FOR NOTHING AGAINST EVERY THING

FIRE TO THE PRISONS Issue 7//Fall 2009 An Insurrectionary Quarterly “CONTRARY TO WHAT HAS BEEN REPEATED TO US SINCE CHILD- HOOD, INTELLIGENCE DOESN’T MEAN KNOW- ING HOW TO ADAPT; OR IF THAT IS A KIND OF INTELLIGENCE, IT’S THE INTELLIGENCE OF SLAVES.” DISCLAIMER:

Fire to the Prisons is for informational and edu- cational purposes only. This magazine in no way encourages or supports any illegal behavior in any way. This magazine looks only to provide a forum for conversation and news. All news mentioned was found as public information and later compiled or re-organized for this magazine, and 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.

“BUT, WE MIGHT NEED IT!”. BRIEFING Pg. 3 TABLE OF A subtle introduction. PERMANENT POTENTIAL, CONTENTS IN PERMANENT CONFLICT Pg. 4 Towards a revolutionary vagueness.

ON “BURNING OUT” Pg. 8 This magazine is in NO-WAY a “for profit” Disempowerment and the modern radical. publication; nor is it in anyway a formal en- terprise or business. We encourage the WE DEMAND NOTHING Pg. 12 re-distribution and re-printing of everything On the Practical Necessity of Demanding Nothing. in this magazine, as well as the magazine in it’s entirety. Printable PDFs are available for A STATEMENT FROM THE UNDECIDED Pg. 23 re-distribution or viewing on our web site in- The liberal/conservative false dichotomy. cluded below. ESCAPISM HAS ITS PRICE, If your reading this, it means that this is- THE ARTIST HAS HIS INCOME Pg. 25 sue is done. Please let us know what you By Social Warhol from Non-Fides. think, if you would like to order more, or if you have any questions by contacting us at REPRESSION the information below. This magazine is free (PRISONER + LEGAL UPDATES) Pg. 27 to people currently incarcerated by contacting State attempts to constrain, contain, and silence. the prisoner support groups mentioned at the end of the repression chapter. STRUGGLE FROM THE INSIDE Pg. 37 A chronology of North American prisoner resistance. We send our utmost love and respect to those who helped to fund, edit, and contribute NOTED DESTRUCTION Pg. 42 to this magazine. Special thanks to the party Anonymous + Anarchist resistance. scene for our funds. To the friends who dealt with our stress, and the friends that shared NATIVE CONFLICT Pg. 44 their resources and sanity. To the educated Reports on indigenous resistance who helped make sure we were presentable. To the comrade in the room over, to the com- rades far away: thank you. ATTACKING DECEPTION Pg. 49 A critique of spirituality and a short list of attacks on churches. Agitating till the grave, A REMINDER FOR A DELUSIONAL ERA Pg. 52 Against green capitalism, for earth liberation. Fire to the Prisons: www.firetotheprisons.com CAN’T STOP THE CHAOS Pg. 54 [email protected] Riots at the G20. c/o Shoelacetown ABC P.O. Box 8085 Paramus, NJ THE SUMMER ANARCHY DIED Pg. 63 07652, USA MANAGERS OR MARAUDERS OF THE DESERT? Pg. 66 By Crudo

WORK Pg. 68 A brief description of dead labor.

SHOUT OUTS Pg. 70 Cool books, publishers, and info.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Table of Contents-Pg. 2 BRIEFING the funding aren’t interested in funding an insurrectionary or anti-political voice. So our funds have to be creative.

We recognize that the state will in some o much energy, anxiety, and cases make its surveillance just visible time is put into this publication. Count- enough to frighten you, to silence you Sless hours staring at a computer screen, more or less. So we have to breathe and constant concern regarding funds, con- focus and be smart. stant complications to find a safe space to work in, or a never-ending string of weird With that said, here we bring issue 7 of mail situations leading us to always feel Fire to the Prisons. We hope that this is- like we’re being watched. Some of this sue helps to inspire and provoke agitation could be from our own computer inept- to the current order of things. We hope ness or our general poorness. Some of that these words will help to challenge our anxiety could also stem from our al- certain tendencies while strengthening most in-depth or journalistic knowledge others. We hope that some will be re- of state harassment and repression. But on membered and supported as they over- the other hand, we choose this experience. come their prison sentences or current trials. We hope that we stimulate a stoic We desire to provide a consistent media solidarity among those sympathetic to the for insurrectionary dialogue and conflict. content, and provide a moment to appreci- ate the courage of other discontent people, We realize that content and reporting as or put some pseudo-fame and glittering “controversial” as this will never receive rhetoric to moments you the reader may proper funding. For the people who do have been part of.

The dumb or elite try to pass us off as hoodlums. In some ways they’re right. As we mention we are “for nothing” and in this we look to cre- ate a trend that desires to destroy “everything”. We are not a political party, but we are a party; one that celebrates tension, conflict, and at- tack. Not against each other, but to everything that is everything as we know it.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Briefing-Pg. 3 PERMANENT POTENTIAL IN PERMANENT CONFLICT

Towards a Revolutionary Vagueness

tance of this, dissent becomes too subtle to disrupt or pose a real challenge to such a society. Political campaigns and programs reach out to “more and more people” hoping for some mass compliance or precise “agreement” with the political agendas that or too long, any proposal for social lay cement over the potential directions of social change has been limited to historical ideas and the revolt and liberatory struggles. On the other hand, Ftextbooks that support them. For too long, rebel- what if someone was to say that there are already lion has been constrained by the shackles of sub- enough people? culture and aesthetics. For too long, struggle has been a desperate game of politics. For too long, the “In the United States, wealth is highly concentrat- desire to revolt has been contextualized as a spe- ed in relatively few hands. As of 2004, the top 1% cial interest. For too long, isolation and ideology of households (the upper class) owned 34.3% of have created divisions and weaknesses that thwart all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the any attempts to realize collective frustration. managerial, professional, and small business stra- tum) had 50.3%, which means that just 20% of Those who control society have carved out a the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only space for dissent so that all attempts to challenge 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and the system of control are merely rehearsals of ritu- salary workers).” als everyone knows the script to. With our accep-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Permanent Potential in Permanent Conflict-Pg. 4 Are we to assume that the bottom of the that we don’t want. Of course, our mutual situation like this could happen at any mo- barrel is a place of comfort? Police are shot dislike for that which enforces power over ment, any time, any day. regularly and most people don’t shed a tear. us provides a dialogue for potential affinity. Most people look to evade the police, and if Those of us without wealth, comfort, con- This disruption started with demands, noticed, flee them. People steal constantly trol, content, and so on, must comfort our something that requires a certain amount of from their workplace, and some may call discomfort with a realization that frustra- faith in who or what it is you are demand- this an attempt to sabotage the material cir- tion is everywhere, and it is growing more ing things from. It ended with a realiza- cumstances of their everyday misery. and more fierce. tion of disempowerment and disappoint- ment that manifested itself as a discontent Ruptures in social normalcy happen every- Frustration is not isolated, discontent is willfully overstepping the boundaries that day; some are pretty, some are not. not something that is unique, it is as global make the current system of production and as the economy is, as overwhelming as control comfortable. School shootings. Bank robberies. Arson. modern industry is, as all-encompassing as Graffiti. the state is. Whether or not everyone has Yes, this began with an interest in re- read the same book, or read a book at all, forming the workplace, but it ended with We all realize our lack of touch, our lack of a climate of content and compliance is de- a desire for something that could not be control, our lack of depth. teriorating more and more. One recent ex- granted. There was no concrete rhetoric but citing conflict was in Savar, Bangladesh, there were concrete gestures. Drugs. Porn. Suicide. Television. in the Ashulia district, near Dhaka. In June, around 1,800 factory workers were What would happen if the flows Are we not angry? striking due to the typical third world la- of production were blocked? bor conditions, which the first world takes What would happen if the Are we not bored? pity on from a distance when they see it workplace was burned down? on the news. Once the owners responded How would burning down the Are we not all cynical and exhausted with to the demands of the striking workers, means of survival in the a society that celebrates fillers and alien- they returned to work. Once they returned industrial garment district have ation? to work they were informed that the pin- brought anyone closer to living? pointed “leaders” of the strike would be Are we not all violently angry, loveless, fired. In solidarity with the fired workers, Iran’s recent election precipitated the hungry, thirsty and tired? the now disillusioned factory workers be- country’s almost-collapse. Unlike the pos- gan to stage another demonstration making turing of the 2004 U.S. presidential elec- What would happen if people stopped new demands for the owners to meet. The tions when Bush was re-elected and we looking for temporary relief? owners called the police to stop the demon- heard nothing but liberals’ complaints un- stration, leading to the death of one dem- til 2008, the gestures that came out of the What would happen if everyone was able onstrator, the wounding of another, and the public disappointment in Iran challenged to do what they pleased without the threat injuries and arrests of dozens. This area of the normalcy of the everyday in a totalistic of consequence or punishment for their be- Bangladesh is home to many garment fac- fashion. havior? tories like the one that caused the original strike. Once the news spread that another Whether or not the election was rigged, This is the rationalization of government worker was killed in the demonstration, whether or not the right person ‘properly’ and the driving force for our alienated hu- conflict spread across the district,- work won, a failure in the spectacle of demo- manity to continue playing out the social ers from different factories began to strike. cratic control led to a success in complete dynamics of a morgue. This kind of think- The entire area had turned into a battle- and generalized social upheaval. Strangers ing stands as the reasoning behind politi- ground between the owners and protec- were burning government buildings and cal agendas and platforms that rely on the tors of the factories and those who worked fighting the police together. The main- calculated agreement of a large number of inside them. Different workers blocked stream painted the agendas of these upris- people over another group of people. the highways with burning tires and cars, ings to represent one political goal or issue preventing the flow of goods from entering in society, the feelings that provoked this When you play the game of politics, or or leaving. Police were confronted on ev- behavior were beyond the standard politi- exercise such an arrogance of having all ery corner with a hail of bottles, rocks, and cal frameworks; in fact, they were anti-po- the answers, you can then say that we don’t other projectiles, leading to the injury of litical and in no way looked to work with have enough people, because a form of around 20 officers. Fifty garment factories the forces that determine and manipulate domination is needed to enforce a decision were attacked, and some were completely everyday life. that represents an opposition to inclusion. burned to the ground. Paramilitary secu- When we enter the lush jungle beyond the rity forces were brought in to disperse the Just like the mainstream media, main- stale terrain of politics, we begin to discov- crowds and calm the violence, but the ten- stream political groups will either project er a unifying force in not knowing what it is sion remains high. This garment district is their agenda onto the uprising or claim no we want—while agreeing about what it is notorious for such random outbursts, so a importance on them at all. When you en-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Permanent Potential in Permanent Conflict-Pg. 5 gage in politics, you limit your capability to ef- deny the potential of these conflicts, and as the fect; you not only limit the extent to which you media paints the aims of these conflicts, it is “As certain political can push a struggle, you also isolate yourself to important for those frustrated with this world, people deny the poten- * ideological baggage that comes with claiming not interested in politics, and untrustworthy of tial of these conflicts, a certain political perspective. Political people journalism to begin to learn from these con- and as the media paints will neglect to recognize the importance of con- flicts that begin small in numbers, effect, and the aims of these con- flicts that refuse to claim some specific thing as goal, and grow and transition into violent so- flicts, it is important a goal, or they don’t cite particular theoretical cial upheavals that challenge everything. for those frustrated points, have some specific political leader or with this world, not affiliation, or weren’t organized according to In an era where we’re told that everything interested in politics, an established or familiar ideology. has already been done, and some of us were and untrustworthy of just meant to be fucked and miserable, people journalism to begin to According to both the left and right main- are looking to stimulate a desire for real con- learn from these con- stream media, the French riots of 2005 and frontation with society—to create and maintain flicts that begin small the December insurrection in Greece in 2008 a social force that breaks with society in the in numbers, effect, were simply manifestations of disenfranchised challenge of destroying it. We are not autono- and goal, and grow and youth rebellion. The LA riots were only about mous, we are everywhere and everyone. We are transition into violent Rodney King. The recent escalation in the Ma- looking to set an invisible trend that is already social upheavals that puche conflict with the state in Chile was only here, that abandons the shackles of subculture, challenge everything.” about the most recent murder. In each case, the identity and ideology, and finds comfort in the media and politics isolate each event, making revolutionary discomfort we all feel. The sui- them typical and harder to spread. They are no cidal are in control, destroying the land that longer people frustrated with the reality of their feeds us, mediating our relationships with each circumstances in the world, they are just anoth- other and all life on this planet, and establish- er situation or group walking the path of global ing a global reality that efficiently forces all politics, carrying whatever baggage the media life to survival as opposed to living. There is or political group tells the world they have. unity in our cynicism, skepticism, and common contempt. There is unity in our neglected pas- No matter how you look at these situations, sions, malnourishment, and feared temptations. they all act as disturbances in the peace and While there is also a division set in their very normalcy of modern everyday life; the car of existence, there is a unity in these feelings. apathy and compliance before the desert of There are those who share these feelings, and coercion and domination was left behind and those who look to silence them, deceive them, burnt. These moments present a context for or murder and imprison those feeling them. accessible frustration that looks to explore its actualization beyond the boundaries of politics. As it is, we are not a ‘we,’ we are a world of calculated roles and classes, races and reli- These situations present a revolutionary gions, subjects and bastard children of a larger vagueness that excites those who look to chal- system. We have work for our identities (some lenge the world as we know it. A vagueness of us), hospitals for our health (some of us), that doesn’t claim to have the answers, but it police for our safety (some of us), porn for our does claim to know the problems. A vagueness sexuality (some of us), god for our faith (some that sets a trend for the new revolutionary to of us), or the rich and famous to set precedents push for every conflict to spread, every conflict for our ambitions (some of us). We are not a to not remain isolated, to act as a social force ‘we,’ we are the fabrications of ‘them.’ Them not when it serves the interests of typical and being the creators and sustainers of a central conditional dissent, but that realizes the state of power that strips us of being an us. permanent conflict that prevails in the modern world. We look to go beyond politics in our recogni- tion of society being inherently fucked-up. We To be political in society today means to claim look to negate our patient and compliant selves, a special interest. You defend such an interest and look at ways to challenge and disrupt, be- and ignore anything that doesn’t serve the de- cause that is what we are to do if we ever want velopment of that interest. In the current times to be without this. We propose no solutions, of economic crisis, a global cultural void, and but a call out for a solidarity of targets. We are a stagnant yet stumbling international society, looking to create and continue conversations every conflict could present the final nail to the we have all had or thought of, and look at the world as we know it. As certain political people global civilization that runs and ruins all life

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Permanent Potential in Permanent Conflict-Pg. 6 today with an ironically opti- attention to the need to revolt, mistic recognition of the inher- not to calculate the specific con- ently conflicting discontent that ditions needed to serve reform will be just as global as civiliza- or whatever social program. tion’s infrastructure. We look to steer away from the academic stronghold of dissent, There will always be those while unifying both the self- who second guess, re-examine appointed revolutionaries of the things more than others, or go it world, and those without iden- alone. Such a uniqueness does tity, but also without content. not call for the Leninist idea of vanguardism, or the arrogant With this we must realize that and insecure need for devious there is a constant social war. aesthetics to match unusual With the persistence of what ex- thinking. We are excited people, ists as our habitual reality, there uninterested in politics. We are will always be conflict, there unable to sum up our desires will always be rupture, there in one word, or sum up our- will always be vulnerability, selves with one goal, or sum up there will always be potential; the world. We are not looking in every conflict, every moment. to be heard by the intellectual Whether this war manifests in and political facets of society; ferocious riot and unrest, or we no longer care for dialogue murder and prison, as long as of this kind, we don’t care to such a world exists there is the earn our voice; in fact we only potential for its inherent tension look to mock and yell over any to escalate at any moment. dialogue. We are hoping to call

ANY MOMENT fed up with the world to also confront it. We would definitely love to walk around the financial dis- tricts of each city and see n so-called revolu- flames coming out of- ev tionary movements, both ery window and the own- Ihistorical and current ones, ers of the buildings running the concept of “burning” or with fear, but we recognize “dropping” out is consis- that there are baby steps to tently apparent. Obviously, walk when you’re trying to after years of trying and fight someone while they’re failing to achieve a specific pointing a gun at you. There goal like social insurrection is a responsible way of be- or revolution, one might ing violent. In revolution- eventually feel some degree ary communities the idea of disempowerment or dis- of these actions being done appointment. responsibly is called “secu- rity culture.” This term is a For example, when you sensational way of applying are a part of a movement common sense but is also that faces consistent repres- a response to the harsher sion by the state, whether attention paid to these ac- that be through surveillance tions by the police when and infiltration by the gov- they turn from expressions “Obviously, after years of try- ernment, or insane bail fees of discontent to “direct ac- ing and failing to achieve a and prison sentences by its tion.” When petty violence specific goal like social in- legal system, such bullying that everyone can under- surrection or revolution, one can (because that is the gov- stand (for example a police might eventually feel some ernment’s intention) carry car or bank being attacked) degree of disempowerment an anxiety or paranoia that becomes claimed and rei- “ON or disappointment.” would torment any commu- fied as an expression of a nity or individual waving specific political agenda, a radical flag. People get this can bring a dynamic of drunk and break windows, isolation. burning spray-paint buildings, smash statues, or commit Isolation, however, is con- violence all the time. These trary to the intention of ev- petty crimes are the enjoy- ery revolutionary struggle. ment of teenagers across the We are not against such out” world. Insurrectionists and violence, but frustrated revolutionaries mystify this with the formalization and behavior by isolating acts of specialization of it by po- violence, politicizing them, litical groups. Petty sabo- and as a result, separat- tage includes everything ing them from the social from small gestures of dis- violence of daily life. As content to formalized resis- a result, the state manages tance that only caters to the such behavior as different, excitement of a few; when particular, “political,” and sabotage becomes formal- determines consequences ized or “direct action” it accordingly. creates almost a subculture of violence as opposed to a Violence is sexy and, when force that carries significant done in a certain way, prob- potential to threaten that ably the best propaganda which it opposes. A signifi- tool for visually inspiring cant threat provides simple others who are bitter and examples of how to resist

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-On Burning Out-Pg. 8 now, potentially exciting anyone and lated to their specialized cause. People get there are so many ass holes in political cir- spreading anywhere. Also, in terms of involved with different causes for different cles or creepy old people that subsist off of strategy, when graffiti or property destruc- reasons, but unfortunately, many of these the spinelessness or generosity of the youth tion becomes claimed by a larger formal people are motivated by a need for purpose that make up the activity of many political underground movement, your behavior and identity. This is why young people are circles? Is it not surprising that when rela- goes from a fine or probation, to months always a dominant force in revolutionary tionships are discovered through a weak or years in jail. It’s important that we start movements, because they are not fully affinity of aesthetic or academic affiliation, to explore resistance that speaks for itself, shackled to ritual or career yet, and have that when times get hard, when things are or actions that communicate something ac- still not found their social niche. But when too much, when you didn’t have the time, cessible, to not just those who hear about you join the movement, just like when you or when you got “too old”, that such inter- it on different blogs or web sites, but also join a band or sorority or fraternity, you’re ests, such relationships, or such a struggle, by those walking by. By witnessing friends discovering purpose; you are finding your would be expendable? going to jail ourselves, we can understand “self.” Just like any social club, the inten- how state repression can “scare straight” tion is to celebrate the club itself and to Struggle is something that comes out of political people, especially young people, engage in a project of exclusivity, not in- circumstances that need to be challenged. in underground movements. In the case clusivity. Years of attending conferences When you are fabricating a need for strug- of isolated struggles, the potential of its and organizing protests does not match the gle while really battling a personal struggle failure or subjugation might just not be sincerity or significance of the moment a with purpose and identity, you are creat- worth the time for some. We also see this group of kids sabotage the car of the officer ing a context that cannot exactly stand its in the case of informants or snitches, the who chased them out of the parking lot be- ground. For example, the success of con- relationships aren’t worth the time, the ac- hind the church they had turned into a skate temporary politics is usually based on its tion isn’t worth the time, the struggle isn’t park. When the need to experience excite- recognition in the Western world. In the worth their time; it’s a hobby, something to ment or something new is your motivation Western world, most people do not feel the get bored with. Of course if someone was for engaging in a political movement or need to struggle due to the liberal idea of killed on your block, or a friend was put scene you leave the door open for disap- individual freedom, an idea of freedom that in jail, claiming actions with specific social pointment and getting “burnt” much more is based on greater access to the Western goals are important to strengthening com- then someone who doesn’t recognize their ideals of “wealth” and “privilege.” With munities in struggle. But when resistance “political resistance” as something separate this false belief of being free, many indi- becomes connected to an underground from their lives. viduals, especially those of white or mid- movement that has a web site, a banner, dle-class backgrounds, look to experience or issues communiqués claiming to know Many people in the U.S. who engage in some sort of struggle via political move- all the answers, the potential of the action formal political protest or dialogue come ments, or look to different ideologies or to spread dies immediately. It becomes the from a white or financially comfortable theories to tell them where to direct their exclusive project of those claiming it, not a background. This may be because when anger. That is why in the first world, many book without words where those who walk someone is putting food on your plate and political people with revolutionary tenden- by or hear about it have to come up with providing for your every basic need, you cies tend to fetishize struggles from other their own conclusion, based on their expe- have the time to think, to read, to challenge nations, assuming that such resistance isn’t riences and desires, as to what it means. society in some formally political or intel- feasible here. Although the circumstances lectual way. Frustration with everyday life of Western everyday life might not be as There is also the individual’s isolation is all around, hatred for money can be heard aesthetically tragic as those struggles or that comes with prescribing to a political in almost every conversation, a disdain for circumstances of the “third-world” dis- movement—it’s just like work. When a po- the police always manifests when you fi- cussed in political science or sociology litical cause is taking up all your time like nally have to deal with them. To radically classrooms, we are living in a global world. a job, then your social life is effectively challenge the totality of society is to engage In reality, for some people to have so-called reduced to work as well. Today’s revo- in a project that looks to generalize, ex- wealth and privilege, others cannot. But lutionary is probably the most confused pand, and be made accessible to everyone. when you are talking exclusively from the- and lost revolutionary in written history. Obviously, once someone realizes their ory and the struggles of the other, you are In a world where people are told “history isolation or false sense of subjectivity, such approaching struggle from a distance. You is over, it’s all been done before”, people disillusionment can drain the energy of any are disconnected from the experiences and struggle simply for a feeling of uniqueness. revolutionary. When we turn passions into frustrations that motivate discontent people As opposed to realizing that we are all in rhetoric, ideas into logos, or communities to struggle. Not in all cases, but in many, struggle in the modern world, the modern into scenes, we wound the sincerity of a you inevitably become tired of dedicating revolutionary searches for their distinction struggle, making it so we celebrate banners yourself to something that only effects you as opposed to commonality, making it dif- and our differences from everyone who intellectually or emotionally in the form of ficult for them to relate with anyone but doesn’t comply with our aesthetic expecta- pity. You are looking away from the mo- those who think or look like them on the tions. We lose out on other friends, other ment, the local, the immediate presence surface. As they swim in the kiddie pool conversations, and become an isolated so- of the same culture that effects so-and-so of false subjectivity, all time is lost swim- cial cesspool. Is it not surprising that this tribe in so–and-so impoverished part of the ming to places and events specifically re- would get tiring? Is it not surprising that world. Of course with the Internet and the Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-On Burning Out-Pg. 9 absurd access to news and information we have in the modern by a large portion of America’s population is unique in how severe world, it is important to discover feelings of discontent across the it is compared to many other parts of the world, but to allow our- world, and obviously it is inspiring to witness ways other people selves to succumb to such thinking generally is to only pay atten- are materializing their discontent, but to participate in struggle by tion to the outlooks of the upper political and economic classes, being a spectator distracts you from the tragedy of one’s personal and their cronies, because most of us at the bottom are fed up and daily life and further alienates you from more immediate circum- likely to explode. stances of repression. The guilty first-worlders tend to give back by donating money to charity, purchasing certain products, or dis- If you are in a position of so-called first world privilege, it can be cussing certain opinions. They hope to have “a little” effect on the disappointing if your parents or college friends do not agree with world. For the most part, the more angsty political types merely you, they do not hate all police, or feel that you should give in be- repeat the behavior they saw from a distance, maybe by incorpo- cause somewhere in the world is allegedly worse than where you rating a bit edgier of an intention in doing so. In both cases those are now. But these are not discontent people, these are not people “trying to make a difference” are placing faith in global politics that have nothing to lose with the loss of this society—these people and giving in to the deception of a first-world idea of privilege. still hold this society sacred and value the things offered by this Such political types that look to make the global stratified atmo- society, because they are to their benefit. It is important for people sphere more tolerable never look for immediate change in their to realize that there is a global economy, a global world, a global immediate context, always leaving themselves open to a feeling metropolis. It is connected while also divided, and in need of at- of disempowerment, that is inherent in politics. Again, we are not tack everywhere and on every angle. If we continue to shift our saying that if there are riots in Chile it should not inspire others time, energy and exclusive sympathies from one movement to the across the world to do the same, we are saying that there is a dan- other, we will never have the time to realize what is right in front gerous tendency of specifically youth-dominated political move- of us: our everyday lives, our immediate surroundings, and the ments to fetishize the events to a point where they feel that they communities that take part in them. Until we realize the intercon- can only appreciate them from a distance, because such a thing nectedness of everything, or the tragedy and coercion in our own is “never possible” in a first-world post-industrial nation like the everyday lives, at any moment we can get tired and nourish such United States. Remember the United States is a very fearful na- exhaustion with apathy. Until we begin to open our eyes to what tion, a very fat nation, and a very divided nation. The apathy felt is around us, and no longer allow the false wealth of first-world Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-On Burning Out-Pg. 10 capitalist society to deceive our ambitions, we will get tired, we We must seriously challenge will be political hobbyists, we ourselves and friends to real- will never play a part in spread- ize the importance of forming ing social revolt, only in letting relationships that go beyond it stagnate and remain sterile. the standard superficial bonds society tells us is friendship. We When your relationships are need to stop using each other created purely as a result of a for our own ends, and start in- scene or superficial “hobby” vesting our energies in collec- they are expendable. When you tive ends. If our communities are engaging in a community remain scenes, if our friends that nourishes you on a deep remain only comrades, if our level, or inspires you to get up relationships remain limited to in the morning, or allows you to a similarity of aesthetics rather escape the alienation of the cur- than deep connections, at any rent world just a little bit, then moment the entirety of our com- “burning out” would not be as munity could fall apart. Such easy as an option as many have a false community, although it made it seem before. claims distinction in aesthetic and superficial interests, still operates with the same alien- ated dynamics encouraged by this alienated society. DEMANDWE NOTHING By Johann Kaspar

“I do not demand any right, there- man, was killed by transit authority officers their political contexts nor social condi- fore I need not recognize any ei- in Oakland, California on New Years Day tions, neither their locations nor their tar- ther.”- Stirner 2009, a march of about 250 people turned gets. Rather, it is a certain absence that wild when a multiculturalist’s dream focus unites them, a gap in the center of all these group rampaged through downtown, caus- conflicts: the lack of demands. Looking to ing over $200,000 in damage while break- understand, manage, or explain the afore- ing shop windows, burning cars, setting mentioned events to an alienated public, trash bins on fire, and throwing bottles at prison officials claim ignorance, journalists police officers. Police arrested over 100. scavenge for a “cause,” politicians seek for From December 6th, 2008 to Christmas, something to negotiate with, while liberals n the night of August 8th, a rebellion swept Greece after the police impose their own ideology. The fear is that O2009, hundreds of inmates at the California shooting of a 16 year old boy in Athens. there really is nothing beneath the actions, Institution for Men in Chino rioted for 11 Hundreds of thousands of people took part, no complaint, no reason, no cause, just a hours, causing “significant and extensive” collectively ripping up the streets, fire- wild release of primal energy, as inexpli- damage to the medium-security prison. bombing police stations, looting stores, oc- cable and irrational as a sacrifice to the Two hundred and fifty prisoners were in- cupying universities and union buildings, gods themselves. At all costs, there must be jured, with fifty-five admitted to the hospi- all the while confronting cops on a daily meaning, they cry, some kind of handle to tal. On Mayday 2009, three blocks of San basis with an intensity and coordination grab onto, something, anything. What do Francisco’s luxury shopping district were worthy of an army. After the “accidental” they want? everyone asks, and the reply is wrecked by a roving mob, leaving glass deaths of two kids who were being chased everywhere the same: Nothing. strewn throughout the sidewalk for the by police in the Parisian suburb of Clichy- shopkeepers, police and journalists to gawk sous-Bois, on Oct 27th, 2005, youths in the From Chino to Paris, Australia to Athens, at the next morning. On the early morning French banlieues burned thousands of cars, New York to San Francisco, these are only of April 10th, 2009, nineteen individuals smashed hundreds of buildings, and de- a sample of revolts worldwide that have took over and locked down an empty uni- stroyed shops large and small every day for increasingly given up on the desire to “de- versity building the size of a city-block on three weeks in response. 8,973 cars burned mand something.” To the bourgeois press, 5th avenue in Manhattan, draping banners all over France those nights, and 2,888 the lack of demands is conceived of as a and reading communiqués off the roof. Po- were arrested. symptom of irrationality, a certain madness lice and university officials responded by or pathology that plagues the disenfran- sending helicopters, swat teams, and hun- What unites these disparate events of the chised. To the radical left, the absence of dreds of officers to break in and arrest them last few years? Neither the race nor class demands is seen as political immaturity, a all. After Oscar Grant, an unarmed black backgrounds of the participants, neither naïve rage that can only exhaust itself in

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 12 short bursts. But to those who’ve shared ticular time. Riots usually start with some text here, the demand is a contract, the such deeds together, to those who’ve seen grievance, sometimes with a demand in guaranteed expiration date of one’s strug- their demands become the means of their sight. A riot can also start with no demand, gle, the conditions for its conclusion. “If x own suffocation, such a trend is a welcome but end with one. Other times, riots begin is achieved, action y will end” is what the sign of things to come. with a particular demand, but end without demand says. But this is obviously a trick, any care whatsoever for its accomplish- for a contract assumes two equal sides, two Perhaps it’s time we stop seeing these ment. Sometimes demands are forced onto abstract individuals or entities exchanging struggles as “lacking” something, but rath- a collectivity of rioters by a self-appointed the dates of their expiration of hostilities er as determinate acts of negation with their “representative” and other times demands based on a mutual recognition of condi- own particular force, meaning, and history. are decided on by the collectivity them- tions. If the vote is the political equivalent To take seriously the content of struggles selves. Every aforementioned case has to money, then the demand is the political without demands, one must see them not occurred in American history, and it is the equivalent to credit cards. It is faith, a con- as isolated events, but as moments within a task of the insurrectionary scientist to un- tract, a password to get something when history of developing antagonistic relations cover any possible logics to the historical one has nothing. It can be used by anyone, between capital and the life it subsumes. development of such relations in the dia- thieves and kings, rich and poor, just and What are the forms in which struggles lectic between demand and destruction. As unjust; its function is the same, to lock one without demands appear to us? As riots the conditions of exploitation develop, so in deeper to the structure of capital. mostly, but also as wild strikes, endless do the struggles against them, and with this occupations, violent rebellions, popular the meaning of the struggles themselves Why do struggles with demands tend to uprisings and general insurrections. In- change, expressed not by demands but by get wilder, and struggles without them tend stead of seeing a riot as sociologists do, the content of the activity itself. It is this to proliferate? On the one hand, the abil- namely as any collective act of violence activity we investigate below. ity of the state or capital to satisfy minimal which seeks to directly communicate its demands is being eroded. In a hyper glo- message without respect to legal norms, THEORY OF THE DEMAND balized economy, worker’s don’t need to we can see them as they appear to us: as be guaranteed to socially reproduce them- developing forms of struggle adequate to What is a demand? Etymologically, it is a selves as workers where they are, for all the conditions of exploitation at their par- giving of one’s hand, an order. In the con- that capital requires is some worker, any-

“Perhaps it’s particular force, mean- time we stop ing, and history. To take seeing these seriously the content struggles of struggles without as “lacking” demands, one must see something, but them not as isolated rather as de- terminate acts of negation with their own

events, but as moments within a history of developing antago- nistic relations between capital and the life it subsumes.”

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 13 where, to do the job. Wage-demands and demands class struggle, which can either mean the opening to to maintain work hit up against the brick wall of the its overcoming through broadened social struggle— law of value. Proletarians realize this and respond, insurrection, social war—, or the closure of struggle now threatening to blow up their factory (at New all together. We bet on the former. Fabris in Paris, for example), kidnapping bosses (at Scapa in France), and striking not for improv- Although the possibility to satisfy demands is be- ing conditions, better wages or even keeping their coming harder, demands are still made, perhaps out jobs, but for money, just more money when they of habit, or desperation. The demand is only able sell the factory. No illusion anymore, they seem to to reproduce capital, since we have been emptied be saying we are nothing, we have nothing, we de- of all content besides the content of capital: when mand nothing except some paltry means to soften we eat, drink, walk, kiss, fuck, fight, or learn for our fall. The limits of demands reveal the limits of ourselves, it is not for ourselves but for needs and

“From Chino to Paris, Australia to Athens, New York to San Fran- cisco, these are only a sample of revolts worldwide that have increasingly given up on the de- sire to “demand something.” To the bourgeois press, the lack of demands is conceived of as a symptomOur of only irrationality, genu- a cer- tain madnessine need or can pathology be that plaguesto theliberate disenfranchised. need To *the radicalfrom its left, submis the absence- of demandssion is to seen capital. as political im- maturity, a naïve rage that can only exhaustUntil itself that in oc short- bursts.desires set by the laws of economy to pro- potentiality of non-alienated life). In such But to thosecurs, ourwho’ve needs shared suchduce value. Alien to ourselves, we are at struggles, the proletariat “lays claims to no deeds together,will continue to those to who’vehome in capital. We don’t even know our particular right because the wrong it suffers seen theirbe nothing demands more become theneeds, and yet we still hold banners crying is not a particular wrong but wrong in gen- means than of their a ownmeans suffocation, for their fulfillment. Our only genuine need eral.” (Marx). This “general wrong” is the such a fortrend the is purposea welcome sign ofcan be to liberate need from its submission generalized structure of exploitation at the things toof COME reproducing.” to capital. Until that occurs, our needs will heart of the capitalist system—the forced wealth, and de- continue to be nothing more than a means selling of one’s time and life activity to mands are sim- for the purpose of reproducing wealth, and someone else in return for a wage—which ply the respite, demands are simply the respite, the handle can never be overcome by any particular the handle in in which our needs can be grabbed, repro- change, only by a total one. which our needs duced, reconfigured, and reasserted. can be grabbed, As particular demands transform them- reproduced, re- Without a particular demand, no mediation selves throughout American history—from configured, and can be made to pacify them, no politics are wage-demands to social demands to po- reasserted. possible to manage the dispute; “not” hav- litical demands to environmental ones— ing a demand is not a lack of anything, but the potential refusal of demands haunts a contradictory assertion of one’s power and the bourgeoisie. This is obvious to anyone one’s weakness. Too weak to even try and who takes the levels of class violence em- get something from those who dominate ployed by the exploited as rational forms of proletarian life, and simultaneously strong contending with an objective structure of enough to try and accomplish the direct ap- domination. What is not so obvious is the propriation of one’s life, time, and activity ways in which this refusal manifests itself apart from mediation. A demandless strug- in differing forms of property destruction, gle, whether we call it riot or rebellion, in- expropriation, and arson. Only history can surrection or civil war, reveals the totality show this. of the enemy one fights (capital-as-society) and the totality of those who fight it (the Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 14 products of labor, that is, the means of pro- markedly different than that of the previous SEQUENCES OF STRUGGLE duction they were using to create new value era of riots. Yes, people were burning and for their employer. By destroying their own destroying all the property around them, The New York City Draft Riots of 1863, instruments of production – rail lines, coal but it wasn’t their property. It was owned the bloodiest riot in American history (120 mines, factory machines – they were de- by someone outside the ghetto. As op- killed at least, 2,000 injured, 50 buildings stroying the unity of the capitalist produc- posed to the previous rail, coal, streetcar, burned), contains all the contradictions and tion process, not merely its appearance as and factory workers’ destruction of what elements that were to develop and separate commodity in the realm of circulation and they deemed their own property (although out into their own forms throughout the consumption. Second, although the ma- technically it was owned by the capitalist), next century: political demands (no draft, chines, rails, train cars, trolleys, mines, and these folks knew it wasn’t their property, no war), class attacks (property destruc- factories that different workers destroyed and were happy to get rid of it. Even if it tion, arson, looting), and race war (physical were under the legal ownership of the capi- means sabotaging their own means of ex- assaults, killing). Between the Draft Riots talist who employed them, they were seen istence, such as access to food, shelter, and and the Oscar Grant riots, we notice three by the workers as their own property. This transportation. For the practical rejection broad trends that emerge in relation to the is because the machines were the prod- of capital entails the abolition of one’s pre- content of insurrectionary activity and the uct and means of their labor, their physi- vious mode of life, and this self-negation form it takes as “demand.” cal and mental exertion. The attack on this always appears as suicidal. But it is only property was not merely an attack against suicidal from the standpoint of capital, not Broadly speaking, we can separate three capitalists, but against that which makes from the perspective of human beings ac- main historical periods of rioting in rela- them proletarians: work, tools, value. The tively creating their lives for the first time. tion to their issues or form, and two his- self-abolition of the proletariat was not torical styles in relation to their methods expressed formally in any one of their de- Between June 1963 and May 1968, there or content. The struggle between labor and mands, but posed materially in the actions were 239 separate urban riots involving capital between 1877 and 1934, the con- and targets themselves. at least 200,000 participants, which led to flicts over race between 1935 and 1968, 8,000 injuries and 190 deaths. On April and the student and anti-war actions of the From Harlem 1935 to Washington D.C. 4th 1968 alone, after MLK Jr’s death, 125 60’s and 70’s are the three broad traditions 1968, class struggles took the form of ap- cities across 28 states rioted, leading to 47 that congealed into the modern protest of pearance of “race relations” and “ghetto deaths. In Washington D.C., riots broke out our time. The women’s, gay liberation and riots.” Qualitatively different than the Jim 10 blocks from the White House. In the anti-nuke actions of the 70’s and 80’s and Crow anti-black, and anti-immigrant ri- same period, at least 50,000 people were the revival of riots over race relations in ots[1], these struggles were dominated by arrested. The riots in Watts, Newark, and Miami and New York City in the ‘80s con- proletarian and subproletarian black as- Detroit alone accounted for 1/6th of all the tinued the dual legacy of 60’s style riots in saults on the foundations of white, bour- arrests. Although 190 deaths is still a lot, its two different forms. It is not until the geois society: police, stores, banks, build- it is nothing in comparison to the amount Rodney King riots in LA (and elsewhere) ings, and cars. Looting and arson were the of deaths that occurred regularly during the of 1992 that a new phase of revolt begins, principle methods used to critique such ele- more formal battles between capital and one which we are still within today. ments. The looting that occurred in Harlem labor. The killings were mostly commit- ’35, ’43, and then in Watts, Newark and ted by the police and military, not rioters. From 1877-1934, labor struggles in Amer- Detroit of the mid-60’s, was not the looting In Watts, 28 out of 34 killed were black; ica took on levels of violence unseen be- of people’s houses, such as the looting of Newark, 24 out of 26 were black; Detroit, fore or since. In that period, demands were capitalist houses during the Draft riots of 36 out of 43 killed were black. made over wages, working conditions, and 1863, but rather it was the looting of shops the length of the working day, but once and stores, the places at which the prod- As ghetto-riots proliferated across ur- these basic demands were outlined in the ucts people make are sold back to them for ban America, another form of protest was 1860’s, almost nothing new emerged. From prices they can’t afford. In other words, emerging, the student, youth, anti-war, left then on the level of class struggle escalated the looting was social, not personal. It was radical protest. The sites of struggle shift to while the demands become less and less the critique of a society which depends on universities, draft centers, and political con- important. Rail strikes immediately turned people accumulating shit they don’t need ventions. During these struggles, demands into riots, spreading nationally along the and desiring shit they make but can’t have. rose and fell constantly, from ending the railway, leaving thousand of train cars draft to “free love”, from peace to “bring destroyed, dead bodies on both sides, and Arson is nothing new in the history of the war home.” What unites the separate, thousands injured. Coal miners blew up American class violence (English labor- contradictory, even superficial demands are their own mines, and factory workers killed ers burned machinery threatening their the actions themselves of those who were Pinkertons outside their gates. jobs in the 18th century), but it thoroughly demanding. These actions included mostly shocked the bourgeoisie when blacks start- sit-ins and occupations, some property de- Property destruction was widespread, but ed burning down their own neighborhoods. struction and arson, lots of police confron- its focus and meaning were different then Why? What was so new about the fire this tation, and little to no physical assaults on they are today. First of all, the property at- time? Perhaps it was the change in the na- civilians. In Berkeley ’64, during the “free tacked by workers’ was their own tools and ture of this property destruction, a change speech movement”, 1000 people occupied Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 15 Sproul Hall for 32 hours, ending in the peaceful ar- rest of 773. In 1966, with the draft enacted, cam- puses revolted en masse. Students occupied the University of Chicago administration for 4 days, and riots occurred at ROTC centers at University of WHAT STARTED Wisconsin, CCNY, and Oberlin. WITH A In Oct of 1967, a national month of protest was STRATEGY OF called, in which some occupations, some symbolic DEMANDS AND acts, and some confrontations arose. On Oct 18th, ESCALATION about 1000 people fought police in Wisconsin with ENDED WITH A 70 students injured, and several buildings damaged. On Oct 19th, Brooklyn College’s Boylan Hall was REJECTION occupied, and in Chicago, 18 were arrested breaking OF ANYTHING into a draft induction center. On Oct 20th, 10,000 Berkeley and Oakland activists blocked the streets LESS THAN around a draft induction center, slashing tires, drop- REVOLUTION. ping nails, writing graffiti, and fighting with about 1000 police for hours. On Oct 21st and 22nd, a mass, ritualized, “nonviolent” anti-war rally took place in DC with 150,000 people. Some broke the rules and fought police, ending with 681 protestors arrested, and 13 marshals, 10 soldiers, and 24 dem- onstrators wounded.

After six days of an occupation at Columbia Uni- versity, students fought police on April 29th, 1968, ending with 132 students, 4 faculty and 12 police injuries. That year at the DNC in Chicago, Yippies tried to inaugurate a riot, and between Aug 25th and Aug 30th, they did. 192 police injuries, 81 police vehicles damaged, 24 windshields smashed, 17 cars dented, and numerous shop windows broken as well. In March and April of 1969, black students at SUNY Buffalo, Harvard, and Cornell occupied cen- tral buildings. In May, students were killed in po- lice confrontations in Berkeley and Greensboro. In October, the Weathermen launched their “Days of Rage”, in which 300 of them destroyed property and fought police together. Six weathermen were shot, most were beaten, 250 arrested. In Santa Barbara, on Feb 25th, 1970, UCSB students burned a Bank of America branch to the ground, and on April 18th, 1970, a student there was slain by a stray bullet from police. But it wasn’t until National Guardsmen killed 4 students on May 4th, 1970 at Kent State University that the country erupted in rage against casualties at protests.

The pattern of student and anti-war demonstra- tions follows the trends of its time: limited attacks on property, police escalation, sit-ins and occupa- tions. As students and youth became more and more indiscriminate with their site of struggles, as they become more violent in their tactics and less accommodating in their resolve, their grievances progressed from a rejection of war and imperialism to a critique of everyday life and capitalism. What started with a strategy of demands and escalation Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 16 ended with a rejection of anything less than that the police killed him (they didn’t), and acquiesced to the assaults of proletarian revolution. Harlemites sought vengeance. In two days violence by bettering work conditions all of rioting, over 200 white owned stores around. ISSUES were demolished, causing 2 million dollars in property damage. This pattern was to re- The second major accommodation took The three main contentions of violent peat itself over and over and over again in thirty years of riots (1935-1968), when, af- struggles – labor, race, and war – all ex- the next 70 years. Can one really label the ter multiple cities were ravaged by minor hibited some minimal demands. In the first riots that happen in response part of a de- insurrections of mostly black proletarians, case, higher wages, better working condi- mand for equal rights? government in the late 60’s made new leg- tions, and a shorter working day. In the sec- islation to enforce equality in schools, em- ond, equal political rights, treatment, and In May 1970, the wave of student anti- ployment and public institutions. “Race ri- benefits in all economic and social spheres. war actions in the 60’s culminated after the ots”[2] of course existed before the Harlem And in the third case, an end to the War in shooting of 4 students at a Kent State Uni- uprising of 1935 (and continued after the Vietnam and a stopping of the Draft. Within versity protest. In response, 1350 universi- massive riots following MLK Jr.’s assassi- such a demand schema, it’s easy to reduce ties exploded in riots, including 4,350,000 nation in April ’68), but its modern char- all antagonistic phenomena of those peri- participants. 400 schools shut down. Police acter took form then, insofar as the riots ods to a certain structure: exploited group opened fire at Jackson State College on were initiated by black folks as a response X demands Y from institution Z. For ex- May 14th – killing 2 black students – and to a particular act of police violence (usu- ample, one can see the Rail strike of 1877, again in Lawrence, Kansas on July, kill- ally an arrest, beating, murder, or rumor of the Harlem riot of 1935, and the university ing 2 youths, sparking a wave of arson and murder), instead of initiated by white folks rebellions of May 1970 as equal forms of property destruction in response. All that as an attack on black and immigrant com- collective bargaining, which despite their just to stop a war thousands of miles away? munities who then defend themselves (the illegal means, are geared towards legal Atlanta Race Riot of 1906, for instance). ends. We think not. Rather, such demands are Hence, targets in the modern race riot are merely screens to interface between worlds property, police, and stores, and acts of What falls out in such an equation is the of rage and worlds of law, a force of the physical assault between white and black very content of the actions themselves, ac- subjective discontent of life under capital civilians and/or immigrants, such as oc- tions which go against their very ends, in against a force of the objective necessity curred in the Jim Crow era (1890-1914), turn overflowing their political forms and of capital subsuming life. Incommensu- are much less common, although still pres- becoming social. What occurs in these ri- rable in their content, they are equalized ent. ots, how do they begin, and end? and understood from the perspective of one side, that of law, as attempts to collectively Finally, the third major accommodation The rail strike of 1877 is one of the most express a will towards a particular change of demands took about ten years of riots violent in American history. After wages in law. They are not understood from the (1964-1972), after students, youth, and left were cut on July 1st, rail workers went on side of the practices themselves, perhaps radicals of all stripes occupied, smashed, strike in Baltimore, Ohio, and West Virgin- not even by those committing them. As burned, and fought cops at thousands of ia. On July 20, the army attacked the strik- goals, demands do not determine the type Universities across the country. Shortly ers, ending with 10 killed. The strike spread of struggles, actions, or events that we de- after the national riots following the Kent to New York, Newark, and Pittsburgh. The scribe here. For every demand mentioned State massacre on May 4th 1970, the gov- Philadelphia army attacked the Pittsburgh above can also be sought after by legal ernment began to incorporate anti-war dis- strikers, and the strikers attacked back, means. What makes these activities unique sidents into their debates, ultimately con- leaving 24 dead. In the end, 5 million dol- is the continually developing contradiction ceding to their demands by abolishing the lars of Pennsylvania Railroad property was between their form and content, the form as draft in 1973, and pulling out of Vietnam destroyed, including 104 locomotives, and the demand to someone for something, and completely by 1975. 2152 railroad cards. 3000 federal troops the content as rejecting anyone’s attempt to and thousands more militia came to restore accommodate anything. Since the anti-war protests of the 60’s, the peace. Riots broke out in Altoona, Reading, women’s liberation, gay liberation, Native Harrisburg, Scranton, Philadelphia, before ACCOMMODATION ACCELERATION American, anti-nuke, and anti-apartheid moving to Chicago, St. Louis, San Francis- movements have gone through similar rap- co, and Washington D.C. Not organized by The pace in which institutions of state and idly accelerating phases of riot—protest— any union, the strike spread along the rail capital accommodate the demands of these accommodation—reorganization. Some of lines themselves, with workers in various struggles accelerates rapidly. When a strug- these struggles never end, but once their occupations joining in where they could. gle’s demand is accommodated, the strug- particular demands are incorporated into All that over a wage increase? gle quickly shifts from an external conflict a general institutional structure in some between two opposed players to an internal form or another, the movement changes The Harlem riot of 1935 prefigures the conflict managed by one institution. The nature from one of opposition to one of race riots of the 60’s. A black boy was first major accommodation of demands competition. The pace has accelerated so caught shoplifting by white cops, and a mi- took sixty years of riots (1877-1934), when much recently that the dialectic between nor confrontation occurred. Rumors spread in the 1930’s government and capitalists destruction, demand, accommodation Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 17 and neutralization occurs within less and them. Truckers beat police and the “alli- bellion that carried the civil rights move- less time from after the first riot. With the ance”, wounding 67. On May 23rd and ment from1955-1965 with the lunch coun- American wing of the anti-globalization 24th, six thousand auto workers on strike in ter sit-ins, as well as the student anti-war movement kicking off in Seattle ’99, it Toledo fought police, the company security actions of 1964-1972 with their sit-ins, oc- took less than a decade, as the IMF, World and the National Guard, eventually forcing cupations and traffic blockades. The refine- Bank and WTO all but collapsed or had to them all to retreat, but not before two strik- ment of such tactics developed rapidly in completely reorganize their language and ers were killed. On May 9th, longshoremen the ecological struggles of the 70’s and 80’s agenda to integrate the force of global as- all along the West Coast went on a mas- over nuclear power, old growth forests, wa- saults and physical critiques they received. sive strike, but it wasn’t until July 3rd in ter, pollution, and coal. Three main groups With the immigrant protests of May ’06, it San Francisco that violent confrontations accomplished this: the Clamshell Alliance took less than a year, as politicians quickly between police and proletarians emerged. of New England, the Abalone Alliance of reorganized their agenda to pass new laws The generalized strike peaked when police the West Coast, and the Livermore Action (or rather, to make laws that never pass). killed two on “Bloody Thursday,” wound- Group. With the Oakland riots of January ’09, it ing 115 as well. took a week. In August 1976, the Clamshell Alliance With the depression raging, workers turn- occupied Seabrook nuclear construc- When one focuses on the presence or ing to more and more desperate methods tion site, twice. The first ending in 18 ar- absence of demands as the criteria for dis- of destruction[3], and police, Pinkertons, rests, the second with 180. After almost a cerning revolutionary from reformist strug- and national guardsmen racking up casual- year of trainings and preparation, in April gle, one ignores the relations and meanings ties daily, the state as well as many larger 1977, the Clamshell Alliance went back internal to the activities of the struggles capitalists began to concede, allowing the with 2400 people, ending with 1400 be- themselves. Demands are getting accom- formation of unions in certain industries, ing arrested. No violence was committed. modated quicker, but revolution is in no guaranteeing lesser hours and better con- Inspired by the Clamshell Alliance, the way closer now than ever before. ditions, and even a minimum wage. At Abalone Alliance on the West Coast tried the same time, workers’ methods began to occupy the Diablo plant in August of METHODS to move away from generalized rampage ’77. It didn’t work, but four years later and towards the Sit-Down, the model act in 1981 they returned, occupying the site The two grand styles of American counter- of symbolic revolt whose creation shifted for two weeks, blocking the plant, ending violence are the generalized riot and the American conflict from riot to ritual. In with 1900 arrests. On Mother Day 1982, specialized tactic. The core elements of the 1936, there were 48 factory sit-downs in- the Livermore Action Group shut down former are looting, arson, property damage volving 87,817 workers, 477 in 1937 in- the production of nuclear weapons at the and physical assault; its participants are volving 398,117 workers, and 52 in 1938 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proletarians and subproletarians. The ele- involving 28,749 workers. These sit-downs outside San Francisco when women armed ments of the latter are picket lines, march- were intentionally non-provocative, yet with teddy bears sat down in front of traf- es, sit-ins and traffic blockades; its partici- they would defend themselves if attacked fic, as four women chained themselves to pants are usually a minority group trained or prevented. This in fact occurred in Flint, the gate. In March 1983, the group hiked in such measures. Michigan, January 1937, when guards through backwoods to occupy Vanderberg stopped union men from delivering food Air Force Base before 777 of them were Prior to the 1930’s, these two forms of to their striking comrades inside the GM arrested. activity were indistinguishable in the main factory. In response, workers locked the conflict of the era, that between capital guards in a washroom, police fired tear gas These three groups, along with the count- and labor, in which strikes were also ri- at the workers, and workers sent the tear less other environmental groups to emerge ots, marches were battles, and sit-ins and gas back. After 14 injuries, the officers in the 80’s, formalized the already special- blockades were nothing but the defense withdrew in what’s known joyfully as the ized tactics of the 30’s labor sit-downs, and creation of barricades. After sixty “Battle of Running Bulls.” 50’s and 60’s civil rights sit-ins, and 70’s years of intense class war (1877-1934), in student occupations into a science, with its which each strike left bodies on both sides, In the ‘30s, as capitalists and government own jargon, methods, principles, and val- changes in both tactics and strategy were accommodated labor’s minimal demands, ues. Rebaptizing riots as “nonviolent direct adopted, changes that reflected shifts in the proletarian revolt shifted to specialized tac- action”, mobs with grievances to avenge relation between capital and proletariat, tics, and capitalism began its turn towards now became “protestors” with “rights” to and between the state and its subjects. complete, regulated commodity produc- “express.” The peaceful arrest was the ul- tion of all goods and activities constituting timate end point, the lock-down became In 1934, the United States was on the daily life for not only the bourgeoisie, but central, and pacifism dominated the ethical brink of anarchy. Wild, bloody strikes the working-class as well. In the 30’s, the norm. Both government and protestors fi- swept through Minneapolis, Toledo, and separation of demand from destruction was nally had a common language to speak, a San Francisco. On May 21st and 22nd, enacted for the first time. As specialization shared framework with rules and boundar- Minneapolis truckers on strike stopped all became the norm in the workplace, so it ies to act within. Earth and Animal Libera- deliveries, and in response, police and a was in the struggle as well. This separation tion movements of the 90’s and 00’s took newly formed “citizens alliance” attacked set the stage for the forms of ritualized re- the same structure – formalized actions— Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 18 yet inverted the elements: from public to St. Louis, Missouri in October 1977 and 1000 blacks were arrested. In July of 1992, clandestine, lock-down to escape, pacifism March 1978 respectively, and the infamous a policeman shot an unarmed Dominican to arson. Greensboro massacre of Nov 3rd, 1970 man in New York City, and 1000 people when the Klan and Neo-Nazi party killed 4 responded in force by overturning cars, The Rodney King riots of 1992 in Los protestors in the Communist Workers Party smashing windows, littering the streets, Angeles (and San Diego, San Francisco, organized march. On the other hand, the burning three building and blocking traf- Oakland, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Las ghetto riot of the 60’s resurfaced numer- fic on the GW bridge. The Howards Beach, Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, ous times: Elizabeth, New Jersey 1975, Bensonhurst and Brooklyn riots start a little Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoe- Miami 1980, ’82, ’84 and ’89, Howard’s differently, with white youth intentionally nix, St. Louis, Washington DC, and Toron- Beach, Queens 1986, Bensonhurst, Brook- killing black youth, and a Hasidic Jew un- to) explodes this logic of separation. With- lyn 1989, Washington DC 1991, Brooklyn intentionally running over a West Indian out specialization, these contagious events 1991, Manhattan 1992. man. In all cases, the race war form of riot seemed to herald the return of the “race reemerged, with direct assaults between riot”, physical assault, generalized loot- All have a similar story: a policeman or whites and blacks, Hasids and West Indi- ing, arson and mass property destruction. white racist shoots someone – Black, Cu- ans, Koreans and African-Americans. Yet none of these forms really ended in the ban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Korean, 60’s, they just became more and more sepa- Vietnamese – and the ethnic or racial And what about the blackout riots of rated from general social upheaval, pushed community to which that person belong ’77 in NYC, the Detroit devils nights, the into “special interest” boxes. There were responds through immediate arson, prop- Tompkins Square Park Riots of ’88, the dozens of so-called race riots from 1970- erty destruction, and looting. After four Chicago Bulls riots, not to mention all the 1992. On the one hand, the pre-civil rights policemen charged with shooting an un- sports riots in Michigan, Milwaukee, and style race wars were resurrected by KKK/ armed black man were acquitted by an all Pittsburgh? All of this goes to show that the neo-nazi/white racist types against black white Tampa jury, Miami was covered in form of generalized rioting characteristic and brown folks, especially between 1976 blood and smoke for three days from May of “race riots” never disappeared, but con- and 1979 in the South: Boston Bussing at- 17th to 19th, 1980. Three white folks were stantly reasserted itself from the ‘70s-’90s, tacks between 1974-1976, KKK clashes in beaten to death, while police and National albeit in much more isolated, fragmented, Columbus, Ohio and Mobile, Alabama in Guardsmen killed eleven black folks. 3600 and partial ways. It was not until Los Ange- ’77, Neo-Nazi battles in San Jose, CA and National Guard were called in to help, and les of ’92 that generalized rioting become

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 19 cohesive again within a national and social own bodies become the means by which movement of 64 through the Days of Rage atmosphere of refusal, which allowed for they engage in conflict, and in the second in 69 — all end on the brink of civil war. the rebellion to transcend the previous lim- is that the conflict only emerges in relation Once that possibility is breached, demands its of conflict, that is, the limit of demands. to an act of racist violence from police or — whether real or not — are brought in others. From 1992 to the present, property to adjudicate, accommodate and pacify MEDIATION destruction reemerges, but differently than the populace. It is no coincidence that an before. On the one hand as specialized (po- American situationist group from Berkeley Between 1877 and 1934, proletarians litical riots) and on the other as generalized in 1972 called “For Ourselves” could write (mostly white and immigrant) sought to (‘race riots’). But both of these tend to blur a theoretical statement with the subtitle, attack capital directly (their boss, factory, during the dotcom and housing bubble eras “On the Practical Necessity of Demanding means of production) but were constantly of the ‘90s and ‘00s. In Miami, LA, Se- Everything.” That framework was finally mediated and blocked by different state attle, Cincinnati, Michigan and Oakland, shattered in the Los Angeles rebellion of ’92 sanctioned agencies of legitimate violence the target is once again capital, but now the when it was realized that there is no longer (police, Pinkertons, national guard, army). attempt to negate it is mediated by capital anyone to “demand everything” from. As In other words, workers wanting to destroy itself in one of its forms, property. To de- “For Ourselves” was theorizing the content capitalists fought police in their place. Be- stroy capital as such, capital as property of the last decade of revolts as the necessity tween 1934 and 1968, a new situation aris- is attacked (as opposed to capital as com- of demanding everything without regard es. Subproletarians and proletarians (most- modities, money, or labor). The state medi- to any specific practice, the Clamshell al- ly black), sought to attack the state directly ates this when it can (defending summits, liance was theorizing the content of the last (as police) but were constantly mediated by sending in the National Guard), but it also decades of civil disobedience as the neces- capital (as property). In other words, blacks retreats a bit, leaving capital to take care of sity of demanding something by means of wanting to fight police accomplished it by itself. That is, the bait of property destruc- very particular “nonviolent direct action” means of property destruction instead of tion lures individuals into isolated illegal techniques. direct confrontation (with exceptions). In activity which capital can recover from the first case, the state mediates the an- while the state can make examples out of Besides modern race-class riots, the anti- tagonistic relation between capital and la- those it captures. globalization movement has inherited this bor; in the second case, capital mediates dual legacy, leading to the contradictory the antagonistic relation between the state As demands progressed from specific is- movement of those who demand every- and labor. The student and anti-war actions sues to general refusal, rioting regressed thing (as they continue the legacy of the signify the attempt to attack the state and from a geneneralized activity to a special- Sit-downs of the 30’s) working side-by- capital together, but mediating it through ized practice. Since the civil war, the nature side with those who demand nothing (as the structure which prepares the transition of demands has transformed from localized they continue the legacy of class violence to selling oneself as labor: the University. to total within the content of particular in the 20th century and the ghetto riots In other words, the crucible of future labor struggles themselves. Revolts over work of the ‘60s). The difference is that such becomes a site of struggle, which is then — from the massive rail strike of 1877, generalized violence is now also done by further policed. through the Pullman and Homestead riots specialists, black block anarchists, and the of the 1880’s and 90s, to the Battle of Blair specialized tactics of non-violent direct ac- Now, from 1970-1992, the nonviolent di- Mountain in the 1920s — revolts over ra- tion have become more and more accepted rect action trend solidifies and isolated race cial exploitation — from the Harlem riots as the general means for engaging in social riots continue to occur. Both are mediated of 1935 to the MLK Jr. riots of 1968 — and conflict. The generalization of demands by their own limits: the first is that their revolts over war — from the Free Speech and the specialization of practice leads us to the impasse of the present, which cannot of 1863 when class revolt turned to race war. be overcome without breaking with the forms So how can one overcome this danger? By and content of revolt as we inherit them, with maintaining principles of friendship and trust, and without demands. to ground the anarchy of pure action in the commune of shared needs. But what grounds DEMANDING SOMETHING, EVERYTHING, NOTHING the commune? Action, and its legacy. The his- tory of acts is the only “product” created – a Struggles with insurrectionary content in the narrative of a whole, directed, consistent life. United States have progressed from demand- ing something (1880s-1940s), through de- A struggle without demands is a strike at the manding everything (1960’s-1970’s) to de- level of language. By refusing the accepted manding nothing (1992-present). Each new form of presenting disagreements, the mean- phase is marked by the lasting contradictions ing and justification of the action becomes of the previous one, insofar as no period is internal to its presentation. But not as imme- completely “new,” rather it only makes sepa- diately “symbolic” or “gestural”, rather it is rate and dominant a certain tendency hitherto mediated by all those things which make up indistinct in the previous mode of struggle. alienated life: commodities, property, police, When uprisings in Philadelphia ’64, Rochester money, labor. The critique of existing society ’64, Watts ’65, Newark ’67, Detroit ’67, Buf- becomes not a verbal cry for a better world but falo ’67, everywhere ’68, Berkeley ’69, Chi- a mute rejection of the entirety of this one, only cago ’69 and hundreds of others cities demand recognized by the cohesive movement and re- a change in the totality of existing conditions, lation of acts of practical negation of all those they are only theorizing the implications of the dominant mediations making up one’s nonlife. generalized strikes and riots of proletarians in After a battle in the social war subsides, only the last decades of the 19th century and the the ruins left behind can tell its story. first decades of the 20th. When rioters in LA ’92, St. Petersburg ’96, Seattle ’99, Cincinnati The refusal to demand allows for the abstrac- ’01, Toledo ’03, Benton Harbor ’05, New Or- tion of capital to reveal itself, no longer cov- leans ’05, St. Paul ’08 or Oakland ’09 dur- ered up in the mysticism of word-games, i.e., ing the last two decades act with the intensity we are fighting for right x because of need y and coordination of ‘60s rioters, but without based on condition z. That structure will never the general national atmosphere of rebellion, challenge the basis of the needs and condi- and without wanting anything at all from their tions themselves. The undemanding struggle targets and enemies, then they are only con- is not for anything, it is a position, a stance, ceptualizing in deed the concrete failure of a risk to become a subject of one’s own ac- every institutional attempt to “change every- tivity; until then, we are nothing but objects thing.” Against abstract demand, even the de- of capital, things moved around to work, vote, mand to end all demands, they are acting on and reproduce. Capital is personified in our ac- the basis of a concrete rejection of demands tions (work, consume, repeat), and the state is as such. This practical shift relocates the pow- personified in our words (rights, justice, free- er to make history from those who reconcile dom). To refuse both personifications means conflicts to those who make them irreconcil- to destroy the form of Man which capital and able. The present comprehension of history is state need for their reality, that form is the pro- enacted in the forms through which struggles letariat and the citizen, the worker and the ac- take place today, and those forms are domi- tivist, the entrepreneur and the poet. The com- nated by a demandless consistency of social plete negation of Man as he exists under any acts of violence against capital in all its mani- and every category granted by class society is festations. the ultimate goal of communism, and this can- not be demanded. It can only be accomplished. What are the ethics of demandless struggles? They are not based on a desired object or end, The demand is a tool for self-organization. they can’t be judged based on calculation or It unifies separated individuals against a com- utilitarian value. Rather, their strength comes mon enemy toward a common good. It is the from their basis in the act itself, the deed ir- unification of the exploited based upon a com- respective of calculation, interest, or gain; it is mon enunciation, “We want X”. The demand the privileging of the activity over the product. becomes a self-mediation, a self-constitution The danger with this anti-moralist ethic of pure of the undifferentiated masses into a singular action is that it can easily cross boundaries of one, a subject who demands. Demands, in oth- disciplined violence, such as in the Draft Riot ers words, are processes of subjectification. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 21 Individuals act as class, and in that class rather it’s the essence upon which they’re action they become subjects and no longer united. If the struggle and the demand merely objects of capital. first unify people who aren’t unified, then the next step is to destroy the basis of that The problem is that the class of those ex- unity in a way that allows for a new unity ploited by a common structure of domi- unpoisoned by the centrality of the capital- nation is unified on the very basis of that relation. In other words, one destroys what domination, on the very basis of the capital- the demand unifies, our abstract identity, ist relation. All the diverse appearances of the unity of a class, the unity of an identity. one’s fragmented life cohere around a uni- “The process of revolution is that of the ab- fied essence – the identity of the exploited olition of what is self-organisable.” (Theo- as worker, as student, as oppressed. This rie Communiste). The conditions for a real identity is crafted in struggle, and becomes unification will arise through the overcom- the basis for a community. The community ing of thisdemands negative to revolution, form of therecommunity, can a can outlast the struggle for a particular de- form bornonly through be a rupture, the demand a qualitative struggle, leap. and mand, or not. The difference and diversity carried beyondBut this ruptureit by the isn’t demandless a miracle.” (TC) one. of those living under capital is not the issue, Communism or “From struggles over im- But this IT IS A anarchy is the mediate demands to revo- rupture abolition of rela- lution, there can only be a isn’t a DEMAND tions of capital in rupture, a qualitative leap. miracle.” UPON US. life through the (TC) rupture with the rupture that re- veals them—this second rupture is determinate, a new configuration of which we can only speak in the language of po- tentiality: activity without work, life without value, people with- out things, time without measure, social without society.

FOOTNOTES only label them “race riots” town for two hours and dy- to distinguish them from the namited two factories oper- [1] With the exception of earlier class riots of the cen- ated by Tobacco Trust, de- the Detroit riot of June 20- tury. For a practical analysis stroying 400,000 pounds of 22, 1943, the last of the clas- of a supposed “race riot”, tobacco. sic Jim Crow riots, which see the article “LA ‘92: The was predominantly whites Context of a Proletarian Up- attacking blacks (killing 25) rising” in the first issue of and blacks defending them- the journal Aufheben. selves (killing 9) [3] For example, on Decem- [2] We put “race riot” in ber 1st 1906, 250 masked quotes because every race men rode into Princeton, riot is a class riot, and we Kentucky, occupied the

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-We Demand Nothing-P. 22 A STATEMENT: Yorkers but he was a divine prophet to the rural Midwest. Obama is the al- leged proof that the “disenfranchised” peoples of the United States will have a chance to work with the status quo—or n the Western world, there is more literally, to provide compensated a cultural war going on: MSNBC and labor for it. Obama represents the liber- IFOX News, Democrat and Republican, al idea of an “open-minded nation” and Prius and SUV driver, Jon Stewart and he has nourished the failures of govern- Sean Hannity, liberal and conserva- ment and capitalism that became more tive—these are some of the popular apparent during the Bush years. He has manifestations. There is a cultural war achieved this particular type of political going on within a political framework deception by representing something of intellectual restrictions approbated that looks different and felt new at first by the current establishment as stan- during the dreariest days of the econom- dards. It is interesting to look at the way ic crisis. But most people are still poor, oppositional poles holding up the same are still not satisfied, and will never political framework communicate. Un- meet or hang out with Bush or Obama. like the fear-of-God-driven conserva- from the undecided tive population, the liberal in society In the world of political debate, the seems to be graced with the pretension conservatives’ ability to convince has of their own grandiose morality. While generally been a bit weak in the intel- conservatives are a bit more noticeable lectual sense. It is not due to lack of in- in why they say what they say, vote tellect though, it is that their arguments how they vote, or do whatever it is that are based on paranoiac points. Conser- makes them recognizable as “conser- vative arguments are usually spread by vative”—by being openly racist, ho- generating fear. Conservatives claim mophobic, xenophobic, Christian, or that “blacks rob white people,” “His- a partisan of the grassroots policing of panics take jobs,” “women lie about superficial social divisions—the liberal rape” and if homosexual romance is to seems to hold stoically in their opinions be accepted by a nation that they are or politics due to so-and-so education part of, then they will go to hell. Like or any other delusional idea of being a virgin clinging to their first fuck, the politically compassionate or intellectu- conservative desperately looks to retain ally informed. Both sides are the fabric tradition or a status quo that is inher- and fabrications of the central political ently racist, sexist, classist, xenopho- and economic institutions in our soci- bic, and just generally alienating. But it ety. They look to manipulate the same is the same status quo that democrats, central forces in society but not destroy progressives and liberals look to “re- them. They’re really not so different at form”—to make more organic, “moral” all, just their aesthetics are. or open-minded—but never really chal- lenge or do away with entirely. Liber- In the last ten years especially, this als have a self-satisfied smile that wins cultural war has become more appar- every debate. They project the idea with ent. Whether it was the post-9/11 ter- the idea of being informed, while con- ror delivered by the media or the new demning the opposition’s perspective wave of American nationalism that fol- as ignorant.[1] They went to school and lowed, the bickering has become more read about some atrocity that happened and more severe. Bush and Obama to some group of people in some part of represent the aesthetics of seemingly the world that’s more messed up; they different political campaigns. Bush is a learn about it from a distance, and are Texan. He sounded like an idiot to New

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-A Statement from the Undecided-Pg. 23 “IS IT THAT MOST PEOPLE CAN’T CHOOSE, OR MOST PEOPLE DON’T LIKE THE OPTIONS?”

THE BUFFET OF POLITICS IS ROTTEN, ITS TIME TO START LOOKING INTO OTHER OPTIONS.

disconnected from it, and only look to tion, the media refers to this popula- Would conservatives still hate Mexi- nourish an individual feeling of guilt tion as “the undecided,” clearly imply- cans or would urban liberals still hate and pity by not challenging the politi- ing that they just can’t choose between rural accents? Considering there is no cal spectrum of society, but by trying the two parties, and think nothing of real place for either way of thinking to make it “better,” which is the al- their lack of desire for the available that is independent of a coercive and leged distinction of liberals and con- choices. Whether “the undecided” got dominating political system, would servatives right? Conservatives try to tired of seeing some redneck Christian there be the liberal or conservative at keep it the same, liberals try to make dude on television constantly, or ex- all? it better? Social expansion and devel- cited by ‘the uniqueness’ of Obama’s opment must be a polite task for the skin or Sarah Palin’s genitalia, or in Is it that most people can’t choose, or liberal politician. With this said, in some way or another fell into the trap most people don’t like the options? some ways we give credit to the con- of a false newness, the 2008 presiden- servative voice for being so abrasive, tial election brought out more then The buffet of politics is rotten, its time at least the intentions are incredibly 130 million people or 64 percent of to start looking into other options. more tranquil then those of the liberal. the electorate to vote. In less publicly But when it comes down to it both are desperate economic or political times FOOTNOTES fabrications of the same system. Both most people don’t vote. With a popula- provide identities and feelings of pur- tion of over 250 million on the books, [1] To call someone ignorant, or as- pose and power for millions of people, it is interesting to look at the lack of in- sume that because their opinion is dif- deceiving those controlled and setting terest most people have in voting, even ferent it is not informed, is a gesture new precedents for social division during desperate times where we feel a of hyper-arrogance. It also means you amongst the dominated in the modern need to claim our false sense of power are refusing to recognize a community world. handed to us by society. It’s also inter- or individual as accountable for their esting to realize that many can’t vote, views. This word has been used to ra- Liberal arrogance or reactionary con- many don’t have time to vote, many tionalize tolerance for racism, sexism, servatism, what else is there? At least don’t know how to register, many have classism, and similar social inequities in the United States, these are our only warrants, many evade taxes, many are that divide our humanity. It is a word choices, our only opportunities to per- felons, many cannot deal with jury of the college educated liberal who has suade or have any so- called political duty. If there was a severe crisis in the decided that the world is not wrong, power. Looking away from the obvi- United States, where the sense of an it is just not informed the way he is. ous independents or autonomous po- American stability was actually threat- What is it to be informed? Why is it litical groups both left and right for a ened, where would the undecided go? that one is informed and one is not? second, we have the undecided. The If liberalism and conservatism no lon- What type of education is most impor- liberals call them ‘fence riders,’ the ger had the basis for its alleged signifi- tant, experience or classroom, school conservatives ignore them out of fear cance as it does now, how would we or life? Who determines the standard of losing votes, but they are most of decide, collectively? What would our of informed, and who determines that us. Until the recent economic crisis, issues be if we didn’t have the news they are right? Why neglect people of most people didn’t vote. Every elec- and government to inform us of them? their accountability? Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-A Statement from the Undecided-Pg. 24 ESCAPISM

.~ HAS ITS “HE’S AL- READY TWO PRICE HOURS LATE.” t’s difficult not to soften and “AH, BUT YOU melt under the charm of artists and to Inot envy them in a society founded on KNOW HE’S THE AN ARTIST, forbiddance and the threat of jail. Cer- AND ART- tain manners of behavior which no one ARTIST ISTS...” else can get away with are permitted to “OH THOSE the artist. HAS HIS ARTISTS...” “THAT’S THE The supposed madness of a Salvador INCOME WAY THEY Dalí would gain you hospitalization ARE, THESE without your consent in the dungeons ARTISTS.” of psychiatry. And whereas not pro- ducing anything useful, through work, for this utilitarian society would bring you only misery, harassment by the social services and getting considered “guilty”, artists are allowed by society to loaf around despite their (at times profitable) unproductivity. While your rent rises until you can no longer pay it, the artist finds himself favoured by the authorities to take your place.

Let’s be clear, the artist is privileged, he belongs to a special caste: he holds the monopoly of creativity and origi- nality, desire and creation belong to her. So no need to create: the artists will see to it according to the same pro- cess as the one which consists in leav- ing the thinking to the philosophers or history to those who govern us; they thus dispossess us of our own lives.

In relation to capital, the mission of the artist is to enrich it, and - while he’s at it - to make himself richer in order to take on his role of consumer, rein- jecting his wealth. The artist de facto finds his place in consumer society, his integration into the system is an obvi- ous fact. Even though the show busi- ness often likes to pass off our dear artists as rebels, this only strengthens the system a bit more; their vices are permitted to grow until feigning criti- cism towards the system, only to even- tually fortify it through a powerful sys- tematic return of normality. It’s with the show business that the artist finds himself given the most value, socially at least. Indeed, who upon hearing the

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Escapism has its price, The Artist has his Income-Pg. 25 word “Culture” doesn’t draw his wallet reflection not of the impotence of the allows him to exist and which he keeps straight away? citizens but rather of their desire for im- alive. A very special ecosystem: agents, potence. Stuck in his small comfort, all press attachés, art directors, marketing “Making money is art and work- the honest citizen can now do is listen to agents, critics, collectors, patrons, art ing is art and good business is his great Léo, his little Manu Chao, his gallery managers, cultural mediators, the best art.”-Andy Warhol red Ferrat, all he can do is send ten euros consumers... birds of prey sponge off to the soup kitchens after his favorite po- artists in the joyous horror of showbiz. Escapism has its price and the artist has litically committed artist has commanded A scene with its codes, norms, outcasts, his income. And it’s always easier to es- him to do so. favourites, ministry, exploiters and ex- cape this endless social war than to ac- ploited, profiteers and admirers. A scene tively contribute to it. Exploited by mon- The humanitarian artist who shows his which has the monopoly on good taste, ey in favour of social peace, the artist can dirty mug next to some African children exerting aesthetic terrorism upon all that then go to sell his support for a candidate weighing less than his wallet, he’s the which is not profitable, or upon all that in the elections, for a brand which suits one who, easing his conscience, enables which doesn’t come from a very specific him so well, for the progress cult or for his “fans” to ease theirs by proxy; and mentality within which subversion must humanitarian wars. For each of progress’, this - always according to the same pat- only be superficial, of course at the risk of the state’s or of capital’s lost causes: its terns which delimit the various stages of of subverting. A milieu which is named own appointed artist, its “sponsor of the democracy - like with the elections. If Culture. Each regime has its official cause”. Art, when it is not only the Sun- in order to rebel it’s enough to listen to art just as each regime has its Entartete day leisure of the bourgeois classes, is the a “left-wing” CD, to read a poem which Kuntz (1). It could be thought that to earn best consolation for human misery; rein- glorifies Aragon’s Style, to watch a Ken money in the artistic circles it is neces- forcements for the social peace. Alfred de Loach social film so as to live the strug- sary to have talent, but that to spend it one Musset said that “an unhappy population gle by proxy or if it’s enough to quote only needs culture; and culture is a huge creates great artists”; in society unhappi- a situationist jingle so as to shine in the money machine, the bottomless well of ness is treated with blows of Prozac. pantheon of enlightened extreme left- the human stupidity and of its capacity to ism: then the authorities need not worry worship, admire, to run on charisma or to The artists labeled as “politically com- ever again. Politically committed art is an follow leaders, be they political, social or mitted” serve to give relief to the con- anti-rebellion anesthetic, the good left- cultural. sciences of the few left-wing citizens. A wing citizen’s chloroform which removes Léo Ferre diatribe against prisons, felt guilty feelings. -Social Warhol and partaken by the listener, gives the jus- tification for apathy. The tyranny of dem- “The artist must love life and FOOTNOTES ocratic opinion has succeeded in making show us that it is beautiful. its citizens believe that to have an opinion Without him we would be in [1] In German: “Degenerate art” - official it is enough to express an idea, and that, doubt.” -Anatole France position adopted by the Nazi regime to in the performative style, the opinion has forbid selfless/disinterested creativity, in the value of a social transformation: the The artist is also the mainstay of a whole favour of an official art: the heroic art. politically committed artist is the media social milieu - called a “scene” - which

This is the Eng- There has only lish translation been a few Eng- of an article lish translations that originally of content from appeared in the this publication, French anar- but you can see chist periodical: more from this “Non Fides”. publication at:

www.non-fides.fr ---

21l 2 01 •

IN TROUBLEPRISONER + LEGAL UPDATES

STATE ATTEMPTS TO CONTAIN, CONSTRAIN, AND SILENCE.

faces a third-degree gross misdemeanor of 3 FACE NEW aiding and abetting and two misdemean- RNC DEFENDANT CHARGES 9 ors for obstructing the legal process and JESSE JAMES possession of a dangerous article. Slavin MONTHS AFTER also participated in that group, and he was FORREY SEN- struck by an officer’s marking round, simi- THE RNC, OTH- lar to a paint gun. That mark later led po- TENCED TO 4 lice to identify Slavin. They searched him ERS SENTENCED. and found a wrist-braced slingshot and MONTHS steel balls. Police then discovered a van Jason A. Falk, 20, of Eagan, faces a mis- registered under Slavin’s name contained Jesse for the past year has been forced to demeanor charge of possession of an as- gas masks, wrist rockets, sling shots, fire- live in Minneapolis awaiting trial away sault weapon after police found a sheathed works, stun guns, spray paint and pipes cut from his friends and family in Santa Cruz, knife in his backpack on Sept. 4, the con- with sharp ends. CA. In August 2009, Jesse was convicted vention’s last day. Police searched Falk of criminal damage to property in the first because officers considered him a suspect In other news from the Twin Cities, Dan- degree, though he maintains his innocence; in property damage that occurred during iel L. Bono, 22, of DeKalb, Ill., will serve Jesse was sentenced to 4 months in prison. demonstrations at the convention. 30 days in the Ramsey County workhouse He he was found guilty of allegedly break- for fleeing police when an officer tried to ing the US Bank windows at 332 Minneso- Matthew M. Connell, 30, of Minneapolis, arrest him on suspicion of committing fel- ta St. in St. Paul, Minnesota, on the Repub- faces a gross misdemeanor of third-degree ony damage to property, and also received lican National Convention’s first day back aiding and abetting a riot. On Sept. 1, Con- up to five years’ probation. in September 2008. The broken windows nell participated in a group that threw plas- caused $17,405 in damages. tic bags of fecal matter, rocks, lit fireworks FOR MORE INFORMATION: and liquid-filled Mason jars at officers, ac- http://rnc08arrestees.wordpress.com/ Jesse is a friend, a brother, a musician and cording to a criminal complaint. artist, writer and student, teacher and dog lover. He spends his time helping raise the John W. Slavin, 29, of West Lafayette, Ind., children in his life, playing the banjo, tak-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 27 ing and offering community classes, and empowered, if we can take even a day off DONATING VIA MAIL, INFORMA- volunteering his time to help create healthy of a friend’s jail sentence, then we should TION ON HIS CASE, OR OTHER communities. He is from California and any way we can. 5 months off is even bet- WAYS TO SUPPORT HIM CON- courageously awaits to return to his home ter! TACT OR VISIT: and family. [email protected] We were all nervous, sad, and scared be- 3924 Elliot Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55407 This is not over yet. Jesse’s lawyer is look- fore the sentencing. We couldn’t all fit into www.supportjessejames.wordpress.com ing into grounds for appeal. And there are the courtroom, and the intimidating sherr- things you can do right now to try and af- ifs, in uniform and plainclothes, took up all fect Jesse’s sentencing. We cannot change the standing room and rudely tried to stop KATYANNE MARIE what has happened, but we can support Jes- us from entering. The weeks leading up to se and let him know that he is cared about this have been stressful and emotional, and KIBBY ACCUSED and loved. it seemed that our tension was coming to a OF THREATENING head. But after hearing the sentence, many FROM JESSE’S SUPPORT GROUP of us felt a weight lifted. Even though our INFORMANT FOLLOWING HIS SENTENCING dear friend is sitting in that terrible place, ON SEPTEMBER 17TH: surrounded by unsympathetic guardians of Brian Darby, known as an activist who co- law and order, we know he’s on his way founded the Common Ground Collective “Today, Jesse was sentenced to 120 days home. The sentence was much less than in New Orleans, turned federal informant in jail by Judge Flynn. What this means in we expected and were trying to prepare in November of 2007. Because of his ef- Minnesota is that he should get 1/3 of his ourselves for. By no mean is this judicial forts, Bradley Neal Crowder and David sentence off for good behavior, and 5 more stifling of our lives acceptable, but at least Guy McKay were accused and convicted days off for credit from when he was ar- we know that Jesse will soon be free. of making a few Molotov’s and bringing rested last year, for a total of 75 days in jail. them to the RNC. So our educated guess is that he’ll be free Jesse called us this late afternoon, and on December 2nd. We’ll keep you posted, while disappointed not to be with his friends Now, another Texan, Kibby, is facing of course. and family, he seems to be doing well. He a maximum of 20 years in prison and a is still in the downtown Ramsey County $250,000 fine for allegedly threatening the During the sentencing, Richard Duster- Jail, which is different than his final des- life of the snitch in an email. hoft, the Prosecutor, argued for 6 months tination, the Ramsey County Correctional in jail and just over $10,000 in restitu- Facility, a.k.a. the Workhouse. He says he FOR MORE INFORMATION: tion. Jesse’s attorney asked for at most should be transported there tomorrow, so if http://brandondarby.com/ 60 days in jail. Jesse spoke eloquently on you want to send him letters as soon as you http://www.freethetexas2.com/ his own behalf. He mentioned how much can, he should get to the jail before your he’s learned and changed in the past year, letter does. Letters are immensely impor- how he wants to move on in his life and tant to prisoners, to combat isolation and 4 SENTENCED do what’s really important to him: spend stay engaged with the world and your loved time with the children in his life, his ones. Send him letters soon and often! Use FOR RESISTANCE friends and family, and return to his com- your common sense with what you write, munity. He said he’s already experienced don’t say anything that could get Jesse in ON MAY DAY ‘08 distance from his loved ones, isolation, and trouble. Photographs can be sent (but not IN WASHINGTON had time to contemplate the seriousness of polaroids), and photocopies are accepted, the situation, all things that imprisonment but avoid staples. Also, items with glue, On July 21st, 4 Puget Sound locals were is supposed to make you experience. The glitter, markers, or general things the jail sentenced for smashing bank windows, “ri- desire most strongly articulated was that of staff might find annoying won’t be accept- oting”, and thwarting the arrests of others returning home. ed. If they don’t accept mail it should be on May Day ’08 in Olympia, WA. placed in Jesse’s property and he’ll get it For the first time in our collective court upon his release. Bryan Riggins, a Tacoma-based Anarchist experience, Judge Flynn took a downward has begun his ridiculously long 73 day sen- departure from what the prosecution rec- HIS ADDRESS IS: tence (originally 120) as of Saturday 8/16 ommended. She originally planned on sen- Jesse Forrey at the Thurston County Jail. tencing him to 9 months, but it seem she 297 South Century Avenue was swayed by the massive amount of let- Maplewood, MN 55119 YOU CAN MAIL HIM LETTERS OF ters submitted in Jesse’s favor. Thank you SUPPORT AND SHIP HIM BOOKS DONATE VIA PAYPAL AT: so much to friends, family, and supporters TO: for your articulate and emotional letters! [email protected] They made all the difference. While ap- Bryan Riggins pealing to authority doesn’t leave us very FOR MORE INFORMATION ON c/o Thurston County Corrections Facility

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 28 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW We have no information on how to contact and Marine recruiters. It has been the site Olympia, WA 98502 or donate to these two individuals, and if of regular anti-war protests since the begin- you do, please contact Fire to the Prisons ning of the Iraq war in 2003. Shyam Khanna is serving his 30 days of so we can spread the word. work release, although he has no hours yet. Police released footage from a private se- curity camera showing a cyclist, wearing Stefanie has begun her 30 days of Home GRAND JURY* a backpack and a dark hooded sweatshirt, Electronic Monitoring interspersed with riding up to the Times Square military re- community service hours. She would ap- CONVENED IN cruiting station on March 6, 2008. The bi- preciate visits. If you know her but don’t NEW YORK CITY, cyclist is seen getting off a 10-speed bike know her address you can contact her at at 3:40 a.m., and the blast occurring three caradeplastico{at}gmail.com. INVESTIGA- minutes later. Police say they later found the bike in the trash. No one actually wit- Rand Hunt has started serving 45 days of TION OF TIMES nessed anyone placing or throwing the ex- Home Electronic Monitoring and may or plosive device. The explosion left a large may not have found a job. SQUARE BOMB- hole in the front window and shattered a glass door, twisting and blackening the If you want to buy books for, visit, or oth- ING CONTINUES metal frame of the building, which is on a erwise get involved/have questions, please traffic island. No one was injured. Police contact the point people (that’s the whole July 5, 2009 -- A Federal Grand Jury has closed off Times Square to vehicular and point after all). Shyam’s Point Person: convened in New York City, New York. It pedestrian traffic for two hours after the olekat10{at}evergreen.edu Bryan’s Point is believed this grand jury is part of a fed- bombing. Person: thefruitoflilith{at}gmail.com Ste- eral investigation into the bombing of the fanie’s Point Person: caradeplastico{at} Times Square military recruitment center Two previous attacks in New York City gmail.com on March 6, 2008. have had similarities to the bombing in Times Square. In October of 2007, two FOR MORE UPDATES ON THE To public knowledge, only one person, dummy hand grenades filled with black CASES: Gerald Koch, has been subpoenaed to tes- powder were tossed over a fence at the www.olyhackbloc.org/wordpress tify. Gerald has indicated his unwilling- Mexican Consulate on Manhattan’s East ness to cooperate with the unconstitutional Side, shattering some windows; police said grand jury proceedings and needs support. they believed someone on a bicycle threw SPITE IN OHIO He is facing jail time if the presiding judge the devices. At the time, police said they decides to punish his non-cooperation by were investigating whether it was con- Chris Hamrick and Justin Scealf are ac- detaining him for being “in contempt of nected to an attack with similar explosive cused of dousing a concession stand with court”. Detainment of this kind can con- devices at the British consulate on May 5, gasoline and then lighting it on fire the tinue until the grand jury expires (generally 2005. No one was arrested in either inci- night of May 31. These two, who are be- no more than 18 months total, though tech- dent. In the Times Square incident, police ing charged with fourth degree felonies for nically it can be restarted again) or until the suspect similar black powder was used but the arson, both have minor criminal records judge decides further imprisonment to co- it was placed in an ammunition box, some- for past incidents. They are being held in erce the detainee into cooperating is futile. thing widely available in Army-Navy sur- the Sheffield Lake City Jail and will be ar- plus stores. raigned Thursday in Avon Lake Municipal BACKGROUND Court. The police described the prisoners After the blast, New York Mayor Michael as “highly uncooperative individuals.” The Times Square military recruitment Bloomberg was quoted in the news as say- center is the nation’s busiest. It has set ing, “whoever the coward was that com- At Sheffield Lake, the police suspect these national records for enlistment, averaging mitted this disgraceful act on our city will two of being connected to a few other in- about 10,000 volunteers a year. The mili- be found and prosecuted to the full extent cidents that involve a June 11 arson at the tary has had a recruiting presence in Times of the law. We will not tolerate such at- same park as the concession stand, as well Square since the 1940s. The current ver- tacks.” His real agenda was revealed when as a string of anarchist themed vandalism sion of the station, built in September 1999 he added, “New York City is back and is involving slashed construction vehicle for $1.5 million, was designed to fit into the open for business... People are going about tires and spray painted city buildings and Times Square area. The 520-square-foot their business, shopping, working and vehicles. The artwork allegedly involves building is decorated with 33-by-14-foot sightseeing.” anarchy symbols, male genitalia, anti-war flags rendered in fluorescent lights anda slogans, anti-government slogans, and vul- giant, nine-panel television screen that ad- FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO garities. vertises military propaganda. The interior HELP EMAIL: contains space for Army, Navy, Air Force [email protected]

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 29 depleted, the prosecution can re-open the cles to the construction of I-69. What the *GRAND JURIES: case, making it so the individual can be State really fears are collective dinners held in contempt for another 18 months where many people can sit down together Witnesses appearing before a grand jury again, and the circle of repression can con- to begin, however awkwardly or painfully, have a right to an attorney, but the lawyer tinue and continue. making sense of a highway project that no must stay outside the room. layperson was ever meant to grasp. The What is especially unique about the grand State fears those moments when margin- The evidence is presented to the grand jury is that the individual is not always a alized young people like me, from the cit- jurors by the prosecuting attorney, but a suspect in the crime, and there is no need ies or suburbs and seemingly disillusioned judge is not present. So there’s no one to for any evidence against them. with everything, begin to break out of our raise an objection -- or to consider it. imposed and self-imposed isolation. They fear it when we begin talking with people Like trial juries, grand jury deliberations very different from ourselves, with farmers are conducted in secret. Only the grand OPEN LETTER and others, about the different and similar jury, the prosecutor, the witness under ex- FROM: ways I-69 will impact our lives. amination, the court reporter and an inter- preter (if one is required) may be present in HUGH FARREL It’s this potential for communication the grand jury room. that is under attack, that the police call a Hugh Farrell was arrested April 24, 2009, “racket.” When they say “conspiracy,” they But unlike a trial jury, a grand jury does along with Gina “Tiga” Wertz, on Corrupt mean our capacity to breathe together. not determine guilt or innocence -- only Business Influence/Racketeering charges whether there’s probable cause to believe for publicly organizing in opposition to This is specifically why I’m so grateful a person or persons committed a crime. the controversial I-69 superhighway. These to all of you, those of you who I know and Whereas a trial jury reaches a verdict on charges carry a maximum of 12 years in those I haven’t met yet: I’ve experienced whether the accused is convicted or ac- prison. Support is still needed, including this capacity more intensely now than I quitted, a grand jury can decide whether to funds, since less than a third of their total did before my arrest. Don’t misunderstand bring charges via a written indictment. estimated legal costs of $30,000 has been me, repression has already exacted a high raised so far. This is his first public state- cost. Being legally ensnared has cut off The federal grand jury hears evidence pre- ment since being arrested: many of my relationships, especially those sented by a federal prosecutor. The grand with people most socially distant from me jury has no investigative staff of its own, TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND COM- already, primarily because so much of my so it relies on the prosecutor’s information PANIONS: time is spent dealing with legal issues. This and expertise. The prosecutor shapes the is, of course, one of the goals of repression, case before the grand jury, deciding which In the eight weeks since our arrest, I’ve and is a problem I haven’t addressed yet. witnesses will be called and what evidence felt more overwhelmed by your solidar- Further, others have been subject to perse- to present. The grand jury may ask to call ity than by the State’s persecution. This is cution alongside myself - Tiga of course, additional witnesses if necessary. how it should be, and I often feel unable the 16 charged with actual blockades, Chad to express how grateful I am for the many Frazier who was sentenced to two months It is customary for the prosecutor to ques- different initiatives and fundraising efforts for I-69 resistance (and who is now out tion a witness first, followed by a grand that so many of you have undertaken since again!), and many others, farther away and jury foreperson. Then, other members of then. involved in “other” struggles but who are the grand jury may question the witness. caught up in similar dragnets, surveillance, Often the jurors will ask the prosecutor to During some moments of isolation, times and government harassment. ask a question, rather than asking them- when repression is so palpable I can barely selves. breathe, the actions of many have kept me Let me also address some personal legal strong and grounded: the letters, hugs, the updates. I’ve retained the services of law- A witness may ask to leave the room to intelligent and kind words that have been yers who I trust to handle the legal dimen- speak with their attorney but the lawyer said or circulated. Despite the efforts of sions of my case. As of three weeks ago, is at a disadvantage, having not heard the the authorities, I’ve remained a part of my Tiga has done the same, with a different proceedings. A witness may also invoke communities. firm. This means that the vast bulk of mon- the Fifth Amendment privilege against ey raised since we were bailed out has gone self-incrimination and refuse to answer a We shouldn’t forget that it’s these com- to legal expenses, a situation which will question, but a choice of silence by the in- munities, these relationships and connec- unfortunately remain the same for the next dividual in the case of a grand jury can lead tions, that are really under attack, and in months or years since these costs will con- to contempt of court. In the case of a grand an ever-more coordinated way. The State tinue to increase. More generally, my bail jury, the individual can be held for up to has created a red herring when it claims conditions haven’t been too onerous; that I 18 months or the amount of time the grand that theatrical office demonstrations or require permission from the court to leave jury can remain open without any new evi- civil disobedience are the biggest obsta- Indiana is the most challenging restriction, dence. Once the time of the grand jury is since it makes it that much more difficult to Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 30 see people I love. USA EMAIL CONTACT: There has been a nearly complete news [email protected] SUPPORT SITES FOR ALEX AND blackout on our case. So much so that I’ve BJ ARE: encountered people who believe that the DONATION VIA PAYPAL: www.supportbjandalex.com entire affair is just an Internet rumor or a [email protected] www.myspace.com/supportbjandalex plea for attention. Apparently, regarding www.supportvips.org the media, “that which appears is real, that MAIL PERSONAL CHECKS, which is real must appear.” This is an obvi- MONEY ORDERS, OR CASHIER’S ous departure from police strategy in other CHECKS TO: AETA 4 COURT comparable cases, where arrests and raids were accompanied by a frenzy of journal- tiga and hugh legal defense DATE DELAYED istic attention. In these situations, media c/o the future On February 19th and 20th, the FBI Joint saturation and scrutiny were deployed as p.o. box 3133 Terrorism Task Force arrested Adriana powerful weapons against the accused, so bloomington, in, 47402 we can assume that there are specific rea- Stumpo, 23; Nathan Pope, 26; Joseph Bud- denberg, 25; and Maryam Khajavi, 20 - 4 sons we’ve not suffered this, yet. Money Orders or Checks must be kept people it described as “terrorists”. Their blank. If people are uncomfortable with “terrorism” apparently consisted of writing Thus, I believe it’s important to counter this mention to write the email included as with chalk on a sidewalk, wearing bandan- this deliberate silence by calling attention the support email. to the case, especially its most embarrass- as while protesting, and distributing flyers ing elements. It’s possible to accomplish about animal research at UCSC. this in ways that cast a spotlight on repres- sion as it appears in the wider Green Scare ALLEGED ANIMAL There has been a heated campaign over and prison system generally, not just in our LIBERATIONISTS the past few years against experimentation case. And this could be accomplished with on live animals in the University of Cali- more creativity than just sending out press ON TRIAL HAVE fornia system which has seen sabotage as releases. well as demonstrations against vivisectors. BAIL REVOKED The state response has already seen feder- It’s often forgotten that communication is al, local and UC police raid the Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley as well as a private itself a project. At this point, the extremes Williams ‘BJ’ Viehl (who is accused of residence in Santa Cruz to steal computers of silence and meaningless chatter are the anti-fur farm activity) had his bail revoked and literature, and the FBI forcibly acquir- preconditions for repression against Tiga three weeks ago after he wrote letters of ing DNA samples. and I and the basis for repression against support to other ALF/ELF prisoners which entire social strata targeted for imprison- was a violation of his terms of bail (his bail Nathan, Adriana, Maryam and Joseph are ment. So then, the precondition for re- terms said he wasn’t allowed contact with not charged with any destructive acts. They sponding socially to repression must be anyone from the ALF or who is ‘straight are the first people to be charged under the a collective effort to create the space and edge’). BJ’s co-defendant, Alex Hall, also Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2007, capacity for real communication (and en- had his bail revoked for a separate incident. which basically makes bothering anyone counters with diverse others). (The police stopped Alex’s car, searched it who does anything with animals an act of and allegedly found some brass knuckles). There are many ways you can contribute “terrorism”. to our defense. Raising funds has been use- ful and will continue to be important. Be- PLEASE SEND URGENT LET- The court has stilled not made a ruling. yond the necessary task of fundraising, a TERS OF SUPPORT TO: The most recent court date scheduled was more important dimension of solidarity is delayed to November 2nd. If you live in the California area, please go and show to continue deepening and extending rela- Alex Hall your support. It is November 2nd, at 9:00 tionships and discussions, about this case Inmate #2009-06304 AM, in Courtroom 6 on the 4th floor at the but in every other direction too. The charg- Davis County Jail San Jose Federal Courthouse located at 280 es brought against Tiga and I are an attempt 800 West State St. S. 1st. St. in San Jose, CA to spread silence and isolation. Let’s avoid Farmington, UT 84025 these at all costs. Breathing with you, USA TOTAL SOLIDARITY WITH THE ACCUSED. HUGH William James Viehl 6/25/09 Inmate #2009-05735 FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ONGO- Davis County Jail ING CASE AND THE “ANIMAL SUPPORT SITE FOR INFO OR 800 West State St. ENTERPRISE TERRORISM ACT”: DONATION: Farmington, UT 84025 www.mostlyeverything.net www.//aeta4.org/ Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 31 which wasn’t easily identifiable as simply mer Time!” T-shirts. And for large chunks “male” or “female.” of cash, we’ll figure out how to treat you ANARCHIST AR- real special (wink, wink). For one rare moment, it seemed, soci- RESTED FOR AL- ety’s spectacle of simple binaries (liberal/ TO DONATE VIA PAYPAL, SEND LEGED ATTACK conservative, male/female) was being pub- TO: licly trashed. But then, the media is well- [email protected]. ON DEMOCRATIC versed in making a spectacle of anarchists and trans people alike, and dragging their TO HOLLA BACK OR DONATE HEAD QUARTERS names through the mud. And so they did. VIA SNAIL MAIL, SEND US AN And so it goes. EMAIL TO FIND OUT MAILING IN DENVER DETAILS OR MORE INFO ON As to the anarchist criminal’s perspectives ARIEL’S CASE: NEWS CLIP: on the health care debate, we are unable [email protected] to speculate, but it is rumored that anar- The Democratic Party Headquarters in chists are making the total destroy in many More important than your money or keep- Denver had eleven windows smashed out countries which offer the “universal health ing Ariel out of prison, is your struggle for with hammers early on the morning of Au- care”. freedom, and abolishing prisons to remain gust 25, 2009. The damage was estimated alive. Think solidarity beyond the state’s at $11,000. It was exactly the one year FRIENDS OF ARIEL LEGAL UP- terms.” anniversary of the commencement of the DATE AND CALL FOR SOLIDAR- 2008 Democratic National Convention in ITY: Denver. Police reported seeing two van- dals who fled. A single arrest was made “Ariel Attack, who was arrested for alleg- JEFF “FREE” LU- (the police witness and arrest seems to have edly smashing 11 windows of the Demo- been a case of bad luck). That individual, cratic Party Headquarters in Denver, has ERS RELEASED Ariel Attack, was held in Denver City Jail been charged with Felony 4 Criminal for about 36 hours before a bail hearing and Mischief. She faces 2 to 6 years in prison, FROM JAIL 14 the full $5000 bail was raised quickly. plus parole and fines if convicted. Ariel has YEARS EARLY, hired a lawyer with solid radical politics As of September 4, almost two weeks lat- and legal fees are estimated at $1500 to THEN PUT BACK er, the windows were still boarded up. This $2500. means that on “First Friday,” the monthly IN night when yuppies flood the neighborhood Ariel has made clear their intention to to peruse art galleries and spur gentrifica- proceed with dignity and not compromise tion forward, the Democratic Party HQ was their principles in court. However, a plea It was an amazing and almost shocking still seriously damaged. deal that’s not contingent on sacrificing is moment to hear that Jeff Luers who was very desirable for at least two reasons: total sentenced to 23 years for sabotaging a When news of the vandalism got out, legal fees would be lower, and a deal could few SUVs, would be released 14 months the media was quick to speculate that the prevent prison time. If Ariel does time in early. Once we finally heard that he was person arrested was either a conservative prison, there is a good chance it would be released 3 months earlier then the expect- against the health care reform or a Demo- spent in solitary confinement because Ariel ed date, we were ecstatic. Unfortunately cratic Party “operative” trying to make the is a smoking hot trans person and might be our excitement came to a bitter end, when Republicans look bad. That was before unsafe in the general “male” population. we heard that the prison apparently made they discovered that the anarchist commu- Solitary is hard time. a mistake. Jeff enjoyed just a few hours nity, including the Denver Anarchist Black outside of prison until being brought back Cross chapter, was raising funds to bail the So we are begging all of you for your in to serve his remaining two months. We individual out. “Anarchists raise bail for money. We know nobody has a lot but there included below a news clip from main- Dem. HQ window-bashing suspect,” read are a lot of you, so if you can give a few stream newspaper: “The Oregonian”., the Denver Post headlines. “Alleged Colo- bucks it is awesome. describing the events, titled: rado Democratic HQ window basher may be fan of no party.” Everyone who donates any amount will Oregon prison springs eco- receive a hand-painted and signed card saboteur ‘Free’ by mistake, then Surely they intended to say, no party but from Ariel. If you donate $10, we’ll send takes him back the dance party. As hard as it was for the you the latest copy of Denver’s anarchist media to wrap their heads around an (anti) periodical “Til It Breaks” and a few glossy “The man who drew the longest prison politics that is neither Democratic nor “It’s Hammer Time!” stickers. If you do- sentence in U.S. history for eco-sabotage Republican, even more troublesome was nate $25 or more, you’ll receive all that walked out of prison this morning. After the apprehended anarchist’s (anti)gender, plus one of our sweet graphic “It’s Ham- years of appeals, Jeffrey M. Luers, known Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 32 to Eugene’s anarchist clan as “Free,” was il libertarians expressed outrage. re-sentenced Luers to 10 years in prison, just that. which would have brought him home this At that time, Luers’ crimes were paltry Christmas. But just as quickly, he was sent back to compared to those committed by better prison. known eco-saboteurs. Rod Coronado, for Passage of House Bill 3508 this year gave instance, who waged a multi-state arson Luers even more good news. He was one The Oregon Department of Corrections campaign against the fur industry, was of the roughly 2,000 Oregon prisoners to acknowledged today that it mistakenly al- sentenced to less than five years in federal get notice recently that they were eligible lowed Luers to take advantage of a new prison. for a fractional reduction of their sentence, law, House Bill 3508, which grants reduced Black said. For Luers, this meant freedom sentences for certain classes of inmates. After Luers was sent to prison, arsons by a few months early. Luers’ sentence for arson made him ineli- underground groups such as the Earth Lib- gible for early release, said prisons spokes- eration Front and Animal Liberation Front But today’s foul-up nixed his freedom. woman Jennifer Black, in Salem. ceased in Oregon, once a hotbed of envi- ronmentally motivated firebombings and Luers is scheduled for release on Dec. 16.” “It’s a mistake we wish hadn’t happened,” vandalism. she said. “We’re reviewing processes and hoping that it just does not happen again.” Law enforcement authorities said Luers’ long sentence served as a deterrent to those Luers was released from Columbia River who might consider setting fire to SUVs, ITALIAN ANAR- Correctional Institution in Northeast Port- mink ranches or Forest Service installa- land this morning and given 24 hours to tions. CHIST ALFREDO check in with his parole officer in Lane County. He checked in this afternoon, In a phone interview from prison in Sep- M. BONANNO AND where he learned of the error. tember 2001, Luers told The Oregonian that the gravity of his sentence did not GREEK ANAR- Authorities took the 30-year-old radical strike him until he lay in a prison bunk one environmentalist back to prison, a rude re- day realizing his parents might die before CHIST CHRISTOS versal for those who worked years to get he is freed. STRATIGOPOU- Luers out. Luers told the newspaper that he set fire LOS ARRESTED The day began with Luers’ supporters to the pickups to protest gas-guzzling ve- writing on the Friends of Jeff Luers Web hicles and the disproportionate amount of ON BANK ROB- site: “We are still pinching ourselves.” pollution they belch into the air. BERY CHARGES Luers’ appellate lawyer in Salem, Shawn He described the arson at Eugene’s Roma- Wiley, weighed in with an e-mail comment nia Chevrolet as a final, desperate act of an IN GREECE to The Oregonian: “This day is long over- environmental crusade that began benignly due. Jeff is a kind, thoughtful, intelligent with letters to politicians, door-to-door October 1st, 2009-Well-known Italian an- young man, and our community benefits work with the Sierra Club and tree sits to archist Alfredo M. Bonanno and Greek an- much more from his presence in it rather prevent logging. archist Christos Stratigopoulos have been than behind bars.” arrested in Trikala, central Greece, on sus- “It was an escalation to a level I’d never picion of carrying out an armed robbery But their joy was short lived. gone before and I could never live down,” at a local bank. Police sources definitively Luers told The Oregonian. “At that point, named the men as Alfredo M. Bonanno, 72, Luers’ saga began in 2001, when Lane for me, I could no longer say I was an ac- and Christos Stratigopoulos, 46. Bonanno County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure sen- tivist. In my mind, I’d taken it to the next is known to have authored numerous texts tenced him to 22 years, 8 months in prison level.” that have acted as an inspiration for insur- after finding him guilty of two crimes in rectionists and anarchists across the world. Eugene -- attempting to set fire to a gaso- The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled in Armed Joy, one of Alfredo’s most notori- line tanker owned by a petroleum distribu- February 2007 that Lane County must re- ous texts, got him 18 months in prison in tor, then firebombing three pickup trucks at sentence Luers because Velure erred by 1977. Apparently the text was considered a Chevy dealership. convicting him of two counts of arson and dangerous enough by the Italian state that imposing consecutive prison terms under it was worthy of such severe punishment. The sentence drew gasps because it was Oregon’s mandatory-minimum sentencing He is also known for writing, “From Riot by far the stiffest punishment handed to an law. to Insurrection”, “The Anarchist Tension”, eco-saboteur in the United States. Across “Against Amnesty”, and “Lets Destroy the nation, environmental activists and civ- Lawyers negotiated an agreement that Work, Lets Destroy the Economy”. On

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 33 February 2nd, 2003, Bonanno was sen- robbery in the northern city of Trikala on tenced to 6 years in prison on charges such Thursday. SERVING TIME: as bank robbery and sabotage, but released for health reasons. Although it is slightly Report found on www325.nostate.net. GRANT BARNES cute that he is 72 years old and being ac- cused of robbing banks in Greece, shortly #137563, San Carlos Correctional Facility, following his release from prison for health RNC DEFENDANT PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO 81002, USA. reasons. This situation is a clear impli- cation of the type of courageous and just DAVE MAHONEY Serving 12 years for setting fire to a num- generally incredible human being Alfredo ber of SUV vehicles. The letters ELF were is. But what is most important is that we RELEASED FROM spray painted onto all of the vehicles. realize that Alfredo is 72 years old and cur- rently being held in Greek prison, and must JAIL NATHAN BLOCK at the sane tune be held in our thoughts and recognized in our supportive actions. Texts Dave Mahoney was temporarily in the US #36359-086, FCI Lompoc, Federal Correc- and due to return to his home in England from Alfredo, as well as many quotes have tional Institution, 3600 Guard Road, Lom- before the new year (2009). He was ar- appeared in this magazine, and we hope rested by the FBI during the Republican poc, CA 93436, USA. that he will be thought of and fully sup- National Convention in September 2008 ported throughout this experience. Already and in the end was charged with 5 counts Serving 7 years & 8 months for an ELF ar- though since his arrest was made public, of aiding and abetting 2nd degree as- son against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF resistance in solidarity with Alfredo and sault and 5 counts of terrorist threats, 10 arson against an SUV dealership. Also ad- Christos has already been conducted as we felonies in total. Trapped in Minneapolis, mitted his role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. mention after this initial news clips. Little Dave faced expensive legal costs and de- cades in prison. As numerous RNC related information is available regarding updates MARCO CAMENISCH on his case. According to police, Stratigop- charges were dropped, it became clear to oulos carried out the robbery at a branch of the community in the Twin Cities that Su- Postfach 3143, CH-8105 Regensdorf, Piraeus bank on Thursday. He forced em- san Gaertner - the prosecutor of all RNC related felonies- was/is desperate to jus- Switzerland. ployees to hand over 46,900 euros, which tify the temporary police state in St Paul he then apparently handed to Bonanno, while providing a framework for her run Serving 18 years. Ten years for using explo- who was waiting outside in a rented car. A for governor in 2010. Dave, who remains sives to destroy electricity pylons leading witness noted the license plate of the ve- determined and active within his commu- from nuclear power stations. Eight years hicle and informed the police, who stopped nity ended up pleading guilty to a single for the murder of a Swiss Boarder Guard the car on a road leading to Kalambaka. Of- count of 2nd degree assault. After serving whilst on the run. In ‘02 Marco completed ficers found the stolen cash in the vehicle. a 56 day sentence in jail, Dave was released September 2nd. a 12-year sentence in Italy for destroying electricity pylons in Italy. SOLIDARITY ACTION - FREEDOM TO ALFREDO & CHRISTOS! STATEMENT FROM DAVE FOL- LOWING HIS RELEASE: JONATAN On Friday October 2 at about 8.15pm, a low-intensity bomb went off only a few “So I got out yesterday (September 2nd) An adress is not available for Jonatan; send meters away from the podium where Prime early in the morning. It’s been an over- messages to [email protected] Minister Karamanlis was delivering his whelming couple of days, but I’m obvi- last speech, signalling the end of the pre- ously really happy to be out. I’ve enjoyed a A 20-year old Swedish man sentenced to election period (New Greek elections were good nights sleep and have not yet stopped 15 months imprisonment after admitting scheduled for Sunday October 4th). eating delicious vegan food. There will be damaging a communication tower used a party to celebrate my release and the near by the Department of Defence, cutting the The “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire” claimed end of Karen and Christina’s case tomor- cables on a crane used in creating urban responsibility with a communiqué pub- row night. sprawl, and damaging a vehicle used in the lished on Athens IMC. The writers of the logging industry. communiqué deny the previous police I’m really worn out so I’ll keep this brief, claims to have arrested 4 members of the but I did want to thank everyone who wrote MARIE JEANETTE MASON organisation, whilst another 6 remained to me in jail. It helped me pass the time and I enjoyed writing everyone back. Thanks on the run. The “Conspiracy of Cells of #04672-061, FCI Waseca, Federal Correc- also to those who sent books and visited Fire” describe the placing of the bomb in tional Institution, PO Box 1731, Waseca, and put up with my phone calls :) detail and send their revolutionary greet- MN 56093, USA. ings to Alfredo Bonnano and his 46-year I hope to see you all soon.” old Greek comrade, Christos Stratigopou- Serving 21 years and 10 months for her in- los, both arrested and charged with a bank volvement in an ELF arson against a Uni-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 34 versity building carrying out Genetically an old growth logging corporation. Admit- Modified crop tests. Marie also pleaded ted his role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. SHAC7 guilty to conspiring to carry out ELF ac- Also recently found in civil contempt for tions and admitted involvement in 12 other his refusal to answer questions before a The SHAC7 are 6 activists and a corpo- ELF actions. grand jury. ration, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA Inc., that have been found guilty of ALSO VISIT FOR FURTHER INFO: FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: multiple federal felonies for their alleged www.freemarie.org/ http://supportdaniel.org/ role in simply campaigning to close down the notorious animal testing lab, Hunting- ERIC MCDAVID MICHAEL SYKES don Life Sciences. Three of the individuals are currently in federal prison (Andy Ste- 16209-097, FCI Victorville, Medium II, 696693, Richard A. Handlon Correctional panian, Josh Harper, and Darrius Fullmer Federal Correctional Institution, PO Box Facility, 1728 Bluewater Highway, Ionia, were all released after serving different 5300, Adelanto, CA 92301, USA. MI 48846, USA. sentences) They are not accused of actu- ally smashing windows, liberating animals Eric McDavid is a political prisoner, cur- Serving four to ten years for anti-urban or even attending demonstrations, rather rently serving a 19 year and 7 month sen- development construction arsons, crimi- reporting on and encouraging others to tence in federal prison for alleged “conspir- nal damage to a utility pole, spray-painting engage in legal demonstrations and sup- acy” charges.” He was arrested in January political graffiti, and burning the American porting the ideology of direct action. The 2006 after being targeted by an undercover flag. Michael has very little support com- following 3 people mentioned are currently informant who formulated a crime and en- pared to other prisoners serving time for serving time. trapped Eric in it. Eric was targeted by the similarly motivated crimes. Michael was state for his political beliefs, and his case is arrested when he was 17 years old, sen- JACOB CONROY important for everyone who dares to stand tenced as an adult, and had very little con- up. He is currently appealing his convic- nection with a broader radical community. #93501-011, FCI Terminal Island, Federal tion and his sentencing. At the point of his We have little information on Michael, but Correctional Institution, PO Box 3007, San arrest no criminal damage has actually oc- we firmly support you writing him. See Pedro, CA 90731, USA. curred. Please refer to back issues of Fire past issues of this magazine more in-depth Serving 48 months. to the Prisons, or visit his web site below information on his case. for more in depth description of Eric’s case. LAUREN GAZZOLA ALSO VISIT FOR FURTHER INFO BRIANA WATERS AND HOW TO HELP, SUPPORT, #93497-011, FCI Danbury Route #37, 33 1/2 Pembroke Road, Danbury, CT 06811 OR DONATE: 36432-086, FCI Danbury, Federal Correc- www.supporteric.org USA. tional Institution, Route 37, Danbury, CT Serving 54 months. 06811, USA. IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION KEVIN KJONAAS THAT YOU THINK WOULD BE Serving a six year sentence for alleged in- HELPFUL FOR ERIC’S CASE, volvement in an arson at the University of PLEASE CONTACT HIS LAWYER, Washington’s Center for Urban Horticul- #93502-011, FCI Sandstone, PO Box 1000, MARK REICHEL: ture. The facility aided in the DNA map- Sandstone, MN 55072 USA. ping of trees, making it easier for forestry Serving 72 months. Mark J. Reichel companies to produce profit. 455 Capitol Mall, 3rd Floor - Suite 350 FOR MORE INFO ON THE SHAC7, Sacramento, CA 95814 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: THEIR CASE, AND HOW TO SUP- PORT THEM: Office phone: (916) 498-9258 http://www.supportbriana.org/ www.shac7.com EMAIL: JOYANNA ZACHER [email protected] JONATHAN PAUL #36360-086, FCI Dublin, Federal Correc- DANIEL MCGOWAN tional Institution, 5701 8th St - Camp Parks #07167-085, FCI Phoenix, Federal Cor- - Unit F, Dublin, CA 94568 USA. rectional Institution, 37910 N 45th Ave., 63794-053, USP Marion, US Penitentiary, Phoenix, AZ 85086 PO Box 1000, Marion, IL 62959, USA. Serving 7 years & 8 months for an ELF ar- son against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF Sentenced to 51 months for an ALF arson Serving 7 years for an ELF arson against a arson against an SUV dealership. Also ad- on a horse meat plant. Also admitted his Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against mitted her role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 35 eration Front VISIT: See “A Reminder for a Delu- www.supportjonathan.org sional Era” Article

ABC stands for Anarchist Black Cross (mentioned in other prisoner information). NOTE:

ELF stands for Earth Libera- tion Front ALF stands for Animal Lib- SOLIDARITY OTHER PRISONER INFORMATION:

BREAK THE CHAINS IF YOU ARE CUR- INDISPENSABLE. www.breakthechains.info RENTLY IN PRISON IS OR WITHOUT A COM- PRISON ACTIVIST RE- PUTER YOU CAN ters) against the social SOURCE CENTER ALSO CONTACT THE order. When a member www.prisonactivist.org FOLLOWING GROUPS of a gang or mafia is put FOR MORE INFORMA- into prison, they go in WRITING PRISONERS: TION ON ANTI-PRISON stoic and uncoopera- HOW TO PROJECTS: rison is tive, because they know http://anti-politics.net/dis the tool of the state to that they are respected Prepress that which chal- tro/download/writingpris SHOELACETOWN ABC: by the community they onersflyer.pdf Will send free litera- lenges it. Prison is our represent. They’re ture to prisoners, in- biggest fear, more so commissaries are never GREEN SCARE cluding copies of this than death. If we are empty, they’re phone www.greenscare.org magazine. to engage in a commu- calls are never limited, P.O BOX 8085, Paramus, NJ, nity or force that looks and the gifts keep com- SUPPORT THE RNC8 07652, USA to completely destroy ing. Most importantly, www.rnc8.org this social order, the when they get out, they CENTRAL GEORGIA possibility of prison is know that who they RADICAL ABC something that must be represent will be there REFERENCE P.O Box 610, Roberta, GA incorporated into all of with gifts and a party www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 31078, USA our endeavors. Most planned. When they Green_Scare importantly, we must go to jail, they become NEW YORK CITY ABC create a force that only rock stars, not victims, SUPPORT THE MK3 P.O Box 110034, Brooklyn, grows stronger and they keep their heads www.helpmkethree.blogspot. NY, 11211 more intimate when up, and dedications in com the state uses prison to check, because they HOUSTON ANARCHIST weaken and divide this are rock stars, beloved ABC force. Beyond the con- heroes to a community P.O Box 667614, Houston, tinuation of resistance that makes them heard TX, 77266-7614, USA when the state believes beyond prison walls. it has stricken hard, it MODESTO ANARCHO: is important that a prec- Prison is a test of Will send free litera- edent is always set with strength for radical and ture to prisoners, in- how we support those criminalized communi- cluding copies of this busted for engaging ties, if we fail this test, magazine. in illegal activity (the we fail as a community Modesto Anarcho, PO Box only activity that mat- and as a struggle. 3027, Modesto, CA, 95353, USA Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Repression-Pg. 36 CHRONOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICAN PRISONER RESISTANCE

its inhabitants are able to act outside of its constraints, in accordance with their own interests. All actions which impede prison’s aim of so- aturally, the cial control can be considered proliferation of the prison has tangible resistance. beenN met with significant re- sistance from those most af- With only media reports as fected by it. This may be best our sources, it is impossible understood as a simple con- to document every single flict of interests: the interests case. While reading this list of prisoners against the inter- it is important to keep in ests of the prison itself, which mind that the inmate is al- does everything necessary ways living in resistance to to maintain their confine- prison, regardless of whether ment. Riots, escapes, inmate or not a newspaper article is fights, staff assaults, refusal published about it. The ac- of orders, and disturbances tions reported here are only of all kinds are some ways to serve as examples of those in which the tension of this who - even up against the conflict is manifested. Each grandeur of the prison and its time the prison cannot pro- near-insurmountable walls – ceed with routine operations manage to act out despite the it loses control of itself; each dismal reality of the situation. time the prison loses control,

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Struggle from the Inside-Pg. 37 21 MAY, CIENEGUILLAS, MEXICO, UNITED STATES An inmate broke free from their handcuffs ZACATECAS, MEXICO and jumped out the window of a transport An inmate walked away from an outdoor bus traveling to the downtown Justice Cen- In three minutes, 53 inmates let themselves recreation break at the Area One Juvenile ter. Unfortunately, he was caught over a out of their cells at the Reclusorio Preven- Center on the campus of the old New Mex- month later in Arizona. tivo Oriente under the cover of 8 armed ico Boys School. He turned himself in four gunmen who escorted them into vans wait- days later. 11 JUNE – KENILWORTH, ing in the prison parking lot. 23 guns were NEW JERSEY, UNITED stolen from the prison store room on their 1 JUNE – TRENTON, NEW STATES way out. JERSEY, UNITED STATES A Union County Jail inmate stabbed a cor- 25 MAY – UNIONTOWN, Four New Jersey State Prison guards were rections officer in the neck with a sharp- ALABAMA, UNITED STATES injured during a scuffle with an inmate who ened pencil. refused to return to his cell. The guards sus- Two inmates escaped with outside help tained a head injury, a rib injury, a shoulder 11 JUNE – VANCOUVER, from the Perry County Detention Center injury and a hand injury, respectively. WASHINGTON, UNITED through holes cut in the three perimeter STATES fences. 4 JUNE – GALESBURG, IL-

LINOIS, UNITED STATES An inmate in the Clark County Jail intake 29 MAY - SANTIAGO DE area for detoxification strolled into a rest- LOS CABALLEROS, SANTI- Henry C. Hill Correctional facility was put room and tried to escape by removing a AGO, DOMINICAN REPUB- on lockdown after an inmate assaulted a vent, but the opening was too small. Unde- LIC corrections officer. terred, the inmate found a grey sweatshirt, put it on over their jail-issued blue overalls 6 JUNE – GOODYEAR, ARI- Inmates at the Dos de Mayo prison burned and walked out of the jail with a group of mattresses and sheets to protest the transfer ZONA, UNITED STATES inmates who were being released. Two of inmates. hours later, police arrested the escapee in Three Perryville Prison inmates in three their home. 29 MAY – GRADY, ARKAN- separate cells decided to set their mattress- es on fire simultaneously. 13 JUNE – KINGSTON, ON- SAS, UNITED STATES TARIO, CANADA 6 JUNE – ADELANTO, CALI- Two inmates put on corrections-officer uni- forms and walked out of the Cummins Unit FORNIA, UNITED STATES An inmate escaped from the Frontenac In- prison during a shift change, driving away stitution but was caught five days later. in a car that had been left for them. They Four FCI Victorville staff members were were captured less than a week later after a assaulted while transporting an inmate. 17 JUNE – NAMPA, IDAHO, 20 mile car chase in New York. UNITED STATES 8 JUNE – BOISE, IDAHO, 30 MAY – KITTANNING, UNITED STATES An inmate walked away from their work PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED release program and led police on a high STATES A correctional officer at the Idaho - Maxi speed chase. They have yet to be caught. mum Security Institution was stabbed in An Armstrong County Jail guard needed the head and face by an inmate with a piece 20 JUNE – DALLAS, medical treatment after being attacked by of metal. NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED an inmate. The alleged assault occurred STATES when the inmate was being “defiant in 9 JUNE – LONGVIEW, TEX- his cell” and several correctional offi- AS, UNITED STATES An inmate at the Gaston Correctional Cen- cers attempted to subdue him. The inmate ter scaled the north perimeter fence and grabbed the pepper spray and turned it A Gregg County Jail inmate allegedly made off for the wood line. Unfortunately, against the guards, according to police, and started a fire in the jail area on the seventh they were caught a few days later. a guard was struck in the head by a white floor of the county courthouse. tube sock with a bar of soap in it, lacerating 22 JUNE – KISSIMMEE, his forehead. 11 JUNE – CLEVELAND, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES OHIO, UNITED STATES 31 MAY – SPRINGER, NEW As an Osceola County Jail inmate was

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Struggle from the Inside-Pg. 38 being escorted to their cell, they pulled a the blinds on a window after being told by 7 JULY – KENOSHA, WIS- loaded gun from their clothing and forced inmates to leave it open. CONSIN, UNITED STATES the guard into a medical bay, ordering him to exchange uniforms. The inmate fought 2 JULY – NEWKIRK, OKLA- Another escape from the Kenosha Cor- back until he was disarmed by the other of- HOMA, UNITED STATES rectional Center occurred when an inmate ficers who responded to the disturbance. didn’t report for work detail at Kenosha Four inmates escaped the Kay County Jail Beef. They were apprehended five days 23 JUNE – TUCSON, ARI- by scaling a wall up to the roof and busting later. ZONA, UNITED STATES through a skylight. Once there, someone threw a rope up to them and they climbed 7 JULY – RIDGEVILLE, Nine corrections officers were injured down and stole a car. Unfortunately, they SOUTH CAROLINA, UNITED when a fight broke out at the Arizona State were all caught within a day. STATES Prison Complex.

3 JULY – KENOSHA, WIS- A hole was found in the floor of the Lieber 25 JUNE – GREENWOOD, CONSIN, UNITED STATES Correctional Institution that a group of in- MISSISSIPPI, UNITED mates were attempting to dig out. STATES A Kenosha Correctional Center inmate ran off through an unlocked door after of- 8 JULY – LAS CRUCES, A Washington County Community Work ficers discovered them talking on their cell NEW MEXICO, UNITED Center inmate escaped during a visit to the phone. They turned themselves in a little STATES optometrist with the help of an unidenti- more than a week later. fied person who fired shots into -the ceil A guard at the Dona Ana County Detention ing and disarmed the transportation officer 4 JULY – RUTLAND, VER- Center was assaulted while a new inmate as the inmate removed their restraints and MONT, UNITED STATES was being classified. changed their clothes. He was recaptured during a routine traffic stop the next state An inmate was caught trying to scale the 11 JULY – HELENA, MON- over. Marble Valley Correctional Center’s twelve foot fence in an effort to escape. TANA, UNITED STATES 25 JUNE – COVINGTON, LOUISIANA, UNITED 5 JULY – CAMBRIDGE, An inmate from Pod 8 of the Lewis & Clark County Jail broke off a sprinkler head, trig- STATES MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED gering the fire alarm and flooding part of STATES the jail. Four inmates escaped from the St. Tam- many Parish Jail by removing the caulk- Middlesex County Jail inmates became un- 12 JULY – MICHIGAN CITY, ing around the shatterproof glass window, ruly and attacked staff and the fire suppres- INDIANA, UNITED STATES cutting through the eight metal bars and sion system with a wooden bench, setting squeezing through the 6-inch-wide open- off the sprinklers and causing a flood which Three Indiana State Prison inmates escaped ing. After jumping out the second story forced the jail to be evacuated. Approxi- through an underground tunnel system, but window they cut through fence wires in mately $400,000 in damages was done. were all caught within two weeks. the prison yard, ran underneath an empty guard tower and climbed over a razor-wire- 6 JULY – INEZ, KENTUCKY, 13 JULY – BORDENTOWN, topped fence to freedom. Unfortunately, UNITED STATES they were all caught within a few days. NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES 27 JUNE – JASPER, FLORI- A USP Big Sandy inmate mailed 25 to 50 letters that contained anthrax threats to DA, UNITED STATES Federal offices around Kentucky. Three state corrections officers were - at tacked by an inmate at the Alfred C. Wag- A correctional officer was stabbed - mul 6 JULY – WASHINGTON, ner Correctional Facility. tiple times with a homemade ice pick at the DC, UNITED STATES Hamilton Correctional Institution. 16 JULY – AUBURN, INDI- ANA, UNITED STATES 29 JUNE – GREAT FALLS, Six inmates walked out of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services ’New Be- MONTANA, UNITED STATES An inmate escaped from the DeKalb Coun- ginnings’ facility. They were all caught four ty Jail, for the first time in the facility’s his- hours later, but this is the second escape in tory, by breaking out the 6 inch thick win- A Cascade County Jail correctional officer the $46 million facility’s five week history. dow and squeezing through. He was caught had their hand bit when they tried to close the next day. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Struggle from the Inside-Pg. 39 rectional Institution officers while being 18 JULY – KALAMAZOO, searched. A Putnam County Jail inmate was shot and killed after scaling the perimeter fence and MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES 23 JULY – TIJUANA, BAJA trying to make off for the woods.

A Kalamazoo County sheriff’s deputy was CALIFORNIA, MEXICO injured at the Kalamazoo County Jail when 8 AUGUST - RICHTON an inmate refused to enter a holding cell 17 inmates broke a hole through a brick PARK, ILLINOIS, UNITED and instead fought with police. wall with an iron rod, hit two guards and STATES ran out of a juvenile detention center. 21 JULY – MCDONOUGH, An inmate escaped from a transportation 25 JULY – MERCED, CALI- GEORGIA, UNITED STATES van traveling to Mississippi and was caught FORNIA, UNITED STATES a day later still wearing the leg irons they A Henry County Jail officer was assaulted were wearing when they disappeared. The by an inmate. An inmate at the John Latorraca Correc- van was operated by the Mississippi based tional Center assaulted two correctional of- North Atlantic Extradition Services, LLC. 21 JULY – NEW ORLEANS, ficers before being subdued by a third with a tazer. 8 AUGUST – CHINO, CALI- LOUISIANA, UNITED FORNIA, UNITED STATES STATES 25 JULY – MT. VERNON, MISSOURI, UNITED STATES A fight that started in the California Insti- Two inmates escaped the Orleans Parish tution for Men reception center escalated Prison by sabotaging the locking mecha- A riot after an escape at the Lawrence and spread to other areas of the prison. nism on the facility’s seventh floor fire exit County Jail forced the county sheriff to The twelve hour riot rendered seven of the stairwell and walking out. The first inmate indefinitely close the facility. During the eight dormitory units uninhabitable and was recaptured eight days later while the riot, a group of prisoners pulled the elec- ultimately caused more than $6 million in other was free for two weeks. trical conduit down and destroyed security damages. See also page 12.

cameras. 21 JULY – WARKWORTH, 14 AUGUST - GOMEZ PA- ONTARIO, CANADA 28 JULY – ST CHARLES, IL- LACIO, DURANGO, MEXICO LINOIS, UNITED STATES More than 200 Warkworth Correctional A riot broke out shortly after visiting hours Institution inmates (About one third of the A sergeant and two officers were assaulted ended at the No. 2 Social Re-Adaptation prison’s population.) refused to enter their at the Kane County Jail. Center when prisoners attacked staff with cells and took control of most of the peni- knives and guns. The prisoners then burned tentiary for almost 24 hours. The inmates a storage area and gained control of the burned “whatever they could get their 29 JULY – STILLWATER, facility for two hours before 300 prison hands on” and “let it burn!” could be heard OKLAHOMA, UNITED guards and federal police were sent in to chanted from the recreation yard through- STATES quell the disturbance. out the night.

A Payne County Jail inmate popped out the 15 AUGUST – SAN JUAN, 21 JULY – SAEGERTOWN, sensor of a fire sprinkler in his cell, flood- SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED ing it out. The water leaked onto the first floor and soaked the control tower comput- STATES er and the computer in the medical office. A prisoner being taken to jail fatally shot an officer and injured another before escap- An inmate slipped out of his handcuffs and 3 AUGUST – JONESBOR- ing in their squad car. used them to beat a guard at the Crawford OUGH, TENNESSEE, UNIT- County Correctional Facility. This comes 17 AUGUST – OMAHA, NE- just one week after they were accused of ED STATES biting and inflicting other injuries to a pris- BRASKA, UNITED STATES on lieutenant. 17 inmates flooded Cell Block 8 of the A Douglas County Corrections inmate as- Washington County Detention Center by saulted several corrections officers after re- 22 JULY – CUMBERLAND, stuffing torn linens and fabric down the toi- fusing to be searched while being returned lets drains. MARYLAND, UNITED from a court hearing.

STATES 5 AUGUST – PALATKA, 19 AUGUST – GALVESTON, An inmate assaulted three Western Cor- FLORIDA, UNITED STATES TEXAS, UNITED STATES Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Struggle from the Inside-Pg. 40

A Galveston County Jail inmate on work 29 AUGUST – INTER- 11 SEPTEMBER – CIN- detail got sick of taking orders and attacked LACHEN, FLORIDA, UNITED CINNATI, OHIO, UNITED a Sheriff’s deputy. STATES STATES

21 AUGUST – BURGIN, A mobile home owned by the Putnam A Hamiton County Jail inmate became KENTUCKY, UNITED County corrections officer who shot and irate after talking with a jail visitor and STATES killed an escaping inmate was destroyed in ripped three telephones off the wall. They a fire. The fire was ruled arson by investiga- then fought the four deputies who tried to Inmates rioted and burnt down the North- tors and is believed to be set in retaliation. take them back to their cell. All four depu- point Training Center after a “controlled ties were injured by the one inmate. movement schedule” was announced by 30 AUGUST – BARTOW, prison officials. Six buildings were burnt FLORIDA, UNITED STATES 12 SEPTEMBER – down in total, leaving five of the facility’s LONGVIEW, TEXAS, UNIT- six dormitories uninhabitable. Eight staff A Central County Jail inmate broke a ED STATES members were injured in the three hour sprinkler head and refused to leave their riot. Officials have said the buildings will cell. During the resulting altercation, one Six inmates started a fire in a plastic gar- have to be razed and the facility completely of the responding correctional officers was rebuilt. bage can using pencils and electrical out- pushed onto their back and died eight days lets in the day room of the South jail on later during surgery for a broken vertebrae. 21 AUGUST – CORCO- the sixth floor of the Gregg County Court- house. RAN, CALIFORNIA, UNITED 31 AUGUST – LOCKPORT, STATES NEW YORK, UNITED STATES 14 SEPTEMBER – SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT, A Corcoran State Prison guard was stabbed A Niagara County Jail corrections officer UNITED STATES in the arm while on duty. was assaulted by a female inmate who re- fused to be searched. 23 AUGUST – DARTMOUTH, An inmate at the Chittenden Regional Cor- rectional Facility injured a guard. MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED 6 SEPTEMBER – KISSIM- STATES MEE, FLORIDA, UNITED “Survival is when one can assist STATES his neighbor in his time of need, A Bristol County House of Correction pris- no matter what his racial, politi- on guard was sent to the hospital with head An escapee from a state prison Work Re- cal or cultural views may be. Sur- and facial injuries after being attacked from lease Center was found in a motel near vival is hearing one’s neighbor behind by an inmate. Tampa, but shot themselves in the head be- call out to make sure the man is fore police could apprehend them. not taking advantage of one, and 24 AUGUST – FREEHOLD to let the man know you’re not TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY, 8 SEPTEMBER – HUTCHIN- alone. Survival is being able to state to oneself that I have made UNITED STATES SON, KANSAS, UNITED it through another day — without STATES being killed, beaten half to death A Monmouth County Jail inmate stabbed a or made to stand in a shower or corrections officer in the face with a hand- Nine inmates upset over the medical care at holding cell naked, hand-cuffed made shank when they came in to fix a light the Reno County Jail used bunk beds, mat- for hours (for not moving fast in the cell. tresses and tables to barricade themselves enough, or having the wrong in their pod. look, not using the right words, 25 AUGUST – GRESHAM, or for speaking out on injustices) OREGON, UNITED STATES 10 SEPTEMBER – ANGO- — having one’s dignity at the end LA, LOUISIANA, UNITED of the day still intact to fight an- other day. And giving thanks to A man escaped from his wheelchair while STATES faking a back injury while in transport to whatever God one might believe in, before closing one’s eyes for the Yamhill County courthouse. A sher- A Louisiana State Penitentiary inmate sleep. You smile because you iff’s deputy was assaulted in the attempted picking up trash on work detail ran off and have survived another day at escape. He was unfortunately re-captured was able to evade over 200 people from 18 Pelican Bay.” -Bambari S. Kelly following a truck heist and car chase. He agencies for four days by hiding out in the Anderson. Prisoner in California. is currently in the medical unit at the Mult- Tunica Hills and swamps that border the nomah County Jail. prison. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Struggle from the Inside-Pg. 41 CLANDESTINE RESISTANCE “You need to hit back.” “What if they?” “You hit back harder.”

anarchist, is to re- sist domination. The anarchist has been murdered, N O T E D beaten, wounded, h e imprisoned, as- anarchist is not similated, and sur- Tan individual, it is veilled from its not an identity, it very beginning, DESTRUCTION is not a noun. The but anarchy con- anarchist exists in tinues to live as re- ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK moments and be- sistance continues havior. to live.

To be an anarchist Here we include is to actualize mo- Denver, Colorado Fargo banks even if they stop fund- a few clandestine ments of conflict attacks on various Banks Funding Geo Group ing prisons. We are not issuing with the social or- Immigrant Prisons At- demands. We posted here to say, infrastructure of der whether or not the social order. tacked “hello.” And to say, “that was easy the desire is popu- July 13th, 2009 and lots of fun.” We covered our Of course insur- lar, or the circum- rectionary or anar- Communique: faces and uncovered our weapons, stances are correct. smashed their glass and made our chist resistance is a The anarchist is an nightly occurrence “Continuing the fight against pri- escape. invisible driving across the world, vate immigrant detention facilities force that acts as a we only have the located across the United States Targets are everywhere. Join in if retainer of tension space and time to funded in part by corporations like you wish.” and conflict, and report on a select the Geo Group, which is funded by looks to attack or few. Please refer Wells Fargo, rebels attacked three From wound at all times, to our links section banks in Denver. In a communique www.thegeogroupinc.com: hoping others will at the end of this they wrote: “On the night of Mon- catch on. magazine for news day, July 13th, we attacked three “GEO is a leader in providing sites that are con- separate Wells Fargo banks in Den- private correctional and deten- As nations across sistently updated ver. At each location we smashed tion management as well as men- the world escalate with information out their windows and at one we tal health services to government repression and sur- such as this. broke through the glass door, en- agencies around the globe. Our goal veillance before tered through it, and smashed up is to help our clients serve those as- a time of crisis; the ATM inside. signed to their care through a wide some look to ex- range of diversified services includ- ploit such vulner- We did it in rage against capital- ing the design, construction and fi- ability, to hit when ism and other prisons. Wells Fargo nancing of state and federal prisons, your opponent is funds GEO group, the private pris- immigration and detention centers, down per se. As on company that’s building a new medical and residential treatment people continue prison in Aurora just a few miles centers and other special needs in- to be afraid, the from here. stitutions.” anarchist exists to cause fear to the Of course, we’ll attack Wells feared. To be an

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Noted Destruction-Pg. 42 Tacoma, Washington Yuppie Condos Attacked July 10th, 2009

Individuals in Tacoma Washington, con- tinued their clandestine fight against yuppie development and gentrification of their area, by again attacking new condominium developments. A com- munique posted on the internet read:

“Wednesday night we threw pieces of September 2nd, Greece concrete through multiple condo win- dows in the Tacoma area. This action Bombs Rock Athens Stock Ex- feel it and it fills us with the meaning of our was taken in response to the disgusting change As Country Heads for existence. These references to some opera- attempt by the City of Tacoma to gen- Early Elections tional parts take place as an invitation to new trify our neighborhoods and city. September 2nd, Greece comrades in order to share with them our belief that responsibility, good organizing, Fuck condos, fuck gentrification, fuck Police believe that a revolutionary group is trustworthiness, comradely feelings and de- Point Ruston, and fuck Seattle yuppies. responsible for a bomb attack against the cisiveness can attack that which until yester- In solidarity with ourselves.” Greek Stock Exchange and another bombing day seemed unapproachable. of a government building in the city of Thes- Surveillance Cameras Attacked saloniki. The explosive device, which set fire After all, the consecutive attacks that took Tacoma, Washington to several cars, was hidden under a stolen place in our city during the summer by differ- July 10th, 2009 van. Members of the group sent a warning to ent groups prove that the new urban guerrilla a local newspaper in Athens, which allowed tendency is already under way and prepares Tacoma anarchists launched an attack the authorities to clear the area before the its own charge. Broken doors, smashed shop against the surveillance state and control bomb went off. Unfortunately, a woman was fronts, smoke from the torched buildings, the over movement in July. In a communi- hit by an amount of glass from the explosion, chaos of the sabotages, is a network of com- que released online they stated: but there were no injuries in the Athens at- munication beyond and outside the foresee- tack. The bomb destroyed several cars, win- able. It is a way to tell our losses, our contra- “Last week a few anarchists attacked dows, and even damaged a nearby car deal- dictions, our desires, ignoring the registries multiple CCTV cameras in north Ta- ership in the ensuing explosion. In a letter to of authority and laughing at its established coma. Surveillance cameras only aid in a satirical newspaper, a group calling itself, rules. No respect to the authorities of this city the furtherance of the prison system we “Conspiracies of Cells of Fire,” promised to and its obedient citizens. live in. The destruction of the cameras continue carrying out more attacks against was an act against the attempt to “sweep Capital and the State. We Shall Return” the streets” of the city, and against the persistent ICE raids in the Puget Sound In their communique, the group stated: This attack is only the latest in a string of area. guerrilla actions, mass protests, riots, and “Throughout history, leaders of all kinds of strikes which have throttled Greece since the In solidarity with the kidnapped, deport- totalitarian regimes aim at social cohesion. police shooting of 15 year old anarchist, Al- ed, and imprisoned.” Through this cohesion the mass-human is exandros Grigoropoulos. This continued un- produced – more flexible, more disciplined rest has rocked the Greek political elites, and Corry, Pennslyvania and more conservative toward the prevalent early elections in October have been called Rail Line Sabotaged social behaviors at all given times. It is the by Greece’s embattled conservative prime July 11th, 2009 contemporary class of these socially inte- minister. grated citizens who then discover their com- Pigs are on the lookout for saboteurs mon identity and crouch around the common The government, headed by the majority who attacked a railroad line. The inci- interest, common aspirations and desires. All party, New Democracy, has been battered by dent was discovered when a train op- the loneliness of the western world meet for a series of financial scandals and has come erator noticed that joint bars connecting a moment in the snap-shot of consumerist under criticism for its handling of the riots sections of rail had been disassembled frenzy. in December, the economy, corruption scan- on the Western New York and Pennsyl- dals, and more recently, government han- vania Railroad line about one-half mile Each time that we emphasize on the op- dling of a major wildfire that burned the out- east of Route 89 in Concord Township. erational part of a plan we do not do so in skirts of Athens this summer. Police said the sabotage could have order to claim some credits for operational caused a train, which is an integral part flawlessness and bravery. That is nonsense. The bombing didn’t help their case. of the flow and transport of commodi- Whatever we do, we do simply because we ties, to go off the tracks. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Noted Destruction-Pg. 43 NATIVE CONFLICT “The process of colonization begins of two primary aspects - physical and with the physical occupation of land mental. and domination of the Indigenous Prior to colonization Indigenous peo- people. Following the primarily physi- ples were free and sovereign nations. cal aspects of colonization (ie. Military Through colonization Indigenous peo- conflict, relocation, etc,), non-physical ple are deprived of their freedom and methods are applied. These include live in an oppressed situation. In order what could be called mental aspects. to be liberated from this oppressive Religious indoctrination, cultural, so- state the process of colonization must cial and economic assimilation are be reversed.” common examples. Therefore it could -”Decolonization” be said that colonization is comprised By Zig-Zag & Keyway

defense of their collective livelihood and Living in the “first world”, it is hard to overcome the social divisions capitalist so- feel connected to everyday life struggles ciety enforces and thrives on. of the kind mentioned after this introduc- tion, but the fight for safe, self-sufficient, There is an inherent conflict between a s the “first world” scram- or free communities is one that we see all global economy looking to expand, and bles to retain its comfort and superiority the time in different ways across the world, communities looking to remain autono- beforeA a failing economy or growing frus- from the Brooklyn projects to the Brazilian mous. trated population, the “third class” of the rainforests. “third world” continues to struggle to sur- We could only fit a few reports that caught vive as unrecognized citizens of a global Native and lower caste struggles not only our attention, but struggles such as these society. expose the inherent consequences of the are historic-happening now-and will con- system and era we live in, both struggles tinue to exist as long as capitalist society Capitalist society looks to claim and profit present a world in perpetual conflict with looks to expand. from every facet of life and land; constant the stability of global civilization today. In expansion is inherent to capitalist society. a global world so mediated by information -Fire to the Prisons For the capitalist society to operate it must technology and a global economy, native present a way of living to strive for, suitable communities act as evidence to possibili- “Until the last missionary is hung with the to profit and expansion. All life that looks ties of living differently from what we wit- guts of the last developer; all expansion to exist outside the framework of this life- ness now. Migrant communities or lower must be blocked.” style guideline must be dealt with; either to caste villages in the third world provide serve the interests of profit and expansion, examples of how the excluded organize in or through a process of liquidation. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Native Conflict-Pg. 44 lands. Mapuches represent about 6 percent jor university to close its doors. As of early TENSION IN of Chile’s 17 million people. They resisted Thursday morning, police had captured CHILE RISES the Spanish conquest for 300 years before two suspects. the government finally pushed them into Since the first attempt by the Spanish to communities in southern Chile. Most now The attack on the Homicidal Brigade of conquer the land of Chile in 1535, native live in deep poverty. the Investigations Police (PDI) - Chile’s resistance to the occupation has remained plainclothes detective force – was appar- ferocious. In 1541 the Spanish conquest Chilean police charged with ently launched in protest of the upcoming declared the nation of Chile, and founded shooting and killing Mapuche Sept. 11, 1973 coup anniversary that ousted Santiago. In 1553 Pedro de Valdivia, the fighter following riots. President Salvador Allende. man responsible for the Spanish invasion August 18th, 2009 into Chile was kidnapped and killed by the Mainstream Newsclip: During the 10-minute attack, college-aged Araucanian Indians, who helped to block protestors tossed Molotov bombs, rocks the Spanish from claiming the land now Chilean military authorities have decided and cans through the building’s windows known as Chile during it’s first attempt to press charges against José Patricio Jara and at police officers who tried to stop in 1535. To this day, violent tension ex- Muñoz, the Carabinero (uniformed police) them. ists between the occupying government, officer who shot and killed Mapuche fight- and the native communities of Chile. In er Jaime Mendoza Collío during a confron- Violent public outbreaks are common- more recent years, the Mapuche tribe has tation last week in Region IX. Jara Muñoz place around Sept. 11 in Chile, but protes- posed a very visible opposition to the occu- is accused of using excessive force result- tors struck days earlier than expected this pation; in fighting to preserve their culture ing in death. year, angered by recent clashes between and land, and overcoming the repression by police and Chile’s Mapuche population, the Chilean state. The Mapuche struggle Solidarity attack on Police homi- the nation’s largest indigenous group, in in Chile, along with Anarchist solidarity cide investigation offices. Region IX. expressed with the tribe has been noted in September 3rd, 2009 prior issues of Fire to the Prisons. Since Anonymous communique from our last issue, tension has escalated even A group of ‘encapuchados’ attack the pre- participants: more so then usual, leading to attacks on cinct of the plainclothes investigative po- both sides, and the death of a Mapuche lice (PDI) outside of the Unversidad Aca- “At the beginning of our demonstration a fighter. We include here a short chronology demia de Humanismo Cristiano (UAHC) detective from the Homicide Brigade pro- of some of the events that have happened campus in Santiago. Reports are coming in ceeded to attack one of our comrades, we since our last issue. that at least two people have been arrested beat him back. Because of this the rest of in connection with the attack. the detectives came out to defend him us- Chile’s Mapuche Indians seize ing their arms against ours. With automatic land, police kill 1. Mainstream Newsclip: rifles, pistols, revolvers, sub machine guns August 14th, 2009 and shields they tried to disperse us, but Mainstream Newsclip: Chilean police authorities continue to track our revolutionary conviction and our rage, down the estimated 50 hooded protesters which make us realize that we are fighting SANTIAGO, Chile — Mapuche Indians who mobbed a Providencia police building for our people and in memory of those who vowed Thursday to keep seizing land in Wednesday afternoon, leaving one detec- have fallen in the struggle, was stronger southern Chile despite the death of an ac- tive injured and prompting a major univer- than their weapons. tivist who resisted an eviction by riot po- sity to close its doors. As of early Thursday lice. The rebellion appeared to be growing morning, police had captured two suspects. The PDI has characterized itself by its despite efforts by the Chilean government The attack on the Homicidal Brigade of oppressive character as we have seen in to help the Mapuche buy land and tim- the Investigations Police (PDI) - Chile’s Wall Mapu, where together with Carabin- ber companies to help ease their poverty. plainclothes detective force – was appar- eros and the army they have militarized the Hours after the activist was killed, an ag- ently launched in protest of the upcom- zone and developed a counterinsurgency to ricultural warehouse in the area was set ing Sept. 11, 1973 coup anniversary that destroy the Mapuche struggle… on fire, destroying about $1 million worth ousted President Salvador Allende. During of equipment, the interior ministry said. the 10-minute attack, college-aged protes- With rocks, Molotov cocktails, and paint President Michelle Bachelet said Thurs- tors tossed Molotov bombs, rocks and cans bombs we confronted the bullets of the day that the activists are harming their own through the building’s windows and at po- PDI, and forced them to stay locked up in- cause.”Nothing, absolutely nothing, justi- lice officers who tried to stop them. side of their station” fies the violence in La Araucania” she said. Jose Santos Millao of the activist group Ad Chilean police authorities continue to Mapu said the death Wednesday of Fabian track down the estimated 50 hooded pro- Facundo Mendoza Collio, 24, will only in- testers who mobbed a Providencia police spire them to fight harder for their ancestral building Wednesday afternoon, leaving one detective injured and prompting a ma- Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Native Conflict-Pg. 45 Mapuche conflict continues to flare in southern darity with the Mohawk Nation.” Chile. Bachelet’s cabinet members met by violence And This action was done to disrupt the transport of goods and people protests. belonging to the Linamar Corporation. Linamar is a member of the Monday, September 7th, 2009 Security and Prosperity Partnership which has plans to militarize Mainstram Newsclip: and fortify borders and guards. Like in Awkesasne, Tyendinaga and Peru, we too stand against the SPP and its projects. Five members of President Michelle Bachelet’s cabinet were met with violence and heightened protests over the weekend during Solidarity with the Mohawk Nation means ATTACK!” their visit to the country’s troubled Region IX. Region IX, known as the Araucanía, is also on the front lines of the conflict between More on the Mohawk Struggle and Resistance the central government and native Mapuche, who say they have wiinimkiikaa.wordpress.com been displaced and marginalized by the state. A landowner fired a shotgun at a group of Mapuches who began starting fires on his property, injuring at least three of them, according to the lo- TOBIQUE FIRST NATION cal Diario Austral newspaper. Masked men later burned down a nearby warehouse, destroying agricultural supplies worth more BLOCKADE ENTERS THIRD than US$20,000. On Sunday police said they had apprehended and MONTH interrogated a 25-year-old in connection with the attacks, accord- ing to the newspaper La Tercera. Several of the measures focused June to August (so far) 2009 directly on Mapuche communities in distress, such as direct sub- Tobique First Nation set up a roadblock on the high- sidies to indigenous wheat farmers, nearly US$1.5 million of seed way leading to the Mactaquac hydro dam in south capital with preference for indigenous entrepreneurs, and 1,500 central New Brunswick, Canada. new emergency employment positions directed at communities As of August 05, 2009: with the highest unemployment levels and Mapuche populations. The announcement drawing the most attention came from Viera- On the morning of Monday, June 8, 2009, a group of Maliseet Gallo, who said the government would restructure its government community members walked peacefully into the hydro station. land program, which has purchased and returned some 650,000 Stephen (Red Feather) Perley approached the New Brunswick hectares to indigenous communities. Viera-Gallo said a new pro- Power Corporation (NB Power) employees and said, “You guys cess was needed to increase transparency and cut down the specu- have fifteen minutes to pack up and get out.” The employees left, lation that has lifted land values throughout the region. The result the community wrapped a chain around the gate and locked it. The has been a nation-high unemployment rate of 14.1 percent in the dam was now the property of the Tobique First Nation. Araucanía, with the official rate rising above 17 percent in some parts of the Malleco province. The study’s director said that the Tobique, the largest Maliseet reserve in the province, first rejected region’s indigenous issues were not directly addressed in the study a developer’s bid to build a hydro dam on their territory in 1844. but may be contributing to deteriorating perceptions and invest- The Tobique River was “part of what may well have been the great- ments in the region. Those perceptions have worsened in recent est salmon river system in the world with hundreds of thousands of weeks after a uniformed police officer killed 24-year-old Jaime fish swimming upstream to spawn each year. The abundant salmon Mendoza Collío, one of several Mapuche who were occupying an defined the community’s way of life, providing food and employ- estate in the north of the Araucanía region (ST, Aug. 31 ). Indig- ment – many worked as guides in the summer months. Today, enous activists have responded to the shooting with protests and barely any wild salmon still make their way up the Tobique river. violence, shutting down highways in the IX Region and occupying Tobique residents blame the high rates of cancer on the power lines universities, rural estates and municipal buildings. over their reserve and the toxic chemicals dumped and sprayed on their land by NB Power. Ironically, Tobique residents are charged SOLIDARITY WITH MOHAWK among the highest electricity rates in the province. NATION IN CANADA! In May of 2008, a group of Tobique activists set up a blockade by the road into the reserve and denied NB Power access. Almost all Ontario, Canada band members stopped paying their power bills pending a negoti- Road Blockade in Solidarity with Mohawk Nation ated agreement. In July of 2008, the community began allowing June 24, 2009 NB Power access to the dam to do repairs and maintenance on the Communique: condition that NB Power employees check in with them first and that a band member escorts the employees into the dam or commu- “June 17th 2009, people dressed in black blocked the Hanlon High- nity. That month, NB Power forgave over $200,000 worth of hydro way at Paisley Road during rush hour. Trees and branches were bills. Women sat at the blockade every day until November, when pulled across the southbound lanes and two smoke bombs were set New Brunswick’s no-disconnect policy comes into effect. The off to draw attention to the banner, which was dropped from the policy prevents NB Power from cutting off anyone’s electricity. railway overpass. The banner read: “PARK YOUR CARS! Soli-

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Native Conflict-Pg. 46 Tensions escalated on June 26, 2009, darity with the machete wielding protestors when a truck rolled by the blockade NATIVE TENSION who dismembered 10 cops in the clash and and into the station. When the block- AND CONFLICT the unknown insurgents barricading roads aders caught up with it, the driver was to the rainforest and sabotaging oil pipe talking on his cell phone. Stephen ESCALATES IN lines. Only when taking this position in the Perley told him to hang up. “You’re conflict can we understand the essence of trespassing,” Perley said, “On behalf PERU the state apparatus in general, and its spe- of Tobique First Nation, I’m seizing cific function in Peru, as a strategic relation the truck.” The First Nation has made From a flyer passed out - dur which aims to isolate and crush those as- some gains: on June 30th, 2009, the ing solidarity march with Native sembling the exploited into a battle-ready provincial Minister of Aboriginal Af- Struggles in Peru during August organization fit for civil war.” fairs committed to funding the res- 2009 in New York City: toration of eroded riverbanks and the -”Get Walking” clean-up of toxic and other wastes “Following the orders of President Alan dumped at and around the dam. Garcia, the Peruvian police opened fire on Peru government revokes laws a 2,000 person demonstration marching after violent confrontation be- However, the dam and now a truck against the plundering of the country’s 67 tween indigenous people and po- worth $170,000 are in the hands of the million hectare rainforest for lumber and lice; leading to more tension and Tobique First Nation and they’re not oil. When the smoke finally cleared on June popular distrust in the state. giving them back without an equitable 5, 84 of the mainly indigenous protestors Mainstream News Clip: settlement. In the weeks and months to had been murdered and many of their corps- come, anyone concerned with Indige- es were immolated to cover up the number On April 9th, 2009, more than 1250 indig- nous rights should keep a close eye on of deaths. The free vs. fair trade discourse enous communities began a National cam- the province of New Brunswick. rendered by liberal bourgeoisie-apologists paign to confront new laws established by distorts the true nature of the Peruvian situ- the Peruvian government to grant mining, ation. Capital, as long as it exists, will at- oil, logging, and hydro companies free ac- tempt to eradicate any obstacle that hinders cess to Indigenous territories. Protests were the commodification of the natural world daily and blockades were stoic, setting up into raw materials for production. The more than two dozen blockades and hold- external notions of victim hood impressed ing countless protests in nine Provinces. upon the slain demonstrators by human The mobilization came to a brutal peak on rights organizations also blurs the situation June 5th, when police forces were sent in by down playing the violence characteristic to break up one of those blockades—on of our class when we oppose capital’s proj- the Fernando Belaunde Terry Road in Ba- ect. We, on the other hand, stand in full soli- gua. Indigenous People are labeling Bagua

MACHETE AND SPEAR BEARING NATIVE PROTESTERS BLOCK ACCESS TO YURIMAGUA CITY IN THE AMAZON.

“Even in revolution there’s a hierarchy to respect, and white comes before black and everything depended on one fact: first world productive forces were more advanced than the others, they’d progressed further therefore their struggles were of a higher quality. No-one has dreamed of questioning this certainty even if a revolution has never been seen in the white world.”-O.S.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Native Conflict-Pg. 47 a “massacre, “ while various Peruvian of- The villagers began asking Goldcorp substances like arsenic, extremely high ficials desperately search for excuses in to remove the vehicles and equipment. concentrations of which were found in a the public eye, claiming that the Peruvian They also presented the Human Rights river downstream from the mine. Instead, police that attacked the blockade were ac- Ombudsman of Guatemala with a formal GoldCorp says, it’s because the Mayas tually part of a “conspiracy” conducted by complaint. On Wednesday, June 10, Gold- don’t know how to clean themselves. “foreign governments”, such as Venezu- corp employees told the villagers that they ela’s Hugo Chavez or Bolivian President would remove everything the next day. Evo Morales. The violent confrontation in But the day came and went, and the equip- Bagua left 34 dead according to govern- ment remained. Instead of removing it, the THE FIRST AND ment figures, “25 police” and “9 native company signed an agreement to take the THIRD WORLD people”. On the other hand, the Coordinat- equipment the next day after that, June ing Body of Andean Indigenous Organiza- 12. Then, as June 12 rolled on it became ARE OF THE tions or CAOI says more than 250 people clear that once again the company was not missing, all of them Indigenous leaders going to comply— leading a group of vil- SAME WORLD. who are presumably dead. lagers to respond, by burning the equip- ment. Incidentally, on June 10 Goldcorp MORE FROM Miguel Palacin of CAOI said: “How can requested a police and army presence. The those with guns and prepared to attack have government immediately sent in 2 units “GET WALKING”. 25 dead, and those who were unarmed and from the national police and 4 vehicles full were defending themselves have only nine of soldiers. The next day, June 11, other 6 “The visual excess produced by the mass people dead. Most people don’t believe police units rolled in, along with two units media counter poses the dictatorships’ of that anymore” said Palacin. Rumors say from the anti-riot squad. Fortunately, the the global south to American democracy, the bodies were openly burnt and thrown officers did not intervene when the villag- thus contrasting garbage with garbage. from helicopters during the attack outside ers took action on June 12. However, June While hardly ever mentioning domestic of the public eye. Following the confronta- 19, Goldcorp successfully convinced the oppression, CNN incessantly drenches its tion, on June 9th, obviously due only to in- Guatemalan government to bring charges viewers with bloody images of border skir- ternational attention, two of the laws were against seven Maya villagers in relation to mishes in far-off lands and snapshots of overturned by the Peruvian government. the incident. foreign military generals in aviator glasses Conflict remains tense as the Peruvian state but gives little to no explanation of the ac- continues to find stability before an escalat- FOR THE GLORY OF GOLDCORP companying circumstances. “Be happy you ing native tension and popular contempt for live within these safe American borders,” it’s recent doings. The situation mentioned above is not a is not only the underlying message of ev- new situation, for native people in Gua- ery international news segment but also a temala, or the GoldCorp corporation. On repressive tool used to mask the reality of MAYA VILLAGERS January 22, 2007, GoldCorp had charges capitalist exploitation within the US and laid against twenty two Maya community inhibit auto valorization as a response. The BURN GOLD MINE members, and arrest warrants issued for appearance of safety and social peace is EQUIPMENT seven. That same day, GoldCorp promised nothing but a low intensity weapon used to establish a dialogue with the community, to counter any possibility of an insurgency who had set up a blockade 10 days prior to in the US. Underneath this facade of nor- June 24th, 2009 malcy, the American State is like all other San Marcos, Guatemala protest a range of concerns about the mine, which included the “destruction of dozens States and the very structure of liberal- of homes due to the use of explosives; wa- democratic rule is tyrannical and despotic A group of Mayan Mam villagers set fire to because the rule itself can only operate in a pickup truck and an exploration drill rig ter contamination resulting in health prob- lems of people and livestock; an apparent a perpetual state of emergency. When the earlier this month at the Marlin gold mine social peace is disrupted, all States show in San Miguel Ixtahuacan municipality, lowering of the regional water table result- ing in the drying out of wells and natural this marking characteristic by suspending San Marcos, Guatemala. The mine is oper- supposed “rights” and “liberties” and dis- ated by Montana Exploradora de Guatema- springs, and some crop failure (example: fruit trees).” posing of very laws it wishes to enforce. la, a subsidiary of Canada’s Goldcorp Inc. Thus, the distinction between democracy Eventually, nearly all of the charges were and dictatorship is as laughable as a game According to Rights Action, Goldcorp of eeny, meeni, mini, mo on the cold toes had been pressuring about 20 Maya fami- dropped. Yet in 2008 GoldCorp tried to run the same gimmick again but this time they of corpses. The only choice our miserable lies from the Sacmuj villages to sell their lives allow is either the total destruction land. The families consistently said no to charged eight Mayan women. This situa- tion is ongoing. of a world dominated by government or to the company. Goldcorp decided to just continue to drown in generalized barbarity. ignore the villagers and bring their equip- ment onto their land without the villager’s GoldCorp states that the lesions and rashes consent. covering the bodies of Maya Men, Women and Children, is not because of poisonous Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Native Conflict-Pg. 48 ATTACK

attacks on ING DE churches

CEPTIONcollege and wandered around the country visiting “radical Chris- tian” communes. I finally settled in a commune in Washington, D.C., because they really seemed to be doing something. Within a few months, my attempts to live my faith came to a head. I was putting all my strength and energy into actively expressing the his civilized, technological, commodity culture in “radical” self-sacrifice that I believed would transform the world which we live is a wasteland. For most people, most of the time, into the kingdom of god. Twelve hours a day, I worked on a project lifeT is dull and empty, lacking vibrancy, adventure, passion and ec- designed to help poor ghetto-dwellers create a housing coopera- stasy. It’s no surprise that many people search beyond the realm of tive in which they would collectively own and control their hous- their normal daily existence for something more. It is in this light ing. My energy gave out. When I called on god to help me, he that we need to understand the quest for the spiritual. wasn’t there to answer. When I was most dedicated to him, the god I had trusted all my life failed me. As a result, I had a nervous Of course, many, if not most, religious people are not really breakdown and went through several months of severe depression. questing for anything. Religion provides them with dogmas, easy What finally brought me out of it was recognizing that there was answers which allow them to stop thinking, feeling or acting for no god, there was no reason to expend myself in absurd self-sac- themselves. I feel nothing but disgust for their mindless, dogmatic rifice and my energy would be best used in creating my own life. spirituality and will deal no further with it. It is rather with sincere spiritual questing that I wish to deal. My rejection of Christianity and god first took the form of a crass mechanistic materialism, but someone who had so passionately I was raised a fundamentalist Christian, so I have first-hand ex- pursued the spiritual could never be satisfied with a dead mecha- perience of one of the most repressive forms of religion. A few-- nistic view of reality. So I dissected Christianity--my two and a though very few--fundamentalists are truly questing for something half years of theological studies was useful in this--and compared more. I was one of these. I questioned, I probed, I sought for the and contrasted other religions. I already knew that Christianity was intense depth of passion that this religion promised but that its dualistic, dividing reality into spirit and matter. I discovered that practitioners rarely manifested. I decided to study for the ministry, this dualism was common to all religions with the possible excep- not because I wanted to be a minister, but because I hoped to gain a tions of some forms of Taoism and Buddhism. I also discovered greater understanding of the spiritual. During my studies, I left my something quite insidious about the flesh/spirit dichotomy. Reli- fundamentalism behind, embracing a Christian mysticism which gion proclaims the realm of spirit to be the realm of freedom, of combined aspects of Pentecostalism, Tolstoyan anarcho-pacifism creativity, of beauty, of ecstasy, of joy, of wonder, of life itself. In and non-violent millenarian revolutionism. contrast, the realm of matter is the realm of dead mechanical activ- ity, of grossness, of work, of slavery, of suffering, of sorrow. The In order to better live this “radical Christianity,” I dropped out of earth, the creatures on it, even our own bodies were impediments

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Attacking Deception-Pg. 49 to our spiritual growth, or at best, tools to dichotomy--but then proclaims that spirit “spiritual” needs. It fails because it de- be exploited. What a perfect ideological does not exist. Thus, freedom, creativity, clares those needs to be spiritual--of a non- justification for the -exploitative activities beauty, ecstasy, life as something more worldly realm-and so cannot deal with their of civilization. than mere mechanical existence are utterly roots. For it is civilization with its need to eradicated from the world. Mechanistic exploit the earth, and most especially in- But I don’t believe religion necessarily materialism is the ideology of religion up- dustrial civilization for which even humans developed purely as a way of justifying dated to fit the needs of industrial capital- must become mere cogs in a huge machine, exploitation. Much more likely is that as ism. For industrial capitalism requires not that drains our lives of beauty, of creativity, exploitation immiserated the lives of peo- only a deadened, dispirited earth, but dead- of passion, of ecstasy. William Blake said, ple, the ecstatic joy of wild existence and ened, dispirited human beings who can be “If the doors of perception were cleansed, of the flesh unrepressed became fainter and made into cogs in a vast machine. everything would appear as it is: infinite.” fainter memories until at last they seemed And I know our senses can be doors to vast to be not of this world at all. This world But there have been other rebellions worlds of wonder. I have experienced as was the world of travail (from the Latin against religious ideology. I am most fa- much. But our senses have been bound to root word which gives all the Romance miliar with those that arose in Christian the needs of production and consumption, languages their word for work) and sor- Europe. In their most radical expressions, and so made incapable of experiencing the row. Joy and ecstasy had to be of another the Free Spirits, the Adamites and the Rant- vibrant life that is the physical world on a realm--the realm of spirit. Early religion is ers utterly rejected the flesh/spirit dichot- moment-to-moment basis. wildly orgiastic, clearly reflecting the lost omy, claimed paradise for the earth in the way of life for which people longed. But by present, claimed divinity for themselves Religion claims to give us back the free- separating this wild abandon into the realm as physical beings and rejected the con- dom, the creativity, the passionate fullness of spirit, which is in reality just a realm of cept of sin and absolute morality. At their of life that was stolen from us, but, in fact, abstract ideas with no concrete existence, best, they were radically anti-religious. is part of the conspiracy to keep this full- religion made itself the handmaiden of They used religious language in a way that ness from us. In relegating creativity, pas- civilized, domesticated culture. So it is no turned religion on its head and undermined sion, freedom and ecstasy to the realm of surprise that in time shamans evolved into its basis. It seems that these anti-religious the spiritual, religion safely takes them out priests who were functionaries of the state. radicals weren’t aware of the full implica- of the realm of daily life and puts them in tions of what they were doing, and because their “proper” place where they cannot be- Religion--which started as an attempt, of that their rebellion was recuperated come a threat to civilization--the realm of clearly flawed, to regain the ecstasy of un- where it wasn’t simply wiped out. ritual and ceremony. My own experiments constrained pleasure--as the hand-maiden with magic and mystical practice taught me of authority had to take a different stance Industrial capitalism and its attendant something interesting. When I looked back toward pleasure. For the most part, religion ideology, mechanistic materialism, have on my experiences without putting them in has declared pleasure to be gross, evil, or a drained the life and beauty from our expe- any sort of ideological context--and with- distraction from “higher” spiritual pursuits. rience of the world. We have been taught out religious metaphors to obscure what Present pleasure was to be repressed for a to distrust our own experience and to ac- was really going on, I realized that every- future paradise. A few schools of religious cept as “knowledge” the word of authority one of these experiences was a physical, thought took a different tactic. Since plea- as found in textbooks, heard in lectures or bodily, sensual experience, not an experi- sure could so clearly induce ecstasy, these poured into us by television or other media. ence in some sort of “spiritual” realm. But schools said that it was fine to practice And the picture of reality we are spoon-fed it was an experience of the senses free of these activities as long as it was done in is so joyless, so lacking in passion, that their ideological, civilized chains. I was the right way, at the right time, for purely if there is any feeling left in us, we must momentarily experiencing the world as a spiritual purposes. The spontaneous, play- have something more. Because religion wild being, without mediation. It’s inter- ful expressions of pleasure were strongly has usurped the passion from the world, esting to note that the metaphor that I have discouraged as they distracted from the its language is often quite passionate, ec- found most useful in describing these ex- spiritual expressions of these practices. The static, even erotic. It certainly sounds like periences is the lycanthropic metaphor--I puritanism and productivist orientation to the place to look for the depth of feeling felt that I had turned into some non-human pleasure in some tantric and sex-magickal and wild creativity for which we long. In creature. Civilization has become so much texts is astounding. In these spiritual prac- my own explorations, I experimented with a part of our definition of the human, that tices, pleasure is subverted from its natural mystical practices and magical ritual. And our minds seem to view experiences of course in which it would create a world of both within the context of these experi- uncivilized sensuality as experiences of free play and is transformed into spiritual ments and outside of that context in wilder- inhuman sensuality. When religion defines work. ness areas, I have had experiences which these experiences, it destroys their sen- don’t fit into the framework of a mechanis- suality and wildness, denies their bodily The rejection of religion in recent cen- tic materialist world view. Certainly, reli- nature, and so civilizes them. Eventually, turies has mainly taken the form of crass, gion could provide a framework for those they fade. Religion ceases to be orgiastic mechanistic materialism. But this is not experiences. and turns dogmatic--and to those with any truly a rejection of religion. This form of perception it becomes clear that religion is materialism still accepts the matter/spirit But, ultimately, religion fails to meet incapable of fulfilling its promise. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Attacking Deception-Pg. 50 The revolutionary proj- CHURCH AND BUSI- ect must certainly include NESSES ATTACKED the end of religion--but not in the form of a sim- IN ABILENE, TX plistic acceptance of he church, and all man-made infra- structure of a man-made god, is a tax-free business mechanistic materialism. Todd Wilson, pastor for worship and music at First Tenterprise, worthy of the same animosity and vio- Rather, we must seek to Baptist Church in Abilene, surveys damage to a lence as any bank. It is funded by its generation to awaken our senses to the chapel stained-glass window on Thursday, July 9th, generation deception, and praised by the social or- fullness of life that is the 2009. Police said five or six downtown businesses der for its unique and brilliant deliverance of social material world. We must were vandalized Wednesday night or early Thurs- compliance both historically and currently. People oppose both religion and day. “It’s a senseless act and a destruction of beauty will probably scoff and complain for reporting on mechanistic materialism and God’s house,” said Mike Greenfield, pastor for actions like these. But these are not attacks on an with a vibrant, passion- administration at First Baptist in Abilene. “I’m frus- individual’s beliefs, these are attacks on an ideol- ate, living materialism. trated that somebody has that little respect for God’s ogy that can only exist by its constant expansion and We must storm the citadel house.” In the chapel, the safety glass protecting imposition. An ideology that’s helped to create the of religion and reclaim the stained glass was pierced, knocking openings in Western World today. the freedom, the creativ- five of the large stained-glass windows. Police said ity, the passion and the five or six downtown businesses were vandalized As the church continues to modernize and plunder wonder that religion has Wednesday night or early Thursday. Greenfield es- the spirituality of native groups in the South Pacific, stolen from our earth and timated repairing the church panes would cost close Africa, Asia, or South America, it continues to fund our lives. In order to do to $6,000. However, the chapel stained-glass win- lobbyists in the states. We have no pity for the god- this we will have to un- dows, which have been in the church for 50 years, fearing who found their “sacred” places sabotaged, derstand what needs and could cost $5,000 each to replace. desires religion speaks to as cited in these reports. and how it fails to fulfill them. I have attempted Destroying the church is to attack the bank of the to express some of my western spirit. It is to destroy the spectacle of god. KEENE, N.H.: “HOPE” own explorations so that Once the church is destroyed, god and all that has we can carry on the proj- been rationalized in this idea’s name is destroyed. CHAPEL WAS COV- ect of creating ourselves as free, wild beings. The For god only exists in the church and its doctrine. ERED IN RED SPRAY project of transforming PAINT SATURDAY the world into a realm of sensual joy and pleasure July 14, 2009 by destroying the civili- Mainstream News Clip: zation that has stolen the fullness of life from us. This vandalism has more philosophy than profanity with at least 40 phrases, including, “end the lies,” -Feral Faun “think,” “end the hate” and “Nietzsche was right.” From Anarchy: A The vandals targeted the church with a message of Journal Of Desire atheism, causing an estimated $15,000 to $20,000 Armed #17, Fall/ in damage. Winter 1988 Rev. Joseph Mabe recalls seeing, “15 to 20 anarchy signs, anti-Christianity signs, anti-religion signs,” . In addition to the symbols, the vandal wrote out direct quotes from 19th-century German philoso- pher Friedrich Nietzsche, like “God is dead.” “I was angry, at first, that someone would do this because we’re doing our best to help people and make good news available for people,” said Dan McMahan, a Hope Chapel elder. McMahan said the anger is gone and now is the time to forgive. “We just put up, ‘Mr. Vandal, Jesus loves you, too.’ and actually, our people this morning had many conversations about finding whoever did this and welcoming him into our church,” Mabe said.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Attacking Deception-Pg. 51 A REMINDER FOR A DELUSIONAL ERA

AGAINST GREEN CAPITALISM; FOR EARTH LIBERATION

have been arrested for or accused of earth ate group, the “Animal Liberation Front”, liberation motivated crimes, or the com- was declared the number one most danger- muniques made public claiming actions ous domestic terror threat in the United under the banner of the “Earth Liberation States by the F.B.I in February 2002, state Front”. Although these criticisms have dis- investigation, surveillance, and harassment ach issue of Fire to the Pris- tanced those punished for “eco-defense” has found new funding, resources, and op- ons includes in-depth descriptions or driven crimes or “earth liberation” attacks portunity. If you are not familiar with the referencesE to different people currently themselves from the sympathies of many history of these two non-organizations that incarcerated or on trial for what the state other radical groups; the “earth liberation” operate informally as clandestine and un- calls “eco-terrorism”, and what others call movement, or the international “eco-ter- derground actions loosely connected by “earth liberation”. Some radicals have criti- ror” conspiracy, has proven itself to be as anonymous communiques signed “Earth cized this underground movement as being ferocious, uncompromising, and consistent Liberation Front” or “Animal Liberation a mere “single issued” force. This criticism as the repression it has faced, and unfortu- Front”sent into different media outlets; is in response to some of the “environmen- nately continues to have to overcome. To we recommend looking at the web-sites tal” concerns cited in the rhetoric spouted keep it brief, since the “Earth Liberation included below the actions mentioned fol- by certain prisoners or defendants who Front” along with its state appointed affili- lowing this introduction. We also recom- Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-A Reminder for a Dillusional Era-Pg. 52 mend reading the prisoner repres- Earth Liberation The damage was discovered with radio waves emitted sion section of this issue, as well Front Torches Devel- Monday morning. Two or from the towers, we applaud as prior issues to deepen an under- opment Water Truck more vandals put a mortar- this act by the ELF,” stated standing of the state’s attempt to in Mexico//August like substance into the en- Jason Crawford, a spokes- silence this threat. 7th, 2009 gine blocks or fuel lines of person for the North Ameri- Excerpt from a com- all the large machinery at the can Earth Liberation Front But alas, even as the state con- munique: project site, where a com- Press Office. “When all legal tinues to escalate its repression to- pany is in the early stages of channels of opposition have wards this invisible forth, hoping “In the clandestine darkness, building a 16-home develop- been exhausted, concerned to intimidate and punish whoever on a tranquil and hot night, ment, according to police. citizens have to take action they can find or connect to it, re- we assembled our dream into their own hands to pro- sistance continues. Its incredible with gasoline that would No one has claimed respon- tect life and the planet.” and inspiring no matter what your soon be fire. sibility and investigators interested in politically or anti-po- have no suspects, though For the past eight years, op- litically, that a struggle exists like We walk under the ghosts of they ponents have waged a legal this, specifically in the western the trees already destroyed, did collect evidence at battle against the towers, ar- world today. As a society that has only our breathing and steps the scene, police Lt. John guing that AM radio waves built itself at the severe expense we could hear. During this Hohmann said. cause adverse health affects of its own habitat begins to accept night, everything went well. including a higher rate of the potential consequences of this Police have not categorized cancer, harm to wildlife, and bastardly assault, a radical outlook We arrived at our objective, the crime as ecoterrorism, that the signals have been on the situation that doesn’t look to a truck full of water, utilized but the FBI offered assis- interfering with home phone profit off of the new or trendy con- to squander hundreds of li- tance in the investigation. and intercom lines. cern (Whole Foods, Sierra Club, ters of water for the earth Scotts Valley police are also Toyota Prius, etc.) but destroy the that civilization would later collaborating with UC Santa Last year, the first four tow- origin of the problem can certainly lick, urbanizing it and leav- Cruz police. Hohmann said ers were erected by KRKO be refreshing. “Built Green? Nope ing it completely infertile, the university has had “quite after numerous hearings and BLACK!”, was spray painted at all for the construction of a few incidents” of similar appeals. the scene of an arson claimed by streets where zombies wan- vandalism, the most recent the “Earth Liberation Front” that der. of which was a few weeks Fifteen Hummers caused over seven million dollars ago. No one has been arrest- Sabotaged at a Deal- in damages to a green condo de- We placed our device in the ed in connection with those ership in Portland, velopment in Maltby, Washington front rim of the truck and incidents and UCSC police OR (a suburb 25 miles northeast of Se- we hid behind urban flora. have no suspects, Hohmann September 14, 2009 attle) in March 2008. A precedent A small spark of happiness said. Earth Liberation set before a growing reign of green suffices to illuminate a sad Press Office Media capitalism. night of agony.” Everett, Washing- Release: ton: Earth Liberation Although it is important to see Front Topples Two -Earth Liberation Front/ Acid was poured over fifteen how much harder it is for state Radio Station Tow- Mexico Hummers at Vic Alfonso Ca- agencies to investigate crimes not ers// September 4, dillac in Portland, OR, USA. formally claimed as the “Earth Fifteen Tractors & 2009 As of yet there has been Liberation Front”, and quite possi- Earth Movers Sabo- no claim of responsibility. bly with an awareness of this fact, taged in Santa Cruz, At 3:30 am on September However, it is evident from attacks are happening against ur- CA (USA); $500,000 4th, 2009, a bulldozer was the sabotage that this act was ban or industrial development that in Damages// used to topple two contro- conducted in response to the go unclaimed. Requiring those August 16th, 2009 versial radio towers in Ev- environmental devastation who hear of it, people or police, Mainstream News erett, Washington belonging caused by SUVs and Hum- to have to come to their own con- Report: to the KRKO radio station. mers in particular. clusions about why so and so was A banner saying Earth Lib- destroyed. A vandalism of a Green Hills eration Front was left at the VISIT: Road construction site dur- scene. As capitalism begins its process ing the weekend caused at Earth Liberation Front of painting flowers on the images least $500,000 in damage to From Earth Liberation Press: of its industry, some have stood Press Office: 15 tractors and earth mov- www.elfpressoffice.org ground to remind us through force, ers, Scotts Valley police Bite Back Magazine that such attempts to put band aids reported Tuesday. “Due to the health and envi- www.directaction.info on the wounds inflicted on the hab- ronmental risks associated itat of this lost humanity will not be tolerated. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-A Reminder for a Dillusional Era-Pg. 53 RIO TS

Please feel free to forward us any le- gal information or unmentioned events AT around the G20 to his ar- include in our next ticle was added to issue, or forward thisT issue close to to readers of this our printing dead- magazine. All not- THE line. We tried to ed information here include as much stems from news re- information as we ports found online. could find as possi- All information here ble. Unfortunately, is previously made quite a bit of state public by another and federal repres- news source of sion is popping up some sort. G randomly around

the country as we With that said, this go into print. We says what we heard. apologize if you were arrested at the 20 G20, or recently subject to investiga- tion or surveillance by the state, or deal- ing with any post- G20 state abuse and not mentioned here.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 54 police response Specifically students had an opportunity to see the true side of the police as demonstrations around PITT University were met with some of the harshest po- lice repression. Although random targeted sweeps of more militant demonstrators were also a frequent occurrence at he Republican National Convention of 2008 the G20 by the military and police. helped to spark a new found understanding of American radicalT violence. Any opportunity to destroy, or produce As we read: on September 24th, at around 2 or 2:30 p.m. tension, is an opportunity that must be seized. Following an un-permitted march began to assemble at Pittsburgh’s the RNC, federal and state special task forces clearly de- Arsenal Park. As the park quickly swelled to over 1000 cided to move their domestic “anti-terror” posturing from people, riot police began to surround the park on all sides. Animal and Environmental resistance to those perceived Before they were able to completely contain the gathering, as anarchists or autonomists. With random raids prior to a small group of people began to leave the park heading the event, an overwhelming police state to greet the dem- down two streets parallel with the G20 summit location, onstrations around the RNC, random sweeps of people on followed by a few hundred people helping to fill up the the street, over 800 people arrested, 21 of which lead to streets. Immediately after the break-away march cleared felony convictions, a string of raids during and after the a few blocks, they were declared an “unlawful” assembly. event itself, the use of informants, and trials that still con- After a few more blocks, the snaking mob was met by a tinue to this day-we were under the assumption the state line of riot police communicating through a loudspeaker re- was expecting the G20 to be a bit more timid. But even peating a pre-recorded message. As the message explained before a police force of 4000, most of which was brought that the group was declared an unlawful assembly, a voice in from neighboring cities or flown in from places like Ari- turned into a tormenting alarm like noise called an LRAD zona, plus the national guard, the unfunded hoodlums act- or a Long Range Acoustic Device. This was developed by ing as the opposition were able to create mayhem for the the American Technology Corporation to act as a crowd G20 in Pittsburgh this September 2009. No protests around control device. Although the LRAD is owned by a few po- the event were permitted by the city, so any public opposi- lice forces in the United States (example: NYPD), the G20 tion was subject to arrest. We’re assuming those destroying is understood as the first domestic use of the device that was things were generally on the run, so those who had faith designed originally for Navy warships to warn on-coming in the cold heart of police practice faced the wrath of the Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 55 ships approaching without permission. It mob continued, running over the nearby can Apparel, the Pitt Shop, and a nearby is designed to generate a noise that can bridge into North Oakland. Once arriv- H&R block. As the tension continued to permanently damage hearing or go be- ing onto the other side, banks and fran- escalate, and the mob was forced to take a yond the average human threshold for chises like KFC were also attacked. This turn, a police substation was attacked by pain. But the group proceeded to remain specific mob as described by an article dozens in the mob. The mob continued in tact and respond to the LRAD, police found online by “crimethinc”, was said onward, as the police desperately looked warning, and tear gas with uncompro- to have dispersed from there. Small to contain it. Before its final dispersal, mising confrontation to the police line. confrontations are understood to have more businesses were attacked in the col- Tear gas was thrown back, and projec- taken place throughout the day as well. lege neighborhood of Oakland. Some of tiles and dumpsters were thrown towards In video footage you see rioters in dif- which were Quizno’s Subs, PNC Bank, the police to keep a distance. Watching ferent parts of the city, attacking police BNY Mellon, and Citizens Bank. As footage of this particular incident, it ap- cruisers with dumpsters and rocks. The the mob dispersed into a crowded area peared that once the tear gas became too police suffered the wrath of their own near the University, they disappeared much, or the police were planning to at- stupidity, as mobs of rioters attacked a into a crowd of random students and tack, the group began to run back into fully equipped police state, with nothing residents gathered by the overwhelming the smaller streets of Pittsburgh. Some but the clothes on their bodies, or what sight of the police, and Obama visiting of those who chose to stay were arrested seemed to be whatever was around or the area just hours before. Confused by or beaten by police. As what was said to would fit into their bags. As the mobs the quickness of the mob’s dispersal, like around 200 fled the scene, they entered temporarily dispersed the police began bullies who lash out at recess when their the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pitts- to expand, making their presence even victim’s get revenge, the police chose to burgh where a bank was attacked and the more abrasive. attack more or less, everyone. Students mob continued to flee. Some on-lookers watching nearby or gathered in the near- cheered and watched as this violent force As the night approached, and the cities by Schenley Plaza and or the “Cathedral quickly swarmed the neighborhood. It’s tension seemed to escalate more and more, of Learning” on the PITT campus, were said that friendship park was the re-con- from what’s been said, the city seemed to forcefully attacked and arrested by po- vergence point for fleeing rioters. Dur- be filled with a mixture of secured elite lice. Tear gas and pepper spray were also ing this encounter, the demonstration’s parties and activist schmoozing events. used on pretty much everyone in the area. alleged communications office was being One event, however, stood out. A mo- Students who refused to move were just raided, leading to two individuals arrest- tivational speaker, using a power point beaten and arrested. One girl we noticed ed and held at a 30,000 and 5,000 dollar presentation, and were assuming epic in video footage was being shoved by riot bail (Refer to repression piece following rhetoric explained the emotional benefits police as she was trying to leave the area. this). Twitter based communication con- of the therapeutic practice known as the After two to three shoves, the courageous tinued although the original communica- riot. Apparently such a thing is much young woman was tired of the bullshit, tion spot was raided by the police. Short- cheaper then most pharmaceuticals or and chose to defend her space by throw- ly after 4 PM the crowd grew to a few shrink rates. The motivational talking ing her bike at the enormous coward or hundred clearly amped from the unex- seemed to end at ten, as people convened police officer behind her. Although any- pected events prior. As the police heard following the therapy session, looking one with a heart or mind would have seen or noticed the crowd growing in Friend- for more opportunities to discover inspi- this act as an attempt of self-defense, the ship park, like earlier, they began to try ration. At 10 PM a “Bash Back” themed, police hit her in the face with their ba- and surround the park. During this the predominantly black-clad dressed mob tons, continued to beat her as she was on mob began to flee again, attempting an- took to Forbes Ave., 100 or so strong. the ground restrained, and then moved other snaking march. The mob swiftly Equipped with numerous dumpsters used her out of the video camera’s range. Al- managed to remain together even before to blockade intersections, helping to pro- though this was an act of abuse by bully an ever encroaching police force. As the tect the mob from the police, and create cowards, we’re assuming that at most she march continued at it’s “slowly jogging” a comfortable space for the mob to re- will be rewarded money, if not charged pace, the police attempted to attack as it lease some pain, chants like “We’re here, with assault on an officer. As her situa- took a turn. Although a few individuals we’re queer, we’re anarchists, we’ll fuck tion was caught on video, were assuming were nabbed by undercover police, the you up”, helped to set the mood for the quite a few of the beatings were not. mob defended themselves by throwing event. What appeared to be over a hun- projectiles at the police, keeping them dred people marching around a dumpster From the footage we’ve seen and reports at a distance. Once distance was estab- containing high flames of fire, the street we’ve read, it seems that this day was an lished, the mob dragged a chain-link was lit up, as individuals appeared to run eye-opener for residents and students re- fence to create a barrier in the street and in and out of the march and on and off of garding the true nature of the state, and aid in their escape. A few seconds after the sidewalk, destroying storefronts left the control they had over their everyday the escape was perceived successful, in- and right. Some of the businesses that lives. This may have been a day of em- dividuals attacked a Boston Market and reported vandalism were: Panera Bread, powerment for anti-political hooligans BMW dealership, leaving them both with McDonald’s, Bruegger’s Bagels, Sub- looking to send a message to the elite broken windows and new debts. The way, Rite Aid, FedEx Kinko’s, Ameri- who claim to rule this world.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 56 The victory was social tension. Unlike shutting down a specific event, this does not remain isolated to its occurrence. “YES, WE ARE AN ANONYMOUS COMMUNIQUE, FOUND ONLINE, ADDICTED TO DISCUSSING THE RIOTING” G20: Shadyside district, away from the police mentioned dumpster comes rattling down presence downtown. Unfortunately the the hill and is finally released, by its tem- march organizers seem stubborn in their porary conductors, hurtling towards the po- wishes to bring the march downtown, into lice who scatter upon its arrival. More gas a choreographed display of dissent with the is released. “ nce again we find our- thousands of waiting riot police. Through selves on the road, hurtling towards an pleadings, yelling, and threats they are able The scattered clashes finally become un- unfamiliarO city using some sort of gather- to push the bulk of the march downhill tenable as we get closer and closer to down- ing of international leaders as an excuse to towards the convention area leaving the town Pittsburgh. Many begin to shed their reunite with fellow anti capitalist miscre- splinter bloc isolated and with little other masks and retreat back up the hill towards ants from around the country in hopes of recourse than to follow the march towards the re-convergence point in Friendship provoking a modest level of social conflict the inevitable confrontation with the mass Park. At this very moment, unbeknownst to in yet another mediocre American city. of the police. those beginning their withdrawal, a smaller group which had already abandoned the Last minute meetings, paranoia, and a A loud car alarm noise, followed by a re- march is moving its way up Liberty Av- sinking feeling in our collective guts, these cording: “This is the chief of Police, you enue, eventually they encounter a PNC are the classic feelings of anxiety and ner- must disperse immediately...” The march Bank whose ATM's and front windows are vousness that always precedes an action. I is as close to downtown as the police will shattered as a security guard looks on in make my way to Arsenal Park, the starting allow. Tear gas clouds begin to billow up impotent frustration. A legal observer for point of the seemingly suicidal 'People's from the bottom of the large tank-like Ar- the ACLU is counter observed calling the Uprising' march. My anxiousness eases mored Personnel Carriers wedged into the police with a description of the alleged per- slightly as I pick out familiar faces which ridiculously narrow streets of Lawrencev- petrator of the window smashing. greet me with complicit nods. We head in ille. Rocks are thrown at a particularly ro- packs towards the meeting point. The park tund pig perched atop his preposterous ve- A brief interlude of coffee, enthusiastic itself is now a terrible mix of masked ma- hicle. A projectile whizzes gleefully close conversation and the feeling that there is niacs, placard waving protestors, and vari- to the pig's head provoking a new round of more excitement to come is broken by the ous freaks including a young man dressed tear gas. The crowd, now a mess of run- announcement that another march is al- in a cow outfit parading themselves before ning bodies, catapulting bricks and cough- ready leaving from Friendship Park. Pull- the assembled throngs of media. A large, ing on gas, scrambles through the cramped ing on gloves and yelling to friends we run sinister looking crew begins to assemble; streets grabbing at rocks and overturning towards the departing crowd. We squeeze shirts cover faces, gloves are tugged over dumpsters. One dumpster is righted to its into the back end of a decent sized march as hands, and hoods are pulled up. It is clear former position and after cruising uphill black masks are slipped back on. It seems that some people came ready to fight. for a while is reversed and pushed downhill that the afternoon's action has just begun. gathering momentum as it races towards its In the front of the crowd there is another “A, Anti, Anti Capitalista...” a chant goes destination. attempt by the organizers to push the march up as the black clad mass moves into the back into downtown. The police use this street, only to be immediately enveloped by A group surrounded by banners slowly hesitation to mount a charge splitting the a mob of photographers and video camera- inches its way towards the hostile line of throng in two. There is a tense moment as men slowing the nascent march to a crawl. riot cops who lob gas canisters at them. the crowd is squeezed between a chain link They make it to the corner and the front of One of the braver individuals in this group fence and stampeding riot police. the march suddenly veers to the left, di- extracts themselves from the banners, and verting from the publicized route. Those manages to return the gas towards the po- Regrouping it is clear the pigs have made a in the know quickly realize that this abrupt lice lines, safely reentering the temporary mistake; they have just pushed a black clad redirection of the march is made with the refuge of the banners. As this helmeted mob into an abandoned lot full of rocks. intent of moving towards the wealthy group begins to slowly retreat, the afore- Quickly the unfortunate cops are pelted Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 58 with chunks of concrete. Batons swing into the now sparkling mob. The dump- out, and a plume of thick orange smoke sters are dragged onto Forbes avenue The 24th of September saw some of the is thrown from the crowd. The police and slammed to the ground. “Set them wildest street fighting that has occurred begin to fire rubber bullets causing the on fire!” someone screams, and in an in a summit mobilization in the US in al- rock throwers to run. Luckily a Boston instant flames are flickering from inside most a decade. What importance these Market falls directly in the path of the of the metal container. To my right I type of encounters hold is questionable. rampaging throng, all of the restaurant's hear the familiar sound of hammer on At their worst they replicate the doomed windows are caved in with rocks. The glass, I turn to see every single window models of a bygone era, showing a lack mob continues and a bank is set upon, a of the block methodically shattered. of imagination on the part of those who cinder block is heaved with two hands Soon the noise is echoed as the opposite organize around these events. At their overhead and comes crashing into the side of the street is similarly destroyed. best they are spaces where a social rup- drive-in teller's window. Rocks are fly- Two police vans drive up towards the ture is able to occur, where larger com- ing everywhere. The crowd realizing rear of the crowd causing a brief panic. ponents of a local population can par- that its rampage has come to an end However they seem unwilling to take on ticipate in open conflict, with the help of scatters into alleyways and parking lots, the crowd, and merely ram the flaming the provocations of an active minority. ditching weapons and changing clothes. dumpster, emptying its charred contents onto the pavement. The focus quickly It is our work to figure out how we can On the other side of the police charge moves from the cruiser's flashing lights expand on these one-off events creating a squad car has its window shattered by to a police sub station that lies directly a wider continuity around our actions a rock, a BMW dealership is met with in our path. A projectile flies from the and making them more relevant to our a hammer. A beefy local tries to make crowd just missing the plate glass of daily conditions. We should also not a citizen's arrest of the culprit, but is the station. Fury is unleashed. With ut- underestimate the internal effects that quickly dissuade by a masked duo. A ter hatred a group leaves the march and small collective victories provide within KFC is also met with bricks and rocks. begins smashing, kicking and pummel- the war that capital and authority wage A few people are beaten to the ground ing the windows of the station. A brick against us everyday of our pitiful lives. by police and dragged away but the ma- bounces off the thick glass as a u-lock jority of the crowd manages to escape is tossed into the spider web of the shat- On the 24th many of us realized a safely. tering crystal. small portion of the potential we have as a fighting force. Through the sounds “Are you ok?” “Where is XXXX?” The mob continues in a frenzy, more of shattering glass and the reassuring Nervous phone calls eventually reveal windows are broken. Police begin to arms of the friendly mob, we savored a that all of our friends are safe. So far arrive. A chant arises from the crowd rare taste of the chaotic joy of collective so good. It is early evening and already “we're here, we're queer, we're anar- confrontation. Now that we have had many of us have witnessed more street chists, we'll fuck you up!” a passing the ability to experience this forbidden fighting today than we have in years. Jock takes up the challenge and elo- pleasure we yearn for more. quently yells “faggots!” at the crowd. Nighttime in the Oakland district. Pitt The reply comes in the form of a limp Students have been having a prolonged wristed fist to the frat boy's smug face, and unusual standoff with mounted riot followed by a well placed kick to his YES! police for hours. Rumors circulate that gut. To finish the dialogue, a can of pep- there is more on the menu for the night. per spray is released into the bigot's al- A crowd begins to assemble on Fifth ready watering eyes. He is left enlight- avenue a block north of Forbes avenue ened and bloody on the sidewalk. By WE ARE which, loaded with chain stores, is the now the students are getting excited by main business street in the area. Some- the turn of events and the police begin one stands up and announces “Wel- to panic. Gas is released, helicopters come to the march, we ask that no one descend. Time to leave. ADDICTED destroys any property...” the masked crowd glares at the speaker who quickly Sweaty and exhilarated we head home. adds“...until we reach Forbes Avenue.” As we wait at a light, a police cruiser Laughter as the group realize they must zooms up to us. I am gripped with fear restrain ourselves for one short block. until I realize that the car, which is TO Glitter is thrown into the crowd creat- headed from the direction of the march, ing a surreal touch to the already bizarre has its entire windshield smashed in. moment. Not a police officer is in sight. The cop behind the wheel looks more RIOTING frightened then we are, he slams on We take the street and round the cor- the gas fleeing the area. A wicked grin ner. In an alleyway a small group of crosses my face as we leave the carnage hooded figures shove several dumpsters behind us and slip into the night. Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 59 REPRESSION AROUND THE G20

literature were among the dozens of items long history of working for the People’s seized Thursday at the Jackson Heights Law Collective, a group he described as home where Elliot Madison, 41, lives with providing legal representation for protest- his wife Elena, 39. ers.

lthough the arrest toll Madison is free on bail after Pittsburgh In court papers, Stolar argued that the is said to be over 190 people on day one cops arrested him on Sept. 24 and charged search is illegal and asked Brooklyn fed- Aand two of the G20 in Pittsburgh, we only him with hindering prosecution, criminal eral Judge Dora Irizarry to order the return have information on a few of the cases use of a communication facility and pos- of the property. that happened. We apologize again if you sessing criminal instruments. were arrested during the G20, in desire of The judge issued a temporary order of support, and not mentioned here. Again, Police tracked Madison and another man protection stopping the feds from going please contact us so we can help spread the to a motel room at the Carefree Inn in Pitts- through the material. word, or include you in the next issue of burgh, where they discovered a makeshift the magazine. communications center, according to a Neighbors said the house was swarm- criminal complaint. ing with agents during the 16-hour search, As mentioned earlier: two individuals while helicopters flew overhead. were arrested during the earlier part of the The two men were seated in front of per- first day of the G20 for allegedly aiding in sonal computers and telecommunications STATEMENT FROM THE the movement of demonstrators via twitter. equipment, wearing headphones and mi- Following his arrest and release from jail, a TORTUGA HOUSE FOLLOW- crophones and surrounded by maps, con- ING THE RAID: raid by Federal and State police forces took tact numbers and police and EMS scanners. place on his home in New York City. We include a description below from conserva- Cops claim they were using Twitter to di- When They Kick Out Your Front Door, tive New York news paper “The New York rect the movements of protesters and up- How You Gonna Come? Post” describing the events. Following date them on the location and actions of this article we also include a statement that law enforcement. On October 1st, 2009, at 6:00am, the Joint came out from the house just a few days Terrorism Task Force (a union of local po- after the raid. The statement includes an The details of Madison’s recent arrest and lice departments and the FBI), kicked out email to contact for further updates and Thursday’s search emerged yesterday as the front door to our home—an anarchist ways to support them through this rough defense lawyer Martin Stolar asked a fed- collective house in Queens, NY, affection- situation. We send our utmost solidarity eral judge to stop authorities from review- ately known as Tortuga. The first crashes of and love to the comrades who had to cou- ing confidential information contained in the battering ram were quickly followed by rageously stand ground as it became clear his client’s computers. more upstairs, as the police broke in on 3 that this place of safety and comfort, no sleeping people, destroying bedroom doors longer was place to calmly sleep at night. But Assistant US Attorney Andrew Gold- that were unlocked. smith argued that some of the items raised ON FBI RAID ON HOME IN alarm, including a pound of liquid mercury Three more people, awoken by the most QUEENS, NYC FROM “THE in the house, alongside “books about poi- unpleasant means of bounding footsteps, NEW YORK POST” sons” and a microscope. splintering wood, and shouting voices, waited in the basement—their turn at drawn guns and blinding lights came quickly. “FBI anti-terrorism agents raided the The feds also found metal triangles that Queens home of a self-described anarchist are used to puncture tires and two boxes of We put our hands out where they could see charged with tweeting protesters with in- ammunition. Goldsmith said agents left a them. They ordered us out of bed. They structions on how to evade police at the collection of machetes, samurai swords and wouldn’t let us dress, but they did put a G-20 summit. daggers at the house, because they didn’t fall within the scope of the search warrants. random assortment of clothes on some people. We were handcuffed, and although A dozen gas masks, liquid mercury, back- the upstairs and downstairs groups were packs containing hammers and anarchist Stolar said Madison and his wife have a kept separate initially, we were soon all Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 60 together, sitting in the living room, of “directing” the rollicking G-20 STATE positioned like dolls on the couches protests, of using technology such as OPPORTUNISM and chairs. We were in handcuffs for Twitter to “hinder apprehension” of AND DAVID several hours, and we were helpless as protesters. The two were held on bail, our little bird, a Finch we had rescued one fetching the ridiculous amount of JAPENGA and were rehabilitating, flew out the $30,000 cash, and released 36 hours open door to certain death, after his later after the bond was posted. As of Not even going to the G20 you can tell through pic- cage had been battered by the cops in this moment, no additional charges tures or video footage that destruction was a col- their zeal to open the upstairs bedroom have been levied against the two, nor lective project at the G20, not isolated to one super doors by force. We shouted at them, against any other housemates in the af- hero of attack. Whether or not most people’s faces but they stood there and watched. termath of the raid. are covered, or most people are wearing the same clothes, there are obvious bodily distinctions that And they stood and watched us for As anarchists, we are under no illu- would contradict an allegation like this. But as the hours and hours and hours. 16 hours sions about what the State is capable state always does, they have found an opportunity to be precise, 16 hours of the NYPD of. We are not the first anarchists to to intimidate, or make an example of someone. As and FBI traipsing through our house, have our house raided, and unfortu- they failed to retain social peace, the embarrassment confiscating our lives in a fishing -ex nately as long as the State remains, we must be resolved, apparently David was chosen to pedition related to the G20 protests of will not be the last. We are, along with be the scapegoat. Apparently, the police claim that September 24th and 25th. The search other targeted individuals like David David broke over 20 store front windows, claiming warrant, when we were finally -al Japenga, the outlets for the impotent $15,440 dollars in damage committed on the first lowed to read it, mentioned violation rage the authorities feel when they lose day of the G20. Obviously such allegations are ri- of federal rioting laws and was vague control, as they did during the G-20 in diculous, and assuming they were looking for some- enough to allow the entire house to Pittsburgh. We, that beautiful we, that one to scapegoat, David refusing to give his name be searched. They kept repeating that include Tortuga House and all who when arrested, then giving a false name, may have we were not arrested, that we were find affinity with us, refuse the rigid annoyed them enough to choose him. Of the over free to go. But being free meant be- forms the authorities try and cram a 190 people said to be arrested, David was held the ing watched by the FBI, monitored world bursting with infinite possibili- longest. Below is a public statement providing the while using the bathroom, not allowed ties into—He is not a leader, she did most up to date information on his case: to make phone calls for hours or to not act alone, they are not being di- observe them ransacking our rooms. rected. Repression is a strategy that “David Japenga is a Pittsburgh resident who was ar- Being free meant they took two of us the state uses to put us on the defen- rested the night of September 24th during the anti- away on bullshit summonses, and even sive, to divert our energies from being G20 demonstrations. He is being held on $15,000 though this was our house, where we a proactive force and instead deal with straight bail on felony property destruction charges. lived, if we left, we could not re-enter. the terms it has set. We will not lie and The police and media are calling him a “one man say this has not left us reeling, but as wrecking crew,” trying to pin over $20,000 in dam- Three of us stayed to the bitter end. time and our dizziness pass, we know ages at Citizens Bank alone and most of the $50,000 Three of us stayed to watch the hazmat that friends surround us. Our resolve is worth of damage done during the entire week. The team come in to investigate a child’s strengthened by this solidarity, and we police are trying to cover themselves for their em- chemistry set, to see them search the will not be deterred by this state ag- barrassing inability to control the two days of the garage on an additional warrant, to gression. Summit. Japenga was charged with Felony Criminal sign vouchers for all the things they Mischief in the third degree, two counts of Criminal confiscated as “evidence”—Curi- We wish to thank all of our friends Mischief in the second degree, Possessing Instru- ous George plush toys, artwork, cor- and comrades who have stood by us ments of a Crime, and Providing False Identifica- respondence with political prisoner in these difficult few days. Our law- tion to a Law Enforcement Officer. A sixth charge, Daniel McGowan, birth certificates, yer filed an injunction on the raid the Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Mischief, was add- passports, the entire video archive of next morning (October 2nd) that was ed for his preliminary hearing but was dropped as a local media collective, tax records, surprisingly granted- it forbids the au- quickly as it was added. books, computers, storage devices, thorities from fishing through our be- cell phones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer longings until we head back to court Originally, David was held on $5,000 bail. How- DVDs, flags, banners, posters, photo- on the 16th. In the weeks and months ever, his bail was revoked an hour after his arraign- graphs and more than can be recounted to come we will do our best to share ment when the District Attorney mistakenly be- here. developments as they occur. lieved he had warrants out for his arrest. At David’s September 30th bail hearing, the judge and the DA The apparent impetus for this raid IF YOU WANT TO KEEP took cheap shots at Japenga’s character while go- came over a week ago, when two IN TOUCH OR FIND OUT ing over his arrest record, last known addresses and members of our household were ar- HOW YOU CAN HELP a few news articles from the internet. His bail was rested, once again at gunpoint, in the PLEASE EMAIL US AT: raised to $15,000 straight, despite the fact the initial suburbs of Pittsburgh. They are ac- [email protected] concern for it’s revocation was cleared up. cused of being devious masterminds, Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 61 David’s friends raised the $15,000 within 12 hours of his Bail Hearing and posted it a few days later while securing an apartment for him. He is expected to be released soon. Unfortunately, funds are still needed for his “CAN’T lawyer and other legal fees.”

TO SEND MONEY THROUGH PAY- PAL, SEND IT TO [email protected] STOP THE FREE DAVID JAPENGA SUPPORT COMMITTEE freedavidjapenga@hush mail.com myspace.com/freedavi djapenga THE STAY UPDATED

Refer to the following web-sites for infor- mation on other cases not mentioned, or updates on what we have mentioned as it CHAOS” unfolds. -Anonymous Post on “Anarchist News” Blog the first day of www.breakthechains.info the G20 www.anarchistnews.org www.infoshop.org

WE ARE ADDICTED

TO RIOTING

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Riots at the G20-Pg. 62 The Summer Anarchy Died

n the summer of 2009, Anarchy died. The cause of death; euthanasia. It suffered so long... Ten years... A damn decade... IIt lived -if you could call that “living”-, hobbling around from summit to summit, groping into the dark for dignity and security fences; a disfigured orphan in a parentless land. At least now, it’s out of its misery... And so, can you really blame it for taking its own life? That poor deformed baby, born on those misty Seattle streets in ‘99, it never had anything resembling a chance. In the light, you saw it and cringed... It then swiftly retreated back into the shadows ashamed of its looks... The poor thing... That little miserable creature could never grow like movements ought to grow; it just couldn’t overcome the defects that plagued it since birth.

If you think about it, the only thing more pitiful than a failed suicide attempt is something horrible like a baby getting a dead

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-The Summer Anarchy Died-Pg. 63 puppy for Christmas. At least now with cally miserable end” is the question that purports to critique and dismantle. this analogy, we can better understand the juts to the front of the queue. Yet the storm events of May 28th-31st, 2009, when liber- of texts that respond to the fiasco in Pitts- In the rebuttal text by “Crimethinc, Privi- als, ie left-wing capitalists, masquerading burgh neglect the primary question at hand, leged, Identity, and Conflict at the 2009 as revolutionaries, disrupted an action at and instead, point fingers or engage in va- Crimethinc Convergence” has a far more the Bash Back conference. Pacifism, the pid debate the issues -which are never real- democratic -”democratic” as a pejorative- capitalist ideology of peace, a defective ly the issues- or discuss both sides’ motives and contemporary vision than the Smack- gene inherited from Anarchy’s illegitimate and arguments. To really get to the foun- ers and is searching for “possibilities for parents, the worst elements of the ‘60’s dation of the problem, that is to truly con- radical communities to exist of mixed movement, again showed itself for what sider how Anarchy sank to such a low that race & class.” This dream is perfect for it is on those barricaded Chicago avenues the news of the month was a bunch of kids any bourgeoisie urban planner designing when its proponents became complicit with whining at each other in a smelly building, an ideal city where diversity and respect the police and dismantled the roadblocks. it’s necessary to realize that the argument flourish and a disturbing nightmare for the That is, it showed itself clearly as an inte- between the viewpoints are framed by op- revolutionary who should surely recog- gral part of the dominant system: an agent position between political -”political” as a nize the horrid exploitation churning under of the state. An unsuccessful attempt at pejorative- cartels. What actually unfolded these sorts of capitalist utopias. The toler- Anarchy’s own life left its maimed body on the day of the suicide was a confronta- ant image of a mixed race community, fed to drag on a few months longer, more de- tion between two political rackets: two left- to us on television commercials with token formed and more disfigured. wing capitalist factions warring for social people of color smiling in their pre-set surplus value in a degenerated milieu. The roles, is the new face of the dominant order Failing to constitute itself as a social force, accompanying literature makes this abun- equipped with black presidents and female Anarchy was at least determined to succeed dantly clear especially when one notices dictators. Revolution is certainly not the at Hari Kari. At the Crimethinc Conver- that no position on the situation is argued perfection of racial diversity but the com- gence in Pittsburgh On July 25, 2009, it for with hopes that it will clarify a method plete destruction of the separation imposed did what it set out to do, finally it was over, to move the world closer to revolutionary by any racial and cultural barriers. Most and Anarchy breathed its final breaths. On transformation. Since, what is not revo- importantly, revolutionaries do not aim to that fatal day, a group of nationalists claim- lutionary is necessarily complicit with the create a mixed class community but our ing to be a part of the Anarchist People of existent and is therefore capitalist, it also mission is to eradicate class in total. The Color disrupted and shutdown the confer- follows that the clash between the opposing intermingling and cohabitation of classes ence which hosted an irrelevant melange of parties is nothing less than a battle between is by far the most explicitly reformist, and workshops from The Carnival of Solidar- materialized ideologies. thus capitalist, goal imaginable. As long as ity: Tapping into the Radical Potential of classes exists there will be a war, the revo- New Orleans Mardi Gras to Musical Instru- For example, “The Smack a White Boy lutionary desires to furthers this civil war, ment Skill share and Construction. If this Part Two” never once mentions revolution. and the revolution itself is our victory in scenario isn’t funny enough, The disrupt- It’s as though revolution wasn’t even on which all social classes are annihilated. ers’ pitiful communique they released af- its writers’ minds. An observation pain- terwards, “Smack a White Boy Part Two,” fully elucidated upon reading the text and The political motives driving both fac- may be the only claim for responsibility in through dissecting its anti-colonialization tions have their roots in contradictions -the which its writers describe how one of the rhetoric will reveal that the sole aim of the previously mentioned birth defects- that actors is thrown down a flight of stairs in group was to evict white people from a have dogged anarchism since its rebirth in the action, leaving the reader to wonder if poor black neighborhood. The White Boy the late ‘90s. Any legitimacy ascertained we are supposed to feel sorry for the human Smackers seem to want to preserve some- from the recent anarchist sequence, begin- nerf ball. Of course, the correct response is thing within black neighborhoods from be- ning at the end of the last decade, that did to laugh at how silly the politics of the op- ing tainted by white anarchists, but what do so much to rekindle revolutionary thought pressed are in America. And then there are they want to safeguard? Are poverty, drug- and action must nonetheless be confided the memorable quotes from the disgruntled abuse, misery, or maybe even the rampant only when taking into account the statist attendants of the convergence like “if you high-blood pressure that plagues black essences that lurked under seemingly radi- touch the puppets, I’ll fight you.” As you America something worth defending? The cal appearances. This summer, these con- can see, revolutionary principles and pri- Smackers call for a return to good old days tradictions finally boiled to the top of the orities were in perfect comedic order at of White Flight, just this time in anti-op- pot and, at the same time, froze any pos- the event, especially when considering that pression speak, which will obviously leave sible furtherance of the sequence. today’s anarchist feels incomplete without the black ghettos in America in the same their colorful hand-sock and homemade horrible conditions they have always been Take for example, the first APOC confer- banjo. The coroner, with assurance, con- in, just anew without white faces. Cer- ence in 2003 attended by a hundred some- cluded that ridiculousness was the instru- tainty, the re-establishment of an all black thing people with likely genuine liberatory ment of death that killed Anarchy. The ghetto strikes no fear into the heart of pow- intentions. Nevertheless, APOC’s “need to tombstone reads “irrelevant.” er, and instead it likely furthers its project. organize independently and as a movement Thus so called “resistance” has become uniting people of color” is the result of so- “What drove the ‘movement’ to this comi- blind to its own furtherance of the system it cial movement forced backwards. A clear Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-The Summer Anarchy Died-Pg. 64 picture of the genuine social move- ments that appeared in the 1960s will show that people of color and “ANARCHISM IS their struggles were in no way iso- lated from the activity of whites’ struggles going on at the same time. Its the picture of the militant NOT A BEAUTI -”militant” as a pejorative- sepa- ratist Leninist groups calling for nationalist armed struggle that up- holds a falsified counter image. In FUL UTOPIA, NOR fact, it is the failure of the different social forces of the era to fuse into full revolutionary action that forced AN ABSTRACT back separations into categories. The dominant order feeds on these divisions and is more than happy with the creation of black commu- PHILOSOPHICAL nities from the petite-bourgeoisie suburbs of Atlanta to ghettos of the Southside of Chicago. These sepa- rations are the statist essence that IDEA, IT IS A SO remained hidden under the APOC project which recently appeared at the Crimethinc convention without CIAL MOVEMENT its progressive mask on revealing the unmitigated nationalist and separatist politics. OF THE LABOUR Similarly, Crimethinc’s significant contribution to the sequence was the reintroduction of the situation- ist critique of everyday life into the ING MASSES.” anarchist sequence but they never surpassed the democratic self-man- – Dyelo Truda Group agement tendency that was also the shortcoming of the situationists. The lifestylist criticisms constantly POST-SCRIPT lodged at Crimethinc are updated versions of the councilist democ- racy criticisms correctly pointed at Despite what I said earlier solely for the sake of an opening metaphor, the anarchist the situationsts. Now at the death movement did not begin in Seattle in ‘99. It was born again in the late ‘90s after of anarchism or the termination of roughly two decades of counter-revolution and before that had been reborn and the sequence, the shortcomings of killed several times throughout the prior century. The continuity of the history of both Crimethinc and APOC take the revolutionary movement is the history of the discontinuity of that movement. on roles of their own, well out- The movement is untidy, disrespectful, and willing to pounce on frozen sequences side the original conception, and becoming unified with the existent. The movement, the force that abolishes the solidify as institutions compatible state of things, is built upon the continuity of destruction, of overcoming even the with the existing order. The new stagnant visions of our prior struggles. It enables us to the think the future, because green capitalist regime of accumu- in the present the movement exists as practical task for revolution. The task for lation fits all too neatly with- Cri revolution is the need, to capture life and wherever and whenever there is an effort methinc’s DIY ethic and the mass to fulfill this need the movement is again conceived. of ex-APOCers that have defected from their revolutionary past into the world of the non-profit industry are testament to the contradictions integration into the state apparatus.

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-The Summer Anarchy Died-Pg. 65 MANAGERS OR MARAUDERS OF THE DESERT? BY CRUDO to become a physical force against an alienated means to better manage the material conditions which exploit an alienated society. We need to find and coerce all our lives. We began ways in which to find comrades in to see that the issues, were not the which we can engage in class conflict issue at all. The solutions, were not with; worlds that build our autonomy any within the the solution. We began to become not and power outside of this system. current revolutionary movement have interested in the baby steps and prog- Mknown activism. The specialized role ress that this democracy offered us, Thus, we are not interested in the in society that creates managers of as we saw that within the social war latest anarchist meme project. We are social change. Many of us became that is class society, there exists ten- not interested in the newest form of radicalized through being involved in sions that we hope to push into open anarcho-activism. We do not wish leftist political parties, animal rights rupture with Capital. We do not wish to create activist projects. We want activism, doing vegan outreach, to be managers of the desert which is power. We want to hit back. We want working for labor unions, and hold- this society. We do not want it to op- insurrection. The task lays before ing jobs canvassing for NGOs and erate better; be reformed, or changed. us to create ways to find comrades non-profits. Often, we were drawn to This society does not ‘progress.’ The outside of alienated activist means. these forms due to a moral sense that Marxist notion that we are marching We need to exist in the spaces that “something should be done” around a to the end of history, even if slowly, are not sub-cultural; we need to ex- certain issue. Galvanized into action, and the liberal notion that things have ist in the spaces were people already we often became involved in the only been made better over the years, is gather and exist where they feel the forms of organization available, that false. Capital obeys no master but it’s tight grip of class society. We need of the reformist activist left. Since own will. We which to destroy it and forms of communication that speak revolutionary ideas are often hard to find the oasis that exists beneath it to those who could become our com- come across in this society; many of and in the moments when we engage rades; not those in the same ghetto us had to come to our present con- in conflict. as us. We need projects which speak sciousness after first seeing the limit to the conditions we are faced with; of spending so much time organiz- But, many of us moved simply from and gestures of revolutionary solidar- ing against the new circus coming to leftist and reformist activism simply ity which give teeth to the rejection town, handing out ‘Why Vegan’ pam- into anarchist styled activism. Often, of those conditions. This is why a phlets, or logging in the hours for the these were the only things when we project like Fire to the Prisons is im- union or non-profit that we worked were younger that we believed that portant; this is why it exists. To give for. As we spent more time in these we could do “as anarchists.” Many confidence to those element in this so- movements, our eyes became open to will often state that these are some ciety which push for insurrection and the poverty of these types of action. of the only projects that are success- revolt; either conscious of it or not. We came to see that these activist ful in bringing new people in our To make those elements more pre- projects did nothing to end exploita- movement. We disagree. We desire cise and anti-political; to generalize tion and misery; they only sought to a new way to find comrades within them across all territory for the sake better manage it. the desert, as opposed to waiting for of intensifying our resistance. To put those involved in activism to trickle a rock in the hand of everyone who We saw these forms be further re- towards us after they are fed up of the is ready to throw it and a magazine cuperated back into capitalism; as we bullshit. We want to find those who in the hand of every prisoner who is labored long hours canvassing for are faced with similar conditions and ready to discover it. This magazine is Greenpeace for shit wages, expand- wish to fight against them. We are not part of a movement that will usher in ing the vegan capitalist market, or removed from the exploited. We too the creation of something new; some- buying into anarchist bike culture. are forced to sell our labor power for thing that has not been done before. Thus, our desire for the total destruc- wages in order to survive. We pay for tion of the social relations of capitalist rent in order to have a place to live. This magazine is apart of the rebirth civilization came to also encapsulate Our lives our organized, controlled, of anarchy as a movement that at- activism as well. We started to desire and directed by those who wish to tacks and destroys class society; not a total rupture with class society; not capitalize off our labor power. We seeks to better manage or reform it. just establish an identity as an “activ- are among those who are broken ist” that was outside of the rest of the apart by the color of our skin, what population which was “passive.” We lies between our legs, and our sexual NOTE: reject this identity; we became not in- desires. Our desire to destroy class terested in finding ourselves through society includes a desire to find com- This article was originally used as a stickers on our metal water bottles rades which share our passion for the review of this magazine for a college and how many meetings we went to power to control our own lives. Ac- paper. a month. Instead, we began to desire tivism is not a vehicle for this; it is

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Managers of Marauders of the desert?-Pg. 67 WORK IS DEAD LABOR

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-WORK-Pg. 68 WORK –noun *4.employment, as in some form of industry, esp. as a means of earning one’s livelihood: to look for work. 5.one’s place of employment: Don’t phone him at work.

more entitled to it. Work is a context in conflict with life. It is a period of our lives where Work cannot be made better, it can we do not exist. We compromise our only be destroyed. livelihood for the promise of future livelihood, while preserving the well The workplace must be destroyed, being of another’s livelihood in ex- never re-furnished. The workplace is change for means of survival. not a place, it is a dynamic, a victim- izing context that severs us from ever Doing something you like? taking care of ourselves, or living full Higher wages? priceless lives. The economy sus- Nicer work conditions? tains us; not the land, each other, or Health Benefits? our labor. We are fed by the bosses Although these things might make that make us starve, not by the hands work more tolerable; are our lives attached to our own arms, or the peo- something we really need to tolerate? ple we hold dear in our own lives.

Is tolerance or compromise as at- Life is not something to be earned, tractive as passion or embrace? it is us, it is always there.

Work is to not sincerely produce; The medium that forces us to earn a it is a moment of dead labor. Work life is called capital. The forced con- is only work in a stratified society tract is capital. where some have more then others. Work is only possible in a world that For us to achieve a livelihood, we celebrates inadequacy and division, must embrace the realization that in and mourns directness and intimacy every moment there is a choice, we by forcing individuals to depend on can either live it, or we can survive it. central forces, like industry for mate- rial substance, or the government for our communication, or culture for our understanding. Work is only work in a stratified society where some have more then others. To work is to lose our time and energy to save the time and energy of another claimed to be

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-WORK-Pg. 69 SHOUT OUTS

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Shot Outs-Pg. 70 ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE A FEW GOOD BOOKS By Fredy Perlman By Guy Debord Available in book format from Red and Black Press. Available in most bookstores.

THE COMING INSURRECTION AT DAGGERS DRAWN By the Invisible Committee Available from Eberhardt Press. AVailable in book format or online at: www.tarnac9.wordpress. com/texts/the-coming-insurrection

FIRE TO THE PRISONS HALIFAX ANARCHIST DISTRO PUBLISHERS www.firetotheprisons.com www.myspace.com/dissenthalifax

MODESTO ANARCHO WARRIOR PUBLICATIONS www.modestoanarcho.org www.warriorpublications.com

LITTLE BLACK CART INSTITUTE FOR EXPERIMENTAL www.littleblackcart.com FREEDOM www.it-est-futurum.blogspot.com 325 MAGAZINE www.325.nostate.net EBERHARDT PRESS www.eberhardtpress.org BLACK POWDER PRESS www.blackpowderpress.com

AMOR Y RESISTENCIA ANARCHIST NEWS COOL INFO www.amoryresistencia.blogspot.com www.anarchistnews.org BASH BACK! SECURITY, PRIVACY, & ANONYMITY www.bashbacknews.word www.security.resist.ca press.com SECURITY AND COUNTER-SURVEIL- FIRES NEVER EXTINGUISHED LANCE www.firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com www.anti-politics.net/distro/2009/warriorsecurity- read.pdf LIBCOM www.libcom.org MIDNIGHT SPECIAL LAW COLLECTIVE www.midnightspecial.net DIRECT ACTION IN GERMANY www.directactionde.blogspot.com CIVIL LIBERTIES DEFENSE CENTER www.cldc.org SOCIAL WAR IN GREECE www.greeceriots.blogspot.com INTERCONTINENTAL CRY www.intercontinentalcry.org PROLE www.prole.info SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL; THE MOVEMENT FOR TRIBAL PEOPLE’S SITUATIONIST ARCHIVE www.survival-international.org www.nothingness.org/si NO 2010; Olympics on Stolen Land! ANTI-POLITICS ZINE LIBRARY www.no2010.com www.anti-politics.net/distro Native Youth Media/Redwire Magazine BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS www.redwiremag.com www.bopsecrets.org

ZINE LIBRARY www.zinelibrary.net

Fire to the Prisons-Issue 7-Shot Outs-Pg. 71 “ON THE ONE HAND THERE IS THE PATH THAT LEADS TO THE INSTITUTIONS, ON THE OTHER, THE WAY TO THE STREETS. THESE PATHS CANNOT CO-EXIST.” NOW WHAT? ALL THINGS CONSID ERED / IT MUST BE DEST ROYED