A call for support for Kara Wild, arrested and currently held captive in France!

Kara Wild is an artist, comrade and resilient force of nature, currently being detained in France for her alleged participation in a protest against draconian labor reforms and police repression. She is a trans woman and is currently being held in a men’s jail without access to hormones. She is also a U.S. citizen and has been denied bond because French authorities consider her a flight risk.

On May 18th, thousands of people converged in Paris to defy an ongoing siege of police violence and to oppose a new neoliberal labor reform. During one of these marches a police car was attacked and set on fire. Kara was brutally arrested in connection to this incident more than a full week later, on May 26th, at a separate event near La Place de la Nation. Despite a distinct lack of evidence, she is being accused of smashing a pole through a police car’s windshield moments before it was set on fire. Her charges are, “attempted voluntary manslaughter of a person holding public office, destruction of property, group violence and participating in a masked armed group.”


Kara is among 6 people currently facing charges in connection to this incident. To make matters worse, France’s Prime Minister, Manuel Valls is vowing to execute “unrelenting punishment,” in order to set an example and de-mobilize protests.


Despite attacks by the state, global movements against capitalism, white supremacy, hetero-sexist patriarchy and austerity grow stronger each day, from Paris to Oaxaca. As the flames of resistance multiply this summer, let us make sure not to leave our friends behind! Please help us support Kara Wild by writing to her, donating to her defense fund, and spreading the word about her case.


Freedom to all political prisoners! Freedom to all transwomen prisoners! Freedom to all prisoners!

For more info, updates and an option to donate please visit https://freekarawild.org/

Radical Sobriety Montreal's response to the article 'The Revolution Will Not Be Sober'

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 04/09/2016 - 00:37

Shared from http://news.infoshop.org/opinion/radical-sobriety-montreals-response

From Radical Sobriety Montreal

Radical Sobriety Montreal welcomes the discussion initiated by Alexander McClelland and Zoe Dodd's article “The revolution will not be sober: the problem with notions of 'radical sobriety' & 'intoxication culture'”. However, we feel an obligation to clear up a number of misconceptions. While we cannot speak for all groups using the term 'radical sobriety', since the term does not refer to a unified discourse, we are able to speak for our group and the positions it holds. Please note that below, unless otherwise specified, we use the terms 'addict' and 'drug user' to also include alcoholics and people who drink. So, in no particular order:


The article states that radical sobriety plays into the criminalization of drug use. Radical Sobriety Montreal supports the total decriminalization of drug use. We feel that prohibition is, first, a primary vector of oppression for millions of people, and second, a counter-productive policy which fuels violence, does nothing to help active (or abstinent) drug users, and leads to the perpetuation of many of the conditions that lead to dangerous forms of drug use in the first place. We completely oppose prohibition, criminalization, and the savage violence of the 'war on drugs'. And we fucking hate cops.


The article states that radical sobriety uses moralizing tactics to set up a dichotomy between “good” abstinent drug users and “bad” active drug users. Perhaps this is based on a misconception about our name: we don't think we're more radical than you because we're sober, we think our sobriety is more radical than AA's and Minor Threat's. Radical Sobriety Montreal completely rejects moral value judgements based on one's status as an active or abstinent drug user. We do not promote abstinence as the only way to engage with harmful drug use patterns. We have criticisms of some forms of harm reduction but generally speaking fully support harm reduction initiatives, particularly if they are conceived of or operated by drug users or ex-drug users themselves.
Members of Radical Sobriety Montreal volunteer with harm reduction initiatives in this city. And we fucking hate people who hate drug users.


The article states that radical sobriety is opposed to all drug use, including therapeutic, traditional, medicinal, and/or various indigenous practices involving drugs, and that it considers experiences stemming from these practices to be “hollow” and “inauthentic”. Radical Sobriety Montreal is not categorically opposed to drug use, especially not in traditional or medicinal contexts, nor do we deny the very positive and authentic effects that drug use can have for people. (Believe us, we know how awesome getting high can be.) We simply acknowledge that there is very little, to put it mildly, that is traditional or therapeutic about overdoses and delerium tremens in your early twenties. We are organized on the basis that the casual, therapeutic, or recreational self-administration of mind-altering drugs is no longer a viable option for our members; this should not be understood to mean that we condemn all such use categorically and in perpetuity. Incidentally, the article also calls 12-step programs prohibitionist. Though we are not a 12-step program, in the interest of accuracy we would like to point out that this is not in fact true.


The article states that radical sobriety subscribes to the pathologizing medical approach to drug use, particularly through the use of the term 'addict', and by extension implicitly supports and condones violent state intervention which mobilizes such terminology. While we are neither doctors nor addiction scholars, we at Radical Sobriety Montreal consider ourselves experts when it comes to being addicted. We consider addiction to be an objectively real phenomenon both socially and physiologically; we believe that it is, medically speaking, a pathology; and we consider it to have many of the properties of a mental disorder or disability. However, we are immensely critical of coercive interventionist approaches, both because they are obviously repressive and ineffective and because, as drug users, we have experienced their extremely negative effects ourselves. We believe that our use of terminology like 'addiction' cannot be equated with the state's coercive intervention. We believe that we should not be held responsible for the grotesque misuse of this terminology by the state, anymore than a person self-identifying as 'homeless' rather than 'unhoused' should be held responsible for the state's violent repression of street people.


The article states that communities of queers, punks and so forth have used drugs for all kinds of reasons, some of them very positive, and that radical sobriety misses this point. Radical Sobriety Montreal would like to point out that we are in fact members of those communities and understand this point very, very intimately.


The article states that the emergence of radical sobriety should be cause for “concern”, particularly because radical sobriety apparently fails to engage with the “need to build our own ways”, create “circles of care and new forms of harm reduction support”, and “create space for people to come together to foster new forms of healing and social connection”. Radical Sobriety Montreal would like to point out that that is exactly and precisely what we aim to do. The article mentions the extremely individualized approach of 12-Step programs and the extremely medicalized approach of some rehabs; Radical Sobriety Montreal aims to provide an alternative based on interdependence, autonomy and radical social analysis. It is a circle of care. It supports people in their attempts to reduce harm to themselves. It created a space for people to come together to foster new forms of healing and social connection. We exist to support drug users who cannot use anymore and aren't willing to put all their faith in the medical system or a higher power. In short, we are exactly what the article is attacking us for failing to be.


The article states that blog posts made by random libertarians are typical of radical sobriety. Radical Sobriety Montreal is not affiliated with those libertarians, does not agree with them, and never heard of them before seeing this article. Those libertarians apparently think that “morality is central to sobriety”. Radical Sobriety Montreal dismisses that stance as harmful, hurtful, self-righteous nonsense. They apparently also think that sobriety is 'natural' and 'natural' is good; we think they don't understand history or anthropology and have a shaky grasp on ethics. They apparently think that authentic relationships can only be had while sober; our own experiences completely disprove such a simplistic notion. These people sound like straight-edge bros who swallowed an Ayn Rand book, and it is a mistake to assume that they accurately represent groups like ours.


The article states that radical sobriety is obsessed with the word 'addict' as a “static political identity”. Though we'd appreciate clarification on what they mean by this, we're pretty sure we don't do that. We're aware that identities can change over time, we're wary of relying too much on identity politics as form of activism, and we affirm the right of people to autonomously understand, negotiate, and present their own identities. Members of Radical Sobriety Montreal are not forced to adopt 'addict' as an identity.


The article states that radical sobriety, in its use of accessibility discourse, attempts to assign privilege to active drug users, and that this is basically a cynical ploy to claim more oppression points than the next white genderqueer punk kid. Radical Sobriety Montreal does not consider sobriety to be a source of oppression, because come on, no one is oppressed for being sober. Rather, we use intoxication culture theory to understand how oppression and privilege play out with regard to drug use. People who align most closely with the norm can be said to exercise privilege; in other words, people whose drug of choice is legally purchased alcohol, which they consume in safe quantities in socially sanctioned settings. Alcoholics living on shitty beer they drink alone at home exercise less privilege; if it's shitty vodka and it's on the street, even less. People injecting street drugs in public are heavily oppressed. Addicts who are abstinent are not oppressed for their abstinence; instead, they live under a form of deferred oppression. It's like being on parole. The reason why we need people to consider our needs as abstinent drug users is that if we are not abstinent we are criminalized, marginalized, oppressed drug users with patterns of use that are very dangerous for our health. The article implies that creating safe spaces for sober people is to marginalize drug users. Radical Sobriety Montreal believes that this is like saying that making sure your buddy with heavy parole conditions doesn't have to break any laws to hang out with you is to marginalize prisoners. We just want people to be considerate of our needs when possible.


The article implies that radical sobriety has not considered the implications of safer spaces for sober people. Radical Sobriety Montreal discusses this topic regularly. We are aware that making all spaces safer for us would not make the world an inherently safer place. We support drug users' access to safer spaces as well, in which they can openly use drugs without being stigmatized or criminalized. We do not equate accessibility for sober people with accessibility for disabled people because there is no equivalent of the active addict in the context of disability activism. We support initiatives that attempt to make the world safer both for active and abstinent drug addicts. We would however like to point out that in the scenes we're in, the open use of drugs and alcohol is both very commonplace and regularly promoted; we do not feel that people who casually drink and get high have any particular lack of safer spaces in the context of these communities.


The article states that radical sobriety is basically the same as other models which practice “recovery as oppression” because they understand recovery to mean learning how to fit into society. Radical Sobriety Montreal wonders if the authors of the article missed the part where we think our sobriety is “radical”. We're not interested in teaching members how to be productive consumers. Approaches like that are exactly what we exist as an alternative to.


In conclusion, we think that critical analysis is important, including towards groups like ours. We are not immune to criticism nor are we perfect. However, there can be harmful effects when this analysis is performed while employing broad generalizations and cherry-picking one's primary sources. The article makes a number of very problematic assumptions about our group, particularly about our views on, and involvement in, harm reduction; detox methods; drug users' resources; and service accessibility, as well as about our political positions on criminalization and intervention. The article treats a number of unconnected actors as interchangeable, and assumes that we have not thought about or critically engaged with the points the authors borrow from drug users' advocacy groups. We believe that this is intellectually irresponsible, potentially needlessly divisive, and, frankly, more than a little insulting.


The article makes a gesture toward civility with an admission that “some” people involved in radical sobriety have more nuanced views, and notes that the discussion can be an intensely emotional and personal one for people involved. These gestures are noted and appreciated. It is true that this is an emotional issue for us. To drive the point home, we have this to say: the main thing the authors miss is that we all sought sobriety in desperate need, literally in order to save our lives. Most of us used substances to the brink of death and for our survival we need to abstain. We are people in recovery from substance abuse, not adherents of straight-edge, or church members in disguise. The point of Radical Sobriety Montreal is to provide a support group where we can discuss our experiences as drug users, alcoholics and addicts, and as people who have radical, revolutionary or alternative political worldviews and ideologies. We wanted to make a space where people who didn't feel comfortable in AA, NA or a rehab could feel comfortable. The point of Radical Sobriety Montreal isn't to accumulate oppression points and talk shit about drug users. We ask that people please bear this in mind in the future when critically engaging with radical sobriety discourses.

In solidarity,
Radical Sobriety Montreal

A Call For Actions in Solidarity with Alabama Prison Rebels!

"Things here are tense but festive. The C.O. and warden was stabbed…It has nothing to do with overcrowding, but with the practice of locking folks up for profit, control and subjugation. Fires were set, we got control of two cubicles, bust windows. The riot team came, shot gas, locked down, searched the dorms. Five have been shipped and two put in lockup.”

An inmate at Holman Correctional

This week, prison rebels at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama staged two riots in three days—battling guards, building barricades, stabbing the warden, taking over sections of the prison and setting a guard station on fire. These actions come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention to the crumbling prison system in Alabama and the increasing level of radicalization of the prison population there.

The uprising at Holman, and the conditions of Alabama prisons in general, provide a unique situation in which anarchist solidarity may prove strategic. Historically speaking, successful prison uprisings have often been the result of a degrading prison system (incompetence, understaffing, weak administration) in combination with a high level of prisoner-unity and the development of a strong political subculture within the prison that supports and encourages acts of resistance. These conditions shift the balance of power between prisoners and their captors and allow prisoners more latitude to take bold action. Prison rebels in Alabama report that guards often refuse to enter the cell blocks for months at a time out of fear of attacks. The conditions for rebellion are ripe in the Alabama prison system.

The connections that Alabama prison rebels and anarchists outside of prisons have cultivated over years have created a situation in which expressions of solidarity from anarchists may have an impact. There is a great possibility that news of solidarity actions will reach prisoners there and that those actions will make sense to these rebels.

Another way in which anarchist solidarity may prove uniquely valuable in this and other situations of prison rebellion is in our capacity to relate to these uprisings outside the framework of reform that the media, the state and the left will inevitably push them toward. We are already hearing the rhetoric of those outside Holman turning immediately toward reform, appeals to legitimacy in hopes of reaching journalists and liberals, and framing the riots as a ‘last resort’ after non-violent methods failed.

What we propose instead is direct affirmation, through action, of prisoners’ own revolt. In this, our solidarity is equally with those demanding better living conditions and those who say, quite simply, “they need to let us free up out this bitch” and “there’s only one way to deal with it: tear the prison down.”

In the spirit of diversity of tactics we’ve compiled a list of some ways to act in solidarity with prison rebels in Alabama. The intention of this list is to find ways to act in solidarity with the many, often contradictory, desires of the many different rebels involved in the uprising.

1. Publish and spread the list of demands, provided by journalists who were able to get in touch with some of the rioting inmates:

1. We inmates, at Holman Prison, ask for immediate federal assistance.
2. We ask that the Alabama government release all inmates who have spent excessive time in Holman Prison — due to the conditions of the prison and the overcrowding of these prisons in Alabama.
3. We ask that the 446 laws [Habitual Felony Offender laws] that Alabama holds as of 1975 be abolished.
4. We ask that parole board release all inmates who fit the criteria to be back in society with their families.
5. We ask that these prisons in Alabama implement proper classes that will prepare inmates to be released back into society with 21st century information that will prepare inmates to open and own their own businesses instead of making them having to beg for a job.
6. We also ask for monetary damages for mental pain and physical abuse that inmates have already suffered.

2. Call and write Alabama Department of Corrections officials:

General: http://www.doc.state.al.us/Contact.aspx

Holman: (251) 368-8173

3. Contact inmates at various Albama prisons in order to form bonds and connections on which to build struggle. http://www.doc.state.al.us/InmateSearch.aspx

Currently you can type a letter into the first or last name section and get a whole giant list of inmates to choose from. It’s up to you to discern who you’d like to write to. We avoid inmates who are listed as having racist tattoos or sex crimes. However there are also several pen pal sites where you can find Alabama inmates who are already looking to maintain correspondence with someone.

 4. Harass and disrupt. The Alabama Department of Corrections is falling apart. Their employees already have a low morale. Why not kick them while they’re down. There’s quite a few ways you could do this. For one, you can harass them on facebook.

Holman correctional facebook.

Alabama correctional officers facebook.

From these pages you can find personal accounts of corrections officers. If you’d like to make a fake Facebook account, you can head over to laservoicemail.com and get a phone number that you can use to sign up. Don’t use Tor while doing this and choose to receive a verification code by call rather than text. Be careful.

It would most certainly be demoralizing and disruptive if you were to flood their investigations unit with false reports via their online snitch form here

Also, most prisons have fax lines and email addresses which you could flood with various free online faxing services and throwaway emails.

Fax services:

http://www.gotfreefax.com/

http://faxzero.com/

http://www.faxbetter.com/

and more…

temporary or easy emails:

https://www.guerrillamail.com

https://mytemp.email/

mail.com

and more… again, be careful.

5. Stage a protest. Have a noise demonstration at your local jail or prison in solidarity with Holman. Better yet, go to Holman and have one there. Or maybe stage a protest at your local police station or courthouse? They lock people up all day ya know. Dropping banners is nice too. Wheat-paste? Graffiti? Go all out!

6. Attack. Be creative. Be expensive. There are many correctional officer and employee unions, associations, and organizations. There may be one near you. The manifestations of prison society are everywhere, so targets for solidarity and retaliation are all around us.

Mexican activist fears for his life after whitnessing the assasination of Honduran environment defender Berta Caceres in her home

Castro also said he fears for his life in Honduras and that local authorities have barred him from returning to Mexico. He also implied he doesn't trust police by saying he feels safer with Caceres sympathizers than with a thousand Honduran police officers, whom he accused of forgetting he is a victim.

Castro was with Caceres at the time of the murder last Thursday morning and was wounded by gunshots. “The hitman know that I didn't die,” Castro wrote, “and surely they will be willing to complete their task.”

The Mexican sociologist added that while many people from Caceres’ Indigenous organization COPINH have been asked to testify, those long suspected of leveling death threats against Caceres and trying to kill her have not faced the same scrutiny.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Activist-Who-Witnessed-Caceres-Death-Fears-for-His-Life-20160308-0014.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Castro also said he fears for his life in Honduras and that local authorities have barred him from returning to Mexico. He also implied he doesn't trust police by saying he feels safer with Caceres sympathizers than with a thousand Honduran police officers, whom he accused of forgetting he is a victim.

Castro was with Caceres at the time of the murder last Thursday morning and was wounded by gunshots. “The hitman know that I didn't die,” Castro wrote, “and surely they will be willing to complete their task.”

The Mexican sociologist added that while many people from Caceres’ Indigenous organization COPINH have been asked to testify, those long suspected of leveling death threats against Caceres and trying to kill her have not faced the same scrutiny.

Castro also said he fears for his life in Honduras and that local authorities have barred him from returning to Mexico. He also implied he doesn't trust police by saying he feels safer with Caceres sympathizers than with a thousand Honduran police officers, whom he accused of forgetting he is a victim.

Castro was with Caceres at the time of the murder last Thursday morning and was wounded by gunshots. “The hitman know that I didn't die,” Castro wrote, “and surely they will be willing to complete their task.”

The Mexican sociologist added that while many people from Caceres’ Indigenous organization COPINH have been asked to testify, those long suspected of leveling death threats against Caceres and trying to kill her have not faced the same scrutiny.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Activist-Who-Witnessed-Caceres-Death-Fears-for-His-Life-20160308-0014.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english“The hitmen who assassinated Berta and that attempted to assassinate 
me remain unpunished while the government seeks to undermine Berta’s 
memory, the honor and magnificent struggle that COPINH has waged for 
many years in defense of life, territory, and human rights,” Castro 
wrote.

Honduran authorities have barred Castro from returning to Mexico, while human rights defenders and social justice organizations have widely called for his protection.

 The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights has called for precautionary measures to protect Castro, members of Caceres’ family, and members of COPINH, saying their lives could be at risk.

“They are in a situation of gravity and urgency, since their life and personal integrity would be threatened and at risk,” IACHR said in a statement.

Caceres also had precautionary measures from the IACHR leading up to her death that mandated police protection in light of the repeated and credible death threats and harassment she received.

Shared from http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Activist-Who-Witnessed-Caceres-Death-Fears-for-His-Life-20160308-0014.html

Mexican national Gustavo Castro, who was left for dead by Caceres murderers, says the crime scene at Berta's home has been tampered with.

Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto, key witness of the assassination of prominent Honduran environmental defender Berta Caceres because he was at her home when hitmen stormed in to kill her and left him for dead with wounds to his head and hand, has warned that the crime scene has been tampered with.

“I didn’t hear cars arrive or leave at the time of the assassination, the crime scene was modified and altered,” wrote Castro in a letter published in local media. “The blood and other tests left blank lines that later can be altered.”

While Castro did not expand on the details proving the scene of the murder has been tampered with, he did say that he feels authorities are uncomfortable with his testimony because, according to him, it "obstructs them from accusing who they want to put in jail."

And although Honduran authorities have vowed to find those responsible for the crime and launched an investigation, family members and supporters remain highly skeptical that they will handle the case in a thorough and impartial manner that ensures justice. 

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Activist-Who-Witnessed-Caceres-Death-Fears-for-His-Life-20160308-0014.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Mexican national Gustavo Castro, who was left for dead by Caceres murderers, says the crime scene at Berta's home has been tampered with.

Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto, key witness of the assassination of prominent Honduran environmental defender Berta Caceres because he was at her home when hitmen stormed in to kill her and left him for dead with wounds to his head and hand, has warned that the crime scene has been tampered with.

“I didn’t hear cars arrive or leave at the time of the assassination, the crime scene was modified and altered,” wrote Castro in a letter published in local media. “The blood and other tests left blank lines that later can be altered.”

While Castro did not expand on the details proving the scene of the murder has been tampered with, he did say that he feels authorities are uncomfortable with his testimony because, according to him, it "obstructs them from accusing who they want to put in jail."

And although Honduran authorities have vowed to find those responsible for the crime and launched an investigation, family members and supporters remain highly skeptical that they will handle the case in a thorough and impartial manner that ensures justice. 

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Activist-Who-Witnessed-Caceres-Death-Fears-for-His-Life-20160308-0014.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Mexican national Gustavo Castro, who was left for dead by Caceres murderers, says the crime scene at Berta's home has been tampered with.

Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto, key witness of the assassination of prominent Honduran environmental defender Berta Caceres because he was at her home when hitmen stormed in to kill her and left him for dead with wounds to his head and hand, has warned that the crime scene has been tampered with.

“I didn’t hear cars arrive or leave at the time of the assassination, the crime scene was modified and altered,” wrote Castro in a letter published in local media. “The blood and other tests left blank lines that later can be altered.”

While Castro did not expand on the details proving the scene of the murder has been tampered with, he did say that he feels authorities are uncomfortable with his testimony because, according to him, it "obstructs them from accusing who they want to put in jail."

And although Honduran authorities have vowed to find those responsible for the crime and launched an investigation, family members and supporters remain highly skeptical that they will handle the case in a thorough and impartial manner that ensures justice. 

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Activist-Who-Witnessed-Caceres-Death-Fears-for-His-Life-20160308-0014.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Vegan anarchist Eric King accepts non-cooperating plea agreement to 10 years in federal prison.

Shared from https://supportericking.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/400/

After almost a year and a half of pre-trial detention in shitty conditions, court battles and other legal woes, and facing threats of forty years in prison, Eric King has finally decided to accept a non-cooperating plea agreement to ten years in federal prison.


If you live nearby, please consider attending Eric’s hearing in Kansas City, MO next Thursday, March 3^rd at 1:30p.m. The media and cops are likely to be well-represented, and it would be a meaningful moment to show Eric that he is not alone. Having supporters there may also create some pressure for the court to conduct itself better. It will also be useful to Eric and his support crew to have more people in attendance taking notes and keeping an eye on the proceedings.
The hearing will be:

Thursday, March 3^rd
1:30 p.m.

US District Court, Western District of Missouri
400 E. 9th Street, Room 7662
Courtroom 7E
Kansas City, MO 64106

Please note that valid photo identification is required to enter the courthouse and all persons and belongings are subject to search. Also, we’d like to encourage everyone who’s planning on attending the March 3^rd court appearance to dress nice, and conduct yourself appropriately in the court room out of respect for EK, the person we are there to support.


Even if you cannot attend on this short notice, please consider donating some money to Eric’s new support fund . He urgently needs funds to prepare for his long prison term as well as immediate support needs. You can also send him a book or a letter. Check out his Amazon Wish List for ideas. Eric is currently in the hole and needs all the reading material he can get.

You can write to Eric at:

Eric King
#27090045
CCA Leavenworth
100 Highway Terrace
Leavenworth, KS 66048


Link to Eric’s fundraiser page http://fnd.us/c/316cDf/sh/a4jVK

Sometime in the next couple months, Eric will have a sentencing hearing where the judge will officially determine his sentence, after which he will be transferred to a federal prison . Please keep your eyes open for another call out asking supporters to attend.


Make no mistake, neither Eric nor his support crew take the decision to accept this plea lightly. Despite being far better than the other legal options available, ten years is way too long for our friend and comrade to be stolen from us. Eric is being steamrolled by the state and its functionaries, and there is very little we can do about it. Yet we can and will remain in solidarity with him.


From the beginning, Eric has been concerned about accepting a plea that may establish a legal precedent that other anarchists may have to deal with in the future when facing similar charges. Therefore, he has seen this legal battle as impacting not only himself, but all of us. Nonetheless, facing the possibility of a thirty or forty year sentence, Eric has determined that this is the best possible outcome that is available to him.


We are proud of Eric for how bravely he has faced these charges. He has refused to cooperate with the state, worked hard to maintain a vegan diet, and stood up for himself and his friends in prison in the face of violence and intimidation by the guards and administration. And he has done it with contagious laughter, joy and poetry. We now face the long, hard road of supporting our friend and comrade for the next ten years of his life. Please take some time to donate and write Eric a letter.


Until we are all free,

EK Support Crew

Support Chicago Vegan Co-op!

Description: The Chicago Vegan Co-op is organized as a member-run bulk-buying club to purchase a wide variety of wholesale vegan items with the aim of opening a storefront in the future. We are committed to replacing mainstream agriculture & industry with egalitarian & humane alternatives, and we engage in vegan advocacy as a necessary part of social justice for all sentient beings. Beyond animal-free products, our purchasing decisions will also prioritize fair trade, sweatshop-free, local, and organic/veganic where possible. We are open to everyone in the Chicago area.

Visit their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoVeganCoop

Don't worry....

...we are still here! Been busy working on a couple new projects. One includes selling anarchist patches and supporting prisoners. So stay tuned!

Warzone Distro zine catalog Fall 2015 PDF

This can be downloaded here! https://archive.org/details/WarzoneDistro2015Catalog

January 15 1838 the Battle of Jupiter Inlet Seminole Indians - Seminole Negro and the United States Navy

On January 15th in 1838 the Battle of Jupiter Inlet took place in Florida. A United States Navy led boat expedition to the Everglades encountered a Seminole village and mounted an attack. The Seminole warriors, although outnumbered and out-gunned, defeated the Navy. It began when the expedition of 200 soldiers, sailors and marines under Lieutenant Levin M. Powell discovered a trail along the side of Jupiter Inlet. Fifty-five sailors and twenty-five marines and soldiers were landed to attack the Seminoles who were encamped nearby under the command of medicine man Ar-pi-uck-i. Five Americans were killed in action and another twenty-two others were wounded, Seminole casualties are unknown. The Navy troops left in defeat.

Reject #OpIsis and the Co-Opting of Anonymous: Jeremy Hammond shares his views on Anonymous, #OpISIS, and the recent wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that has been sweeping the nation.

Shared from Reject #OpIsis and the Co-Opting of Anonymous | Courage Hammond

The attacks in France were a terrible but unfortunately predictable response by desperate people who, after a decade of war and occupation, want the west to taste what we have been regularly dishing out. But we cannot allow them to be used to justify more war.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, the Western governments are provoking Islamophobic hatred in order to escalate military operations in the Middle East and push police state powers. It’s a familiar script, and from prison, I’ve been following these developments, disturbed about the attacks on immigrant and Muslim communities and the resurgence of the fascist right.

I remember in the wake of 9/11, the waves of blind patriotism and xenophobia that the war-mongering politicians used to push police-state laws, mass surveillance, and rampant militarization. It was never about fighting terrorism or weapons of mass destruction, but about US empire: control over land, oil, and drug production, like all wars. Hundreds of thousands of innocents were murdered by the US military over the longest war in our history while we escalated drone warfare elsewhere in Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia, creating the conditions which gave rise to ISIS in the first place.

That same post-9/11 hysteria is back and all the war-mongers are again frothing at the mouth with hate for immigrants and refugees, pushing for national Muslim registration databases, and for regime change in Syria. But I never thought Anonymous would join in on their frenzied call for war. Apparently, GhostSec and others purportedly associated with Anonymous have been DDoSing forums, taking down Twitter accounts, and reporting IP addresses to law enforcement in collaboration with shady military contractors like Kronos Advisory. The naïve fools behind the operation are being manipulated by intelligence agents taking advantage of the emotional reaction to the Paris attacks to harness our skills to fight their hypocritical “war on terrorism.”

As someone who hacked with Anonymous and marched against the war in Iraq, I completely oppose #OpISIS and any attempts to co-opt our movement into supporting the government’s militaristic agenda. Escalated US military involvement is certainly going to result in more civilian deaths, as it already has. All deaths of innocent civilians are a tragedy, and we cannot value one life over another. (And you are still more likely to be shot down by police than in a terrorist attack.)

The same intelligence industry that runs their own NSA hacker operations against ISIS uses the same counter-terrorism justification to spy on everyday civilians with no regards for rights to privacy, encryption, or anonymity. They have always targeted Anonymous and other dissident groups as terrorists, and when they aren’t trying to discredit or imprison us, they are attempting to co-opt us – sometimes openly by attending conference like DEFCON, seducing us with promises of money or calls for patriotic duty, other times covertly lurking around IRC channels attempting to steer us unwittingly into supporting their agenda. Remember, Sabu asked me to hack government websites of Syria and Turkey, among others, which I did, unaware he was an FBI informant. They didn’t want to talk about it at my sentencing hearing, but they did condemn my attacks against police and military contractors at length. The agents out there encouraging you to “hack the terrorists” will have no problem turning around and locking you up for years if you are not useful to their agenda.

We won’t let Anonymous be unwittingly used to further the military industrial complex’s imperialistic operations around the world. We don’t work for the government – we are against all governments. We are on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressors. We support the victims of war, not the war-makers. If you want to report membership lists and IP addresses of suspected terrorists, go join the CIA or hang out with wannabes like Stratfor or the th3j35t3r. Call it state-sponsored hacking, patriotic hacktivism, whatever – just don’t you dare call yourselves Anonymous.

I urge my comrades still out there in the trenches, sitting on some hot 0day, ready to loot databases and trash systems. If you want to stop war and terrorism, target who Martin Luther King Jr. called the “largest purveyor of violence in the word today” – the US government. So Anonymous, get to it – drone manufacturers, white hat infosec contractors, CIA directors, Donald Trump, and your local police department – they all have blood on their hands, they are all fair game.

In support of Vegan Hip Hop Movement and against Facebook Censorship

We recently found out that our friend at Vegan Hip Hop Movement has been harassed repeatedly with censorship lately. This doesnt surprise us because when white supremacy is challenged by folks like Vegan Hip Hop Movement which such power and intensity, some white people are going to get a little afraid. So in solidarity with upsetting the settlement with Vegan Hip Hop Movement, us vegans of color and white vegans at The Feral Space would like to share a post from VHHM that caused them to be harassed and censored for a week. White supremacy is no over-exaggerated lie. It is real and there is no denying its existance anywhere.

Original blog post and screen shots of Facebook harassment of VHHM.

http://veganhiphopmovement.blogspot.com/2016/01/facebook-censored-and-blocked-me-for.html

Dakota Bracciale [author of the following letter]

October 1, 2015 ·

"An Open Letter to People of Color:

Please do not trust white people.

Every single one of us is racist, it's something we were born and raised into, we were and are consistently indoctrinated into white supremacy. Indifference and apathy towards systemic racism and it's horrific results is not just more comfortable, it is incentivized; we are actively rewarded by white supremacy in it's many forms for ignoring people of color and their cries for injustice.

Our bones are riddled with it, it's everywhere. We were taught the the history of our nation through textbooks written by white men with a vested interest in how the story was and is being told. So we think that MLK Jr is the patron saint of polite black folks (to be invoked against the angry ones), peanut butter is the extent of black excellence, and according to the newest textbooks, slaves were just unpaid interns.

We were brought up being given medicine designed for us by white men, men who historically tortured black women and murdered black babies to found gynecology, men who performed surgeries on black people without any anesthesia and no precautions because it was believe that black people can not feel pain.

And you wonder why we do not sympathize when black children are gunned down by police?
Nothing stopped, the framework of systemic racism just keeps getting dressed differently, yesterday's fire hoses and attack dogs are today's cultural appropriation, tone policing and respectability politics.
We are the ones who committed genocide, stole this land, and now, generations later, think it's cool to dress up like the folks we massacred.

We're the ones making fun of people who can't speak "perfect" English, we're the ones who've come up with every single racial slur used in this country. We're so much more concerned about you questioning us, telling us no or calling us out than we are what you're actually experiencing at our hands.

We will spent countless hours just poking at you, trolling you just to prove you're this less intellectual, overly emotional animal, to get you to fail a standard we set for you without ever clueing you in on it.
We are the ones who built this country on the blood, the bodies and the backs of people of color and then built Mt Rushmore, statues, monuments to white men.

We rigged the economy, the government and the schools, created the ghettos, set you up for failure and then we blame you for your not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.We are still making you defend yourselves, over and over ad infinitum. We make you defend your personhood, your autonomy, your agency, your decency, your humanity because when you keep minorities on the defensive, when you keep them explaining who they are and justifying their right to life - nothing real ever gets done.

Even though I'm queer, even though I'm trans, I still get to sit in the "Whites Only" section and I have heard what gets said and I'm begging you, please don't trust us."

by

Dakota Bracciale 

An Indigenous Anarchist Against Intoxication Culture by Sarambi

An Indigenous Anarchist Against Intoxication Culture

by Sarambi

  The process of refusing intoxication is one that is long and arduous as a queer indigenous POC. The intense interlinking and bound together issues of being indigenous to land known as South America, a land being ravaged by major crop production of moncrops, but also of tobacco, coca, marijuana, and other chemicals being taken at a large rate out of context and out of balance like how people from off that land treat ayahuasca and other plants. As a queer individual now in the gilded, imperial terminal capitalist monstrosity known as the US, I see for what reasons our lands are being destroyed: it's for temporary pleasure, to numb from our suffering, because we have been told that how we exert liberation, freedom, and our sexuality and gender fuckery is at the bottom of a glass or end of a rail. I have also had to bear witness to the history of alcoholism en mi campesinx, mixed indigenous but not mestizx, familia.  I have watched too many people end up in the clutches of the state for abusing or pushing drugs only because they had nothing else to gain or lose in their eyes so they listened to what was given to us. I speak to folx about why them spending what energy, resources, and capital on substances is not liberation, it is continuing genocide, ecocide, extinction, capitalism, colonial imperialism, and is keeping them from moving beyond themselves to actually get free.


    This is a message for my indigenous relations and others: stop listening to the colonizer, stop trying to please our oppressors in every form they take. They feed off of our dead lives. We have resisted for 523 years, and often that has included abstaining from the intoxicants they push on us so we are easy and don't feel our destruction. We tell them to keep alcohol away from us, and though people die from saying no, we go on. We push governments, no matter how "leftist" or down they seem they are all gaming on maintenance of keeping nations/labor/trade for capital/systems that benefit them and must not be trusted, and narcos from lands, and even with armies against us we persist in the name of not having the substances destroy our land and people further. They have already written and foretold their demise. 

            
    To everyone else who is not yet on the same page: this is for you. You who seek to end the world and dance in the quick wild waters ready to erode the mutated fallowed earth. Why does your liberation cost the planet, other species and other humans far from you and your spectacle? Why are you seeking out making the spectacle yours instead of shedding it to embrace a real existence as an individual and collective instead of a walking dead existence? How do you justify your revolutionary revelry, subversions, or social revolt when you are still not embracing the agony and suffering of your own life let alone what your choices to consume do away from you? If you're not about capitalism, why are you acting as a consumer? If you are about decolonization, why are you promoting colonial land grabs, genocide against indigenous bodies, and destroying our connection to the environment we have always learned from? What is your cognitive dissonance with seeing suffering, extinction, and factual affects on things that you do see like the war on drugs and the incarceratory state, the military and medical industrial complexes, white supremacy, colonization of the land we are on in the US, etc.?


    This is real talk. This is the problem. There is no conscience consumerism, as we all know hopefully, because of the mechanisms that make capitalism flourish. You cannot promote use of substances without participating in the justification of capitalism, you cannot produce many ofthe recreational substances used in North America, Europe, and amongst those with the capital ability to use without the exploitation and genocide of an ecosystem. We as humans in this age have seen it in both the proxy colonial wars through the Fertile Crescent and colonially termed Latinoamérica within the last 30 years. Within the warfare against US defined "terrorism"and hunting for oil in Iraq, what gets left out is the US's want of the opium poppy fields in Afghanistan when they entered. It also happened to coincide with the increase of opiate painkiller prescriptions doled out to Americans by primarily pharmaceutical company backed doctors and the continued rise in popularity of opiates as a recreational drug. This market still exists, as does the continued occupation, where people of the land are growing and being "raided" by the US but the opium gets oveseas. Similar drug pushing and coerced production for the US was seen anecdotally in the Golden Triangle as the US was fighting in Vietnam, and committing secret operations in neighboring Laos and Cambodia. Drugs benefit the US as an empire, sorry.


    But if it wasn't clear enough, look just south of the US colonial line from Mexico to Argentina - the US controlled and backed War on Drugs is not only meant to create the conditions to justify genocide in the US against Black and Brown, Indigenous and arrivant bodies, it is also a strategy to continue the legacy of the Dirty Wars, juntas, and white supremacist/Casta driven, colonially based neofascism that not even Leftists in charge and adored by American and European socialists can be found not falling under. Many people are no longer able to access their generational homelands due to violence related to the purest capitalistic motives of those who have "moved  up", forced to take work as runners, pushers, guards, etc since there is nothing else because the land is poisoned or monocropped, the water is poisoned from mining residue and pollutants or is stolen to produce alcohol or soda or to be bottled as is for resale, and all other avenues are limited due to racially backed classism and anti-indigenous sentiment, strict morality, gender and sexuality guidelines brought out by colonizers and neo-colonizing missionaries from the US (I see you Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Evangelicals), and purposefully underdeveloped status in the world. When we are given nothing, we turn to what we are granted, it seems.


   But we do fight back, Xyha people kick marijuana growers off their land before the paramilitary can come into their territory. The Emberá of Panamá, the P'urépecha of México, the Bribri of Costa Rica, the Nahua of Colombia all have fought back and have even kicked out other foreigners or outsiders as they are aware how they could be blindsided by cartel movement if they are interfered with. Autodefensas and Zapatista communities throughout Mexico not only abstain from intoxication but also fight off cartels and the paramilitary government forces who are hand-in-hand with the cartels and the US. This type of armed resistance and pushback has history in the Americas to even earlier colonial periods and to this day, even in North America, autonomous and/or sovereign indigenous lands fight and die over preventing more damage and death done by intoxication. Though this has not always been and does not need to be the case either in indigenous lands producing or in occupied lands where it is consumed.


    We can choose, and some of us do, to negate the existence of these intoxicants for political and decolonial reasons. By refusing to play into not only what pacifies but what comes up and promotes systems that are inherently based in imperialism and capitalism as well as used to bolster kyriarchy all around, one feels all the agony they should: for themselves to do what they chose or must for existence without being lulled into any false pleasure of this civilization, for other beings and the planet being destroyed near and far from them, and for the future as this continues. When you actually feel every painful aspect of living, you are more apt to resist at your fullest because you are able to sense how unyielding and sickening parasitic everything is. If you can feel that, and feel it always at the level as it is, then you have a stronger will built up to fight back as nothing is cushioning the blows any longer. Nothing is keeping your head above water, until you take the boat that civilization has given to some and smash it to bits, and float on a board. Nothing is numbing you, making you forget, making you feel pleasure when you, those around you, and other on the periphery are dying or are already dead as you are walking dead. In a framework that is against all oppression, against all control, against all passiveness, it continues that one should negate the interests of civilization and gilded pleasure at the cost of everything you think you fight for. You cannot destroy your masters without going all the way.

Back from a looooong break.

We would like to apologize to everyone for a long break we had to take to stabilize our living situation in a way that continued to facilitate our projects and resources. It has been a long and stressful break and we want to thank everyone who supported us through it. We are back. And so will be some new posts!