Aug. 5, 2020

Support Anarchist And Antifa Prisoners

From Anarchist. TransFeminist. Amazon. by Jennifer Amelia Rose (author's profile)

Transcription

July 25, 2020

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Support Anarchist and Antifa Prisoners!:
International Solidarity and Resistance Actions Against Authoritarian States
By Jennifer Rose, The FireAnt Collective

A couple of years ago, around 2017 and 2018, I helped co-found and organize the FireAnt collective, an anarchist prisoner solidarity group that publishes a zine and raises funds/materials aid for imprisoned anarchists in the U.S. and around the world. Working with several other imprisoned anarchists, and two outside collectives, Maine Anti-Racist Action and Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross, we have managed to put out a regular zine, now on its 6th issue; and have continued to successfully operate an Anarchist Prisoner War Fund, which directly supports several imprisoned anarchists with quarterly commissary funds.

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We found this long-term project necessary due to the fact that other existing political prisoner support groups, such as the Jericho Movement, have focused mainly on Black Panther/Black Liberation Army and other Left wing/Anti-Imperialist political prisoners, associated with communist party organizations or national liberation struggles. These movements, usually supported by a military wing or guerilla army units engaged in an armed struggle against colonial-states/imperialism, and white supremacy, did not usually recognize or even respond to anarchist prisoners. The reason for this is that although sharing many of the same political ideas; and fighting alongside each other against the same imperialist and fascist enemies; and facing the same types of state political repression and imprisonment for their revolutionary struggles and political activism; there is a major difference! anarchist prisoners and these other political prisoners have a completely different objective! Anarchy vs. Statism!

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Black Liberation Movement, and other Anti-imperialist/Communist, political prisoners are part of a political party or guerrilla-type organization that seeks to either sieze State power, or declare an independent state, and seek official recognition of their Authority by the international community, and other other Heads of State or World Leaders, as established by the United Nations and international law.

Whereas, anarchists seek to abolish State power and overthrow the State and its Authority! In fact, anarchists & rebel prisoners do not even claim any "political" status, and in point of fact are actually "anti-political". Even though anarchists support the Black Liberation struggle, and other anti-imperialist revolutionary struggles, and the concept of Peoples Liberation, or resistance movements that fight against White Supremacy, genocide, patriarchy, slavery, and other systems of oppression; we oppose the State and its Authority as a legitimate solution.

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Supporting Anarchist and Antifa Prisoners
Historically, there has been a lack of popular support for Anarchists, and as explained above a lack of support For Anarchists prisoners, who were not usually recognized by existing support groups as "political: The major exception to this is political prisoners such as Kuwasi Balagoon and Bill Dunne, who though unapologetically self-proclaimed anarchists, worked within the hierarchic organizational structure of Black Liberation Army (BLA) guerrila units.

Also, another major exception, is the decades long existence of the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), the only on prisoner support group that has focused mainly on anarchist prisoners, while also working to organize support for Black Panther/BLA political prisoners, and other prisoners in general. ABC is self-organized into autonomous, volunteer-run collectives at the local level in many cities across the U.S, and in other countries around the world. ABC is an international anarchist prisoner support network that only functions in small, self-organized, autonomous, community-based collectives to provide mutual aid and support to ALL prisoners, or build solidarity against prisons with abolitionist groups. (Check out: www.anarchistblackcross.net)

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International Solidarity Actions, Certain Days, and Prisoners' Initiatives

Over the past decade, there has been a shift in Worldwide geopolitical developments toward authoritarianism, fascism, and neo-liberalism, and against so-called "democracy," human rights, and basic political freedoms. At the same time, we have seen the development of greater international solidarity and popular support for anarchist and anti-fascist resistance, widespread political discontent among the people in many countries, and REVOLT as insurrectionary uprisings grow in the streets of Hong Kong and the so-called "U.S.A."

Anarchists support internationalism and are against the arbitrary and artificial national borders that have been established and enforced by the military-backed national or colonial governments. Therefore, we organize international solidarity with comrades, and the oppressed peoples of the world, by building communication networks, friendships, and connecting our various struggles around the world;

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in spite of these borders; Through the use of the internet and correspondence by mail, across the borders and oceans!
We have many days of the year that have been designated as international days of solidarity and action, in support of projects or initiatives toward radical or revolutionary political struggles, such as those for people's liberation, women's liberation, workers rights, decolonization, and freedom for political prisoners.
January 22nd - International Day of Solidarity and Action for Transgender Prisoners was started by anarchist prisoner Marius Mason; who is in U.S. prisons for his actions with Earth/Animal Liberation Front (ELF/ALF), sentenced to 22 years; after he came out as a trans man. (supportmariousmason.org)
March 8th is International Women's Day, during which the women's struggles and feminist resistance is regularly commemorated and renewed.
May 1st - International Workers Day is marked with massive demonstrations of workers collectives, labor unions, migrant workers, and strikes in every country and major city around the world, in protest against global capitalism and the exploitation of poor and indigenous peoples; prison slavery & incarcerated workers!
June 11 - International Day of Solidarity with Long-term Anarchist Prisoners, was also started as a project/initiative by Anarchist prisoner Marius Mason, and it's observed anally by writing letters to anarchist prisoners, banner drops and noise demos in support of specific anarchist prisoners, and other solidarity actions against prisons. (www.june11.org)
July 25 - International Day of Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Prisoners, originated in 2014 as a solidarity action in support of Jock Palfreeman, an Australian man who was unjustly sentenced to 2 years in prison in Bulgaria for defending two Romani men who were violently attacked by fascist football hooligans. He was granted parole after serving 11 years, but there are hundreds of others, antifa prisoners, who remain in prisons for standing up and taking action against fascism and white nationalist/neo-nazi hate groups! For self-defense or resistance!
In 2020, Antifa International and the International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund will be organizing and promoting campaigns and events around the July 25th International Day of Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Prisoners! This is an important campaign which aims to break down the borders and prison walls to build an international response as a Global initiative against fascism! Join us! =)
August 24th - the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners begins on this date each year, in honor & remembrance of the Haymarket Martyrs, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, falsely accused of a bombing during an anarchist workers demonstration at the Haymarket Square. They were condemned and executed by the State in 1927. Anarchists participate in various actions, organizing initiatives, and solidarity campaigns/support work to demand the release of anarchist prisoners, or provide them material support/mutual aid.

How to Get Involved! Support Antifa!
There are many internet support sites, fundraisers, political prisoner campaigns, anarchist and antifascist collectives, and abolitionist or prisoner support groups. However, there are some that are specifically anarchist or anti-fascist collectives, or support anarchist and antifa prisoners:
The FireAnt Collective
P.O. BOX 164
Harmony, ME 0492.

Bloomington ABC
% The Future
P.O. BOX 3133.
Bloomington. IN 47402
bloomingtonabc.noblogs.org

Remember our martyrs! [image of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti]
Certain Days
% Burning Books
420 Connecticut St.
Buffalo, NY 14213
Certaindays.org

John Brown Prisoner Solidarity Project (JBPSP)
P.O. BOX 1137
Chino Hills CA 91709

Take Action on July 25th! Support Antifa Prisoners at http://supportantifaprisoners.wordpress.com/antifascistprisoners/
Participate in solidarity actions, support work, or letter-writing events! Resist!
[image captioned "New York City protest meeting to save condemned anarchist workers Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were executed in 1927]
IWOC
P.O. BOX 414304
Kansas City,
MN 64141
iww.org

Anarchist Prisoner Contact Info:
Michael Kimble #138017
370 Holman
Atmore, AL 36503

Marius Mason #04672-061
(check for current location)
www.supportmariousmason.org

anarchy.live@niseup.net
freemichaelkimble@gmail.com

A.C.A.B.

www.seanswain.org

To support or donate to the Anarchist Prisoner War Fund, please email: bloomingtonanarchistblackcross@riseup.net. All money will go directly to prisoners! Such as our comrade:
Eric King #2790045
USP McCreary
P.O. BOX 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635
Support Eric King!

Stop the Torture of Anarchist and Antifa Prisoners in Russia! #FreeThemAll
In October 2017, the Russian Federal (FSB) Security Service kidnapped six people in Penza, planting weapons in their cars and using torture to force them to sign forged and falsified confessions admitting to membership in a fabricated, non-existent "terror network". These prisoners were beaten hung upside down, and electrocuted among other such abuse. At the end of January 2018, the Russian FSB arrested more anti-fascists in St. Petersburg and subjected them to the same tortures. In response to solidarity actions in Moscow and Chelyabinsk, several more activists were arrested, tortured with electric shocks,

INTERNATIONAL ANTIFA SOLIDARITY
www.antiracist.org www.june11.org

and falsely charged with crimes they didn't commit. these arrests and state repression against anarchists/antifascists (and other political dissidents) is part of a larger crackdown by the Russian State, and authoritarian ruler President Vladimir Putin, preceding the 2018 presidential elections and the World Cup. Political rivals and media critics of Putin are killed. For years, governments and police agencies in many countries around the world, even the so-called "free world" and "democracies" in Europe and so-called "Amerika", have attempted to fabricated conspiracies in order to frame anarchists and anti-fascists as participants nationwide or global "terrorist" networks. These attempts to criminalize political dissent and protesters, and imprison opposition group leaders; such as anti-fascist action (Antifa) organizers targeted by President Donald Trump in the U.S.; have always been a dismal failure. However, the Russian FSB have now introduced an innovation that they see as an effective strategy. If they continue in using torture to force false confession and justify wrongful convictions, without any political consequence or objection from international human rights agencies or the U.N., police agencies around the world will continue using the same tactics, more openly and more often! I survived torture in Pelican Bay SHU!
Spread the word about the torture of political prisoners in Russia. We could be next! As the Amerikan fascist leader, President Donald Trump ("not my president!"), has demonstrated by his attempt to label "Antifa" and anarchist street demonstrators as a "hate group". Antifa is not even actually a "group" at all, much less "terrorists". The acronym "Antifa" just stands for anti-fascist action!
Anarchists are anti-authoritarian and anti-State, and advocate Social Revolution toward abolishing the State and its Power or Authority; which we see as having no legitimacy and only maintained through the use of armed military and police forces; through violent wars and mass incarceration prison systems. We envision a world without police and prisons, where the people use different modes of organization in a free society, without hierarchy and coercion. Anarchist organizing principles include autonomy, voluntary cooperation, and mutual aid, as well as the self-determination of all peoples, and genders! No borders, no walls!
For more information, check out the following websites:
crimethinc.com
rupression.com
#stopFSBtorture

Anarchist Publishers
AK Press
370 Ryan Ave, 100
Chico, CA 95973
(510)208-1700
info@akpress.org

SeeSharp Press
P.O. BOX 1731
Tuscon, AZ 85702 1731
info@seesharppress.com

Autonomedia.org

Kate Sharpley Library USA
PMB 820
2425 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
info@katesharpleylibrary.net

Black & Red
P.O. BOX 02374
Detroit, MI 48202
books@blackandred.org

Left Bank Books
92 Pike St.
Seattle, WA 98101
leftbankbooks.com

Support Anarchist & Antifa Prisoners!
http://crimethinc.com

Little Black Cart
P.O. BOX 3920
Berkeley, CA 94703
info@littleblackcart.com

PM Press
P.O. BOX 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
(510) 658-3906
info@pmpress.org

Write to any of these publishers and request an updated catalog so you can learn more about anarchist theory and history, revolutionary movements and their leaders, and other insurrectionary ideas! Free your mind! Be anti-fascist!
Fire 2 tha prisons!
#FreeThemAll
Solidarity to Anti-Fascists!
Solidarity to Anarchists!
Long Live the Resistance!

References
1. Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar 2019; http://certaindays.org, (Buffalo: BurningBooks, 2019)
2. anonymous, "July 25 International Day of Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Prisoners; Turning the Tide - A Journal of Intercommunal Solidarity ; dd/y September 2020; (Culver City: Anti-Racist Action, 2020);
3. Anonymous, "Solidarity with the Tortured Anarchists & Anti-Fascists in Russia"; FireAnt, issue 3 " (http://bloomingtonabc.noblogs.org.
4. "Anarchist Publishers", Fifth Estate; http://www.fifthestate.org
5. 22 Collective "Resources"; 22 Zine 2019, (Austin: Austin ABC/MonkeyWrench Books, 2019)

Anarchist Queer Prisoner Solidarity
Austin Anarchist Black Cross and Monkey Wrench Books has, for the past few years, facilitated the 22 Collective and ABC Queer Prisoner PenPal Project in honor of Marius Mason's call for a January 22nd International Day of Solidarity and Action for Transgender Prisoners. The J22 Collective publishes and distributes the annual "J22 Zine", which includes artwork, poetry, letters and articles from queer and trans prisoners.
The ABC Queer Prisoner Pen Pal Project focuses on providing penpals to Texas prisoners who are LGBTQ.
Write to them and ask for further information or a copy of J22 Zine!

Support Anarchist & Antifa Prisoners!
bloomingtonabc.noblogs.org
ABC Queer Prisoner PenPal Project % MonkeyWrench Books
110 E. North Loop Blvd.
Austin, TX 78751
atxanarchistblackcross@gmail.com
txqtprisoners.wordpress.com

ATX-ABC/J22 Collective
% Monkeywrench Books
110 E. North Loop Blvd.
Austin, TX 78751
atxanarchistblackcross@gmail.com
www.monkeywrenchbooks.com

Send all correspondence, criticism, comments, or corrections in response to this article to:
Jennifer Rose, E23852
Salinas Valley State Prison
P.O. BOX 1050
Soledad, CA 93960

"I AM ANTIFA!"

Check out my support site, which I'm in need of a volunteer to help update, or redesign a new one:
http://babygirlgann.noblogs.org
Anyone interested in joining the team, write me!

Remembering A Revolutionary Leader & Hero!
Lucy Gonzales Parsons:
Live Like Her!
According to the Chicago police she was 'more dangerous than a thousand rioters.'

It is our revolutionary responsibility to ensure that the brothers and sisters on whose shoulders we stand aren't forgotten. This year, the International Working Women's Day May I contingent will march in honor of Lucy Gonzales Parsons. Because working women, especially women of color, poor women, women with disabilities, lesbian and gender-nonconforming women, homeless women, immigrant women, rural women and women survivors of domestic violence are made invisible when history is written, we are lifting up our sister Lucy because she blazed paths that we continue to walk to this day.
[image of Lucy Parsons, 1886]
[image of Lucy Parsons 1920]

Here is a short outline of her story:

Who she is:
- Born into slavery in Texas in 1853
- Black-Indigenous-Mexican labor leader
- Died in a mysterious fire at age 89 (1942
- FBI confiscated her books and papers

Fought anti-racist terror
- Fled KKK threats of violence in Texas with her spouse, Albert Parsons
- As a member of the Communist Party, supported the Scottsboro Brothers, nine Black youth falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931

Fierce workers' organizer
- In 1881 helped found the International Working People's Association known as the "Black International"
- In 1886 led marches in Chicago for an 8-hour day, which inspired the founding of May Day
- In 1905 one of two women (with Mother Jones) among 200 founding delegates of the Industrial Workers of the World; addressed two IWW conventions
- Supported two children as a seamstress and hosted organizing meetings of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in her home
- Tireless supporter of Haymarket martyrs after arrest and subsequent execution - one of whom was her spouse
- Urged union members to seize the means of production
- Guest of honor at 1941 May Day Parade

Every issue is a woman's issue
[image captioned "8 HOURS for WORK 8 HOURS for REST 8 hours for JUSTICE]

Defender of women's rights
- Led poor women into rich neighborhoods to confront capitalist barons on their doorsteps
- Advocate for women's rights including the right to contraceptives and safe abortions

Anti-capitalist and anti-imperialists
- Writer and editor of anti-capitalist publications: The Alarm (IWPA weekly), IWW newspaper (column) and The Socialist
- Opposed World War I and supported the Russian Revolution

Follow her example today by joining the revolutionary workers union she built! Industrial Workers of the World
P.O. Box 414304
Kansas City, MO 64141
Phone: (510) 363-3426
web: www.iww.org

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