Prisons, The Anthithesis Of Justice.

          It is difficult for people on the "outside" to grasp the full extent of the harsh brutality within the prison system. It is not just the removal of your freedom to move about, but the total surveillance, the arbitrary and vindictive rules in an attempt to have total control over you, to keep you in a state of submissiveness, the violence it breeds, and the isolation from friends and family. Despite these inhuman conditions, because humans are what they are, the desire to be free still burns within, and manifests itself in many ways. Not a new article, but still well worth reading again. Michael Kimble has spent 31 years in prison, and is still fighting against the savage oppression that is the state's way of handling those it deems unmanageable and/or a threat, the prison system. All prisoners are suffering an injustice, prisons are the antithesis of justice, freedom and justice will only blossom when the last prison has been bulldozed and given birth to a meadow of wild flowers.

        The following is an extract from an interview with Michael Kimble in 2015:

Could you talk a bit about why you got locked up in the late ’80s?

          I got locked up in 1986 for the murder of a white guy that wanted to do harm to me and a friend who was out one night walking. We had our arms around each other and this guy started fucking with us, calling us fags, niggers, and all kinds of disrespectful, homophobic and racist shit. When he attacked after confronting him, I pulled a pistol I had on me and shot him. The media tried to turn it into a racially motivated murder and all kinds of things. I really didn’t know any of this until I had a chance to view my Pre-sentence Investigation Report (PSI) and this was after I had already been in prison awhile. I took the case to trial and received a life sentence and here I am 29 years later, still in prison because of a homophobic racist. I have no regrets about it.

You’ve talked before about your political development while in prison – from communism to anarchy. Could you tell us about how that happened? Were there experiences, events, relationships, or writings that pushed you in the direction of anti-authoritarian action?

         Yeah, I became a communist in my early years as I’ve said before, because it spoke to the oppression of Black, gay, poor people and of course prisoners, and espoused the idea of creating a world free of these oppressions. I became a part of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) which was very vocal at the time and it seemed that all the warriors from the Black Liberation Movement was part of the NAIM. And they were active in the prisons as far as legal (lawsuits, letter, phone campaigns, education) support and visiting prisoners. And of course, they participated in cultural programs as well in the prisons here in Alabama. Also around this time the ABCs had begun to be visible through their support of “political prisoners/prisoners of war” from the previous decades’ movements (BLA, BPP, UFF, anti-imperialists, WUO, etc)1 , so I started receiving literature and newspapers (The Blast, Love & Rage, Bulldozer, Fifth Estate, etc.) and started to learn about anarchism and it resonated with me. Shit, I was against authority, against oppression and started to see the contradictions between statehood (government) and freedom. Anarchism was/is talking about doing away with all this, and putting into practice now and not waiting on the future. And I’ve been a staunch anarchist since.

Read the full interview HERE: 

From Anarchy Live, an extract from the latest writings of Michael Kimble:

        A new year, same shit! I’m not really a writer and don’t really like writing, and don’t have anything in particular to write about, so I’ll just put things down as it pops in my head.
          Lately, my mind has been troubled about a lot of things and I do feel compelled to write something. One is how we keep going for the same old stuff that power be putting down. It’s really depressing when I see that even some anarchists, who should know better, decry the election/selection of Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton. Don’t we realize that Clinton is just another piece in the power matrix and that she would only continue that status quo of power’s domination?
Right now as I write I’m sitting in a single person cell freezing. It’s in the low 30s tonight and there is no heat. I’ve been doing exercise to stay warm. Now I’m tired and decided to attempt to write something coherent and meaningful. I’ve been in this cell since January 4, 2017, allegedly for discussing actions planned for January 20, 2017 with a comrade on the east coast in a letter. They are calling it a conspiracy. Then, a cell phone was found in my property by the riot squad, who has been deployed here at Holman for the last couple of months in an attempt to regain control and restore order to a population that has proven to be tired of order. But since I’m an outlaw, I’m not tripping.

Read the full article HERE

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Three Weeks Of US Prisoners Strike.

       Not a whisper, not a sound, from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, about the US prison strike, now in its third week. In one prison even the guards failed to turn up for work. The US prison system, like others around the world, is creaking at the seams, brutality, corruption, over crowding, and the blatant injustice of the whole festering cancer, is becoming more and more evident day by brutal day. Those incarcerated in the state's cages are fighting a very unequal fight, they face the state at its most brutal stage, confined within walls and cages, under constant surveillance, their rights stripped away and at the mercy of the state's armed minders, but still they resist. There actions demand our solidarity, we built those prisons, we can pull them down.  

This from It's Going Down: 

       It is being reported that last week while at the prison after attending the funeral of the pig who was stabbed here on September 1st and died from his injuries, the REGIONAL COORDINATOR Grantt Culliver, stated to several prisoners that he was going to bring the CERT, the department of corrections’ special response squad to Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama on the 1st of Octobeter and that they will be here for the next ninety days to search the prison for every knife and cellphone, and that are going to take the prison apart piece by piece until they have found every weapon and phone.
       This is an attempt at intimidation and move to reestablish authority and total control. Control over human beings who have been resisting and saying fuck your authority! Humans who no longer accept the narrative that they are worthless and that the state has a right to punish and use violence without it being returned. No longer will we allow the gross injustices to go unchecked.
         We want you all out there in the open air prison called the free world to keep an eye on what happens here. We know that the pigs are angry about the death of their colleague at the hands of a prisoner and all the resistance that has sprung up here within the last year and have / are planning to crush the resistance. Keep an eye on Holman and continue to show solidarity through direct action.
No gods, no masters!
Death to the state!
Long live anarchy!

       Prisons can be, and often are, grotesque exaggerations of the patriarchal system that exists in society at large, magnifying problems with gender issues.
This from Anarchy Live:

      The web has been abuzz with information about the recent riots here in Alabama at Holman prison – the stabbing of a warden and correctional officer, the fires that were set, the overcrowding, etc. – but what has been left out of this narrative is that the catalyst for the riots was a fight between two queer prisoners about queer relations. After quelling their beef, a pig and the warden attempted to intervene and was stabbed.
      No one wants to mention that out of the six prisoners who were charged with the stabbings of the warden and correctional officer, four are queer. Historically, attempts have been made to write queer resistance out of history. But, despite all the attempts, queer folk have refused to allow these stories to go unknown.
      What I think most people refuse to acknowledge is that prisons are extensions of patriarchal control. Male prisons are hyper-macho environments with very hierarchical structures and class divisions. In the prisons, queer prisoners have taken on a submissive and passive persona, because they themselves are not immune to all the psychological bullshit that society teaches about gender, sex, and class, and how that gender should be lived – you know, ‘females are weak and only to use, and control.’ The queer prisoner is on the bottom of the social ladder, just above snitches. The life of the queer prisoner is one of gross disrespect, violence, and oppression, from prisoners and pigs alike. Most prisoners look at being queer as an abomination, as something nasty and weak.
      But on March 11, 2016, that narrative was shattered after queer prisoners went on the offensive against the pigs.
      One queer prisoner went from dorm to dorm inviting, exhorting, and encouraging prisoners to come out of their cells and join in tearing the prison down. One dorm refused and placed a lock and chain on their dorm’s cell door, successfully locking themselves in and everyone else out. The queer prisoner started calling these guys on this and called them pigs, Uncle Tom, etc. all while brandishing a knife.
      And this is not the only instance of queer resistance against the pigs:
      – In 2012, a stabbing of a guard in the segregation unit at Holman was taking place while showers were being done, and Fredricka, a queer prisoner’s, cell door hadn’t closed and she ran out the cell, down the stairs and into the control unit. She kicked the pig down who was in the control unit, handcuffed him and opened some of the segregation cell doors, allowing other prisoners to come out their cell and attack the police.
       – Also in 2012 at Holman prison, queer prisoners formed the “Gay Militia” as a prison gang for the protection of themselves against homophobes.
       – At Donaldson prison in Alabama, queer prisoners form F.A.G. as a self-defense organization.
        – In 2015 at Holman prison, a queer prisoner set fire to a guard in the segregation unit.
        The history of queer resistance is long and beautiful. It didn’t start with Stonewall.
In Solidarity,
Queer Resistance

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Scar On The Face Of Humanity.

      The state's brutal repressive tool, prison, has no place in a civilised society. Forget the crap about correcting behaviour, rehabilitating people back into society, it is a hammer that is used to bludgeon people in to submitting to the state's dictate. Inhuman warehouses to instil subservience. Institutions whose only outcome is to de-civilise its captives, prisons are scar on the face of humanity.

"Up the ante" an article by Michael Kimble from  his blog Anarchy Live:

       If we’re serious about destroying oppression in its many forms, prisons are the starting point, especially since the many forms are more concentrated in prison than anywhere else in society, and prisoners are the most defenseless targets of these oppressions, one could argue. Many people try to separate prison struggles from the overall struggle for freedom and call it “The Prison Movement.” I’ve been guilty of this myself at times, but we can’t divorce it from the overall struggle. As anarchists we attack all forms of oppression simultaneously. We try to understand the nexus of the many forms of oppression so we can overcome them, as well as a way to practice freedom NOW, rather than relegating it to some distant future.

       Prison has swallowed up millions of people. Those who have been lucky to survive them have problems with housing, jobs, and education, among many other problems stemming from being held captive by the state. Once one has been digested by the state into their prisons, they are forever more targeted for discrimination and further oppression by society. Prisons must be abolished and the only way to end prisons is to destroy the state. Reform is the only outcome of “Prison Movements.” We have to up the ante. We have to make this muthafucka ungovernable.

      “They call us criminals and indeed we are criminals when we act outside of laws made by the state. We are free only when we act outside of laws made by the state.”