What Is Prisoner Support?

IPHflT IS

PRISONER

SUPPORT?

f\ COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL WRITINGS FROM POLITICAL
PRISONERS ON PRISONER SUPPORT AND SOLIDflRITV

2015 No More Locked Doors Conference

N0M0REL0CKEDD00RS.ORG
NOMORELOCKEDDOORS.flT.RISEUP.NET

Make sure to paginate- number each page, such as 1 of 3, 2 of 3, et cetera.
This insures that if pages of your letter don't make it to the prisoner,
they will know it.

Be careful about making promises and only commit to what you are
certain you can do. This should go without saying, but it's not a good
idea to make commitments to someone you don't have a relationship
with. If you can't maintain a correspondence, let them know up front.
Conversely, if you want to maintain an ongoing correspondence, let them
know that as well.

If you are writing to someone who is pre-trial, don't ask questions about
their case. Discussing what a prisoner is alleged to have done can easily
come back to haunt them during their trial or negotiations leading up
to it.

Don't valorize the person you are writing. Keep in mind that these are
folks coming from the same movements and communities that you are.
They aren't looking for adoration, but rather to maintain correspondence.

Finally, do not write anything you wouldn't want Fox News, a cop, or a
judge to see. Assume that intelligence and law enforcement agencies are
reading your letter. On a related note, this advice goes for any snail mail,
e-mail, texting, messaging, or talking that takes place in known activist
spaces or homes. This is not legal advice, just basic movement survival
common sense.

Comprehensives lists of political and revolutionary
prisoners can be found at:

wildfire .noblogs .org
denverabc .wordpress .com
thejerichomovement.com

Prisoner addresses can change suddenly. It is always
a good idea to double-check an address against an
up-to-date online database before sending a letter.

u^mr IS

PRISONER
SUPPORT?

COLLECTION OF WRITINGS FROM POLITICAL PRISONERS
ON THE QUESTION OF PRISONER SUPPORT AND SOLIDflRITV

WRITING PRISONERS

some tips from NYC-ABC
What to Write:

For many, the first Hne of the first letter is difficult to write-there is
uncertainty and intimidation that come with it. Never fret, it's just a
letter.

For the first letter, it's best to offer an introduction, how you heard about
the prisoner, a little about yourself. Tell stories, write about anything
you are passionate about-movement work and community work are
great topics until you have a sense of the prisoner's interests outside of
political organizing.

And what we hear from prisoners time and time again is to include
detail. Prison is so total that the details of life on the outside become
distant memories. Smells, textures, sounds of the street all get grayed
out behind bars. That's not to say that you should pen a stream-of-
consciousness novel.

Some suggestions and guidelines:

You cannot enclose glitter or write with glittery gel pens or puff paint
pens. Some prisons do not allow cards or letters that include permanent
marker, crayon, or colored pencils and it is best to check with the prisoner
beforehand. That said, it is usually best to write in standard pencil or
non-gel pen in blue or black ink.

You cannot include articles or anything else torn out of a newspaper or
magazine. However, you can print that same article from the internet or
photocopy it and write your letter on the other side.

You cannot include polaroid pictures (though these days, that's not much
of an issue), but you can include regular photographs. Some prisoners
are limited to the number of photos they can have at any given time, so
again, check with the prisoner before sending a stack of photos.

If mailing more than a letter, clearly write the contents of the envelope/
package. Label it "CONTENTS" and include a full list.

A couple of technical details- make sure you include your return address
inside the letter as well as on the envelope. It's common for prisoners to
receive letters without the envelope.

PRISONER ADDRESSES

CHARLES AFRICA

AM-4975
SCI Dallas
1000 Follies Rd.
Dallas, PA 18612

DEBBIE SIMS AFRICA

006307

451 Fullerton Ave.
Cambridge Springs, PA 16403

JANINE AFRICA

006309

451 Fullerton Ave.
Cambridge Springs, PA 16403

HERMAN BELL

#79C0262
Great Meadow CF
11739 State Route 22
P.O. Box 51
Comstock, NY 12821

BILL DUNNE

#10916-086
FCI Herlong
RO. Box 800
Herlong, CA 96113

J. GANN

#E-23852

Kern Valley State Prison

PO Box 5103

Delano, CA 93216

(address letter to Jennifer Gann;

envelope to J. Gann)

JASON HAMMOND

M50190
PO Box 500
Vandalia, IL 62471

ALVARO LUNA HERNANDEZ

#255735

Allred Unit

2101 FM 369 North

Iowa Park, TX 76367

MICHAEL KIMBLE

#138017 / K-9
3700 Holman Unit
Atmore, AL 36503

ERIC KING

27090045
CCA Leavenworth
100 Highway Terrace
Leavenworth, KS 66048

THOMAS MANNING

10373-016
FMC Butner
RO. Box 1600
Butner, NC 27509

REBECCA RUBIN

#98290-011
FCI Dublin

5701 8th Street - Camp Parks
Dublin, CA 94568

SEAN SWAIN

243-205
R O. Box 45699
1724 St. Rt. 728
Lucasville, Ohio 45699

In conjunction with the No More Locked conference
on political prisoners, we humbly asked prisoners from
across social movements who are still incarcerated to
contribute their perspectives on prisoner support, the
struggles within prison and preparing for repression. This
pamphlet is a collection of letters solicited specifically for
the conference from those liberation fighters who are still
incarcerated. The letters appear in their entirety and their
original language. We hope this collection of insightful
poignant writing will inspire the reader to redouble their
efforts at both supporting prisoners and destroying this
society built on domination, exploitation and incarceration.

Information regarding correspondence with prisoners
whose writing appear herein is included at the back
of the pamphlet. While this information is correct as
of this pamphlet's publication, it is subject to suddenly
and without notice at the whim of prison bureaucrats.

behave in ways similar TO the system. The more "exotic" we are to the
system, the less their prior experience prepares them to deal with us.
The more diffused and seemingly disorganized and varied our forms,
the more overwhelmed the system becomes, the more resistance attracts
and inspires a variety of others. Also, a quick word about "political"
prisoners. To use the term is to imply that there are such thing as
"nonpolitcal" prisoners; that is, a scenario where the State is exercising
legitimate authority and confining a human not for continuance of the
State and its nefarious agenda of control, but out of a sincere and valid
concern for public safety and well-being. As anarchists we know that has
never been the case. Therefore, there ARE no nonpolitical prisoners and
the term "political" prisoner really loses all meaning. If the State ever
acted in the best interests of public safety and well-being, it would shoot
itself in the face, not lock humans in cages. In 24 years, I've never met a
nonpolitical prisoner. And I've never met a legitimate State.

CHARLES (AFRICA
DEBBIE SIMS (AFRICA
J(^NINE (^FRIC<^
HERM(^N BELL

BILL DUNNE
JENNIFER GflNN
J(^SON H(^MMOND
(^LmRO LOm HERN(^NDEZ
MICH<^EL KIMBLE

ERIC KING
THOM(^S M(^NNING
REBECC(^ RUBIN

SEAN sm\H

are under the illusion that the "free world" is free. If you recognize that
the larger system enslaves us all, then imprisonment is only a more
severe state of deprivation in a world defined by deprivations. And the
prison complex is just one of the components of that larger system. On
one side of the fence, you are a rebel in resistance against the oppressor.
On the other side, you are a hostage in resistance against the oppressor.
All that changes is (1) the DEGREE of oppression and (2) geography.
Your IDENTITY and your goals, plans, hopes don't change unless the
oppressor tricks you into buying into some alternative narrative, some
nonsense where your previous identity is "suspended." Prisons only
function when prisoners cooperate. WE know that going in. Once inside,
we have the opportunity to take away the oppressor's prison system,
the capacity to punish. A State without the capacity to punish is a failed
State.

On the possibility of repression and how to prepare:

A few things come to mind. We know what repression is and what forms
it takes. We know what that repression is designed to do to us. So, we
can work from the expectation that we WILL experience it and then
make advance preparation for when it happens. I won't go into details
on how to prepare for imprisonment, torture, solitary, and all the other
abuses because there isn't space, but I CAN elaborate at some other
time to help someone prepare and get through it all as intact as possible.
FACT: I have survived EVERY kind of repression the State has devised
except death, and I'm not special or remarkable or any better equipped
than you are. If I can do it, you can. What we IMAGINE the State can
do is far more terrible than what the State can do. Our IMAGINED
repressionparalyzes us. There are 5 things the State can do to us: (1)
take, destroy our property; (2) assault us; (3) confine us in a state of
deprivation; (4) transfer us to a more severe state of deprivation; (5) kill
us. There are COUNTLESS things WE can do to THE STATE. That means
the State is virtually powerless. I keep in mind the Zapatista approach:
"We are already dead." The day the Zapatistas took up arms against
the State, they accepted that they were "already dead." It was inevitable
that the State would exterminate them sooner or later. If you're doing
anything that seriously challenges or threatens the oppressor, death is
your reality. Personally, I've been dead a long time. It's actually quite
liberating.

I think the organizational forms we take in resisting ought to reflect
organizational forms that can sustain us into the future. Those forms
that prove most effective, I suspect, are those most "non-system." The
existing system is best equipped to deal with enemies that think and

have now contrived justifications to make me die in prison unless I pull
the plug on SEANSWAIN.ORG and quit The Final Straw radio show. In
this way, the hierarch high command seeks to silence anarchist views
and erase them from the public forum. This only confirms for me that
the State must be defeated and destroyed for me to be liberated. I accept
those terms.

On prisoner support:

I think we are working from an outdated model of prisoner support. I find
a lot of effort and resources expended first in the area of making prisoners
"comfortable" in prison, providing amenities; and also resources toward
facilitating prisoners' writings and consciousness-raising activities. Not
to be critical, I think particularly the anarchist community has become
really good at this kind of prisoner support, and it is essential, critical,
as long as prisons exist. But I would like to provoke you to consider
what prisoner support would look like if you aimed to make prisons
not exist. Ultimately, prisoner support is for giving prisoners what they
need, and prisoners more than anything need freedom. So, I would like
to see prisoner support that provides freedom and I would like to be
involved in such prisoner support in the future. That kind of prisoner
support involves great risk and high yield. It also involves some research
and planning. But it's very do-able.

On solidarity across social movements:

I don't know that I see a distinction between "current" and "previous"
social movements. I would suggest that our ongoing struggle today is a
continuation, an evolution, an adaptation in a constant flow of struggle.
So, by my thinking, we are "we" as a consequence of the successes and
failures of the SLA, the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, and
even John Brown at Harper's Ferry. We are a continuation of struggle
going back 6000 years when humans were first subjected to subjugation
and domestication. In my view, the struggle against imprisonment and
the environmental movement and immigrant rights and racial justice
and the Zapatistas all go together. So, for me, the ultimate expression of
solidarity is not to make sure everyone is included on the banners, but
is, instead, the most effective acts of resistance that help bring down our
common enemy. For me, solidarity is not empathy but common action,
inclusive action. Solidarity, in that sense, is an action verb. I can show
oppressed kids everywhere how much I identify with their struggles
when I hit the school bully in the face with a brick and end his reign of
taking our lunch money.

On the continuation of struggle inside prison walls:

There is only a distinction between the "free world" and "prison" if you

SWEMENT FROM
CH<^RLES SIMS <^FRICfl

I am an African American born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. My mother
was poor. As a teenager I was always curious about African culture and
history as it applied to us here in america. I heard names like "Malcolm
X" and "Angela Davis" and I heard the militant anti-authoritarian voices
of Muhammad Ali - but I didn't understand any of it and how it related
to me as a 9, 10 or 11 year-old young man. But I felt it. My grandfather
educated me about slavery and segregation and told me about our black
heroes. I interrogated my teachers. I learned all that I could. In the
mid-seventies, I joined the MOVE organization. I had always wanted
to be part of a black club or organization. I wanted to feel connected to
militancy as I began to understand why the cop cars raced up and down
our streets, why blacks were targeted, why the "cleaners man" who came
by our home to pick up our clothes (and our money) was white and why
all the markets on the corners were white.

MOVE really demonstrated family to me. We did everything together:
exercised, ran our dogs in parks, had a car wash, demonstrated against
the police and politicians, etc. As the 70's progressed, the confrontations
with the Philly police increased and we were constantly being arrested,
beaten and murdered. We fought back. After armed confrontations in
'77 and '78, 9 of us were arrested and charged with the murder of a cop
named James Ramp and with a host of assault and attempted murder
charges on other police and firefighters. I was shot in the right arm and

tortured. Delbert Africa was shot in the chest (a shotgun pellet) and was
viewed on national and international television being savagely beaten - a
la Rodney King - as he surrendered with his hands raised.

After a year-long trial, we were all sentenced to 30-100 years in 1981.
This conviction persists despite the facts that there was no evidence of
us firing any shots or having any weapons. The houses that we were
attacked in were destroyed, bulldozed, by the city right after our arrests.
They destroyed the crime scene, yet denied all of our pre-trial motions to
have the case dismissed [due to that destruction of evidence].

Prisoner support, as defined by me, as anyone doing all they can do to
help out. Whether it's a greeting card, a gift or an offer to help in other
ways such as phone calls etc. to prisons during a crisis. There is nothing
"lacking." It's just that everyone doesn't have the same role and there
will always be Core Groups of support that concentrate more intensely
on helping you legally to get out, lobbying in state capitals, researching,
etc.

I think somehow we have to become creative with our communications
with social movements. I think that it would be tremendously helpful
to us all if we were to encourage some of the young brothers and sisters
struggling in their own way throughout the country. Maybe somehow
get a celebrity involved, someone involved in pop culture today to speak
out on a TV set (an awards show, sports or whatever) and use our
names, to shout out to us behind bars. Imagine what two minutes of
Jay-Z or Beyonce or some of the west coast icons like Cube or Snoop
or Dre can do?! The mainstream media won't do it, so we must make
this a household discussion. We are living in a time where everyone
is celebrity-obsessed. We should use that to our advantage. We see
the power it has (LeBron James, Derrick Rose and others during the
Ferguson and NYC affair).

Yes, the struggle continues simply because life is struggle. History shows
us that imprisoned revolutionaries in many cases come back to rule the
country (Castro, Ortega, etc.). But personally I reject a lot of labelling:
"revolutionaries," "insurgents" or "radicals" - I and others are human
beings who simply want the simple things in life without haste.

There is no one way to prepare ourselves for repression because it comes
in so many different ways. But, generally speaking, don't make it easy:
Talking on phones that could be monitored, don't travel alone and try
to have at least one person with you at all times, have money on hand
that is never touched and is used for the instant mobilization of legal

SWEMENT FROM

I grew up in a lily-white Detroit suburb, only son of an autoworker and
a stay-home mom. After my mind was mismanaged by public schools I
enlisted in the Army for more severe mismanagement. After discharge,
I shared an apartment with my then-girlfriend and her two children
from prior relationships. Her former boyfriend kicked in the apartment
door when I was home alone, and in a panic I stabbed and killed him.
He was the nephew of the clerk of courts. I wasn't. Police concealed
evidence, the prosecutor concealed witnes the court disallowed my
experts. When my conviction was reversed, the court refused to follow
the mandate of the higher court, and I remain captive for 24 years and
counting without a legal conviction or sentence for a non-crime. I was
irregularly targeted and prosecuted not for any criminal conduct, but
for the court to uphold the unwritten proposition that the system of
injustice is a weapon to maintain the special privileges of the privileged
few, while the poor have not even the right to defend our own lives. As
an anarchist writer, I have been subjected to a particular regimen of
harassment and retaliation by prison officials. In 2012, I was subjected
to torture and state terror, as prison officials alleged that I was Monkey
#4, creator of the Army of the 12 Monkeys, a militant rebel group that
seriously disrupted Ohio prisons through campaigns of sabota rioting.
I was sent to Ohio's supermax facility because my "ideology" matched
the 12 Monkeys. The FBI generated 1297 pages of investigative files on
me, related to my views and activities while in prison. Prison fascists

wisdom— at any given time and in any given circumstances— of upping
the ante.

We must be wary of ego in its myriad manifestations— such a sHppery,
wiley beast!— and truly get to know ourselves. Do we know ourselves to
be worthy of the trust others are placing in us? We must take care of
ourselves and each other. We must love ourselves as we love each other
so that betrayal of one is a betrayal of the other. Despite the youthful
brain's assertions to the contrary, the road ahead is long. The struggle
is endless. Our efforts are needed for the long haul. This society's
assertions to the contrary, we are not disposable. To share with you my
personal preparation for an inevitable showdown with the state, I'll end
with the words I have prayed a million times in the years leading up to
my surrender and beyond:

"Please keep me true to myself and loyal to my loved ones."

It's redundant, really; we are one and the same.

I send love, gratitude and solidarity everlasting,
Rebecca

teams and for bail. And, finally, develop women and men in their hoods
(and when travelling) to carry cell phones equipped with video-taping
police actions. People out there are obviously much more familiar with
the cutting edge devices than I am. From news accounts, I've heard or
seen where cops have been caught several times in the act of beating or
harassing some one. I believe one of the cases was in elderly women in
Buffalo, NY.

The last thing I'd like to add is: I believe we should organize (or ponder
the idea) of a MILLION MAN/WOMAN MARCH in support of PPs and
POWs and all unjustly charged people. America is a police state and even
those not opposed to America knows this. That could be an advantage.
With social media (that's partly how Obama was reelected) as the tool
to bring people together, we can pull it off! We want to rock the nation
(the empire) and the world from coast to coast and from florida to maine
and san pedro to Washington state.

Salutes to all of you who are commemorating the bombing of my family
30 years ago. Avenge the murder of MOVE and all others killed and
never given justice!

DEBBIE SIMS flFRICfl:
ON THE MOVE!

I am a member of the Philadelphia based chapter of the MOVE
Organization, for 40 years. I am a political prisoner. I have been in prison
for over 36 years for fighting for my belief

Many people don't know that there are political prisoners in the United
States and don't want to believe it even if they are told; because America
was founded on religious freedom and they can't understand how a
country that was founded on religious freedom would contain citizens of
this country in their prisons because of their religion and their beliefs.

It's the truth though, and there is a 45 year history behind the MOVE
Organization. To make this as short as I possibly can I will give a little
background about MOVE and what lead up to our being in prison. I have
other brothers and sisters in prison as well.

The MOVE Organization is a religious Organization with strong beliefs
in Natural Law, the truth, the teaching of JOHN AFRICA. We of Move
believe that there is nothing more important than LIFE, the force that
keeps us alive. WE teach our belief to folks in hopes that people will
come to understand and accept that our belief natural law is the solution
to people's problems. We practice our belief through the work that we do
to protect life; protect air from pollution, water from poison, soil from
toxic waste, defenseless animals from torture, and all living beings from
enslavement and exploitation.

The one practice I've found lacking, and it's the thing I've most often
requested, is the sending of good news. I know major victories are hard
to come by, but no matter how seemingly minor or temporary, any and
all positive news offers nourishment and respite from the prison diet of
sugar, starch and shitty news. Any little alleviation of suffering lessens
my own; any protection or restoration of ecological health is healing for
me. but I need to hear about it.

To know that the struggle continues is vital. I am only one of billions
of animals confined. My life, in relative terms, is a walk in the park.
I am no longer hunted. I breath fresh air and stretch my body under
open sky. I am not being tortured, forcibly bred, cannibalized, shocked,
blinded, poisoned, burned or skinned in the name of science, fashion or
entertainment. I am not being fattened for slaughter (as far as I know!)
and I will regain my freedom in this lifetime. There are countless animals
in greater need than I am.

In fact, one of the most agonizing aspects of the prison (and fugitive)
experience has been my inability to contribute or assist others in the ways
I would chose. From a position of comparative privilege, health, freedom
and power before my indictment, I have been rendered impoverished,
hobbled and self-consumed to a degree that is deeply unsettling to my
sense of sel and the person I want, and meant, to be. I meant to be of
service to others less fortunate than myself yet for the last 12 years i will
have been overwhelmingly on the receiving end of good works.

Shortly after I went on the run, I got word that an old friend of mine had
started volunteering, in my honour, at the wildlife rescue centre I'd been
working at and had to leave at the time of my indictment. To me, hers
was the perfect response to my disappearance, the perfect remedy for my
erasure from the aboveground world. To some extent, she held the key
that set my spirit free: She replaced me.

How do we prepare for repression? I thought I was prepared, but you
won'y know the full weight of the sky until it falls on you. For anyone
aware of the particulars of my case, I believe you'll forgive me for saying,
trust NO ONE whose life could be traded for yours. And trust this:
should you chose to risk imprisonment, you may well end up there.
Imagine ahead of time— I mean, lock yourself in a bathroom and really
feel yourself imprisoned. White-washed days stretching endlessly before
you and then carefully— carefully! --with heart and mind held in balance,
weigh your options. Ask yourself along which road does your greatest
effectiveness really lie? Where, and in what ways, will your love be of
greatest service to the world? Deeply, bravely, honestly question the

SWEMENT FROM
REBECC<^ RUBIN

I began my involvement in eco/animal activism at 17 and in my 20's
found my way to the ALF and the ELF. I was indicted in 2006 for my
part in various Hberations and arsons, shortly after the roundup of many
of my other co-defendants. I ran for 7 years and spent half that time
negotiating the terms of my surrender. I've been incarcerated now for 28
months and have 24 to go. A short prison term, in my view, is preferable
to a lifetime in the "free" world imprisoned by fear and the prospect of
having to run, hide, evade and isolate for the rest of my days with a 35
year sentence hanging over my head.

The most meaningful support I've received— apart from that from my
family, close friends and legal counsel— has taken the form of continuous,
consistent connection forged through letters with people on the outside.
The fugitive experience for me was an incredibly lonely one most of the
time. Being able to finally communicate, as myself with kindred souls
again has felt positively medicinal. While supportive cards and books
are so lovely, I am so grateful for the people who have proven themselves
reliable, who have demonstrated that I can count on them to maintain
contact (even through multiple moves) and actually follow through on
their offers of assistance. They are the people who've thrown a life line
and not let go. Aligning words with deed is so important— everywhere
and always— but especially when dealing with those in positions of forced
dependence.

In the early 1970's the MOVE Organization initiated peaceful
demonstrations against institutions that exploit life such as animal
experimental laboratories, industrial corporations that poison the air,
water, soil, boarding homes that were taking advantage of old folks; the
exploitation of animals in zoos and circuses, and exposed the wrong
they're doing against life.

The business interest people involved in these institutions didn't want
us demonstrating so they'd call the cops on usb because they didn't want
to hear the truth about the wrong they partake in. That led to arrest,
beatings, and more beatings, by the cops, which led to more arrest, and
hard core-sustained demonstrations against polices districts, which lead
to sentences, and more demonstrations, court cases, and persecution,
includings unborn and born babies killed at the hands of cops.

In 1977 MOVE was warned by official sympathizers that the city of
Philadelphia had plans to attack the MOVE family, take our children and
evict us from our home. In answer to that MOVE took a defense stand
against the city, and blockaded our house, to avoid any cops storming it
and took up arms against the citv for all the abuse, beatings, babies killed
at the hands of cops and officials, who sanctioned this persecution. The
main one being Mayor Frank Rizzo.

MOVE stood the cops off for a whole year because of the strategy of John
Africa. Although the guns were all inoperable, the cops didn't know that
at the time until they made an agreement with MOVE not to harrass
us, and to stop beatings us behind closed doors, and we turned over the
weapons, which were all inoperable.

Once the city and MOVE made the agreement, and we turned over all
the weapons, - 3 months later- ON August 8, 1978, the city officials and
cops came out to our house along with firefighters, bulldozers, cranes, all
type of automatic and semi-automatic weaponry, tear gas and fire hoses
allegedly to evict us from our house, for not making a court appearance.

The cops threw tear gas, smoke bombs, and tried to flood us out with 2
giant fire hoses, aimed at us full of water. When they couldn't get us out
the house with all that they started shooting and in all the chaos and
shooting, a cop was shot and killed, by one of their own, and MOVE got
blamed for it.

We were given 30-100 years in prison each (nine of us). We've been in
prison for 36 years, and have been denied parole release since 2008.

The Pennsylvania parole board has refused to release us, after 36 years
of imprisonment, when they never proved that MOVE members shot
anybody. The judge admitted that he did not know who killed the
policeman.

I would define "prisoner support" as something that is done for a
prisoner(s) that is necessary, if it applies.

a) , letters, if the person does not have support else where

b) . small donations, if possible, for necessities, if they are in deed in
need- if they have no funds coming in.

c) . keeping them abreast of different functions that pertain to them or
their situation.

d) . If the particular prisoner needs a visit every now and then, if they
can afford it.

I do not feel that our prison support is lacking. We have a great support
system.

I believe that support varies, based on the person's needs, those are just
a few things that are basic.

-How can current social movements show solidarity with prisoners
from previous movements? Outside of social movements, what sorts of
solidarity are meaningful to you?

Social movements can do exactly what you are doing. Invite people of
political movements to functions just as you are doing. Invite us to speak,
to tell our 'story", to share our case, to put out needed information, etc.

Offer phone calling cards, or stamps, envelopes, for mailing lists, when
your funds are reahahable. These things are much, much appreciated,
and can be very meaningful for the individual.

[The saying 'the struggle continues'] means that the things that started
out as vital should end up vital, also. Even though revolutionaries are
locked up the struggles should continue. Meetings should continue to
discuss the solution to problems, of police brutality, demonstrations
should continue to be present ideas about how to go about accomplishing
tasks that fit the purpose of the demonstrations. Stay organized, and
communicate eith each other, and the movements.

Repression is an unfortunate truth, and the only way to prepare
yourselves for any state repercussion is to protect yourself by staying
loyal to your cause, and not deviating from the purpose you have set out

same place now as it did then. In their board rooms, they've been looking
down the same huge shiny table this whole time. We are scattered and
battered and tattered into countless factions. They keep tumbling us into
chaos, pain and loss. They force us to fight each other for the means to
survive due to the divide and conquer methodologies that they derive
around those big tables. That's a vague explanation, I know but, hey -
5th grade education. I'm just a street soldier who tries to follow through:
Keep my word, don't make promises I can't keep. That kind of respect
from within and without will help things stay strong together as we
struggle to find a way forward, continuously.

How will repression target us? I can't guess. But when it does (and it
does all the time), our honest bonds within our communities inside and
outside will help us withstand the viruses and plagues they pester us
with. We will keep ourselves healthy as we fight off their attempted
infections - of our spirit.

take care, be well,

Tom Manning
with love

SWEMENT FROM
THOMAS M<^NNING

Raised in a city housing project. Kids running in packs all day; In
post-WWII, the place was a baby factory, but with no facilities or
accomodations for kids. "Hey get off there!" "Get out of here!" "Do this!"
"Don't do that!" "What the hell is wrong with you kids?" That was the
soundtrack to our days. Two years in a body cast due to father's PTSD
- or whatever they called it in those days. He served 4 years in Europe
and was a longshoreman after the war. So we lived next to the docks
and freightyard - our playground. At 12 years of age, school and I had a
separation. At 16, we had a divorce. At 17, 1 went into the Navy. Spent 9
months at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and 18 months in Vietnam. I got out
[of the service] in August '66 and went to state prison in December '66.
When I got out on May 8th, 1971, at 25 years old, I thought I was free
at last. Banged nails and did community/anti-prison/anti-war work until
police and FBI pressure sent me underground, married with children.
Bassinet in back seat, guns in the trunk. I was born in war times, grew
up in war times and was still in war times - trying all along the way to be
honorable. If you see wrong, fix it. If wrong oppresses you, resist it until
you fix it. The struggle continues, until it kills you or we achieve justice.

Current movements and previous movements twist and turn into each
other like taffy-pulling. Someone smarter than me needs to demonstrate
how its all and only one movement with different strategies adapted to
different conditions, places and times. The oppression comes from the

for. Keep thing organized and peaceful.

Do not give cops or anybody any excuse to target you for anything other
than your purpose. Always have a video person tape any demonstrations
that you set up. Wouldn't hurt to have 2 video people. They come very
easy these day (cell phones, i-pads, etc.) Always make your intentions
clear that you are peaceful people. Keep everything legitimate, and on
the level. This way you can protect yourself from being set up.

And most of all keep the faith that when you are doing what you know
to be right, fighting for clean air, for clean water, against oppression, for
example, when you are guided by your effort to be right, things will turn
out right.

I thank you very much for inviting me to your forum, and I will be
awaiting the outcome of this event.

On the move.

Stay strong, we can't afford to be any other way.
Debbie

LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA REVOLUTION!

JflNINE AFRICA:
LONG LIVE JOHN
AFRICA FOREVER!

I am Janine Africa, minister of education for the MOVE organization
and one of the MOVE 9. I've been in prison since August 8, 1978, when
500 Philadelphia police attacked or home. In their attempt to kill MOVE
people, the police shot and killed one of their own. They charged us
with the shooting and sentenced nine of us to 30-100 years each, despite
the judge admitting he had no idea who shot the murdered officer. All
of our appeals have been denied. Now that we're eligible for parole, we
are being denied that too. We've been seen by the parole board since
2008 and have been denied each time for refusing to admit to a crime
we didn't commit.

I think prisoner support is growing over the years. The contact and
letting us know that we are not forgotten and that the work we are
doing is appreciated means a lot. Making people aware of our situation
and encouraging people to get involved is important. I feel that pressure
should be put on mainstream media for helping the government cover up
the fact that there are political prisoners in the United States. Religious
leaders, state representatives and all those who say they are working for
the people should be made to get involved in drawing attention to our
cases.

The people fighting for social change today can show solidarity for those
of us who paved the way years ago by including us in their programs.

give me, picking me up when feeling beaten by the state, being there
when I was literally beaten- -they've been my heart. If I lived 100 years
it still wouldn't give me enough time to show my gratitude. Outside of
my 'official support team,' many many more have reached out to donate
money, to forge real friendships, to send zines and books. Prisoner
support has meant that I have never felt alone, never felt on my own.
When I got permission to have a radio headset, my supporters had me
the funds within 48 hours. When I wasn't being allowed a vegan tray,
they put on the pressure and the CCA suddenly changed their mind;
I was eating vegan before the week was up (in the meantime I picked
scraps off the normal tray and never left veganism). Outside of 3 friends,
none of the people who have reached out to extend the hand of friendship
knew me before my arrest. These comrades and friends have shown me
that people exist who believe that if you support the struggle then you
need to support the people taken away by the state for participating in
it. Those real tangible conviction fill me with such joy and love. I never
knew these people before but now I can't picture my life without them.
The world is better with people like this in it.

Prison fucking sucks. It is a disgusting place to exist. It is a disgusting
reality that places like this exist at all. Those who raise up those of
us put down are just dazzling beautiful people. The selflessness, the
consideration— it's unreal and provides such light to an otherwise grim
and bleak existence. I know I didn't answer many questions ot any new
light with this writing. I just wanted to write a rant of appreciation for
everyone who go out of their way to prevent the state from swallowing
us. Whether I get time served or 40 years, I will never forget how the
community showered me with storms of love when my soul was in a
drought. May it long continue and my solidarity with all those locked up
and my gratitude to their supporters.

'til all are free,
EK

ERIC KING:
LOVE LETTER TO
PRISON SUPPORT

My name is Eric King. My friends call me EK. You can call me EK. I
can a vegan anarchist with strong primitivist/insurrectionist leanings.
I'm 28 years old and have been a willing combatant in the fight against
domination, authority, exploitation and society's racist, classist and
patriarchal norms for the past 10 years. As of September 16th, 2014,
the state has detained me at CCA Leavenworth, the last four months in
segregation, until my trial on July 13th.

The support I've received since my arrest has completely shocked me and
changed my views on what it means to stand by your comrades. Before
September, I assumed prisoner support was only for 'big cases' and that
solidarity was a spray painted shout out. Never have I been more happy
to be shown how mistaken I was. My 'family' has been nonexistent
pre-trial and the local community, for whatever reason, decided to step
away from my case. Thankfully for me and many others, the anarchist
community around the country was more than willing to take up the
fight.

Prisoner support to me has meant the difference between despair and
hope, between drowning and floating comfortably. My support team has
shown me what solidarity really means. From setting up my support
site, fundraising to help my lawyer and spreading my news around to
raise awareness. They do it all with a smile. The love and strength they

Letting people know that justice for us is still an issue that should be
addressed. John Africa teaches that unity is important so its important to
move people to see people working together no matter their cause, their
religion, skin color. John Africa teaches that divisiveness is a weapon this
system created and uses to divert people's attention away from the real
threat to their lives - this system! Everybody is so busy fighting amongst
themselves, they don't have the strength or direction to fight the real
threat. So everybody working together to get justice for all of life is what
MOVE would like to see.

The struggle does continue. We keep fighting this system by staying
loyal, committed to our belief, to revolution. We work to be the example
of strength and hope for those taking up the fight. This takes dedication
and strength because this system is determined to break us and their
tactics don't stop behind these walls. So we are still fighting for our lives
in these places.

People fighting for freedom can only prepare for the attacks this system
will aim their way by realizing what they are fighting. John Africa
prepared us for this fight by telling us how treacherous this system and its
agencies are. Thanks to John Africa, we aren't under any illusions about
what we are fighting against. We made our decision to get involved with
this revolution knowing what we are facing. We are mentally prepared to
deal with whatever this system comes at us with.

John Africa told people in the 70's that the injustices done to MOVE by
Philadelphia officials was not just a MOVE issue. If people allowed it to
happen to MOVE, it would spread like a disease and find its way to their
doorsteps. And that's exactly what's happening. Philadelphia officials
bombed and murdered our family, our children and burned down a city
block. Not one official or cop spent one day in prison for this crime. They
feel if they can get away with that, they know it's okay to shoot black
boys in the streets. If people don't unite and let this system see that they
won't back down from this repression, its going to get worse. It'll be
police state like John Africa warned us about 40 years ago!

SWEMENT FROM
HERMAN BELL

I received your conference notice on political prisoners to occur mid-May
2015. You asked that we tell a bit about ourselves and about our case.
I am one of the New York-Three ("NY3"), and not long ago of the San
Francisco-8 ("SF8"). I've been in prison since September 1973, soon to
be imprisoned 42 years.

In regard to support of us, as M.L.K. would say, "there's a fierce urgency
of now." I urge you organizers to be far more aggressive in encouraging
the Black community and the general public to advocate for our release.
In demanding our freedom, find ways to fire-up their passion in their
advocacy. Get them involved! We political prisoners ("pps")/prisoners
of war ("pows") have a history of political service in the Black community
and the historic black struggle against racial oppression and domination.
We steadfastly oppose widespread racism in the u.s. society, police
violence and disrespect of our people, and of people in general as they
lawfully go about their daily lives trying to make a way for themselves
and their families. We are not criminals. Therefore, you need to convey
to people some basic information about us. This is not about "guilt or
innocence," or about whether an action went down or not. It's about
punishment and retribution for defending our community. Talk to
people about the years we've been held in prison and continue to be
held in prison by political officials who act in obedience to the 1% in our
society whose aim is to preserve and maintain the status quo. Talk to

Social movements can show solidarity with prisoners of previous
movements by keeping their cases and existence in the public's
consciousness, stay in communication with them, seek their input in
strategy and tactics, put them on par with prisoners of current movements
without distinction. The most meaningful practice of solidarity for me
are attacks on the institutions of oppression and domination.

"The struggle continues" means that the war continues regardless of
the terrain, that those held captive by the state will continue to fight the
forces of oppression from behind prison walls instead of outside of them,
because oppression will continue and liberation has not been achieved.

The best way to prepare for the possibility of state repression is to
acknowledge that repression is inevitable, that revolution is against
the law and that the state will use any dirty means to destroy, coopt,
imprison, kill, harass and recuperate individuals and movements that
seriously pose a threat to power and domination. Individuals must come
to the point where a conscious decision to possibly expose themselves
to the repression of the state. The second thing is to study previous
movements, experiences of others who have fought against the state
and the tactics that the state employed against them. How did they
combat them? We need to learn lessons from these struggles and think
of new ways to fight repression. Movements must make this information
common knowledge.

As an insurrectional anarchist, I see solidarity as the recognition of my
own struggle in the struggle of others. And continuing that struggle
(attacking the social order) with a focus on what unites my struggle with
the struggle of others. I see solidarity as a way of being accomplices in
the same struggle.

Also, I'm somewhat conflicted and the political prisoner/prisoner of
war model that's prevalent in the United States and how it is defined.
The present model is outdated, bourgeois and smacks of elitism. The
definition presently used is the definition used by the United Nations,
which is just another oppressive state institution. It overlooks a vast
number of prison rebels who are "continuing the struggle" and are the
focus of the state's retaliation and repression. For the most part, they
"continue" the struggle in isolation from any movement or support on
the outside. We must discard this model and create a more inclusive
model outside of the definitions of oppressive state institutions. Raze
the walls!

MICHAEL KIMBLE:
R<^ZE THE W(^LLS\

My name is Michael Kimble and I'm a 49 yr. old black gay anarchist
from the city and state of Birmingham, Alabama. I'm held captive at the
Holman Maximum Security facility in Alabama, where I'm serving a life
sentence for the murder of a white, racist, homophobic bigot and a three
year sentence for assault on a prison guard. My particular case stems
from a verbal and physical attack on myself and a friend whom this racist
homophobe wanted to harm simply because we were black and gay. I've
been held captive by the racist state of Alabama since 1986. I'm a serious
revolutionary anarchist and only desire the destruction of this miserable
and oppressive social order.

Prisoner support is when a number of people, an organization or an
individual outside of prison who sees prisoners as human beings and
is disgusted with the treatment of prisoners lend aid or assistance in
various ways such as letter writing, commissary, books, visits and legal
aid. And in some cases petitioning and protesting against the prison
system in public demonstration for better treatment of prisoners and/
or the freedom of specific prisoners. The most meaningful of these
practices are demonstrations for issues that prisoners themselves define
as important, communication with prisoners and commissary that help
prisoners meet basic needs (hygiene, clothing, stationery and food to
supplement the bland and awful meals served by prisons).

them about our age. Most of us are now in our 60s or mid-70s. Indeed,
there's a fierce urgency of now. You can do this! But you have got to
do the work. Let it be the mystical spark that starts the prairie fire
everybody talks about. Why? Not only is it the right thing to do, but
because so many pertinent social issues will naturally flow out of this
pp support work.

For starters, I suggest a sustained letter-writing campaign. Organize
people to flood the Congressional Black Caucus ("CBC") with letters.
Those Negroes have all but disappeared. They are so out of touch with
our people 'til I no longer know who's a member. But they still exist
out there somewhere and have an office. They don't represent us but
can speak to our issues and should be hounded with letters advocating
our release. And as an aside, this advocacy should routinely apply to all
"public speaking" organizers. Demand for our freedom should ever be
in the forefront of whatever they say and do. A demand that should be
on the lips and minds of people 24-7. And you can make this happen by
initiating a simple, targeted, sustained letter-writing campaign. Often
we hear or read of elected officials talking about political prisoners
outside the country, but never do we hear them talk about the ones in
the U.S. Why not culminate the letter-writing campaign with a town-
hall meeting in DC with the CBC and the people, dialoging and planning
for our release as pps/pows who have been in for so many decades, as
well as advocating the release of all elder prisoners who have been doing
such inordinately lengthy prison sentences.

People in the public eye hate to be talked about, exposed, or publicly
criticized, and we know Malcolm did that effectively so well. The NAACP
should be a recipient of this letter-writing advocacy. It's another outfit
that's commonly regarded as out of touch with the people. Though it
may have lost its way, it still can advocate our issue urged on by the letter-
writing campaign. Written articles about the advocacy letters could be
sent to groups and other organizations, including to Black churches
and the like, who may do some exposing of their own. We want to
bring attention to these Negro groups, businesses, and organizations
out there, bring them from their comfort zone, from these posh and
exclusive places they now haunt, from places where not long ago they
could neither eat nor sleep at, places at which back-in-the-day they then
simply regarded it as a good thing to be employed as chamber maids and
doormen. Wake these people from their enabling complacency.

As constituents, organize to "letter-write" select district representatives
with the same advocacy, reminding them that you do vote: organize to
send periodic letters to newspaper editors to inform and remind them

of this letter-writing campaign. And in addition, organize monthly
"street rallies" demanding release of our political prisoners, coordinate
the rallies nationally in cities across the country, and thus also create
space to address other pertinent community issues. Also, remind people
of "Cointelpro" and the "The Church Commission" in this educational
campaign.

These are "do-ables," and I urge you organizers to do them and be sure
to include our youth and college students. I hope these do-ables are
encouraging, exciting, and are of some help in your work to free us.

Yours sincerely, and in solidarity and in struggle,
Herman Bell

Individuals and groups must prepare for this inevitability and understand
the viciousness of the enemy when faced with a reality of losing their
"class privileges" and masters of the slave empire, the oppressors begin
to act like rabid hyenas and will strike back with the omnipotent power
of the fascist state in their hands. For such defensive strategies, please
read COMRADE GEORGE L. JACKSON'S "BLOOD IN MY EYE."

Hope my comments are useful to the conference and those interested in
these topics. Please acknowledge receipt and hope to hear from you as
time permits.

FREE ALL POW, POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE USA I PROSECUTE,
JAIL THE REAL CIA WAR CRIMINALS ! BUILD REVOLUTIONARY
BLACK AND BROWN COMMUNES! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE !

[I]t is the duty of us poor people to work and to struggle to break
the chains that make us slaves

- RICARDO FLORES MAGON. Revolutionary anarchist,
murdered by the U.S. gov't at Leavenworth, Kansas, federal
prison, 1922.

fight social injustice, militarism, colonialism, and imperialism in poor
and oppressed communities. Outside groups must be their "lifeline" and
they deserve support, unconditionally, in fighting for their freedom from
said arbitrary detention and in protesting their inhumane conditions of
confinement that violate international human rights standards. Many of
them have been isolated and abandoned by the same groups they were
involved with, and the advocacy of the revolutionary ideas and beliefs
they represent, which is a sad state of affairs, for as one Brother once
said: ANY MOVEMENT THAT DOES NTO SUPPORT ITS POLITICAL
INTERNEES IS A SHAM MOVEMENT.

For example, a working group composed of activists, movement lawyers,
paralegals, law school students and other legal workers, should be
formed. They could assess the potential for assisting these prisoners in
reopening their legal cases, should they want to, by filing petitions for
writs of habeas corpus, new re-sentencing requests for more reduced
sentences based on new changes in laws, and the customary suppression
of evidence, or other police and prosecutorial misconduct, of evidence
withheld from juries and the defense, which could provide new grounds
for overturning their illegal convictions and sentences. The communities
can rally around for political support in the court of "public opinion"
even if many years have passed, such as the cases of BLACK PANTHER
JERONIMO PRATT, MUMIA ABU JAMAL, the SAN FRANCISCO 8,
the case of CHICANO ACTIVIST-LAWYER, FRANCISCO "KIKO"
MARTINEZ in Denver, Colorado, and this writer's legal case that he
is still fighting today from a police frame-up conviction of decades ago.
Then, a sustained and coordinated

campaign to expose and protest against the racist and inhumane prison
conditions that exist in these control units, must be established to
support these p.o.w., pps, in protesting such injustices and repression
to punish and torture them for their revolutionary actions and belief
systems.

When we say, "the struggle continues," it means just that. No matter
where the enemy chains us to, the struggle never ends and we continue
struggling against oppression and repression no matter the odds
against us. The struggle intensifies behind prison walls not only for our
unconditional release from wrongful political detention, but the struggle
for human rights and for humane treatment while caged in the U.S. cages
and concentration camps for the poor in its POLITICAL THOUGHT
CONTROL SUPERMAX PRISONS.

Liberation groups and activists no doubt will face state repression.

BILL DUNNE:
MOVEMENT MEMORV

Thirty years, a whole generation, has slithered into history since police
terrorists murdered MOVE family members by dropping a bomb on their
suburban Philadelphia home. Not content with that, the apparatus of
repression imprisoned most of the survivors as if it were THEY who had
done wrong. It still holds some of them.

All MOVE did to draw the iron fist so brutally was to stand in opposition
to the ruling class's juggernaut of modern techno power. MOVE did not
close its eyes to exploitation and oppression. MOVE did not cower in
fear in the face of injustice. MOVE did not seek some bargain with the
system, MOVE stood, and the empire struck back.

Thirty years on, imperial capitalism continues its atrocities,Aifrom
the very dungeons right here at home in which MOVE members and
too many of their class brethren and sistren still languish to drone
massacres without charge or trial halfway 'round the world. Rapacious
corporate "interests" trail imperial legions to inflict war and poverty and
oppression in the name of plunder justified as profit. And they still drive
over people who stand against them as they drove over MOVE.

But had MOVE not been a rock in the torrent of political and economic
effluent imperial capital spews upon the world, it would be worse. Had
MOVE not stood against the tide, the politics of death and destruction
would be yet another step ahead of us. But MOVE did stand. That

standing still raises consciousness that slows the ruling class's roll.
MOVE'S sacrifice was not in vain.

So let us remember the atrocity committed against MOVE. Let us
remember that the road to revolution is rough and rutted. And let us
remember standing up.

Bill Dunne, FCI Herlong, 23 April 2015

September 1971 in a military-style assault in the prison yard, ordered
by PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON and NEW YORK GOVERNOR
NELSON ROCKEFELLER to end their protests and to set an example
nationally of what prisoners would face when opposing the fascist
state, at a time when prisons in this nation were "laboratory cells and
universities for revolutionaries" linking the prisiners' struggles with
the struggles in our communities, when revolution was in the air and
taking hold across the nation. These "social prisoners" and "politicized
prisoners" deserve our support as well.

Then, of course, there are "our" p.o.w, political prisoners, that come from
our various social and ethnic movements that are in prison now because
of their DIRECT POLITICAL ACTS, OR ARE VICTIMS OF STATE
REPRESSION, to silence them and to suppress their actions fighting
for social justice, organizing against police brutality, against militarism,
and imperialism, while on the outside. There are hundreds of men and
women this very moment, currently imprisoned from the various social
movements of the past, including other non-ethnic p.o.w., political
prisoners who are in prison for their acts as anti-imperialist freedom
fighters, animal liberation groups, and other environmental groups,
anti-war, nuclear disarmament ones too that all require our support.
For a listing of such persons and groups please see, LET FREEDOM
RING: A COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM MOVEMENTS
TO FREE U.S. POLITICAL PRISONERS, by Matt Meyer, 2008, PM
PRESS, www.kersplebedeb.com/letfreedomring.html. The majority of
these p.o.w., pps, are caged in supermax control unit prisons, spread
across the country, in state and federal prisons. Not only does their
imprisonment violate international standards on human rights and laws
against arbitrary detention, as targets of political police state repression,
but their living conditions are extremely racist, and inhumane which
also violates international human rights laws and conventions against
torture. Many have died in prison due to lack of adequate medical care
and treatment, and proper nutrition, such as BROTHER PHIL AFRICA,
MOVE ORGANIZATION, January 2015, and others languish away in
solitary confinement caged for 23 hours a day, in torture chambers,
while the U.S. government denies our existence, instead labeling us
"common criminals" or "terrorists" while giving sanctuary to real
criminal terrorists like LOUIS POSADA, responsible for the bombing
of the CUBAN AIRLINER where hundreds of innocent civilians were
killed, and the U.S. government granted POSADA political asylum.
These prisoners are identified and must be supported, spiritually, legally,
financially, and otherwise, and show appreciation for their courageous
acts at resistance and risking their lives and their physical freedom to

and people-power that exists but sitting dormant within each one of us
and within our oppressed communities, all waiting to be organized and
united as one.

These community struggles must be linked with the prisoners' struggles.
A PRISONERS' SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE group should be organized
to support all prisoners fighting for their basic human and civil rights
denied to them, as victims of this racist "criminal [injjustice system" and
of the existing culture of MASS INCARCERATION of the poor, mainly
of PEOPLE OF COLOR, for private, corporate profit by the profiteers of
the U.S. prison industrial complex and the oligarchy of all the established
politicians and lobby groups and their corporations that benefit from
"corrections" and its industry as a money-making empire not concerned
with fairness, nor justice nor rehabilitation but only "law and order"
and the defense of the sacrosanctity of "private property" relations and
enforcing the existing social order, in sustaining the division of classes and
class rule in the rich, the powerful influential in control of government,
institutions and our lives. ALL PRISONERS ARE PRISONERS OF
CONSCIENCE, and although their acts may not be directly political,
the political system imprisoned them through a mockery of laws that
are not fair and applied only to the poor. WHEN HAVE YOU SEEN A
RICH PERSON IN PRISON OR ON DEATH ROW? Almost never. The
potential for these prisoners to grasp the true nature of their "crimes"
and the root causes of their social and racial oppression provides to us
the potential for them to become "politicized" through education, re-
education, and personal experiences, and tragedies, while suffering the
brutalities, in heart and bone, of the brutalities of the viciousness of
the state and prison system once pulled into this never-ending cycle of
violence, unless one; recognizes its roots and frees oneself from the clutch
of the system's grip and from within the belly of the beast. Through such
SOCIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE
these prisoners begin to grow politically, and to give expression to their
newly acquired I ideas and belief systems, under a new transformation
and becoming new men, new women behind prison walls, and began
fighting their oppressive conditions making them "political prisoners"
of the GEORGE JACKSON, and my type, [politicized in prison at first],
meaning while not in prison initially for direct political actions against
the system on the outside [other then "offending" the relations between
private property relations and other socio-economic relations under
capitalism], they immediately suffer the repression of the totalitarian
state and its prison system for demanding their freedom and not to be
treated like slaves or beasts, like the ATTICA PRISON BROTHERS
who rebelled against their prison oppression and were massacred in

SWEMENT BV
JENNFER GflNN

My name is Jennifer Gann. I'm a 45 year old white and Cherokee, queer
trans woman involved in revolutionary struggle for liberation and I am
currently help prisoner by the state of California at a maximum security
mens facility. Kern Valley State Prison.

I originally was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to seven years
in prison, but as a result of having to take up arms in prison struggle,
I was given multiple 25 -life sentences for possession of a weapon and
battery on a non-confined person/pig (i.e. acting in self defense, prisoner
resistance, etc.) My case is currently on appeal as I was found "ineligible"
to be resentenced under the Three Strikes Reform Act (prop. 36), because
a biased judge made "extra fact" findings that I was "armed." Thus, I am
a P.O.W. standing in solidarity with anarchist, communist, feminist, and
queer struggles which intersect with prison abolitionist work.

"Prisoner Support" should mean that activists become more involved in
prison abolitionist organizing in the community, or educate themselves
about issues such as solitary confinement and police brutality. Practices
such as more coordinated and militant street demonstrations have been
lacking until recently when police violence has repeatedly been exposed
in the mass media.

Current social movements can show solidarity with prisoners from
previous movements by intersecting across race, class and gender

identities. For example #blacklivesmatter should intersect with queer
struggles against police terror (remember Sylvia Rivera in the Stonewall
Riot worked in solidarity with the Black Panther Party).

Additionally, political prisoner support groups, such as that of Mumia
Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier, should intersect with the struggles of
women and queer prisoners. Meaningful solidarity means long-term
investment in these struggles, prisoner penpal correspondences which
lead to REAL friendships, and always renewing your commitment to
work for the oppressed.

"The struggle continues" when revolutionaries are incarcerated. This
means that we prisoners should not simply give up and lay down in
our cell until we die. When we get caught up in the drama on these
yards, such as the gossip and games of inmates and pigs, we need to be
conscious of this and bring our focus back to our own position.

I have continued in the struggle as a leadership member of Black and Pink
for the past five years. I have also worked with Maoist MIM (Prisons),
The California Coalition of Women Prisoners (CCWP), and other prison
abolitionists. All individuals and movements should remain aware that
we are under constant surveillance by the government. Be careful what
you say, who you associate with, and when someone tries to provoke
you, don't trip!

I would appreciate any further information about No More Locked
Doors and welcome penpal correspondences from participants at the
conference.

Love and Solidarity,

Jennifer Gann, E-23852

http://betweenthebars.org/blogs/490

with their flowery, sugar-coated phrases, WE MUST BE ABLE TO SEE
THE FOREST FOR THE TREES, locate the chains wrapped around
our brains, hearts and souls, rattle and break these chains that enslave
us from being and acting as truly free and liberated human beings,
not mere slaves to our "internalized oppression," nor as commodities
to the highest capitalist bidder. These social movement organizations
must create serious leadership and a "cadre" of workers engaged in
organizing poor and oppressed communities bringing them into the
group, its meetings, discussions, study groups, and other organized
social, political, cultural and celebratory events recognizing our past
history and our role in changing oppressive conditions and for creating
liberated zones and communes within the domestic territory, free
of capitalist influence and coercion. Revolutionary, class conscious
workers, must be trained and dispatched into communities to address
every act or manifestation of social injustice and oppression and outrage
by the system be it police brutality and murders of unarmed civilians,
to employment discrimination, to public school discrimination against
students, and any and all other acts of abuse and exploitation, with
emphasis on recruitment and explaining to the masses the root causes
of their social and racial oppression, their disunity and lack of political
empowerment to take control of their lives and their communities, and
to get organized and to struggle against everything and anything that
is racist, abusive, oppressive and exploitive, in taking our destiny in our
own hands as a free and determined people and community. Survival
programs such as the "free breakfast programs" for the needy, focusing
on the nutritional needs of infants and children, their general welfare
and health, medical, transportation, and other social and familial
and community needs must be established, using social models of the
past that were effective, such as those used by the BLACK PANTHER
PARTY, the CHICANO CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE, the AMERICAN
INDIAN MOVEMENT, among others, and began constructing our own
social structure and schools and communes where we can work, play and
recreate in building our liberated zones and communes free of capitalist
influence and coercion, in forging a true humanity of brotherhood of all
those poor and oppressed under this capitalist system, of all colors and
nationalities. We began to build these revolutionary communes working
to establish a united front resistance movement bringing in these needed
human power, resources and services that can and must be organized
by the same people themselves free of government assistance, created
by and through the creativity and the dynamics of what we can create
as poor and oppressed peoples yearning for liberation and freedom from
capitalism and imperialism. It is only then when the people will begin to
feel the power of their movement increasing tenfold the social dynamics

oppressive social contract and order under existing capitalist relations of
production, distribution and the accumulation of wealth and power in
the hands of the rich, and the 1% of the owners of the corporate oligarchy
and its instruments of coercion, to keep us chained to their machines
and their political economic system of exploitation of our labor power.
Any serious social movement, as you know, must work to support the
national "prisoner class," of all the incarcerated, as victims of this racist,
unjust social order. Prisoners must be educated, re-educated, shown
that they are all victims of social injustice and have a lot in common,
be they Chicano, Mexicano, African American, Native American, Asian,
Puerto Rican, White, or any other race or nationality. These "national
prisoners" live under racist and inhumane conditions all across this
government's PRISON HOUSE OF NATIONS and subjected to racist
and inhumane conditions of confinement and denied basic human and
civil rights, and treated as the "prison slaves" living under "slavery" as
legally sanctioned by the own 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
NEITHER SLAVERY NOR INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE EXCEPT AS
A PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME WHEREOF THE PARTY SHALL HAVE
BEEN DULY CONVICTED, SHALL EXIST WITHIN THE UNITED
STATES, OR PLACE SUBJECT TO THEIR JURISDICTION. These
prisoners come from our communities, and will be returning to our
communities.

The struggles of prisoners must be linked with the struggles of our
communities, for these struggles are one and the same. Whether inside
prison walls, or outside, we must begin with an infusion of revolutionary
consciousness be it the prison cell, or the street corner, using historical,
dialectical materialism as guides, of not only working to transform
individuals but to change society as it exists. The study of poor
people's popular movements against racist, oppressive and illegitimate
governments and institutions must be key to our own liberation,
learning from history and from our past struggles, our advances made
and the mistakes as well. Social movements must energetically work to
create study groups in teaching, and learning about this history and the
pernicious instruments under capitalist society, such as the established
media organs used to stereotype, misinform and brainwash persons
and society, with a new revolutionary vision using THE SCIENCE OF
REVOLUTION, AND REVOLUTION AS A SCIENCE, of our role in
history of changing the existing abusive and exploitative social order
through struggle, freeing ourselves and our families, society as a whole,
from our current condition in the existing relations imposed against
us under this MASTER-SLAVE CONDITION, and no matter how and
what the system does to try to misinform, confuse and condition us

SWEMENT By
MSOU HAMMOND

My name is Jason Hammond. I am an anarchist and anti-fascist currently
incarcerated with a 3.5 year sentence for confronting and shutting down
a meeting of white supremacists in Tinley Park, IL, in the year 2012.
Five other comrades who participated with me have already served time
in Illinois prisons. I am a wild-eyed militant dreamer, a free-spirited
musician and look forward to taking the struggle to the streets once
again when i am released.

Having practiced prison solidarity from the outside, as well as having
received it during my current bid, I have many thoughts on the subject.
First, I am for abolition, meaning I desire the entire dismantling of the
corrupt and dysfunctional penal system. That system is a tool used by
the capitalist classes for social control, not for inmate rehabilitation as it
is often portrayed. With this in mind, one must not 'other' the convict.
We are no more culpable than people on the outside who are big enough
fish on the socio-political food chain to avoid prison.

I do value highly the role of individuals taking responsibility for their
actions. Free-thinking communities are already thinking of and practicing
alternative forms of justice, but the current system preys on cycles of
poverty, created by large and sweeping apparatuses that throughout
history have pushed people to commit crimes. Our society, it seems,
through both indifference and deliberation, depends on maintaining a

criminal class, a desperate group vulnerable to mass exploitation.

Therefore, when communicating with prisoners, whether they are
identified as political or otherwise, one must keep in mind the system
itself is just as much to blame for the existence of crime. Be patient and
understanding with inmates; it's likely they are not receiving any of that
in prison.

I think the first and most important way to do prisoner support is to
open a door of meaningful communication. Every person is different.
Trust must be established. Inmates often say what their individual needs
are to make their lives more tolerable. But it's wise to ask.

Sometimes, It is the stories of friends and families that remind an inmate
of the life outside prison that will be there for them. Many times, it is
also material support which can drastically increase the quality of life
for an inmate. We do not have a lot of personal power of movement but
being able to eat what you like, when you like can make or break a day.
Also, prison can be very boring. Providing books or music can be of great
interest or help. Many inmates take this "opportunity" to broaden their
horizons through reading and are often inspired to challenge the forces
that oppress them.

In my experience, these are helpful ways to support prisoners.. Keep
in mind, all are individuals with different needs and who go through
different phases. Sometimes, there is a tendency to blame prisoners
or tell them what they should do or need, but remember who has the
upper hand in the situation. Not that prisoners are always right; having
gone through dehumanizing processes can damage psychologically. It is
important to be empathetic towards that.

Social movements, like anything else in the world, are not created in a
void. They are a continuous history, dotted with victories and setbacks.
It is important to know the history while engaging in radicalism because
we owe so much to our predecessors. They, like us, have fought for
freedom, been incarcerated or died in the struggles. Their ideas helped
shape the world we live in today. As much as we can We should support
them either directly or by learning about their fights, carrying the torch
in today's struggles and then on to the next generation. To me, the
expression "the struggle continues" means to carry on the fight for the
ideals of a free society even if in doing so we risk our own life.

While directly challenging the bigger fish's ability to eat us, we can be
sure that they will repress us. We must be aware of their tactics and
prepare accordingly. I think our best defense against this is information.

federal court in Houston). I was convicted and sentenced to 50 years
imprisonment for disarming a racist Sheriff in self defense, who was in
the act of murdering me. His motive was to stop me from organizing the
barrio around police brutality, and seeking to re-open the police murder
of my friend ERVAY RAMOS under federal criminal civil rights laws
that have no statute of limitations; including seeking to alert newspaper
reporters of the ongoing corruption in the Sheriff's Office and the local
courthouse and other corrupt politicians, earning the ire of the police
and the establishment. I have fought this conviction for many years and
continue to do so to this date. I am 62. DOB: May 12 1952.

I am now going on 15 years in solitary confinement caged 23 hours a day
under racist, inhumane conditions of confinement. My parole eligibility
date is set as JUNE 2021, about 7 more years. I will answer any and all
questions that you may have related to any and all aspects of my personal
life, my struggles, my legal case and my activities and solidarity actions
with others, from where the system has me buried alive as another victim
of this government's war on CHICANO MILITANCY AND DISSENT.

QUESTIONS ASKED

This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive "paper" on these
topics, but only a skeletal draft as relates to the specific questions NO
MORE LOCKED DOORS issued out to others in your notice of the
scheduled conference and the call for "panel presentors" as relates to
PRISONERS OF WAR AND POLITICAL PRISONERS (pow, pps). If
NO MORE LOCKED ROORS is interested, perhaps, we can venture into
a more detailed and coordinated "paper" in the near future, as well as
working with Chicano militant activists or groups in the country, as well
as other social movements and activists interested in the dynamics of
this case history for publication, or for academia on the social sciences,
sociology, psychology and political science as relates to the-CHICANO
MEXICANO MOVEMENT FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION AND
THE NATIONAL AND COLONIAL QUESTIONS and other solidarity
movements domestically and internationally.

In my history of struggle and resistance, working to build a sustained
revolutionary social movement, outside and inside prison walls, many
groups come and go. Although "good intentioned," these groups offer
no consistency in working to build a sustained dynamic nucleus, or
vanguard,if you will, due to many factors, and other obstacles. Examples
of such are lack of organizational structure, discipline and unity, lack
of resources, human power and, of course, state repression that comes
down against those of us who seek independence and liberty from the

COMRADE GEORGE'S calls to "transform the criminal mentality into a
revolutionary mentality." For my resistance struggles, I suffered extreme
forms of state and prison repression, from confinement in solitary
confinement for years, to prison guard beatings, denial of adequate
medical care, false disciplinary charges, horrible food, denial of parole,
subjected to the prison's political police "witch hunts," and many other
forms of repression. I was released in March 1991 and immediately
began organizing the community in Houston, forming a community
empowerment group, a prisoners' solidarity committee, a stop the
violence youth committee, holding community forums and "study
groups" while also attending the University of Houston, and working to
create a national movement in alliance with other local, domestic and
international human rights and liberation groups around the country. I
was an invited public speaker at many colleges, universities and human
rights, Chicano Studies Programs events and other activities from a
militant, revolutionary perspective. Including my human rights work as
a NGO (nongovernmental organization) delegate to the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights, not as one who believed in that tribunal
which I see as an instrument of ZIONISM and U.S. IMPERIALISM,
but to position myself to criticize the organization and create other
alliances with other human rights groups around the world, and to
develop a strategy for internationalist solidarity with all the oppressed
peoples of the world in developing REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST
CONSCIOUSNESS HOPING TO UNITE ALL WORKERS OF THE
WORLD, IN STRUGGLING AND DREAMING FOR A BETTER
WORLD FREE OF CAPITALIST, IMPERIALIST OPPRESSION AND
DOMINATION. For more details of my work, and case history, please
visit: www.freealvaro.net, and http://bit.ly/alvarofiles.

I left Houston in 1995 and returned to my hometown of Alpine, only
to find the same misery and the same social and racial oppression of
Chicanos in the barrio, ruled by the iron fist of police and their ongoing
brutality and murders of unarmed civilians. I began organizing, while
doing "freelance" legal work for progressive attorneys as a "paralegal,"
a trade I learned as a "jailhouse lawyer and writwriter." For a history
of my "prison struggles" please see, TEXAS PRISONS: THE WALLS
GAME TUMBLING DOWN, by Steve Martin, 1983, Texas Monthly
Press; See also JAILHOUSE LAWYERS; PRISONERS DEFENDING
PRISONERS VS. THE USA, by Mumia Abu Jaml, 2010, City Lights
Publishing, (where Mumia notes the Texas prison struggles and my work
by name). See also HERNANDEZ V. ESTELLE, "788 F.2d 1154 (5th
Cir. 1989) (protesting denial of revolutionary literature, during a prison
yard takeover I had organized at the start of the prison reform case in

A society is easier to control when it does not know it is being controlled.
Their biggest hope is to keep us all apathetic and in line with the status
quo. The official narrative states that wars and social disasters are
anomolies to the system. But when the lie is dispelled, and with the
illusion lifted, we will realize a better world is possible, one outside
their wage slavery and mass incarceration, one without governed states,
patriarchy or interethnic tension. A world where we see that we are not
free until all of us are free!

LONG LIVE THE MEMORV
OF JONATHAN AND
GEORGE JACKSON!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE !

"[0]nly the prison movement has shown any promise of cutting
across the ideological, racial and cultural barricades that have
blocked the natural coalition of left-wing forces at all times in the
past. So this movement must be used to provide an example for
the partisans engaged at other levels of struggle..."

- GEORGE L. JACKSON BBR Minister of Defense, murdered by
San Quentin prison pigs, Aug. 21,1971

TUESDAY, 21 APRIL, 2015
ALLRED PRISON SLAVE PLANTATION

DEAR NO MORE LOCKED DOORS, & COLLECTIVE,

By now you should have received my brief letter and draft flyer I mailed
to you a few days ago, in relation to the scheduled May 16th conference
on pow, political prisoners to be held at QILOMBO COMMUNITY
CENTER. Here are my thoughts as related to the questions you posted
in your communique.

CASE HISTORY

I am a Chicano pow, political prisoner with a long history of struggle

and resistance on the outside and behind prison walls. Initially, at a very
young age, I was framed by police for a crime I did not commit. Although a
rebellious, anti-authoritorian young Chicano who rebelled against police
occupation of our Chicano barrio, and the social and racial injustices
growing up in a racist, segregated society in far Southwest Texas, 90
miles from the U.S./ Mexico military-imposed border, in a small, rural
community named Alpine, between Odessa And El Paso, Texas, I was
by no means a rebel with a "revolutionary consciousness." I was only a
by-product of my anarchism as a means of unorganized and instinctive
reaction against my social and racial oppression, not comprehending the
root causes of that oppression of myself and of Chicanos as victims of
Yankee colonialism and imperialism, and the true nature of the repressive
capitalist state and its instruments of repression in maintaining class
rule over all workers under this wage-theft socioeconomic system. I was
framed because police found it convenient to frame me based on their
hatred of me because of the history of confrontational conflicts I had been
involved against police from police fights, beatings, destruction of police
vehicles, protesting police brutality and murders of young Chicanos,
such as my friend Ervay Ramos. I was with Ervay that tragic night that
a racist police pig shot him in the back in cold blood murdering him
instantly. The incident was reported by the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights in their 1970 report entitled: MEXICAN AMERICANS AND
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN THE SOUTHWEST, Library
of Congress, 1970. The murdering pig never served a day in jail, as was
and is this continuation of a historical culture of pig murders of young
unarmed civilians in this society, mostly people of color throughout black
and brown communities, from Oakland to New York and in between.
It is more pronounced in what I call the "occupied territories" of the
U.S. Southwest, where these neo-colonial practices and war crimes still
persist, sanctioned by racist courts.

I was sentenced to life imprisonment for a crime I did not commit. In
Texas prisons, I became "politicized" where I met the revolutionary giants
of KARL MARX, VI LENIN, CHE GUEVARA, CHAIRMAN MAO,
MALCOLM X, JONATHAN AND GEORGE JACKSON, RICARDO
FLORES MAGON, JUAN CORTINA, EMILIANO ZAPATA, PANCHO
VILLA, JOAQUIN MURIETTA, and many more heroes and martyrs
of poor people's popular movements. I began studying revolutionary
movements in history, from the PARIS COMMUNE, to the ATTICA
PRISON REBELLION, continuing to today. I began giving expression
to my political ideas, and got involved in the "prison movement"
fighting back against these racist and inhumane prison conditions in
this brutal prison system, while working to organize prisoners, adopting