Freedom.

 

         In conjunction with Call for International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners 2023 // 23 – 30 August.

From Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross

[PDF for printing]

         Fire Ant is a quarterly publication focused on spreading the words of anarchist prisoners and generating material solidarity for our imprisoned friends. Begun as a collaboration between anarchist prisoners and anarchists in Maine, Fire Ant seeks to raise material aid for anarchist prisoners while fostering communication between anarchists on both sides of the walls.

        Issue #16 features art, poetry, letters, and essays by Sean Swain, Marius Mason, Michael Kimble, and Eric King; and an update on Thomas Meyer-Falk.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Solidarity.

 

     August 25th. to August 30th. a week of international support for all anarchist prisoners. Across the planet there are uncountable thousands of these state institutions of repression. Institutions of arbitrary violence, devoid of justice, sparse on medical care, dark dungeons where the state incarcerates those who would dare to challenge its vice like authority. Prisons are just one of the states many tools to create a submissive population, to repress dissent, to silence opposition to its plunder of the the poor in favour of the wealthy few. Just one of its lines of defence of the parasite class that hold the levers of power in this economic system of exploitation, poverty, war and plunder. Those who make a stand against this gross injustice, who stand up and defy the state's manufactured monopoly of control over our lives, deserve all the support and solidarity that we can muster, their struggle is our struggle, we must show which side we are on.   

The following from Anarchists Worldwide:

 

     Chile: Letter from Anarchist Comrade Juan Flores Riquelme about the Arrest of Mónica and Francisco

        We knew that by choosing the path of struggle against capital, our lives would develop against all odds, and it was not unknown to us that prison could be a possible destination.
      We questioned this humiliating reality and its so-called “social peace”, we severely questioned the enrichment of the bourgeoisie and their power. There are really too many questions to take a stand against the prevailing order. Countless have been the assassinations by the repressive forces of the power, countless those insurgents who have given their lives looking for the sharpening of the conflict against the states.
     Did the elite of this country believe that we would stand idly by after all their years of misery, alienation and neoliberal exploitation? How could we not try to be the stumbling block against the uninterrupted advance of capitalism and the states?
     A constant attack against the enemy we have made of our lives, which extend infinite complicities of an idea that lives in a multitude of hearts, a consequence of the reality of positioning against the enemy. This is how our lives are, this is how we chose it, against all odds we will advance without restraint along the path of subversion, beyond its borders, beyond its criminalization and Hollywood investigations, beyond its convictions and prisons, reality demands action from us. Our only option is to maintain the struggle for total liberation, facing with dignity the consequences that this may generate in our lives.
       These words are addressed to those daredevils who, without looking back, have defended anarchic and anti-authoritarian ideas with their teeth and claws. Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar are hermanxs [brothers & sisters] with deep convictions and critiques that are impossible to break with this new blow of power to their lives.
      To the comrades of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and Revolutionary Struggle, imprisoned in the prisons of Korydallos Greece. To the anarchist brothers and sisters imprisoned in Ferrada Prison, Italy. To all the prisoners who were filled with anger and faced off against the police during the recent revolt in October.
     Warmly greeting the initiative of the International Week for Anarchist Prisoners, which is being carried out from the 25th to the 30th of August, I say goodbye for now.

Juan Alexis Flores Riquelme
High security prison.

(via Contra Info, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide)

Visit ann areky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Let The Prisoners Speak.

 

          Anyone with half a brain cell knows that the prison system is a state tool of repression and control, and has nothing to do with "rehabilitation". Prisons are also a place where people with learning difficulties, mental health problems and addiction problems and various other problems, are stored out of public view. They are places of violence and brutality where the human spirit can be ground down, where people are caged, and in most cases, in grossly overcrowded conditions. 

    The only humane approach to prisons is to demolish them completely, removing this scar from the face of our society. 

   There is a call out for all prisoners and ex-prisoners to let the world hear their stories, their experiences, their points of view. Bring the prison experience to the public at large, open their eyes and awaken their sense of humanity to the brutal savagery of the state prison system.

A call for contributions for a new publication.

       The Empty Cages Collective and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England is calling out to prisoners and ex-prisoners worldwide to contribute their writing to a new publication: Prisoner Writings on Prison Abolition.

         This publication will share prisoner voices in the prison abolition conversation. It will centre the experiences of people in prison and their ideas on questioning, resisting and dismantling the prison industrial complex – as well as building a world without prisons.

It will be published during the International Week of Solidarity of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners at the end of August 2018.

           Material received before the 1st June will be published in an interim publication distributed at the International Conference on Prison Abolition (ICOPA) that is taking place in London, England from 15-18th June 2018. It will also be distributed online, be posted to prisoners and shared with radical distributors across the planet.

Prisoners are invited to send letters, articles and artwork to:

Empty Cages Collective, c/o BASE Social Centre, 14 Robertson Road, Bristol BS5 6JY, UK

Or supporters can email typed-up contributions to: info@prisonabolition.org

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

 

Global Solidarity For Anarchist prisoners.

        From country to country there are people and groups who tirelessly fight the oppression of the state, some pay with their lives, others, their freedom, all merit our support and solidarity. Solidarity is a many faceted weapon, limited only by our imagination.

      There is a call for global solidarity for all anarchist prisoners during the week 23-30 August, a significant date for anarchists as it was when in 1927, anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed by the American state.

This from Enough is Enough:

         Some political prisoners are already supported, but far from all of them. Also, the supported are usually involved in authoritarian politics and not grassroots activities. Anarchist prisoners are not often well-known people, even though they might be long term activists. Their ways to fight back oppressors and wrongdoings are not necessary following the current laws of their location, which is judged by some authoritarian organizations. The vast amount and diversity of cases of anarchist prisoners is surprising to many.
       We wanted to choose a week, so that it would be easy as possible to organize different kinds of expressions of solidarity, which would be supported by one another. The beginning of the week was chosen to be the execution date of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian-American anarchists, in 1927. They were convicted with very little amount of evidence, and many still consider that they were punished from their anarchist views.
      Welcome to join!
Solidarity can express itself in many forms.
Please report us your done actions to the address tillallarefree@riseup.net. You can also announce your event in advance in the same address, we list them on our page http://solidarity.international/. From the pages you can also find examples and tips of actions and support mail to anarchists, links to prisoner lists and more.

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