Due to numerous setbacks and tragedies, we need to take a break. I’m not sure when publication will pick back up or what the project will look like when it does. We remain deeply involved in prisoner solidarity work in other forms.
We will continue to check our email and will be switching our listing of anarchist prisoners over to another site.
[Download Issue #5] (Prints 8.5×11)
Summer is almost over but things are burning up in the prisons and in the streets. All around the United States, prisoners and comrades in the “free world” are gearing up for the beginning of coordinated anti-prison actions on September 9th, 2016. In just a few weeks, the Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners begins, marking with fire the state murder of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti on August 23. 1927, turning memory into active revolt for all anarchist combatants locked behind bars today.
In this issue of Wildfire, comrades continue the debate on reformist action that has been raging since issue 1, bring to light the presence of queer and transgender prisoners in ongoing prison rebellions, comment on recent retaliation against police, critically discuss prisoner apathy and revolt, and give a glimpse of possibilities for September 9th.
We hope that the coming months will be ones we, and our enemies, will never forget.
CONTENTS
–“Time…is Never Worth My Time” by Boots
–“Assuming the Risk of Demanding Real Social Change Requires Imagination and Daring” by Lacino Hamilton
–“Free Trans Political Prisoners” by Jennifer Gann
–“Oppression of Religion Inside” by Thomas Derring
–“Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” by Todd Shepard
–“We Hear You” by Provisionals
–“No Correction, Only Coercion” by Woody
–“The Untold Story” by Michael Kimble
–“A Message to a Message” by Anarcho-Faheem
–“Identity Crisis: Who Am I?” by Blacc Lion
–A letter from Luke O’Donovan
–“Violence is Not the Answer” by Sean Swain
–“Birth of the Free Virginia Movement” by the Free Virginia Movement Collective
–“The Parable of the Boiled Frog: The Virginia DOC’s Protracted, Low-Intensity War Against a Complacent Prisoner-Class” by Uhuru B. Rowe
–Another installment of Buckin in the BOP by anonymous
–A chronology of the past few months of anarchist action and prison rebellion
[If you would like a PDF with a slightly more ‘prison-friendly’ cover, please write to us.]
[Download Issue #4] (Prints 8.5×11)
Here’s the fourth issue of Wildfire. We’re a little late in posting it online because, well, we’ve been busy. Prison struggle in the U.S. is heating up and spreading. Coordinated action is being called for September 9th, with work stoppages being planned in multiple states. June 11th, the international day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners, is just weeks away. Rebels throughout the world have their sights on the end of this prison society and the flowering of total freedom in its wake. We’d like to write more, but we’ll let this issue of Wildfire speak for itself.
We send solidarity to Tato and Javier, anarchists recently found guilty by the Chilean state of burning a Transantiago bus.
Toward a hot, hot summer & dancing on the rubble where the prisons used to be.
CONTENTS
– “Critical Resistance of the Yeast Variety” by Lacino Hamilton
– A letter from Brandon Gray
– “Reintroduction & Some Thoughts on Terrorism, Language, Context, and Strategy” by Brandon Baxter
– A message from Todd Shepard
– Another installment of “Buckin in the BOP” by anonymous
– Some thoughts from Anastazia Schmid
– “Solitary as a Weapon” by Jose Villarreal
– A letter from Stephen O. Swartz
– Response to Issue #3 by Sayf
–“In Defense of Fire & Smoke: Another Response in the Ongoing Debate on What Constitutes Reformist Tactic” by Sean Swain
– A chronology of some actions December 2015-March 2016
[Download Issue #3] (Prints 8.5×11)
It seems fitting that we are releasing this issue now, in December. Following the letter from imprisoned anarchists in Greece and the call for international activity, Black December rages on, writing the memory of our fallen comrades with words, banners, stones, and fire. In that spirit, we dedicate this third issue of Wildfire to the memory of New Afrikan anarchist and Black Liberation Army combatant Kuwasi Balagoon, and earth liberationist William Avalon Rogers.
Kuwasi Balagoon was killed by medical neglect while doing a life sentence for an expropriation in which two police and one guard were killed. Kuwasi died from an AIDS-related illness on December 13, 1986. William Avalon Rogers took his own life while in jail on charges related to arsons committed by the Earth Liberation Front. He died on the winter solstice, December 21, 2005. This month will mark the ten year anniversary of Avalon’s death.
We write this not as a reminder of the risks inherent in struggle, nor to emphasize the brutality of the state. We remember Kuwasi and Avalon because their lives have created small spaces in our own lives where domination ceases and freedom blooms. We remember Kuwasi and Avalon because they have inspired us to act, in our own ways, against order. We remember Kuwasi and Avalon because we want to continue the struggles to which they gave their lives.
Most of all, we remember Kuwasi and Avalon because so many others involved in the struggles for black liberation, earth liberation, animal liberation, and anarchy remain behind bars. We intend to see all of these comrades free, and until that day, to act in solidarity with their struggles and with prison revolts wherever they happen.
Unwavering solidarity to all rebellious prisoners!
Memory is a weapon.
CONTENTS
– “A Balanced Approach” by Lacino Hamilton
– “The Freedom Movement” by Terrence Adderly
– A letter from Casey Brezik
– “Who Should Step Down?” by Jose Villareal
– News from Alabama by anonymous
– A response to Sean Swain by Christopher Reynolds
– A response to issue #1 by Anarcho-Faheem
– A reply to Michael Kimble by Sean Swain
– “Work Strikes: A Response” by Michael Kimble
– “Buckin in the BOP” by anonymous
– Call for a Black December
– A chronology of some actions August-November 2015
[Download Issue #2] (Prints 8.5×11)
The past months have seen a continuation of prison struggle in its many forms, as well as a blanket of repression from state forces against anarchist insurgency. As international attacks multiplied and the comrades remained steadfast, the Greek hunger strikers won many of their demands. At the same time, the Czech Republic unleashed Operation Phoenix in an effort to repress the struggle there, and the Spanish state continued its attacks against anarchists by initiating raids and arrests in Operation Piñata. Chilean comrades Nataly, Juan, Enrique, and Guillermo won many of their hunger strike demands; while elsewhere in Chile, the state continued its attacks on Tato and Javier, accused of burning a Transantiago bus. Sean Swain was held incommunicado for months and Marius Mason was thrown in solitary for a month. And just days ago, anarchist comrade Ignacio Muñoz Delgado was arrested in Chile by plainclothes cops, who say they found Ignacio with an explosive device and pamphlets expressing solidarity with comrades arrested for an arson attack on the Homicide Investigation Brigade. Hunger strikes from Greece to Chile to Alabama, widespread counter-attacks against repression, the ceaseless cadence of the anarchist war against power. We are disgusted by the state’s attempts to grind our comrades into dust, but we are strengthened by the beautiful flames of anarchy that cannot be contained by recuperation or prison walls.
We are excited to share the writings in this second issue of Wildfire, for their diversity and their incisiveness. We print texts from comrades previously unknown to us and from those we have struggled alongside for years. We print introductions, poetry, updates, and the first steps in a debate on prison strikes and reformism. Since we refuse any ideology that flattens the polymorphous nature of anarchist thought and practice, we print these very different texts with joy at each of their particularities.
We send our love to all anarchist combatants caught in the enemy’s dungeons!
CONTENTS
– “All Prisoners are Political” by Sean Swain
– “Remember the Dead, Solidarity for the Living” by Brandon Baxter
– A letter from Manuel Salas
– Call for support from Anarchist Black Cross – Florida Prison Chapter
– A letter from Todd Shepard
– Introduction by Christopher L. Young
– “From an Alabama Prison” by Fahamivu Amon
– An update from Gender Anarky
– A letter from Julia Wheelwright
– “Silent Scream” by Francisca Orellana Polanko
– “Buckin in the BOP” by anonymous
– “Federal Sentencing Reforms” by anonymous
– A letter from Michael Kimble
– “Chaotic Confinement” by Charles Chatman
– A Letter from Blacc Lion
– A chronology of the last four months of revolt, repression, and attack.
– “For Spyros Dravilas: Awaiting the Hour of Vengeance”
[Download Issue #1] (Prints 8.5×11)
We’re excited to announce the first issue of Wildfire, a new quarterly newsletter of anarchist prison struggle.
We have two goals with this project: to spread the words and actions of anarchist prisoners in the United States and to offer news and updates on anti-authoritarian struggle for comrades in prison who might not otherwise have access to this information.
Wildfire flows with our continued frustration with the state of anarchist prison solidarity in the United States: the lack of prisoners’ voices in our publications, the half-hearted solidarity shown toward captured fighters, the dead-end of “political prisoner” designation. It also flows from our long-term relationships with imprisoned comrades, the mutual affinity found in struggling together. Rather than complain and critique, we prefer to strike out in another direction, embodying our own vision of solidarity. We hope this publication can be a contribution to a more diverse, more combative, and stronger anarchist struggle against prison.
We do not wish to be mediators of prisoners’ voices. Aside from updates and an introduction, the publication consists solely of prisoners’ writings. Most of the prisoner writings in this first issue were sent to us directly by comrades, but we have also reprinted statements by Jason Hammond and Eric McDavid that we found inspiring.
We want to make clear that acts of solidarity with captured anarchists are not the full extent of struggle. While this project chooses to focus on imprisoned anarchists due to our limited time and energy, this is only one aspect of a polymorphous war against the social order. There is a great need for projects focused on supporting prison rebellion in the wider prison population, rebellion that some of our imprisoned comrades are actively involved in. Solidarity, if it is not to die in our mouths, should extend beyond politics and subculture, bringing to life instead an iconoclastic attack on power.
While we are in contact with most of the anarchist prisoners we know of in the United States, we would love contacts for others who we may not know about. Contact us at wildfire [at] riseup [dot] net
CONTENTS
– “Against Democracy, For Anarchy: Anarchist Responses to Operation Pandora”
– “Hour of Vengeance: The Struggle Against the C-type Prisons in Greece”
– A chronology of other attacks on the social order
– A letter and an update from Andy Homer
– A Letter from Casey Brezik
– “Visions, Not Blueprints” by Connor Stevens
– An introduction by Jennifer Gann
– An appeal for solidarity from Brandon Baxter
– “Direct Action” by Sean Swain
– Sentencing Statement of Jason Hammond
– “Inner Anarchy” by Tommy Jones
– “To My Comrades” and “Up the Ante” by Michael Kimble
– Some words from Eric McDavid after his release
– A call to support Dante Cano, a young anarchist facing charges in the Bay Area
