Prisons & Prisoners

Partisan Defense Committee writes:

20th Annual Holiday Appeal for Class-War Prisoners
New York City, Dec. 9, 2005


Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!
Friday, December 9, 2005
6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
6 Harrison Street
New York, NY
Admission: $10 in advance, $15 at the door

On December 9, the Partisan Defense Committee will have its 20th Annual Holiday Appeal benefit for class-war prisoners. December 9 also marks the 24th anniversary of the racist and political frame-up of innocent death-row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Speakers include Lynne Stewart, a leftist lawyer and victim of the bogus “war on terror” who faces up to 30 years in prison when she gets sentenced on January 20. Also speaking will be PDC Counsel and former attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rachel Wolkenstein along with Barry Bachrach, lead attorney for Leonard Peltier. The Holiday Appeal benefit will also feature live music with Bern Nix/Francois Grillot. Also appearing are Prajna and Madsól.

Roosevelt Island Arrest

Yuji Agematsu

On Sunday, October 2nd, 2005 I was arrested while shooting video footage of the scenery of Midtown Manhattan from Roosevelt Island. That my camera was pointing to the UN building; that I had climbed over the handrail of sidewalk and gone down to the river bank that is the property of New York State; that I neither had a permit of shooting of video nor ID – these, the police claimed, were the grounds of my arrest.


Handcuffed I was taken to the substation of the island. Video camera, keys of my apartment, wallet, cigarette, etc. – all I had were taken away. Belt and shoelaces of sneakers were removed. I was made to sit with handcuffs, while they inspected the video footage. The scenery of the East River and the buildings — just everyday scenery — was there.

btb writes:


Prisoner Support Groups Info Night
New York City, Oct. 19, 2005

Two million people in america locked in prisons and jails...
prisoners lacking access to educational or rehabilitative programs...
families disrupted...
people with felony convictions unable to access assisted housing or get job licenses...
political prisoners in the united states...

you know about the crisis.
want to do something about it?
start here:

PRISONER SUPPORT GROUPS INFO NIGHT
at ABC No Rio

hear presentations from groups committed to supporting prisoners and former
prisoners, and fighting the prison industrial complex. find out what you can do.

representatives from:
THE JERICHO MOVEMENT
CRITICAL RESISTANCE
DROP THE ROCK
COALITION FOR PAROLE RESTORATION
NEW YORK STATE TELEPHONE JUSTICE CAMPAIGN
BOOKS THROUGH BARS
5TH AVENUE COMMITTEE
JAMIE MORAN, Friends of Jeffrey ‘Free’ Luers
RICHARD E. BUMP, Publisher of prisoners’ zines

Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
7pm
FREE OF CHARGE.
on-site childcare available. (limited spots: RSVP for childcare)

ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street
between Clinton and Suffolk
F to Delancy or J/M/Z to Essex, north to Rivington and East to ABC No Rio
(212) 254-3697 x322 or btb@abcnorio.org for info
www.abcnorio.org

Make this netWORK

Brooklyn, New York, Oct. 6, 2005

A gathering of media makers and social justice organizers


October 6th, 7-9:30pm

Prison Moratorium Project

388 Atlantic Avenue, 3rd Floor

Brooklyn, NY 11217

This is the third in a series of informal networking events organized to
create a space for grassroots media makers and social justice
organizers/activists to come together, get to know one another and make
the connections necessary to strengthen local campaigns and independent
media networks.

Kate Gibbons writes:

Helping Political Prisoners Overseas

http://www.prisonersoverseas.com


This site has been created to provide comprehensive information and advice for families with loved ones imprisoned overseas or at home.


We aim to provide a 24 hour lifeline of information online. What is not currently on the site, we will research for you. Please let us know what you need at admin@prisonersoverseas.com.


We also aim to raise awareness for political and religious prisoners and the organisations that support them, and the many other organisations who tirelessly campaign for human rights.


We are also keen for people to share their experiences and submit information and research that may help families and prisoners. The hours and days after arrest can be crucial for the prisoner.


We hope to alleviate some of the stress families endure, by quick and easily accessible information online. The stress and trauma often felt by families with loved ones imprisoned overseas is often intensified by the distance and isolation this causes.


If you are a family member of a loved one imprisoned overseas or at home and would like to be put in touch with other families, please contact us at admin@prisonersoverseas.com.

'St. Patrick's Four' Speak in Church
Brian Kaviar, Cornell Daily Sun


At St. Catherine of Siena Parish Center in Cayuga Heights last night, the "St. Patrick's Four" spoke along with Sister Marilyn Pray of Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester at an event titled "Civil Disobedience and Catholic Teaching."

The Four, local members of the Catholic Workers movement, await federal trial in Binghamton this Monday for entering a local military recruitment center and pouring their own blood around the vestibule two days before the start of the current Iraq War.

The event aimed to discuss the events of March 17, 2003 for which the Four await trial, as well as the larger role of non-violent civil resistance within the Catholic tradition and the Catholic Worker movement, a group founded in 1933 and noted for its efforts to protest war as well as the unequal distribution of wealth.

Free Jeff Luers writes "http://www.freefreenow.org/heartcheck.html

Heartcheck is a 40 page zine with new, unpublished writings and artwork by political prisoners Jeff 'Free' Luers and Robert 'Los Ricos' Thaxton.

From the introduction:
"With millions of people dying, the environment being poisoned and destroyed by consumerism, there really are only three kinds of people: the victims, the problem, and the solution.

This zine is dedicated to the latter. The time for rhetoric is over. The time for action has arrived. We hope that the writings contained within will begin a much-needed discussion on real solutions and alternatives sorely lacking in radical circles. We hope these words will only be the beginning of something much larger."

*All* proceeds from the sale of this zine will benefit both political prisoners. Show solidarity for these political prisoners and get a copy [or 10!] today

karakafa writes
Historical punishment for Mehmet Tarhan

Conscientious Objector (CO) Mehmet Tarhan, whose trial has been going on for over 4,5 months already by the Military Court of Justice, has been imprisoned to a historical punishment. In the court hearing that joined two seperate claims that are namely "Insubordination before command" and "Insubordination before command for trying to escape from military service" pursuant Art. 88 of the Turkish Penal Military Code, Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to a four (4) years of jail, 2 years from each claim.

Bernie Roddy writes:

"Statement Against Censorship of Anarchist Reading Material Mailed to Prisoners"
Harold H. Thompson, #93992

Harold H. Thompson, #93992
Northwest Correctional Complex
Route 1, Box 660
Tiptonville, Tennessee 38079

http://website.lineone.net/~tizzyhound/


In July of 1925 a school teacher named John Scopes went on trial in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, accused of a violation of state law. His alleged crime was teaching the theory of evolution to his class in this state. The prosecutor advocating teaching only the religious doctrine Man is of Divine Creation and an advocate of the complete rejection of teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in Tennessee’s schools was William Jennings Bryan. Mister Scopes was defended by Clarence Darrow, a famous attorney of his time. Of course in the social climate of 1925 Scopes was convicted and sentenced to a moderate fine. Eventually, partially due to the worldwide publicity the trial received, the anti-evolution statutes were repealed and struck from state law. Tennessee society had evolved to the point of intellectual rejection [of the idea that] solely the Origin of Man set forth in Biblical passages was the only explanation of Man’s creation.

Bernie Roddy writes
Assata Shakur in Cuba - A Video Review

"I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one.”

“She is now 120 lbs of money,” State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes told the New Jersey Star-Ledger. The U.S. government recently raised the bounty for the capture of Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, to $1 million. The new initiative “is going to exert pressures that weren’t in place nationally and internationally before,” said Fuentes. “And we’re going to follow up to make sure everybody is aware of this both inside and outside of Cuba.”

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