From Activist to 'Terrorist' - three messages

On Tuesday evening, April 4th, Jake Conroy spoke at Tory St in Wellington. Jake describes himself as 'a scrawny white American vegan who got sentenced to time in a US prison'. About 40 people attended his talk 'From Activist to Terrorist'. He left us with three key messages:

  • Think about prisons and prisoners, the lives people are forced to live there - the spaces they are forced to inhabit. One simple thing to do is write letters to people inside. 
  • Don't be scared of the threat of state repression.
  • Do fight-back. Figure out what you can do and find like-minded people and strategise how to bring about liberation.


At the Freedom Shop we have a range of books written by people inside or those involved in prison abolition and penal politics, including:
Image result for Outrage: An Anarchist Memoir of a Penal Colony by Clément Duval


Abolitionist Demands: Toward the End of Prisons in Aotearoa by No Pride in Prison


Outrage: An Anarchist Memoir of a Penal Colony by Clément Duval


Hauling Up the Morning: Writings and Art by political prisoners and prisoners of war in the US by Tim Blunk (Editor); Ray Luc Levasseur (Editor); Assata Shakur (Introduction); William Kunstler (Preface)
Image result for marilyn buck poetry
Inside/Out: Selected Poems - by Marilyn Buck

Writing On The Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women by Victoria Law





If you would like to write to a person in prison, No Pride In Prison have contacts of people wanting letters. There are also numerous websites with lists of people imprisoned because of their political beliefs and actions - check out ABC websites (Anarchist Black Cross), write to asylum seekers detained by Australia.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Class War in the 21st Century New Zealand: A Combined Rant and Political Suicide Note by Sam Buchanan

  “ The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed” – Simone de Beauvoir   Introduction The last 40 years have seen the incremental, but steady, shift of political power away from the working class. Much of this power has moved into the hands of the managers, bureaucrats and other functionaries that make up the Professional-Managerial Class (PMC). This is a problem, firstly because no particular sector of society should have an unfair share of power, secondly because these are people who have never liked democracy very much. Increasing inequality, in other words the continuing class war waged on the working class, also creates resentment (even if the losers are only vaguely aware of what is going on), crime, increased health and mental health costs and demands for increased repression and control. At this point, the Professional-Managerial Class are the main reason we aren ’ t getting anywhere. In the class war, they ’ ve chosen to pay
Read more

aargh! Issue 9 is out

Image
The latest aargh! (Aotearoa Anarchist Review for Gloomy Hypocrisy) is out and available at the shop for the incredibly low price of $2! Fifty years ago, in May 1968, protest movements all over the western world erupted, so we're taking a look back as well. We're looking at what happened to the anti-globalisation movement as well as the idea of open publishing. We even go back as far as the ancient Greeks to see what we can learn from them. After three weeks of relative autonomy, the refugees on Manus Island are back in prison. Closer to home we talk about communal living.
Read more

Plan B 2024 is here! Your Diary Planner for 2024

Image
Finally it's here: Plan B 2024 is out! It's taken a while, it got held up at the printers - but at last it's here! Plan B's a functional weekly planner. Each week includes dates and facts about resistance and events that have occurred since the early settlers and colonisers arrived in this country. And each month is introduced by a stunning image created by one of twelve local creatives.  The images commemorate some of those often ignored, overlooked, deliberately forgotten events that have happened in this country. We've got artwork highlighting protest and community action around housing and homes, deep sea oil exploration, colonialism, imperialism, racism, climate change, surveillance and more.  Many of the events and dates are from stories and histories that are usually overlooked in 'official' versions - so with Plan B, as you plot and plan your way though 2024, you know that you are not alone. You can be reminded of what has come before and that opposi
Read more