In Contempt #40: State Unleashes Counter-Insurgency Campaign Against Anti-War Movement

In this column, we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news, happenings, announcements, action and analysis. Packed in as always are updates, fundraisers, and birthdays.

There’s a lot happening, so let’s dive right in!

Interview with Tom Nomad on the Exploding Student Anti-War Movement, Counter-Insurgency, and Police Repression

In Contempt: We’ve seen a massive mobilization by the State against the protests. What do you make of this and what does it say about the moment we’re in?

Tom Nomad: I have been thinking a lot about this over the last couple of weeks, as we have watched occupations start and grow. On the surface this approach seems to make little sense. For years at this point we have watched police departments around the country learn how to decelerate conflict through containment tactics; not necessarily “kettling,” but surrounding actions and controlling the area, allowing them to fizzle out and preventing them from being able to expand. It was an incredibly effective tactic set, so why have they moved away from it?

I think the roots of that shift are in the way that police were run off the streets in 2020. During the rebellion, cops were on the back foot and started lashing out. We have always seen mass police violence, even with the use of these control tactics, but in 2020 there was a clear shift. The veneer of police “neutrality” fell away, and it became clear to a whole new group of people what side the cops are on. Unlike in the past, where police complicity was implicit, now the police have started taking on an overtly combative tone in their internal discourse. The “thin blue line” mythology has morphed into a political statement, with the cops being there to protect “good Americans” from “the Left.”

When this is combined with the broader dynamics of social conflict, I think what we are seeing is, not so much cops siding with Israel, but a sort of implied combativeness that is not associated with any confrontation with police. After people ran them off the streets in 2020, and have done so a number of times since, specifically in Atlanta, every confrontation with the State now has the baggage of carrying implications for the legitimacy of the State as a whole. The concept that police are necessary is collapsing, and along with it their role in relation to the cities they occupy has shifted; their position is under acute threat, and they are responding to anything that undermines that position. We are seeing a similar mentality play out with the militancy of police and liberals around sweeping encampments of people forced to sleep outside and rolling back reforms to policing in order to “take the gloves off” so they can address a largely fictional, but perceived, rise in “crime.”

When viewed from this perspective, the tactics that have been used by the police, which have been incredibly heavy handed, make sense. For them, this is not about Gaza or the genocide of Palestinians. Rather, this is about asserting police authority. We have watched this assertion occur in two different ways. The first has been this brute-force approach of crushing dissent, and we are seeing that at places like Columbia University. The other approach, which we are starting to see emerge increasingly is a far more subtle, counter-insurgency inspired, approach. In this approach the administration of the school negotiates with faculty and students, not around divestment, but around the right to camp outside. This has, in all cases in which I am aware, been coupled with police being positioned around the camp to check IDs, prevent non-students from being in camps, and generally policing the movement of people. Functionally, the deal is that students avoid arrest, as long as they are OK with having a protest, with no immediate effect, in a cage surrounded by police.

This approach serves a number of important roles for the State. Firstly, it allows for the classic counter-insurgency calculation, where redeemable elements are separated from “irredeemable” elements, to occur, providing a basis for future activity by the State. In this move they identify the often small minority of students that are willing to negotiate and give them concessions, like being able to keep an encampment under strict terms.

The impact of this is to create a dividing line between participants, where, now, if an eviction happens it can be blamed on the “bad” students, and not the “good” ones that were already allowed to have their protest. Secondly, this approach rearranges the power dynamics of the action entirely, stripping us of any possibility in action, and confining action to speech. By focusing on keeping encampments alive, rather than focusing on the actions the camps are meant to facilitate, the whole purpose of the action is now largely reduced to being an outdoor open-mic which is, again, surrounded by police who ID everyone entering the protest cage. It reduces all political action to discursive expression, speeches, policies, but the whole protest is now premised on the continued existence of the university administration, its police, and the terms they have imposed. This was a major shortcoming in Occupy, where, after the first few weeks, most of the focus was on keeping camps open, preventing camp evictions, and the logistics of running camps; most of the actual impactful actions got crushed under the weight of this shift in the terms of the fight. Finally, on a political level, this approach allows university administrations to wash their hands of the actual questions, investments in Israeli companies, and shift the discussion into one that they have no accountability within. When universities take this position they are able to say that they “worked with students” and “preserved free speech” while also saying to conservative donors to those schools that they are not acting against Israeli interests. Similar approaches were used when people tried to force divestment from South Africa in the 1990s as well; though ultimately successful, that campaign had to deal with a lot of diversion attempts by university administrations.

All of this indicates that the terms of what is happening are higher than they may seem on the surface. For students this is about divestment from Israel, and for more radical students it is about far more than that. But, for the police, the considerations are very immediate; they were shown to be unable to control the streets in 2020, and are now acting against people they view as enemies. We have moved from a softer counter-insurgency approach that we have seen for years, and that is documented well in Our Enemies In Blue, where moderate factions were used to de-legitimize more radical factions, and have moved into a more combative mode, where they still work with moderates, but with the consequence for the radicals being far more severe. Shifts like this in approaches of state forces tends to indicate an anxiety around the ability to maintain police power in an area, and that seems to be where their primary concerns are now.

I have talked about this in the past, but the world that I came into when I got involved, like 25 years ago, was one in which we were a fringe minority of dirty traveler kids and students, often fighting against forces far more numerous, and far more powerful than ourselves. We were creating mosquito bites, which eventually grew to major actions. But, even on the streets of Pittsburgh in 2009, during the G20, even right after the financial collapse, it still had this aura. In the times since then the stability of the state has begun to crumble, legitimacy had largely dried up, the American social fabric is shredded, and US global hegemony is collapsing. It is a different world, a far more precarious one, and I think a lot of the increase in police violence as of late is part of an internal police culture that is responding to this loss of unchallenged hegemony over the streets, combined with the overt encouragement of liberal politicians and university administrators giving them cover.

IC: Beyond just naked state violence we’re also seeing a counter-insurgency strategy play out – from disinformation to attempts to pacify some encampments. What are your thoughts?

TN: As I mentioned before, we have started to see more moves in this direction over the last couple of days. These moves are starting to be seen at universities that are negotiating terms of continued protest with students. In watching this develop, I have been trying to identify a pattern in places where this counter-insurgency inspired co-optation approach is being taken, and it feels very uneven right now. During the Occupy evictions there were calls organized by police think-tanks to coordinate responses and eviction tempos for camps, to allow different departments to support one another in case of a riot. That led to a response that felt highly coordinated and, in places outside of Oakland, largely relatively similar, with some variations between geographic areas. This time there seems to be an almost total absence of this sort of coordinated approach. It is not just in major cities that we are seeing extreme police violence, we are also seeing it in places like Cal Poly, which is up in Humboldt County. So, from what I can tell, the response has been largely ad-hoc. That is unlikely to continue though.

As these encampments develop, one of two things will happen, and that will shape a lot of the follow-up response by the state. It could be that students change tactics, leave static soft locations where they are easy targets and exposed, and start to use tactics that do not allow them to be concentrated in small areas and easily controlled. We are already seeing that in some locations, like at Columbia, where there has been more dynamic street fighting and the occupation of hard targets, like buildings, which are harder, and far more risky, to raid.

If that happens, this approach that is developing, where moderates negotiate terms of protest, will be functionally rendered moot due to the camps themselves falling out of the center of the action. Occupy never made this turn, and it got crushed as a result. The other possibility is that people are going to try to stay at and defend outdoor, soft encampments as long as they can. If that approach is taken, I think we are going to see a lot more negotiated settlement. As time goes on the stress, tension, level of activity, the fact you are sleeping outside, eating insufficient meals, probably not drinking enough water, all starts to add up. The cops get to go home and sleep in a warm bed at night, and only work in shifts. Occupations require full time activity, at a heightened level of awareness, often in uncomfortable circumstances. As happened with Occupy, for those that are trying only to have a protest, and are not trying to fight the State, negotiated settlement starts to look really good. This becomes especially the case when most of the people on the front-lines end up arrested and with charges in the first couple of weeks, limiting their future activity in the action.

This anxiety effect is being added to through disinformation, the manipulation of the narrative of anti-Semitism to excuse genocidal state actions, the constant arguments, and now the literal police sanctioned, physical attacks by Zionists and the right-wing on camps. All of that is aimed at creating conditions that make sustaining an encampment impossible. Students are going to need to decide whether they want to fight to maintain a camp, where all of our advantages of speed, mobility, and flexibility are severely limited, and in which we are at an extreme disadvantage on the level of force, or whether the mode of action is going to shift, yet again, into something far more dynamic. One of the things about this wave of activity that is giving me some hope is that the tactical discussion is moving quickly. We have already passed from groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) forcing almost everything into controlled opposition and pointless marches, into a mode of small scale direct action, and are now into a mode of occupations and discussing shield tactics and things.

Personally, I am a serious critic of shield tactics, (they eliminate ALL of our advantages and amplify ALL of our disadvantages, and should be used only when there is absolutely no other choice), and I think we are starting to see people hit the limits of those tactics pretty quickly. I think the real question, and the thing that will determine how different forces act, is going to center around how the coming days develop, and whether this expands outside of being a campus protest about Palestine, and into something bigger than universities, and far more expansive politically.

IC: For those of us off campus, what can we do?

TN: A lot of the answers to this question is going to be extremely specific to a person’s specific situation, but I think there are some general things we can look to do.

• Anarchists have developed incredible logistical capacity, and can provide a backbone to something like an encampment. That requires us to be present, spreading ideas, and helping to facilitate the actions we want to facilitate. Start getting Food not Bombs (FNB) groups down to camps, have the local distro set up a table, put up a big tent and hang massive black flags from it and give out free food. It makes a lot of sense for people to go to the encampment in their area first to find out what the needs are, but often we can provide those as a community with relatively little effort (at least a lot less than it takes to build that stuff from scratch).
• We are also really really good at doing direct action, or have gotten very good at it over the years. For those of us that have spent time in the thick of it, many of us can see or feel a distinction between protests and actual fighting. It is that moment when the immediate struggle shifts to being one about driving the police from the streets. Right now these encampments are caught in between being a protest and being something more serious, and many of the participants are not necessarily ready for that shift to happen. There has been an increasing number of direct action trainings and things that I have seen happening at camps. We need to continue that, and expand it if we can, both to help provide tools to be more effective, and also helping people make conscious decisions about risk.
• We have to get rid of the damn tankies and liberals. All over the country, just as in the beginning, moderate groups, like PSL and others, are trying to turn a combative and chaotic moment into a discursive and controlled protest. We all know that this is about recruitment for them, and they are perfectly OK abandoning this struggle when it no longer serves their Party. When people do things like negotiate with administrations or police, try to force agreements onto others within camps, or try to control the actions of people (we literally had the local PSL post pictures of someone that threw a water bottle at cops, denouncing the action and trying to identify them…), we have to call this out. During the anti-war movement we had to deal with a lot of shit like this, and eventually we said enough was enough. By leaving political circles populated by people that are not fighting the same fight as us (liberals and state socialists) we were able to gain the space to experiment with direct action, develop this incredible logistical capacity, and build the foundations of the contemporary anarchist milieu in the US. That happened not through “left unity,” working with our enemies, but through political differentiation and refusing to compromise with these enemies.
• As much as we can, or as much as there is capacity for, we need to help expand this outside of universities. The protests began as a broad based series of actions out in city streets. During the past couple of weeks the combativeness has increased notably, but the action is largely confined to the limitations of university environments and their surrounding areas, with police serving to reinforce this separation and isolate campus areas. This allows state forces to cut off and concentrate force against the student encampments, leaving them incredibly vulnerable. The only way to take some heat off the students is to create other points of response by having actions in other parts of the city, or even other campus areas if the primary forces are university police.  Having solidarity actions, launching marches coordinated with activities at an encampment, postering campaigns, etc. All of these help to create a sense of an environment in resistance, and provide at least some minor logistical cover for the camps.

Most importantly, we have to bring this outside of the campuses, or at least connect it to the world outside of campuses. Isolating campuses and camps is one of the most effective means the State has for crushing this thing. To the degree that we do not have actual relationships on these campuses, we need to develop them and have them play the role of coordinating across what is often a physical line of police. Only when we can start to act in concert with activities on campuses, can this start to spread further.

Check out more writings from Tom Nomad on the Anarchist Library.

Massive Police Crackdown on Anti-War Protests in the US

As we go to print, the State in the US has launched a massive crackdown of anti-war protests, occupations, and encampments spreading across the country. According to The Appeal:

American college students and staff are being arrested and brutalized by law enforcement across the U.S. for protesting Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip. In moves that echo the repression of Vietnam War protesters more than 50 years ago, politicians and school administrators have sent police and state troopers on college campuses from New York to Texas to violently remove people camping on university grounds.

Based on The Appeal’s survey of local news reports and student newspapers, police have so far arrested more than 2,200 people.

According to a nationwide review by The Appeal, students and their allies have built protest encampments or staged sit-ins on at least 95 college campuses across 40 states during the past month. Protesters are demanding an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, that their schools divest from Israeli companies, and that Israel cease its attacks on Gaza, which have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in what many human rights experts and international organizations have called a genocide.

In many cases, the state has responded to those concerns with threats or outright violence—putting snipers on the roof of Indiana University, tear gassing students in Virginia, and physically assaulting people in Austin. The NYPD reportedly fired a gun inside a Columbia University campus building.

In Los Angeles, a crowd of Israel supporters violently attacked students at the University of California, Los Angeles encampment shows while police and campus security stood by, according to video footage captured by journalists present on Apr. 30. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) confirmed there were no arrests that evening.

The next night, LAPD, California Highway Patrol, and other law-enforcement agencies fired rubber bullets at protesters, destroyed tents and other belongings, and arrested at least 209 pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

…students across the country still face severe consequences, including potential suspensions, evictions, expulsions, and criminal prosecutions. The latter depends on local prosecutors (or, in some cases, municipal city attorneys) who often have broad leeway to file—or drop—charges after someone is arrested.

New York Police Department officers have arrested over 530 protesters in Manhattan alone—almost a third of the national total. Yet Manhattan’s top prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, has not responded to multiple requests for comment regarding how he will handle the deluge of cases.

In the face of this repression, many labor unions have issued statements in solidarity with the students and faculty who have been brutalized, and some are planning strike and protest actions, while others have already started to carry out wildcat strikes and demonstrations.

In Humboldt, one professor who was arrested along with protesters on campus launched a hunger strike until the last person was arrested:

Professor Aghasaleh declared a hunger strike in protest of the arrest and criticized being labeled as a “criminal” protester…Professor Aghasaleh says he started the hunger strike and continued until the last student was relieved.

“I started a hunger strike because I refused a bond because I wanted to refuse the label of the criminal and I continued that until the last students, and the last person relieved was a community member last night and then we ended our strike last night together,” said Aghasaleh.

Solidarity and support is needed in multiple cities to support those arrested and to build anti-repression networks in the face of ongoing repression. Check out Palestine Action US and the Escalate Network for info on how to support various cities anti-repression initiatives.

Political Prisoner News

A new fundraiser has been started for Mexican anarchist political prisoner Yorch.

Mumia Abu-Jamal continues to record new audio segments on a regular basis, and has recently broadcast commentary on Daniel Gwynn’s death penalty conviction being overturned and the life of recently-deceased Black Panther Party/Black Liberation Army member Ralph Poynter. Mumia also recently turned 70 and addressed folks at the encampment in Columbia, check it out here. People in Philadelphia also held a march demanding his release and to mark his birthday.

Chicano anarchist political prisoner and Certain Days collective member Xinachtli has contributed to a new academic article, Repression Breeds Resistance.

New York ABC have released the latest version of their illustrated guide to political prisoners.

The antifascist prisoner convicted of shooting notorious Proud Boy Tiny Toese in the foot is due for release soon, and the International Antifascist Defence Fund have been helping with his pre-release costs.

There’s a new chapter of the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) in Chicago! Check out their new site here. They have an update on Hybachi LeMar from their support site HelpACompa.com:

Hybachi LeMar has been sentenced to three years in prison: after enduring over six months pretrial detention and transfers through Cook County Jail and Stateville NRC, he has now landed at Jacksonville Correctional Center, where it is expected he will remain until his parole date in November 2024.

None of us are free until all of us are free; and an injury to one is an injury to all: We’re asking for community support for Hybachi LeMar in raising commissary and phone funds to help him survive this last year behind bars.

Hybachi extends his love and solidarity to all those who has had his back through these harsh times. Despite the difficulties of lockdowns and communication blackouts, he has stayed strong and active throughout his incarceration and has delivered numerous statements from behind bars available on his website HelpACompa.com. Be sure to check out his latest, “In the Flickering of the Light”.

Besides holding down networks of solidarity and struggle, Hybachi offers to the community poetry, oration, and story telling. He helps remind us to grow our capacity for risk through reimagining and reflecting on the internal, spiritual, and collective forces that grow our potential. He continues his work from the inside by holding study groups and continuing to write.

Another way to show support is to purchase a copy of his book “The Anarchybalion” from the IWW Store – released on the day of his arrest last May.

You can send a message to Hybachi using the form on his website or by sending a letter to this address which will be forwarded to him: Hybachi LeMar c/o Midwest Books to Prisoners / 1321 N Milwaukee Ave PMB 460 / Chicago, IL 60622  Or by sending a scanned or typed letter to Mwbooks2prisoners at protonmail.com

You can donate to Hybachi LeMar through the following accounts:

venmo: @ChicagoIWOC
cashapp: @ChicagoIWOC
zelle: [email protected]
paypal: [email protected]

More info on LeMar here.

Uprising Defendants, Stop Cop City and other Ongoing Cases

Arkansas George Gloyd Uprising defendant Ángel urgently needs help with legal fees. She writes:

My name is Angel Espinosa Villegas. I’m a trans butch immigrant, life-long organizer who has lived in the US since I was 7 years old. I am currently locked up in Carswell Federal Medical Facility in Ft. Worth, Texas after pleading guilty to a politically overcharged case. I am facing deportation charges after my 18-month bid here in Carswell. I am in dire need of criminal immigration representation so that I may stay home, here, in Chicago with my lesbian partner and co-defendant, Rene. Otherwise, once deported, I will never be allowed to return. No return to my partner, no return to my dog Aukan, to my sister, to my family and closely-knitted community here in the US.

The conditions I’m under here in Carswell are too awful to mention, so it goes without mentioning that I only have you, my community reading this right now, as my only chance of beating this deportation case. I just want to return home, continue fighting for the liberation of our communities, and be able to marry my fiance Rene, while returning to my family l’ve fought tooth and nail my entire life to have. I have an incredible group of people fighting for us, but we need you. I need you. Please consider sharing my story, reaching out, donating, or whatever is in your capacity. I just want to stay home – I don’t want my family separated any further than it’s already been torn to shreds by the feds. Don’t let them tear us apart. I just want to go home, not be deported to a country where I may die simply because of who I am or my butchness, for what I look like. Thank you for reading this.

Venmo: Loba-Cabrona
Cashapp: $PunkWolfe2
You can DM cyborg.invasion on instagram for Zelle details.

Larry is the remaining #StopCopCity forest defender currently incarcerated and would love to receive more letters from the outside world!

Use blue and black ink. Letters can be any length. Postcards must be standard size. Letters must include a return address with the full name of an individual or organization. You can organize a letter writing party and use the return address and name of your host individual or organization.

Do not discuss Larry’s legal circumstances or any sort of criminal activity. Your letters will be read by prison staff before Larry receives them.

Mail your letters to:

Laurence Clark
#2404538
2 North 604
C/O Securus Digital Mail Center
Fulton County Jail
PO Box 989
Lebanon, MO 65536

Uprising defendant Malik Muhammad has published a new article after being moved to solitary confinement for fasting during Ramadan.

Jeremy White, a defendant in the “San Diego Antifa” case, just recorded a new interview with the Final Straw.

In Alabama, Kai Calvert has been arrested on suspicion of attacking the state attorney general’s office. At time of writing, we are unaware of any organized solidarity or support campaign for Kai, please reach out if you know of anything. Currently, the only information available about Kai’s case comes from corporate media coverage, although it has some useful information, such as revealing that they were caught due to license plate readers being used to follow their car. The full charging document has further information about the case.

A week of solidarity has been organized for the “VA 1-9”, nine defendants facing charges for blocking Interstate-95 in Virginia in solidarity with Palestine.

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has made a contribution to support the organizers currently facing charges and a lawsuit for defending a drag show in Texas.

In a move that could have major consequences for the future, the Supreme Court has refused to overturn a lower court decision that found that organizers in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi can be held legally responsible for any action taken by anyone attending a protest.

Finally, as we go to print, the House of Representatives has passed the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which would potentially criminalize criticism of the state of Israel under the banner of ‘anti-Semitism.’ As the ACLU wrote:

Speech that is critical of Israel or any other government cannot, alone, constitute harassment. Although this bill does not change the definition of harassment, it does direct the Department of Education to consider protectedspeech in determining whether any actionable harassment under Title VI, including allegations that the school is responsible for a “hostile environment,” was motivated by antisemitism. A determination of a violationmay ultimately lead to cuts to school funding.

Shut ‘Em Down 2024

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have put out a nationwide call for Shut ‘Em Down actions from December 6-13 2024. They say:

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, on behalf of other inside collectives, announces the 2024 SHUT ‘EM DOWN Abolition Demonstrations dedicated to advocating to end legalized slavery and dismantling the prison industrial slave complex (abolition). Together, we are continuing to advance the movement for abolition.

This campaign will be a virtual campaign in part, with calls for autonomous demonstrations outside jails and prisons. Simultaneously, we are encouraging imprisoned people across the country to HALT ALL LABOR and ALL commissary spending for one week. Already, sixteen confined locations have committed to shutdowns, with the anticipation of more joining as the message resonates and the word spreads inside. This SHUT ‘EM DOWN week will serve as a bridge to dialogue and building unity inside as a prelude to the forthcoming RAISING HELL campaign.

One aim is to bring a renewed national awareness, urgency and direct actions within and outside the movement that’s dismantling the prison industrial slave complex to include repealing the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, which allows legalized slavery.

Through a series of virtual solidarity music and poetry events, panel discussions [platform to be announced], demos outside places of imprisonment and labor halts inside we will carve out a forced space to be heard and for organizers to network in order to carry the work forward with additional support after 2024. JLS is urging individuals and groups to organize and participate in self-directed actions and virtual events and activities that align with the SHUT ‘EM DOWN Abolition campaign’s objectives.

We invite individuals, activists, grassroots organizers, organizations, labor unions, and communities dedicated to social justice and liberation to join us in this week of SHUT ‘EM DOWN Abolition demos. Your involvement is pivotal in amplifying the voices silenced by confinement and championing the cause of abolition.

For the next several months take action as an individual or organized team:

1. Organize Email And Phone Blasts To Congress: Demand repeal of the 13th Amendment and halt funding for new prisons.
2. Email and Phone Blast Congress: Demand repeal of Truth in Sentencing
3. Write Inside: letter writing campaign to get message inside to HALT ALL work and spending nationwide during SHUTEM DOWN week

Hit the concrete:

1. Demo at Jails/Prisons/Immigration Centers: Pick a location and spread the word!
2. Demo at your local politician business
3. Demo at businesses that use prison labor or support making profits off people in prison
4. Create a Flyer: Advertise your demo and amplify the message
5. Banner and graffiti messaging

Endorse the 2024 SHUT ‘EM DOWN, share your flyers, actions, and locations with us to amplify the movement at https://www.jailhouselawyersspeak.com/shutemdown

Disseminate this statement to every prison cell block to every street corner. Resist the silence that has allowed tougher laws, new prisons, unsafe prison work conditions, bloated police budgets, cop cities, more police on the streets, more funding toward prisoncrats agendas, a surge in police shootings, and ballooned war funding – all while accountability dwindles and USA racism mutates donning a more insidious disguise domestically and internationally.

Abolition is the only solution!

We move forward with these words “Free all Palestinians held captive by Israel. Free All Political Prisoners. End all genocides. End prison slavery!”

#endprisonslavery #endlegalslavery #shutemdownabolition

In solidarity,
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak

You can donate to their organizing costs here. JLS are also raising money for a housing project for people being released from women’s prisons.

Prisoner Struggle at SCI Rockview

Two podcasts have broadcast new interviews on the struggle against racist guards at SCI Rockview in Pennsylvania. The Final Straw interviewed an outside supporter about the situation at Rockview, the reactions of administration, inside / outside relationships and solidarity that have flared up. In the Mix Prisoner Podcast interviewed the spouses of incarcerated organizers who exposed SCI Rockview’s attempts to cover up anti-Black racism in their prison.

Prison Tech News

The Appeal has a major report looking at the situation of Securus, a giant in the prison tech industry which has just defaulted on over a billion dollars’ worth of debt. The report traces how Securus’ current financial difficulties can be linked to prisoners and their supporters, who’ve fought to overturn the predatory practices and overcharging that companies like Securus are built on.

General Prison News and Abolitionist Media

A phone zap has been called to support Free Alabama Movement organizer Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun, who has been moved to solitary confinement and sexually harassed in retaliation for his organizing. Other phone/email zaps have also been organized for a California prisoner who’s being set up for attack by guards and Michigan jail inmates dealing with lice and poor conditions.

A campaign is being organized to stop the construction of a new federal prison in Kentucky. The proposed prison, FCI Letcher, would be the most expensive federal prison in US history. You can read the call to action here, and a mass pledge of resistance has been set up as a first step.

A week of action was held in mid-April to free the Pendleton 2, wrongfully convicted prisoners in Indiana.

The family of Illinois prisoner Douglas “Snow” Williams are raising funds to hire legal support for his upcoming clemency bid.

Prison Riot Radio have shared a reminder that the Vaughn 17 book is available now. V17 Speaks is an important collection of voices from the Vaughn prison uprising.

A rally against death-by-incarceration/life without parole sentences is being organized in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for April 29th.

Scalawag Magazine has published an article by Texas prisoner Kwaneta Harris, Boiling on the Inside, describing how inmates suffered during the recent heat wave, a problem that will only get worse as summer approaches.

Molotov Now! podcast/Sabot Media recently interviewed PDX Jail Support, and have also created a zine guide to starting your own jail support network, which is also available in audio format.

International

Long-term Palestinian political prisoner Walid Daqqah has died in an Israeli prison, after the Israeli state ignored repeated calls for his release on medical grounds. April 17th is Palestinian prisoners’ day, which has been marked by a number of events around the world.

Greek anarchist prisoner Christos Tsakalos has published a new article.

The Chilean courts have upheld the 86-year sentence given to anarchist prisoner Francisco Solar, while his codefendant Mónica Caballero has been transferred to a new prison.

Stop Cop City Defendants

Laurence Clark
#2404538
2 North 604
C/O Securus Digital Mail Center
Fulton County Jail
PO Box 989
Lebanon, MO 65536

Uprising Defendants

See Uprising Support for more info, and check out the Antirepression PDX site for updates from Portland cases. To the best of our knowledge they currently include:

Tyre Means 49981-086
USP Victorville
US Penitentiary
P.O. Box 3900
Adelanto, CA 92301

Margaret Channon 49955-086
FCI Tallahassee
P.O. Box 5000
Tallahassee, FL 32314

Hassan Muhammad #19203494
Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP)
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310

You can donate to Hassan’s post-release fundraiser here.

Malik Muhammad #23935744
Oregon State Penitentiary
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310

Cyan Waters Bass #23905849
Oregon State Correctional Institution
3405 Deer Park Drive SE
Salem, Oregon 97310

Montez Lee 22429-041
FCI Ray Brook
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 900
Ray Brook, NY 12977

Matthew White #21434-041
FCI Terre Haute
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 33
Terre Haute, IN 47808

Matthew Rupert #55013-424
USP Big Sandy
US Penitentiary
P.O. Box 2068
Inez, KY 41224

José Felan #54146-380
FCI Terre Haute
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute, IN  47808

David Elmakayes 77782-066
FCI McKean
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 8000
Bradford, PA 16701

Andrew Duncan-Augustyniak
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Andrew Duncan-Augustyniak / QN9211
SCI Rockview
PO Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 33733

Anthony Smith
14813-509
FCI Fort Dix
Federal Correctional Institution
Satellite Camp
P.O. Box 2000
Joint Base MDL, NJ 08640

Ellie Brett 14822-509
FCI Petersburg Medium
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 1000
Petersburg, VA 23804

John Wade 14762509
FCI Beckley
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 350
General & Legal Mail
Beaver, WV 25813

Alvin Joseph 1002016959
Hays State Prison
PO Box 668
Trion, GA 30753

Richard Hunsinger 16066-509
FCI Forrest City Low
P.O. Box 9000
Forrest City, AR 72335

Diego Vargas 55070-424
FCI Allenwood Medium
PO Box 2000
White Deer, PA 17887

Howard Eugene Nall #586907*
Newberry Correctional Facility
13747 E. County Road 428
Newberry, MI 49868

T’Andre Buchanan 67637-060
Milan FCI
PO Box 1000
Milan, MI 48160

Renea Goddard #22810-509
FCI Aliceville
P.O. BOX 4000
Aliceville, AL 35442

Aline Espinosa-Villegas #22814-509
FMC Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, Texas 76127

Upcoming Birthdays

Xinachtli (Alvaro Luna Hernandez)

Xinachtli (Nahuatl, meaning “seed”) is an anarchist communist community organizer and Chicano movement revolutionary from Texas. Police informants were used to monitor Xinachtli’s organizing activities in the barrio. They were told Xinachtli was “typing legal papers,” “had many books” and was working on police brutality cases in Alpine. The police knew of Xinachtli’s history of community-based organizing and his legal skills. Xinachtli was recognized nationally and internationally as the national coordinator of the Ricardo Aldape Guerra Defense Committee, which led the struggle to free Mexican national Aldape Guerra from Texas’ death row after being framed by Houston police for allegedly killing a cop. Xinachtli’s human rights work was recognized in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico and other countries. He was sentenced in Odessa, Texas on June 2-9, 1997 to 50 years in prison for defending himself by disarming a police officer drawing a weapon on him. The trial evidence clearly showed Xinachtli was the victim of witch hunts and a police-orchestrated conspiracy to frame or eliminate him.

To learn more, you can listen to this interview he did with the Final Straw.

Birthday: May 12

Address:

Note: Texas prisons have now banned all greeting cards and postcards. Texas prisons have now switched over to Securus, so you can contact him by registering at securustech.online and then searching for Alvaro Hernandez, state: Texas, facility: Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

TDCJ
Alvaro Luna Hernandez #255735
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400

John-Paul Wootton

John-Paul Wootton is a vegan anarchist prisoner and IWW/IWOC member, wrongfully convicted of the murder of a police officer in the “Craigavon 2” case, after a trial before a “Diplock” court, a secret military court with no jury. The case has been supported as a miscarriage of justice by high profile campaigners, legal experts & human rights activists. The prosecution used discredited witnesses, inconclusive forensics, and tampered evidence to secure a conviction that does not stand up to scrutiny. Security services destroyed evidence, intimidated witnesses and defence lawyers. Following his wrongful conviction, he attempted to appeal, but his defence campaign was infiltrated and sabotaged by an undercover agent working for the British state.

For more information about John-Paul and the Craigavon 2 case, you can read this interview he did with IWOC Ireland, watch the short film “Was Justice Done in Craigavon?,” and see the new Justice for the Craigavon 2 website.

UK prisoners can be emailed using emailaprisoner.com

Birthday: May 15

Address:

John Paul Wootton
Maghaberry Prison,
17 Old Road
Lisburn
BT28 2PT
Northern Ireland

Brendan McConville

Brendan McConville is the other defendant in the Craigavon 2 case, wrongfully convicted of the murder of a police officer alongside John-Paul Wootton.

UK prisoners can be emailed using emailaprisoner.com

Birthday: May 19

Address:

Brendan McConville
Maghaberry Prison,
17 Old Road
Lisburn
BT28 2PT
Northern Ireland

Abednego Baynes

A former Vaughn 17 defendant. Baynes was found innocent of all charges in relation to the uprising, but he has still been punished with a move out of state, and deserves respect and support for staying in solidarity with his co-defendants throughout the process and refusing to cooperate with the prosecution. You can read more about Baynes in his own words here.

Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility”, choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections”, going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “NT0594”.

Birthday: May 20

Address:

Smart Communications/PADOC
Abednego Baynes, NT0594
SCI Mahanoy
PO Box 33028
St Petersburg, FL 33733

Diego Vargas

Diego Vargas is a George Floyd uprising defendant who has been given a five-year Federal prison sentence for property destruction during a demonstration on June 1, 2020.

The Federal system uses Corrlinks, a system where a prisoner must send a request to connect to someone on the outside before they can exchange emails, so if you’re not already connected to Diego then you’re best off just sending him a card or a letter.

Birthday: May 26

Address:

Diego Vargas 55070-424
FCI Allenwood Medium
PO Box 2000
White Deer, PA 17887

Kojo Bomani Sababu (Grailing Brown)

Kojo Bomani Sababu is a New Afrikan Prisoner of War serving a 55 year sentence. Kojo was captured on December 19th 1975 along with anarchist Ojore Lutalo during a bank expropriation. He was subsequently charged with conspiracy for an alleged plan to use rockets, hand grenades and a helicopter in an attempt to free Puerto Rican Prisoner of War Oscar Lopez Rivera from the federal prison where he was serving.

The Federal system, where Kojo is held, uses Corrlinks, a system where a prisoner must send a request to connect to someone on the outside before they can exchange emails, so if you’re not already connected to Kojo then you’re best off just sending him a card or a letter.

Birthday: May 27

Address:

Kojo Bomani Sababu* #39384-066
USP Canaan
PO Box 300
Waymart, Pennsylvania 18472

*Address envelope to Grailing Brown

Bomani Shakur (Keith LaMar)

Bomani Shakur is on death row awaiting execution after being convicted of involvement in the 1993 Lucasville Uprising. If you’d like to learn more about Bomani and his perspectives, We Want Bomani Shakur Free!: A Zine Commemorating RAM’s Month of Action for Bomani, which was put together by True Leap Press, is a great place to start, or you can check out The Real Killer, a true crime podcast that casts doubt on his conviction. Keith was scheduled for execution in November last year, and you can read his thoughts on that here.

Ohio uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility”, choosing “State: Ohio, Facility: Ohio Department of Rehabiliation and Corrections,” going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “317117.”

Birthday: May 31

Address:

Keith LaMar, #317117
OSP
878 Coitsville-Hubbard Road
Youngstown, OH 4450