Author: June11th

2024 Kutsu
11. heinäkuuta 2024: Maailma on yksi

Continue reading “2024 Kutsu 11. heinäkuuta 2024: Maailma on yksi”

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for coming together to support all anarchist prisoners still kept from freedom. Your positivity and encouragement have meant the world to me, literally, this past year. Now that it has been some 16 years away from the free world for me, your stories have allowed me to connect to campaigns as different as saving the commons in Georgia to ending genocide in Gaza.

And as diverse as they are, these struggles hold at their heart the need to shift our system away from exploitation and disregard to one of mutual aid and respect; first for our planet, and then for our animal and plant relations and so importantly, for each other. Though my body is still caged, my heart is with you all. La lucha continua!

This year has marked a number of changes for me in prison. In September of last year, I was transferred to FMC Fort Worth in Texas. It felt ironic to be about a mile away from where I had spent so many years at FMC Carswell. It’s a small distance in miles, but a massive shift in ways of being, and a big step in fulfilling my request to medically transition.

This year will mark 11 years since I came out as trans at Carswell and officially requested Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS) . To date, I have been on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for nine years and have seen just one doctor to discuss the possibilities of a GRS procedure. I am now in my third year of living as a man in a men’s prison, having spent more than two years in FCI Danbury before this prison.

Things have moved glacially, and that has been both frustrating and concerning. The very real possibility of a roll-back on trans rights generally and an out and out refusal of trans rights in prison looms in the outcome of the next election. I have been at the gate and sent back once before, as the administration changed.

Conditions for trans people in prison are often humiliating and can be dangerous. Names matter to anyone, but in prison they can make the difference between safety and risk, between dignity and degradation, and between privacy and notoriety. It is part of the 2016 Transgender Prisoner Policy that a legal name change can be affected while in custody.

This new, legal name can be used in all official capacities, but only if the presiding judge in your instant offense is willing to make the change. If they are not, either because of prejudice or because of sheer laziness, then the policy right is not given and the BOP facility can ignore the right with impunity. It seems like a glitch in the policy, as it keeps it from being equally applied to all prisoners.

Not being able to use my legal name on prison documents has resulted in my degrees earned while in prison going to another name and I will have to use these credentials to get a job and be forced to disclose my status as trans in that first interview. The status of being trans is not a protected category, so that may affect my employment options like others similarly situated).

Also, hearing your dead name chanted at you by strangers in the chow hall is super weird or being accosted for sex anonymously (by a note, in another prison) because the name triggered something for somebody is gross and jarring. The risk is real when being “outed” as trans.

Worse treatment is still reserved for the young trans folks and transwomen in particular. I have been told of trans people’s experiences of being physically intimidated to hide caches of drugs or hooch, of being forced to perform sex acts for viewers or being beaten because of these performances, or of trading sex for safety or commissary.

It’s a cycle of abuse and Special Housing Unit (SHU) punitive time that steals trans women’s autonomy and “good time” while in prison. These experiences seem like a powerful argument for transwomen to be in female facilities for safety (if they choose), and for all trans people to use the legal name that best reflects them.

I hope that my community on the outside will stand by me in my continuing quest to access care. At 62 years of age, I have already passed the age when I could get the radial forearm phalloplasty procedure that I really wanted – but may still be able to get a simpler procedure. I was given this assessment by a caring and capable doctor, so I believe the advice.

I don’t want to “age out” of GRS entirely – but the clock is ticking. Please join me in advocating for all trans people, incarcerated or free, young or old to live their truth and to be treated with compassion and respect.

Next year, a better world!
Love and solidarity,
Marius Mason

Greetings of Love and Solidarity,

Alot has taken place in my life in the last year. I got married to a beautiful and smart trans woman. In March I had surgery for a hernia repair, which I had been trying to do for the past three years. I’m still experiencing complications from the surgery.

I started a project that bought up the debts that queer prisoners had accrued for the purchase of drugs and food products. This was somewhat controversial on the inside and outside. We are all responsible for our own lives, but no human or anarchist principle dictates that we refuse to help others whose own decisions have brought trouble upon their heads, unless we believe that in trying to help them, we are perpetrating greater harm. Denying queer prisoners who are drug abusers humane aid multiplies their miseries without bringing them one inch closer to recovery and safety. The more we dehumanize and vilify drug abusers, the more it is impossible to put in place the kind of interventions that will help them.

Also, I hired one attorney, fired him and hired a new one. Hopefully I’ll be out there with you all this year. I’ve been taking part in the Solitary Gardens Project, which grows plenty of food. This world wants to crush those of us that desire a different way of life into oblivion. Their surveillance technology, jails, prisons and war machines are all to cause despair. We must not let despair gain a hold on our psyche or we lose.

I’m finding inspiration in the Atlanta forest defenders. The actions in Atlanta of the police are to bring about our despair. The Atlanta forest defenders have shown us the way forward.

Despair paralyzes us into inaction. Prisons are the site of chattel slavery in this day and age in the U.S. So, I take inspiration from the work and actions of those of you out there fighting, refusing to let despair paralyze them into inaction. I’m trying to live anarchy as best I can, even in this hellhole. If not now, when? If not here, where?

The war goes on wherever we find ourselves on bourgeois dominated soul.

Stop Cop City!

We have a new zine of Crimethinc’s article on the history of June 11th. Find it here.

And a zine of Marius’s statement for this year. Y aquí en español.

Enjoy!

Oproep 2023
11 juni: Internationale dag van solidariteit met Marius Mason en alle langdurig anarchistische gevangenen

Tegen vergetelheid, tegen wanhoop: een oproep voor 11 juni

Er is weer een jaar voorbij en weer staat een 11e juni voor de deur. Opnieuw waarderen we alles wat zich in deze periode in de anarchistische strijd heeft afgespeeld, zowel triomfen als ontberingen, zowel buiten de gevangenismuren als daarbinnen. We waarderen de schoonheid van terugvechten en de kracht die kan worden gekoesterd als we weigeren te bezwijken voor zowel vergetelheid als wanhoop.

Tegen de vergetelheid: we staan niet toe dat de staat rebellen laat verdwijnen, hun lieve of scherpe woorden uit onze discussies te laten wissen, of hun bijdragen aan onze gedeelde strijd te laten verwijderen of te verdoezelen. In plaats daarvan onthouden we ze. Hun acties, woorden, gelach, potentieel en menselijkheid. We kunnen als doorgeefluik voor elkaar fungeren door gevangenismuren heen en tussen de generaties. Ze kunnen betrokken blijven terwijl onze strijd verschuift en verandert, en we kunnen ze verbonden houden met de buitenwereld, en ook de buitenwereld met hen verbinden.

Continue reading “Tegen vergetelheid, tegen wanhoop: een oproep voor 11 juni”

Ein weiteres Jahr vergeht, und wieder steht der 11. Juni vor uns. Erneut schätzen wir alles, was sich in anarchistischem Kampf in dieser Zeit entfaltet hat, sowohl die Triumphe als auch die Schwierigkeiten, außerhalb der Gefängnismauern und innerhalb. Wir schätzen die Schönheit des Widerstands und die Stärke, die entstehen kann, wenn wir uns weigern, sowohl dem Vergessen als auch der Verzweiflung zu erliegen.

Gegen das Vergessen: Wir weigern uns zuzulassen das der Staat Rebellen verschwinden lässt, ihre süßen oder scharfen Worte aus unseren Diskussionen löscht oder ihre Beiträge zu unseren gemeinsamen Kämpfen entfernt oder zu verschleiern. Stattdessen erinnern wir uns an sie. Ihre Taten, Worte, ihr Lachen, ihr Potenzial und ihre Menschlichkeit. Wir können als Vermittler dienen, durch Gefängnismauern und zwischen Generationen hinweg. Sie können in unsere sich verändernden Kämpfe einbezogen werden, und wir können sie mit der Außenwelt verbinden und die Außenwelt mit ihnen verbinden.

Continue reading “Gegen das Vergessen, Gegen die Verzweiflung: 11. Juni 2023”

JUNE 11TH INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH ALL LONG-TERM ANARCHIST PRISONERS, AND OTHERS IN STRUGGLE” AGAINST STATE, PRISON REPRESSION

Although the focus of this yearly INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY is premised on support of MARIUS MASON and anarchist prisoners, a suggestion is made here, that the anarchist movement in general, should also acknowledge the struggles all prisoners in struggle against the totalitarian class-state, whether in prison for direct revolutionary, anarchist, animal and earth liberation actions, or as mere social prisoners of conscience, and give all of us the Support we need to hold our keepers accountable for the gross human rights violations occurring this very moment, in both federal and state prisons, specially in the State of Texas. As Italian anarchist ERRICO MALATESTA ONCE PUT
IT:

Continue reading “Statement from Xinachtli 2023”

traducido por anarquia.info

CONTRA EL OLVIDO, CONTRA LA DESESPERACIÓN: UN LLAMADO PARA EL 11 DE JUNIO.

Otro año pasa, y otro 11 de junio está sobre nosotros. Una vez más estamos apreciando todo lo que se ha desarrollado en la lucha anarquista durante este período, tanto los triunfos como las dificultades, fuera de los muros de la prisión, como dentro de esta. Estamos apreciando la belleza de luchar, y la fuerza que puede ser fomentada cuando nos negamos a sucumbir tanto al olvido, como a la desesperación.

Contra el olvido: nos negamos a que el Estado haga desaparecer a los rebeldes, a borrar sus palabras dulces o agudas de nuestros debates, o a eliminar u ofuscar sus contribuciones a nuestras luchas. Por el contrario, los recordamos. Sus acciones, sus palabras, sus risas, su potencial y su humanidad. Podemos hacer de conducto entre ellos a través de los muros de la prisión y entre generaciones. Podemos mantenerlos involucrados a medida que nuestras luchas cambian, y podemos mantenerlos conectados con el mundo exterior, y también el exterior conectado a ellos.

Contra la desesperación: frente al poder del Estado, puede parecer que no hay nada que hacer. La desesperación es un espacio muy particular. La desesperación no es desesperanza, ya que la desesperanza puede ser una evaluación justa de las circunstancias. Uno puede ver y reconocer la desesperanza con un corazón lleno y un espíritu fuerte. Pero la desesperación, destruye el valor. Qué es la desesperación, sino valorar el conocimiento del sufrimiento sin actuar contra él. Nos negamos a revolcarnos indefinidamente en el reino de la desesperación. Nos negamos a que la desesperación destruya nuestro valor.

Continue reading “11 DE JUNIO 2023: DÍA INTERNACIONAL DE SOLIDARIDAD CON MARIUS MASON Y TODXS LXS PRESXS ANARQUISTAS DE LARGA CONDENA”

Greetings comrades. Let me tell you about this prison, the federal supermax ADX [in Florence, Colorado]. In this joint there are different levels and units with varying levels of physical isolation and communication, but there are things we all experience. Everyone is locked down at least 21 hours a day, at max 24. When you have inside rec you are by yourself in a room without a pull up bar. Outside rec cages are 8 x 10 foot dog kennels surrounded by concrete walls and a chain link roof — a cage within a cage. Unless you are in the pre-release unit (K-A) or long-term elder unit (K-B), you will never be in the same room as another person. And even in those units you only come around your ‘group’ — which is one to four other people — for inside rec. The other 22 ½ hours are in your cell by yourself. I have been in C-unit, the discipline unit and K-A; there is one other person in my group.

Continue reading “Eric King Statement 2023 [English & Español]”

2023 Klic 11 Junij: Narodni dan solidarnosti z Mariusom Mason-om in vsemi dolgorocnimi anarhisticnimi zaporniki

Proti pozabi, Proti Obupu: Klic za 11-i Junij

Se eno leto je mimo, se en 11 Junij je mimo nas. Se vedno cenimo vse kar je odvilo v Anarhisticnem boju preko tega casa, tako zmage kot porazi, tako zunaj ali znotraj zapora. Cenimo lepoto upora v moci, ki je posledica vzgoje , ko se nocemo prepustiti tako pozabi kot obupu.

Proti pozabi:
Ne pustimo, da država izbrise upornike, da izbriše njihovo dobre ali ostro
besede iz naših razprav ali jih odstrani in prikrije njihov del k našim skupnim bojem. Namesto tega se jih spominjamo. Njihova dejanja, besede, smeh, potencial in clovecnost. Lahko delujemo kot povezava drug za drugega skozi zidove zaporov in med generacijami. Lahko ostanejo vkljuceni, ko se nasi boji premikajo in spreminjajo, in lahko jih ohranimo povezane z zunanjim svetom in z vsemi povezanimi zunaj.

Proti obupu:
Nasproti moci drzave se lahko zdi, kot da ni mogoce storiti nicesar.
Obup je zelo poseben prostor za bivanje. Obup ni brezupni, saj je brezupnost lahko postena ocena okoliscin. Clovek lahko vidi in prizna brezup s polnim srcem in mocnim duhom. Toda obup, obup unicuje pogum. Nocemo se potopiti v kraljestvo obupa, v nedogled. Ne dovolimo, da bi obup unicil nas pogum.

Namesto tega bomo drug drugemu ponudili upanje. Vendar, ne naivno ali zgreseno upanje, ki ponuja lažne resitve. Toda namesto tega, strastno prepricanje v nase sposobnosti kot posamezniki, in zmogljivosti skupaj. Lahko se ucimo od ljudi, kot so zaporniki, ki se osamljeno soocajo s polno mocjo drzave ter ohranjajo svoja nacela, njihov humor, njihov pogum in njihova odlocnost. Ne bomo ukrepali le na podlagi tega, kar je mogoce ali »stratesko«, ampak na tisto, za kar vemo, da ima vrednost in pomen tako iz skrbi kot ljubezni drug do drugega in v igranju za sebe, lastnega obstoja in duha. Zaprti tovarisi so pogosto neverjeten primer vztrajanja v brezizhodnosti. Doseci drugo stran tega, do stanja, ko nimas vec nicesar izgubiti in se bati.