Medical Conditions of Hunger Strikers Worsen, Strikers & Supporters Keep Fighting Back

Families converged in Sacramento on October 5th to pressure the CDCR to implement the prisoners' 5 core demands

October 7, 2011 by prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity

Numbers of hunger strikers began to drop this week after the CDCR intensified retaliation on the strike. The hunger strike representatives at Pelican Bay who were kept in the D Corridor of the SHU were moved to Administrative Segregation at Pelican Bay. Lawyers who were finally able to have one visit last week (after some lawyers of the prisoners’ mediation team have been banned) report that the CDCR has the air conditioning on high in 50 degree weather. The hunger strike representatives continue to be willing to risk their lives in order to win the 5 core demands.

The CDCR’s numbers also appear to be low due to guards falsifying records of hunger strikers. At Calipatria, for instance, hunger strikers report they were finally given their liquids after filing medical requests (even though they were still denied liquids for the first several days of the strike). Now, however, guards have been delivering liquids on the prisoners’ food trays. Once strikers take the liquids off of the trays, the guards record they are not striking (CDCR counts strikers based on who touches the state-issued food trays and who doesn’t).

Medical conditions are also worsening for strikers throughout the state. We’ve received reports that after 12 days of no food, prisoners are once again losing severe weight and fainting. One hunger striker at Pelican Bay was denied his medication and consequently suffered from a heart attack and is now is an outside hospital in Oregon.

Family & community members continue to support the hunger strikers by holding rallies, community events and vigils, publicizing the courageous action inside prison and building pressure on representatives to intervene in the CDCR’s handling of the strike.

Families of SHU prisoners are calling for supporters everywhere to hold mass vigils in support of the hunger strikers on Thursday nights. If you can organize a vigil in your community, please email prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity[at]gmail.com. For more events, check out our events page here.

Occupy SF Repels Police Eviction

Night of the Barricades

October 6, 2011 Bay of Rage

updated with pictures & links 9:30am

On the night of October 6th San Francisco Police attacked the Occupy SF encampment at the Federal Building on Market and Drum. After a day in which 800 people marched through downtown San Francisco in solidarity with the occupation of Wall Street in New York and elsewhere around the country, hundreds gathered at the site of the occupation. However by evening the police had administered an eviction notice to the occupiers claiming that the police would move in at midnight alongside the Department of Public Works to clear the plaza. Roughly around 10pm the police began to gather a block away from the occupation. Word circulated quickly and as both the occupiers and the police prepared roughly 150 people assembled at the occupation. After a few hours of waiting, debate, and nervous conversations within the occupation the police finally made their first move. Marching down the street, adorned with helmets and batons, the police escorted a line of Department of Public Works Vehicles. Standing between the occupiers and the living spaces that had been created since the occupations’ beginning, Department of Public Works workers were then forced to begin eradicating the space of any materials related to the occupation. The trucks were quickly filled with the same rapidity as the mood in the air began to intensify.

Almost spontaneously a large wooden pallet that the vehicles had not yet managed to collect was brought in front of one of the trucks. Immediately others began to follow bringing bodies and all material left behind in the encampment and surrounded the police and Department of Public Works vehicles. People grabbed anything they could find – garbage cans, street signs, cones and even the police’s own metal barricades to prevent the trucks from leaving as well as corner the police. While the police had tried to encircle and intimidate the occupation those there quickly used the opportunity to encircle and intimidate the police. As the SFPD closed in on the trucks standing off with what was now hundreds of people on market street and beautifully constructed barricades, they began to make way for the vehicles to leave. This created a series of small scuffles. Eventually the vehicles left and the barricades stood proudly on market street between the starry twilight of 230am and the confused fright of the SFPD.

The night was an incredibly powerful reflection of not only what is possible but the emergent potential of the Occupy movement. After the police announced that the occupation was going to be raided the occupiers began to decide what to do. The conversation was disparate, timid and unstable. This was directly caused by a few dominant voices controlling a decision making process in a situation that needed immediate attention. As the police came in this timidity, instability and disparity disappeared as all collectively participated in activity that reflected the needs of the immediate situation. No longer was the conversation dominated, but all voices flourished in the streets. People also held together and refused to be the targets of police violence. Instead people collectively resisted the attacks by the police by directly interfering with their ability to function as police by constructing barricades. Their antagonism towards the police was a direct reflection of the immediate goal of responding to a police raid. This act of self-defense was also an offensive direct action and strengthened both the solidarity amongst the participants and the potential for antagonistic expansion.

If these occupations are to both survive and continue they must be protected from the police by any means necessary.

Read the Statement from Occupy SF regarding the attempted police eviction last night

For immediate release:

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Contact: Occupy SF

Last night the SFPD issued us an unsigned, undated notice that declared we had to pack up our tents without giving us a timeline or else we would risk arrest.

They said that we could remain occupying if we pulled down our tents and complied with their other demands.

We complied with their demands by taking down our tents and beginning to clear-out the rest of our infrastructure that was allegedly in violation of City and/or State laws.

We made a call to action. Our numbers doubled within half an hour.

Occupy Oakland, along with many others, immediately responded when we announced that the cops were here to take us down. Thank you Occupy Oakland and all others!

Yet still, the police, wearing helmets and carrying batons, formed a perimeter around our goods and prevented us from saving anything while they supervised Public Works employees as they stole everything.

Occupy SF and Occupy Oakland surrounded the police cars and Public Works trucks to prevent them from leaving. There, we sang This Land is Our Land and We Will Not Be Moved.

The police stole food, water, shelter, and other necessities of life from the 99% at Occupy SF.

They kidnapped one of our friends.

Officer Pascua (#4014) said to multiple Occupiers that "[He] I can't wait to get the chance to bust your face in."

Another officer struck a woman last night. Let's hold him accountable.

We saw multiple officers with tears rolling down their cheeks. We could tell that they wanted to join us.

John Avalos, member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors now running for Mayor, came out to defend our right to assemble and act as our police liason. Please send him our thanks.

We livestreamed the entire thing.

We are still at the camp indefinitely.

Last night the police took criminal actions. They violated the Constitution. They committed theft, battery, kidnapping, etc.

We are calling on all of the 99% to mobilize ASAP. This occupation must continue to grow.

We need new donations of everything all over again.

We are the 99%. We will not be moved. We love you! We will feed you, clothe you, house you, and massage you. You can equally represent yourself in our directly democratic system.

Join us today!

The members of Revolutionary Struggle will be released under restrictive conditions on Tuesday, October 11th

Oct. 6, 2011 Contra Info

After a decision order by Athens Judicial Council that met earlier today,
October 6th, comrades Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa and Kostas Gournas will
be released from Koridallos prisons on Tuesday, October 11th. All three
members of Revolutionary Struggle reached the limit of 18month pretrial
detention.

Their release was ordered on the condition that they will sign off at a
local police station every five days, while they will be banned from
exiting the prefecture of Attica.

This decision was announced as final and irrevocable.

The trial against the organization Revolutionary Struggle will continue on
Monday, October 24th.

FREEDOM NOW TO ALL REVOLUTIONARIES!
SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!

Athens: Inmates of Koridallos women’s prisons abstain from prison food

Oct. 4, 2011 Contra Info

‘Today, October 2nd, in Koridallos women’s prison we take a protest stance
refusing to enter the cells and wards. We are protesting for the cuts in
food, including fruits and milk, which are not supplied to us for a long
time now.

In particular, today the breakfast was not enough for all inmates, as well
as the launch, while those who were in time to take food were given a very
small amount. We decided to remain outside the prison cells also during
the night closing in a continuing effort of protest for the general
situation. We have complained numerous times regarding the quality and the
quantity of prison meals, but the situation is getting worse day by day.
The prison service officially declared to us that the ministry of Justice
is making budget cuts that result to a substantial reduction in the amount
of food, medication, warm water and surely also heating.

Prison can no longer sustain the inmates, and since it cannot do so, it
should open the gates and let us walk out.’

On the same evening, at 20.00, relatives and friends of political
prisoners called for a gathering outside Koridallos prisons in solidarity
with the inmates who have declared abstention of prison food.

Chile: 250 arrests, unions call nationwide strike

By FEDERICO QUILODRAN - Associated Press | Oct. 7, 2011

SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile's union and student leaders called Friday for
shutting down the nation's economy for a day in response to a police
crackdown on education reform demonstrations that resulted in more than
250 arrests and left 30 people injured.

Arturo Martinez, who runs the CUT labor coalition, set the nationwide
strike for Oct. 19. By his side was student leader Camila Vallejo, who
accused the government of letting police attack peaceful marchers Thursday
in violation of Chile's constitution.

But the government warned that it will respond firmly to any violence
stemming from mass protests.

"Our hand won't tremble and we won't show any weakness in seeking to
control situations of public order," said government spokesman Andres
Chadwick.

"They're not going to weaken us by attacking police and making them
victims," he added.

The government refused to authorize Thursday's march, which was called by
students after talks on demands for free, better-funded and higher-quality
state-run education through the university level broke down Wednesday
night.

Police turned out in large numbers even before their march began, using
water cannons, tear gas and officers on horseback to keep about 10,000
students from gathering. Officers chased rock-throwing protesters onto
university campuses and fired tear gas into the student government
headquarters, Vallejo said.

By day's end, 168 had been arrested in the capital, and more than 100 more
around Chile. Police said 25 officers and five civilians were injured.

The protests continued into Thursday night, with large numbers of Chileans
turning out to bang pots and pans across metropolitan Santiago.

Chadwick defended the police response, which included arrests of at least
five journalists as they covered the disturbances, prompting a strong
protest from Chile's journalists' union and news organizations.

"If the police overreacted, we're going to control that, but we are going
to respect the police, we are going to support the police, because it's
the only way we can apply the law, work within the law and respect the
law," Chadwick said.

The prolonged conflict seems to have hit a dead end. Education Minister
Felipe Bulnes and President Sebastian Pinera are rejected the key student
demands of changing Chile's largely privatized system, which puts most of
the burden of funding education on individual families, with one that
gives the state a central role in ensuring free, high-quality education.
The activists want to finance it by raising taxes on the rich and
businesses.

Bulnes said Friday that the government is not preparing any new proposals
to try to get students back to the negotiating table, beyond the 21-point
plan Pinera already sent to Congress, which reforms the existing
private-focused system but ignores several of the movement's key demands.

Vallejo said the students will prepare now to make the government pay in
the next elections, and "keep this movement going as long as we have to."

Rene Gonzalez released! Let him go home to Cuba!

The first of the five Cuban antiterrorist
fighters in US soil was released from the Florida
prison at 4:30 am where he spent 13 years while
being unjustly sanctioned. However, Rene is to
remain in that country during three years under
the supervised freedom regimen. Gonzalez walked
out of prison at 4:30 am this Friday and was
welcomed by his daughters Irma and Ivette, his
brother Roberto, his father Candido and his
lawyer Philip Horowitz, reported Telesur.

http://www.antiterroristas.cu/


Cuba Denounces Injustice Against Rene Gonzalez in a Granma newspaper editorial

Posted on September 29, 2011 by ICFC5

This page is also available in: Spanish

Prensa Latina
2011-09-28

To oblige Rene Gonzalez, one of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in U.S. prisons, to stay in that country for three years more after his release from prison, is a deliberate additional reprisal, Granma newspaper reported on Wednesday.

In an editorial entitled “New U.S. injustice against the Cuban Five,” as they are universally known, the daily stated that Gonzalez will release from prison on Oct. 7 after having completed fulfilled and suffered the brutal and unjust sentence imposed on him.

The daily stated that on September 16, Florida district court Judge Joan A. Lenard denied the motion filed by Gonzalez on February 16, 2011, to allow him to return to Cuba to be with his wife, two daughters and his parents.

Gonzalez is unjustly obliged to stay in the United States for three years more under a regime of supervised “freedom,” states the text.

That decision, after 13 years in solitary confinement, is a deliberate additional reprisal, boosted by the same motivations of political revenge characterized by rigged judicial processes with which the Cuban Five were sentenced in 2001, the daily noted.

Behind that is the U.S. government, which has protected for years terrorism against the island, as well as terrorist people and organizations settled in that country, responsible for causing death, pain and suffering to thousands of Cubans.

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez have been subjected since 1998 to cruel and degrading treatments, the publication stated. They have also supported pressures and abuses, included the separation of their loved ones, with admirable fortitude, without the slightest concession in their convictions, character and exemplary behavior as prisoners, Granma stated.

The judge´s response has no justification, it is intended that Gonzalez stays at the United States, where it is known that his life is in danger and the most prominent terrorism organizations and people live there, the daily stated.

Statement from Calipatria Segregation Hunger Strikers

"From Calipatria ASU: SOLIDARITY IN PROTEST:

We are currently housed in Calipatria State Prison, in Southern
California, where hundreds of men are going on day 8 of a "solid food
hunger strike" in protest of the cruel and unusual punishment and the
abuse of authority this prison has been doing.

For over 20 years CDCR (California Department of Corrections and --
"so called" - Rehabilitation) has been targeting all races amongst
its prison population and handing out "indeterminate sentences" in
segregation like it's the thing to do. This means that we're being
placed in solitary confinement against our will secluded from the
world - isolation. We are labeled as validated gang members who are
alleged to have ties with prison gangs.

CDCR has their institutional gang investigators (I.G.I.) determine
whether a person's a "validated gang member" or not. They have been
known to be conspiring with one another and fabricating evidence to
falsely prove a validation. Their main sources are debriefers
(snitches) who will sell out their own mother if they had to once
validated, one can only find their way out of this "torturous and
inhumane" act of punishment by breaking people down by giving us
three options - "Parole, Debrief, or DIE".

It costs tax payers $56,000 to house an individual in segregation
annually and there's over 3,000 "clients" confined in isolation., do
the math. What we have here is CDCR's vague and misconstrued
justification of their interpretation to their policies. Their
objective to validating us as "prison gang members" isn't to protect
the General Population, rather to insure and guarantee that Hotel
California's Segregation Units have no vacancies so CDCR can keep
those fat checks rolling in.

Like we mentioned in the beginning, we write this with inspiration
from reading about the men and women standing up in unity to
peacefully protest for what they believe in. As the world revolves so
does the generation of human rights. It doesn't always take war to
get your point across, which is why we stand strong in solidarity on
this hunger strike.

We have three options... and if our voices aren't heard the third
option will be the likely one.

Respectfully,

Fellow hunger strikers at Calipatria State Prison ASU unit, 10/2/11"
******************************************
I just saw your post and it said "63" hunger striking at Calipatria.
Which is wrong. This is the same exact thing CDCR did previous hunger
strike in July when they stated till the very end in July only 39
were hunger striking when around 200 were still in July.

I can confirm from numerous letters i have received within the last
few days from Calipatria men in ASU segregation unit that the
officers are putting the liquids on the men's trays on purpose (when
it is supposed to be given to them separate) therefore when the men
take the liquids and no food the officers mark them off as 'partial'
hunger strike, which does not count as a full hunger strike if the
officer marks down 'partial'. Some men are forced to deny liquids in
order to keep it marked down as a full hunger strike and some are
tempted so much to just take the liquids off the trays to survive.

There are MORE than 63 inmates currently on hunger strike in
Calipatria. Close to 150.

The men at Calipatria segregation are also being denied medical
treatment, being denied Medication and Calipatria Administration
Staff is threatening the medical staff that they will lose their jobs
if they help inmates.

Men are falling to the ground as other men are screaming and calling
out "MAN DOWN" and their yells and screams are ignored by staff
therefore there could be men already dead in segregation but medical
is not allowed to help them.

I can confirm this is what has been written since day 8 of the hunger
strike at Calipatria State Prison. The men are going until they die
they have said. and i have a statement from them (above) which i will
email you in a separate email which please pass along.

It hurts so much because my loved one is one of those men in there...

Federal Judge Rules 28 Years in Solitary Confinement Not “Extreme,” Dismisses Silverstein Case

October 6, 2011 Solitary Watch

by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

Thomas Silverstein, plaintiff in a potentially groundbreaking case challenging his more than 28 years of extreme solitary confinement under a “no human contact” order, has had his case dismissed by a Federal District Court judge in Denver.

Silverstein’s student attorney’s at the University of Denver law school had argued that their client’s decades of utter isolation in the depths of the federal prison system constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and also violate his right to due process. But Judge Philip Brimmer, in the ruling issued on Monday, declared that Silverstein’s conditions of confinement at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum, or ADX, aren’t “atypically extreme.”

Reporting in Denver’s Westword, Alan Prendergast notes that Silverstein’s “journey through the federal prison system has been anything but typical”:

[Silverstein] was convicted of four murders while in prison; one was later overturned. He’s now serving three consecutiive life sentences plus 45 years. The last killing, the 1983 slaying of a federal guard in the most secure unit of what was then the highest-security federal pen in the entire system, put him on a “no human contact” status that lasted for decades. For close to seventeen years he was housed in a specially designed, Hannibal-Lecter-like cell in the basement of Leavenworth where the lights were on 24 hours a day. In 2005 he was moved to a highly isolated range at ADX, as first reported in my feature “The Caged Life“…

Since Silverstein first filed his lawsuit in 2007, with assistance from student lawyers at the University of Denver, he’s been moved from his tomb in Range 13 to D Unit, which is considered “general population” at ADX. Inmates are still in solitary confinement and have meals in their cell, but they also have access to indoor and outdoor recreation and can shout to each other. That lessening in the general degree of Silverstein’s isolation seems to have been one factor in Brimmer’s decision to dismiss the former bank robber’s claims of enduring extreme deprivation and lack of any social contact.

U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials maintain that Silverstein’s placement in isolation is necessary because of his own extreme behavior — “plaintiff’s disciplinary record, in addition to the aforementioned murders, shows assaults of three staff members, a threat to a staff member, an attempt to escape by posing as a United States Marshal, and the discovery of weapons, handcuff keys, and lock picks in plaintiff’s rectum,” Brimmer notes.

But Silverstein hasn’t been cited for a disciplinary infraction since 1988, and even the BOP’s psychologists have rated the 59-year-old prisoner as having a “low” risk of violence for years.

On his official website, maintained by outside supporters — incarcerated since the 1970s, he hasn’t had much opportunity for surfing the Internet — Silverstein reports that he’s still being moved frequently from one cell to another to prevent any kind of ongoing communication with other prisoners. “ALL they care about (obviously) is maintaining my ISOLATION, by any convoluted means necessary,” he writes.

Judge Philip Bimmer had set a court date for Silverstein’s trial in January, but has now ruled in favor of a motion by the federal Bureau of Prisons to dismiss the case. Silverstein’s lawyers, under the leadership of Laura Rovner at the University of Denver law school’s Civil Right Clinic, are consulting with their client and have not yet commented on the decision or their future plans. One possible next step would be an appeal of the judge’s decision to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

For more on Silverstein’s conditions of confinement, see America’s Most Isolated Federal Prisoner Describes 10,220 Days in Extreme Solitary Confinement. For details on the Silverstein case, see Fortresses of Solitude.

Letter to a Young Activist: Left to Learn from the ‘60s by Laura Whitehorn

Fall 2011 On The Issue Magazine

If you saw the film The Weather Underground, you saw about three minutes of me. The film, through interviews, narration and clips, describes the genesis and decline of the radical activist group by that name from 1969 to the mid-'70s. I gave some reflections from my participation in it.

Learning about the sixties -- a high tide of radical uprising, when masses of people in this country joined with people around the world who were fighting wars for national liberation and against colonialism and racism -- can be useful to anyone engaged in political and social change. After all, learning the lessons of the past can help with figuring out what to do in the present.

©Helène Aylon

The Weather Underground, unfortunately, focuses on white radicals, and, in the process, leaves out two important truths about our history. The film ignores the rise of mass incarceration in the 70s and its effects on political activism, and it skips over the valuable work of the Black Panther Party, many of whom ended up in prison. The connecting thread, and what I want you to care about in your activism today, has to do with those who were left behind -- the political prisoners who are still incarcerated.

A very significant outcome of mass incarceration is how it contributed to preventing an effective revolutionary mass movement from emerging.

I say these things from my own history. In 1985, I became a political prisoner myself. It wasn't that I was framed or hadn't broken the law -- I fully admit I broke it for radical (revolutionary) political reasons, as part of a movement with political goals. Those goals conformed to the international covenants against genocide and racism, and were committed to securing human rights for oppressed people here in the United States. I was part of the "Resistance Conspiracy Case."

I explain in the introduction to the book, The War Before, how six of us, including Marilyn Buck, Linda Evans and me, were charged with conspiracy to bomb several government buildings that were symbols of domestic racism. One was the office of the New York City Police Benevolent Association (known for supporting cops who had killed innocent civilians). We targeted the PBA following the murder of Black grandmother Eleanor Bumpurs in 1984. We were also charged with bombing military and government buildings that were symbols of U.S. foreign policy, including the Capitol Building after the U.S. invasion of Grenada and shelling of Lebanon in 1983.

We stuck to specific targets and planned with care, and no one was hurt in any of the bombings. Our indictment charged us with using "violent and illegal means," but the government policies we were opposing were themselves violent and illegal. We believed that supporting the struggles of people for freedom meant that you took some risks yourself.

I was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison, and a little over 14 years later, I maxed out and was released in 1999.

Marilyn Buck, my dear comrade, was kept behind bars for 25 years. She was released in July 15, 2011 and died of cancer 20 days later on August 3, 2011.

Marilyn always insisted on the need for revolutionary vision: what are we struggling for? You should know about an interview she gave from prison in 2001. She said, "We all need to seize our human liberation as much as possible as women, as lesbians, as heterosexuals. To support the right of human beings to have their own nations, their own liberation, and their own justice." And then she talked again about that word – vision. "I think about the vision I had when I was a nineteen-year-old of justice and human rights and women's equality. It was a wonderful vision…without a vision, you can't go forward."

Political Prisoners and Your Vision

So I want to tell you about a vision that I have for activists today, and how supporting political prisoners brings us in touch with that vision. By fighting for their release, we fight not merely to correct or adjust the prison system, but begin to create a truly egalitarian society, one capable of freeing humanity and giving wing to human creativity.

However I was treated in prison, many in the Black Panther movement were treated worse. Fourteen years is not very long -- not when compared to an indeterminate life sentence.

The effects of heightened imprisonment for extended periods were recently exposed in a brilliant new book on the U.S. prison system, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. As she points out, ballooning numbers of people have been incarcerated since the 1970s, especially young people of color. She notes that more Black men are imprisoned in the U.S. today than were enslaved in the U.S. before The Civil War. The parallel effects on the fight for liberation are clear.

My first awareness that this country -- despite its veneer of democracy -- holds political prisoners came in the late '60s, when Fred Hampton, then a 20-year-old leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was framed for a $77 ice cream truck robbery. I had gotten to know Fred Hampton, and he was a generous, charismatic man and a wonderful speaker. But it didn't take long before the government, and especially the FBI and local police, opened up a war against the Panthers. And the Black Panthers' program of defending Black communities from police attack and brutality did nothing to win them favor in the eyes of law enforcement agencies. At age 21, Fred Hampton was assassinated in his bed in the early morning hours by Chicago cops and the FBI, events that were clearly documented later. The government found the Panthers and their vision of people's power to be a threat too large to tolerate.

©Helène Aylon

Other Panthers were jailed, many on fraudulent charges (like the Panther 21 in New York). The Black Panthers were attacked by police because of their political work and were subjected to intense police surveillance under COINTELPRO, the covert FBI program that was later exposed for its domestic spying, assassinations and other efforts to disrupt progressive activists in the U.S.

You may well be unaware of some people who were put in prison during those years -- people who remain locked up today, some 40 years later. You likely haven't heard of Herman Bell or Ed Poindexter, Chip Fitzgerald or Sundiata Acoli.

I want you to know about these prisoners, and to support them. But I want you to find your own path to do that. You don't have to agree with the revolutionary politics they and I practiced back in the day. You don't have to agree with what we called armed struggle, or the idea that when oppressed populations fight for their right to self-determination, it makes sense for people who believe in a better world to join in. You don't have to agree that "fight the power" includes fighting with weapons. Even those of us who believe those things are well aware that the world is a very different place now than it was in the decades following the Second World War, when colonies like Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and Viet Nam was able to kick out the French, then the Americans. Strategies for activism will only work if they reflect political conditions, and those conditions have changed vastly since the 1960s and 1970s. And you don't have to believe that some of the political prisoners are innocent, though it is true that many are, and that many had trials skewed by crooked prosecutions -- including the use of testimony extracted through torture.

I believe that knowing about these political prisoners will benefit your activist work. Knowing Jalil Muntaqim, for instance, and the fact that he has been behind bars since 1971 is seeing for yourself the role prisons play in the government's repressive apparatus against both radical Left movements and any future serious activist resistance. Muntaqim was one of the people named specifically in COINTELPRO documents who needed to be "neutralized" because of his political activities. He was charged with murder of two New York City police officers, and, along with Herman Bell and Albert Nuh Washington, was found guilty under dubious and faked evidence after the first trial ended in a mistrial. He continues to maintain his innocence.

Not only have prisons been enormously successful in separating communities from their leaders, but modern prison conditions -- more than in the past -- have also succeeded in undermining the potential to develop new leaders in Black and Latino communities.

What would have happened, do you suppose, if Malcolm Little, instead of serving six years for petty crimes, had been imprisoned for a much longer time, locked in the conditions of long-term isolation common in what's euphemistically called "special housing" (as, for instance, the prisoners at Pelican Bay in California are)? He would not have been allowed to receive political books, would not have been able to converse with anyone. The mind that developed through reading and talking in prison during the 1950s would probably have been crushed, and there might have been no Malcolm X.

Looking Forward and Reaching Back

Unbearably harsh conditions form the reality for many U.S. prisoners today. Those political prisoners who are allowed to apply for parole face breathtaking obstacles and regular denial.

Still, the political prisoners have continued to organize in prison, creating ways to grow personally as well as bettering their community -- the community of those targeted by the war on drugs and mass incarceration. Political prisoner Eddie Conway, for just one example, has developed terrific programs in several Maryland state prisons that are successfully training young gang members in different models for social relations. During her years in prison, Marilyn Buck must have taught hundreds of her fellow prisoners to read and do math -- in addition to serving as a role model for how to promote a humane morality in resistance to the soul-killing, distorted ethos of prison. The political prisoners have learned how to enact creative and effective strategies for countering repression -- how, in conditions of powerlessness, with little in the way of resources, to subvert repressive and capitalist values.

These political prisoners have many lessons to share with activists. I know them; I visit them; they are people you would want to know. They're funny, intelligent, caring, with great interest in world events, community progress, problems we all face as we try to mend society. They have insights and history to teach.

Like Marilyn Buck, I don't think we can be effective activists without a vision. To know these prisoners -- even more, to fight to free them -- would make your activism more powerful, and it would help you shape a vision of action.

"At the risk of seeming ridiculous," a certain Latin American activist once said, "the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love." This was a huge part of the vision that inspired us to fight back in the '60s. It's a large part of what draws people to learn about the history of that era. And it's part of why all progressive activists should know and support -- and demand the release of -- political prisoners. Because you can't build a movement that's going to last if your powerful thinkers and voices are stifled, oppressed and imprisoned -- nor if you leave your comrades behind.

---

Laura Whitehorn has been a leftist activist since the early 1960s. She spent 14 years in federal prison as a political prisoner and was released in 1999. She edited the writings of Safiya Bukhari, a former Black Panther and political prisoner, published in 2009 as The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison, & Fighting for Those Left Behind from The Feminist Press. She works as an editor at POZ magazine.

Human rights defenders recognize Alinevich, Dziadok and Frankevich political prisoners

Oct. 6, 2011 avtonom.org

Human Rights Center "Viasna" and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee recognized Ihar Alinevich, Mikalai Dziadok and Aliaksandr Frantskevich as political prisoners of the present regime. The human rights defenders came to this conclusion on the basis of analysis of the so-called “Case of Anarchists”.

According to the conclusion of the BHC, this decision is based on the following findings:

1. Preliminary investigation of the criminal case was accompanied by serious procedural irregularities, including violations of the rights of convicts. They include: arbitrary detention, violation of the terms and procedures of detention established by the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus, the violation of the right to protection, a violation of the presumption of innocence, and others. I. Alinevich was detained in Moscow, and his transportation to the KGB jail in Minsk was carried out with gross violations of established procedures, including procedures for the extradition of citizens from the territory of the Russian Federation to Belarus. During the trial, convicted I. Alinevich, M. Dziadok and A.Frantskevich Olinevicha I., M. Dedok, A. Frantskevich repeatedly stated about illegal actions against them during the investigation, including psychological pressurization and tortures.

During the trial, said that against them during preliminary investigation used illegal actions: the psychological pressure and torture. On the application of torture to have a trial and a number of witnesses who retracted their statements made by them during the preliminary investigation (K. forging, A. Zhingerovsky, I. Bogachek, Bugaev, S. Slusar). These circumstances during the preliminary investigation and court proceedings with adequate completeness have not been verified and they were not given a legal assessment. The use of tortures was also confirmed by a number of witnesses who refused from the testimonies given during the preliminary investigation (I. Bahachak, A. Buhayou, K. Kouka, S. Sliusar and A. Zhynherouski). These circumstances weren’t subject to a due check-up and evaluation during the investigation and the court proceedings

2. During the trial, the principle of equality of the parties to submit evidence was violated. Gross violations of prisoners' rights give reason to believe that the trial was not an objective, comprehensive and inclusive, and the verdict was unjustified and illegal. Imposed under these circumstances the sentence should be reversed and the case – intended for a new trial.

3. Detention of I. Alinevich, M. Dziadok and A. Frantskevich and their punishment with such long, clearly inadequate prison terms, is obvious way related to the political motives of the authorities.

4. According to these findings, the national public association "Belarusian Helsinki Committee" and experts of the Belarusian human rights community consider Ihar Alinevich, Mikalai Dziadok and Aliaksandr Frantskevich political prisoners of the current regime in Belarus.

source: http://spring96.org/en/news/46165

Chile: Talks broken, police move in on students

By FEDERICO QUILODRAN - Assocated Press | Oct. 6, 2011

SANTIAGO, Chile — Chilean police are cracking down on demonstrators for
education reform, using water cannons and tear gas to prevent them from
gathering in any significant numbers.

A huge deployment of riot police surrounded students in the Plaza Italia,
where student leader Camila Vallejo tried to lead the march while holding
a sign saying "United and stronger." But water cannons and tear gas forced
them to disperse. Several reporters were among the injured.

Vallejo called the violence unprecedented even after five months of
confrontations over education reform.

She has asked Chileans to bang pots in their neighborhoods tonight in a
protest against the government.

Nine anti-fascists acquitted at Welling trial

Oct 5 2011 Libcom.org

Nine anti-fascist defendants were acquitted today, but six more remain in prison in need of support.

The remaining nine defendants in the Welling anti fascist trial were today acquitted, with cheers and loud applause from the gallery. The defendants had been charged with conspiracy to commit violent disorder, after trying to attend a picket of a gig by neo-Nazi band Blood and Honour at the Duchess of Edinburgh pub1 on 28th March 2009.

A total of 22 anti-fascists were arrested following an incident at Welling train station where two known neo-Nazis who had arrived for the Blood and Honour gig were apprehended by activists, with one of the neo-Nazis injured. Police were called to the scene, and as neither of the neo-Nazis were around to press charges of assault, the entire group, and anyone intending to picket the gig, were all charged with conspiracy to commit violent disorder.

Today's trial followed the conviction of seven other anti-fascists on 28th June 2011. Their trial lasted for 17 days, and sentences of 21 months were received. A further four anti-fascists were acquitted in June. Leeds Anarchist Black Cross have set up a support fund for the prisoners, and the addresses of those in prison are as follows:

Andy Baker
A5768CE
HMP Highpoint
Stradishall
Newmarket
Suffolk
CR8 9YG

Thomas Blak
A5728CE
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
PO Box 757
Du Cane Rd
London
W12 OAE

Thomas is Danish and would appreciate European/International stamps to keep in touch with his family and with comrades abroad.

Sean Cregan
A5769CE
HMP Coldingley
Shaftesbury Road
Bisley
Surrey
GU24 9EX

Sean can receive books (they must be new or in very good condition).

Phil De Souza
A5766CE
HMP Elmley
Eastchurch
Sheerness
Kent
ME12 4AY

Ravinder Gill
A5770CE
HMP Wayland
Griston
Thetford
Norfolk
IP25 6RL

Ravi can receive posters, so if you hold a support event consider sending him one in.

Austen Jackson
A5729CE
HMP Stocken
Stocken Hall Road
Stretton
Nr. Oakham
Rutland
LE15 7RD

Brighton ABC have a guide to writing to prisoners, and over the coming months it is likely that many more people will face convictions relating to anti-austerity actions, our support from the outside will be crucial.

edited to include updated prisoner details and remove comment about the length of the trial, see post below

Supporters Rally at CDCR Headquarters As Hunger Strike Enters 10th Day

For Immediate Release - October 5, 2011

Concerns About CDCR Retaliation Heighten

Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity

What: Rally in Support of California Prisoner Hunger Strike
Where: CDCR Headquaters, 1515 S Street Sacramento
When: 12-2pm, Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Sacramento - Family members and supporters of
prisoners on strike throughout California will
rally outside California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
headquarters as the strike enters its 10th day.
Over 1,200 prisoners continue to refuse food in
an effort to force the CDCR to address their five
core demands, in particular those related to long
term solitary confinement, gang validation,
debriefing and group punishment. Over the course
of the last week, nearly 12,000 prisoners
participated in the strike from thirteen
California prisons, as well as California
prisoners housed out of state in Mississippi,
Arizona and Oklahoma, making it one of the
largest prisoner hunger strikes in US history.
"From the very northern most tip to the very
southern most tip of California, prisoners in
Security Housing Units (SHUs), Administrative
Segregation Units (Ad-Seg) and general population
are starving themselves because their human
rights are being violated," says Dorsey Nunn,
executive director of Legal Services for
Prisoners with Children, "We are not going to
stand by while the CDCR tortures our loved ones."

Advocates have significant concerns about some of
the measures that the CDCR is implementing in
response to the strike. "Prisoners are being
denied both family and legal visits, they are
receiving serious rules violations and their mail
is being stopped," says Carol Strickman, a legal
representative of Prisoner Hunger Strike
Solidarity Coalition, "CDCR is clearly trying to
further isolate the hunger strikers in the hopes
of breaking the strike." Other reports indicate
that striking prisoners throughout the system are
being moved into Ad-Seg. "We don't know if they
are being removed from their cells to some other
location or transferred. It's really terrifying
that your loved one could be taken away like that
for participating in a peaceful protest," said
Irma Hedlin, who has family members in the Pelican Bay SHU.

While communication has been limited, recent
letters from hunger strike representatives
indicate that they remain committed to moving
CDCR and winning the five core demands. During
the strike in July, prisoners started to see the
adverse effects of refusing food after about two
weeks. "We know that CDCR tried to minimize and
cover up the fact that prisoners were getting
sick during the July hunger strike," says Laura
Magnani, a representative of the American Friends
Service Committee, "We have every reason to
believe that they will do the same moving
forward, especially given that legal visits have
been barred and family visits have been denied."

Lawyers, mediators and advocates have continually
pressured lawmakers to take action on the strike.
According to coalition representatives, a letter
delivered late last week to Governor Jerry
Brown's office has yet to receive a response. For
more information and continued updates on the
hunger strike, please visit
http://www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

SF - Former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Carlos Alberto Torres - Sunday, Oct 16

West Coast Speaking Tour - first time after 30 years in federal prisons

CARLOS ALBERTO TORRES calling for the freedom of Puerto Rican
Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera

Culture/Music Rico Pabon and Las Bomberas de la Bahia- Afro Puerto Rican Bomba

WHEN: Sunday, October 16, 2011, 4 PM
WHERE: Mission Cultural Center (MCC)
2868 Mission Street, San Francisco (at 25th
Street/ 24th St BART)

$10-50 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

In 1980 and 1981 15 Puerto Ricans were arrested and charged with
seditious conspiracy -fighting for the independence of Puerto
Rico. In 1999, after many years of struggle both here and in Puerto Rico,
President Clinton commuted the sentences of most of those who
remained incarcerated. In 2010 Carlos Alberto Torres was granted
parole after serving 30 years. Oscar Lopez-Rivera remains in prison
having been recently denied parole. It is time for him to come home
and be with his family and community!

for more information or to endorse: freeprpp2011@gmail.com

SPONSORS: Bay Area Boricuas & National Boricua Human Rights Network

West Coast Speaking Tour - first time after 30 years in federal
prisons CARLOS ALBERTO TORRES calling for the freedom of Puerto Rican
Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera

Culture/Music Rico Pabon and Las Bomberas de la Bahia- Afro Puerto Rican Bomba

WHEN: Sunday, October 16, 2011, 4 PM
WHERE: Mission Cultural Center (MCC)
2868 Mission Street, San Francisco (at 25th
Street/24th St BART)

$10-50(no one turned away for lack of funds)

In 1980 and 1981 15 Puerto Ricans were arrested and charged with
seditious conspiracy -fighting for the independence of Puerto
Rico. In 1999, after many years of struggle both here and in Puerto
Rico, President Clinton commuted the sentences of most of those who
remained incarcerated. In 2010 Carlos Alberto Torres was granted
parole after serving 30 years. Oscar Lopez-Rivera remains in prison
having been recently denied parole.
It is time for him to come home and be with his family and community!

for more information or to
endorse: <mailto:freeprpp2011@gmail.com>freeprpp2011@gmail.com

SPONSORS: Bay Area Boricuas & National Boricua Human Rights Network

Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike continues - now is the time for international solidarity!

October 2, 2011 freeahmadsaadat.org

New Flyer Available about Hunger Strike (Download PDF)

Palestinian prisoners in several prisons, including Nafha prison, reported that they were threatened that family visits would be denied in retaliation for their participation in the hunger strike. Israeli prison officials told the prisoners that for each day they spent on hunger strike, they would be banned from family visitation for 1 month.

In addition, women prisoners participating in the hunger strike, Sumoud Kharajeh, Linan Abu Ghoulmeh, Duaa Jayyousi and Wuroud Kassem, were moved into isolation and solitary confinement, Linan Abu Ghoulmeh while under arbitrary administrative detention.

The Israeli occupation prison service also transfered prisoners from Departments 13 and 14 in the Nafha prison to other prisons; their location remains unknown. Two prisoners in Nafha, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who were abducted from Jericho prison with Ahmad Sa'adat have also been placed in isolation, Hamdi Qur'an and Basil al-Asmar.

During a family visit, Israeli occupation prison authorities confiscated the identity cards of the families of Palestinian prisoners Mahmoud Abu Wahdan and Raed Sayel. The families were told that because their imprisoned relatives refused to break their hunger strike, they were not allowed to visit them.

In the Ofer prison, Israeli authorities placed 9 detainees - members of the PFLP - in solitary confinement and confiscated all their personal effects, clothing and other belongings.

In Asqelan Prison, the Israeli prison administration prevented lawyers from visiting detainees. A lawyer who came to Asqelan to visit prisoners Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Allam Al-Kaabi, and Shadi Sharafa was banned from visiting the prisoners and informed that these three and all prisoners from the PFLP who are on hunger strike are prohibited from receiving lawyer visits.

Earlier in the day 20 prisoners from the Fateh party joined the open hunger strike, including the oldest Palestinian prisoner, Fakhri Barghouti, who entered his 34th year in Israeli prisons, and Akram Mansour, who has been imprisoned for 33 years and is quite ill with cancer. Additional prisoners will join the hunger strike in the next few days.

In the Negev prison, Anas Al-Shanti was placed in solitary confinement. In Ramon prison, prisoner Basem Al-Khandaqjy, a member of Central Committee of the People's Party, joined the hunger strike.

Platform for Solidarity with Palestine of Seville, Spain Expresses Solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat and prison hunger strike

October 1, 2011

The Platform in Solidarity with Palestine in Seville, Spain, noted that it is engaged in campaigning for the release of Ahmad Saadat and all Palestinian prisoners and the current hunger strike. It sent the following letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross:

Dear friends of the International Committee of Red Cross,

We are really concerned about the latest news on the situation of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

The cases of Ahmad Saadat, Ahmad Qatamesh, Ayed Dudeen are some serious examples of the thousands of prisoners held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

Israeli military orders of detention, the "secret evidence", the solitary confinement, the ill-treatment and torture, the humiliations and abuses that continuosly suffering of Palestinian prisoners are a flagrant violation of international law and human rights. The Israeli judicial system and military tribunals are a mockery of justice.

The case of prisoner Ahmad Saadat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and member of Palestinian Legislative Council, is really serious about being in solitary confinement since March 2009. Imprisonment in isolation is a serious risk to physical and mental health of prisoners. It is a technique frequently used against palestinian political prisoners.

Israel is a signatory to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights whose Article 10 states that: "All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person."

The extension of isolation is another violation of the prisoners basic rights. Currently, prisoners in the prisons of the occupation have begun an indefinite hunger strike in protest against the use of isolation.

With this action, again, prisoners demanding freedon of Ahmad Saadat, and Ayed Dudeen, Ahmad Qatamesh and many others (in administrative detention renewed regularly) and all the palestinian prisoners. They demandig for the end the isolation of Ahmad Saadat and end of isolation of all Palestinian political prisoners, and the end to the policies of repression and humiliation against them and their families.

They demanding the end of the horror experienced by prisoners and their families -It is the systematic Israeli way of terror against the Palestinian population-.

We ask you, as a human rights organization, which put pressure on the government of Israel to implement international law, the human rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of civilians under occupation - whether this population is in prison or outside it -.

You have a humanitarian duty to follow up monitoring of the situation of Palestinian prisoners and to report about them. We await your urgent and firm intervention with prison Israeli authorities for demand respect for prisoners human rights.

Awaiting your response.

Sincerely,

Platform of Solidarity for Palestine

Blanco White, 5
41018 Seville, Spain
andaluciaconpalestina@yahoo.es
http://palestina.webcindario.com

éirígí plans Irish vigil in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners

28/09/11

éirígí, an Irish republican socialist political party, expressed its solidarity and support for the Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike and is organizing a vigil outside the Israeli embassy in Dublin at 6:30 pm on October 5. The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat encourages all solidarity activists and supporters in Ireland to join this important action:

"As republicans mark the 30th anniversary of the ending of the 1981 Irish hunger strikes, we in éirígí extend our solidarity to the Palestinian prisoners who have been steadfast in their resistance to the attempts of the Zionist regime to subjugate them. We also once more pay tribute to our comrades in the PFLP, who have taken this action for the sake of all prisoners of the Israeli occupation, and for their families and friends as well.

On Wednesday 5th October, éirígí will hold a candlelit vigil in support of the prisoners on hunger strike outside the Israeli embassy, Pembroke Road, Dublin, Ireland. The vigil will begin at 6.30pm. Bígí linn."

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest280911.html

Palestinian prisoners associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine began a hunger strike yesterday [September 27] against conditions imposed on detainees by the zionist regime.

The prisoners are calling for an end to the humiliating treatment and abuse of prisoners, and of those trying to visit them. They are also demanding an end to the solitary confinement of Ahamd Sa’adat, general secretary of the PFLP.

Sa’adat was arrested in January 2002 by Palestinian Authority security at the behest of Israel. He was held without charge or trial at Jericho prison until March 2006, when Israeli forces laid siege to the prison and kidnapped Sa’adat and several comrades.

The zionists eventually tried Sa’adat, convicting him of membership of a prohibited organisation [the PFLP], of holding a post in a prohibited organisation, and of incitement. For these ‘crimes’ he was sentenced to 30 years in December 2008, and has been held in solitary ever since. He has now joined the hunger strike as well.

The Israeli prison regime responded immediately by threatening to increase repression against striking prisoners, by moving them into isolation or to other prisons entirely. This prison transfer tactic has been used frequently by the regime to break up comrades and to disrupt the organisation of resistance within the prison system.

The prisoners answered by announcing that they will escalate their campaign by rejecting all prison orders and refusing to wear their uniforms.

As republicans mark the 30th anniversary of the ending of the 1981 Irish hunger strikes, we in éirígí extend our solidarity to the Palestinian prisoners who have been steadfast in their resistance to the attempts of the zionist regime to subjugate them. We also once more pay tribute to our comrades in the PFLP, who have taken this action for the sake of all prisoners of the Israeli occupation, and for their families and friends as well.

On Wednesday 5th October, éirígí will hold a candlelit vigil in support of the prisoners on hunger strike outside the Israeli embassy, Pembroke Road, Dublin. The vigil will begin at 6.30pm. Bígí linn.

We print below the prisoners’ statement announcing the commencement of the hunger strike.

“We, the comrades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the Zionist prisons and detention centers, declare to the steadfast, struggling brave masses of the Palestinian people and to all free people in the world:

We announce that we will begin an open-ended hunger strike on Tuesday morning, September 27, 2011, in response to the official policies of the Zionist government and its fascist prison administration. We demand our rights and our dignity, as we struggle for the victory of our values and ideals.

Our goals for this hunger strike:

1. End the solitary confinement and isolation of our comrade, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the PLO Central Council, Ahmad Sa’adat, Abu Ghassan.

2. End the policy of isolation for all prisoners;

3. End the policy of systematic humiliation by the occupation army against the Palestinian people at checkpoints and crossings, particularly targeting visitors to prisons, and end the arbitrary denial of visits to the prisoners, especially the prisoners from the Gaza Strip. End the humiliation and abuse of prisoners during transfer.

The principles of our revolution include the rejection of all forms of injustice, and for us to struggle and confront the occupier in all areas and places in our own manner. Accordingly, we call upon all of the Palestinian and Arab people, political forces and institutions, human rights and civil society organizations, to raise their voices for us, so that we do not become easy prey for a vicious occupier. We promise to all of our people, and to the legacy of the martyrs of Palestine, that we will continue on our path until victory.

Great glory to the martyrs ...
Victory to the revolution ...
Victory is inevitable.”

Yom Kippur, 2011 (5772): Call-to-Action

by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

In solidarity with political prisoners and those facing mass incarceration across Palestine, the US and the world...

Click here to sign on!

Sunday, October 02, 2011

As we welcome the Jewish new year, we look back at the year behind us to address our complicity in the many injustices of our time by recommitting to our collective responsibility for justice and humanity. In particular, we reflect on the common plight and struggle of political prisoners and the many people across the world whose dignity is denied and liberty is threatened by mass incarceration and military blockades.

We are inspired in our struggle for justice by the sacrifice and courage of so many in the year behind us - the late Troy Anthony Davis, the Georgia prison strikers, Mumia Abu Jamal, Ahmad Sa'adat, Leonard Peltier, the people of Gaza confined to an open-air prison - and in front of us: the Palestinian prisoners and those jailed at Pelican Bay State Prison and other California prisons on hunger strike and carrying out civil disobedience in defense of the most basic of dignity and rights.

On September 30, 2011, Palestinians across occupied Palestine - from the West Bank to the State of Israel to Gaza - put out a call for solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners. On this Yom Kippur, Friday, October 7, we Jews of conscience, in response to this call, intend to extend our fast of atonement and take action to demand:

• An end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat - General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine;
• A meeting of the demands of the civil disobedience and hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons;
• An end to the death penalty in the United States and all other places it remains a State practice
• A meeting of the demands of the hunger strike at California state prisons
• An end to the Israeli blockade on Gaza and unconditional and permanent opening of the Rafah crossing

Israel now holds approximately 6,000 political prisoners, who are subjected to torture, humiliation, and solitary confinement. Many of these prisoners have never been tried, but are held in "administrative detention," and many are children under age 16. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons began an open-ended hunger strike on September 27, 2011, demanding an end to the isolation of Palestinian prisoner and national leader Ahmad Sa'adat, an end to isolation for all Palestinian political prisoners, and an end to the policies of repression and humiliation against visitors to the prisoners, including denial of family visits and visitors being stopped, searched and impeded at Israeli occupation checkpoints.The prisoners are also demanding an end to abuse and humiliation of prisoners while they are transferred from one prison to another, as well as their right to an education.

We stand with these political prisoners and prisoners of conscience all around the world who are imprisoned unjustly, and unjustly treated.

We stand with people all over the world whose daily lives are terrorized and unjustly controlled by policing and incarceration.

In recognition of the centrality of the struggles of those confined in Israeli occupation prisons, at Pelican Bay and in Gaza to our collective struggles for liberation, on this Yom Kippur the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network call on Jews of conscience to commit to fasting for 48 hours, from Thursday October 6 at sundown, to Saturday, October 8 at sundown. In addition, we invite all those in solidarity with political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and people facing incarceration across the world, to join us to take the following actions:

• Send an email to the International Committee of the Red Cross to urge them to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners are freed from punitive isolation: jerusalem.jer@icrc.org
• Sign the petition to meet the demands of the prisoners at Pelican Bay and other prisons.
• Sign the petition for the unconditional and permanent opening of the Rafah Crossing
• Contact us to participate or coordinate actions on Friday, October 7 at Israeli consulates in solidarity with the call from Palestinians in Israeli occupation prisons and in Gaza: ijan@ijsn.net

In participating in Yom Kippur or in solidarity with the call from Palestine and Pelican Bay, we the undersigned agree to participate in the actions above and pledge to fast for 24 hours (from Thursday evening, October 6 to Friday evening, October 7) or for 48 hours (from Thursday evening, October 6-Saturday evening, October 8). Click here to sign!

Developments on Palestinian Prisoners' Hunger Strike - Action Needed

Solidarity with Palestinian prisoners is more urgent than ever. Since the announcement of Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike against the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat and all other prisoners held in solitary confinement, and against torture and humiliation for prisoners and their families and visitors, Israeli prison officials have stepped up their threats against Palestinian prisoners participating in the hunger strike.

The strike begins today, Tuesday, September 27. The Israeli Minister of Internal Security, at a meeting in Ramon and Naqab Prisons, has threatened to escalate repression against prisoners, threatening to move all prisoners participating in the hunger strike into isolation and solitary confinement, and to forcibly transfer those prisoners to other prisons in the occupation prison system. Prisoners are frequently transferred by occupation forces in an attempt to break up social bonds and disrupt organizing against prison repression.

For decades, Palestinian prisoners have engaged in hunger strikes to demand - and win - their rights, putting their bodies on the line once more to demand the freedom and dignity of themselves, their people, their homeland and their nation. Palestinian prisoners have announced that they will not be moved from their course by the threats of the occupiers. Prisoners' representatives have confirmed that Sa'adat and fellow isolated leader Jamal Abu al-Haija, in isolation with Sa'adat, will join in the strike themselves.

Furthermore, prisoners announced that they will reject all prison orders, refusing to wear uniforms, stand up for daily counts, or accept food. The situation is more urgent than ever as prisoners begin their strike. The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat calls upon all solidarity, international justice and human rights groups and organizations to join us to demand freedom, dignity and justice for Palestinian prisoners.

TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT AHMAD SA'ADAT AND ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS!

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Make it clear that you support the demands of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike!

2. Distribute the free downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer in your community at local events.

3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners are freed from punitive isolation. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem.jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat.

4. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

With 12,000 Participants Last Week, Prisoner Hunger Strike Begins 8th Day: CDCR Bars Family Member Visits

For Immediate Release – October 3, 2011

Press Contact: Jay Donahue

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity

Cell: 415 515 4134

Oakland – As the renewed prisoner hunger strike enters it’s second week, the federal receiver’s office released information that at least 12,000 prisoners were participating during the first week. Prisoners are continuing a hunger strike that they temporarily suspended in July. Originating from Security Housing Units (SHUs) and Administrative Segregation Units (Ad-Seg) across the California, prisoners held at Pelican Bay State Prison, Calipatria, Centinela, Corcoran, Ironwood, Kern Valley, North Kern, Salinas Valley, California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, Pleasant Valley State Prison, San Quentin, as well as West Valley Detention Center in San Bernadino County, are currently participating. Over 3,000 California prisoners held in out-of-state facilities in Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma have also refused food.

“This is the largest prisoner strike of any kind in recent US history,” says Ron Ahnen of California Prison Focus, “The fact that so many prisoners are participating highlights the extreme conditions in all of California’s prisons as well as the historic opportunity the state has been given to make substantial changes to SHU and Ad-Seg policies.”

Family members of striking SHU prisoners reported that their visits this weekend were denied by the Califonia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) who cited security concerns. “A number of family members received notice that they were not going to be allowed to see their loved ones as long ast the stike continues,” says Dolores Canales who has a son in the Pelican Bay SHU, “Denying visits only heightens the isolation that the prisoners and family members experience, especially at this critical time.”

Advocates and lawyers have expressed concern that banning visits, along with other tactics including the possibility of violence on the part of CDCR are being used in attempt to break the strike. “Historically, prison officials have used extreme measures, including physical violence to break strikes,” says Dorsey Nunn, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and a member of the mediation team working on behalf of the strikers. “As this peaceful protest continues, it’s essential for lawmakers and the media to monitor the actions of CDCR. The department should not be allowed to use underhanded methods to resolve the strike.” Late last week two of the mediation team’s lawyers were banned from CDCR facilities with the prison adminstration citing unamed “security threats.”

The prisoners resumed their hunger strike on September 26 after the CDCR failed to address demands made when prisoners intitally went on strike for almost the entire month of July. They have also reported highted levels of intimidation and retaliation from prison officials since July. Prisoners are demaninding changes to long-term solitary confinement, gang validation and debriefing processes, and other conditions in the state’s Security Housing Units as well as in other parts of the prison system. Representatives of the hunger strikers have indicated that this may be a rolling strike, with prisoners coming on and off strike periodically, allowing for the possibility of a protracted struggle. Activists and family members internationally are planning protests in support of the hunger strikers in the coming weeks. For continued updates and more information, please visit www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com

Cross the border before it's not too late - escape story of Denis Solopov in his own words

Avtonom

I am often faced with one basic question: whether, if knowing the
consequences I would still take the same actions I did last year. Of
course I would. Yes, we all suffered the consequences, but we also
proved that average people, when united are able to scare insolent
bureaucrats. Nowadays in the Russia this is worth the effort. Who are
the police investigators and field operatives? TThey are subordinates
who are generally too frightened to admit that they are the slaves of
their bosses, deceiving themselves that things are otherwise. Many of
them have clearly understood that they have to make some junk and invent
a sort of extremism. Maybe there are also sincere stupid people who
believe in their work. These fools do not see the extremists in
officials and instead search for them in housing districts.

- Now, at last all of the «Khimki hostages» are free. Only days ago you
were imprisoned in the most famous Ukrainian jail, and now you are
packing your luggage to go to the Netherlands. To begin with tell us in
detail about the conditions according to which you were set free.

- A week before my release I was visited by an official representative
of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) who told me
that I would be released soon because a country had been found which
would accept me(give merefugee status). He said that I would be freed
the same day, probably after dinner. I was finally released a week
later. The building guard told me to go get my photo taken for the
discharge papers, and the hall guard told me to pack up my things for
release. At that moment I was alone in the cell, because Ivaschenko
(Solopov's cellmate, ex-acting Ukrainian Minister of Defence – OS (“Open
Space” website with editorial notes where it was first published –
transl.)) had been transported to court. I started to pack up my things:
clothes, documents. I still left four bags of items and food in prison.
Partly with the «goat» (goat is the literal translation from prison
slang used for prisoners working together with the administration -
transl.) in the depot, partly in the quarantine area for recently
arrived prisoners. In quarantine where it's mostly newbies you can never
find basic items.

The building guard gathered some people, one guy who was sick with
tuberculosis needed to be hospitalized, another one had to be deported.
We were going through the dungeon. There, in Lukjanovka, the buildings
are connected with a complex dungeon, it is an old jail, a legacy from
tsarism. The guard first led the others, then went with me to the
«mistress» (the warden of the remand prison - OS). I didn't go into the
office, the warrant officer went in alone to sign some documents. The
guard asked me why I'd been released (he didn't know who I was) and I
answered that they had simply decided to free me without reason. Maybe
he could be happy for me.

I was then led to Dombrovsky, the sub-warden of the remand prison. By
the way, I was frequently asked where I would go. They had to write it
in the documents, including the discharge papers. As a result they wrote
in my Moscow address. Then I started to argue, because I obviously did
not want to find myself in the hands of the Moscow region policemen. In
practice, there was that chance, that I would be met at the gates of
theKiev prison and would be transported to the Khimki department of
interior, for example. They started to persuade me that the information
in the discharge papers was only a formality, and I would not be forced
to go to Moscow. Then I demanded to make a phone call and money for the
public transporation fare, which one is supposed to receive according to
the law. I just wanted to let the lawyer know about my release, and that
I would be met by my friends, not by the police. They laughed about the
money, as I'd expected. And they didn't let me use the phone saying that
they didn't want to take that responsibility onto themselves. Then I
told them, smiling, that they were driving me to crime, because I would
be forced to take a mobile phone away from somebody at the gate and
return to prison. We exchanged some more jokes but they still didn't let
me use the phone.

At the security-check point I asked to use the phone one more time. My
attendant offered to go outside together with me and ask for a phone
from one of the passers-bye. He understood that near Lukjanovka most
people would not give their phone to the bald-headed young man with the
sports bag, pale from a long imprisonment. He came outside with me but
silently vanished when I was persuading a random passer-by to let me use
his phone. Then there was the scene that many of us know from the
cinema: the prison gates behind, the bag in hands, the discharge paper
in the pocket. No money, no phone. About an hour later I realized that I
was free, looked around and planned what to do further.

The discharge papers not only substituted all other documents but also
gave me the right of travel in public transport. I decided not to go for
a bus because I didn't want to prove to some cunning conductress (in the
ex-USSR it's usually a women's job - transl.) that I had the right to
travel. But I was forced to explain myself to the «turnstile-watching»
woman in the metro who had exceeded her duties giving me a detailed
examination. I then went to the flat of my Kiev friends where I could
get in contact with the lawyer and representatives of the UNHCR. After
that I only needed to avoid any troubles while the documents for my
departure to the third country were issued by the UNHCR.

- Everybody saw the Khimki action video footage and photos. Arrests,
trials, etc. were closely and detailedly reported in the press. Petya
Kosovo published stories about his travels around Europe. Tell us how
you managed to get away.

- After you had gone into the building of the Moscow region state
department of interior I waited for you in the Alexandrovskiy garden. I
waited for your call. After an hour you phoned me and said «All right»
which meant, according to our agreement, that the situation was
unfolding in the most unfavorable manner. I threw away my mobile phone
to escape detection. I then connected with friends using the new,
«blank» phone which I had bought in the subway, explained the situation,
and asked for enough money to live on the run. They obtained the
necessary sum that very evening. I decided not to go home, not to phone
any of my relatives. Lastly using my sources in law enforcement agencies
I found out what the situation was, partially confirming the plans of
the «police investigative measures». When I realized that you would be
imprisoned anyway, and I would be found and arrested immediately or put
on the wanted list if I wasn't found me, I decided to cross the border
before it was too late. The next day, July 30, I called a taxi via
public telephone and asked to be taken to the suburbs, to one of the
railroad stations going in the direction of Belarus. Naturally, I went
with the regional electric train in order not to buy a ticket with my
passport.

- You went to Minsk? Did you pick it for a particular reason?

- No. At that time the only thought I had was of escape, of crossing the
border. I literally escaped in the clothes I had left home with. Where
to go and what to do later on I couldn't even imagine.

- The trip to Belarus by regional train lasts a couple of days. What are
your brightest memories of your escape route?

- When I was in one of the towns closer to Belarus, I had to spend the
night somewhere. In hotels I was asked for a passport. I decided to go
to some 24-hour bar. I found a pizzeria. There, some local guys and
girls were celebrating something. I asked if they knew where I could
rent a flat or room for a day. I explained that I had trouble with my
documents. I just generally chatted with them. The guys promised to
think about my problem, then suggested to go to the birthday of one of
their friends. As a result we all danced in some yard. But I still had
to clean up and sleep to look normal at the border. Then, a total
stranger who was going to go for the night to his girlfriend's, offered
me the keys to his flat and suggested I sleep there. The most ridiculous
thing was that he said no one was at home but in fact his mother was. I
was forced to apologize for the late visit and introduce myself as her
son's friend from Moscow. As any true Russian woman would, she fed me
borscht and all sorts of savory foods till I could barely move, before
she headed off to sleep. In the morning I called a taxi to take me to
the train. I went by train to a station close to the Belarussian border,
but I decided to cross over with the bus going to Vitebsk. I did it
without any problems. The passengers' documents were not checked properly.

In Vitebsk I first went to find Internet access and found out that in
Belarus you are asked for your passport in Internet-cafes. I managed to
haggle over this and get in without it. I bluffed something about having
forgotten it in the hotel and being too lazy to return and that I could
dictate my passport data from memory. As a result I sat at the computer
for five hours, browsing news and writing down all the information I
needed about hotels, transport and renting flats. I took the cover and
photo from my old student id card and on the computer made up a new card
with a new name, so I had a somewhat secure document. It became easier
to explain who I was with it. Under the pretense that I had left my
passport with my relatives who would come later I could get a room in a
hotel in the city center for a several days. There, I more or less
planned my next steps. I decided to go to Minsk. In a large city it is
easier to go unnoticed.

In Minsk I rented a flat from a woman who had stood on the railway
platform with the sign «flat for rent». It was much safer than trying to
go to some Minsk hotels without a passport, or to go to a rental agency.
The weekly rent was low. In Moscow I had been a realtor for some time so
I could assess the price. I had a look at the flat and decided that
suggested cost was fair. Everywhere I went I inspired confidence in the
people around me. As a bonus, the landlady left me food and a local SIM
card. My friends from one Russian town made me, by my request, a Skype
account with enough money on it. Throughout that entire period I tried
not to contact anyone, even trusted friends. Nobody knew, where and how
I was. Later I changed several accounts just in case. For all my
relatives I had already disappeared for half a month. Friends let me
know that our house in Moscow was under external observation, from the
news I learned about the roundups and all kinds of madness done by
Moscow region policemen. I first called my father, and told him
literally a couple of phrases: «I am not in Russia. I'm OK. Don't worry,
concentrate on Max.» Daddy answered: «Well done! Good that you phoned.»
Then I called my friend who was supposedly tapped. I joked with her
about my location a little for the benefit of the cops. I wanted to
intrigue them to search for me further from Moscow, in the opposite
direction of where I was. The joke turned out well, they searched for me
in all kinds of places... At that point I felt more or less confident in
myself. A last unclear thing was what to do further.

- How was it that you found yourself in Ukraine at last?

- In general, I spent some time in Internet cafes, learning useful
information and planning what to do next. It was in the very center of
Minsk. Unexpectedly, two of my closer friends from Moscow came to this
cafe. Of course, their troubles had not been as great as mine, but they
had decided to leave Moscow for the period of the roundups. It was a
very nice meeting, furthermore they had reliable friends in Minsk.
Hiding became more cheerful. Together we decided to leave for the
Ukraine. In Belarus we couldn't have a normal life. After all, the
special services in Belarus work more effectively, as opposed to the
Russian ones. You cannot do anything without a passport, and the local
people are oppressed. We decided that we should go to Crimea while it
was still warm, rest at the seaside and feign at being tourists. We went
to the border in buses. Understanding the level of control we decided to
cross the border legally, with our passports. At that point we
separated, so my friends would not run the same risk as me. We all made
it over the border by bus.

Next up we bought tickets to Eupatoria without a problem. Once there we
first went to swim in the sea. We behaved like tourists. There were no
troubles, and we just relaxed. We decided to find cheap accommodation in
the private sector. Asking the shop girls, we found different options in
several villages. One of them was called Krasnoe. We decided to go
directly there, in the village with revolutionary traditions ("Krasnoe"
means "Red" in Russian - transl.). We rented the second home of a
certain uncle Kolya. He had his own farm: goats, pigs, melons. For us
the cost of living was very low, and in addition to this he fed us fresh
milk, eggs, vegetables. However, after some time uncle Kolya understood
that we were staying suspiciously long. Usually people arrived for a
week, but we had already stayed an entire month. Apart from this we did
not drink like the usual tourists do, but instead jogged in the mornings
and exercised at the horizontal bars. We only swam, ate watermelons, and
played sports. Kazantip was nearby, and local people were used to seeing
the young tourists constantly intoxicated, and we didn't fit. Of course,
we went to some of these parties on the coast, but there we stood out as
well, by not consuming alcohol and drugs. We found out the news on the
Internet at the post office, when we went to the city for food. We tried
to find a possibility to leave for Europe, got in contact with trusted
people about different options, legal or not. But we couldn't find a
suitable one. The best option was illegal, with a fifty-fifty chance of
success, and for a rather large sum. It did not suit us.

And so the holiday season came to an end. Uncle Kolya started to tell
tales about guys who had robbed some metallurgic factory, or whatever,
and had hidden at his farm. He clearly hinted that he wanted to hear our
criminal story too. We, however, feeling our finances dwindling, started
to joke about robbing the postal service.

After about a month of rest we received exact information about our
cases from our sources; who was of greater interest and who less so. In
general, as we expected, my friends had nothing to be afraid of, only I
was wanted by the police. I was also put on the Interpol search list. We
then decided to separate. The guys returned to Moscow, where all was
calm, and I went on to Kiev.

- How did you decide to ask for refugee status in Ukraine? Didn't that
seem to be the more dangerous thing to do rather than living there
illegally?

- After arriving in Kiev I carefully got in touch with my reliable local
friends, who were ready to help. These friends knew people who are
working in the field of legal aid to refugees. I began sorting out the
details of the procedure to get refugee status. As a result, I once
again considered all my options, and made the decision to go via the
legal route. Anyway, I actually hadn't committed any crime, hadn't
killed anybody, hadn't robbed anybody. I was advised to meet and consult
with a reliable expert in the field. There aren't many similar
situations with Russian refugees in the Ukraine. My case was similar to
the ones with the National-Bolsheviks. I was advised to consider their
experience and take their mistakes into account. First I went and
addressed the UNHCR and their partner organization HIAS which allocated
me a lawyer. All these competent moves were possible thanks to the very
qualified help of my friends. These procedures are very difficult and
demand a heap of papers which are not easy to gather whilst being wanted.

The most dangerous thing was addressing the Kiev immigration services.
Despite having a legal duty to maintain confidentiality, they share the
information they receive with the criminal investigations' department.
However, I had already gone via the legal route, so I had no choice.
According to international procedure, I was obligated to ask for refugee
status in the country where I was. Of course I took precautions and did
everything as carefully as possible, consulting with the lawyer.
Everyone at the Kiev immigration services was shocked by my visit and my
story. The employees there are quite shameless idlers who aren't
prepared to do their job. Nevertheless I carefully stated everything,
and they were obliged to consider my case right away. I explained that I
had no phone number, but that I would call them periodically, to learn,
how things were progressing and being processed. It lasted four months,
all the while I was collecting documents for the UNHCR.

- Nevertheless you were still under international warrant and being
searched for, besides the fact that you were in the Ukraine without
proper documents. Were there times when you were stopped casually by
police officers? When they tried to detain you?

- I basically did whatever I could in order not to attract attention. I
grew my hair out, wore a suit with ironed out trousers and polished
shoes. I also wore glasses with zero lenses for the additional image of
intelligence. When you look like that, you won't be stopped for id
checks. Obviously you are either going to work, or coming from work.
Just in case however, I always had enough money for a pay off in case
such a situation came up. It's important to say that in Ukraine the
police is overly corrupt and that played right into my hands. There was
only one time when I broke my own rule and went out to a shop after
midnight. I wanted to buy kefir. The district was restless, and late in
the night with kefir in my hands I stirred the suspicion of patrolmen.
But I managed to tell them the exact address of the house next to mine
and pointed to it with my hand, proving that I lived there, and convince
them that I had left my passport at home.

- Were there any specific attempts to catch you? What do you know about
the steps taken by investigators? How did you assure your own safety?

- Of course, after asking for refugee status I didn't relax and lived as
I had before. I didn't tell anyone about my location, even my parents
didn't know the country and the city where I was hiding. Though my
father certainly guessed. Lots of my friends in Kiev found out that I
had been hiding in their city, only after my arrest. So I didn't relax.
On the contrary, I was always vigilant. I was watching the address which
I had left at the immigration services. Both the local Kiev police as
well as the Moscow region police showed up in the area around this
address. My Moscow sources had informed me that Moscow region police had
gone after me. And it was true. They showed up, and decided to visit the
address I had specified at the immigration services. Having guessed in
advance that such a situation was likely to take place, I had left the
address of a girl I actually knew though I never went to her flat. I
asked the girl to convince cops in such a situation that I really lived
with her in her apartment, just that I'm not there at that particular
moment.

When they came to the apartment asking her whether she knew where Denis
Solopov was living, she let them in the house and even showed them my
presumed room. Then she wrote me all about it over e-mail and said that
she had been questioned by Kiev police, but that she also recognized
Moscow cops. Though they had been silent the whole time in order not to
squeal on their Moscow accent. Then, she had looked out the window and
had seen two cars with four people each, and the small bus with curtains
at the windows.

The second time around only local police came led by the colonel.
Everything was the same, only this time they left some nonprofessional
surveillance all over the house. I was informed about that, and I
decided to go there to observe them from the house next door. Then I
called my friend and asked her to leave the house and to go to a cafe so
that the cops would reveal themselves for certain. It was amusing. To
watch those who watch.

- So you clearly understood the risk involved in going to the
immigration services. Why did you go there to get a rejection? You were
arrested there, eventually.

Yes, I went there even though I knew I would get a rejection. Regarding
the risk of getting arrested, it was fifty/fifty. Still, there was the
hope that the Ukrainian cops would simply decide not to mess with a
scandal waiting to happen. However, when I walked out the door, having
gotten the rejection, I realized immediately that they had surrounded
the building from all sides. I didn't have any desire to run away, so I
decided to stay calm. One of them, in a gray hood, approached me,
presented himself and asked for my documents. Immediately, some more of
them came close to me. They came out of two cars. Then even more of them
appeared. There were lots of them and all were in civilian clothes. I
was even pleased by such serious concern. Some of the young ones, as
always, had started to show off, trying to break my arms. They put me in
handcuffs, put me in the car, and sat down close to me, one on each
side. Well, as it usually goes, they started to ask the standard
ridiculous questions: «What did you really do? Why were you so high on
an international wanted list if it was just about hooliganism?» They
took photographs for themselves with their phones.

I actually even felt a kind of relief. Now, I no longer depended on
myself. The measures that I had taken in advance, now had to work for
me. The main thing was to inform my lawyer of what was happening as soon
as possible. I even fell asleep in the car on the way to the police
station. There, they took my fingerprints, photographed me and filled
out some forms. For sure their Russian was really bad, even worse, than
the Russian of our police force. I had to try hard to complete
everything fast and without any mistakes.

You remember what happened next. I was sent to the office of the deputy
chief of the investigatons' department of Solomensky ROVD. He asked me
some questions and told me he didn't wish me any harm. He told me
there'd been rumors that I might be killed while in prison. «You
disturbed someone very important». Well, there had been quite some
rumors going around about me. Eventually all of them left and I was
alone in the office. At that moment the door slammed, and it broke.
While they had a meeting about the door lock and were swearing, accusing
me that I'd slammed the door intentionally, I used their computer and
found out that it was connected to the Internet. I then went on Facebook
and informed you and several other friends about the situation. This
information reached the lawyer immediately. He arrived quickly and began
working on the necessary documents. I did nothing.



-Tell us your impression of the first days in prison. What do the
convicts of Lukjanovskaya prison look like?

-A police paddy wagon arrived to the office and I was transferred to the
temporary detention facility. It appeared quite flashy: it was clean,
bright, with hot water, edible meals and clean linen, almost like a spa
resort. Later I learned that it had been built especially to show off in
front of Europeans. There I met different criminals: one murderer, a con
artist and a professional athlete, who was seriously beaten up by the
police, I don't remember for what. Then I was transferred again to
Lukjanovka. There were a lot of people, we talked a little, I became
acquainted with some of them. At first they separated ex-police officers
from us and the snitches, searched everyone and eventually put us in
quarantine. It was a big room for forty people, mostly first-time
convicts. Conditions were awful there: dirty, humid, most packages never
reached people. Everyone had to sit there for several days. It was quite
cold, but the plank iron beds had no mattresses on them. I caught a
serious flu, was lying there with a high temperature. But I also became
acquainted with a lot of people.

The overwhelming majority had been sentenced for nonsense. There were a
lot of addicts, mostly methamphetamine addicts, not heroin. They
gathered in groups to discuss their experiments on how and what to cook
into drugs. To tell the truth, I was enraged by these conversations. But
most of the convicts were not even addicts but just poor guys. Small
robberies, ridiculous hundred grivnas thefts from supermarkets, well,
different drunken assaults and murders. A perfect example was a homeless
guy who'd broken off a huge litter-bin and dragged it to scrap metal
yard for several kopecks. For such things they put people in prison too.
I suppose it's being done this way to make sure the prisons are always full.

There were also very interesting people. It's interesting to talk about
many of them. My first cell was filled with con artists sentenced for
economic crimes. That cell was considered very civilized. In general,
there were quite a lot of interesting people. Then a guard came, I still
remember his surname, Berezovsky. He called me and said: «I have to
transport you to a special block». I didn't want to go, though I knew
that the special block is quite normal too, and in general there were
vip-convicts. But anyway I didn't want to move, because I was already
acquainted with everyone. One of them was a tattooer from Zhukovsky,
Russia. I told him that I draw too. Together we drew sketches on
bed-sheets with a gel pen. In the evening a guard came and told me I was
going to move.

I came into a new cell. The room was small (three places), clean, very
tidy, there was a refrigerator. There was one quiet old intelligent guy
making a salad. He immediately started to talk to me on a first-name
basis. He introduced himself: "Valery Vladimirovich". We greeted each
other. I told him that I was awaiting extradition to Russia according to
the article on "hooliganism", but that in fact it was a political case.
He named his articles: «excess of official powers» and «misappropriation
of state property».

I thought that the colonel was probably quite important, and later I saw
on TV that he was the vice Minister of Defense Ivaschenko. I told him
about Khimki. Now we understood that neither of us was a liar. We
communicated normally though we were people of different age and social
status. He taught me how to play chess. I left him my drawings. The
worst thing in the special block is the lack of communication.
Communication with relatives is only possible through the lawyer.

-Who else would you like to talk about from the special block?

I met a lot of different people in the special bock of the prison. For
example, I met the director of "Kievgorstroj-2" Sergey Ivanovich Kushch,
who supervised over many building projects. I presented him one of my
paintings on his Birthday. One week prior to my release, Sergey Kostakov
was also released. He was sentenced for disorder during the «Tax Maidan»
in Kiev. He wasn't in the special block, but close to us. I got
acquainted with him, while we were being taken to court. A lot of people
supported him, including 20 deputies. He had heard about Khimki as well,
when it had been shown on TV among other current events. Not as detailed
as in Russia, of course, but Ukrainian people knew about the situation.
Kostakov is a very calm person. I also often saw a fat amusing American
Fletcher, the millionaire who created a financial pyramid. He didn't
speak to anyone, but I saw him frequently. In general, the elite walks
in the prison-yard. In comparison to the regular prison standards, our
sports court was really huge.

-What is your impression of the political situation in Ukraine after
talking to some of the main characters in various scandals?

-Most information I just heard from ordinary convicts. In general, in
prison, Yanukovych is considered an unworthy president. He was a «goat»,
and he was sentenced for having almost raped someone. It is said that
the real power in Ukraine is with the Donetsk clan and he is just one of
their puppets. When he came to power even drivers in the government
garage, old professionals, had been replaced by Donetsk drivers. There
are a lot of stories about takeovers of small and medium businesses by
Donetsk clan members.

-Tell us the story of your sentence in the segregation cell. What were
you locked up there for on the 9th of May? And don't forget to tell
about how you painted it.

-Well, it was the 9th of May. A holiday. Suddenly the guard comes in the
cell: «Gather your things for the segregation cell». «What for?» I asked
him. «It's none of my business. My business is to take you there. Ask
officials about the reason».

I gathered my things, and then I was taken away. Everyone who was to be
closed up in the punishment cell was gathered up. Then they took me for
a search. There they took everything we had. We weren't allowed to take
anything: neither cigarettes, nor books. We were then taken to warden.
The chief warden and his deputies were there. There was a queue for the
segregation cell. One of his deputies asked me:

- Do you know, what you are being punished for?

- No.

- How? Your phone was taken from you in the cell.

And he told me the date.

- We hadn't been searched on that day, and no phones had been taken from
us. Show me the report.

- Here's the report, sign it. And he gave me the paper.

- I won't sign.

- You will regret it. Ten days of segregation cell.

The warden was looking at it silently. Then he said:

- What cell are you from?

- The fifteenth.

- Who else is there?

- Ivaschenko.

- To figure it out, - he told the deputy.

Convicts advised me not to argue. If I argued I would get the maximum
sentence. Suddenly, before transferring us to the segregation cells, the
guard entered and said: «Solopov, go home» (in the direction of my
cell). It appeared, that I was to return to my cell because I hadn't
signed that report. The next day the prison warden called me and kindly
told me in private: «Well, I have decided not to punish you severely.
I'll punish you with a sentence in the segregation cell. Just two days
in order that you understand what it's like». So they punished me. I
still don't know what for. Later they even apologized.

Well, the segregation cell had naked concrete walls, a concrete bowl and
a hole in the floor as a toilet. The most pleasant thing was the wooden
floor, because the cot was screwed to the wall during the whole day, so
you couldn't sit on it. There was nothing to do in general. You couldn't
have a normal meal. Meal in segregation is a mixed fodder that you can
only eat if you're starving. The only edible thing was bread, and only
with tea.

Being bored, I broken off some kind of stalactites from plaster, and it
became a piece of chalk for me. Besides that I took a piece of crude
crumbly black concrete. I had two colors. Using them I drew a sofa on
the wall, where there was the cot, two pictures in frames and on the
blank wall a slightly opened door. I tried hard and the result was not
so bad. I worked conscientiously on the perspective. The next day
security guards were delighted and they took pictures on their mobile
phones. They verbally abused me, as was their duty, but in fact they
called everyone to come and have a look.

- You mentioned your paintings. How many works did you create while you
were in prison?

- Besides the picture I gave you from prison, where I drew the cell, I
worked on some other pieces. I gave "Ronald-balanderand" (“balanda” is a
Russian prison slang for “meal” and “balander” is a prisoner who
delivers “balanda” - transl.) to Sergey Ivanovic Kushch from
"Kievgorstroj". It was of Ronald McDonald carrying a meal like a
prisoner. But I didn't explain all the meanings I had put into that
painting. He with his cell mate, the head of some village council, often
philosophized about this work during their walks. I also made one work
around the situation in Libya and Gaddafi. I made one about refugees.
All my works had some social relevance, connected to my actual
circumstances, but I don't want to describe them in words. I hope, they
will be available to a larger public in some time.

- You're a participant in the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.
Are we going to see your exposition in Moscow?

- Yes, definitely. I will do my best to make it happen. I hope, it will
be possible to show some of the paintings I made in the remand prison.
Thanks, by the way, to all who made an effort to exhibit my works in
Moscow and Kiev while I was imprisoned. I am ready to create more varied
and especially controversial works. In fact, the idea of having my own
exhibition came up in my head while I was hiding and there was something
on TV about an attack on an art gallery. It was situated in the old
building of the Khimki administration and, as was explained by one of
Khimki officials, was in fact the actual target of the antifa attack -
OS. I then decided to draw some pictures on canvases (before my arrest I
had finished only one) and with the help of my friends make an
exhibition in Moscow. It would be cool: I'm in the international search,
and there is my exhibition in Moscow. I also had an idea to arrange an
auction after the exhibition, and donate the money to the Khimki art
gallery.

- You're a professional jeweler. Your status in a new country would
allow you to get an additional education, there is a jewelery industry
in the Netherlands. Are you going to work as a jeweler?

- Yes, I will try. I hope, I will have the possibility to find a job,
allowing me not only to earn enough money to live happily, but also to
help provide my parents a better life.

- You're moving to a prosperous European country, where you will have
social security and will be able to get a free education and the chance
to work. Are you satisfied with the role of emigrant?

- No, the life of an emigrant doesn't suit me. Thanks, of course, to the
Netherlands for the residence permit, but this country is unfamiliar to
me, with its specific rules. I'm a Russian person, grew up in my
country, with its own culture, and at the first possibility I will
return home. The conflict with the state doesn't cancel out that it's my
homeland. And, being abroad, I want to influence life in my country. I
have left only to go back. I'm not a dissident, dreaming to run away.

- After a year, what do you think? What consequences did the events in
Khimki have on you, your relatives and friends?

- Well, on the one hand, many have suffered from the reprisal actions of
the Moscow region police. On the other hand, it was the real revolt of
thinking youth. It was not an oppositional action, not a banal protest.
It was a revolt against Evil, against the people who symbolize true
extremism across all Russia.

I'm often being asked such a simple question: «Would you have behaved
the same way a year ago if you had known about consequences?». My answer
is: «Definitely». Yes, all of us have suffered from the consequences.
But we have proved that ordinary kids if they are ready to unite, are
capable to put fear into shit-eating officials. In present day Russia
this is worth its weight in gold.

- What would you tell the investigators who worked on your case?

- Of course I could say: «Haha, you're losers, I got out of prison and
bypassed you». But I don't want to say that. Who are these
investigators? They are subordinates who are generally too frightened to
admit that they are the slaves of their bosses, deceiving themselves
that things are otherwise. Many of them understand that they're forced
to be engaged in this mess and make up extremism. Perhaps there are also
sincerely ridiculous people who believe in what they do. These fools do
not see the extremists in officials and instead search for them in
housing districts. I also want to tell such guys that when they catch
thinking people, it would be desirable, if they too reflected on this.
And I want to wish them to have respect for themselves. Of course if
they have any code of honor at all, if not the officers' code, then at
least the basic human code of honor.

- Do you have anything to add?

- Thanks to everyone for whom my destiny wasn't indifferent. Thanks to
all the people who helped me and my relatives. These are hundreds, if
not thousands people in different cities and countries. I have met many
of them while I was hiding and when I was in prison, some I'd known
earlier, and many of them I haven't met to this day. They are people
with different views, often even opposing views, with different
destinies and positions in society, but I am sincerely grateful to each
one of them. And I hope that with each story such as this one these good
people will believe more in their strength.

http://inter.antifa.ru/page/denis-solopov-cross-the-border-before-its-not-too-late#cut

(through
https://avtonom.org/en/news/cross-border-its-not-too-late-escape-story-denis-solopov-his-own-words)

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