Friday, June 3, 2022

This Is America #168: Fight to Save People’s Park in Berkeley, Oakland School Occupied, Hunger Strikes at ICE Prison in Tacoma

Welcome, to This Is America, June 2nd, 2022.

In this episode, we speak with two folks involved in ongoing resistance to development by the University of California at People’s Park in so-called Berkeley.

We then switch to our discussion, where we tackle the culture of mass shootings and growing tensions within the Republican party and the rise “Dark MAGA.”

All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news.

Living and Fighting

Hunger Strikes in Tacoma, Washington Win Concessions at Detention Facility

A hunger strike that began in mid-May at the Northwest detention center in Tacoma, Washington ended after a week with concessions being made. According to The Seattle Times:

According to the group La Resistencia, detainees were provided clean clothes — but only in the unit where the strike began — and improved food portions. The group said more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were sent to the detention center to handle cases, which was one of the protesters’ demands.

The strikers also asked for better cleaning of the facility and units, more nutritious food, better access to medical services and jobs that pay a minimum wage. Nine people took part in the hunger strike at the fenced facility, which is among the largest immigration detention centers in the U.S., and where people are held as they go through immigration-status proceedings.

Soon after, another hunger strike began. As one local report wrote:

It’s the second hunger strike in as many weeks at the facility, both over concerns over a recent rise in Covid cases there. Detainees also complain that the food is often cold and the commissary is expensive.

La Resistencia alleges that those in quarantine are in conditions similar to solitary confinement, and that the solitary unit at NWIPC (called unit H) is currently full.

[On May 26th]…detainees in unit F4 have ended their hunger strike, according to advocacy group La Resistencia. Maru Villalpando says that Jack Lippard, ICE Assistant Officer in Charge, met with the hunger strikers Wednesday. She says Lippard told them that after reviewing their cases ICE did not think they could be released. Instead, Villalpando says, “he told them to request bond at their next court hearing. Despite the setback, the hunger strikers are not backing down; they have expressed their willingness to organize another hunger strike soon.”

School Occupation Launched in East Oakland

The ongoing fight against school closures in Oakland, which so far has seen teacher strikes, student walkouts, hunger-strikes, and protests, has now evolved into an occupation of one high school that is scheduled to be shuttered, Parker Elementary, in Deep East Oakland. A coalition of students, staff, and local residents have launched an occupation of the facility and set up programming during the summer.

As one report wrote:

The group of about half a dozen families has occupied Parker since then, and doesn’t have plans to leave unless Oakland Unified School District reverses its decision to close the school. Other community leaders, neighbors, and education advocates stop by to take shifts for supervision and security, or to drop off donations.

The occupation is the latest community action against school closures, which the school board announced in January and approved in February. Parker and Community Day, a school for students who have been expelled from traditional middle and high schools, won’t reopen in the fall. Next year, five more schools will permanently close…

The occupation is reminiscent of a similar action that took place 10 years ago, at the site of what was then Lakeview Elementary School. Much like now, OUSD had announced it would be closing several schools, including Lakeview, in an effort to save money. Protesters occupied Lakeview for more than two weeks until OUSD police cleared them out.

According to Prism Reports:

…[M]ore than half of the students enrolled in four of the seven schools that will close are Black. Across the district, Black children made up 21% of the student population enrolled in the 2020-2021 school year, and over 47% are Latinx. The closures follow a 20-year pattern of school closures that deprive Black students of equal educational opportunities.

Donate to help the occupation grow, here.

Defend the Atlanta Forest

The fight in the Atlanta forest continues. One report on the ground stated:

[There have been reports of] clashes in the woods as Long Engineering/Atlas Technical consultants are accompanied, by a massive deployment of police in order to begin construction of a perimeter fence at the proposed future Cop City location. [Reportedly], protesters dispersed the bulldozer, workers, and police…using stones and fireworks; no detentions or arrests so far…

Forest defenders are calling on supporters to continue to put pressure on various construction firms to drop the Cop City project. Meanwhile, actions in solidarity with the Atlanta forest continue. In the bay area, a communique posted to Indybay read:

We smashed windows at Consolidated Engineering Laboratories in Oakland, an Atlas company, cause smashing is fun, engineers suck, and they smashed our camp in Atlanta…They want to build a “cop city’ to train pigs to put down urban insurrections, and erect souless soundstages to make shitty movies. They’ve buddied up with the FBI and a clusterfuck of police agencies to unsuccessfully drive forest defenders out of the woods.

We hope they don’t succeed, but our eternal hostility remains. Let’s see how long these monuments to liberal society stand.

Another communique took credit for an action in Erie, PA, also against Atlas, a company contracted out to build the “Cop City” project. In a anonymous post sent to Scenes from the Atlanta Forest the note read:

Stop cop city! Defend the atlanta forest and forests everywhere.

Fight for Reproductive Freedom

As a ruling from the supreme court on the possible overturning of Roe v Wade is expected this month, the fight for reproductive freedom continues, with ongoing targeted acts vandalism happening across the US. In Lynnwood, Washington, a pro-life pregnancy center was vandalized with graffiti reading, “If abortion isn’t safe, neither are you,” and also, “Jane’s Revenge,” a nod to various groups across the US who have also carried out similar acts of pro-abortion sabotage.

Screenshot of news report on Lynnwood vandalism.

In nearby Olympia, according to a communique posted to Puget Sound Anarchists:

Last night we vandalized four anti-abortion churches in Olympia. All of these churches have ties to anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers,” religious fake clinics that manipulate mostly poor people into having & keeping children they don’t want or aren’t ready for and marrying whomever impregnated them whether or not that relationship is healthy or safe. Crisis pregnancy centers are exploitative and serve the aims of upholding the patriarchal family, a primary site of violence against women, queers, and children.

A Mormon church, Calvary church, Harbor Church, and St. Michael’s Catholic church all received facelifts in the early hours of Sunday morning. We dumped red paint over the entryways and left messages of “If abortions aren’t safe then neither are you,” “Abort the church,” and “God loves abortion.”

Even in the likelihood that abortion remains legal in western Washington after roe v. wade is overturned, there are still local enemies who are doing everything in their power to make it as difficult and inaccessible as possible. These churches are terrified of people exercising bodily autonomy – whether aborting unwanted pregnancies or taking gender-affirming hormones/surgery or fucking whomever we want – because they need the rigid hierarchy of the family as the basic unit of control. It’s not even conspiratorial to say the Mormon church, Catholic church, and all others that punish abortion and reward marriage are patriarchal sex abuse cults. From the beginning the church has sought to control and destroy every impulse toward pleasure and self-determination.

While a little graffiti may be a small gesture in the war against patriarchal religious control, we wish to highlight that it’s easy and fun to attack. Our enemies are vulnerable and easy to find. In acting we learn to act, in waiting we only learn to wait. The secret is to really begin.

We echo the words of some crazy bitches from over a decade ago when we say that we are not asking for the right to choose, we are taking into our own hands the ability to abort a pregnancy. We are not asking for advertisements or media that pander to trans people, we’re wresting the tools to change our bodies out of the control of doctors. We are not appealing to state power for an end to patriarchal violence, but threatening: “If abortions aren’t safe, then neither are you.”

For joy, pleasure, and self-determination,
Jane’s Revenge
Bo Brown Memorial Cell

An “autonomous call to action against patriarchal supremacy” from under the banner of Jane’s Revenge has been published on a new website. The statement reads:

Within the month we anticipate a verdict will be issued that overturns Roe v Wade, setting in motion an evisceration of abortion access across the so-called United States.

This is an event that should inspire rage in millions of people who can get pregnant…and yet, the response thusfar has been tepid.

We have agonized over this apparent absence of indignation. Why is it that we are so afraid to unleash hell upon those who are destroying us? Fear of state repression is valid, but this goes deeper than that.

Your anger has been stolen from you.

To this we say: no more. We need to get angry.

We need the state to feel our full wrath.

We need to express this madness fully and with ferocity. We need to quit containing ourselves.

We need them to be afraid of us.

Last week, an evil creature slaughtered 19 children and two teachers in their classroom in Texas. While some may call this horrific act “senseless” or “random,” we know that’s not the case. We know that this was an act of male domination and patriarchal violence, meant to make women, children and teachers live in fear. We know it is deeply connected to the reproductive violence about to be unleashed on this land by an illegitimate institution founded in white male supremacy.

We cannot think of a clearer example in this time of the need for autonomously organized self-defense networks. We cannot think of a clearer example of the desperate need for those who can get pregnant to learn how to confront misogynistic violence directly. We also believe this unlearning of our self-containment can begin in the streets when we organize alongside one another to confront state forces of evil and domination.

Several weeks ago, we watched and waited as self-proclaimed “feminist organizations” and non-profits took the lead on arranging their demure little rallies for freedom. We were told to let them handle it, and to defer to the political machinery that has thusfar failed to secure our liberation. In a world where the news media has an attention span of about 24 hours on their best day, we knew these hollow gestures would fail to capture attention. We knew we were witnessing counterinsurgency in action. We cannot sit idly by anymore while our anger is yet again channeled into Democratic party fundraisers and peace parades with the police.

We were even told we must cooperate with them because they work alongside abortion providers and clinic escorts…a group of people who, at this moment in time, cannot possibly risk their lives or their livelihoods any further than they already are. We honor these providers and their service. We do not honor those who would use them as a shield against direct and militant action. We believe the greatest honor we could give them would be to act meaningfully in their name.

The time to act was decades ago. The next best time is now.

Whatever form your fury takes, the first step is feeling it.

The next step is carrying that anger out into the world and expressing it physically.

Consider this your call to action.

On the night the final ruling is issued——a specific date we cannot yet predict, but we know is arriving imminently——we are asking for courageous hearts to come out after dark.

Whoever you are and wherever you are, we are asking for you to do what you can to make your anger known.

We have selected a time of 8pm for actions nationwide to begin, but know that this is a general guideline. There may be other considerations involved in planning time and place. We do not claim to speak for every community or crew. We are simply calling out to you. And we hope you answer our cries.

To the cis male allies who would be interested in joining us in the streets, we say: you are certainly welcome, but you must use your privilege to shield and support us in a way that also enables us to get angry. Do not police us. Do not tell us what is and isn’t appropriate. But do aid us when we are in need.

We must also say: do not wait until the verdict arrives to organize.

Make plans now. Take action now.

It is not enough to share images on Twitter and Instagram (though that is still important to do). We cannot sustain this movement any longer with the same few hundred people who have been beaten down over and over again. We must not only circulate this call on social media, but reach out to communities who may not be in touch with “radical circles” online.

Mass action requires mass outreach.

We would not be issuing this call if we did not believe in our bones that this kind of action *is* possible. We have witnessed the wom*n of Argentina, Mexico and Poland organize autonomously for their reproductive liberation. We know it can be done…but we need every soul reading this to do their part.

To those who work to oppress us: If abortion isn’t safe, you aren’t either. We are everywhere.

Signed,
JANE’S REVENGE

Class War

Rent strikes are currently ongoing in a manufactured home park in Lockport, New York and in an apartment building in South Minneapolis, where tenants are fighting to force landlords to make basic improvements.

Remembering George Floyd in the Streets

Across the so-called US, people held events remembering George Floyd, and the wider uprising that was launched following his brutal murder in the early summer of 2020. Marches, film screenings and other events took place in Portland, Minneapolis, New York City and elsewhere.

According to a report back from Portland:

2 years have passed since the massive worldwide uprising began after the murder of George Floyd. In the span of 2 years the government has refused to change and instead has continued to push for more police and increasing police budgets. After 2 years activists in Portland planned a memorial in downtown Portland, while this event of remembrance was happening another group of activists planned a direct action event to show that we’re still here and this fight is far from over.

While the main event downtown marched from Pioneer Square to the Justice Center the smaller group went to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department on the other side of Portland. The group planned a quick action that left 4-6 massive windows shattered along with all the front doors which were also made of glass. Several large pieces of graffiti were drawn on the building including “Say His Name”, “George Floyd” and “Revenge Is Here.” The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department was targeted due to the fact it is also used as the county probation office, several people in Portland have been excessively charged over the last 2 years and this building directly has attacked and tried to intrap protestors from the 2020 George Floyd uprising in the probation system.

One thing that is constantly being learned and explained is how to adapt when police and the government continue to follow the same ways that got us here in the first place 2 years ago. Portland will continue to show up and do all the work that is needed to hopefully get to a better world one day.

Solidarity with Minneapolis

RIP George Floyd

In New York, people held marches and also a film screening.

In Minneapolis, “protesters marched with a banner reading, “Remember May 28th,” to the third precinct tonight where fireworks were sent up and shopping carts were set on fire before moving on.”

Upcoming Events

  • June 5th: Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair returns to Oakland, California. 11 AM – 5 PM, 5th and Harrison. More info here.
  • June 11th: Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. More info here.
  1. NYC, NY: Letter writing in the park. More info here.
  2. Philadelphia, PA: Anarchist prisoner solidarity BBQ. More info here.
  3. Cincinnati, OH: Benefit for Marius Mason. More info here.
  • June 25th – 26th: Autonomous Tenant Union Network 2022 Convention. Los Angeles, CA. More info here.
  • July 29th – 30th: Dual Power Gathering in Chicago. “At Dual Power 2022 we want to foster an atmosphere of generative co-learning and co-creativity. We want to connect people and bring them together around shared work. We want to create a space where ideas are exchanged, stories are told, and futures are imagined, in the context of building and maintaining dual power.” More info here.
  • August 6th-7th: Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. More info here.
  • August 13–21st: This August will mark the fourth Institute for Advanced Troublemaking’s (IAT) Anarchist Summer School — eight days of popular education, blending theory and practice, for adults of all ages. Apply by April 22: tinyurl.com/IATapplication
  • August 20th: Rock Against Racism mutual aid benefit show in Reno. More info here.
  • September 10th and 11th: New York City Anarchist Bookfair. La Plaza Community Garden (10th) and virtually (11th). More info here.
  • September 18th: Pushing Down the Walls, Southern California. Benefit for political prisoners. More info here.

It’s Going Down

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Photo: People’s Park Berkeley on Instagram


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Thursday, June 2, 2022

In Contempt #17: Jessica Reznicek Fights Terrorism Enhancement; Sundiata Acoli Released; Call for Phone-Zaps

Welcome to In Contempt #17.

In this column we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news. Packed in as always is news, updates, calls to action, and birthdays.

There’s a lot happening, so let’s dive right in!

Political Prisoner News

In one very welcome piece of political prisoner news, long-time Black Liberation prisoner Sundiata Acoli won an appeal in the New Jersey Supreme Court, overturning the parole board’s decision to deny him parole. This means that he will now be able to come home after almost 50 years in prison. You can donate to help his post-release fund here.

Meanwhile, another long-time Black Liberation prisoner, Dr Mutulu Shakur, has just had his parole denied. He intends to appeal, and will hopefully be every bit as successful as Acoli was.

In other political prisoner news, antifascist prisoner Gage Halupowski has been transferred to a new address, and the Anarchist Black Cross Federation are appealing for people to donate to their Warchest fund which supports long-term political prisoners.

Anarchist prisoner Eric King has now been transferred to USP Lee, and supporters are still asking for people to keep the pressure up to get him moved to a safer location, away from the white supremacists who’ve made active threats to him. The Real News Network just published a new interview with Eric King’s support crew about his situation.

Lucasville prisoner Greg Curry is currently on a hunger strike after being sent to solitary and having all contact with the outside world cut off, and supporters are asking for a phone and email zap to pressure the Ohio prison authorities to back off.

Steven Donzinger, the lawyer who was jailed in retaliation for his work helping communities in Ecuador fight Chevron, has now completed his sentence and been released from house arrest, a story that was covered by Amnesty, Amazon Watch and the Intercept.

Anti-pipeline prisoner Jessica Reznicek is appealing against the terrorism enhancement that was applied to her case, and her appeal has been covered in Salon and Grist. Her supporters recently held a webinar to publicize her case, which is being rebroadcast by Kite Line Radio.

Ferguson rebellion prisoner Josh Williams has a new article up now at the San Francisco Bay View, and Xinachtli, a long-term anarchist prisoner and Certain Days collective member, has recently written a Cinco de Mayo message and another new statement, both of which are now up on Mongoose Distro. Antifascist prisoner Dan Baker also released a new statement in solidarity with UK anarchist prisoner Toby Shone.

June 11, the day of solidarity with Marius Mason & all long-term anarchist prisoners, is coming up. The day will be marked by events including a Marius Mason solidarity party in Cincinnati, and anarchist prisoners Toby Shone and Sean Swain have already released statements for it.

Uprising Defendants and other Repression News

It’s Going Down has published a major update from the Uprising Support project, giving an overview of the situation with various uprising defendants. The Pittsburgh chapter of the NLG has started selling t-shirts as a benefit for local defendants through Filler Distro, although they currently seem to be sold out.

The Final Straw Radio Show has broadcast an interview giving more information on the ongoing repression against mutual aid efforts in Asheville and the case of the Asheville 15. Unicorn Riot has a report from Atlanta, which recently saw major police raids and arrests against the campaign to defend the Atlanta forest.

Prisoner and Detainee Resistance News

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have published their 2022 call for Shut Em Down demonstrations, running from August 21st-September 9th. Migrant detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, held a hunger strike that appears to have now ended with a victory.

DC Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee have called a phone and email zap for Comrade Pitt, a prison organizer who’s due to be transferred away from Virginia but is currently held in limbo without his property or legal papers.

Mongoose Distro has published an update from Texas anarchist prisoner Julio “Comrade Z” Zuniga on his ongoing struggle against the Texas prison system. Noah “Kado” Coffin, another Texas anarchist prisoner who’s spent a long time in solitary confinement, is due to be released later this year, and supporters are fundraising for him to be able to start a community garden when he’s released.

Abolitionist Media Projects

Former Rikers Island prisoner Jarrod Shanahan has a new book out, Captives: How Rikers Island Took NYC Hostage, and you can listen to an interview he did with the Antifada on the history of Rikers Island here and It’s Going Down here. The Final Straw Radio Show recently broadcast an interview with two outside organizers with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. Recent episodes of Kite Line Radio have included Mark Cook of the Walla Walla Black Panther Party talking about running an underground newspaper inside prison and Canadian prisoner Renford Farrier talking about his struggles with the parole board.

The San Francisco Bay View recently published an article on Prakash Churaman’s struggle against the courts and incarceration in Queens, and one by Gulley Britney on abuses at the Lane Murray unit in Texas.

Escaping Tomorrow’s Cages is a new six-part essay being published on North Shore Counter-Info. Sections that have been published so far are Prison Expansion in Ontario, Summary of the Projects, Why Oppose Ontario’s Prison Expansion? and Fighting Against Recuperation, and you can listen to an interview with some of the authors here.

International

The International Antifascist Defence Fund has updates on the antifascists facing charges in Messolonghi, Greece, a protester in Canada who had their charges dropped after standing up to an anti-vax convoy, and the Groupe Antifasciste Lyon et Environs, who have now successfully overturned the French state’s attempt to ban them.

In Italy, several anarchists are due in court for a hearing related to the long-running Scripta Manet case, a state crackdown on alleged insurrectionary anarchist activities. In Greece, anarchist prisoner Giannis Michaildis, currently held in pre-trial detention, has launched a hunger strike for his release. Freedom News has published a report from Munich, where the German state recently launched a series of raids against the local anarchist movement.

In the UK, anarchist prisoner Toby Shone has won an important victory in court, beating the state’s attempt to impose a post-release control order on him. He faces continued retaliation from the prison system, and recently published a report on organizing inside prison. Also in the UK, trials from the Bristol Kill the Bill case continue, and another defendant was just sentenced to five years.

Belarus ABC has published a guide on how to get letters into Belarusian prisons, and a brave court statement from Pramen case defendant Jauhen Rubashka, as well as new profiles of anarchist/antifascist prisoners Oleg Avdeyenko, Alexander Zaitsev, Hanna Pyshnik, and Artem S. Solovey.

Uprising Defendants

Everyone should support the defendants facing charges related to their alleged participation in the George Floyd uprising – this list of our imprisoned comrades needs to be getting shorter, not longer. See Uprising Support for more info, and check out the Antirepression PDX site for updates from Portland cases. The status of pre-trial defendants changes frequently, but to the best of our knowledge they currently include:

Kelly Jackson 50288-086
FCI Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 5000
Sheridan, OR 97378

Tyre Means 49981-086
USP Beaumont
PO BOX 26030
Beaumont, TX 77720

Margaret Channon 49955-086
FCI Aliceville
PO Box 4000
Aliceville, AL 35442

Malik Muhammad #825999
Oregon State Penitentiary
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310

Jacob Michael Gaines #81973-065
FCI Sheridan
P.O. BOX 5000
Sheridan, OR  97378

Jacob asks that people include an email address associated with their corrlinks account so he can return an email instead of a letter.

Cyan Waters Bass #23905849
Santiam CI
4005 Aumsville Hwy SE
Salem, OR 97317

Montez Lee 22429-041
FCI Ray Brook
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 900
Ray Brook, NY 12977

Matthew White #21434-041
USP McCreary
P.O. Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635

Matthew Rupert #55013-424
USP McCreary
P.O. Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635

José Felan
Sherburne County Jail
13880 Business Center Dr.
NW Suite 200 Elk River, MN 55330-1692

Branden Wolf #22425-041
FCI Oxford
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 1000
Oxford, WI  53952

Dylan Robinson 45802-013
USP Leavenworth
P.O. BOX 1000
LEAVENWORTH, KS  66048

David Elmakayes 77782-066
FDC Philadelphia
PO BOX 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105

Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal 70002-066
FDC Philadelphia
PO BOX 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105

Andrew Augustyniak-Duncan
2016-0021433
100 W. Cherry Ave.
Washington, PA 15301

Christopher West 04670-509
USP Canaan
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 300
Waymart, PA 18472

You can also buy fundraiser clothing for Christopher “Brother Hush” West here.

Ellie Brett 14822509
Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility
PO BOX 730
Lovejoy, GA 30250

John Wade 14762509
Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility
PO BOX 730
Lovejoy, GA 30250

Alvin Joseph
Updated address coming soon

Shamar Betts 22080-043
FCI Hazelton Federal Correction Inst.
P.O. Box 5000
Bruceton Mills, WV 26525

Diego Vargas 55070-424
FCI Allenwood Medium
PO Box 2000
White Deer, PA 17887

Adam Walton 55322-424
FCI Forrest City Medium
PO Box 3000
Forest City, AR 72336

Andrew Garcia-Smith 02324-509
FCI Williamsburg
PO Box 340
Salters, SC 29590

Kyree Robertson #597000
Parnall Correctional Facility
1780 E. Parnall Rd.
Jackson, MI 49201

Chase Vladimir Spencer
Kent County Correctional Facility
703 Ball Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Howard Eugene Nall #586907
Kent County Correctional Facility
703 Ball Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Antonio Wooden 17569-028 (Tony Cushe)
FCI McDowell
PO Box 1009
Welch, WV 24801

Upcoming Birthdays

Sergey Romanov

Sergey Romanov is a Belarusian anarchist prisoner serving a 20-year sentence for several arson attacks against state buildings.

Letters written in languages other than Russian or Belarusian may not reach prisoners in Belarus, but if you email your greetings to belarus_abc(AT)riseup.net, or enter them into this online form, they should be able to translate them and pass them on to Sergey for you. See here for more information.

Birthday: June 7th

Address:

(for letters in Russian or Belarusian only)

IK-11, Volkovysk district, Grodno region, 231900, Volkovysk st. Rokossovsky, 118
Romanov Sergey Alexandrovich

Jarreau Ayers

Vaughn Uprising prisoner, one of the only two prisoners from the Vaughn 17 to be convicted. As one write-up put it, “Jarreau Ayers and Dwayne Staats, already incarcerated under the hopeless sentence of life without parole, took it upon themselves to admit to involvement to prevent the rest of their comrades being found unjustifiably guilty, which led to success – not guilty verdicts or their charges being dropped.” You can learn more about Jarreau in his own words here and here.

Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility”, choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections”, going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “NS9994”.

Birthday: June 15

Address:

Smart Communications / PA DOC
Jarreau Ayers – NS9994
SCI Greene
PO Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL, 33733

Jason Robb

Jason Robb is among the Lucasville defendants who was sentenced to death after the uprising. Disclaimer: Jason Robb acted as a representative of the Aryan Brotherhood during the Lucasville Uprising, and does not seem to have ever formally renounced his membership in that organization; however, he has maintained close bonds of solidarity with the other Lucasville defendants such as Bomani Shakur and Siddique Abdullah Hasan ever since the uprising, going so far as to take part in joint hunger strikes with them. You can read more about Jason Robb here.

Ohio uses Jpay, so you can send him a message by going to jpay.com, clicking “inmate search”, then selecting “State: Ohio, Inmate ID: 308919”.

Birthday: June 15

Address:

Jason Robb #308-919
OSP
878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd
Youngstown, OH 44505

Jason Renard Walker

Texas prison writer and organizer associated with the 2016 prison strike, contributor to the Fire Inside zine, facing down heavy repression for his ongoing attempts to expose the brutality of the prison system. You can find his writings at his website, Jason’s Prison Journal, and his work has been collected as an ebook, Reports from Within the Belly of the Beast. To find out more about Jason, you can also listen to this interview he recently conducted with the Final Straw.

Birthday: June 17th

Address:

Note: Texas prisons have now banned all greeting cards and postcards. As Texas uses Jpay, you can send him a message by going to jpay.com, clicking “inmate search”, then selecting “State: Texas, Inmate ID: 1532092”. Or to send him a letter on standard white paper that complies with Texas restrictions, write to:

Jason Renard Walker
#1532092
Alfred Hughes Unit
Route 2, Box 4400
Gatesville, TX
76597

photo: Gayatri Malhotra via Unsplash


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Biden’s Visit To Saudi Arabia Exposes The Ukraine Narrative For The Sham It Is

Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

In a major walkback from his campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for human rights abuses like the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, President Biden will reportedly visit Riyadh with the goal of persuading Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help the US alliance win its economic war against Russia.

The Guardian tells us the trip “suggests Biden has prioritized his need to bring oil prices down and thereby punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, over his stand on human rights.”

So in order to punish Vladimir Putin for his war crimes and his assault on freedom and democracy, Biden will be courting a tyrannical war criminal whose country has no freedom or democracy.

Washington will be ending its brief diplomatic dry spell with a government that has been waging a horrific war against Yemen while suppressing any semblance of human rights at home in order to more effectively punish Putin for waging a horrific war against Ukraine which we’re told threatens freedom and democracy throughout the western world.

I am not the first to note the risible irony of this development.

“The Biden Administration is openly planning to pay homage to one [of] its closest allies — one of the most despotic and murderous tyrants on the planet, the Saudi Crown Prince — at the same time it convinces Americans its motive for fighting wars is to defend freedom and democracy,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald.

“The EU literally just banned oil from Russia (mimicking the United States’ actions) because they don’t want to give money to a ‘dictator’. So Biden is travelling soon to Saudi Arabia to try and bring energy prices down– which is a vibrant democracy, as you all know,” tweeted Richard Medhurst.

“As part of mobilizing support for the great war for ‘freedom’ in Ukraine, Biden will be visiting the great beacon of ‘democracy,’ Saudi Arabia this month. What’s a little murder and dismemberment between friends?” tweeted Joseph Kishore.

Indeed, one wonders if perhaps Putin could settle this whole conflict by staging a few mass beheadings and dismembering a Washington Post reporter with a bone saw to get on America’s good side.

A lot of people talk about the “hypocrisy” of the US empire, as though being hypocritical is the issue. But the complete lack of moral consistency in US imperial behavior is noteworthy not merely because of hypocrisy: it’s noteworthy because it shows the US empire has no morality.

Despite the astonishing deluge of propaganda and brazen government disinformation we’re being blasted in the face with painting the war in Ukraine as a fight between good versus evil, freedom versus tyranny, democracy versus autocracy, the truth is much less flattering to the imperial ego. In reality, the US is waging a proxy war in Ukraine for the exact same reason it remains close with Saudi Arabia: because it advances its own interests to do so.

That’s it. That’s the whole entire story. The US doesn’t care about Ukrainian freedom or Ukrainian lives, it cares about strengthening its Eurasian geostrategic hegemony, and it would cheerfully incinerate every Ukrainian alive in order to accomplish that goal.

A lot of commentators like to say the US government’s intimacy with Saudi Arabia undermines American values, but that’s not true at all. The US isn’t undermining its values by cozying up with Saudi Arabia, it is perfectly honoring and representing its values.

One only believes the US is undermining its values by partnering with Saudi Arabia if one assumes that US values include freedom, democracy, justice and peace. This is not an acceptable thing for a grown adult to believe in 2022. US values in the real world are domination and global power. That’s it.

Really if you think about it Saudi Arabia is just a more honest version of the United States. Its tyranny is right out in the open instead of being sneakily disguised under inverted totalitarianism. Its oligarchs and its official government are all the same people. It never tries to pretend its wars are “humanitarian” in nature. And when it wants to murder an inconvenient journalist it simply does so instead of dishonestly framing it as an espionage case.

In truth, when you look at its overall behavior on the world stage, the US is far more murderous and tyrannical than either Russia or Saudi Arabia . Pretending that Biden is lowering the United States beneath its values by visiting Saudi Arabia is highly flattering to the US. If anything, it’s the other way around.

______________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/03/bidens-visit-to-saudi-arabia-exposes-the-ukraine-narrative-for-the-sham-it-is/
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Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Fire Ant: Anarchist Prisoner Solidarity #13

Announcing Fire Ant #12, a publication featuring the writings of anarchist prisoners.

PDF for Printing

Fire Ant is a quarterly publication focused on spreading the words of anarchist prisoners and generating material solidarity for our imprisoned friends. Begun as a collaboration between anarchist prisoners and anarchists in Maine, Fire Ant seeks to raise material aid for anarchist prisoners while fostering communication between anarchists on both sides of the walls.

Issue #13 is a special June 11th edition of Fire Ant, featuring Sean Swain’s June 11th statement, thoughts on prisoner support from Lauren Swain, an interview with Jennifer Rose, a text by Comrade Z, an autobiographical piece by Thomas Meyer-Falk, Toby Shone’s June 11th statement, Michael Kimble on Afrikan anarchism, updates on Eric King, and the 2022 June 11th call.


by Bloomington ABC via It's Going Down
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People Who Defend Empire Narratives Are Really Just Defending Their Worldview From Destruction

Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

If you’ve publicly challenged the official narratives of the western political/media class about any major issue, you’ve probably noticed that people can get pretty upset about it.

Like, actually upset. Not mildly annoyed like you might get at someone who is saying something that is obviously false and stupid, but burning hot emotional like you’d get if you heard someone insulting your loved one. Or like someone insulting you personally.

That’s the most surprising thing, when you first start speaking about this stuff. Not that people don’t believe you or don’t agree with you; that’s to be expected when every screen in their lives is telling them one thing and you’re telling them something else. But that people actually get deeply emotionally invested in it.

That’s your first clue that there’s something else going on beneath the surface apart from what you’re being presented with. You’re not just arguing about Ukraine or China or Syria or whatever, you’re touching on a psychological third rail that’s being ferociously protected.

Many of the people you’ll run into online or in person who defend imperial narratives from your criticisms aren’t doing so because they believe the US-centralized empire is awesome and great, they’re doing so because it’s much more comfortable than confronting the possibility that their entire worldview is made of lies.

There’s a great comic by The Oatmeal which explains the psychological defense mechanisms humans have in place to protect their worldview from information that could destabilize it. Because of our tendency to select for cognitive ease over cognitive challenge in order to conserve mental energy, we tend to be heavily biased against consciously helping new worldview-disrupting information get past those psychological defense mechanisms.

And it doesn’t get more worldview-disrupting than questioning mainstream consensus reality. Because on the other side of that investigation is the realization that pretty much everything you’ve been trained to believe about your society, your nation, your government and your world, is a lie.

This is often what people are really pushing back against when they get upset at someone who is being critical of official empire narratives. It’s not actually super important to them that everyone believe the correct things about their government or someone else’s government, it’s super important to them that the world as they know it not come to a crashing halt.

Because that’s what it is, as far as their experience and perception is concerned. A lucid seeing that their entire worldview is based on lies would feel like the end of their world, because in their experience it would be the end of the world they know.

Having your entire understanding of the world and how it works torn asunder is a kind of a death, because it’s the end of your secure knowing of what’s real. In a sense it’s the end of you, too. It’s the end of the person you were. It’s all illusory of course, but that’s the way it feels.

If you ask someone to consider the possibility that they’re being lied to in some way about Ukraine, for example, you’re not just asking them to unravel one small belief about one specific conflict. You’re asking them to ask questions that open up other questions, the answers to which could very easily end up unravelling their entire understanding of their whole world.

Think about it. If you consider the possibility that the news media and their government are lying about Ukraine, you must necessarily consider the possibility that they’re lying about other things, too. And if they’re lying about all that, it would mean you were taught lies in school, too. And if you’ve been consuming lies from the very beginning of your education, that means your entire understanding of how everything works is built on lies, which means your political ideology and many opinions you hold probably are, too.

If you really think about what this kind of confrontation means for the individual, is it any wonder that most people fight tooth and claw against the suggestion that they should even begin to enter that investigative rabbit hole?

I mean, think about how it was for you. If you’re reading this, odds are you went through the ordeal of worldview dissolution yourself at some point. Can you honestly say it was easy? Or entirely pleasant?

This is not easy to do. You cast aside the comforts of knowledge and understanding, and then after you’ve gone through that whole ordeal you’re still not out of the woods, because until you’ve gotten your bearings you can find yourself in a kind of epistemological no-man’s land where anything might be true. In that space people can get mixed up and latch onto new worldviews that are no more truth-based than the one they abandoned, like QAnon or fuzzbrained notions about Jews ruling the world. It’s not until you pass through the process of abandoning all the falsehoods and the process of learning what’s really true that you begin to regain any semblance of stability.

If you think that’s an easy thing to do, it’s probably because you haven’t gone through it yourself.

Can you really blame people for intuitively pushing away from that?

It’s actually much, much easier to go from being a die-hard Democrat to a die-hard Republican or vice-versa than it is to fully relinquish the mainstream consensus reality, because those partisan narratives both exist within the mainstream consensus reality. The entire conceptual infrastructure by which they exist is the same: a world where the US and its allies are acting in good faith against tyrannical regimes in nations like Russia and China, where capitalism is totally working, where democracy is real, and where you can turn on a TV news station and see someone saying something trustworthy about these things. You’re still playing the same game, you just switched teams.

To really see through all the lies is for the floor to fall out from the game altogether and for the roof to be ripped off the stadium. It’s to see the entire conceptual infrastructure upon which mainstream politics plays out crumble to dust, to see the lights switched on and the puppet theater reduced to atoms, leaving only the puppeteers waving their stupid toys and talking in silly voices.

Depending on how attached you are to the feeling of security your worldview gives you and how resistant you are to letting it go, really confronting the lies our society is woven from can be one of the most difficult things you ever do. It’s a long, deep process of untangling which, if followed all the way through, eventually leads to the dissolution of entire belief systems, and ultimately even entire identity structures. Followed all the way through, it can lead to the very end of who you take yourself to be and your experience of what you are.

So have patience if people don’t see what you see. They’re just afraid. They’re not there yet. An acorn is not a defective oak tree. An egg is not a defective chicken. We’re all waking up together, and some of us have had to be the first to lead the charge out of the darkness and into the light. This is just what it looks like as life on this planet moves toward increased levels of complexity and consciousness.

______________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/02/people-who-defend-empire-narratives-are-really-just-defending-their-worldview-from-destruction/
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conspiracy facts pt 1 they own everything


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CIPOG-EZ Announces Mobilizations Against Narco-Paramilitary Violence in Guerrero

Communique from the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) denouncing contempt from the government, and announcing mobilizations on June 6 against the narco-paramilitary violence in their communities.

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the National and International Sixth

To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion

To the Networks Against Repression and For Solidarity

To the Human Rights Organizations

Compañeros, compañeras, compañeroas, brothers and sisters of Mexico and the world. The days go by and our rage continues to grow. The violence continues in our communities and the Mexican state doesn’t care. The narco-paramilitary groups do not cease their harassment against those of us who live in the Montaña Baja of Guerrero, and the three levels of government remain silent in the face of the situation, making their complicity evident as well as their interest in disappearing us. They can’t tolerate that the communities refuse their crumbs and seek self-determination.

Our organization grows in spite of the pain and death in our communities. Men and women, grandfathers and grandmothers, they know that in order to defend life, community organization is necessary. That is why the CIPOG-EZ, in spite of the multiple attacks, continues growing. We will continue doing so because we are not an imposed organization, but one that was born in the hearts of the communities themselves. The new generations of boys and girls will grow up free and without fear. That is why we struggle and resist. For the life of each member of our communities.

Those who govern have forgotten the people. The Mexican State, the three levels of government, have shown over and over again that they are not interested in life. Their discourses are pure lies which contradict reality where every day our lives are at risk. In spite of the national and international condemnation, in spite of the UN calling on the Mexican government to resolve the situations of disappearances in our communities, in spite of the deaths, in spite of them knowing who is responsible, the federal government of the Fourth Transformation, the state government of Evelyn Pineda also of the Morena party, and the municipal governments, have not done anything to resolve the situation of insecurity, or improve anything in the life of our communities.

Because of all this, for our dead, for our disappeared, because we do not forgive nor forget, we will continue resisting and searching by all means possible to defend life and our territory.

We want to inform everyone, compañeros and compañeras, that on June 6, 2022, we will mobilize in our territory. We will carry out highway blockades demanding the live appearance of our disappeared brothers, the disarticulation of the narco-paramilitary groups, as well as the delivery of resources that correspond to the communities, that we know historically have been robbed by municipal presidents.

We call on the collectives, media, human rights organizations, and people in general, to be attentive and to follow up on our mobilizations. In the same way, we hold the bad government responsible for anything that may happen to us.

Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ)

June 1, 2022

 


by Anonymous Contributor via It's Going Down
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