Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit LOVE AND RAGE Electronic Edition APRIL/MAY 1993 Part 3 IN SOLIDARITY: POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE U.S. The following speech was given by ex-political prisoner Rita "Bo" Brown on Oct 3, 1992, at the International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations In The U.S.A., which took place in San Francisco. The Tribunal heard testimonies and presented an indictment to the U.S. Government for its national crimes. One of the Tribunal's demands was for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of war (P.O.W.s) held in U.S. prisons and jails. It is in this context that the following speech was given, which focuses on white North American political prisoners who have struggled in solidarity with the national liberation struggles, as well as fighting capitalism and imperialism. The speech has been edited by the Production Group. I AM VERY HONORED TO BE HERE today, at this tribunal which condemns 500 years of genocide and celebrates 500 years of resistance. I come speaking about the ... white political prisoners presently being held in U.S. prisons and jails " many of whom are imprisoned because of their solidarity with oppressed nations and peoples in the U.S. and around the world. I speak from experience and deep feeling for I am a former political prisoner myself having spent eight-and-a-half years in federal prisons around the country because of my actions as a member of the George Jackson Brigade. In those years I was moved from prison to prison. During that time I spent almost a year in isolation in Davis Hall at Alderson. This was the first special control unit for political women in the Federal system. Sister Assata Shakur and I were held there along with reactionary and nazi prisoners " the government's threat to us was very clear. I was also kept for extra long periods in isolation and threatened and harassed specifically because I am a lesbian. This was not all that unusual treatment however, for my experience mirrors that of all the political prisoners. Yet our very existence is still denied by the U.S. Government and not seen or understood by most people in this country. The strategy of the U.S. Government towards all political prisoners and P.O.W.s held in prisons is to criminalize them " to disguise their political identities under the rhetoric of criminal activity. But they are not criminals. All of these white North American political prisoners have been convicted of and imprisoned for activities which are strictly political in nature. These political prisoners and P.O.W.'s are not a new phenomenon but are part of the history of the resistance in the Americas. ... HISTORY OF THE RESISTANCE The North American political prisoners draw on a history of white resistance which includes the anti-slavery/abolitionist movement, those who helped in the Underground Railroad, women's rights activists, labor and working class organizers and supporters of anti-colonialism and anti-militarism. Some of their names are familiar: John Brown, Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Ruth Reynolds and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg; but most of the names of our historical grandmothers and grandfathers remain unknown to us because the historians don't want us to know about them. ... If you were living in this country in the 1960s and 1970s you had to be affected by the struggles for freedom and social justice. The women and men who are in prison today are no exception and are the products of these times. Many of them were active in support of the Civil Rights movement and were influenced by Malcolm X's demand for self-determination and the organizing of Martin Luther King, both of whom would be assassinated by 1968. Others worked with the Black Panther Party (B.P.P.), often in defense of B.P.P. members who were imprisoned for political activities. Many came to work also with Native American, Mexicano/Chicano and other Third World liberation struggles. Along with millions of others they consistently opposed U.S. policy in Vietnam and were part of the anti-war movement. There were mass demonstrations throughout the country, marches on Washington, student strikes, sit-ins and the burning of draft cards. There were also thousands of acts of sabotage against academic, corporate, military and government targets which ranged from property damage to bombings. This was also the period when women began to be more conscious about their own oppression and began to demand liberation and when lesbians and gay men came out of the closet and went into the streets demanding an end to gay oppression. During these years a prisoner's rights movement developed led mostly by Black prisoners and with close ties to the B.P.P. and other community groups. Many of these white political prisoners worked with these organizations and thus came to better understand the integral part that prisons play in this society. They came to understand this country needed to control its people and criminalize, jail and kill those it either couldn't control or didn't need. The government's response to this legitimate protest and sense of empowerment was swift, repressive and violent. CO.INTEL.PRO., the F.B.I.'s counter-intelligence program, was responsible for the destruction of the B.P.P. and the disruption of the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.). Hundreds of B.P.P. members and other Black activists like Fred Hampton and Bunchy Carter were killed or jailed. The same was true for Native people struggling for sovereignty. This period also saw the killing of students at Kent and Jackson state universities and the widespread use of grand jury witch hunts which were designed to further disrupt legal organizations. Out of these experiences came the understanding that U.S. society is based on the rape and plunder of Native lands, the expropriation of life and labor of African slaves and the class exploitation of European, Asian and Mexican workers. People were enraged at the racism so basic to this country and were determined not to be part of it. Many began to see that there was a connection between colonialism here at home and the war of imperialism in Vietnam. It was during this time that activists in various parts of the country independently decided to begin armed resistance, expropriations and sabotage. These were difficult steps to take but were all done in pursuit of their vision for change. VISION OF CHANGE This vision included changing century-old oppressive practices which promote hatred and which create psychological and physical damage and destruction. It meant creating a society based on self-determination for oppressed peoples both inside and outside the U.S., based on an end to white supremacy, a society which was not based on class divisions. It meant creating a society where lesbians and gay men could be proud of who they were. And it meant creating a non-sexist society where women could be equal, free and not afraid. Finally all these people are driven by a vision of a future based not on greed and profit but one that truly answers people's needs. This vision and spirit of resistance continued to move North Americans to action during the 1970s and 1980s. Thousands of people organized to resist the building of nuclear weapons, the intervention in Nicaragua and El Salvador and in solidarity with Black forces against apartheid in South Africa. Many whites demonstrated and organized against racism and the growth of the Klan and other white supremacist groups. Thousands of people signed pledges of resistance to participate in civil disobedience if Nicaragua was invaded and participated in these acts as intervention in Central America increased. Women marched en masse against cut backs in reproductive rights and protected abortion clinics against attacks. Lesbians and gay men demanded that society deal with the A.I.D.S. pandemic and pushed for broader acceptance of lesbian and gay rights. Again, during the Gulf War, thousands of white people joined in the streets protesting U.S. policy. Not much has changed. We can understand the desire to resist very well. Genocidal conditions are increasing for Black and other communities of color. There is a rise of police brutality, drugs and jailings and as we all know a dramatic decrease in social services. Violence against women is way up " a woman gets raped every two minutes. The right-wing scapegoats and whips up hysteria against gays and lesbians " who can forget "family values". Abortion is all but gone, the courts are making one right-wing decision after another, and if we don't look out soon we won't even have air we can breathe or earth we can stand on. DEFINING "POLITICAL PRISONER" ... We'd like to take time to define what we mean by political prisoner. For some of us this definition means those in prison as a direct result of their political actions, affiliations and beliefs. Still others wish to extend that definition to those imprisoned for social crimes who have become politicized while inside prison and who therefore suffer extra repression for it. Some of us also think it important to extend the definition of political prisoner to those imprisoned for their sexual orientation (adopted by Amnesty International this year) and to those imprisoned for defending themselves against and/or fighting their abusers, such as women imprisoned for killing their batterers. LONG SENTENCES AND HARSH TREATMENT ... The same counterinsurgency tactics that have been detailed in other presentations have been used against white political prisoners. These include sophisticated spying and infiltration techniques, the jailing of many white activists for refusing to testify and/or cooperate with grand juries, the use of broad and vague conspiracy laws to criminalize people for association and belief and the use of preventative detention to deny bail. ... ... Finally, because they are political prisoners they get some of the longest sentences in the world. Their political beliefs are used as a basis to impose sentences that are, in many instances, the equivalent of natural life in prison. The reason for this is that they are revolutionaries. For example, in 1986, a man convicted of planning and carrying out bombings, without making warning calls, of 10 occupied health clinics where abortions were performed was sentenced to ten years in prison and was paroled after 46 months. In contrast, Raymond Levasseur was convicted of bombing four unoccupied military targets in protest against U.S. foreign policies. He received 45 years in prison. Or this one: A Ku Klux Klansman, charged with violations of the Neutrality Act and with possessing a boatload of explosives and weapons to be used in an invasion of the Caribbean island of Dominica, received eight years. Linda Evans was convicted of purchasing four weapons with false ID and she was sentenced to 40 years " the longest sentence ever imposed for this offence. This was well documented in the Prison Discipline Study Report issued in 1991. This national survey revealed that both physical and psychological abuse, so severe that it approaches the internationally accepted definition for torture, is the norm in maximum security prisons throughout the United States. That's the case for all prisoners. ... Clearly now is the time for action. We too can follow the examples of these brave women and men who have given so much of their lives for freedom and justice. We must recognize who and what they are: political prisoners. We must demand their freedom so they can be back on the streets where they belong. - from Autonome Forum e-mail: aforum@moose.uvm.edu mail: PO Box 1242 Burlington, VT 05402 -30- THE LEAGUE OF LESBIAN AND GAY PRISONERS All prisoners everywhere are community! L.L.G.P. IS A NETWORK OF PEOPLE, both in and out of prison, who are concerned about the special problems of incarcerated gay and lesbian people. Being locked-up is a painful and frightening experience for anyone, but for lesbians and gay men, the experience is confounded by rampant prejudice and institutionalized homophobia. Our goal is to bridge some of the alienation which prisons create in our community. We seek to do that by promoting communication and involvement between prisoners and non-prisoners who are concerned about homophobia and other forms of discrimination. We believe that the waste of human potential in our criminal injustice system is both sad and frightening. For this reason, L.L.P.G. is devoted to developing strategies by which prisoners can be more involved in and contribute to the gay and lesbian communities. Prisoners represent an untapped reservoir of talent and experience which can be of great value to progressive causes and to our entire community. L.L.P.G. is a new adventure. We are currently working on organizing prisoner participation in the 1993 March on Washington. Future plans include expanding prisoner participation in Pride Day, political groups, and all other progressive community events. Some vehicles for accomplishing our goals include correspondence circles, using established alternative media sources, such as Indigenous Thought and Prison News Service (Bulldozer), etc., an L.L.P.G. newsletter to establish communication between prison systems and between prisoners and non-prisoners, and a re-entry program to assist lesbians and gay men who are being released from prison to readjust to and rejoin the community. Our organization needs all the friends, letter writers, organizers, and supporters we can get. It isn't just about giving prisoners a "hand-out;" it's about building a new kind of community. Join us. There's a lot of work to be done. For more information contact: Lin Elliott c/o Valerie Reuther 209 13th Ave. East Seattle, WA 98102 Or contact: Indigenous Thought 6802 S.W. 13th Street Gainesville, FL 32608 -30- PANTHERS UP FOR PAROLE LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- THE NEW Jersey State Parole Board is considering Sundiata Acoli for parole and will render a decision in "a couple or more months." Hearings at Leavenworth went as well as can be expected, though the prison officials refused to allow Sundiata's lawyer, Soffiyah Elijah, to attend the hearings. (For background on the case see Love and Rage Vol. 4 No.1) Sundiata wishes to thank people for the outpouring of support letters, and stressed that we need to flood the N.J. Parole Board with letters calling for his immediate release. (You should refer to Sundiata's slave name, Clark Squire, in your letters.) Send letters to: The New Jersey State Parole Board, CN-862, Trenton, NJ 08625, Fax (609) 984-2190, Tel (609) 292-4257 Also send a copy to: The Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign, P.O. Box 5538, Manhattanville Station, Harlem, NY 10027 OAKLAND, Calif. -- GERONIMO ji Jaga (Pratt), former Black Panther, has a parole hearing on May 21. Send letters demanding his release to: John Gillis, Chairperson, Board of Prison Terms ,545 Downtown Plaza, Suite 200 ,Sacramento, CA 95814 Send a copy of the letter to: International Campaign to Free Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt) P.O. Box 3583, Oakland, CA 94609 -30- KENNY TOLIA FREED U.S. POLITICAL PRISONER KENNY Tolia was freed Dec 4, 1992. He was falsely imprisoned on riot charges stemming from a police raid on an anarchist May Day concert in New York's Tompkins Square Park in 1990. An international campaign was launched for Kenny which resulted in many demonstrations from Mexico City to Minsk, and petitions from Brazil, Scotland, Poland and many other places. Kenny thanks the anarchist community for its support. -30- USA: NUMBER ONE! IN PRISONS! RAH! THE PRISON POPULATION IN THE U.S. in the 1980s doubled, making the U.S. penal system the most repressive in the world. When we look at the rate of incarceration for people of African descent the true colors of the U.S. begin to show. During the same period of time that the incarceration rate increased over 100%, F.B.I. statistics show that the crime rate only dropped 3.5% Clearly prison doesn't deter crime and must be seen as the social and political control mechanism that it is. Incarceration rates per 100,000 U.S. 426 black males 3109 white males 420 South Africa 333 black males 729 Soviet Union 268 Hungary 196 Chile 192 Venezuela 153 Poland 106 New Zealand 100 Colombia 100 United Kingdom 97 France 81 Spain 76 -30- CURRENT CAMPAIGNS THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF the current campaigns A.B.C. groups have been working on. Andres Villaverde is a Peruvian anarchist being held in Castro-Castro prison and accused of being a Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) militant. (See Love and Rage Vol.4 No. 1) Send letters to Love and Rage. See the International Section for information about a campaign for Nigerian Libertarian Socialists. Pablo Serrano Serrano and Andres Torrijos Artes are Spanish Anarchist prisoners. (See A.B.C. section Love and Rage Vol.4 No.1) Write to: Pablo Serrano Serrano Carcel de Torrero Avda. America 80 50007 Zaragoza (Espa¤a) Andres Torrijos Artes New address: Centro Penitenciario de Brians Apdo. 500 08760 Martorell (Barcelona) Ojore N. Lutalo is a New Afrikan Anarchist P.O.W. and Coordinating Group member of Love and Rage, held at Trenton State Prison in New Jersey. He is part of a class action lawsuit involving Prison News Service, Black Panther Community News Service and the Love and Rage Network to end the banning of periodicals from N.J. prisons. (For more info about Ojore Lutalo see Love And Rage, Vol.3 No.1) Ojore N. Lutalo CN 861 #59860 M.C.U. Trenton, NJ 08625 Sundiata Acoli is an ex-Panther whose case will be going before the Parole Board in New Jersey after 20 years imprisonment and needs letters of support to gain his release. When writing, mention his slave name, Clark Squire. See Notes of Revolt (See also Love and Rage Vol.4 No.1) Send letters to: The New Jersey Parole Board CN-862 Trenton, NJ 08625 Mumia Abul-Jamal is a journalist, ex-Panther and MOVE supporter on Death Row in Pennsylvania.(See Love and Rage Vol.3 No.6 & Vol.4 No.1) or write Q.U.I.S.P. Write protest letters to: Governor Robert Casey Main Capital Bldg, Rm.225 Harrisburg, PA 17120 For more info on MOVE: Concerned Citizens in Support of MOVE P.O. Box 19709 Philadelphia, PA 19143 James Peper, an anarchist, was arrested at the San Francisco, anti-Columbus Day black bloc. He has been held since Oct 11, 1992, in jail awaiting trial on $150,000 bail. He is charged with eight felonies. (See Love and Rage Vol.3 No.7) James Peper Defense Fund c/o Slingshot, U.C.B., 700 Eshleman Hall Berkeley, CA 94720 Jonathan Paul, an environmental and animal rights activist is sitting in jail for refusing to collaborate with a Grand Jury investigation of ALF activities. (See Love and Rage Vol.4 No.1) Contact: United Anarchist Front or write: Jonathan Paul Spokane County Jail 1100 W. Mallon Spolkane, WA 99163 Larry Giddings is an anti-authoritarian political prisoner for who there has been ongoing support. Contact: Larry Giddings #10917-886 P.O. Box 1000 Leavenworth, KS 66048 -30- NEW CAMPAIGN: POLES IN PRISON POLAND -- One of the big campaigns in Poland in the '80s was the fight for alternative service, i.e. civilian service work for those who refused to be forced into mandatory military duty. The fight was mainly fought by Freedom and Peace, Polish anarchists, and supporters abroad, including Neither East Nor West-New York City (N.E.N.W.-N.Y.C.) and others who helped from Love & Rage. Poles eventually did win the fight, but it's been a battle ever since getting the alternative implemented. And now they have imprisoned draft resisters once again: Roman Galuszko, one and a half years; Piotr Krzyzanowski and Piotr Dawidziak, both one year. The Polish Anarchist Federation, Amnesty International, the Green Federation, Association "Objector", Freedom and Peace, and the Helsinki Committee have had rallies, letter writing campaigns, demos and concerts for them. Please send protest letters demanding the release of the prisoners and an end to forced military training to: Lech Walesa, Wiejska 10, Warszawa, Poland. Actions at Polish embassies and consulates are called for also. For more info: Association "Objector," 50-040 Wroclaw, Ul. Pilsudskiego 15/17, pok. 15, Piatki godz. 17-19, Poland, Tel 44-46-51 / Jacek Sierpinski, Info Office of Polish Anarchist Federation, c/o An Arche, Uniwersytet Slaski, Bankowa 12, 40-007 Katowice, Poland. -30- WHAT IS THE ANARCHIST BLACK CROSS? A.B.C. WAS ORIGINALLY FORMED over a century ago in Russia and was known as the Anarchist Red Cross at that time. They did prisoner support work for anarchists imprisoned by the czar as well as doing first aid at blockades and skirmishes. During the First World War the International Red Cross began doing work in Russia, so the anarchists changed their name to the Anarchist Black Cross to avoid confusion. The work that began under the czars continued as the Bolsheviks continued the oppression against the anarchist community. As many members of the A.B.C. went into exile their work began to include many other nations, in particular Italy, as the anarchists were among the first to oppose the rise of Mussolini and the fascists. Today the A.B.C. is an international anarchist prisoner support network. There are active A.B.C. groups in Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, U.S., Ireland, Australia, Greece, England, and Scotland. The ruling class have made certain laws to preserve their control. Prisons are used as a control mechanism to isolate people when other methods of divide and conquer have failed. Many people wind up in prison because in order to survive they had to challenge the laws of the ruling class. Others wind up there for their political and social activities. The vast majority of prisoners wind up there for committing crimes against "property." We support prisoners, not because we feel that by supporting them we will destroy prisons, but we feel that prisons will only be destroyed by revolution. So we work towards revolution and in doing so support revolutionaries who are captured. Our aim is to give practical support to anarchist/revolutionary and class struggle prisoners, as well as being involved in general prison struggles and supporting "social" prisoners in our own locales. -30- @ _Love & Rage_ is a Revolutionary Anarchist newspaper produced @ by the Love and Rage Network. The Love and Rage Network is a @ continental network of groups and individuals in Canada, Mexico, @ and the United States. Subscriptions to the newspaper cost: @ $13 for first class (fast, envelope), $9 third class (slow, no @ envelope), $13 international (outside of United States), free for @ prisoners, GI's, published bimonthly. @ @ Please write to us at POB 3, NY, NY 10012 @ email: lnr%nyxfer@igc.apc.org @ or: loveandrage@igc.apc.org @ @ Electronic Edition subscriptions are available for e-mail @ delivery to your mailbox. e-mail subscriptions are free, but @ we would appreciate a donation to help us and the NY Transfer @ News Collective to continue this service. @ @ Send your e-mail address along with a $10 suggested donation @ in US dollars payable to: Blythe Systems @ Attn: Kathleen Kelly @ NY Transfer News Collective @ 235 East 87th Street @ New York, NY 10128 @ e-mail: lnr%nyxfer@igc.apc.org @ -end Part 1 of 5- + Join Us! Support The NY Transfer News Collective + + We deliver uncensored information to your mailbox! + + Modem: 718-448-2358 FAX: 718-448-3423 e-mail: nyxfer@panix.com +