“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.