Tuesday (January 4th) – Letter-Writing for War Tax Resister Carlos Steward

What: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
When: 7pm (sharp), Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Where: 885 Park Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (see below for directions)
Cost: Free

Happy New Year! NYC Anarchist Black Cross is ready to make 2011 memorable. The end of the year brought a great noise demo and we expect to carry that momentum into an action-filled new year.

Our most visible public event is the every-other-week letter-writing dinners we’ve been consistently hosting for the past few years. And for the first dinner of 2011, we’re focusing on war tax resister Carlos Steward.

Carlos Steward filed for conscientious objector status back in the early 1970s, while a young college student. Eventually Steward moved to Mexico, where he earned a master of fine arts degree and taught film and silk-screening. Years later, he decided to move back to the United States.

Once resettled in the U.S., with a desire to work in and support the arts and no desire to support the U.S. war and corporate economy, Steward lived in upstate New York and West Virginia. Steward eventually settled in North Carolina. On principle to resist all U.S. wars and, Steward practiced a mix of non-filing or underreporting federal taxes; if there was extra money it was funneled into galleries, film projects and festivals, and the arts in general.

Steward learned about war tax resistance recently, but he’s been clear about what he doesn’t want to pay for: a government that lies about reasons for going to war; government schemes to enrich corporations by using their bogus war to produce military hardware and pay corrupt contractors; the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act; secret prisons in Cuba and other places in the world; and torture within those prisons. His travels throughout the world reinforced his belief of the negative impact of U.S.-supported regimes abroad with dismal human rights records.

In February 2010 Steward pleaded guilty to filing false income tax returns for 2002 and 2003 and failing to file returns for 2000 and 2001. On June 30, 2010, he was sentenced in federal court in Charleston, West Virginia, to two years in prison. He is slated to be released in May of 2012.

In case you aren’t able to make it to dinner, here’s Carlos’ address so you can join in from home:

Carl W. Steward #09105-088
FPC Montgomery
Maxwell Air Force Base
Montgomery, Alabama 36112

The deal, as always, is that you come bringing only yourself (and your friends and comrades), and we provide you with a delicious vegan meal, information about the prisoners as well as all of the letter-writing materials and prisoner-letter-writing info you could ever want to use in one evening. In return, you write a thoughtful letter to a political prisoner or prisoner of war of your choosing or, better yet, keep up a long-term correspondence. We’ll also provide some brief updates and pass around birthday cards for the PP/POWs whose birthdays fall in the next two weeks thanks to the Anarchist Birthday Brigade.

DIRECTIONS:
Getting to 885 Park Avenue is simple:
From the J/M/Z:
Flushing Stop: Walk southeast on Broadway (toward Sumner Place, away from Thornton Street) and make a right on Park Avenue. We’re halfway down the block, on your right.
Myrtle Stop: Walk northwest on Broadway (toward Melrose Street, away from Troutman Street) and make a left on Park Avenue. We’re halfway down the block on the right.

From the G Train:
Flushing Avenue Stop: Walk south on Marcy Avenue (toward Hopkins Street, away from Wallabout Street) and turn left on Park Avenue. We’re three and a half blocks down on the left.
Myrtle-Willoughby Avenues Stop: Walk north on Marcy Avenue (toward Stockton Street, away from Vernon Avenue) and turn right on Park Avenue. We’re three and a half blocks down on your left.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. Otherwise, we’ll see you at supper.

This event is brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Anarchist Black Cross.–

ABCF-NYC
Post Office Box 110034
Brooklyn, New York 11211

nycabc[at]riseup[dot]net
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Free all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War!
For the Abolition of State Repression and Domination!