Running Down the Walls 2016 – A Reportback

Running Down the Walls (RDTW) 2016 was a success in building relationships, feeling the solidarity of running as our imprisoned comrades did the same, and raising funds for the ABCF Warchest and the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP is a collective Alternative to Detention (ATD), detention center visitation, direct service, and community organizing project that works with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Two Spirit, Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and HIV+ detainees and their families currently in detention centers, those that are recently released from detention centers, and undocumented folks in New York City).

The fear factory National Weather Service gave us pause and we considered rescheduling this year’s event with tropical storm Hermine looming just off the coast. As it turned out, we had no floods, no rain, no high winds, just perfect weather for running. Crisis averted!

We arrived early, to avoid getting beaten to a sweet spot in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, by the gaggle of goofs clawing to get to a food circus we refuse to name. This gave us time to set up our hand-painted RDTW banner and tables of literature & food. The aforementioned mall food court for the self-perceived well-heeled was dropped squarely in the middle of our run path last year, so we switched it up on ’em. This year, our 5k was more like 5.2k (sorry, distance nerds) and consisted of a single lap around what is known as the Main Loop.

Given that this was also a picnic—outdoors, breezy, and mildly unpredictable, we set up a scaled down version of our literature table. This meant our ubiquitous red wire rack of free literature, including copies of the recently published Conditions of Confinement (writings by anarchist prisoner Casey Brezik), the NYC ABC Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoner and Prisoners of War, and all of the tri-fold pamphlets about many of the prisoners we support.

We had printed bib numbers for the participants. The flipside of the bib numbers had information about NYC ABC and guidelines for writing to prisoners, making it both a memento and a useful reminder to write to folks.

A few serious runners arrived as early as 1:30pm, though the announced time of the event was 2:00-7:00pm and we typically use the first half hour to register folks and take sponsor forms from those who hustled to get sponsors. Even with this schedule in mind, anarchist time prevailed and the run actually started closer to 2:45, following a group photo around the RDTW banner.

Before the run, an NYC ABC collective member went over some basics, while also kicking facts about political prisoners and state repression. We then played a greeting from Jaan Laaman, recorded specifically for the event.

Of the 60-70 folks who came to RDTW 2016, about 45 participated in the 5(.2)k. The age range was 4-72 years old. Hashtag multi-generational. Several runners were serious, several were fast, and the venn diagram of those two categories resulted in the same few folks running the fastest laps this year as last.

After running, bronchial passages fully dilated, what sounds better than a plate of barbecue and potato salad?

The picnic consisted of Texas-style barbecued jackfruit sandwiches with fresh pickles; potato salad; a variety of chips & cold drinks; and some outstanding cranberry blondies. Yes, a lot of folks came just for the food.

Before we got too deep into socializing, we read solidarity statements written for the event by Bill Dunne, Kojo Bomani Sababu, Hanif Bey, and Xinachtli.

One participant garnered over $1,000 in sponsors, and several others raised hundreds of dollars each. All told, we raised a respectable amount of loot.

Folks sitting around, talking, having just shared the run, felt good. The group consisted of folks from diverse backgrounds, many of whom were new faces to our collective. Instagram followers brought IRL friends, and comrades & allies turned up as well. Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), NYC Jericho Movement, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, Family and Friends of Maliki Shakur Latine, the campaign the Bring Mumia Home, Marius Mason’s support crew, the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar, and the campaign to Free the MOVE 9 prisoners were among the represented organizations that explicitly work on political prisoner support. There were also folks from NYC Animal Defense League, the NYC Anarchist Book Fair, Black and Pink NYC, Rojava Solidarity NYC, Incarcerated Worker Organizing Committee NYC (IWOC), WESPAC, and Books Through Bars, among others. We were also thankful for the presence of Sekou Odinga and Susan Rosenberg, former political prisoners and consistent examples of solidarity through action.

Most folks had left by 6:30 and those who stayed did so to help clean up and transfer everything to the cars. So the event went as scheduled, almost to the minute.

Knowing the history of the run and the imprisoned comrades with whom we ran in solidarity elevated Running Down the Walls 2016 to an even more inspiring level.

And that’s how we get down (the walls).

NYC ABC

BK/NY – Monday, July 4th – noise demo in solidarity with the Eastchester 120 and prisoners everywhere

WHAT: Noise Demo
WHEN: 3:00pm, Monday, July 4th
WHERE: Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC, the federal prison in Brooklyn); meeting at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 30th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11232(D/N/R to 36th Street or R to 25th Street)
BRING: Noisemakers, air horns, drums, anything that is loud!

July 4th is a day set aside for Americans to celebrate their freedom. What about the freedom of the 120 individuals taken into custody by nearly 700 police in gestapo style raids on April 27th? Many of these people were rounded up solely because of their manner of dress and without any evidence of them being involved in gang activity. The entire community was terrorized in order to awe its members into submission with a gratuitous display of the state’s ostensible omnipotence. We stand against this manifestly illegitimate state and stand in solidarity with the 120 people who were taken on that day, as well as with the two million others locked up behind bars in this country.

“The Land of the Free” is a collection of empty words when 2 million people are locked up in order to generate profit for a few; even more so when many of those folks are forced to work in slave labor conditions, devaluing and destabilizing work done by fellow workers on the outside. It’s imperative we understand that it’s only in collective solidarity with one another that we stand a chance against the few at the top who are willing to destroy our very lives in pursuit of profit. To this end, we stand in solidarity with the nation wide prison strike taking place on September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising. Without our collective submission to their rule, those at the top are powerless. It’s toward this end of realizing our collective power that we direct this effort. Join NYC ABC, IWOC NYC, and Take Back the Bronx as we make some noise, hears stories from the families terrorized by cops, and show palpable solidarity to folks on the inside.

NYC – Sunday, May 1 – May Day Noise Demo in Solidarity With Prison Strikers and Akai Gurley

WHAT: Noise Demo
WHEN: 6:00pm, Sunday, May 1st
WHERE: Metropolitan Correction Center (MCC, the federal prison in downtown Manhattan); Pearl Street, between Cardinal Hayes Place and Park Row (J to Chambers Street or 4/5/6/ to City Hall)
BRING: Noisemakers, air horns, drums, anything that is loud!

“We cannot help but believe that were every law, every title deed, every court, and every police officer or soldier abolished tomorrow with one sweep, we would be better off than now.” – Lucy Parsons

American society’s core is predicated on slavery. When outright ownership of human beings was abolished, the prison system eventually filled the demand for a free labor force. However, while labor arrangements changed from chattel slavery to a wage labor system, the pervasive social context in the US has rested on the negation of personhood for Black people.

The slave masters and the slave catchers from the 18th and 19th centuries have become the police forces and judicial system today. The racist current that encourages police to shoot Black and brown people at will, with no consequence, also incarcerates a remarkable amount of people for trivial legal transgressions.

From the original May Day until today, those with a hunger for liberation have never stopped resisting. This May Day we are standing with two historic movements that are striving to break this system of domination: the Free Alabama Movement and Black Lives Matter.

The Free Alabama Movement in conjunction with the IWW/IWOC has called for noise demonstrations in solidarity with prison work strikes that are being launched on May Day across Alabama. The Free Alabama Movement stated, “mass incarceration is in essence an economic system which uses human beings as its nuts and bolts.” With solidarity from Texas prisoners, they intend to put this economic system to a halt.

In NYC, we are standing up for all the victims of police violence but specifically for Akai Gurley and his family who were recently violated in one of the most outrageous instances of American barbarism. If there is a time to stand up, it is now.

This May Day, with our fists raised in defiance we stand in solidarity with the prison strikers, with the family of Akai Gurley, and all those who desire to set fire to the master’s house. Burn down the American Plantation!