Statement from Hannibal Shakur

Posted on July 23, 2013 by denverabc

From Bay Area Intifada

Oakland, CA

The political nature of my charges cannot be over-stated here. To give human rights to a mechanical entity constructed solely for the sake of profit and exploitation is a perversion of those rights and what it means to be a human being. In Florida, a white man walks for the obvious murder of a black boy. That young boy, that black child, wasn’t even given the rights of a dog. When the verdict is released, black people across America rise up to protest our non-citizen status. What could be called a riot ensues. A handful of people are arrested with charges of felony vandalism of whom I am one defendant. When Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin, he wasn’t even arrested. When a window was broken in Oakland, I was viciously slammed to the ground causing injury to my legs, arms and head. Even though I’m fighting cancer and the disgusting conditions of the Santa Rita County Jail are not conducive to healing, on top of being significantly injured by Oakland Police Officers, I was not allowed to be OR-ed or released to my Own Recognizance. A window is made of sand and can be replicated exactly. A rectangle window, of the dimensions I am being charged with breaking, doesn’t need to be replicated because the manufacturer keeps spare windows around for replacement. The United States justice system considers this a serious crime warranting felony charges. Trayvon Martin was a human being. There will only ever be one of him and we have lost him and the joy he brought to this world forever. A human life is priceless because it can never be replaced. Trayvon Martin could realistically have grown to be a political leader who would bring peace to warring nations. He could have grown to cure AIDS, cancer or diabetes. We know this to be realistic because the brother was a high achiever in school earning a 3.7 GPA. He could have developed some new treatment for drug addictions. The point I’m trying to make is, aside from being the pride and joy of his family and community, he could have made the world a better place for all of us. He could have stopped wars, cured diseases and got people off of drugs. At this point we will never know what we have lost aside from the fact that he was a beautiful young black boy who was loved and cherished. His murderer was given freedom and even got his murder weapon back with which, God forbid, he may murder another child with. This is the impotency of the US justice system, incapable of treating black people as human beings. In the same token, in Oakland, California, a place considered to have some of the strongest enforcement of civil/human rights, we are charged as felons, a charge that could land us in a penitentiary, for a Men’s Warehouse display window that was broken, yet caused no injuries to any human beings. While America is incapable of enforcing the rights of Trayvon Martin, a human child with a 3.7 GPA, corporations have been legally recognized as human beings and are being protected with the full extent of the law. I’d like to see the California ID that was issued to Men’s Warehouse. With the handling of my case and the endangerment to my vulnerable cancer-ridden body, combined with the acquittal of Zimmerman, it would appear that the US justice system has no value for human life or even more troubling, it has no value for black life. While Obama gives a televised speech on the oppression of black boys/men I am being railroaded for a broken window. I am the black life that he claims we need to have a higher value for. While my own plight is troubling as it is, the idea that we are setting a new precedent of violence against black men and boys is terrifying when I think of the kindergartners in Martin Luther King Elementary and the infants in Highland Hospital. I write this with teary eyes because as a grown man I understand what I’m facing: but how do we prepare children to face specific and targeted genocide against themselves?

Please come out to support Hannibal and another comrade on Tuesday, July 23, 1:15PM at Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland, Dept 112. See Facebook page here:https://www.facebook.com/events/197578857071020/

You can donate to Hannibal’s legal fund here: https://www.wepay.com/donations/101419068

And you can read Hannibal’s piece, The Incomprehensible Black Anarchist Position, here: https://bayareaintifada.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/incomprehensible-black-…

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Political Prisoner Mumia radio commentary predicts Zimmerman’s acquittal

Posted on July 14, 2013 by denverabc

Full audio file here at: http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia/coming-acquittal-145-mumia-abu-jamal

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Chile: Marcelo Villarroel – We walk together: it’s time to fight!!

Posted on May 9, 2013 by denverabc

marcelofrom vivalaanarquia, transl. by waronsociety:

“Because one who forgets the captives of war completely forgets the same war.”

-Gerasimos Tsakalos, CCF member in prison.

The chapters of confrontation which we live as hostages of the state-prison-capital are many and lived daily, there are no pauses in war.

Domination crushes lives in the centers of extermination and isolation, in the places of wage exploitation, in the temples of indoctrination and lobotomy which serially create teams of managers, professionals of democracy, citizens of social peace, slave-sheep of the millitary-police complex which controls a large part of the planet.

But the multiform offensive resistance is not a pantomime nor a mere pose. it is a permanent act-option-experience which manifests in all moments and aspects of our lives.

The hunted individuals and collectives of liberation extend and bond, are never extinguished nor disappear.

Where some capitulate and return to the normality of a citizen of capital, others sincerely, and with everything, rebel.

Against all authority, against the prisons and jailers, their borders, the mercantile dictatorship, the false critics, various reformists, adaptive pseudo-radicals…against all that exists that robs us of life…

There are memories of resistance and subversive struggle where there is a thirst for justice…in a sterile high-security cell, in the beautiful darkness of a mountain lined with clandestine footprints, in anonymous urban sabotage, penetrating their guarded centers of power…in a poem-song, in a text-declaration, in an honest surrender to the heart…memory and subversion exist independent of the pounding waves of repression.

Our negations are infinitely more potent then their domination, charges, and threats, are proudly fed by our desires and necessities, by our indomitable dignity which we do not buy nor sell…we are willingly irrepressible, never forgetful!!

I think of and carry with me:

-Zoe, a young compañerita libertaria* who died April 30, 2009 handling an explosive device in an abandoned factory in Cogna, Chanbery, France while we were prisoners atUnidad 11 in Newken, Argentina.

-The three compañeras and two compañeros, political prisoners incarcerated since Dec. of last year in Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina as a result of the mobilization of popular sectors tired of their misery.

-Nicola Gai, Alfredo Cospito, combative anarchist prisoners held in Ferrara, Italy, for the attack carried out in 2012 against the executive director of Anslado Nucleare.

-Jaime Gimenes Arbe, an anarchist prisoner of direct action of Basque origin, held captive since 2007 in prison in Monsanto, Portugal and perversely mistreated in a regime of punishment who has been on hunger strike since April 1st.

-Every imprisoned individuality in the whole world who fights against power.

-The anonymous in insurrection, autonomous, and anti-authoritarians who attack, practice the revolutionary experience, and walk the path of the permanent offensive against all that oppresses us.

-Those who in solidarity  accompanied us this past Wednesday, the 24th, outside of the “justice center” in Santiago, attempting to demonstrate, and who were arrested by the pigs.

-To the hermanxs in the Argentine region who manifested as well on Wednesday outside of the Chilean consulate in Buenos Aires and at the doors of the Chilean capitalist retail trash called Fallabella.

-Those who conspire in minority sectors promoting conflict, calling for social war…I’m thinking of you and carry you with me…

“Because not one sentence will be perpetual and not one prison high-security” -Claudia López B.

-Hans Niemeyer, recaptured Thursday the 26th and clumsily indicted by the prosecutor and police in order to satisfy democracy’s anti-bomb thirst for vengeance.

-Carla and Iván locked up in their houses under the same capitalist thirst for vengeance.

To break with immobility and acceptance, to construct networks of complicity, to take back the practice and ideas of subversion and revolutionary solidarity…

For anti-capitalist internationalism, autonomous, and libertario…

Let’s go, walking together, it time to fight!!

Prisoners of the Social War…to the street!!

While misery exists, there will be rebellion!!

Against prison, the state, and capital….Total liberation!!

Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda

libertario prisoner

CAS – Santiago – Chile

April 30, 2013

WOS Note: Liberatario/a/x translates directly to libertarian, but does not carry the same connotation as in the english-speaking world, especially the US. The next best choice may be anti-authoritarian, but the term seems most accurate and eloquent left as is.

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Letter from Maddy: Apologizes for Handwriting, No Contact with Lawyer in a Month

Posted on February 21, 2013 by denverabc

from CAPR:

February 1st, 2013

I am a few days past my one-month mark as I write this. I am still isolated in the Special Housing Unit here at FDC SeaTac and I have not heard any word on how long I will remain here.

I want to thank everyone who has sent me a letter thus far. Your letters and warm gestures of support from all over the world have helped remind me that I am not alone. Especially wonderful are all of the people who supported me before going in as well as those who showed up for court dates. Your advice and embraces have helped me in so many ways. Thanks to CAPR and Denver ABC for keeping my commissary full. I think of y’all every morning when I drink my instant coffee.

I am using my time to read, listen to the radio and exercise. I have been sticking to a routine, which has helped me stay grounded. I am trying my best to respond to all of the letters I have received, but am limited by stamps and supplies. I apologize if you have not received a response. Though I really should also apologize to those who have received letters from me; I am practicing to improve my handwriting.

I have particularly enjoyed receiving letters with pictures of nature/cute animals, news/goings on and jokes. I have found great strength in laughter while in here.

My main frustration thus far has been that, despite my many requests, I have still not been able to call my lawyer. It has been more than a month and I have not even seen so much as a response to my requests.

Regardless of that, I am generally in good spirits and I am looking forward to the day when I can thank everyone, in person, for their support.

Love & Rage,
Maddy Pfeiffer

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Recently Translated Chilean and Mexican Anarchist Prisoner News

Posted on January 3, 2013 by denverabc

Thanks to War on Society for the translating and Liberacion Total for hosting the news in Spanish.

Chile: Investigation against Carla Verdugo and Ivan Silva closed

On December 27, 2012 the prosecution decided to close the investigation against Carla Verdugo and Ivan Silva; both comrades were arrested on April 17, 2012 for possession of explosive material.

Charged under the anti-terrorist law, the police are speculating about the possible target of the device, pointing fancifully to the Justice Center, since Carla is the romantic partner of Juan Aliste, a comrade accused in the Security Case who had a hearing that day.

In spite of the months that the comrades have spent in preventive prison, they have with dignity rejected the southern prosecution’s petitions that intend to bring about an abbreviated trial (in which they take responsibility) under the anti-terrorist law. Faced with the null sentences for the anti-terrorist law in other cases, the prosecution insists on the blackmail against the comrades.

From December 27, the southern prosecution has a period of 10 days to present the “Accusation.” A judicial document and stage where the persecutors indicate the sentence they intend to apply and the list of witnesses, experts and evidence. Then comes the preparation of the oral trial and finally the trial.

We affectionately greet Ivan and Carla; we expect and call on you to accompany them in this whole juridical process of blackmail.

Ivan and Carla: To the street!

Solidarity letters from Italian anarchist prisoner Elisa to Luciano Pitronello and Mario López from inside Rebibbia prison in Rome.

Dear compa Luciano,

We do not know each other yet every time I hear news surrounding you and your incarceration (your wounds and capture by the Chilean state) I feel we have met, every time my smiling eyes admire your smile and firm gaze.

Though we have never met, I greet you every time I read your words full of flame and tenderness, forcefulness and gentleness, of struggle and love…The solidarity you expressed to me from the 10th of September on to the 11th through a hunger strike filled me with emotion and gratitude. Your simple act of complicit revolt, in which you shouted your own love of freedom entered “my” cell of iron and cement. It separates, crumbles, and removes the miserable “dignity” that each state, or dictatorship pretends to give with a reformist touch, and turns it into a dazzling blinding bonfire, a savage flower, a snow-covered peak.

Brother Tortuga I hope you are well! I know that your spirit is unyielding and free…You are not alone, we are not alone!

From this snow-covered peak, where my anarchist essence knows no bars, I send you a strong embrace of solidarity and rebellion, full of strength and love!

Elisa Di Bernardo,
Anarquista.
c/c Rebibbia femminile
via Bartolo Longo, 92
00156 Roma
Italia

Greetings compa Mario,

When I heard what happened to you, my heart stopped for a few minutes, I felt so much…for sometime now I find myself in one of the thousands of the state’s cages. I am one of the Italian prisoners rounded this past June 13th under “Operation Aidre.”

My rebel spirit accompanies you through your days spent in the hospital and still accompanies you through your seclusion in the cells of Mexico!

I want you to know that you are not alone…We are not alone! I hope you are well, for real, with a combative spirit.

You already know about the absurd judicial hysteria surrounding Stefano and I…from the beginning we knew that these days it is a crime to distribute counter-information and to have contacts amongst compas–above all anarchist and rebel compas. If being an anarchist is a crime…I am guilty!

As an individual I also reject the concepts of federation, front, organization or whatever else… The blood in my veins grows hot with each act of rebellion, with each action of revolt, with each liberatory outburst that seeks to destroy that which oppresses us, that which poisons each of our existences, transforms it into a grey death, into economic gain, and turns the natural instinct of autonomy and freedom into a frozen calculation.

With these few words I want to express my closeness and complicity! May the bridge between “your” cell and “my” cell, in between every cell which encloses our compas in struggle, become a constellation of concrete solidarity…That will break down every wall, each isolation!

It is from “my” cage without walls, that I send you a strong embrace full of strength and anarchy! The same I send to compa Felicity!

Elisa Di Bernardo,
Anarquista.
c/c Rebibbia femminile
via Bartolo Longo, 92
00156 Roma
Italia

Letter from clandestinity for Mario López’s recent release from prison under bail

To my brother Mario,

Six months have passed since they captured you that ill-fated night, since they tortured you and threatened you, since they harassed your family and friends. For six months they tried everything to be able to break your anarchic spirit–they enclosed your body between four walls and innumerable bars, far from the wild forests where you belong, but it did not occur to them that at every moment you were going to be with your compañerxs in affinity around the world. They left you enduring pain, but your will to fight always won out.

(more…)

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Canada: Mandy Hiscocks released from prison

Posted on December 4, 2012 by denverabc

Mandy Hiscocks was released from prison in Canada today. The following is Mandy’s statement on her release that she posted to her blog, available at borednotbroken.tao.ca

November 21 – Aries – Life is good and about to get even better. You can’t quite believe that ? Well you will when you begin to see that everything is going your way at last. Keeping a positive attitude is easy when so many positive things are happening.

it’s been snowing lately, and the air blowing through the window frame is cold. now it really feels like i’ve been here for the better part of a year; i’ve watched all the seasons go by. it’s strange because instead of the approaching winter, i feel the onset of spring – that excitement about spending more time outside, the plans and hopes and sense of new beginnings that usually come with the longer days and warmer winds. i’m getting ready to leave this place! i can hardly believe it. only one day left now to finish all the books i’m reading (according to jail superstition, if you leave an unfinished book behind you’re destined to come back to finish it. you’ll also come back if you write on the walls and if you don’t point your shoes towards the cell door when you take them off you’ll never leave). soon i’ll be packing up, throwing out or giving away all the little things that have made this place a bit more comfortable: the poster of Marilyn Buck taped to the cardboard back of a pad of paper and propped against the wall at the end of my bed and the photos – of nature, a burning cop car, my friends’ dog – taped to laundry detergent boxes, because nothing can be taped to the walls here or the guards come and rip it down. the pencil holder made of a toilet paper roll on my desk, the orange peel potpourri in a flattened out meds cup on the shelf. the empty chip bags and mr. noodles cups for food storage, the old newspapers waiting to be burned in the Native Sisters’ Fire, the chessboard, the articles and short stories people have sent in the mail. i can’t say that i’ll miss this place, but i might miss having to make do with so little such that every small possession is a prize.
(more…)

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Canada: Ann Hansen’s Statement on Her Recent Arrest, Imprisonment and Release

Posted on November 19, 2012 by denverabc

Originally posted to the Media Co-op

Ann Hansen is a former member of Direct Action, an underground anarchist group active in the 1980s, who presently lives as a writer, farmer and public speaker in the Kingston area. On August 3, 2012, Ann was arrested and had her parole suspended for ‘unauthorized associations and political activity’ in the context of growing anti-prison organizing in Kingston, Canada’s prison capital. Ann, with the advice of her lawyer, chose to not publicize her arrest until after her parole hearing. On October 30, the Parole Board canceled her parole suspension and released her on stricter conditions. This is her first public statement regarding her arrest and imprisonment.

On August 3, I was at my home near Kingston, Ontario, sitting in a lawn chair after supper when out of the corner of my eye I saw a line of black SUVs speeding towards our driveway. With a sinking feeling, I realized one of my reoccurring fears as a parolee was becoming a reality. Four SUVs turned into our driveway, slammed on their brakes and out hopped about six to eight cops from the Ontario Provincial Police dressed in full Darth Vader gear with a couple of them brandishing automatic weapons for full dramatic effect. As I struggled to stay calm, I noticed the acronym ROPE (Re-Offenders and Parole Enforcement Squad) in bright yellow blazoned across their bullet proof vests.

They parked askew all over the driveway, and while a couple of them with their fully automatic rifles took positions at the top of our property, the rest walked rapidly up to where I was and handcuffed me without saying a word. I asked the one female cop what this was all about and she said my parole was being suspended.

I spent a few days at the local remand center, Quinte Detention Centre, before a new parole officer (my regular parole officer was suddenly replaced) and a Security Intelligence Officer (SIO) from Correctional Service Canada (CSC) came to see me for a post suspension interview. They spent an hour and a half interrogating me and trying to intimidate me into giving them the names of anyone involved in EPIC (End the Prison Industrial Complex) or any other anti-prison activists, as well as information about any possible “bombings and arsons” which the SIO warned me I would be responsible for “if it all went sideways.” Needless to say, they were not satisfied when I told them I didn’t have names for them. The interview would have made a hilarious Monty Python script with the SIO comparing me at times to Ghandi and then in the next breath to James Holmes, the “joker” who killed twelve people during the Batman film in Colorado. The outcome of the interview wasn’t quite so hilarious.
(more…)

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Letter from KteeO!

Posted on October 24, 2012 by denverabc

Image

In early Octorber, we held a letter writing night here in Denver with a focus around the recent flurry of grand jury repression being faced by anarchists in the Pacific Northwest.  Below is a note from KTeeO, currently incarcerated in Seattle for her refusal to cooperate with the grand jury.  She asked that we share this message across ABC sites.

“I want to thank you all for all the work that you do – prisoner support, like most support work, is all too often overlooked;  but i know that what y’all do makes it possible for me to do what I am doing.

I am doing fine – thanks in large part to all of the support that I have been receiving.  Being on the inside I am constantly reminded that every prisoner is a political prisoner – and that incarceration affects everyone, knowing that so many of y’all share these sentiments with me inspires me and makes me feel connected.

Anyway, thank you again.

Keep smiling.  Keep struggling.

In solidarity,

Kteeo

Katherine Olejnik 42592-086
FDC SeaTac
P.O. Box 13900
Seattle, WA 98198

Please take a moment out of your day to send KTeeO a note.  Homegirl is staying strong behind bars but a few quick words of encouragement can make all the difference.  For more information on grand jury resistance and how you can support these rad folks check out Support Grand Jury Resisters, Committee Against Political Repression, and SayNothing.info

Also, don’t forget to write Matt Duran, the other grand jury resister currently behind bars.

Matthew Kyle Duran #42565-086
FDC SeaTac
P.O. Box 13900
Seattle, WA 98198

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We Are Made of St(a)r Stuff – Statement by Leah-Lynn Plante

Posted on October 10, 2012 by denverabc

From Leah’s Tumblr
On the morning of July 25th, 2012, my life was turned upside down in a matter of hours. FBI agents from around Washington and Oregon and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents from Washington busted down the front door of my house with a battering ram, handcuffed my house mates and me at gunpoint, and held us hostage in our backyard while they read us a search warrant and ransacked our home. They said it was in connection to May Day vandalism that occurred in Seattle, Washington earlier this year. However, we suspected that this was not really about broken windows. As if they had taken pointers from Orwell’s 1984, they took books, artwork and other various literature as “evidence” as well as many other personal belongings even though they seemed to know that nobody there was even in Seattle on May Day. While we know that knowledge is powerful, we suspected that nobody used rolled up copies of the Stumptown Wobbly to commit property damage. We saw this for what it was. They are trying to investigate anarchists and persecute them for their beliefs. This is a fishing expedition. This is a witch hunt. Since then, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, we have learned that this Grand jury was convened on March 2nd, 2012, two months before the May Day vandalism even took place.

I was served a subpoena to testify before a Grand Jury on August 2nd, a week later. I hastily packed my life up into boxes, got rid of almost all of my personal belongings in preparation of incarceration. I was dismissed that day after refusing to testify and re-subpoenaed for August 30th, which was pushed back to September 13th. In that time I did a lot of self care, got my affairs in order and got advice from other people who have either resisted Grand Juries, gone to prison or both. I returned to the Grand Jury on September 13th where I was granted immunity. When you are granted immunity, you lose your right to remain silent and can be thrown into prison for civil contempt. Between consulting with my attorney and an hour long recess, I narrowly avoided a contempt hearing simply because they ran out of time. I was dismissed and was told I would receive my 4th subpoena. I walked out of the courthouse just in time to witness Matthew Kyle Duran, my fellow resister, being taken away to prison in a police van. It broke my heart to watch them kidnap an amazing and strong person and take him away from his friends and loved ones. Katherine “Kteeo” Olejnik has met a similar fate for refusing to testify on September 27th. Right now, Matt and Kteeo are both sitting in prison cells for doing nothing but remaining silent. I have nothing but love and admiration for them both and I know that thousands of others feel the same. On the drive home that night my brain felt like it was short circuiting. A few days later, I received notice that my next subpoena was for October 10th. They also notified my lawyer that they were preparing for a contempt hearing.

(more…)

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Yekaterina Samutsevich: Closing Statement at the Pussy Riot Trial

Posted on August 11, 2012 by denverabc

FromChtodelat News:

Yekaterina Samutsevich, defendant in the criminal case against the feminist punk group Pussy Riot:

During the closing statement, the defendant is expected to repent or express regret for her deeds, or to enumerate attenuating circumstances. In my case, as in the case of my colleagues in the group, this is completely unnecessary. Instead, I want to express my views about the causes of what has happened with us.

The fact that Christ the Savior Cathedral had become a significant symbol in the political strategy of our powers that be was already clear to many thinking people when Vladimir Putin’s former [KGB] colleague Kirill Gundyaev took over as head of the Russian Orthodox Church. After this happened, Christ the Savior Cathedral began to be used openly as a flashy setting for the politics of the security services, which are the main source of power [in Russia].

Why did Putin feel the need to exploit the Orthodox religion and its aesthetics? After all, he could have employed his own, far more secular tools of power—for example, national corporations, or his menacing police system, or his own obedient judiciary system. It may be that the tough, failed policies of Putin’s government, the incident with the submarine Kursk, the bombings of civilians in broad daylight, and other unpleasant moments in his political career forced him to ponder the fact that it was high time to resign; otherwise, the citizens of Russia would help him do this. Apparently, it was then that he felt the need for more convincing, transcendental guarantees of his long tenure at the helm. It was here that the need arose to make use of the aesthetics of the Orthodox religion, historically associated with the heyday of Imperial Russia, where power came not from earthly manifestations such as democratic elections and civil society, but from God Himself.
(more…)

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