Week of mobilization and international solidarity from September 21 to September 30, for all our comrades kidnapped all over the world. in en-gr-es-it-ger (Chile)

August 30, 2012 by actforfreedom 

Actforfreedomnow!/ receives and transmits and translated to English

Week of mobilization and international solidarity from September 21 to September 30, for all our comrades kidnapped all over the world.

The survival of capitalism is so monotonous and is structured in such a way that it is not so different from that of cruel prison. Cities, timetables, work, school, family and countless repressive bodies are  suffocating us in a way that resembles a big prison unit. Surveillance cameras 24 hours a day, thousands of cops defending property, severe judges smiling satisfied when they enforce their harsh laws, tight handcuffs before their impregnable cages, etc, etc: this is what society uses in order to keep individuals under control; those who, fearing the punishment reserved to those who trespass the codes of imposed behaviour, stay silent, get used to oppression, absorb it like an integral part of life, like something natural, and so they prefer to avoid conflict with authority instead of rebelling. The powerful in all States don’t spare any efforts to repress and imprison those who have set themselves against the existent.

But today we are not going to write about survival within capitalism. We want to greet those who did not hesitate to trespass their moral enclosures and fought power face to face, those who today are inside the most blatant edifice of repression, prison. We are writing to express our solidarity with our comrades in jail. Power attacks by imprisoning comrades and organizes itself in order to crush the ideas of freedom. The revenge of power particularly hits well known individuals who openly declare themselves antiauthoritarian or anarchist and make an important weapon of struggle out of the spreading of ideas-deeds, as happened in Italy, Bolivia and Chile. The spectre generating from the possibility of an international web (we don’t mean any kind of organization) must continue to materialize like a real proposal.

A web through which comrades in different parts of the world - who don’t know one another nor will they ever meet, don’t obey any kind of structure or need any ideologies or ‘leaders’, can unite their will, efforts and complicity in order to face dominion in all its aspects, and with different instruments can overcome language barriers and fictitious borders and establish links of solidarity by overcoming false impositions…

Therefore, from September 21 to September 30,  we call for a week of unrest and solidarity with our brothers and sisters, with comrades kidnapped all over the world. It shouldn’t be necessary to make calls for a week of unrest, as we normally don’t like to do this because ‘solidarity’ does not knows calendar dates. But actions are being diluted in the endless chasm of information and in ‘so-called local struggles’, whereas the concentration of our energies in a limited period of time will help us to give a renewed and constant impulse to the struggle against prison and the spreading of libertarian ideas. Any action, any word of support gives strength and courage to prisoners.  And in this struggle for total liberation we don’t forget the repression suffered by millions of animals locked up in zoos, circuses and laboratories. We must struggle for their liberation.

This is a call to say, by multiform actions and different instruments, that our imprisoned comrades are not forgotten. Our actions of solidarity elude all watchtowers and run over kilometres of ocean in order to embrace all the irreducible standing out in the struggle inside and outside prison.  However we put the abstract imposition of borders into question, since so-called internationalism shouldn’t be such, considering that ‘in the world of bosses we are all foreigners.’

Rebel greetings to:

-In Chile: Luciano Pitronello “Tortuga”, Carla Verdugo and Iván Silva, the comrades of so-called “Segurity case”: Juan Aliste Vega, Marcelo Villarroel, Freddy Fuentevilla. To Alberto Olivares, Juan Tapia and to the brother and sister on the run Gabriela Curilem and Diego Rios. And to those arrested in street struggles; Sebastian “Chasca” Fajardo, Eduardo “Mecha” Garay, and to all those standing trial for street clashes.

- In Bolivia: Henry Serragundo, Nina Mancilla and Mayron Mioshiro
- In Argentina: Diego Petrissans and Leandro Morel

- In Mexico: Mario Lopez, Braulio Duran and comrade on the run Felicity
Ryder’s.

-In the States : Mumia Abu Jamal, Douglas Wrigth, Brandon Baxter, Connor Stevens, Joshua Stafford, Marie Mason, Eric McDavid .

-In Indonesia: Eat and Billy.

-In Italy: Stefano Gabriele Fosco, Elisa Di Bernardo, Alessandro Settepani, Sergio Maria Stefani, Katia Di Stefano, Giuseppe Lo Turco, Paola Francesca Iozzi, Giulia Marziale, Lucca Abbá and those sentenced for the clashes of the G8 Genoa 2001,, Massimo Passamani and Daniela Battisti (under house arrest).

-In Switzerland:  Marco Camenisch and Costa.

-In Germany: Gabriel Pombo da Silva, and Sonja Suder and her codefendant Christian Gauger (the latter two were captured last year after 33 years on the run

-In Spain: Tamara Hernández (now free on bail, she was sentenced to 8 years awaiting partial amnesty to shorten her sentence), Claudio Lavazza and Juan Rico.

-To the comrades imprisoned in Russia and Belorrussia.

And above all to all the prisoners in struggle and the comrades on the run in Greece (the comrades of the Cells of Fire, Revolutionary Struggle and all those imprisoned for their antiauthoritarian practice).

And to all the prisoners who set themselves at war also from inside the cages all over the world…
Until the destruction of the last bastion of the prison society!
With anger and love…
see you in the streets!
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                                                                                                         GREEK

[Χιλή] 21-30 Σεπτέμβρη: Μέρες αγκιτάτσιας και αλληλεγγύης με τα αιχμάλωτα
αδέρφια και συντρόφια μας ανά τον κόσμο

Η επιβίωση στον καπιταλισμό είναι τόσο καλουπωμένη και μονότονη, ώστε δεν διαφέρει πολύ από την ωμή φυλακή. Η πόλη, τα ωράρια, η δουλειά, οι σπουδές, η οικογένεια και ένα σωρό καταπιεστικοί οργανισμοί μάς πνίγουν με τρόπο τέτοιον που μερικές φορές μοιάζει λες και βρισκόμαστε σε κάποια μεγάλη πτέρυγα φυλακής. Κάμερες παρακολούθησης επί 24ώρου βάσης, χιλιάδες μπάτσοι να φυλάνε την ιδιοκτησία, αυστηροί δικαστές με χαμογελάκια ευχαρίστησης για την εφαρμογή των δρακόντειων νόμων τους, σφιχτές χειροπέδες που προηγούνται των ακατανίκητων κλουβιών τους και μια ατελείωτη σειρά αντίστοιχων καταστάσεων, είναι ό,τι χρησιμοποιεί η κοινωνία για να κρατά στη σειρά τα άτομα, τα οποία, τρέμοντας τις τιμωρίες
που τους περιμένουν αν σπάσουν τον επιβεβλημένο κώδικα συμπεριφοράς, το βουλώνουν, συνηθίζουν στην καταπίεση και την αφομοιώνουν ως δομικό στοιχείο της ζωής τους, ως κάτι το φυσικό, προτιμώντας να αποφύγουν τα μπλεξίματα με την εξουσία, αντί να εξεγερθούν.
Οι ισχυροί όλων των κρατών δεν τσιγκουνεύονται τα μέσα κάθε είδους
προκειμένου να καταστείλουν και να φυλακίσουν όσους κρατάνε στάση
σύγκρουσης με το υπάρχον. Σήμερα όμως δεν θα γράψουμε για την επιβίωση εντός του καπιταλισμού, αλλά θα χαιρετίσουμε όσες και όσους δεν δίστασαν να υπερβούν τους ηθικούς τους φραγμούς και αντιμετώπισαν πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο την εξουσία, όσες και όσους σήμερα πλαγιάζουν στην πιο προφανή απόδειξη της καταστολής, τη φυλακή. Γράφουμε για να εκφράσουμε την επείγουσα ανάγκη μας να δείξουμε την αλληλεγγύη μας στα έγκλειστα συντρόφια μας.
Η εξουσία επιτίθεται φυλακίζοντας συντρόφια και οργανώνεται για να
καταπολεμήσει τις ιδέες της λευτεριάς, με την εκδικητικότητά της να πέφτει κυρίως επί αναγνωρίσιμων ατόμων που χωρίς περιστροφές δηλώνουν αντεξουσιαστές ή αναρχικοί και φτιάχνουν μέσω της προπαγάνδας των ιδεών-δράσεων ένα σημαντικότατο όπλο αγώνα, όπως συνέβη στην Ιταλία, στη Βολιβία ή στη Χιλή. Το φάντασμα που γεννά η δυνατότητα ενός διεθνούς δικτύου (δεν αναφερόμαστε σε κανενός είδους οργάνωση) συνεχίζει να υλοποιείται ως μία πρόταση πραγματική, στην οποία συντρόφια από διάφορα μέρη του κόσμου, που δεν γνωρίζονται ούτε θα γνωριστούν μεταξύ τους, που δεν υπακούουν σε κανενός είδους δομή και δεν αναζητούν μήτε ιδεολογικούς ταγούς μήτε αρχηγούς, ενώνουν επιθυμίες, δυνάμεις και συνενοχές για να αντιμετωπίσουν την κυριαρχία σε όλο της το φάσμα, χρησιμοποιώντας διαφορετικά εργαλεία, υπερβαίνοντας τα γλωσσικά εμπόδια και τα κάλπικα σύνορα, εδραιώνοντας δεσμούς αλληλεγγύης και ξεπερνώντας τις ψεύτικες
επιβολές…
Γι’ αυτόν το λόγο, από τις 21 ως τις 30 Σεπτέμβρη καλούμε σε μια βδομάδα αγκιτάτσιας και αλληλεγγύης προς τα αιχμάλωτα αδέρφια και συντρόφια μας ανά τον κόσμο. Αν και δεν θα έπρεπε να είναι αναγκαίο να καλούμε σε εβδομάδες αγκιτάτσιας, μιας και γενικά είμαστε κριτικοί απέναντι σε αυτά τα καλέσματα, δεδομένου ότι η αλληλεγγύη δεν γνωρίζει ημερολογιακό προγραμματισμό, θεωρούμε ωστόσο ότι μερικές φορές οι χειρονομίες χάνονται στον καθημερινό καταιγισμό πληροφορίας και τους αποκαλούμενους «τοπικούς αγώνες», και έτσι η συγκέντρωση ενέργειας σε ένα χρονικό διάστημα καθορισμένο μάς βοηθά να δώσουμε μια νέα και συνεχή ώθηση στον αγώνα ενάντια στις φυλακές και στην προπαγάνδιση των ελευθεριακών ιδεών, με οποιαδήποτε δράση, οποιαδήποτε κουβέντα συμπαράστασης να δίνει δύναμη και
κουράγιο στους κρατουμένους. Σε αυτόν τον αγώνα για τη συνολική
απελευθέρωση δεν θέλουμε να αφήσουμε στην απέξω την καταστολή στην οποία υπόκεινται μυριάδες ζώα που βρίσκονται έγκλειστα σε ζωολογικούς κήπους, τσίρκα και εργαστήρια, και την ανάγκη μας να αγωνιστούμε για την απελευθέρωσή τους.
Αυτό το κείμενο καλεί να δείξουμε μέσω της πολύμορφης δράσης και
διαφορετικών εργαλείων πως δεν ξεχνάμε τα έγκλειστα συντρόφια μας και ότι οι αλληλέγγυες χειρονομίες μας ξεφεύγουν οποιουδήποτε πύργου επιτήρησης και διασχίζουν μίλια ωκεανού για ν’ αγκαλιάσουν οποιοδήποτε ανυπότακτο άτομο αγωνίζεται μέσα ή έξω από τις φυλακές. Παρομοίως, αμφισβητούμε την αφηρημένη επιβολή των συνόρων, γι’ αυτό ο αποκαλούμενος διεθνισμός δεν θα ’πρεπε να ’ναι ως έχει, γιατί «στον κόσμο των αφεντικών είμαστε όλοι ξένοι».
Αντάρτικους χαιρετισμούς σε:
- Χιλή: Σε Λουσιάνο Πιτρονέγιο «Τορτούγα», Κάρλα Βερδούγο και Ιβάν Σίλβα, στους συντρόφους της αποκαλούμενης «υπόθεσης σεκιούριτι» Χουάν Αλίστε Βέγκα, Μαρσέλο Βιγιαροέλ και Φρέντυ Φουεντεβίγια. Επίσης, στους Αλμπέρτο Ολιβάρες, Χουάν Ταπία, καθώς και στα φυγόδικα συντρόφια Γκαμπριέλα Κουριλέμ και Ντιέγο Ρίος. Ακόμη, στους Σεμπαστιάν Φαχάρδο, Εδουάρδο Γκαράυ, Αντριάν Ντίας και σε όλους τους αιχμαλώτους και διωκόμενους των οδομαχιών.
- Βολιβία: Σε Χένρυ Σεγαρρούντο, και Μάυρον Μιοσίρο.
- Αργεντινή: Σε Ντιέγο Πετρισσάνς και Λέανδρο Μορέλ.
- Μεξικό: Στους Μάριο Λόπες, Μπράουλιο Ντουράν και στη φυγόδικη
συντρόφισσα Φελίσιτυ Ράιντερ.
- ΗΠΑ: Στους Μούμια Αμπού Τζαμάλ, Ντάγκλας Ράιτ, Μπράντον Μπάξτερ, Κόννορ
Στήβενς, Τσόσουα Στάφορντ, Μαρί Μασον και Έρικ ΜακΝτέιβιντ.
- Ινδονησία: Στους Ητ και Μπίλλυ.
- Ιταλία: Στους Στέφανο Γκαμπριέλε Φόσκο, Ελίζα Ντι Μπερνάρντο, Αλεσσάντρο
Σεττέπανι, Σέρτζιο Μαρία Στεφάνι, Κάτια Ντι Στέφανο, Τζουζέππε Λο Τούρκο,
Πάολα Φραντσέσκα Ιότζι, Τζιούλια Μαρτσιάλε, Λούκα Αμπά, και στους
καταδικασθέντες για τις διαδηλώσεις ενάντια στη σύνοδο της G8 στη Γένοβα, Μασσιμο πασαμανι, Ντανιελα μπαττιστι(περιορισμενη μεσα στο σπιτι της)
- Ελβετία: Στους Μάρκο Καμένις και Κόστα.
- Γερμανία: Γκαμπριέλ Πόμπο ντα Σίλβα, Σόνια Σούντερ και Κρίστιαν
Γκάουγκερ (η Σόνια και ο Κρίστιαν συνελήφθησαν το περασμένο έτος ύστερα από 33 χρόνια αυτοεξορίας).
- Ισπανία: Στους Ταμάρα Ερνάντες (αυτήν τη στιγμή ελεύθερη, έχει
καταδικαστεί σε 8 έτη φυλάκισης κι αναμένει να λάβει μερική χάρη
προκειμένου να της μειωθεί η ποινή), Κλάουντιο Λαβάτσα και Χουάν Ρίκο.
- Στα έγκλειστα συντρόφια σε Ρωσία και Λευκορωσία.
Ιδίως στην Ελλάδα, σε όλους τους φυλακισμένους αγωνιστές και στους
καταζητούμενους. (Στα συντρόφια της Συνωμοσίας Πυρήνων της Φωτιάς, του Επαναστατικού Αγώνα και σε όλους κι όλες που βρίσκονται όμηροι για αντεξουσιαστική τους πράξη.)
Και σε όλους τους κρατουμένους που κρατάνε μαχητική στάση μέσα απ’ τα
κελιά οπουδήποτε στον κόσμο…
Μέχρι την καταστροφή και του τελευταίου προπύργιου της κοινωνίας των φυλακών!
ΜΕ ΑΓΑΠΗ ΚΑΙ ΛΥΣΣΑ… ΡΑΝΤΕΒΟΥ ΣΤΟ ΔΡΟΜΟ.

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ITALIANO:Settimana di agitazione e solidarieta` internazionale dal 21 al 30 Settembre per i nostri compagni e le nostre compagne sequestrat@ in tutto il mondo

La sopravvivenza nel capitalismo e` cosi` quadricolata e monotona da non essere poi molto differente da quella della cruda prigione; la citta`, gli orari, il lavoro, lo studio, la famiglia e un innumerabile quantita` di organismi oppresivi, ci asfissiano in tal modo che a volte sembrerebbe stessimo in qualche grande sezione carceraria. Videocamere di vigilanza 24 ore al giorno, migliaia di sbirri custodiando la proprieta`, severi giudici con sorrisetti soddisfatti all’applicare le loro leggi durissime, strette manette che precedono le loro gabbie inespugnabili e un lunghissimo eccetera, e` tutto cio` che la societa` utilizza per mantenere controllati gli individui, coloro che, timorosi dei castighi promessi a chi sconfina i codici di condotta imposta, tacciono, si abituano alla oppressione, la assimilano come parte integrale della vita, come qualcosa di naturale e preferiscono evitare i conflitti con la autorita` invece di ribellarsi.
I potenti di tutti gli stati non si sono risparmiti sforzi di tutti i tipi per reprimere e incarcerare coloro che si sono mantenuti in posizioni di scontro con l’esistente.
Ma oggi non scriveremo a proposito della sopravvivenza dentro al capitalismo, vogliamo invece salutare quell@ che non hanno avuto nessun dubbio a traspassare i loro recinti morali e si sono scontrati faccia a faccia con il potere, quell@ che ad oggi dormono dentro al piu`palpabile edificio della repressione, il carcere. Scriviamo per esprimere la nostra urgenza di solidarizzare con i nostri compagni e le nostre compagne in galera.
Il potere attacca incarcerando i compagni e le compagne e si coordina per combattere le idee di liberta`.
Questa vendetta ricade principalmente su individui ben riconoscibili che senza maschere si sono dichiarati antiautoritari o anarchici e hanno fatto del propagarsi delle idee-azioni una importantissima arma di lotta, come cio` che e` successo in Italia, Bolivia o Cile.
Il fantasma che si genera nella possibilita`di una rete internazionale (non ci riferiamo a nessun tipo di organizzazione) continui a materializzarsi, come una proposta reale.
Una rete nella quale compagn@ di differenti luoghi del mondo, che non si conoscono ne`si conosceranno mai, che non obbediscono a nessun tipo di struttura e  che non hanno bisogno di ideologi ne`leader, uniscano volonta`, sforzi e complicita`per confrontarsi con il dominio in tutto il suo spettro; che, attraverso differenti strumenti, superando le barriere linguistiche e le frontiere fittizie, stabiliscano legami di solidarieta` e superino le false imposizioni…
Convochiamo quindi, dal 21 al 30 di settembre, una settimana di agitazione e solidarieta’  con i nostri fratelli e le nostre sorelle, con i compagni e le compagne sequestrat@ in tutto il mondo.
Anche se non dovrebbe essere necessario appellare a settimane di agitazione, visto che in generale ne siamo critici perche` la solidarieta’ non conosce date di calendario, i gesti comunque si vanno diluendo nella continua voragine della informazione e nelle “cosidette lotte locali” mentre la concentrazione delle energie in un lasso di tempo ridotto, ci aiuta invece a dare un nuovo e costante impulso nella lotta contro le carceri e nella diffusione delle idee libertarie; qualsiasi azione, qualsiasi parola di appoggio apporta forza e coraggio ai detenuti e alle detenute.
E in questa lotta per la liberazione totale non vogliamo tralasciare la repressione che soffrono milioni di animali chiusi in zoo, circhi e laboratori, e della nostra necessita` di lottare per la loro liberazione.
Questo testo e` una chiamata per dire, mediante l’azione multiforme e con distinti strumenti, che i nostri compagni e le nostre compagne incarcerat@ non sono dimenticat@, i nostri gesti di solidarieta’ evadono qualsiasi torre di vigilanza e attraversano chilometri di oceano per abbracciare a qualsiasi irriducibile che si posizioni nella lotta dentro e fuori dal carcere.
Della stessa forma poniamo in dubbio questa imposizione astratta delle frontiere, ragione per cui il cosidetto internazionalismo non dovrebbe essere tale, visto che “nel mondo dei leader siamo tutti stranieri”.
Saluti ribelli a:
-In Cile: Luciano Pitronello “Tortuga”, Carla Verdugo e Iván Silva, a i compagni e le compagne del cosidetto  “caso Segurity”:  Juan Aliste Vega, Marcelo Villarroel, Freddy Fuentevilla. A Alberto Olivares, Juan Tapia e ai fratelli e sorelle profugh@  Gabriela Curilem e Diego Rios. E agli arrestati della lotta di strada; Sebastian Fajardo, Eduardo Garay, e a tutt@ quell@ che sono ora sotto processo per gli scontri di strada.
- In Bolivia: Henry Serragundo e Mayron Mioshiro.
- in Argentina: Diego Petrissans e Leandro Morel.
- in Messico: Mario Lopez, Braulio Duran e la compagna  prófuga Felicity Ryder.
-Negli Stati uniti : Mumia Abu Jamal, Douglas Wrigth, Brandon Baxter, Connor Stevens, Joshua Stafford, Marie Mason e Eric McDavid.
-In Indonesia: Eat y Billy.
-In Italia: Stefano Gabriele Fosco, Elisa Di Bernardo, Alessandro Settepani, Sergio Maria Stefani, Katia Di Stefano, Giuseppe Lo Turco, Paola Francesca Iozzi, Giulia Marziale, Lucca Abbá e a chi e’ stat@ condannat@ per le proteste del G8 a Genova, Massimo Passamani e Daniela Battisti (agli arresti domiciliari).
-In Svizzera: Marco Camenish e Costa.
-In Germania: Gabriel Pombo da Silva. Sonja Suder e Christian Gauger (questi ultimi due arrestati l’anno scorso dopo 3 anni di fuga).
-In Spagna: Tamara Hernández (adesso a piede libero, condannata a 8 anni e aspettando l’indulto parziale per accorciare la pena), Claudio Lavazza e Juan Rico.
-Ai compagni e alle compagne incarcerat@ in Russia e Biolorrussia.
- E specialmente a tutt@ i/le prigionier@ in lotta e ai/alle profugh@ in Grecia. (Ai compagni e le compagne di Cellule di Fuoco, Lotta rivoluzionaria e tutt@ quell@ che sono stat@ incarcerat@ per la propria pratica antiautoritaria)
E a tutt@ i/le prigionier@ che si posizionano in guerra anche dentro le gabbie in qualsiasi parte del mondo…
Fino alla distruzione dell’ultimo bastione della societa’ carceraria!

CON AMORE E RABIA… CI VEDIAMO NELLE STRADE!

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GERMAN
Agitations- und Solidaritätswoche mit unseren gefangenen Schwestern, Brüdern und GenossInnen auf der ganzen Welt vom 21. bis 30. September.

Das Überleben im Kapitalismus ist so eingeschränkt und monoton, dass es sich nicht allzu sehr vom hartem Gefängnisleben unterscheidet; die Stadt, die Zeitpläne, die Arbeit, das Studium, die Familie und eine Unzahl an unterdrückenden Organismen ersticken uns, so dass es manchmal scheint, als ob wir in irgendeinem großen Gefängnistrakt wären. Videoüberwachung 24 Stunden am Tag, Tausende von Polizisten, die das Eigentum beaufsichtigen, strenge Richter mit zufriedenen Lächeln auf den Lippen, wenn sie ihre harten Gesetze anwenden, fest sitzende Fußfesseln, die ihren unerschütterlichen Käfigen vorausgehen und eine langen Liste an weiteren Mitteln, die die Gesellschaft benützt, um die Individuen in Schranken zu halten; die versprochenen Strafen bei Überschreitung der auferlegten Verhaltensmaßregeln fürchtend, halten sie den Mund, gewöhnen sich an die Unterdrückung, nehmen sie als Teil ihres Lebens, als etwas natürliches auf und ziehen es somit vor, Konflikte mit der Autorität zu vermeiden und sich lieber nicht aufzulehnen.
Die Mächtigen aller Staaten haben keinerlei Mühen gescheut, um diejenigen zu unterdrücken und einzusperren, die in Konfrontationsstellung zu den bestehenden Verhältnissen verharrt haben. Aber heute schreiben wir nicht über das Überleben innerhalb des Kapitalismus, sondern grüssen diejenigen, die nicht gezweifelt haben, ihre moralische Einzäunung zu durchbrechen und sich von Angesicht zu Angesicht der Macht entgegengestellt haben, die heute in dem greifbarsten Gebäude der Repression schlafen, im Gefängnis. Wir schreiben, um der Notwendigkeit Ausdruck zu verleihen, uns mit unseren GenossInnen im Gefängnis zu solidarisieren.
Die Macht greift an, indem sie GenossInnen einsperrt und koordiniert sich, um die Ideen der Freiheit zu bekämpfen; diese Rache fällt vor allem auf erkennbare Individuen ab, die sich offen antiautoritär und anarchisch erklärt und aus der Verbreitung der Ideen-Aktionen eine sehr wichtige Waffe des Kampfes gemacht haben, so wie in Italien, Bolivien und $hile. Das Gespenst, das ihnen die Möglichkeit eines internationalen Netzwerkes eröffnet (wir beziehen uns auf keinerlei Art von Organisation), materialisiert sich immer mehr als ein realer Vorschlag, in dem GenossInnen aus verschiedenen Orten der Welt, die sich weder kennen, noch kennenlernen werden, die keiner Art von Struktur gehorchen und die keine Ideologen, keine AnführerInnen benötigen, Wille, Anstrengung und Komplizenschaft vereinen, um sich der Herrschaft in all ihren Spektren entgegen zu stellen, Solidaritätsbände knüpfen und die falschen Zwänge überwinden, indem sie unterschiedliche Werkzeuge gebrauchen und die sprachlichen Hürden und erfundenen Grenzen überbrücken…
Deswegen rufen wir zu einer Agitations- und Solidaritätswoche mit unseren gefangenen Schwestern, Brüdern und GenossInnen auf der ganzen Welt vom 21. bis 30. September auf. Auch wenn es nicht notwendig sein sollte, zu Agitationswochen aufzurufen -im Allgemeinen stehen wir ihnen kritisch gegenüber, weil die Solidarität keine Kalenderdaten kennt, lösen sich die Gesten jedoch manchmal im fortlaufendem Strudel der Information und den “so genannten lokalen Kämpfen” auf. Die Energien auf einen engeren Zeitraum zu konzentrieren hilft uns, dem Kampf gegen die Gefängnisse und der Verbreitung libertärer Ideen einen neuen und konstanten Antrieb zu geben, jegliche Aktion, jegliches Wort der Unterstützung gibt den Gefangenen neue Kraft und Mut.
Ausserdem möchten wir in diesem Kampf um die totale Befreiung die Repression, die Millionen von Tieren eingesperrt in Zoos, Zirkusse und Labore erleiden, und unser Bedürfnis, um ihre Befreiung zu kämpfen, nicht unerwähnt lassen.
Dieser Text ist ein Aufruf dazu, aus der vielgestaltigen Aktion heraus und mit unterschiedlichen Werkzeugen auszudrücken, dass unsere eingesperrten GenossInnen nicht vergessen sind, unsere Gesten der Solidarität entkommen jeglichem Überwachungsturm und überqueren Kilometer von Ozeanen, um jedes unbezwingbare Individuum zu umarmen, das innerhalb oder ausserhalb der Gefängnisse Position bezieht. Ausserdem stellen wir jene abstrakte Auferlegung der Grenzen infrage, und damit auch den so genannten Internationalismus, dieser dürfte sich nicht so nennen, weil in “der Welt der Bosse sind wir alle AussländerInnen”.
Rebelische Grüsse an:
- In Chile: Luciano Pitronello “Tortuga”, Carla Verdugo und Iván Silva, an die Genossen des so genannten “caso Segurity” (“Segurity Fall”): Juan Aliste Vega, Marcelo Villarroel, Freddy Fuentevilla. An Alberto Olivares, Juan Tapia und an die Schwester und den Bruder auf der Flucht Gabriela Curilem und Diego Rios. Und an die Gefangenen des Straßenkampfes; Sebastian Fajardo, Eduardo Garay, und alle, die wegen des Straßenkampfes prozesiert werden.
- In Bolivien: Henry Serragundo und Mayron Mioshiro
- In Argentinien: Diego Petrissans und Leandro Morel.
- In Mexiko: Mario Lopez, Braulio Duran und die flüchtige Genossin Felicity Ryder.
- In den USA: Mumia Abu Jamal, Douglas Wrigth, Brandon Baxter, Connor Stevens, Joshua Stafford, Marie Mason und Eric McDavid.
- In Indonesien: Eat und Billy.
- In Italien: Stefano Gabriele Fosco, Elisa Di Bernardo, Alessandro Settepani, Sergio Maria Stefani, Katia Di Stefano, Giuseppe Lo Turco, Paola Francesca Iozzi, Giulia Marziale, Lucca Abbá und an die Verurteilten wegen der G8 Proteste in Genua, Massimo Passamani und Daniela Battisti.
- In der Schweiz: Marco Camenish und Costa.
- In Deutschland: Gabriel Pombo da Silva. Sonja Suder und Christian Gauger (die letzten beiden letztes Jahr nach 33 Jahren Flucht erfasst).
- In Spanien: Tamara Hernández (auf der Straße, zu 8 Jahren Haft verurteilt und in Erwartung auf Strafminderung, um die Haftstrafe zu kürzen), Claudio Lavazza und Juan Rico.
- An die in Russland und Belarus eingesperrten GenossInnen.
- Besonders an alle kämpfenden Gefangenen und an die Flüchtigen in Griechenland. (An die GenossInnen der Feuerzellen, Revolutionären Kampfes, und all diejenigen, die auf Grund ihrer antiautoritären Praxis eingesperrt worden sind)
Und an all die Gefangenen, die sich innerhalb der Käfige wo auch immer auf der Welt im Krieg erklären und Position beziehen…
¡Bis das letzte Bollwerk der Knastgesellschaft zerstört ist!

MIT LIEBE UND WUT… WIR SEHEN UNS AUF DER STRASSE.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

SPANISH

Semana de Agitación y Solidaridad desde el 21 al 30 de Septiembre con nuestrxs hermanxs y compañerxs secuestradxs en todo el mundo.

La sobrevivencia en el capitalismo es tan cuadriculada y monótona que no difiere demasiado de la cruda cárcel; la ciudad, los horarios, el trabajo, el estudio, la familia y un sinnúmero de organismos opresivos nos asfixian de manera que a veces pareciera que estuviéramos en algún gran módulo carcelario. Cámaras de video vigilancia 24 horas al día, miles de policías custodiando la propiedad, estrictos jueces con sonrisitas satisfechas por aplicar sus durísimas leyes, apretados grilletes que preceden a sus inexpugnables jaulas y un larguísimo etcétera es lo que la sociedad utiliza para mantener a raya a los individuos, quienes temerosos de los castigos prometidos por desbordar los códigos de conducta impuestos, callan, se acostumbran a la opresión, la asimilan como parte integral de su vida, como algo natural prefiriendo evitar conflictos con la autoridad antes que rebelarse.
Los poderosos de todos los Estados, no han escatimado esfuerzos de todo tipo para reprimir y encarcelar a quienes se han mantenido en posiciones de enfrentamiento a lo existente. Pero hoy no escribiremos de la sobrevivencia dentro del capitalismo, sino que saludaremos a esxs que no dudaron en traspasar sus cercas morales y se enfrentaron cara a cara con el Poder, quienes hoy duermen en el más palpable edificio de la represión, la cárcel. Escribimos para expresar nuestra urgencia de solidarizar con nuestrxs compañerxs en prisión.
El Poder ataca encarcelando a compañerxs y se coordina para combatir las ideas de libertad, esta venganza cae principalmente hacia reconocibles individuxs que sin tapujos se han declarado anti-autoritarixs u anárquicxs y han hecho de la propagación de ideas-acciones una importantísima arma de lucha, como lo ocurrido en Italia, Bolivia o $hile. El fantasma que les genera la posibilidad de una red internacional (no nos referimos a ningún tipo de organización) se continúe materializando como una propuesta real, en la cual compañerxs de distintos lugares del mundo, que no se conocen ni se conocerán, que no obedecen a ningún tipo de estructura, y que no requieren de ideólogxs, ni jefxs, aúnen voluntades, esfuerzos y complicidades para enfrentarse al dominio en todo sus espectro, y utilizando distintas herramientas, superando las barreras idiomáticas, y las ficticias fronteras, establezcan lazos de solidaridad y superen las falsas imposiciones….
Es por eso que nos convocamos a una Semana de Agitación y Solidaridad desde el 21 al 30 de Septiembre con nuestrxs hermanxs y compañerxs secuestradxs en todo el mundo. Si bien no debería ser necesario apelar a semanas de agitación, en general somos críticos de ellas, porque la solidaridad no conoce de fechas calendarizadas, sin embargo a veces los gestos se diluyen en la continua vorágine de la información y las “llamadas luchas locales”, la concentración de energías en un espacio de tiempo reducido nos ayuda a dar un nuevo y constante impulso en la lucha contra las cárceles y la propagación de ideas libertarias, cualquier acción, cualquier palabra de apoyo inyecta fuerza y coraje a lxs presxs.
En esta lucha por la liberación total no queremos también dejar de mencionar la represión que sufren millones de animales encerrados en zoológicos, circos y laboratorios, y de nuestra necesidad de luchar por su liberación.
Este texto es un llamado a expresar desde la acción multiforme y con distintas herramientas que nuestrxs compañerxs encarceladxs no están olvidadxs, nuestros gestos solidaridad evaden cualquier torre de vigilancia y atraviesan kilómetros oceánicos para abrazar a cualquier irreductible que se posicione en lucha dentro o fuera de las cárceles.
Asimismo nos cuestionamos esa abstracta imposición de las fronteras, por lo tanto el llamado internacionalismo, no debería ser tal, porque en “el mundo de los jefes somos todxs extranjerxs”.
Saludos rebeldes a:
-En Chile: Luciano Pitronello “Tortuga”, Carla Verdugo e Iván Silva, a lxs compaeñros del llamado “caso Segurity”: Juan Aliste Vega, Marcelo Villarroel, Freddy Fuentevilla. A Alberto Olivares, Juan Tapia y a lxs hermanxs profugxs Gabriela Curilem y Diego Ríos. Y a los presos de la lucha callejera; Sebastian Fajardo, Eduardo Garay, Adrián Díaz y todxs lxs que se encuentran procesadxs por la lucha callejera.
-En Bolivia: Henry Serragundo y Mayron Mioshiro.
-En Argentina: Diego Petrissans y Leandro Morel.
-En Mexico: Mario Lopez, Braulio Duran y a la compañera prófuga Felicity Ryder.
-En Estados Unidos: Mumia Abu Jamal, Douglas Wrigth, Brandon Baxter, Connor Stevens, Joshua Stafford, Marie Mason y Eric McDavid
-En Indonesia: Eat y Billy.
-En Italia: Stefano Gabriele Fosco, Elisa Di Bernardo, Alessandro Settepani, Sergio Maria Stefani, Katia Di Stefano, Giuseppe Lo Turco,
Paola Francesca Lozzi, Giulia Marziale, Lucca Abbá a lxs condenadxs por las protestas del G8 en Genova, Massimo Passamani y Daniela Battisti (con arresto domiciliario).
-En Suiza: Marco Camenish y Costa.
-En Alemania: Gabriel Pombo da Silva, Sonja Suder y su coacusado Christian Gauger (estxs últimxs capturados el año pasado luego de 33 años de fuga).
-En España: Tamara Hernández (en la calle, condenada a 8 años y a espera de indulto parcial para recortar la pena), Claudio Lavazza y Juan Rico.
-A lxs compañerxs enjauladxs en Rusia y Biolorrusia.
-En especial a todxs lxs presxs en lucha y a lxs prófugos en Grecia. (A lxs compañerxs de la Conspiración de Células del Fuego, Lucha Revolucionaria, y todxs aquellxs que han sido encarcelados por su praxis anti autoritaria).
Y a todxs lxs prisionerxs que se posicionan en guerra dentro de las jaulas en cualquier lugar del mundo…
¡Hasta destruir el último bastión de la sociedad carcelaria!

CON AMOR Y RABIA… NOS VEMOS EN LA CALLE.

PP/POW Updates and Announcements - 28 Aug 2012

From: "NYC ABC"
Date: Sat, September 1, 2012

Here's the latest compilation of every other week updates. We've mailed
hard copies to Sundiata Acoli, Joe-Joe Bowen, David Gilbert, Marie Mason,
Eric McDavid, Daniel McGowan, Jalil Muntaqim and Sekou Odinga. Please
download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you
correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the
same:

http://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/updates-28-aug-2012.pdf

--
NYC ABC
Post Office Box 110034
Brooklyn, New York 11211
nycabc[at]riseup[dot]net
http://nycabc.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/nycabc
http://twitter.com/nycabc
http://www.abcf.net/nyc
Free all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War!
For the Abolition of State Repression and Domination!

Political Prisoner Birthday Poster For September Is Now Available

Aug. 30, 2012 Prison Books.info

Hello Friends and Comrades,

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

There are a lot of updates this month.

Firstly, there is a call for a day of action against mass incarceration on September 21st on the anniversary of the execution of Troy Davis. Find out more info here.

Also coming up, on September 12th, immediately before the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the crimethinc. ex-workers collective will meet Chris Hedges in New York City for a public debate about diversity of tactics. This debate will be free and open to the public, and livestreamed for those who can’t attend. More info and a link to the livestream can be found here.

New evidence points to the “Abuse of State Power” and revengeful retaliation by the Greensboro Police in the RICO case against Latin King Jorge Cornell and other NC Latin Kings. Their trial has been set for October 15th. Jorge Cornell’s birthday is this month, so be sure to send him some words of encouragement.


It certainly hurts to have to relay the news that once again Sundiata Acoli has been denied parole. His case has been referred to a panel of three people to determine the amount of time he will have to serve before becoming eligible for another hearing. Sundiata is now 74 years old and has served nearly 40 of those years in federal prison. Please take a moment to write him a card or letter
.
(Sundiata Acoli) Clark Squire #39794-066
FCI Cumberland
Post Office Box 1000
Cumberland, Maryland 21501-1000

On August 4th it was announced that prisoners at Central in Raleigh voted to end their hunger strike, started on July 16th in protest of conditions on Unit 1. We have not heard from prisoners at Bertie or Scotland. Small groups of prisoners at Foothills CI and Tabor CI have also said they have joined the protest. More info here.  Information on reprisals against alleged organizers can be found here.
A prisoner at Polk CI in Butner, NC recently published a new account of life in solitary (specifically, HCON). Titled Voices from the Tombs of H-CON, it functions as an expose of the torturous conditions of solitary confinement in America. You can view the text in full here, or on our resources page.
The latest edition of Earth First! Newsletter  is out. This issue includes recent dispatches from the eco-wars, an updated directory of environmental action groups, prisoner support listing, events calendar, and a clever new tip for ol’ Ned Ludd. This is a great resource for your distro table or infoshop. You can find a photo-copyable pdf of it here.

Lastly, here is a link to the latest Political Prisoner/Prisoner Of War every-other week update by the  NYC-Anarchist Black Cross. There are lots of good updates on many political prisoners.

Until Every Cage Is Empty,
The Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective

Colombian Prison Strikes Continue-Inhumane Conditions “Made in the USA”

by James Jordan afgj.org

 

Strikes involving thousands of prisoners at 21 institutions continue in Colombia against the humanitarian crisis in the jails. Overcrowding is rampant and in many prisons the availability of potable water and clean, unspoiled food is severely restricted. There is little adequate health care, especially for the seriously ill. For instance, José Lamprea is a prisoner whose four year sentence is in danger of turning into a death penalty. Confined to a wheel chair by what may be bone cancer, he has still not received medical treatement that was court ordered in November, 2011.

Torture is so commonplace in the jails that a 2008 study by Colombia’s Committee in Solidarity with the Political Prisoners showed that when asked if the inmates had been tortured at least once during their jail time, 54% answered they had and 46% did not answer the question at all. Eighty-six percent said that they had experienced psychological torture, including threats to relatives and simulated executions.

Conditions in Colombian prisons should be of special concern for residents and citizens of the United States. In 2000, the US Ambassador signed an agreement with the Colombian Minister of the Interior named the Program for the Improvement of the Colombian Prison System (PICPS). Under the PICPS, the US would help build a series of new prisons to create a “New Penitentiary Culture”. This effort has been funded and advised via USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and the US Bureau of Prisons.

One reason given for this program was to alleviate overcrowding. However, rates of arrests went up far more quickly than new jails and the number of political arrests that were later thrown out of court for lack of evidence rose by 300% (with most of the accused spending two to three years in jail before release). This does not include political prisoners who have been convicted for their activities. The estimated number of political prisoners has grown from 7,200 to over 10,000 since 2008.
New jail construction has been less about relieving overcrowding than preparing for a much larger prison population as a result of social and economic disruption and punishing political dissent. With passage of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement many observers fear that poverty rates will worsen and crimes of desperation and prison populations will increase. Unfortunately, US and Colombian authorities see the “New Penitentiary Culture” as a model and are seeking to replicate it in Central America (where in Honduras the US has announced a new “Model Penitentiary” program) and Mexico (where the US is funding construction of 16 new federal prisons).

According to Tulio Murillo Avila, who is a national spokesperson for the Movimiento Nacional Carcelario (National Movement in the Jail),

Jail over-population…is not a new thing, being found today at a national level of 47%, due to the policies of punishment…in the new centers of incarcerations constructed under the influence of the US Bureau of Prisons. In some jails the overcrowding has reached 400%.

Bellavista Jail in Medellín

In a video-recorded interview with the Colombian media outlet RPASUR (Western Colombia Alternative Press Network- www.rpasur.com ), one prisoner representative reported that, “The gravest are the problems with hygiene in the jails and overcrowding. Colombia has a capacity for 78,000 prisoners. We find in Colombia more than 130,000 prisoners.” Almost one-third of the incarcerated are unconvicted persons awaiting trial who are mixed in with the general population and are often subjected to processes that take years before a verdict is rendered.

The first prison constructed with US funding and advice was La Tramacúa, located in the city of Valledupar. Although a “modern” facility built on the basis of US designs, it has become infamous for its terrible conditions. La Tramacúa has been found on at least three occasions (by agencies from the United Nations and the Department of César, as well as by an internatinoal NGO) to be serving food tainted with fecal matter. Sanitary facilities are rarely working and inmates are forced to relieve themselves in buckets and plastic bags which are “disposed of” by being thrown over prison walls.
In 2010, Raquel Mogollón, a member of the Alliance for Global Justice “Colombia Watch” working group, had the chance to visit La Tramacúa with a delegation of Colombian legislators and international human rights defenders. According to Mogollón,

…Inmates say they’re getting access to water about ten minutes a day. However, in the cells there is water…disgusting, dirty water on the floors. [Editor's Note: Past visitors at La Tramacúa have reported that sewage lines often overflow and open sewage runs by kitchen facilities.]

The prison was absolutely, suffocatingly hot with just a few water pipes. What was really bad–I got a look at the water bottles. They were all full of mold. They aren’t able to clean their water jugs. There’s just not enough water available. At one point, you could hear the water coming through the pipes. All the men started running….

The whole place smelled. They said it was cleaned up for us. Mostly, it smelled like urine. They said the bags of feces had been gotten rid of….

The kitchen area was totally dark. They said they’d cleaned that up, too, but it wasn’t that clean. There were three fans and ten giant cauldrons where they were cooking some soup or stew. In the other room where they prepared the food, it was full of flies. There was grease all over the floor. It didn’t smell very good. I saw vegetables and fruit that were spoiled in the preparation area, with flies all around them.

Prisoner collecting daily water at La Tramacúa

Since the beginning of the PICPS, there has been a series of prisoner strikes against such conditions. More often than not they have been violently repressed. Beginning on August 2, 2012, nonviolent resistance began that has included as many as 11,000 prisoners in 21 institutions and is still continuing. Prisoners have used a number of different tactics including hunger strikes, the refusal to participate in prison counts or work programs or to wear prison uniforms, and self-suspension from prison balconies and railings in make-shift hammocks and harnesses. The number one demand of the prisoners is that the Colombian government establish a National Board of Consultation that includes prisoner spokespersons in order to resolve the crisis in the jails.
The prisoners have formulated an additional five basic demands:

1. Declare a Social and Humanitarian Emergency in Colombian jails;
2. Regionalize prisoners in institutions near their families;
3. Reduce all sentences by 20% and increase the use of alternative sentences such as home detention;
4. Resolve problems of health, sanitation and overcrowding;
5. End the extradition of prisoners to foreign countries (which is interfering with Colombia’s internal peace process and in ongoing investigations of links between paramilitary death squads and Colombian politicians).

The response of the Colombian Bureau of Prisons (INPEC) has so far been yet more repression and neglect. On August 10^th, according to the legal collective and political prisoner solidarity organization Lazos de Dignidad (Links of Dignity), which, along with Traspasa los Muros (Beyond the Walls), which they co-founded, has been one of the primary outside organizations supporting the strikers,

…prisoners of the La Modelo jail in Arauca informed us that, in the morning hours, INPEC guards physically attacked four prisoners in Patio One…in reprisal for their participation in the National Days of Protest…..The attacked prisoners were placed in solitary confinement instead of being…attended by medical personnel….

The 12^th of August of 2012, in the afternoon hours, spokespersons for the 34 hunger strikers at the Penitentiary Complex of Picaleña (Ibagué, Tolima), informed us that the state of the strikers has deteriorated, [and they are] suffering severe dizziness, nausea, stomach sickness, cramps, fainting and decreased mobility, without INPEC offering adequate medical attention….

Of particular concern at La Picaleña has been the condition of prisoner spokesperson Alba Libia Esquivel whose health has been especially affected. Esquivel has been on a hunger strike since August 8^th.

Lazos also reported that on August 23,

…in the afternoon hours, the Immediate Reaction Group (GRI) of INPEC entered the High Security Penitentiary in Combita, Boyacá, in a violent manner, proceding to launch tear gas and to beat the strikers, leaving various wounds….Those wounded have been taken in stretchers from their units, their whereabouts unknown.”

On August 27, according to a report from Lazos,

…in the jail of Valledupar, “La Tramacúa”…inmates of Tower Four climbed the structure as a form of protest of the present crisis in the jails. In the morning hours…Sgt. Lucio entered with a group of guards launching tear gas and repressing the protest and attacking the inmates with clubs. The prisoner Wilson Jiménez Mora, who was found suspended from the structure, was thrown from the third floor resulting in a fractured leg.

Isolation from families is the single most oft-cited prisoner complaint. Most prisoners come from impoverished backgrounds and families cannot afford trips to visit faraway prisons. Also, given Colombia’s difficult terrain, and the lack of infrastructure development, a trip of 200 miles can routinely take 12-15 hours in the mountainous regions.

Mogollón tells of a particularly poignant encounter she had while visiting inside La Tramacúa:

The worst thing, the worst kind of torture, wasn’t any kind of violence or anything like that. It seems little, but so many people came up to me and told me about not being able to see their families, being completely shut off. When we walked between the Towers, the prisoners were all bunched up around the gates. People would be calling to me, ‘Doctora! Doctora! Madre! Madre!’ They would want me to write their names down.

One man said, ‘I’ve been here eight years! I can’t see my daughter!’

Another said, ‘I’ve been here twelve years and I haven’t seen my mother the whole time!’

It was one plea after another like that, people who hadn’t seen their families for years. When I asked why, one man responded, ‘We’re poor. Our families can’t afford to make the long trips. And when we think of them coming in here, how it smells like feces, it’s so humiliating, so disgusting. It is so hard to think of them seeing us like this.

Mogollón again talked about the pleas she would hear as she walked through the institution’s halls.

 

We would have to walk through these passageways that crisscrossed among the different units. All the prisoners would be crammed up at the gates and windows, calling to me, “Doctora! Doctora!’ or ‘Madre! Madre!’. I would put my hand up just to acknowledge them. They would give me papers with their names on them. One inmate called to me, ‘Please, please, Madre! I’ve been here six years and I have two hernias. I can’t get treatment, I can’t get medicine!’

Another told me, ‘Look, you’ve got to listen! There is no re-socialization here! There’s no such thing!’

Finally, at one point I stopped in one of the passageways and spoke back to them. I said, ‘Look, I wish I could help each one of you, but I can’t! I can’t because this place is modeled on a US system. This model is based on punishment and the people who designed this system don’t care about re-socialization. They don’t care what happens to you! All I can do is to go back and do what I can to change this whole system and draw attention to what you are suffering.

All of a sudden, they started clapping, yelling, ‘Go on!’ and ‘You speak the truth!’

And that is what we must do here in the US: we must go and speak the truth about this situation our government has helped create. We must intervene on behalf of Colombia’s prisoners—not only the more than 10,000 political prisoners, but on behalf of all those whose lives have been broken by the US/Corporate Empire and the neoliberal economic and political system it tries to impose throughout the world.

Here are some things that you can do.

1. Cut and paste the follwing sample in Spanish or write your own message and email it to the following Colombian, United Nations and US State Department Officials, and to AfGJ, at:

embassyofcolombia@colombiaemb.org, emwas@colombiaemb.org, ccuevas@colombiaemb.org, fsantos@presidencia.gov.co, ministro@minjusticia.gov.co, reclamos@mij.gov.co, direccion@inpec.gov.co, reclamos@inpec.gov.co, cidhoea@oas.org, cidhdenuncias@oas.org, apizarro@oas.org, oacnudh@hchr.co, secretaria_privada@hotmail.com, agenda@agenda.gov.co, RothenbergLL@state.gov, james@afgj.org

Todo el mundo esta observando lo que pasa en los penitenciarios en Colombia. Sabemos del hacinamiento; que las cárceles no están proviendo a sus internos las necesidades básicas como comida y agua limpia y servicio desalud; que violencia en contra de las presas y los presos es epidémico; que los servicios de resocialización son limitados y en vez se favorecen las políticas de castigo y negligencia. Yo apoyo a los y las huelgistas de las cárceles colombianas que exigen condiciones mejores y especialmente apoyo la declaración de Estado de Emergencia Carcelaria y el establecimiento de una Mesa Nacional de Concertación que incluye portavoces para las presas y los presos con la meta de resolver esta situación.

In ENGLISH:

The whole world is watching what is taking place in Colombian prisons. We know that Colombian prisons are overcrowded; that many prisons are not providing their inmates with basic necessities such as clean food and water and basic health care; that violence against prisoners is epidemic; that rehabilitation services are severely limited in favor of policies of punishment and neglect. I support Colombia’s striking prisoners in demanding better conditions and, especially, the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Colombian penal system and the establishment of a National Board of Consultation, including spokespersons for the prisoners, to remedy this situation.

2. Call or fax the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC, using the above sample or your own words. They can be reached at 202-387-8388 or you can send them a fax at 202-232-8643.
3. There’s a very good chance that your Representative and Senators in the US Congress do not even know about the US-sponsored PICPS and the “New Penitentiary Culture”. We encourage you to set up a visit with your elected representatives to educate them about this issue and to demand that they use their influence to call on the Colombian government to take immediate action to improve conditions in the prisons and to call for a Congressional investigation of the PICPS and the conditions it has lead to in prisons such as La Tramacúa. We must also ask them to intervene to stop this model from being further imported into Central America and Mexico. If you would be willing to organize such a visit, please send an email to James@afgj.org to receive background material for your visit.

The Marikana Massacre: Details of deliberate police murder begin to emerge

Aug. 31, 2012 Libcom.org

This article is from the mainstream media in South Africa but has invaluable details on what actually happened when the police left 35 strikers dead and another 78 injured.
 

The murder fields of Marikana. The cold murder fields of Marikana.

The majority of the dead in the 16 August massacre at Marikana appear to have been shot at close range or crushed by police vehicles. They were not caught in a fusillade of gunfire from police defending themselves, as the official account would have it. GREG MARINOVICH spent two weeks trying to understand what really happened. What he found was profoundly disturbing.

Of the 34 miners killed at Marikana, no more than a dozen of the dead were captured in news footage shot at the scene. The majority of those who died, according to surviving strikers and researchers, were killed beyond the view of cameras at a nondescript collection of boulders some 300 metres behind Wonderkop.

On one of these rocks, encompassed closely on all sides by solid granite boulders, is the letter ‘N’, the 14th letter of the alphabet. Here, N represents the 14th body of a striking miner to be found by a police forensics team in this isolated place. These letters are used by forensics to detail were the corpses lay.

There is a thick spread of blood deep into the dry soil, showing that N was shot and killed on the spot. There is no trail of blood leading to where N died – the blood saturates one spot only, indicating no further movement. (It would have been outside of the scope of the human body to crawl here bleeding so profusely.)

Approaching N from all possible angles, observing the local geography, it is clear that to shoot N, the shooter would have to be close. Very close, in fact, almost within touching distance. (After having spent days here at the bloody massacre site, it does not take too much imagination for me to believe that N might have begged for his life on that winter afternoon.)

And on the deadly Thursday afternoon, N’s murderer could only have been a policeman. I say murderer because there is not a single report on an injured policeman from the day. I say murderer because there seems to have been no attempt to uphold our citizens’ right to life and fair recourse to justice. It is hard to imagine that N would have resisted being taken into custody when thus cornered. There is no chance of escape out of a ring of police.

Other letters denote equally morbid scenarios. J and H died alongside each other. They, too, had no route of escape and had to have been shot at close range.

Other letters mark the rocks nearby. A bloody handprint stains a vertical rock surface where someone tried to support themselves standing up; many other rocks are splattered with blood as miners died on the afternoon of 16 August.

None of these events were witnessed by media or captured on camera. They were only reported on as component parts in the sum of the greater tragedy.

One of the striking miners caught up in the mayhem, let’s call him “Themba”, though his name is known to the Daily Maverick, recalled what he saw once he escaped the killing fields around Wonderkop.

“Most people then called for us to get off the mountain, and as we were coming down, the shooting began. Most people who were shot near the kraal were trying to get into the settlement; the blood we saw is theirs. We ran in the other direction, as it was impossible now to make it through the bullets.
“We ran until we got to the meeting spot and watched the incidents at the koppie. Two helicopters landed; soldiers and police surrounded the area. We never saw anyone coming out of the koppie.”
The soldiers he refers to were, in fact, part of the police task team dressed in camouflage uniforms, brought to the scene in a brown military vehicle. Asked about this, Themba said he believed people were hiding at the koppie, and police went in and killed them.

In the days after the shooting, Themba visited friends at the nearby mine hospital. “Most people who are in hospital were shot at the back. The ones I saw in hospital had clear signs of being run over by the Nyalas,” he said. “I never got to go to the mortuary, but most people who went there told me that they couldn’t recognise the faces of the dead (they were so damaged by either bullets of from being driven over).”

It is becoming clear to this reporter that heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood. A minority were killed in the filmed event where police claim they acted in self-defence. The rest was murder on a massive scale.

Peter Alexander, chair in Social Change and professor of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg, and two researchers interviewed witnesses in the days after the massacre. Researcher Botsong Mmope spoke to a miner, Tsepo, on Monday 20 August. Tsepo (not his real name) witnessed some of the events that occurred off camera.

“Tsepo said many people had been killed at the small koppie and it had never been covered (by the media). He agreed to take us to the small koppie, because that is where many, many people died,” Mmope said.

After the shooting began, Tsepo said, he was among many who ran towards the small koppie. As the police chased them, someone among them said, “Let us lie down, comrades, they will not shoot us then.”

“At that time, there were bullets coming from a helicopter above them. Tsepo then lay down. A number of fellow strikers also lay down. He says he watched Nyalas driving over the prostrate, living miners,” Mmope said. “Other miners ran to the koppie, and that was where they were shot by police and the army** with machine guns.” (** Several witnesses and speakers at the miners' gathering referring to the army, or amajoni, actually refer to a police task team unit in camouflage uniforms and carrying R5 semi-automatic files on the day. – GM)

When the firing finally ceased, Tsepo managed to escape across the veld to the north.

It took several days for police to release the number of those killed. The number 34 surprised most of us. With only about a dozen bodies recorded by the media, where exactly had the remaining miners been killed, and how did they die?

Most journalists and others did not interrogate this properly. The violence of the deaths we could see, again and again, was enough to contend with. The police certainly did not mention what happened outside of the view of the cameras.

The toll of 112 mineworkers (34 dead and 78 wounded) at Marikana is one of those few bitter moments in our bloody history that has been captured by the unblinking eye of the lens. Several lenses, in fact, and from various viewpoints.

This has allowed the actions and reactions of both the strikers and the police to be scrutinised in ways that undocumented tragedies can never be. Therefore, while the motives and rationale of both parties will never be completely clear, their deeds are quite apparent.

Thus developed a dominant narrative within the public discourse. The facts have been fed by the police, various state entities and by the media that the strikers provoked their own deaths by charging and shooting at the forces of law and order. Indeed, the various images and footage can be read to support this claim.

The contrary view is that the striking miners were trying to escape police rubber bullets and tear gas when they ran at the heavily armed police task team (our version of SWAT). The result was the horrific images of a dozen or so men gunned down in a fusillade of automatic fire.

From the outside the jumble of granite at Small Koppie, the weathered remains of a prehistoric hill, it would appear that nothing more brutal than the felling of the straggly indigenous trees for firewood occurred here.

Once within the outer perimeter, narrow passages between the weathered bushveld rocks lead into dead ends. Scattered piles of human faeces and toilet paper mark the area as the communal toilet for those in the miners’ shack community without pit toilets.

It is inside here, hidden from casual view, that the rocks bear the yellow letters methodically sprayed on by the forensic team to denote where they found the miners’ bodies. The letter N appears to take the death toll at this site to 14. Some of the other letters are difficult to discern, especially where they were sprayed on the dry grass and sand.

The yellow letters speak as if they are the voices of the dead. The position of the letters, denoting the remains of once sweating, panting, cursing, pleading men, tell a story of policemen hunting men like beasts. They tell of tens of murders at close range, in places hidden from the plain sight.
N, for example, died in a narrow redoubt surrounded on four sides by solid rock. His killer could not have been further than two meters from him – the geography forbids any other possibility.

Why did this happen?

Let us look back at the events of Monday, 13 August, three days prior to these events.
Themba, a second-generation miner from the Eastern Cape, was present then too. He was part of a group of some 30 strikers who were delegated to cross the veld that separated them from another Lonmin platinum mine, Karee.

It was at Karee mine that other rock drill operators led a wildcat strike to demand better wages. The National Union of Mineworkers did not support them, and management took a tough line. The strike was unsuccessful, with many of the strikers losing their jobs. The Marikana miners figured there were many miners there still angry enough to join them on Wonderkop.

The Marikana strikers never reached their fellow workers; instead, mine security turned them back and told them to return by a route different from the one they had come by.

On this road, they met a contingent of police. Themba said there were some 10 Nyalas and one or two police trucks or vans. The police barred their way and told them to lay down their weapons. The workers refused, saying they needed the pangas to cut wood, as they lived in the bush, and more honestly, that they were needed to defend themselves.

The Friday before, they said, three of their number had been killed by people wearing red NUM T-shirts.

The police line parted and they were allowed to continue, but once they were about 10 metres past, the police opened fire on them.

The miners turned and took on the police.

It was here, he said, that they killed two policemen and injured another. The police killed two miners and injured a third severely, from helicopter gunfire, Themba said. The miners carried the wounded man back to Wonderkop, where he was taken to hospital in a car. His fate is unknown.

Police spokesman Captain Dennis Adriao, when asked about the incident by telephone, said public order policing officers were attacked by miners, who hacked the two policemen to death and critically injured another. He said eight people had been arrested until then for that incident and for the 10 deaths prior to 16 August. “Two are in custody in hospital who were injured in the attack on the police.”

The police version of how this event took place is quite different from that of Themba, but what is clear is that the police had already arrested people for the murders committed thus far.

Why, then, the urgency to confront those among the thousands camped on Wonderkop in the days leading up to the massacre on 16 August?

But let us, in this article, not get too distracted by this obvious question, and return to the events of 16 August itself.

The South African Government Information website still carries this statement, dated from the day of the Marikana massacre:

“Following extensive and unsuccessful negotiations by SAPS members to disarm and disperse a heavily armed group of illegal gatherers at a hilltop close to Lonmin Mine, near Rustenburg in the North West Province, the South African Police Service was viciously attacked by the group, using a variety of weapons, including firearms. The Police, in order to protect their own lives and in self-defence, were forced to engage the group with force. This resulted in several individuals being fatally wounded, and others injured.”

This police statement clearly states that the police acted in self-defence, despite the fact that not a single policeman suffered any injury on 16 August.

And as we discussed earlier, it is possible to interpret what happened in the filmed events as an over-reaction by the police to a threat. What happened afterwards, 400 metres away at Small Koppie, is quite different. That police armoured vehicles drove over prostrate miners cannot be described as self-defence or as any kind of public order policing.

The geography of those yellow spray painted letters tells a chilling and damning story and lends greater credence to what the strikers have been saying.

One miner, on the morning after the massacre, told Daily Maverick that, “When one of our miners passed a Nyala, there was a homeboy of his from the Eastern Cape inside, and he told him that today was D-day, that they were to come and shoot. He said there was a paper signed allowing them to shoot us.”

The language reportedly used by the policeman is strikingly similar to that used by Adriao early on 16 August, and quoted on MineWeb: “We have tried over a number of days to negotiate with the leaders and with the gathering here at the mine, our objective is to get the people to surrender their weapons and to disperse peacefully.”

“Today is D-day in terms of if they don't comply then we will have to act ... we will have to take steps,” he said.

A little later he commented: “Today is unfortunately D-day,” police spokesman Dennis Adriao said. “It is an illegal gathering. We've tried to negotiate and we'll try again, but if that fails, we'll obviously have to go to a tactical phase.”

Speaking to the possible intention of the police, let us look at how the deployed police were armed. The weapons used by the majority of the more than 400 police on the scene were R5 (a licensed replica of the Israeli Galil SAR) or LM5 assault rifles, designed for infantry and tactical police use. These weapons cannot fire rubber bullets. The police were clearly deployed in a military manner – to take lives, not to deflect possible riotous behaviour.

The death of their comrades three days previously set the stage for the police, who have been increasingly accused of brutality, torture and death in detention, to exact their revenge. What is unclear is how high up the chain of command this desire went.

There has been police obfuscation and selective silence in a democratic society where the police are, theoretically, accountable to the citizenry, as well as to our elected representatives. We live in a country where people are assumed innocent until proven guilty; where summary executions are not within the police’s discretion.

Let us be under no illusion. The striking miners are no angels. They can be as violent as anyone else in our society. And in an inflamed setting such as at Marikana, probably more so. They are angry, disempowered, feel cheated and want more than a subsistence wage. Whatever the merits of their argument, and the crimes of some individuals among them, more than 3,000 people gathering at Wanderkop did not merit being vulnerable to summary and entirely arbitrary execution at the hands of a paramilitary police unit.

In light of this, we could look at the events of 16 August as the murder of 34 and the attempted murder of a further 78 who survived despite the police’s apparent intention to kill them.

Back at the rocks the locals dubbed Small Koppie, a wild pear flowers among the debris of the carnage and human excrement; a place of horror that has until now remained terra incognita to the public. It could also be the place where the Constitution of South Africa has been dealt a mortal blow. DM

Note: We have put these questions to the police and they state that they are unable to comment on, or give further detail regarding, to what happened at and around Small Koppie 13 August. We are awaiting comment from the IPID.

Grand Jury Dates and Demonstrations Postponed

Aug 30, 2012 nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com

Thanks to everyone who called in today. Hundreds of people flooded the
US attorney's office with calls. This afternoon the people subpoenaed
for tomorrow's grand jury hearing received word that their appearances
were being postponed till mid September.

As of now, the solidarity demonstrations in Portland, Oregon and
Seattle, Washington have been postponed until the next appearance dates.
We will update the website when we have more details about dates and times.

Again thanks to everyone who has been calling, attending or planning
solidarity demos, putting on benefits and donating money. Your
solidarity and support is much appreciated.

****************************************************************
*"Solidarity is What the State Fears"*

Posted on August 28, 2012

A statement from Leah-Lynn Plante on her refusal to testify before the
grand jury

August 28, 2012

My name is Leah-Lynn Plante, and I am one of the people who has been
subpoenaed to a secret grand jury, meeting in Seattle on August 30.

This will be the second time I have appeared before the grand jury, and
the second time I have refused to testify. The first time was on August
2. I appeared, as ordered, and I identified myself. Then the US Attorney
asked if I would be willing to answer her questions. I said, No, and was
issued another subpoena, this time for the 30th.

A month later, my answer is still the same. No, I will not answer their
questions. I believe that these hearings are politically motivated. The
government wants to use them to collect information that it can use in a
campaign of repression. I refuse to have any part of it.

It is likely that the government will put me in jail for that refusal.

I hate the very idea of prison. But I know, if I am sent there, I will
not be alone. I can only speak for myself, but I have every faith that
the others subpoenaed to these hearings will likewise refuse. And I know
that hundreds of people have called the US Attorney demanding that they
end this tribunal. Hundreds of organizations, representing thousands of
people, signed onto a statement expressing solidarity with those of us
under attack and demanding an end to this sort of repression.

I know that those people will continue to support me, and the others
subpoenaed, and the targets of the investigation. That spirit of
solidarity is exactly what the state fears. It is the source of our
strength, yours and mine. And that strength shows itself in every act of
resistance.

Facing Grand Jury Intimidation: Fear, Silence and Solidarity

Thursday, 30 August 2012 By Natasha Lennard, Truthout 

(Photo: Brass Gavel via Shutterstock)We've seen some pretty bold anti-authoritarian actions across the country in the last month. Police vehicles were vandalized in San Francisco, Oakland, Illinois and Milwaukee. Anarchist redecorators visited courthouses, police substations, sports car dealerships and more. Banners dropped in New York, Atlanta, Vancouver, Seattle and elsewhere echoed their graffitied sentiments: "Fuck Grand Juries"; "Solidarity with Northwest Anarchists." Boldest of all, however (and the inspiration underpinning this spate), has been the action from a small group of anarchists in the Pacific Northwest: silence.

Two Portland-based activists, Leah-Lynn Plante and Dennison Williams, publicly announced late last month that they had been subpoenaed to appear in front of a federal grand jury in Seattle and that they would refuse to cooperate. During a grand jury hearing on August 2, Plante did just this - offering her name and birthdate only - and has been summoned to return for another hearing on August 30, where she again intends to say nothing. Meanwhile, it is believed a handful of other activists are fighting to quash subpoenas served to them with the shared intention of noncooperation.
Grand juries are among the blackest boxes in the federal judiciary system. Given their highly secretive nature, few people within - or outside - activist circles know what it means to be called to a grand jury and what it takes to resist.

"Our passion for freedom is stronger than their state prisons," Williams announced in a statement on behalf of himself and Plante about their intention to resist the grand jury, referencing the fact that by merely staying silent, the two could face considerable jail time, despite facing no criminal charges.
The Seattle grand jury subpoenas were served in late July, when the FBI and a Joint Terrorist Task Force conducted a series of raids on activist homes and squats in Portland, Olympia and Seattle with warrants seeking out computers, phones, black clothing and "anarchist literature." The FBI has stated only that the grand jury pertains to "violent crime," but it is believed to relate to property damage in Seattle during this year's May Day protests. The relatively small scale of the property destruction - a handful of spraypainted cars, slashed tires and smashed windows at a downtown Starbucks, Niketown, Wells Fargo and American Apparel store - in comparison to the cost of the police and FBI investigations points to the likelihood that the raids and grand juries have been widely dubbed a witch hunt, understood by commentators and activists alike as an attempt to intimidate, deter and undermine anarchists in the Northwest and beyond.

Will Potter, author of "Green is the New Red," who has long covered the state persecution of environmental activists and anarchists, noted in a recent interview with The Dissenter, "I think what's most indicative of what's going on though is that specific call for agents to seize 'anarchist literature' as some kind of evidence of potential illegal activity." He added that the convening of a grand jury is "especially troubling because grand juries have been used historically against social movements as tools of fishing expeditions, and they're used to seek out information about people's politics and their political associations."

Ironically, however, the purported purpose of a federal grand jury is to act as "a safeguard to the accused from the improper motivations of government"- to protect the accused from prosecutorial overreach. A jury of between 16 and 23 civilians hears evidence from a given investigation brought by a prosecutor (the US attorney) in the form of documents, recordings and witnesses, and decides whether there are grounds to move forward with an indictment. However, the grand jury process has been long and regularly used as a form of political repression. According to Heidi Boghosian, director of the National Lawyers Guild (the NLG is a group with a long history of advising grand jury resisters), "abuse of grand juries includes attempts to gather intelligence or information otherwise not easily obtained by the FBI." As such, the grand jury process has been used to probe and intimidate activist groups of various stripes, from the Puerto Rican Independence Movement last century, to black liberationists, environmentalists and anarchists.

For the grand jury resisters themselves, the time during which a grand jury sits (typically 18 months) is a harrowing one. As the NLG's Boghosian explained: "If someone receives a grand jury subpoena and decides not to cooperate, that person may be held in civil contempt. There is a chance that the individual may be jailed or imprisoned for the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce the person to cooperate."

"It's actually lawful for the prosecution to hold an individual in order to coerce cooperation, but unlawful to hold the person as a form of punishment," said Boghosian. "In addition to facing civil contempt, in some instances a non-cooperator may face criminal contempt charges."
For example, in 2009, Utah-based animal rights activist Jordan Halliday spent jail time for civil contempt and was sentenced to 10 months in prison for criminal contempt for his effusive noncooperation with a grand jury. And many resisters who were not jailed nonetheless recount traumatic experiences.

"I thought I was doomed. I had nightmares, night sweats, turned heavily to drinking and drugs," said a 23-year-old anarchist who refused to cooperate with a grand jury in 2009 in New York, which reportedly convened in regard to the placement of an incendiary device in a metropolitan area believed to be connected to anti-war activism. The young man, who requested to remain anonymous, remembers feeling "helpless," believing that at any point, he could be put in jail for his political silence.

However, he equally recalls the comfort he felt in learning that support committees - people he did not even know - were forming and organizing solidarity actions for him. "People having each other's back - it's one thing we do have," he said.

And indeed, statements and acts of solidarity with the Northwest resisters have been numerous and widespread. "Part of the purpose of grand juries seems to be to isolate people from a network of support, the support that puts them in a stronger place to resist," said Kristian Williams, a member of the Committee Against Political Repression, which formed in support of the grand jury resisters.
"Solidarity actions and support also communicate to the state that people are paying attention to how the situation is being handled. Knowing that there is public opposition - not just a small group of friends outside a courtroom, but people all around the country - hopefully raises the political cost for the US attorney to continue this repression," he added. Hundreds of people have already put in calls to the US attorney to express opposition to the treatment of Northwest anarchists, while over 350 organizations have signed on to a petition of opposition put out by the Committee Against Political Repression. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, banner drops, graffiti and other acts have been dedicated to the grand jury resisters in the past month. A national day of action has been called for August 30 to coincide with Plante's second hearing.

For the New York-based resister, his act of political silence not only affirmed certain ideas about solidarity, but served as striking proof of personal resolve: "In a strange way, you show yourself something important when you resist a grand jury. The things you say, the things you believe, you find yourself actually acting upon them, even though you know it could cost you a chunk of your life."

"It has a very powerful effect on yourself," he said.

It is a sentiment seemingly understood by the anarchists in the Northwest as they begin their grand jury resistance ordeals. While inviting solidarity and support in their public statement, Plante and Dennison added, "You can show your solidarity by refusing to co-operate with any police force and encouraging your friends and families to do the same."

Charges Dropped Against May Day Protestor Maria Jannett Morales

By Keegan Hamilton Mon., Aug. 27 2012 Seattle Weekly

After reviewing YouTube video of the May Day riot, King County prosecutors dismissed all charges against a protestor accused of punching a bike cop.

 
Maria Jannett Morales, 30, was charged with assault in the fourth degree, a felony, for an incident that occurred near the intersection of First Avenue and Pike Street a few minutes before 6 p.m. on May 1, just as the day's rioting was starting to simmer down.

According to a probable cause statement statement submitted to prosecutors by Seattle police, bike cop Sonya Fry was ordering a crowd to move back when Morales walked up, said "okay bitch," and punched the female officer in the chest with a closed fist. Morales then allegedly kicked another cop in the leg.

SPD's version of events was called into question by amateur video from the scene uploaded to YouTube. The footage seems to show Morales walking past Fry, obeying orders. Then, after a brief verbal exchange, Fry grabs Morales by the shoulders and hair and pulls her down.On August 17, the charge was abruptly dropped. Dan Donahoe, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, says the video was a factor.

"We reviewed video of the alleged incident and felt that we could no longer prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt so the charge was dismissed," Donohoe says.

Aaron Pelley, Morales' attorney, says prosecutors had no business filing charges in the first place.
"Maria didn't really hit that officer," Pelley says. "There's nothing in my mind that thinks somebody didn't yell at that officer, or she didn't feel somebody hit her. But as far as I can tell, it wasn't my client."

Morales has no criminal record aside from a few traffic tickets. Nevertheless, Pelley says she lost her job as an emergency room technician in Bellevue because of the arrest.

"I don't know that she comes out ahead on all of this," Pelley says. "But we're certainly glad the prosecutors looked at the evidence and decided to dismiss."

Morales is the second May Day protestor to have charges dismissed because of YouTube video. Joshua Garland was similarly cleared of wrongdoing on May 15.

Two others have pleaded guilty. Robert Ditrani pleaded guilty on June 22 to disorderly conduct. He was sentenced July 6 and received a 90-day suspended sentence and 12 months of probation. Paul Campiche pleaded guilty on August 22 to attempted assault in the third degree. He will be sentenced October 5.

See an extended cut of the YouTube video that shows Morales arrest, and court documents associated with her case on the following page.
Maria Morales Order of Dismissal
Maria Jannett Morales Charges
This post was updated Monday, August 27, at 1 p.m. The original version mistakenly reported that Morales was charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct, and rioting. Her charge was actually fourth-degree assault.

Call the White House on Friday for Leonard Peltier

*AIM for Freedom Campaign: Bring Leonard Home!*

The Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee is presenting their
campaign plans to our supporters, friends and allies in the 36-year
movement to bring Leonard Peltier home. With Leonard in our minds,
hearts and spirit, we will try to bring him home. That is our goal and
commitment, and we will do this is with your support. This outline means
nothing without each of you rising to this call and putting your energy
into it.

In the urgent spirit of this campaign, we will begin directing our
concerns to those with the ability to influence change, namely,
President Obama.

**Write a letter to Obama about your feelings and outrage at Leonard’s
continued imprisonment.

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of The United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
White House Fax: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213

**Encourage your church leaders and members to write President Obama,
including any humanitarian groups on their stationary.

Contact congressional delegates. Schedule a meeting to talk with them
about Leonard’s case. This is your opportunity to urge them to take a
position on Leonard’s release. Seize the opportunity to educate members
of Congress who may not know the specifics of the case or even about
Leonard Peltier. Meet with those who are sitting on the fence. Others
who are long-time supporters need to be asked to become Leonard’s
champions in this important year. You might want to frame your request
for a meeting with a phrase similar to “How may we work together to seek
justice for Native Americans? How may I help you in your role as a
leader?” Then ASK your representative, along with his colleagues, to
write a personal letter to President Obama urging the immediate release
of Leonard Peltier.

*Talking points:*

1. Leonard has served over 36 years in prison.
2. The government has conceded that it does not know who shot the two
agents.
3. The government is still fighting vigorously to prevent the release
of thousands of pages of documents under FOIA – documents that
should have been turned over to defense attorneys years ago.
4. Leonard will be 68 on September 12th; he is not in the best of health.

*Tribal Council Resolutions* (If tribal member)

Contact us to assist you in getting a resolution passed by your tribal
council.

*Phone Actions Every Friday: Call the White House for Leonard: 202-456-1112*

The average hold time has been 5-6 minutes. If we are waiting 10-15,
then we are building our presence in the White House for Leonard. This
is necessary and must be maintained.

*International Supporters:* Write letters to President Obama, and urge
your government/parliament, etc. to issue an official position on
Peltier’s case and to bring Peltier up to the state department and
Obama. Also, contact your U.N. representatives to consider a resolution
directed to President Obama to carefully review the Peltier case, in
regards to clemency.

Hillary R. Clinton, Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520

This time, the agents who have opposed Leonard’s bid for freedom will
fail, because the lies will not be covered up or twisted. They are
afraid Obama will do the right thing, so join us in setting this prairie
fire for Leonard for the last time! He doesn’t have the luxury of time,
and we have none to waste.

Don’t anyone dare let their hearts hit the ground because we have to
work harder to get him out after his birthday. The most powerful means
of accomplishing our goal is to know in your heart that this will
happen. And if we get some good news, such as a transfer, don’t let up.
Instead, increase your efforts and never stop believing you will be a
part of something wonderful and honorable.

*Sample letter to President Obama:*

Your name
Address
City, State, Zip Code

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of The United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

re: Leonard Peltier USP #89637-132

Dear President Obama,

This letter is among millions that have been written to US presidents on
behalf of Leonard Peltier in the past 36 years of his incarceration.
Foreign heads of state and world religious leaders, members of Congress
and even a federal judge who was hamstrung by legal precedents have
asked for clemency in Peltier's case.

The deaths of the agents is a horrible tragedy for their families, but a
even greater tragedy is being done to Mr. Peltier, who has been
nominated for the Nobel prize six times for his humanitarian works from
behind prison walls.

As an American citizen, my conscience has been haunted by the inability
of previous administrations to do the right thing and let Peltier go
home. When I look at the trial as a whole, there is shocking information
about FBI and prosecutorial misconduct in his case. What happened, Mr.
President, that an American, an American Indian at that, can languish in
a federal prison for so long without a real look at what happened to him?

I have been aware that some federal agents have been actively
undermining Mr. Peltier's efforts for years. They have lied about the
evidence and testimony, and ignore evidence to the contrary in their
statements to keep Mr. Peltier imprisoned. Attorney General Janet Reno
reprimanded FBI Director Freeh for voicing his complaint publicly.

Mr. President, we ask that you please take a very detailed review of Mr.
Peltier's cases, including the withheld FBI records supposedly
classified for national security reasons, inquire about his transfer to
a medium security facility that meets his classification, and grant
clemency. Mr. Peltier also is eligible for a parole under a 30 year law,
but has not been granted this according to 28 U.S.C., section 4206(d).

When you were elected to the Oval Office, millions of us felt we were
granted a fresh of breath air, and through this we hope that you will
grant Mr. Peltier a breath of fresh free air. I'm sure you will see the
world rejoice.

Sincerely,

Your name

*AIM for FREEDOM!!!! IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE*
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206 • Fax: 701/235-5045
E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info

whoisleonardpeltier.info