Running Down the Walls 2023: A Reportback

Running Down the Walls 2023 has come and gone. Here in NYC we had a beautiful day to do it, the mid-September New York weather finally feeling like autumn instead of a desert summer. Both Prospect Park and the City itself seemed even busier than usual, with buskers, vendors and birthday parties nearby and marches and rallies elsewhere in town. In coordinating a multi-city run with organizers on both sides of the walls, we have to find a day that works for everyone involved as much as possible. As it turned not out only did Sunday, September 17 this year land during Rosh Hashanah, but both the Climate March and the 54th Annual African Day Parade were on Sunday as well. It also happened to be the 2nd day of the NYC Anarchist Book Fair, which we spent all day Saturday tabling at. So it was a busy weekend for many New Yorkers, including NYC ABC! Even still, a lively core of runners, bikers, walkers, and chillers assembled near the black RDTW banner to raise funds, awareness, and community solidarity for our political prisoners. It was wonderful to reconnect with long time friends and comrades, and to welcome some new faces!

The goal of RDTW, this year as much as any, is of course to raise much-needed funds for the Anarchist Black Cross Federation Warchest Program. Also though, and always, any chance to share information about the political prisoners and POW’s we support is heartily welcomed. Not to mention that events such as these are important in building and maintaining solidaric community in the here and now, rather than waiting for some dreamy future or idealizing pasts or present communities we are not a part of.

The namesake event itself kicked off a bit later than usual this year, as ‘anarchy time’ remains as reliable as ever. This year there were some pretty serious runners and bikers, as well as some casual perambulators happy to enjoy the fresh air at an unhurried pace. After the ‘run’, as is local anarchist tradition, organizers, participants and supporters shared an especially delicious home-cooked vegan meal, and spent a few more hours making new friends and catching up with cherished comrades.

We’ll leave you here with a few Running Down the Walls 2023 solidarity statements from some former political prisoners, as well as from a couple of good folks still behind the walls.
Hopefully we’ll see you all at next year’s Running Down the Walls!
Free Them All!

RDTW 2023 STATEMENTS FROM CURRENT AND FORMER POLITICAL PRISONERS:

YORCH (DF, Mexico)
Greetings from reclusorio oriente of Mexico City. I am Yorch, I’m in prison for being part of Okupa Che! Like you all know I am being accused of selling narcotics and these are fabricated charges by the authorities and by the university chancellor. It has been 9 months since I was kidnapped and put in this place. Like you all know the legal bills and life in here is really difficult. It brings me joy that the homies from Running Down The Walls Borders (Walls) [Anarchist Black Cross Los Angeles] have invited me to write something about my case to spread the word. We need to pressure the courts so they do not continue extend my legal process. I send you all a strong combative hug and hope to be out soon so we can continue to struggle together. Down with the prison walls!

RAY LUC LEVASSEUR
When Running Down the Walls first kicked off many years ago I was held
captive at the notorious ADX prison in Florence, Colorado.  But within
that isolation cell I felt the defiant rhythm of those who ran, jogged,
walked and rolled to support political prisoners.  SOLIDARITY is our
greatest weapon —  the very heart and soul of any movement that resists
the depredations of capitalism and the malignancy of white supremacy.
Those of you here today help to carry forward the spirit of resistance
and provide vital support for OUR political prisoners.  With love and
respect from unceded Wabanaki land.

JALIL MUNTAQIM
Running Down the Walls is running down penal slavery, it’s running down capitalist exploitation, it’s running down white supremacy. It is when we understand the politics behind Running Down the Walls we understand the very nature of our overall struggle. That is because Running Down the Walls supports the existence of political prisoners of war, and thereby supports the movements and struggles they come from.

When we run down the walls we are building a movement of politically conscious activists will and able to sacrifice for what they believe is according to their and our common humanity.

XINACHTLI
IN THE TRUE SPIRIT OF STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM, as the crisis deepens in U.S. society, and the capitalist-imperialist rulers spew their imperialist lies out of their foul mouths, as the class struggle sharpens the response by rulers is more repressive, racist laws designed to tighten their noose around the necks of all working class people, as the rich squeeze more production from the workers to enrich the surplus value to make them ever richer, while the workers get mere crumbs, under the existing dog-eat-dog system of wage-theft slavery they call it “free enterprise” and “freedom” as they spend millions of dollars on war efforts in Ukraine, while ignoring the basic human needs of the poor in this society.

BEHIND THE IRON CURTAINS OF AMERIKKKA’S KKKCONCENTRATION KKKAMPS, conditions worsen and there is a continuing callous indifference for free speech, inhumane prison conditions, brutality, prisoners dying due to extreme heat conditions, forced prisoner slavery, and deprivation of such basic human needs, as essential food, and medical needs of prisoners, while prisoncrats live in luxury by swindling taxpayer funds designed for prison, to enrich themselves, all hidden away from public view. Here in Texas, prison conditions are atrocious, and repression against those of us who fight for human rights, escalates, in a prison system with deep roots in settler colonialism, white supremacy and plantation racial slavery, the result of two Yankee colonial wars of conquest and extermination, where the massive prisons sit on stolen lands.

THIS 2023 RUNNING DOWN THE WALLS YEAR, we submit our solidarity statement and thank ABCF and its WARCHEST for continuing to support all of us POW, POLITICAL PRISONERS, VICTIMS OF COINTELPROREPRESSION THAT TARGETED OUR SOCIAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT ORGANIZATION TO DESTROY OUR STRUGGLES. ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE! FREE ALL US FREEDOM FIGHTERS!

BK/NY – Tuesday, August 6th – Black August Card Writing Dinner

WHAT: Black August Card Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, August 6th, 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

Normally we in NYC ABC write these short blurbs announcing our every other week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinners in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Or perhaps we highlight the good news of an imprisoned comrade being released from prison. With this announcement, that’s not the case. We’ve just lost United Freedom Front political prisoner Tom Manning. Tom died in prison and we cannot emphasize enough that he deserved better. Tom was a mentor and never wavered in his revolutionary principles. Please take the time to read this statement by Ray Luc Levasseur, a former political prisoner and one of Tom’s closest comrades. We are certain that Tom would not want his death to result in the work of supporting political prisoners slowing and so as a collective, we carry on. This week, we will be hosting a Black August card signing.

Statement by Ray Luc Levasseur Regarding Tom Manning

Tom Manning’s death on July 30 has me in the grip of an emotional riptide. I feel like part of me died with him.

Tom was imprisoned at USP-Hazelton, WV at the time of his death. The ostensible cause of death, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was a heart attack.

I received Tom’s last letter on July 15. He wrote that he was in dire circumstances, his medical needs treated with deliberate indifference, delays in receiving necessary medication, his body weak from lack of oxygen. Supporters scrambled to get a lawyer in to see him, but death arrived first.

Tom battled the Bureau of Prisons criminal negligence of his medical needs for the past 10 years, beginning when he almost died from an untreated knee infection while at USP-Coleman, FL. As a result of that infection, most of his knee was surgically removed and he was wheelchair bound for the rest of his days.

But he was not through fighting.

When he arrived at FMC-Butner, NC for further medical treatment he was kept in solitary confinement under abysmal conditions for 3 years. Much-needed knee and shoulder surgeries were repeatedly delayed until pressure from Tom’s supporters forced the BOP to act. But the surgeries came too late, and combined with the lack of necessary rehab insured that Tom remained in a wheelchair.

Tom always had the warrior spirit, right to his last breath. Many more like him, and the ruling class would tremble. The ache in my heart over his passing will be forever.

In remembrance, I offer words I wrote in 2014 for Tom’s book “For Love and Liberty,” a collection of his paintings:

Tom Manning – For Love and Liberty

We want to call your attention to an exciting new project that is in the works by Political Prisoner Tom Manning. Tom, with the help of outside supporters, is creating a book of his paintings. If you have not seen his art, we highly recommend you check it out and show solidarity by helping Tom finish and publish this work. The years of work to produce this beautiful book and important document are nearing their end and we need your help to fund the last phase of production!

The book, For Love and Liberty, will feature:

–     86 full color reproductions of Tom’s Paintings
–     Preface by Robby Meeropol
–     Article, “In My Time” by Tom
–     Poem by Assata, “Affirmation”
–     Autobiography of Tom Manning
–     Afterword by Ray Levasseur
–     Notes from photographer Penny Schoner

Who is Tom Manning?

Thomas Manning is an anti-imperialist revolutionary who was active in the United Freedom Front, a clandestine anti-imperialist organization that carried out targeted bombings of corporate buildings, courthouses and military facilities and also carried out bank robberies to fund revolutionary projects.  He was unjustly sentenced to 80 years in prison for killing a New Jersey state trooper in self-defense. He is a freedom fighter, political prisoner and prolific artist. His paintings are stories that jump off the page, revealing the outlook of people who struggle for liberation around the world. His paintings are about life and his landscapes recall times of importance.

All proceeds, after production costs, will be donated to the Rosenberg Fund for Children

From the Preface by Robby Meeropol:

“Tom’s been incarcerated for 34 years.  But even before he received his current life sentence he was trapped by the limited choices left to an impoverished child surviving in Boston’s infamous Maverick Street Projects. The military during the Vietnam era seemed like a way out, but that too became a hellish form of confinement. Tom broke free, he revolted.  He became a revolutionary.  He committed the unforgivable sin of confronting today’s great imperial empire, the United States, on its home turf.  For that, I expect the prison industrial complex will do its best to keep him confined for as long as it can.”

More info at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/for-love-and-liberty

For additional questions please contact Penny Schoner: pennyschoner@yahoo.com