Prisoner Support

from email, 12 September 200: For the last several months I have been having these amazing conversations mail with someone who is as heavily involved in forest defense as I was once was. The stories and pictures she has shared with me of the campaigns to protect the Weld Valley in Tasmania has been a tremendous inspiration (to learn more about how you can help, look up the Huon Valley Environmental Center [HVEC] on Myspace)[or go to http://www.huon.org/]. I have been invigorated by the exchange of ideas and strategies, becoming so excited I even sent diagrams of tree-sits I used to build. more

from email, 10 September 2008: In the last week, eight people affiliated with the RNC Welcoming Committee were arrested in their homes or picked up off the streets and charged with conspiracy to riot and furtherance of terrorism. The Welcoming Committee was a group that formed to facilitate logistics (food, housing, convergence center) around the 2008 Republican National Convention Protests in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  more

from email, 6 September 2008: After a hunger strike which lasted 76 days, the anarchist prisoner Amadeu Casellas won his demands for the privileges he had been denied, supervised freedom under the 3rd degree. The reports publicised by the Catalan ministry of Justice early yesterday evening that he had abandoned his protest were finally qualified at 10pm last night by his support groups that he had in fact won his demands & that the solidarity campaign will continue to highlight his case with protest actions today to support a visit by his mother & a parliamentary representative. more

from imc-uk, 4 September 2008: In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty.  more

from imc-uk, 3 September 2008: In spite of Amadeu Casellas having today reached 71 days of hunger strike, the provincial government of Catalonya refuses to receive his relatives. The Mossos d'esquadra (regional police) impeded their monday meeting with Albert Batlle, responsible for the Penitentiary Service, if the support demo which was taking place in front of the Government premises was not disassembled.  more

from various sources, 3 September 2008: The news we've been waiting to hear for the last 3 months - Christof, Elmar, Felix, Jan, Jurgen, Kevin, Leo, Martin and Sabine - the remaining 9 Austrian activists - have today (September 02) finally been set free!  more

from RNCWC, 3 September 2008: The RNC Welcoming Committee wants to say thank you to all who have stood with us through these challenging days, to all who have faced the brutal attacks and repressive intimidation of the police, and have still gone back to the streets. Thanks to all who have made calls, sent emails, donated money, and expressed your outrage at these brutal attacks. more

from email; 30 August 2008: In Kiel, northern germany, there is going to be a international weekend against prison society in the end of September 2008. The information about the actions and discussions and the call are available in german and english. more

from imc-uk, 24 August 2008: Amadeu Casellas has been imprisoned since 1986 for taking part in armed robberies of banks in which no person was shot or physically injured. Previous to that he had been imprisoned during the dictatorship. In total almost 30 years of his life have been spent in jail. It was in jail that he contracted HIV in 2000. It is in jail that he has consistenly revindicated his anarchist philosophy known to many since the group he formed part of in 1973 distributed the money they robbed amongst tenants in danger of eviction. more

from imc-uk, 23 August 2008: "Please join the International Day of Solidarity and organize Demos in your City! Let's spread the word for the freedom of the 10 activists in Austria and demand an end to repression of social activism..." more

from email, via libcom, 14 August 2008: In November 2006, people took to the streets of Melbourne to confront the G20, a meeting of the world's most powerful finance ministers whose policies perpetrate suffering and violence in countless communities around the world every day. Since that protest, Victorian and Federal police have carried out a vast operation of surveillance and arrests, raiding houses at dawn and slapping protestors with ludicrous charges and repressive bail conditions. This is a campaign of intimidation and part of an attempt to criminalise protest. The legal process for those charged after the G20 protests moves slowly on. There have been a few developments this month. more

from email, 11 August 2008: Over the years these writings have served as a window into my life. I did not begin them with that intent. They started as a way to demonstrate to the world and myself that no cage could break my spirit. However, they have become so much more. Through these dispatches, you the audience have gotten a feel for what it is like to be a political prisoner. Not the celebrity that so often accompanies those of us locked up for direct action, but the deep heartfelt sorrow that is being locked up for an act of protest. more

from narcosphere, 23 April 2008: As previously announced, on April 21 two Zapatista political prisoners, Ángel Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez and his father Francisco Pérez Vázquez, went on hunger strike in the Tacotalpa, Tabasco, prison where they're incarcerated. Originally announced as a fast that would last "for three days or as long as necessary," the prisoners sent a letter to Other Campaign adherents on April 22 confirming that they are on hunger strike for an "indefinite period of time." more

from infoshop, 23 April 2008: Perhaps Andrea Todd deserves a little credit. She was, after all, attempting to write an article about someone who lies for a living. Getting true, accurate information from such a source can be difficult at best, impossible at worst. Which, of course, makes the subject matter of the article on page 266 of Elle Magazine's May issue inherently problematic to begin with. more

from 325, 23 April 2008: This text was written by Gabriel Pombo da Silva and read on the tour that his mother, Pastora did in April in some European countries. It was translated from German by ABC Berlin. Gabriel is in prison for his attempt to escape a police control near Aachen, after having escaped from prison in Spain where he had suffered torture and isolation in the notorious FIES units. more