Tuesday, September 7th- Letter Writing to Ed Poindexter

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, September 7th, 2021
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

As the empire crumbles, floods and fires wreak havoc around the world, and plagues linger on and on, not one of us is immune from the threats and challenges of our times. But let’s not let ourselves get too apocalyptic in our thinking. The times are always a-changing, and our analysis and practice of intersectional struggle against the politics of oppression and the hierarchies they serve remain cogent.  Our challenge is to keep our heads above the proverbial and literal water and do what we can to enact radical solidarity with our comrades on both sides of the walls.

So while we gear up for Running Down the Walls this coming Sunday, we don’t forget about the individuals we support that are still behind bars. In this spirit, please join NYC ABC and Page One Collective this week to write to Ed Poindexter, a Black Panther political prisoner in Nebraska.

Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa are commonly known as the “Omaha Two.” They were leaders of the Black Panther Party in Omaha in the late 1960s and, like others, were targeted both by the Omaha police and the FBI under its notorious COINTELPRO spying and disruption program.

In August 1970, the Two were framed on charges of killing an Omaha police officer, who died after being lured into a home where a suitcase bomb exploded. They were subsequently imprisoned. After a long illness, we Langa died in 2016 after 45 years in prison, while Ed Poindexter remains locked up.

Please take the time to write a letter to Ed (and share a photo of your completed envelopes with us online):

Ed Poindexter #27767
Nebraska State Penitentiary
Post Office Box 22500
Lincoln, Nebraska 68542

Tuesday, August 10th – Black August Letter Writing

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, August 10th, 2021
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

In an effort to maintain some semblance of normalcy we continue to encourage folks at home to write political prisoners every other week. As the pandemic surges yet again, we worry not only for our vulnerable communities on the outside but especially for those inside, forced to live at the mercy of their captors who have proven their disinterest in taking COVID seriously. Writing letters is a simple and effective way to connect our communities and remind those inside they are not forgotten.

In the spirit of Black August, NYC ABC and Page One Collective will be sending letters to Black revolutionary political prisoners, many of whom are elders and have survived COVID. There’s an easy way for you to help, just by writing from home. Black August honors fallen Black Freedom Fighters, calls for the release of all political prisoners, and condemns the oppressive and life-stealing prison system in this country. Black August was first observed in the 1970s to commemorate George and Jonathan Jackson’s assassinations and honor the centuries of Black resistance that preceded those events.

Please post a photo of your addressed envelope on social media and tag us (with your return address blurred out) and we will share it. Use Page One’s recent zine, “Current Political Prisoners of Black Liberation Movements,” for up-to-date addresses.

Tuesday, July 13th, 2021 – Letter-writing to Xinachtli

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, July 13th, 2021
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

Often when we write these updates we are conscious of trying to tie present conditions to the larger struggle, to contextualize (for ourselves at least) both the movement and the moment at hand. But sometimes stepping back a bit and looking through a more historical lens can be helpful for our sense of perspective.

For those of us concerned with supporting political prisoners in the belly of this particular beast, the month of July by the colonial calendar is instructive and offers several events to reflect on over the past century or so of struggle.  This is by no means a comprehensive list (as recent events have shown), and while the significance of random calendar dates can easily be overstated, the struggles and dedication of these comrades can not.

• On July 18, 1918 Oaxacan-born revolutionary anarchist Ricardo Flores Magón was convicted of sending politically dangerous materials through the mail and sentenced to twenty-one years in prison.  He wrote that “a sentence of twenty-one years is a sentence of life for a man as old and worn out as I am.”  He died imprisoned in Leavenworth, Kansas November on 22, 1922, at fifty years old.

• On July 14, 1921, a guilty verdict was announced in the murder trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Judge Thayer praised the jury for their “supreme American loyalty.” The two Italian-born anarchists were later sentenced to death, which was carried out in August 1927.

• On July 11, 1983, New African anarchist Kuwasi Balagoon  delivered his opening statement in the infamous Brink’s Trial, in which he stated: “i am a prisoner of war and i reject the crap about me being a defendant, and i do not recognize the legitimacy of this court.”

On July 18, 1996 a Texas sheriff went to arrest Alvaro Hernandez—also known as Xinachtli—at his home on trumped-up charges without a warrant. When the sheriff drew his gun, Alvaro disarmed him and fled. After eventually being captured, he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Which brings us to this week’s letter writing in which NYC ABC, in collaboration with Page One Collective, are encouraging you to write to Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli.

Xinachtli (Nahuatl, meaning “seed”) is an anarchist communist community organizer and Chicano movement revolutionary, currently imprisoned in Texas. Formerly known as Alvaro Luna Hernandez, he worked diligently in the barrio on civil and human rights issues, known widely for his legal skills. Gaining international recognition as the national coordinator of the Ricardo Aldape Guerra Defense Committee, Xinachtli was instrumental in helping to free Mexican national Aldape Guerra from Texas’ death row, where he had been framed for the murder of a police officer.

In July 1996 Xinachtli was arrested after disarming a County Sheriff who was attempting to shoot him. After defending himself at trial, Xinachtli was sentenced to 50 years in prison for aggravated assault, a charge he vehemently denies. While imprisoned, Xinachtli continues to write frequently, has helped to organize multiple prison strikes, and has been held in solitary confinement for the last 19 years and counting. Xinachtli is a prolific jailhouse lawyer, as referenced by Mumia Abu Jamal in his book Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v the USA. Xinachtli assists many prisoners in seeking new trials, and filing suits against the repressive, inhumane Texas prison system. More information at https://freealvaro.net.

Please take the time to write a letter to Xinachtli (and share a photo of your completed envelopes with us online):

Alvaro Luna Hernandez
#255735
W.G. McConnell Unit,
3001 Emily Drive,
Beeville, Texas 78102
*Address envelopes to Alvaro Luna Hernández, cards/letters to Xinachtli.

Tuesday, June 15th – Letter Writing for Imam Jamil Al-Amin

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday June 15th, 2021
WHERE: your home (or wherever you happen to be)
COST: Free

Sometimes it seems that the struggle for a free society is reduced to something so simple as the struggle to remember. The ruling class hates to be reminded that it wasn’t bootstraps but the ongoing violence of settler colonialism that bought them their Sunday brunch. Or that Stonewall wasn’t a commercial for a big box store, or an isolated event in the centuries of rebellions big and small by those on the losing side of patriarchal supremacy and its false binaries. And right now, as ‘we’ are ‘getting back to normal,’ the triumphalism that callously asserts the needs of domestic markets in the face of a still raging international pandemic insists that we forgot the suffering and wide scale preventable deaths that were all most of us could think about for the past year.  We are told to take off our masks, get back to work, and go to brunch, and to forget those who got sick and especially the hundreds of thousands who died. In a very similar way we are told that Black Panthers are comic book characters and fashion symbols to appropriate, safely ancient history if they were ever real at all; that Indigenous resistance to genocide is a thing of the past; that de-colonial freedom struggles were a ’boomer fad, and that the “united states” doesn’t have any political prisoners.

But what if we choose to remember?
What if we insist on remembering that those who resisted and fell, those who were captured, are human beings?
What if we got to know them as people with aches and pains and senses of humor and wisdom won through decades of principled struggle?
What would happen if we remember that the struggle continues?

This week NYC ABC and Page One Collective are asking you write to Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown). Jamil Al-Amin is a long time community leader and organizer, falsely imprisoned for killing a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia. He was convicted in 2002 and after some time in Georgia state prison, the state decided to bury him in federal custody at the notorious Florence Supermax in Colorado before being held in Arizona. The Imam has bone cancer and other health issues, so his family and supporters are currently pushing for an appeal to his trial and for his return to Georgia to receive better medical care and to be able to take a more active role in appealing his case. More information on what you can do is available at whathappened2rap.com

We are asking folks to take the time to write a letter to Jamil (and share a photo of your completed envelopes with us online). Please note that as it states on his support site “Imam Jamil is not receiving proper medical care and is now blind as a result.” We are suggesting to send typewritten letters in a large font (size 18 font and over) to let him and those holding him captive know that he is far from forgotten:

Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin #99974-555
USP Tucson
Post Office Box 24550
Tucson, Arizona 85734

BK/NY – Tuesday, February 23rd – Letter Writing To Chip Fitzgerald

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

Humans are such an amazingly adaptable species. We can collectively adjust and even grow accustomed to almost unimaginably challenging and calamitous circumstances, even as our comrades, friends, families and ourselves are adversely affected. As the pandemic rages throughout overfull prisons, jails and detention centers nationwide, and the increasing disasters of climate change disproportionately affect communities intentionally ‘disadvantaged’ by state capitalism, perhaps it’s time to adapt less and resist more. Resistance can come in many forms, including mutual aid and tangible acts of solidarity. One simple such act is to write a letter to a political prisoner.

So please join us and Page One Collective this week in writing to Black liberation political prisoner Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, the longest confined former member of the Black Panther Party, who has spent 51 years behind bars. Though Chip has been eligible for parole for decades, and was declared “a low risk of committing offenses” by the BOP’s own psychologists, he remains locked up in a California prison. There is a petition campaign for his release, and more information available at:
https://www.freedom4chip.org/

Please take the time to write a letter to Chip (and share a photo of your completed envelopes with us online):

Chip can be written to at this address:

Chip Fitzgerald* #B-27527
California State Prison – LAC
Post Office Box 4490B-4-150
Lancaster, California 93539
*Address envelope to Romaine Fitzgerald.

BK/NY – Tuesday, August 25th – Black August Letter Writing

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, August 25th, 2020
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

Due to the pandemic and uprisings against white supremacist policing (redundant, we know), many of us are too overwhelmed to even notice the full-blown war being waged by cops and the ruling class. It is real and it is continuing. And of course there is another war—the war against folks imprisoned for their political beliefs and actions. And here’s where we bridge the two. Nearing the end of Black August, NYC ABC and Page One Collective will be sending letters to Black revolutionary political prisoners and there’s an easy (too easy? POSSIBLY!) way for you to help, just by writing from home. Please post a photo of your addressed envelope on social media and tag us (with your return address blurred out) and we will share it. Use Page One’s recent zine, “Current Political Prisoners of Black Liberation Movements,” for up-to-date addresses.

BK/NY – Tuesday, March 19th – International Women’s Day Political Prisoner Card Writing Dinner

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, March 19th, 2019
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free
With International Women’s Day having just passed, it is important to acknowledge the often forgotten radical history of the day itself, steeped in the political action and uprisings from anticapitalist women in the early 1900’s. The histories of the day itself, the participation of women in all revolutionary and radical struggles, and how the State incarcerates women are constantly being whitewashed.  With fighting that tendency in mind, NYC ABC will be writing cards to six political prisoners at this Tuesday’s letter writing dinner.

Please join us to hear about and write to Janet Africa (MOVE), Janine Africa (MOVE), Red Fawn Fallis (Standing Rock water protector), Nina Droz Franco (Puerto Rico liberationist), Chelsea Manning (Grand Jury resister), Rev. Joy Powell (anti-police violence organizer), and Reality Winner (whistleblower).

If for whatever reason you cannot join us, we hope you will still write to them:
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Janet Holloway Africa #OO6308
SCI Cambridge Springs
Post Office Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 33733

Smart Communications/PA DOC
Janine Phillips Africa #OO6309
SCI Cambridge Springs
Post Office Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 33733

Red Fawn Fallis #16358-059
FMC Carswell
Post Office Box 27137
Fort Worth, Texas 76127

Nina Droz Franco #50427-069
FCI Tallahassee
501 Capital Circle, NE
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning #AO181426
William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center
2001 Mill Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Reverend Joy Powell #07-G-0632
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility
Post Office Box 1000
Bedford Hills, New York 10507-2499

Reality Winner #22056-021
FMC Carswell
Post Office Box 27137
Fort Worth, Texas 76127

New T-Shirts in Solidarity with Indonesian Anarchist Prisoners and NYC ABC Available!

NYC ABC is pleased to announce that we have TWO (you heard it folks) TWO new t-shirt designs for sale!

Solidarity to All Anarchist Prisoners in Yogyakarta! NYC ABC is extending all of our solidarity to our Indonesian Comrades facing repression from the police.

International Solidarity to class war prisoners in Yogyakarta who are undergoing legal repression after being arrested while protesting against the monarchy- feudal society and the construction of the New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA) which is actively going to displace the Kulon progo community.

We have X Small, Small, Medium, Large and XL shirts available featuring this design from the Palang Hitam Black Cross for only $20.00 and $25.00 for orders going to Mexico and Canada! All funds collected will be going to the Anarchist prisoners in Indonesia.

In addition, NYC ABC is rolling out new shirts for the collective also available in the sizes: X Small, Small, Medium, Large and X Large. They will also be selling for $20.00 and $25.00 for orders going to Mexico and Canada.

How do I get these rad new t-shirts and support political prisoners in Indonesia and the so-called united states?
The easiest way is to find us is at events that we’re tabling! For such news be sure to follow us on your favorite social media outlets: Instagram and Twitter @nycabc.

For those who live far or cannot make it to tabling events, you can send the appropriate amount to us here: paypal.me/nycabc. **Be sure to include the size, design, and shipping address**

BK/NY – Tuesday, March 13th– International Women’s Day Political Prisoner Card Writing Dinner

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: FreeJoin us Tuesday as NYC ABC celebrates International Women’s Day by writing the female identifying political prisoners held captive here in the United States.

We’ll be sharing the stories of and writing to Debbie Africa, Janet Africa, Janine Africa, Red Fawn Fallis, Nicole Kissane, and Rev. Joy Powell.

If for whatever crazy reason you cannot join us Tuesday, please take the time to write to them on your own time:

Debbie Sims Africa #OO6307
SCI Cambridge Springs
451 Fullerton Avenue
Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania 16403

Janet Holloway Africa #OO6308
SCI Cambridge Springs
451 Fullerton Avenue
Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania 16403

Janine Phillips Africa #OO6309
SCI Cambridge Springs
451 Fullerton Avenue
Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania 16403

Red Fawn Fallis
HACTC
110 Industrial Road
Rugby, North Dakota 58368

Nicole Kissane #20651-111
FCI Dublin
5701 8th Street – Camp Parks
Dublin, California 94568

Reverend Joy Powell #07-G-0632
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility
Post Office Box 1000
Bedford Hills, New York 10507-2499

BK/NY – Tuesday, February 27th – Letter-Writing Dinner For Water Protectors

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, February 27th, 2018
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free

At the Framed In America: The Making Of Political Prisoners event in support of the political prisoners of the MOVE family over the weekend we were once again reminded by elders who either have spent time behind bars themselves or have supported those who have, that supporting folks snatched up by the State is of the utmost importance for any political movement and community.  Throughout the history of European expansion across the globe indigenous folks have been putting their bodies on the line in order to stop the spread of colonialism.  This struggle has shown itself in recent years in the fight against the expansion of American capitalist and colonial powers onto indigenous land to build pipelines that not only threaten the sovereignty and autonomy of those who live there, but also the water and ecology which sustains region.  Time and time again we see repression chasing down the strength of those who fight against these forces in an effort to isolate folks and put a stop to these movements and those who are water protectors are no exception.  With that in mind, NYC ABC will be writing to Red Fawn Fallis and Little Feather (Michael Giron) for our every-other-week political prisoner letter-writing dinner.

On October 27th, 2016 Red Fawn and over 140 other water protectors were arrested on the front lines of Standing Rock during a massive police raid on a camp of resisters. Red Fawn was initially accused of firing on local cops while being arrested and charged with attempted murder but those charges have since been dropped and Red Fawn was then transferred into federal custody to face three federal charges related to possessing a firearm while being a felon. Red Fawn has been steadfast in her dedication to the struggle by putting her body on the line despite the endless attacks of the local cops and private security hired by the pipeline company and being arrested on two other occasions during her stay.  In 2018 Red Fawn took a non-cooperating plea deal in which the State dropped the charge which carried the longest sentence (10yrs-life) with the stipulation that she plead guilty to the other two charges.  The prosecution has recommended that the judge sentence Red Fawn to 7 years in prison.  Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 31st.

For more info on Red Fawn:
https://waterprotectorlegal.org/red-fawn-fallis/
http://indi.com/freeredfawn

Little Feather’s charges stem from alleged actions that took in the previously mentioned police raid at Standing Rock on October 27th, 2016.   He was initially charged with Civil Disorder and Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Felony Offense.  The latter carries a minimum of 10 years imprisonment.  In 2018 Little Feather took a non-cooperating plea deal in which the State dropped the Fire charge he plead guilty to the Civil Disorder charge.  The recommendation on his sentencing is 3 years and his sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 30th.

For more info on Little Feather:
https://waterprotectorlegal.org/michael-little-feather-giron/ https://www.freelittlefeather.com/

As always, we ask that folks be mindful of what they include in there letters given they are read by State officials and could be used to harm either the person who is in prison, the person writing them, or the communities in which we come from or support.  DO NOT WRITE ABOUT THE ACTIONS THE STATE HAS ALLEGED THEY TOOK PART IN OR ANY OTHER ACTION THE STATE COULD DEEM ILLEGAL.  This is especially important in writing to those with open cases or who have yet to be sentenced like Red Fawn and Little Feather.

If for whatever reason you are not able to join us, please write to Red Fawn and Little Feather:
Michael Giron
Heart of America Correction Center
110 Industrial Road
Rugby, North Dakota 58368

Red Fawn Fallis
Heart of America Correction Center
110 Industrial Road
Rugby, North Dakota 58368