Dane Powell: Mobilize To Support J20 Arrestees

The United Snakes government is about to start the trials on about 200 protesters who were in DC to resist the inauguration of of our official shitlord, Trump. If the State starts getting convictions they will then be seeking years behind bars, in some cases more years than some comrades have been alive. What would happen to the United Snakes’ prison system if 200+ radicals were suddenly introduced?

This type of criminalizing dissidence is by no means an unused tactic of the State. What is setting precedence in this case and in Standing Rocks’ is the amount of felonies that were passed out like acres to peasants in an agrarian reform revolution. The State is so comfortable that it has become too numb to notice that the throne it once squatted upon has become a powder keg and they’re passing out matches in the form of felonies.

The current federal system is over crowded as it is. The Fed’s high conviction rate, drug sentencing guidelines, and mandatory minimums, imposed and enforced by Republicans and Democrats alike, ensures a high number of workers and buyers for corporations such as Keefe, GTL, Veritas Capital, Corizon, Aramark and Unicor whose profits are stolen from the production seized by the hands of the State.

The labor movements of the early half of the 20th century are all but a fraction of what they once were due to the rise of de-industrialization and capitalism on a global scale, consuming all that is sacred while committing acts of ecocide on our future generations. In a constant state of profit generation, large corporations must seek the cheapest labor pools they can find, with prisons being the most viable. The conditions inside these prison factories harbors such poor morale that organizing a new labor movement based on general strikes and solidarity would be easier than writing a bad Yelp review for Mar-A-Lago.

The commonality in most, if not all, slave revolts is the organization of the oppressed and the complacency of the oppressor. From the cotton fields of the United Snakes’ southern states to the Underground Railroad leading to the occupied lands of the “Canada,” tyranny breeds resistance. It has been a very long time since the United Snakes has felt the pressure of a revolt of this nature but it has been sowing the seeds while abusing it’s gardeners.

Prisons, when first introduced, were reformatory in nature. Punishment prior to prisons was often a public spectacle involving death and/or dismemberment. Religious zealots sought to reform prisoners through enforced silent reflection with the bible. This book is still the first piece of mail an inmate receives and, not by coincidence, conversion to Abrahamic religions remains highest in prisons. What happens when prisoners are taught about the emancipation of their chains instead of how to polish them with the bible.

In their present state, the United Snakes’ labor camps have been kept from too much public scrutiny. Prison reform conversations are still somewhat high but abolishment conversations have steadily been dwindling since the 60s and 70s, while State sponsored legalized lynching has increased for the black and brown men inside the system. The world’s jailor has become complacent with its control over their institutions of punishment due to apathy from the overall population while “Everyday in AmeriKKKa the trek continues, a black march to death row,” as felt by comrade Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The oppressed groups within the population have always been the ones to emancipate themselves from racist and discriminatory intuitions. The “white washing” of these movements through Hollywood has led to the belief of the “white savior” which seems to be the motivation of reform under liberal institutions all while the petite bourgeois class retain their privilege and preach universal love that is only acquired in their coffee shops. It was always the natives who freed themselves from boarding schools, women from their “god given” domestic duties at home and as servants, and the slaves from their forced bondage and stolen labor.

Hundreds joined us Friday in calling on the US Attorney for DC to #dropj20. Join them! #Resist https://t.co/hWmPCIYZD8 pic.twitter.com/OTwI3DA00w

— dropj20 (@dropj20) October 2, 2017

The organization and eventual freedom of prisoners will have to come from within the prison population. “When the prison gates open, the true dragon flies out,” we’re reminded by Uncle Ho. If the State has it’s way, against all demands for justice, they will steal our comrades from us and there could soon be revolutionaries in every prison on the east coast. The power of revolutionary organization within prison came to fruit most famously in the Attica prison uprising. With over crowding in every prison, it’s not hard to imagine an Attica in every single major prison on the east coast.

The organization of communications will be essential for secure communications with stolen comrades yet must remain non-centralized. The communication networks between our stolen comrades will need to be of the highest priority to ensure success of their organizational methods. Acts of solidarity will have a greater impact if passed along these lines of communication as censorship will become likely.

We should make no mistake about it, we face the very real possibility of having 200 of our best comrades stolen from us with this number growing everyday from mass arrests in St Louis and Atlanta; to martyrs in the streets of Charlottesville; to every city that we dare ask for our dignity and respect only to be met by deadly force and kidnappings on an ever increasing scale that seems to never let up to the point that we can’t breathe. While our comrades are busy putting all effort into defense, the organization from those outside of the 200+ should be that of support and solidarity no matter the disposition from their trials. They will need organization in place, to turn a “glass is half empty” into a “glass is half full” scenario if our comrades find no justice.

Revolutionary books and zines will be needed and while drives for such should start immediately, a diversity of tactics historically gives us tools to produce other forms of solidarity with our stolen comrades. Comrade Franz Fanon once proclaimed, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, and fulfill it or betray it.”

With trials starting in late November, the time to create, plan, and act is now. While our comrades build their justifiable defense, direct action must start immediately. For far too long the State has sought to have their cake and eat it too but we will ensure it is full of the razorblades that they’ve encircled us with. Yes, we will teach them what cake tastes like again.

200+ of our comrades face being robbed of their freedom of movement, freedom of association, and freedom of controlling their own destiny by becoming political prisoners. They need to feel the solidarity that they rightfully deserve. I would take a bullet for any one of these comrades and likely, you would too; but what are we willing to do for 200+? Now is our opportunity to show the world what solidarity looks like in the most direct way imaginable. Organize for our comrades, as they have organized for you. Speak for our comrades, as they have spoken for you.

Most importantly, rage for our comrades, as they have raged for you.

All 4 all, Dane Powell