By Jeff (Free) Luers*
“I am not a martyr and I am not a hero. I don’t fit some perfect archetype, and I can’t live up to any ideal of what so many people think I am. I’m just a man who loves without being able to say the words and who cries without being able to shed tears. I chose this life. I chose the possibility of prison. I chose to forsake my personal life for that which I believed in. It was not out of any altruistic or self-sacrificing desire. I chose this life because I don’t think I could live with myself if I did not.”
I wrote those words on June 3, 2004, in my regular dispatch from the Oregon State Penitentiary, the state’s oldest and only maximum-security prison. About a week later the world would witness the first June 11 International Day of Solidarity with Jeffrey “Free” Luers and Earth Liberation Prisoners. That year June 11 made national headlines because the FBI graciously released a public safety bulletin warning that car dealerships and other business may be targeted by environmental radicals and anarchists. We are currently heading into the 22nd annual Day in Solidarity with Earth Liberation & Anarchist Prisoners!
By June 11, 2006, the sixth anniversary of my imprisonment, 43 cities around the world held events including Eugene, Oregon (where I lived) and Moscow, Russia where brave, black- clad anarchists spray painted the US Embassy in broad daylight with giant letters demanding my release before dispersing into the crowd.
But the truth is that June 11 started with a small group of friends trying to support a friend they lost to prison and ran a campaign to seek my release. Afterall what are politics if not personal? We struggle because it is personal when your freedom is taken and your world is burning. And when you lose a loved one to the struggle it gets even more personal than you can imagine.
As I sat behind those bars my thoughts were often with those I left behind. The struggle was ever present, that part was easy, the State always made sure of that. To me, it was easy to resist oppression or at least find the desire to do so. It is much harder to endure being separated from your family, your friends, and your community.
And that is why June 11 is so important. I chose to act on my own when I set fire to 3 vehicles at a car dealership. Did I make the right choices? Well, that’s a different conversation, but as a young man sitting in a prison cell, I never expected anything of my community. But my community had an entirely different plan, and it changed the course of my life and I am eternally grateful.
For more than half of my imprisonment, June 11 stood out as an international announcement: We have not forgotten, we will not forget, and we will resist until all are free! Free Free! Became a rallying cry against the excessive, politically biased sentence imposed on me by the judge—the longest sentence of any environmental activist in the U.S. at the time.
I was not the only one that heard that message. My family heard it, my loved ones heard it, and the State heard it because my community around the world was shouting it at the top of their lungs!
In 2007, the Oregon Court of Appeal ruled my sentence illegal, and ordered the lower court to revisit my sentence in a manner consistent with the law. However, if it were not for the public support I had, I do not believe I would have had my sentence reduced by more than half at my resentencing. Moreover, at the resentencing hearing, I do not believe that the prosecutor assigned to my case, Erik Hassleman, would have compared my actions to that of the Boston Tea Party in court if it were not for the actions of thousands upon thousands around the world doing the same thing.
In 2011, after my release from prison, I helped transition June 11 to predominately support for Eric McDavid and Marius Mason (who we welcome home with arms wide open). Yet, it is a special kind of curse to pass the baton of prison solidarity– but if other liberation activists are caught by the state and imprisoned, I wish every one of our prisoners receive the support I did. I pray that whoever is next is strong and courageous because our journey is arduous and full of peril, but we come home. We come home! And as long as you are not a snitch, you are welcomed by the movement with love and support.
On this June 11 International Day of Solidarity with Earth Liberation Prisoners and Anarchist Prisoners we welcome home Marius Mason. And reflect on the lessons learned over all the years.
It takes one person to commit an action, it takes a small group of people to support that person, it takes a community to stand up for that person, and a movement to inspire a world to fight back. The moral of the story is that no matter how painful the journey, under the right circumstances one person can change the world.
*Jeff Luers was sentenced to 22 years and 8 months in state prison for a June, 2000 arson motivated by climate and environmental concerns. Luers appealed the sentence with the help of CLDC and in 2007 the Court of Appeals overturned his sentence and he was resentenced to a term of 10 years.