Author: June11th

“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

By Jeff (Free) Luers*

“I am not a martyr and I am not a hero. I don’t fit some perfect archetype, and I can’t live up to any ideal of what so many people think I am. I’m just a man who loves without being able to say the words and who cries without being able to shed tears. I chose this life. I chose the possibility of prison. I chose to forsake my personal life for that which I believed in. It was not out of any altruistic or self-sacrificing desire. I chose this life because I don’t think I could live with myself if I did not.”

I wrote those words on June 3, 2004, in my regular dispatch from the Oregon State Penitentiary, the state’s oldest and only maximum-security prison. About a week later the world would witness the first June 11 International Day of Solidarity with Jeffrey “Free” Luers and Earth Liberation Prisoners. That year June 11 made national headlines because the FBI graciously released a public safety bulletin warning that car dealerships and other business may be targeted by environmental radicals and anarchists. We are currently heading into the 22^nd annual Day in Solidarity with Earth Liberation & Anarchist Prisoners!

By June 11, 2006, the sixth anniversary of my imprisonment, 43 cities around the world held events including Eugene, Oregon (where I lived) and Moscow, Russia where brave, black- clad anarchists spray painted the US Embassy in broad daylight with giant letters demanding my release before dispersing into the crowd.

But the truth is that June 11 started with a small group of friends trying to support a friend they lost to prison and ran a campaign to seek my release. Afterall what are politics if not personal? We struggle because it is personal when your freedom is taken and your world is burning. And when you lose a loved one to the struggle it gets even more personal than you can imagine.

As I sat behind those bars my thoughts were often with those I left behind. The struggle was ever present, that part was easy, the State always made sure of that. To me, it was easy to resist oppression or at least find the desire to do so. It is much harder to endure being separated from your family, your friends, and your community.

And that is why June 11 is so important. I chose to act on my own when I set fire to 3 vehicles at a car dealership. Did I make the right choices? Well, that’s a different conversation, but as a young man sitting in a prison cell, I never expected anything of my community. But my community had an entirely different plan, and it changed the course of my life and I am eternally grateful.

For more than half of my imprisonment, June 11 stood out as an international announcement: We have not forgotten, we will not forget, and we will resist until all are free! Free Free! Became a rallying cry against the excessive, politically biased sentence imposed on me by the judge—the longest sentence of any environmental activist in the U.S. at the time.

I was not the only one that heard that message. My family heard it, my loved ones heard it, and the State heard it because my community around the world was shouting it at the top of their lungs!

In 2007, the Oregon Court of Appeal ruled my sentence illegal, and ordered the lower court to revisit my sentence in a manner consistent with the law. However, if it were not for the public support I had, I do not believe I would have had my sentence reduced by more than half at my resentencing. Moreover, at the resentencing hearing, I do not believe that the prosecutor assigned to my case, Erik Hassleman, would have compared my actions to that of the Boston Tea Party in court if it were not for the actions of thousands upon thousands around the world doing the same thing.

In 2011, after my release from prison, I helped transition June 11 to predominately support for Eric McDavid and Marius Mason (who we welcome home with arms wide open). Yet, it is a special kind of curse to pass the baton of prison solidarity– but if other liberation activists are caught by the state and imprisoned, I wish every one of our prisoners receive the support I did. I pray that whoever is next is strong and courageous because our journey is arduous and full of peril, but we come home. We come home! And as long as you are not a snitch, you are welcomed by the movement with love and support.

On this June 11 International Day of Solidarity with Earth Liberation Prisoners and Anarchist Prisoners we welcome home Marius Mason. And reflect on the lessons learned over all the years.

It takes one person to commit an action, it takes a small group of people to support that person, it takes a community to stand up for that person, and a movement to inspire a world to fight back. The moral of the story is that no matter how painful the journey, under the right circumstances one person can change the world.

*Jeff Luers was sentenced to 22 years and 8 months in state prison for a June, 2000 arson motivated by climate and environmental concerns.  Luers appealed the sentence with the help of CLDC and in 2007 the Court of Appeals overturned his sentence and he was resentenced to a term of 10 years.

from ABCF.net

11 giugno: Giornata Internazionale di Solidarietà con Marius Mason e Tutti i Prigionieri Anarchici a Lungo Termine

Solidarietà senza fine

Quest’anno, mentre celebriamo la Giornata Internazionale di Solidarietà con Marius Mason e tutti i Prigionieri Anarchici a Lungo Termine, stiamo riflettendo sulla natura della solidarietà come in continuo cambiamento e senza fine.La nostra solidarietà non è solo per coloro che sono in prigione, ma per tutti coloro che sono molestati, intimiditi, deportati, perseguitati, in fuga, torturati e persino uccisi — non solo per gli individui ma per le lotte di cui fanno parte. Proprio come la repressione va e viene e le tattiche dello Stato si adattano, si trasformano e innovano, così deve fare anche la nostra pratica di solidarietà attiva. Dobbiamo adattarci al terreno e alle esigenze in cambiamento dei nostri movimenti.

Continue reading “Chiamata 2026”

Journée international de solidarité avec Marius Mason et tout les prisonnier·eres anarchistes en longue peine

Solidarité sans fin

Cette année, alors qu’arrive la journée internationale de solidarité avec Marius Mason et tout les prisonnier·eres anarchistes en longue peine, nous réfléchissons sur le fait que la solidarité est par nature toujours changeante et sans fin. Notre solidarité n’est pas seulement pour celleux qui sont emprisonné·es, mais aussi pour toutes les personnes harcelées, intimidées, déportées, pourchassées, en cavale, torturées, et même tuées – pas seulement en tant qu’individu mais aussi à cause des luttes dont ielles font partie. Alors que la répression flue et reflue, les tactiques des états s’adaptent, se transforment et innovent, comme doivent le faire nos pratiques de solidarité active. Nous devons nous adapter à ce terrain en transformation et aux besoins de nos mouvements.

Continue reading “Appel de 2026 pour le 11 juin”

As the years have gone by and with each day spent behind bars, I have come to realise that no matter what happens, as you strive through your sentence there will always be someone in solidarity with you.

I have been so blessed with the emails and letters that have been passed through me over the years. I have never been touched by so much strength and solidarity in the face of the brutal police tactics in 2021. There were many that stuck together that night fighting and defending the rights we stand for which lead us to do time. But no matter how much time we faced away we still got love through the post. The connection and strength shown that day keep our communities united and strong against oppression. It was an act of everyday resistance. This 11th of June and every day stand in solidarity with anarchist prisoners. Keep writing, keep showing up! Sending all my love to the ones that stand with us until we are freed!

Ryan

You can write to Ryan here:

Ryan Roberts

A5155EM

HMP Elmley,

Church Road, Eastchurch,

Sheerness, Kent, UK

ME12 4DZ

From Marius: “Help me mark this very first Freedom Tree event on June 11th.”

“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.

“Send this to anyone you think might be willing to tie something around a tree (or if they don’t have trees in their neighborhood, a post, a telephone pole, etc).

“Thank you so much for your act of solidarity. Love and freedom, Marius Mason”