What is the ABCF?
In May of 1995, a small group of ABC collectives merged into a Federation whose aim was to focus on the overall support and defense of PP/POWs.
Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War are not in prison for committing social “crimes”, nor are they criminals. Different PP/POWs participated in progressive and revolutionary movements at varying levels. Some in educational and community organizing, others in clandestine armed and offensive people’s armies. All are in prison as a result of conscious political action, for building resistance, building, and leading movements and revolution… for making a change.
Many of us in some way or another are part of these very movements, part of that resistance that PP/POWs helped to build. As people continuing to struggle for change, we are obligated and it is our duty to support those people who are in prison as a result of struggling to make a change.
Though some have a wider definition of Political Prisoners, we maintain that even if the definition of a Political Prisoner was expanded and widely accepted to include social prisoners of conscience, it needs to be clear that those prisoners who went to prison as a result of political action taken on the street would still demand our priority support. For movements to support other prisoners before we support the prisoners who have gone to prison for building the very movements we now participate in is backward and criminal.