BK/NY – Saturday, June 11th – Sacco and Vanzetti Film Screening in Solidarity with Anarchist and Eco Prisoners

WHAT: International Day of Solidarity with Anarchist and Eco Prisoners
WHEN: 8pm, Saturday, June 11th, 2016
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, but we will pass the hat as a fundraiser for prisoners.

Join The Base and NYC ABC here in New York as a part of the celebration of resistance. We will be hearkening back to the history of anarchism and repression in the US, by screening an excellent documentary about anarchist revolutionaries Sacco and Vanzetti who were notoriously railroaded by the US state. The Italian heritage and anarchist political leanings of these two men spurred on the witch hunt against them, so that even though no evidence could be found, newspapers ran headlines such as ‘Hang Them Anyway!’

Sacco and Vanzetti, just like Luigi Galliani, were all anarchist victims of the first Red Scare, which set the stage for the continual anti-communist rhetoric and policy that still influences the US state to this day. From the Palmer Raids to the Green Scare, anarchists have fought against the repressive appendages of the state; and on this day of solidarity we want to celebrate the thrust towards liberation and the rebellious actions of anarchist prison rebels internationally.

We’d like to celebrate the anarchist revolutionaries in the past who we draw inspiration from, and who’s traditions we are carrying to the present. From the insurgent heart of Kuwasi Balagoon or Nestor Makhno, or the oratory of Emma Goldman, or the zeal of Johann Most, we recognize the tradition we are espousing and understand the necessity of struggle.

Today we see the same passion from comrades in Revolutionary Struggle in Greece, the anarchist prisoners in Chile and Spain, the daily war going on in Alabama prisons with Michael Kimble, or the growth of a new International Brigades with anarchist fighters on the frontline in Rojava. In these struggles our traditions continue and we will struggle until the trappings of capitalist society and world of states crumbles.

In this struggle prison is always potentially around the corner. As Alfredo Bonanno warned us, you’re not doing your actions right if you don’t go to prison occasionally. Prison is not to be taken lightly. It is the threat of ultimate oppression and a reality that is all too real for revolutionaries. The anarchists serving prison sentences for their contributions deserve our complete engagement in the struggle.

As the call for this day has stated, “In the weeks since we put out our text for this year, anarchists in Chile, the Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Azerbaijan, and elsewhere have faced repression by the state for their refusal to submit to this world of exploitation and hierarchy. For us, this only makes more clear the importance of solidarity. If we hope for our comrades to not fall into the oblivion of prison, we must manifest daily, and in every way, our complicity with their struggles.”

More at june11.org