After 17 years, Marius Mason is finally free. Marius, an environmental and animal rights activist, anarchist, writer, artist and trans advocate, was serving the longest sentence to date for acts of environmental sabotage. He was released to a half way house on May 14th.
Solidarity does not end when our friends get out of prison. While we support them from the outside, they also build relationships of mutual support with others inside. Our movement prisoners act as a bridge between outside support and everyone inside, sharing words, ideas, material support, and solidarity. Alongside the joy of release is the pain of leaving friends behind.
At FCI Danbury, they have a tradition of decorating a special sycamore, the Freedom Tree, whenever somebody is released. This June 11th, the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners, Marius has invited all of us to create a Freedom Tree wherever we are for June 11th – at events, at our homes, outside a jail, in a special forest. These Trees and the act of creating them are message of solidarity not only to Marius but to everyone held captive by the state.
Help 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.” – Marius Mason
Solidarity without end. Until all are free.
Send photos of you and your people and your Freedom Tree to us at June11th@riseup.net or tag us on Instagram or Mastodon. Consider covering faces and identifying characteristics if posting publicly.
“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.
1. A system has been set up for purchase of gift cards, like “Vanilla Gift” that can be purchased, using contact info: Moira Meltzer-Cohen, Attorney at Law, 277 Broadway Suite 1501 NY, NY 10007. For phone # needed with the address, use (212) 219-1919.
2. In addition, there will be a trust account to receive direct donations through the donations page on supportmariusmason.org.
3. All May long, AK Press will be donating $2 from every item they sell to Marius.
Thank you to all who are able to celebrate his release by contributing and sharing. Everything helps.
In Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, deep in the Sierra Mazatec mountains, there is no forgetting and there is no surrender. There is memory, rage, and a community that doesn’t ask for permission to exist. In the face of a system of “justice” that seeks to destroy the community, the response has been resistance and solidarity, weaving the pathway of freedom.
This year as we are marking the International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners we are thinking about the nature of solidarity as ever-changing and never-ending. Our solidarity is not just for those who are imprisoned, but for all those who are harassed, intimidated, deported, hunted, on the run, tortured, and even killed — not just for individuals but for the struggles they are a part of. Just as repression ebbs and flows and state tactics adapt, transform, and innovate, so must our practice of active solidarity. We must adapt to the changing terrain and needs of our movements.
It feels like this will actually happen at this point — so I finally think it’s time to reach out and say thank to all of you who have been steadfastly in my corner, backing me up and helping me stay centered all of these 17 years incarcerated in the FBOP. I will be leaving prison in May and returning to my home state of Michigan, back to Detroit.
This time would not have been the same without you all — and I have met so many people who had no one to turn to while they did their time, so I know what a difference it made to always have my people holding me up. And there has been a lot to get through, what with advocating for my transition, at each step — I knew that I had legal advice, medical information and material support. Thank you so much, I owe you all more than I can ever repay.
I have tried for my own part to be a support and comfort to the people around me in each place the BOP put me, passing on the love I have been shown.
What I really want you all to know is how incredibly proud it made me to be part of a community of resistance that stood together. It impressed the people I met in prison for so much love and solidarity to be expressed so powerfully for someone who was behind the walls.
It demonstrated that in our movement, though we were physically separated, we could stay together in spirit, that solidarity and love are action words, and that we are all in it for the long haul.
Change does not come easy, but solidarity is when we flex our strength as a people. I don’t really know what comes next, but I hope I can still serve my community in some way to help. I have been studying to be a writing tutor through my Yale Prison Education Initiative scholarship — and hope to volunteer at the Literacy Project in Detroit. I have earned a Paralegal Degree and studied immigration law, and hope to be of service in that capacity, also.
So much to do, but many hands make the work easy! Thank you, thank you, a million times over — thank you! As Elton John used to sing — I’m Still Standin’ (yeah, yeah, yeah).
A crowbar to the door and we were in. Our torches illuminated rows of caged hens cramped together. It stunk, there were no windows, these birds never get to see the sunlight. The whole barn was full of dust, shit and cobwebs, the air felt thick. This is the reality behind so many inconspicuous boxes of eggs.
We didn’t waste time and quickly opened a row of cages, filled our carriers and left. The chickens themselves took no time adjusting to their new home, walking on the ground instead of wire mesh, being able to move around and perch and spread their wings. They are filled with curiosity and can’t get enough snacks. We’ve been pumping them full of vitamins and minerals as everyone was deficient. This industry sees their bodies as disposable and the birds pay a high price for constantly laying eggs.
We think of all those we left behind and we promise to come back. We dedicate this action to Marius Mason and all long term anarchist prisoners. Solidarity knows no bounds. Until every cage is empty.
Nothing is ever lost. Nothing is ever over. Though it often seems as if the sparks of resistance, revolt, and insurrection are sparse amidst the overwhelming wave of counter-revolutionary repression, we remember, we keep the hearth warm, the flame burning. We are custodians of a revolutionary past that will never be forgotten as long as its promise of freedom remains incomplete. Political prisoner support –– from Palestine to Ireland, from Amerika to Greece –– has always been a crucial (maybe even the crucial) aspect of caretaking the spark that is always almost a prairie fire –– between revolts, between insurrections –– even when they fade our prisoners remain & continue the struggle, continue to endure. Yet, this cannot be mere support, it must be inside-outside collaboration, a conspiracy of shared breath & hands held & fists raised.
In Eugene –– where June 11 began –– we held our 3rd celebration in as many years. Banners hung from the trees to welcome our friends in struggle from Olympia to Corvallis. We discussed the history of June 11, the history of prisoner organizing in the Zionist dungeons of occupied Palestine, shared statements from Marius Mason & Michael Kimble. Homies offered stick & poke tattoos for fundraising. Other homies sewed balaclavas for the same. Patches, stickers, posters, & zines were distributed. Our local anarchist street combat / self-defense group held their weekly training with us, offering de-arrest trainings. Other homies offered lock-picking workshops. Long-time prisoner supporters shared stories of shared inside-outside initiatives, & many letters were written.
Most crucially, Olympia homies behind the offline Undercurrents shared a statement that solidified the sentiment of love & rage that will carry us into the future for which we fight.
A zine emerged with this statement & other 2025 statements from our comrades inside as a modest contribution to the struggle. A PDF for printing can be found here: https://archive.org/details/june-11-2025-statements[also added to our Resources page]
In Sumud
Fire to the Prisons
***
“Sooner or later, we will all be in trouble” –– June 11, 2025 International Day of Solidarity with Long Term Anarchist Prisoners
“Revolutionary solidarity that doesn’t see the prisoner as an inactive individual with whom you should unquestioningly show solidarity, but rather as a comrade who continues being part of the struggle and who, therefore, is active in exchanging visions of the different initiatives that are carried out.” –– Francisco Solar
Sooner or later, we will all be in trouble. All across the globe the forces of Order are on the attack –– in democracies as in dictatorships, law and order is the framework through which power consolidates in the hands of police and armed forces. New states of exception spring alive to never end –– climate disaster, migrant “invasion,” trade wars and the food riots that follow, etc., all cause and justify the expansion and militarization of police power. Newer and newer anti-poverty and “quality of life” crime laws swallow up more and more people shunted from the contractions of the formal economy into the corrections and criminal justice industries. All over the territories dominated by the American state, repression has hit hard against the Palestinian liberation movement, and now federal agents invade so-called sanctuary cities; LA, MPLS, NYC, even here in Seattle and Olympia showing that the sanctuary is paper thin. Everywhere, in all territories, the noose of tyranny tightens around our necks. Those who have hidden behind certain privileges –– citizenship, skin color, education, even some rings of wealth are finding that it won’t protect them forever. Sooner or later, we will all be in trouble.
What is happening is not inevitable and as the June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Long Term Anarchist Prisoners approaches we are reminded that another life is possible if we fight for it. Waiting neither for some ill-defined “conditions” or catastrophe that never comes, nor for the exploited or a social movement to be behind them, comrades all over the world have set to show what’s possible when we toss aside the realism of the political for courage –– and a little bit of insanity. Alfredo Cospito in Italy who took part in the shooting of a CEO of a nuclear power company has been imprisoned for the last 13 years and continues to fight against the state. Monica and Francisco in Chile who sought to expand the horizons of the 2019 uprising in Chile with explosive attacks against police and capitalist targets and, having been imprisoned for the last 5 years, continue to contribute to debates and the theoretical development of the anarchist movement. Here, too, Marius Mason, imprisoned since 2009 for attacks against the exploiters of the earth and animals as part of the Earth Liberation Front, continues to be a cornerstone of anarchy in these territories and fights against the prison system for the dignity of transgender prisoners. As conditions have worsened new fighters have risen to the challenge and some of them have been captured –– Casey Goonan, Peppy and Krystal, Gabriella Opresa, and many more names. This is a woefully insufficient description of these individuals, but they and so many others show us that not only does life not end in prison, but that it’s still possible to struggle for the beautiful idea with courage and dignity.
We’re also reminded that a movement that doesn’t think about prison, doesn’t support its captives, isn’t going anywhere. But prisoner support goes well beyond writing letters and raising funds for commissary. It’s preparing for when they come home –– housing, work if they want it, a movement for them to come home to. It’s taking our movement to the prisons with fireworks and drums –– and fire and stones too if the opportunity arises –– to remind them that they are not forgotten. It’s bringing their names, memory, and fighting spirit with us into the streets. It’s engaging in shared projects and debates with them as comrades, not charity cases. It’s taking seriously that we could free them and preparing accordingly. It’s continuing forward with all the courage and heart we can muster in the struggle for Anarchy –– the very struggle and ideals our comrades fought for and behind bars still continue to fight for.
2025 was another great J11 in the 513! About 25 people gathered at Boxelder Community Room and had a delicious meal provided by Cincy FNB and community members. Everyone left with full bellies! We read Marius’ statement and prisoner updates and wrote 26 letters! Organizers carved linoblocks with J11 messages and images, and participants used them to make patches, clothing, and wall art. We also collected donations for Marius totalling $190.
A local tattoo artist also held a flash sale fundraiser J11&12 which generated $560 in donations to Marius.
Cincinnati is in this for the duration! Free all prisoners!
Hier à Toulouse, nous étions réunis au Chat Noir à l’occasion d’une soirée de soutien organisée par le Secours Rouge Toulouse dans le cadre de la Journée internationale de solidarité avec Marius Mason et les prisonnier·es anarchistes de longue peine organisée chaque année le 11 juin.
Nous avons écrit Marius Mason, Alfredo Cospito, Nikos Maziotis ou encore Michael Kimble et souligné l’importance de soutenir les prisonnier·es anarchistes en tant que protagoniste de la lutte révolutionnaire contre le capitalisme et toutes les oppressions. De la même manière, nous avons souligné l’importance de soutenir la prisonnière antifasciste Maja détenue en Hongrie tout comme le militant anarchiste Paolo Todde qui sont actuellement en grève de la faim contre leur condition de détention.
