Political Prisoner Brian ‘Peppy’ DiPeppa was released to halfway house today!

Unwavering Faith In Collective Power

Some years ago, Krystal and I departed downtown Pittsburgh with a farewell kiss. We know love when free is liberating and when held in defiance of oppression is revolutionary. 

We left with an unwavering faith in the collective power accompanying us through the hardship of an all-too-common journey, in the clutches of the carceral state.

Now I return to the point of departure, having fared well with your hands at my back every step of the way. I return to my comrades’ arms for a moment to pause and breathe; we are still not free until all are free.

I took a ride along the contours left by the wounds of a system fixated on war. What these 971 days behind the walls have gifted is attunement to the shadowed sorrow that state, capital, and alienation are so committed to. 

I exited the closed prison today for the open prison of “community confinement”, a half-way house. From within and against these prisons, it is clear that abolition is only rational if we seek war’s end. Beyond idealism is the practical matter of placing hurt people with other hurt people in battle royale ghettos. AI will not resolve social inequities.

My eyes saw ingenuity and cleverness, hallmarks of determined people to find a way. Your letters and shared stories, from Minneapolis to Gaza, upheld this heart in which our new world is carried. 

May we find many ways together!

In Solidarity, Pep