Dr. Mutulu Shakur denied parole

On May 16, 2022, Dr. Mutulu Shakur was denied mandatory parole by the U.S. Parole Commission.

This is the ninth time Dr. Shakur has been denied parole by the USPC, and the second time he has been denied mandatory parole.

Dr. Shakur received support for his parole from former Bureau of Prison staff, sitting Members of Congress, and religious and community leaders. Despite this extensive support for his release and his dire medical condition, the USPC determined that:

“After consideration of all factors and information presented, at this time, the Commission is denying your release under the standards at 18 U.S.C. §4206(d) for the following reasons: The Commission finds that there is a reasonable probability that you will commit a Federal, State, or local crime if released.”

Dr. Shakur’s legal team will be appealing this decision, and along with Dr. Shakur Families and Friends of Mutulu Shakur will be exploring all possible next steps in the struggle for his immediate release. This is a protracted effort and we will continue to work for his release until we win.

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Donate to the ABCF Warchest and support long-time political prisoners!

The Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF) initiated the Warchest program in November 1994 to send monthly donations to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War who have been receiving insufficient, little, or no financial support during their imprisonment. Its purpose is to collect funds from groups and individual supporters and send that money directly to commissary accounts of vetted Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War (PP/POW) monthly. From inception to date, we have distributed over $158,000 in funds.

Ways to Donate:
1-Venmo: TimFasnachtABCF
2- CashApp: $timabcf
3-PayPal: www.paypal.me/abcfwarchest (or send your donation to [email protected])
4-Check or money order: made out to Tim Fasnacht and send to Tim Fasnacht, P.O. Box 8682, Lancaster, PA 17604.
5-Tax-deductible: We now have a 501c3 fiscal sponsor for tax deductible gifts of over $500. For this option, make check out to GLACTS and mail to Philly ABC, P.O. Box 8643, Philadelphia, PA 19101.

The current Warchest recipients are:
Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez)
Joe-Joe Bowen
Oso Blanco
Malik Bey
Hanif Shabazz Bey
Ruchell Cinque Magee
Veronza Bowers
Mutulu Shakur
Eric King
Abdul Azeez
Ed Poindexter
Kamau Sadiki
Ronald Reed
Leonard Peltier
Jamil Al-Amin
Fidencio Aldama
Dan Baker

Check out the ABCF warchest video

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Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 – Letter-writing to Xinachtli

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, May 17th, 2022
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

Within the past couple weeks the community of folks engaged in prison abolition and political prisoner solidarity work have experienced both incredible highs and devastating lows:

Longtime organizer, educator, and former political prisoner Kathy Boudin passed away, a huge loss to the movement and of course personally painful to her family, friends, and comrades.

While still reeling from Kathy’s loss, the incredible news came down that the New Jersey Supreme Court overruled the denial of parole for Sundiata Acoli, a huge victory for Sundiata and all of those who have worked so hard for his freedom. At 85, and after 49 years inside, it is better late than never, and we are overjoyed that Sundiata will soon be home!

And just before this writing we were notified that an elder comrade close to us has also just passed. This was one of those people that did the work of organizing and attending events, writing to prisoners to see what they need, and advocating for them in any way possible; year after year, decade after decade, courageously and joyfully doing the work, and cheering on her comrades and their efforts. We salute her memory and honor the struggles she spent her life engaged in.

Of course we are all mourning the 10 people murdered in Buffalo just a few days ago in yet another white supremacist massacre stoked by increasingly main-streamed fascist conspiracy theories, just one in a string of racist attacks nationwide.

With these victories and pains fresh, we are asking you all to join us as we write to Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli, one of those people who has been in the struggle for years, through highs and lows, and kept their faith throughout in the power of radical solidarity.

Xinachtli (Nahuatl, meaning “seed”) is an anarchist communist community organizer and Chicano movement revolutionary, currently imprisoned in Texas. Formerly known as Alvaro Luna Hernandez, he worked diligently in the barrio on civil and human rights issues, known widely for his legal skills. Gaining international recognition as the national coordinator of the Ricardo Aldape Guerra Defense Committee, Xinachtli was instrumental in helping to free Mexican national Aldape Guerra from Texas’ death row, where he had been framed for the murder of a police officer.

In July 1996 Xinachtli was arrested after disarming a County Sheriff who was attempting to shoot him. After defending himself at trial, Xinachtli was sentenced to 50 years in prison for aggravated assault, a charge he vehemently denies. While imprisoned, Xinachtli continues to write frequently, create beautiful visual art, has helped to organize multiple prison strikes, and has been held in solitary confinement for the last 19 years and counting. Xinachtli is a prolific jailhouse lawyer, as referenced by Mumia Abu Jamal in his book Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v the USA. Xinachtli assists many prisoners in seeking new trials, and filing suits against the repressive, inhumane Texas prison system. In September 2021 his parole review was denied. More information at https://freealvaro.net.

Alvaro Luna Hernandez #255735
McConnell Unit
3001 Emily Drive,
Beeville, TX 78102
*Address envelopes to Alvaro Luna Hernández, cards/letters to Xinachtli.

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James River ABC Monthly Political Prisoner Writing Night

Tuesday, May 17
6-8pm
Lamplighter 116 S Addison St, Richmond, VA 23220
This month marks two years since George Floyd’s murder and the beginning of the wave of uprising that swept through the US and the world in 2020. Remembering the anniversary of these recent but historic times, we will be focusing on political prisoners who are locked up for their participation in the uprisings.
Supplies provided!
Contact: [email protected]


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Sundiata Acoli wins appeal and is coming home!!!

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY –  The New Jersey Supreme Court correctly upheld the law today, granting the release of 85-year-old Sundiata Acoli after serving more than 49 years in prison. The Supreme Court ruled that the parole board unlawfully denied Mr. Acoli’s petition for release by claiming that he was a risk to public safety and noted that he has shown no substantial risk of recidivism or a risk to public safety. 

Read the full decision here. 

“The Parole Board’s decision to deny Acoli parole is not supported by substantial evidence in the record or by a reasonable weighing of the relevant factors in N.J.A.C. 10A:71-3.11(b) that govern parole. 

“Even under the most deferential standard of review, the Board has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that there is a substantial likelihood that, if released on parole, Acoli will commit a crime. Acoli must be released because the statutory standards for granting parole have been met, without regard to extraneous factors like sympathy or passion or public opinion. (pp. 53-55) REVERSED.”

“We applaud the New Jersey Supreme Court in granting Mr. Acoli’s freedom and correcting the parole board’s improper application of the law by denying his petition for release after serving more than 49 years in prison,” said Soffiyah Elijah, Civil Rights attorney and one of the primary advocates for Acoli. “It’s time now for Mr. Acoli to live the rest of his life in the loving care of his family and community,” Elijah added. 

“We appreciate and thank his thousands of supporters from the attorneys, individuals, and community organizations to those who submitted amicus briefs on his behalf to champion his freedom; freedom that is rightfully his. We strongly hope that Mr. Acoli’s freedom will bring attention to the thousands of elders like him trapped in the New Jersey prison system,” Elijah concluded.

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Leonard Peltier To Joe Biden: ‘I’m Not Guilty. I Would Like To Go Home.’

Leonard Peltier knows his time is running out.

The Native American rights activist is 77, has serious health issues, just survived an ugly bout with COVID-19 and is now serving his 46th year in federal prison ― where the U.S. government put him without any evidence that he committed a crime.ADVERTISEMENT

Peltier and his supporters are holding out hope that President Joe Biden will finally send him home. Because, if anything has become clear with time, it’s just how troubling Peltier’s imprisonment has been from the start. Prosecutors in his trial hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. A juror admitted she was biased against Native Americans on day two of the trial, but was allowed to stay on anyway.

Even some of the same U.S. government officials who helped put Peltier in prison in the first place have since admitted how flawed his trial was and how horribly the government has long treated Native Americans, and they have urged clemency for him.

There is reason to believe that Biden could, at last, give Peltier his freedom. He has already demonstrated a willingness to address past injustices against Native Americans. Since taking office, Biden has made it a priority to examine the government’s ugly history of Indian boarding schools, to protect sacred Indigenous sites and cultural resources, and to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. He also canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a major win for tribes and environmentalists.

Biden also chose Deb Haaland to lead his Interior Department, making her the nation’s first Indigenous Cabinet secretary. Haaland strongly advocated for Peltier’s release from prison in her former role as a member of Congress.ADVERTISEMENT

In November, HuffPost pressed Haaland on whether she still supports Peltier’s release in her role as interior secretary and whether she’s talked to the president about him. Haaland said only, “My thoughts and feelings about this issue are well-documented.”

If only Peltier had a few minutes alone with Biden himself. What would he say?

In a rare interview from his maximum security prison in Florida, Peltier recently told HuffPost that his message to the president would be simple.

“I’m not guilty of this shooting. I’m not guilty,” he said. “I would like to go home to spend what years I have left with my great-grandkids and my people.”

Peltier in Coleman Federal Prison in 1993.
Peltier in Coleman Federal Prison in 1993.

Peltier said he’s been following Biden’s efforts to support Native American rights and empower tribes, and if he had the president’s ear, he would give him credit for that.

“I appreciate what you’re doing by giving us our nationhood back, our sovereignty back,” he said he’d tell Biden. “I’m very grateful for that, because that’s what I was fighting for all my life.”

Before he was put in prison, Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, a grassroots group of activists focused on drawing attention to federal treaty rights violations, discrimination and police brutality targeting Native Americans. Back in the 1970s, the FBI was running a covert campaign to suppress the activities of AIM. In fact, as time has revealed, the FBI is at least partly responsible for the shootout that day on Pine Ridge Reservation, as it was intentionally fueling intra-tribal tensions there in an effort to disrupt AIM’s efforts.

Today, the FBI remains the biggest obstacle to Peltier getting out of prison, for no clear reason other than wanting to shield itself from scrutiny over its past wrongdoings. The bureau simply doesn’t want him to ever be released. It recently made that clear to HuffPost ― even when we didn’t ask. This was very weird. The unsolicited statement it provided was also full of misinformation, which signals the FBI’s plan is to keep recycling a flimsy, face-saving argument for keeping Peltier in prison until he dies.

Peltier said he knows exactly what he would say to FBI Director Christopher Wray if he had the chance to talk to him alone for a few minutes.ADVERTISEMENT

“Stop killing my people. That’s all I would tell him,” he said. “Stop killing my people. Arrest the people that are guilty of crimes on the reservations.”

Peltier, pictured in 1993, has spent decades in jail and is in poor health.
Peltier, pictured in 1993, has spent decades in jail and is in poor health.

Perhaps Peltier’s greatest strength is something the FBI can’t match: the staying power of his story. For decades, thousands of people have been protesting his imprisonment ― including U.S. senators, members of Congress, Native American groups, celebrities and human rights leaders like Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King and Amnesty International, an organization otherwise focused on political prisoners in other countries.

Just last week, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland on the status of Peltier’s clemency petition as Garland testified in an unrelated Senate budget hearing. The U.S. attorney general offered a surprisingly weak response, saying he didn’t know about Peltier’s case beyond what he’s read in the press.

Pleas for Peltier’s release are also happening at the international level. On Tuesday, North Dakota state Rep. Ruth Anna Buffalo (D) gave a statement at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues demanding clemency for him.

“The case of Leonard Peltier demonstrates the failure of the U.S. criminal justice system to provide real justice for Native Peoples as well as the government-generated environment of racism that consistently leads to unjust convictions,” Buffalo said in her statement, which she read aloud on behalf of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. She urged the U.N. to push for “a means for relief and justice for Leonard Peltier.”

Buffalo later told HuffPost she felt her remarks were “well-received” at the U.N. forum.

“I hope the reading of the statement on behalf of the ILPDC will have a positive effect on the release of our elder, Leonard Peltier,” she said. “I’m thankful for the decades of advocacy in fighting for justice for Leonard Peltier.”

“I’m not guilty. I would like to go home to spend what years I have left with my great-grandkids and my people.”- Leonard Peltier

Peltier is watching all of this play out from his prison cell. He gets regular updates from supporters on news stories that come out about him and rallies being organized in his name. He is surprisingly up to date on current news. Sometimes people mail him articles to read, and when he can’t access a relevant news story online, he has friends who will call in and read it to him over the phone, line by line.

During HuffPost’s interview with Peltier, he did most of the talking. He said he was scared recently by chest pains he’d had when he was walking across the prison yard and that he hopes to get back to painting after being denied access to the art room for years because of pandemic precautions.

Asked if he thinks he’ll make it out of prison before he dies, Peltier said he doesn’t know. To date, the White House has either ignored HuffPost’s questions about the president’s willingness to grant clemency to Peltier or talked only about the process a person must go through for requesting clemency.

“Sometimes it feels like, well…,” Peltier said, trailing off. “I shouldn’t even be here. … I should have never been in prison to start with.”

He is clearly still animated by the cause for justice for Native Americans that he was fighting for with AIM so many years ago. He told stories from his days in the 1970s, when he said Indigenous women were being routinely raped by white men who later got little or no punishment for it, and he and other AIM members would confront local law enforcement to do something about it.

Peltier specifically cited the case of former South Dakota Republican Gov. Bill Janklow, who allegedly raped a 15-year-old Lakota schoolgirl, Jancita Eagle Deer, at the Rosebud Boarding School on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Eagle Deer was mysteriously killed by a car a few months after she testified against Janklow, who was never charged.

“Native people are humans and we had a society, a very advanced society of our own. We were generous people. We gave. That was our problem,” he said. “When the white man first came here, we gave too much. That’s what we did. We opened up because that’s the way we were brought up. We have been nothing but abused for the last 300-some years.”

Peltier in a recent photo from Coleman Federal Prison in Florida.
Peltier in a recent photo from Coleman Federal Prison in Florida.

Peltier said the fact that he has a strong base of supporters who are still fighting for him to get clemency shows that the more people learn about the way he was put into prison, the more people “are finally believing us” that the whole process was unjust.ADVERTISEMENT

“How do I feel about it? I feel good about it,” he said of people appealing for his release at the United Nations this week. “Maybe I’ll be able to go home and die now.”

He paused before adding, “I’m still pissed off about what they did. What they did to me was wrong. It violated the whole Constitution of the United States.”

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Statement from Dan Baker in solidarity with Toby Shone

Dan Baker just issued the following statement in solidarity with anarchist prisoner Toby Shone, who was facing a control order that has just been rejected by a judge.

I express my solidarity and support for Toby Shone, who is being held by the same company, G4S, which captures and holds children in cages. The psychologist here at FCI Memphis asked me why I fast on new and full moons and I told her that I fast to train my body for hunger strikes because this is the only way to express bodily autonomy in a totalitarian, dystopian police state. Today is the anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands, Irish political prisoner who was on hunger strike. Up the Friends!

I am now receiving mail but friends like Toby Shone and Eric King are unable to communicate freely with the outside world, and kept in isolation with meaningless labels of elevated fear. Like Toby, I also faced a decade in prison, and was told I should be grateful for only receiving 44 months of captivity. But Abdullah Ocalan says, “There is nothing more contemptible than a slave who is grateful for their enslavement.”

After finishing my sentence I will be on probation and observation for three years, which, as Toby said, could see us return to prison on the whims of unscrupulous cops who don’t follow their own laws. As Toby said, international solidarity cooperation and mobilization is fundamental to successful progress. Before we can dismantle and abolish human captivity, we have to examine our hearts and minds and uproot the chains of slavery that capitalism has conditioned us to perpetuate through widespread advertising and dependency. I would like everyone to remember Willem Von Spronson, who took a stand against G4S and their abusive enslavement of children, in the U.$., Palestine and the U.K. The Martyrs never die!

The human spirit that loves truth, freedom and beauty will never submit to systems of hierarchy and domination. I admire Toby’s statement that will not step back one millimeter!

Solidarity forever,

Dan aka Alishare

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

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