University of Oregon August 8-10,2003
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Confers UNIVERSITY OF OREGON AUGUST 8-10,2003 Introduction 3 Welcome to the Schedule 4 On-campus events 4 Break the Chains Conference Off-campus events 14 OUR COLLECTIVE AND FRIENDS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS CONFERENCE Conference Speakers 17 for approximately one year. It was decided at the founding conference of Frequently Asked Questions ...21 the Anarchist Black Cross Network (ABCN) in Austin, Texas, in July of 2002, Security Guidelines 23 that the second ABCN gathering would be held by the Break the Chains Directory of Hotels & Housing ... 24 collective in our hometown of Eugene, Oregon. The Break the Chains Conference Directory of Restaurants 25 has expanded from this initial need for an Anarchist Black Cross Network Statements of Solidarity 27 gathering. While ABCN organizing continues, we also believe that the struggle Links in Solidarity 44 against prisons demands differ- ent activities and approaches. We have tried to create a conference that reflects this diversity. Break The Conference - from Slingshot Since the beginning of the The Break the Chains conference will be held Aug.8-10 at Univ. of Oregon in Eugene. It is planning for this conference, veteran dedicated to fighting repression, supporting prisoners, and eliminating prisons altogether. prison activists have counseled us By providing anti-prison education, building on existing prisoner support efforts, learning that this event should not merely from veteran prison activists, and initiating new campaigns against the prison industrial be a chance for like-minded indi- complex, this conference is intended to initiate a new era of heightened prisoner support viduals to get together and have and anti-prison activism. a good time; that if we,re serious Perhaps no other single issue so convincingly illustrates the struggle for total libera- about our struggle, this conference tion, as does the prison industrial complex. Resisting prisons is resisting state repression should reflect a deeper desire for fundamental social change. There's so and blatant social control; it is resisting the most terrifying examples of racism, sexism, much work to be done, and it's essential that we find ways to be more effective, and homophobia, the criminalization of the poor and capitalist exploitation of labor. For innovative, and inclusive in our approach. Let's make this conference a place this reason, the Break the Chains conference hopes to exemplify the need for continued of intensive debate and discussion, while giving room to the voice of those and heightened prisoner support with our ultimate goal being prison abolition. Prison abolition is a political vision that seeks to eliminate the need for prisons and acknowl- in prison. Please, take the time to read the statements from prisoners towards the back of this manual. It is our hope that their sense of urgency and emotion edges the devastating effect that prisons have on poor and marginalized communities. will inspire action. Wide ranges of folks have agreed to attend and share their knowledge, including many former prisoners. Organizations attending include Free Mumia Coalition, Prison Legal News, This conference has been made possible by a tremendous amount of and Out of Control Lesbian Committee to Support Women in Prison. There will be people organizing; yearlong fundraising efforts by our collective, friends and sup- working with prisoners that are HIV/AIDS infected and Black Panther and American Indian porters, including but not limited to: hosting lectures with former political Movement elders, as well as a participant in the Attica rebellion of the 70s. prisoners and prison activists, garage sales, music events, film showings, Any movement that does not support its political internees is a movement destined t< begging for donations, and everything in between. Many special thanks to fail. When power is challenged, it inevitably turns to violent repression and imprisonment all the conference participants, in particular those who traveled from afar to maintain itself. In order to avoid defeat, movements must become organized and capable to help and those who traveled on their own funds, thanks to our childcare of combating the repression of the state apparatus, and they must be able to supPol"j providers (PDX Anti-Capitalist Action in particular), the Survival Center, their comrades and allies in the event that they are arrested or imprisoned. Few would and our cooks. In addition, super special thanks to Anthony Rayson, Puck, commit themselves to a movement that would leave them behind prison walls, or a Clayton, Murray Zuckerman, the Blackberry Collective, Agitation Press movement that is incapable of sustaining itself in the face of state intimidation. Contact Printing Guild, Tiger and Robin Irish, and most of all to Marshall and Randy. info at P.O. Box 11331, Eugene Oregon 97440 or www.breakthechains.net. No thanks to the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation. INTRODUCTION ° Break the Chains Conference Scheduling Changes Safiya Bukhari We regret to inform conference participants and attendees that Safiya Bukhari will be unable to make her scheduled appearances due to illness. We thank Safiya for her willingness to participate, and wish her all the best and a quick recovery. Friday Night: In place of Safiya, Chrystos will be speaking with Ward Churchill. Chrystos will also share her poetry on Saturday night as scheduled. 10:30 am Saturday: Paulette d'Auteuil will be presenting "Jericho Movement & the Struggle to Free Political Prisoners / POWS in North America" in place of Safiya. 1:00 pm Saturday: Claude Marks will connect the dots from COINTELPRO to the Patriot Act as scheduled. 2:30 pm Sunday: Onward! The closing discussion will now feature veteran prison activists Bo Brown, Anthony Rayson, Brigette Sarabi and Paulette d'Auteuil. Room Changes 10:30 am Sunday: The Basque Political Prisoners presentation will be in room 152. 1:00 pm Sunday: The Men Against Sexism workshop will be in room 151. to criminalize these political prisoners and prisoners of war, try them ConferenceiSchedule in their courts, and sentence them to mammoth sentences. It is the of The Jericho Movement to raise this issue to the height where i mission the United States will no longer be able to deny the existence of our political prisoners and by so doing, change the playing field. ROOM 176 A History Of The Anarchist Black Cross Matt Hart, Anarchist Black Cross Federation This workshop is an overview of the Anarchist Black Cross [ABC] move- On-Campus Events ment from 1905 to the present day. We will examine the organization's (All on-campus events will be held at the Education Building on 16th & Alder) trends, events, and four major waves. We will also explore how ABC has played a significant role in historical events and revolutionary movements in the twentieth century. ROOM 155 Saturday, August 9th 9:00am - 10:20am The Struggle Against Prisons, Repression, and Social Control The Eddie Hatcher Story Introductory presentations from Bo Brown, Splitting the Sky, and Stormy Ogcte Former Political Prisoner Bo Brown Day one of this conference will begin with opening presentations from Chrystos, Native American activist/author former political prisoners Bo Brown, and Splitting the Sky, and veteran Some of you may have seen the film Take-Over, the story of Native American Indian prison activist Stormy Ogden. They will share their American political prisoner Eddie Hatcher, which has been shown by own experiences and views on the prison, industrial complex and the the Break The Chains collective on many occasions in the past year. necessity of bringing it to an. end. ROOM 176 During this session of the conference, longtime supporters of Eddie will talk about him and other prisoners of injustice in North Carolina. 151 10:30am-11:50ai ROOM Jericho Movement & the Struggle to Free Political Prisoners/ Women in Prison/Free Battered Women Now.' POWs in North America Janice Jordan, California Coalition for Women in Prison Safiya Bukhari, Jericho Movement | Lora Wetzel, Women Embracing Freedom Together The issue of whether or not political prisoners and prisoners of war Janice & other members of the CCWP will discuss the medical neglect exist inside the borders of the United States of America is one that the and sexual abuse of women in prison; and the racial and economic government of the United States has successfully been able to refute. disparity in sentencing and incarceration. They will also discuss the They have been able to deny the existence of political prisoners and | role of the California Department of Corrections in California State prisoners of war because we have not taken the battle to them and politics and how it affects the electoral process. forced them to address this issue. Over the last thirty years the numbers Lora Wetzel will discuss the Women Embracing Freedom Together, of political prisoners and prisoners of war languishing within the a highly effective grassroots effort led by women former inmates [and prisons of the United States of America has grown to enormous and their supporters] to help women leaving prison, and to build real alter- geometric proportions as the struggles for liberation has intensified- natives to imprisonment. ROOM 152 While we have consistently contended mat we are involved in a liberation struggle, our approach to winning the freedom of our political prisoners and prisoners of war has not supported our claim. It has also enabled the government of the United States, through its varied police agencies/ CONFERENCE I ON-CAMPUS EVENTS 1:00pm-2:20pm Transgender and Gender Variant People in Prison Sailor Holiday, California Prison Focus Friends of the Survivors This workshop will be an opportunity for folks working for prisoner's German Nieto-Maquehue, Amigos de los Sobrevivientes Torture is the deliberate mental and physical damage inflicted by a rights to gain information specific to the gender variant populations government upon individuals in an effort to intimidate and control their and a space for transgender and gender variant people to share their populations.