“Any political movement or peoples struggle, which fails to provide support to fallen comrades, is doomed to failure as certain as day follows night.” As Day Follows Night -Harold H. Thompson

“Any political movement that does not support its political internees is a sham movement!” -Ojore Lutalo

“A movement that is not capable of looking after its comrades in prison is destined to die, and that at a high price under atrocious torture.” - Daniela Carmignani

“The point is simple: no serious political struggle which has any chance of attaining revolutionary potential can afford to ignore its prisoners.” -North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network

compiled march 2010 in arcata, ca AN INTRODUCTION TO PRISONER SUPPORT

! ! &( Books to Prisoners Programs

Here are some reliable books to prisoner programs we are aware of. All of them receive massive amounts of requests.

Books to Prisoners Women's Prisoner Book Project c/o Left Bank Books c/o Arise Bookstore 92 Pike Street 2441 Lyndale Avenue S. Contents Seattle, WA 98101 Minnepaolis, MN 55405 The Importance of Supporting Prisoners (page 3) Prison Book Program The Ins and Outs of Prisoner Support (page 5) Books Through Bars c/o Lucy Parsons Bookstore Writing to Prisoners (page 9) 4722 Baltimore Avenue 1306 Hancock Street, Suite 100 Ways to Contribute to the Support of Prisoners (page 10) Philidelphia, PA 19143 Quincy, MA 02169

Federal Prison 101 (page 13) Prisoner lit project Books through Bars …A Challenge (page 17) c/o Bound Together Books c/o Bluestockings Books Revolutionary Solidarity (page 19) 1369 Haight Street 172 Allen Street Spirit of Freedom: Support the Eco-Prisoners (page 21) San Francisco, CA 94117 NY, NY 10002 An Interview with Grant Barnes (page 28) Freedom for Marco Camenisch (page 30) Friends and Allies Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War (page 31) Resources (page 66) Bite Back www.directaction.info Insurgent Desire-Green Anarchist Archive www.insurgentdesire.org.uk Voice of the Voiceless, Peter Young's blog www.voiceofthevoiceless.org The information that follows was compiled from the Earth Liberation The Mid-Atlantic Infoshop www.infoshop.org

Prisoner Support Network, the Anarchist Black Cross, and various prisoner Do or Die: Voices of Ecological Resistance Activist Network (UK): support groups. Individual articles can be attributed to authors listed, but www.eco-action.org/dod/index.html www.activistnetwork.org.uk were edited for clarity.

Earth First! Journal www.earthfirstjournal.org CrimethINC Ex-Worker's Collective

www.crimethinc.com Killing King Abacus & Willful Disobedience Print copies of this ‘zine may be available by writing: ‘zines www.geocities.com/kk_abacus

As Day Follows Night Recommended Further Reading c/o Bar None PO Box 1 Attacking Prisons at the Point of Arcata, CA 95518 Production Towards An Alliance of Flame In Each compiled by Green Anarchy - available from Indignant Heart the GA distro. by the Claustrophobia Collective. Included with Digital copies of this ‘zine are available at http://zinelibrary.info the ABC Info & Resources pamphlet The Marini Trial - Italian State Repression of and also published by Venomous Butterfly. In total solidarity. Anarchist Revolt and Anarchist Responses Venomous Butterfly Publications pamphlet, The Defiant: Prisoners in the Global 2003. Resistance "Let's not give free reign to our jailers, strike the tiger's heart every day, in every way, Inspiring prisoners’ writings put together by the according to our differences, against the sadness and solitude of our cells of The Prison Within the Prison - Resistance now defunct Anarchist Prisoners Legal Aid confinement." to the F.I.E.S . Isolation Units In Spain Network (APLAN). compiled by Brighton ABC,

! " ! &' Prisoner Support Resources: The Importance of Supporting Prisoners By Harold H. Thompson Anarchist Black Cross Network Prison Activist Resource Center April 1995 www.anarchistblackcross.org PO Box 339, Berkeley CA 94701 www.prisonactivist.org First, it is important to stress that none of us are immune from arrest and prosecution for any number Break The Chains of alleged crimes. Especially once we have placed ourselves into the eye of the storm of struggle PO Box 12122, Eugene OR 97440 Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network against the masters of capital, who believe their station in life gives them the legitimate power to breakthechains.net BM Box 2407, London, WC1N 3XX. England. enslave us in whatsoever form they choose, to use us up, throw us away and profit by the blood and [email protected] [email protected] sweat we shed in their wage slave shops, factories and mills of capitalism. Once we step out in any www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk form of protest then the power of the state may fall upon us with unrelenting force. We are subject to California Anarchist Prisoner Solidarity arrest and imprisonment at any time, most of us, simply because we choose to be who we are PO Box 22449, Oakland CA 94609 North American ELPSN because we want to live the lives we choose in spite of the plans others make for us, because we [email protected] / caps.anarhija.org [email protected] dare to be different or because our eyes are open to the realities of our likely future, wearing the yoke of capitalism around our necks like beasts of burden, not equal human beings, unless we throw off the weight on our back to stand in the sun in our rightful place. Look at the person beside you, across Specific Prisoner Support Groups the way from you and then fully realize that individual may one day be arrested and so may you because you dare to be different, threatening to those who seek to control us, especially your life is

governed by the principles of anarchism or you believe in / have undertaken direct action against your Alex and BJ www.supportbjandalex.com Daniel McGowan www.supportdaniel.org oppressors. Getting arrested is no joke so without getting too paranoid, find out what to do in such a Tre Arrow www.trearrow.org Kevin Oliff www.supportkevin.org situation and also wise up about the police. I am often blunt to the point of pain so I do apologize if my Dylan Barr www.supportdylan.org Jonathan Paul www.supportjonathan.org words have made anybody uncomfortable but I think one sobering thought really needs to bring a Mel Broughton www.myspace.com/supportmel Leonard Peltier www.leonardpeltier.net wake-up call, feeling of discomfort with it. That thought is I am here today sitting in a steel and Jake Conroy www.supportjake.org Nathan Pope [email protected] concrete, tomblike cage writing these words to you but sometime in the future it might be you behind Josh Harper www.joshharper.org Jonathan Robert [email protected] prison walls, writing comparable thoughts to the outside. If they come for you in the mornings... Lauren Gazzola www.supportlauren.com Sadie & Exile (Nathan Black & Joyanna Zacher) Sean Kirtly supportsean.wordpress [email protected] The ‘system’ and mainstream media portrays those of us within the ever increasing number of jails Jeff 'Free' Luers www.freefreenow.org SHAC 7 www.shac7.com and prisons as being the equivalent of the proverbial biblical ‘unclean people’, to be feared, less than Jonotan [email protected] Tarnac 9 http://tarnac9.wordpress.com humans, and not to be bothered with or worthy any degree of outside concern or support. It amazes Marie Mason www.freemarie.org Briana Waters www.supportbriana.org me how many intelligent people, including anarchists, active in political struggles, have to varying Eric McDavid www.supporteric.org degrees bought into the disinformation put out by the system. The majority of the unfortunate residents of the gulags are for the most part just like other working class people on the outside, only Other Prisoner Support Groups through a twist of their destiny they were arrested, stood trial and were imprisoned. The system provides the sensationalist image of those behind gulag walls being a bad lot, best steered clear of Anarchist Black Cross Network (ABCN) Earth Liberation Prisoners Poland because the system fears association between those inside and outside. www.abcf.net [email protected] Bristol ABC www.geocities.com/bristol_abc For all the latest eco-prisoner news, as ELP Inside is a potential army waiting to happen, which needs education, direction and support. The Brighton ABC www.brightonabc.org.uk receives it, subscribe to UrgentELP: system desires nothing more than to maintain a wall of silence around the gulags isolating prisoners Prison Activist Resource Center list of [email protected] to break their minds and spirits. I have seen bodies broken and minds fragmented forever by the PPs/POWs For news about prisoners who are not brutal hands of the keepers and their clever use of weaksuck, inmate lackeys. I have seen many men www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/pplistalp normally supported by ELP subscribe to ELP- reach out to the struggles outside with heartfelt letters, eager for information about the various ha.shtml Extra: [email protected] movements, education about them. Prisoners seeking compassion and comradeship. I have seen Locked Out: A nationwide working group for To receive ELP's bimonthly newsletter, Spirit only a few of those who make contact, who are encouraged to learn, to grow, to realize who they are, activists supporting queer, trans, and intersex of Freedom, e-mail their potential value to themselves and to the communities outside gulag walls. I have seen far many prisoners: [email protected] more give up and sometimes even gravitate towards the hate groups, which are now in abundance http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/lockedout North American Earth Liberation Prisoners within the gulags as they are out there. These eventual recruits to the ranks of the extreme right could The British Vegan Prisoners Support Group Support Network [email protected] & have been soldiers within our ranks but those who claim to be revolutionaries outside chose to ignore www.vpsg.org www.ecoprisoners.org their very existence.

I myself tried in vain for over a decade ‘inside’ to make contact with like-minded people embracing anarchist politics. I was determined to reach out and refused to give up, unlike a lot of other prisoners around me. I reached out at every opportunity and continued to reach out when there was no

! && ! # response, through many letters requesting political literature and anarchist books but above all, before finally being released. penalty conviction. On July 25, comradeship with other anarchists. My unanswered letters began in the late seventies, continued After twenty-three years on the The prosecution intimidated 2005, Special Judge Steven throughout the eighties and into the early nineties. Finally, a first anarchist solidarity letter was run and five years on the ‘Most witnesses, suppressed favorable David issued a final order handed to me by a faceless clone of a guard at a Tennessee gulag in 1992! That letter and letters Wanted’ list, Katherine Powers evidence, presented false barring the state of Indiana from since has been like a welcome breeze of fresh air blowing through a place where the air and life was arrested in 1993 after eyewitness and expert pursuing the death penalty in stands dormant. The mere fact a fellow anarchist bothered to write brought tears to my eyes, eyes I turning herself in to police. She testimony, and denied him the Zolo's case. This precedent- was long convinced would never feel tearful moisture again. I’ve worked hard since that first was sentenced to eight to twelve right to speak or present motions setting ruling is a tremendous communication to break down the walls between us, you and I, to reach out, to show those who write years in prison and was in his own behalf. victory for Zolo! I’m not different except for my circumstances of being within the belly of the beast. released in October of 1999. The two other men charged and The Lake County Prosecutor's I am not saying the gulags do not hold their face share of social predators but many prisoners do Gilday is the only one still held convicted with Zolo received office has appealed Judge become politicized within gulag walls due to their own learning efforts. Through direct experience of captive. He is presently sentences of 60 years. But David's ruling and the oral the system itself, which generally treats prisoners with such blatant injustice that many soon feel only incarcerated in MCI Shirley in Zolo’s political history and arguments in front of the Indiana resentment, contempt and anger towards it. Repression breeds resistance. I am merely trying to point Shirley, Massachusetts. beliefs were used to paint an Supreme Court will take place out the obvious pitfall of not supporting those seeking the tools to become politicized. unfair and inaccurate picture of on June 9, 2006. The court will Zolo Azania him and he received the death decide whether to uphold or Sadder still than these social prisoners ignored by the revolutionary movements are those captured Zolo Azania is a former Black penalty for a crime he was not overturn Judge David’s decision during direct or other political actions only to discover once in captivity that they appear to have Panther convicted of a 1981 involved in. that prohibits the state of Indiana somehow not been deemed worthy of support and are hence soon forgotten by their so called bank robbery that left a Gary, from pursuing the death penalty ‘comrades’. One conceptual truth screams out in my heart to be voiced so I will state it now. Any Indiana cop dead. He was Since the trial the battle to save in Zolo’s case. political movement or peoples struggle, which fails to provide support to fallen comrades, is doomed arrested miles away from the Zolo’s life has successfully to failure as certain as day follows night. Prisoner support should be considered as a top priority incident as he was walking, resisted several attempts to within all political movements and with all activists, as we, you or I, never know when gulag gates will unarmed, down the street. follow through with the death slam shut behind us or when those gates to the outside will open again to allow our passage back out once the system has us in it’s grasp.

I have endured many hard years, over a decade and a half, within the gulags of this state. As I’ve already said I spent the first decade banging my head and heart against a wall of silence, attempting to reach out to ears that appeared to be deaf and eyes which appeared to be blind to my existence in hell. I never gave up and have earned the right to point these issues out now. I have earned the right to speak out with the shedding of my blood, the pain of this, in past beaten, tired body and my spirit of anarchism has never been broken by my keepers and never will be! It has only been in recent years that I have been acknowledged by my anarchist brothers and sisters out there. From my heart I state to you that I love you all! I will close now with these final words. Take care of each other, keep each other safe in the struggles which you face and never forget those in captivity because tomorrow’s captive of the monsters of this earth may well be you. Our common enemies are the same from country to country being only different in name and face. They represent the same ideology, which sees this planet and it’s populace as throwaway commodities. They threw away their humanity in exchange for power and profits. Stay strong and know in your hearts I am with you in revolutionary spirit in every act you undertake against those who oppress us. We only want the earth; they will never get us all!

U.S. anarchist Harold H. Thompson died (11/11/2008) in a Tennessee prison where he was serving life without parole at the age of 66. He was sentenced in 1979 for the killing of a police informer who killed Harold’s partner, and robbing a jewelry store. He was also sentenced to an additional 21-75 years for another shooting incident in Ohio, and later also given an extra 32 years for a failed armed escape attempt. He was active as a jailhouse lawyer while in prison and authored several articles and pamphlets.

! $ ! &% parole commission to grant his Weather Underground. Gilday Bond and a fifth member of the The Ins and Outs of Prisoner Support release was overturned by the began to organize around group, Robert Valeri, were By the NA Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network National Commission. With the students rights and the anti-war quickly apprehended. Days after truth coming out daily about the movement. During this period, the robbery, William Gilday was Leafing through the Earth First! Journal, most readers have probably seen the Journal page devoted high incidence of inmates who the three met up with Susan captured after pursuit by police to Earth and animal liberation prisoners. Usually relegated to the nether regions of the magazine, the have been falsely convicted and Saxe and Katherine Powers, two cruisers and helicopter. page contains names, addresses and short descriptions of individuals being held captive by the state imprisoned, exonerations of college students from Brandeis for acts of Earth and animal liberation. The question that may be asked is: why does the Journal list Death Row prisoners (156 to University. Gilday was tried and found guilty political prisoners and why should I do anything more than give a short glance to its contents? date), police and prosecutorial for the killing of the Boston malfeasance and other failures On September 23, 1970, Gilday police officer. He was sentence As the EF! and larger ecological defense movements have grown, more militant and direct actions of the criminal justice system, along with four other comrades to death but his sentenced was have surfaced, particularly in the last 4 years. The introduction of genetically engineered crops, the Veronza's case deserves careful entered the State Street Bank later reduced to life continued decimation of the last old-growth forests and the expansion of development projects into review. and Trust Company in Boston imprisonment. the last wild places have spawned a new generation of warriors more likely to physically destroy the with the intent to expropriate In 1972, Gilday’s codefendant, oppositions' machines and buildings than hold signs or petition the government for change. The William Gilday funds to help finance the Stanley Bond, was killed in an proliferation of actions taken against industry (claimed by the Earth Liberation Front, Animal William "Lefty" Gilday is a 60's movement against the Vietnam explosion in Walpole State Liberation Front or unclaimed) is enough to warm the heart especially after the reactionary stances radical sentenced to death for War. The group retrieved Prison. According to the taken by many radicals post September 11th. As we have seen in the Pacific Northwest (US), every his involvement in bank $26,585 from the bank. authorities, Bond was making a action (or dozen) has a separate and equal reaction in this case the reaction of the state to acts of expropriation while attempting to bomb, which was to be used sabotage against industry. The state apparatus is expanding rapidly in order to hunt down "terrorists" finance the anti-war movement According to the FBI, Gilday and during an attempted escape. wherever they rear their head (this time it's the Green Scare). The FBI/ATF budget is expanding during the Vietnam war. Gilday friends were a "radical, Robert Valeri became a witness exponentially and we have to come to terms with the fact that this war being fought against industry is a former minor league revolutionary group dedicated to for the state against his will yield prisoners of war. It would behoove us to do more than just cheer when we hear of wild baseball player from Amesbury, attacking the United States accomplices, served time in horses being freed by elves in the night, McDonald's burning down, or a beheaded Columbus statue. Massachusetts, who, while in his military system and undermining prison for manslaughter and early to mid-thirties, was police powers." The FBI claimed armed robbery, and was The point is simple: no serious political struggle which has any chance of attaining revolutionary arrested and imprisoned on it also had reason to believe the released. potential can afford to ignore its prisoners. To turn our collective backs on prisoners is to ensure that robbery charges. While same group was responsible for our movement will stay small, relatively mild and will never be a threat to biocidal industry. Who would imprisoned he met up with an assault on the National The FBI claimed Saxe and want to take action if they knew their support would be minimal (or behind closed doors) if they got Stanely Bond, a Vietnam Guard Armory at Newburyport, Powers were able to elude nicked? helicopter pilot also imprisoned Massachusetts, on September authorities because of close on robbery charges. The two 20, 1970, which left the armory relationships they developed In this article I want to give some ideas on the many ways we can support the prisoners that are in became friends and after their heavily damaged by fire and within the women’s movement. the Journal prisoner page as well as some guidelines for doing support work. Here are just a few of release, both entered into the explosions. Ammunition and a FBI agents flooded the women's the most accessible ways that you can assist those being held captive by the state: Student Tutor Education truck were seized during this communities of Boston,

Program(STEP), a program action but were later recovered. Philadelphia, Lexington Corresponding with prisoners designed to help former inmates It is also believed the group took (Kentucky), Hartford and New Letters quite simply help bridge the gap between the "inside" and "outside" worlds. They help inform enter into university level part in the robbery of a saving Haven. Their conspicuous the prisoner of what is going on in their movements, the world and even their community. The penal education. Gilday enrolled into and loan in Philadelphia earlier interrogation of hundreds of system exerts a massive strain on prisoners to break ties with the outside world. Communicating with Boston's Northeastern University that year. politically active women, prisoners helps work against that strain and ensures that they do not feel completely isolated. Often with another fellow inmate, followed by highly publicized times, people say "what would I write to someone in prison? I wouldn't know what to say." It's simple. Robert Valeri. Bond entered into As Gilday and company left the grand jury subpoenas and Remember: they are human. They have needs and interests like anyone on the outside. Share Brandeis University. bank, a Boston police officer, jailings, wreaked havoc in health something about your life with them. Ask about what life is like on the inside and what they plan to do who had been alerted by a silent collectives and other vital when they get out. Offer some assistance. An unexpected letter from a supporter can be a welcome It did not take long before the alarm, was shot and killed. projects. Activists and potential break from the daily monotony of prison life. Don't feel intimidated by the person you are writing-they three former inmates got Shortly after the incident Boston supporters were scared off, and are not a superhero; just someone that had the courage to act for what they believe in. involved in the Student police obtain warrants for two fear spread across the country, movements of the 1960’s. college students, Susan Saxe hampering women's and lesbian Consistency is paramount when communicating with prisoners. Commit to writing to one prisoner and William Gilday and friends and Katherine Powers, and organizing nationally. do it well. They will appreciate it more than a short hastily written letter. The examples of people became involved in Students for former convicts Stanley Bond attempting valiantly to keep up with writing to 10 prisoners and then having to scale down to 1 or 2 a Democratic Society (SDS) and and William Gilday. The four In March of 1975, Susan Saxe are innumerable. Consistent support is always better than short-lived "flash in the pan" support. That later moved into a militant were charged with murdering the was arrested in Philadelphia and being said, people should not feel the responsibility to commit to writing to prisoners for the length of offshoot of SDS, known as the policeman during bank robbery. served seven years in prison ! &$ ! % their sentence. Prisoners will generally appreciate a letter with some kind thoughts and may not even room toward the Japanese The Arrest evidence independent of these have the time to keep a steady correspondence with everyone who writes them. Embassy. Also that morning, a On September 21, 1996, local informants to link him to the car bomb exploded in the police in Kathmandu, Nepal crime. At his trial, Veronza Keep in mind that there is a very good chance that what you write will be read by any or all of the Canadian Embassy parking lot arrested Tsutomu Shirosaki after offered alibi testimony, which above: prison guards, wardens, other prisoners, FBI, CSIS (Canada), the new Office of Homeland causing injuries to three people. he tried to contact some friends, was not credited by the jury. Nor security (US cabinet position) … You should assume that what you write can be used against the A group calling itself the Anti- whose phone was tapped by the was testimony of two relatives of prisoner, yourself and your community so be careful and have discretion. Imperialist International Brigade US " National Security Agency. the informants who insisted that (AIIB) claimed responsibility for He was handed over to the FBI they were lying. The informants Many prisoners are targeted by prisoncrats for being political; receiving large amounts of mail or for the action. The attacks were in and extradited to the United had all charges against them in the "subversive" content of the mail they receive. It is important to know the guidelines concerning response to the G7 summit in States to stand trial. this case dropped and one was prisoner mail. First, ask the prisoner what they may or may not receive. Usually, they have a fairly Tokyo. given $10,000 by the good idea of what is appropriate to send and what will not make it past the censors. Prisons are After arriving in the United government according to the known for having strict regulations for what a prisoner can receive e.g. new books only, first-class Seven weeks after the incident, States, Shirosaki stood before a prosecutor's post-sentencing mail only. If that does not work, write to the warden of the prison requesting a list of regulations. A tool the Japanese government 15-day trial and was sentenced report. Veronza has consistently commonly used to disrupt prisoner support is the "Mail Violation Notice." They can (and sometimes announced that they had found to two concurrent 20-year terms proclaimed his innocence of the do) reject mail for any reason they want including the presence of a "circle A" on a ‘zine or the use of a fingerprint of Tsutomu and also given 10-year terms on crime he never committed, even the word "Anarchy" in a letter. Don't be discouraged by these tricks-either file an appeal (which you Shirosaki in the hotel room other chargers. The 20-year at the expense of having his have little chance of wining), modify the package to appease them (easiest and most likely to work), where the rockets were terms were ordered to run appeals for parole denied, for or send it again (hoping a different mail censor sees it). Whatever you do, do not give up and allow launched at the Japanese consecutively to the 10-year which an admission of guilt and them to further alienate the person inside. embassy. They also claimed the terms for a total prison time of contrition is virtually required. He Anti-Imperialist International 30 years. insists on maintaining his Fundraising Brigade was another named for innocence. If there is one thing that all prisoners and those on trial need, it is a large the Japanese Red Army. Tsutomu Shirosaki never took amount of financial assistance. Legal fees are exorbitant and many political the stand at his own trial. He has The Black Panther Party was individuals will not receive any reduction in these fees based on their During the time of the attack, stated he had no part in the targeted by J. Edgar Hoover and principles or the action they took. Prisoners often need assistance with Tsutomu Shirosaki was still in attacks in Jakarta or the FBI in its infamous setting up legal defense funds that will be maintained by trustworthy Lebanon. He was not in Jakarta membership with the Japanese Cointelpro Operation which, individuals that are prepared to make hard choices with little money. and was not a member of either Red Army or the Anti-Imperialist during its years of operation Because of their imprisonment, the act of setting up a bank account is the JRA or the AIIB. Shirosaki International Brigade. He has from 1956 to 1971, surveilled, impossible. It is important to set up a way for people in the movement to help did not respond to the claims of argued that his fingerprint had infiltrated, manipulated and tried out financially. Ideally, these accounts would exist already in cases of his involvement because he felt been placed at the scene. In his to provoke criminal activities by emergencies, but that is rarely the case. Setting up a bank account, a PO they were so ridiculous. He was own words, “I did not know that entirely lawful civil rights and Box for people to send checks to and a person/name who will act as a in Lebanon and thought that he planting a copied finger print peace demonstrators exercising recipient of those checks is key and should be a high priority. The prisoner was in a safe haven. from a file is easy work, even in their First Amendment rights to needs to be fully informed and in control of the money that is raised on their the early '70s a corrupted oppose government policies. behalf. Never underestimate the generosity and solidarity of our movement After the Oslo Accords, it policeman did, but a few years Hoover referred to the BPP as and your own community. Thousands of dollars have been raised for people became difficult for the later it became clear. But I didn "t "the greatest threat to the facing imprisonment from small benefit shows and zine/T-shirt sales. Palestinian armed resistance to know such information, as internal security of this country" Keep in mind that prisoners are always in the position of having to buy from exist in Lebanon, so Shirosaki mentioned, I was in Japan’s jail, and authorized surveillance of the incredibly expensive (and monopolistic) prison commissary, which is the decided to leave. Using a false then in Lebanon, then in South many black and antiwar leaders only place, a prisoner may buy envelopes, stamps and even soy milk. A ID, he traveled to South Asia. Asia, so no news about such including Martin Luther King. consistent flow of funds into their books is one of those things that makes activities.” prison life bearable. A contribution of as little as $10 a week can cover a In December of 1987, Italian Despite letters of support from prisoners' postage fees thus allowing them to communicate with supporters authorities announced an Veronza Bowers prominent attorneys, former and friends on the outside. Often times, funds can be sent directly to the international warrants for Veronza was convicted in the high-ranking representatives of prison and deposited into the prisoner's account. Tsutomo Shirosaki and another murder of a U.S. Park Ranger regional commissions, prison suspected Japanese Red Army on the word of two government officials and a member of the Solidarity Actions member, Junzo Okudaira, for an informers, both of whom U.S. Congress, Veronza has Many people will feel drawn not to writing letters or raising funds but to attack on the U.S. Embassy in received reduced sentences for continually been denied release continuing the struggle that the prisoners are fighting. Some call this concept Rome six months earlier. other crimes by the Federal due to intervention by the U.S. revolutionary solidarity-an action committed in solidarity with a prisoner that may or may not focus on prosecutor's office. There were Parole Commission. A recent a similar target. When anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis was sentenced to 15 years for the attempted no eyewitnesses and no decision by the regional federal ! & ! &# Tom Manning serving a double life, plus On October 2, six of the nine bombing of the Greek Ministry of Development, others committed multitudes of actions in solidarity Tom Manning is an anti- multiple sentences. prisoners were released and with him. Maziotis' sentence was reduced from 15 to 5 years on appeal partially because of the threat imperialist PP. After returning to taken to Dhaka. One of those of continued attack should Maziotis be held captive any longer. (He ended up serving 3.5 years) the U.S. a veteran from the war Tsutomu Shirosaki prisoners released was Tsutomu Similarly, when Rod Coronado was sentenced for action relating to the ALF's Operation Bite Back, in Vietnem, he found himself in Tsutomu Shirosaki is a Shirosaki. The released many felt that his jailing would stifle actions taken for animal and Earth liberation. The ALF responded prison serving a 5 year sentence Japanese national imprisoned prisoners, the JRA hijackers and with a series of fur farm liberations throughout the Midwest US dedicating them to him. Former for apolitical activity. as a political prisoner in the the remaining hostages then prisoners have commented that the only thing that freed them was the pressure on the streets and United States. He has been flew to Algeria, where the the threats of continued action. A former Black Panther and Political Prisoner had this to say about However while in prison, Tom accused of being a member of hostages were released. this premise: became somewhat politicized, Japanese Red Army and According to Shirosaki, the taking part in food and work participating in several attacks, released prisoners and JRA "But I learned that the movement in the streets determines whether you languish in strikes, reading Che and uniting including a mortar attack against members eventually ended up in prison or are released, not the State. If it becomes strong enough it can compel a with other prisoners from other a U.S. embassy. He is currently Lebanon. After the drama of the favorable outcome, even if the officials swear that you will be executed or die in prison." cultures. serving 30-years in a U.S hijacked settled, the Japanese Federal prison. authorities announced that the Here comes the tricky part: there really is no way to know the effect that an action or a communiqué Completing his sentence in released prisoners should turn can have on a prisoner's case. For example, three days prior to Jeffrey Luer's (Free's) trial, 36 SUV's 1971, Tom began a family and Tsutomu Shirosaki was born in themselves in to the nearest were torched at the same car dealership that Free and co-defendant Craig Marshall (Critter) took became active in political 1947 in central Japan. In the Japanese embassy. With no action against a year prior. The communiqué that came out stated that the action was done in organizing, particularly with a 1960s, he went to Tokyo response from the prisoners, the solidarity with Free and Critter and against their unjust imprisonment. There is no way of knowing the Portland, Maine group known as University, where he received a Japanese government placed impact of this statement prior to Free's trial but these are Free's observations (reprinted from the SCAR. Much of this work degree in engineering. It was the freed prisoners on the Break the Chains newsletter #9): centered around working with during his college years, where Interpol wanted list. prisoners, ex-prisoners and their Tsutomu began participating in Tsutomu Shirosaki, while "My critique is this: this act would have been just as significant and more beneficial to loved ones. This work rapidly the student movement, choosing freedom, had no idea me if my name was not mentioned in the communiqué. That said, I would like to extend expanded to many areas of embracing a more left-wing where to go. He had never my revolutionary thanks to those persons unknown. To those responsible for these social concern including philosophy. By the 1970s, traveled outside of Japan and actions, please know my gratitude". spoke no other language than employment and housing for Shirosaki participated in various his own. The other freed people coming out of prison, underground activities, including This is not meant to be a criticism of this action just a reminder to people that we all need to proceed prisoners found themselves in a housing, welfare, advocacy, a string of bank and post office with caution when it is other people's freedom and well being that we are dealing with. similar situation. According to transportation for visits of robberies. These actions were Shirosaki, the Japanese Red prisoners family, childcare, a bail fund-raising activities for Work on projects that are prisoner-directed fund and a bookstore. Japanese radical groups. But in Army assisted the freed The most successful prisoner support projects are those that are conceived of and directed by the 1971, Shirosaki was arrested in prisoners in adjusting to the new prisoners themselves. Two examples of such projects are the Victory Gardens Project in Maine Tokyo and sentenced to ten region. Despite the generosity of Through this work and the study (started by NY3 political prisoners) and the Anarchist Prisoner Legal Aid Network (APLAN- started by years in prison for an attack on a the JRA, Shirosaki has stated required to do it effectively, class anarchist prisoner Rob Thaxton). They are successful and long-term because the prisoners Bank of Yokohama branch that he never joined the contradictions became very themselves are leading them and working in conjunction with outside support to achieve their aims. office. organization. Instead, he clear to Tom. Eventually these Another prisoner directed project is the publishing of prisoners writings and artwork in 'zines. This became a volunteer fighter in the realities lead to become active in could include receiving the letters, typing, copying, distribution and fundraising. It's a big task but Palestinian revolution with the the armed clandestine Flight 472 Hijack many examples exist of excellent prisoner directed ‘zines like Strong Hearts (done by Rod Coronado Popular Front for the Liberation movement. On September 28, 1977, five while imprisoned) and the South Chicago ABC group, which publishes tons of prisoner ‘zines. of Palestine (PFLP.) With the members of the Japanese Red Palestinian movement being so First in the 70s with the Sam Army hijacked Japan Airlines Some Prisoner Support Guidelines strong in Lebanon, Shirosaki did Melville/Jonathan Jackson Unit, Flight 472 in Dhaka, Support prisoners and people facing imprisonment (and their choices) unconditionally. Bangladesh. They demanded $6 not need a passport to stay in and later in the 80s in the United Barring a major transgression such as snitching on a co-defendant or other individuals, those facing million from the Japanese the country. Freedom Front. The armed anti- heavy sentences for actions need to be fully supported and without the "carrot and stick" approach government and the release of imperialist and anti racist that some prisoner supporters use. For example, lets say that a well-known activist gets busted for a nine prisoners held in Japan. 1986 Bombing in Jakarta activities of these organizations number of different actions and is approached by supporters who want to help with her legal situation. The prisoners listed included On May 14, 1986, two mortar- lead to a massive seven year When the activist decides that she knows what is best for herself and wants to take a plea bargain, radical activist and members of styled rockets were fired into the hunt by all federal state and she is attacked as not being worthy of support or righteous enough. This dynamic, albeit exaggerated the Japanese Red Army. U.S. Embassy compound in local authorities in the north (not by much), has played itself out before between people being held in jail and others who claim to Jakarta, Indonesia. Then, two eastern US. This hunt ended in want to lend assistance. People need assistance about legal options but do not need to be told what his capture and Tom is now rockets were fired from a hotel ! &" ! ' to do nor how revolutionary their choice is. When it comes down to it, they have to deal with being in murder weapon was found, nor Currently in Lompoc, CA, Sekou a cage, not you. any direct evidence offered to In the last ten years, Sekou has is continually harassed by prison connect Sekou to the murders. been up for parole five times, ad administration with mail and Drop your lifestyle issues The pistol which he was has been denied each time and visiting regulations. One thing we need to get past regarding supporting prisoners is the focus on issues relating to the captured with has never been set off. Prior to every parole prisoner's lifestyle whether before their arrest, on the run or while in jail. For example, the ALF conclusively linked to the crimes. consideration there has been a Sundiata Acoli Support Group has a policy of only recognizing a prisoner as an Animal Liberation Front punitive transfer and an Sundiata served as a PC member/prisoner if they fulfill clause #3-"one must be vegan or vegetarian." This archaic clause Sekou's legal challenges to both escalation of harassment due to member from May 1995 to May (written presumably by the people who started the ALF in England) creates a really absurd basis of convictions have been a legal action taken by Sekou on 1996. Sundiata is a New Afrikan support. What if a person eats meat but decides that they are going to destroy 12 vivisection labs, continuously threatened by the behalf of other prisoners. POW. He is imprisoned for liberate 5,000 mink, spike a few timber sales and sab hunts? If they get nicked, who will be lifestylist Alabama Department of actions carried out in the fight for enough to tell them "No, sorry. You are most definitely NOT a member of the ALF and will not receive Corrections (ADOC) through the Sekou Odinga Black Liberation. ALF prisoner support. Please refer to clause 3". This sounds exaggerated like other examples seizure of legal material and Sekou served as a PC member previously used but it really isn't too far from an actual example and could happen again in the future. mail, repeated retaliatory from May 1995 to May 1996, In 1968 Sundiata joined the If we are going to enter into relationships with prisoners, we need to understand that they are not transfers and threats to interfere also imprisoned for actions Harlem branch of the Black going to be carbon copies of ourselves. They will eat things we don't like, do things we don't like and with pending parole dates. carried out in the fight for Black Panther Party (BPP) and did we may even have enough time sitting around to endlessly dissect the merits of their action. Those Liberation. He is also a New work around the issues of items are irrelevant when it comes to providing principled and strong support for prisoners. On that For twenty years now, Sekou Afrikan POW. In 1965 Sekou education, housing, note, I would strongly suggest that the ALF support group (in every country it exists in) drop that has been held captive in joined the Organization for Afro employment, child care, drugs clause as a basis of their support. Alabama. He is well known to American Unity (OAAU), and police brutality in the nearly every Warden, Regional founded by Malcolm X. After oppressed community. For more information on how to support Earth and animal liberation prisoners, for a copy Coordinator and higher-level Malcolm1s death the OAAU was of our newsletter, Spirit of Freedom, or if you know about a Earth and Animal liberation officials in the ADOC. As a not going in the direction he In 1969 he was imprisoned with prisoner that needs help, contact us at: [email protected] jailhouse lawyer, his legal wanted and in 1967 he was 13 others in what was known as reputation precedes him at every looking at the BPP. In early 1968 the Panther 21 case for charges institution. In fact, many he helped build the Bronx BPP. motivated by community work. prisoners owe their freedom to On January 17, 1969 two Held for 2 years without bail, the Sekou's legal efforts on their Panthers had been killed by Panther 21 were acquitted and behalf. He has won numerous police and a fellow NY Panther Sundiata was released in 1971. other civil actions regarding who was in police custody was medical malpractice, abusive brutally beaten. Sekou was Upon being released, Sundiata treatment, abusive segregation, informed police were searching was harassed, provoked and abusive prison conditions; all of for him in connection with a followed by the FBI until it was which have earned him nothing police shooting. Rather than impossible to do effective but retaliatory transfers and face possible death as many of community work. He then joined continuing unabated enmity by his comrades had in custody, the Black underground with the officials of the ADOC. It is Sekou joined the Black Black Liberation Army (BLA). absolutely impossible to relate underground with the BLA. He the depth of hostility remained underground partaking In May 1973 Sundiata, with Zayd encountered by Sekou in revolutionary clandestine Malik Shakur and Assata Shakur personally, and by his family activity for 12 years until his were ambushed on the NJ from not only the ADOC but also capture. Upon being captured he Turnpike by state troopers. Zayd from the Alabama Board of was charged with 6 counts of was murdered by the police, Pardons and Paroles. Every attempted murder of police, 9 Assata critically wounded. In the attempt made to appeal his predicate acts of 3Racketeering shootout a trooper was killed. original conviction has been Influenced Corrupt Sundiata escaped this incident stymied by missing trial Organization2 (RICO) including but was captured shortly after transcripts, illegal confiscation of the liberation of Assata Shakur and is now serving a life plus 30 law books and legal from prison and expropriation of year sentence for the killing of research/trial preparation an armored truck. He is serving the state trooper. material, etc. consecutive 25-life state time and a 40 year federal sentences. ! ( ! &* officers. This attack was carried prisoner's rights activist for more was found guilty of both murders Writing to Prisoners out in response to the unjustified than 20 years. in separate trials. Did Sekou deaths in the Black community have a chance of being found One of the main problems that puts people off getting involved in supporting prisoners is a feeling of commited by these officers. Sekou became affiliated with the innocent? If one considers the being intimidated about writing to a prisoner for the first time. It is very hard to write a letter to Black Panther Party in 1967 in nature of the case in that there someone you don't know: people find that they don't know what to say, they feel there are things they After being accused of this Chicago and New York. While in was a Black man standing can't talk about, or think that prisoners won't be interested in what they have to say. Well this is a attack he joined the BLA and Detroit, he became a member of accused of killing two White men problem most of us have had to get over, so we've drawn up some suggestions to help you. participated in the revolutionary the Republic of New Afrika, in Alabama in 1975, then the Obviously these aren't rigid guidelines, and we don't pretend to have solved all problems here, underground movement. He was before returning to Birmingham. initial conclusion must be "no." different people will write different letters. Hopefully they will be of some use. eventually arrested in January Back in Alabama, Sekou But when that Black man in 1972. Maroon is serving multiple coordinated community considered an "Uppity Nigger" life sentences. Most of his time organizaton activity with the by the White power structure, FIRST THINGS FIRST in prison has been spent in Alabama Black Liberation Front, coupled with the subsequent Some prisons restrict the number of letters a prisoner can write or receive, and they may have to buy control units in which he is the Inmates for Action (IFA) (and what can be assumed, stamps and envelopes: and prisoners aren't millionaires. So don't necessarily expect a reply to a card locked in his cell for 22-24 hours Defense Committee and the continual) involvement of the or letter. A lot of prisons allow stamps or self-addressed envelopes to be included with a card or a day. Afro-American People's Party in FBI, our initial conclusion letter, but some don't. Letters do also get stopped, read, delayed, 'diverted'. If you suspect your letter the mid 1970's. Sekou was also becomes a proven fact. On this has been or will be nicked by the screws, you can send it Recorded delivery, which unfortunately Sekou Kambui a soldier in the Black Liberation basis alone, Sekou was costs a lot but then they have to open it in the prisoner’s presence. Also you should put a return Sekou Cinque T.M. Kambui (s/n Army (BLA) during these years presumed guilty. address, not just so the prisoner can reply (!), but also because some prisons don't allow letters William J. Turk) is a New Afrikan before his capture. without a return address. Of course it doesn't have to be your address, but be careful using PO box political prisoner currently Despite immense pre-trial numbers, as some prisons don't allow these either! serving two consecutive life On January 2, 1975, Sekou was publicity, the court denied a sentences for crimes he did not captured in north Birmingham for motion for a change of venue. WRITING FOR THE FIRST TIME commit. Sekou has already allegedly running a yield sign An appeals court lated affirmed Say who you are, and if it's relevant that you're from such and such a group. Some people reckon it's spent twenty years of his life and / or speeding. During this this decision, citing examples of better to be up front about your politics as well, to give prisoners the choice to stay in contact with you behind bars on trumped up stop, a 9mm pistol was found in ineffectiveness of the counselor. or not. charges of murdering two white the car lying between the front In fact, the nature of this case men in Alabama in 1975. seats. Subsequent investigation was so intense that during a Say where you heard about them and their case. The first letter can be reasonably short, maybe only by police on the scene 1985 investigation of the crime, a postcard. Obviously, when you get to know people better you'll have more to talk about. If you are Sekou is of Afrikan / Cherokee discovered that the pistol was persons in Tuscaloosa vividly writing to a "framed" prisoner, and you believe them to be innocent, it helps to say so, as it gives heritage, born on September 6, listed as stolen during a recalled details of the murder, people confidence to know that you believe them. 1948 in Gadsden, AL. He was Tuscaloosa, AL murder. A wide- the accused (Sekou) and the raised by his mother, ranging investigation followed, entire issue of the killing. Major Some people when they write to prisoners, are afraid to talking about their lives, what they are up to, grandparents and aunt in which included inquiries into his witnesses in both cases thinking this may depress people banged up, especially prisoners with long sentences, or that they Detroit, Harlem, New York, and personal relationship with a admitted during this same are not interested in your life. Although in some cases this may be true, on the whole a letter is the Birmingham, AL, respectively. white woman. At one point investigation that they had been highpoint of the day for most prisoners. Prison life is dead boring, and any news that livens it up, Throughout the 1960's, Sekou during the investigation, while forced to testify against Sekou whether it's about people they know or not, is generally welcome. Especially if you didn't know them participated in the Civil Rights being transported, Sekou was and had been repeatedly visited before they went to prison, they want to know about you, what your life is like etc. Use your sense, movement, organizing youth for told by one of the investigators, by certain members of the don't write about anything that is likely to get a prisoner in shit with the screws, or get you or anyone participating in demonstrations "...we don't really give a damn Birmingham Police Department, else in trouble with the cops. and marches across Alabama whether you committed these as well as the Jefferson County and providing security for crimes or not, but you should Sheriffs Department. Defense THEY'RE IN THERE FOR US, WE'RE OUT HERE FOR THEM meetings of the Southern have because we're gonna hang witnesses in the first trial were For people imprisoned from our movements and struggles it's vital to keep them involved in the Christian Leadership Council your ass with them anyway..." so terrified after continuous ongoing resistance - telling them about actions, sending them magazines if they want them, (SCLC), Congress of Racial Sekou was falsely arrested and threats and racial intimidation by discussing ideas and strategies with them. Use your head though. Some people will just want to keep Equality (CORE), and the charged with the murder of two the Birmingham Police for their head down till they get out. Student Non-Violent white men: a KKK official from providing alibi testimony that Coordinating Committee Tuscaloosa and a multi- they fled Alabama, leaving This was adapted from a leaflet produced by the Anarchist Black Cross (SNCC). Sekou is a paralegal millionaire oil man from Sekou without a defense for his professional and has been an Birmingham. second trial. To this day Sekou active jailhouse lawyer and has never been placed at or It's not surprising that Sekou near either murder scene, no ! &+ ! ) Ways To Contribute to the Support of Prisoners robbery and were extradited to the country at the time ever took rooftops." He was arrested Nebraska. They were each place in the Twin Cities. shortly after the shooting of

sentenced to 10 to 25 years in Sackett, but was released. Letters prison. Prosecutors later altered their Nervous about your first letter? Don't be! Prisoners often say how much they enjoy hearing about position claiming that Reed and John Griffin, presently serving a someone's day-to-day activities and interests. This is often the easiest and most important thing you On October 26, 1976, Reed his co-defendant were "Black 30-year drug sentence, testified can do to support people in prison. Many say they also enjoy receiving news articles (photocopied or escaped, but was arrested in Militants" not "Black Panthers" - that Reed informed him what it printed from the web). The most important thing is to just get the letter in the mail. Once you send that Los Angeles on February 3, a term so broad it could have was like to kill a cop and also first letter, each one that follows will be easier to write. Send a postcard, artwork, talk about your day, 1977. Reed served 13 years and one time included Jesse order a bombing campaign that just please remember a few things: Larry served less than 8 years. Jackson. Reed and others, they Griffin backed out of. The • All letters must have a return address on the envelope. claim, engaged in the ambush in problem with this testimony is • Please also put a return address on the letter itself, as The Arrests hopes of impressing the Black that Reed was in prison serving prisoners are almost never given the envelopes. The case regarding the death of Panther leadership and starting the 13 years in Nebraska during • Please do not mention other nicknames you might know the officer Sackett remained cold a chapter in St. Paul. the time Griffin claimed these them by. for nearly twenty-five years. But things took place. • Do not discuss their cases or anything related to illegal in 1994, during an interview with The Testimonies activities. Keep in mind that all mail is read by 5 Eyewitness News, Connie The case rested on the The fact remains the police were authorities. Trimble claimed that Ronald testimony of several prosecution not able to produce the murder • Pictures are allowed, but must be 4x6 size or smaller. Reed was with her when she witnesses. Connie Trimble who weapon, an eyewitness to the No Polaroids. made the call. This statement re- earlier testified that Reed shooting, or any physical • Most facilities will NOT accept stamps or envelopes opened the investigation. persuaded her to make the call evidence tying Reed to the mailed to prisoners. Please check with the institution that lured the cop into the killing. Despite this, Reed and prior to doing so. In January 2005, during a grand ambush recanted some her Clark were both found guilty and • Avoid using white-out, stickers, tape, colored ink or jury hearing over the killing of earlier remarks. She claimed sentence to Life in prison. glitter. Officer Sackett, Connie Trimble- that Reed did not murder • Written correspondence and drawings may be in pencil, Smith, repeated her claims that Sackett and, in fact, had been In April 2006, Larry Clark began standard ink pen, typewritten, or computer generated. Reed was the one that duped like her. She stated after his trial. Clark was tried No felt pens, markers, crayon, or colored pencil, etc. encouraged her to make the call. the two made the call to the separately from Reed, but was • All personal artwork must be in black & white, copied The grand jury indicted Ronald police, they went to Larry Clark's still found guilty one month later. pages can be in color. Reed and Larry Clark and the home and stayed together the The ABCF has been contacted • PLAIN cards are allowed. However, you must write two were arrested. Reed was rest of the night. by Larry Clark's attorney something inside of the card, as blank ones will be living in Chicago, working as a demanding that he not be placed returned. pipe fitter. Clark was homeless Trimble also testified that she on any lists. • Most facilities do not allow torn pages from books, living in Minneapolis. made the call but that they were magazine or newspaper clippings. Photocopies, calling the cops on a neighbor Russel Maroon Shoatz however, are accepted Police stated the two men had who had been having a party. Russel Maroon Shoatz is a • Please always remember that, even if unsolicited, mail been the prime suspects since Neither She nor Reed were Black (New Afrikan) POW. can still result in sanctions against a prisoner. the killing. Originally, they aware of any plot to kill the Maroon is imprisoned for his

claimed Reed and Clark were officer. activities on behalf of Black Care Packages Black Panthers bent on killing Liberation. Despite all of the mail regulations above, there are still plenty of things you can send to a prisoner to cops. According to the media Another witness, Joseph Garret brighten their day! In fact, with a little effort, you can send prisoners at even the most stringent and prosecutors, the Twin Cities who claimed to be a Panther In 1967, Maroon was a founding facilities care packages. Print-outs, color copies and pictures leave a lot of options. Here are just a Black Panthers were involved in with Reed, stated that Reed had member of Philadelphia's Black few ideas for materials that you can include in an envelope to send to a prisoner as a care package drug dealing, bomb making and asked him if he was interested in Unity Council (BUC). The BUC (keeping in mind the above mail regulations): other acts of "terror" that led to helping him "bring down the first eventually merged with the • Yoga Postures- many prisoners are confined to their cells for up to 22 hours a day and have the killing of Officer Sackett. The pig." Garrett claimed he that he Black Panther Party. very little access to exercise facilities. Yoga can be practiced in a very small area and is both catch to this issue was that there declined. Several days before relaxing and beneficial to their health. There are many online websites that offer step-by-step was no Black Panther Party in the shooting, Garret was In 1970, Maroon and five other guides for you to send. the Twin Cities. No raids or stopped by a traffic cop and was comrades were accused of • Comics/humorous articles- breaking up the gloom of prison always helps! Photocopy the best arrests targeting Panthers as found in possession of a gun. attacking a Philadelphia Police of the Sunday paper's comics, or do a simple online search. seen in many different cities in After a discussion, Garrett told station, resulting in the death the officer to "watch the and wounding of several police ! *+ ! %) Chip’s incarceration cannot be degree-murder. He is serving During the trial of Trimble, • Essays/Writing excerpts- ask someone who their favorite authors are, or topics they enjoy viewed apart from this history of Life in prison. confidential "informants" reading about. Again, you'd be amazed what you can find online and this is a simple way to the FBI "s war against the accused Trimble of being a send prisoners lots of reading materials cheaply. Panthers. Chip is the definition Reed is a former 60s civil rights Black Panther, alleging that she • Word Search games- and of course, prison is incredibly boring. (Word search game resource - of a political prisoner, and is the activist. In 1969, Reed was also and other Black Panther http://www.sjbaker.org/wordsearch-o-matic/index.html) longest-held Black Panther Party among the students at St. Paul commandos were acting under • Describe a hike- spend the day outside hiking, take some pictures and then send them to a political prisoner. Indeed, at his Central High School who the orders of Panther leader prisoner with a story about your hike. Remember that prison is sensory deprivation to the max, last parole hearing, in July 2008, demanded black history courses Ronald Reed. so use a lot of description (sight, sound, smell, everything...) he was vigorously challenged by and organized actions against • Pictures- send pictures of wild places, ones that are vivid in color and show a lot of detail. a Board member about his racist teachers. He was also The Robbery Remember that Polaroid's are not allowed. political views, past and present, instrumental in helping to At 8 pm, on October 20, 1970, • Photo-copies- photocopy everything: pictures of beautiful paintings, other artwork, large and summarily denied. integrate college campuses in three armed men entered the photos, newspaper articles, book pages, ‘zines, and anything else you can think of. Minnesota. During this period, Ames Plaza Bank with the intent The Struggle Must Continue Reed began to look toward of expropriating funds. A Donating This contradiction must be revolutionary theory and began shootout took place between a There are two ways to contribute to the prisoners' defense and support funds: You can send overcome, so that Chip can be to engage in political street security guard and the men donations to the support groups (please contact the support groups for more information) or you can set free. As Chip's long theater with other young black involved in the bank put donations directly into their commissaries. Commissary money is very important to prisoners, as it incarceration is rooted in the revolutionaries in the city of St. expropriation. The guard, who allows them to purchase stamps, envelopes, phone-cards, extra food, as well as other necessities. political agenda of the State, his Paul. was also an off duty cop, was Please consider sending a donation! freedom is dependent upon shot in the chest. Reed was political action.‹At the same arrested in St. Paul 10 days after Books time, the Committee to Free Shooting on Hague Avenue the Omaha incident and Reed Ordering books is an easy way to directly support the prisoners. For book suggestions, please Chip Fitzgerald has employed a On May 22, 1970, St. Paul was arrested on November 13th contact the various support groups. Also, try to let them know which books you are ordering, so that new and savvy attorney, Keith officer James Sackett was in southeast Minneapolis. repeat orders are not made. For all prisoners, some basic rules apply: Wattley of Oakland, California, responding to a bogus who will be appropriately filing a emergency call at a home in the Police claimed to have found in All books must be new, paperback and come directly from the publisher or an online distributor, such habeas corpus application in the 800 block of Hague Avenue. Reed possession detailed notes as Amazon. Please have the books sent to the same address that you would use to mail them letters, California courts to legally While responding to the call, laying out a plot to kidnap making sure to include their ID number. Remember to keep the topics of books focused away from challenge the Board "s wrongful Sackett was ambushed by a Minnesota's governor, Harold subjects that could potentially cause problems for prisoners, and can actually result in the books denial. The Committee is sniper and killed. Police LeVander and St. Paul City being seized. You can also send them reading material directly by including up to 10 pages mounting a vigorous campaign immediately looked at Black Council Member Rosalie Butler. (photocopied front and back) in an envelope. Some facilities, although few, will also except used to obtain support letters to the radicals as those responsible for They also claimed they books. For detailed instructions on sending books to a particular prisoner, please email their support Board from elected officials and the incident, arresting several discovered a statement groups directly. other notables, whose power men they claimed were indicating plans to hijack a can and will be politically members of the Black Panther United Airlines jet out of Visiting Prisoners persuasive. It is our intent to Party. The men were released Minneapolis. The plot was Restrictions and criteria for visiting Federal and State prisons are different. Generally, it is easier to convince the Board, as well as for lack of evidence. designed to win the release of visit state prisoners. Visiting conditions are usually better at Federal prisons. Listed below are some the Governor, who has the Connie Trimble and Larry Clark. of the different guidelines for visiting Federal/State prisoners, and some guidelines useful to visit any ultimate power to release Chip, A young woman by the name of According to newspapers, Reed prisoner. that another unjust decision will Connie Trimble was also also intended to demand to be met with political arrested and charged with release of Angela Davis and a To visit Federal prisoners, you must first be approved by filling out a form that the prisoner must send consequences. making the call that led to the young activist named Gary you in advance. Only people who say they had a relationship to a federal prisoner prior to their ambush of the cop. Though it Hogan. Despite police claims, imprisonment can be approved. Usually, the prison will not approve people who say they visit other Ronald Reed came out in the trial that she the charges of conspiring to prisoners. Once you complete and mail the form to the prisoners counselor, the prisoner will tell you if Ronald Reed, a former member connected to the incident, commit air piracy were you have been approved or denied. of the Black United Front, was Trimble refused to reveal the dismissed because there was no convicted of the 1970 shooting names of the others involved. evidence of the conspiracy other Some state prisons require you to be placed on an approved visitors list but most do not. Contact the of a St. Paul police officer. She was acquitted of the than the notes. In recent articles, state prisoner you want to see and have them fill you in on the procedures of the particular prison Twenty-five years after the charges against her but served Reed's brother has stated these they are held. Some state prisoners may receive food packages. Check with the prisoner for killing, Reed was arrested and time in jail for contempt of court. charges were fabricated against restrictions on what they can receive. convicted of first-degree murder his brother. Reed and Clark and conspiracy to commit first were still charged with the ! %( ! ** Before visiting any prisoner, write to them, be considerate and send a postal money order made changing society, humanity, be "The Greatest Threat" The FBI’s War Against the payable to the prisoners name and number so they can buy stamps to reply. (Most prisons DO NOT arduous. HARAMBEE (Let's Pull This was immediately following Panthers allow you to send stamps). Ask all questions through the mail before your visit. Ask about visiting Together). A Luta Continua'. We the early 1969 announcement by Although Hoover identified the days/hours, dress codes, maximum number of visitors allowed per visit, about getting photos of your Resist!” infamous FBI Director J. Edgar Party as a "threat to the internal visit, and anything else you can think of. You wont be allowed to visit without presenting a valid photo Hoover that "The Black Panther security of the country," he ID like a driver’s license or county ID. Bring small bills or change for the vending machines in the Romaine Fitzgerald Party, without question, boldly stated that it was the visiting room. Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald was represents the greatest threat to Party's Free Breakfast for born and raised in Compton, the internal security of the Children program, not its California. Upon his release from country." As documented by weapons of self-defense, that the Youth Authority in early Huey P. Newton in his widely- made the Party so "dangerous." 1969, he joined the Southern acclaimed Ph.D. dissertation Begun in the Party "s base in California Chapter of the Black War Against the Panthers, A Oakland, California, the Free Panther Party. Study of Repression in America, Breakfast Program grew across Hoover then pledged to use a the nation with the rise of Party Bruce Richard, a former member special counterintelligence chapters during 1969, in over 40 of the Party's Southern program, COINTELPRO, to states. Hoover charged that the California Chapter with Chip, "expose, disrupt, misdirect, Program was spreading now a union executive, recalls: discredit, or otherwise neutralize revolutionary propaganda to all "Upon our release [from Youth the activities of Black the hundreds of thousands of Authority], we wasted no time nationalists," and, specifically black families whose children joining the Black Panther Party. targeted the Black Panther participated in it, a dangerous Chip worked tirelessly in various Party. Newton and other development. Newton stated: capacities in the Westside office scholars document that, of the "Since its inception, the Party of the Chapter. To be a Panther actions employed by the [was] subject to a variety of was a 24/7 commitment, and COINTELPRO program to carry actions by agencies and officers every single day seemed like out its agenda, 79% were of the federal government weeks due to the volume of #specifically directed toward intended to destroy it precisely activities during that explosive destruction of the Party." because of the Party "s political period. We were totally In 1972, the California Supreme ideology and potential for consumed in the Party's Free Court, in California v. Anderson, organizing a sizable group of the Breakfast Program, the tutorial declared the death penalty country's population that has program, selling Panther papers, unconstitutional, as a violation of been historically denied equal political education classes and the Eighth Amendment opportunity in employment, other projects. Chip was a protection against "cruel or education, housing, and other favorite of many in the unusual punishments" and of the recognized basic needs." communities we served, and the State "s constitutional ban It is well-documented that, at the children, especially, loved him, against both. Along with nearly end of 1969, under the direction reflected in their smiling little 100 other men on death row at of the FBI, Chicago police faces when he appeared." the time, Chip found his death assassinated the Party "s Illinois sentence commuted to life, with chapter chairman Fred Hampton In September 1969, Chip was the possibility of parole. Today, and leading member Mark Clark wounded and arrested in however, unlike 98% of those on and Los Angeles police created connection with a police shoot- death row in 1972, who have its SWAT Team and raided the out. He was tried for assault on been released, Chip languishes offices of the Party there, at one- police and other, related in prison still, incarcerated for location in a five-hour gun battle. charges, including the murder of nearly 40 years now. In spite of This was the Party Chapter to a security guard. He was his long and brutal incarceration, which Chip belonged. He is a convicted and sentenced to Chip "s dedication to the cause of casualty of this war. death. He was 19 years old. the liberation of black and all oppressed people has not wavered. The War Continues

! *" ! %' them (the D.O.C.) that the encountered was the opening legitimately be held there. I was Federal Prison 101 standard practice of physical salvo of "unexplained" acts transferred to another isolated By Peter Young force was to be continually specifically designed to outpost called Wemda C.F. Fall 2006 emphasized and heightened by undermine the recipient and where I reside to this day. With a secondary level of mental make him second guess day to the new emerging pragmatic In our endless discourse on animal liberation theory and practice, there has remained since the direct terror. The objective was to day activities The results being, conservative team in place action movement began a frightful specter, kept in the closet and rarely spoken of, whose power as a convince outsiders to steer clear others (the enemy) could close statewide, the emphasis now deterrent from the simplest of actions to correct the most horrible of crimes is supreme. The of captured comrades or suffer in closer as the Rade was now has shifted back to the 70's unmentionable is prison. Inaction cannot with honesty be credited to a lack of knowledge or skill— similar circumstances. And if by moving slower, more cautious, standards of placing organizers every address and methodology is for our taking in this information age—and we would more chance, combatants themselves more accessible to observation. in one holding place, as correctly attribute our nights at home to the exaggerated threat of prison. became "worn out" to the point Closer scrutiny to determine if opposed to one man to a cell, as that they themselves abstained the Revolutionary was resorting widely spaced as possible. What follows is intended as a brief summary of the life that awaits an activist convicted of federal from revolutionary practices (i.e. to indecision, using greater charges. My experience extends only to the federal system, however a look at the prisoner’s page of became unstable, reactionary in caution, and whether or not These types of dehumanizing this publication will show it is this system, which is of chief relevance to animal liberationists in the practice, or incapable of he/she appeared to be moving in practices along with a host of United States. Look at our history: all but a few animal liberation prisoners were prosecuted federally. organizing others, or confidence? Though I took the other demeaning acts, have As a final disclaimer, I am unable to comment on life inside maximum (USPs) security facilities—a themselves), so be it! necessary legal steps in the been the specialty of corrections fate not to be ruled out for those convicted of more serious offenses. However, very few activists have matter! I/we never forgot the for many many years. They are ever seen the inside of a USP, even for arson. With the introduction of lesson we received. The battle designed not only to derail If you, as I, suffered pre-trail detention without bail in a county jail, arriving in prison will mark the end Revolutionaries into mainstream on the Psychological plane had conscious activities, but of your darkest days. County jail is the worst time you will do—your most comfortless living, your most prison life, the system (with its begun. Hence from that day simultaneously act as a difficulties with food, and your most problems with both staff and inmates. You’ve arrived at prison multifaceted tentacles) found forward, my watch word was, deterrent to others seeking to and it’s time to exhale. itself confronted with its greatest "plan for the expected and be make the crossover. Needless to challenge. Simply put, the lines prepared for the unexpected." say, none of it works against a DETAILS were drawn, the enemy Move responsibly, and as determined and conscious The activist convicted of a federal crime will serve 85% of their sentence with 54 days of good time identified, and the battle became always, seek counseling from member of Domesticated offered per year. The last 6 months will be spent in a halfway house with work release privileges. engaged. one's peers! Warfare here in Amerikka. With

the support networks such as FEDERAL INMATES For me, the first distracting Over the years, Comrades, the Campaign to Free Afrikan The reputation of federal prison playing host to mostly white collar criminals and bank robbers is incident occurred during my 5th statewide, have discovered the Political Prisoners and Prisoners greatly antiquated. Since the 1980s, federal prosecutions have taken a sharp shift toward drug and year of incarceration. One systematic moving of Rades to of War in Amerikka, headed by gun possession crimes. Currently larger volume drug dealers comprise over 80% of federal inmates. evening, at approximately 10 isolated areas as a further Dhoruba Bin Wahad and At my facility, I would estimate drug, gun, and immigration cases make up 95% of the inmates. Others pm, an officer passing by the means of discouraging Tanaquil Jones, and others too include bank robbers and large scale fraud cases. cage holding me hesitated in Revolutionary work. While in numerous to name it has been front of it. When I looked up to Green Haven C.F., while relatively easy to maintain a CUSTODY LEVELS determine what he desired, the engaged in solidarity activities, I sense of Firmness and Alertness Federal prisons are divided into 4 custody levels: Camps, Lows, Mediums, and Max’s (USPs). The fool snapped a picture of me was snatched up and moved to and Strength, while still basis for the public’s image of a federal prison is the minimum security camp. Although the comfort at nearly blinding me with the flash, Southport C.F. Once there and confined. As it stands, I am these prisons have been greatly scaled back since the 1980s due to backlash from “tough on crime” then quickly raced down the contacting folks in the street, scheduled for the parole board zealots, features such as tennis courts and movie theaters are still very much a reality. These gallery. After settling down, I everyone had the same in 1998. At that time I will have “prisons” lack even a fence. Camps are reserved for low-risk inmates with less than 7 years to serve began pondering the reasons for question. What and where is completed 25 years in captivity. I and have the largest percentage of white collar criminals. Lows are for inmates with 20 years and his actions. Was this a means of Southport? Heretofore, it was an have no optimism that I will be under. As with camps, they have an open bunk/dorm setup in place of cells. Mediums are for those identifying me for a hit man or unknown entity. A High-Tech released, but I will nevertheless with 30 years or less and are much closer to the standard image of a prison. USPs are for inmates squad? A souvenir? I/we never prison recently opened, that struggle to become released. with 30+ years or those deemed a security risk due to trouble at lower security facilities or violent clearly determined exactly why none of us had ever heard of. crimes. It’s important to note that any sentence of any length for any crime can result in designation to the act was committed, but it did No doubt I would have spent If in the event I am not released, any security level. Your prison experience and the type of people with whom you live will be most have its affects. I began to move many a year there had it not I will maintain a Revolutionary heavily defined by the security level of your prison. Many factors contribute to one’s custody level, more slowly and resist certain become necessary (according to Commitment to Struggle til including criminal history, severity of crime, history of violence, etc. Small details can have a conversations while being too the D.O.C.) to create a Marion Liberation comes or life ends. So significant impact. busy watching my surroundings. (23 hr. a day lockdown) type I say to you, one and all, the

Regrettably several days passed state facility. Without having Struggle is arduous, therefore, The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has a fairly efficient system for moving violent and predatory inmates to before I concluded that what I SHU status, I could not so must your commitment to ! %& ! *# USPs. Often a single fight can raise one’s custody to USP level. This creates a (relatively) relaxed trial, but my position was that I Oscar Lopez Rivera Florence, CO, with restricted climate even at Medium Security facilities. For the purpose of animal liberationists, most property never had an opportunity to Oscar was born in San non-contact visits. Thus, Karina crimes are likely to result in a designation of medium security or lower. With crimes involving arson, have a fair trial in the first place." Sebastián, Puerto Rico in 1943. has never known her history has shown it’s a coin toss, with USP designation a possibility. Numerous factors weigh in. His family moved to the US grandfather's touch. Josh Demitt and SUV-torcher-turned-snitch Billy Cottrell were both convicted of arson with no criminal Eddie says he has an alibi and when he was 9 years old. He histories. Josh went to a camp, while Billy sits at a USP. can account for his whereabouts was drafted into the army and Oscar's mother Mita, passed at the time the crimes were served in Viet Nam, awarded the away last year. Officials refused THE PRISON committed. He declines to make Bronze Star. When he returned to allow him to travel to the As a sample of the physical components which make up a federal prison, a breakdown of the facility a public statement because he from the war in 1967, he found funeral. He grieved alone, from where I reside: Dining hall, laundry services, barber shop, commissary, mental health, library, chapel, feels that the place for that that drugs, unemployment, the cement walls of his cell. This visiting room, mail room, the hole, rec center (with band, yoga, and arts and crafts rooms, workout discussion is in front of a jury housing, health care and year Oscar will complete 13 machines, ping pong, basketball courts and TVs), rec yard (with soccer field, handball courts, when he gets a new trial. education in the Puerto Rican years of solitary confinement, baseball diamond, and track) and housing units community had reached dire having been kept in a cell the Matthew DePalma levels and immediately set to size of the average bathroom for THE MYTHS DePalma is an anarchist work organizing to improve the 22 and a half hours of every day. The “survival of the fittest” reputation of prison life is largely obsolete. Most commonly held beliefs on convicted of illegally possessing quality of life for his people. prison life are either echoes of a convict culture long since deceased or applicable only to maximum Molotov cocktails allegedly Oscar worked in the creation of Robert Seth Hayes security facilities. These media-induced horror scenes form the basis for the public’s perception of the intended to be used at the both the Puerto Rican High “My name is Robert Seth' prison experience simply because knife fights and gang rapes make for good material. The reality of Republican National Convention School and the Puerto Rican Hayes. I was captured and thousands of men playing cards and watching pro-wrestling doesn’t sell books. Sexual assault is non- and against the police outside Cultural Center, and participated convicted in New York City in existent. If improvised weaponry exists, it’s invisible to my eyes. And in my time in prison, I’ve neither the convention. in the development of the 1973 under a host of charges, seen nor been in a fight. Committee to Free the Five. He attributed to my membership in The government indictment was involved in the struggle for the Black Liberation Army (BLA). FOOD stated that between August 22, bilingual education in public Through my conviction, I (Note: the B.O.P. overhauled underwent a food service overhaul since Peter’s release, and as such 1008 and August 29, 2008, schools and to force universities received a sentence of 25 years some details below may no longer apply.) DePalma began to build roughly to actively recruit Latino to life. In 1994-95 I began my about five Molotov cocktails. students, staff and faculty. He 22nd-23rdyear in confinement. Among the most mentioned perks of federal prison is the food. The B.O.P. is surprisingly liberal in this Police started watching him helped to found educational And it's the confinement, the regard, requiring a vegetarian substitute at every meal and extensive commissary options. However, during a CrimeThinc programs at the maximum nature thereof; I'd like to talk to in prison as in jails, veganism as an ethically motivated diet is not recognized and safely navigating Convergence near Waldo, Wis. security prison for men at you about here. Been in mind, the hazardous food landscape requires effort. It was here where they claim he Stateville, IL. He worked in the that prior to my and others like devised his plan to use community against drugs and myself, arrival into the prison An overview of veganism behind enemy lines: explosives to disrupt the RNC at police brutality. He also worked system, the conditions were at the Xcel Center. on ending discrimination in their normal "oppressive" high. Dining Hall: Food in the dining hall can be divided into two parts—the “line” and the self-serve bar. I He was arrested on August 30, public utilities like Illinois Bell, But upon contact with generally skip the line about half the week. Vegan items served at my facility include French fries, 2008 by agent of the FBI Joint People's Gas and combatants of the community, pasta, apples, and potatoes. I find the vegetarian meat substitute is vegan about half the time, and Terrorism Task Force at a Commonwealth Edison. greater emphasis was then dishes served include vegan chicken patties, soy fajitas, and sweet and sour tofu. The food service residence in Minneapolis. The placed on how to deter emerging manager is usually accessible to answer questions about ingredients. Self serve bar: At my prison plan involved tunnels near the He was arrested in 1981 and minds (those already confined, this includes an AYCE salad bar, rice, beans, as well as rotating items such as cabbage, corn, and center and using explosives to sentenced to 55 years for and those entering it), from salsa. It is my understanding that all federal prisons have a salad bar. destroy cables and cause a seditious conspiracy. In 1988 he gaining insight or developments power outage. was given an additional 15 years of consciousness, from captured Commissary: This is the prison store which is visited once a week. Vegans will find it desirable and for conspiracy to escape. His Freedom Fighters. Executive perhaps essential to supplement their diets through commissary. Selection varies, but common As with the more recent arrests, release date is 2021. Teams (i.e. Department of denominator items will include oatmeal, peanut butter and trail mix. My facility also sells organic a great deal of evidence against Corrections top advisors) from granola, tortillas and beans, and even soy chorizo. DePalma has come from the Oscar's daughter, Clarissa, lives across state (prison) lines began assistance of a paid informant. in Puerto Rico with her daughter to assess/share ideas, and Common Fare: This is the name for the BOP’s meal plan for people with religious diets. Common DePalma pleaded guilty on Karina. Since 1986, Oscar has information, on how to Fare is comprised of foods that are common to all religions recognized by the B.O.P. Generally, it is October 21, 2008. He pleaded been in the most maximum psychologically depress, isolate, two trays of raw sliced vegetables and whole fruits given at each meal. Other items such as the guilty to 1 count of possession of security prisons in the federal oppress and hopefully render kosher meats and breads are given but can be refused. Inmates are only placed on common fare if destruction device. prison system, in the impotent, revolutionary they ascribe to a faith which calls for adherence to certain dietary laws such as Judaism or the 7th Administrative Maximum Unit at combatants. It was agreed by ! *$ ! %% a probably a better means of Coates. Reynolds went on telling requested the court to allow Day Adventist faith. It should be noted there exists a curious phenomenon of new arrival inmates identification. Because of the details that could have been Attorney Arthur Turco, who was being divinely possessed by the power of the Holy Ghost and experiencing sudden spiritual influence possible by the people found in any Baltimore at the time of the request Eddie's conversion at or around the time of filling out their paperwork in Intake. Many later find this to have showing the photos, photos newspaper twice a day at that cell mate, to represent him. been much to their advantage. should only be used if there's time. Reynolds claims Eddie Arthur Turco was awaiting a nothing else available. Eddie said he disposed of the .45 decision on his own case and Black Market: It is a secret to no inmate or staff member that the prison black market is huge and its also says, "By the time you got caliber pistol in the harbor, asked that bail be set for his largest segment is food. The prison economy works on stamps, which are money. There is simply no the second photo of the same returned home, and "put up pretrial release. Judge Harris food item in the prison which cannot be purchased and the vegan with money will find themselves person, wouldn't you make the watch" (this last statement was denied Eddie's request and wanting for little. Well off inmates can quite literally purchase cases of Boca Burgers or have vegan assumption that this is the photo not explained). Prosecuting McAllister stayed on as his pumpkin pies made and delivered to their cell, should they have the stamps. you're supposed to identify?" attorney Ward stated that he assigned lawyer. Eddie then was convinced that Reynolds filed a petition in court asking The most disputed piece of was a reliable source because that his trial be halted on STAFF circumstantial evidence the watch was never mentioned grounds that Judge Harris failed The savage, abusive prison guard is among the staple prison images I was pleased to find mostly introduced by the prosecution in the newspapers. to allow him the Attorney of his false. At my prison, guards are so far in the background, were it not for the daily mail call, I could go was the testimony of a known choice. for weeks without speaking to or thinking about a guard. Among the realities of prison I find most jailhouse informer named Eddie and many other people frightening is being at the mercy and under the care of profoundly stupid people. From guards to most Charles Reynolds. This informer believe that Reynolds was In light of the judge's decision, executive staff, you will live under a group whose ignorance is rivaled only by the inmates was placed in Eddie's cell for deliberately placed in his cell. Eddie requested to represent themselves. I once had to cut short a conversation with a high-ranking staff member because his four days. Reynolds was being Eddie claims he knew he was an himself. Judge Harris granted speech was so thick with slang I was unable to understand him. My ungrantable request that he transferred from Maryland informer because the word had him his request but insisted that speak plain English almost earned me a stay in the hole. House of Corrections in Jessup come to him through the prison Mr. McAllister remain at the to the state of Michigan. There grapevine. Eddie says, "I would defense table to assist Eddie if With exceptions, the average administrative staff member is little more than a glorified savage, with he would stand trial on previous not have given Reynolds the he needed advice. As a result, military or street thug background and all the bad grammar, bullying nature, and lack of education forgery charges. For some time of day and surely no Eddie felt he was not being these descriptions suggest. My experience strongly affirms a sentiment expressed by George reason, instead of a direct conversation about my pending given the right to a fair trial and Jackson in Soledad Brother, that one of the worst mistakes a prison can make is to assume their transfer to Michigan, Reynolds case. One thing all Panthers refused to take part in the trial jailers have a heart. Too many times I have attempted to appeal to the conscience of a staff member was placed in Eddie's cell at studied was the law, entrapment because he says he was being in my dilemmas regarding such things as food, to find my politeness mistaken for weakness and my Baltimore City Jail some thirty and underhanded police tactics." railroaded. Eddie only returned condition worse off than had I instead beat my chest and barked a demand. In mentality, nothing miles away from Jessup. Eddie states, "Since they to the courtroom to protest and separates staff from inmate. The same “code of the street” mindset prevails, with macho posturing planted him in my cell to make a demand a new trial and then ask rewarded and attempts at cordial dialogue crushed. Any lingering hope for a core of goodness and Reynolds claims Eddie case against me, it would stand to be returned to his cell. Eddie reason existing deep within all people will find its swift death in prison. confessed to having taken part to reason that they fed him the did not participate in his defense in the shootings and filled him in information they wanted him to and was denied a request to CONVICT CULTURE on the details. After Reynolds' know, like a "smoking watch." make his own closing More than the loss of freedom or friends, I found the shock of a new culture that seemed insane to its transfer was completed, he sent Eddie also said, "When they first arguments. very core to be the greatest challenge of prison. Spared a constant physical battle per the common a letter to the Baltimore City came up with the indictment, the myth, the new prisoner will find instead a psychological battle of life among new customs, manners, Police Department stating he watch thing was never "I thought that any defense I put language, and priorities. It would be a great disservice to the reader to soften reality with detached had witnessed Eddie's mentioned." forth would be fruitless because sociological language and a tone of cultural relativism so fashionable in discussions of prison. confession. Reynolds asked for it was clear to me - in the frame Instead, the facts: On average, prisoners are loud. They are uneducated. They hold women in the a favorable recommendation to Unlike the prosecution, Eddie of mind I was in - that America lowest regard, tell bad jokes and possess the maturity of 15 year olds. They also have the rest of us the Michigan parole board in was never able to present his and Maryland did not wish to very outnumbered, thus it is the primary goal of the prisoner to win their favor without becoming one exchange for his testimony. case. At the beginning of the really have a fair trail. I was of them. Therein lies the most difficult task of prison—tolerance, and a certain level of conformity. Prosecuting attorney Ward and trial, Eddie fired his first lawyer, under the impression now that What is crucial during the weeks after arrival is to watch. Sit back and take in every detail, from where the chief investigator flew to Nelson Kandel. Eddie says, "Mr. the attorney general of the people sit to how beds are made. Most important is a healthy fear that things can go very wrong at Michigan to take Reynolds' Kandel wanted to handle my trial United States, who was John any moment. The smallest transgression can sour one’s reputation in a way that can be impossible to statement. Reynolds told them as a criminal trial, and I wanted it Mitchell at the time, had decided reverse. Seemingly tiny infractions such as spending too much time in one’s cell can quickly become that Eddie told him that the to be handled just as it truly was, that this chapter [of the Black large problems. Creating one enemy can, in effect, be creating dozens within hours, and should be shooting of the police officers a political railroad." Judge Harris Panthers] was to be eradicated, most crucially avoided. While it takes a certain effort to get beaten up, there is a much less desirable was an "initiation mission" appointed public defender and that we were the victims of alternative which requires no skill at all, and that is to be shunned. While it would be my preference to ordered by the regional director McAllister to handle Eddie's that program... I know I sort of never speak to most everyone in prison, it is inadvisable to keep completely to oneself. There is deep of the Black Panther Party, Paul case. Eddie fired him and blew my opportunity to have a suspicion and a subtle contempt extended to the withdrawn newcomer. Upon arriving, to become ! %$ ! *% friendly with those in your housing unit quickly is wise insurance. After several weeks of establishing States as a result of F.B.I. men were later released. to work at Baltimore's Main Post acquaintances and allowing others to be comfortable with me, I then felt comfortable scaling back my director J. Edgar Hoover's and Approximately three blocks Office. According to the socializing and settled into a more isolated routine of reading and letter writing. Even now, I spend 15 Assistant Director William away, near Freemont and testimony of the arresting officer, minutes or so a day sitting by the TV and talking with other inmates to avoid drifting towards outcast Sullivan's war against the Black Mosher Avenue, they noticed a the warrant was obtained based status. This is a smart investment. Panther Party. man running into an alley. on information provided by an Officer Nolan left the patrol car informer. Your best asset is something I altogether lack and was forced to learn: social versatility. In all According to police accounts, on foot and pursued the man. likelihood no one in prison is anyone you would be friends with or even talk to under other shortly after 9:00 p.m. on the Officer Nolan claims that as he One attempt by the prosecution circumstances, but now there is no choice. To those with whom you share an address, everything night of April 24, 1970, Officer turned the corner of the alley, to make its case was to try to that was important to you on the outside is nothing. They do not care about the Hardcore band you Donald Sager and Officer the man shot at him and they use one of the other defendants roadied for, chocolate almond milk, or your convictions. Prison is a Twilight Zone of NASCAR and Stanley Sierakowski responded exchanged fire. The man got against Eddie. Jack Johnson, Maxim Magazine, and learning to force conversation and connect with diverse groups is of great to a domestic complaint. When away. A ballistics expert testified who was closely tied to the value. However, at the end of the day, you may find as I do that your only true friend is your radio. they arrived at 1201 Myrtle that eight of the bullets removed shootings by evidence, was The political prisoner enjoys a significant advantage over the average prisoner. Social standing in Avenue they talked to a woman from Officers Sager and alleged to have cut a deal with prison is based on one vague form of capital called “respect,” and keeping with prison’s simple- who said she was afraid of her Sierakowski or found near the the state implicating Eddie in the minded ladder of priorities, respect is given for things that defy explanation by a functioning brain. abusive husband. After the scene came from the same .45 crime. In return for his testimony, Among them is mail. There is a powerful effect in receiving the large volume of mail an animal investigation, the officers pistol used to fire at officer Jack was to receive complete liberation prisoner can expect. Without any frame of reference, inmates assume one to be “something returned to their car to make out Nolan. immunity from prosecution. big” on the outside, and extend respect accordingly. Most animal liberation prisoners can expect to their report. While writing their When Jack took the stand, he have a website set up, and with a majority of inmates having no internet experience, to say you have report, three men walked past At the same time, police pleaded the Fifth Amendment. a website is to say you have your own billboard in Times Square. Additionally, having a case looked the patrol car. The woman who apprehended two suspects at as “exotic” gives one an immediate reputation. Being looked upon as someone into things not fully made the complaint signaled approximately two blocks from In addressing this issue, court understood by most inmates places your origins as being in some foreign world, lessening the from her door for the officers to where the officers were shot. appointed public defender pressure for conformity—a pressure which can otherwise be stifling. Overall, the political prisoner return to her home. Officer Jack Johnson, Jr., and James Attorney McAllister stated in his enjoys a unique situation, which can be exploited to his/her benefit in the convoluted world of prison. Sierakowski opened the door to Powell (both later identified as closing remarks, "You don't let a get out, and a hail of gunfire hit members of the Black Panther murderer go unless you're trying CONCLUSION their car from behind. Officer Party), were apprehended under to get someone else". This Pulling the curtain away from the specter of federal prison, we find its fiercest threats to be its most Sierakowski was shot four times the back porch of a house. attorney had been fired by hollow. While the hardships of prison should not be downplayed, its realities should not be in the stomach and in both Several rounds of ammunition Eddie, but Judge Harris exaggerated. And with prison demystified, we find one less thing between us and animal liberation. hands. Officer Sager was shot in and a .38 caliber handgun were demanded he remain as the the head while still seated in the found lying on the ground defense attorney. This article was originally published in Earth First Journal in 2007. car. He was later pronounced between the two suspects. The dead at the hospital. Officer next morning, another gun, a .32 Another attempt at case building Sierakowski managed to reach caliber pistol, was allegedly by the prosecution was based the car radio and called for help. found at the arrest site on the "stacked deck" concealed underneath a identification made by Officer Not far from the crime scene, sandbox. A ballistics expert Nolan. Four days after the Officer Roger Nolan and Officer testified that a .38 caliber bullet shootings, Officer Nolan was James Welsh received a was removed from the skull of shown two groups of six to eight dispatch call and responded. Officer Sager. Powell was photographs. The first set Based on the information charged with murder in the first contained a picture of Eddie that received about the direction in degree, and Johnson was was taken six years earlier. The which the assailants fled, the charged with murder in the first second set contained a picture officers went in pursuit of the degree, plus assault with the taken of Eddie at the time of his suspects. According to their intent to murder. arrest. Eddie's picture was the report, they apprehended two only picture that appeared in suspects on a lot across from Although there was no direct both sets. Myrtle Avenue approximately physical evidence to link Eddie four blocks from the crime with the events surrounding this To put the same person's picture scene. The officers handcuffed case, a warrant was issued. On in two small sets of shots could them and placed them in the April 25, 1970, Eddie was possibly influence and prejudice back seat of their patrol car. The arrested shortly after he reported a person's decision. A line up is ! *& ! %# FBI raided the apartment of 120 days or his release. The time. In 1977 she was granted a Revolutionary Solidarity: A Challenge Dwight (Jamal) Thomas in state appealed, and the second furlough and never returned, By Wolfi Landstreicher Astoria, Queens. They arrested circuit reversed the district joining the revolutionary him and charged him with the court "s decision to overturn the clandestine movement. In 1985 The tendency to fall into a defensive attitude in the face of repression is best counteracted by shooting. conviction. Finally, the U.S. she was captured and and faced developing an understanding and practice of revolutionary solidarity. Supreme court refused to hear 4 separate court trials. She was

A month later, on August 7, any further appeal and denied charged with conspiracy to Revolutionary solidarity is, above all, a revolutionary practice. What this means is that it carries within 1979, Maliki Latine was arrested him a writ of certiorari, even support and free PP/POW's and itself the aims of revolution. For this reason, as anarchists, we cannot base solidarity on any in St. Albans, Queens, by a joint through his appeal is founded to support the New Afrikan authoritarian or economic foundations. It is not a matter of obligation, duty or debt. No one owes force investigating a series of upon the mandate of the U.S. Independence struggle through anyone solidarity, regardless of what they have done or what they are going through. Rather the bank expropriations. They Supreme Court "s own rulings. expropriations. In 1988 she was basis of solidarity is the recognition of one’s own struggle in that of others – in other words, charged him with the July 3rd indicted for conspiracy to protest complicity. This is of major importance. If solidarity is the recognition of my own struggle in the incident. It wouldn "t be until six Maliki Latine is currently being and alter government policies struggle of others, it is carried out in practice precisely through continuing that struggle, continuing to months later before the police held in Great Meadow through use of violence against attack this social order, and doing so with a focus on what unites my struggle with that of others. would arrest their final suspect, Correctional Facility in government and military

Jose Saldana. Comstock, New York. buildings and received an In this light, it should be clear that revolutionary solidarity is not merely support. On the practical level, additional 10 years for it is obviously necessary to correspond and visit our imprisoned comrades, and to find ways to help Sixteen days after the capture of Marilyn Buck conspiracy to bomb the Capitol. them take care of various needs. But if this becomes the focus of what we call “solidarity”, then we Saldana, Latine and three other Marilyn is an Anti-Imperialist PP. She is serving a total of 80 have reduced solidarity to mere charitable social work. The maintenance of connections, of prisoners, who were also She is imprisoned for her anti- years. friendships and comradeship in the midst of repression is one important factor for maintaining accused of killing cops, imperialist actions carried out in support. But what is most significant is active solidarity with the active revolt of our comrades who are attempted to escape from the support of national liberation, locked up or otherwise suffering focused repression. It is within this context that the specific activity of special security area of Rikers women's liberation, social and support (letters, visits, financial support, etc) can become a part of the practice of solidarity as the Island. The men managed to get economic justice. In the 60's Eddie Conway help to maintain communication between all of us fighting against this system. outside of the prison walls, but Marilyn participated in protests Veteran Black Panther Party three of them, including Latine, against racism and the Vietnam leader Marshall Edward So revolutionary solidarity is the complicity in revolutionary struggle between individuals in different were immediately captured. The war. In 1967 she became part of ("Eddie") Conway continues to specific situations who can nonetheless see that their revolutionary projects coincide. Let’s consider fourth escapee's body was Students for a Democratic maintain his innocence of a the project of revolutionary struggle against the prison system. Comrades inside prison will inevitably discovered days later, dead Society. Marilyn became part of police murder in 1970, which he involve themselves in struggles against the specific conditions of their imprisonment – for example, because of apparent drowning. a radical filmmaking and claims not to have committed. the ongoing struggle against the FIES (special isolation units) in Spanish prisons. There are various propaganda collective, showing Currently incarcerated in tactics used in these struggles. Underlying all of them is a refusal to cooperate with the prison regime. Maliki Latine and Jose (Hamza) the films as an organizing aid at Maryland House of Corrections Thus, various sorts of strikes, collective revolts, riots and the destruction of prison property have all Saldana were indicted on community meetings, high in Jessup, Maryland, Eddie been used. But one of the most common tactics is the hunger strike. The reasons this tactic is so charges of attempted first- school groups, workers' states that he was falsely common among prisoners is that it can be used collectively or individually, it is completely in the degree murder, four counts of committees and in the streets. implicated in the murder of one hands of those using it and it puts a great deal of pressure on the prison authorities. At the same criminal possession of a She also participated in Baltimore City police officer and time, the effectiveness of the hunger strike – especially when used by one or only a few individuals – weapon, and criminal international solidarity groups the assault and attempted depends on a situation of permanent conflict on the outside, ongoing battle against the structures and possession of stolen property. supporting the Vietnamese, murder of two other officers. individuals responsible for repression. In practice this can include flyers, demonstration and graffiti On October 1, 1981, the two Palestinians, and the Iranian Eddie states, "At no time in my campaigns expressing solidarity with the comrades inside, but also in sabotage and other forms of were sentenced to 25 to life. struggle against the Shah. She life have I killed or attempted to attack against the police, judiciary and prison systems. Os Cangaceiros, a group of rebels in France, Jamal Thomas was initially worked in solidarity with Native kill anyone. I have no provide a fine example. From 1984 into the 1990’s, they were involved in active sabotage of the charged as a co-defendant in Americans, Mexicano and Black involvement with that incident. prison system in solidarity with a number of prison revolts that were occurring in France. Along with a the case but chose to have his liberation struggles. As a direct I'm innocent." Eddie claims to be variety of acts of vandalism and sabotage and the theft and distribution of the plans for a major prison case severed. He was later result of all of this activity, she the target of the local police and building project in France, they published significant analyses of the prison and justice system and sentenced to life in prison for became a target of the F.B.I.'s Counterintelligence their relationship to society as a whole. And many others chose to imitate their activity of sabotage another altercation while in COINTELPRO. In 1973, she Program (COINTELPRO),which against the prison system. prison and additional 15-year was arrested and convicted of was designed to destroy sentence for a prison standoff. buying two boxes of bullets. individuals and organizations The sort of activity described above shows a principled approach to the struggle against the prison Accused of being a member of that were considered to be system and the practice of solidarity. They share a few things in common: they can be used In August 1993, the district court the BLA, she sentenced to 10 politically objectionable. Eddie autonomously outside the framework either of the institutions of the state or the institutions of the left overturned Latine's conviction years, the longest sentence ever asserts that he is one of many (parties, unions and the like); they involve no delegation or mediation to be carried out; they do not and ordered a new trial within given for such an offense at the political prisoners in the United ! %" ! *' involve negotiation or any sort of compromise with those in power. Of course, they do require a 1975 shoot-out between the FBI programs, free clothing drives Following their lead, Maliki and movement committed to an ongoing battle against the entire society of prisons, a movement in and the American Indian and free day care programs - the his brother decided to follow suit. permanent conflict with the present social order. The lack of such a movement makes it easy to Movement (AIM) in which two U.S. government took notice of Maliki then spent two years compromise one’s stance whether because one is in prison oneself or because those one cares for federal agents and an Native the Black Panther Party. That training and studying and are. But anarchist principles are not essentially moral, but have their basis in a logic of practice. When American man were killed. Four such actions were anchored by engaging in various actions. we put our time and energy into petitioning, negotiating, litigating and so on, this is time and energy years after his incarceration, a a revolutionary message caused taken away from the project of destroying the society of imprisonment and law. Furthermore, these Freedom of Information Act the US government to view the Two years after going practices are based in the institutions of the state, in the legal and judiciary system. Thus, they make (FOIA) suit released documents black radicals as a serious underground, Maliki and his us dependent upon the goodwill of the state and its institutions. This can only end up strengthening which prove Leonard Peltier's threat. brother attended the funeral of the very institutions that we claim we want to put an end to. In addition, this dependence on the state innocence and FBI's targeting of Zayd Malik Shakur, who was as the very precise effect of undermining any trace of self-determination in our activity, thus the activist. Leonard was a close In a previous bio, Latine stated, killed during an altercation with undermining our capacity for direct action as well. How far this goes in deteriorating one’s perspective associate of Dennis Banks (one "It was during this period that the police on the New Jersey and critical capacities becomes evident when the concessions granted by the state in these contexts of the founders of AIM). U.S. government's covert turnpike. Maliki continued to – minor reforms or simple applications of existing laws – are proclaimed to be victories. Here the hostilities towards the BPP participate in the liberation reformist mentality has come to dominate one’s practice – the idea that one can use the most Maliki Shakur Latine became very overt and direct. movement for six years before compromised means as long as they are “effective” in the most immediate sense. But for those who Maliki Shakur Latine was born in Hence, the U.S. government being arrested. seek the destruction of the entire system of domination, these are not victories, but defeats, because the Bronx on August 23, 1949. unleashed its strategy of they point to resignation in the face of a system that seems unassailable, moving one to use its In his early years, Latine repression in the form of its July 3rd Altercation means to achieve what, in the long run, can only be its ends. became involved with the Nation infamous "Cointelpro" (E.G. At 4:45 on July 3rd, 1979 NYPD of Islam. It was during this time Counter Intelligence Program) in officers pulled over a Chevrolet So the practice of revolutionary solidarity presents us with a challenge. Repression is growing as is that he began on the path of its effort to thwart the party's Malibu on 148th Street, near 7th, specific focus by the authorities on anarchists. We will likely see more and more of us under confronting society's oppressive community-based programs and in Harlem. With guns drawn, the investigation, facing trial and spending time in prison. It is very easy in such situations to simply forces. organizational effectiveness, two officers approached the car. retreat, to let things blow over or, worse, to distance ourselves from comrades facing prison or from while at the same time targeting A gun battle broke out, leaving actions that frighten us. This response would be a major victory for the state. So the challenge we In 1969, Maliki and his brother, the party "s leadership by way of one of the officers and one of face is that of developing the strength within ourselves to act on our own terms against the state and Shaqwan, joined up with the manufacturing false and the occupants of the car injured. against is systems of repression while also learning to coordinate these actions without compromising Black Panther Party for Self- fabricated charges in an attempt ourselves. Since revolutionary solidarity, at least from an anarchist perspective, is the practical defense (BPP). Maliki described to criminalize the party's The four occupants escaped, but recognition of one’s project of struggle within the struggle of another, it requires that we each act as this period as a very trying time, membership and the BPP itself." in the car the police found two we see fit against this order, as we are moved to act by our own confrontation with its oppressive but also a rewarding one. The spent shotgun shells, additional power in our daily lives. But it also requires that we learn to weave these actions together in a way discipline was not as rigid as in Like many of the Panthers ammunition, a .45 caliber that strengthens them and makes their meaning clearer. There is no panacea, no organization or the Nation of Islam, but it targeted by the US government, revolver, and a .357 caliber program, that can provide this, because all such panaceas require that we adjust ourselves to their contained the basic elements of Maliki found himself behind revolver. Down the street they requirements. Rather it is necessary to develop the clarity and candor from which relations of affinity discipline essential to any prison bars, specifically in came upon a recently fired can develop, spreading their complicity in revolt further and further and maybe even flowering into effective organization. With this Riker's Island. There he met one twenty-gauge shotgun. The insurrection. This is the challenge we confront in the face of an increasingly repressive system of experience came additional of the Panther leaders, police also claim they found the domination. requirements in organizational Lumumba Shakur. Lumumba prints of Jose Saldana and discipline. and 20 other Panthers (known Maliki Latine. as the Panther 21) were facing Maliki began taking political trumped up charges, which Several hours after the shooting, education classes offered by the included a plot to blow up after the police followed a trail of Black Panther Party. He studied various locations in New York blood, Arkill Shakur was Chairman Mao, Franz Fannon, City. All of the Panther 21 would captured outside a building at Lenin, Fidel Castro, Che, and eventually be freed from the 285 West 150th Street, with leg many others. He was also charges. and ankle injuries he incurred in involved in transforming the the gunfight. He was taken to theoretical ideals of the BPP into Maliki Latine was soon released the hospital and was later daily practice. from Rikers and returned to the charged for his involvement in Panthers, only to find that the the altercation. Due to the Panthers' public government's tactics against the outreach‹which included the organization forced many of Just over 2-weeks after the Free Breakfast and Lunch them to go underground. shooting, on July 18, police and ! *( ! %* suggested he name himself "the on one count of murder, four The police officer was killed in Revolutionary Solidarity trustworthy" or "Al-Amin" in counts of felony murder, two the confrontation, and Bowen By Pierleone Porcu Arabic. He adopts the name counts of aggravated assault fled.

Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. He was and six other lesser charges. There are many ways to demonstrate solidarity to comrades who are being criminalized by the State, sentenced to five-to-fifteen years After his capture and each one of which is a direct expression of the way one intervenes in the social clash in general. in Attica State Prison. After three The State of Georgia announced incarceration, Bowen became a years in various state prisons, that it planned to pursue a death Black Liberation Army There are those who see solidarity as lending a social service to this or that arrested comrade, and Imam Jamil won parole in 1976. penalty conviction of Imam Jamil combatant, defiant to authorities that is the way they carry out their activity: looking for lawyers, sending money and clothes to prison, His total jail and prison time was Abdullah Al-Amin. From 1992 to at every turn. In 1973, Bowen visiting and so on. This purely humanitarian solidarity also translates itself into the constitution of five years, including two years in 1997, the FBI and Atlanta police and Philadelphia Five prisoner defense committees and relative campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion. jail prior to sentencing. investigated the former black Fred "Muhammad Kafi" Burton

militant once known as H. Rap assassinated Holmesberg Then there are those who see solidarity in a strictly political key and play at making a heap of In August of 1995, Imam Jamil Brown in connection with prison's warden and deputy “distinctions” aimed at not compromising the image of their own activity. So for reasons of opportunity was arrested in connection with everything from domestic warden as well as wounded the they defend and show solidarity to those who declare themselves innocent, not to those who Claim a shooting the previous month of terrorism to gunrunning to 14 guard commander in retaliation responsibility for their actions. a young man in the homicides in Atlanta's West End, for intense repression against neighborhood. He was charged according to police investigators' Muslim prisoners in the facility. Others still, if they see there is something to be gained in terms of political propaganda, immediately with aggravated assault after the reports, FBI documents and In 1981, Bowen led a six-day bring out flyers and leaflets in formal solidarity with the comrade or comrades arrested, i.e. they man claimed Imam Jamil shot interviews. The FBI investigation standoff with authorities when he declare solidarity in words, while in practice there is no trace of it. him. Later, however, this man ended in February 1996. The and six other captives took 39 withdrew this statement, saying Atlanta police investigation hostages at Graterford Prison as he was pressured by authorities ended in August 1997 without a freedom attempt and protest of Then there is solidarity in an ideological context. This is the case of the marxist-leninists in the to identify Imam Jamil as the any charging him of any crime. the prison conditions at revolutionary combatant party version. They show solidarity with those with positions similar to their assailant. In his only public comment on Graterford. own, and are in contrast with those who do not share or recognize their political line or strategy, often using censorship and ostracism against those they consider inconvenient. his arrest, Al-Amin called it a Much of his time in prison has

On March 16th, 2000, Fulton "government conspiracy." been spent in and out of control County Deputy Sheriff Ricky Atlanta Journal-Constitution units, solitary confinement and What do we think we should mean by revolutionary solidarity then? The first aspect is that of seeing Kinchen is shot and later dies. (April 1/00) other means of isolating Joe-Joe solidarity as the extension of the insurrectional social practice one is already carrying out within the Another deputy Aldranon from the general prison class clash, i.e. as a direct demonstration of actions of attack against all the structures of power, large English is wounded after being On June 2000, Otis Jackson, 26, population. These include three and small that are present in one's own territory. And that is because these should to all effects be shot by a man outside Imam confessed to killing the police trips to Marion penitentiary, considered responsible for everything that happens in social reality, including therefore the Jamil's store. They were trying to officer, but later recants. Imam where he met Sundiata Acoli, criminalization and arrest of comrades wherever they are. It would be short-sighted to reduce the deliver an arrest warrant to Jamil's defense team is not and other units. However, he question of repression against comrades to something strictly linked to the legal and police Imam Jamil. The warrant was for informed about it. Despite this legendary to many prisoners as apparatus. The criminalization and arrest of comrades should be seen in the context of the social failure to appear in court in fact, Al-Amin was found guilty a revolutionary. "I used to teach struggle as a whole, precisely because these are always the hasty material means used by the State January 2000 on charges of and sentenced to life in prison. the brothers how to turn their to discourage radicalization everywhere. No matter how great or insignificant it might be, every act of theft by receiving stolen property rage into energy and understand repression belongs to the relations of the social struggle in course against the structures of dominion. and impersonating an officer. Joe Joe Bowen their situations," Bowen told the Those charges date back to Joseph "Joe-Joe" Bowen is one Philadelphia Inquirer in 1981. "I The second aspect is that each revolutionary comrade should be defended on principle, irrespective incident in May 1999. English of the many all-but-forgotten don't threaten anybody. I don't of the accusations made against them by the State's legal and police apparatus, in the first place identified the shooter in the frontline soldiers in the liberation talk to the pigs. I don't drink because it is a question of snatching them from its clutches i.e. from the conditions of “hostage” they March 16 incident as Imam struggle. A native of anything I can't see through and have been reduced to. Moreover, it is also a question of not losing the occasion to intensify the attack Jamil. Philadelphia, Joe-Joe was a I don't eat anything that comes against the “law” intended as the regulating expression of all the relationships of power present in young member of the "30th and off a tray. When the time comes, constituted society. Imam Jamil is arrested in Norris Street" gang, before his I'll be ready." Lowndes County, Alabama, incarceration politicized him. The third aspect concerns the refusal to accept the logic of defense that is inherent in constitutional following a four-day U.S.-wide Released in 1971, his outside Joe-Joe is currently held in law, such as for example the problem of the “innocence” or “guilt” of the comrades involved, and that manhunt. A grand jury in Atlanta activism was cut short a week Pennsylvania. is because we have many good reasons for defending them and no one can justify the political indicts Imam Jamil for murder in following his release when Joe- opportunism of not doing so. We cannot and must not consider ourselves lawyers, but revolutionary connection with the shooting Joe was confronted by an officer Leonard Peltier anarchists at war against constituted social order an all fronts. We aim at radically destroying the death of deputy Kinchen the of the notoriously brutal Leonard Peltier is a Native latter from top to bottom, we are not interested in judging it as it does us. For this reason we consider previous month. He is indicted Philadelphia police department. American PP imprisoned for the any sentence made by the State vultures against proletarians in revolt, and all the more so if they are ! %+ ! *) comrades, to be a sentence against ourselves and as such to be avenged with all the means we Imam Jamil Power," by encouraging African- The name was shortened to the consider opportune, according to our disposition and personal inclinations. Imam Jamil was born in Baton Americans to move to other Black Panther Party (BPP). Rouge, Louisiana. In the late forms of political and cultural The fourth and final aspect concerns our attitude towards the arrested comrades, whom we continue 1960s he was known as H. Rap empowerment. Newsweek It grew to at least 5,000 to behave towards in the same way as those not in prison. That means that to revolutionary solidarity Brown. After Islam he adopted magazine described the new members nationwide, with we always and in any case unite a radical critique. We can and do show solidarity with imprisoned the name Jamil Al-Amin. chairman as: chapters in over half of the comrades without for this espousing their ideas. Those who show solidarity to imprisoned comrades United States, as well as an are not necessarily involved in their opinions and points of view, and the same thing goes for us as far In 1960, he enrolled at Southern ... a disenchanted ex-poverty international branch in Algeria. as they are concerned. We actively support all imprisoned comrades in all and for all, but only up to University in Georgia and worker who affects sunglasses Its programs included free health the point where what we do for them does not come into contrast with or contradict our revolutionary majored in sociology. "I lived indoors and out, a droopy clinics and free breakfast insurrectionalist way of being. Ours is exclusively a relationship between social revolutionaries in near Louisiana State University, mustache, a bushy "natural" coif programs for children. But this revolt, not that of bartering positions. We do not sacrifice any part of ourselves, just as we do not and I could see this big fine and a curdled view of the white posed a threat to the expect others to do the same. school with modern buildings world…He preaches armed eye- predominantly white power We think of solidarity as a way of being accomplices, of taking reciprocal pleasure and in no way and it was for whites. Then there for-an-eye self-defense for structure of the time and the vast consider it a duty, a sacrifice for the “good and sacred cause”, because it is our own cause, i.e. was Southern University, which Negroes and packs a 12-gauge majority of the white public. For ourselves. was about to fall in and that was "cracker gun" in his own dusty them, the Black Panther party for the niggers." Although a good Plymouth. meant anti-government Starting from these premises, of primary importance in the development of one's anarchist student, he left school in 1964 militancy. insurrectionalist action, revolutionary solidarity takes on meaning as such, because we would show before finishing his A national figure, H. Rap Brown simple material support to any friend who ends up in prison. undergraduate degree. was in great demand as A police raid on the Panthers' speaker. In July 1967, he quarters in Chicago resulted in Revolutionary solidarity is an integral part of our very being as insurrectional anarchists. It is in this Influenced by many writers addressed a civil rights rally in the deaths of two of the party's dimension that it should be demonstrated incessantly, precisely because it contributes to widening committed to the struggle of Cambridge, Maryland. Brown leaders. Police riddled the what we are already doing. African-Americans for freedom, urged about 400 people to fight apartment with bullets in a 19-year-old H. Rap Brown found fire with fire. "Black folks built controversial show of force. the environment around Howard America, and if America don't Earlier the same year, Seale and University in Washington, D.C. come around, we're going to other Panthers had been inspiring and motivating when he burn America down," he is charged with killing a suspected visited his brother who was quoted as saying. As he was informer. An undeclared war studying there. He moved to escorting a lady to her home, was being waged against the Washington, D.C. and became some persons fired at him from Panthers. got involved in activism for social the bushes. He was injured by a justice. shotgun pellet to his forehead. While the sentence for a 1968 Subsequently, rioting broke out. arms conviction was on appeal, Action that sinks its roots in one’s own project that is Solidarity lies in action. In 1966, Brown became a field Brown was accused of inciting and as the state of Maryland carried a coherently and proudly too, especially in times when it might be dangerous organizer for the Student the riot, and with the charge was preparing to try him for the even to express one’s ideas publicly. A project that expresses solidarity with joy in the Nonviolent Coordinating pending, he was arrested. A Cambridge riot, Brown went into game of life that above all makes us free ourselves, destroys alienation, exploitation, Committee (SNCC) in Greene federal judge gave him the hiding in 1970. The FBI added mental poverty, opening up infinite spaces devoted to experimentation and the continual County, Alabama. This was one maximum sentence of five years him to its "Most Wanted" list. activity of one’s mind in a project aimed at realizing itself in insurrection. of the first examples of his in 1968. Brown eluded the FBI for a year involvement in the civil rights At a rally in Oakland on Feb. 17, and a half, reappearing after 17 A project which is not specifically linked to the repression that has struck our comrades movement, which characterized 1968, he and Stokely months on October 16, 1971. but which continues to evolve and make social tension grow, to the point of making it American politics in the 1960s. Carmichael were made honorary With three supporters who had explode so strongly that the prison walls fall down by themselves. officers of the Black Panther joined him, he led an attack on a By 1967, at the age of 23, Brown Party in a merger of the two New York City bar, targeted for A project which is a point of reference and stimulus for the imprisoned comrades, who in was elected the chairman of the groups. Brown was named its exploitation of the community. turn are point of reference for it. Revolutionary solidarity is the secret that destroys all SNCC after Stokely Carmichael, minister of justice for the Black A shootout with police ensued walls, expressing love and rage at the same time as one’s own insurrection in the one of its founding members, Panther Party. The Black and Brown was wounded and struggle against Capital and the State. was ousted. During Carmichael's Panther Party for Self-Defense captured. chairmanship, the SNCC moved was founded in October, 1966, While Brown was in jail, waiting

from a philosophy of in Oakland, California by Huey for his trial, he converted to Daniela Carmignani nonviolence to that of "Black P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Islam. A fellow prisoner ! "+ ! $) come to light since their During this time, he joined the Jaan, once again, went Spirit of Freedom: Support the Eco-Prisoners convictions to corroborates their Students for a Democratic underground and joined the By Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network story that Amnesty International Society (SDS), where he worked armed clandestine movement. March 2010 and the Lincoln NAACP have side by side with Black Panther called for their release, or for a Party and Young Lords Jaan joined up with a group "The whole experience has been tough, but all the kind and strengthening words and new trial. organizing the youth. Due to a known as the United Freedom combination of government Front, which consisted of former wise thoughts from strangers made it much easier!" Ed Poindexter is a former repression and slow progress of members of the Sam Melville- -Former Swedish Animal Rights Prisoner member of the Black Panther the movements of change, Jaan Jonathan Jackson and other Party. David Rice was a known joined up with the underground revolutionaries. The group All of the prisoners listed below welcome letters of support. So please, regardless of what languages member of the NCCF. (National revolutionary movement. targeted government institutions you speak and regardless of where you live in the world, please support the eco-prisoners and no Committe to Combat Fascism) and major corporations that had compromise in defense of Mother Earth! This group consisted of Black On January 16, 1972, a group ties to the South African Panther members that were calling itself the People's Apartheid system or right-wing ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS working to protect the black Liberation Army in New paramilitaries in Central Grant Barnes #137563, San Carlos Correctional Facility, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO 81002, USA. Serving community from police brutality. Hampshire planted four bombs America. This included taking 12 years for setting fire to a number of SUV vehicles. The letters ELF were spray painted onto all of David Rice was Minister of in various locations in actions directly against the the vehicles. Information in the NCCF. Rice's Manchester, New Hampshire. South African and United States political actions were a large part Three of the bombs exploded governments, attacking various Nathan Block, #36359-086, FCI Lompoc, Federal Correctional Institution, 3600 Guard Road, Lompoc, of why he was convicted. We shattering the windows of police government buildings. CA 93436, USA. Serving 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an have documents to show that and fire headquarters. The ELF arson against an SUV dealership. Also admitted his role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. the FBI helped to suppress fourth device was found The UFF continued their evidence in this case that would unexploded in the police chief's activities for several years, Marco Camenisch, Postfach 3143, CH-8105 Regensdorf, Switzerland. Serving 18 years. 1) Ten years have completely discredited the office. funding their actions through for using explosives to destroy electricity pylons leading from nuclear power stations. 2) Eight years key witness against the bank expropriations. The on for the murder of a Swiss Boarder Guard whilst on the run. In '02 Marco completed a 12-year convicted men. At the time of the Jaan Laaman and another February 7, 1982, Jaan Laaman sentence in Italy for destroying electricity pylons in Italy. bombing, the FBI was actively person, Anne Holt, were and another UFF member, Kazi spying on U.S. citizens and arrested and charged with the Toure, were involved in a shoot Leonardo Landi, Carcere San Michele, Via Casale, 50/A, 15122 San Michele (AL), Italy. Il Silvestre working to subvert groups that attacks. The Justice Department out with police. While Jaan activist awaiting trial accused of robbery. were working to advance the stated they found a letter on one managed to escape, Kazi was rights of African Americans and of the arrested claiming arrested. Despite the arrest, the Marie Jeanette Mason, #04672-061, FCI Waseca, Federal Correctional Institution, PO Box 1731, American Indians. responsibility for the action. Jaan group continued their operations Waseca, MN 56093, USA. Serving 21 years and 10 months for her involvement in an ELF arson was subsequently sentenced to but on November 4, 1984, five against a University building carrying out Genetically Modified crop tests. Marie also pleaded guilty to Jaan Karl Laaman 20 years in prison. After winning members of the group, including conspiring to carry out ELF actions and admitted involvement in 12 other ELF actions. Jaan Karl Laaman is an Anti- an appeal and getting some of Jaan Laaman were arrested. Imperialist political prisoner, his sentence reduced, he was Nearly six months later, the last Abraham López Martínez (Jailed in Mexico). E-mail letters of support to [email protected]. On imprisoned for actions carried released in 1978. two remaining members were remand accused of a series of ELF style activities against various trucks and businesses. out by United Freedom Front arrested. (UFF) a left-wing guerrilla group Jaan quickly stepped back into Eric McDavid, 16209-097, FCI Victorville, Medium II, Federal Correctional Institution, PO Box 5300, active in the US in the early '80s. the political life and in 1979 he Members of the group were Adelanto, CA 92301, USA. Serving 19 years & 7 months for planning to destroy the property of the He is currently serving a 98 and his comrade Kazi Toure charged with various crimes U.S. Forestry Service, mobile phone masts and power plants. At the point of his arrest no criminal years sentence for charges helped to organize the Amandla from murder, firefights with damage has actually occurred. ranging from Seditious Festival of Unity. This concert, government forces, seditious Conspiracy, firefights with which featured Bob Marley, conspiracy to weapons charges. Daniel McGowan, 63794-053, USP Marion, US Penitentiary, PO Box 1000, Marion, IL 62959, USA. government forces and weapon helped to fight racism in Boston, Jaan Laaman was sentenced to Serving 7 years for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an old possession. where it was held, and raised 98 years in prison. Recently, growth logging corporation. Also admitted his role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. money to send to freedom Jaan completed his federal In the 1960's, Jaan was involved fighters in South Africa. This sentence and was transferred to Steve Murphy 0910300841, Central Detention Center, 630 East Rialto Ave, San Bernardino, CA in various grassroots activity along with the anti-racist the state of Massachusetts, 92408, USA. Awaiting sentencing after admitting Conspiracy to Commit Arson following an attempted movements, ranging from the and community security work he where he serving time for his arson at a town house construction site in 2006. The action was claimed under the banner of the ELF. peace movement, anti-racist was doing led to increased state charges. struggles to the labor organizing. police and Klan harassment, so ! $( ! "* Justin Solondz (Address Unknown - China). American Green Scare defendant accused of direct action activity in America. Serving 3 years in China for drug related offences then due to be deported In 1969 SDS split into different In the late 1970s or early 1980s Gilbert co-founded an inmate back to America. His exact prison location is currently unknown. ideological factions and Gilbert and other white activists peer education program on HIV Weatherman emerged, its took the name RATF and AIDS in the Auburn Jonatan Strandberg, Box 248, 59323, Västervik, Sweden. Serving 15 months imprisonment after purpose being to build up armed (Revolutionary Armed Task Correctional Facility in 1987, and admitting damaging a communication tower used by the Department of Defence, cutting the cables struggle amidst young white Force), declaring their solidarity a similar more successful project on a crane used in creating urban sprawl, and damaging a vehicle used in the logging industry. Americans in support of the with the Black Liberation Army in Great Meadows Prison in Black Panthers and other (BLA). In 1981, this group Comstock following his transfer Michael Sykes 696693, Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility, 1728 Bluewater Highway, Ionia, MI militant groups and also oppose participated along with several there. He has published book 48846, USA. Serving four to ten years for anti-sprawl arsons, criminal damage to a utility pole, spray- the war in Vietnam via actions members of the BLA in an reviews and essays in a number painting political graffiti and burning the American flag. that "Bring the War Home". attempt to rob a Brinks armored of small/independent Gilbert joined this group in 1969 car at the Nanuet Mall, near newspapers and journals which Fermín Gómez Trejo (Jailed in Mexico). E-mail letters of support to [email protected] On remand with his friend Ted Gold, who in Nyack, New York. While Gilbert were collected into the anthology accused of a series of ELF style activities against various trucks and businesses. early 1970 would die in the and Boudin waited in a U-Haul No Surrender: Writings from an infamous New York City truck in a nearby parking lot, Anti-Imperialist Political Prisoner Briana Waters 36432-086, FCI Danbury, Federal Correctional Institution, Route 37, Danbury, CT townhouse explosion that killed armed BLA members took (Abraham Guillen Press) in 06811, USA. Serving six years for involvement in an ELF arson on a University. three Weather members. The another vehicle to the mall, 2004. He has also published group's participants went into where a Brinks truck was longer single pieces on the topic Joyanna Zacher, #36360-086, FCI Dublin, 5700 8th St.- Camp Parks- Unit F, Dublin, CA 94568, USA. hiding at this point, and the making a delivery. They of misleading AIDS conspiracy Serving 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against organization was renamed the confronted the guards and theories and white working class an SUV dealership. Also admitted her role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. Weather Underground. immediately began firing, almost political consciousness. The severing the arm of guard Joe 2003 documentary The Weather ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS Exactly what Gilbert did in the Trombino and killing his co- Underground featured interview Jonny Ablewhite TB4885, H.M. Prison, Hewell Lane, Redditch, Worcs B97 6QS, England. Serving 12 Weather Underground between worker, Peter Paige. The four segments with Gilbert, raising years for attempting to blackmail a farmer who supplied guinea pigs for vivisection. 1970 and the group's demise then took $1.6 million in cash his profile beyond those in the around 1975 is not known. Not and sped off to transfer into the small political prisoner support Dan Amos VN7818, HMP Guys Marsh, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 0AH, England. Serving 4 years for on the group's coordinating waiting U-Haul. The truck was network who have been conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. committee (the Weather Bureau) soon stopped by police, who following his progress since his he did act as a regional leader, were looking for black, not white, incarceration. The DVD release Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Coldingley, Shaftesbury Road, Bisley, Woking, Surrey GU24 9EX, spending at least some of these perpetrators, and therefore did of The Weather Underground England. Serving 9 years for conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. years in Colorado. The Weather not suspect Gilbert and Boudin. features a longer interview with Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Send, Ripley Road, Woking, Surrey, GU23 7LJ, England. Serving 9 Underground committed several Officers questioning the couple Gilbert as an extra. years for conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. bombings and actions in this were then attacked by BLA period against government and members who emerged from the He has served time in numerous Mel Broughton A3892AE, HMP Frankland, Brasside, Durham, County Durham DH1 5YD, England. business targets. As support for back of the vehicle. Two police upstate New York prisons, and Serving 10 years for "conspiracy to commit arson" against Oxford University vivisection department. the group began to wane on the officers, Waverly L. Brown and is currently at the Clinton left the pace of actions lessened Edward J. O'Grady, died in the Correctional Institution in Lauren Gazzola #93497-011, FCI Danbury, Federal Correctional Institution, Route #37 Danbury, CT and some members of the shootout. Gilbert fled the scene Dannemora NY. 06811, USA. Serving 54 months imprisonment for helping organize the SHAC-USA campaign. Weather Underground with other RATF and BLA reemerged. Most were not members but was later caught Ed Poindexter Alex Hall, Inmate #2009-06304, Davis County Jail, 800 West State St., Farmington, UT 84025, USA. proscecuted or did not serve by police, tried, and sentenced Ed Poindexter and Mondo we On Remand. accused of raiding a mink farm. Also accused of breaching bail conditions whilst on bail. time in prison despite having in 1983 to 75 years for three Langa (formerly David Rice), been sought by the police for counts of felony manslaughter. have been incarcerated on life Kevin Kjonaas #93502-011, FCI Sandstone, PO Box 1000, Sandstone, MN 55072 USA. Serving 72 years; police misconduct was His extremely long sentence for sentences for the 1971 bombing months imprisonment for helping organise the SHAC-USA campaign. the cause of many charges participating in this action death of an Omaha policeman. eventually being thrown out of (especially when compared to Both have insisted they never Gavin Medd-Hall WV9475, HMP Coldingley, Shaftesbury Road, Bisley, Woking, Surrey GU24 9EX, court (see: COINTELPRO). Kathy Boudin's 20-years-to-life, manufactured a bomb, and England. Serving 8 years for conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. Gilbert did not emerge, however; from which she has been never instructed a 16-year-old to he and his partner Kathy Boudin paroled) may be due to his make a 911 call to lure police to Heather Nicholson A3158AJ, HMP Foston Hall, Foston, Derby, Derbyshire, DE65 5DN, England. remained active even following decision not to participate in his a trap which would kill one Serving 11 years for conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. the birth of their son Chesa trial, not recognizing the policeman and badly injure Boudin in August 1980. authority of the state to try him. another. So much evidence has ! "" ! $' recommending they be Black Liberation Army and other manager in a toy company and Kevin Olliff, #1300931, TTCF 161 D-Pod, 450 Bauchet St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, USA. sentenced to 96 months in radicals following a botched Gilbert was still just a left-liberal On remand accused of stalking as well as conspiracy and criminal threats towards UCLA vivisectors federal prison. Paul pled to one armored car robbery in 1981. He Democrat, politically, when he and a company linked to vivisection. count of arson and one count of is now a well-known prisoner entered Columbia College in the conspiracy. The government is serving time in upstate New fall of 1962. But by the fall of Jonathan Paul, #07167-085, FCI Phoenix, Federal Correctional Institution, 37910 N 45th Ave., recommending Paul be York. 1965, Gilbert was speaking on Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA. Sentenced to 51 months for an ALF arson on a horse meat plant. Also sentenced to 60 months in the sundial against the war in admitted his role in an ELF/ALF conspiracy. prison. All four defendants are David Gilbert grew up in a Viet Nam at ICV rallies, was a free to argue for a lesser Jewish family in Brookline, revolutionary communist and Lewis Pogson A6454AK, HMP Lincoln, 106 Greetwell Road, Lincoln, LN2 4BD, England. sentence. Massachusetts, a suburb of New Left radical on a political Serving 3 years for rescuing 129 rabbits from Highgate Farm. Boston. Inspired in his teens by level, somewhat bohemian Federal prosecutors have asked the Greensboro sit-ins and other culturally and very intellectual, William James Viehl, Inmate #2009-05735, Davis County Jail, 800 West State St., Farmington, UT the court to apply a "terrorism events of the American Civil morally passionate and earnest. 84025, USA. Serving two years for his role in an ALF raid on a mink fur farm. enhancement" at sentencing. Rights Movement, he joined the He always seemed to be in a The defendants could face up to Congress of Racial Equality pleasant and enthusiastic mood. Nicole Vosper VM9385, HMP Bronzefield, Woodhthorpe Road, Ashford, Middx, TW15 3JZ, England. 20 years in prison in addition to (CORE) at age seventeen. He He also seemed to be one of the On remand accused of blackmailing Huntingdon Life Sciences. the terms of the plea agreement. entered Columbia University in New Left activists around The government is seeking the 1962. In his junior year he campus who knew the most Dan Wadham, A5705AA, HMP Camp Hill, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5PB, England. Serving 5 "terrorism enhancement" despite helped to found the Independent about any politically relevant years for conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. the fact that the crimes to which Committee Against the War in subject. As an orator and they have admitted responsibility Vietnam [ICV] and later the agitator, Gilbert was also quite Kerry Whitburn TB4886, HMP Lowdham Grange, Lowdham, Nottingham, NG14 7DA, England. only involve the destruction of school's chapter of Students for good. And as a day-to-day Serving 12 years for attempting to blackmail a farmer who supplied guinea pigs for vivisection. private property; no government a Democratic Society. He organizer, Gilbert was very property was damaged in any of travelled regularly to Harlem hardworking. Sarah Whitehead, VM7684, HMP Bronzefield, Woodthorpe Road, Ashford, Middx, TW15 3JZ, the incidents. while working as a tutor, and After graduating from Columbia England. Serving two years for: 1) rescuing a puppy from horrific conditions. 2) rescuing over 100 saw Malcolm X speak at College in June 1966, Gilbert animals from a pet breeder who was later prosecuted for animal abuse. Also awaiting trial for SHAC Sentencing Barnard College in February spent most of his days and activity. On June 4, 2007, Daniel 1965, experiences he describes evenings during the fall of 1967 McGowan was sentenced to 7 as formative. Known by the late downtown attending grad school Carolyn Feldman, 770 Iowa St., Dubuque, IA 52001. Jailed for refusing to testify before a Federal years in federal prison at a '60s primarily as a young at the New School, building an Grand Jury investigating ALF & ELF activity. location to be determined. U.S. theorist, publishing articles in SDS chapter there or attending ! District Court Judge Ann Aiken New Left Notes and other meetings at the New York SDS PLOUGHSHARES PRISONERS presided over the sentencing, movement publications, he went Regional Office. He and other Helen Woodson, 03231-045, FMC Carswell - Admin. Max. Unit, POB 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127, which took place at Oregon on to play an organizing role in New York Regional SDS USA. Serving 8 years 10 months for actions that focused on the interrelationship of war & the Federal Court in Eugene, the April-May 1968 Columbia activists were both working to destruction of the natural world. The actions included pouring red paint over the security desk of a Oregon. Judge Aiken applied a student strike. build SDS and attempting to federal court and making threatening communications. Previously Helen had served 20 ! years for: 1) "terrorism enhancement" to the build an "adult," non-student Using a hammer to disarm a nuclear missile silo. 2) Burning $25,000 on the floor of a bank whilst sentence, and McGowan was As Columbia SDS grew during Movement for a Democratic denouncing war, environmental destruction & economic injustice. 3) Mailing warning letters with also ordered to pay $1.9 million the Spring 1967 term, Gilbert Society [MDS] of ex-student bullets attached to Government & corporate officials. in restitution. tended to return to the Columbia radical professionals who had campus only to offer a "radical left the campus scene, for OTHER ANTI-WAR PRISONERS David Gilbert education" counter-course for meaningless off-campus 9-to-5 Elija Smith VP 7551 HMP Lewes, 1 Brighton Rd, Lewes, Sussex, BN7 1EA, England. On American radical organizer, Columbia SDS freshmen and jobs. In addition, Gilbert spent remand accused of disarming a weapons factory, which, amongst other things, makes author and prisoner David sophomores in a lounge in Ferris his spare-time studying Marx's Hellfire Missiles. The action was in protest at Israel military action against Gaza. Gilbert (b. 1944) was a founding Booth Hall. Most of his activism Das Kapital book and writing member of Columbia University was centered downtown at the New Left theoretical papers on ANTIFA PRISONERS Students for a Democratic New School for Social Research imperialism and U.S. domestic Aleksey Bychin, FBU OIK-2 IK-7 otryad No. 7, ul. Karnallitovaya d. 98, g. Solikamsk Permskiy Kray, Society and member of The or at the New York SDS consumption, consumerism and 618545 Russia. Serving 5 years for defending himself against neo-nazis. Weather Underground Regional Office. "the new working-class." In Organization. Following eleven October 1967, Gilbert looked Jürgen Goethals, Nieuwe Wandeling 89, 9000 Gent, Belgium. On remand accused of involvement in years underground he was Gilbert's father was a liberal somewhat like Marx, himself, an outburst of rage which occurred in protest to a fascist march. Is charged with arson. arrested with members of the Democrat who worked as a having grown a long beard. ! $& ! "# Gian-Paolo Melis, Nieuwe Wandeling 89, 9000 Gent, Belgium. On remand accused of involvement in Alberto Gonzales held a press environmental activists to refer an outburst of rage which occurred in protest to a fascist march. Is charged with arson. Biography conference announcing a to action taken by the U.S. New York native McGowan has sweeping 65-count indictment, government against the radical Andrei Mergenov, FGU IZ 64/1 OKB 2 komn. 73, Up. Kutyakova 107, 410601 Saratov, Russia. worked on many activist issues including two conspiracy environmentalist movement. The Serving 3 years for fighting with neo-nazis. including military counter- charges, against 11 individuals name the federal government recruitment, demonstrations relating to 17 different incidents has given to this case is OTHER PRISONERS against the Republican National in Oregon, Washington and Operation Backfire and to date, Pavel Delidon, ul. Timiryazeva-1, FGU IK-7, 309990 Valuyki Russia. Anarchist/Animal Convention, the Really Really California. In addition to the six over 15 activists have been Rights activist jailed for attempting to obtain wages owed to him, but which had not been paid to him Free market, and the support of people arrested on December 7, arrested and indicted. by his employer. IMPORTANT: Pavel can only receive letters written in Russian. He is punished by prisoners such as Jeff Luers and the Oregon indictment also the prison if he receives a letter not written in Russian so please, only send letters written in Russian. others. McGowan was a named Jonathan Paul, Suzanne The Christian Science Monitor graduate student earning a Savoie, Joseph Dibee, Rebecca reports that the "Operation Alessandro Settepani, Carcere San Michele, Via Casale, 50/A, 15122 San Michele (AL), Italy. Co- Master's degree in acupuncture Rubin and Josephine Overaker. Backfire" indictments have defendant of Sergio Stefani. Arrested for stealing a car and then remanded for "Subversive and was an employee of elicited concern, from activists, Conspiracy" and remanded into a prison for political activists. WomensLaw.org, a nonprofit The Oregon indictment charged that authorities have "cracked group that helps women in certain defendants with arson, the super-secrecy of ALF and Sergio Maria Stefani, Carcere San Michele, Via Casale, 50/A, 15122 San Michele (AL), Italy. Former domestic abuse situations attempted arson, and using and ELF". Alternative media ALF prisoner arrested for stealing a car and then remanded for "Subversive Conspiracy" and navigate the legal system. carrying a destructive device. organizations have condemned remanded into a prison for political activists. The destructive device charge, the arrests, some calling them a Arrest and Operation Backfire 18 USC 924(c), carries a 30- "witch hunt", "aimed at disrupting Fran Thompson, #1090915, CCC, 3151 Litton Drive, Chillicuthe, MO 64601, USA. Serving On December 7, 2005, one of year mandatory sentence and a and discrediting political Life for killing, in self-defence, a stalker who had broken into her home. Before her imprisonment Fran the largest arrests of life sentence for a second movements". Activists, was an eco, animal & anti-nuke campaigner. environmental activists in conviction of the charge. maintaining the Red Scare American history began. Using On June 28, the government allusion, claim the operations Leonard Peltier #89637-132, USP Terre Haute, U.S. Penitentiary, 4700 Bureau Road South, Terre the code name Operation arraigned Nathan Block, are "fishing expedition[s]" carried Haute, IN 47802, USA. American Indian Movement activist serving Life after being framed for Backfire, the FBI arrested six Joyanna Zacher, Daniel and out "in the midst of 9/11 murdering 2 FBI agents. people. Chelsea Gerlach, Jonathan Paul on a new 65- McCarthyism. The FBI disputes William Rodgers, Kendall count superseding indictment. these claims, Director Robert Richard Sills (Address Unknown, USA). Serving 15 months for bomb hoaxing a University saying they Tankersley, Kevin Tubbs, Daniel All four pled not guilty. Mueller claiming the agency would be targeted by the ALF if they didn't stop their animal experiments. McGowan and Stanislas takes action "only when volatile Meyerhoff were arrested for Criticism of prosecution talk crosses the line into ELP is an international eco-prisoner support network founded, in Britain, in 1993 to support jailed eco- allegedly taking part in a wide McGowan had originally been violence and criminal activity". activists. We support the prisoners by producing various regular prisoner lists. variety of violent crimes, indicted separately, but his www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk including arson and domestic arrest comes in the context of a Plea agreement terrorism. well-coordinated, multi-state On November 9, 2006, sweep of numerous activists by McGowan and co-defendants Stanislas Meyerhoff agreed to the federal government, who Jonathan Paul, Joyanna Zacher be a federal cooperating witness have charged the individuals and Nathan Block pled guilty almost immediately upon arrest with practically every earth and and signed a non-cooperation and interrogation. On December animal liberation case left plea agreement with the 22, William "Avalon" Rodgers unsolved in the Northwest. Many government. This agreement was found dead in his cell in of the charges, including does not require cooperation Flagstaff, Arizona, from an McGowan's, are for cases (informing on others) on the part apparent suicide. whose statute of limitations were of the defendants. about to expire. At first, those arrested were Zacher and Block each pled to indicted separately with certain McGowan's case has been one count of conspiracy, individuals facing numerous considered to be part of the US attempted arson, and two trials for each separate alleged government's 'Green Scare': a separate incidents of arson. incident. On January 20, federal term alluding to the Red Scare McGowan pled to conspiracy prosecutors, the head of the FBI, of the 1940s-50s, and an and to two separate incidents of and US Attorney General expression used by arson. The government is ! "$ ! $% Chubbuck was known by the FBI On December 21, 2000, Byron the racist teachings of Shockley, Briana Waters as 'Robin the Hood' because he Chubbuck, was being Crittenden and other Briana Waters is a devoted and loving mother of residents of Randle, Washington to save the old- informed the bank tellers he was transported by the US Marshall's sociologists, as well as for Latino her four-year-old daughter. She is a professional growth forest on Watch Mountain. expropriating funds to assist the service from Albuquerque recruitment to the university. musician and violin teacher based in Oakland, poor and indigenous people Federal Court to Santa Fe California. On March 15, 2006, she was falsely Briana's family, friends, and supporters were fighting for independence in the County Jail, when, after Carlos was involved in issues in accused of participating in a politically motivated heartbroken and left in disbelief when a federal southern Mexican state of unlocking his handcuffs, kicked the community related to police arson, which took place at the University of jury found her guilty of two counts of arson on Chiapas. Chubbuck began his out the back window of the brutality, slum landlords, corrupt Washington in May 2001. March 6, 2008. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals campaign in 1998 until his prison transport van. According politicians and the colonial case denied Briana's request for release on bail capture in August of 1999. to statement made by Chubbuck of Puerto Rico. Briana steadfastly maintains her innocence. She pending appeal in early July, 2008. In August of on a radio interview, the key to is a peaceful woman who believes in non- 2008, Briana was transferred from SeaTac in In August 13, 1999, two FBI the handcuffs was purchased In 1980 he was arrested and violence. In 2001, she directed a documentary, Washington State to the Danbury, Connecticut agents investigating the series of from a prison guard. charged with seditious entitled Watch , which tells the moving true story Federal Correctional Institution where she was bank expropriations came to conspiracy and related charges, of a peaceful campaign that built a coalition designated to serve a six-year sentence. Chubbuck's apartment. The During his escape, Chubbuck and sentenced to 78 years in between environmentalists, loggers, and the agents were interviewing continued to expropriate funds to prison. The parole commission Chubbuck's wife when he send to Chiapas, Mexico. recently told him he must serve http://www.supportbriana.org/ entered. A shootout between the Authorities believe he another 15 years in prison agents and Chubbuck erupted expropriated funds from about before they will consider his Daniel McGowan and he was able to flee. During eight banks after his self- case. His release date is 2024. Daniel McGowan is an environmental and social efforts, organizing free markets in his the shootout no one was injured. liberation. He was place in the justice activist from New York City. He was neighborhood, and supporting political prisoners "15 most wanted" fugitive list by After his arrest, his daughter charged in federal court on counts of arson, such as Jeff "Free" Luers. Daniel was also Chubbuck was found a little the Marshals Service. Clarissa, then age 3, was property destruction and conspiracy, all relating to earning a Master's degree in acupuncture and while later in an adjacent whisked out of the country, for two actions in Oregon in 2001. Following his was working at WomensLaw.org, a nonprofit that apartment with family members. On February 2001, Chubbuck fear the government would make arrest, Daniel was offered two choices by the helps abused women navigate the legal system, The FBI surrounded the was recaptured after sustaining good on its threats to harm her. government: cooperate by informing on other when he was arrested by federal marshals on apartment and within a half hour, a gunshot would to his chest, Clarissa, a recent high school people, or go to trial and potentially spend the rest December 7th, 2005. Chubbuck allowed the the family shot by Albuquerque police. graduate, is reunited with her of his life in prison. His only real option was to members to leave unharmed. family and working in San plead not guilty until he could reach a resolution Daniel McGowan's arrest had come in the context Chubbuck, however, bashed In the end, Chubbuck was Francisco to save money for of the case that permitted him to honor his of a well-coordinated, multi-state sweep of over through the walls in the building accused of expropriating funds college. principles. After many months of litigation and 15 activists by the federal government who have to slip into adjacent apartments from about 20-22 banks. He was negotiation, Daniel was able to admit to his role in charged the individuals with practically every in an effort to escape. He went convicted on 14 of those Daniel McGowan these two incidents, while not implicating or earth and animal liberation action in the Pacific though two or three apartments charges. It is estimated that he Daniel McGowan is an American identifying any other people who might have been Northwest left unsolved. Many have considered before emerging more than two expropriated at least $165,000. environmental activist who was involved. this round up indicative of the government's hours later. Chubbuck tried to arrested and charged in federal 'Green Scare' focus, which has activists being run but captured after being shot Carlos Alberto Torres court on multiple counts of arson Daniel grew up in Rockaway Beach, Queens, arrested and threatened with life in prison while with several bean bags and Carlos was born in Ponce, and conspiracy, relating to the New York, and is a much-loved member of the way more serious crimes go ignored. Many of the attacked by a police dog. Puerto Rico in 1952. His family arson of Superior Lumber community. He has worked on projects such as charges, including Daniel's, were for crimes soon emigrated to New York and company in Glendale, Oregon the demonstrations against the Republican whose statute of limitations were about to expire. He was charged with the then to Chicago. on January 2, 2001 and National Convention, counter military recruitment robbery of 13 banks and the Jefferson Poplar Farms in http://www.supportdaniel.org/ attempted robbery of a In his junior year in high school Clatskanie, Oregon on May 21, fourteenth. In addition to the he was able to participate in his 2001 claimed by the Earth robberies, he was also charged first Puerto Rican history class, Liberation Front. McGowan was Eric McDavid with two counts of assaulting a offered by Aspira. He studied facing a minimum of life in prison Eric McDavid is a political prisoner, currently entrapped Eric in it. Eric was targeted by the state peace officer, two counts of sociology at Southern Illinois if convicted when he accepted a serving a 20 year sentence in federal prison for for his political beliefs, and his case is important possessing and discharging a University and later at the non-cooperation plea agreement “thought crime.” He was arrested in January 2006 for everyone who dares to stand up. He is firearm, and one count of being University of Illinois at Chicago. on November 9, 2006. His arrest (as part of the government's ongoing "Green currently appealing his conviction and his a felon in possession of a is part of what the US Scare" campaign against environmental and sentencing. firearm, all in connection the At the U. of I. he became government has dubbed animal rights activists) after being targeted by an Eric was arrested (along with Zachary Jenson and standoff. involved in the struggles against Operation Backfire. undercover informant who formulated a crime and Lauren Weiner) on January 13, 2006, as part of ! $$ ! "% the government's ongoing Green Scare guilty to a lesser charge. In doing so, they agreed communism the withering of the autonomy and federated My present lack of formal campaign. All three were charged with to testify against Eric and cooperate in every way state will leave, the many centralization, a balance identification with a particular “Conspiracy to damage and destroy property by possible, including testifying in front of secret anarchisms lack the structure to ensuring the equitable theoretical system does not fire and an explosive.” His arrest was the direct grand jury proceedings. get from here to there. distribution of power. I am a prevent me from struggle. result of a government informant – known only as Nevertheless, I recognize the supporter of all progressive Exclusive adherence to a hard “Anna” - who spent a year and a half drawing him Eric's case is a clear-cut example of entrapment, value of anarchy’s contributions struggles against imperial line is not necessary to finding in and working with the FBI to fabricate a crime and he fought the charges against him on those in promoting local autonomy, capital. I am a partisan of armed comrades or laying down and implicate Eric in it. Anna was paid over grounds at trial in September of 2007. After a trial rejecting excessive hierarchy, and other subterranean struggle positive practice. Revolution $65,000 for her work with the FBI. Eric was riddled with errors, lies and blunders on the part and incorporating a broader as unavoidable in furtherance of road is not that narrow at this imprisoned for what amounts to thought-crime – of the government, a jury found Eric guilty. Many spectrum of human activity into class war. Revolution is not and juncture, nor should it be. no actions were ever carried out, and Eric was of those same jurors later made damning political consciousness. never will be legal. I am a Ultimately, we of the left have a charged with a single count of “conspiracy” - a statements about the FBI's handling of the case, prisoner of war (class war.) common destination: the powerful legal tool often used by the state to and two of them submitted declarations to the I cannot define as a communist Class is the source and collective to which humanity will crush dissent. court stating that they believed Eric deserved a because the structures that have sustenance of what makes evolve, faster or slower new trial. None of this can change the fact that grown out of communist thought revolution necessary. according to the efficacy of our Eric was denied bail twice – despite having no Eric has been convicted of a crime that was never have been too prone to work. prior criminal record and no history of violence – committed. In May of 2008 Eric was sentenced to authoritarian deformations and I am also happily atheist, anti- and spent almost 2 years pre-trial in Sacramento an outrageous 19 years and 7 months in prison. rigidity, and the many sexist, anti-racist, globalist, anti- Toward attaining that County Main Jail in “Total Separation” - or solitary At the time, it was the longest standing sentence communisms lack the flexibility authoritarian, environmentalist, destination, we need to confinement. This meant that he had little to no of any environmental prisoner in the US. to resist pressure in those anti-imperialist, democratic (little cooperate in creating a new contact with other prisoners or the outside world Unfortunately, Eric's case and sentencing seem directions. Yet I nevertheless d). However, none of those revolutionary praxis synthesizing and was only allowed to leave his cell for a few to have set a precedent for such injustice, and recognize Marx, Lenin, Che and sufficiently characterizes my the lessons of the past and a hours each week. During that time he endured others have since been sentenced to similarly other communists as high on the politics over the others that I can clear analysis of the present. two separate hunger strikes to gain access to outrageous time in prison. Eric is currently list of contributors to liberating define myself by any of them With mutual struggle, we can vegan food. He also endured two separate bouts appealing his conviction and sentencing. theory and practice. alone. Rather than a gaggle of weld the diverse elements of our of pericarditis – a heart condition which Eric had competitive “identities,” my side of the barricade into a never experienced before his time at Sac County. Eric is currently imprisoned in FCI Victorville, Neither do I define as a socialist vision of the road to revolution powerful weapon against the Both of Eric's co-defendants caved under the Medium II, in Adelanto, CA. because that can mean virtually encompasses all of them as depredations of imperial capital. threat of being imprisoned for 20 years and plead anything from national socialist necessarily synergistic strands Our overwhelming human http://www.supporteric.org/ fascism leftward. I nevertheless we must weave into a new social commonality can and must recognize the present objective fabric. make it an all people's tool of of revolutionary struggle as a emancipation from the class Marie Mason world socialism in the most I see that road running not only enemy that afflicts us all." Marie Mason is a 46 year old mother of two. She Rage of a Dying Planet, “Not only was the radically left sense where all through traditional forms of (written in January 12, 1998 ) is an avid community gardener, a musician, a damage quite significant,… but this was the first people have the greatest struggle, but also in new and writer, an Earth First! organizer and a volunteer time arson had been used to further the cause possible freedom to develop innovative directions. Creating Around 1982, Dunne was for a free herbal healthcare collective. She also against genetic engineering (GE) in the US. their full human potential. The an alternative socio-economic transferred by the State of was an extended care assistant at a small Furthermore, it was the first time the ELF had pursuit of material, political and base of collective living and Washington to the federal Cincinnati school when she was arrested on taken credit for any GE-related action.” social equality on every level is working situations is one. That system. He is currently held in March 10, 2008 by federal agents. She has been close to my core. will help us drive past the USP Big Sandy in Kentucky. charged with involvement with a December,1999 Predictably, the media presented the action as an apparatus of repression’s arson at a Michigan State University genetics assault on scientific efforts to relieve famine in the I am a collectivist, long having increasing capacity to co-opt Byron Shane Chubbuck laboratory at Agriculture Hall and a January, 2000 so-called developing world. But, as the ELF recognized that in numbers and suppress older forms of Byron Shane Chubbuck is an arson of logging equipment in Mesick, Michigan. communiqué plainly stated, MSU’s research was there is strength and capability struggle and develop our theory indigenous activists serving 80 Both arsons were claimed by the Earth Liberation funded by the US government and corporations and security and satisfaction. and practice in the process. The years in prison for a series of Front. like Monsanto, which then use their considerable There is more humanity in diverse organs of that base will bank expropriations throughout power to force such crops on desperate nations. cooperation than in isolation. I grow together into a body politic the southwest. He is part of the The burning of MSU’s Agriculture Hall was a These nations often resist the importation of GE am a technician, knowing that of interwoven free zones, wolf clan Cherokee/Choctaw, significant act and one that was bound to be crops and seeds, given their significant risks to we, the people, can create the displacing ruling class raised in New Mexico. His targeted for response as part of the Greenscare human health, cultural identity, biological diversity revolutionary material and social institutions with our own. indigenous name is Oso Blanco. repression. As former ELF press officer Craig and ecological integrity. technology that will free us. I am Rosebraugh explains in his memoir, Burning an advocate of both local ! "& ! $# moved to New York City, Connecticut "s supermax prison, and advance the interests of the A long-time environmental, animal rights and target for the federal agents in their quest to earning his living on Wall Street, far from his family and his ruling class and is operated by social justice organizer, Mason had previously criminalize dissent, Mason was an identifiable and and working with the Puerto nation, where he is locked down people who identify much more experienced government repression when ELF outspoken critic of genetic engineering and Rican community, joining and 23 hours a day, with no access with that class than with mine. actions occurred in her community. An easy destructive forestry practices. then leading the Vito to family visits or phone calls, in Rarely, however, may this http://freemarie.org/ Marcantonio Mission of the conditions which are calculated complicated social system’s Movemiento Pro-Independencia not only to interfere with his procedures be exploited by the (MPI) in New York. He and his ability to prepare a defense, but people they are intended to Jonathan Paul family of four children returned which are tantamount to torture. suppress. Accordingly, I have Jonathan has been an animal and environmental charged with numerous property destruction to Puerto Rico, where he worked He is awaiting trial in federal contested my imprisonment activist since the 1980s and a vegan for 25 years. crimes. Many faced multiple life sentences. in the independence movement, court in Hartford. legally, and recently filed He and his wife live with 4 companion animals off Jonathan entered into a plea agreement that including administering the another challenge. Contrary to the grid, powering their home with solar panels. required him to plead guilty to arson and political journal Pensamiento Bill Dunne applicable law, my federal Jonathan is currently serving a 51 – month conspiracy in the Cavel West slaughterhouse fire. Critico (Critical Thought). "I was made a prisoner of the conspiracy prosecution sentence in federal prison in Phoenix, Arizona for state on October 14, 1979 in constituted double jeopardy, his role in the 1997 arson of the Cavel West horse In solidarity with three of his co-defendants, the When the arrests of 1985 took Seattle, Washington. Late that secret government information slaughterhouse in Redmond, OR. plea agreement included a provision that none of place, and Avelino was not evening, I was picked up by was used in imposing the the four of them would be required to implicate or arrested, he assumed the paramedics while under the sentence, and the written Jonathan has dedicated his life to protecting the identify any other individuals besides themselves, identity of Jose Ortega, and, influence of police bullets near a sentence is 50 years longer than earth and alleviating the suffering of animals, or to testify in court against anyone. while the FBI pursued him, he shot-up and wrecked car the controlling oral sentence. human and non-human. From 1999 until the time lived a quiet life, working as a containing some weapons and a That challenge languishes in he reported to prison in October of 2007, Out of 10 co-defendants, only four took this computer teacher to support his dead jail escapee. federal court in Seattle. Jonathan served his community as an Emergency principled stand together: Daniel McGowan, family and contributing According to the ensuing state Medical Technician and volunteer firefighter. Nathan (Exile) Block, Joyanna (Sadie) Zacher constructively to his nation, and federal charges, I and a My political motivation is without Jonathan has received numerous awards for his and Jonathan. A few months earlier, the other 6 seeking to improve the services codefendant and unknown other reservation radical left up to and community service. He deserves our support and co-defendants signed very different plea provided by the Department of associates of a San Francisco including the left of people’s we need to let him know how much we appreciate agreements that required them to implicate Education. anarchist collective had revolution by any means his sacrifices. others. conspired to effect a comrade’s necessary. I know of no single The charges against those armed liberation from a Seattle ideology whose name Jonathan was arrested in January of 2006 in the arrested in 1985 had various jail and attempted to execute the adequately defines my politics. largest roundup of animal rights and results: Carlos Ayes, Filiberto plot on October 14, 1979. The The names traditionally environmental activists in history. This was what Ojeda, Juan Segarra, Norman charges further alleged the associated with left formations the FBI dubbed “Operation Backfire”, also called Ramirez and Roberto operation was financed by bank (anarchist, communist, socialist, by others the Green Scare. Fifteen activists were Maldonado went to trial in 1989; expropriation and materially etc.) have become too vague arrested in late 2005 and early 2006, then Ivonne Melendez Carrión also facilitated by illegal acquisition of and diffuse to be sufficiently http://www.supportjonathan.org/ went to trial‹some were weapons, explosives, vehicles, defining. They have been tied to acquitted, others convicted and ID and other equipment. such a wide array of failed sects sentenced to terms ranging from and moribund social one year to 55 years; while After long subjection to atrocious organizations that it is Orlando Gonzalez, Hilton jail conditions and three impossible to know if they offer Fernandez Diamante, Jorge A. sensationalized trials, I got a 90 the solutions requisite to real Farinacci, Isaac Camacho, Elias year sentence in 1980. I world revolution. Clarity is Castro and Angel Días Ruiz subsequently got a consecutive important in political negotiated a plea agreement in 15 years as a result of an interchange. If seeking it 1992. They were sentenced to attempted self-emancipation in requires avoiding easy terms of five years in prison. 1983. The aggregate 105 years nomenclature that might carry Two others have never been is a “parole when they feel like it” unintended baggage and arrested: Avelino "s brother sort of sentence. necessitates inconveniently long Norberto and Victor Gerena, and explanations, so be it. are being sought by the FBI. I have no confidence in the I cannot define as an anarchist Avelino is currently being held in American system of purported because while the ultimate end Somers, the state of justice. It is designed to protect of all left struggle is the anarcho- ! $" ! "' An interview with Grant Barnes by eco-prisoner Jeff Luers ! Alvara Luna Hernandez his weapon. Before he could bullet. Alvaro's elderly mother ! In the 1990s, Alvaro was shoot, Alvaro disarmed him and was charged with "hindering recognized as the national fled. Alvaro was aware the apprehension" and jailed. JL: You are currently serving a long prison sentence for arsons claimed on behalf of the Earth coordinator of the Ricardo police had been monitoring him Liberation Front. What compelled you to take such actions? Aldape Guerra Defense since his arrival in Alpine and Protests demanding Alvaro's

Committee, which led the had often expressed fears he release were staged outside the GB: I had been aware of the ELF for some time, and as I became more aware of the severity of the struggle to free Mexican national would be assassinated by the courthouse in Odessa during the most likely consequences of climate change I decided it was time for me to do my part and take Aldape Guerra from Texas' police. At his trial, police said trial. Other protests were held in responsibility. I think that property destruction is a useful component in a united front of tactics toward death row after being framed by they felt Alvaro was a El Paso, Texas; San Diego, first, earth liberation, and ultimately towards the cultivation of a biocentric culture. It raises the Houston police. Alvaro did local "troublemaker" and Alvaro knew California; and Cuidad Juarez, economic and psychological costs of earth destruction, and when there is media coverage, as there Houston and national organizing his history as a barrio organizer Mexico. On June 2-9, 1997, usually is, it shows people on all sides of the struggle that the destroyers are vulnerable. I believe that around the case, and was made him a target of law Alvaro was convicted of property destruction is one of the things that the other species of the planet would do in their defense instrumental in winning Adalpe enforcement who were used to "threatening" the sheriff, but against extinction if they had the knowledge and ability to do so. Those who destroy the property of Guerra's freedom from prison. In little resistance from the Chicano acquitted on the charge of uncaring, irresponsible people act on behalf of these other species, which are our cousins. March 1993, Alvaro was a non- Mexicano community. The police shooting Sgt. Hines. He received

governmental organization in west Texas have a history of a 50-year sentence. His case is JL: How did you first get into activism? (NGO) delegate before the 49th abuse, frame-ups and brutality currently on appeal.

session of the United Nations against Mexicanos. 90% of GB: I helped with an info-shop in Denver (now closed) and Food Not Bombs, and I worked for the Commission on Human Rights in felony indictments are against Learn more at Rape Assistance and Awareness Program. Geneva, Switzerland. Before the Chicanos in a county whose http://www.freealvaro.org

U.N. General Assembly, he population is 50% Mexican- JL: You are serving your sentence in maximum security. What has that been like? exposed the U.S. government's American. Avelino Gonzalez Claudio

dismal human rights record and In August of 1985, Avelino its human rights violations of In fear for his life, Alvaro eluded Gonzalez Claudio was accused GB: One challenge has been racism. I’m white, and most of U.S. political prisoners. police. Days later, Alvaro of participating in the planning the people I talk to are not, and this has led to some returned to his mother's house. and authorization of an confrontations with racists. My friends back me up though, so Alvaro was a public speaker A heavily armed law operation to secure $7,117,000 when problems arrive we respond and that keeps me safe invited to speak at many enforcement contingent from a Wells Fargo armored enough. They deserve the better part of the credit for that. colleges, universities and converged on the home. Without truck in Hartford, Connecticut on Otherwise, the hardest thing is the isolation; I’m a social conferences in this country. His identifying themselves, police September 12, 1983, along with person and community is very important to me, so everyday it topics ranged from injustices of began shooting indiscriminately other Puerto Ricans and two takes a conscious effort to adapt to spending most of my time the criminal justice system at the house, cars parked in North Americans. The operation alone (most of the time I’m not allowed to leave the cell). against people of color, to self- front and at the public was carried out by a clandestine However, I stay productive by studying for my degree and determination, human rights and streetlights. At trial, witnesses organization fighting for the working out, and I’ve made strong progress in both areas. I political prisoners. His eloquent, described the police shooting as independence of Puerto Rico, occasionally have the opportunity to return correspondence dynamic presentations would a "war zone." Alvaro returned the PRTP-Macheteros. Avelino and that is one of my favorite things to do. electrify audiences. In addition, fire in self-defense but never was not arrested at the time. Alvaro spearheaded the National shot nor injured anyone. Alvaro However, more than 20 years JL: When you first decided to get involved in eco-defense did Movement of La Raza, Stop the dialed 911 (emergency) and later, he was arrested in Manati, you think you would end up in prison? If so, how did you Violence Youth Committee and alerted other officials that police Puerto Rico, on February 7, prepare yourself for that possibility? the Prisoners Solidarity were shooting at him and would 2008. Committee in Houston. not allow him to surrender. GB: I knew I could go down and I strove not to. At various times in my life I had read prison memoirs Eventually, the situation Avelino was born in the town of like Soul On Ice by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and Soledad Brother by George Jackson, and On July 18, 1996, Sheriff Jack deescalated and Alvaro was Vega Baja on October 8, 1942. some more recent accounts of prison life, including a web file entitled How To Survive In Prison. It McDaniel of Alpine, Texas, went taken into custody. As a student at the University of contains some good information, for instance on the importance of respect, but I think I would have to arrest Alvaro at his home on a Puerto Rico, he became a picked up on that sort of thing whether or not I had read anything on it. Probably the best way charge of aggravated robbery Alvaro was charged with two member and then vice-president somebody could prepare would be to stay in good physical shape. (later dismissed with Alvaro as counts of aggravated assault - of the Pro-Independence his own counsel). No warrant for one count for disarming the University Federation JL: How has your support been? How can people get involved? the arrest was issued. When the sheriff and one count for a (Federación Universitaria Pro

unarmed Alvaro questioned the wound suffered by Sgt. Curtis Independencia-FUPI). In the sheriff's action, the officer drew Hines from a ricocheting police mid-1960s, he married and ! "( ! $* authorities picked up over one A look at the incredible conduct pardon by the V.I. governor in GB: The Lucy Parsons Project sent two books last year, which are outstanding to have, as good hundred blacks for of the trial will tell anyone why: 1992. Six years later Kwesi was reading material is hard to get here. Earth First! Journal kindly gave me a free prisoner subscription, interrogations, and the U.S. mysteriously found dead of and I also got an issue apiece from Green Anarchy and Bite Back, all of which I considered notable colonial troops carried out a The court refused to excuse poison-laced drug overdose, on the outside and appreciate having in here. I am especially thankful that Earth First! Journal and series of repressive acts of juror member Laura Torres, after it was said that he was Green Anarchy have listed my address. I’ve got several letters and postcards wishing me well, and violence against the black former wife of detective Jorge about to reveal evidence that recently I’ve begun corresponding with several people. It would be outstanding to hear from others. community. The F.B.I. and the Torres, one of the arresting would have exonerated at least The best thing people can do is send information on intentional communities, mutual aid networks, United States Army troops led a officers. Nine jurors testified that one or more defendant. and similar formations I might contribute to when I am released. One of the most frustrating things 300-man invasion force into the during the deliberations they about being inside is having few outlets to give to others, but I want to lay a solid foundation for such islands and used strong armed were threatened with F.B.I. community that I can build on when my time here is done. Creating community takes a great deal of tactics to conduct house to investigations on themselves work, and I know it’s necessary to spend time to understand, among other things, a potential house searches of the low and members of their families, member’s level of commitment and the extent of the common ground shared with existing members. I income areas. and also threats of prosecution. want to start that dialogue, because the kind of life I want to live on the outside is one spent as much as possible in spaces of liberation from patriarchy, exploitation, anthropocentrism, racism, and all The island was put under virtual The jury deliberated for nine other symptoms of the present alienating civilization. To that end I am most interested in more martial law, and eventually five days, and told the judge that primitive groups. men who Ismail Ali, Warren they were "hopelessly (Aziz) Ballantine, Meral (Malik) deadlocked", yet he still refused Also, I find that in general pictures are more natural expressions than words, and it means a lot to me Smith, Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph, to dismiss them and call a to see photos along with peoples’ writings. Regardless, it is always special to receive a letter or and Hanif Shabazz Bey were mistrial which worked to compel postcard from anyone who feels concern for the earth and joy for life. apprehended and then charged a guilty verdict. with the attack. All the men were Four jurors, including the jury JL: Are you working on projects while locked up? known supporters of the Virgin foreman, signed statements that Island independence movement. they had been forced into a GB: I’m finishing my degree in cultural anthropology; I was a student when I was arrested. Reading The five were charged after guilty verdict by the judge, about a range of cultures has been provocative. It has shown me to some extent how much is being being subjected to vicious police, and FBI. One juror who's lost with the extinction of so many sustainable, primitive ways of life–knowledge we need now more torture, in order to extract daughter was charged with bank than ever. I also keep up with reports on climate change, and I am reading some books I had not confessions. They were beaten, robbery several years before, made time for on the outside, like Derrick Jensen’s Endgame. hung from their feet and necks was told that those charges from trees, subject to electric could be brought up again if she JL: And now here’s your chance for a shameless wish list. Would you like people to send any specific shocks with "cattle prods", had did not find the accused guilty. books or books on particular subjects? Are there any canteen items, like a radio or anything else, we plastic bags tied over their can help you buy to make your time easier? heads and had water forced up The court refused to throw out their noses by the "defenders of the "fake confessions", even GB: I don’t listen to the radio or watch TV, or buy snacks, and money is qualitatively less valuable to the law." The judge (Warren after it was proven that they me than heartfelt correspondence, but I would certainly appreciate funds for mailing supplies, and for Young) overlooking the case were obtained through torture. beans and oats, as the vegan food here is very limited. One luxury I do love is music and receiving prior to being placed on the Even the Assistant District some of that would be a treat. One of the subjects I most want to better understand is the difference federal bench worked as Attorney Joel Sacks and several between primitive and complex cultures. I would be very grateful for any well-researched reading Rockefeller's private attorney police officers testified and material at the undergrad level on this topic. Much of what is listed in Green Anarchy is of interest, for and and even handled legal admitted that they knew the instance. matters for the Fountain Valley dependents had been tortured, Golf Course. and that the "confessions" Grant Barnes is an environmentalist who was arrested in 2007 for setting fire to a Eventually, the five went to trial extracted had been obtained by number of SUV’s in Denver, Colorado. He pleaded guilty to one count of using an in what became known as the such methods. incendiary device, and one count of second-degree arson, and was sentenced to a 12 "Fountain Valley" murder trial. year term in the San Carlos Correctional Facility. From his prison cell he watches the This was an obvious Kangaroo Today, Warren (Aziz) Ballantine, birds that have made their nest within the razor wire. A reflection of what is happening Court and a mockery of any Meral (Malik) Smith, and Hanif to our world.” Write to: Grant Barnes, #137563, San Carlos Correctional Facility, PO Box sense of a fair trial. On August Shabazz Bey are all confined in 3, Pueblo, CO 81002. 13, 1973, each of the five men federal prisons. Ismail Ali was convicted and sentenced to liberated to Cuba via an airplane eight(8) consecutive life terms. hijacking in 1984. Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph was granted a ! $+ ! ") Freedom for Marco Camenisch administration, to destroy the and Herman) were convicted of education; and anti-drug leaders and memberships of first degree murder, weapons activities. Translation by ABC Bristol both mainstream civil rights and possession, and conspiracy.

militant black organizations. This Clearly, the NY3 and other Marco Camenisch was born on January 21st 1952 in Switzerland, in a small village of the counterintelligence operation, All three members of the New political prisoners are Graubunden region. At the beginning of 1980 Marco was arrested for damaging electricity pylons and called COINTELPRO, targeted York Three were specifically imprisoned not because of transformers, once against the NOK company (which ran nuclear power plants in Switzerland) and black leaders by infiltrating the named in COINTELPRO crimes they actually committed, once against their distributors, the Sarelli company. The sentence was very harsh: 10 years. Marco Black Liberation Movement, documents as members of the but for their political activity and was well aware this reflected the seriousness of what was at stake: the ecocide perpetrated by the framing members of the black liberation movement who J. Edgar Hoover's racist and power industry as part of the wider system of destruction, which formed the target of his own struggle. movements for crimes, and even had to be "neutralized," These personal war against members

murdering them, in order to get documents, and the media of the black liberation and civil In December 1981 Marco escaped from Regensdorf prison with other 5 inmates and went into hiding them off the streets and out of smear campaign enacted by the rights movement. The New York for 10 years. In November 1991 he was arrested again following a routine ID check in the town of contact with the community. The FBI and the White House, Three continue to fight for their Massa, Tuscany. There was a shooting after one carabiniere (Military Police) saw that Marco had a shooting of these two police claimed that these community freedom and maintain their gun and panicked; Marco and one carabiniere were injured. This time Marco got a 12-year sentence officers also came immediately and human rights activists were innocence. Herman and Jalil are for injuring the carabiniere and for another attack against the power lines between La Spezia and after the infamous trial of the “terrorists”. This domestic now two of the longest held Acciaiolo, which transported energy produced by French nuclear plants. He did 11 of the 12 years in "Panther 21,” a case in New program of political repression political prisoners in the US. Italy, waiting to be extradited to Switzerland. York against 21 members of the was revealed by a 1976 Each member of the NY3 has

BPP charged with planning congressional committee, the served almost 30 years. On April In May 2002 Marco was subjected to a show-trial designed to politically damage the wider struggle "terrorist" acts. After nearly a Church Commission, to have 28, 2000, Albert Nuh against ecocide, and to punish Marco for his defiance in showing no remorse for his actions. In two-year trial all 21 defendants utilized extra-legal methods to Washington passed away after a flagrant disregard for the state’s own legal process, Marco got charged and convicted for the murder were acquitted. neutralize social justice long, painful battle with liver of a completely different Customs policeman in 1989 in Brusio, and sentenced for 17 years. With this movements, including cancer. Jalil and Herman are sentencing the Lords of the Atom and their accomplices “settled the score” with Marco – including the Three months after the killings, surveillance, beatings, torture, currently serving their previous 10 and 11-year sentences – a total of 39 years of imprisonment. Longer than a life sentence. on August 28, 1971, Jalil Abdul harassment, instigating violent sentences.

Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom) and feuds between rival individuals In May 2007 the sentence was reduced to a maximum of 8 years, with release scheduled to be in Albert Nuh Washington were and organizations, coercion and Virgin Island Five (aka May 2018. Even when jailed, Marco has never stopped fighting and will keep struggling against the arrested in San Francisco during intimidation of witnesses, Fountain Valley Five) stranglehold of the corrupt system, a system that tries to break him, and smash the support for him in an armed confrontation with isolating and bad jacketing "Virgin Island Five" are group of the wider struggle that sustains him. Over the long years of the harsh realities of imprisonment, police. Their arrests came only influential leaders, as well as activists accused of murdering another reality has also been created, of human relationships, solidarity, support…networks in Italy one week after the assassination outright murder. In fact, a major eight people in the U.S. Virgin and around the world have grown and developed around Marco: comrades who have been inspired of BPP Field Marshall, George reason that many BPP and BLA Islands. The murders took place by his words and actions, or who have known him as a friend, brother or comrade. This network might Jackson. They were later members were forced to go during a turbulent period of now seem to be fading but it will never be broken, and it will in turn create new networks and forces. charged with the New York underground and arm rebellion on the Islands. During

killings. Nearly two years later, themselves was the deadly FBI- the 1970's, as with much of the During these years Marco has always been with us; even though physically separated, his presence Herman Bell was arrested in instigated split in the party world, a movement to resist is still felt in our struggles. His voice, his thoughts, his translations, his articles and hunger strikes New Orleans. Also arrested and between factions led by Eldridge colonial rule began to grow in demonstrate a solidarity free from every ideological dead-end and dogma, that has created a network charged in the case were Cleaver and Huey P. Newton. the U.S. occupied Virgin Islands. of communication and solidarity with revolutionary prisoners all around the world. His prodigious Gabriel and Francisco Torres output has contributed to the growth of our journey of struggles against every oppression and although charges the two Despite the media perception From 1971 to 1973, there was a exploitation, in defense of the Earth and all living beings. Marco has never resigned himself or brothers were acquitted due to that the BPP were "terrorists," small scale Mau Mau rebellion surrendered himself to his imprisonment, or accepted the dominance of the current system. He has lack of evidence. the main activities conducted by taking place on the islands. This never departed from his revolutionary journey, has continuously demonstrated a coherence and the New York Three and other activity was downplayed by the clarity of thought, spirit, and heart: rare qualities in this era of fake human relationships and political The first trial, then against the members of the BPP were media, for fear it would damage lifestylism. And this spirit is what the system tries so hard to break: his green anarchist identity, and New York 5 (including the Torres running programs designed to the tourist industry, which the the network of relationships that have formed around him. The harsh price that Marco is still paying is brothers), ended in a mistrial. In serve the community, such as island's survival depends on. the same price that every single revolutionary prisoner around the world is paying in jail. that trial only one vote was cast the Free Breakfast program for

to convict Nuh Washington. The children; health care programs, Then on September 6th, 1972, It is therefore urgent and necessary for us to support him once again, with the awareness that only an Torres brothers were acquitted such as sickle-cell anemia eight American tourists were international mass mobilization can hope to fight against the war of annihilation perpetuated by all in the second trial. But at the testing and lead poisoning gunned down at the Rockefeller- governments, not just the Swiss state. Marco must be released! To demand Marco’s release after 30 end of a second trial, in 1975, prevention; legal and political owned golf course on the island years is to demand an end to the exploitation of all human beings, all other beings and of all Nature. ! the New York Three (Nuh, Jalil, of St.Croix. Quickly the colonial ! #+ ! #) On March 13, 1998, Merle Africa deadlocked and the government defense. Attorneys are still in the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War died in prison under was unable to successfully process of trying to make law November 2009 questionable circumstances. convict the two panthers. The enforcement agencies turn over third trial was presided over by all evidence in this case. Since Queens Two Judge Gallagher (son and their imprisonment repression Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War (PP/POWs) are those persons incarcerated as a result of As a direct result of their BPP brother of a cop). Throughout against the Queens Two has political beliefs or actions consciously undertaken and intended to resist exploitation and oppression, membership and progressive the trial, cops harassed Abdul only increased. Abdul Majid and/or hasten the implementation of an egalitarian, sustainable, ethical, classless society, predicated political views, Bashir and Abdul and Bashir's family members been harassed, seriously on self determination and maximization of all people's freedom. As anarchist POW Ojore Lutalo has were hunted, captured, framed and supporters. A racially assaulted twice, and denied stated: and convicted of the 1981 stacked jury in the third trial proper medical treatment as a "Any political movement that does not support its political internees is a sham murder and attempted murder of returned a guilty verdict and result of the assaults. He has movement!" two police officers in St. Albans, sentenced Abdul and Bashir to been refused certain programs Queens. On the night of April 33 1/3 years to life. offered to general population Addresses may change without notice, and this is only a partial listing. Get in touch for additions or 1981, two NYPD officers were For the past fifteen years, because of his political updates. fired on by two suspects during although Abdul and Bashir have background. Bashir, a devout a traffic stop. Police claim that been forced to live behind bars, Muslim has applied his religious ! the stop in connection with as political prisoners they have and political principals to ABDUL AZEEZ BILL DUNNE DAVID GILBERT several burglaries, while they continued to challenge injustice. struggle against injustice and (Warren Ballantine) #10916-086 #83-A-6158 also claim the van was pulled In 1996, Abdul and Bashir "s racism behind the walls. As a 1415430 P.O. Box 2068 P.O. Box 2001 over because of its connection lawyers went before the Court of result of his activities, Bashir has PO Box 759 Inez, KY 41224 Dannemora, NY 12929 to the liberation of Assata Appeals in Albany, New York. gained the widespread respect Big Stone Gap, VA 24219 USP Big Sandy Clinton Corr. Facility Shakur from a New Jersey They argued the District of prisoners. In 1987, Bashir was prison. Attorneys, in violation of the law, transferred to Shawangunk after ABDUL MAJID BYRON SHANE DEBBIE SIMS AFRICA systematically excluded Blacks being targeted as an alleged #83-A-0483 CHUBBUCK #OO-6307 Regardless of the reason for the from the jury. This assertion by organizer of a strike. He spent PO Box 500 #07909-051 451 Fullerton Ave stop, the occupants exited the the defense team was clearly three years in solitary 1879 Davis St. P.O. Box 1000 Cambridge Springs, PA car and opened fire on the borne out by District Attorney confinement, not as a result of Elmira, New York 14901- Lewisburg, PA 17837 16403-1238 police, shooting both officers- Gregory Lasak. During a 1992 disciplinary infraction, but solely 0500 USP Lewisburg killing one and injuring the other. evidentiary hearing, D.A. Lasak due to his political and religious DELBERT ORR AFRICA A few days after the shooting, attempted to justify to the Court beliefs. ALVARO LUNA CARLOS ALBERTO AM4985 police began circulating a folder why Blacks had been excluded HERNANDEZ TORRES Follies Road, Drawer K of "suspects" which consisted by stating that Bashir is constantly accused of #255735 #88976-024 Dallas, PA 18612 exclusively of former members “These cop-killing being involved in any and every Hughes Unit P.O. Box 5000 SCI Dallas of the Black Panther Party and revolutionaries had gotten away action that takes place wherever Rt. 2, Box 4400 Pekin, IL 61555 their associates. Bashir and in two previous trials and this he is incarcerated. As a result, Gatesville, TX 76597 FCI Pekin ED POINDEXTER Abdul (James York and Anthony was probably our last chance to he is continuously transferred CHUCK SIMS AFRICA #27767 LaBorde) were identified in the get them. We couldn't take the and harassed by prison guards. ANTONIO GUERRERO #AM-4975 P. O. Box 2500 media as chief suspects and chance of those religious people #58741-004 660 State Route 11 Lincoln, NE 68542 targets of a "shoot to kill" serving as jurors in this trial.” New York 3 P.O. Box 898801 Oklahoma Hunlock Creek, PA 18621 manhunt. On May 21, 1971, two New York City, OK 73189 FTC SCI Retreat EDWARD GOODMAN Predictably, the courts denied City police officers were fatally Oklahoma City Federal DANIEL MCGOWAN AFRICA Bashir was arrested in August their appeal. shot. This shooting occurred Transfer Center #63794-053 #AM-4974 1981 in South Carolina. Abdul within the context of two major AVELINO GONZALEZ P.O. Box 1000 301 Morea Road was arrested in Philadelphia in The government has been very national trends: the growth of CLAUDIO Marion, IL 62959 Frackville, PA 17932 January, 1982 and was brutally uncooperative about turning black revolutionary groups such #357422 USP Marion SCI Mahoney beaten by police after his arrest. over requested documents being as the Black Panther Party for MacDougall-Walker CI Over a five-year period, Bashir sought by me under the Self-Defense and, later, its 1153 East Street and Abdul were tried three times Freedom of Information Act. armed wing, the Black Liberation South Suffield, CT 06080 for this incident, the main During the three trials there were Army; and at the same time, the witness being a man who was deliberate acts by law FBI operation under Director J. hypnotized by the police. The enforcement agencies to hide Edgar Hoover, with the first two trials the jury was certain evidence helpful to the cooperation of the Nixon ! #( ! #* FRED "MUHAMMAD" JOSEPH "JOE-JOE" MICHAEL DAVIS AFRICA locations to justify further Village home in an attempt to community to create a new BURTON BOWEN #AM-4973 repression. In 1970 Rizzo's men permanently evict the MOVE confrontation with MOVE. AF 3896 #AM-4272 P.O. Box 244 raided three offices of the Black from their home. By the time SCI Somerset 1 Kelley Drive Graterford, PA 19426-0244 Panther Party. Many people still MOVE members gathered The Bombing in West Philly 1590 Walters Mill Rd Coal Township, PA 17866- SCI Graterford remember with anger how Philly children and pets into the By dawn, May 13, 1985, after Somerset, PA 15510 1021 police beat the arrested basement, the police had months of planning, hundreds of MONDO WE LANGA (D. Panthers, then forced them to already begun smashing police armed with automatic GERARDO HERNANDEZ LEONARD PELTIER RICE) strip off their clothes and line up windows and yelling over a loud weapons had surrounded the #58739-004 #89637-132 #27768 naked in public. speaker. Before they knew it, MOVE house at 6221 Osage. P.O. Box 5500 P.O. Box 1000 P.O. Box 2500 In the 1970s then-Mayor Rizzo water was coming through the Police Commissioner Sambor Adelanto, CA 92301 Lewisburg, PA 178371 Lincoln, NE 68542-2500 attacked a new organization, holes where the windows used shouted through a bullhorn: U.S. Penitentiary-Victorville USP Lewisburg MOVE, that was emerging from to be. The police then began "Attention, MOVE! This is MUMIA ABU-JAMAL Philadelphia's Black community. shooting tear gas and bullets America! You have to abide by HANIF S. BEY (B. GEREAU) LUIS MEDINA #AM-8335 MOVE refused to respect into the MOVE home. The police the laws of the United States." RR 1 Box 9955 #58734-004 175 Progress Drive present-day America and its (who had surrounded the house) During the hours that followed, Kingshill, St Croix, V.I 00850 P.O. Box 019120 Waynesburg, PA 15370- prevailing values. Its members were firing into it while telling the police pounded the MOVE Miami, FL 33101 8090 openly defied official power and MOVE members to come out. house with thousands of bullets. HERMAN BELL FDC Miami tirelessly preached against a When MOVE members started Then, at 5:25 in the early 79-C-0262 DR. MUTULU SHAKUR system that they considered to surrender, a Philadelphia evening, a police helicopter P.O. Box 116 MALIK SMITH #83205-012 utterly corrupt and destructive of police officer had been shot dropped a bomb onto MOVE's Fallsburg, New York 14871 RR 1 Box 9955 P.O. Box 8500 life on this planet, particularly (from above and behind) and roof---packed with C-4 military Sullivan Correctional Facility Kingshill, St Croix, V.I 00850 Florence, CO 81226 through the use of modern killed. explosive provided by the FBI. USP Florence ADX technology. And when The explosion ignited a JAAN K. LAAMAN MALIKI LATINE threatened and confronted by All five MOVE men were beaten firestorm. The MOVE house 10372-016 #81-A-4469 OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA the authorities, they did not back badly, several times, but only burned, and flames spread to P.O. Box 24550 P.O. Box 2000 #87651-024 down. From its beginning, Delbert’s beating was caught on the surrounding row houses. Tucson, AZ 85734 Dannemora, New York P.O. Box 33 MOVE has exposed the rulers of camera. There were 7 women Firefighters were ordered to let USP Tucson 12929 Terre Haute, IN 47808 this society for the liars, racists and 5 men arrested only 4 the fire burn. Clinton Corr. Facility U.S.P. Terre Haute and murderers that they are. MOVE women and 5 MOVE JAMIL ABDULLAH AL-AMIN men ended convicted and The whole surrounding block of #99974-555 MARILYN BUCK RENE GONZALEZ 1978 sentenced to 30-100 years each. homes--61 houses in all--were USP Florence ADMAX #00482-285 #58738-004 Confrontations escalated None of the MOVE 9 had destroyed. Over 200 people P.O. Box 8500 Unit A P.O. Box 7007 between MOVE and the weapons charges and witnesses were suddenly homeless. It was Florence, CO 81226 5701 8th St. Camp Parks Marianna, FL 32447-7007 Philadelphia power structure. testified that the only people a hard lesson for neighborhood JALIL MUNTAQIM Dublin, CA 94568 FCI Marianna MOVE members were having weapons, were the cops. residents who had collaborated {Anthony Bottom} constantly arrested and with the police against MOVE. 77-A-4283 MARSHALL EDDIE ROBERT SETH HAYES harassed. In late 1977 the police In 1981 the authorities attacked P.O. Box 618 CONWAY #74-A-2280 launched a siege of the MOVE Mumia Abu-Jamal, a well Only two MOVE family members Auburn, NY 13021 #116469 P.O. Box 1187 house in the neighborhood respected radio reporter and survived: Ramona Africa, age P.O. Box 534 Alden, NY 14004-1187 called Powelton Village. After MOVE supporter. Mumia was 30, and Birdie Africa, age 13. JANET HOLLOWAY Jessup, MD 20794 Wende Correctional Facility ten months of continuous shot, beaten, and framed for Intense police sniper fire AFRICA Jessup Correctional conflict, 600 police attacked murder by the police. stopped the other MOVE #OO-6308 Institution ROMAINE CHIP MOVE's house. Gunfire erupted. members from escaping. 451 Fullerton Ave FITZGERALD MOVE members were brutalized In the face of all this repression, Several were shot. Those forced Cambridge Springs, PA MATTHEW DEPALPMA #B27527 and arrested. MOVE continued to fight to free back into the burning building 16403-1238 14126-041 FC-2-110 Mumia and its imprisoned family died in the flames. P.O. Box 10 P.O. Box 921 On August 8th, 1978 at about members called the MOVE 9. JANINE PHILLIPS AFRICA Lisbon, OH 44432 Imperial, CA 92251 five o’clock in the morning, After MOVE moved into a new The MOVE 9 have remained in #OO-6309 FCI Elkton MOVE members awoke by house on Osage Avenue, police prison since 1978 and have 451 Fullerton Ave unfamiliar sounds and voices. agents worked with conservative been forced to watch their Cambridge Springs, PA Several hundred police officers elements in the surrounding families and loved ones being 16403-1238 had surrounded their Powelton attacked by the state. ! #" ! #' Political Prisoner and Prisoner of War Profiles RONALD REED SUNDIATA ACOLI (C. WILLIAM 'LEFTY' GILDAY #219531 SQUIRE) P.O. Box 1218 By the Anarchist Black Cross Federation 5329 Osgood Avenue North #39794-066 Shirley, MA 01464-1218

Stillwater, Minnesota 55082- P.O. Box 1000 MCI Shirley The Cuban Five Terrorist Miami groups like A victory in appeals, then a 1117 Otisville, NY 10963 The Cuban Five are Five Cuban Comandos F4 and Brothers to surprise reversal. USP Otisville ZOLO AGONA AZANIA men who are in U.S. prison, the Rescue operate with On August 9, 2005, after seven RUBEN CAMPA THOMAS MANNING #4969 serving four life sentences and complete impunity from within years of unjust imprisonment, #58733-004 #10373-016 P.O. Box 41 75 years collectively, after being the United States to attack the Cuban Five won an P.O. Box 33 P. O. Box 1000 Michigan City, IN 46361 wrongly convicted in U.S. federal Cuba‹with the knowledge and unprecedented victory on Terre Haute, IN 47808 Cumberland, MD 21501 Indiana State Prison court in Miami, on June 8, 2001. support of the FBI and CIA. appeal. A three-judge panel of USP Terre Haute FCI Cumberland the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals

They are Gerardo Hernández, Therefore, Cuba made the overturned the convictions of the RUSSELL MAROON TSUTOMU SHIROSAKI Ramón Labañino, Antonio careful and necessary decision Cuban Five and ordered a new SHOATS 20924-016 Guerrero, Fernando González to send the Five Cubans to trial outside of Miami. #AF-3855 FCI Terre Haute and René González. Miami to monitor the terrorists. 175 Proggress Dr. P.O. Box 33 The Cuban Five infiltrated the However, in an unexpected Waynesburg, PA 15370 Terre Haute, IN 47808 The Five were falsely accused terrorist organizations in Miami reversal on Oct. 31, the 11th by the U.S. government of to inform Cuba of imminent Circuit Court agreed to hear the SEKOU KAMBUI (W. TURK) VERONZA BOWERS JR. committing espionage attacks. U.S. prosecutors’ appeal. #113058 #35316-136 conspiracy against the United The aim of such a clandestine Therefore the opinion P.O. Box 56 SCC (B1-21) P.O. Box 150160 States, and other related operation by the Cuban Five‹at overturning the Cuban Five "s Elmore, AL 36025-0056 Atlanta, GA 30315 charges. great personal risk‹was to convictions has been set aside SEKOU ODINGA prevent criminal acts, and thus while a new appeal is heard. 09-A-3775 WILLIAM PHILLIPS AFRICA protect the lives of Cubans and But the Five pointed out Box 700 #AM-4984 other people. The year 2006 will be critical for vigorously in their defense that Wallkill, New York 12589 Follies Road, Drawer K the struggle to win freedom for they were involved in monitoring Dallas, PA 18612 But instead of arresting the the Cuban Five. The National the actions of Miami-based SCI Dallas terrorists, the FBI arrested the Committee to Free the Cuban terrorist groups, in order to Cuban Five ANTI-terrorists on Five asks all people who believe prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba. September 12, 1998. The Five in justice to join in this national The Five "s actions were never were illegally held in solidarity campaign. directed at the U.S. government. confinement for 17 months in They never harmed anyone nor Miami jail. The MOVE 9 ever possessed nor used any Delbert Orr Africa, William weapons while in the United The trial began in November Phillips Africa, Edward States. 2000. With the seven-month trial Goodman Africa, Charles Sims Prior to being pla ced on this list, each Prisoner’s case was reviewed to determine whether they fit into based in Miami, a virtual witch- Africa, Michael Davis Africa, the definition of “Political Prisoners” or “Prisoner of War” set forth by the Special International Tribunal The Cuban Five’s mission was hunt atmosphere existed. Debbie Sims Africa, Jannie on the Violation of Human Rights of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War . Prisoners who fall into to stop terrorism Defense attorneys " motions for a Phillips Africa, Janet Holloway this definition are then contacted to get permission to be placed on the list. The ABCF will not place a For more than 40 years, anti- change of venue were denied Africa, and Merle Africa prisoner on our list without their permission even though they may be recognized by other prisoner Cuba terrorist organizations five times by the judge, although support organizations. Not all Political Prisoners or Prisoner of War wish to be placed on prisoner based in Miami have engaged in it was obvious that a fair trial Over many years Philadelphia's support lists and the ABCF respects their decision. countless terrorist activities was impossible in that city. power structure earned itself a against Cuba, and against reputation for brutal treatment of If you have any further questions you 'd like answered before writing, more information about any of anyone who advocates a In a blow to justice, the Cuban radical and revolutionary Black the prisoners, or would like to meet up with one of us to go on a visit, ple ase feel free to contact us. normalization of relations Five were convicted June 8, movements. In 1966 the between the U.S. and Cuba. 2001 and sentenced to four life Philadelphia police, under their The Los Angeles branch of the Anarchist Black Cross compiled this list. The ABCF is a More than 3,000 Cubans have terms and 75 years in notorious chief Frank Rizzo, collection of North American ABC collectives who have joined to focus our collective died as a result of these December, 2001. raided four meeting places of the energies on supporting and defending PP/POWs. For more information about PP/POW's, terrorists’ attacks. civil rights organization SNCC, what we do in support of them, and what you can do to help, contact us: Los Angeles planting dynamite in one of the ABC-BG, P.O. Box 11223, Whittier, CA 90603 or email [email protected]. ! ! #& ! ## 8. FCI - Dublin PARTIAL LISTING OF: MARILYN BUCK Notice 00482-285 / Unit B 5701 8th St. Camp Parks Restrictions and criteria for visiting Western Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War Dublin, CA 94568 Federal and State prisons are differ- Anti-Imperialist political prisoner who is serving an 80 year sen- 1. USP Atwater 6. Central California Women’ s Facility ent. Generally, it is easier to visit state tence for actions carried out in support of national liberation, prisoners. Visiting conditions are usu- BILL DUNNE #10916-086 SARA OLSON (KATHLEEN SOLIAH) women’s liberation, social and economic justice. Among many Box 019001 W94197 506-26-2low ally better at Federal prisons. Listed additional charges, Buck was charged with the liberation of below are some of the different guide- Atwater, CA 95301 CCWF PP/POW Assata Shakur. Anti-authoritarian sentenced to 90 years for the attempted liber- PO Box 1508 lines for visiting Federal/State prison- ation of a prisoner in 1979. Chowchilla. CA 93610-1508 ers, and some guidelines useful to 9. FCI - Tucson visit any prisoner. Because prisons Sara Jane Olson (AKA Kathleen Soliah), is a former member of LARO NICOL often have restrictions on how many visits prisoners may receive 2. USP Victorville the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), serving 20 years for her FCI Tucson per month, avoid surprising prisoners with visits as it may conflict GERARDO HERNANDEZ #58739-004 involvement in several actions carried out by the SLA. In June Reg. #80430-008 with visits they are already expecting. Also, if arranging visits by P.O. Box 5500 1999, after twenty-four years on the run, Sara Jane Olson was 8901 South Wilmot Road mail, try to be specific about the day you will visit. By being vague Adelanto, CA 92301 arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota. Two years later, Olson pled Tucson, Arizona 85706 and saying you’ll visit “some time that week”, you may tie up the A member of the “Cuban 5”, Cuban nationals arrested in the guilty to a plot to bomb two LAPD patrol cars on August 21, Charged with possession of an explosive device (model rocket prisoners whole week if someone else wants to visit them the U.S. for monitoring right-wing anti-Castro groups in Florida who 1975. supplies) and “prohibited possession of a weapon, Laro was sen- same week. If two people visit on the same day, one of you will responsible for terrorist acts in Cuba. tenced to two years in prison. Laro’s activism in Copwatch and have to be turned away at the front desk. Prisons so rarely bend 7. CSP- Solano Food Not Bombs caused him to be the target of an ATF raid on any rules, especially for PP/POW’s, that we might as well say Victorville Med II FCI WILLIAM TAYLOR (BILL) HARRIS his home. they never do. Prisoners who receive very few visits may tell you Kojo Bomani Sababu (s/n Grailing Brown) T-82151 to visit any time. But until they give you the freedom to do so, be # 39384-066 CSP-Solano, #8-126U 10. Mule Creek State Prison principled, be considerate. 13777 Air Express Way Blvd. P.O. Box 4000 LUIS V. RODRÍGUEZ Victorville, CA 92394 Vacaville, CA 95696-4000 # C33000 Federal Prisons: To visit Federal prisoners, you must first be Former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) sen- New Afrikan POW serving multiple life-sentences for actions car- Mule Creek State Prison approved by filling out a form that the prisoner must send you in ried out by the Black Liberation Army (SLA.) Sababu was arrest- tenced, in 2003, to 6-8 years in prison for the 1975 bank robbery P.O. Box 409000 advance. In most federal prisons only people who say they had a ed with well-known Anarchist POW, Ojore Lutalo. and accidental killing of a bank teller. Ione, CA 95640 relationship to a federal prisoner prior to their imprisonment are Apache/Chicano activist being framed for the murder of likely to be approved. They will ask you to describe the relation- 3. USP Lompoc two cops. ship you had and where it began. Usually, the prison will not JAMES WILLIAM KILGORE # 09879-000 approve people who say they visit other prisoners. Once you 3901 Klein Blvd. 11. CSP - Corcoran complete and mail the form to the prisoners counselor (the Lompoc, CA 93436 RUCHELL CINQUE MAGEE address will be provided on the visiting form sent to you be the James Kilgore was a '70s radical who spent decades on the run # A92051 prisoner), the prisoner will tell you if you have been approved or after his days with the Symbionese Liberation Army. Kilgore has 3B-05-103 denied. In any case, each prisoner can tell you specifics of the been described as the "last unaccounted-for member of the rev- Box 3466 prison they are held in. olutionary group, the SLA." Kilgore, 55, was captured in South Corcoran, CA 93212 Africa. Sole survivor of the August 7th 1970 Marin County Courthouse State Prisons: State prisons do not require you to be placed on shootout which killed Jonathan Jackson (brother of George an approved visitors list. You will go through a metal detector at 4. Oregon State Prison Jackson) and two other Black Liberation Fighters, William any prison you visit. In addition to this, many state prisons require JEFFREY “FREE” LUERS Christmas and James McClain. He is also a former co-defendant you to be pat searched. State prisons also often have much #13797661 / OSP of Angela Davis. stricter dress codes. 2605 State St. Salem, OR 97310 12. Pelican Bay State Prison Confirm visiting days through the mail (or by phone if they call Serving a 22+ year sentence for setting fire to Sports Utility HUGO “DAHARIKI” PINELL you). Plan visits ahead of time and allow enough time to resched- Vehicles to protest the destruction of the environment. He has # A88401 ule a visit if your schedules conflict. Try to propose visiting days been made an example of by the criminal injustice system and POB 7500 SHU-D-214 at least two or three weeks ahead of time if you are scheduling it he urgently needs your support. Crescent City CA 95531 through the mail. Work out all the details and ask all questions Member of the San Quentin Six, black and latino prisoners with the prisoner through the mail (or by phone if they call you). Mill Creek Correctional Facility charged with the death of three prison guards during a black Ask about visiting days and hours, dress codes, maximum num- ROBERT THAXTON #12112716 prison rebellion. It was during this rebellion where George ber of visitors allowed per visit if you plan on bringing other sup- 4005 Aumsville Hwy Jackson was assassinated by prison guards on August 21, 1971. porters, about getting photos of your visit, and anything else you Salem, OR 97310 can think of. You will not be allowed to visit without presenting a Long-time anarchist activist sentenced to over seven years in valid photo ID like a drivers license or county ID. Bring enough prison for throwing a rock at a cop in self-defense at a June 18, small bills or change for the vending machines in the visiting 1999 Reclaim the Streets protest in Eugene. room so you and the prisoner can eat.

5. CSP - Los Angeles County If you have any further questions you'd like answered before writ- ROMAINE CHIP FITZGERALD ing to the prisoners, more information about any of the prisoners, B27527 or would like to meet up with one of us to go on a visit, please 44750 60th St. West feel free to contact us. Lancaster, CA 93536-7620 Los Angeles Anarchist Black Cross Federation Former Southern California Black Panther member accused of PO Box 11223 • • • •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • •• • • • • • • • • • killing a security guard in Los Angeles in 1969. Chip is one of the • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Whittier, CA 90603 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • longest held political prisoners in the U.S. This map illustrates the locations of the prisons that • • • • • • Michel Foucault • • • • • • • currently hold Political Prisoners in the Western U.S. [email protected]

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