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Over 100 in the streets for NYC ABC NYE Noise Demo
2019 started strong as we welcomed home water protector Dion Ortiz. Throughout the year, we saw more comrades released (Janet, Janine, and Eddie Africa; Little Feather, Connor Stevens, and Nina Droz Franco). And yet, as more elders age behind the wall, we lost a true warrior, Tom Manning. To close the year, NYC ABC organized a noise demo outside of Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in order to protest, celebrate, and let folks on the inside know they are not forgotten.
We got there a little after 8:30 and others were there waiting. We greeted old comrades and folks we’d yet to meet and by 9:00pm, a decent crowd had formed. The night was relatively warm by winter standards, but comrades from the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council (MACC) showed up with tea and hot chocolate to make sure everyone’s vocal cords stayed nice and toasty as we yelled and sang upward, into the steel and cement monolith that is MCC.
There were all manner of noise makers, most folks brought their own. Hell, we even had a makeshift drum corps to keep this noise demo moving.
Photo by NYC RAM
And while folks were there to celebrate and reach through the walls, signs and banners also expressed the brimming rage of the crowd. A crew from The Base showed up with black flags and banners to make sure all inside knew there were anarchists organizing in solidarity with them.
The demo lasted a couple of hours, but not before folks broke out sparklers and fireworks. And not before a fair amount of cops came to observe. They didn’t have riot gear or visible plasitcuffs, so the threat was more in what a bunch of preposterous goons they are than in any potential for arrest.
We’ve been told before, by comrades who were once held in MCC, that the noise demos light up the whole place and get through to the prisoners. If you’re thinking about organizing a noise demo in your town, do it.
Shortly before the crowd started to break up and head out, the following statement was read as a call and response, ensuring that our comrades inside could hear it:
“To many it feels like we live in a time like no other with surveillance and repression at every turn but also resistance, rebellion, and open revolt. This is neither the new golden nor dark age, it is simply another moment in time where we can collectively force conflict with a fucked up system.
Every day there are revolts of varying scale, most of which you never hear about. For those captured in revolt we come together in protest and celebration. Through the din of revelry and rage we tie ourselves to those who suffer systematized white supremacy and war against the working class
Prison is a means of social control to be absolutely destroyed.
Here’s to the total destruction of a prison-based society!
Tonight we bring with us the courage of Bill Dunne, the ferocity of Joe-Joe Bowen, the wisdom of Mutulu Shakur.
We remember in every act of rebellion against the state, our deceased comrades Tom Manning and Robert Seth Hayes your legacies will never be forgotten.
We hold in our hearts comrades soon to be or recently imprisoned—David Campbell, Joseph Dibee, Gage Halupowski, Chelsea Manning.
BK/NY – Tuesday, July 23rd – Birthday Cards for Imprisoned Comrades
WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, July 23rd, 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
The hits just keep on coming! In the last few months, NYC ABC reported on the release of several of the political prisoners we support, and with this event announcement, we can also confirm that Standing Rock 6 water protector prisoner Little Feather has been released to a halfway house! Welcome (halfway) home, Little Feather! Good news, bad news, or no news at all doesn’t keep us from supporting political prisoners in one of the most basic ways–by sending them cards and letters. So we are back with our every-other-week political prisoner letter-writing dinner and this one is sorta special. There are so many upcoming birthdays that we will be hosting a birthday card night and you’re invited. Will there be a cake? Show up to find out! If you can’t make it, but want to play along, check out the NYC ABC political prisoner birthday calendar and send a card from wherever you are.
Illustrated Guide Version 14.5 Uploaded!
We’ve finished the latest version of the NYC ABC “Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War” and it’s available for viewing (and download) by clicking on the tab at the top of this page. This update includes updated mini-bios, photos, and address changes for several prisoners. We are thankful to remove Standing Rock 6 prisoner Little Feather (halfway house!).
BK/NY – Tuesday, November 20th – Letter-Writing Dinner For American Indian Warriors
WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, November 20th, 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
It’s supper time again, and NYC ABC is back at The Base for our every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter Writing Dinner. As anarchists, it should come as no surprise that we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving–we’ll take your damned day off from work, but not in exchange for commemorating the historic and ongoing genocide of indigenous folks and the 250 million turkeys who are killed each year. While we might be eating the fruits of the fall harvest, don’t confuse that with an acceptance of the Thanksgiving myth.
This Tuesday’s dinner will focus on indigenous political prisoners Dion Ortiz, Leonard Peltier, Little Feather, and Red Fawn Fallis.
Dion Ortiz, Little Feather, and Red Fawn Fallis are three of the folks known as the Standing Rock 6. The Standing Rock 6 are arrestees facing felony charges stemming from arrests on October 27, 2016 at ceremonial resistance camps at Standing Rock. These camps were convened in North Dakota by Native peoples and their allies who gathered there to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Collectively, they are referred to as water protectors. These seven arrestees are out of the 800-some water protectors arrested, many the result of widespread police sweeps at demonstrations like October 22 with scant or no evidence to link most individuals to any crime. Currently three of the Standing Rock 6–Red Fawn Fallis, Little Feather, and Dion Ortiz, are in prison. More information at waterprotectorlegal.org
Leonard Peltier is an American Indian Movement (AIM) warrior. In the 1970s, the United States government continued its legacy of decimating indigenous communities, focusing on those organized and prepared to challenge its authority. Peltier is imprisoned for the 1975 shoot-out between the FBI and AIM in which two federal agents and an indigenous man were killed. Four years after his imprisonment, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request released documents which prove Leonard Peltier’s innocence and the FBI’s targeting him. And still, Peltier remains imprisoned. For more information and ways to help, visit whoisleonardpeltier.info
If for some wild reason you can’t make it out, but still want to support the prisoners, you can write to Dion, Leonard, Little Feather, and Red Fawn at:
Dion Ortiz #16559-059
FCI Sandstone
Post Office Box 1000
Sandstone, Minnesota 55072
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Coleman I
Post Office Box 1033
Coleman, Florida 33521
Little Feather* #25201-075
USP Hazelton
Post Office Box 2000
Bruceton Mills, West Virginia 26525
*Address envelope to Michael Giron
Red Fawn Fallis #16358-059
FMC Carswell
Post Office Box 27137
Fort Worth, Texas 76127
BK/NY – Tuesday, October 23rd – Come to a Green Scare(y) Halloween Card-Writing
WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, October 23rd, 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
It is 2018 and the US government’s war on environmental activists and animal liberationists is still being waged. A couple of years ago NYC ABC and Sacramento Prisoner Support responded with project FANG, a travel fund for earth and animal liberation prisoners and we have since provided funds to families and supporters to help ease the burden of visiting imprisoned loved ones.
With “Operation Backfire” defendant Joseph Dibee recently apprehended in Cuba, the imprisonment of Standing Rock water defenders, and the recent trials of “Valve Turners,” we are reminded of the backwards and arbitrary logic the State uses to deem who are “terrorists.” The truth is, those in power will always villainize those who seek to liberate and valorize those who seek to carry out real destruction.
In light of the coming holiday, we are sending Halloween cards to targets of the Green Scare as part of our every-other-week political prisoner letter-writing dinners.
Since the early 1980s, public relations hacks have been working to reify the term “eco-terrorism.” By 2004, they became successful and a phrase that a decade earlier had no real meaning was now defined by the United States government and used to introduce legislation. In the face of global ecologic destruction and animal torture, those who try to end the suffering are the ones labeled terrorists. Join us in letting the ones who have ultimately been captured know that they have not been forgotten. Read more…
BK/NY – Tuesday, September 11th – Letter-Writing Dinner For Water Protectors
WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, September 11th, 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
As much of the media, corporate or otherwise, ignores or distorts the realities of the nationwide #PrisonStrike, we see the way the state preemptively punishes any resistance, real or perceived. As imprisoned comrades throughout Pennsylvania’s draconian prison system endure an open-ended lockdown, we have seen equally brutal responses to those who resist on this side of the wall. In Louisiana, water protector activists are being violently arrested and charged under new state legislation by off-duty cops hired goons. So it is with the bravery of those resisting on both sides of the walls in mind that NYC ABC hosts our every-other-week political prisoner letter-writing dinner. This week we are focusing on water protectors, including those imprisoned as part of the Standing Rock 6 as well as Ellen Sue Gerhart.
The Standing Rock 6 are arrestees facing felony charges stemming from arrests on October 27, 2016 at ceremonial resistance camps at Standing Rock. These camps were convened in North Dakota by Native peoples and their allies who gathered there to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Collectively, they are referred to as water protectors. These seven arrestees are out of the 800-some water protectors arrested, many the result of widespread police sweeps at demonstrations like October 22 with scant or no evidence to link most individuals to any crime. Currently three of the Standing Rock 6–Red Fawn Fallis, Little Feather, and Dion Ortiz, are in prison. More information at waterprotectorlegal.org
Ellen Gerhart is an outspoken advocate, not only to protect her own land but also to protect the hundreds of waterways impacted across Pennsylvania by ETP’s Mariner East 2 pipeline project. Ellen and her family’s ongoing opposition to the project has led to significant intimidation and harassment on the part of ETP, their private security contractor TigerSwan, and local authorities. On Friday, August 3, Huntingdon County Judge George Zanic sentenced the 63-year-old grandmother, retired teacher, and landowner to two to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine for indirect criminal contempt of court.
If for whatever reason you are not able to join us, please write to these water protectors:
Dion Ortiz
Heart of America Correction Center
110 Industrial Road
Rugby, North Dakota 58368
Ellen Gerhart #18-0983
700 Rishel Hill Road
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823
Little Feather* #25201-075
USP Hazelton
Post Office Box 2000
Bruceton Mills, West Virginia 26525
*Address envelope to Michael Giron
Red Fawn Fallis #16358-059
FMC Carswell
Post Office Box 27137
Fort Worth, Texas 76127
Illustrated Guide Version 13.6 Uploaded!
We’ve finished the latest version of the NYC ABC “Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War” and it’s available for viewing (and download) by clicking on the tab at the top of this page. This update includes updated mini-bios, photos, and address changes for several prisoners. Unfortunately, we are adding a prisoner to the guide this month–Water Protector Dion Ortiz. We are thankful to remove Robert Seth Hayes (released on parole!) and Nicole Kissane (completion of sentence!).
Illustrated Guide Version 13.5 Uploaded!
We’ve finished the latest version of the NYC ABC “Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War” and it’s available for viewing (and download) by clicking on the tab at the top of this page. This update includes updated mini-bios, photos, and address changes for several prisoners, as well as the removal of Debbie Africa (released on parole!).
Illustrated Guide Version 13.1 Uploaded!
We’ve finished the latest version of the NYC ABC “Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War” and it’s available for viewing (and download) by clicking on the tab at the top of this page. This update includes updated mini-bios, photos, and address changes for several prisoners, as well as the removal of Joseph Buddenberg (completed sentence) and Brandon Baxter (see our statement). Unfortunately, it also includes the addition of recently-imprisoned water protectors Red Fawn Fallis, Little Feather, and Michael Foster.
NYC Anarchist Black Cross 