June 11th

via unoffensiveanimal.is

“Another giant chicken shed, they are the same all over the country. Massive, stinking and packed with chickens who are deprived of grass, sunlight and so many other things.

Straight away we were greeted by the sight of a rotten corpse of a chicken that died in this man made hell. We are sorry we never got to take them to freedom. We filled up our carriers in no time and took everyone we could carry away to a better future of loving homes and fresh air.

We hope Marius who should be released from prison by the time we send this report is also enjoying the sunlight and fresh air.

Until every cage is empty and broken, ALF”

Had a wonderful little alleycat bike race in Bloomington — thanks to everyone who came out, rode a bike faster than you expected, and donated to our fund for imprisoned and recently freed fighters! Some of these photos only make sense if you were there, but maybe we’ll do this again some time and you’ll get another chance. 😉

On June 11th, we participated in the International Day of Solidarity with Longterm Anarchist Prisoners. We wrote letters to longterm (and hopefully short term) political prisoners, and distributed oak trees to be planted in solidarity with @supportmariusmason.

Everyone concerned with liberation and abolition should be supporting our comrades behind bars. Check out @june11dotorg to learn more.

At the same time, our Wednesday mutual aid distro did the rounds helping our homeless neighbors survive on their own terms with food, drink, and survival necessities.

Until every cage is empty!

Photos from our celebration for June 11, the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. On this day we gather to remember those who were imprisoned, those who are currently imprisoned, and the families and friends who wait for them outside prison walls. We come together to stand in solidarity with those that make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and human decency. And to collaborate for the future of prison abolition.

Together we had a small ritual, potluck, and decorated a freedom tree in honor of the Prarieland Defendants. We made space for those incarcerated and unable to join us.

May we all live out our UU values together and strive for a free people ❤️

via Philly Anti-Cap

Posters were wheatpasted in different neighborhoods around Philly in solidarity with anarchist and political prisoners. Congratulations to Mujera Lung’aho on your release! We were going to put up posters about you too but you’re already free.
Prisoners to the street!
Free them all!

“All you need is dynamite / Solidarity with anarchist prisoners”

Mural by @un.tal.viejo.loco in Stockholm, Sweden for June 11, International Day of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners.

We went to the Prometheus tree to answer Marius Mason’s call to create freedom trees, to celebrate his release and call for the release of all prisoners. This is also in celebration of the June 11th day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners. Prometheus was the location of a tree sit in Yellowwood forest in 2001 against the logging of that area, and we thought it appropriate to connect these struggles. Liberate!

🖤🏴 Le 11 juin est la Journée internationale de solidarité avec les prisonnier·es anarchistes de longues peines. À cette occasion, nous adressons notre solidarité à Monica Caballero au Chili, Alfredo Cospito en Italie, Nikos Maziotis en Grèce, Casey Goonan et Michael Kimble aux États-Unis, ainsi qu’à toustes celleux que les États maintiennent derrière les barreaux pour leurs engagements et leurs luttes. À l’initiative de l’éco-anarchiste Marius Mason, récemment libéré après près de 17 années d’incarcération, l’action « Freedom Tree » invite chacun·e à accrocher autour d’arbres des créations tressées, crochetées ou tricotées. Ces fils entremêlés symbolisent nos solidarités, nos résistances et la force collective qui nous unit au-delà des murs des prisons.

We are a total liberation network from the Pennines, over in the UK. Our programme of work is focused on reindigenising, repairing our connections to our lands and to our global Indigenous ancestors. We are still in the early days of forming, but we understand abolition as a core part of our work. No prisons on any land! All must be free!

I decided we should write you and send you some photos, even though what we have done is very unconventional, and was not initially intended as a Freedom Tree event. Because in writing this now, in the bones of my fingers clicking the keys, are connections waiting to be made, stories waiting to be told, and it is in writing them down that they are given form.

Recently a couple of us cut our hair, and we decided we wanted to give it as a gift to the birds. Today we visited a nearby socialist centre, and on the way back we encountered a flock of crows, and then shortly after a hawthorn with some pigeons in. We decided to perform our ritual with this tree, and I remembered about your call for people to decorate Freedom Trees, and I shared it with my comrade.

We gave our hair as a gift to the birds, that they might use it for their nests. Birds have been found to incorporate human hair into their nests, although for some birds it can also be hazardous, and this is something we need to learn more about in the future. They are strong fibres, and good insulation. We spotted the hawthorn and remember we had brought our bag of fur. As we approached, a pair of pigeons flapped off. On its trunk were aged tufts of sheep’s wool, so we knew it was a spot for them to forage fur from. We took out our bag of hair, now gently matted together into a big ball of fur, smooth on the outside. We pulled it apart like breaking a loaf of bread, tearing apart, revealing open ends, interiority. And then we took to hanging and weaving bits of hair into the hawthorn, to keep her warm, to be there for the birds to take tufts of. We thanked the tree and the hills.

Thinking back to it and writing to you now, I can see our ritual as a celebration of freedom. We shaved our heads together as acts of radical lesbian sisterhood. We gave our hair as witches making an offering to the birds, the crows and pigeons especially. They fly freely, our siblings on this land, without regard for the ways their lots are judged and maligned by humans. Freedom means the freedom of expression, the freedom to be part of the land, the freedom to participate in networks of relations of mutual care.

I read Renzo Connors’ “The Intersections Between Anti-Speciesism, Anti-Civilization, & Individualist Anarchy” recently, and in it he(?) talks about being in prison and his experience at first trying to trap a bird as a pet, and then learning “the contradiction and irony of me in a cage, catching other animals to put in a cage for my own enjoyment.” I include a link below so you can read his words in full. But I think of the image of his outstretched hands now, a bird gently resting in them, before flying away.

Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do for our fellow non-humans and humans. Congratulations on your freedom. It feels strange to say. Let’s look forward to a world where liberation and sovereignty are expected and everywhere, in all their forms. A world where there are no cages.

Until we are all free,
Reindiginise! Pennines

Links:

Our programme – https://reindiginisepennines.noblogs.org/

Renzo Connors’ writing – https://warzonedistro.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/11/veganism-as-anti-colonial-praxis-a-collection-of-indigenous-vegan-perspectives/ (you can also read on The Anarchist Library but it’s worth printing out the zine for the beautiful artwork if nothing else!)

I am feeling some bittersweet feelings, having left prison after some 17 years. I met so many people, from so many communities and families, who found themselves incarcerated for a myriad of reasons. As we move into this time of contention, where there will be conflict between the state and the communities we know – there may be more of the people we love sharing that hidden world behind bars and kept apart. To recognize and remember them is important and it keeps those ties we have to them strong. Please help me this June 11th, to send some love, some hope and a promise to remember to all of our people who are living behind bars.

I am including a poem I wrote for my Yale poetry class in prison. At Danbury, we had a tradition of hugging a certain tree in the parking lot as we got ready to leave one of the three prisons there, the camp, the FSL or the FCI. I was able to hug this sycamore tree, and to tie a new crocheted wrap that a lot of people at the FSL had contributed, so many stitches, so many colors, so many lives maintaining hope for freedom and the embrace of our family and friends.

The Freedom Tree

It’s the sycamore tree that’s in the parking lot,

From two day’s warmth, has put out leaves.

The bleached bark, peeling and stark, is shot

Against the sky, arms lifted in a silent plea,

The “Freedom Tree”.

Willing time to move forward, we see it expand,

The days are in those fingertips.

Buds break to burgeon into hands

That sweep the sky, wide, now that wind no longer keens

And grass grows green.

There is a wild crocheted belt that encircles it,

Proof that one of us made it out,

And left behind a sign that’s spun

From everything we dreamed, while we longed to be

Touching this tree.

Bob Marley also sang of a sycamore tree that was part of his songs about freedom and history. I hope that you will participate in this event, helping me mark a day to remember all the friends I left behind, and all of the people we are missing from our movement, and our communities. Anything will do, as long as it is braided or crocheted or knitted to show how we are all part of a whole together, and stronger together than any one strand alone. There is no particular color combination, as many as you have to weave together. We are all different, but all of us belong together and free. Please help me mark this very first Freedom Tree event on June 11th. 

Thank you so much for your act of solidarity. 

Love and freedom, Marius Mason