In November 1992, Chicago animal rights activist Lise Olsen was arrested and charged with attempted arson. Earlier that year Lise had hung 21 homemade lanterns near a railroad trestle fueled with a very small amount of gasoline to illuminate a "Freedom" banner that she had hung. The state claimed that these lanterns were incendiary devices. Lise was released on bail and opted for a jury trial, which began on July 25. Despite expert testimony that the lanterns were not incendiary devices, Lise was convicted and jailed pending her sentencing on August 31. She faces a maximum sentence of seven years.Lise is desperately in need of letters of support and financial assistance. The Animal Liberation Front Support Group is organizing support:
Lise Olsen c/o ALFSG PO Box 8673 Victoria, BC V8W 3S2 Canada
ACT-UP/Chicago's Prison Issues Committee is currently working to pressure the state of Illinois to improve its AIDS services in state prisons. At the moment ACT-UP is attemping to gather information on the situations of people with AIDS in the prison system. Please let them know of any support groups, pre-release programs, educational efforts, etc. They also have some resources related to issues of safe sex and treatment. Confidentiality will be respected.
ACT-UP c/o Jeannie Pijko 4224 N. Hamlin Chicago, Il. 60625
An international call for solidarity has been made by political prisoners on the behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia was a member of the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia, as well as a distinguished radio journalist. In the 1970s he reported on the widespread brutality of the Philadelphia police, including the political persecution of the MOVE organization.
In 1981, Mumia intervened in an altercation between his brother and a police officer. Mumia was shot and critically wounded; the cop was killed. Mumia was tried for the killing and given a death sentence.
Political prisoners are asking for everyone's help with International Political Prisoners Unite to Save Mumia Abu Jamal: Art and Writings Against the Death Penalty.
They are asking for crafts, poetry, rap, essays, paintings and plays.
Send by November 1st to:
Mary Taylor 164 Lexington Ave. Jersey City, NJ 07304 (201) 435-3244
This project has been called by:
Alberto Rodriguez, Kojo Bomani Sababu, Jihad Abdul Mumit, Hanif Shabazz Bey, Larry Giddings, Abdush Shakur, Ricardo Jimenez, Tim Blunk, and Sundiata Acoli.
(Note: Many others have signed on since this project was first called.)
At the recent Love and Rage Federation Conference, an Anti-Prison Working Group was formed. Contact us at:
Love and Rage Anti-Prison Working Group PO Box 7075 Minneapolis, MN 55407
On August 24, 1994, after deliberating for less than ten minutes, the California Board of Prison Terms and Parole denied parole to Geronimo Pratt for the 13th time in the 24 years that he has been incarcerated. The board violated Geronimo's right to choose representation, barring former Black Panther leader Kathleen Cleaver. Outside the prison a statewide mobilization brought Geronimo's supporters out in force.
Geronimo is just one of many Black Panther Party leaders that were targeted by the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO (Counter-intelligence Program) in the 1960s.
On October 11, Geronimo offered televised testimony to national hearings held by the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches. The hearings were entitled: Racism is a violation of Human Rights. For more information, call (510) 635-7933.
Demand Geronimo Pratt be freed or granted a new trial!
write:
Attorney General Gill Gracetti 210 W. Temple St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 974-3511
Send letters of support and contributions to:
The International Campaign to Free Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt) PO Box 3585 Oakland, CA 94609 (510) 635-7933
by Gene Aguilera
There's a growing need to support prisoners and conduct anti-prison campaigns in North America. In the US, prisons are devastating poor communities and communities of color. They are proliferating to serve the interests of our governors and the rich. Campaigns on behalf of prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, who sits on death row, and much other work need to be done around the issue of control units and the new, more draconian prisons that are being built.
Historically, prisons are part of the system that has been used to maintain white supremacy, patriarchy and class privilege. It's because of its own brutal history that prisons are a hotbed of revolt. So many revolutionaries, radicals and progressives are either still locked down or being harassed by the state. Other prisoners enter the system and have developed a consciousness. When these revolts occur no one is there to support the demands of the prisoners, and to point out the injustice of prisons. Many prisoners organize on the inside, but the lack of organization and strength on the outside makes it difficult for them to get very far. Many of the prisoners we deal with have a wealth of knowledge and experience in revolutionary struggle. In many cases we have little to offer aside from making their lives a little easier. When prisoners are released there is little to plug into and not enough resources to lend a hand.
So how do we move forward and what kind of role can the ABC play in working against these injustices? We decided to get people together to try and answer this question.
So we had a conference
It came about due to a number of factors. Anarchist ideas have been reaching prisoners for many years now through our many good publications and the work that we are doing with prisoners. Sections of the movement have taken up Anarchist Black Cross work.
ABC is a decentralized network that has a long history of support for revolutionary movements and prisoners (in Russia, the Soviet Union, Spain, Italy, Greece, the UK). Traditionally, ABCs were standing committees of other collectives. Other ABCs have been independent and focused only on prison work. But, with the exception of the network that exists in the UK, (see the last discussion bulletin of the ABC conference organizing group) the rest of these groups operate independently of each other.
New ABC groups have been organized in the US and elsewhere, and this, combined with the increased discussion among comrades, prisoners and long-time prison activists, helped to create the energy for such a conference. Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin's Draft Proposal for an Anarchist Black Cross Network was widely distributed inside and outside the walls and was supported by many prisoners from different movements. This helped create a base of prisoners supportive of ABC.
This conference was called to give people working on prison issues an opportunity to meet each other and begin the work of building ABC chapters and coalitions in North America. As a result we will be working more closely together on specific projects and working with other groups as well.
At the conference there was a mix of local people interested in prisoner support, representatives of a variety of organizations, observers, former political prisoners, representatives of prisoners and ABC groups. There were about 100 or so people that attended at least part of the conference. Assuming the conference reflects where we are at as a movement, a few things are immediately apparent. First, we need to focus energy on building a multi-cultural movement. While there were people of color present, most of the participants were white and male. ABC has had a better opportunity to work more closely with people of color than the rest of the anarchist milieu because of the nature of prison struggle and through the help of prisoners and activists. Our progress is being followed with interest by prisoners and activists of color. But, people of color are not joining ABC in large enough numbers. This is in part due to the fact that we are not organizing in communities of the oppressed.
There was confusion about how to move forward during the ABC discussions. It was difficult to organize these meetings because there were no already existing agreements between ABCs on what to focus on. We put out 5 discussion bulletins containing a number of proposals, comments, etc., but there was little response or back-and-forth discussion. Lacking agreement and with no precedents or process to decide how to prioritize discussion topics, it was hard to tell how to focus the conference. The conference organizing group ended up trying to do too much. It was hard to reach agreement on larger goals and even confusion over the decision to implement the Draft Proposal after a discussion of it's points. There was no agreement to any criteria for being an ABC group or a group that was a part of this network more precisely. Outsiders could justifiably be confused and criticized us for being unprepared. They are right, of course. But we shouldn't kick ourselves so much as try to avoid these problems next time around. We hope to have meetings with groups in our region and build structures on the local level so that we have something to build on next time we meet for a continental gathering.
The discussion of A Draft Proposal for an Anarchist Black Cross was incomplete and we will be sure to try to clear up any confusion about it by doing much of the groundwork before the next conference. If we get to the next conference (see below) having already agreed to implement the points and goals of the proposal, then we can spend more time reporting on our progress and discussing the finer points of organizing this movement. We should come to the conference already having made working agreements amongst groups and individuals. We could agree to distribute each other's literature, co-sponsor events, establish war chests, distribute work between the groups with prisoner correspondence and campaigns, develop libraries on the regional level, and begin to take our message to the streets.
The other thing that I think was clear from the conference is that ABC in North America has yet to state why we think organizing as ABC specifically is important or a good strategy towards revolution. I do think that it is important for anti-authoritarians to practice mutual aid and support. Perhaps the fact that we are for abolishing prisons (that is for revolution and not reform) may be reason enough to network with each other. ABC can play a role as a militant tendency within a larger progressive movement that deals with prison issues. We should also be an anti-authoritarian tendency within the revolutionary movement. One of the most important things for us to mull over is what exactly do we have to offer prisoners, because ultimately we will be judged on whether or not we deliver the goods. This could mean anything from focusing on making sure prisoners are taken care of (food, money, literature, etc.), to figuring out how we are really going to get prisoners out.
Some of the criticisms we heard from participants were that there wasn't enough discussion on how to organize people to join our ABCs (or who should join).
A number of people suggested that we should have broken down into smaller groups during discussions and workshops to make things more manageable and that the workshops should have been better planned.
We should have had better facilitation because many ended up feeling like they weren't that welcome to participate. The need to be serious about prisoner support work came up a number of times and there was some discussion of the hazards involved.
There were a number of issues that came up that we didn't really get to discuss at length. I'll mention them briefly in the hope that people will begin to think about and discuss them more seriously.
Many, if not most of the prisoners who are politicized on the inside vacillate upon release. There are potentially many sources of the problem. Some are just talking shit on the inside. Some cannot overcome (and this is the movement's responsibility as well) the realities of post-prison life.
Women prison support activists face specific problems in doing prisoner support work. Most of the focus is on male prisoners and women face sexism from both inside and outside the walls. These are good reasons to encourage women to organize within ABC as well as for male members to try and examine prison issues from a woman's perspective. ABC has serious problems with gender balance if the conference is any indication. Although on the other hand there are many strong women within the anti-prison movement: Ramona Africa, Bonnie Kerness and women that I know who are in ABC come to mind.
What we did agree on at the conference was necessarily very basic and is the best indication of where we are at. The agreements reached at the conference were:
A number of groups adopted Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin's Draft Proposal for an Anarchist Black Cross (contact an ABC near you for a copy).
We decided to hold another conference. A working group was formed to find a group of people willing to organize a conference in July in their area.
Since the conference, Arm the Spirit (and Prison News Service in Toronto) have agreed to sponsor the event. Contact ATS or PNS (POB 5052 STN. A, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5W 1W4) for info.
We decided to organize an Emergency Response Network. ATS and PNS agreed to organize it. The ERN is essentially a phone (and e-mail) tree that will be activated in case of prison related emergencies. Five groups volunteered to be the main nodes for this network. The ERN is not limited to ABC groups (i.e. MOVE volunteered to cover their area at the conference and other groups can join the network). Jim Campbell has written a more thorough proposal on how the ERN should function. For more info, contact an ABC near you or call Nightcrawlers voice mail ((212) 802-4544) and leave a message if you are interested in joining the effort.
A monthly calendar of prison-related campaigns and events will be produced by NJ ABC/Paterson Anarchist Black Cross. (Write for a copy or send submissions to NJ ABC, POB 8532, Paterson, NJ 07508-8532)
We decided not to continue publishing a Discussion Bulletin and instead to rely on the publications that already exist and have ABC sections to get information out about the ABC (i.e. Love and Rage, Black Fist, Plain Words, PNS, ATS and others).
A discussion led by Bonnie Kerness focusing on the Control Unit Monitoring Project led to commitments on the part of some of the people who participated in the forum to work on the project. Briefly, the idea is to spend about a year gathering information from prisoners and through our own research to figure out exactly where and why control units have proliferated. As this develops, people on the outside in conjunction with prisoners in control units can continuously monitor as well as take action against the units. The campaign is designed to appeal to a broader audience (including liberals and church groups). We were invited to send a small number of ABC representatives to a working meeting for the proposed Control Unit Monitoring Project to be held in Philadelphia in December. Dema from Nightcrawlers and Tod from Milwaukee volunteered to attend on behalf of ABC and take responsibility for communicating what comes out of that meeting to those who signed up to work on the project. For copies of the proposal, info on control units or the forming network write Bonnie Kerness c/o AFSC, 972 Broad St., Newark, NJ 07102. Anti-Control unit work was also discussed at a recent conference in Boulder, Co. For more info about what transpired there contact Bonnie.
Frank from Black Fist agreed to keep an updated list of ABC groups. ABCs that are not heard from after a six month period will be axed from the list.
After a discussion of the need to create biographies of prisoners to help plug people into the work, it was decided to ask the Prisoner Activist Resource Center (PARC) in Berkeley, California to act as a clearinghouse for the ABC. PARC was already compiling information on a number of campaigns and cases to make available to activists. PARC has agreed to do this and can be contacted c/o the Long Haul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck, Berkeley, CA 94705.H
Gene is a member of Nightcrawlers Anarchist Black Cross.