By Darren Thompson – October 28, 2021 Native News Online
On Tuesday, October 26, a group of lawmakers sent a letter to President Biden advocating for the release of Turtle Mountain Chippewa member Leonard Peltier. The group of lawmakers are all members of federally recognized tribes and represent 10 separate state governments. 

Native lawmakers have asked President Biden to release Leonard Peltier.

The effort was largely organized by North Dakota Representative Ruth Buffalo (D-Fargo). Buffalo is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations and is the first female Native American Democrat elected to the North Dakota Legislature, in December 2018. 

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“Leonard is an elder of very poor health and is from a Tribal Nation located within my home state of North Dakota,” said Rep. Buffalo to Native News Online. “He is housed in a facility with inhumane living conditions, where COVID-19 runs rampant and the water is contaminated.”

The letter of support for the Turtle Mountain Chippewa activist and political prisoner comes weeks after 11 members of Congress sent a letter to President Joe Biden, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal, and Southeast Regional Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons J.A. Keller, requesting the expedited release and clemency for Peltier. He suffers from diabetes and an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He is 77 years old. 

Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences in 1977 for the murders of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler. The agents were killed on June 26, 1975 during a confrontation with members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in 1975.

“We join the millions from around the world in calling for his release. We are simply asking the Bureau of Prisons to follow their own rules and release him,” said Buffalo. “Let’s do what is right. Peltier has spent 44 years in prison, and in the interests of justice and on humanitarian grounds, must be released.”

The Native American state lawmakers also reference Amnesty International, a global human rights organization with over 10 million member, supporters and activists worldwide, continues to call for his release.

Separate from the letter, during Amnesty International Virtual Activism Conference held last Saturday, a panel entitle, “Leonard Peltier: 46 Years of Injustice” in conversation with panelists Jean Roach, who was a teen on the scene of the incident at Oglala, Lenny Foster, Peltier’s spiritual adviser, and former federal district court  Judge Kevin Sharp.

Sharp recalled how he first went through Peltier’s file over the course of eight to ten hours.

“As a former federal judge and doing that as a former member of the military and doing that as a former attorney for Congress. All three of those jobs required me swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States. As I went through this file, I am appalled at what I see. There were mistakes by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and even the judge,” Sharp said. After reading the file, Sharp agreed to become Peltier’s attorney on a pro-bono basis.

The Native American state lawmakers’ letter ends with a plea to President Biden.

“We ask you, Mr. President, to do what is right. Let Mr. Peltier go home and live his final years among his people as an act of grace and compassion,” the concludes.

Others who have signed the letter are:

Ponka-We Victors Cozard, Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and Tohono O’odham Nation, Kansas House of Representatives District 103

Mary Kunesh, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Minnesota House of Representatives District 41B

Tawna Sanchez Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Oregon House of Representatives District 43

Jonathan Windy Boy, Chippewa Cree Tribe, Montana House of Representatives District 32

Mike D. Fox, Fort Belknap Indian Community, Montana Senate District 16

Peri Pourier, Oglala Lakota, South Dakota House of Representatives District 27

Red Dawn Foster, Oglala Sioux Tribe and Navajo Nation, South Dakota Senate District 27

Georgene Louis, Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico House of Representatives, District 26

Shane Morigeau, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Montana Senate, District 48

Sharon Stewart Peregoy, Crow Nation, Montana House of Representatives, District 42

Brenda McKenna, Nambé Pueblo, New Mexico Senate, District 9

Benny Shendo Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico Senate, District 22

Derrick Lente, Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico House of Representatives, District 65

Troy Heinert, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Senate Minority Leader South Dakota Senate, District 26

Jamie Becker Finn, White Earth Nation, Minnesota House of Representatives District 42B

Jamescita Peshlakai, Navajo Nation, Arizona State Senator, District 7

Tamara St. John, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, South Dakota House of Representatives, District 1

Richard Marcellais, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, North Dakota Senate, District 9

Heather Keeler, Yankton Sioux and Eastern Shoshone, Minnesota House of Representatives, District 4A

Christina Haswood, Navajo Nation, Kansas House of Representatives, District 10

Andrea A. Clifford, Northern Arapaho Tribe, Wyoming House of Representatives, District 33

Marvin Weatherwax Jr., Blackfeet Nation, Montana House of Representatives, District 15

Shawn L. Bordeaux, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota House of Representatives, District 26A
Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe) is a freelance journalist and based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, where he also contributes to Unicorn Riot, an alternative media publication. Thompson has reported on political unrest, tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous issues for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Indian Country Today, Native News Online, Powwows.com and Unicorn Riot. He has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Voice of America on various Indigenous issues in international conversation. He has a bachelor’s degree in Criminology & Law Studies from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, November 2nd, 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

We all know that life outside the walls is one precarious step away from the other side. Some released former political prisoners have referred to being out not as “freedom” but as minimum security, and unfortunately they know exactly whereof they speak. Truly no one is free while any single person is not. We know it, and the agents of authority know it just as well.

So while it is no surprise that the State surveils and targets those who actively work against oppression, the case against Daniel Baker is particularly shocking. To be charged and convicted for a hyperbolic post on a corporate social media platform is egregious, and the silence from so many apostles of “free speech” across the political spectrum is both predictable and appalling.

Our commitment to solidarity won’t waiver though, so this week we are asking you all to join us in writing to recently sentenced political prisoner Daniel Baker.

Daniel Baker is an anti-fascist activist who was arrested on January 15, 2021 for social media posts that called for defense against possible far-right attacks on the state’s capitol in the wake of the January 6th riots. Daniel 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, 2021 he was sentenced to 44 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release.

Daniel Baker #25765-509
USP Atlanta
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 150160
Atlanta, GA  30315

The deal, as always, is that you come bringing only yourself (and your friends and comrades), and we provide you with information about the prisoners as well as all of the letter-writing materials and prisoner-letter-writing info you could ever want to use in one evening. In return, you write a thoughtful letter to a political prisoner or prisoner of war of your choosing or, better yet, keep up a long-term correspondence. We’ll also provide some brief updates and pass around birthday cards for the PP/POWs whose birthdays fall in the next two weeks thanks to the PP/POW Birthday Calendar.

Directions:
Getting to The Base is simple:
From the M Train:
Central Avenue Stop: Walk east on Myrtle Avenue (away from Hart Street, toward Cedar Street). We’re about two blocks down on the south side of the street.

Knickerbocker Avenue Stop: Walk west on Myrtle Avenue (away from Harman Street, toward Himrod Street). We’re about three blocks down on the south side of the street.

From the L Train:
DeKalb Avenue Stop: Walk south on Stockholm Street (away from Wyckoff Avenue, toward Irving Avenue). We’re about four blocks down, at the intersection of Stockholm Street and Myrtle Avenue.

From the J Train:
Myrtle Avenue Stop: Transfer to the M train and follow the above directions.

https://www.facebook.com/events/610146950182724

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!

Ex-Member of Weather Underground David Gilbert Granted Parole After 4 Decades in Prison

OCT 27, 2021

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.”

Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) also released a statement

Former political prisoner Rita  ‘Bo’ Brown passed away this week after a long and horrible battle with Lewy Body Dementia. For those not lucky enough to have met Bo, here is her bio from Matt Meyer’s Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners (Kersplebedeb & PM Press):

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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.

Please donate to her funeral fund at
https://www.gofundme.com/f/pfspu-show-up-for-bo-brown

Via Free Maroon Now

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

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From our friends at the Certain Days collective:

“We are happy to announce that we just went to print and PRE-SALES for the 2022 Certain Days calendar (our 21^st edition) have begun! 

Order now and calendars will ship soon. 

In the U.S., order from Burning Books.
In Canada, order from Left Wing Books.
In Canada, BULK copies can be ordered via certaindays.org/orders

Order for people in prison for just $8 (we will mail it for you!)

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.

We also encourage sending birthday cards or notes to political prisoners with birthdays in November: Ed Poindexter (the 1st), Joe Dibee (the 10th), Fidencio Aldama Perez (the 15th) and Josh Williams (the 25th).

More information via https://phillyabc.org/post/2021-10-21-letter-writing-dan-baker/

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

Jessica Reznicek #19293-030
FCI Waseca
PO Box 1731
Waseca, MN 56093

Via Free Jessica Reznicek

“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.

ORDER YOURS HERE!

Black 100% cotton tee with white and red print on front and white print on back. Unisex sizes. Designed by Kat Eng.

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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!”

Please get a t-shirt at
https://www.eaglescreenprint.com/shop/p/free-jessica-reznicek-tee