Monthly Archives: September 2022

Running Down the Walls 2022 Recap

In early September, various Anarchist Black Cross chapters held the annual Running Down the Walls 5K events. Since 1999, prisoners and supporters throughout North America have participated in Running Down the Walls (RDTW) often running or walking simultaneously in many cities and prisons at once. This is a non-competitive 5K run/jog/walk/roll in order to raise awareness and funds for political prisoners. Over the years, we have raised thousands of dollars and lots of awareness around the struggle to free political prisoners. Below is the run down of Running Down the Walls 2022.

Chicago, Illinois (September 10th)
#RunningDownTheWalls went down in Chicago 2022, surrounding Cook County Jail for a day of solidarity actions in support of political prisoners and the movement to #FreeThemAll. We marched in the streets around that abysmal dump with chants and cheers, making contact with people inside on all sides of the jail. Then, we did it again, jogging the 5K! Shout out to all the bands who put on an epic generator show outside the jail, sharing music with the people inside! Appreciations to @rpsolidarity for providing food and refreshments.

RDTW raised funds for both the ABCF Warchest and Midwest Books to Prisoners. We read statements prepared for the event by imprisoned comrades Oso Blanco and Dan Baker, and we signed cards for political prisoners supported by the program.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (September 11th)

A little drizzle didn’t stop the people from coming out for Running Down the Walls 2022 in Philadelphia on September 11th. A group of about 150 came together in FDR park, along with 50 or so participating remotely – inside and outside prisons – to raise funds and strengthen solidarity with political prisoners. This year, proceeds were split between the ABCF Warchest and the Philly chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Together we raised $11,607, with $5,803.50 going to each.

A full report is at https://phillyabc.org/post/2022-10-03-rdtw-reportback/

Richmond, Virginia (September 17th)

James River Anarchist Black Cross held our first ever Running Down the Walls on September 17th. It was a sunny and pleasant Saturday in Chimborazo Park. Before the run/walk/roll, Jihad Abdulmumit, former political prisoner and current chair of the Jericho Movement, spoke on the importance of the Warchest and how he appreciated the cash when he was locked up. After the 5k we had a potluck, raffled off a bunch of books and t-shirts, and chilled out in the park for a few hours.

Overall we had 25+ people participate and raised over $500 which we split between our local work and ABCF Warchest. We hope to raise even more next year!

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (September17th)

September 17 was a beautiful and sunny day to run down the walls in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas). 

We gathered at Bayfront Park for a 5k run, walk and roll. As we started our run, we read the inspirational words of Eric King, Oso Blanco and Dan Baker. 

Thanks to our generous supporters, we raised over $1000 to donate to the ABCF Warchest and locally, Barton Prisoner Solidarity Project.  


Austin, Texas (September 17th)

Recap coming soon.

Brooklyn, NYC

Running Down the Walls 2022 felt like a homecoming. Those of us in NYC ABC got to catch up with long-time comrades and meet new folks, many of whom have taken on amazing projects. We shared food, heard statements from some of the political prisoners taking part from behind the walls, and raised much-needed funds for the Anarchist Black Cross Federation Warchest Program and Roots Unbound. But that’s not why you’re reading this, right? You’re more interested in the tedium of logistics. How the day came together. What protocols we adhered to for safety under the reality of an ongoing global plague. Right? RIGHT?!? No? Well, we get it. Organizing is rarely glamorous, and the hard work of supporting political prisoners is not romantic–in more cases than not, we don’t “win.” We have aging comrades dying behind these walls and it’s not benign neglect by the state, but rather the continuation of a war against oppressed folks they picked centuries ago. We see folks targeted for resistance to capitalism and the logic of “resource extraction,” whether the resources they plunder are the earth and everything living on it, or the labor we’re forced to sell just to survive.It would be easy to see the escalating repression, throw our hands up, and walk away. But where does that leave those with whom we share affinity and are either locked up, or facing it as a likely reality? Nowhere good, that’s for certain. So we keep it moving, figuratively and literally. Which brings us back to this report back.


The day started like many other RDTW days, with the juggling of finding parking, locking down the spot we use for gathering before and after the event, and getting set up. We scheduled the event this year to coordinate with others across the country, later i the year than typical, which left us concerned over potential bad weather (READ: hurricane season). But the nefarious cabal of weather controllers couldn’t hold down the popular will to enjoy a day in the park, so we enjoyed great weather. Once set up and ready, we waited for folks to arrive and arrive they did. Crews and individuals showed up early and we had a big crowd well before the 2:00pm event start time. “Wait, you started on time this year?” you might ask. Well, no. Anarchy time is a strange companion, after all. However, by shortly after 2, we took a group photo and made our way to the starting line. From there, we explained to those who showed up for a 5k with no context (surprisingly there were a few, thanks to promotion on a local runner’s forum), what Running Down the Walls is, who it benefits, and the route of the 5k. And then they were off!

Some took the 5k seriously and asked for their lap time, but most folks showed up for a good time and camaraderie regardless of how they took part in the event. In the end, everyone enjoyed themselves and after eventually cooling down and hydrating, we heard from Roots Unbound and from imprisoned comrades, the latter by way of pre-written statements they wrote for the event. All told, we had over 80 folks show up throughout the day and raised over what we set as this year’s goal. In the middle of all of it, we were able to talk with a lot of passersby, give away a lot of literature, and get the word out about political prisoners in the so-called USA.

That’s what’s up and that’s how we get down (the walls).

NYCABC RDTW 2022

Lowell, Massachusetts (September 18th)

Before our run we mentioned the recent visit by Philly ABC with Toby Shone in the UK. We gave solidarity shout outs to Oso Blanco, Eric King, and Dan Baker. We reminded
people of the many Black liberation prisoners who have been sitting behind bars for 50 plus years and getting a lack of support.

We had about 12 people run. We hope to establish a RDTW committee next year to make organizing more effective in the eastern Massachusetts region.

Los Angeles, California (September 18th)

On September 18th, the Los Angeles chapter of the ABCF joined in with other cities across North America in the annual Running Down the Walls. With the origins of the annual run rooted in the hills above Los Angeles (first run being in Griffith Park in 1999), we returned to the hills, this time being in Elysian Park. As tradition, we began the run with a reading of several statements from our comrades behind the walls with statements from Oso Blanco, Eric King, and Xinachtli.

Afterwards, we spoke on the tradition of the run and the fact that across the North America people were coming together as one in support and solidarity for political prisoners. We highlighted that this event also helped to fund the ABCF Warchest and the explained how the Warchest helps support political prisoners through monthly stipends and emergency assistance. Just last year alone, the Warchest disbursed $30,000 to comrades in needs. It is because of the support from folks on the outside that we can do this type of mutual aid.

When the run began, the path overlooked the Dodger’s Stadium along with the city’s beautiful scenic skyline. Southern California suffered weeks of scorching and record-breaking temperatures, but it seemed the heat wave broke just for our event. Instead of the heat, we were gifted with mild temperatures, overcast skies, and a perfect breeze to cool off those participating in the event.

While the number of participants were smaller than normal, we attribute that to the last couple runs being organized as remote runs due to the pandemic. However, with our online campaign and the funds that have come in on the day of and post run, we have raised over $3,000 for the ABCF Warchest. We know that these funds are desperately needed and will go to good use. 

Pomona, California (September 18th)

ABCF-OC is happy to report that our second annual Pushing Down the Walls event was a terrific success. This year’s event was held at the Por Siempre art space in so-called Pomona.

Through a combination of online/virtual fundraising, sales of books from PM Press, prints from N.O. Bonzo, zines from our comrades at Brittlebush Distro, patches, custom t-shirts, pins, and stickers, burpee sponsorships, and cash donations from attendees the day-of, we were able to raise a total of $2209.95. Of that total, $200 was donated to the surviving family and loved ones of Chilean water protector, Macarena Valdes, who was murdered by the Chilean State for her role in defending sacred Mapuche land from the encroachment of RP Global, a multi-national energy corporation headquartered in Austria. An additional $250 in funds were also raised through the sale of custom t-shirts and postcard sets featuring original artwork from our friend and comrade Oso Blanco. These funds will be deducted and donated in accordance with his wishes.

Along with the burpee marathon, the event featured live music, DJ’s, a statement from supporters of Macarena Valdes and statements from our incarcerated comrades Sean Swain, Oso Blanco, and Dan Baker, and amazing food and drinks from a local taqueria. We want to offer our sincerest thanks to the vendors, musicians, artists, organizations and individuals whose commitment and participation helped make this year happen. We look forward to next year’s event and are stoked to keep building, building it bigger through continued dialogue and collaboration, and–above all–to keep doing more to keep on supporting our imprisoned comrades.

Portland, Oregon (September 18th)

A big thank you to everyone who came out to make #RDTW2022 in PDX a success — we raised at least $1250 for the ABCF Warchest! Your solidarity is appreciated and necessary for working towards a world without prisons.

Certain Days 2023 calendar is now available for pre-order!

Certain Days 2023: Order Now!

We are happy to announce that sales for the 2023 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar (our 22nd edition) have begun!

How to order the Certain Days calendar:

U.S via Burning Books
burningbooks.com/products/certain-days-the-2023-freedom-for-political-prisoners-calendar

Canada (1-9 copies) via Left Wing Books
leftwingbooks.net

Canada (bulk. 10+ copies)
certaindays.org/order/

Prisoner copies ($8 & only for people in prison and jail)
certaindays.org/order/prisoners/




The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers across North America and political prisoner Xinachtli (s/n Alvaro Luna Hernandez) in Texas. We were happy to welcome founding members Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes (Rest in Power) home from prison in 2018, and founding member David Gilbert home from prison in 2021. We work from an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer- and trans-liberationist position.

This year features art and writings by Zola, Jeff Monaghan and Andy Crosby, Killjoy, Noelle Hanrahan, Juan Hernandez, Dan Baker, Antiproduct, Upping the Anti, Katy Slininger, David Gilbert, Paul Lacombe, Garrett Felber, Oso Blanco, Mark Tilsen, Terra Poirier, Steve McCain, Lawrence Jenkins, Ed Mead, Windigo Army, Dio Cramer, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Scott Parkin, Seize the Mean and Cindy Barukh Milstein.

Proceeds from the Certain Days 2022 calendar were divided amongst Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), Mutulu Shakur legal support, Sundiata Acoli release fund, Palestinian Youth Movement, Burning Books expansion, Puget Sound Prisoner Support , Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois, Appalachians Against pipelines, Community Resource Initiative- CA, P4W Memorial Collective Prisoners’ Justice Day healing circle, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Fund 2022, Cascadia Forest Defenders and NorCal Resist. Proceeds from the 2023 calendar will go to some of the same grassroots groups and more.

Letter writing for Veronza Bowers

What: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
When: Tuesday, September 20th, 2022
Where: YOUR HOME
Cost: Free

Just this last weekend, NYC ABC held our annual Big Event, Running Down the Walls. A great time had by all as far as we could tell—definitely by us—and a great boost to the anarchist and abolitionist morale. But more about that in a later missive. And please stay tuned for more events coming up soon!

For now we are thinking of Veronza Bowers, Jr., veteran of the Black Panther Party and long-serving political prisoner. But long-serving is a gross understatement: He has been in prison since 1973, convicted solely on the evidence of bribed government informants. He has now served almost two full decades past his parole date, kept inside on flimsy pretenses that do little to disguise the political nature of his continued unjust imprisonment. Veronza should be free, like all potential prisoners.

Please join NYC ABC and Page One Collective in writing him letters this week.

Veronza is a prisoner at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party incarcerated in federal prison for over 49 years, making him one of the longest held political prisoners in United States history.

Veronza was convicted for the murder of a U.S. Park Ranger. His conviction came as the result of testimony provided by two government informants, both of whom received reduced sentences by the Attorney General’s office for unrelated crimes. There were no eye-witnesses and no evidence independent of these informants to link Veronza to the crime. At his trial, Veronza offered alibi testimony which was not credited by the jury. Also not credited was testimony of two relatives of the informants who insisted that the informants were lying. In addition to having charges reduced in unrelated cases, the informants had all charges against them in this case involving Veronza dropped; one was given $10,000 by the government according to the prosecutor’s post-sentencing report. Veronza has consistently maintained his innocence, even at the expense of having his appeals for parole denied — an admission of guilt and contrition is virtually required if a prisoner has any hope of being granted parole.

What’s unique about Veronza’s case is that he has had the legal right to be released on what is known as “mandatory parole” since April 7, 2004. This is due to the fact that the Parole Commission failed to find that (1) there was compelling evidence he was likely to commit crimes upon release, or (2) he had frequently violated the rules of the prison system or (3) he had committed serious violations of prison rules during his incarceration. Only by making one of these three findings could the Commission lawfully deny him parole as of that date. What happened instead was that only a few hours before Veronza was to be released on April 7th, 2004, the Commission ordered the Bureau of Prisons to cancel his parole and indefinitely hold him in prison. This order was made without any explanation, justification or finding whatsoever.

Veronza has long passed his mandatory parole date, now by almost two decades.

For more information, visit veronza.org

Please write Veronza here:
Veronza Bowers, Jr. #35316-136
FCI Butner Medium II
PO Box 1500
Butner, NC 27509

‘Democratic Anarchism’ by Dan Baker

This is an update followed by an essay on my current views, shaped by my convictions and circumstances. I am currently about halfway through my sentence, with 16 months left based on the current calculation of my First Step Act credits, which is only 60 days off my furthest statutory release date. But in reality I have earned over 315 FSA credit days of my release date, and I am entitled to 6-12 months of halfway house time, in addition to my good behavior credit time, and points for participating in FSA programs. These points have not been credited towards my release on paper or in the computer despite my repeated efforts to request the administration to remedy this “oversight”. So I am exhausting the grievance process to this end, and when I have done this I will file a Habeas petition and sue the BoP for false imprisonment. If I was given the FSA and other time off my sentence, which I have earned and am legally entitled to pursuant to various laws, I would already be out of prison. This is a separate effort from my appeals which are later this month.

Lately I’ve been struggling to define my core beliefs, as of this moment. As I continue to grow and evolve my ideas change with my situation, limitations placed on me by forces beyond my control, and my exposure to new ideas. Please dialogue with me by offering criticism and your own contribution to this conversation. I offer the self criticism that I am not strong enough to totally resist this system and I am forced to compromise with them by modifying my behavior and beliefs in order to be able to survive and continue to struggle in a less effective form. I also offer the self criticisms that I contradict myself and I’m unconsciously influenced by colonialism, hierarchy and the privileges that come with being a white male in this racist and patriarchal country. The ideas I put forth here are heavily influenced by Buddhist metaphysics because this framework will be effective for keeping me out of prison and for my self development, which will help me and those who interact with me to keep the moral high ground in the eyes of the world. I do not believe that Buddhist nonviolence is the most effective method for bringing about liberation for all beings, but I am forced to resort to this strategy due to the harsh violence of the United $tates government, which threatens to kill, kidnap and otherwise oppress people who struggle for the rights of the poor, the minorities, the marginalized, women and so called foreigners. I’m heavily influenced by Abdullah Ocalan, Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman, Voltairine DeCleyre, Peter Kropotkin, Margaret Atwood, Murray Bookchin, Errico Malatesta, Malcom X, Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), Frederick Douglas, Patanjali, Lao Tzu, Mao Tse Tung, Khalil Gibran, Angela Davis, Karl Marx, Robert Greene, Walt Whitman and many other great minds who, while I may not agree with all of their ideas and actions, have shaped my current world view.

ALL GOVERNMENTS OF CURRENTLY EXISTING NATION STATES ARE BASED ON VIOLENCE, SLAVERY AND HIERARCHY. This can be visualized as scattered pyramids and ziggurats surrounded by walled cities, guarded by police and soldiers at borders. They protect the ruling class of wealthy business men, priests and politicians from the perennial rage of the ‘insubordinates,’ the working class. Serfdom replaced slavery and wage slavery replaced serfdom. WAGES ARE SLAVERY. Even the salaried ‘bosses’ are ripped off, as hey are on call to come to work at all hours, and expected to work more than the forty hours a week hat is expected of wage slaves. In the end their ‘salary’ is worth less by the hour than the hourly wage slave.

ALL SLAVERY IS BASED ON HOUSEWIVISATION. The enslavement of women paved the way to the enslavement of men. No revolution will succeed unless it is primarily a women’s revolution. THE HOUSEWIVISATION OF MEN AND WOMEN IS BASED ON ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. The captivity of animals in slaughterhouses led to the captivity and slaughter of city state populations. Hunting animals is still the most common form of preparing for the cannibalistic hunt of human beings that is modern policing, the capturing of slaves by slave catchers, the police, and modern warfare, the ritualistic sacrificing of the working class by the ruling class to the gods of profit and selfish ambition. In ancient time the aging hunter enclosed free lands to herd sheep and cattle for slaughter, and in doing so the older man systematically practiced the origins of hierarchy, rape as a form of breeding for selected traits, private property, patriarchy and authoritarian government. Animal husbandry and housewivisation planted the seeds for walled cities, state violence, laws which are violently enforced to protect hoarded property, which is the products of the labor of the working class, and wars for these good, herds, working populations, the women who are abused and the so called gods and religions to justify all this murder and domination.

The laws and violence of all currently existing nation states are based on the ideas indoctrinated by stone age religions, namely that their god finds people to be fundamentally evil and in need of rulers. This is so much nonsense, like many other stone age myths. The priests of these religions, from the Abrahamic to the Hindu, reinforce the idea of ‘original sin’, patriarchy and ‘holy’ wars. Police may pretend to separate church and state, but in practice, and especially behind closed doors, they use mythology, whether sincerely or unscrupulously engaged in, to justify force, the threat of force, slavery and the subjugation of women and slaves with verses from the Bible, the Talmud, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita, among others works of mythological mental gymnastics.

This system, despite being refuted by modern science, is kept in power by overt murder but also by the sword of hunger. POVERTY IS VIOLENCE and many are “converted” to white Christian nationalistic capitalism at the point of the sword of hunger. What many prisoners, addicts and unemployed homeless masses view as their ‘rock bottom’ is really only the intentional practice of keeping wages down by threatening workers with captivity, starvation, slow, painful death and humiliation. This is how governments of modern nation states legitimize their rule, their hierarchy, their ‘forever’ wars, and in the process convince the downtrodden workers to blame themselves for the suffering intentionally inflicted on them. These exhausted workers are forced to work themselves to sickness and death, resulting in dependence on the drugs which are sold to them by police and state regulated officials, drugs which were ‘confiscated’ from the manufacturers that the nation state conveniently overlooked. The performance of hard working drug addicts is a miracle of human performance at best, and at worst a sad example of the lengths people push themselves to when they finally fail to perform at their tasks and their bodies break down under the strain.

PEOPLE ARE NOT NATURALLY EVIL. HUMAN NATURE IS GOOD AND COMMUNAL. Humans are a phenomenon of social evolution, growing together in a rich and complex community of cooperative people. It is in our nature and our best interest to work together, and for the most part we do. We are an emotionally intelligent species and we are at our best in groups that make decisions by communicating on many levels, to meet the needs of everyone in the group. As a result of this social behavior we have developed and incredibly refined sense of ethics and compassion that predates religion. All perceived evils in co called ‘criminals’ are the results of the failures of a sick ‘civilization’ that is rooted in the core of its victims: slavery, domination, profit and exploitation. Capitalism is inherently based on the selfish attachment of the wealthy to their ill gotten gains. There is a reason that vampires are portrayed as wealthy blood suckers with sick and sadistic perversions born of their spoiled lifestyles. When people in desperate poverty lash out to survive, that is not crime, it is self defense, which is a universal right. Nature has decreed that whoever will not defend themselves will not be defended, and will go extinct if not protected. People’s very existence is criminalized by the constant creation of new laws and the bloated budgets of racist, classist, sexist and morally corrupt police and militaries who justify their existence at others expense. Society, under the overbearing domination of ‘civilization’s domestication’, has created its criminals to justify the rule of the wealthy politicians, priests and blood sucking capitalists. This can be seen in the way the U.$. government taught the nazi party how to abuse a minority with the example of Amerikkkan slave plantations and the prison and military industrial complexes. Today we can still see this ‘culture’ of corrupt cops flooding prisons and poor neighborhoods with the drugs they ‘confinscated’ from smugglers, manufacturers and growers, the same ‘Christian’ police and politicians who outlaw prostitution and at the same time demand sexual services from sex workers (cops and politicians are sex worker’s best customers, especially in prisons). Racist border patrols descended from the slave catching patrols of the original Amerikkkan police. This can also be seen in other countries who emulate Amerikkkan policy, like Turkey, as they abuse Kurdish and Syrian refugees at their borders while playing both sides of the conflict south of their border, a lesson learned from the U.$.

So much suffering is caused by state violence, but suffering can cease. Since all current governments are founded on violence, and the misguided  philosophy of original sin, we must reject that system and build a better way towards the end of this suffering. We must create the conditions for a better world. PARTICIPATION IN CURRENTLY EXISTING NATION STATES IS VIOLENCE. As conscientious people we can put an end to so much suffering by refusing to participate in state violence and government hierarchy. Knowing that all kind hearted people reject state violence, we can see that all who choose to benefit from government oppression are consciously participating in violence for selfish reasons or have been brainwashed with religion and patriotic propaganda. These ideas must be confronted by our own ideals, a consciously cultivated propaganda of utopia and liberation for all beings, which leaves room for a continuously evolving form of social structure based on results and ethics.  This requires hard work, self criticism, giving and receiving criticism as a community, and the application of wisdom and compassion with direct action, all on a daily basis. Suffering is caused by the attachment of the ruling classes to their wealth, power and illusions of security. Suffering can end by cultivating compassion, wisdom and detachment from excess through the equal distribution of resources to all beings. To do this nations and borders must cease to exist. A non-violent ‘war’ of direct action against oppression is a moral obligation for all of humanity, in the style of Gandhi’s resistance to British colonialism. The goal of a free life cannot be based on a violent act of domination, and for this reason we will only be free of the sins of our fathers when the temporary government of United $tates of Amerikkka, land of the fee and home of the slave, has collapsed under the weight of its own decadence and been replaced by more enlightened standards. All nation states go through life cycles. Everything is temporary. All we have to do is wait for the inevitable, and in the meantime build the infrastructure for the forms of equitable self management that we would like to see in our lifetime. within the dying husk of the old world order.

Rejecting modern capitalist nation states requires us to create alternative structures- nonviolent communes and structures for community decision making, communities. This can be modeled after Rojava’s Democratic Confederalism, which is a global union of villages, towns and cities who manage their own affairs without having to pay taxes to a capital. Daily, weekly and monthly meetings are attended and engaged in by all members of the community for decision making, voting, proposing ideas and projects, updating the commune on progress or setbacks, and offering and accepting criticisms and self criticism- and receiving criticisms with acceptance and an effort to adjust to the needs and expectations of the community. These structures work, and are working in Rojava and worldwide. They must be protected by self defense structures like the People’s Protection Unit. These models can be created within capitalist nations, and can operate autonomously and nonviolently, as long as the rights of the people of the autonomous zones are respected by the state governments.

By only being forces of growth, of agriculture, healthcare, housing, transportation and cultural freedom, this structure can peacefully grow with the capitalist wasteland, in the same way that jungles and forests reclaim abandoned shopping malls and the ruins of ancient temples, and bamboo, numerous, fast and flexible, pushes up concrete foundation. But as we all know, the forces of capitalism will not go quietly. Power structures of slavery and oppression will never give up their power, privilege’s and decadent luxuries without a struggle. They never have and they never will. So structures of self defense against police brutality must be willing, and able, to defend the workers, and win. This can never be an expansionist force, but it also should not build fortresses to protect itself, in which it would be trapped and sieged and starved out. Barricades give the forces of oppression a hard target to attack. Evolution has shown us that mobility and speed is favored and armor and size tends toward extinction. These ideals put forth here are heavily censored due to harsh state oppression, imprisonment, violence, displacement and threat of further violence, but at the same time they do reflect an ideal of ethics and morality based on the cultivation of compassion, wisdom and non-attachment. Compassion can be cultivated by practicing non-violence, being vegan or vegetarian, providing medical care for people and animals, growing plants and rescuing those in danger or need of help, and by considering that all being fear death and want to live, so we should view all with love, respect and the idea that we all come from one consciousness and ground of being that we will all return to when we die. Detachment can be cultivated by reflecting on the temporary nature of all things- countries, building, religions, politics, and our own bodies. By meditating on inevitable death and relating to the temporary suffering of others we become kind hearted, equal towards all, and determined to achieve liberation for all beings in this lifetime. Death is coming, and we are so unprepared. We only have a little time to make progress, so we must act daily, with a sense of urgency. The enemies of humanity, the wealthy rulers of capitalist oligarchies and nation states, the privileged politicians and dictators and ‘bosses’, these enemies are training daily to destroy our movement and secure their position over us. In doing so they will doom humanity to die with our sun when it inevitably goes supernova or burns out. Like climate change, which can be called climate genocide, this is a reality we must face . We can only overcome this hurdle rationally, with wisdom and compassion, so that our species will survive.

We must make long term plans of resistance, not one, five or ten year plans, but one hundred, five hundred and one thousand year plans, which are not driven by selfish ambition or greed. Anarchism is an ideology that offers flexibility with the built in capacity to change with time to meet the needs of the moment. This world is on fire and the universe is a chaotic place- life is a miracle in the face of extreme temperatures and cosmic forces like gravity which we are beginning to comprehend and ride like waves across space. As we learn to surf the waves of energy that we emerged from we ascribe meaning to the struggle that is our lives. TO LIVE IS TO STRUGGLE. Even reproduction is a form of self defense. By thinking long term we can see the wisdom of rejecting inherited wealth which spoils generating and creates class divisions. With an impartial perspective we can plan for humanities’ migration to a younger solar system before our star dies. We need to start building the ships, and the political and social structures that will protect the rights of the workers who will build, drive and maintain the transports to the moon, mars, the asteroid belt, the moons around gas giants like Europa, Titan and beyond our solar system. The families of the workers who build humanity’s arks will be subject to the whims of large companies and governments. Imagine Elon Musk’s robot-named child heir making decisions about whether to cut off the air, food or medicines to people who are on strike due to poor working conditions on space stations owned by Tesla, where all space shipments are owned by Jeff Bezos, the only company stores on the space stations and colonies are Walmart and the U.N. navy space marines are trained to view all deep space workers as terrorists. Hopefully humanity can get that far, to face such problems. In order to prevent future massacres we need to form an ‘Outer Planets Alliance’ now, a union to protect space miners and their families. We need to work for a unified humanity that is not at war with itself, but struggles together to survive the natural disasters we will inevitably encounter on larger and larger scales.

The universe is chaotic, but we can survive. Anarchy is the natural state of our galaxy. We do not fear anarchy, we invoke it. We evolved from chaos and anarchy, and we will return to it. We adapt to our environment and live in harmony with constant change, with pose and counter pose to balance our fragile existence. Anarchy is the unrestricted manifestation of free people. Anarchism is direct democracy, communal living in tune with nature, not hierarchical, but horizontal, and circular. We reject borders, dynasties, heirs, monarchies, dictatorships, representative republics, religious theocracies and modern capitalist states. We will create our own ‘Starfleet federation’ based on out experience building democratic confederalism, based on radical equality, direct democracy, social ecology, feminism, ethical morality and freedom. Our goal is one global community of united peoples with high quality healthcare, focused on meaningful longevity, with physical, mental, emotional and social well being and intelligence, working as one to survive long enough to migrate to planets with young suns, on a generational social plan which prioritized survival of humanity and an idealistic quality of life in the face of the reality of the temporary life cycles of suns and the difficulty of finding habitable planets like Earth and Kepler.

Obstacles to these goals amount to an insane, selfish obsession with mythology, progeny, blind ambition and bureaucratic patriotism, which could doom us all to a nuclear holocaust well before our sun expires. We have evolved beyond the need for myths. We can defeat these forced of regression with clever and skillful means in the style of Gandhi and the Earth and Animal liberation movements. Soldiers going AWOL (I did); civilians abandoning violent power structures; activists monkey wrenching; strikes; refusing to work at all until society evolves a conscience; using only cash and gift economy, or cryptocurrency; rejecting all debts; erasing and destroying records; defunding police and militaries globally; guerilla gardening and farming on public lands or any available space for public food forests; building medical infrastructure within your community; creating transportation structures within your neighborhoods; redistributing resources to enslaved and marginalized peoples; providing universal healthcare, universal basic income, housing, work, and education programs, especially for the space program for all working people, not just the rich and ultra rich who can afford joy rides. Many necessary strategies and tactics cannot be discussed here openly under the observation of racist, dogmatic zealots who adhere to political power structures based on stone age mythologies. Do not expect the imprisoned veterans of liberation movements to fight your battles for you. You, yourself are the hope for the future. You must be practical and do the impossible. Find meaning in helping and living with others and stand up for what you believe in. Listen to your heart and take action on what you find there. Hope is as hollow as fear, but to indulge in hope is a joyful exercise. These two opposites, hope for your own fulfillment and humanities’ future and fear of our failure, are like two wings that lift us up. We have a duty for fight for our freedom; we have a duty to win! We must love and support one another! We have nothing to lose but our chains!

This is all a voluntary venture – none of this can be forced on anyone. It is only a recommendation – much like a parachute is only a recommendation when the plane is burning as it falls from the sky. This world is on fire. We can all hang on to each other or we can hang separately.

To accomplish these goals requires global solidarity. With education, daily direct action and a common goal uniting humanity we can come together and survive in a meaningful and fulfilling way. It is not enough to live miserable lives of pain and preventable hardship, illness, disease, injury and silent desperation. We demand more from those who attempt to rule over us, not that they grant us privileges, but that they get out of the way of the progress of all of humanity towards our highest potentials. We will carry on with dignity, meaning, health and wellbeing. Please join us in coming together for all of our own best interests. If any of this statement falls short it is only my own fault for not working harder to convey these ideas in a clear structured way. I am trying to do my best with limited resources, writing from federal prison. Please offer me criticisms, questions and your own input. Take these ideas and make them your own, use them for your own specific circumstances. May all beings be happy and free!

Dan/Alishare

Write:
Daniel Baker, 25765-509
FCI MEMPHIS 
P.O, BOX 34550
MEMPHIS, TN  38184

Update on Eric King

Eric is currently being held at the Federal Supermax in Florence, Colorado (ADX) and is extremely isolated. The ADX keeps people in their cells 24 hours a day and Eric is not able to communicate with anyone else. This is the payback the Bureau of Prisons has for him after winning his criminal trial.

FILE – This Feb. 11, 2004, file photo provided by the Bureau of Prisons shows the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colo. Clockwise from lower left is the minimum security Federal Prison Camp, the high security United States Penitentiary, the maximum security United States Penitentiary and the Federal Correctional Institution. Experts say the drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who will be sentenced on June 25, 2019 for smuggling enormous amounts of narcotics into the U.S and having a hand in dozens of murders, seems the ideal candidate for the federal government’s maximum security, “Supermax,” prison, also known as ADX for “administrative maximum,” a facility so secure, so remote and so austere that it has been called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”. (Bureau of Prisons via The Gazette via AP, File)

There are 335 other people at ADX and the conditions at this cruel prison have been written about often:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/01/08/my-life-in-the-supermax
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-20322105.html


Please send Eric a letter to let him know he is not forgotten and people are still watching. His address is below. His book list is at tiny.cc/EK_Books and one of the only things he can do to pass the day is by reading. Please consider buying a book or two for Eric.

Eric King #27090-045
USP Florence ADMAX
PO Box 8500
Florence, CO 81226

Eric King’s Statement for Running Down the Walls

Comrades! Greetings from the Rockies. I hope everyone is feeling strong, safe, and loved. After a very active and hectic Black August I’m very happy to be joining everyone in RDTW. This year I’ll be doing two days filled with jogging around my cage, lots of plyometrics, burpees, and boxing fun, pretending I’m out in the sun with everyone having a good time. My heart’s out there.

I love RDTW. Projects that link up those of us inside with free world activism are the best kind of project for me. The War Chest has benefited so many of us, myself included, and I feel really blessed to have folks come out, lace up, and keep us alive out there. The world is filled with shitty things, so many oppressive people and mechanisms — it’s nice to know and remember that people care, people remember, and people aren’t abandoning ship. Thank you to everyone who has shown up for us inside. We’ll get these bastards some day!

Anarchy Always, antifascism everywhere,
Love & Solidarity, EK

Eric King #27090-045
USP Florence ADMAX
PO Box 8500
Florence, CO 81226

Running Down the Walls Week 2 updates

On September 10th and 11th, the Chicago-based Midwest Books to Prisoners and Philly ABC held runs in their respective cities. Check out the photos and recaps of these two events at:
twitter.com/MidwestBooks2P
twitter.com/phillyabc

Philly 2022 Running Down the Walls

Unicorn Riot was at the Philly run and did an extensive segment on the run. View it at
https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/running-down-the-walls-marathon-benefit-for-prisoners-in-philly/

There will be 8 more runs next weekend. All the info is below:

Since 1999, prisoners and supporters throughout North America have participated in the annual event known as Running Down the Walls (RDTW) often running or walking simultaneously in many cities and prisons at once. This is a non-competitive 5K run/jog/walk/roll in order to raise awareness and funds for political prisoners. Over the years, we have raised thousands of dollars and lots of awareness around the struggle to free political prisoners. Many places will be hosting RDTW 2022 between September 11th or 18th – stay tuned to our blog for more details from all of the locations participating this year!

Find out more about Running Down the Walls and the ABCF Warchest (which the runs support).

List of 2022 Runs

Austin ABC- September 17th

Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) Running Down the Walls- September 17
Bayfront Park, 200 Harbour Front Drive, Hamilton, ON. 11am.

James River ABC (Richmond) September 17th

Los Angeles ABC- September 18th


NYC ABC- September 18th

Lowell ABC- September 18th

Pushing Down the Walls- September 18th


Portland ABC- September 18th



From Coast to Coast: Open Letter by Anarchist Prisoner Toby Shone

I’ve previously written about the need to recreate an Atlantic bridge, based on international revolutionary solidarity and reciprocal knowledge, that moves towards affinity and direct action in support of our imprisoned comrades. Since then, I was recently visited by a comrade from Anarchist Black Cross Philadelphia here at the G4S facility in which I’m held. G4S is originally an American company, Wackenhut, which has pioneered the private prison and security industry all over the world. As part of our discussion between the comrade from ABC Philadelphia and myself, we spoke of the need to prevent our groups and commons becoming inward-looking and closing in on themselves in microscopic scenes and myopia. The anglophone world is particularly susceptible to this trend, although it is not solely confined to English-speaking territories. How can we translate rhetoric into practical activity? Words and deeds must coincide, and that is what?

For too long, a kind of one-way discourse has been in effect, breached by too few valiant individuals and groups. We can speak of a loss of solidarity flowing across the Atlantic between north and south, east and west. Without wanting to advocate any kind of anarcho-tourism or the colonial approach of the wholesale export-import political programs of the activist left, I’m in favor of strengthening our international networks in the face of an increased technocratic authoritarianism. To remain locked up in our local areas without considering the struggles elsewhere is self-defeating, as repressive operations seek to confine us and stem our anarchic contagion specifically to promote sterility. Can we renew an Atlantic bridge that connects our tendencies, that connects the uprisings in the North American metropolises to those in Europe, Latin America and Asia? Can we join together the struggles of the long-term COINTELPRO prisoners with those elsewhere in the global prison industrial complex?

As a very basic contribution with the small means I have, I’ll join the Running Down The Walls 5K run event organized by the comrades of the American chapters of the ABC, called for September the 11th-18th this year, during the time I have out of my cell on the yard or the gym. This event aims to create a sense of togetherness through athletics. Keeping our fitness and health is important outside, and money raised by the event will supply funds to the ABC Warchest.

The real challenge is to enable an evolution in self-organization, osmosis, decentralization and cooperation; critical and practical action. As a first principle and minimum start, we can mention the exchange of letters and postcards that break the isolation of the prison walls and national borders that separate us. Since I am forbidden a large part my correspondence, and especially that of political content, it is fair to say that this constitutes meaningful solidarity of a certain type. Then there is the collation and publication of the letters and updates of our imprisoned comrades, and the incendiary dialogues which are always breaking out and multiplying as written about by comrades Alfredo, Gabriel, and Gustavo. This dialogue between inside and outside is very important. We need to cut through the bars which divide us all to support our hunger strikes, to identify structures of repression, to raise funds, to carry out campaigns, to hold events and give a helping hand to those next to our side even though an ocean may seem to separate us. I hope certain comrades can forgive me for laboring the topic as I’m positive everything I’ve written about already exists to varying degrees over several territories, but I’m aware of the need occasionally to reiterate key aspects of our practices to spread them and create new connections.

Let your voices be heard in protest from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to Mexico. Serve notice upon the murderous capitalistic class that you will not again stand idly by and see your brothers made victims because they so will it, and they will dare not do it!

– Lucy Parsons, The Proposed Slaughter, 1905

Everyone to the streets,
Toby Shone
19 August 2022

Dr. Mutulu Shakur September Health & Legal Update

Healthwise, Dr. Shakur’s condition is changing on a weekly basis. He did gain a few pounds in early August and was able to go back on chemotherapy. However, shortly thereafter, he developed an infection in his knee and had to stop chemo in order to treat that infection. The legal team continues to monitor the care that he is receiving to advocate for him in the best possible way.

On the legal front, Judge Haight again denied the motion for compassionate release. However, unlike his 2021 denial claiming that Mutulu was not sick enough at that time to be granted compassionate release, this time he denied the motion on procedural grounds saying that the court does not have the authority to grant his compassionate release [see the Ruling]. This contention is because Dr. Shakur is an ‘Old Law’ prisoner, and, therefore, the Bureau of Prisons would need to grant compassionate release. This ‘Old Law’ status is somewhat of a legal grey area that unfortunately Dr. Shakur and other aging prisoners are caught in. The legal team submitted a new compassionate release request to the BOP on Friday, September 2nd based on Haight’s decision and updated medical information. Also this week, the legal team was notified that Dr. Shakur will be scheduled for another parole hearing the week of October 10th. We anxiously await news from the BOP as we prepare for this hearing.

Please continue to keep Mutulu in your thoughts and prayers. He is conserving his energy for the rest and healing he needs, so he is for the most part not reading mail or corresponding with people. He can feel the love y’all are sending through the walls though, and he is sending it right back!