Tuesday, May 30th, 2023 – Letter-writing to Xinachtli

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, May 30th, 2023
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

This week, as state and federal politicians vie to be the foulest and furthest right, attacking the queer and trans folx for existing, denying the humanity of our un-housed or precariously housed neighbors, and restricting ‘migrant’ workers from working–though more often than not these ‘migrants’ are more indigenous to this continent than the wanna-be fascist yt’s seeking to exclude them–we are asking you to write to a long serving political prisoner Xinachtli.

Xinachtli (Nahuatl, meaning “seed”) is an anarchist communist community organizer and Chicano movement revolutionary, currently imprisoned in Texas. Also known as Alvaro Luna Hernández, 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, create beautiful visual art, 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. In September 2021 his parole review was denied. More information at freealvaro.net.

Please join NYC ABC from wherever you are as we write letters to Xinachtli:
Alvaro Luna Hernández* #255735
W.G. McConnell Unit
3001 Emily Drive
Beeville, Texas 78102
*Address envelopes to Alvaro Luna Hernández, cards/letters to Xinachtli.

Tuesday, May 16th- Letter Writing to Ed Poindexter

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, May 16th, 2023
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

Once again, we are asking to send some love to a political prisoner in a time of exacerbated need. Prisons don’t treat Black people or political prisoners well, and they certainly don’t treat Black political prisoners well.

Ed Poindexter‘s left leg was amputated below the knee earlier this month due to lack of proper medical care; this was done without notifying his family or supporters. Ed has diabetes and receives dialysis three days a week; he underwent triple bypass heart surgery in 2016. Here is a call in campaign that is active until the end of the month.

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.

Ed has a cataract in one eye that makes it difficult for him to read, so please type your letter in 18 point or larger font. The Nebraska Department of Corrections does not plan to allow Ed to have surgery for the cataract because “he has one good eye.”

Please join NYC ABC in supporting Ed by sending him a letter of encouragement.
This is the current address where he is still recovering, as far as we know as of this posting:

Ed Poindexter #27767
Reception and Treatment Center
P.O. Box 22800
Lincoln, NE 68542-2800

Or to what has been address and will presumably be again once he is well enough (below).
Though we would of course prefer that he be allowed to go home, and are hoping that happens soon!

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

Tuesday, April 18th – Letter Writing To Mumia Abu-Jamal

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, April 18th, 2023
WHERE: from wherever you happen to be
COST: Free

Our work, as always, is to continue to do what we can to show up for those targeted by the capitalist/state apparatus for working towards liberation. This week NYC ABC invites you to write to one of the most well known u.s.-held political prisoners: Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an African-American writer and journalist, author of six books and hundreds of columns and articles, who has spent the last 30 years on Pennsylvania’s death row and now general population. Mumia was wrongfully convicted and sentenced for the murder of a Philadelphia cop. The demand for a new trial and freedom is supported by heads of state, Nobel laureates, distinguished human rights organizations, scholars, religious leaders, artists, scientists and, as important, millions of folks like you and us. For more information, be sure to visit bringmumiahome.com.

Please take the time to write a letter to Mumia Abu-Jamal:
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM8335
SCI Mahanoy
Post Office Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 33733

May Day card signing party!

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter Writing
WHEN: 2:00-5:00pm, Saturday, April 29th
WHERE: Woodbine (585 Woodward Avenue, Queens)
COST: FREE (Donations to cover the cost of stamps greatly appreciated)

Join NYC Anarchist Black Cross for a May Day card signing party for U.S. held political prisoners!

May Day is an anarchist holiday, for over 150 years it has been a day to celebrate the struggle against capitalism–which logically extends to active resistance against all forms of oppression–and to honor those who struggle. We want to both honor our political prisoners and to help them celebrate by sending our love through the walls.

Tuesday, December 13th – Letter Writing To Eric King

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, December 13th, 2022
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

We are very pleased that after years of restrictions, Eric King can finally get and send mail! While he is still being punitively isolated as reprisal for beating the most recent charges thrown at him—essentially being punished for defending himself from an unprovoked attack by a guard—he can at least get some love and light from his friends and supporters. So this week we are strongly encouraging everyone reading this to write Eric and tell him he has not been forgotten in the least. Send some nice stories and jokes and things to brighten the lonely days and nights inside. Here is a reading list as well if you’d like to send him books.

Eric King is a vegan anarchist political prisoner who has been imprisoned since 2016. Eric is also a dad, a poet, and a committed activist who has faced horrendous state violence for his principled stances. On March 3, 2016, Eric accepted a non-cooperating plea agreement to one count of using “explosive materials to commit arson” and on June 28, 2016 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His estimated release date is December 27, 2023.

In August 2019 Eric was charged for assaulting a Federal officer and faced up to 20 more years in prison. He was found innocent by a federal jury. Despite this the BOP within 11 days transferred him and bumped his custody up to MAX as a response to his win. He is set to continue to be detained indefinitely in segregation.

Please join NYC ABC in a letter to Eric King:

Eric King #27090-045
USP FLORENCE ADMAX
PO BOX 8500
FLORENCE, CO 81226

Tuesday, November 29th- Letter Writing to Ed Poindexter

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, November 29th, 2022
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

Ed Poindexter has been locked up inside for over 50 years. So many things have changed socially, culturally, politically and technologically in those decades as to make the world almost an unrecognizable alternate sci-fi novel reality compared to what it was in 1970. Yet the fact of Ed’s continued incarceration remains—along with several other elders of the dynamic late 1960’s-70’s period of the Black Liberation movement—remains. The continued incarceration of these folks proves that the so-called United States does hold partisans of liberation movements as political prisoners, though conservatives and liberals alike feign shock and even indignation at this notion. The fact remains, and is very much not a fiction to these folks’ families, friends, loved ones, and comrades—and especially not to U.S.-held political prisoners themselves.

In this spirit, please join NYC ABC and Page One Collective this week to write to Black Panther political prisoner Ed Poindexter.

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:

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

Tuesday, November 15th – Letter Writing To Kamau Sadiki

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, November 15th, 2022
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

First, the painfully overdue but still very good news: Mutulu Shakur has been granted parole! He was held unjustly for far too long but is finally coming home! We join his family, comrades, friends, and supporters around the world in celebrating Dr. Shakur’s imminent release. As his support crew states: We welcome him home with great joy.

But there still several Black Liberation Movement veterans held as political prisoners in the United States. This week, as part of our tradition of every-other-week political prisoner letter-writing, NYC ABC will be writing to Kamau Sadiki, former Black Panther Party member and Black Liberation Army (BLA) soldier who is currently serving a life plus ten years sentence for the murder of an Atlanta cop in 1971. He was arrested and convicted over 30 years after the cop was killed based solely on the testimonies of former BLA comrades-turned-snitch that were not even present at the time.

This should not come as a surprise as the State has never ended their war against Black people and continues to divisively target Black communities. An increased interest in what the State labels terrorism is what led to the increased interest of Kamau in 2002 when he was brought in for questioning on an unrelated matter. They were aware of his former relationship with the perennially Most Wanted Assata Shakur, with whom Kamau has a daughter. They attempted to extract information from him about Assata and tried to recruit him to lure her away from Cuba or else he “would die in prison.” When he refused to turn his back on his principles and his community, the state of Georgia vindictively moved forward with charges of the decades old crime.

Before Kamau’s time in the BLA, he was a New York City teenager who was deeply moved by the principles and organizing efforts of the Black Panther Party. At age 17 he joined up in Jamaica, Queens and volunteered in the Free Breakfast for Children program in the morning, hit the streets with BPP newsletters in the afternoon in an effort to organize his neighbors, and took part in political education classes at night. Once the FBI’s CoIntelPro was in full swing, decimating the Party and their ability to progress, Kamau and many others went underground to the more clandestine BLA for fear of being entrapped, framed, or murdered.

For more info on Kamau Sadiki, check out freekamau.com which gives an account of Kamau’s life from two former political prisoners, Safiya Bukhari and Claude Marks (freedomarchives.org).

Please take the time to write a letter to Kamau:
Kamau Sadiki* #0001150688
Augusta State Medical Prison
3001 Gordon Highway
Grovetown, Georgia 30813
*Address envelope to Freddie Hilton

Tuesday, November 1st – Letter Writing for Daniel Baker

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, November 1st, 2022
WHERE: Your Home (or wherever you happen to be)
COST: Free

Now that bizarre right-wing election- or at least electoral-related violence is once again in the news, and a caricature of a comic book capitalist villain (and self-declared free speech absolutist, whatever that means) has taken over the most influential social media platform, it’s unfortunately an apropos time to bring up the unjust imprisonment of Daniel Baker.

Daniel is an anti-fascist activist who was arrested on January 15, 2021 for social media posts that called for defense against possible far-right attacks on the state’s capitol in the wake of the January 6th riots. Daniel was facing up to 10 years for two counts of transmitting a communication in interstate commerce containing a threat to kidnap or injure. On October 12th, 2021 he was sentenced to 44 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release.

This week NYC ABC is asking you all to join us in writing to political prisoner Daniel Baker. Send your well wishes and solidarity Daniel’s way.

You can write to him at:
Daniel Baker #25765-509
FCI Memphis
Post Office Box 34550
Memphis, Tennessee 38184

Tuesday, October 18th – A Green Scare(y) Halloween Card-Writing

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, October 18th, 2022
WHERE: Wherever you happen to be.

’Tis the season once again for ghouls and ghosts and goblins and…our annual Green Scare(Y) letter writing to earth and animal liberation prisoners.

There are so many frightening things happening around the world lately; colonial wars in East Africa, Eastern Europe; brutal repression of dissidents in so-called Iran; refugees fleeing political and economic oppression in Central and South America, ongoing and impending famines…And of course the ever-worsening human-driven ecological crisis that is causing increasing catastrophic damage and existentially threatens nearly every species of flora and fauna on Earth.

But of course what scares capitalists and their government lackeys more than even the threat of human extinction is the audacity of some to resist this global ecocide. So much so that they conspired to label non-violent actions in which no one was physically harmed as “eco-terrorism“- with harshly exaggerated sentences to match- and even cooperated with a supposedly anti-imperialist “communist dictatorship” to rob one defendant of their freedom. This “Green Scare” is not just recent history, it is the very real present for folks currently in prison serving egregiously long sentences or awaiting sentencing for non-violent actions on behalf of the earth and its inhabitants (both human and non-human).

So this week we are asking you all join us in writing letters–or send cards–to Marius Mason and Jessica Reznicek. And also to keep Joseph Dibee in your hearts and minds. Read up on their cases, check out their respective writing and art, and send them some love.

Jessica Reznicek is a land and water defender who has lived in and worked with Catholic Worker and homeless populations in the Duluth and Des Moines communities. In 2016, Jessica took a stand against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. After attending, with other organizers, public comment hearings, gathering signatures for valid requests for Environmental Impact Statements, and participating in civil disobedience, hunger strikes, marches and rallies, boycotts and encampments in 2017, Jessica and another person took direct action and disabled construction machinery in order to protect the land. No one was injured by their actions, and the land was protected from the flow of
oil for an additional six months.

Marius Mason is a transgender environmental and animal rights activist and anarchist. In 1999, in the name of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) he set fire to a lab at the University of Michigan that was conducting research on genetically modified organisms (GMO). After Marius’ husband turned state’s-evidence, Marius was threatened with a life sentence for the arson and other acts of sabotage. With little financial stability and fear of dragging his family into a costly legal battle, Marius pled guilty and was given an extreme sentence of nearly 22 years. No one was ever harmed in any of his actions.

Jessica Reznicek #19293-030
FCI Waseca
Post Office Box 1731
Waseca, Minnesota 56093

Marie (Marius) Mason #04672-061
FCI Danbury
Route 37
Danbury, Connecticut 06811
*Address card to Marius

Tuesday, May 3rd – Letter Writing to Dr. Mutulu Shakur

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022
WHERE: your home (or wherever you happen to be)
COST: Free

Eid Mubarak to those who celebrate!
And happy May Day to those who struggle!

This week NYC ABC is asking for folks to write to Dr. Mutulu Shakur.

From Dr. Shakur’s support site:

“Dr. Shakur received his ninth parole denial in January 2021. After being diagnosed with life-threatening bone cancer yet denied compassionate release, his lawsuit against the US Parole Commission and the Bureau of Prisons for unjust denials was expedited. We need your support as we pursue all avenues to improve Dr. Shakur’s fate!”

Dr. Mutulu Shakur is a New Afrikan (Black) man whose primary work has been in the area of health. He is a doctor of acupuncture and was a co-founder and director of two institutions devoted to improving health care in the Black community.

In 1987 Dr. Shakur was sentenced to 60 years in prison after being targeted by US federal authorities with charges under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act and for aiding in Assata Shakur’s escape from prison. Please read more about Dr. Shakur here.

Please join NYC ABC from wherever you are as we write letters to Dr. Shakur:

Dr. Mutulu Shakur #83205-012
FMC Lexington
Post Office Box 14500
Lexington, Kentucky 40512

Though Dr. Shakur appreciates the mail that folks send him, he is unable to respond to every letter personally. Other ways to support Dr. Shakur can be found at mutulushakur.com