Come support Eric King at the Portland ABC Samhain Fundraiser in Portland, Oregon. October 31st 2-5pm Location @ Buckman Park: 320 SE 16th Ave, PDX
* Vegan pumpkin pie! * Raffle! AK Press gift card, art by N.o. Bonzo, crutchpunk, & Laser Bloc, handmade wearables w/ design by Eric * Pumpkin carving (BYO)! Write prisoners! * Potluck! (vegan/GF pls) * Zines!
Proceeds will benefit Civil Liberties Defense Center (for Eric’s pro bono legal expenses) & his family. Please come out & invite your friends! potluck with Vegan Pumpkin Pie, Write Prisoners, Pumpkin Carving and more! Outdoors, Masks Required, Costumes Strongly Encouraged…
We won’t be printing NYC tabloid nonsense here. Democracy Now reported on David Gilbert’s parole and impending release. Congrats to David and his family!
Former Weather Underground member David Gilbert has been granted parole after spending 40 years in prison. He is scheduled for release on November 30. Seventy-seven-year-old Gilbert was incarcerated for his role in the robbery of an armored truck in 1981 that left a security guard and two police officers dead. Release Aging People in Prison Campaign said, “Mr. Gilbert spent decades in prison creating rehabilitative programs and has been an unparalleled positive influence on the lives of countless incarcerated people. There is no doubt that he will be an asset to his community.”
Bo (rita d. brown) is a 74-year-old white working class butch dyke lesbian anti-authoritarian anti-imperialist ex-political prisoner who has done 9 years in federal prison. The first one was as a social prisoner in 1971 and the other 8 as a political prisoner in the l980s for several bank robberies in Oregon claimed by the George Jackson Brigade, an independent underground cell operating out of Seattle, Washington.
She has been a prison abolitionist for more than 30 years. Bo is also a founding mother of Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Support Women Political Prisoners and also works regularly with the All of Us or None as well as the Prison Activist Resource Center in Oakland, California where she lives and spends a lot of time on the phone talking with prisoners’ families. All of this grass roots work is volunteer and solely motivated by the need to create real change and real community where children will matter and prisons will not seem to be so damn necessary and will not be such an incredible source of income for the ruling class.
Russell “Maroon” Shoatz has been granted a compassionate release by Judge Kai Scott, today, October 25th, 2021. Maroon has been imprisoned for over 49 years and now suffers rapidly deteriorating health due to stage 4 colorectal cancer. His condition is terminal, and now requires palliative care that involves parenteral nutrition through IV, which the PA DOC has neglected to provide.
Effective immediately, Maroon will be transferred from SCI Dallas to emergency care at an outside hospital. They will evaluate his current state of health and provide the necessary assessments to begin home hospice care.
This concludes a decades long campaign and is a major victory for the abolitionist movement. We are grateful for the diligent work of Maroon’s family, the Abolitionist Law Center, Reed Smith, and countless friends and supporters. In love, in prayer, in solidarity! Free Maroon Now Coalition
Certain Days 2022: Creating a New World in the Shell of the Old Your favorite intercontinental, inside/outside collective has produced our SECOND calendar during the COVID-19 pandemic and despite major obstacles, we think you will love it.
This year’s theme is “Creating a New World in the Shell of the Old” and features art and writings by Alanna Kibbe, Comrade Z, David Gilbert, Daniel McGowan, Eric King, Hanif Bey, Jesus Barraza, Leila Abdelrazaq, Martha Hennessy, Montclair Mutual Aid, Oso Blanco, Peter Railand, Roger Peet, Shukri Abu-Baker, Tauno Biltsted, Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Windigo Army, Virginia Lee, Xinachtli and Yumigou.
Your group can buy 10 or more for the rate of $10 each and sell them for $15, keeping the difference for your organization. Many campaigns, infoshops and projects do this as a way of raising funds and spreading awareness about political prisoners. Use the discount code “BULK” to get 10 or more calendars for $10 each. In Canada, you can order at our bulk rates at certaindays.org.
Proceeds from the Certain Days 2021 calendar were divided amongst Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Palestine), Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), Barton Prisoner Solidarity (BAPSOP), Tucson Anti-Repression Crew, Austin ABC, Prison Health News, Solidarity Across Borders, Buffalo Books Through Bars and Mongoose Distro! Proceeds from the 2022 calendar will go to some of the same grassroots groups and more.
Don’t forget – if you buy 10 or more, be sure to use the discount code “BULK” to get 10 or more calendars for $10 each.
The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal, Hamilton, New York and Baltimore, with two political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons: David Gilbert in New York and Xinachtli (s/n Alvaro Luna Hernandez) in Texas. Founding members Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes (RIP) were happily welcomed home from prison in 2018. Learn more about them at certaindays.org.
Dan Baker is a social justice activist and former army vet. He went AWOL instead of fighting in Iraq, and then took his training to help defend Rojava with the International Freedom Battalion and was featured on VICE. Dan was also active during the George Floyd rebellion and took part in CHAZ . He was arrested on January 15th, 2021 after the FBI compiled social media posts related to Trump supporters’ actions on inauguration day to build a criminal case against him.
Dan was facing up to 10 years for two counts of transmitting a communication in interstate commerce containing a threat to kidnap or injure. On October 12th, he was sentenced to 44 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release. Join us on Jitsi (link will be shared the day of) as we listen to a podcast about the case and write letters of support to him. He is currently held at FDC Tallahassee, but will likely be moved to a longer-term facility in the coming weeks to serve out the remainder of his sentence.
Via NYC ABC WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below) NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet. COST: Free
It’s tradition for anarchists to make their own traditions. A century ago there was a full calendar of anarchist un-holidays, from honoring the Haymarket Martyrs on November Eleventh, to celebrating May Day as a workers’ holiday (also an homage of sorts to the Haymarket folks), and marking the anniversaries of the Paris Commune, the Mexican Revolution, and other events that stirred the anarchist diaspora’s collective heart.
We’ve continued this tradition of DIY traditions, not to replicate the holidays of hierarchy and superstition, but to help build a revolutionary culture in which we can celebrate and hold place for our ideals (or The Ideal, as Emma Goldman would say) amidst the vicissitudes of human existence. We were able to restart one such tradition just two weeks ago, with our first in person letter writing event since March of 2020. And this coming Tuesday, we will mark another on our calendar, our annual Green Scare(Y) letter writing to earth and animal liberation prisoners.
As the recent conviction and sentencing of Jessica Reznicek unfortunately demonstrates, the corporate/state tactic of labeling those engaged in sabotage for earth and animal defense as terrorists remains in place, even as Marius Mason remains imprisoned with the same ridiculous enhancement. Since the early 1980s, public relations hacks have been working to reify the term “eco-terrorism.” By 2004, they became successful and a phrase that a decade earlier had no real meaning was now defined by the United States government and used to introduce legislation. In the face of global ecologic destruction and animal torture, those who try to end the suffering are the ones labeled terrorists.
So come join as we enact tangible solidarity by writing letters to our Green Scare comrades inside. While it can’t be said that this is a joyous occasion, it is a celebration of solidarity, and we can’t think of anything more worthwhile to celebrate than that.
Please take the time to send cards or write letters to Marius and Jessica:
Marie (Marius) Mason #04672-061 FCI Danbury Route 37 Danbury, CT 06811 *Address card to Marius
“Water Protectors not Terrorist. Free Jessica Reznicek”
We are so excited to announce our new #FreeJessicaReznicek T-Shirts in partnership with Eagle Screen Printing in Minneapolis. Part of the proceeds will support the campaign to Free Jessica.
Black 100% cotton tee with white and red print on front and white print on back. Unisex sizes. Designed by Kat Eng.
Buy a tee in support of Jessica and to raise awareness around her case and many other earth and water protectors being prosecuted.
The following is a statement from her team who organized this fundraiser. “Jessica Reznicek is currently serving an 8 year prison sentence for actions she took to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. A “terrorism enhancement” more than doubled her sentence, and she has been ordered to pay over $3 million in restitution. This is the criminalization of environmental protection!
Inspired by Indigenous leadership of the NODAPL movement at Standing Rock, Jess took a stand against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa in 2016. She and a fellow Catholic Worker disabled construction machinery and the pipeline itself. No one was injured by their actions, and the land was protected from the flow of oil for an additional 4 months.
Biden’s Department of Justice continues to pursue terrorism charges against protestors across the country. We denounce this dangerous precedent and are working to appeal Jessica’s sentencing and get the terrorism enhancement removed. What happens to Jessica happens to all of us!”
On Tuesday, a Florida judge sentenced Daniel Baker, an anti-fascist activist, to 44 months in federal prison for social media posts that called for armed defense against possible far-right attacks on the state’s Capitol in the wake of the January 6 riots. Baker, a 34-year-old yoga teacher and emergency medical technician trainee, had no previous criminal convictions and has already been held for 10 months of harsh pretrial detention, including seven months in solitary confinement. He never brought a weapon near a government building; he amassed no armed anti-fascist forces; he made no threats on a single individual.
The Judge in Eric King’s case has closed the court to the public for tomorrow’s evidentiary hearing.
You can call in and listen to court Thursday October 14th, 9:30am mountain time/11:30am EST For public audio access to the hearing, call 877-336-1828 and enter access code 9449909#
