Join us at Firestorm on Sunday, July 2nd (5:00-7:30PM) for an evening of solidarity with long term political prisoners: people who are locked up for their activism and resistance to systems of domination and oppression.
Posts by Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross
June 2017 Letter Writing Night
Join us at Firestorm on Sunday, March 5th (5:00-7:30PM) for an evening of solidarity with long term political prisoners: people who are locked up for their activism and resistance to systems of domination and oppression.
This month’s birthdays (from prisonbooks.info):
June 12, 1985
Jared “Jay” Chase
M44710
Pontiac Correctional Center
Post Office Box 99
Pontiac, IL 61764
freethenato3.wordpress.com
Jared Chase is one of three people who were set up by informant(s) just before the NATO summit in Chicago in May 2012. They are accused of making molotov cocktails and of saying that they planned to use them to attack police stations, a Democratic Party campaign office, and the mayor’s home during the NATO summit. Two of the NATO 3 have been released, and after complications regarding Jay’s chronic health issues and brutality from correctional officers, Jay remains in prison.
June 28, 1946
Thomas Manning
10373-016
FCI Butner
Post Office Box 1500
Butner, NC 27509
denverabc.wordpress.com
In 1971, Tom became active in political organizing, particularly with a Portland, Maine group known as SCAR. Much of this work centered around working with prisoners, ex-prisoners and their loved ones. Through this work and the study required to do it effectively, class contradictions became very clear to Tom. Eventually these realities lead to become active in the armed clandestine movement, first in the 70s with the Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson Unit, and later in the 80s in the United Freedom Front. The armed anti-imperialist and anti-racist activities of these organizations led to a massive seven year hunt by all federal state and local authorities in the northeastern US. This hunt ended in his capture and Tom is now serving a double life sentence, plus multiple other sentences.
May 2017 Letter Writing Night @ ACAB2017!
Write to political prisoners with Blue Ridge ABC at Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair 2017! We’re meeting from 6:00-7:30PM in the Firestorm community room on Sunday, May 7th.
Krow
Katie Kloth
Iron County Jail
300 Taconite Street
Hurley, WI 54534
supportkrow.org
On February 4, while supporting the No DAPL struggle, Krow (Katie Kloth) was assaulted and arrested by a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer (there is video of the incident below). She was walking on a public road, away from the Sacred Stone camp, when she was chased down by the officer. It is believed that she was specifically targeted because of her ongoing involvement and visibility within the No DAPL resistance, which had resulted in two arrests on misdemeanor charges previous to this incident. Krow was also known at Standing Rock for being an advocate for creating a unified front in fighting the pipeline.
On April 12, Krow turned herself into the custody of North Dakota law enforcement to await extradition to Wisconsin to face charges of violating felony probation. For the next three weeks, friends and supporters weren’t sure of Krow’s whereabouts as she was transferred across states. Now we finally have confirmation that she is in Wisconsin’s Iron County Jail—the same jail where she previously served nine months for defending Wisconsin’s Penokee Hills from mining in 2013.
MAY PRISONER BIRTHDAYS from prisonbooks.info:
May 12th, 1952
XINACHTLI
Alvaro Luna Hernandez
#255735
James V Allred Unit 2101 FM 369North
Iowa Park TX 76367
freealvaro.net
Xinachtli was the national coordinator of the Ricardo Aldape Guerra Defense Committee, which led the struggle to free Mexican national Aldape Guerra from Texas’ death row after he was framed by Houston police. In addition, Xinachtli spearheaded the National Movement of La Raza, Stop the Violence Youth Committee and the Prisoners Solidarity Committee in Houston. Xinachtli was an NGO delegate before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights where he exposed the U.S. government’s dismal human rights record and its human rights violations of U.S. political prisoners. On July 18, 1996, Sheriff Jack McDaniel of Alpine, Texas, attempted to assassinate Xinachtli but was thwarted when Xinachtli disarmed him. For this he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Address envelope to Alvaro Luna Hernandez
May 27, 1953
KOJO BOMANI SABABU
#39384-066
USP Canaan
P.O. Box 300 Waymart, PA 18472
thejerichomovement.com
Kojo Bomani Sababu is a New Afrikan Prisoner of War serving a 55 year sentence. Kojo was captured on December 19th 1975 along with anarchist Ojore Lutalo during a bank expropriation. He was subsequently charged with conspiracy for an alleged plan to use rockets, hand grenades and a helicopter in an attempt to free Puerto Rican Prisoner of War Oscar Lopez Rivera from the federal prison where he was serving.
May 31st, 1969
BOMANI SHAKUR
Keith Lamar
#317-117
Ohio State Penitentiary
878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd
Youngstown OH 44505-4635
denverabc.wordpress.com
In April of 1993 hundreds of prisoners at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility took control of one of the facility’s wings for 11 days before it was forcibly taken back over. The rebellion was composed of a temporarily united front of prisoners across racial, religious, and gang divisions that produced 21 demands centered on basic human rights. During the uprising several prisoner informants and a guard were killed. Bomani is accused of ordering the deaths of five inmates during the uprising and is now on death row. Address envelope to Keith Lamar.
May 31st, 1985
DOUGLAS WRIGHT
#57973-060
FCI Edgefield
Post Office Box 725
Edgefield, SC 29824
cleveland4solidarity.org
Douglas and four others were arrested on May 1st, 2012 and accused of plotting a series of bombings, including of an area bridge. The FBI, working with an informant, created the scheme, produced the explosives, and coerced them into participating.
“Toxic Water + Deadly Heat = Prisoner Deaths!” by Keith “Malik” Washington
The following essay was transcribed from a letter from Keith ‘Malik’ Washington. Apologies if there are any errors in transcription:
Toxic Water + Deadly Heat = Prisoner Deaths!
inside Texas Prisons.
by Keith ‘Malik’ Washington
Deputy Chairman – N.A.B.P.P. (P.C.) & Chief Spokespersyn for End Prison Slavery in Texas Movement
Peace & blessings sisters and brothers!
President Donald Trump has proposed a budget in which the Environmental Protection Agency will undergo a 31.4% budget cut.
Now I have a friend and mentor named Robert S. Muhammad PhD and Bro. Robert is an urban planner who lives in Houston, Texas and he has a saying: “The people are smarter than you think!”. And I believe that. So if Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, and their corporate cronies have decided to totally defund the EPA, who or what agency will ensure the citizens of the United States have access to clean water supplies and fresh air or healthy soil to plant fruits & vegetables? Intelligent folks like you and I ask these types of questions!
Now I am a humyn rights activist and when I am stripped down to my core beliefs I believe a humyn life is the most precious gift in the universe and all life must be preserved and protected. White lives, Black lives, Latina & Latino lives. Asian, Arab, and all Indigenous lives! Precious! Are we clear on that?
In the years that I have been incarcerated in Texas (approximately 10 years), I have been to 18 different prison units. Of those units, 3 had serious problems with their water supplies. Coffield unit, the largest state prison in Texas, has had chronic high levels of coliform bacteria (fecal matter) in their water. The co-founder of the End Prison Slavery in Texas Movement, Mr. Norris ‘Fajr’ Hicks, is fond of informing Coffield prisoners, “there is ‘doo-doo’ in our drinking water!” Eastham unit where I am currently housed has high levels of LEAD, copper, and nitrates in its water supply. The STATE is certainly downplaying the problems at Eastham. And lastly the Wallace Pack unit, located in Navasota, Texas, has notoriously high levels of arsenic in their water supply. Those are just the problems I am intimately familiar with, trust me there is a much larger list of Texas prisons with toxic and contaminated water supplies.
We have seen retaliation and obstruction of justice tactics by employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Prisoners such as myself and Keith M. Cole have filed lawsuits and wrote detailed exposés describing the detrimental effects that toxic water and deadly heat can have on humyn beings. But we must understand that the Texas Attorney General’s Office headed by Ken Paxton has directed T.D.C.J. prison officials to TARGET jail house lawyers and activists. Silencing our voices, sabotaging our civil lawsuits, and stifling our political dissent is the sole purpose of this ongoing campaign of harassment, retaliation, and in some cases even torture!!
These are serious allegations and that is why investigative journalists from the online site TRUTHOUT have taken on the task of exposing toxic water, deadly heat, and aiding the public at large in _Connecting the Dots_ because too many prisoners in Texas who have engaged in peaceful litigation efforts or activism have found themselves victim of harsh retaliation tactics at the hands of the STATE.
The University of Texas Medical Branch based in Galveston, Texas has the contract to provide medical care for approximately 80% of T.D.C.J.’s 150,000 prisoners give or take a thousand. Now, UTMB is a world renowned teaching hospital and somehow their physicians, nurses, and physician assistants have FAILED to draw the connection between deadly heat, toxic water, and inmate deaths!!? The Hippocratic Oath expressly dictates that caregivers _”DO NO HARM”_, so will some of our free-world friends & activists please start pressing UTMB-president Dr. David L. Callender on this blatant violation of THE PUBLIC’S TRUST!???
The University of Texas–School of Law Human Rights Clinic, headed by clinical professor Ariel Dulitzky, has done an absolutely phenomenal job researching the effects of extreme heat in Texas prisons. Instead of applauding the efforts of Dulitzky and his students, the Texas Governor’s office and Texas Attorney General chastised, ridiculed, and threatened the UT-chancellor in the summer of 2015. The governor’s stance was and still is: “How dare you help Texas prisoners prosecute a lawsuit against the STATE!”. However, in my dealings with the Human Rights Clinic they never offered me legal help, only research and data. But aren’t prisoners in Texas state prisons and jails humyn beings?? Don’t our families pay taxes to the STATE of Texas?? Should not we too benefit from the expertise of University of Texas professors and Lawyers when the Prison Agency _creates_ conditions which snuff-out our lives prematurely? Inquiring minds demand to know!!
Sisters and brothers, at the end of the day when all of the dust clears and the lawsuits have been settled, we have to come to the realization that STATE and federal governments are being set up to protect corporations, not people.
It will be up to us to create innovative means to protect the rights of our most vulnerable members.
Billionaire George Soros donated $50 million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU does excellent work and we need them to continue for years to come. However, there are organizations such as the National Lawyers Guild and the Human Rights Defense Center that need an infusion of cash from Mr. Soros. There are publications like the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and Turning The Tide that are dedicated to protecting the rights and lives of those seldom seen or heard of in the mainstream media. Help them!! Remember ALL LIVES ARE PRECIOUS to me!!
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win
All Power to the People!!
March 2017 Letter Writing Night
Join us at Firestorm on Sunday, March 5th (5:00-7:30PM) for an evening of solidarity with long term political prisoners: people who are locked up for their activism and resistance to systems of domination and oppression.
This month’s birthdays (from prisonbooks.info):
March 1, 1940
Richard Mafundi Lake
#079972
Donaldson CF
100 Warrior Lane
Bessemer, AL 35023-7299
http://thejerichomovement.com/
Richard Mafundi Lake was a long-time organizer against racist police brutality in Alabama. He was sentenced in 1983 under Alabama’s Habitual Offender Act to life in prison. Richard is further punished for writing anti-American propaganda on the black board during an Islamic service two weeks after 9/11, as part of a nationwide coordinated Islamophobic lockdown.
March 5th, 1962
Reverend Joy Powell
#07G0632
Bedford Hills CF
Post Office Box 1000
Bedford Hills, NY 10507-2499
http://freejoypowell.org/
A pastor and activist against police brutality, violence and oppression in her community, Rev. Joy Powell was warned by the Rochester Police department that she was a target because she spoke out against corruption. Shortly after, Rev. Joy was accused and convicted of 1st Degree Burglary and Assault. An all white jury tried her; the state provided no evidence and no eyewitnesses. She was convicted and given 16 years and seven years concurrent.
March 13, 1979
Andrew Mickel
#V77400
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
Andrew Mickel shot a police officer in 2002, explaining his motivations on a manifesto posted on the internet before his arrest: “to bring attention to, and halt, the police-state tactics […]used throughout our country[, and as] an action against corporate irresponsibility.”
March 17th, 1940
Ruchell Cinque Magee
#A92051
CSP – Los Angeles County
Post Office Box 8457
Lancaster, CA 93539-8457
https://denverabc.wordpress.com/
Ruchell Cinque Magee has been locked up since 1963, the only surviving participant in the 1970 Marin County Courthouse Rebellion, in which Jonathan Jackson attempted to liberate hisolder brother George Jackson by arming prisoners and holding a judge hostage. He has worked as a jailhouse lawyer on his owncase and helping many other prisoners win their freedom.
March 21st, 1948
Jaan Karl Laaman
#10372-016
USP Tucson
Post Office Box 24550
Tuscon, AZ 85734
https://freejaan.blogspot.com/
Jaan Karl Laaman grew up in Roxbury, MA and Buffalo, NY. His family emigrated to the US from Estonia when he was a child. Jaan is considered a prisoner of war. He is currently serving a 53 year prison sentence for his role in the bombings of United States government buildings while a member of the United Freedom Front, an American leftist group which robbed banks, bombed buildings, and attacked law enforcement officers in the 1980s in solidarity with the struggle in South Africa.
March 21st, 1984
Andrew Henry
#42521-044
USP McCreary, USP
PO Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635
https://antistatestl.noblogs.org/
200 days of fiery rebellion followed the shooting of a black child named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that galvanized a black liberation movement that makes the ruling class tremble to this day. Andrew Henry is serving a 6 year sentence for loot the Foot Locker in Buzz Westfall Plaza on August 10th, 2014, during the first night of riots.
We come together each month to celebrate their birthdays by sending words of encouragement and support. We let them know that they–and their sacrifices for our movements–are never far from our minds and hearts.
Continuously showing up for comrades who have had large chunks of their lifetimes stolen by the State is crucial solidarity work. If you have ever sat in a jail cell–for even one night–you know how important it is to show these folks they are not alone. If you haven’t seen the inside of a prison cell (and we hope you never do!), you can probably imagine how mentally and emotionally taxing it is to lose control over your physical self and surroundings.
For those facing this reality, especially for years and even decades, any reminder of support and connection from the outside means more than most of us can imagine. We know because our comrades tell us again and again, it is no exaggeration: LETTERS SAVE LIVES!
Political Prisoner Letter Writing Night!
Each month on 1st Sundays (5:00-7:30PM), join us at Firestorm for an evening of solidarity with long term political prisoners: people who are locked up for their activism and resistance to systems of domination and oppression.
We come together each month to celebrate their birthdays by sending words of encouragement and support. We let them know that they–and their sacrifices for our movements–are never far from our minds and hearts.
Continuously showing up for comrades who have had large chunks of their lifetimes stolen by the State is crucial solidarity work. If you have ever sat in a jail cell–for even one night–you know how important it is to show these folks they are not alone. If you haven’t seen the inside of a prison cell (and we hope you never do!), you can probably imagine how mentally and emotionally taxing it is to lose control over your physical self and surroundings.
For those facing this reality, especially for years and even decades, any reminder of support and connection from the outside means more than most of us can imagine. We know because our comrades tell us again and again, it is no exaggeration: LETTERS SAVE LIVES!
