#anarchistprisoners

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Burn prison society (A) Solidarity with Anarchist prisoners worlwide! #J11

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June 11th 2020 Statement

Marius was unable to write a statement for this year's International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. Marius' attorney wrote beautiful statement in his stead. Please read below: The other day when I spoke to Marius on the phone he was dealing with wor

‘Marius was unable to write a statement for this year’s International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners.  Marius’ attorney wrote beautiful statement in his stead.  Please read below: “The other day when I spoke to Marius on the phone he was dealing with worries ranging from uncertainty about whether or not he might be immune to COVID-19, to the national BOP lockdown. And still! He was so focused on the well-being of everyone out here. He was very worried about me — whether I was getting enough rest, whether he was bothering me at a time that I needed to be talking to other clients. He was worried for the protesters suffering at the hands of law enforcement and the black and brown people trying to live their lives under a regime of daily violence and indignity. He expressed so much love for the people agitating for an end to white supremacy. “Racism is the poison at the heart of America,” he said. “Everybody knows it, and this is the conversation we need to have.” Marius is an example of someone suffering unduly at the hands of a government that was more interested in punishing him under the rubric of “terrorism” than in ending the atrocities against the environment that he has spent his life trying to correct. And now once again he is watching the state manufacture an imaginary threat: Antifa. No matter that Trump lacks any authority to designate “antifa” a terrorist threat in any legally meaningful way. His announcement will function to broadcast to law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and juries that they may severely punish people not only for their conduct, but for their political beliefs. Just as Marius must endure an unconscionably long sentence for actions that would otherwise have been less severely punished, we can anticipate similar state repression of many others painted with the intentionally broad brush of “Antifa.” The protections of the first and fourth amendments will lose force in the face of law enforcement and prosecutors invoking the specter of the terrorist at the gate. The deeply racist and anti-semitic discourse of the white outside agitator will authorize the same kinds of outrageous prosecutions and draconian sentences that Marius was and is now subject to. We must gather together in solidarity and make clear: our speech will not be chilled, our actions will not be quelled, our righteous anger and commitments to justice will not be diminished by these bullies and these laughable claims about our beliefs. Our communities are strong. We fight for and stand with each other in a genuinely anti-racist, gender inclusive, class- and ability-conscious coalition. This is the conversation we need to have. Marius stands with all oppressed people, and the political uprisings that represent them, from Stonewall, to Black Lives Matter, to concerted antifascist action, Marius sends deep revolutionary love and solidarity.” Moira Meltzer-Cohen, Attorney at Law      

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A5 postcard produced by Anarcho-Queer Agitation Bureau (AQAB) of Nihilistic Tendencies. 100% proceeds donated to International Anarchist Defence Fund. Purchase here for just $2: https://aqab.bigcartel.com/product/queer-insurrection-large-postcard Toward the Queerest Insurrection Some will read “queer” as synonymous with “gay and lesbian” or “LGBT”. This reading falls short. While those who would fit within the constructions of “L”, “G”, “B” or “T” could fall within the discursive limits of queer, queer is not a stable area to inhabit. Queer is not merely another identity that can be tacked onto a list of neat social categories, nor the quantitative sum of our identities. Rather, it is the qualitative position of opposition to presentations of stability - an identity that problematizes the manageable limits of identity. Queer is a territory of tension, defined against the dominant narrative of white hetero monogamous patriarchy, but also by an affinity with all who are marginalized, otherized and oppressed. Queer is the abnormal, the strange, the dangerous. Queer involves our sexuality and our gender, but so much more. It is our desire and fantasies and more still. Queer is the cohesion of everything in conflict with the heterosexual capitalist world. Queer is a total rejection of the regime of the Normal. ~ As queers we understand Normalcy. Normal, is the tyranny of our condition; reproduced in all of our relationships. Normalcy is violently reiterated in every minute of every day. We understand this Normalcy as the Totality. The Totality being the interconnection and overlapping of all oppression and misery. The Totality is the state. It is capitalism. It is civilization and empire. The totality is fence post crucifixion. It is rape and murder at the hands of police. It is “Str8 Acting” and “No Fatties or Femmes”. It is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It is the brutal lessons taught to those who can’t achieve Normal. It is every way we’ve limited ourselves or learned to hate our bodies. We understand Normalcy all too well. ~ We must become bodies in revolt. We need to delve into and indulge in power. We can learn the strength of our bodies in struggle for space for our desires. In desire we’ll find the power to destroy not only what destroys us, but also those who aspire to turn us into a gay mimicry of that which destroys us. We must be in conflict with regimes of the normal. This means to be at war with everything. If we desire a world without restraint, we must tear this one to the ground. We must live beyond measure and love and desire in ways most devastating. We must come to understand the feeling of social war. We can learn to be a threat, we can become the queerest of insurrections. ~ To be clear: We’ve despaired that we could never be as well-dressed or cultured as the Fab Five. We found nothing in Brokeback Mountain. We’ve spent far too long shuffling through hallways with heads hung low. We don’t give a shit about marriage or the military. But oh we’ve had the hottest sex everywhere in all the ways we aren’t supposed to and the other boys at school definitely can’t know about it. ~ And when I was sixteen a would be bully pushed me and called me a faggot. I hit him in the mouth. The intercourse of my fist and his face was far sexier and more liberating than anything MTV ever offered our generation. With the pre cum of desire on my lips I knew from then on that I was an anarchist. In short, this world has never been enough for us. We say to it, “we want everything, motherfucker, try to stop us!” let’s get decadent! filth is our politics! filth is our life! Excerpts from Toward the Queerest Insurrection by the Mary Nardini Gang Read full text here: theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mary-nardini-gang-toward-the-queerest-insurrection Image note: Police car torched during Nuit Debout riots, Paris, 2016

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

Nuremberg: *Escape.Departure.Anarchy* - Freedom for Jan and everyone else

About:

This campaign was started to give an anarchist answer to the repression following to actions of the 31st of May 2017 in Nuremberg. For further information about that day and why it is important to combine our anti-rascist, anti-repression and anti-state struggles within this campaign, view the text below.

Contact us:

If you have questions, wish for further translations and/or want to send us information about solidarity actions to be published on this blog, please write us an encrypted message to: ausbruchaufbruch[at]riseup.net.

You can find the PGP code under:  https://ausbruchaufbruch.noblogs.org/kontakt/

This is the text of the campaign’s flyer:

On the 31st of May 2017, a student of a vocational school in Nuremberg (Germany) was to be deported to Afghanistan. His classmates did not accept this and reacted, together with hundreds of others, with a blockade to the attempted deportation. The police‘s answer to this was as typical as it was brutal: In the end, there were several injured and arrested people.

To penalize those who opposed the deportation, the judicial authorities made use of remand prison and are applying the recently tightened law about „resisting and/or attacking an officer of the law“ (§113/114 StGB). Dozens of people are accused of participating in the blockade. To distract from the good reasons for the demonstrators‘ actions, their anti-racist protest is being criminalized. This proves to be a strategy that the german state frequently and willingly uses to prevent an effective approach against its racist practices of sorting out and deporting people. The fact that the 31st of May was a great example of how successful direct action in solidarity can be, is probably just another reason for the state to show exceptional harshness against the accused.

With Jan being one of the accused (among many others), the repression now is also directly concerning an anarchist. We – friends, comrades and supporters of Jan – are convinced that this link is no coincidence. Right after the 31st of May, the Bavarian government tried to split the protesters into ‚non-violent students‘ and ‚militant radical-left autonomists‘. This division is supposed to support their tale of a friendly, peaceable police, which only had to become excessively brutal to react to the attacks, that militant opposers of the deportation allegedly had started.

As a consequence of steadfast antifascist action, Jan has been condemned in court before. This earlier conviction makes him perfectly suitable for the picture of an activist who is threatening to the state and to cops. Somebody who they successfully criminalized in the past already for his anti-authoritarian actions.

It have been Jan‘s anarchist ideals which made him oppose the violent deportation of a young person on that 31st of May. Because of his radical anti-state convictions it is to be expected that the legal authorities will feel called to aim at an extraordinarily rigorous penalty for him.

And yet, despite having been criminalized before, in the end Jan is only one of so many accused after the 31st of May, some of who face trials under similar conditions. And with regard to the large number of anarchists who currently are threatened and affected by state oppression, his case appears to be almost insignificant.

But the repression against Jan must not be seen in  isolation. It is part of the list that is growing longer each time when the state once more tries to silence anarchists. Our bitter anger against the penalty that is threatening Jan, fans the same fury that we feel when we read about the cruel arrogance, with which the german state locks up comrades after the g20-summit.

It is the same cold rage coming over us when we hear about the state murdering an anarchist in Argentina, who fought against capitalistic land-grabbing. It is the same relentless fury that drives us, when we find out about the greek government tearing down refugees‘ squats.

It is our struggle for freedom that unites us with all of these anarchist comrades and friends all over the world. For a freedom in solidarity, where society no longer feels like it needs to guard itself with prisons and oppression from those ideas, that could actually put an end to the omnipresent exploitation and inequality. Where ‚state‘ and ‚police‘ have become nothing more than a very bad joke, and where prisons and the repression authorities have been torn down once and for all!

So let us give an appropriate answer to the state‘s attempts to intimidate us: Let us give a clear expression of our rage against the attacks on Jan and all of us! And let us keep on taking no matter which actions to oppose racism in state and society in each and every possible way!

in German

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

Call for International Days of Solidarity with Russian Anarchist Political Prisoners Feb 5th-12th, 2018

Days from the 5th till 12th of February are the days of solidarity with repressed Russian anarchists.

In October of 2017 in Penza six anarchists and antifascists were arrested by officers of Federal Security Service on a charge of creating a terrorist group. Moreover, in that time the period of raids in anarchists and antifascists’ houses has started all over Russia. The objects of Security Service’s attention were different people from absolutely different towns. At last, a new wave of detentions was launched in January of 2018. An antifascist Victor Filinkov was kidnapped by Security Service in Saint Petersburg. The officers of Federal Security Service have been torturing him in the forest out of the city. They told Victor to admit his participation in mythical anarchy-terrorist group. Unable to withstand the torture Filinkov was forced to incriminate himself and now he is remaining in Temporarily-staying Isolation. Filinkov’s lawyer claims that he has never seen so serious damages and trails of the torture during his practice of struggle with a police outrage.

There is another antifascist who has claimed about torture in St. Petersburg. Ilya Kapustin was also threatened by officers from FSS, but he has refused to incriminate himself and after that he was released on bail. There weren’t any proofs that anarchy-terrorist group exists in real life, only the confessions gained by the threats and torture.

Nevertheless, police is doing everything in order to force people to confirm an existence of mythical terrorist organization named “Net”, spoofed by FSS. The officers affirm that this organization has a lot of cells in every town. It means that the situation which has occurred in Saint Petersburg will be observed in the other Russian towns very soon.

Obviously, everything what’s going on in our time is an attempt to clear out an anarchist movement before the Elections of the President in 2018. In recent years we could see how the anarchist movement increased its activity after the repressions of 2012 year. These repressions can only intimidate people and crush the anarchist  movement.

In this case it’s necessary to show that we are not afraid and we can’t be destroyed by their force. Otherwise, the repressions will be used every time when the anarchist movement calls an attention of FSS. We should show them that the stronger their repressions, the more furious will be our resistance. Now it’s important to support the prisoners, to prevent the continuation of the “witch-hunting” and give a global publicity for this event.

We call you for a solidarity campaign with repressed anarchists from the 5th till 12th of February.

Arrange different street actions, evenings of solidarity, distribute information in the media and in the Internet. Do everything you can come up and implement.

The only one weapon we can counter the face of the state terror is the unity and solidarity  with each other. Without these two things we will be crushed by this monster one by one.

We are ready to provide the space for publication solidarity actions, just send them on media_ns[at]riseup[dot]net

The address for your solidarity letters: to

VIKTOR SERGEEVICH FILINKOV, UL. SHPALERNAYA, D. 25, G. SANKT-PETERBURG, 191123, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

(Only PAPER letters)

Fund-raising: paypal [email protected]

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

Posters for some June 11 events hosted by Bristol ABC & Earth First!

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Posters for June 11th, international day of solidarity with anarchist prisoners.

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June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners

Each year, June 11th serves as a day for us to remember our longest imprisoned anarchist comrades through words, actions and ongoing material support.

*Communication is a weapon*

By now it is a platitude to speak of the isolation and silence that prisons strive to impose. Every week another one of our imprisoned friends tells us that their mail is getting fucked with, the phones on their unit are “broken,” or that our publications are being rejected with no recourse.

For us, one of the most exciting elements of June 11, 2016 was the proliferation of words and ideas shared between and from anarchist prisoners.  Along with spreading material solidarity internationally and keeping the names of our comrades on our lips, our contribution to facilitating that communication is one of our most important tasks. While the starting point of our project was support for Marius Mason and Eric McDavid (the first of whom remains imprisoned in an extremely restrictive unit, while the latter has been freed!), it has been through a spreading web of communications that we have expanded the scope of our project to solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners around the world.  This year, we are seeking to emphasize this communication.

Maintaining communication is a lifeline for those caught in the snares of state repression or locked in its dungeons. Prisons function to isolate those held within these dungeons, to remove them from human community, and to break their will. Receiving letters and publications, being able to connect with individuals outside of the walls, and being able to call upon the solidarity of comrades on the outside are all vitally important to retaining dignity in dehumanizing conditions. When Chelsea Manning attempted suicide, communication enabled her and those close to her to mobilize and act. For prisoners who seem to live under a microscope due to their rebellious activities, a constant stream of letters shows their tormentors that they have friends on the outside and that there will be consequences for any action taken against them. Throughout the September 9th US prison strike, the relationships built over years made it possible to know of work strikes and rebellions happening in prisons all over the country, allowing supporters to organize counter-repressive action.

We must not, however, confuse actual communication with the absentminded chatter of liberal democracy. In totalitarian societies, speaking out can be subversive to systems of power; in liberal democracies it strengthens them. History textbooks teach us to speak truth to power, allowing power to better understand our frustrations so it can then maneuver to undermine us – either by regurgitating and disfiguring our criticisms as popular appeals or otherwise attempting to sell them back to us through edgy marketing campaigns. The more we tell power what we’re mad about, the better the chance they can manipulate us. Ranting on the internet is a microcosm of the pressure valve function of free speech in neutralizing social unrest. We are encouraged to say whatever we want, as long as we don’t actually do anything about it. Free speech becomes a fetish. For people who have never experienced a moment of freedom in their entire lives, freedom of speech is taken for freedom itself.

When direct action actually does take place, it either is castigated as coming from “outsiders,” or framed to fit into democratic rhetoric around speech. After the uprising against police in Ferguson, Missouri, Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote that “riots are the language of the unheard” went viral because it was a way to frame the uprising as revolving around freedom of speech, as if the silencing of Ferguson residents’ voices is what caused the riots, or that their rioting was intended only to amplify their voices.

When we speak of communication, we are not talking about “freedom of information” – media attention and generalized knowledge of the horrific practices and conditions inside prisons will never result in public outrage, nor will they cause a wave of shame that will wash over the authorities and affect them to the point where they’ll change what they’re doing. While trying to bring attention to issues sometimes has it place, we don’t expect anything from the authorities (or the “public”) and we know all too well that, especially in democracies, public opinion usually does very little to affect the policies or practices of the state. We’re talking about something different: that finding and speaking with our comrades is vital to attacking power and living full lives.

Within liberal democracies, prison functions to isolate those who do not take the bait of the democratic illusion.  We amplify the stories of those anarchists serving time in prison who have chosen active revolt against any regime of power rather than played into democracy’s games.   In February 2017, Eric King received sanctions – including loss of phone, visits, and commissary; increase in security level; and loss of “good time” – for writing poems and drawing cartoons depicting violence towards the Bureau of Prisons and the government in general. In early 2017, Sean Swain went on a successful 50-day hunger strike demanding the restoration of his email and phone communications, which had been cut off years ago due to his alleged threats of outside direct action against prison officials. In 2014, Bill Dunne received a 15-year “hit” to his parole, with the parole commission citing his “continued association and affiliation with anarchist organizations” as evidence he “still harbor[ed] anti-authoritarian views that are not compatible with the welfare of society.” Marius Mason is currently being held in the intensely-restrictive federal prison in Carswell, Texas, which surveils and controls his communication with the outside world and imposes harsh limits to his ability to connect with struggles on the outside. The comrades arrested in Italy under Operation Scripta Manent have seen their mail restricted, including a permanent seizure of all material from Croce Nera Anarchica [Anarchist Black Cross].

Despite the state’s best attempts to fetter our comrades’ tongues, imprisoned anarchists continue to contribute to struggles inside and outside of prison. Sean Swain’s Final Straw segments, Marius’ art and poetry, Jeremy Hammond’s incendiary tweets, and prison writings crossing borders and oceans show the innumerable and diverse forms communication can take in the belly of the beast.

That said, we want to share specific news of Marius’ struggles on the inside.  This year was filled with new heartbreak as the Bureau of Prisons developed means of isolating him further.  Beginning last summer, Marius began to see huge gaps in the mail he received, sometime going weeks without personal mail, with movement newsletters even more scarce. It was finally revealed via a phone call with a friend that FMC Carswell had been cutting off all communication about the National Prison Strike and thus any personal mail mentioning the strike was destroyed.

Even with these more obvious events Marius is going into his 10th year of incarceration, friendships and supports on the outside have been pushed to their limit, consistently thwarted in their attempts to get mail past Carswell’s complex and unexplained regulations.  Aside from the few close friends and immediate family he has left, Marius receives very little mail. Mail is his lifeline to the outside world. He needs supporters to recommit to correspondence, and to visits, for those of us who knew him before his arrest (a requirement of the BOP).  Know that letters which mention political actions will not make it through the tight censorship.

On the outside, new projects which seek to break down the barriers imposed by prison have flourished. Comrades all over the US and elsewhere have started publishing prison newsletters, giving wings to the ideas of our imprisoned comrades, enabling them to spread seeds in the “free world” and in the prison cells. Individual support websites, counter-information websites, zines collecting prisoners’ writings, the Certain Days calendar, the new Black Bridge website, and other efforts keep our comrades behind bars connected with us, and us connected with them – through creative expression, mutual contribution to theory, and strategizing for continuation of struggle.

This extends also to the realm of action, with solidarity rooting itself in the spirit of combative, internationalist struggle against prison and its world. Following the arrest of Pola Roupa and Konstantina Athanasopoulou and the detainment of Pola’s six-year-old child Lambros-Viktoras, diverse and combative actions took place, resulting in Lambros-Viktoras’ grand-mother gaining custody of her grandchild. The actions taken all over the world in solidarity with the US prison strike in September 2016 offer a clear vision of how words and deeds can mix in the cauldron of revolt. We also want to mention the upcoming Fight Toxic Prisons convergence in Texas, drawing the important connections between ecological devastation and prison society and rooting both in active solidarity with imprisoned comrades.

This year we challenge ourselves to weaponize our words and gestures to one another, to give them teeth. Let’s find ways to fight the censorship of those sending messages from the inside, and those sending strength and support from the outside. Let us not be satisfied with merely expressing our desires and ideas to whoever is listening, but really live them, and develop them together. The state wishes to crush our comrades by separating them from communities of struggle. We will not let it succeed!

[PDF for reading]          [PDF for printing]

More information: june11.noblogs.org