FROM THE STEEL CAGES OF THE FASCIST TEXAS PRISON SYSTEM, a crime against humanity, I submit my solidarity statement to INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH LONG-TERM ANARCHIST PRISONERS, as an honorous and principled annual event to support many of us, whether we consider ourselves “anarchists, revolutionary socialists, communists,” or by any other anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-fascist name, the critical point is to come to full circle, no matter our “theoretical differences” over questions such as organizing a vanguard revolutionary party to lead our struggles, on “democratic centralism”, on class struggle, and the ultimate withering away of a needed revolutionary state, to ensure that once dismantled, the ruling class does not reorganize to engage in counter revolution to regain their power, lessons learned from the original Paris Commune, and many other recorded historical events in history, since the creation of the first International Working Men’s Association, and the splits that emerged in the “anarchist movement”.
Solidaridad de Uruguay
DIA INTERNACIONAL DE SOLIDARIDAD CON LXS PRESXS ANARQUISTAS DE LARGA CONDENA
Respondiendo al llamado internacional de solidaridad con lxs presxs anarquistas de larga condena es que salimos por las calles de Montevideo como un gesto mínimo contra el olvido y el aislamiento al cual los estados pretenden someter a lxs compañerxs anarquistas secuestradxs en las cárceles del mundo.
Nuestro mensaje es claro: nuestrxs hermanxs tras las rejas ¡no están solxs! y continuaremos juntx a ellxs en la lucha contra la sociedad carcelaria y contra toda autoridad.
¡Solidaridad internacionalista y permanente con lxs presxs en lucha!
¡Por el fín de todas las cárceles!¡Libertad a lxs presxs!
¡Muerte al estado!¡Viva la anarquía!
Solidarity from Sweden
SUF Stockholm (from La Mano Statue) and SUF Uppsala payed tributes today.
Keep fighting comrades
Sean Swain’s 2024 Statement
Abolish EVERYTHING
By Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain
When I saw the parole board in August 2021, I had served 30 years in prison for what was provably an act of self defense, a noncrime. The lead fuckweasel on the parole board asked me about the circumstances of those events, and I shared with him my sincere remorse that the man who broke into my home had died, and had died as a result of the wounds I inflicted.
With a dismissive wave, that fuckweasel said, “We don’t really care about that. You’ve done enough time for that…,” and he began to bullet-point snippets from statements of mine that he said “concern” the parole board. Chief among those was my campaign slogan when I ran for governor in 2014.
In my gubernatorial campaign, I had said, “Turn your ballot into a bullet and blast it through the brainpan of the body politic.” So, in a very disingenuous reinvention of that slogan, the lead fuckweasel, with a straight face, said that the parole board understood that statement as a threat on the life of the governor, Mike DeWine. It was such a veiled threat, it seems, that no one interpreted the slogan that way except… well… the parole board.
Not to get too deep into the weeds on legal analysis here, but what I said in 2014 wasn’t a threat. The U.S. Supreme Court has long ago parsed out what constitutes threats from protected speech, what can be punished from what can’t, and while I fully understand that parole board fuckweasels never had a civics class because Ohio spends more money on prisons than on their sucky schools, you’ll never convince me that any one of those fascists thought that I wanted people to cram chunks of paper into pistols and try to fire them at Mike DeWine– as if the act of eliminating one fuckweasel would accomplish anything anyway. The absence of Mike DeWine would just be a job opening for Jon Husted, another fuckweasel of the highest order.
The point, of course, is that the parole board’s targeting of my political speech was illegal and they knew it… and they didn’t care.
Continue reading “Sean Swain’s 2024 Statement”
Throwback from Russia (2004)
20 years ago there was a graffiti action in Russia for the first June 11th day of action. This first iteration of annual solidarity events was called for Jeff “Free” Luers, an eco-anarchist in his fourth year of imprisonment for the burning of three SUVs in Eugene, Oregon.
The graffiti reads “Free Jeff Luers!” on the wall of the US Embassy in Moscow. 7 people drew 2 letters each. They decided to go through with it despite the guard actively doing his rounds because they could finish it so quickly.
The graffiti was not removed well, and was readable for several years thereafter.
Despite a more than 22 year sentence, and through years of struggle and legal filings, Luers won a shortening of his sentence, leading to his release in December 2009. By this time, however, Marius Mason had been imprisoned for 18 months, having received a nearly identical sentence of 22 years after pleading guilty to two major arsons (against a GMO research facility and logging equipment) and acknowledging responsibility for more than a dozen other clandestine actions.
So we continue…
Sweden!
BUILDING BRIDGES – BURNING PRISONS
Early on a June morning, anarchists in Örebro, so-called Sweden, showed solidarity with anarchist prisoners! Freedom for all! There are no separate worlds, we are all interconnected, building bridges. With fire in our hearts, we burn every prison and live as if we are trying to be free.
Always Anarchy
(Submitted by email)
11 juni 2024: Inga separata världar
Vi närmar oss återigen 11 juni, dagen för att minnas och visa solidaritet i en värld av konflikter och kamper. Alla dessa är sammankopplade; det finns inga separata världar. Över gränser, språk, sammanhang och identiteter ekar både katastrofer och segrar runt om i världen. En miljö är inte opåverkad av en annan. Det personliga är inte skilt från det politiska. Det positiva projektet är inte skilt från det förstörande. Fängelset är inte skilt från den “fria världen”. Medel är inte åtskilda från ändamål. Att överbrygga dessa klyftor är ett gemensamt projekt; att överbrygga dessa klyftor är solidaritet.
Detta inte för att släta över eller förenkla olika skillnader mellan människor. Snarare hålls olika delar samman, likt organ i kroppen hålls samman av vävnad. Därför reflekterar vi över hur vi kan stärka denna väv? Hur förblir vi starka, men ändå smidiga och flexibla? Broar, förbindelser, måste också byggas med tiden, särskilt i en värld som rör sig för snabbt, från en kris till en annan. Den 11 juni vill vara en av dessa broar där vi bygger solidaritet över gränser, mellan rörelser och mellan generationer. Att minnas och stödja långtidsfångar, samt att fortsätta gemensamma kamper, är två sätt att stärka denna väv. En starkare väv kommer i sin tur att stärka oss mot ytterligare förtryck.
Continue reading “11 juni 2024: Inga separata världar”
Updates from Belarus ABC
The 2024 Call has now been updated to include this update.
ABC Belarus currently supports 28 anarchist prisoners in Belarus, 7 of them are long term prisoners:
- Aleksandr Zaytsev – Aliaksandr was detained on August 22, 2021 near the cottage of the chairman of the Supreme Court Sukalo. Aliaksandr was accused of attempted arson of the cottage (part 1 of article 14 and part 2 of article 289 of the Criminal Code Attempt of terrorist act in a group of persons). According to our information, he went to the case with the provocateur Akulich Dmitriy Alexandrovich, whom they met on a day when Alexander was detained on administrative article 23.34 (participation in an unauthorized protest, now is 24.23 of the Administrative Code) at the protests in November 2020. The status of Akulich in the criminal case is not unknown to us, but most likely he is being held as a witness with a fake name of Sergeenko. It is noteworthy that Akulich was given a real passport with a fake name to provoke Zaytsev.
- Akihiro Gaevsky-Khanada and Aleksandr Frantskevich* who were detained as a part of the so-called “international organized crime” case. The regime decided to use the dozens of anarchists’ actions over the past 10 years to create the image of a coordinated organized group engaged in resistance to the regime. Some participants in the case were tortured before being transferred to a detention center.
- Dmitry Rezanovich
- Dmitry Dubovski
- Igor Olinevich
- Sergey Romanov
- These four were detained while crossing the border of Belarus with Ukraine on the night of October 28-29, 2020. Dzmitry Rezanovich emphasized he was saved from torture just because of Siarhei Ramanau sliced his hands with a razor to stop the torment and viciousness.
- They were under a number of articles for setting fire to government officials’ vehicles, the building of the traffic police and the state committee of expertise in the Homeĺ region.
Le 11 juin 2024 : Pas de séparation des mondes
Une fois de plus, nous nous rapprochons du 11 juin, un jour de souvenir et de solidarité active, dans un monde de crises multiples et de luttes pour la libération. Tout ceci est interconnecté ; il n’y a pas de séparation des mondes. À travers les frontières, les langues, les contextes et les identités, les catastrophes comme les victoires du courage et de la désobéissance résonnent autour du monde. Un environnement n’est pas épargné de l’autre. Le personnel n’est pas séparé du politique. Le projet positif n’est pas séparé du projet destructif. La prison n’est pas séparée du « monde libre ». Les moyens ne sont pas séparés des fins. Franchir ces divisions est une curiosité partagée et un engagement ; franchir ces divisions, c’est de la solidarité. Dire cela n’a pas pour but d’aplatir ou de trop simplifier la diversité et les différences en circonstances, intensités, et conséquences.
Il s’agit plutôt de dire que ces différentes pièces sont maintenues ensemble comme les organes du corps sont maintenus par un tissu connectif. Alors nous nous questionnons : comment renforcer ces tissus connectifs ? Comment demeurer fort mais souple et flexible ? Les ponts, les connexions, doivent aussi être construits à travers le temps, spécialement dans un monde qui bouge trop vite, d’une crise à une autre. Le 11 juin aspire à devenir à être de ces ponts : pour construire la solidarité par-delà les frontières, entre les mouvements et les générations. Se souvenir et supporter les prisonnier·es en longue peine, comme supporter les combats partagés, sont deux manières de renforcer ce tissu connectif. Un tissus connectif plus fort, qui en retour, nous soutiendra contre la répression à venir.
Continue reading “Le 11 juin 2024 : Pas de séparation des mondes”