspected Mexican ELF comrades. The actions of the comrades Arsonist Arrested and Released: Since our last issue, we have read that of Acción Anarquista Anónima (Anon- 3 other arrests have been made in re- ymous Anarchist Action) of Tijuana, of On October 27, 2009, a 16-year-old sponse to the continued attacks. Abra- the comrades of the “Brigada de Eco- known as “Diego A.” was arrested in ham López, Carlos Orozco, and Fermín saboteadores”, and of all demonstra- Mexico for possession of 4 incendiary Gómez were arrested on December tions of SOLIDARIETA’ DIRETTA Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 55 (“DIRECT SOLIDARITY”) are for After serving his sentence in China, he three year old protest charge and now comrade Emmanuel Hernández. will be deported to the United States faces 10 felony counts. These felonies to face being charged with placing the are multiple counts of: stalking, con- That is why we are calling for an in- incendiary devices that caused the ar- spiracy, conspiracy to stalk, and the crease in SOLIDARITY to our com- son. He will be the fifth person to face threatening of a public servant. He is rades kidnapped here, as well as in charges for the arson, the others being also being charged with a “street gang Chile, in Greece, in Italy, in Spain and Lacey Phillabaum (Snitch), Jennifer statute” that, if passed, will add more in all the world. Kolar (Snitch), Bill Rodgers (Com- time to his sentence. These charges May the night light up! mitted suicide before trial), and Briana stem from legal protest activity against Against the State and Capital! Waters (Currently serving a 6 year sen- UCLA animal researchers. His bail was For Anarchy!” tence). set at approximately $460,000. He did Information is currently very limited; not meet bail and will receive credit for no contact information, or information time served, and is currently awaiting about support and status is available. trial. Kevin has been a victim of ongo- TWO ANIMAL If you have any of this information, ing repression for several years now LIBERATIONISTS please contact Fire to the Prisons, so and needs support. His next court date we can help spread the world. is January 17, 2010. ARRESTED IN For ongoing updates and ways to sup- HOLLAND port Kevin: GREEK BANK www.supportkevin.org Two women were arrested in Novem- ROBBERS ON THE ber 2009 in Holland in connection to Write Kevin: 5000 mink being freed from a fur farm. RUN For legal reasons, neither of their names Kevin Olliff, #1300931 are being released at this time. There is Greek officials say they are offering TTCF 161 D-POD rumor of a third arrest in connection a reward of $887,000 for information 450 Bauchet ST. with the same case. Messages of sup- leading to the arrest of the “robbers in Los Angeles, CA 90012 port, however, are encouraged and can black.” Identified as brothers Simeon be emailed to the addresses below. and Marios Seisidis and Grigoris Tsiro- nis, they are wanted not only for a 2006 Anonymous Female Prisoner One: hol- bank robbery but for possible links to TWO MEN [email protected] anarchist groups accused of domestic ARRESTED AND terrorism, the Athens newspaper Kathi- Anonymous Female Prisoner Two: merini reported. Sources told Kathime- SENTENCED FOR [email protected] rini that forensic evidence has linked “THREATENING” one of the “robbers in black” with a 2007 attack on a former judge’s private INVESTORS AND guard and to a later shooting at an Ath- JUSTIN SOLONDZ ens police station claimed by the group EMPLOYEES OF CAPTURED Revolutionary Struggle. ANIMAL TESTING IN CHINA! LABORATORIES

Justin Solondz, wanted since 2006 KEVIN OLLIFF Two men have been sentenced to a total in connection to an Earth Liberation CONTINUES TO of three year’s imprisonment at Oxford Front arson at the University of Wash- Crown Court on November 12, 2009 in ington’s Center for Urban Horticulture STRUGGLE Britain. Robert Griffiths, 59, of King- that caused $7 million in damages, was field Oval, Stoke-on-Trent, and Robert arrested for manufacturing drugs in BEFORE Lewis, 62, of Pheasant Road, Trebanos, Dali City, Yunnan Province, China and CONSISTENT Swansea, pleaded guilty to offences un- sentenced to 3 years. This is consid- der section 146 of the Serious and Or- ered a lucky sentence in a country that REPRESSION ganised Crime and Police Act of 2005 regularly executes prisoners for drug on October 12, 2009. They were each crimes. Justin’s American citizenship Kevin Olliff is an Animal Rights Ac- sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and warrant in the United States likely tivist who was arrested on April 18th, and given a 10 year anti-social behav- lead to this relatively light sentence. 2009. He was unjustly arrested on a ior order. The convictions relate to a

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 56 number of offences across the UK and broken window, where two queer youth Lithuanian, was sentenced to two years the United States between January 1st, who had been staying at the collective for repeatedly attempting to set light 2002, and January 27th, 2009, in which were making love. They immediately to window blinds at the Royal Bank of threatening letters were sent to compa- ordered the partially-dressed duo out- Scotland after a fellow protester had nies linked to drug testing on animals, side, dragging them through the broken smashed windows. The 22-year-old, as well as their business partners and window pane. who had been staying in a squat on the employees. North Circular Road in Palmers Green By this time, several supportive neigh- in North London, admitted to one count Write them: bors had began to rally across the street of arson on April 2nd, 2009 this year. in their defense, screaming things at the Sentencing, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC Robert Lewis cops like “Leave our neighborhood, said: HMP Bullingdon pigs” and “Leave those kids alone”. At PO Box 50 one point, one neighbor, an older per- “There is no doubt you helped to turn a Bicester son of color, was told if he did not settle peaceful protest into a violent and an- OXON down and leave he would be arrested gry protest.” OX25 1PZ also. England Because Lenartavicius’s sentence is Our next door neighbors who collabo- more than 12 months, he faces auto- Robert Griffiths rated with the police in the sting, how- matic deportation. Welsh told the court HMP Bullingdon ever, began screaming homophobic and the defendant had arrived from Lithu- PO Box 50 racist obscenities and were never asked ania days before the G20 protest and Bicester to “settle down”. had planned to return immediately af- OXON terwards. OX25 1PZ The youth were questioned but refused England to give the location of any other house members. UPDATES ON THE As of today the two youth were released “TARNAC” GROUP MARSHA P. to the custody of their parents without JOHNSON formal charges, while patrol cars have IN FRANCE been seen cruising Bruce Street non- COLLECTIVE IN stop. The house has not been boarded The Tarnac 9 are nine individuals in MEMPHIS, up yet, and both the locks and our goals France facing terrorism charges for remain the same. allegedly sabotaging high speed train TENNESSEE lines. The principal piece of evidence Fuck the cops, against them has been their alleged RAIDED connection to the popular anti-capitalist -Bash Back! Memphis.” text, “The Coming Insurrection”. Statement regarding the raid: On November 24th, 2009 a new arrest “In the late hours of Saturday, October was made related to the Tarnac case. A 3rd, while most Bash Backers were out LONDON G20 statement from their support group dis- running errands or partying the night RIOTER cusses the arrest here: away; a fleet of five or so cop cars made their way toward the Marsha P. John- SENTENCED TO “This morning at 6:30 am, [1] the Anti- son Queer Collective (known to many TWO YEARS FOR Terrorist Police (SDAT) allowed them- as simply the “Bash Back!” Memphis selves to undertake a new arrest among Squat) on Bruce Street. ATTEMPTED those “close” to the indicted. Judge Fragnoli almost brought us to tears last Upon arrival, without any announce- ARSON week when he boasted in the pages of ment to vacate or any eviction notice Liberation that he would proceed in this in tow, two of the cops promptly ap- A demonstrator at the April 2nd, 2009 case with all the “humanity” of which proached a side window, using their G20 summit in London, who tried to he is capable. This morning he again steel flashlights to break through. burn down a bank in the City of Lon- once showed the finesse that we have don at the height of clashes with police come to recognize in him: 15 wise-ass- With guns drawn; several cops entered was jailed on December 1, 2009 for es from the SDAT to break down the the community room adjacent to the two years. Mindaugus Lenartavicius, a door and aim their weapons at two chil-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 57 dren, 4 and 6 years old, in their beds. under judicial supervision. The most she was initially assigned a job in the All that just to question someone who troubling state demand restricted com- kitchen, but was able to be transferred had already been arrested on November munication among the group. We are to a job as a guitar instructor. She re- 11th 2008, based upon the most fantas- not sure, but assume this would be the cently played a holiday gig inside the tic elements of the case, which they harshest demand of all. For a group that prison with her new group! have had in their possession from the has been appointed as the authors of a very first day. book like “The Coming Insurrection”, Unfortunately, Marie Mason’s other we’re assuming that their comrades are needs are not being met. Mail delivery Obviously we understand what is at a main source of good in their lives. has continuously been disrupted. Con- work here. While the two central ele- This is obviously a tactic to further iso- tact with her appeal lawyer was halted ments in their accusations, namely the late them from each other, and force- at one point, and he had to intervene fabrications concerning Julien and Yil- fully disrupt the intimacy of the group. to re-establish it. Contact with other dune and the witness “X,” have largely A statement regarding the demand, lawyers is uncertain. Certain support- been swept away by recent revelations, titled “Why we will no longer respect ers were barred from contacting her, the sad clowns continue their flight the judicial restraints placed upon us” but then allowed to – only to find their ahead, using pretexts that are always is as follows: communications were still censored or more laughable to create a diversion. parts of them “lost”. Mason’s attempts One notes that it was in fact Judge “Imagine that you have the right to see to receive instruction in her chosen Fragnoli himself who declared to the whomever you like, except for those spiritual path also seems to be running journalists that he would not make a whom you love; that you can live any- into problems, and outside organiza- reconstruction of the so-called night of where except your home; that you can tions have had to be informed regarding sabotage. Thus, he definitively seems to speak freely on the telephone or in the the situation. want to cover up what each day a little presence of unknown people, but that more seems to have been fakes created anything you say can, one day or an- The worst is her food situation; Mason by the SDAT. We wish him good luck; other, be used against you. Imagine that is vegan, but has been unable to con- he’ll need it. you can do whatever you like, except sistently receive vegan meals. She has for what you hold dear.” been buying additional food from the In this pathetic attempt at diversion we commissary, but this too has caused a once more see what anti-terrorism per- For ongoing updates and ways to sup- problem. There was too much money in mits and permits itself. As when, during port the Tarnac 9: her commissary account and therefore the last two waves of arrests, friends of www.tarnac9.wordpress.com a monthly amount has been garnished the indicted were arrested in broad day- (since Mason has to pay restitution as light on the street and forced to submit part of her plea bargain). This has cre- to 96 hours of observation, pressure, ated a vicious cycle: the prison system and humiliation. This democracy main- AN UPDATE ON is refusing to provide her with vegan tains itself any way it can. ECO-PRISONER food, forcing her to buy food from the commissary; but because there is mon- We interpret this new attempt at in- MARIE MASON ey in her commissary account to buy timidation as the only response that Mr. the food, they are punishing her for it. Ragnoli could find to the collapse of Marie Mason was sentenced to 22 Mason is looking at options to get the his case. We bet that the weeks to come years in prison in 2009 for a 1999 at- prison to serve her vegan food. She is will permit us to definitively have done tack against Michigan State University vegan partly for medical reasons, and with this farce, and his career.” in protest of genetically-modified crop her inability to receive a vegan diet is research, attacks on luxury houses un- causing her significant health problems. [1] Translator’s note: The day before der construction, and attacks on boats At this juncture, she wants supporters several lawyers for the suspects and owned by a mink farmer. to be aware of the situation, but NOT to various Left legislators were to speak take any action. We also ask that sup- in front of the National Assembly. In Here we included the most recent up- porters do NOT place money directly a communiqué, they protested against date from Marie Mason’s support in her commissary account, but rather the use of anti-terrorist laws that have group: provide any funds directly to her fam- been “diverted against political activ- ily. ists.” “You might have noticed that we’ve been quiet on Marie Mason’s situation Supporters should be aware that the On December 18th, 2009, the so called since she has entered the federal prison prison has notified that Mason will not “Tarnac” group was appointed new le- system. Mostly she has been trying to be allowed to use the new email sys- gal obligations, to help further medi- adjust to life at Waseca and get her ba- tem they are installing (although other ate their release as they are out of jail sic needs met. The good news is that Green Scare prisoners can). Addition-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 58 ally that they are implementing a list Write Elijah: awaits his sentence, Alex also remains of 100 people that she can write to; Elijah Smith VP 7551 in jail awaiting his trial. Both deserve all of these people must be authorized HMP Lewes our utmost support at this time. ahead of time. This can potentially 1 Brighton Rd limit contact with supporters, making Lewes, Sussex Updates on the case: events such as letter-writing nights BN7 1EA, England www.voiceofthevoiceless.org impossible. We are not sure if this is a system-wide change or one that is Support info: more limited; we will post updates on www.supportbjandalex.com this situation as they become available. BJ VIEHL However, as of this time (October 19, SENTENCED FOR Write BJ and Alex: 2009), anyone can still write Mason, so if you’ve been thinking about doing so, AN ANIMAL William James Viehl right now is the time. LIBERATION Inmate #2009-05735 Davis County Jail Lastly, Mason’s appeal is still under- FRONT MINK 800 West State St. way, and details will be posted as they Farmington, UT 84025 become available.” RELEASE! Alex Hall Keep up to date and support Marie at: On November 19, 2009, William “BJ” Inmate #2009-06304 /www.supportmariemason.org Viehl faced sentencing for a release of Davis County Jail 650 mink in Utah with co-defendant 800 West State St. Write Marie: Alex Hall. While the sentencing guide- Farmington, UT 84025 Marie Mason #04672-061 lines for the plea agreement he was FCI Waseca seeking originally called for a 6 month Federal Correctional Institution sentence, the judge was greatly influ- P.O. Box 1731, Waseca, MN 56093 enced by the fur farm’s owner taking BELGIAN the stand and crying like a baby over his lost mink, saying it was cruel to the ANTI-FASCISTS “wasted” animals that would not end SENTENCED MAN JAILED up as fur coats and that BJ should be TO 12 AND 6 WITHOUT TRIAL charged with animal welfare violations. This case was going to be Utah’s first MONTHS FOR SABOTAGING to be sentenced under the guidelines of ARMS PRODUCER the “Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act”, On October 6, 2009, a debate was or- which adds enhancements for those ganized by different fascist student convicted of causing large amounts of On January 18, 2009, Elijah Smith, a groups at the College of Gent in Bel- financial damage to animal enterprises. gium. Shortly afterward, four fascists former British Soldier, was arrested in The judge expressed he wished to go Brighton, England. He was arrested un- were beaten down and fire was set to well above the guidelines and give a several garbage cans, banks, ATMs, der the assumption that he had spent the 2 year sentence. The sentencing was previous night decommissioning the and a prison-related construction com- postponed to December 11th, when, the pany. Jürgen Goethals and Gian-Paolo EDO/MBM/ITT factory in Brighton, argument was made by BJ’s defense, a in an attempt to stop it from providing Melis were arrested on October 25th new judge should be sought, given the and charged with the fires set. Since parts for weapons being used by the Is- original one’s unwillingness to follow raeli army to bomb civilians in Gaza. then, they were sentenced to 12 and the recommendations of the sentencing 6 months and are currently out of jail Nobody was injured or harassed during guidelines. Sentencing has been post- their action, which was one of property awaiting their prison terms. poned again. At the next date, there is damage. He and his co-defendants did likely to be a decision on replacing the not resist arrest. A year later and he is judge and sentence. Since the turn for still on remand and it looks as if he is the worse in BJ’s plea deal, Alex Hall SIX SERBIAN likely to remain in prison until the trial has stated his intention to take his case actually starts. The trial is expected to trial. Although BJ has chosen to plea ANARCHISTS to take place on May 17th, 2010, by guilty, there is no evidence that his plea ARRESTED FOR which time he’ll have spent 16 months deal involved incriminating anyone imprisoned already before his trial. else, and both BJ and Alex’s support SOLIDARITY WITH groups completely support BJ. As BJ GREEK UNREST

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 59 Six anarchists have been held in Bel- At the request of Prosecutor Cliff Cronk, erating in the repression of dissent, not grade, Serbia by the state since Septem- District Judge John Jarvey found them because the Feds believe they actually ber 5, 2009. They are accused of writ- in contempt of court and had them tak- had anything to do with the 2004 Uni- ing graffiti on the Greek embassy on en into custody immediately. Scott was versity of Iowa incident. Despite the August 25th and throwing a Molotov charged with conspiracy under the Ani- empty nature of the case, the Feds have cocktail that only damaged a window. mal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) enormous power to pursue it and Carrie The attack is understood as an expres- two days later, becoming the seventh and Scott need our support--financial, sion of solidarity with the unrest that person charged under this dangerous personal, and political--at every step has flared across Greece recently. They law passed through shady procedures of this process. This is one of count- face “international terrorism” charges in 2006. Once he was facing a crimi- less examples of the ways that the State carrying the potential for 15 years in nal charge, his charge of civil contempt utilizes the court system to subvert and prison. Financial support and solidarity was dropped and he became eligible disrupt movements for social change, is urgently requested. for release. Cronk tried to keep him and we owe it to our friends and our locked up by arguing that his political movement to fight this battle. Support website: beliefs and associations make him a www.asi.zsp.net.pl “domestic terrorist,” but these ridicu- Grand juries have historically been lous arguments failed and Scott was re- used to repress dissent and disrupt so- You can send a cheque made out to the leased after about two weeks. Carrie’s cial movements by intimidating people CNT AIT, with the words “Solidarité situation has been drastically different. into abandoning their activism, unjustly Belgrade” on the back, to the following She remains locked up in Iowa as the incarcerating them and separating them address: government punishes her for her politi- from their communities, and conduct- cal beliefs and resistance to the grand ing fishing expeditions for information CNT AIT jury process. She could be held for the about movements. Despite the gov- 108 rue Damrémont, 75018 PARIS duration of the grand jury--another 9 ernment’s claims that grand juries are months. In early December, her lawyer necessary to uphold the law and create filed a motion to have her released, but a just society, their true purpose has it was denied. The decision is currently been demonstrated in the persecution TWO under appeal. of people ranging from journalists who INDIVIDUALS refused to identify their sources to five Carrie is 20 years old and has worked of the Black Panthers known as the San SUBJECT TO with a variety of projects in the Twin Francisco 8 to activists involved in the FEDERAL GRAND Cities, including Coldsnap Legal Col- Puerto Rican independence movement lective, EWOK! (Earth Warriors are to earth and animal liberation activists. JURY IN THE OK!), and the Jack Pine Community Center. A former student of the College Unlike the “petit” jury, which is used to MID-WEST USA of St. Catherine, Carrie is currently tak- determine guilt in a trial, a grand jury ing a year off from school and, until consists of 16 to 23 jurors who are not On Tuesday, November 17, 2009, her detention, spent her time traveling, screened for bias. The purpose of the Carrie Feldman and Scott DeMuth of doing personal care assistant work for grand jury is not to determine guilt or Minneapolis were called before a fed- her grandma, and working on activist innocence, but to decide whether there eral grand jury in Davenport, Iowa. The projects. is probable cause to prosecute someone grand jury is investigating an unsolved for a felony crime. The grand jury op- Animal Liberation Front action at the Scott is 22 and has been involved in erates in secrecy and the normal rules University of Iowa in 2004, in which several projects in the Twin Cities, in- of evidence do not apply. The prosecu- research equipment was damaged and cluding the Anarchist Black Cross and tor runs the proceedings and no judge hundreds of animals were liberated the Jack Pine Community Center. He is is present. Defense lawyers are not al- and placed in loving homes. Carrie and currently a member of EWOK!, Oyate lowed to be present in the grand jury Scott were subpoenaed in the most Nipi Kte, and the editorial collective room and cannot present evidence, but recent use of Green Scare tactics in for the Dakota community journal An- may be available outside the room to Minnesota, the government’s desper- pao Duta. He is also a Dakota language consult with witnesses. The prosecutor ate attempt to obtain information about student and a graduate student in the and the grand jury members may not activists, grasp at straws to file charges Sociology Department at the Univer- reveal what occurred in the grand jury against them, and disrupt radical ani- sity of Minnesota. room and witnesses cannot always ob- mal-rights and environmental move- tain a transcript of their testimony. ments both above- and below-ground. These two are being targeted because Rightfully so, Carrie and Scott refused they are committed radical activists Because of their broad subpoena pow- to cooperate and testify. who refuse to be intimidated into coop- ers and secretive nature, grand juries

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 60 have been used by the government to Constitutional Rights, points out that fiction novels) at: gather information on political move- AETA could even criminalize such ments and to disrupt those movements traditional protest tactics as economic Carolyn Feldman by causing fear and mistrust. The boycotts if they endanger profits for an Washington County Jail. grand jury lends itself to being used industry benefiting from experimenta- 2185 Lexington Blvd. PO Box 6 for improper political investigations tion on animals. The AETA is a danger- Washington, IA 52353 due in part to the prosecutor’s ability ous piece of legislation whose very ex- to question witnesses without regard istence threatens not just animal rights Some of the information on grand juries for rules that prohibit irrelevant, un- activists but anyone with an interest in came from grandjuryresistanceproject. reliable, or unlawfully obtained evi- effecting meaningful social change in org and some of the information on the dence. Those called before the grand this society. To date, only seven people AETA came from aeta4.org. Check out jury may be compelled to answer any have been charged under the AETA. In those websites for further information. question, even those relating to lawful addition to Scott, they are: California personal and political activities. That activists Joseph Buddenburg, Maryam information has been used by the gov- Khajavi, Nathan Pope, and Adriana ernment as a basis to conduct further Stumpo (the “AETA 4′′); and Utah ac- STATEMENT surveillance and disruption of politi- tivists Alex Hall and B.J. Viehl. REGARDING cal dissent. When used against political movements, the grand jury causes The legal battles that Carrie and Scott RAIDS ACROSS fear and mistrust because persons who are fighting are some of the most recent CHILE ON refuse to answer questions about their instances of the systemic repression First Amendment political activities, that the State has used to disrupt, weak- DECEMBER 11TH friends and associates may be jailed en, and destroy movements for justice for the life of the grand jury: up to 18 and liberation. Their struggles are thus “At 6am today, Friday the 11th of De- months. If a witness asserts her Fifth tied to the struggles of radical activists cember, an intense police operation Amendment right to remain silent, she from many movements and eras. And began headed by the ‘Bombing Inves- may be forced to accept immunity or go the outcomes of their struggles will af- tigation’ Division; with squatted so- to jail for contempt, which is what hap- fect all of us for however many more cial centers and private homes raided pened to Carrie. Even a witness who years the Empire will retain its power. throughout the metropolitan region... attempts to cooperate can be jailed if We strengthen our movement when we Until now six spaces have been raided: minor inconsistencies are found in her stand in solidarity with those the State 3 squatted buildings and 3 private resi- testimony. Such a perjury charge may has stolen away from us by demonstrat- dences, in the areas of Central Santiago, stand even when the grand jury fails to ing our refusal to allow its repressive Macul, Renca, El Bosque and Recoleta. hand down any indictment for what it actions to destroy our efforts at creat- Corporate media reports that there are was ostensibly investigating. ing a better world, a world built on lib- 12 people who are being detained, 8 of eration for all and mutual aid. We also whom have been interrogated. As if using a grand jury wasn’t bad directly help our comrades when they enough, Cronk pulled a conspiracy need us the most. The raids were carried out by armed charge under the AETA out of his bag contingents of the PDI (Investigative of dirty prosecution tricks to pressure For more information about Carrie and Police Bureau) and the Carabineros Scott into giving him the information Scott and to donate to their defense (The National Police force). At the Sac- he wants (and thinks Scott knows). The fund, visit www.davenportgrandjury. co and Vanzetti Squatted Social Center AETA qualifies interference with and wordpress.com. You can also join the and Library, located in central Santiago, protest of animal enterprises, including “Support Scott and Carrie” Facebook 4 comrades have been detained and are First Amendment-protected activities, group and cause to stay informed and being held incommunicado by the BIPE as terrorism. The AETA is a frighten- get involved in supporting them. Any- (special department of the investigative ing expansion of an already outrageous one can host a fundraiser, print and dis- police). It appears that the Social Cen- and undemocratic piece of legislation, tribute the flyers available on the sup- ter was defended due to reports of the the Animal Enterprise Protection Act. port website, and talk to their friends remains of many broken bottles scatter- Pushed through Congress by animal in- and families about the issues and why ing the streets in front of the building. dustry lobbyists and passed with only a we all must fight back and stand in soli- Well known squats La Crota and La handful of Congress members present, darity with Carrie and Scott. Idea and El Hogar were also raided by the AETA is a testament to the despera- strong contingents of armed police. It is tion of animal enterprises in an era of Carrie also needs support from folks in reported that the police took computer growing popular support for animal the form of letters and books. You can equipment, bikes, propaganda, and cell rights causes. Matthew Strugar, a co- write to her and send her books (she’s phones from all of the squats.” operating attorney with the Center for asked for books on math and science

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 61 From Liberacion Total: obstruction, and littering (thats from Part of her ruling inadvertently pointed having a banner). This action took out the absurdity of the case, noting that “We issue a call out for international place on Coal River Mountain which “no specific individual or entity is enu- solidarity! Stay alert, informed, and has been a rally point for the area; merated as a victim in the complaint.” ready to fight! To our comrades from Blowing up this enormous mountain the social centers and squats: you are for our disgusting gluttonous ener- Both inside and outside the courtroom, not alone, we understand and assume gy habits is the line in the sand. This the best defense against the state comes the consequences of declaring our- mountain provides hope and a future to through standing together in solidarity. selves and acting as daily enemies of the communities surrounding it, these The RNC 8 and their defense commit- authority. are the last jobs, the last headwaters to tee have treated the case as singular The comrades who have had their streams.The Nov 21st action is the first from day one, and are looking forward houses raided and who are detained of many to come. We will not lose this to standing together as both a trial strat- have faced this difficult moment with mountain. Its time to escalate. Fear is in egy and a movement-building strategy. their heads held high, standing up as the industries eyes, placing high bails enemies of authority, as a consequence and ridiculous charges. Other Rulings: our solidarity ought to be brandished like the threatening weapon it is! Monetary support and people are need- Some other pretrial rulings have been ed, donations to legal fund can be made less promising. The judge did not re- We will smash, liberate, paint, stone, to: quire the prosecution to disclose impor- burn, detonate, and communicate... Climate Ground Zero PO Box 166 tant evidence about RNC informants, Our offensive and our vengeance will Rock Creek WV 25174 (specify legal) such as personnel files. In one case, spread like the black plague and echo it seems the state won’t need to give in their ears, because if you touch one Or online at this website: information about cops who tried to of us, you touch us all!” climategroundzero.org “adopt a sector” for the first day of the RNC; we found much of the story in an To stay up to date with the outcome of officer’s book (see tinyurl.com/RNC- these raids, and further repression and copbook). resistance in South America, visit: DEFEND THE RNC 8! The judge also denied a request to liberaciontotal.entodaspartes.net suppress evidence from a warrantless (En Espanol) The RNC 8 are anarchist organizers search of the van Max Specktor was thisisourjob.wordpress.com (English) against the 2008 Minneapolis--St. Paul riding in. Besides not having a warrant, Republican National Convention who the police drove the van themselves to were charged in response to their po- a police station before searching it out FOUR ARRESTED litical organizing: Luce Guillen-Givins, of public view, a highly unusual pro- Max Specktor, Nathanael Secor, Eryn cedure prompting questions about the AND RELEASED Trimmer, Monica Bicking, Erik Os- validity of the evidence. ON CRAZY eland, Robert Czernik and Garrett Fitzgerald. Originally charged with ter- Susan Gaertner: CHARGES AND rorism, they now each face two felony charges of conspiracy to riot and con- Prosecutor Susan Gaertner happens to BAIL OVER spiracy to damage property. Here’s a bit be running for the Democratic nomina- MOUNTAINTOP of what’s happened in their case over tion for Governor of Minnesota. Al- the last several months: though we tend to care less about elec- REMOVAL MINING tions, we figured that we’d give Susan a The RNC 8 Will Be Tried Together: choice: drop the charges, or we’ll drop SITE your campaign. Annoying politicians is fun and takes little effort, so we’ve On November 21st two people locked In a significant victory, in December Judge Teresa Warner granted the RNC followed through by regularly showing down to a massive drill rig in a blast- up outside her events. ing zone on a coal mining mountaintop 8 a joint trial, not the eight or three removal site in West Virginia. Progress separate trials favored by the prosecution. The state had wanted to break the Now, political insiders tell us that her was stopped for the day at the site and campaign is floundering, largely thanks resulted in 4 people arrested. Bail was 8’s solidarity and strain their supporters’ resources by having multiple trials. to us. You could help the cause by set at $2000 cash only for each person, giving her a call (county office 651- all four have the same charges: tres- But the judge rightly realized that a single trial makes the most sense. 266-3222; campaign 651-645-2010; or passing, conspiracy (misdemeanor), email [email protected]

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 62 be polite) and asking her to drop the a collective to provide an alternative House (where Elliott, Michael and oth- charges on the RNC 8. Bonus points information line for people interested ers resided) was raided at dawn by the if you say you’re a Democratic bigwig in the protests during the week of the JTTF which included FBI agents and with 50K to spare! G-20 meetings. To achieve this the Tin NYPD. Approximately twenty agents Can Communications Collective creat- with drawn guns stormed through the We’re Getting Ready... For Trial! Come ed software to work with Twitter to pro- house while more agents waited out- to Minnesota! vide street coverage of the events. This side and helicopters buzzed through of course had been done in Moldova, their Queens neighborhood. This raid, If you were at the 2008 RNC, know the Guatemala, and most notably in Iran to much like the one in Pittsburgh, also RNC 8, or need a road trip, make plans allow people to organize against repres- had a sealed warrant but this time with to come to Minneapolis--St. Paul! The sive regimes. These early uses of Twit- no date for the unsealing of it. For 16 snowdrifts should be gone when trial ter for protests in other countries was hours the State agents went through begins, perhaps in spring or early sum- met with overblown support from the everything and taking items willy- mer. We’ve packed the courtrooms at media and the U.S. State Department. nilly from the house. The collection of every appearance so far, and need to Our use of the same tactics and tech- seized items is so absurd it is almost do so at trial, also. Court solidarity is nology used in the United States would beyond belief: kitchen magnets, post- an effective tactic and, just like at the find a very different reaction from the ers, needle-point heirlooms, steampunk RNC, we seek to counter the state’s re- media and the State. On Sept.23rd, at costumes, fiction books, birth certifi- pressive spectacle with our own theater approximately 3:00pm, Pennsylvania cates, business cards and IDs, Buffy the of resistance. Police broke into a hotel room of two Vampire Slayer dvds, stuffed toys, etc. Tin Can members outside the airport In their search they supposedly found If the monthly free dinners cooked by (23 miles from Pittsburgh). When the a handful of firecrackers which they the RNC 8 and supporters since last police were asked for a warrant the de- used to re-arrest Elliott Madison and spring are any indication, you’ll have fendants were told it was sealed for 30 remove him from his home during the plenty of good food and friends while days with no more explanation. Police raid. When asked to see the firecrack- you’re here. To stay in the loop, go spokespeople said they raided a “make- ers they refused to show him. They also to our website--RNC8.org--and click shift protest communications center” removed Michael from the home using “Get Updates” to sign up for our email in the mom and pop motel. What they a 2 year-old outstanding parking ticket announcements list, text messages or actually found and seized were a road as the pretense, which was immediately more. atlas, one lap-top computer, two cell- dismissed by the Judge. The reason phones and a Radio Shack TRS-Scanner for these ridiculous arrests at the raid Finally, please consider donating to the and a refrigerator full of frozen burritos was to remove them from the house defense fund by visiting: and hummus. The raid lasted for about causing greater stress for the remain- rnc8.org/donations an hour and included forensics teams. ing housemates. In the aftermath, the This all occurred in the first hour of the house was left with broken doors and You can also send party proceeds or first day of the planned protests, before the residents without any cell-phones, love notes to: many had even left the park to march computers, address books and many Friends of the RNC 8, PO Box 7475, in the street. The two Tin Can members other cherished possessions. In a sense Minneapolis, MN 55407. Elliott Madison (42 y/o anarchist and they were cut-off. This is how state psychiatric Social Worker) and Michael repression works, it seeks to keep you Wallschlaeger (46 y/o anarchist radio afraid but also to cut you off as much as producer of “This Week in Radical His- possible from your community. We de- AN ANATOMY tory”) were arrested with 2 felonies and cided to fight back and had our lawyer OF STATE 1 misdemeanor each. If convicted the put in a motion to stop the State from charges would have them behind bars going through our illegally seized items REPRESSION: for up to 15 years. The charges were without probable cause. There were a FROM TIN-CAN all related to allegedly using Twitter to number of motions filed from both communicate that an order of dispersal sides—ours and the state’s. At first the TO TORTUGA had been given by the police. The two judge permitted an emergency injunc- volunteers were then taken to the FBI tion until she could weigh the merits of The first strike for us came far from our office to be processed before going to the case, thus preventing the cops from home, 347 miles to be exact. Some of the Allegheny County Jail for about 30 going through our seized personal be- us had traveled to the Pittsburgh area hours until their $35,000 bail could be longings. This motion and injunction in late September to help others who raised. lifted the veil off the secretive house wished to break the scripted reality of raid and soon there was a minor me- orderly dissent with the annual meet- Exactly a week later , On October 1st dia sensation. Reactionary rags like ing of the G-20. We were working with 2009, the anarchist collective Tortuga the NY Post and Daily News wrote ar-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 63 ticles about the “Queens Terror Raid” denced by the large and varied amount government argued that the temporary and Elliott and Michael names became of things taken from our home. Unsur- restraining order and the sheer amount public. This is another tool of the state, prisingly, the 2nd circuit Court of Ap- of materials taken from our home did anyone the dares to oppose it is at risk peals did not grant our motion. not allow them to meet the time-line set to have their names leaked to the press out by the court. The court gave them and their reputations tarnished under Out of all of this legal maneuvering we an extension until January 11th to fulfill the label of “terrorist.” The State went did find out that our raid was part of a the court’s judgment. even further by sending 2 FBI agents Grand Jury Investigation in the Eastern and a Secret Service agent to visit El- District in New York. At this point we So as of today, no one in the house is liott’s place of work to try to ruin his do not know if anyone in at Tortuga is charged with any crime or violation in reputation. They did not go to ask any the subject of an investigation or not. New York or elsewhere. We know there questions or investigate a crime but As far as we know no one else in New is a Federal grand jury investigating only to spread false information about York has been subpoenaed to testify at something and someone. We also know Elliott and then promptly left without this Grand Jury. Later in November El- the State has gone through our personal doing any investigation. liott and Michael’s lawyer attempted lives including personal journals, let- to get the sealed search warrant for the ters to friends & comrades and every- So what were they really looking for motel raid unsealed, as it had already thing on our computers. We have not when they raided Tortuga? That is a been extended for another 30 days in received any of our stuff back or even good question. From court documents preparation for their preliminary hear- been given a complete list of what they related to the various motions about ing. The motion was not heard because have and what they plan to keep. This is the injunction we know they were sup- the prosecution informed the judge how secret police operate—You are not posedly looking for evidence related to that they were withdrawing all charges allowed to see the supposed evidence violation of the Federal Interstate Anti- against both defendants in the “further- against you or even know what you Rioting Act. This law, also known as ance of justice” and as not to interfere are being accused of doing. The state the Rapp Brown Law, was originally with the on-going federal investigation. breaks into your home and takes all of used against the Chicago 8 and their A week later the judge again granted your stuff and then looks for enough to supporters in Seattle (both groups were another 30 day extension to the warrant cobble together a charge or at least add acquitted) in 1968 and 1969. That was claiming the ex-defendants no longer to their growing files of political- un the last time this law was used. So why had compelling interest. Our lawyer in desirables. The government even fails would Obama’s Justice Department Pittsburgh will persist in getting this se- to comply with court orders but there waste time resurrecting this failed 30+ cret 18-page document unsealed. are no ramifications. The courts reject year old law to raid a home in Queens? their own laws regarding search and Until the warrant is unsealed no one November also was the first date for seizures all under the blanket of secret but the State knows. How does a nee- Elliott’s fireworks charge, a City Ordi- evidence. The residents of Tortuga are dle-point or Buffy DVDs qualify as nance violation, which he and his law- left in a limbo of not knowing if we evidence of breaking the Federal Anti- yer went to fight. A motion for discovery will be charged with anything, whether Rioting laws? The answer is of course was presented to the Queens Ordinance we will ever get our stuff back, or if we they don’t. The whole exercise is an at- Court to be ruled on in December. will ever see what was in those sealed tempt to criminalize anarchist beliefs. Eventually the court ruled that discov- documents that allowed the state to The residents of Tortuga are just the ery was unnecessary because there was disrupt our lives in the first place. We latest target of State’s campaign against no evidence that any violation had oc- are strengthened by the fact that their anarchists. curred. Since the state failed to provide intimidation has not worked and their any evidence, even eye-witness testi- visits to our neighbors, workplaces and Despite a preponderance of case law mony that fireworks were found in the smear campaigns in the main-stream and ample legal arguments the Judge house or that they belonged to Elliott, press have failed to silence us. We fully ruled in early November to lift the the case was dismissed. Unfortunately, expect more shenanigans from the state Temporary Restraining Order, thereby this destroyed another chance for us to but we will never apologize for being giving a green light for the Feds to go get the New York sealed probable cause anarchists. through our stuff. Our lawyers waited documents unsealed. for an official statement from the Judge Visit: that was over two weeks after the re- In December the government re- friendsoftortuga.wordpress.com straining order was lifted. We appealed sponded to a court order stipulating the lifting of the restraining order and the government to give a full listing argued that the facts remained un- of items taken from the house, as well changed and that the warrant was on its as a time-line of when non-evidentia- face unlawful (by the state’s own rules) ry items were to be given back to the because it was overly broad as evi- residents of Tortuga. In response, the

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 64 A STATEMENT my preliminary hearing when State there is nothing hand written. Also if Trooper Boyd Wass failed to include you send him CDs they have to be orig- FROM anything resembling conspiracy in his inal otherwise he won’t get them. fairy tale that he tried to pass for tes- PITTSBURGH G20 timony. Jonatan is interested in (green) anar- ARRESTEE: DAVID chism, anti-civilization theory, indig- There has been considerable effort to enous struggles, and things regarding JAPENGA raise funds that have made a large dent “The Wild”. He likes music of all kinds on, but not eliminated, my towering le- (from HC to HipHop, Drum and Bass, “On the night of September 24th I was gal defense fees. While I hope our ef- to Folk...). He would also be really arrested in Pittsburgh during the anti- forts will keep from spending anymore happy about posters and flyers citing G20 demonstrations. During my in- time in prison, I have no illusions of a outside resistance going on... carceration my bail was set at a $500 Judges’ ability to administer any sem- percentage bond, and within hours re- blance of justice. There is a new infoblog about revolu- voked and my bail was denied. tionary solidarity and Jonatan in english To a world with out prisons, police, or called: againstthewaiting.blogsport.de Several days later they reinstated and judges.” raised my bail to a $15,000 straight Nothing forgiven - No one forgotten!” cash bond. When my friends rose to -David Japenga, 01/03/10 the occasion, raising the full amount Using the guidelines mentioned above, in hours, the State took it’s sweet time For more information or to make dona- you can write Jonatan at: setting up the other conditions of my tions, email freedavidjapenga@hush- release. I sat in jail for 20 days as I mail.com and abcpittsburgh@riseup. Jonatan Strandberg waited for them to set up a House Ar- net. BOX 248 rest Electronic Monitoring System as 593 23 Vastervik an extra condition of my bail. Sweden

On October 14th I was released from UPDATE ON This was a message from ABC-Ork- Allegheny County Jail into a house SWEDISH an (anarchist black cross group from shared with some very supportive northern germany), more information friends. As I await trial, a process that PRISONER on that project can be found at: could take up to a year, I am not allowed JONATAN to leave my front door. The few excep- noprisonnostate.blogsport.de tion include going directly to and from a State approved job and appearing in “Jonatan Stranderg” is 20-year old court. As of this writing I’ve spent 80 Swedish man sentenced to 15 months days under these restrictive conditions imprisonment after admitting damag- REGARDING A despite being guilty of no crime and ing a communication tower used by the SNITCH NAMED being a resident of Pittsburgh with no Department of Defence, by cutting the flight risk. I filed a motion to travel cables on a crane used in creating urban CHRISTOPHER to Michigan in order to spend Christ- sprawl, and damaging a vehicle used in mas with my family. Judge Jeffrey the logging industry. BOETTE Manning callously denied the motion. I have been subject to surveillance in- The following is the most recent up- From Pittsburgh Anarchist Black Cross: cluding one confirmed case of the con- date on Jonatan from his support group, tents of the trashcan in the alley behind “ABC-Orkan”, submitted for this issue: Christopher Boette testified before a my house being photographed and sent Federal Grand Jury convened to in- to officers in charge of my case. Other “Jonatan is in a closed prison far away vestigate charges relating to an April forms of surveillance and monitoring from his comrades, friends and sup- 25th incident in which $110,000 worth are suspected. porters now. He really needs support. of damage was dealt to two banks in His mood is changing a lot and some- Washington, DC. It has been errone- At this time I am awaiting trial for a times it’s hard for him to stand the iso- ously published that he testified in an handful of fabricated felony and misde- lation and loneliness. We also would investigation of the G20 riots in Pitts- meanor allegations regarding $15,000 like you all to maybe think of sending burgh, PA. At this point in time we worth of property destruction to a Citi- him something during these hard days. have no reason to believe he has pro- zens bank and surrounding businesses. He won’t get a lot visits at this time. vided any information regarding the I had a Conspiracy charge dropped at summit. If you send him books, make sure that Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 65 Grand juries are convened to ascertain The legal definition of conspiracy- re testimony. After his testimony, He later whether or not there is sufficient evi- quires that there be a plan to commit a told DC support people that he “didn’t dence to indict individuals for specific crime and then an act in furtherance of know [he] could do that.” crimes. The state subpoenas individu- it. -Chris stated to multiple people that als to testify before a grand jury to pro- he would not testify under any circum- vide information regarding the specific -Chris provided testimony to the grand stance and never discussed, privately or crimes it was convened to investigate. jury and the United States Attorney as- publicly, the possibility that he might Therefore, when an individual testi- signed to prosecute the case. testify with any of the directly affected fies they assist the state in investigat- -Chris told the US Attorney who from parties, with only one exception, to the ing, and ultimately prosecuting, those Pittsburgh he traveled to DC with. best of our knowledge. crimes. Mr. Boette made this deci- -Chris told the US Attorney that he was sion in stark contrast to the exemplary staying at the mass housing offered by For information on snitches or infor- conduct of Jordan Halliday and Carrie a church that houses several solidar- mants inside and outside of currently Feldman, who deserve nothing more ity projects and has come under flack active revolutionary communties and than our full support. By providing tes- before for allegedly allowing “violent” struggles, please visit the following timony in a grand jury proceeding and protesters to stay there. website. Please also if you have in- helping to further a state investigation, -Chris told the US Attorney how he formation or concerns regarding infor- he has earned the contemptible title of traveled to a meeting, and told the US mants, infiltrators, or snitches, please “snitch.” attorney that “redecoration” was talked contact the email below this note. We about - which he said he understood also ask that you send in your informa- Our position is one of practicality and to mean property destruction - and at tion to Fire to the Prisons, so we can in- not of morality and piety. There is no which people decided how to meet up clude it in this magazine as well. Stay place among those who must struggle later. safe. against the state and capital for indi- -The prosecutor asked what was at viduals such as Mr. Boette, who treat the alleged meeting. Chris replied that Website: their involvement within this struggle there was a map there. The US attor- snitchwire.blogspot.com as a game they can quit when they no ney asked what it was for. Chris said longer find it fun. We are disheartened it was to determine where to go. Chris Email: that Mr. Boette is still welcomed at so- said he wasn’t paying close attention [email protected] cial events and in the communities he to the places being mentioned because turned his back on. We are confused he didn’t know DC. Chris said it was that Mr. Boette can still find friends and mostly DC people doing the talking. supporters, especially in light of his -Chris told DC support people who THE VOICE OF A decision to side with the state against picked him up from jail that he would FUGITIVE: them. not be giving out names of people. -Chris identified people who were at LETTERS FROM The following was authored anony- the alleged meeting by at least their DIEGO RIOS mously by some of his former support- first names, including naming people ers. We hope that it helps to make a who routinely deal with harassment Note: firm statement: that Chris Boette will and surveillance by DC and federal law find himself standing alone, with not enforcement agencies. On June 24, 2009, the Johnny Cariqueo even the state which he was so quick to -Chris identified cities where he saw Social Centro was ransacked by the support, behind him. We whole heart- people at the meeting in the months ‘Grupo de Operaciones Especiales edly wish him the worst. between the meeting and his testimony. (GOPE)’, Special Forces of the Chilean -Chris told the prosecutor who he trav- State, as part of investigations into re- For unlimited distribution: eled with to the alleged action where cent bombings against the government the arrests took place. and capitalist institutions. They were The following are facts regarding Chris -Chris confirmed knowing people after searching for Diego Rios because they Boette’s cooperation with a grand jury being presented their photos. had found a bag with material for the in Washington, DC. This document has -Chris was asked “Do you know [a spe- manufacture of explosives in the house been put together by folks in Pittsburgh cific individual from Pittsburgh] from of his mother. The police have not and DC who had been doing support Pittsburgh?” and confirmed that he did. found Diego, and he is now a fugitive. work for Chris prior to his decision to -Chris was informed multiple times cooperate. of his right to confer with consul after Since Diego has been on the run, he’s every question, and had also discussed been visually recognized via actions of -Chris was informed that the grand jury his ability to do so with several people solidarity. His obvious strength before was investigating conspiracy charges. in Pittsburgh in the months prior to his these difficult circumstances, shown in Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 66 his clandestine letters are something we be firm and your footprints invisible). passivity that assures the continuation thought would be essential to including In our hearts is the seed of insurrection of the system. In the most important at the end of this section. Punky Mauri! moments of growth in my life, and in concrete attacks (material and ideologi- Communiqué claiming an action with For the propagation of the insurrection cal) that I realized against capitalism, I fugitive Diego Rios: and the destruction of this disgusting was always surrounded by people who reality. did not conceive of horizontal organi- “On Monday, November 23, at 11:50 zation, it did not just mean a vote, but it pm, we installed an incendiary device -Autonomous cell of the Earth Libera- was the product of a shared confidence in a slaughterhouse (located in the im- tion Front” and desire to destroy everything that mediate vicinity of Juan Cristóbal, co- oppressed us. Within this relationship, muna de Recoleta) activated by an eas- Since Diego has been on the run, he I understood that the most effective ily operated timer. The objective was has bravely continued to have his voice weapon is this qualitative change; to not to burn the place completely, but to heard, as he has, on 3 occasions, written attempt every day to make the whole cause damage to a freezer soiled with clandestine letters regarding his situa- of our lives a propaganda of the deed; death and torture. tion that have appeared on the internet. to discover in our everyday lives that We include those 3 statements here: in every destructive impulse we cre- We believe that direct action is largely ate something that strengthens us. And the way to propagate an idea in a practi- Letter #1 it is this that today agitates my spirit cal way, and with an increase of attacks and affirms my convictions, and conse- on capital in all its expressions; the “To all the comrades that are in a po- quently makes me proud and dignified. state, prison, laboratories, cages, and sition of war because they want to re- In these days I can’t forget to mention no end of targets. claim their lives: As many now know, the words of a prisoner who said “the the police entered the home of my anarchists carry prison in their genet- Because of this we decided to carry mother in the centre of Sanitago where ics” and perhaps, in some senses this is out this action, during the international they found two bags with diverse ma- true. We all know that prison is a pos- week of agitation for prisoners, given terials for building explosives. Since sible consequence for those that attack that we identify authority and the ex- that moment I have been searched for the state and capital; who are not mere ploitation of the land and its beings as and pursued by the state and its re- revolutionary simulations continuing the great common enemy of all the bat- pressive apparatus. I learned of this by on with a comfortable and assured life; tles of anti-authoritarian insurrection. telephone and then hours later learned I’m talking of the ones who believe it is that the police had gone to the Johnny necessary to augment and multiply the We also want to salute and send fra- Cariqueo Social Centre and Libertarian attack, taking as much care as possible ternal embraces to the imprisoned Library (where I live) under the pretext to not fall into the hands of the enemy. comrades around the world, especially of finding me, and upon not finding me, I will avoid prison as much as I can. It Pablo and Matías, Axel Osorio, Cris- took all the texts, publications, and pro- is because of this that I accept my mis- tian Cancino, Pompo Da Silva and to paganda that they could find. So I de- takes and I make a self critique with the all those sequestered and tortured for cided to run. I am not guilty of anything intention of nurturing my insurrection- capital, be they human or non-human but neither am I innocent... I am simply al praxis. Today, I see that the affinity animals. their enemy. group that decides on action and counts on using the autonomous infrastructure Also to salute and send much strength I don’t remember the day or a place (in all its manifestations) must develop and energy to those comrades at war in when I decided that I could not live their plans with the utmost security and Mexico, Spain, Greece, Italy the U.S., a tranquil, peaceful life. I decided to trust. I stumbled with this mistake, but I and throughout the world, that their at- complicate my life to the point of no believe that anti-authoritarians must be tack will be each time more constant return... Since then I am a declared like salmon, and learn after every fall, and effective against all authority. enemy of the social order, enemy of continuing firmly against the current. I society, of all forms of authority and send my love to all my brothers and sis- As they say, “The earth is not dying, exploitation, be it bourgeois or prole- ters who are so far away from me now, it is being killed and the killers have tarian. I understood that the fight for only you can understand this... And to names and addresses”. freedom is the war of every individual my enemies that analyze this text, be it for the reclamation of their lives. It is to locate me or to write an academic or Lastly we want to dedicate this and the refusal to be part of the mass, where ideological response, I feel from you a other actions to those comrades and someone else thinks for you and tells profound disgust for the life I chose and brothers Diego Rios and Mauricio you how to act. It is the refusal of ide- defend. Axel Osorio, Christian Cancino Morales (we send much affection and ologies, the refusal of numbers and and so many others.., by way of these hugs, Fuerza Dieguito, may your steps roles charged with a conformism and words I send you a warm greeting and

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 67 have certainty that many outside do not us. Every day, all of us who confront mean that “I have been staying home,” waste their lives but fight daily for the all forms of authority and exploitation as I continue to reject what life is under destruction of what today oppresses and refuse to be comfortable accom- the dominance of economic, political, them, but I believe not even the prison plices should reaffirm the difficult path police, or any other form of power. I can stop the fight against power. we have selected and show ourselves remain obstinately zealous about mak- that that we are worthy of our chosen ing the totality of life a war against For the destruction of all jails and cag- objective. the existing world, which represents a es. We will make war on Society.” tremendous challenge to all those who For me, it has already been several decide to confront it. I believe in the Letter #2 months during which I have needed necessity and consequences of being a to act with the utmost secrecy, avoid- living testament to the negation of this October 3, 2009 ing the investigations of the police ap- world. It thus follows that solidarity and paratus moving behind me, since I am propaganda by the deed have the same “This is an eye for an eye and a tooth certainly the perfect media excuse with value to me, just like they drive me far for a tooth. which the Capital-State intends to re- from the bright lights of the capitalist turn false security to and absolute dom- spectacle. My mistakes and careless- Many feelings and reasons have led me inance over life, despite being thwarted ness brought these circumstances—in to sketch out some ideas and post them by so many anonymous shadows, ev- which I choose to keep myself far away to the web. Above all, I want to give ery day, everywhere. I’m sure that the from everyone I love and everything brotherly thanks and support for all the police don’t have the naïve suspicion that forms part of my daily life—upon displays of affection and insurrectional that capturing me would dismantle me; therefore, they have sparked a pro- solidarity actions that have taken place some terrorist organization, although cess of self-examination and personal recently (and for those to come, why it doesn’t surprise me that it figures in growth, and they ensure that I now take not?). For me and for all those who their reasoning. They know that no per- additional precautions to keep myself share the desire to destroy this society manent or rigid structure exists behind out of the clutches of our enemies. Ev- of passive slaves, it always pleases, me, but their attempt to theoretically erything has changed for me, but my excites, and boosts morale to know understand affinity groups and infor- feelings and potency have only become about the daring and constant attacks mal organization is not in vain, and I stronger. on power being carried out by groups believe that it would be an error to un- and individuals who—despite the derestimate them. Today they pursue From the distant road I travel, I hope acutely repressive context, anywhere me because they want to immobilize that my words will in some way be a in the world—don’t bow their heads, me; with an exemplary punishment, support and an expression of affection and continue to put the dangerous force they want to curb the spread of an in- to all my comrades and all those inside of liberty into practice without hiding surrectional idea that necessarily leads and outside the prison walls, who are under the bed in anticipation of better to practice. They pursue me because I part of the force and energy of inex- times. practice and promote a way of life that haustible conflict. destroys the foundations of the estab- One inevitably reflects—and many lished order, because I am part of a dy- Finally, I salute all actions that attack do as yet another act on the stage on namic and diffuse force that grows and power, and with the hope that they con- which our lives/struggles (an indivis- asserts that not all of us are resigned to tinue, I say good-bye. ible formula for enemies of the existing surviving within the submissive routine order) unfold—that to share and learn of exploitation, that we do not accept *Or do you have any doubt, Sub-In- about the experiences of others while life as an obligatory and monotonous spector Ismael Andrade?” cautiously intensifying one’s own be- process that stems from what we are comes extremely necessary in order permitted, that there are many who are Letter #3 to avoid the errors and desertions that not seeking dialogue with or conces- November 21, 2009 eagerly invite repression. As a result, sions from authority, but who instead imagination and historical knowledge aim for its total destruction. “I do not know prison; I have never become part of an arsenal that can give been in one, and I just cannot imagine us a good start to never being stopped; If today my will/escape is an expres- the smell of the air there, or the unbear- thus, if we are faced with, among other sion of how avoidable or vulnerable the able walks through its corridors, or things, a technological/military appa- system’s control can be, of the various much less the loneliness of its cells. To- ratus, we should fight the conformism ways of opposing the manipulation of day—on the open road, in secret, leav- and fear within ourselves in the same our wishes or the submission of society, ing no trace—I can enjoy the wind, the way that society (and all its moralist, then I want to express it openly. In the night, the rain (which is always a good reformist, intellectual, consumerist, same way, I reaffirm my free choice to reason to hide my face), the company etc., expressions) looks to constrain live underground, which does not at all of a stray dog, the knowledge that I am

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 68 far away from the swine who are paid to hunt me. Today I run every life and in every action, you are also alive and pres- far from the city, but it is not only the generous oxygen from ent; you, whose lives exceeded the limits of this world, all the trees that swells my chest, it is also the pride of knowing of you who died confronting power, we do not forget you, that I have more brothers and sisters than I can possibly be including Matías and Jaime, whose murderers did not even aware of. But knowing that they are there does not matter; have the slightest courage to shoot face-to-face. I also es- their actions speak to me, they are their actions. pecially want to remember Johnny Cariqueo and Mauri the punk, with whom I was fortunate to know the happiness of My footsteps no longer have the certainty of a fixed desti- exchanging a few words and gestures, and today I have the nation, but they are still heading toward the destruction of pleasure of making sure that their lives continue to confront power, so they have become quicker and more unpredictable; power. Thank you for teaching us that, against power, the I am carrying all my hatred and contempt for its laws, its only lost battle is the one not fought. authority, its society, and I have no room for guilt or fear of punishment. I have also thrown away the naive idea that free- - Diego Ríos” dom is the place that exists outside the prison walls. A letter was written in solidarity with Diego Rios by Gabriel For me, freedom is neither place nor permission; it is action, Pombo Da Silva. Gabriel has been mentioned multiple times it is the anti-authoritarian meaning that fills each act, it is the in this magazine. Gabriel is an anarchist who along with nervousness that precedes attack, it is the uncontrollable re- another, Jose Fernandez Delgado, escaped from the brutal gard for a comrade, it is feeling alive because you know that F.I.E.S prison system of the Spanish State in 2004. Gabriel your life no longer belongs to capital, but confronts it. and Jose are now residing in the jails of Germany, after a gun battle with German cops at a checkpoint following their es- The destination to which the road I now travel leads me no cape. Gabriel is sentenced to 13 years and Jose to 14. Gabriel longer matters; there I will find free and wild individuals has been imprisoned for over 24 years, 14 of which were with whom to attempt revolt, with whom to sharpen solidari- spent in isolation (he is only 40). Throughout his time in ty, with whom to support the unbreakable will to blow up the prison he has remained an active voice for insurrection and existing order, to destroy every jail and every cell. I do not discontent. He is currently on hunger strike during the time need to enter a prison in order to feel the anguish of seclusion that we are compiling this article. in my own skin, so I hope that each one of these words arrives loaded with all the force and affection with which they From Gabriel: are written, to each one of the comrades captured by the state and by capital, anywhere in the world. Also know that many “To Diego Rios, of us continue to fight the monster that holds your bodies, that we are defending you from oblivion, that no walls will The complicity and affection awakened in me by your letters be able to isolate you from all the warmth that we are send- (communiqués) from underground is inspiring me to write ing your way—no matter how high or how thick, we will find these words. Not just your letters, but your rebellious attitude something to burn. in a world/society that becomes more uniform and submissive every day . . . I and many other comrades living the insurrectional life know that each act/action brings consequences—favorable The smell of the air in prison is nothing unusual; prison gen- or unfavorable, successes or mistakes—and we assume re- erally smells like cheap disinfectant, rancid tobacco, and the sponsibility because we take pride in being as consistent as nauseating sweat of some “piglets” who are allergic to soap possible. For that reason, I accept and learn from my errors, or showering. and I look to share and multiply my experiences of attack, no matter that they look to terrorize us with their prisons and The only ones here who “perfume” themselves are the with the agencies after us; we will not be silenced, we will guards, social workers, psychologists, and priests. We pris- remain concerned and engaged so that our captured brothers oners are forbidden to “perfume” ourselves, I imagine for and sisters can be with us, so that their struggle can spread reasons of “conformity” or “security.” and be known, so that we can keep sharing all our affection with them. We do not forget, and we live to urgently wield Fortunately, the fresh air and the rain (still) know nothing solidarity against this society of submission and apathy. of prohibitions, and that’s why―for one hour each day―I can feel them enter my asthmatic lungs, causing a delicious Each word of this communiqué looks to destroy the silence tickling sensation . . . that attempts to isolate our captured brothers and sisters; behind the words are lives that insist on doing the same, with Apart from the rain and the fresh air, prison is no more than something more than words. For each prisoner—for Axel, an architectural construct designed to discipline and control Cristian, Matías, Pablo, Flora, Marco, Gabriel—for all those the movements/existences of those taken captive by prison who do not submit and who remain ready to go to war: In society . . .

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 69

The only pleasant smell in prison comes from the little broth- SERVING TIME ers and sisters who come to see us, or when everything burns in the fire of a riot. How beautiful, comrade! The smell of the burning mattresses, the smoke filling the cell blocks, the GRANT BARNES “perfumed ones” terrified and “imprisoned” (what a paradox ##137563, San Carlos Correctional Facility, PO Box 3, . . .), and the freed prisoners writing banners, securing po- Pueblo, CO 81002, USA. sitions, turning each tool into a weapon and each burning object into a “Molotov” . . . Serving 12 years for setting fire to a number of SUV vehicles. The letters ELF were spray painted onto all of the vehicles. Insurrection is beautiful when it breaks out. It is uncontrollable (like freedom) and subversive. In those moments, the prisoner is not a prisoner, and the consequences mean shit. NATHAN BLOCK #36359-086, FCI Lompoc, Federal Correctional Institution, No matter how long it lasts, insurrection is something that 3600 Guard Road, Lompoc, CA 93436, USA. remains etched in fire on the soul. The beatings, the torture, the isolation, the vindictive destruction of your things (pho- Serving 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Pop- tos, letters, books, clothing, etc.) will always be the bitter lar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV dealership. consequences of defeat, but the images, moments, sounds, Also admitted his role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. and smells of insurrection will accompany you for life . . . MARCO CAMENISCH Their system of discipline and control, their administration Postfach 3143, CH-8105 Regensdorf, Switzerland. of torture and slow death will stay on its feet as long they are able to divide us with “privileges and punishments” (like out Serving 18 years. Ten years for using explosives to destroy there), but not when we are united and totally determined. electricity pylons leading from nuclear power stations. Eight years for the murder of a Swiss Boarder Guard whilst on the Other things we experience during insurrectional rebellion run. In ‘02 Marco completed a 12-year sentence in Italy for are the ties between rebels, the friendships that usually last destroying electricity pylons in Italy. all your life.

Cast those stereotypical images of prison out of your mind, DANIEL MCGOWAN compa, and―with subversive pleasure―discover freedom #63794-053, USP Marion, US Penitentiary, PO Box 1000, (which is nothing other than insurrection) . . . Marion, IL 62959, USA.

By losing our fear (which has contaminated us since we were Serving 7 years for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm “little ones,” and especially as “adults”), we become great and an ELF arson against an old growth logging corporation. and free, and that is much more than any of them (jailers Admitted his role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. Also recently and politicians) are willing to “tolerate” from prisoners and found in civil contempt for his refusal to answer questions “citizens” . . . before a grand jury.

Let’s be insufferable and subversive! FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: www.supportdaniel.org From the dungeons of northern Europe, a freedom-filled embrace for you, Diego . . . MICHAEL SYKES #696693, Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility, 1728 - Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, Aachen, 11.26.09” Bluewater Highway, Ionia, MI 48846, USA.

Serving four to ten years for anti-urban development construction arsons, criminal damage to a utility pole, spray- painting political graffiti, and burning the American flag. Michael has very little support compared to other prisoners serving time for similarly motivated crimes. Michael was arrested when he was 17 years old, sentenced as an adult, and had very little connection with a broader radical community. We have little information on Michael, but we firmly support you writing him. See past issues of this magazine more in-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 70 depth information on his case. As we go into print, both are currently facing trial. Please visit the following links to stay up to date with their case:

BRIANA WATERS www.mostlyeverything.net #36432-086, FCI Danbury, Federal Correctional Institution, [email protected] Route 37, Danbury, CT 06811, USA.

Serving a six year sentence for alleged involvement in an arson at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture. The facility aided in the DNA mapping of trees, TO STAY making it easier for forestry companies to produce profit.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: UPDATED www.supportbriana.org/ WITH JOYANNA ZACHER #36360-086, FCI Dublin, Federal Correctional Institution, 5701 8th St - Camp Parks - Unit F, Dublin, CA 94568 USA. REPRESSION

Serving 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Pop- lar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV dealership. AS IT GOES Also admitted her role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. DOWN AWAITING BREAK THE CHAINS TRIAL AND www.breakthechains.info PRISON ACTIVIST NOT CITED RESOURCE CENTER www.prisonactivist.org BEFORE WRITING PRISONERS:

THE OAKLAND 100 HOW TO Updates on the cases of those arrested during the Oakland anti-politics.net/distro/download/writingprisonersflyer.pdf riots in January 2009; over the murder of Oscar Grant by the police. GREEN SCARE supporttheoakland100.wordpress.com www.greenscare.org SUPPORT HUGH AND TIGA Tiga and Hugh were arrested separately on April 24th, GRAND JURY RESISTANCE 2009. Snatched from their lives and friends on an unre- grandjuryresistance.org markable Friday morning, they were each transported by Indiana State Police to the Pike County Jail in Petersburg, a small town in southern Indiana. Their bonds were set high: GRAND JURY INFO $10,000 for Tiga and $20,000 for Hugh. Each sat in jail grandjuryinfo.wordpress.com for days before friends and supporters across the country scraped together enough money to bail them out. Certain ANARCHIST BLACK CROSS details of the arrest warrants differ, but their charges are basically the same: two counts of misdemeanor intimida- FEDERATION tion, two counts of misdemeanor conversion, and one count www.abcf.net of felony racketeering.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 71 ABC PITTSBURGH PRISONER PO Box 9272, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 SUPPORT LEGAL GROUPS INFORMATION/ These projects provide free literature and support for people currently incarcerated or facing jail time. The postal information is provided so that prisoners without access to the SECURITY internet will be able to get in contact and request support. We apologize for only including projects based in the United States; we only have so much space. SECURITY, PRIVACY, SHOELACETOWN ABC & ANONYMITY Will send free literature to prisoners, including copies of this www.security.resist.ca magazine.

P.O BOX 8085, Paramus, NJ, 07652, USA SECURITY AND COUNTER- SURVEILLANCE CENTRAL GEORGIA ABC www.anti-politics.net/distro/2009/warriorsecurity-read.pdf P.O Box 610, Roberta, GA 31078, USA MIDNIGHT NEW YORK CITY ABC P.O Box 110034, Brooklyn, NY, 11211 SPECIAL LAW COLLECTIVE www.midnightspecial.net HOUSTON ABC P.O Box 667614, Houston, TX, 77266-7614, USA CIVIL LIBERTIES DEFENSE CENTER MODESTO www.cldc.org ANARCHO Will send free literature to prisoners, including copies of this magazine.

PO Box 3027, Modesto, CA, 95353, USA UNCHAINED BOOKS Will send free literature to prisoners, including copies of this magazine.

PO Box 784, Fort Collins, CO 80522 [email protected] unchainedbooks.wordpress.com BOSTON ABC Will send free literature to prisoners, including copies of this magazine.

PO Box 230182, Boston, MA 02123 [email protected]

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Repression-Pg. 72 REVOLUTIONARY SOLIDARITY Actions claimed in solidarity with other struggles, arrested individuals, or unrest.

November 1st 2009, Sussex November 22nd, 2009, Brus- ued militant struggle against the treat- UK: Revolutionaries across Europe sels: A neighborhood police station ment of women (and everyone else) have been going directly to the jail to was set ablaze in a Molotov cocktail at- locked inside immigrant detention fa- direct their rage and support their im- tack when violence erupted after dark cilities. In an attack on Sodexo (which prisoned comrades. In Sussex, Anar- in a Brussels suburb leading to more provides foods for schools, military chists caused quite a disturbance at than 50 arrests. organizations, and prisons across the the Lewes Prison in one such action. world), an action involving arson was A communique read: “In the early This attack was one of several acts of carried out in solidarity with all pris- evening of the 1st November a rabble violence and vandalism in the Ander- oners in Belgium and Italy. According of anarchists were up at the dirty old lecht neighborhood, on the western to the communique: “In the detention prison of Lewes, with some fireworks rim of Brussels, which the authorities centers the police rape and Sodexo ex- for the inmates and rage against the claim have been organized through text ploits the immigrants.” 5 days earlier prison society. Waving a skull and messages. Those arrested in the attacks on the 25th of November, during the crossbones banner, the anarchists made were aged between 15 and 20, and at “International Day Against Violence a loud presence outside the main gate. least six vehicles were damaged. The on Women”, the cops viciously charged Shouting slogans like: “The Passion for violence against the police has been the women comrades who gathered to Freedom is Stronger than the Prison,” brought on by anger over the mistreat- denounce the violence and rape that and “No Prison, No Border - Fuck Law ment of detainees in the nearby Forest immigrant women are subjected to in- & Order.” The prisoners heard and saw prison. “These are professional van- side the detention centers. According to us, and called back, waving, holding dals... people who are trained urban comrades on the scene, the pretext for up lighters and shouting into the night guerrillas and who themselves train the charges was the fact that they re- sky between us which was broken by very young adolescents,” stated Ander- fused to take away their banner saying: the boom-crack of our rockets, which lecht’s deputy mayor Fabrice Cumps. “The police rape inside the detention illuminated the darkness. Then a sec- The police stated in the media that none centers for immigrants”. Several days ond box blossomed towards the stars of those arrests were directly linked to later in Brussels, the Sodexo head of- and another stray rocket found its way earlier Molotov cocktail attacks which fice was attacked. According to a com- under a car before we dispersed. This caused substantial damage to the police munique released: “Sunday at dawn, was for all prisoners in struggle, like station. Municipal offices in the same with a sledge hammer we smashed Elijah Smith, an anarchist comrade im- building were damaged as well. about twenty reinforced windows and prisoned in Lewes right now for anti- the main door of the headquarters of militarist sabotage against Israeli war November 30th 2009, Milan: Sodexo in rue Charles Lemaire. A ‘tag’ crimes.” Milan continues to be the site of contin- was left to remind passersby that So-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Revolutionary Solidarity-Pg. 73 dexo is a collaborator of the centres coats. The hunger strike left Horne with 2008, for a variety of reasons. Ama- of reclusion.” Being that Sodexo oper- kidney damage and failing eyesight, deu wanted to bring attention to those ates in many countries throughout the but it was neither the first nor the last responsible for torture within Spanish world, the possibilities for solidarity he embarked upon, and when he died prisons: courts and politicians. At this actions against these disgusting acts of of liver failure in 2001, at the age of time, Amadeu had been incarcerated rape and torture are endless. 49, he had not eaten for 15 days. In the for over 2 decades, which meant ac- communique, militants with the Ani- cording to Spanish law he legally could December 2009, Germany: mal Liberation Front claim to have re- be freed; however, the state ‘upgrad- Since the police murder of Alexis in leased various deer back into the wild: ed’ Amadeu to a “third grade” prison late 2008, Germany has erupted with “A few months ago we learned that a which had ‘better conditions.’ This in actions and riots in solidarity with the company called Venison Deer (www. itself was a small victory, being that the insurrection in Greece. Some of the venisondeer.com) located in Marugán, Spanish state carried out the moving af- most inspiring and brave attacks in- Segovia, was engaged in raising deer ter 77 days of hunger striking. Amadeu clude actions against a police stations to sell their dead bodies to restaurants stopped his hunger strike, but started it in Berlin and Hamburg, which were and butcher shops. In addition, some of up again on April 20th, 2009 after he attacked during the night by persons these were used to repopulate hunting had received no information about his wearing masks. In Hamburg, the police grounds and others sent to a hospital in release. After 82 days on hunger strike, station windows were smashed and a Toledo as if they were just material to Amadeu then began a thirst strike. His police car was set alight. Another had be experimented on. courage to resist his imprisonment and its windows smashed out. In Berlin, After several weeks of researching the stay true to his revolutionary anarchist Molotov cocktails and paint bombs business and numerous evening visits to ideals is an inspiration to those who were thrown at a federal police office. the farm, the night of October 30th we struggle for freedom and liberation ev- These actions were claimed through a went to the town of Marugán to return erywhere. To stay up on his case, visit: communique which was posted on di- freedom to the deer that the speciesist www.llibertatamadeu.blogspot.com rectactionde.blogspot.com: “December businessman Javier Martín had stolen 6 one year ago, Alexis was struck down from them. For more than three hours Solidarity actions have also been un- dead in Athens. To commemorate him we cut the wire fence, and sabotaged dertaken by comrades. In the Spanish and the revolts that followed, on De- the all-terrain vehicle and the electric city of Segovia, attacks were launched cember 4th, 2009 we attacked the police generator. After having torn down more at Television stations and City Hall. A headquarters in Berlin, with Molotovs, than half of the fence, we led the deer communique posting read: “The action stones and paint. The police are a key towards the multiple avenues of escape. consisted of stoning the windows of element at the helm of the collaboration We know that at least 50 of them man- COPE and Popular TV, after which city of European security, whose objective aged to regain their freedom and we hall was smashed with rocks. Later, the is to destroy social struggles and is re- think that at dawn many more would action was claimed via telephone calls sponsible for the sentence against Axel, realize that there was now no fence to to both media outlets, in which we de- Florian and Oliver as presumed mem- prevent their return to the fields. Any- manded the release of Amadeu Casellas bers of militant groups. Our solidarity way, if any were left inside, we will re- Ramón and that something to that ef- to all those who are starting to attack turn for them. We frame this liberation fect is published in the bourgeois media the dominion of power and capital who as part of the actions in memory of our in order to reveal this crime of the state are pouring their rage into the streets compañero Barry Horne, who gave his to society . . .Free Amadeu Casellas!” and fighting. To be clear - the price will life on November 5, 2001 in a hunger continue to get higher.” strike for animal liberation.” Another attack was carried out, after a package was detonated that consist- October 30th 2009, Marugán, Spain, Solidarity with Amadeu ed of an envelope containing a ‘low- Segovia: Animal liberationists re- Casellas: Actions continue to hap- strength explosive.’ The blast occurred membered the life and death of militant pen in solidarity with Spanish anarchist while the General Direct of Juvenile Barry Horne, who died as a result of prisoner, Amadeu Casselas, (who has Justice and the Ministry of Justice was a hunger strike while in prison. Barry been covered throughout this maga- in the area. Police came onto the scene became known around the world in zine), as he courageously continues to after they received a telephone call an- December 1998, when he engaged in resist the state from the inside. Amadeu nouncing the presence of the package. a hunger strike that lasted 68 days in took part in the robbing of banks back An individual was later arrested for this an effort to persuade the British gov- in the 1970’s in order to support labor attempted bombing, and is mentioned ernment to hold a public inquiry into struggles. He was arrested for these dar- later in this article. animal testing. The hunger strike took ing actions, and in the 1980’s, became a Shortly after the controlled explosion, place while Horne was serving an 18- member of the PIS (Prisoners of Strug- an anarchist demonstration demanding year sentence for planting incendiary gle). During his incarceration, he went the release of Amadeu Casellas took devices in stores in Bristol that sold fur on hunger strike starting on June 22nd, place at the same location.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Revolutionary Solidarity-Pg. 74 In September, several knapsacks that on them from a street that is at a level The Spanish government, well known appeared to contain explosives were superior, to about 2 meters. The result: for its repressive practices developed placed at PSOE headquarters in dif- Both police agents flee terrified down to destroy the revolutionary movement ferent districts of Madrid, including the street looking for refuge. The win- that has threatened its social stability Aranjuez and Coslada. Each knapsack dows of the patrol car are broken. The over many years, is now trying and is also contained a written claim demand- ingenuous security that characterizes finally managing through propaganda, ing that the government immediately them we saw once again cut short. One recuperation and persecution to iso- free comrade Amadeu Casellas Ramón, of the things that we can learn from our late and control the most active part of along with the clear threat that next Greek friends is that with determina- revolutionary struggles past and pres- time “the fuse will be lit.” tion and creativity we can overcome ent. That has resulted in many combat- any obstacle. ants having spent their lives in prison In October, a communique claimed and some have even died there. But responsibility for various acts of sabo- For the extension of the class struggle. behind the bars the battle doesn’t stop. tage: “Fourteen machines of all types For the destruction of all prisons.” The imprisoned, in spite of the disas- were sabotaged during the last week trous conditions they put up with, do in the city of Barcelona. Sugar in fuel Another action in October was claimed not cease struggling for their ‘rights’, tanks, punctured tires, and severed wir- on Spanish indymedia that read: “Octo- but above all for their dignity. One of ing have been the way to act against ber 11, we stoned the DNI office of the them is Amadeu, who with many hun- and mark ACS, a company involved in national police on Calle Castillejos in ger strikes and other kinds of protest the construction of buildings such as Barcelona. Free Amadeu!” has shown that for a revolutionary the prisons and police stations. struggle never ends and continues to We know that these actions are small In Barcelona in late October 2009 , a exist no matter what the circumstances and the damages are minimal compared group of about twenty people occupied they find themselves in. to the enormous sums of money that the premises of Radio Catalogne (Av After the acts of sabotage, and the drive this multinational company. But Diagonal, 614) in protest against the occupations and dynamic demonstra- the fact of being able to demonstrate silence of the media about the case of tions that have taken place in Spain, we that their security doesn’t work, that Amadeu Casellas. Another numerous have decided to ‘decorate’ the Honor- their property is accessible, and that group stayed outside the building. ary Consulate of Thessaloniki with an solidarity is in the streets is sufficient explosive device in solidarity with an- motivation for us to continue multiply- On Saturday, October 24th, a group of archist Amadeu Casellas. The hunger ing our attacks. Freedom for Amadeu!” people in solidarity stormed the cathe- strike might end, but the struggle con- dral of Saint-Jacques de Compostelle tinues. Until the liberation of the last On October 5th, unknown rebels in to unfurl a banner on the balustrade in prisoner, right to the destruction of the Barcelona acting in solidarity with solidarity with Amadeu Casellas. For last prison in the whole world. Amadeu attacked the Catalan Police over an hour they shouted slogans for Force, Mossos D’Esquadra, who are his freedom, against the State and its International Chamber for the spread- known for their hatred of anarchists extermination centres until they were ing of revolutionary violence.” and the okupa (squatting) movement. expelled by the cops. Here is the communique used to claim Three days later, the solidarity didn’t On November 1st, anarchists in Guada- the action: “On the dawn of Monday stop! As demonstrations and attacks lajar attacked the offices of the PSOE 5 of October we decided to attack the against banks and other state/capital- (Spanish Socialist Party) and the I.U Mossos. Amadeu, companion, we are ist institutions continued. As one report (Izquierda Unida, left coalition) during with you. The situation: Carmel, work- read, “We wanted to show with stones the same night. ers district of Barcelona. The urbanistic and hammers that solidarity is not just The two headquarters woke up to find chaos of the pro-Franco development a word. Amadeu is still in prison. May their locks blocked with silicone and policy created hundreds of districts the solidarity not stop!” their façades full of red paint. like this, all decided by the state. Nar- The next night, in Ségovia, TV studios row streets, multiple stairs and drawing On October 30th, the Greeks got in on and city hall were attacked in solidar- up roads without apparent order, with the action, as they attacked the Spanish ity with Amadeu. The communique anticipation of that and knowledge of consulate in Thessaloniki. A communi- read: “The action consisted of breaking the terrain, it is a perfect scene for an que released read: “Imprisoned since the windows of Cope and Popular TV ambush. The method: Containers burn the eighties, now for over 25 years an- studios, then breaking the windows of in the street and a call warns the Mos- archist Amadeu Casellas “is paying” the town hall. It was later claimed by sos of the event. With luck a little patrol the price of his personal decisions. He telephone to the two media attacked, arrives at the place in 5 minutes. They is accused of bank robberies for financ- demanding the liberation of Amadeu get out of the car and they approach ing factory occupations and direct ac- Casellas Ramon and it be publicized the containers and a rain of stones falls tion in the bourgeois media to expose this

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Revolutionary Solidarity-Pg. 75 State crime against society... Freedom prison. Chants and messages of soli- set a precedent, that their solidarity will for Amadeu Casellas!” darity through these hard times were only continue to be strengthened even Resistance for the freedom of Ama- said to be heard by Tamara through the before continued gestures of state con- deu, both by himself inside, and his prisons walls. As Tamara put it, hear- trol. comrades outside, continues. ing her comrades outside the prison helped her to feel “filled with strength”. November 2nd 2009, Barce- On December 17th, Tamara, an anar- lona: In the run up to the COP-15 chist comrade from Madrid, was ar- Following her arrest, a call-out for summit, the company Konica-Minolta rested and jailed in the woman’s prison solidarity stated by her comrades was was attacked and had the windows of Wad-Ras, and then later transferred visibly heard across the world. In San- its main offices broken. As the- com to the Can Brians prison, both in Bar- tiago, Chile, two police stations had munique read: “This is our way of celona. She is accused of having sent vehicles firebombed outside of them; a welcoming the preparatory meeting an explosive package to Albert Batlle, communique was issued declaring the organized by governments and compa- secretary of penitentiary services of the act “vengeance for Tamara”. Shortly nies in view of the Copenhagen (COP- Catalan regional government. before this attack in Chile, a Chilean 15) summit. Konica-Minolta is one of It was initially reported that a demon- consulate was attacked in Spain. The the main sponsors of the Barcelona stration in solidarity with Amadeu Ca- attack was claimed in solidarity with pre-summit that began yesterday No- sellas began in front of a Prison Servic- Freddy Fuentevilla and Marcelo Vil- vember 2nd, and will end on the 6th. es Headquarters after a letter-bomb had laroel, who were recently extradited During the COP-15 of Copenhagen, as been detonated by the TEDAX bomb from Neuquen prison in Argentina, in all the preceding summits, govern- disposal unit. In actuality, TEDAX det- where they were serving a sentence for ments and companies will build new onated the explosive inside the building weapons possession, to Chile, where and juicy affairs under the cover of du- while the demonstration was going on they are facing state repression and rable development and action against outside, without warning to the demon- imprisonment for getting caught ex- climate change. We know their inten- strators or the workers in the building. propriating money to fund revolution- tions very well: improve capitalism to The building was never evacuated, ary activity. The attack was also mo- perpetuate its existence. Now the time and the quantity of explosive used in tivated by the hunger strike of multiple of green capitalism has arrived. The the letter-bomb was apparently so min- anarchists across Europe, in solidarity forms change, but the repression, the iscule that no one besides the TEDAX with one another against the state. Ta- destruction of the Earth, the exploita- agents involved even noticed its deto- mara was also cited in the attack. An tion of everything possible continues. nation. Much doubt exists regarding the incendiary device was left next to a They talk to us about the weather. Not letter-bomb’s capacity to even cause police station in Madrid; claimed as us. Which means direct action against physical injury, much less kill, which vengeance for the recent escalation in their lies. Not just here and now. Al- means that Tamara’s attempted murder repression. The communique stated ways and everywhere. ...For anarchy! charge is, as usual, totally out-of-pro- that “Repression means attack; let’s (Liberación Total) portion with the facts. destroy the state. Beginning with its Prison Services Secretary Albert Batlle guardians”. Two days after her arrest, Note: was in his office on the day in question, two banks were set afire in Barcelona; and a group of demonstrators―includ- both were claimed as acts of solidarity The events that happened following ing Casellas’ mother―stormed into his with Tamara, as well as recent repres- this action at the summit in Denmark office and demanded a meeting with sion in Chile and other parts of Europe. are cited in the “This was not our Bro- him. At this time, he just so happened Tamara has not gone forgotten, nor has kenhagen” article in this issue of the to be meeting with Justice Councilor she become isolated in prison. She is magazine. Montserrat Tura, and both were assured supported through the actions of those that the letter-bomb contained very lit- concerned enough to take the risk of November 2nd 2009, Brighton tle explosive material. Neither Battle standing up in her name, and helping to (UK): The Royal Bank of Scotland was nor Tura took any special measures in create a momentum for her and others attacked in solidarity with various anar- response, and their meeting continued experiencing the same current condi- chist prisoners. The communique read: as planned. tions. “We take responsibility for attacking the Brighton HQ of the Royal Bank of The distance between Getafe, where She is accused of acting in solidarity Scotland on the evening of November Tamara lives and was arrested, and with Amadeu Casselas, another com- 2nd, 2009. All banks are part of the Barcelona, where she was charged and rade experiencing a similar repres- same system which is destroying ev- imprisoned, is some 700 kilometers. sion. As the Spanish state tries to ruin erything and has to go. Banks are the Immediately following her arrest, a our informal networks of support and most visible manifestation of the ex- demonstration took place outside her comradery, anonymous comrades who ploitation and annihilation of our lives, original holding unit at the Wad-Ras remain unknown and uncaught, help to carried out by state and capital. We

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Revolutionary Solidarity-Pg. 76 haven’t forgotten the role of RBS in the warming is not a game; it is nothing We managed to destroy 28 new patrol financial crisis and the April G20 where less than a problem that concerns ev- vehicles—the 2010 Ford F-150 model Ian Tomlinson was killed by police, nor eryone, a problem about which we have pickup (Lobo edition)—belonging to do we forgive. We dedicate this action worried, and we decided to do some- the Department of Public Municipal to Yiannis Dimitrakis, Amadeu Casel- thing so that all the people responsible Security. Six were totally destroyed, las, Thomas Meyer-Falk, Alfredo M. pay for it and pay dearly. and 22 suffered considerable damage, Bonanno and Christos Stratigopulos, We’re also making use of this space to which amounts to millions of pesos in anarchist comrades in prison for expro- send words of support to the anarchists expenses. priations who chose to directly attack imprisoned by the Mexican state: Víc- This action is not an incident of van- this system, as well as all other rebels tor Herrera Govea, locked up and tor- dalism, nor is it an “organized crime” who are in struggle inside and outside tured on October 2nd, during the riots operation on the orders of Arellano, the prison walls. We will not stop.” resulting from a demonstration that was Dr. Caro, El Teo, or Muletas; this is an interrupted by Marcelo Ebrad’s riot anonymous anarchist action in solidar- Anarchists. police in Mexico City, and Emanuel ity with all our prisoners in the hands Hernández, under investigation since of the state, for the International Week December 7th, Mexico: A bomb- 2006 and accused of carrying Molotov of Agitation and Pressure in Solidar- ing was carried out at the Banamex cocktails during the demonstrations ity with the Prisoners Seized by the branch in Coacalco Mexico, destroy- against the World Water Forum. We Chilean State, and in support of coming the bank’s doors and windows. show solidarity with them through our rade Gabriel Pombo Da Silva’s call The explosion at a Banamex branch bombing, because although we have for a hunger strike as a means of revo- alerted Coacalco police at around 5:45 never seen their faces, an idea, a feel- lutionary struggle for our comrades a.m., and agents found two undetonated ing, and our most ferocious instincts for in prison. Our action is in solidarity butane gas canisters at the scene. The freedom, strength, and resistance unite with comrade Emmanuel Hernández communiqué released after the action us as we move forward. We wish them Hernández (prisoner in Mexico City), read: the best! Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, Marco Ca- “In the early morning of December 7, menisch, Juan Carlos Rico Rodríguez, we detonated two butane gas canisters - Unforgettable Vengeance Sergio María Stefani, Francesco Porcu, taped to a homemade explosive made Eco-Sabotage Brigade” Alessandro Settepani, Leonardo Landi, out of dynamite, a fuse, and a delay Pablo Carvajal, Matías Castro, Axel timer at the Banamex bank branch lo- November 30th, Tijuana, Baja Osorio, Diego Petrissans, Amadeu Ca- cated in Coacalco, Mexico State. How- Mexico: Anarchists set fire to 28 po- sellas Ramón, Alfredo María Bonanno, ever, due to an unfortunate fault in our lice trucks in Tijuana. Their communi- Christos Stratigopoulos, and all the an- device, the canisters did not serve their que read: “We are not a new organiza- archist prisoners of the social war. function. But the dynamite explosive tion presenting its beloved acronym to did, and it destroyed part of the in- the controlling, foolish mass media. We May the smoke from our action’s insur- frastructure, all the windows, and the are not a new guerrilla group, nor are rectionary flames reach your cells, so doors of that hateful branch of blood- we a new party. We are no Vanguard, you can smell the liberating aroma of sucking banks. nor do we want or try to be one; we gasoline. The cry of each one of your We did this: unknown to the state, do not direct or represent anyone. We names will echo in the ears of the pow- masked up, with our hands full of ven- represent ourselves, and we therefore erful.” geance, ready to break the established take the shape of an affinity group and order and turn it into chaos. We are a resolve to self-manage the struggle October 3rd - 4th, Santiago result of this system, of this alienat- against everything that oppresses and Chile: Anarchists through commu- ing and absurd society that creates its exploits us. We decide to counterattack, niques claimed the following action: own destruction day by day. We are to respond to the death imposed on us “There are many reasons why we went the ideas of abolition gestating in our by capitalism and the state in their ob- out to disrupt the order of those who minds, turned into direct action. session to conquer. we consider our enemies. During an One year after the death of a Greek impromptu tour of the disgusting city, anarchist at the hands of the police, we Exactly one week ago, last Monday we found bourgeois property, butch- declare ourselves in complicity and sol- [November 30], we attacked—with an- ers, doctors and bankers, those who idarity with the struggle of the Greek archist fire—the fleet of patrol vehicles protect and maintain their lives through anarcho-insurrectionalists, whose cour- ready to be delivered to the municipal this nauseating system of domination, age is like Molotov cocktails exploding authorities in the Bulevar O’Higgins those who love the monotony of work- in the bodies of the guardians of order! parking lot (on the Vía Rápida) in the consumption, aiming to get just a little Through our action, we also position Fortín de las Flores community, near power, that’s what gives them the tran- ourselves against the COP-15 sum- the Mazda dealership and Mega Dulces quility they need to sleep at night. We mit in Copenhagen, Denmark. Global in that city. sabotaged: 4 luxury cars (3 4x4 trucks

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Revolutionary Solidarity-Pg. 77 and 1 car) had their tires split, 4 luxury dation. Around 800 people took part in we will hit your agencies everywhere” cars were scratched with a sharp, metal what was a strong and loud demo that tool, leaving chaotic designs ruining showed the anger of many against arbi- November 15th, Berlin Germa- the expensive paint jobs, 6 meat mar- trary state violence and oppression. At ny: After three posh cars got torched in kets ended-up with the locks on the least 800 participated in the demonstra- Friedrichshain, Berlin, as almost every doors and the padlocks on their shut- tion. night happens, a young man named To- ters sealed with metal pieces and su- According to a report issued: “We re- bias Poge was arrested. The police are perglue. A psychiatric clinic was left fuse to be intimidated by their tactics. accusing him of conducting the two ac- with its doors glued. A “BancoEstado” With arrests made, houses raided, and tions. They said he was carrying gaso- bank branch was attacked with stones, people controlled we must not be afraid line for firelighters on himself. Immedi- resulting in two windows and the entry to confront them. As the right-wing ately after his arrest, the next morning’s door shattered. press labels us terrorists, we must be a tabloid press published his pictures and The war has also cost the deaths of positive force striving to save our free full name and address, since he lives in many comrades throughout the world, spaces and creating a dominant force a house project, the Liebig 14 (on the recently it took away our friend Mauri against their oppression. People all corner of Rigaerstrasse) which is due to from us, the product of an accident that over Berlin are feeling the pressure of be evicted. could have been avoided. Mauri will state dominance, from the student pro- Since his arrest a posh car got torched be remembered as the warrior that he tests, to workers struggles and the new in another district and the Social Dem- was, loving comrades and desiring the campaign of hate against the left. We ocrat party got smashed in solidarity death of enemies, a savage in the war must unite our struggles and strive to with Toby; around the same time seven against society, Mauri this is for you create a world free from exploitation.” Neo-Nazi targets (private houses, meet- and as well as all the actions that are ing points, and so on) got attacked in still to come! October 13th, Berlin Germany: connection with an upcoming yearly For the companion Diego Rios, who 4 Unknown persons attacked a police sta- demo for Silvio Meier, squatter and months ago made his escape and went tion in Lichtenberg; smashing several Anti-Fascist stabbed to death in 1992 underground refusing to fall into the windows with stones, afterwards they by the Nazis in Friedrichshain hands of the authority. To him we say, lit smoke bombs, which reached the flee, Diego, run and continue to expose inner part of the building through the Write Tobias at: the vulnerability of the powerful, from damaged windows. Also they left some Tobias Poge here we embrace every word of your calthrops (nail balls) on the streets Buchungsnummer 3054/09/1 communiques and with these actions which damaged the police cars who JVA Moabit we salute you.” wanted to search for the vandals - who Alt Moabit 12A were then given more time to flee the 10559 Berlin November 2nd, Brighton (UK): scene. The police first arrested three Germany A probation office was attack with persons in the area but had to release stones and paint. A communique claim- them quite fast. Civil cops found a bag December 8th, Washington ing the action was posted online that in the near of the action containing fly- DC: In solidarity with the ongoing read: “last night we smashed the win- ers who had a connection to the ongo- rebellion in Greece, bricks were used dows of the probation office on dyke ing arsons on cars. to shatter the windows of the Greek road in Brighton. This was done in soli- The following claim was published Embassy at 2228 Massachusetts Ave darity with prisoners everywhere, in recently on the internet: “You keep our NW Washington, D.C. A communique every single prison, whether this means comrades Masouras, Hadjimichelakis posting online stated: “This action was being locked up behind bars or being a and Yospus prisoners in Athens. You done in solidarity with those who have prisoner in this society of coercion and took Christoph T. And Alexandra R. taken to the streets in Greece on the re- control which tries to force us into be- in general preventive kidnapping, you cent anniversary of the murder of Alex- ing nothing but slaves to the capitalist want to make an example with the pris- is Grigoropoulos. The recent socialist system. We are fucking disgusted by oners of the first of May, you organized government has shown through its use this society and its delegates such as a farce process against alleged mem- of state repression that is no different the pigs, the screws, the bosses etc. We bers of the MG, therefore we visited in character from the right wing gov- have smashed these windows and we you. In solidarity with all the ones who ernment that took Grigoropoulos’s life. will do it again.” are on our side of the barricade and take State power, regardless of who wields action against your social terror-control it will be used to repress and murder, November 2009, Germany: and your anti-insurrection combat- and we will never be free of this vio- After police raided two radical houses ing. A special greeting goes to Alfredo lence until we’ve dismantled the rule of (Liebig 34 and Liebig 14), a spontane- Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulos, state and capital, and confront the roots ous demo took place to show that we kept in pre-trial detention in of power and hierarchy wherever they won’t stand for their actions and intimi- Greece. We do not know borders and manifest themselves.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Revolutionary Solidarity-Pg. 78 December 21st, 2009, oner of the Swiss capital-state. On the night of December 15 to Sanitago, Chile: A bomb Although words heal nothing, we December 16, we attacked a real attack on the “Chilena Consoli- regret that someone experienced estate agency at the intersection dada” insurance company cause slight hearing trauma, despite the of Calle Toledo and Calle Consti- major damage to the facade of the fact that the low-strength charge tució in the Sants neighborhood building. The action was claimed was designed to only damage the of Barcelona, in solidarity with in solidarity with Swiss and Ger- infrastructure of capital. the Greek rebels. man prisoners recently beginning a hunger strike. This is a call to burn black pow- December 19, 2009, Bar- der and continue the unforget- celona, Spain: Bank attacked Excerpts from the communique: table offensive. Where there is in solidarity with Greek unrest. misery, there will be rebellion. Through the following e-mail, Freedom for all the World’s Anti- Communique: we want to claim responsibility Capitalist Prisoners. for the bombing carried out last In solidarity with the Greek com- night against the Chilena Con- -Agustín Rueda Sierra (1) Auton- rades and their revolt, we set fire solidada (a member of the Zur- omous Group; Santiago, Chile; to a bank in the Poble Nou neigh- ich [economic] Group) building. Monday, December 21, 2009 borhood of Barcelona on Satur- Said action marks the beginning day night. of the December 20–January 1 1)Agustín Rueda Sierra was an international hunger strike for anarchist who was tortured to In this way, we show our best political prisoners called by Ga- death by guards in Carabanchel weapon of solidarity—direct ac- briel Pombo Da Silva from the prison when he refused to snitch tion—to the many arrested, imprison death camp of Aachen, on his escape companions. prisoned, and judged, in Greece Germany. and everywhere. The attack against this com- December 21, 2009 Bar- Against this world and its chains. pany—an exponent of Chilean celona, Spain: Attack on a Domination is everywhere, but finance capitalism allied with real estate agency in solidarity so is insurrection. Swiss capitalist interests—is a with unrest in Greece. gesture of solidarity with Marco We’ll see you in the streets. Camenisch, revolutionary pris- Communique:

Revolutionary solidarity keeps struggles together when the state and its borders try to keep them apart. Revolutionary solidarity is a strategy of preventing ruptures in the social framework from becoming isolated incidents. Revolutionary solidarity is a statement that goes beyond words, it material- izes an affinity, and sets a precedent for the need of a conflict to grow. Revolutionary solidarity exists in both comfortable and uncomfortable circumstances for revolt. In both the day and the night. In both visible form, and invisible form. How we would define revolutionary solidarity, is as a project of generalization, where one must creatively produce an evidence beyond words that “we are everywhere.”

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Revolutionary Solidarity-Pg. 79 A CHRONOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICAN PRISONER RESISTANCE

aturally, the prolifera- tion of the prison has been met with significant resistance from those most affected by it. This may be Nbest understood as a simple conflict of interests: the interests of prisoners against the interests of the prison itself, which does everything necessary to maintain their confinement.

Riots, escapes, inmate fights, staff assaults, refusal of orders, and distur- bances of all kinds are some ways in which the tension of this conflict is manifested. Each time the prison cannot proceed with routine operations it loses control of itself; each time the prison loses control, its inhabitants are able to act outside of its constraints, in accordance with their own interests. All actions which impede prison’s aim of social control can be considered tangible resistance.

With only media reports as our sources, it is impossible to document every single case. While reading this list it is important to keep in mind that the inmate is always living in resistance to prison, regardless of whether or not a newspaper article is published about it. The actions reported here are only to serve as examples of those who - even up against the grandeur of the prison and its near-insurmountable walls – manage to act out despite the dismal reality of the situation.

15 September - Newport, 15 September - Raiford, Flor- 15 September - Frederick, Arkansas, United States - A ida, United States - A Union Maryland, United States - A Crawford County inmate escaped Correctional Institution officer was correctional officer at the Frederick from a transport van while being driv- stabbed in the chest while extracting County Adult Detention Center got en back to the McPherson Unit after a a prisoner from their cell. several a stitches above their right eye court appearance. after being struck by an inmate.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Chronology of N.A. Prisoner Resistance-Pg. 80 17 September - Adel, Georgia, 29 September - Norman, Okla- stabbed the two others before being United States - A Cook County homa, United States - An in- subdued by officers with stun guns. inmate assigned to buff floors instead mate being booked into the Cleveland walked out a side door and into a ve- County Jail mixed in with a group of 6 October - Portage, Wiscon- hicle waiting to pick them up. They prisoners being released on bond and sin, United States - An inmate at- were caught more than a week later in walked out. Unfortunately, they were tempted to scale a razor-wire lined pe- Florida. recaptured 5 days later. rimeter fence with newspapers stuffed in their clothes for protection, but cut 17 September - Rolling Mead- 1 October - Manhattan, New their hand and fell. ows, Illinois, United States York, United States - A three- - Another Cook County inmate es- pace-suit wearing defendant bolted out 7 October - Yakima, Washing- caped custody, this time while being of an unlocked State Supreme Court ton, United States - A Yakima transported to a court appearance. The holding area on the 12th floor of the County Main Corrections Facility in- inmate overpowered the two state at- courthouse. A court officer even ap- mate “went missing” after completing torney’s office investigators, disarmed proached him on the 11th floor and ad- work for the day. They weren’t found them, ordered them to pull over in a dressed him as counselor. Unfortunate- for over two weeks. nearby Meijer store. He was caught ly, he was caught the next day stepping two days later but left numerous car- off a city bus. 10 October - Las Cruces, New jackings and two armed bank robberies Mexico, United States - Seven in his wake. 3 October - Susanville, Cali- “residents” escaped from a half-way fornia, United States - A 66 year house, but were all recaptured within a 19 September - Galveston, old inmate escaped from the California few days. Texas, United States - An inmate Correctional Center but was caught broke out of a secure room at the Uni- later that day. 11 October - Oakland, Mary- versity of Texas Medical Branch prison land, United States - A Gar- medical center by crawling through an 3 October - Lumberton, North rett County Detention Center inmate air vent using several blankets tied to- Carolina, United States - A punched a correctional officer in the gether. He was recaptured five days lat- Robeson County Jail inmate assaulted a eye. er more than 300 miles away. This was guard while being taken to see the doc- the inmate’s third successful escape. tor and ran out the jail door. They were 16 October - Indio, California, caught 5 days later. United States - Four inmates es- 23 September - Wichita Falls, caped from a Riverside County Sher- Texas, United States - A Wichita 4 October - Brandon, Mani- iff’s Department vehicle and were re- County Jail inmate stabbed a deten- toba, Canada - 27 inmates at the captured shortly afterwards. tion officer four times with a makeshift Brandon Correctional Centre refused weapon and assaulted another with his to return to their cells and instead spent 17 October - Green Bay, Wis- fists during a partial power outage. four hours breaking windows and deal- consin, United States - Two in- ing several thousand dollars worth of mates in the Gulf Pod of the Brown 27 September - Knox, Indiana, damage to interior walls that divided County Jail assaulted a correctional United States - A fire that authori- the sub-units and an external wall to a officer. ties say was deliberately set forced the fenced area. evacuation of 80 prisoners at the Starke 18 October - Mitchells, Virgin- County Jail. The fire, which allegedly 4 October - Buffalo, New York, ia, United States - Culpeper Juve- started in a pile of mattresses and other United States - A Erie County nile Correctional Center inmates took debris, caused one jail official to be Holding Center inmate stole a police control of their pod, breaking furniture treated at the scene for smoke inhala- radio and climbed to the roof of the and using it as weapons to break glass tion. facility after a deputy forgot to lock a and other property and attack guards. It door. The inmate kept police at bay for took five hours to regain control. 28 September - Olympia, more than two hours until they were Washington, United States - A persuaded to come down. 23 October - Santa Bárbara, corrections officer at the Olympia City Santa Bárbara, Honduras - 79 Jail was slashed across the face with 6 October - Vernon, Indiana, escaped inmates set fire to a prison, shards from a broken plastic mug. The United States - Three teenage a public market and a cultural center injury required three stitches on the left inmates at the Jennings County Jail before authorities were able to stop side of his forehead and three stitches sprayed three jail officers with -pep the riot and capture 76 of the inmates. on his right lower cheek. per spray they had taken from a stor- Three others remain at large. age closet then took one hostage and

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Chronology of N.A. Prisoner Resistance-Pg. 81 25 October - Mount Olive, ceived minor injuries before the inmate 21 November - Warren, Maine, West Virginia, United States - could be contained. United States - For the second time A pair of inmates escaped from a work in a month an inmate escaped the Bold- camp just outside of the Mount Olive 12 November - Camden, Ten- uc Correctional Facility. They were Correctional Facility by climbing over nessee, United States - A Benton caught two weeks later. a chain-link perimeter fence. They County Jail inmate scaled the perimeter remained free until they turned them- fence and took off. Unfortunately, they 22 November - Little Rock, selves in on November 7th and 9th, re- were caught later that day. Arkansas, United States - An spectively. inmate stole a Pulaski County Sheriff’s 13 November - Gastonia, van and took off while being moved 29 October - Somerset, Penn- North Carolina, United States from a satellite center to the main jail. sylvania, United States - Two - An inmate punched a Gaston County A week later they were recaptured. Somerset Correctional Institution cor- Sheriff’s Office detention officer in the rectional officers were assaulted when face after being told they had to go see 24 November - Hamilton, On- they tried to intervene in a dispute be- the jail doctor. tario, Canada - A Hamilton Went- tween two inmates. worth Detention Centre was broken out 14 November - Russelville, Al- of a hospital by two gunmen who then 29 October - San Francisco de abama, United States - A Frank- led in a Ministry of Correction Services Macoris, Duarte, Dominican lin County Jail inmate walked off of vehicle. Three days later all three were Republic - Prison inmates knocked trash detail. They were recaptured three captured. down part of a wall, threw stones, de- weeks later over 500 miles away. stroyed several cells and set fire to 24 November - Albany, New mattresses and bedding to demand the 15 November - Iowa City, Iowa, York, United States - Three days removal of security supervisor, whom United States - Two separate at- after their arrival, an Albany County they blamed for physical mistreatment, tacks on correctional officers occurred Correctional Facility inmate tried to and to demand better food than the jail at the Oakdale Medical and Classifica- kick out a half-inch thick, three-layer normally gave them. Officials said that tion Center. window in their cell but is subdued beat the time when some of the inmates fore they were able to. were delivering their requests, many 17 November - Peoria, Illinois, of their fellow-prisoners were attack- United States - Two Peoria County 26 November - Philadelphia, ing the guards, grabbing and throwing Jail inmates cut a hole in the ceiling of Pennsylvania, United States stones from a wall they knocked down. their cell, carved a hole in the concrete - An inmate being held at the Curran- block roof, stood on a stack of books Fromhold Correctional Facility became 31 October - Clearwater, Flor- and got to the roof. From there, they the first to escape in the history of Phil- ida, United States - An inmate at- used a rope fashioned from bedsheets adelphia’s newest and largest prison. tacked his two attorneys during a visita- tied together to rappel to the ground. After obtaining an unauthorized pass tion at the Pinellas County Jail. Unfortunately, they were both appre- for access to the visitors’ room they hended within two days. changed into a light-colored T-shirt and 31 October - Carthage, North pair of dark pants, they got through two Carolina, United States - An of- 17 November - St. Louis, sets of controlled double doors and a ficer at the Moore County Detention Michigan, United States - The dozen jail employees before walking Center was assaulted by an inmate and attention of 11 inmates, armed with out the visitors’ lobby. They were found treated for a fracture and cuts to the homemade knives, shifted from each 3 weeks later just outside of the city. right side of his face. other to the correction officers on duty in the lunchroom at the St. Louis Cor- 27 November - Bridgewater, 2 November - Clovis, New rectional Facility. Three officers were Massachusetts, United States Mexico, United States - A Curry injured in the fight, with two being tak- - A prisoner escaped from the Bridge- County Adult Detention Center correc- en to a nearby medical center. water Correctional Complex after tional officer was stabbed. learning of they had been indicted on 18 November - San Antonio, further charges before prison officials. 4 November - Shirley, Massa- Texas, United States - An inmate They were free for over a month. chusetts, United States - An managed to escape the Bexar County inmate at the Souza Baranowski Cor- Sheriff’s custody in leg shackles and 29 November - Inex, Kentucky, rectional Center pulled a homemade even managed to lead deputies on a United States - Three Big Sandy weapon and slashing on their escorting short foot chase before being recap- Federal Prison guards were assaulted officers in the throat and stabbed anoth- tured. during a routine cell search. er in the cheek. Two other officers re-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Chronology of N.A. Prisoner Resistance-Pg. 82 30 November - Huntsville, Hospital but was re-arrested was found 22 December - Somers, Con- Texas, United States - An inmate with a concealed deadly weapon in a necticut, United States - A being transferred from the Estelle Unit courtroom. Northern Correctional Institution of- brandished a loaded gun, handcuffed ficer was taking an inmate out of their his two escorts and relieved them of 10 December - Colfax, Loui- cell for a return security check when the their weapons. He jumped from his siana, United States - A Grant inmate turned and punched the guard, wheelchair, which until now he claimed Parish Detention Center overpowered a slashed them with the weapon and he needed for mobility, and took off on guard while being transported to a near- continued fighting until other guards foot. The inmate was caught a week by hospital and drove off in a sheriff’s stepped in. later. office vehicle, but was caught later that afternoon. 24 December - Decatur, Geor- 2 December - Ridgeville, gia, United States - Two DeKalb South Carolina, United States 10 December - Kokomon, In- County Jail officers were assaulted dur- - A Lieber Correctional Institute officer diana, United States - A Howard ing a routine cell inspection. was stabbed multiple times by two in- County Jail was assaulted as they tried mates. to give an inmate their medication. 25 December - Nacogdoches, Texas, United States - An in- 4 December - Monterrey, Nue- 13 December - Atlanta, Geor- mate stabbed a Nacogdoches County vo León, Mexico - Gunmen drove a gia, United States - A three-alarm Jail detention officer in the head with a van through the door of a local jail and blaze broke out in a housing unit at the ballpoint pen and fought with two oth- opened fire, killing two police officers Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, the cause ers trying to subdue him as he tried to and setting free 23 inmates. of which is still under investigation. escape.

4 December - Conyers, Geor- 14 December - Pinckneyville, 29 December - Represa, Cali- gia, United States - Fire sprinklers Illinois, United States - An in- fornia, United States - A Folsom from three dorms in the same Rockdale mate of the Pinckneyville Correctional Correctional officer had their neck slit County Jail pod were deliberately set Center held a prison employee hostage by a homemade weapon, warranting 68 off within five minutes of each other. for 72 hours before being shot and stitches across their neck, jaw and ear. killed. 5 December - Lafayette, Loui- 29 December - Vicksburg, siana, United States - A Lafay- 15 December - Bartlesville, Mississippi - A burning mattress ette Parish Correctional Center inmate Oklahoma, United States - Two forced deputies to temporarily move 16 on work detail hopped into a sheriff’s Washington County Jail detention offi- Warren County Jail inmates from a sec- office truck and drove off, but was rear- cers were tased by an inmate after one ond floor cell block. rested two hours later. of their tasers was wrestled away from them. 30 December - Warrenton, Vir- 8 December - Greeley, Colora- ginia, United States - A Fauquier do, United States - An inmate at- 20 December - Prince George, County Sheriff’s deputy was shot in tempt an escape at the North Colorado British Columbia, Canada - A the leg and another stabbed in the face Medical Center by fighting off nurses fire was deliberately set in the Prince by an inmate awaiting a hearing at the and deputies with a towel bar. George Regional Correctional Centre. county courthouse.

9 December - Carson City, 21 December - Charlotte, Ten- Michigan, United States - Five nessee, United States - Two “Prison is the ideal kind inmates on work detail at the Carson inmates attempted to escape from of death for the state City Correctional Facility assaulted an the Dickson County Jail by throwing because it eliminates in officer and took off in a transport van. bleach in two correctional officers’ eyes mass those who the state All the inmates were recaptured after a and taking their keys and radios. Both finds to be enemies, but 70 mile chase. The corrections officer inmates were apprehended in a hallway otherwise could only sustained a pitchfork stab wound and on the north side of the building. physically kill in very small multiple upper body wounds that were numbers. a result of blunt force trauma. 22 December - Waterloo, Iowa, United States - An inmate More or less: prison is 9 December - Chattanooga, was placed on escape status after they the state’s alternative to Tennessee, United States - An failed to return to work at the Waterloo death” inmate who had recently escaped from Work Release Facility. Later that week the Moccasin Bend Mental Psychiatric they were recaptured.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Chronology of N.A. Prisoner Resistance-Pg. 83 ANARCHIST RESISTANCE ““...one of those young fanatics.

Who knows no doubts, who fear nothing,and who realize that many of them will perish at the hands of the government but have nevertheless decided that they will not relent until the people rise. They are magnificent, these young fanatics, believers without God, heroes without rhetoric.”

October 24th, 2009, - why bother “speaking truth to pow- As the communique read: “Thirty Chicago, IL: “Anti-capitalist ac- er” with activist slogans? Especially cameras had their cables cut, render- tivists” dropped at least five banners when there are so many other things ing them inoperable. This was done denouncing capitalism and the bailout one can drop while bankers are pass- as an act of resistance against increas- of large banks from bridges through- ing right below you! Living in major ingly pervasive surveillance technolo- out Chicago. The dropping of the cities, a banner drop can actually be gies. Modern technologies have per- banners happened to co-inside with heard, and should be a tactic of propa- fected social control to a point never the passing of a boat filled with bank- gandists everywhere. before imaginable, allowing the trans- ers during a tour that crossed under formation of the entire urban space the bridge. The bankers were in town July - October 2009, Santa into an open-air prison. The police are for the American Bankers Association Cruz, CA: According to an anony- clear about the fact that they wish our national convention. Banners read mous post on Santa Cruz indymedia, communities to live in fear. Recently, “Capitalism Is A Sinking Ship,” and vandals took responsibility for attacks cops and bureaucrats have advocat- “Fuck Capitalism.” Some less revo- against various surveillance cameras ed installing additional surveillance lutionary banners also were seen with located throughout the downtown of cameras in downtown Santa Cruz. We slogans such as “Assholes Bankrupt- Santa Cruz. According to the com- will continue to resist this totalitarian ing America,” “Jail ‘Em Don’t Bail munique, the actions were carried out re-engineering of our world.” ‘Em,” and “People Not Profit.” While from the months of July up until Oc- we applaud the actions of anyone who tober. October 19th, 2009, Poitiers, acts in conflict with our class enemies France: A group of youths wearing

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Anarchist Resistance-Pg. 84 black clothing and hoods interrupted a cording to Chilean authorities. The of America, Deloitte, Chase Bank, Citi street parade, and “started destroying attack was similar to other blasts that Group, Wachovia Bank) and patriarchy everything in sight.” In what police have also been directed at the “Banco (American Apparel) caused by their described as an organized attack, the de Credito y Inversiones” branch inside sponsors is a hypocrisy for an orga- youths shattered store windows, dam- a Marriott hotel in Santiago’s affluent nization with “human rights” in their aged several banks, and spray-painted Las Condes neighborhood that shat- name. The queer liberation movement anarchist slogans on government build- tered windows and wounded a security has been misrepresented and co-opted ings. Rebels even fractured a plaque guard. That attacked was followed by by the HRC. The HRC marginalizes us commemorating Joan of Arc’s interro- a communique from an anarchist group into a limited struggle for aspiring ho- gation, by scrawling in Latin “Every- that stated, “The tranquility of the mosexual elites to regain the privilege thing belongs to everybody’’ on a stone world being built by defenders and ad- that they’ve lost and climb the social baptistery. “We will destroy your mor- ministrators of this order of hunger and ladder towards becoming bourgeoisie. bid world,’’ stated one sprayed-painted servitude has ended.” Last night, Obama spoke at the HRC on a wall near the city’s landmark Notre The message also criticized the Mar- fund raising gala and currently the HRC Dame Cathedral. riott’s management for not heeding web site declares, “President Obama a telephone warning to evacuate the underlines his unwavering support for November 3rd, 2009, Brigend, building, said to have been delivered LGBT Americans.” The vast amount of UK: A solidarity action in Scotland 15 minutes before the explosion. Call- organizing resources the HRC wastes against eco-destruction was claimed. ing the attack a “conscious act, charged on their false alliance with the Demo- The communiqué reads: “In the early with libertarian content,” the group cratic party leaves radical queers on the hours of Tuesday, November 3rd, Anti- vowed to carry out more bombings. margins to fend for themselves. Our Opencast activists visited Apex Drill- “Today we bomb this building, tomor- struggle has always had to resist the re- ing based near Bridgend. They are inte- row there will be others. Attacks of this pression of conservative tendencies in gral to the expanding opencast monster kind will continue, will expand and government and society to gain libera- and are currently active at Mainshill will intensify.” Chile has experienced tion in our lives. in Scotland. Cameras were disabled, 102 such bombings since 2004, most of Most of all we disagree that collective containers and vehicles had their locks them involving low-power, homemade liberation will be granted by the state glued, windscreens were etched with explosive devices. No one has died in or its institutions like prisons, marriage, ‘No opencast,’ wires and pipes were cut the incidents. and the military. We need to escalate on heavy vehicles, fuel systems were our struggle, or it will collapse.” contaminated, anti opencast graffiti November 10th, 2009, Wash- For more information on militant and sprayed all over the compound and the ington DC: “Queers Against As- confrontational groups of queers build- main site gate locked shut. This com- similation,” targeted the Human Rights ing the fight back, check out Bash Back! pany and others will be repeatedly tar- Campaign HQ in Washington DC. The at: bashbacknews.wordpress.com geted until they are put out of business. group targeted the HRC because of No compromise in defense of mother their corporate backers and connec- November 18th, 2009, Chile: earth.” tions to governments - not to mention A Chilean group claimed responsibil- their pro-assimilation attitude and as- ity for an attack against Servipag, a bill Open-cast refers to a type of mining similation efforts to limit the insurrec- paying service. The communique read: that uses a method of extracting rock tionary potential of queer discontent in “At around 2:30 a.m., the Black Anti- or minerals from the earth by their re- a hetero-normative social order - mak- authoritarian Cell evaded the state’s moval from an open pit. ing them the enemy of all those seek- guardians once again. Armed and ready ing liberation. The communique read: to destroy the daily routine that reigns November 5th 2009, Chile: A “HRC headquarters was rocked by an over society these days, we began our bombing at the “BancoEstado” branch act of glamdalism last night by a crew action, heading to one of the properties in Chile took place, which is located in of radical queer and allied folks armed located on Calle Pajaritos in Maipú that the Recoleta municipality of Santiago. with pink and black paint and glitter keeps civilization in order every day by The explosion resulted in significant grenades. Beside the front entrance the supplying it via bill payments and mo- damage to the windows, as well as oth- inscribed mission statement now reads tor vehicle taxes. er damage. In addition to the infrastruc- a tag: “Quit leaving queers behind.” Organized, two of us entered: jumping tural damage, the device caused a fire Just like society today, the HRC is run fences, avoiding security, and drench- inside the bank. by a few wealthy elites who are in bed ing the walls, ground, sign, and metal with corporate sponsors who prolifer- gate with gasoline. Jumping the fences November 11th 2009, ate militarism, hetero-normativity, and again, two comrades were waiting for Santiago, Chile: A bomb exploded capitalist exploitation. The sweatshops us outside with two paint bombs and outside a Banco del Estado branch in (Nike), war crimes (Lockheed Martin), three Molotov cocktails; we sprung Santiago, damaging the windows, ac- assaults on working class people (Bank into action, and the property went up in

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Anarchist Resistance-Pg. 85 flames. Before disappearing from the scene, we dropped leaflets that read: “For the destruction “For the destruction of all ideologies imposed by power, so that words turn of all ideologies into fire and chaos reigns over this cowardly, submissive society.” imposed by power, so November 15th, 2009, Bar- that words turn into celona, Spain: A Spanish group claimed responsibility for an attack fire and chaos reigns against the Center for Advanced Se- curity Training. The communique over this cowardly, read: “We paid a visit to the Center for Advanced Security Training in submissive society.” Barcelona. The result was a fire in an electrical junction box, leaving the entire electrical system out of commission. This is our message of absolute contempt to all security forces, state or private, because we sincerely despise all authority. For all the comrades in prison, and against all the walls of oppression.”

November 29th, Geneva Switzerland: The social peace of more than 3,000 protesting activists was shattered during talks by the World Trade Organization (WTO), when anarchists in black blocs began attacking hotels, shop windows, and setting fire to parked cars. Swiss pigs answered back with violence of their own. They shot tear gas and rubber bullets at the rioters. As long as capital exists, there can be no peace. Ac- tivism is a praxis for those who seek to manage this system of misery and exploitation, not destroy it.

The pictures used for opening and closing this section is from the WTO in November.

December 17th, 2009, Wash- ington DC: A post on anarchistnews.org claimed responsibility for an attack on the PNC bank. The communique read: “Gleeful, adventurous children fell upon a PNC Bank in downtown Washington, DC on 15th and L St NW, breaking the windows with a loud crack! Pow! Boom! The message: Everybody knows, PNC bank, you fucked up. Blah blah blah, gentrification, blah blah blah, imperi- alism, blah blah blah, bailout.”

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Anarchist Resistance-Pg. 86 NATIVE CONFLICT UNDER REPORTED ACTIONS OF INDIGENOUS AND “THIRD” WORLD STRUGGLES.

s the “first world” and expansion. Or, through a process scrambles to retain of liquidation. its comfort and superiority before a Living in the “first world”, it is hard failing economy to feel connected to everyday life “DecoIonization or more and more struggles of the kind mentioned af- is always a violent Afrustrated population, the “third ter this introduction, but the fight for phenomenon... the class” of the “third world” continues safe, self-sufficient, or free commu- proof of success to struggle to survive as unrecog- nities is one that we see all the time, lies in a whole nized citizens of a global society. in different ways, across the world, social structure being changed Capitalist society looks to claim and From the Brooklyn projects to the from the bottom profit from every facet of life and Brazilian rainforests. up... land; constant development is inherent to capitalist society. It’s trajec- We all face the same enemies. And Decolonization is tory moves only in a direction of they all stem from the same enemy: the meeting of two constant expansion, under the veil civilization as we know it. forces, opposed to of progress. Expansion and imposi- each other by their tion is indispensable to both power In a global world so mediated by very nature.” and profit; two of capitalism’s most information technology, industrial defining features. production, and a global economy; -Frantz Fanon native communities act as evidence In a global era, all life that looks to to possibilities of living differently, exist outside of the capitalist frame- as our bodies fine very little hope work must be dealt with as an en- outside of the current system. emy of capitalist society. This is dealt with either through a process Migrant communities or lower caste of recuperation, where this “enemy” villages in the third world provide is manipulated through coercion, in examples of how the excluded or- order to serve the interests of profit ganize in defense of their collective

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Native Conflict-Pg. 87 livelihood, overcome the social divi- Bangladesh, October 31st, block just south of Cancun. During sions between them and limitations be- 2009: Two people were killed and the night, communal farmers blocked fore them, set forth by global capital. 100 were hurt, as workers rioted in the main highway leading to Cancun Bangladesh over unpaid wages. after they learned that the government There is an inherent conflict between a would only pay half of the reimburse- global economy looking to expand, and Local pigs, who tried to contain the ment money that they promised to pay communities looking to remain autono- crowd of 15 thousand with rubber bul- out after crops were ruined due to lack mous. lets, as workers attacked them with of rain during this year’s monsoon sea- stones and rocks and blocked streets son. Police brutally repressed the pro- We hope this section has helped in the with barricades. Workers were de- testors, and arrested 228 people. past, and continues to help shine a light manding three months of back pay As indigenous groups in support of on such inspiring conflict from the owners of the garment fac- those detained by the police wrote: “We tory in which they worked, who had mention also that these actions of the We could only fit a few reports that recently shut down the plant. Several peasantry are a product of the evident caught our attention, but struggles such police were hurt in the fierce battles. inequality and the contrasts that exist as these are historic-happening now- These clashes were the most severe in the state of Quintana Roo which re- and will continue to exist until civiliza- since the global downturn began to af- ceives a great deal of investment in the tion as we know it dies in its plundering fect the output of apparel factories. As north, in the tourist zones and we see tracks. the global recession gets worse, bosses that there are no development projects are shutting down factories and fleeing for the mayan communities that live Latin America, October 12th, before paying workers. Forty percent in the same conditions as they did five 2009: Indigenous people took to the of Bangladesh’s industrial workforce is hundred years ago while these commu- streets of Latin American Monday in employed in the garment sector. nities are owners of the natural resourc- protest of the colonization and geno- es of the state.” cide brought on by the conquest of the Jordan, November 15th, 2009: New World by Columbus. Violent riots errupted in Jordan recent- Brazil, October 29th, 2009: ly, as Rakhri Kreishan died after slip- Guarani communities continue to re- Columbus Day is celebrated as the Day ping into a coma; the result of a severe claim their lands even as they face more of Hispanic Heritage in Latin America, beating to the head by police officers. and more evictions, disappearances of but protesters marked the holiday as Rioters blocked traffic on highways at teachers, and arson attacks on villag- a reminder of the atrocities Spanish certain points in the night, attacked po- es. On October 29th, over 50 Guarani conquistadors wrought on indigenous lice property and vehicles, and shot at People occupied the headquarters of people throughout the region. police. Maan, the area in Jordan where the FUNAI, Brazil’s Federal Authority In Guatemala City, 19-year-old dem- the riots broke out has a history of of Indigenous Affairs, in the southern onstrator Imer Boror was murdered by clashes with authorities. This began in state of Rio Grande do Sul. The move police and several others were wound- 1989, when violent protests broke out to occupy was decided upon after FU- ed as Mayan indians blockaded entry after a national economic crisis caused NAI’s failure to publish a report about points into the capital; protestingi the a rise in commodity and fuel prices. the Gurani’s traditional lands. government’s extractive mining indus- Riots also recently broke out after the tries. similar death of Hai Al Tafeileh in est The Mapuche struggle in Chile In Columbia, whole villages of indig- Amman, also beaten to death by the refuses to rest: Mapuche people, enous people marched out, joining larg- police. mentioned in previous issues of Fire er demonstrations, in protest against the to the Prisons, have wages on ongoing government’s environmental policies Bagua, Peru: December 2nd: struggle for their lands against the Chil- and ongoing violence between para- Awajun and Wampis people held em- ean state. Anarchists in Chile have also military and government forces. ployees of the Canadian mining com- offered their solidarity time and time The Venezuelan government has even pany IAMGOLD hostage. According again, understanding a common enemy tried co-opting the movement by spon- to the indigenous people, the company in the colonial state and capitalism be- soring the day of resistance and protest, did not have any authoritization to en- tween their two camps. Anarchists of- while the government continues to deal ter their territory. People in these terri- ten show their solidarity violently in the in oil which polluted many native com- tories are attempting to halt and stop all street as the attack property and the po- munities. mining going on across their lands - by lice, and in solidarity actions. Recently, In Panama, native peoples closed the any means nessessary. the Mapuche released a ‘Declaration of Panama/Costa Rican border for several War’ with the Chilean state on Oct. 20, hours in the morning, in protest against Cancun, Mexico, November the same day that two trucks belonging dams and mining operations on their 24th, 2009: Indigenous Mayans to the El Bosque forestry corporation lands. were arrested after setting up a road- were intercepted by CAM (Mapuche

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Native Conflict-Pg. 88 Communities in Conflict) and set on Attack. This is the maxim chosen by fire in the province of Malleco. countless groups in this social war. The declaration, much more than a “ATTACK. symbolic gesture, comes at a time of We attack the physical spaces where increasing violence against Mapuche the daily life of the exploiters takes children and youths, particularly over place. We attack the planned centers the past three months, when Mapu- of economic and military occupation che communities began reclaiming in the territories we inhabit. We at- This is illegally occupied lands in the region tack the simulated perfection of the of Araucania. violent world they represent.” the maxim Repression against Mapuche communities has been brutal. In one On November 19th, a bombing was chosen by case, a group of military police were carried out at the Banco Ciudad in Ar- caught on film beating a Mapuche gentina. The communique read: youth who was trying to find some countless information about a member of his “We attacked a Banco Ciudad (in community who was arrested a week Bernardo de Irigoyen) on the morn- groups in earlier. According to Aporrea, the ing of the 16th in order to show our beating “stopped only when other po- hatred toward the Argentine state this social lice shouted that the press was there for having captured and locked up and they were being recorded.” Fe- (comrade) Chilean political prison- war.” lipe Marilan Morales, a ten year old ers Marcelo Villarroel and Freddy boy was shot in the forehead after the Fuentevilla—imprisoned in unit N failed eviction of Mapuche from the 11 in Neuquen—in its extermination estate of La Romana, one of dozens chambers since March 2008. of privately-owned estates scattered We reject all oppression and injustice on Mapuche lands. There is thus little committed against the Nation of Ma- reason why the Mapuche would wish puche People, in the same way that to declare war on the Chilean state we also reject the resignation of the - and why anarchists would declare new metropolitan police chief Eugen- them alies and comrades. io Burzaco, who was advising Jorge Sobisch, then governor of Neuquen, Actions in solidarity with the Mapu- on security matters when the police che people have been viscious and repression that ended the life of Car- ongoing. On November 11th, the los Fuentealba was ordered. We hate Marriot Hotel was bombed. The com- UCEP (Public Space Control Unit)! munique posted read: Disband it now!”

“We understand that the existence of Actions by and in solidarity with the those who dominate within society, Mapuche continue in Chile - the war STAY UP be they bourgeois or bureaucrats, is is still on. TO DATE ON directly related to the existence of the state. It is they who shape it, they who Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, GLOBAL reproduce and reinforce it, strength- October 31st, 2009: Mexican ening and extending social relations indigenous farmers took over a UN NATIVE based on authoritarianism and the over in Chiaps, in order to demand STRUGGLES domination of millions of people. It is the release of three jailed leaders. they who think of themselves as “il- The leaders were arrested by autho- luminated,” they who see themselves rites, who charged them with drug INTERCONTINENTAL CRY as protected by the existence of the and weapons trafficing. Native farm- www.intercontinentalcry.org state. As a concrete example, we can ers claim that the state is in fact only mention what is happening today in clamping down harder on “social SURVIVAL Mapuche Territory: brutal repression struggle.” INTERNATIONAL; and harassment by the Chilean state THE MOVEMENT FOR against the weichafes, with the sole TRIBAL PEOPLE’S intention of defending the interests of www.survival-international.org those who dominate.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Native Conflict-Pg. 89 THE MURDER OF IVAN KHUTORSKOY AND UPDATES IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST GRASSROOTS FASCISM EVERYWHERE his section is dedicated to the life of Ivan Khutorskoy, who was murdered by Russian fascists this last November. His murder was following 3 other attempts by fascists to kill him. One of which was earlier this same year, resulting in multiple stab wounds. An article is included here describing the events, as well as a brief description of his history as a coura- geous and inspiring enemy of grassroots fascism in Russia, which holds quite possibly the most powerful and dangerous fascist movement in the world. Although in the states, fascist T rhetoric or ideology flares so commonly in the mainstream, many of us find distinctions between fascist tendencies in the rhetoric of mass media or politics, and so called “Neo-Nazis”, simply based on the uniform. In Russia though, the state is far less concerned about distancing itself from the efforts of grassroots fascists, considering that in all cases of the state, fascists are there most unique supporters. Unlike the police, fascists take a pride in grounding a stabile context for the state to rule, or preserving the overall status quo, but without pay. The only difference is this. Ivan’s bravery and courage will not go forgotten. He is an inspiration to people, of all interests, everywhere. He will live on forever in our contempt for fascism, in all its forms.

NEWSCLIP REGARDING THE punk or antifa group, including mem- DEATH OF IVAN KHUTORSKOY bers of the apolitical and patriotic Trad skinheads in Moscow, despite his anti- November 16th marks the death of a authoritarian stance. very well known and committed Rus- sian anti-fascist. Ivan Khutorsky was According to Russian Antifa sites and known among the punk and anarchist articles written by people who knew scenes in Russia as being an extremely him, Ivan had been attack three times dedicated anti-fascist, as well as one of before the most recent, and fatal, attack. the founding member of Russia RASH In 2005 he was attacked with a razor- (Red and Anarchist Skinheads). He blade, and recieved a large cut on his was considered a friend by every major head. Footage of this captured by CCT-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Dedicated to the Memory of Anti-Fascist Ivan Khutorskoy-Pg. 90 Vs was later used in a documentary on anti-fascism in Russia called Ordinary SOME UPDATES FROM THE Antifascism. The second time, later GLOBAL STRUGGLE AGAINST that same year, Ivan was attacked at his own home, recieving multiple stab GRASSROOTS FASCISM wounds in his neck from a sharpened screwdriver (a popular weapon among MAN IN BULGARIA giances known when they used chemi- Russian neo-nazis) and several blows SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS cal sprays and handcuffs on several from a baseball bat. Miraculously he FOR ALLEGEDLY KILLING A anti-fascist protesters at an anti-im- survived. The third time, in January of FASCIST IN SELF-DEFENSE migration rally in Austin Texas during 2009, was during a street fight where October. The National Socialist Move- he recieved a near fatal stab in his On December 28 2007 Australian born ment (NSM) has become one of the stomach. Paul “Jock” Palfreeman intervened in loudest, and still hilariously irrelavant, a racially motivated street fight in So- neo-nazi groups attempting to latch Friends of Ivan are not sure why Ivan fia, a city in Bulgaria, that ended in on to the wave of anti-immigration went back to his house the evening the death of a neo-nazi. According to through the US, and it was them who that he was murdered. Because of his Jock’s statement and the statement of had organized this rally that was met involvement in the anti-fascist move- two security guards, a group of neo- by anti-racist and anti-fascist counter- ment, and his notoriety as a compe- nazi football hooligans were chasing demonstrators. tent mixed martial arts fighter, fascists two Roma males when Jock stepped viewed him as an important, and dan- in. Jock was then chased and attacked According to a police report by Aus- gerous, part of antifa. His address had by the fascists. It was at this point that tin police, a group of around 30 antifa been posted on several neo-nazi web- Jock began swinging a knife he carried demonstrators met the fascists with sites. According to some reports, Ivan for self-defense. Two of the neo-nazis thrown objects, including tomatos and was shot twice in the head. were struck by the blade, and one, An- cups of Jell-O as they pushed their way drei Monov, later died due to blood up to anti-immigrant speakers. As ten- The headquarters of a nationalist loss. sion rose, members of ARA broke the youth front, Young Russia, was at- sound system being used by the NSM, tacked by friends of Ivan in solidarity Jock was sentenced to 20 years in pris- before being attacked by police. Austin in solidarity with him and his family. on on December 2, 2009. Bulgaria has police chief Paul Phillup said his offi- Around 80 anti-fascists took part in high racial tensions between Bulgarian cers did the right thing. the attack, and none were arrested. nationals and Roma (gypsy) people. Taking this into account, along with A similar rally was organized by the The situation in Russia has become the fact that the nazi that was killed is NSM in Phoenix Arizona, which was a window to the future of a fascist the son of a distinguished psychiatrist, also met by heavy community resis- future. There is an estimated 85,000 there is no doubt that this a purely po- tance. According to several sources, neo-nazis in Russia, one of the high- litical case. Furthermore, the evidence including the Phoenix New Times, est concentrations in one country in used by those against Jock has been around 200 anti-fascist demonstrators, the world. Violent assualts against im- inconsistent. Solidarity with Jock and including 150 anarchists, indigenous migrants have sharply risen ever since everyone who takes a stand against fas- groups, and queer groups, met the 60 the 90’s. Twenty-one people being cist violence! members of the NSM and 100 mem- murdered in 2006 and over 100 mur- bers of the Phoenix Police force in the ders in 2008. This, of course, does not The Federation of Anarchists of Bul- streets. include the attacks and murders that garia have shown their true colors Police did a good job of creating a buf- happen to anarchist and anti-fascist in this matter by releasing an official fer between the nazis and anti-fascists, individuals. The kids in Russia are statement claiming that Palfreeman is which ultimately served the interests of literally on the frontlines in the fight guilty and that they do not support him. the NSM. Despite this, however, anti- against fascism. Simply passing out fascist demonstrators were able to take anti-racist literature or going to a punk More information at: advantage of banners and other objects show could land someone in the mid- www.freejock.net to obstruct the view of the police as ob- dle of a brutal street fight, or worse. jects were thrown at the fascists. To show solidarity with those Russia CONFRONTING While there wasn’t any physical con- means to completely destroy fascist ANTI-IMMIGRATION FASCIST frontation between anti-racist commu- elements whenever they rear their FRONT GROUPS IN THE USA nity members and the neo-nazis, the ugly heads, before they have a time to NSM was forced to pack up early due create a foot hold. The police once again make their alle- to being out numbered and out-yelled.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Dedicated to the Memory of Anti-Fascist Ivan Khutorskoy-Pg. 91 No one was injured at the demonstra- of history.” ly began their vile conversations, it was tion, however a car full of nazis was at not a long wait until a mob of angry fault for a car accident that happened as These were the words that appeared on anti-fascists stormed the floor. As soon they were leaving, which left one nazi the hacked website of Holocaust denier as they entered, one of his followers with a broken leg. and Neo-Nazi “historian” David Irving. cowardly shut the door, but not quick Not long afterward, various anti-fascist enough to evade some of the oncom- ANTI-FASCIST groups from New York and New Jersey ing projectiles being thrown their way. RIOT IN GERMANY confronted Irving and his band of nazi Shortly after the confrontation began, scum in a hotel outside of Wayne, New some of the hotel’s security, as well as The youth front group for the German Jersey. Contrary to the usual tough and some of his followers began to engage Nationalist Party, NPD, known as Junge macho neo-nazi talk, when a member the angry mob. Realizing their weak- Nationaldemokraten held a march in of ARA bumped into three fascists in ness, the police were called, and the October of 2009. Originally the march a secluded bathroom, including Alex mob stumbled out, while fighting off was supposed to be comprised of 600 Carmichael (a self-described “next Hit- security and followers the whole way. neo-nazi youth, however, when more ler), the nazi turned tail and called the Following a game of cat and mouse than twice that number showed up, the police. with the police, only a few remained Leipzeg police stalled the beginning of to stand ground as a voice against the the march in order to check ID’s and The group of anti-fascists then pro- event. As a result of the first conflict, wait for more pigs to show up. Neo- ceeded to enter the hotel chanting “This and the threats of those who stayed af- nazis became impatient and began at- is OUR community! Fascists out! Fas- ter, even with the heat rising, the hotel tacking police. cists out,” before being forced into the was forced to tell David the event could parking lot by the police. This did not not continue, and if it did, they would Meanwhile, a counter demonstration deter them, however, as they proceeded actually call the police. was taking part in another part of the to bang on the windows of the room city that was made up of anarchists where David Irving’s talk was taking No one was arrested. and other community members total- place. Antifa members even called out ling over 3,000. Mostly peaceful, the attendees by name, letting them know march became violent as anarchists be- that they will no longer be able to hide gan confronting and scuffling with the behind the police and the anonymity of “Yo” police. the internet.

The march ended with three burned This event proved successful as Irving out cars, including a bus that a group eventually called it quits, and the police “What?” of neo-nazis rode in on, four injured escorted the terrified fascists out of the police, including police chief, Horst hotel. Warwrzynsk. There was no actual confrontation between antifa and neo- A week later, this happened to Irving “Why do you nazis, however the sheer number of and his fascist dogs in Illinois, as a bury Nazis (or people that mobilized in opposition to group of black-clad anti-fascists physi- fascism is something that needs to be cally disrupted a speech being given cops) six-feet- taken into account. Any act of resis- at Edelweiss Restaurant in Norridge. tance to fascism, whether against its Several people were arrested in Nor- under?” institutional or grassroots form, should ridge, however all of them are out with be celebrated. disorderly conduct charges.

HOLOCAUST DENIER, In New York, David Irving’s planned “Why?” DAVID IRVING, FORCED TO lecture at the double tree hotel in Times CANCEL THE MAJORITY OF Sq. was met with the utmost hostility. HIS AMERICAN SPEAKING “Cause deep TOUR Following extensive research to actually find where his speaking gig was down... “To David Irving and all aspiring happening (considering David will white-power, anti-immigrant, queer- make multiple fake events to confuse bashing, racist pigs - give it up! We will those hostile), it was finally discovered fight you on the streets and on the inter- that his real event will be in the Double They’re good net until you are swept into the dustbin Tree. As him and his supporters stupid- people...”

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Dedicated to the Memory of Anti-Fascist Ivan Khutorskoy-Pg. 92 THE STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM, IS THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE t almost seems like yesterday but days turned into Most importantly, labeling the State or one of its vestiges as years and finally years began approaching a decade. fascist always neglects the far more crucial fact that fascism The United States invaded Iraq and the interna- is that of governance as such. In other words, fascism is the tional left responded in outrage. Bureaucrats called very form of liberal democratic rule. Liberal democracy can for mass mobilizations and city streets around the only be established and ensure its continuance by constantly world were flooded with protestors. At every dem- suspending the rights and laws that give it legitimacy, and, I onstration, in any city, one could be sure to find the by remaining in this permanent state of emergency, the State same placard held above some protestor’s head displaying a repeatedly reveals the necessary totalitarianism at its founda- caricature of that abominable tyrant George W. Bush don- tion. In the same way that the underlying fascism of gov- ning the brown shirt, iron cross and a tiny moustache. The ernment is often overlooked, the left fails to notice its ritual mainstream anti-war movement declared US aggression il- of abstract body counting, which implicitly separates sacred legal, an overt violation of international law, while the left life from the profane, only reinforces the humanist individual cried fascism and quickly likened the 43rd president of the and drags with it the violent forces of sovereignty and power united states to the german furher. At the mandatory ral- essential for its construction. If society is not completely lies convening before every demonstration, a speaker would annihilated, totalitarianism will always serve as its basis and religiously recite the death toll of Operation Iraqi Freedom subtlety traverse all the discourses and truths it produces, the much like every made for TV documentary on the History practices it sanctions, and the subjects that ensure its exis- Channel (The World War II Network) repeatedly recounts tence, the number of lives lost as a result of the rise of the Nazis in Europe. On many occasions, protestors dragged empty By continually reverting to its exceptional or fascist form, coffins throughout the streets to symbolically rearticulate the the State clearly shows that its real essence lies solely in its inevitable price of war. self-preservation and the relentless warding off of its own destruction. In other words, the government can be funda- The comparisons of Bush to Hitler undoubtedly loses its mentally defined as a strategic relation continually blocking strength when considering that the former didn’t leave office, the insurrectionary moment. The State is counter-revolution fearing coup d’etat, by a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound and counter-revolution is the State. Thus, it comes as no but instead ceremoniously handed his power over to the next surprise that the Italian government openly utilized fascists democratically elected incumbent. After the pre-scheduled in their strategy of tension against revolutionaries during the eight years and without climax, the “totalitarian” regime fell 1969-1981 insurrectionary sequence. In greece, where so- without a bang and the left, exhibiting that its memory is cial revolution is again placed upon the table, it has become not much better than the typical American citizen, forgot all commonplace to see the fascists of Golden Dawn during ri- about the fallen despot. Today, only the far-right equates the ots hiding behind police waiting for the perfect moment to current president Obama with the leader of german national swing their engraved knives at insurgents. socialism thus proving the emptiness and irresponsibility of the earlier fascist allegations. In fact, what is most damaging Death to fascism must always mean death to the State. Only about carelessly hurling these far-flung accusations is that by murdering the State can we finally rid ourselves of fas- they leave the brutal oppression continually perpetuated by cism. Finally, it is of no shock that the neo-nazis who killed modern progressive democracies without reproach and, fur- Ivan Khutorskoy were on the Russian government’s payroll. thermore, imply, the equally if not more hideous, possibilities of non-fascist governments, tolerant police and demo- Let us not mince words, death to fascism! cratic militaries.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Dedicated to the Memory of Anti-Fascist Ivan Khutorskoy-Pg. 93 News That Matters E Further Research Shout Outs T Links AMOR Y RESISTENCIA: FIRES NEVER Reports from the global social war. EXTINGUISHED amoryresistencia.blogspot.com firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com

MAKE TOTAL DESTROY: LIBCOM A Shameless Riot Porn Blog libcom.org C. maketotaldestroy.blogspot.com SOCIAL WAR IN GREECE THIS IS OUR JOB: greeceriots.blogspot.com Insurrectionary missives and tidbits from the Spanish-speaking world, THIS IS OUR EMERGENCY translated into English likelostchildren.blogspot.com thisisourjob.wordpress.com OUR WAR: SOCIAL WAR CHICAGO: Insurrectionary News from South ATTACK! Violence is the fundamental truth of America politics. ourwar.org These web sites socialwarchicago.blogspot.com act as a helpful WHENUA FENUA ENUA source for the news 325: VANUA reported on in this Insurrectionary News and Publishing Revolutionary Anti-Colonialism and magazine. from the UK Anti-Capitalism. 325.nostate.net uriohau.blogspot.com

SOCIAL RUPTURE ACTIONS INTERESTING TO socialrupture.blogspot.com ANARCHISTS action.anarchistnews.org BASH BACK NEWS: “Not Gay as in happy. ‘TIL IT BREAKS: But queer as in fuck you”. DENVER SOCIAL WAR bashbacknews.wordpress.com itbreaks.wordpress.com

AFTER THE GREEK RIOTS: BITE BACK: Updates and analysis of unrest in News in defense of animals. Greece. directaction.info occupiedlondon.org/blog NAELFPO: DIRECT ACTION IN News in defense of the earth. GERMANY elfpressoffice.org directactionde.blogspot.com

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Internet Links-Pg. 94 ONLINE PROLE ANTI-POLITICS LIBRARY WRITING prole.info anti-politics.net/distro Arsenals of INSURGENT DESIRE BUREAU OF PUBLIC read-for-free insurgentdesire.org.uk SECRETS texts. bopsecrets.org SITUATIONIST ARCHIVE nothingness.org/si THE ANARCHIST LIBRARY theanarchistlibrary.org

BOOKS ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN By Fredy Perlman SOCIETY OF THE Recommended Available in book format from SPECTACLE for reading in Red and Black Press. By Guy Debord book format, Available in most bookstores. either somewhere THE COMING you really like or INSURRECTION AT DAGGERS DRAWN somewhere you By the Invisible Committee Available from Eberhardt Press. really hate. Available in book format or online at: tarnac9.wordpress.com/ texts/the-coming-insurrection

PUBLISHERS ELEPHANT EDITIONS: MODESTO ANARCHO Insurrectionary Publisher out of modestoanarcho.org Keeping print culture the UK alive; somehow. alphabetthreat.co.uk/elephantedi LITTLE BLACK CART tions littleblackcart.com

HALIFAX ANARCHIST WARRIOR PUBLICATIONS DISTRO warriorpublications.com myspace.com/dissenthalifax EBERHARDT PRESS eberhardtpress.org

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 8-Internet Links-Pg. 95 “FORWARD EVERYONE! AND WITH ARMS AND HEARTS, SPEECH AND PEN, NO DAGGER AND RIFLE, . IRONY AND BLASPHEMY, THEFT, POISONING, AND FIRE, LET US MAKE... WAR ON SOCIETY.” NO. EVERY THING MUST GO.