24/02/10
Jock Palfreeman is a 23
year old Australian who had the courage to stand up against 16 Nazis on
a night out in Sofia, Bulgaria. He witnessed the fascists chasing and
attacking two young Roma boys. Jock ran to the boys' aid, he did his
best to keep the Nazis at bay by waving a knife at them but they
attacked him. Jock was left with nowhere to run and had no choice but
to defend himself. Andrey Monov, one of the Nazis, was stabbed and
killed and another, Antoan Zahariev was injured. The Roma boys ran away.
Jock has since been tried and sentenced for murder and attempted
murder. He has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and has been
fined 375,000 Australian dollars.
Andey Monovs
Father is well known in Bulgaria and at the funeral there were a
mixture of judges, police and politicians.
Jock's
trial was a complete sham-yet another example of corruption and secret
hand shakes in the judicial system. The prosecutions case was built on
the witness statements made by the other Nazis that were there that
night, all claiming that Jock randomly attacked the group and chased
them with the intent of killing somebody. Key people and possible
witnesses were never interviewed by police and CCTV footage from the
scene miraculously went missing and many of the statements made at the
time were not the same as the statements submitted to the court by the
prosecution. Jock has two appeals before his sentence becomes final.
We must campaign to free Jock and put pressure on Bulgarian authorities
to accept his appeal. If his charges were downgraded to excessive use
of force during self-defence, he would be already out. We must make
sure that this judicial farce is highlighted and that they will not be
able to repeat it again.
www.freejock.net
What you can do:
-write to Jock – letters help him survive this difficult time and keep
his spirits high:
Jock Palfreeman,
Sofia Central Prison, 21 General Stoletov Boulevard,
Sofia 1309, BULGARIA
- Organise solidarity actions outside Bulgarian embassies, consulates
etc.- use your creativity !
-Write
messages of protest to Bulgarian authorities. We include sample letter,
but you are welcome to write your own message.
Sample message:
To whom it may concern
We
are writing in regards to Australian national Jock Palfreeman currently
imprisoned in Bulgaria. Palfreeman had been sentenced to 20 years of
prison for defending a passer-by and later on, himself from a vicious
attack by a group of drunken football hooligans. As a result one of the
attackers died and another got injured. Despite it being a clear case
of self-defence and his version of events being supported by numerous
witnesses, his trial was a farce. Anything working in favour of his
defence was completely ignored by the judge.
We demand that
Bulgarian authorities grant him appeal and that he will be acquitted of
murder charges. We will be watching the next actions of the Bulgarian
Ministry of Justice. We will not rest until Jock Palfreeman will get
his appeal and acquitted from those absurd charges.
Addresses to send your protests:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria
Address: 2, Aleksandar Zhendov Str., Sofia 1040, Bulgaria
Tel.: +359 2 948 2999
Information, Public Relations and European Communication Directorate
Director: Sofia Vladimirova
Tel.: +359 2 971 14 08, 971 37 78, 948 22 18
Fax: +359 2 870 30 41
e-mail: iprd@mfa.government.bg
Ministry's Reception Desk
Tel.: +359 2 948 20 18, 971 10 54
In the work days from 9.30 to 12.00 h and from 14.00 to 16.00 h
Ministry of Justice:
pr@justice.government.bg
23/07/10
Three anarchists have been arrested in connection to a May 18th firebombing of a Royal Bank branch in Ottawa, Canada. The
three men (Matthew Morgan-Brown, 32, Claude Haridge, 50, and Roger
Clement, 58) are being accused of being associated The Fight for
Freedom Coalition - Ottawa, a group that claimed responsibility for the
attack. The three men are well-known with the anarchist community and
have been active for many years. Roger Clement and Mathew Morgan- Brown
have both been charged with arson causing damage, possession of
incendiary material, using explosives with intent to
cause property damage and mischief. Claude Haridge, on the other hand,
was not given charges related to the actual bombing but rather was
charged with careless storage and handling of ammunition. In addition
to the charges mentioned above, the investigation has also led to
charges for another action at another Royal branch on Feb. 1. In this
incident two individuals damaged windows and ATMs with rocks and a
hammer. Both Clement and Haridge have been charged with mischief in
relation to this incident.
None of the men have made any statement claiming participation in the
actions or involvement in the FFFC-Ottawa. The group, Fight for Freedom
Coalition - Ottawa, seems to have entered the scene
this year with no report of activity prior to these incidents. The
group stated in a communiqué that the act was done in protest of
Royal Bank Canada sponsoring the 2010 Olympics. The group stated that
the land used in the Olympics was stolen indigenous land that was never
legally ceded to colonial British Columbia. Indigenous organizations,
like the Native Youth Movement, have called for
the boycott and cancellation of the Olympics, raising issues of
continued occupation of land stolen from indigenous communities and the
destruction of the land and life for exploitation, profit and the
promotion of Manifest Destiny. Ottawa police are claiming through pub-
lic statements that they used an undercover police officer to
infiltrate an Ottawa-based anarchist group and, with his help, were
able to track the suspects and their getaway car within hours of the
plot. They stated that they set up surveillance within 3 hours of the
explosion, yet had no knowledge of the firebombing rather they had,
over two
years of undercover work, won the friendship of the suspects. Despite
these claims, the police waited 30 days before arresting the accused.
Within two weeks of the arrests, the three men had their bail hearings.
Haridge was released on bail with strict guidelines on his movement,
whereas, Matt and Roger are still being detained at Ottawa-Carleton
Detention Centre, where they are only allowed two short visits per
week. This cuts them off from their wide support networks during this
difficult time as they are facing serious charges.
Their mailing addresses are:
Joseph Roger Clement, Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre
2244 Innes Road, Gloucester, ON K1B 4C4
Matthew Morgan-Brown, Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre
2244 Innes Road, Gloucester, ON K1B 4C4
For more information on support:
Ottawa Movement Defense
ottawamovementdefense@gmail.com
27/07/10
A bit late with this one but... The remaining 8 Smash EDO defendants involved in the wrecking part of the EDO MBM arms factory in Brighton have been acquitted.
On the night of the 16th January 2009 during the height of Operation Cast Lead, Israel's assault on Gaza, six activists broke into EDO MBM’s manufacturing facility on Home Farm Rd., Brighton as part of an on-going campaign against an ITT subsidiary that manufactures the bomb rack used on Israeli F-16s.
The six then proceeded to spend the next hour wrecking the company's offices and equipment, causing what the company claimed was £200,000. They and 3 others caught on or near the premises were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage but all were unanimously acquitted at the beginning of the month (one of the defendants had earlier had her charges dropped) after having successfully argued the defence of 'lawful excuse'.
For further information see:
Smash EDO and Schnews
02/07/10
To the Icelandic State:
Iceland is so far the only State in the West where the response of
the people in the streets to the economic crisis has had direct
consequences in the field of public politics: On 20 January 2009
performance, we initiate, together with thousands of others, an attack
on the parliament (The Althing at Austurvöllur Square). This was an
unarmed attack and not made in order to cause harm to any humans - the
clear and noisy deprecation towards the acting parliament, however,
involved a large number of deliberate violations of laws and
regulations. Thousands disobeyed the requests of the police, after the
yellow ribbon that was stretched around the house was broken.
Many disobeyed repeatedly and many got into some minor fights with
police officers who emptied their weapons stores in order to suppress
the potentially revolutionary situation. Some of us were arrested.
The aim of the attack was to achieve changes in Icelandic society,
which is in deep trouble, not just because of the capital crisis that
began in October 2008, but also because of what could be called earlier
attacks on the parliament, attacks that were committed against the
public interest for private interests of the few.
On 1 February 2009 the parliamentary majority collapsed and the
government was overthrown. Our attacks played a key role in making this
happen.
The State and its instruments, particularly the judicial system and
the police, know that they are helpless against such a mass movement.
Holders of State power know quite well that its insecure existence is
built only on temporary and amendable agreement with the people from
time to time.
The State, however, can not mask its fury against the people who
thus forced the government to step down. The judicial system now tries
to apply the well known strategy called divide and rule: On 2 March a
charge was issued against a group of nine persons who are alleged to
have, on 8 December 2008, violated the first paragraph of article 100
of the Criminal Code which reads: "Anyone, who attacks the parliament,
so that its autonomy is endangered, sends out messages with that same
purpose, or obeys such a message, shall be subject to imprisonment for
not less than 1 year, and the penalty can be imprisonment for life, if
the guilt is very severe. "
The State Prosecutor tries to disguise the actual charges and
facilitates the media to distract the debate, among other things by
spicing the charge with other, unrelated, allegations – bitten ear and
strained thumb. By applying article 100 of the Penal Code, for the
first time since the public protested against Icelandic membership in
NATO in 1949, the Prosecutor does not seek compensation for strained
thumbs. The Prosecutor´s real intention is to send this message: The
people's intervention in State affairs is criminal activity.
By directing charges to nine relatively unknown individuals, the
Prosecutor chooses an opponent that he considers himself able to deal
with, and hopes at the same time to get the thousands of people from
all sectors of society, who were involved in similar actions of
protest, to participate in a silent accessory. This is how political
persecution takes place.
We want the State to be aware that we, who participated in the
opposition against the government in the winter of 2008-2009, among
other things by violating the law, regard the government's attack on
the group of nine as an attack on ourselves and the thousands who
protested that winter. The nine persons are our partners and allies in
the struggle against the rightly labeled Masters of the police:
Violent government and the oppressive capital to which the State
provides its services. Our solidarity will not be broken by selecting
nine from the group, or four, or one.
We insist that the State should waive the charges against the group
of nine. If the Prosecutor thinks he lacks a reason to change policy in
this case, it may, for example, be taken into consideration that at the
time of the attack a serious threat the autonomy of the Parliament was
not possible, due to the fact how holders of wealth and power had
already undermined this very autonomy by successful attacks from
within. The Prosecutor could also look to a long standing tradition of
not pressing charges for individual incidents in trade conflicts.
Otherwise, we expect the Prosecutor to show the consistency to
release charges against anyone who attacked the parliament during the
winter 2008-2009, including us who sign this Statement.
For more info: rvk9.org [in Icelandic] and savingiceland.org [English]
22/04/10
Julio Rodriguez was arrested 17/4/10 in downtown Los Angeles,
while protesting against white supremacy by the LA Police Department.
Julio he has been involved with Communities For A Better Environment
Huntington Park, Anarchist Black Cross Guadalajara, Nahuatl education
in Brown communities, and most recently helped organize the April 10th
event to raise funds for Oso Blanco and the children of Chiapas. He is
being held on the trumped up charge of “Assault with a deadly weapon on
a police officer or fireman,” which is a felony. He is currently in the
LAPD Parker Center, located at 150 N. Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles,
CA. His booking number is #2301368. For more info contact
MapachinABC@gmail.com
22/06/10
A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's decision to grant a new trial to Angola 3
member Albert Woodfox. Albert, who has spent nearly all of the last 38
years in solitary confinement in the notorious Angola prison in
Louisiana, was framed alongside Herman Wallace and Robert "King"
Wilkerson for the 1972 murder of a prison guard. In 2008 a district
court judge had ruled that Albert Woodfox's defense counsel in his
retrial was ineffective and had ordered that the state try him for a
third time or drop the case. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has
now reversed that order.
02/07/10
Today, after waiting 15 months, I learned that the 5th Circuit
Federal Appeals Court has reversed a Middle District Court ruling by
Judge James Brady granting me a new trial.
What has happened to me is nothing new, still it is a blow like so
many other blows suffered by so many other political prisoners, such as
Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier being the most well-known.
The question now is where do I, our attorneys and many friends and
supporters go? Judicially, I will meet with our attorneys and see what
options there are. Politically, there is no question – the struggle
goes on.
To our family, friends and supporters, I can only imagine what you
must be feeling and thinking, and I understand disappointment, but this
ruling is not the end of our cause to free Herman Wallace and myself.
It is a call to move on, grow stronger, fight harder, not to just to
free the A3, but all political prisoners!
This ruling is not an end to revolutionary and social struggle for
justice, an end to poverty and the exploitation of the majority of the
human race. This ruling is nothing more than the biased opinion of a
branch of the U.S. government.
I am not sure what the future holds for me. It took Wilbert Rideau 3
trials to get justice. I may never get justice, but my dedication to
revolutionary struggle is unwavering! To the A3 family, my message to
you is stay strong, stay focused and stay involved!
All power to the people!
Albert “Shaka Cinque” Woodfox
For more information about the US Fifth Circuit Court ruling, please read the Mother Jones article by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella.
http://www.angola3news.com
10/05/10
Renata Zelazna is currently in prison in the Netherlands for
attempted murder of a policeman. She received no representation or
legal advice.
According to her friends Renata was cooking in her
home when she went out to ask some nearby builders to keep the noise
down. A fight ensued which ended with Renata throwing a rock at a
bulldozer and then going back indoors. Half an hour later plainclothes
police arrived, she opened the door and was told she was under arrest
for criminal damage. She was holding a small knife at the time but she
didn’t threaten anyone with it. The policeman seized her, threw her to
the floor and then CS gassed her. She was then carried to the car in
handcuffs. She was held for three days in a cell with no toilet,
refused vegan food or a change of clothes or sanitary products. A judge
came to the cell window for ten minutes and remanded her. She is
currently awaiting trial in prison.
Send mail to:
Renata
Zelazna, Penitentiare, Inrichting Ter Peel, T.A.V. ,Renata Zelazna,
7138606, cel 1/10, Paterstraat 4, 5977 NM, Evertsoord, Netherlands
18/05/10
Renata is a Polish vegan anarchist that some of us know from when
she was living in Brighton. She had recently been studying in Holland
and is now through an unfortunate chain of events in prison, where she
is suffering from horrendous treatment and fearing for her future, and
who needs our support.
A demolition site next door to her flat had been causing hassle for
the occupants of her student accommodation, with asbestos contamination
and cracks appearing in their walls. Renata complained about it several
times but to no effect, and when they brought in a new very loud
machine she went down to the site to complain directly to the builders
this time. The argument became physical as the driver swung the machine
around so that it almost hit her and another builder pushed her to the
ground, so Renata threw some rubble at them. At this point they said
they would call the police, to which she replied, “Good do that so I
can complain about the nuisance”.
When the police called on her a little while later they immediately
announced that she was being arrested for destroying machinery. She
couldn't believe they were actually serious, and tried to just continue
making her dinner, but the male police officer stepped in trying to
stop her, proclaiming “I will use violence” and barged into her. She
began to panic because she had nowhere to escape. She had the knife she
had been using to prepare her dinner and pointed it at him, trying to
make him step back. She did not try to stab him, she just wanted him to
keep his hands off her, acting from a survival instinct. He grabbed it
off her and then pepper sprayed her in the face, followed by dragging
her out and the female police officer searched her flat without a
warrant while she was held down. They picked her up by her arms and
trousers and carried her down the stairs head first, and all throughout
her arrest she was manhandled; they also pulled her trousers down in
the car with nothing she could do about it.
When in the cell they took her trousers off completely and locked
her up for two days. She had bruising just above her pubic bone and had
marks and a cut from the cuffs. She was having her period, but there
was no toilet in her cell and she was given no sanitary products, she
had to go to the toilet on her cell floor. She was hardly given any
water, none at all on the second day, and when she asked for some they
told her to “Fuck off”. Although she told them she was vegan they kept
throwing meat into her cell to torment her and beat her hands when she
pushed it back out. She saw a female duty solicitor who was helpful and
found her a support group for vegans in prison. After two days in
custody a judge came and she had a hearing through the cell window,
where she found she was being charged with attempted murder.
During her transfer from the police cell to a prison the police used
unnecessary restraints and violence against her and she walked through
the prison gates naked from the waste down. She was put in a cell and
only brought food she could eat the next day. She spent another 2 or 3
days in isolation on suspicion of having tuberculosis because she was
Polish, which she has been inoculated against as most people in Poland
are. She told them that X-rays cause cancer and that she was very
unhappy to have it done to her but she was forced to have an X-ray of
her chest to be allowed into the normal cells.
Now she is in the normal cells in pre-trial detention. She could get
6 years or more for attempted murder. She has missed her exams and lost
her job. She will now have to pay back her student grant and for the
language course, both were free only if she kept attending. There are
services to help people save their jobs and housing but since she is
not Dutch she does not qualify, although she was paying taxes in that
country. She had a very short court hearing recently for 15 minutes
where she was not told her sentence but told that she was a danger to
the public and needed to be locked up, and that she had caused a
disturbance to public order.
Renata said in her letter, “He came into my home and threatened me
with violence. I picked up the knife without thinking about what I was
doing. Do I really deserve 6 years for trying to save my life? Is this
justice? I received a beating, I was starved, refused water, tormented,
ridiculed, kept in isolation, X-rayed and now locked up. When I am
released I will have no education, no where to go, I will be in debt,
mentally disturbed and physically destroyed. All because I wanted some
peace and quiet in a flat I was paying a lot of rent for. I have lost
all hope, I look in the mirror and see death in my eyes. I have lost
weight. I'm just skin and bones. I don't know if I'm alive any more”.
What You Can Do:
- Please write letters of support to:
Renata Zelazna
Penitentiare Inrichting Ter Peel
T.A.V. Renata Zelazna 7138606 cel 1/10
Paterstraat 4
5977 NM Evertsoord
Netherlands
- There's a "Free Renata Zelazna" page on Facebook that people can
join where updates about her will be added. You will also soon be able
to find a sample letter of complaint to send on her behalf and
translations of this information into Polish and Dutch on these pages:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121038371247468
Plus this website: www.free-renata-zelazna.webs.com
- Please write to the Dutch Government to complain about what has happened to Renata and demand her release:
E.M.H. Hirsch Ballin, Minister of Justice
Postbus 20301
2500 EH Den Haag
Netherlands
General telephone number
+31 (0)70 3 70 79 11
General fax number
+ 31 (0)70 3 70 79 00
And please write to the Polish Embassy in the Netherlands to ask them to support Renata:
Embassy of Poland in The Hague, Netherlands
Alexanderstraat 25
2514 JM Den Haag
City: The Hague
Phone: (+31 70) 360 2806
Legal Update and Letter Appeal For People That Personally Know Renata
From a recent letter from Renata:
“I'm charged with “Intent to Kill”. This was upheld by the court
during the second hearing I had in Arnhem on the 22nd April. The
verdict was that I tried to kill a policeman and I'm also suspected of
mental illness. They were trying to freak me out on purpose while in
the cells so that they could say that I am mad and dangerous. They are
threatening me with imprisonment of 12 years or more. Now everything
depends on how well my lawyer can do her job to prove that I am not
dangerous to the public and that I acted in self defence. I did not
start the aggression and did not try to kill the policeman. The police
acted illegally, they did not inform me about my rights when they came
to arrest me, they entered my flat and touched my things, escalated the
situation, threatened me with violence, beat me up (including on my
head and belly) and finally searched my flat without a warrant. They
acted improperly and if they had done their job as they were supposed
to the thing with the knife would not have happened.
And the reason they came to my house in the first place was probably
also not sufficient to arrest me. It was because I threw mud and rubble
at some machine that was shaking my flat and had caused structural
damage to the place I lived. The demolition next door belonged also to
the university who had ignored all my previous complaints to them and
it was brought on the first day of our exams that week. The police came
immediately to arrest me as if I was endangering somebody and needed to
be locked up. I am told that those police receive an exceptional amount
of complaints for their behaviour from many people who were mistreated
by them. It is not just me that thinks they acted aggressively. The
police lied giving the statement about what happened in my house. But I
have no witness to confirm my version and it's my words against the
words of two police. Who do you think the judge is going to believe? My
sentence could be 12 years or more in prison or a mental hospital”.
Renata needs friends, family, people that know her or have worked
with her, studied with her, and volunteered with her to write letters
to say that they know or remember her, saying that she is not
aggressive, or dangerous, that she has to be given a chance to continue
her studying, that she is not anti-social, things like that. As Renata
says about herself:
“I worked hard to get into the university, to find a job and a place
to live. I was there alone and had to overcome lots of obstacles to
sort all these things. I started the course in Animal Husbandry to
specialise in Animal Welfare. I was doing very well at school, I found
a place for the intern ship already, everything was going well. And now
it is ruined! I cannot continue my studies, I lost my job, my flat,
EVERYTHING! And I will have the criminal record of a MURDERER! I'm a
vegan, I don't kill, this is one of the most important things to me –
to respect the lives of others, to do no harm”.
Please send your character reference letters about Renata to us and
we will collect them to send onto her lawyer. We can also translate any
letters sent in Polish. Renata's court case is meant to be some time in
July so please don't delay sending these letters to:
Free Renata Zelazna
PO Box 74
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 4ZQ
UK
Email: free.renata@ymail.com
10/06/10
Renata Zelazna is a friend of ours and a vegan and anarchist who is
now on remand over an unfortunate chain of events. She was arrested in
April 2010 in Holland where she had moved to study, after an
altercation with construction site workers which ended up with police
threatening her in her own flat. She was holding a knife that she was
chopping vegetables with – leading to charges of attempted murder!
She was subjected to abuse on her way to and in custody – being
beaten, denied vegan food, drink and basic sanitary needs, and even
clothes – she was transported to prison naked from the waste down. She
has also had problems getting adequate vegan food while in prison and
has lost a lot of weight.
She is facing up to 12 years in prison or a mental hospital, and is in need of our support.
Please write to her, she said that getting letters is really helping to keep up her morale:
Penitentiare Inrichting Ter Peel
T.A.V. Renata Zelazna 7138606 cel 1/10
Paterstraat 4
5977 NM Evertsoord
Netherlands
Raise money for her defence, and contact her support groups for more ideas of support:
UK: free.renata@ymail.com
Holland: info@arrestantengroep.org, www.arrestantegroep.org
and sign the online petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/Renata/petition.html
Getting more character statements is important right now. The
police are trying to accuse Renata of having mental health problems and
saying that she is a danger to the public. We'd like to remind friends,
family, people that know her or have worked with her to send character
reference letters about Renata. We will collect them to send onto her
lawyer. Her court case is on the 20th July so please don't delay
sending these letters to:
Free Renata Zelazna
PO Box 74
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 4ZQ
free.renata@ymail.com
Please write to the Dutch authorities to complain about her treatment; sample letter below.
To: E.M.H Hirsch Ballin, Minister of Justice
Postbus 20301
2500 EH Den Haag
Netherlands
Phone and Fax:+31 (0) 70 3 70 79 00
Re. Renata Zelazna, currently at Penitentiare Inrichting Ter Peel, T.A.V. 7138606, 5977 NM Evertsoord
I am writing to express my concern over the treatment of Renata
Zelazna, a Polish student living in Holland who is currently in custody
and facing serious charges over a series of events that spiraled out of
control.
Her arrest and treatment in custody were exceptionally threatening
and abusive. Although she was being arrested over a minor incident – an
argument with the construction workers next door – she was physically
threatened and assaulted by the police in her own flat, who did not
inform of her rights but immediately cornered her; she was in the
middle of cooking and holding her kitchen knife, so this was turned
into charges of attempted murder.
She was pepper-sprayed and subjected to physical violence during
the arrest. She was not given enough water or any food that met her
dietary requirements, and she was not given any sanitary products to
deal with her period or an opportunity to clean herself or new clothes,
leading to the humiliation of having to remain naked from the waist
down for some days, including during her transport to prison. There,
she was held in isolation due to the generalised subsidising of TB just
because of her nationality.
I am shocked and outraged to hear of this treatment and am urging you to release Renata and drop the charges.
Sincerely,
14/04/10
Twenty-nine people were arrested during an
anti-police march in downtown Olympia, Washington State, USA. Margaret
Belknap and Paul French were ordered held on suspicion of third-degree
felony assault of a police officer.
The march consisted of a large group of people clad in black with their
faces covered in hoods and scarves, protesting against alleged police
brutality, including recent officer-involved shootings in Portland.
Leaflets passed out during the protest also cited the 2008 fatal
shooting of Jose Ramirez-Jimenez by Olympia police officers as a reason
for the protest.
30/01/10
Dear friends, families and supporters,
The last time that we wrote, we were only weeks beyond the
2008 RNC,
and still figuring out how to navigate our case with a sense of
collectivity and integrity. Now, more than a year after the fact, we
find ourselves in a sort of limbo. Day to day, we don't feel the
intensity of repression that we did in the weeks surrounding the RNC,
yet the trial looms somewhere in the distance and we're not really free
to move on. We return to court on February 2nd, and may come out of the
hearing with a trial date certain. While it's hard to remain upbeat
about the prospect, we hope to make the final push towards trial
energizing for ourselves and our supporters alike, and we feel certain
that a strong show of court solidarity will make a huge difference in
the outcome of our case.
The past year has been difficult, both in dealing with our own
situation and in watching as State attempts to subvert and disrupt
anarchist movement gain steam, following well-established patterns of
repression against dissident political movements throughout history.
In late 2008 and 2009, Ramsey County prosecuted more than a
dozen
felony cases resulting from the RNC. Abusing their unchecked power to
slap on charge after unfounded charge as a way of coercing people out
of exercising their right to trial, and with the constant threat of
terrorism enhancements, prosecutors extracted numerous plea agreements
from individuals who came to the RNC protests outraged at this
oppressive system and willing to take a conscientious stand against it.
During the fall of 2008, well-known and controversial radical
activist Brandon Darby was outed as a paid FBI informant. This happened
as a result of his entrapment of Brad Crowder and David McKay, two
young men who traveled from Texas to MN for the RNC protests. Though
Brad and David both eventually plead guilty to federal charges of
making and possessing Molotov cocktails, facts surrounding the case and
testimony given during McKay's initial mistrial make it clear that
Darby went out of his way to create the unlikely scenario in which the
crimes were committed. Darby, whose crimes of conscience will go
unpunished, has already robbed two people of their freedom, but the
extent of his cooperation and the damage it has done to our community
remains to be seen.
In April of 2009, Indiana residents Tiga Wertz and Hugh
Farrell were
arrested and charged with racketeering as a result of their work
organizing against I-69, the US segment of the NAFTA Superhighway. I-69
will displace small farmers, wreak environmental destruction, and
facilitate the movement of goods and capital at the expense of the
continents' poor and working people. Tiga and Hugh are still awaiting
trial, which will likely not start before 2011.
Late this fall, two friends and comrades of ours in
Minneapolis,
Carrie Feldman and Scott DeMuth, were subpoenaed to a federal grand
jury in Davenport, IA, which is investigating a 2004 Animal Liberation
Front action at the University of Iowa. Scott and Carrie were teenagers
in Minnesota at the time of the ALF raid, and though they have no
information to give about it, they refused to cooperate with the grand
jury on principle. They were both jailed on civil contempt on November
17, 2009, and two days later, Scott was indicted under the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). He is currently out awaiting trial and
Carrie remains jailed in Iowa, where she may sit for another nine
months. Carrie and Scott's involvement in RNC organizing, their
affiliation with known anti-RNC organizers, and materials seized in RNC
raids, have all been used so far in prosecutorial attempts to vilify
them and their politics.
Scott is only the seventh person ever charged under the AETA.
In
February of 2009, four people in Santa Cruz, CA, became the first AETA
indictees, accused of first-amendment protected activities including
leafleting and chalking sidewalks. Last spring, BJ Viehl and Alex Hall
in Utah were also charged under the AETA in relation to mink
liberations. BJ recently plead guilty, citing the improbability of a
fair trial in such a heavily conservative state, and will probably be
sentenced in March. Alex is still awaiting trial.
The same day that we go to court here for our next hearing,
Jordan
Halliday will start trial for felony contempt of court, a charge he is
facing after months of incarceration on civil contempt for refusing to
testify before a federal grand jury in Utah.
This fall, comrades from the Tin Can Comms Collective
sustained a
raid and two arrests at the G20 mobilization in Pittsburgh. After
returning to their home in Brooklyn, NY, the two arrested were
subjected to yet another raid, this time on their house. State charges
related to the G20 were subsequently dropped under circumstances that
suggest the existence of an active federal investigation of Tin Can's
activities.
Needless to say, anarchists have taken quite a few hits this
year.
Yet these cases are only one manifestation of the systematic repression
of movements for social change. Even as anarchists have yet again
become a primary target of State repression, the U.S. continues its war
on Black and Puerto Rican revolutionaries, and their allies.
In January of 2007, charges were brought against eight former
Black
Panthers (the San Francisco 8) for the 1971 murder of a police officer.
The case, re-opened with post-9/11 anti-terrorism funds, is
based on
information extracted through torture. Several of the the SF8 are
former or current political prisoners. By summer of 2009, most charges
had been dropped or drastically reduced in plea agreements. As of this
writing, the last remaining conspiracy charge was dropped, leaving a
single charge against Cisco Torres.
In recent months, the State of Pennsylvania has engaged in a
new
push for the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely convicted of the
murder of a police officer in1982 and held on death row ever since. His
supporters across the globe are mobilizing, yet again, to prevent this-
our movements have kept him alive thus far, and it falls on us yet
again to prevent his State-sanctioned assassination.
Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican independence movement- which has
won the
release of most of its political prisoners over the past decades- is
preparing a final push for the release of two of the remaining three,
Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar Lopez Rivera.
At this moment, dozens of political prisoners sit in U.S.
prisons
and jails, many of them having been there for decades and some who may
never get out. The State would have us believe that political prisoners
do not exist in this country, which holds a full quarter of the world's
incarcerated people in its prison plantations. It is our common
commitment to a radically transformed world that they intend to subvert
with every new arrest, detention and prosecution, and our only defense
is an acknowledgement of the fact that this is happening day in and day
out, and a commitment to fight it at every step of the way.
As we look towards what could be the final stage of our own
case,
we're left to ponder the impact of our work. It is our hope that our
supporters also support every person named in this letter, and every
target of State repression left unnamed. Whether we're acquitted or
convicted come trial, the greater measure of our success will be the
extent to which our case builds the movements to which we belong.
See you at trial,
the RNC 8
http://rnc8.org
15/02/10
Jerome White-Bey is the founder and president of the Missouri
Prisoner Labour Union, an organization of Missouri prisoners and their
outside supporters who are organizing around labour and other prison
conditions. Since the founding of the MPLU, Jerome has been subject to
administrative harassment and retaliation. He was in the "hole"
(administrative segregation) for two years following the formation of
the MPLU and has constantly been moved in and out of segregation since.
Jerome is now appealing for help with a letter campaign. He
has
diabetes which has caused a kidney infection that has lasted for
several months now. Despite several requests made by him to the doctors
there the prison officials are denying him any medical treatment for
the kidney infection. He has had no treatment, no tests, no medication
and he is very worried about his health and the effect the long lasting
infection will have on him. In his own words:
"There is a plot against my well being. It is clear to me now,
so
the only sure way to protect myself from ill willed people is to build
a wall of security around me, because when people on the outside show
an overwhelming concern about our well being, then that stills the hand
of the evil doers. So anyone that would like to write, call the prison
or visit me is welcome to do so."
Please write letters of complaint to:
The Governor, ERDCC, 2727 Highway K, Bonne Terre, MO 63628, USA
+001 573 358-5516
Write letters of support to:
Jerome White-Bey,
#37479, ERDCC, 5A-118, 2727 Highway K, Bonne Terre, MO 63628, USA
25/05/10
Recently we were asking people to write letters of complaint on
behalf of Jerome White-Bey to get him some urgent medical treatment for
a kidney infection (details of this letter appeal can be found above).
Jerome had been told over a 3-4 year period by doctors at three
different prisons that he had kidney problems which was a result of
having diabetes. This kidney infection had been left untreated for a
long period of time and after the letters of complaint and phone calls
made to the prison from his last letter appeal Jerome was then sent for
tests and told that it was not in fact his kidneys that had been making
him unwell but that he has liver problems from having Hepatitis C,
which he was unaware he had till that point. He was then told that he
needs a course of treatment that will last for 12 months and he'll have
to be transferred to another prison to have the treatment.
Jerome now faces a new problem. He has been unwell for a long period
of time but the head doctor at Jefferson City has not approved his need
for medical treatment and the transfer to start it. The longer they
take approving this the worse his condition becomes.
Jerome thanks everyone for the complaints that were made last time
to get him this far but asks that we write letters or call the prison
again to get him transferred and started on the treatment he needs.
Please write letters of complaint to:
The Governor, ERDCC, 2727 Highway K, Bonne Terre, MO 63628, USA
+001 573 358-5516
Write letters of support to:
Jerome White-Bey,
#37479, ERDCC, 5A-118, 2727 Highway K, Bonne Terre, MO 63628, USA
20/07/10
Marco Camenisch, known for his active role in the anti-nuclear
movement during the seventies, has been a political prisoner for almost
20 years. As a militant green anarchist he has been taking part in
struggles, campaigns and protests in and outside prison during all
these years. He is currently detained in the penitentiary
Pöschwies/Regensdorf near Zurich.
In two years comes the case of his conditional release that should
basically be granted since in the Swiss prison system, conditional
release is the rule. However Marco’s situation is a particular one. All
special privileges and preparatory measures for release are refused.
The medical treatment he needs because of his cancerous disease
continues to be insufficient. The furlough usually granted is refused
on the grounds that he does not renounce his political convictions and
has to many friends all over the world who might help him escape. Yet
having good social contacts is a criterion for conditional release –
one out of many criteria, which Marco would fulfil.
The juridical authorities give the strong impression that
conditional release is only granted for broken and/or conformist
prisoners. This tendency can be observed with nearly all political
prisoners in metropolises. Prisoners defending their political identity
are buried alive in prison although they have served their sentence
already – with the intention to weaken them and the progressive
movements they come from and to keep up the fear of prison as a weapon
of those in power. Some examples among many are the situation of
Leonard Peltier in the USA, the one of the prisoners from Action
Directe in France or of the Basque prisoners in the Spanish state.
Together with the International Red Aid, we therefore call for an
international solidarity campaign for Marco Camenisch coordinating with
struggles for the release of long-standing prisoners in other
countries. Meanwhile we do not want to lose the prospect of a society
without prisons. That is why we set the start of the campaign for June
19, which is the international day of action for antagonist prisoners
and against prisons.
Sign the call of the International Red Aid, spread this information
via your websites and other channels. Join the campaign adding your own
focal points. Take part in the international day of action on September
18 2010.
Solidarity is a weapon!
Friends and supporters of Marco Camenisch
June 2010
Write to Marco (remember to put sender's address):
Marco Camenisch
Postfach 3143
Ch-8105 Regensdorf
Support him:
Account no. 87-112365-3 (PAN-IG, ch-8005 Zürich)
Contact:
marco_camenisch@yahoo.de
