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Nov 3, 24
Filed under: Featured, In Contempt
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!
Repression Continues Against the Palestine Solidarity Movement
One year into the ongoing genocide, October 2024 saw a major escalation in state repression against the Palestine solidarity movement, as the US and Canadian governments launched a joint crackdown against the prisoner solidarity group Samidoun. IGD contributor Scott Campbell has written an analysis of this repression, and you can read Samidoun’s own statement of defiance here. Unity of Fields, a counter-info project targeted with threats from the state, have published their own guide to understanding repression and counter-repression.
As Scott Campbell wrote:
According to The New York Times, just last semester more than 3,100 people were arrested on 73 campuses across the U.S. While the state attempts to frame the Palestine solidarity movement as violent (despite evidence to the contrary), the real violence has emerged from law enforcement and the far-Right. Harkening back to the police-facilitated far-Right street violence against antifascists several years ago, there has also been violence by Zionists, most notably at UCLA, where a far-Right mob attacked the Gaza solidarity encampment for hours as police watched. And the state and its allies in the universities have only ramped up for more repression this fall.
Whether it be through the purchase of drones and less-lethal weaponry, the creation of new policies designed to stifle student expression, firing tenured professors, or deeming Zionists a “protected class,” the overall pattern, as summarized by Palestine Legal, is that “these policies have ultimately consolidated administrative and state power while undermining freedom of expression, the right to assembly and protest, academic freedom, and safety for students and faculty on campuses across the country.” As this article was being put together, pro-Palestine organizers in Philadelphia at Penn State had their home raided by armed police who made no arrests. This follows the university banning Penn Students Against the Occupation back in April. Combined with statements from Donald Trump that he’ll deport radicals and protesting students, or attention seekers like Republican Senator Tom Cotton calling for protesters to be thrown off bridges, there is a perfect storm of hate, fear, ignorance, repression, fascism, and genocide.
This moment has also seen the ongoing weaponization of anti-Semitism. Rather than deal with the very real threat and severity of anti-Semitism in the United States, what can be seen is a continuation of Trump-era policies, where as president he embraced the anti-Semitic far-Right while deploying his administration, notably under the tenure of Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kenneth Marcus, to crack down on speech critical of Israel in the name of fighting anti-Semitism. Recently, the Heritage Foundation, author of Project 2025, released “Project Esther,” which calls for the government to go after anti-Zionists in the name of combating anti-Semitism. The report claims groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine form an elaborate “Hamas Support Network” and should be targeted using counter-terrorism, immigration, and RICO laws. On Palestine, the state, the university “liberal elite,” and the reactionary far-Right all speak in one voice: Question the genocidal settler-colonial status quo, and we’ll come for you.
At the same time, local repressive operations continue to target Palestine solidarity campaigners across a number of cities. For one example of this, Kit O’Connell recently published an extensive report on police attacks on Palestine solidarity activists at Austin Pride. Student protesters at the University of Minneapolis have also released a statement about the FBI harassment they’ve faced following a building occupation.
The Heritage Foundation, one of the key architects of Project 2025, is now pushing for sweeping attacks against the anti-war movement. From one report:
The 10,000-word “Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism” targets what it calls the “Hamas Support Network” (HSN), made up of groups that the document claims are “decidedly antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American” and “involved in furthering Hamas’s cause in contravention of American values and to the detriment of American citizens and America’s national security interests.”
The network, the project says, revolves around American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) with “action arms” comprised of what the project falsely claims are “Hamas Support Organizations” (HSOs), including Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, that recruit members, spread propaganda, and conduct rallies with the support of “a coalition of leftist, progressive organizations” such as the Open Society Foundations and Tides Foundation.
Project Esther equates anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel to antisemitism, and, moreover, anti-Americanism. It casts millions of Americans opposed to Israel’s violence in Palestine – and US support of it – as opportunistic, foreign-funded, and inauthentic. The authors claim that groups “pounced” on Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, “intending to use it as a George Floyd–style event to spring onto center stage and grab a giant microphone.”
To fulfill their goals, the authors envision using financial and academic audits, “name and shame” campaigns, and “lawfare” – including utilizing the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and, astonishingly, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), as well as counterterrorism, hate speech, and immigration laws. They also seek to disrupt communications between and among the targeted groups and monitor their social networks.
For a further look, check out this report in Drop Site News.
Political Prisoner News
New greeting cards from Native anarchist political prisoner Oso Blanco are now available as a fundraiser for the Children’s Art Project. The 2025 Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar is also now available for sale.
The Rattling the Cages series of talks bringing together former political prisoners continues, and the most recent event, on post-prison activism and archiving resistance with Eric King, Jake Conroy, and Claude Marks, is now available to watch here:
The next event, Until All Are Free, will feature Eric in conversation with Jason and Jeremy Hammond on November 9th. You can register to watch here. On November 23rd, there’ll be another event on Revolutionary Women Behind Bars, with former political prisoners Nicole Kissane, Linda Evans and Laura Whitehorn.
The Final Straw Radio show recently broadcast a discussion with Eric King, Jake Conroy and Josh Davidson. Eric King was also recently interviewed by the Non Serviam podcast, and you can listen to that interview here.
Former Panther 21 defendant and BPP/BLA political prisoner Doruba Bin-Wahad is fundraising for his medical expenses after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Long-term Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier has just been hospitalized, and supporters are demanding an immediate transfer to a facility that can provide more appropriate medical care.
Antifascist prisoner Jesse “Tall Can” Cannon has been moved, his new address is:
Jesse Cannon BX4822
Konocti #27
13044 State Hwy 29
Lower Lake, CA 95457
Uprising Defendants and Ongoing Cases
John Wade, a George Floyd uprising defendant from Georgia who had been released, has now been re-arrested. You can donate to his post-release funds here, and write to him at:
John Wade #1003510744
PO Box 3877
Jackson, GA 30233
Supporters report that “John’s condition has greatly worsened since re-arrest. With a growing list of acts of political retaliation, including guards denying John medication and water, threatening him and calling him slurs, the carceral system has been working hard to disappear our friend. Currently he is being held at Jackson State Prison, one of Georgia’s diagnostic class prisons which are notoriously cruel and violent. We are being told that he can’t make calls, have visitation, or receive commissary (a lifeline for people in prison) for several weeks. They have intentionally buried him away in a prison where we cannot check on him or make sure he is okay. What we need right now is for folks to do everything in their power to shed light on this series of events.”
You can continue to write Hybachi using this form or by sending a single sided letter to this forwarding address:
Hybachi LeMar
c/o Midwest Books to Prisoners
1321 N Milwaukee Avenue PMB 460
Chicago, IL 60622
Hybachi’s support crew have also recently posted a series of audio messages from him, covering subjects including zines as resistance, reading while squatting, what it means to be different and the life of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Maria Nikoforova.
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office is organizing to support two people who have been arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with an alleged action at a mink farm.
The address for Caleb Freestone, who was recently imprisoned for reproductive rights graffiti in Florida, is:
Caleb Freestone #07786-506
FCI Yazoo City Low
P.O. BOX 5000
Yazoo City, MS 39194
The Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross has a post up with info and ways to donate and there is a crowd-funding campaign set-up here.
Prison Censorship
Orisanmi Burton, author of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression and the Long Attica Revolt, has published a letter to prisoncrats in response to the censorship of his book and attempts to stop prisoners from being able to read it.
A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by South Carolina prisoners, upholding a policy that allows the SC prison system to censor all interviews with prisoners. In another recent court case, a different federal judge “ruled the U.S. government can hide findings about whether people who died in federal prison received adequate medical care, partly out of fear that those records could be used to criticize prison officials.”
General Prison News and Abolitionist Media Updates
Texas Observer writer Michelle Pitcher recently published a major article on the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and prisoner organizing in Texas, featuring contributions from anarchist prisoner Julio Alex “Comrade Z” Zuniga.
IWOC has backed some of the largest prisoner-led labor strikes in history. In 2016, incarcerated workers from multiple states withheld their labor to honor the 45th anniversary of the historic 1971 Attica Prison uprising—the bloody demonstration during which prisoners took control of the New York facility to fight for better conditions, calling for an end to modern-day slavery. After cellphone footage of the 2016 strike leaked, the U.S. Department of Justice conducted an investigation and published a report on living conditions and violence in Alabama’s prisons. Similar strikes took place in 2018 and 2023 in various states, including Texas.
This December, IWOC, along with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, another national collective involving prisoner activists based in Pennsylvania, is calling for a weeklong work stoppage in prisons nationwide to coincide with outside demonstrations calling for an end to the 13th Amendment’s exception clause. Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is offering assistance to prisoners who face retaliation for participating.
IWOC is not the first group to attempt to unionize Texas prisoners in the modern era. The Texas Prison Labor Union was founded in 1995. Its aim, as described in 1998 by the Prison Legal News, a magazine produced by the nonprofit Human Rights Defense Center, was to “organize Texas prisoners and their supporters into a single body to promote social justice, human rights, and workers’ rights.” The union, funded by member dues and donations, distributed a flier with updates on lawsuits against the prison system, helped connect prisoners with researchers, and provided other resources (including a booklet of Tai Chi exercises). As recently as 2023, people describing themselves as members of the union have contacted legislators calling for pay for prisoners.
In July 2014, IWOC minted its statement of purpose, which is to build solidarity among incarcerated and nonincarcerated workers and to support “those engaging in collective action or who put their own lives at risk to improve the conditions of all.” Peril, the IWOC founding member, told the Observer that previously no nationwide union had “really tied together and pushed forward ideas about how having prison slavery as a competing labor force undermines everyone’s conditions in the workplace.”
Robert Roberson, a Texas prisoner who was due to be executed, has now had his execution delayed, although Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is still pushing hard for the execution to go ahead.
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak are looking for people to help distribute application forms for their Seasonal Joy Project, which provides gifts for the children of incarcerated people. They’re also continuing to prepare for the December 2024 Shut ‘Em Down week of action, as well as preparing for a campaign to free Sundiata Jawanza in 2025.
The Marshall Project has published a report on Andrew Ciolli, a warden who oversaw staff abuse at BOP Florence including the torture of Eric King, who is now running a national training center.
Texas prisoner Jason Walker continues to publish new articles on a regular basis, covering issues such as the failure of TDCJ’s attempt to tackle drug use by banning physical mail.
The Final Straw Radio show recently broadcast an interview on conditions in the Asheville jail following the hurricane.
Recent episodes of Kite Line Radio have covered the fight for parole with Loretta Pierre, a woman who has been denied parole by the Mississippi prison system 14 times, and struggles against jail and prison expansion.
IDOC Watch recently organized a phone zap to demand a prisoner is allowed to visit with his terminally ill mother, and another to demand that a prisoner be given medical care. Another action was successful in getting staff at Miami CF to carry out a wellness check on Cedric Thompson, who had been facing threats and whose family had been unable to contact him. IDOC Watch have also published a new report from Khalfani Malik Khaldun on deaths at New Castle CF.
International
The UK state continues to take harsh measures against the Filton 10, who are being held pre-trial on terrorism charges for an alleged action against a factory supplying weapons to Israel. Fatema Zainab Rajwani, one of the defendants who volunteers at a community school, is not being allowed to see paintings sent in by the children she works with. You can read a new letter from Fatema here. There’s also a crowdfunder to support five people who’ve been imprisoned after another action against a weapons factory in Glasgow.
Also in the UK, Ryan Dwyer, a prisoner who had been paroled after serving a sentence for taking part in an anti-police riot in Bristol, has now been recalled to prison.
All four of the Chilean anarcho-nihilist defendants in the Susaron 4 case have now been sentenced to either prison or intensive probation. Abolition Media have translated a new interview with Héctor Llaitul Carrillanca, a Mapuche political prisoner held by the Chilan state. Werken Rafael Pichun Collonao, another Mapuche political prisoner, has also published a new open letter.
An international day of action to free Georges Abdallah was held on October 24, with a huge demonstration in Brussels that week demanding his freedom.
Greek anarchist prisoner Fotis Tziotzis has shared a new article about his prison conditions.
The Budapest Antifa case continues, and supporters of Maja T have shared news about the extent of collaboration between the German state and Orban’s far-right government. Finn, a prisoner held for his role in forest defense, has written a report on the harassment he has faced while in the German prison system.
In Russia, 95 prisoners of war including Ukrainian human rights activist Maksym Butkevych have been released in a prisoner swap, but 13 more people have just been sentenced to prison for anti-war sabotage actions.
Freedom News have published a report on the case of Enric Duran, who is on trial in France on money laundering charges. In an earlier case, Enric had previously managed to take nearly half a million euros from banks and used them to fund a variety of social movements.
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
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
USP Terre Haute
PO 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
Khalif Miller #70042-066
USP Big Sandy
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 2068
Inez, KY 41224
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
John Wade #1003510744
PO Box 3877
Jackson, GA 30233
Diego Vargas 55070-424
FCI Schuylkill
PO Box 759
Minersville, PA 17954
Aline Espinosa-Villegas #22814-509
FMC Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, Texas 76127
Address letter to Angel, address envelope to Aline A Espinosa-Villegas.
Mujera Benjamin Lunga’ho #08572-509
FCI Forrest City Medium
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 3000
Forrest City, AR 72336
Christopher Tindal 04392-509
FCI Cumberland
PO Box 1000
Cumberland, MD 21501
Upcoming Birthdays
Dwayne Staats
One of the two Vaughn 17 defendants to be convicted for taking part in the Vaughn prison uprising of early 2017. Dwayne and his co-defendant Jarreau “Ruk” Ayers bravely admitted to their own parts in the uprising, and then, free to testify openly without fear of incriminating themselves any further, tore holes in the prosecution’s attempts to convict anyone else – as he put it, “we’d accept being stabbed in the chest to present others from getting stabbed in the back”. To learn more about Dwayne in his own words, you can follow his instagram, read his letter to the Kentucky Attorney General, or his contribution to the Vaughn zine, “Live from the Trenches”.
Birthday: November 10
Address:
Dwayne Staats 467005
Delaware DOC – 1101
P.O. Box 777
Las Vegas NV 89193
Andrei Marach
Antifascist from Brest. Detained on 2 March 2021 on suspicion of involvement in a criminal organisation of anarchists and gross violation of public order (Articles 285 and 342 of the Criminal Code). Andrei has a history of repression, he was serving an administrative arrest in early August 2020. On September 6, 2022, Andrei was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Belarusian prisons will usually only accept letters in Belarusian or Russian, so if you don’t speak one of those languages your best bet is to email your message to belarus_abc(AT)riseup.net or use this online form and they should be able to translate your greetings and pass them on.
Birthday: November 10
Address:
(Belarusian or Russian letters only – use this form for English messages)
IK-17, ul. 1-ya Zavodskaya, 8, g. Shklov, 213004, Belarus
Andrey Igorevich Marach
John Wade
John B. Wade is a Black Atlanta activist who was convicted on charges related to the George Floyd Rebellion in the Summer of 2020. He was arrested on November 2nd, 2020 in an inter-agency raid along with two others, Vida Jones and Ellie Brett. They faced charges related to a string of arsons against government property and police cruisers. Wade has been repeatedly harassed by law enforcement since the beginning of the mass rebellion. You can read some of his words here.
Birthday: November 11
Address:
John Wade #1003510744
PO Box 3877
Jackson, GA 30233
Dzmitry Rezanovich
Dzmitry Rezanovich is an anarchist from Gomel. Arrested on the night of 28-29 October 2020 close to Ukrainian border by Belarusian border guards together with Sergey Romanov, Dmitry Rezanovich and Ihar Alinevich. Charged with terrorism and illegal possession of firearms. According to the prosecutor’s office, he and his comrades organized several actions in Soligorsk and Mozyr against state institutions. On 22 December 2021, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Belarusian prisons will usually only accept letters in Belarusian or Russian, so if you don’t speak one of those languages your best bet is to email your message to belarus_abc(AT)riseup.net or use this online form and they should be able to translate your greetings and pass them on.
Birthday: November 12
Address:
(Belarusian or Russian letters only – use this form for English messages)
Rezanovich Dmitry Grigorievich
IK №14, ul. Mira, 1A, Novosady,
Barysau district, Minsk region, 222125
Thomas Blackmon
Thomas Blackmon is one of the prisoners wrongfully convicted in the aftermath of the historic Lucasville Uprising. Ohio now 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 “185-291”.
Birthday: November 12
Address:
Thomas Blackmon
#185-291
OSP
878 Coitsville Hubbard Rd
Youngstown OH 44505
Rasheem Matthews
Rasheem Matthews is one of the prisoners wrongfully convicted in the aftermath of the historic Lucasville Uprising. Ohio now 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 “223-185”.
Birthday: November 22
Address:
Rasheem Matthews
#223-185
OSP
878 Coitsville Hubbard Rd
Youngstown OH 44505
Dontrell Baker
Dontrell Baker is a former Ferguson prisoner who has completed a sentence connected to the Ferguson uprising and is now incarcerated for a different incident.
Missouri now uses Securus, so you can send him a message by creating an account at securustech.online, clicking “emessaging – launch account”, then searching his name while selecting “State: Missouri, Inmate ID: 1282093”.
Birthday: November 24
Address:
Dontrell Baker #1282093
C/O Digital Mail Center-Missouri DOC
PO Box 25678
Tampa, FL 33622-5678
Josh Williams
A staple of the Ferguson rebellion, Josh Williams was sentenced to 8 years in prison for his actions in attempting to light fires near a Quick Trip gas station, which others quickly extinguished, during a protest against the killing of Black 18 year old Antonio Martin by police in Berkeley, Missouri on Christmas Eve 2014. You can learn more about Josh by reading some of his words here. A support site has been set up for Josh, and they reported in May 2021 that, “Josh has been held in solitary confinement on 23 hour lockdown since the beginning of the uprisings in June of 2020. He has limited phone privileges and hasn’t been able to go outside.”
Missouri now uses Securus, so you can send him a message by creating an account at securustech.online, clicking “emessaging – launch account,” then searching his name while selecting “State: Missouri, Inmate ID: 01292002”. His tablet access is often restricted.
Birthday: November 25
Address:
Joshua Williams #1292002
C/O Digital Mail Center-Missouri DOC
PO Box 25678
Tampa, FL 33622-5678
cover photo: student protest encampment in Quebec
