Prisoners

By Natasha Lennard via truth-out.org

The West Side Highway in New York, which traces Manhattan's westerly edge, is dotted with luxury condo buildings and office blocks with views onto the Hudson River. Around 20th Street, an eleven-story modernist mural of geometric shapes, "Venus," decorates the south face of a vast concrete block, but the famous painting by Knox Martin is now almost entirely obscured by a recently completed condo complex.

Just as "Venus" now goes largely unnoticed by the cars whizzing up and down the highway, so, too, does the building it decorates: Bayview Correctional Facility, a medium-security women's prison and rare example of a state penitentiary in the middle of a major metropolis. I had never noticed Bayview myself, having passed that stretch of Manhattan hundreds of times. On Saturday evening, however, to mark the eve of Mother's Day, I stood outside the prison with around 50 people making as much noise as possible.

On the 10th of May, our brother, friend and compañero David Lamarte was imprisoned.

David is being processed by the courts, and faces a sentence that ranges from 3 months to 3 years, though this has not yet been determined. They are accusing him of having broken some taxi metres on May 1st, during a working class action that opposed the official union, who are basically on the side of the government. David is a friend and anarchist who has been in struggle with us for over 15 years, from his participation as an adolescent in the old Anarko Punk Resistence, to the picket lines in the Sindicato Unico de Automovil con Taximetros y Telefonistas (Automobile, Taximetres and Telephone Operators Trade Union), and currently, within various anarchist collectives.

The SUATT, formerly the SUA, was the union stronghold for direct action, which maintained the old Federacion Obrera Regional Uruguaya (Regional Uruguayen Labour Federation)throughout the 20th century. Today, it is one of the most combative unions in the country, who must also fight against the arrogance of mafia bosses and constant police harassment. We are asking comrades to pass this information on as far and wide as possible. Any and all expression of solidarity are appropriate.

For more information:
http://periodicoanarquia.wordpress.com
http://a-infosuruguay.blogspot.com.es

From Asheville FM - Final Straw

This week's show features two conversations around the FBI, prisons and anarchists.

The first is with Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red and blogger at greenisthenewred.com. Will is an award winning, independent journalist based out of Washington, D.C. Our conversation revolves mostly around the recent case of anarchists in Cleveland entrapped into plotting destruction of infrastructure by the FBI and an informant.

The second conversation is with Ian Coldwater. This show is also in preparation for the upcoming June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. Ian updates us on Marie Mason and Eric McDavid, two of the main focuses of his recent tour of the U.S. called Never Alone, in run-up for June 11th. Ian also speaks about security culture, revolutionary solidarity and growing cultures of resistance, as well as updates us on the cases of Pax in Portland (accused of property destruction) and the Grand Jury in the S.F. Bay Area.

On the four arrestees charged with terrorist smoke-bombing

The mainstream media swat team, with at its frontline newspaper La Presse and its journalists Gabrielle Duchaine, Vincent Larouche and Daphné Cameron, have finally succeeded into isolating the scapegoat that for long they’ve been looking for. Within the storm of securitarian mayhem that swept over Montreal since the morning-time paralysis of the Metro service, our groupe became the target of these mediocre journalists as the usual scarecrows, a den for radicals in all-out revolt, a headless chicken that’s agitating itself in all directions with the objective of maximal disruption of everything that society has in terms of bridges, tunnels, railroads, and what else?

From Ideas & Action

Julio Rodriguez, a stalwart comrade of ours from Los Angeles, has been held in prison since Saturday under threat of immediate deportation. We will not let another one of our brothers be kidnapped from us by the racist state!

Julio is an anarchist youth organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition and RiseUp LA, radical groups that run out of Chuco’s Justice Center in Inglewood, CA. He is a student at Free LA High School at Chuco’s where he is studying to get his GED. Julio is prominent in the LA punk scene, organizing and promoting DIY shows, and encouraging the politicization and education of kids in the scene.

From Jeremy Commissary @ Chipin

“Jeremy’s said he needs about $30 a week to pay for decent non-carnivorous food, stamps, sanitary supplies, and so on. Assuming a release date sometime in August, he’ll need somewhere near $500 all up from now til his release.

I’m assuming like roughly $100 will go to the ChipIn, Paypal, and jail percentages. We can minimize the amount of money wasted (and given to the state!) by donating it all at once.

So, put up some cash for our friend!”

Help make Jeremy’s time easier in jail by donating money so he can have phone privileges to call his family (collect!), write letters (paper & stamps cost dollars), and eat something vegetarian (mostly Cheetos & Ramen minus the flav packet).

I know he and all of his loved ones will really appreciate it.

From June 11

Everywhere that there exists dynamic struggle against the state and capitalism, there is some degree of repression. Capitalism knows well how to protect its interests, and it entails targeting and eradicating those who challenge it's dominance. While we continue our daily struggle against this monster, we also fight to make sure our friends and comrades who have been imprisoned by the state aren't forgotten, that their material and emotional needs are taken care of, and that they remain connected to the movements that they have been forcibly yanked away from.

Last year, as one small gesture to address this, June 11th was called as a yearly day of solidarity with two of our longest-imprisoned anarchist comrades, Marie Mason and Eric McDavid. While we realize that many of us have limited time or resources to put toward basic material support for prisoners, we hope that their names and stories, as well as the lessons learned from their cases, can become well known everywhere. In our actions and solidarity, we wish to draw connections between Marie's and Eric's cases and those of imprisoned anarchist comrades all over the world who are experiencing firsthand these alarming trends of lengthy sentences and increased repression. This is a preliminary call addressed to all those who fight against this prison society to take action on June 11th, in solidarity with Eric, Marie and all long-term anarchist prisoners.

From Rob los Ricos (blog)

ANARCHISTS MARGINALIZED AS TERRORISTS

standing beside the comrades duped into an fbi bomb conspiracy

as if the job of marginalizing the anarchist movement in the u.s. was not already being championed by cowards within the occupy movement, five bold, wreckless comrades have found themselves victims of a fraudulent bombing plot which the fbi engineered.

it is imperative not to let these brave, foolish comrades become isolated. more than anything else we must remember:

From NPR (AP)

NEW YORK -- The name of a Chicago man already charged in a computer hacking case aimed at taking out key players in the worldwide group Anonymous was added to an indictment Wednesday, boosting the accusations against him by including him in much of the wider conspiracy to hack into corporations and government agencies worldwide.

Jeremy Hammond, 27, joined four other defendants named in the indictment in federal court in Manhattan in a prosecution revealed in March. Hammond is being held at a lower Manhattan lockup after initially appearing in a Chicago court.

Authorities said the prosecution marks the first time core members of the loosely organized worldwide hacking group Anonymous have been identified and charged in the U.S.

Hello Friends and Comrades,

Happy Mayday!

Here is the political prisoner birthday poster for May. As always, please post this poster publicly and/or use it to start a card writing night of your own.

This year, for Alvaro Hernandez's birthday, he is requesting that people write letters to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and urge them to look into his case. You can find the information on how to do that here.

Jeremy Hammond is accused of the Lulz Sec hack of stratfor as well as hacks of well-known neo-nazi websites. The website FREEHAMMOND.com is legit, and he can be written to at:

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