Break the Chains News

September 09 2010 Infoshop News

A Utah animal rights activist who resisted a federal grand jury is now
facing even more prison time than those he was brought to testify against.

Jordan Halliday, who was the founder of a local animal rights group, The
Animal Defense League of Salt Lake City, was brought before the federal
grand jury under suspicions he might know information regarding recent
underground animal liberation activity. He asserted his 5th amendment and
was placed in federal custody for nearly 4 months under civil contempt of
court, to try and compel him to testify.

Alex Hall and William Viehl were both indicted, convicted and sentenced to
24 months and 21 months respectively for their roles in releasing mink
from a South Jordan, Utah mink farm.

Upon being released Halliday was charged with federal criminal contempt of
court.

Halliday is the first dissident in decades (with only 2 other radicals
prior in the 1970's) to be charged with criminal contempt after already
serving time for civil contempt for the same act of recalcitrance.

Halliday, pleaded guilty to Sui Generis Criminal Contempt of Court and is
now facing even more prison time. There are no sentencing guidelines for
criminal contempt. However, the prosecution is trying to follow the
guidelines of "obstruction of justice" with which Halliday was not
charged. These guidelines have a maximum of 2 years with room for
additional time with added enhancements.

The government has openly stated that Halliday is not a suspect in the
Animal Liberation case, yet he is still facing even more time than those
who were convicted.

His sentencing is set for October 19th, 2010 at the Frank E. Moss Federal
Courthouse.

For More information Go To: http://www.supportjordan.com

Everyone -- Please forgive any duplicate
postings, and please forward this announcement
widely. We are hopeful that the tribute booklet
will help to publicize the memorials so all who
want to can join us in honoring Marilyn, as well
as raising funds to support the political
prisoners, in accordance with her wishes. The
absolute deadline for copy is October 4, so
please submit your greetings as soon as possible.
Please note that the spec sheet is an attached file.

Commemorative ad booklet in honor of Marilyn Buck
In memory of Marilyn Buck—and in her
spirit—support the political prisoners who remain behind bars:

Memorials for Marilyn will be held in San
Francisco (Sunday, November 7) and New York City
(Saturday, November 13). We invite you to place a
greeting in the commemorative ad booklet to be
distributed at both events. This year, all funds
raised for the Marilyn Buck Solidarity Fund for
Political Prisoners will benefit the six
political prisoners incarcerated in New York
State: Herman Bell (incarcerated 37 years to
date), David Gilbert (29 years), Robert Seth
Hayes (37 years), Abdullah Majid (28 years),
Jalil Muntaqim (39 years), and Sekou Odinga (29 years).

Choose from:

Full-page ad: $200
Half-page ad: $100
Quarter-page ad: $50
Business card ad: $25

To have your name only included on a list of friends/suppporters: $10

PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENT FOR SPECS AND INSTRUCTIONS ON SUBMITTING YOUR AD
To submit your ad (and to ask any questions):
mailto:mbtributebook@gmail.com

To pay for your greeting:
Send a check payable to PDF/ Committee for the
Defense of Human Rights, with "Marilyn Tribute"
in the subject line, and send to

CDHR
P.O. Box 90221
Pasadena, CA 91109

To pay by credit card, go to :
http://marilynbuck.com/donations.html
and follow instructions.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Los Angeles riot police arrested 22 protestors and
fired rubber bullets in a second night of clashes after a Guatemalan
immigrant was shot dead in a confrontation with officers, officials said
early Wednesday.

Angry mostly Hispanic demonstrators hurled rocks, bottles and eggs at the
local police station in the MacArthur Park area near downtown Los Angeles,
according to an AFP photographer on the scene.

Those arrested were detained on charges including unlawful assembly and
failing to disperse after the violence, said Los Angeles Police Department
(LAPD) officer Karen Rayner.

The black-clad riot police fired rubber bullets and non-lethal bean-bags
to disperse the crowd. No protestors or police were injured, but one
person was struck by a slingshot projectile, according to police.

About 300 people earlier blocked a nearby road junction, and police
declared an unlawful assembly before moving in. On Monday night there were
some 100 protestors.

The fresh unrest -- in a city where dozens of people died in race riots in
1992 after the notorious police beating of a young black man, Rodney King
-- came hours after the Los Angeles police chief defended his officers.

Speaking a day after protestors burned mattresses and other rubbish Monday
night, police chief Charlie Beck said the officers involved had been
defending themselves in the shooting Sunday.

Thirty-seven year-old construction worker Manuel Jamines was shot dead
after threatening a passer-by with a knife. He ignored orders from bicycle
officers to drop his weapon, instead lunging at them, a spokesman said.

"He was ordered several times in English and Spanish to drop the knife,
and failed to comply," said Beck.

"The suspect then raised the knife over his head and advanced on officers,
at which time an officer-involved shooting occurred. The suspect fell to
the ground where he was taken into custody without further incident."

Jamines was pronounced dead at the scene, he added.

The comments came after four people were arrested and a policeman injured
in clashes with some 100 protestors late Monday.

Police maintained a "heavy" presence in the area Tuesday. Some 50 people
held a peaceful vigil during the day, when the protest remained peaceful,
before descending into violence in the evening.

Protestors insisted Jamines was drunk but not dangerous. "This guy didn't
speak good English, he was just walking around," said Carlos Ortega, 27.
"The police, they put him on the ground and shot him," he added.

A letter writing campaign is being launched to lend support to Kevin Rashid
Johnson. Rashid is incarcerated in Red Onion State Prison which is located in
southwest Virginia. He is a member of the New Black African Panther Party, prison
chapter. (To clarify, this group has nothing to do with the racist group, the New
Black Panthers). He became political during his time at Red Onion. He is very
outspoken and a active organizer. Because of this there has been virtually
continual retaliation against him.

Housed at a super max facility which entails being locked in a cell 23/7, more or
less continual isolation, all inmates undergo trauma. But because of his
revolutionary politics, Rashid is under exceptional pressure. He regularly has his
mail withheld. Mail is a lifeline for these folks and to have it confiscated is
psychologically damaging. He is denied food and medical attention. On occasions
too numerous to recount he has been beaten and tortured by correction officers. He
often is put in 5 point restraint. This entails strapping a naked prisoner to a
bare steel frame bed with their hands and feet shackled. Prisoners are left for
days in this condition.

If inmates have no support on the outside these abuses go unchecked. Rashid has
asked that some action be taken on his behalf. If you could please send a letter
of support to Rashid and to Warden Tracy Ray informing him that you have heard of
Rashid’s situation and you demand he be given his mail. Receiving mail is a major
concern for Rashid.

Virginia has a reputation as the worst state prison system in the nation. It is
notorious for the abuses that occur. Super max institutions are the absolute
worst. In southwest VA we have Wallen’s Ridge and Red Onion. Folks who used to
work in the coal fields now have the prisons to work in. The restructuring of the
coal industry killed their jobs and their area. Prisons were built on blown up
mountains. Tensions between the economically deprived white rural prison employees
and the mostly Black urban inmates runs very high. Racism is overt. These places
are powder kegs.

Rashid and the other Panthers at these institutions believe it is the capitalist
system which oppresses us all. They know the root of gangs was to unite
communities to “police” themselves. With this in mind they educate fellow
prisoners to come together and end gang related fighting. The system seeks to
divide the prisoners so any show of unity is a great threat to them.

We can vouch for Rashid. He is a committed and honest person . You may send one
letter of support or end up with a relationship of letter writing. Rashid is a
consummate debater. Your support is urgently needed. I will point out that
writing to a political prisoner, who is actively monitored by the FBI and assaulted
on their behalf, will alert the “authorities” to your identity. You could use an
alias or a PO box. We use our names and address, but you have to ascertain your
own comfort level.

Solidarity Always, kim and than grove


Kevin Rashid Johnson #1002485
Red Onion State Prison
P.O. Box 1900
Pound, VA 24279

Tracy S. Ray, Chief Warden
Red Onion State Prison
P. O. Box 970
Pound, VA 24279

Gene M. Johnson, Director
Virginia Department of Corrections
P.O. Box 26963
Richmond, VA 23261-6963

Kevin Fagan, SF Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, September 9, 2010 SAN FRANCISCO -- It's an infamous case that never seems to go away, even after millions of dollars have been paid out in civil settlements and police say the trail has gone cold. The case is the 1990 bombing in Oakland of Earth First environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, who were nearly killed when a nail-studded explosive device blew up in their car. Nobody was ever charged with the attack, and now, two decades later, the FBI wants to destroy the last bits of evidence it has been storing ever since the investigation dribbled dry - remnants of the bomb and one like it that blew up in a North Bay town a few days earlier. Not so fast, says Cherney, 54, who has never given up trying to solve the case himself. Saying in court briefs that the evidence "provides the last best hope for learning who bombed Judi Bari," Cherney and his lawyers were in federal court Wednesday in San Francisco to try to force the FBI to turn the evidence over to them so they can run DNA and other tests on it. They managed to get U.S. Magistrate Judge James Larson to order the evidence preserved for 30 days while he decides its fate, but the judge indicated the clock is ticking fast - and not in Cherney's favor. Maintaining interest "Frankly, I think it would behoove your side to talk to someone in the attorney general's office to see if they can get interested in this," Larson told Cherney's attorney, Dennis Cunningham, referring to the U.S. attorney general's office. The idea would be for federal authorities - or anyone involved in investigating the bombing two decades ago - to reopen the case, or at least indicate enough interest to want to hang on to the FBI's evidence. Failing that, the judge seemed inclined to let the agency go ahead and destroy the pieces of the explosives. He did say, however, that he would do more research and consult with those who previously dealt with the issue in court before he makes his decision. 'Hard to accept' That gave Cherney's backers hope, and they said Wednesday they would be checking with investigators and prosecutors to see if anyone wants to take possession of the bomb bits. "There's no reason they can't keep these two boxes," Cunningham said. "It's hard to accept that these things have no more use when the bomber or bombers have never been found." At issue are the remnants of the bomb that blew up in Bari's car on May 24, 1990, on Park Boulevard, and of a similar device that partially exploded in Cloverdale on May 9. The Cloverdale bomb exploded at the Louisiana-Pacific Corp. mill, causing minimal damage, and was accompanied by a cardboard sign reading, "LP screws mill workers." Both bombs are presumed to have been made by the same person - someone who sent a letter to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, signing it as "the Lord's Avenger" and giving details that law enforcement said only the bomber would know. The evidence is being kept in two boxes in an FBI storage room in San Francisco. Fingerprints sought "We need to be able to look at these bomb parts, do DNA testing on them, use them to try to find out who bombed us," Cherney, who lives in Garberville (Humboldt County), said after the hearing. By trying to destroy the parts, he said, "the FBI is running cover for the bomber." He said he also wants copies of two fingerprints lifted from evidence in the case that investigators said never yielded a solid lead. The likelihood that another agency will want to take over the evidence or reopen the case seems slim. Representatives of the Oakland Police Department and FBI said they consider the case closed, as did Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Sher when he argued on the FBI's behalf Wednesday in court. "We see no reason for this evidence to be retained," Sher said after the hearing. "The investigation is done." The FBI, he added, doesn't routinely hand over evidence to private citizens, especially not bombs. Cherney and Bari were injured when the bomb, located on the floor behind the driver's seat of her Subaru station wagon, exploded as the two were headed to a rally to begin a campaign of protests to protect old-growth forests, called Redwood Summer. Investigators promptly branded the two as eco-terrorists, and Cherney and Bari were soon arrested on suspicion of having cobbled up the bomb themselves. But prosecutors dropped the case weeks later. Successful civil lawsuit The pair filed a civil lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland Police Department for false arrest and slander. Although Bari died of cancer in 1997, Cherney pursued the case until he won a $4 million settlement in 2004 from the agencies. He split the money with Bari's estate. "I want to make it clear," said Cherney, who is still with Earth First. "We are going to get those bomb components. If they're done, hand them over." E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.

Posted by admin | ВОССТАНИЯ, НОВОСТИ, ЭКОЛОГИЯ | Четверг 9 Сентябрь 2010 11:02

Origin: http://belarus.avtonom.org/?p=15171

On the evening of 30.08.2010 a group of anarchists have attacked by Molotov cocktails Russian embassy in Minsk. One of the diplomat cars was burnt. By this action we express our fury and protest to the arrests and repressions against defenders of Khimki forest in Moscow.

While our friends are beaten up by fascist mercenaries, riot police are pressing and arresting innocent people – treats and arrests became everyday routine. Our friends now have to suffer in jails or live in fear to be imprisoned just because they fight for freedom, people and environment.

But bureaucrats and capitalists care just for their bribes and profits, they don’t care what happens tomorrow, they are ready to abolish every protest or disagreement with cruelty. What comes next – the death squads?

We declare solidarity with our comrades and support only method of direct action, because government are afraid of power only and nothing else.

It is really funny to read some comments on Internet forums. Both clans, called “Gvernment of Republic of Belarus” and “Government of Russian Federation” disgust us. Poor workers of both countries never take any benefit from this fighting for power. It is foolishly to imitate politicians. People, come to your senses! Is it really impossible to explain any act of protest by theories of conspiracy? We meet stealing and humiliation every day – but around there are only fear in the eyes and whisper in the kitchens. It is time to summon our forces and believe that we are worthy of a better life.

Free all imprisoned comrades! Stop political repressions! Down with officials, gangsters and policemen!

Human rights and social justice!

Anarchist attack on the police detention centre «Okrestina» in Minsk Posted by admin | ВОССТАНИЯ, НОВОСТИ, ЭКОЛОГИЯ | Четверг 9 Сентябрь 2010 11:05

Origin: http://blackblocg.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_05.html

The police detention centre on the Okrestina street in Minsk was attacked with Molotov cocktails by the group of anarchists on the 4th September 2010.

After a radical action on the Russian embassy in Minsk the repressive institutions of the State had started an unprecedented hunting on anarchists and other social activists. The detention centers are fulfilling with new prisoners. In general, imprisoned people are kids which have never parted in radical actions. This people just hold a peaceful propaganda of their political point of view and part in different social initiatives, but at the moment they are incriminated with any bollocks that police can imagine.

It seems like policemen and agents of special services just don’t care which people to imprison – they think about their reports to the government and their bonuses and new ranks only. They don’t have any honor or conscience – they just never had it.

We take the responsibility for all radical actions which was held recently and declare that all people who are under judicial examination now – didn’t part in this actions – we even don’t know them. Our country have already faced such a terror under Stalin regime in 1937. The elections are near and thievish government do its’ best to hold the strength.

But no repression can stifle the native human desire for freedom and dignity. Belarus will be free and independent land, where higher low is social justice and human rights – not servility and despotism. And when it happens – beware, watchdogs!

Free anarchists and social activists! Stop political repressions! Long live direct democracy and free Belarus!

Anarchist group “Friends of Liberty”

Evening of September, 7 some internet media (such as BELTA Belarusian
telegraph agency) have published information according to which in the
flat of the detained anarchists ostensibly «were found and extracted
patrons, plant-based drugs, masks with slots for eyes, literature
promulgating the ideas of anarchism».

We, the friends of those arrested, assert with dead certainty this
information is a cynical lie, an attempt to blow out the interest of
society to this case by presenting detained activists as trivial
criminals or inadequate persons.

We note that information in media concerning our friends is changing
everyday . At first, they were accused of the attack on the Russian
Embassy, now they are suspected in copartnership in attempts of damaging
property of the Belarusbank branch bank and the House of Trade Unions in
Minsk on April, 30. What accusation will be next?

We also don't understand how «the masks with slots for eyes, literature
promulgating the ideas of anarchism» can be a proof of our friends'
copartnership to the damaging property of the Belarusbank branch bank
and the House of Trade Unions. We demand facts.

We demand the law-enforcement agencies to delate concerning whom a
criminal case in illicit trafficking in drugs is commenced.

We are absolutely sure: seven detainees had nothing to do with drugs,
they did not use, keep, produce or distribute them. Instead of this,
they led a healthy way of life and went in for sports, promoted student
self-government at their universities, were concerned about conflicts at
factories, ecological problems, human rights and free access to information.

We think the reason for their detention is their views and convictions.
Being non-indifferent to the problems of society, they were not afraid
to express their opinions, opposite to the official ones. Only because
of this they became known to the secret service but not because for what
they are accused now.

Friends and relatives of those arrested

Contacts — minsksolidarity[at]riseup.net

TAKE ACTION AGAINST ISOLATION - FREE AHMAD SA'ADAT!
INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF ACTION - OCTOBER 5-15, 2010

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat + www.freeahmadsaadat.org + info@freeahmadsaadat.org

Imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa'adat will be returning to court in
mid-October 2010 challenging his isolation and the isolation of Palestinian
political prisoners in Israeli prisons. Write letters today and take action from
October 5-15, 2010 in support of Palestinian prisoners' struggle for freedom -
demand an end to isolation!

Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, has been held in isolation in a series of prisons since March 16, 2009,
with his isolation renewed again and again by occupation courts. He has been
transferred from prison to prison, and is currently held in the isolation section of
Ramon prison in the Naqab desert. Within these isolation units, Sa'adat has been
placed further inside a separate isolation unit where he is confined without access
even to the other prisoners in isolation, and deprived of basic human rights. His
personal books have been confiscated and he is allowed access to newspapers only
once or twice weekly. He is denied access to English and Arabic language newspapers
and allowed only Hebrew-language media.

He has been repeatedly denied family visits - his wife, Abla, has been allowed only
two visits during his entire period in isolation - as well as legal visits, and
barred from purchases at the prison canteen, including cigarette purchases. In the
prison yard, Sa'adat has been held handcuffed and in ankle shackles and allowed only
one-hour of exercise/recreation. The Prison Administration is attempting to
criminalize the human and social relationship between fellow Palestinian prisoners,
and between the prisoners and their families outside.

Sa'adat has led in the struggle against isolation, engaging in a nine-day hunger
strike in 2009 in protest of isolation. Isolation is damaging and destructive to the
mental and physical health of Palestinian prisoners, and is being used as a
political weapon in order to punish and isolate Palestinian prisoner leaders. Some
prisoners have been subject to isolation for years at a time, with severe effects.
Take action now to fight isolation and demand the freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all
Palestinian prisoners!

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

1. The Campaign in Solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat in Palestine is calling upon all
supporters to write letters to the Israeli Prison Service and demand they end the
practice of isolation, end human rights violations, and free Palestinian prisoners.
Send an email to the Bureau of the Minister of Public Security at sar@mops.gov.il
and to the Public Complaints Department at mevaker@mops.gov.il, and copy the
following:
Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 3, Kaplan
Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem, Israel, Fax: +972- 2-651 2631,
Email: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il

Mr. Menachem Mazuz, Attorney General, Fax: + 972 2 627 4481; + 972 2 628 5438; +972
2 530 3367

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, Military Judge Advocate General, 6 David Elazar
Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv, Israel, Fax: +972 3 608 0366, +972 3 569 4526, Email:
arbel@mail.idf.il, avimn@idf.gov.il

Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations Office and Specialized
Institutions in Geneva, Avenue de la Paix 1-3, 1202 Geneva, Fax: +41 22 716 05 55,
Email: mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il
You may use our online form at: http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/action3.html.

2. Write a letter to Ahmad Sa'adat. Letters of support are important and demonstrate
solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat and Palestinian prisoners - let him know that the
world is demanding his freedom. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at
info@freeahmadsaadat.org with your letters, or use our contact form at:
http://freeahmadsaadat.org/contact.html. We will send all letters received to
Palestine. We also encourage you to write to him directly using this address: Ahmad
Sa'adat, Ramon Prison, Ramon area, PO Box 699, Postal Code 80600, Israel.
JOIN THE WEEK OF ACTION, OCTOBER 5-15, 2010!

1. October 5-15, 2010 will be international days of action in support of Ahmad
Sa'adat and Palestinian prisoners and against isolation. Join us! Hold an event,
protest or action in your city. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at
info@freeahmadsaadat.org to be added to the global list of actions.

2. Distribute the Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer:
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/saadat-flyer.pdf in your town, city, event or
location! Bring the flyers to events and activities, or hold a flyer distribution at
a public place.

3. Protest outside the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location(
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+missions/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+Missions+Abroad.htm)
and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political
prisoners.

Ahmad Sa'adat has been imprisoned since 2002 in the prisons of the Palestinian
Authority, held under U.S. and British guard, until his abduction by the Israeli
occupation forces on March 14, 2006 by an occupation military raid on Jericho
prison. On December 25, 2008, he was sentenced to thirty years inside the occupation
prisons. He is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one of the
foremost Palestinian national leaders held inside the occupier's jails.

Ahmad Sa'adat and approximately 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front
lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, it is urgent that we stand
with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners against these abuses, and for
freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine!

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org

Sept. 7, 2010

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A protest over the fatal police shooting of a
Guatemalan immigrant turned violent when some demonstrators threw bottles
at officers, set trash cans on fire and refused to disperse.

Television news footage showed people tossing the bottles and plastic
crates at officers in riot gear late Monday near MacArthur Park, a
neighborhood with a large Central American population west of downtown.

Police declared the protest an unlawful assembly around 10 p.m. and
ordered the dozens of protesters to disperse. The majority of the crowd
cleared out, but a small number lingered and caused trouble, police
spokesman Gregory Baek said.

Police made a couple of arrests, Baek said. He said police won't have a
final tally until they complete the booking process for the suspects.

The protest began in the afternoon with demonstrators marching back and
forth between a bustling shopping area where the shooting occurred and the
Rampart police station three blocks away.

Police said three bicycle officers were patrolling the area Sunday when
someone flagged them down and said a man was threatening passers-by with a
knife.

When officers confronted the man, they ordered him to drop the knife but
he refused, Lt. Andrew Neiman said.

"Instead, he came after the officers with a knife raised in the air,
leading one of the officers to fire at the suspect," Neiman said.

Authorities have not released the man's name. However, friends identified
him as Manuel Jamines, 37, a construction worker and father of three.

Protesters contend the man was not dangerous and say officers should have
used a non-lethal weapon to subdue him.

"When you're trying to stop a suspect or stop a deadly action, the purpose
is to stop the threat as quickly as possible," Neiman said.

MacArthur Park was the site of a May 1, 2007, clash, where police officers
pummeled immigration rights marchers and reporters with batons and shot
rubber bullets into the crowd. Dozens of protesters and journalists were
injured as officers cleared the park.

The embarrassing incident cost the city more than $13 million in lawsuit
settlements. Police were retrained on crowd control, forming skirmish
lines, using batons in a crowd and using extraction teams to identify and
arrest violent demonstrators.

To all friends of forests and people worldwide!

Support Russian activists September 17-20


In a historically courageous struggle people in Russia have been able to
halt the construction of a high way through the Khimki forest. While the
forests were burning all over Russia the authorities started a wave of
detaining, torturing and harassing people in movements defending the Khimki
forest close to Moscow. They need our solidarity.

We call upon the whole international environmental and social justice
movement and all wanting to stop criminalization of protest to support our
friends in Russia. Take action on 17-20 September! Follow the call enclosed
below issued by The Campaign for the Release of the Khimki Hostages for
making actions at embassies and other places representing Russia.

Immediate actions are necessary. The decision by president Medvedev to halt
the construction of the high way is only temporary. The heavy repression of
the protest movement and especially the antifascist activists makes no halt.
Environmentalists, human rights activists, journalists fighting corruption,
Anarchists and other antifascists, alter globalization movement, Liberal,
Communist and Left wing parties have been able to struggle in solidarity in
the midst of heavy repression achieving this first victory. This in spite of
different ideological positions and views on tactics. Their unity is an
example for the rest of the world and needs support.

The Khimki forest conflict have become historically important and of global
concern. Behind the destruction of the forest in Russia is a neoliberal
development model which do not care for the environment. Three years ago the
federal forest protection service was closed down and 70 000 workers mainly
working in the field fired and replaced by 12 000 bureaucrats supposed to
see to that others should do what the workers had done earlier. The result
is a reduced lack of capacity to halt fires when the weather gets warmer and
warmer. At the same time is dismantling of public services and support of
privatization also at the core of construction of roads and cities were
private profit becomes more important than protection of nature or the
interest of people in common. Through the Khimki forest is the first toll
high way in Russia between Moscow and St Petersburg planned making an odd
detour through the green belt. Road construction is highly lucrative in
Russia with its added possibilities for exploitation of land beside the
road. Close ties between economic and political interests makes it possible
to use any means against those opposing this neoliberal development model, a
reason for why those openly criticizing the corruption in Khimki are
murdered or maltreated followed by no serious investigation by the police.

Those making much profit out of the environmentally destructive development
model are European banks and corporations. The high way is planned to be
financed primarily by European banks and the French construction company
Vinci is a main contractor. When our Russian friends are struggling to
defend the Khimki forest they are also struggling against a neoliberal
development model making Russia into a profitable market for Western
corporations.

The Russian movement to defend the Khimki forest is a movement defending all
forests. If corporations and politicians working in the interest of a global
neoliberal and environmentally destructive model is able to exploit the
Khimki forest and continue repressing the activists in spite of a
historically broad and strong movement in Russia defending the forest, than
it can be done anywhere. Solidarity with the activists is the only way to
both stop repression and to save the Khimki forest more permanently. Please
join the action called for by our Russian friends!


Patrick Bond, Centre for Civil Society Environmental Justice Project,
Durban, South Africa

Mark Brown, Art Not Oil/Rising Tide, UK

Carmen Buerba de Comite de Defensa Ecologica Michoacana, Mexico

Nicola Bullard, Focus on the Global South, Thailand

Ellie Cijvat, Friends of the Earth Sweden

Joshua Kahn Russell, Ruckus Society, USA

Tom Kucharz, Ecologistas en Acción, Spain

Maduresh Kumar, National Alliance of People's Movements, India

Marea Creciente Mexico

Adriana Matalonga, Miguel Valencia y Mauricio Villegas from Ecomunidades and
Klimaforum10, Mexico

Uddhab Pyakurel, South Asian Dialogue on Ecological Democracy, India

Josie Riffaud, Via Campesina, France

Marko Ulvila and Thomas Wallgren, Democracy Forum Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,
Finland


You find information and the call for action September 17-20 issued by
Campaign for the Release of the Khimki Hostages in many languages at
www.khimkibattle.org. Below you find the text in English, Spanish, and
French and more links on the issue.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Call for International Days of Action in Support of Alexei Gaskarov and
Maxim Solopov

September 17­20, 2010

On July 28, 2010, more than two hundred young antifascists and anarchists
carried out a spontaneous demonstration outside the town administration
building in Khimki, a suburb of Moscow. They demonstrated in defence of the
Khimki Forest, which was at that time in the process of beings cutting down
for the needs of big business. The demonstration, during which several
windows were broken, received a great deal of public attention. The
authorities responded with a wave of repressions. The day after the
demonstration, two well-known social activists, Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim
Solopov, were arrested. They are now threatened with up to seven years in
prison for disorderly conduct, although there is no evidence of their
complicity in illegal activities. Meanwhile, the police continue to hunt
down and harass other activists, especially those involved in the
antifascist movement.

The campaign to save the Khimki Forest has been going on for the past three
years. The authorities had decided to build a segment of a planned
Moscow­Saint Petersburg toll highway, the first of its kind in Russia,
through the forest. This would lead to the deterioration of environmental
conditions in the region, and local residents and Muscovites would be
deprived of yet another recreation zone. Despite the availability of
alternative routes that would not require clear-cutting the forest and
vigorous protests by environmentalists and ordinary citizens against the
planned route, the authorities f0r a long time ignored the voice of society
and on several occasions took measures to suppress their critics.

Khimki authorities and the highway project contractor have used violence and
other tactics against Khimki Forest defenders. They refused to give
permission for protest demonstrations, recruited nationalist thugs to break
up a peaceful protest camp organized by environmentalists and local
residents, and illegally arrested and beat up journalists covering the
story. Nearly two years ago, Mikhail Beketov, editor-in-chief of the
newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda and a critic of the local administration, was
severely beaten by persons unknown; the attack left Beketov permanently
disabled. Sergei Protozanov, the layout designer of another local opposition
paper, was murdered in similar circumstances six months later.

After the July 28 demonstration, the Russian police and secret services
unleashed an unprecedented dragnet against antifascists. People who had even
just once come to the attention of the Center for Extremism Prevention and
FSB for their involvement with the antifascist movement have been forcibly
taken in for questioning. In several cases they have been subjected to
harsh physical coercion in order to compel them to give the testimony
required by investigators. In addition, illegal searches have been carried
out in their apartments. All these actions on the part of law enforcement
authorities are violations of Russian and international law.

Frightened by the numerous and growing protests against the clear-cutting of
the Khimki Forest, the authorities have finally made concessions by agreeing
to review the advisability of the planned route for the toll highway. But
this does not mean victory. Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov are still in
police custody for no reason at all. They are hostages of the authorities.

In late September, the next hearing in their case will take place. The judge
will decide whether to keep them in police custody pending completion of the
investigation and trial. Everyone who cares about the fate of these two
young men must do everything in their power to see that they are set free.
The Campaign for the Release of the Khimki Hostages calls on people around
the world to organize days of action on September 17, 18, 19, and 20 to
pressure the Russian authorities to release Alexei and Maxim.

We ask you to hold protests outside of Russian Federation embassies,
consulates, trade missions, and cultural centers, as well as at public
events and concerts connected to Russia. We also ask you to send faxes,
e-mails, and protest letters to the court, the prosecutor¹s office, and the
country¹s political leadership. In the very nearfuture we will inform you of
addresses where you can send these protests as well as more details about
the ongoing repressions in Russia. Look for this information on our website
http://khimkibattle.org in English, German, Russian, and French.

Join our campaign!

Campaign for the Release of the Khimki Hostages

+7 (915) 053-5912 * info@khimkibattle.org * http://khimkibattle.org

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back ground information:

Chtodelat news, Khimki Territory of Lawlessness
http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/khimki-territory-of-lawlessness/

Why we need solidarity with Russian environmentalists and antifascists
http://www.aktivism.info/socialforumjourney/?p=1748

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below the call issued by Campaign for the Release of the Khimki Hostages
also in Spanish, French and Russian:

Llamamiento a acciones internacionales en apoyo de Alexei Gaskárov y Maxim
Sólopov del 17 al 20 de septiembre de 2010.

El 28 de julio de 2010 en frente de la administración municipal de Khimki,
una ciudad en las afueras de Moscú, más de 200 jóvenes antifascistas y
anarquistas mantuvieron una manifestación espontánea en apoyo del bosque de
Khimki que en aquel momento estaba siendo talado para las necesidades de
grandes empresas. La acción, durante la cual varias ventanas fueron dañadas,
recibió una amplia publicidad. Por su parte, las autoridades respondieron
con represalias. El día después de la manifestación dos prominentes
activistas de un movimiento social ­ Alexei Gaskárov y Maxim Sólopov ­
fueron detenidos. Los dos jóvenes podrían ser sentenciados a siete años de
prisión por vandalismo mientras que no existen pruebas de su implicación en
las actividades ilegales. Otros activistas, en particular los que están
involucrados en el movimiento antifascista, siguen siendo objetos de una
cacería policial.

Ya hace tres años que la lucha por la salvación del bosque de Khimki
continúa en esa pequeña ciudad rusa. La intención de las autoridades locales
es utilizar el terreno para la construcción de una autopista de pago ­ la
primera en Rusia ­ de Moscú a San Petersburgo, que finalmente conduciría a
un deterioro de la situación ecológica en la región y privaría a la
población local y los moscovitas de una zona recreativa. A pesar de la
disponibilidad de rutas alternativas que no requieran la tala del bosque, y
las protestas rigorosas de ecologistas y ciudadanos de a pie contra el
trazado elegido, las autoridades no quieren escuchar a la población. Por el
contrario, las autoridades muchas veces han tomado medidas para silenciar a
sus críticos.

Las autoridades de Khimki, junto con la empresa constructora más de una vez
han recurrido a la violencia contra los defensores del bosque de Khimki:
varias veces han desestimado la opinión pública, se han negado a ponerse de
acuerdo sobre las protestas, han recurrido a los nacionalistas para disolver
protestas pacíficas de ecologistas y de la población local, han detenido
ilegal mente y golpeado a periodistas. Desconocidos mutilaron al crítico de
la administración municipal, el editor jefe del periódico ³Khimkinskaya
pravda² Mikhail Béketov, y mataron al compaginador del otro periódico de
oposición Serguei Protazánov.

Después de la manifestación del 28 de julio de 2010 la policía rusa y las
fuerzas de seguridad iniciaron una cacería sin precedentes a los
antifascistas. Las personas, una vez hayan sido detectados como
antifascistas por el Centro para la lucha contra el extremismo y el FSB, ­
contra todas las normas jurídicas ­ están siendo detenidas y transportadas a
la fuerza para ser interrogadas mientras que sus apartamentos son
registrados sin ningún orden judicial, y en algunos casos en los
interrogatorios se recurre a la violencia para extraer declaraciones
necesarias.

Asustadas por muchas protestas contra el talado del bosque de Khimki que
cada vez ganaban en fuerza, las autoridades finalmente hicieron concesiones,
dispuestos a comprobar la ruta elegida de la autopista. Pero esto aún no
significa la victoria. Alexei Gaskárov y Maxim Sólopov continúan en custodia
sin ningún fundamento, mantenidos por las autoridades como rehenes.

A finales de septiembre está programada una sesión judicial donde se
decidirá sobre la medida preventiva contra Alexei y Maxim. Todos los que se
preocupan por su destino deben hacer todo lo posible por su liberación. La
campaña por la liberación de rehenes de Khimki llama a organizar acciones
internacionales y realizar presión sobre las autoridades rusas del 17 al 20
de septiembre de 2010 para lograr la liberación de Alexei y Maxim.

Hacemos un llamamiento para celebrar mítins cerca de las embajadas,
consulados, misiones comerciales e culturales de la Federación Rusa en el
mundo, en los actos públicos y conciertos relacionados con Rusia, así mismo
enviar faxes y cartas de protesta al tribunal, la fiscalía y el gobierno
rusos. Las direcciones para enviar las protestas y la información detallada
sobre las represiones en Rusia serán enviadas más adelante. Próximamente
serán disponibles en nuestra página web http://khimkibattle.org en inglés,
alemán, ruso, francés y español.


La campaña por la liberación de rehenes de Khimki

Contactos: +7 (915) 053-59-12

info@khimkibattle.org

http://khimkibattle.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Appel à des Journées d¹action internationales


Liberté pour les ôtages de Khimki!

Appel à des Journées d¹action internationales pour Alekseï Gaskarov et
Maxime Solopov

Les 17-20 septembre 2010

Le 28 juillet 2010 plus de 200 personnes, jeunes antifascistes et
anarchistes ont mené une manifestation spontanée devant la mairie de Khimki
(la banlieue nord de Moscou), à la défense de la forêt de cette ville qui a
été abbattu au profit du grand business. L¹action lors de laquelle plusieurs
vitres ont été brisées, a trouvé un large écho. De leur côté, les autorités
y ont répondu par des répressions. Au lendemain de l¹action deux militants
des mouvements sociaux connus, Alekseï Gaskarov et Maxime Solopov ont été
arrêtés. Ils sont menacés de 7 ans de prison pour vandalisme bien qu¹il n¹y
ait pas de preuves de leur complicité à des actes illégaux. D¹autres
militants, surtout des antifascistes, subissent des poursuites policières.

La lutte pour la conservation de la forêt de KhimkI dure déjà depuis trois
ans. D¹après les projets des autorités, c¹est à travers de cette forêt que
doit être construite l¹autoroute à péage Moscou-St-Petersbourg, la première
de tel type en Russie; ce qui menera à une dégradation de la situation
écologique locale et privera les moscovites et les banlieusards d¹une zone
de recréation en plus. Malgré l¹existence des plans alternatifs pour
l¹autoroute qui permettraient de se passer d¹une déforestation et au dépit
des protestations actives des écologistes et de la population locale, les
autorités ont refusé d¹y prêter l¹oreille. Au contraire, elles ont fait
plusieurs démarches visées à imposer le silence aux contestateurs.

Plus d¹une fois les autorités de Khimki (en concertation avec la compagnie
de bâtiment chargée des travaux) ont recouru à la violence contre les
défenseurs de la forêt de la ville: en négligeant l¹opinion publique, en
refusant de permettre des actions de protestation, en appellant les
nationalistes à disperser les piquets des écologistes et des habitants de la
ville, en arrêtant illégalement et en attaquant les journalistes. Les
³personnes inconnues² ont mutilé le rédacteur en chef du journal local
³Khimkinskaïa Pravda² Mikhaïl Beketov qui avait âprement critiqué les
autorités, et ils ont assassiné le metteur en pages d¹un autre journal
d¹opposition, Sergueï Protazanov.

Après l¹action du 28 juillet 2010 la police russe et les services secrets
ont déclenché une chasse aux antifascistes sans précédents. Les personnes
une fois signalées à l¹attention du Centre anti-extrémiste et du Service
fédéral de sûreté (l¹ex-KGB) en tant qu¹antifascistes, sont amenées de force
aux interrogatoires, les visites à domicile illégales se tiennent chez eux;
il y a des cas des pressions physiques atroces pour arracher des dépositions
dont l¹instruction a besoin.

Ayant peur d¹une vague montante des protestations contre la déforestation,
les autorités ont enfin reculé en exprimant la volonté de reviser le projet
de l¹autoroute. Mais il n¹y a pas lieu de crier victoire. Alekseï Gaskarov
et Maxime Solopov sont toujours en prison sans droit, pris en ôtage par les
autorités.

A la fin septembre se tiendra la prochaine audience pénale qui devra
prononcer sur une mise en liberté d¹Alekseï et de Maxime dans l¹attente du
jugement. Tous ceux qui s¹inquiètent de leur sort, doivent faire tout leur
possible pour les arracher de la prison. La Campagne pour la mise en liberté
des ôtages de Khimki appelle à des Journées d¹action internationales les
17-20 septembre 2010 pour mettre de la pression sur les autorités russes en
vue d¹obtenir la libération d¹Alekseï et de Maxime.

Nous appelons à organiser des manifestations devant les ambassades, les
consulats, les missions économiques et culturelles de la Fédération de
Russie, aux événements publics et culturels qui ont des rapports à la
Russie, tout comme d¹envoyer des télécopies et des lettres au tribunal, au
Parquet et au gouvernement russes (la journée principale de la campagne fax
sera lundi le 20 septembre). Les adresses nécessaries et les détails
supplémentaires sur les répressions en Russie seront bientôt communiqués.
Vous pouvez les trouver aussi sur notre site web: http://khimkibattle.org en
anglais, allemand, français et russe.

Unissez-vous à l¹action!

Campagne pour la mise en liberté des ôtages de Khimki

Tel.: +7 (915) 053-59-12

http://khimkibattle.org

info@khimkibattle.org
_______________________________________________
Himkiintersoli mailing list
Himkiintersoli@autistici.org
https://www.autistici.org/mailman/listinfo/himkiintersoli

Infoshop News Sept. 7, 2010

Anti-Capitalist Convergence

Juan Pablo Lepore, 28, was arrested on the morning of September 2 in
Montreal, for participating in the G20 Summit in Toronto this June. Juan
Pablo was transferred to Toronto the same night and appeared in court
Friday morning. The crown has refused his release.

It's stunning to refuse Juan a release on bail, because every day the
Canadian legal system allows defendants their release before trial even
though they are accused of more serious crimes than Juan. It's clear that
if you're poor, and you can't offer cash or assets as a guarantee, you
don't have the same rights," said Marie-Ève Blais, one of the members of
the "Friends of Juan Pablo Lepore" committee that has formed since his
arrest.

The police is trying to convert this arrest into another trophy to justify
the unprecedented inter-provincial police deployment before, during, and
after the G20 meetings. Recall that during the appearance of many
Quebecois arrestees in Toronto on August 23, the Crown produced a
remarkable lack of evidence.

Juan Pablo is an Argentinian documentary film-maker and independent
journalist, visiting Canada for several months. He grew curious about this
country while collaborating in Argentina on a documentary with Canadian
resident Nicolas Van Caloen, and came to visit Nicolas here, while
returning occasionally to Argentina for professional work.

He has spent most of his time visting Montreal, but travelled, like many
Canadian residents, to Toronto last June to document the movement opposing
the G20, publishing on online alternative media outlets including
'cmaq.net' and '2010.mediacoop.ca'.

Juan dedicated his work as a videographer and journalist to the
documentation of resistance movement converging, like in Toronto in June,
to demonstrate against the criminal policies implemented by institutions
like the G20, the IMF or the World Bank. He also documents the daily
resistance of Argentinian communities facing the consequences of the same
policies, notably in his documentary project Semillas (Seeds): "We try to
spread these seeds at the right moment to aid resistance groups that are
constructing a new society based on social and environmental justice,
horizontality, solidarity between peoples and the defence of the Earth."

"The criminalization of Juan Pablo Lepore is proof that the waves of
arrests following the G20 aim to discourage political engagement by people
angered by our system's injustices," concludes Nicolas Van Caloen, Juan's
friend and media partner.

-- Friends of Juan Pablo Lepore

Media Contacts: Nicolas Van Caloen, Mathieu Francoeur ou Marie-Ève Blais:
438-838-8498 Info: claclegal2010@gmail.com ou 514-398-3323,
www.clac2010.net

International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

END THE INJUSTICE, FREEDOM NOW!

September 4, 2010

This September 12th will mark the twelfth
anniversary of the unjust imprisonment of Gerardo
Hernandez, Ramón Labañino, René Gonzalez, Antonio
Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, our five brothers
who are political prisoners in the United States
for fighting against terrorism.

Twelve years in which Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio
have served over a decade of time in high
security prisons. Twelve years where René and
Gerardo were unable to see their wives. Twelve
years where the Five have been forced into
isolation cells for more than 635 days.

Twelve years of pain for five Cuban families who
have seen their children grow up without the
presence of their fathers. Twelve years of having
to say goodbye to their loved ones without the
embrace of their children. Twelve years of not
knowing when they will receive the next "blessed
authorization" to see their relatives again.

Twelve years of shame for the justice of a
country that pretends by lecturing the world about human rights.

The International Committee for the Freedom of
the Cuban Five joins with others in
the international effort which starts on
September 12 and extends to October 8, the date
of the death in combat of Che, as part of the
ongoing battle for truth, justice and the freedom of the Five.

During this time, the world will be reminded that
on September 21, 1976, the former foreign
minister of Chile, Orlando Letelier and his North
American secretary Ronnie Moffitt, were
assassinated in Washington DC. Also during this
time, it will be remembered what happened on
October 6, 34 years ago when a plane was blown up
in mid-air over the coast of Barbados killing 73
innocent people on board. Those who confessed to
this heinous crime, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada
Carriles, today enjoy privileges awarded by the
US government and are free to walk the streets of
Miami as honorable citizens instead of the
international criminals that they are.

Today, September 4, on the thirteenth anniversary
of the death of Fabio Di Celmo, a young Italian
tourist who died from a bomb blast that was
planted in a Cuban hotel by order of the same
Luis Posada Carriles, we join with people from
around the world in all their initiatives and
activities from September 12 - October 8.

On behalf of the memory of Fabio, of the victims
of Barbados, and of all of those who have
suffered death and wounds by the actions of terrorist groups based in Miami.

And on behalf of all peoples right to live in
peace, we raise our voices, along with honest
men and women from all over the world to renew
our commitment, to multiply our efforts, day by
day, step by step, so that together we can
achieve the return of the Cuban Five to their families and their homeland.

We demand President Obama to put an end to this
injustice and order the freedom of the Five Cuban Patriots Now!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
www.thecuban5.org

295 is not enough! We need more signatures!

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign's New Campaign

In solidarity with the National Boricua Human Rights Network's (NBHRN) new campaign
to ask for parole for Oscar Lopez Rivera, one of our two Puerto Rican Political
Prisoners, ProLibertad has started an online petition to pressure President Brack
Obama to give Oscar parole or to commute his sentence.

We are asking all freedom loving people to support both the online petition, which
will be sent to President Barack Obama once we have reached our goal of 10,000
petitioners, and to support the letter writing campaign by the NBHRN. Our letters
and online support will help us bring one of the longest held political prisoners
home!

Both campaigns are important! We must use all avenues available to help win
parole/commutation for Oscar.

Sign our petition: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Parole4OscarLopezR/

and send a letter out: http://boricuahumanrights.org/



"Agitation, organization, resistance, struggle and love are the ingredients that
will guarantee us VICTORY!" -Oscar Lopez Rivera, Puerto Rican Political Prisoner

For more information on Oscar Lopez Rivera and to write to him:
http://www.prolibertadweb.com/id40.html

belarus.indymedia.org

Sept. 3 about 6 o’clock in the morning seven non-government activists
were arrested by law enforcement bodies of Belarus. Six of them are held
38 hours in custody in the detention center of Minsk. The detainees were
interrogated about their involvement in the pelting Molotov cocktails at
the embassy of Russia in Minsk. Young people jointly rent an apartment
in one district of Minsk. At 6-20 am a doorbell rang , one of the young
men opened the door and law enforcement officers in civilian clothes
immediately burst in the apartment.

All were present at the time in the apartment were taken to GUBOP
Interior Ministry for questioning, the apartment was searched, five
computers, two laptops, mobile phones, money, posters and magazines were
confiscated. One of the detainees had been interrogated as a witness in
a criminal case of an attack on the embassy of Russia and released about
19 hours. Another six people – Bogachek Igor, Khotina Valeria, Slusar
Serge, Dedok Nicholas, Zhingerovsky Alexei and Franzkevich Alexander –
are still in the detention center of Minsk in the street Okrestsin.
Relatives and friends are not able to contact them. The maximum period
of detention without charge in Belarus is 72 hours.

September 4, another activist was detained, his apartment was also
searched. After the interrogation the detainee was released.

Still unknown the location of missing Anton Kalenkovich.

Additional Information: minsksolidarity@riseup.net

https://belarus.indymedia.org/20695

info about first day you can find there: https://belarus.indymedia.org/20684

ELP Information Bulletin (4th September 2010)

Dear friends

ELP thought you might like to know about a new prisoner support group that has been
set up in Mexico. Please see below e-mail.

Vegan Prisoners Support Group Formed in Mexico: "Until the End"

- This prisoner support group supporting anti-civilization (animal and earth
liberation) of Mexico was formed due to the urgent need to support our comrades who
have fallen into the dungeons of the enemy.

- With the expansion that has taken place in the fight for animal and earth
liberation in Mexico, the state has implemented forms of repression against
anarchists and eco cells, and against the anarchist movement in general in a battle
to the death. During the last few years in Mexico, individuals have fallen into the
dungeons of different individual Mexican states; it is now time, as Anarchists, to
set aside fear and deal directly with the threat against freedom.

So far there are two prisoners in Mexico, eco-anarchists who are locked up; their
sentences in prison promise to be "exemplary" for those who are breaking with the
reality imposed on the rest of us. Their names are Abraham Lopez Magdaleno Martinez
and Adrian Gonzales; this group seeks to aid them both in and out of prison, to
avoid any pitfalls that those who fight victoriously for revolution might have to
face someday.

- Critics of our struggle and the anarchist ideas have ensured that these two
prisoners often lack concrete support; they need instead a break inside the prison,
so we decided to form this group called "Until the End".

It is essential for the revolutionary struggle for a group to take a hand in the
matter of prisoners, and more so if they have a different diet to that of other
prisoners (vegetarian or vegan) and if you are claimed as prisoners at war.

The struggle for total liberation apparently is new to the ears of many, but these
ideas have been building and developing for several years in Mexico; only since
September of last year has there been more public presence of anarchists and
eco-cells, including insurrectionary attacks with explosives that obviously have
since become of concern to the authorities in each city where they have had the
presence of direct action anarchists.

- Our comrades are Abraham and Adrian, imprisoned for trying to halt those
immediately responsible for the expansion and the imminent destruction and
domestication of the wild that is actually perpetrated by the current dominant
regime, whose goal is the domestication and control of nature and the universe.

Anarchist comrades were not passive before such a spectacle, and in their correct
beliefs tried to confront the mega machine; however they were captured, so now this
group is how we can give them more solid support.

- Support fellow prisoners in any way you can and want, words of encouragement,
poems, drawings, poetic terrorism, actions in your daily struggle, legal advice
(lawyer), economically, etc.

- IMPORTANT NOTE: we as a support group do not belong to any direct action cell, we
have nothing to do with them. We disclaim all illegal actions that take place in the
future claiming to support Adrian and Abraham, we're just a group of individuals who
attempt to be a practical support for prisoners and Anarchist comrades that may need
our support in the future.

PS: For any Anarchist individuals, or groups that want to support and help shape
this project, do not hesitate to contact us; we know that organizing a support group
is not easy, so ask the support and solidarity with other prisoners and their
supporters.With this group, Until the End, we hope to become a strong and concrete
support for the hostages of the state.

Contact: hastaelfinal@riseup.net

--------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------- ---------------------

Current status of prisoners:

Abraham López Martínez: Young vegan anarchist and minor imprisoned on December 15
last year, during an inflammatory action in the Tlalpan delegation City, where nine
cars of a bourgeois fractionation were burned to scrap and a bomb exploded
destroying the front of a Harley Davidson branch, an action that was claimed by the
Front de Liberation de la Terre (FLT). Abraham is locked in Adolescents Care Agency
in Cologne Narvarte, accused of damage to private property and conspiracy /
subversive.

Presently his case is under review because the judge took away the crime of
subversive association, so the MP which they may appeal a sentence which does not
meet bail.
You can write letters of support: abrahamlibertad@riseup.net



Magdaleno Adrian Gonzales: Young anarchist and vegan of 22 years, detained on 4
February this year, accused of detonating a butane gas bomb in a subway car vacuum
in Mexico City Taxqueña-terminal station. Adrian is located in the north of the City
Prison, accused of threatening social peace and damage to private property; it also
charged him with cans of gas explosion from a Banamex on September 25 last year in
the Milpa Alta.

The final sentence for Adrian is 7 years 11 months, does not meet bail and will have
to meet those years in prison.
You can write letters of support to: libertadparaadrian@hushmail.me

[Any deficiencies in translation are purely the fault of the North American Animal
Liberation Press Office.]

avtonom.org Sept 3, 2010

This release is unfortunately very vague and unclear. Just to clarify, it is
about arrests of anarchists in Minsk after Russian embassy in Minsk was
attack with Molotov cocktails.


Social activists were kidnapped by cops in Minsk, Belarus

Today (3-rd of September 2010) at morning our friends and comrades were
kidnapped by police. Six people are missing. We manage to get know about
their kidnapping only several hours later from their neighbors which said
that unknown people in police uniform took away everybody situating the
apartment. Fate of these people is still unknown this moment. Nobody responds
to cell telephone calls. Any attempts to get know something about their
location in Minsk police departments give no result, cause cops deny any
involvement in this event. Apartment of another not detained activist is kept
under observation by police patrol, and these cops don’t disclose the reasons
for their presence.

All these people are social activists, participating in various social
movements aimed at protecting human rights, workers rights and freedom of
access to information. We believe these abductions are directly related to
the season of “elections” in Belarus, because every time they take place,
there is increased repressions of social activists by authorities. They tries
to isolate people from access to any unwanted information that way.

We belive it is kidnapping, because there is no information about the fates of
people and reasons for their detention still. Such actions are a serious
violation of the rights and freedoms of every person. We urge all
unindifferent people to help in finding our comrades, and in media coverage
of this incident. If you have information on the case or can somehow help us
write to antiatombel AT riseup DOT net.

It’s obvious for us that the trigger for repression was the incident near the
Russian Embassy in Minsk, occurred on August 30. A pressrelease of previously
unknown anonymous group of anarchists, declared publicly its responsibility
for the attack, followed in two days, gave the secret services a convenient
excuse for the actions of intimidation.

UPDATE at 23:35: Location of the detainees is still unknown. However, it was
reported that phones, computers and various literature were confiscated from
them. And police is in search of 5 activists.

Keep track of updates.

Friends and comrades of kidnapped.

From http://belarus.indymedia.org/20684
Through http://avtonom.org/en/node/1321

avtonom.org

A 25-year old Vladimir Skopintsev is registered in Troick, one of the numerous
towns of Moscow region. He is an anarchist and known as the member of
groups “PolitZek” and “Change the world without taking power”. Both groups
have several thousands of fans. His photos and registration address were
frequently posted on fascist web-pages, along with demands of execution.

Vladimir’s father and younger brother - 21-year old Andrew- were present at
home in the evening hours of September the 2nd, when an attempt on Vladimir's
live took place. What follows is Andrew Skopintsev’s take on the events:

Somewhere around 11 pm Andrew went out on the balcony to talk over the cell
phone. And next moment a bullet hit the wall 30 centimeters away from his
head. He heard the noise of a car taking off from the scene. Militia was
immediately notified of an attempted murder. According to Andrew, the
preliminary analysis showed that he was fired at from a hand-made firearm.

Cops examined the crime scene, and insisted that Andrew and his father to
accompany them to the town’s police department (UVD). After the formal
interrogation, father was asked to wait in the corridor, and young man was
taken in one of the offices for interrogation.

Cops decided not to go lightly on the guy, who had just miraculously escaped
death. He was interrogated by two unidentified agents, who were most probably
the employees of “centre E” (“antiextremist” police division in Russia).

“They interrogated me Gestapo-style. I was shouted at, abused. They demanded
that I “tell everything” about my brother and myself. Took my ID and cell
phone by force, copied all the numbers from the phone-book. I was beaten up,
but they did it carefully - so that no evidence of it remained.” - This are
the words of Andrew, who was lucky to escape from the police department.

Andrew and his father spent whole night in the department and escaped - for
lack of better word - in the morning. Formally they were not detained, but
Andrew’s ID were confiscated until “the arrival of our boss” in cops’
wording.

As of this moment, Andrew Skopintsev is consulting with local human rights
organizations.

Source: http://avtonom.org/en/node/13208
Russian original: Novaya Gazeta, http://novayagazeta.ru/data/2010/097/22.html

Sept. 3, 2010 Reporters Without Borders

On August 29th, 2010, Reporters Without Borders
Washington DC representative, Clothilde Le Coz,
visited Mumia Abu-Jamal, prisoner on death row
for nearly three decades. Ms. Le Coz was
accompanied by Abu-Jamal’s lead attorney, Robert
R. Bryan, and his legal assistant, Nicole Bryan.
The meeting took place in room 17 of the State
Correctional Institution (SCI) in Waynesburg,
Greene county, Pennsylvania.

Reporters Without Borders: As a journalist who
continues to work in prison, what are your latest
reports focused on? Mumia Abu-Jamal: The prison
population in the United States is the highest in
the world. Over the past year, for the first time
in 38 years, the prison population declined.

Some states, like California or Michigan, are
taking fewer prisoners because of overcrowding.
State budgets are restrained and some prisoners
are released because of the economic situation.

Prisons in America are vast and the number of
prisoners is immense. It’s impressive to see how
much money is spent by the US government and how
invisible we are. No one knows. Most people don’t
care. Some journalists report when there is a
drama in prison and think they know about it. But
this is not real : it is sensationalist. You can
find some good writings. But they are
unrealistic. My reporting is what I have seen
with my eyes and what people told me. It is real.
My reporting has to do with my reality. They
mostly have been focusing on death row and
prison. I wish it were not so. There is a spate
of suicides on death row in the last year and a
half. But this is invisible. I broke stories
about suicide because it happened on my block.

I need to write. There are millions of stories
and some wonderful people here. Among these
stories, the ones I chose to write are important,
moving, fragile. I decide to write them but part
of the calculation is to know whether it’s
helpful or not. I have to think about that. As a
reporter, you have a responsability when you
publish those kind of stories. Hopefully, it will
change their lives for the better.

Do you think the fact you were a reporter
affected your case ?

Being the "Voice of the Voiceless" played a
significant role. And this expression actually
comes from the title of a Philadephia Inquirer
headline after I was arrested in 1981. As a
teenager, I was a radical journalist working on
the staff of the Black Panthers national
newspaper. The FBI was actually monitoring my
writings since I was 14. My first job was being a
reporter. Because of my writings, I am far better
known that any inmate in America. If it were not
the case, I think there would have been less
pressure for the Court to create a special law to
affect my conviction. Most of the men and women
on death row are not well known. Because I
continue to write, this is an element that would
have affected the thinking of the judges and made
them change the ruling for not giving me a new
trial. I think they were thinking “You’re a big
mouth, you won’t get a new trial”. You expect a
little more from a federal Court. Because of my
case, a dozen of other cases can be affected.

What do you think of the media coverage of your case ?

Once, I read that I was no longer on death row. I
was sitting here when I read it. I haven’t stopped
sitting here for one second.

Because I was coming from the craft, a lot of
reporters did not want to cover my case because
they feared they would be attached. They had to
face criticisms for being partial and sometimes
they were told by their editors they could not
cover it. Since the beginning of the case, people
who could cover me best were not allowed to. Most
of reporters I worked with are no longer working.
They retired and nobody took the work over.

But the press should have a role to play here.
Millions of people saw what was done in Abu
Ghraib. Its leader, smiling on the pictures that
have been published, worked here before going to
Abu Ghraib. In death row, you have people without
a high school degree who can decide whether
someone lives or dies. For whatever reason, they
have the power to make you not eat if they don’t
want to. And none of that power is checked by
anyone. There are informal rules. These people
can make someone’s life a living hell on a wink.
When I chose which stories I want to write about,
I am never short on material. From a writing
perspective, this field is rich.

No matter what my detractors are saying about me,
I am a reporter. This country would be a whole
lot worse without journalists. But to many of
them, I am an outlaw reporter. Prior to prison,
in my work for various radio stations, I met
people from all around the world and despite my
conflicts with some editors, I had the greatest job.

The support you receive in Europe compared to the
support you receive here in the United States, is
very different. How do you explain the difference
and do you still believe international
mobilization will be helpful ?

Of course it will. The European mobilization
might be pressuring the US regarding the death
penalty. Foreign countries, like European ones,
went through a specific history of repression.
There was an in-their-bones-knowledge of what it
is to be in prison. They know about prison, death
row and concentration camps. In the US, very few
people had that experience. That speaks to how
cultures look at things in the world. In Europe,
the very ideal of death penalty is an anathema.

9/11 changed a lot of things in the US. People
challenging or opposing the government would not
be supported anymore. The press also changed.
Things that were “allowable” became unacceptable
after 9/11. I think 9/11 changed the way people
thought and it changed the tolerance of the
media. For example, even though 9/11 happened in
Manhattan and Washington DC, the jail was closed
for an entire day, here in Pennsylvania, and we
were locked down.

To motivate more people around your cause, it
might be helpful to get an up to date picture of
you, today, on death row. Does the fact that we
don’t have any updated picture of you affect your
situation and the ability of more people to
mobilize around your cause ?

Having a public image is partly helpful. The
essence of an image is propaganda. Pictures are
therefore not that important. The human image is
the true one. There, I try to do my best. In
1986, prison authorities took recorders from
reporters and you were only allowed a pen and a
paper. Now that there is only the meaning of one
article left, one can make monsters and models
from his article.

If the Supreme Court agrees on a new trial, only
your sentence will be reviewed. Not your
conviction. How do you feel about staying in
prison for life, if you are not executed ?

In Pennsylvania, life sentence is a slow death
row. And under the state law, there are 3 degrees
of murders. The first degree is punished by life
sentence or death. The second and the third ones
are punished by life sentence. People do not get
out. The highest juvenile rate of life sentences
is here in Pennsylvania. But here is my point, in
Philadelphia, there were two other cases around
my time were people killed a cop. The first one
got aquittal. The second once, caught on a
surveillance camera, did not get a death sentence.

How do you manage to “escape” death row ?

I have written on History, one of my passions. I
would love to write about other things. My latest
works are about war, but I also write about
culture and music. I have an internal beat that I
try to keep through poetry and drums. Very few
things have matched the pleasure that I get from
learning music. It’s like learning another
language. And to write, that’s a challenge ! A
music teacher comes every week and teaches me. A
whole new world is opening to me and I get a
better grasp of it now. Music is one of the best
thing mankind has done. The best of our lives.

For further information and to offer support for
Mumia Abu-Jamal, contact: Law Offices of Robert
R. Bryan 2088 Union Street, Suite 4, San
Francisco, CA 94123-4117
http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org

http://en.rsf.org/united-states-mumia-abu-jamal-19-04-2010,37070.html
Petition also available from our website

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned
journalists and press freedom throughout the
world. It has nine national sections (Austria,
Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives
in Bangkok, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And
it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

September 2, 2010 Al-Awda

According to the Palestine Section of Defense for Children
International, each year, about 700 Palestinian children from the
West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts. Out of 100
sworn affidavits collected by lawyers in 2009, 69% of the children
were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in
solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault,
including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in
Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Israel's treatment of
detained Palestinian children is considered to be torture by the
United Nations under international law.

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition calls on all its
members, supporters and people of conscience to contact the White
House to demand that the Obama administration direct the Israeli
leadership, currently in Washington DC, to immediately release and
end the systematic and institutionalized abuse of all Palestinian
children in Israeli prisons in accordance with international law.
The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions
of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are
suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws to cut off
all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human
rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.

To contact the White House, please use the online form at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Alternatively write to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone : 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461

Letters in the US may be faxed online via:
http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html

To contact your Representatives and Senators, go to:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir

House members can be reached through the Capitol switchboard toll
free at:
1-877-331-2000

Please cc your correspondence to alerts@al-awda.org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://www.al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the
largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to
education and advocacy for the restoration of Palestinian human,
national, legal, political and historical rights in full with
particular emphasis on the right of Palestinians to return to
their homes and lands of origin from which they have been
dispossessed since 1948. PRRC is a not for profit tax-exempt
educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of
America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are
tax-deductible. To donate, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To
become a member, go to http://www.al-awda.org/membership.html

September 3, 2010 opednews.com

By Bonnie Kerness

In 1986, I received a letter from Ojore Lutalo who had just been
placed in the Management Control Unit at Trenton State Prison in New
Jersey. He asked what a control unit was, why he was in there and how
long he would have to stay. We knew little of control units then,
except what we learned from the many prisoners who reached out to the
AFSC to mentor those of us trying to give voice to what was - and is
still - happening.

Today the continued use of these instruments of torture coupled with
the persistent misunderstanding and mislabeling of prisoners as
Muslim extremist threatens the security of Americans both inside and
outside prison walls, and eats away the moral and spiritual compass
that purports to drive American justice.

After Ojore's letter, we began hearing from people throughout the
country saying that they were prisoners being held in extended
isolation for political reasons. We heard from jailhouse lawyers, and
prisoner activists, many of whom were Muslim who found themselves
targeted and locked down in 24/7 solitary confinement. The AFSC began
contacting people inside and outside the prisons to collect
testimonies of what was going on in those isolation units which by
definition are forms of torture. We had no idea how many people were
experiencing this, the conditions in those units and how many control
units there were.

One woman wrote "the guard sprayed me with pepper spray because I
wouldn't take my clothes off in front of five male guards. They
carried me to my isolation cell, laid me down on a steel bed and took
my clothes off, leaving me with that pepper spray burning my face."

Some of the saddest letters are from prisoners writing on behalf of
their mentally ill peers like the man who spread feces over his body.
The guards' response to this was to put him in a bath so hot it
boiled 30 percent of the skin off him.

"How do you describe desperation to someone who is not desperate?"
began a letter to me from Ojore Lutalo. He described everyone in the
Trenton Control Unit being awakened at 1 a.m. every other morning by
guards dressed in riot gear and holding barking dogs. Then the
prisoners were forced to strip, gather their belongings while the
dogs strained at their leashes and snapped at their private parts. He
described being terrorized, intimidated, and the humiliation of being
naked and not knowing whether the masked guards were male or female.

If we think back to slavery and to images of the modern Civil Rights
Movement, we understand that dogs have been used as a device of
torture in the U.S. for hundreds of years.

These testimonies and more are from men, women and children being
held in isolation and experiencing the use of devices of torture in
human cages where there are few witnesses.

I have received thousands of descriptions and drawings of four- and
five-point restraints, restraint hoods, restraint belts, restraint
beds, stun grenades, stun guns, stun belts, spit hoods, chain gangs,
black boxes, tethers, waist and leg chains.

Control units first surfaced during the 1960s and 70s, when many in
my generation genuinely believed that each of us was free to dissent
politically. In those years, people acted out this belief in a number
of ways. Native peoples contributed to the formation of the American
Indian Movement dedicated to self determination. Puerto Ricans joined
the movement to free the island from US colonialism. Whites formed
the Students for a Democratic Society and more anti-imperialist
groups, while others worked in the southern Civil Rights movements.
The Black Panther Party was formed. And there was a rise in the
prisoner rights movement. Nightly television news had graphic
pictures of State Troopers, Police, the FBI, and the National Guard
killing our peers.

I saw on the evening news coverage of the murder of Black Panther
Fred Hampton shot in his sleep by police, and coverage of the
killings by National Guard members of young people protesting the
Viet Nam War on the Jackson and Kent State Universities campuses.
Other civil rights workers were killed with impunity, so many that we
felt there was no opportunity to stop mourning because each day
another activist was dead. These killings and other acts of
oppression led to underground formations such as the Black Liberation Army.

In response to this massive outcry against social inequities and for
national liberation, the federal government utilized "Counter
Intelligence Programs" called COINTELPRO conducted by a dozen
agencies, which aimed to cripple the Black Panther Party and other
radical forces. Over the years that these directives were carried
out, many of those targeted young people were put in prisons across
the country. Some, now in their 60s and 70s, are still there.

While the U.S. denied that there were people being held for political
reasons, there was no way to work with prisoners without hearing
repeatedly of the existence of such people, and the particular
treatment they endured once imprisoned. As early as 1978, Andrew
Young, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was widely
quoted saying, "there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of people I
would describe as political prisoners" in U.S. prisons.

Across the nation, we saw an enhanced use of sensory deprivation
units often called "control units" for such people in an attempt to
instill behavior modification. It was this growing "special
treatment" which we began monitoring. At the time, a former warden at
Marion, Illinois, said at a congressional hearing, "The purpose of
the Marion Control Unit is to control revolutionary attitudes in the
prison system and in society at large."

People throughout the world are beginning to understand what the
prisoners have been saying to us for decades about the oppressive,
war-like tactics of the U.S. government toward criticism or
resistance. People in prison have warned us that what happens inside
finds its way out here.

In a May 5th 2009 article in The Trentonian, Afsheen Shamsi of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations says that their coalition "is
upset over what it says is increasing surveillance in mosques." The
group reflects the concerns of Muslims who have grown tired of being
stopped at airports, constant questioning and relentless security
years after the attacks of 9/11.

The department of corrections system is more than a set of
institutions; it is a state of mind. It is that state of mind which
expanded the use of isolation, the use of devices of torture, the
Counter Intelligence Programs, and the Department of Homeland
Security, against activists, both inside and outside the walls.

Ojore, who first contacted us in 1986, exemplifies the history of
control units and the misperceptions of all Islam as a threat. He was
released from the control unit via litigation in 2002, after 16 years
in isolation. In 2004, he was placed back into isolation with no
explanation. When I called the N.J. Department of Corrections, I was
told that this was upon the request of Homeland Security. In a 2008
Classification decision, this was confirmed in writing which said the
Department "continues to show concern regarding your admitted
affiliation with the Black Liberation Army. Your radical views and
ability to influence others poses a threat to the orderly operation
of this Institution."

After a total of 22 years in isolation, Ojore was released from
prison in August of 2009 via court order. On January 26th 2010, he
was disappeared from an Amtrak train, accused of "endangering public
transportation" and arrested in La Junta, Colorado. Because of his
unusual name, newspaper articles had him being Muslim and talking
about Al Qaeda neither of which were true. A judge dismissed all
charges one week later.

Control units' latest mutations are as "security threat group
management units." This egregious designation is beyond offensive
because it is the government which gets to define "security threat group."

According to a national survey done by the U.S.Department of Justice,
the Departments of Corrections of Minnesota and Oregon named all
Asians as gangs, which Minnesota further compounds by adding all
Native Americans. New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania go on to
list various Islamic groups as gangs.

The "Communications Management Units" in federal prisons use
isolation to restrict the communication of imprisoned Muslims with
their families, the media and the outside world.

In 2004, four Islamic prisoners in California were indicted on
charges which included conspiracy to levy war against the U.S.
government. One result of this was a 2006 report called "Out of The
Shadows: Getting Ahead of Prisoner Radicalization" by George
Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute. The
report states that the "potential for radicalization of prison
inmates poses a threat of unknown magnitude to the national security
of the United States," noting that "every radicalized prisoner
becomes a potential terrorist threat." The report states that it
focuses, "in particular on religious radicalization in conjunction
with the practice of Islam."

Also in 2006, USAToday reported that the FBI and Homeland Security
were "urging prison administrators to set up more intelligence units
in state prisons, with an emphasis on background checks to ensure
that extremist Muslim clerics don't have access with prisoners."

For those of us who've monitored U.S. prisons over decades, the
targeting of radicalization, the targeting of specific groups, the
surveillance and infiltration of those groups feels very familiar.
There can be no doubt that Islam is being targeted. In one recent
case concerning four Islamic men, known as the Newburgh 4, the judge
herself noted that " 'Equal Justice Under the Law' are words that can
be found on many courthouses, but far too often, where it applies to
the socially and or politically marginalized, these are words devoid
of meaning."

The U.S. government continues to lock down people for their beliefs,
and is still seeking to identify those who have the potential to
politically radicalize others. After each Homeland Security Code
change, Prison Watch is flooded with calls from people reporting
Islamic loved ones being removed from general prison population and
placed in isolation.

I have no doubt that Islam itself is suspect to the U.S. government,
and that any Muslim, no matter how law abiding, is suspect. Our work
today needs to be embedded in struggle against this system and its
continued use of isolation and torture as a tool of behavior
modification, religious and political repression.

How U.S. prisons function violates the United Nations Convention
Against Torture, and a host of other international treaties.

The AFSC recognizes the existence and continued expansion of the
penal system as a profound spiritual crisis. It is a crisis that
allows children to be demonized. It is a crisis which legitimizes
torture, isolation and the abuse of power. It is a crisis which
extends beyond prisons into school and judicial systems. I know each
time we send a child to bed hungry that is violence. That wealth
concentrated in the hands of a few at the expense of many is
violence; that the denial of dignity based on race, class or religion
is violence. And that poverty and prisons are a form of
state-manifested violence created by public policy.

I've been part of the struggle for civil and human rights in this
country for over 45 years. We need to alter the very core of every
system that slavery, white supremacy and poverty has given birth to,
particularly the criminal justice system. The United States must stop
violating the human rights of men, women and children. US policies
including solitary confinement, and use of devices or torture have
nothing to do with safe and orderly operation of prisons or society
and everything to do with the spread of a culture of retribution,
dehumanization. The restriction of civil rights is something we can
and should debate regularly as a society. The violation of human
rights, and fundamental human decency, simply is not negotiable.


Bonnie Kerness

Coordinator Prison Watch Project

Healing and Transformative Justice Program

New York Metropolitan Region

American Friends Service Committee