RATT|LING THEQ ORAL HISTORIES oF NORTH AMERICAN @) POLITICAL PRSONERS g v i “How We Did It &How You Can Too” A p i - Originally hosted as alive conversation by Firstorm Books, recording vailable on Firestorms youtube channl, W youtsbe.com/watchiv-CZicBahPvs January 4, 2025 Publshed by AK Pross, Ratding the Cages: Oral Histries of North American PoliticalPisoners s roject of abolitionists Josh Davidson and Eric King, The ook illed with the expericnce and wisdom of over hist current and former North Amrican poiical prisoners. It provides first-hand detal of prison e and the poliiea commitments tha continue o lesd prisoners into direet confrontation with state authorites and insitutons. Transcription, editng, and formatting by ev, Danielle,Josh & Jeremy with help from Firestorm Bock. allsbor votunteered with whatever weapons a hand Eric King s a father, poet, author, and activist. In December 2023 he was, released from the supermax ADX prison after spending nearly ten years as a political prisoner for an act of protest over the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. He was held in solitary confinement for vears and was met with violence by guards throughout his incarceration. Eric has published three zines: Battle Tested (2015), Antifa in Prison (2019), and Pacing in My Cell (2019). His sentencing statement is included in the book Defiance: Anarchist Statements Before Judge and Jury (2019). Eric ‘now works as a paralegal for the Bread and Roses Legal Center. Sara Falconer is communications strategist living in Hamilton, Ontario. She has been ereating pul ns with prisoners since 2001, including the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar. Sara wrote the introduction to Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners. Josh Davidson is an sbelitonist, a member of the Certain Days: Freedom for Politcal risoners calendar collctive, and also partof the Chidzen's Art Project with political prisoner Oso Blancos Josh edited Rating the Cages: Ol Histories of North American Poitical Prisoners. He works in communications with the Zinm Education Project which promotes the teaching of radical people’s istory i classrooms and provides free lessons and resouces for educators ationg the cages 3 Libertie Valence: Welcome everybody. Thanks for joining us. My name is Libertic, and 'm a member of the Firestorm Collcctive. Tonight, we're hosting Rattling the Cages co-creators Exic King, Sara Falconer, and Josh Davidson. They re going to be talking about creating this really exciting oral history project, the importance of inside / outside. collaboration, and how replicating oral histories is something that you can also do. If you're tuning in for the first time, Firestorm is a 16.-year-old radical bookstore owned and operated by a queer feminist collective in southern Appalachia on the land of the Cherokee people. This is actually. our first virtual event of the new year, but we're planning lots of great conversations for 2025. So, definitely give us a follow on social media and. ‘bookmark our calendar. Yall,it's a huge pleasure to have you herel I'm going to go ahead and pass it off to Eric. 1know this is going to be a great conversation. Josh Davidson: Thanks so much, Libertie. ‘Eric King: Here we go! For everyone tuning in, I really appreciate it. This is areally special one for me because it’s a chance for me to interview and have a discussion with not only two people I admire, but two people 1 consider my dear friends and comrades. I'm happy everyone is joining us. Le’s get started, This is all about political prisoner support. 1¢’s all about how we can build closer bonds, how we can make those walls smaller and bring people together better. Id like for us to start with—you're both two prolific prisoner supporters—so can you tell me how and why you decided this nportant to you? I think that would be really helpful for people to learn. Josh! Josh Davidson: Thanks, Eric. I think, for me, supporting political prisoners started around 2005 or 2006, 1 like to say 1 was politically astute enough to find myself in a radical bookstore, but that's about it It was Red Emma’s in Baltimore, Maryland. At the time it was a really tiny basement bookstore. I knocked over this book. It was Love & Struggle by David ert,and I sat there in the bookstore and I read it all day. 1 wrote to him the next day, and, before you know it, we had this great relationship. We ting back and forth, and I was making. A et s Eric King: How long did it take him to write back? Josh Davidson: Maybe two weeks, two or three weeks, which was, during the decade or so we communicated while he was in prison stayed pretty steady during that time. But, yeah, a radical bookstore. I started to write 10 David I started to make that trek up to the New York state prisons to see him and o meet him, and every time I visited and asked him what ould do to help, he told me ta write to someone else and to see what T could do to support them. Every visit and every letter was this lesson in ‘movement history, and it really expanded my view and my understanding, and eventually that lead to me joining the Certain Days collective, and it lead to me writing to different people and joining ifferent freedom campaigns and trying to support them in any way I could, whether that was the calendar or the book of oral Eric King: Real quick, you said that you read his book and decided, “I'm going to write this guy.” Why? Why did you decide to write him instead of putting money on his books or sending him a book or just thinking about iim? What made you decide to write him? Because that's a conscious decision. You have to put alot of effort into that. Josh Davidson: Yeah... I don’t know. There was something about David that really stuck out. 1 guess this like Ivy League white guy who had everything going for him but put his entire lfe into struggle for Black liberation and anti-imperialism. .. Eric King: Much like yourself Josh Davidson: Well... [Laughter]. 1 don’t know about that. But he put his entire life out there to fight imperialism and, yeah, that just really conneeted with me. Reading the book, seeing the Weather Underground documentary, al of that kind of just lead me to want to reach out to him, Eric King: Awesome. Sara, if you're ready, same question! Sara Falconer: Yeah! You know, I love this question, because 'm often on the soap box trying to get people to write to prisoners, so 1 love talking. about how I came to . Just to start, I want to say thanks to you, Eric, and t0,you, Josh, for your wonderful work on this book, and for letting me be part of it. I think that it's such an important project. Thanks Firestorm, ationg the cages s t00, for hos cool series. ing thi Ithink, for me, part of what keeps me going as an anarchist and an activist s that connection that we have with people across movements, across locations, around the world, across generations. When I started writing to prisoners around the year 2000, 1 saw some letters in a punk magazine called Maximum RocknRoll that many of you may know from prisoners. I was just very interested in the way these humans were reaching out and that you could conneet with them and you could learn so much about peaple in different walks of life. I think that was the start of it for me. Icame to know the Anarchist Black Cross soon after that. They were not only helping to support young activists who had been imprisoned but also political prisoners who had been in for decades already. I started writing to some of those prisoners. It was through that I really developed politically over they years. The conversations that I was having, You're learning about the Civil Rights Movement first hand from the people that helpedlead it. To your point, Josh, to be able to talk to people about their experiences, what they've learned, how they approach things, the mistakes they made, the things that they want to see happen in this world. Ifound it so powerful to be able to conneet at that level and to have that history shape my own political development. ‘That's how I started to really think that I could play a small part in raising those voices, in sharing that experience with other people, in getting peaple to either write to prisoners or to read their words or to support their campaigns. That's what's kept me going all this time, that connection that you're always making. You're always growing. 1 always learn something from the letters that I receive and that I send in, the conversations that we're having. ‘Eric King: Sara, for you, real quick, when you started—you're in Canada, now—were you in Canada then when you started? Sara Falconer: Yes. s kind of an interesting situation to be organizing in al these years. In addition to the barriers that we have normally around reaching prisoners, Ive also got the border, and the time that i reach people through mail, and the ability to see people in person isn't as frequent as it i in some other areas, oo, Yeah, 'm from Canada and did all this work in Canada. takes to 6 g thecages Eric King: Were there any political prisoners or Canadian prisoners that you supported, or were most of them down in the states? Sara Falconer: You know, the person that T connected with most closely is Ann Hansen. She was a member of the Vancouver 5, tremendously inspirational person to me who went on ta write some really beautiful books about her ife and her experiences, and she's always raising the Voices of women in Canada’s brutal prisons. That conneetion helped me, think, to bring that piece of it to home. And then locally, 1 work with supporting the Barton Prison Solidarity Project, which is the jal that's right in the middle of Hamilton. We work with local prisoners, too. But for the most part,it’s been correspondence to the states. Eric King: Okay, cool. S0, something I experienced—and it was really fucking annoying—was the prison putting barricades up between me and the people that supported me. It made it really hard to maintai relationships with people, because, for them on the outside, if you're not getting a letter for a year, you can forget or just move past someone. ight? Thankfully, people like Josh and others stuck with me, but it made it hard. Twould like to know what, if any, difficulties you've all faced? What barriers have you faced? What obstacles have you faced when having to deal with this shit? And then also, how did you deal with them? How do ‘you deal with them in regards to the interpersonal relationship with the prisoner or in navigating the prison? Josh Davidson: Yeah, good question. I feellike the prison repression and the restrictions have continued to get worse. In terms of organizing, in terms of building relationships, i become harder and harder. We've found that getting Certain Days calendars into prisons i difficult. We've found that more and more states and/or the federal government are contracting out the letters and having you mail the letter out to some third party place, they scan it, and then they send it in to someone. That not only expands the length of time it takes to communicate with someone, but those letters oftentimes, if there’s any color involved, then it's not there, sometimes they only scan the front page instead of the back page as well, s0 you only get half of the letter. It's very restrictive and very ouraging for people. Even now, 1 write with Xinachtli, one of the political prisoner members of the Certain Days collective, and the last five ationg the cages 7 letters T've had returned to me just because they say there’s something wrong. T don't know. The address I use is the same thing that's on the BOP website, but they'llfind something, and 1 think that's generally the case. Sara, what do you think? Sara Falconer: was just going o0 agree. 10s so arbitrary, honestly. From institution to institution, from place to place, from guard to guard, its totally random when they feel like they wan to play some of these games, n addition to there being actual regulations that are really restrictive for prisoners. You kind of learn to make lots of copies of things, to make sure that you're communicating that you are sending something in. You learn tobe a pest to people and say there’s nothing against the rules, like, “Can you please send it? Can you tell me why you're not sending it?” Tve sent so many of those letters or those phone calls in my life, just bugging people about it. I think, too, my experience is that for a lot of prisoners, they just have shockingly few resources, and that’s a real barrier to communication. Like, pens, paper, stamps, money for phone calls, the basic ways that we can communicate with each other. Those are really restrictive. And T think that those are some of the things that we can do with our privilege, you know, being outside, to help try and fill some of those gaps in terms of resources. Some of the prisoners that I've worked with in the states have Corrlinks, that kind of rudimentary email system—it's not the full internet, which some people think—but they have a little more access tobe able to talk to us. There's nothing like that in Canada, and so that's whyit’s so important for us to use letters and to try and use the resources we have to get their voices out. ‘Eric King: This is for both of you. In your experiences, remember, which one caused more problems, state pr prisons? Because, Josh, you said, Xinachtli, he's in Texas state. I don't know if federal prisoners have more access, or if state prisoners get shut down more—what do you think? ‘you can ons or federal Josh Davidson: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think some states are more restrictive than others. The BOP does, though, I think, tend to hold the bar in terms of making things difficult and restrictive. I've never visited a federal prison, but I've visited a few state prisons, and those tend to be 5t the s pretty restrictive, t00, in person. Sara Falconer: T think that time is another restriction. That's really hard wwhen you're doing a project —and we'll probably talk about it more throughout this—the time it takes to get letters between us. Like 1 said already,its harder, because, by the time it gets through international mail and then to the prisons, you know, that can be weeks and even montl it sits in the mail room for a long time too. If you're trying to work on a project with somebody, it can get really excruciating to wait for a word from them. If somebody is not well or needs help, and you're trying to get an update on them, that barrier of time, T think, is really something that you just have to be very mindful of. don’t even know if there’s necessarily solutions, so much as just being. prepared that you have to do things at a different pace. In our projects, 1 think one of the things that we o is we build trust between people. We're working alongside the prisoners that we're collaborating with, and so you can make decisions. You trust each other a bit. You don’t necessarily see the second draft after you've sent us it, and if we have some edits, you ‘might see t, or you might not see it. Do we trust each other enough that a ‘minor edit is going to be okay with you? Like, that’s the type of thing, and Ithink that's true probably in people’s personal suppart, too. Josh Davidson: That's interesting, Eric King: Let's talk about the good times! I was very fortunate enough to have some really positive moments with supporters while I was inside, where people and I connected and good things could happen. It made your life feel so much better, because you really felt seen during those ‘moments. What are some moments for you all where it just came together, cither it's a vietory or a project done or a good connection you developed? And why? Why was that so important? Sara Falconer: I don't mind going first on this one. T've been blessed (o spend time on the outside with political prisoners who have been released —some who I was friends with before they went inside, some who 1 just g0t to know through letters and through visits with those shitty vending ‘machines and the tiny litle rooms, you know, where we just kind of bond. To be on the outside with people s such a vietory and takes so much work from so many people in our movements ta make happen that you have to g theages 9 celebrate that. One of my fond memories is spending time with Seth Hayes when he was released, ‘Eric King: Oh! Sara Falconer: e was really,really well-supported by our friends in Buffalo who run Burning Books, the bookstore—speaking of awesome independent bookstores. We got to spend time with him. We got to cat meals with him. We got to go for walks. To see his smile and to make jokes him and to sce the sun on his face. That's a huge victory. That is the type of thing that keeps you going, Ithink the other thing for me, too, is those are friends who we love seeing and that keeps me going. Ilove spending time with Josh and with the other members of the Certain Days calendar collective and people that we. can—whether i’s us sending a 1,000,000,000 Signal messages to each other, or taking road trips to hang out, or if we happen to live relatively close together, the times that I've been able to organize with collective ‘members that way—we can have fun, even during hard times, we can support each other! To do hard work with people that can make you smile. and that you can goof around with a little bit.. Between those two things, the big things, the mega victories, and then the day-to-day, being friends ith people that you do this work with. Eric King: How long did you write Seth before he was released? ‘Sara Falconer: e was one of the first people I wrote to Erie King: Oh! ‘Sara Falconer: That would have been in maybe 20017 ‘Eric King: Why was he one of the ones? Like, what about him made you want to reach out to him? Sara Falconer: Well, because he was one of the calendar collective editors. on the inside during that time, and I was living in Montreal where the calendar collective was based, and so we were actually able to visit him in upstate New York. We had some in-person visits, we had lots of letters, and we were often coordinating things. W g thecages He wasn't somebody who edited every single article or was deeply involved in that piece of the process, but he had a vision for the calendar. He had so much energy for it. And, so that’s how we got to be friends over the years. Eric King: I did not know that Certain Days used to be based in Montreal, or maybe still ! Sara Falconer: It was started in Montreal, yeah It was people in Montreal \who had been visiting Herman Bel, and it was Herman Bells genius idea. He, to this day, will tell anybody that they are a square. That's his phrase that Tove. “You're an absolute square if you don't have a copy of the calendar on your wall” And so this was his idea to have something that would be on people’s walls every single day with the words of prisoners, with important dates from our movement history. And, yeah, it was originally a collective in Montreal. Over the years, i expanded to New York, Baltimore, Toronto, Hamilton, so many awesome. people working on the collective and doing such important work. It a lot of work, but its a labor of love and that legacy from the little project that started in Montreal Eric King: Josh has told me that he started it out of his basement in Akron. 1guess that's not true, Whatever, 1 guess. [Laughter all around.] Josh, tell me about some of the victories you've had, both big and small, where you just knew, “What I'm doing is a valuable thing, and I'm happy tobe doingit.” Josh Davidson: Well, I've been involved with the Certain Days calendar for about 7 or 8 years. Every year, when we create something new and something beautiful that we can send out to people inside and out, its victory, and it's a really beautiful vietory to be a part of creating something like that. S0 that’s one. But,like Sara was saying, I think seeing successful freedom campaigns, that's always the main goal, to get people out of prisons. I feel like I was really fortunate to come in at a time when there were a lot of peaple being released, especially in New York. Sara mentioned Seth Hayes and also ‘Herman Bell and David Gilbert and Jalil Muntagim and others before ationg the cages " them, like Sekou Odinga. Seeing those people come home after decades and decades is just so encouraging and so rewarding. And then being able to take that relationship that you've created in spite of all that repression and then bu something special and something beautiful to be a part o. from that outside once they're outside, I think that's really ‘Eric King: Have you ever gone to visit someone and got turned away? Sara Falconer: So, Xinachtli, years ago, T went all the way to Texas—I was traveling for general reasons—but 1 went all the way to sce him at an institution that was really close to Waco at the time. They decided that they hadn’t had time to process the papers that I sent 3 months in advance, that sort of thing, 1’ like 100 degrees standing in the parking ot finding out that I wasn't getting to see him. It was not amatzing. I've subsequently had an amazing visit with him in person and got to spend 4 confinement basically since I started doing this work. I think when he first got putinto soliary, we thought he would be n for a few months maybe, and now i’ been over 20 years. So, yeah, we had a wonderful visit, but ne through the glass. As most people may know, he has been in solitary that first time was one of the more low and frustrating points of my life, because you're so powerless, and it shows everything that they can take from us so arbitrarily, too. ‘Eric King: Josh, what about you? Have you ever been turned away? Josh Davidson: Once. T was visiting Jalil Muntagim. He was at Attica in upstate New York. It turns out they put him in the hole for teachinga Black history course. So, yeah, 1 wasn't able to sce him, and it was not a great place to be. ‘Eric King: No. It is not. 1 want to ask a flip-side to that question, too, because I think something that happens to a lot of people who do prison support that 've heard is that something will happen, and itll derail them. ‘They'llstop writing. They'll stop sending books. They'llstop fundraising. ‘They'll lose momentum and support. Has there ever been times when you were supporting anyone that you were just like, “Puck this.” Like, “Goddamn, it's not worth it right now.” Or where you wanted to stop, where there was bad times? Sara Falconer: I mean, if you do it for this long, T think you're going 0 g0 2 g thecages through ebbs and flows in your life and in your energy that you have for it I anything, over the years, I've been kind of bad at recognizing my own capacity to do things and saying yes to too many things. And so then 1 would miss deadlines or not follow through on things that I said I was going to do, and that would be really paralyzing to me, as it is to many of us. Now that I've had more years to kind of get to know that part of myself and to really recognize how much people are counting on us when you say you're going to do something, I think 'm better at not overcommitting ‘and being real when I need to take a bit of a break. You know? Like, I can’t write every week or whatever it is. I's been a long time since I could furiously write tons of letters every week, and there’s a time that 1 did. But, I think that that was part of growing. This is the thing. You are building a relationship. You are friends with people. And if you can be honest with them and say, “I'm going through a rough time...” I had people like Marilyn Buck support me more than 1 think I'was able to support them. She was such a such a wonderful mentor tome and such a wonderful inspiration. Yes, 1 was doing things to get her \writings out and things like that, but I was getting advice from her because I was a young person, and I was, like, “Man, I am falling apart here,” and she would give me such caol advice, you know? You are building relationships with people who have so much to give back. Eric King: So I want to just backtrack real quick. You wrote and had a relationship with Marilyn? Sara Falconer: Yeah. T mean, we weren't super, super close, but we wrote for a number of years. She actually helped me with some of my thesis research, so that was 2003 to 2004, Years ago. And, yeah, she was a wwonderful person. I wish 1 had more of a chance to know her when she was on the outside, but, you know, she was quite sick when she was released, so we didn't have that chance. Eric King: Do you stll have those letters? Sara Falconer: 1 do. T have a kind of rdiculous quantity ofleters from over the years. Every now and then Took at the pile, which is completely unorganized. s literally just boxes of letters, where I was like, “Okay. ‘Those are the letters.” And then I would move to another place. don't know. There’s some gems in there, I think. g theages 1 ‘Eric King: 1 am so fascinated by this. We might touch back on this also. We might circle back.Josh, what were some of your hard moments or times ‘you were like, “This fucking sucks?” Josh Davidson: I think its related to what Sara was saying about knowing your capacity and knowing what you can handle and what you can work onat a particular time. These are people that are locked in a cage for sometimes 23 hours a day. They can use all the support that they can get, but they also, I think it’s fair to say, everyone in there needs to know your level of commitment and your level of involvement. If it's something you can’t commit to, then I think being honest about that is very important. I can’t think of particular obstacles that have prevented me from doing the work. Lalways try to., ‘Eric King: You can't think of any? Josh Davidson: .move it forward. Eric, when you were on a mail ban, there was a year and a half where we couldn't communicate together. That was hard. But I took that opportunity to reach out to another political prisoner who you and I had talked about quite often, Oso Blanco, who's an Indigenous political prisoner serving time for robbing banks and sending all the proceeds to the Zapatistas. Out of that, we've built this great relationship, and 've been able to help him create these greeting cards, these really beautiful greeting cards that are available at Burning Books. on. We sell the greeting cards, and we send all the money down to the Zapatistas. So, t’s a way of him continuing his work in spite of the prison bars and the repression. So, no. 1 know I'm fortunate in saying that. Plenty of people have faced that and have stopped working because of it. But, yeah, I don't know if that answers your question. ‘They're by Indigenous artists in pi ‘Eric King: Why did you start writing me? Josh Davidson: Why did I start wri ing to you? ‘Eric King: Yeah. Josh Davidson: A former political prisoner, Daniel McGowan. He said that he thought that you and I would get along, W et thecges Eric King: [Jokingly] Never heard of him! Josh Davidson: [Laughter] And he was right. We builtthis great relationship—and it's not the case with all of them. You know? I think you and Iwere fortunate, and he was right that we do have a ot in common. ‘The letters that you and I shared were, think intimate is the wrong word, but we were very honest with each other and very upfront about ourselves and our lives. I think that I've said this in other talks we've done, but, whatever you put into it is what you'll et out. You know? ‘Whatever you put into building a relationship with someone behind bars s what hopefuly they'l put into it as well Sara Falconer: And I think thats not to scare people away, either from.. 1f ‘you are like, “l don't have a lot of capacity right now. I'm going to write a letter of solidarity, because 1 heard this person got transferred or they're in the hole,” or whatever it i, and you're like, “T'm going to write to this person.” It totally fine to say, “T'm thinking of you. Sending some love from snowy-ass Canada. I don't havea lot of capacity right now, but let me know if you need anything, and we can stay in touch.” Not everybody has 1o completely dive in and make i their second full time job and then some, like Josh and others have. And so, 1 think it's more being realistic, being honest. Like, in daily life, think you can over-commit and say, “Yeah. I want to go to that party,” when you totally don’t want to. With this you have to have a little bit more. foresight about it, because people are really counting on you. That's the ‘main thing. If you say you're going to do something, do it or make it very clear if something changes. Eric King: For those who don’t know, Josh started writing me while I was in the SHU at Leavenworth. 1 had just got attacked by the lieutenant, and they were waiting to see if they were going to prosecute me or not. And 1 got Josh’s letter shortly before my first phone ban happened. Having that person where I could write and ask for things specifically, and then they would send that shit in made a really big difference, because a lot of people would over-commit. They would do the thing where they say, “If you need anything, you let me know.” And then I'd ask for, like, lyrics to a Song, and Id never hear from them again. So having someone... Sara Falconer: Important question. Was it a Taylor Swiftsong? g theages S Eric King: That's not important. 1€’s not relevant Josh Davidson: 1t was a full Taylor Swift album. [Laughter all around.] Eric King: But that shit made a big difference for me, because I'd say one. out of every ten peaple actually follows through with what they say they're going to do. And maybe that's the same in the free world, too, but, inside, having that one made a really big difference. Also, when people would do what you just said, Sara, when folks would tell me ahead of time, “I can't write back. I'm just sending my love.” That would help me a lot, because then you don't have unrealistic expectations, because it hurts when you think that you have a bond with someone and then they essentially ghost you. Sara Falconer: Mhmm. Eric King: And that sucks. Like, that hurts really bad. So, 1 like that you said that, setting out, like, “This is what I have." I think that honestly goes along way. Have you two ever been ghosted by a prisoner, where they quit writing you or got mad at you? Sara Falconer: There's people that I didn’t stay in touch with. You know, they were getting support from other people, and we just didn't click. The way you talk about...Like, there’s people that I think n the beginning, because 1 wrote to quite a few people...Over time, 1 just kind of narrowed into the people that I really connected with or whao really particularly wanted to work on projects or needed something. There wasn't anything where 1 was just like, “Wow. 'm never speaking to this person again,” or Vice versa. You kind of just drift a little bit. But even some of those folks, I would try and send them, when you could still send, holiday cards in. That was one of my great joys, getting a whole bunch of people together and sending cards in around the holidays. Just a little bit of brightness to let them know that you're thinking of them. And so, usually, once a year, would still send something to people, but, you know, you can stil send the black and white ballpoint pen letter with no drawings to most Eric King: At your most, how many people were you writing at a time? At ot the cges your peak, your pinnacle. Sara Falconer: 1 mean, for those things, 1 wouldve taken the New York ABC list, which is comprehensive and always up to date. AL certain times, it had 75 people on it. T would have written something to ll those folks— ot writing something to all of them saying, like, “Hey. Let' be pen pals every day,” but, like, “How are you doing?” Eric King: What about actual pen pals? Sara Falconer: Oh, T don't know. I think even for some of these projects that Ive worked on, whether Prison Radio, which 1 worked on for a while in Montreal, o 4strugglemag, which is zine that 1 worked on, or the calendar or various other projects in between, at any given time I would be probably working pretty closely with 6 or 10 different people, with a few who Lwas closer with. So, 1 don't know. It comes and goes. Josh, how i it for you? Like, Josh is a workhorse among us. Eric King: Josh is actively writes 28 people right now. Sara Falconer: Oh my gosh. Josh Davidson: No. I don't know. Eric King: He has a list of who he writes. Tell me I'm wrong, [Laughter all around.) Josh Davidson: I don’t know the list. That’s kind of the fascinating thing about it is that, if you're lucky, people get out of prison, and it creates this whole new level of communicating and relationship-building that is really fascinating a lot of times and heartbreaking, too, when you sce someone that hasn't seen technology in 40 years or something ike that. But also, being a part of the calendar, being a part of creating Rattling the Cages, has meant me writing to and communicating with a lot of different prisoners who I didn't communicate with before. And sometimes it leads to really long-lasting and impactful relationships and letters that are several pages long. Other times, i’s just a paragraph or two every few ‘months to check-in on someone, tolet not only them know that you're thinking about them and that you're there if they need anything, but also oty theges 7 tolet the guards know that there are people out there looking after them and keeping an eye on them. But, yeah, it changes. There’s no definitive number. Sometimes I'll get a letter back from someone [ haven't written to in two or three years, and that's also fascinating. ‘Eric King: Something that really touched me in our friendship was when 1 was at Inglewood—this is after 'd been prosecuted, they were charging, me—and I told you about someone named Thomas Smith, “Mad Dog," who was in ADX. And I asked you, “Will you say ‘H’ to him? Will you just send. this dude respect?” And you did it. Even though he wasn't a political prisoner, you sill reached out to this complete stranger just to send ty. That really meant a lot to me. Do you write other “social prisoners”? Was that a one-off? Josh Davidson: Yeah, for sure. I mean, the last panel we did with Bori and Farhan, those were two people that I met through the calendar who were not necessarily, you know, labeled political prisoners, but they- decades behind bars facing state repression. And there are others like that. There's political prisoners I write to who have made lifelong friendships with people inside, like you and *Smiles.” ‘Eric King: Yeah! Josh Davidson: There's a ot of stufflike that where 've written to people who knew people inside, friends of friends like that, or also just people I know that went to prison for non-political reasons. Il admit that P'm more likely to write to someone who's in for a political act or political cause of some sort. And maybe that's selfish, because I feel like I can learn from them or also help them process what they're going through. But, no, 1don't restriet it one way or the other. ‘Eric King: Sara, have you ever developed relationships with “social prisoners™? Or because of your projects, was it mostly political? Sara Falconer: When sstrugglemag was happening, we. ‘Eric King: Will you say what 4strugglemag is? Wt thecges Sara Falconer: Oh, yes astrugglemag was a zine, online and in print, that e produced for, I think, 20 ssues,collecting writings from political prisoners and from social prisoners on the issues of the day. And so it wasi't necessarily about... W had case updates. That was importar. We had case updates, which was great, bt we also had... e were talking about war. We were talking about feminism. We had a whole issue on hip hop, which was amazing, because older prisoners,including Mumia, wrote in and said, "You know what? had sort of been disregarding hip hop, because I didn't think it was very conscious. And you have made some interesting points here.” The younger prisoners who had been writing to the magazine were just overjoyed, and there was just such an opportunity tobuild some of those bridges to make that connection for people who maybe only heard from politcal prisoners but had't seen those other writings. The issues are sill online if people are interested. That's sstrugglemagorg. I¢hink through that I built some really great relationships with peaple who were regular contributors or who just wrote something that T thought was amazing, and I would write back. But at a certain point, I was also getting maybe 50 or a 100 letters / submissions a month. That was a Iot, and it was very, very hard to keep going. I had some really great people who worked on it over the years. It wasn't just me as an outside collective, but it was really hard to keep going because of the sheer volume. Once the word started getting out, people were so into it. That type of a project, I think, could work really well still. t's harder and harder to get information in and out, as Josh mentioned earlier though. Eric King: I can say two things. One, I don't think there is a Ratcling the Cages without 4strugglemag. I got three issues mailed into me, and it just blew me the fuck away. One of the saddest things that happened when 1 wwas getting transferred, the guards just threw them away. One of them ripped one of them in half. That was during a search, And it was like, these things felt like priceless relics, like time capsules of history. And to see them get destroyed by these pig sons of bitches, it hurt. It hurt bad. Sara Falconer: P've got some back issues that I can probably send in your diretion. But the other thing I loved about that was, you know, yes, they got censored. Yes, they got destroyed. That happened all the time. I would get g theages 19 dozens sent back to me. But in the midst of that, it was also getting distributed amongst prisoners who would share it with each other. And so we would get letters from people who not only were they not on the ‘mailing list, the institution they were at was never on our mailing list. And s they would bring it with them when they moved, or however they're getting stuff around. Tremendously resourceful. It really blew my mind, the way that the people were able to share that with each other. I couldn’t even estimate how many times each copy got read. So, I think that was very powerful. ‘Eric King: Id say mine... Because [ would pass them around! People want to read that shit. Not that shit. People wanna read that sort of stuff. They're very invested. Yeah, those things were blessings Le’s talk about Certain Days. Certain Days has been around approximately 25 years. That's what my notes say. Sara Falconer: Tl s the 25th edition. Yep. ‘Eric King: Let's start with you, Sara. Tell me about how you got started. and why you got started. And then, Josh, 1 would like to hear from you. ‘The same stuff, how and why. Sara Falconer: Yeah! ‘Eric King: Can you tell them a brief overview of what Certain Days is also? Sara Falconer: osh, P'm going to leave the overview with you, because you are o good at it, and then I can talk about how 1 got started in Montreal onit. Josh Davidson: The Certain Days Calendar, Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar was started in 2001 It was the idea of former political prisoners Herman Bell, Seth Hayes, and David Gilbert, who were allinvolved in. ‘Eric King: Seth was in the opening stages? Josh Davidson: Yeah. Yeah, those three. B g thecages Sara Falconer: All three of them. Josh Davidson: Yeah. They were all involved in the Black liberation struggle, imprisoned in New York state, and they, along with organizers and friends on the outside—mainly in Montreal and also in, think, upstate New York—worked to put this calendar out. s really amating, ‘There's 25 of them out now. It started as an educational project, and as a fundraiser to teach people about political prisoners and about our ‘movements and the people that struggle for them, and also as a way to raise money for those people who are suffering inside. Over the years, 1 thinkit's gone from raising a few hundred each year to several tens of thousands of dollars every year that we're able to distribute to a wide Variety of ifferent causes, people on the front lines, people fighting to get out of prison, you name t. Each calendar has 12 picces of art and 12 essays usually by prisoners or their supporters on the outside. Instead of dates you'd find in a regular calendar, this calendar i full of radical movement ates, so that you're reminded every day of the year of what people have gone through and how the struggle continues every day. Eric King: Quick question. You said it was started by David, Herman, and Seth—RIP Seth. How did they coordinate together to have this idea? Or were they in the same prison? How did those three together formulate thisidea? Sara Falconer: Well I can talka ltle bit about that, and T will ry and be as aceurate as L can. 1 moved to Montreal in 2001, which was an amazing time 10 be an anarchist in Montreal. There were so many great groups, so much awesome organizing, just this energy, and the PIRG, the QPIRG [Quebec public interest rescarch group] that we organized out of, was just like a real place that you could meet people that were working o cool projects. And Imet the people who had been working on the calendar before ‘moved there. Justa totally awesome collective of people who had been visiting Herman, David, and Seth and others in upstate New York, because Montreal is a reasonable driving distance to some of those prisons. Ithink it was Herman's idea originally, if 1 remember correctly. Then they facilitated some of this planning on the outside so that everybody could contribute theirideas to it, and to make sure that they were soliciting articles from a really wide variety of political prisoners and artists on the inside and outside and that sort of thing. And it just built from there. They oty theages 2 had, as three individuals, such amazing respect, as leaders and educators and writers and voices in the political prisoner movement, had made such wonderful connections with peaple in Montreal, in New York, and elsewhere that they had a really great foundation to start up from. So, 1 wanted to be part of it Istarted just distributing. 1 was just like, “This thing is amazing” and 1 would hustle getting it out to bookstores or dropping off mail or whatever it was. Then it wasn't long before I weaseled into the collective. 1am fuzzy on the origin story. Sometimes people ask me what the name Certain Days is from and 'm like, “I don’t even have a really clear backstory for that.” Ido have a good sense that it's about certain days being important, certain days coming, you know, the future that we are building together. There's ‘multiple layers to it, but I think probably Herman would have a better way of deseribing it. 1V just a tremendously important project. love secing it every single day. I like having prisoners’ visions and voices in our day to day life, not just siloed offinto a political prisoner support ‘movement or whatever, but in our daily lives, in all of our organizing, in our planning, in our thoughts. ‘Eric King: And I think the calendar does such an amazing job of that. Even just to make zines or whatever, like, this stuffs not free. And I imagine to ereate a calendar, that’s a lot of work. How did the early issues get financed? How did that come to fruition to get those not only created, but then mailed everywhere? Josh Davidson: Expropri ions. (Laughter all around.] Sara Falconer: I briefly mentioned the PIRGs, but you may have similar models in the states. Public interest rescarch groups, PIRGs —it was the QPIRG because it was the Quebec PIRG—are mostly based out of universities, and they are a wonderful resource to activists, especially students. There was a space there to do some of the planning, to do the actual physical work and meetings and things like that, and they were tremendously supportive. We were a working group of the QPIRG for a number of years until we transitioned to our own project. Some of us were students, some weren't Twas a student at the time. So, that was where it started. And then B g thecages eventually, through much trial and error and not being very good at ‘numbers or accounting it slowly started to make more sense out of And then certainly, the current collective does such an amazing job of ‘making it something that is feasible. The folks at Burning Books have done an awesome job of doing some of those tasks in the mail. We used to be sending mail from Canada into the states. You can imagine how expensive and time consuming that was. That's been just a wonderful partnership. But, at the time, it makes sense because we were sending like, 1don’t know, 100 of calendars, maybe a couple thousand, and now it's a lot Eric King: One of the fun things I like doing with the calendar is 'l ask a prisoner their birthday and then we'll just flip through and on this day, prisoners killed 17 people at wherever. How and why did those first dates get decided? Or how do dates get added to it? What events qualify to be in the calendar? Sara Falconer: I credit the carly collective with so much of the starting work on that. They must have had to do so much research to start those dates. They probably canvassed David, Herman, Seth, and other people that they were in touch with to make sure that important dates were included. But it was an organic process over the years. Sometimes people will write and say, “Hey, why isn't this date in there?” And, really, s not intentional, it's just that we had to be reminded of it, or maybe we didn't know about a certain date or whatever. Some things change over time, t00,in terms of the significance. Certain dates that you would put in for the last 5 years, they won't necessarily stay in for the next 15 years because,for one thing, there’s only so much space in those lttle boxes. So, s a process that is constantly evolving, T don’t know, Josh, how the current decision-making works around it,but i’s, to me, very fluid and definitely a crowd- sourced kind of thing over the years. Including the dates that we got wrong by mistake over the years Eric King: Real quick, 1 looked up to see if there was anything going on today. Its a very slow week in radical history. Sara Falconer: s like every thing lse. 105 like that weird dead area right after January. Who's going to do anything other than, like, January 1st, which s for the revol g theages 33 ‘Eric King: On Thursday, that was the anniversary of a San Quentin prison strike, Josh Davidson: The dates do change, and it is very fluid. Sometimes we'll get an email from someone saying, “Such and such got out this day,” or sometimes, “This date is wrong.” We just noticed this week that we have a Leonard Peltier date that's, 1 think, in June and July, and ics supposed to just be in July. There are mistakes. Kudos to people who find them and point them out. While making Rattling the Cages, I interviewed Ed Mead and Mark Cook. together, both of the George Jackson Brigade. Rest in peace to Ed. Ed told me that he provided the original Certain Days collective with the dates that went in the calendar. ‘ara Falconer: Oh, that's so cool. I didn't even know that. Josh Davidson: 1 have no idea if that’s true. ‘Eric King: 1 hope its not true. I would love that about Ed if he just bullshitted that. Josh Davidson: It could be. Yeah, I have no idea. Then recently I came across a 1952 calendar, which is kind of cool, that the John Brown Anti- Klan Committee made. T don't know if that's really a precursor to the Certain Days calendar, but it's preity amazing how they. ‘Eric King: One of my proudest moments when I was first locked up was the first time I saw one of my writings in Certain Days. And then one of my saddest moments was the next year when 1 got rejected. How does the submission process work? How does something get in but something else has tosit in the corner? What's that process like? Sara Falconer: Well, there’s acallfor submissions that goes out as early in the year as possible to try and reach particularly prisoners, because it’s going to take them longer to get the information back to the collective. From there—and I keep saying, “We,” but Lactually have stepped down into a supporting role, but I think I know a lttle it about the process from over the years. S0, we would put all of the art and artieles into a database where we can review them together, and once the dea has B g thecages passed, we would review all those. In the meantime, the collective solicits particular ones that they're like, “Hey, the topicis ___” The year that we. were working on the Indigenous struggle, and we definitely had to reach out to Indigenous political prisoners, certain activists on both sides of the border that we wanted to make sure were included. 10 not just like everybody submits, and then we pick some just from that. Some of it is soliciting articles from organizations or from people that we really want to see represented too. I's quite process. We used to do it in. person, which was so wonderful. We would just sit down and eat bagels and—don't make fun of the way I say bagels—we would just hang out for an entire weekend and look at all the art and articles and plan it ou. Over the years, because everybody is in all these different cities and different countries, it’s more of a virtual process. But I miss those days, and it was so much fun. I think we try and recreate it, you know, the fun with each other, but it's different than just siting in a room until we're sick of each other picking out things. I don’t know, Josh, you've been in it ‘more recently. How has the process changed or how do you find that it works with the different submissions? Josh Davidson: think, overall, the process has stayed like you said. We do getalot of submissions from people in prison, but I fecl like i the last few years we've gotten less. 1 don't know if that's a matter of state repression, or what, Eric King: You said you get less submissions? Josh Davidson: Yes, I fecl like we've gotten less submissions from people in prison and I don't really know the reason behind that. Eric King: Fire Ant has also suffered that fate, oddly. Josh Davidson: Yeah. And it could just be guards not sharing the call out for submissions. It could be people sending us stuff and us not gettingit Pm ot really sure. It has sometimes required us reaching out to people’s support networks or organizations on the outside to get particular articles or artwork on a particular subject. But o, 1 don't it's changed that much over the years. Sometimes we'l see really amazing artwork at book fairs or events we're at, and we'll ask that artist to submit g teages 3 their stuff to the calendar, which has led to a lot of really great inclusions. ‘Eric King: Alright, sweet. [ want o segue now to something Sara Falconer: ust before we move away from calendar, T want to remind everybody that it's actually almost sold out. 1 have a very small amount of copiesin Hamilton here to do Canadian distro. Burning Books is sending out a whole bunch. Kersplebedeb in Montreal does distro in Canada, too. But everybody is running very low on copics. Get some. Don't be a square. Certaindaysorg, if you want some. I's just awesome to see everybody’s support of it that i’s doing that wellthis year for sure ‘Eric King: I really loved it when I would write Josh, and I'd be like, “So and so needs a calendar.” Just some random-ass dude. And like three days later or a week later, 20 days, whatever, the calendar would show up. So not only would that prisoner get something great, but then I'd look like a hotshot for asking for t. T used to love those moments. Sara Falconer: That's the other thing, too. People can support it Ifyou already have your calendar, maybe you already bought 20, that's awesome. You can buy copies for prisoners for a discounted rate if you go to'the website, too. f you have a prisoner that you correspond with, you can suggest their name and they'll receive a calendar. OF just say, “I would like to send five calendars to prisoners,” and you can, and we'll pick people that are in need. People write to us al the time. ‘Eric King; I’s interesting that you said prisoners get a discount because Josh used to charge me double. And even more to get my submissions approved! [Laughter.] T'm going to segue to Rattling the Cages. About five or six years ago, me and Josh were writing, and we had this idea to bring together the history of the lives of prisoners, as opposed to the politics of prisoners. And that felt really instrumental to me, because we were losing people like Tom Manning, and I would never know what they actually felt, what they experienced, what their joys or happinesses or sadnesses were like. And that hurt me, because I wanted to honor them as individual people along. being revolutionaries. So, I've got a question for you, Sara. I'm going to start with Josh. Why did you say yes to this project? Why did you say “Pm willing to put i this goddamn work and find a way to develop this"? 3 g thecages Josh Davidson: Great question Eric King: Besides the glory and money. Josh Davidson: Yes, abviously the glory and money. Eric King: We only get halfa cent each per book, though. Josh Davidson: No, it’s just that it was so compelling, It began with Eric and I reading a book. Again, a lot of good things in my life happened from just reading a book. And this one happened to be Say Nothing, which is about the IRA and the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and particularly the Boston History Project, which was this campaign to record oral istories of people involved in the struggle in Northern Ircland. That's where we got the idea to. Eric King: The North of Ireland. Josh Davidson: The North of Ireland, correct. Yes. And that's where we got the idea. Originally, we were thinking of creating a few zines of interviews with political prisoners from the Black liberation struggle, particularly, Sekou Odinga, Mutulu Shakur, and Maroon, Russell Maroon Shoatz. Like somany people, those are people that have passed away since we came up with this idea. But, being in the Certain Days calendar collective, being someone who writes to a lot of people in prison, 1 did have access to alot of people who wanted to share their stories, and it kind of mushroomed from there. It was a handful of people that wanted to talk, and then they told their friends or comrades, and then they wanted to talk. And, eventually, we got 40 people to share their oral histories of life inside and how they maintain the struggle. Eric King: Did you face any resistance at first? Were people like, “No, fuck ” and then later turned around? Josh Davidson: No, there were lot of people that di involved. Not as many as those who did, ut, yeah, there were alot of people that didn't want to tel their story, or were in the process of writing their memoirs maybe and didn't want to tell the same story twice. 't want to be ity thecages 27 And then there’s a handful of people who have seen the product of what came out of that and wish that they had been involved. But, luckily, we've been able to include some of those people with these talks that we've been doing, which is just a way of continuing to raise the voices and amplify the struggles of people inside. ‘Eric King: Who was the first person to say yes? Josh Davidson: You! ‘Eric King: Oh, yeah. Josh Davidson: No, that's a good question. Actually, for the most part, the order of people in the book is the order in which I got the responses back. Donna Willmott was probably ane of the first people. But, there were a whole bunch of people that were really interested in it. For me, Ilove being able to share this history and learn this history with people who dont know about t, but also just knowing that people who do, people who have been involved in this for decades and decades, can read this book and. stil learn something, is really moving for me. ‘Eric King: You said Donna was one of the first. For me, Donna’s one of the peaple Ilove most on Earth, and 1 hope we're going to have them on a panel so0n. §0, Sara, me and you, we didn't really talk much. I think there was mutual respect. T knew about you from people I had lived with, from knowing your work with Certain Days, and then also reading your intro to the RAF book. Tdlike to first start with, one, how did you get the intro to the RAF book? And then, two, what did you think when Josh brought this project to you? Because you were the only person I requested by name. Like, lock in Sara. ifwe can get her. How did that feel, and what were your thoughts about the project, starting with the RAF book and then the second question? Sara Falconer: [ mean, what an honor to be invited to have some words in these super important and beautiful books. For the RAF one, one of the ‘main people that was working on it was Karl from Kersplebedeb that ‘mentioned previously in Montreal, a wonderful publisher of totally amazing radical books, zines, and more. Speaking of moving to Montreal and finding all of these wonderful resources, that was definitely a big B g thecages of it. And 1 had been involved in ABC for many years and was just interested in this work and doing lots of reading and thinking and talking about it. They reached out and asked if T wanted to write the introduction, and I was, again, just completely, completely proud to be asked to dot. Also, it's so much pressure. Not that the next book that I wrote the introduction for didn’t have Angela Davis writing the preface. Like, no. pressure at all there! 1’ like, please, don’t tell me that. Tknow she did such a beautiful job, too. But, yeah. When it comes to any kind of project like this, I'm just so pleased to be able to support it in some way. 1do love writing. 1 have been a writer for many years, and to have that opportunity to reflect and try to share my ideas, to try and get people excited about the thing they're about to read, that’s something that I actually really love doing. What an accomplishment, Ratcling the Cages. You were talkinga litle bit about what a challenge it was to reach people, like we just talked about how hard it is with censorship and repression and time, and the details of all these things. It was in the middle of Covid, ontop of everything else. And, well, the two of you and everybody that wwas supporting it did such an amazing job. When I found out that I could help at all, 1 helped. T helped a little bit with some of the editing, which is also my nerdy superpower. 1 love doing that whenT ean. But to be invited to do that introduction was a real honor, and. really exciting, because it let me step back and reflect not only on all the amazing things that I've had a sneak peek to. Reading the book, 1 was feeling so emotional and inspired by everything that 'd been reading, but also to think about my own development and how that oral history was such a big piece of it. So, Josh and 1 have worked together on Certain Days for along time, and he’s such a dear friend. It was fun to be able to support on this other big project that was such a passion of his for o long too. Josh Davidson: I just want o add to that part of what made this project so special for me was that we could include so many different people i it Not just Sara writing such a beautiful introduction, but Amy Sehwartz with the Certain Days calendar and Pat Corekin at the Zinn Education Project helped me do the editing of the book and thinking through some of those things. I respect to them, t00, and they did so much work on it Thad Leslie James Pickering at Burning Books and David Gilbert helping ‘me with the glossary at the back. And there are so many people that were. ity theages 29 involved, sometimes in really minute ways, but sometimes in really powerful and important ways. I think doing that, working with people both outside and inside, really made the project all the more special for ‘Eric King: Considering how much the publishers decided not to help you, I am so happy that the community decided to with that extra hand. Sara, when you first heard about it, did you think it was going to come off? Did. you think, “Oh, this is a great idea?” Did you think this has already been done? What did you think about the project tself? ‘Sara Falconer: Well for one thing, T knew Josh was goin to get it done, because he just gets it done. You mentioned Tom Manning, and we've lost 50 many important people in our movements over the years, like Marilyn Buck, Seth Hayes, Sekou Kambui, so many people that 1 had been very close with. 1 was very close with Sekou Kambui before he passed, and that's another person who I was lucky to talk to after he was relcased. But o think that they have so much to give us in terms of sharing their stories, in terms of telling us about themselves as people, which was a i dimension of this book, that’s just such a gif. These oral histories are going to shape generations to come. You know, Ray Levasseur and Tom Manning had worked on Hauling Up the Morning, another really beautiful book. 1 don't remember the year of that. It just has absolutely transformative writings in it to read, and to learn about all of the different people that are still very much a part of our movements and our history. T knew that the idea of an oral history was so powerful, and Lknew that we were kind of overdue for one. We are unfortunately losing people due to age, due to medical neglect by the shit prison systems, and what a gift —what a gift—to be able to share this with people. ‘Eric King: So, when Josh talked about—for those listening—he talked about how we were reading Say Nothing, and the thing that affected me the most about that was that the book touched on the trauma. It didn’t just focus on the glory of being a fighter. There are lasting impacts to this, and those lasting impacts don’t get as much eredit as the bravado. They don’t get as much attention. And I was feeling so weak. T was feeling hurt and vulnerable, and 1 didn't see that my elders had felt that also. Tonly read about the power, and so1 felt isolated. Being able to see them explain things, that it had a toll, that it hurt them. Like, this is hard. It changed my life. Tm so grateful that they shared that. o g thecages ‘This isn’t about Rattling the Cages, but it just popped up. In both of your time supporting people incarcerated, have you had many opportunities where people were able to share deep moments with you, beyond the artificial, beyond the surface? Have people opened up about hurts or sadnesses or fears? Sara Falconer: Yeah. T mean, T won't mention anybody by name because, ‘youknow, that's obviously part of the trust that we've built. But the prisoners that I've been closest with over the years, I feellike we really do know each other. I tell them when Lam feeling down or going through challenges or family illnesses o whatever it is and all the joys too. And similarly, when they're i the space to share, some of them really open up. Some people are more into an intellectual discussion and will say a lttle bit at the beginning or end about how they're doing, but are really more interested in talking about the book they're reading or what's going on in the world. And there’s so much going on in the world that they can share insights on. Many of the prisoners that we worked with, for example, were passionate about Palestinian solidarity. They feel strongly about what's happening now, (00, and have lots to say about that. But I think i’s like any friendship. These are friendships, deep friendships. ‘This s not us doing charity work. We're not doing things on behalf of people. These are our friends and our comrades who we're working alongside. Hopefully, that means that we can be human with each other. 10 not easy, all this. P'm not good at sharing my feelings. So how can Task them to? Josh Davidson: Yeah, P not either. But I do. You do see that through the bars. You do see people sharing their feclings. 1 feel like it’s less so in letters, because those are o often read by guards. But if you can do phone callsor vsits with people,then I think that comes through a itle more, and you're able to convey, maybe it's the voices or face-to-face meeting that's able to convey that humanity and that level of compassion and empathy. But ke Sara said, this isn't charity work we're doing. We're trying to build relationships and build up our movements i the process of doing that. I think bringing political prisoners or social prisoners— anyone that's locked up behind bars —bringing them into our lives and into our everyday realities in whatever way that is, whether i’ writing a letter to someone, whether it's celebrating someone’s release, or having them perform your wedding—as Eric did, luckily, for us this summer— g theages 3 whatever way you can find to bring these people into your lives and into our movements is going to help everyone. ‘Eric King: 1 had a really hard time feeling safe to write people, because a ot of times when I was inside, it was always like there was bad things happening. Josh, our entire relationship was me being abused constantly. Not once were we able to talk on the phone or visit for the entire time 1 knew you until 1 was out. That made it hard, but you were able to make me feel safe enough, especially because you ended up befriending Rachelle [Eric’s wife]. You took it beyond only me and recognized that support can also be family, it can be not just a prisoner, but the things that ‘mean something to that prisoner. Is that something that is a normal thing when you're doing support and you're close with someone, do you think about supporting their families, to0? Or is that by request or just a random thing? How do you feel or how do you interact with the people you support, families or kids or things like that? 'm not asking the question right, but 1 know you know what I'm talking about. Josh Davidson: 1€’s an important question. For me, T think that, like I said, we're fighting for a better world. We're fighting to make our movements stronger. So, it’s not a matter of supporting one person. I’s not an ividual campaign. ’s a matter of supporting people in need and fighting state repression. That means supporting people in prison and also supporting their loved ones and people that are trying to help them on the outside, in whatever way that could be. You mentioned Rochelle, sometimes I would send Rochelle birthday presents and say it was from Eric. And just a smalllttle thing like that can really make someone’s day. Or just a card here or there, something like that. ‘Eric King: 1¢s small acts of kindness that can help tear down these walls. think we still have a Christmas card you sent her from me. So thoughtful, What about you, Sara? Were you ever able to develop relationships or support for some of the people you supported as families? Sara Falconer: It really depends on the person themselves, the relationship they have o don’t have with their family, and what they needed. There were definitely some over the years that I developed a selationship with, partially because we could share updates with each S g thecages other. Like, here’s news that we got, or maybe we got news or they got news, whatever it was to make sure that we're all on the same loop. We're all working on parole campaigns together. You need the family statements and the friend statements and all those things, and to organize together. I had some opportunities, for sure, to work with different families over the vears. 1's definitely so hard on the families and the close friends of people that are inside. Anything you can do to help them feel empowered, that they can be part of the solidarity if they want to, that they have supporters that are thinking of them so that they can take whatever actions that they want to, as well. But I think it’s such an important point. Twant to ask you a question, Eric. You talked a lttle bit about some of the stuff that Josh did for you in terms of Rattling the Cages, the book. As a contributor on the inside, sort of the flip-side of the question that you asked us, what was that experience like? Are there things that you learned from it that you would take into other projects, things that really worked well or things that were frustrating, other than not being able to communicate very effectively for all that time? Eric King: You turned it on me! Parts of the book really hurt me, because I was unable to do as much as 1 wish I could. T was under such restrictions that I couldn’t talk to Josh the way I wanted to. Sometimes I'd be able to smuggle letters out to him, and he'd be able to mail me chapters and we'd g0 over them and ask questions together. But there were times where 1 felt like T was abandoning my friend, like 1 was giving him a job instead of aproject, and it hurt me, because it almost felt like 1 was exploiting him. 1 don’t know if T ever told you that, Josh. But the fact that he kept it going when got put down, and he stayed in touch with Rochelle, we were able to go back and forth like that. It hit me on a really deep level, And then when I read the book, I think I wept almost every chapter. You read Donna’s, you read Linda [Evans]'s, you read Laura [Whitehorn[’s, Susan [Rosenberg]'s, Rebecea Rubin’s. The book made me become friends with Jake [Conroy], basically. It taught me that I wasn't alone, and it taught me that the people that came before me and along beside me are tent that these people chose ‘s to, because theis s0big. They couldn’t contain all that passion. They couldn’t contain all that love for the world. They had to act. So, yeah, just felt it went beyond. ‘my expectations. hearts are g theages 33 Alio, it was supposed to be zines, and then it was going to be a little punk ass video series, which now is a really great video serics. And that Rochelle contributed, Danielle contributed, people like you helped. At the same time, Tjust want to point out there are people in our movement, elder people, that were treating me and Rochelle like shit, that were discouragingit. They were saying don’t, dude, i’ stupid. Don’t waste your time. They were telling Rochelle she didn’t have a role to play. Having people like Josh and Olive and Brian actually want to work to build something together, that was probably the first time I ever felt a part of a ‘movement. And through that I was able to develop relationships with the people I admired most in the world, the people I mentioned, people like David and Herman and Ray. So, yeah, the book is a blessing. Ilove it to death. 1's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life besides my wife and kids, but mostly just my wife. Now back to the questions. You both have been doing this for a while. Josh, for a couple months [laughter all around), Sara for over a decade. So, Iwould like to know how have things changed? How have things developed with email, with letter restriction, with access to video calls or phone calls? What has changed in the decades that you've been supporting people? Sara Falconer: 1 mean, technology is an important tool, and even in the carly days, like, you should sce the god awful looking websites 1 was designing in 2002 to try and gt this information out. Emailing so that 1 could reach people, like support crews around the world, other ABCs, other groups that were doing cool work, and just that ability to spread the word about these cases and get the writings out and get the art out. Like, that technology was always a picce of it for me. What we can't assume is that everybody has access to it, and that's in prison or not. Not everybody has access to technology or is comfortable wi ‘That, I think, encourages us to find ways to bring those voices into our offfine spaces as well. One of the things that I always say is that you don't have to have prisoner work as its own separate thing. If you're having a demo about an environmental issue or a labor issue in your city, there are political prisoners and other prisoners that will give you a statement to read that will be so powerful to that group of people that is gathering, and really inspirational. We've done this a few times, and Running Down the Wals is a good example of that, when you get people together and hear S g thecages these powerful prisoner statements. Ithink that there are ways to kind of bridge that technology gap, maybe visit with their families, visit with them, just keep that snail mail going, all those things. In terms of other changes, 1 guess this is going to sound wweird, especially as long as I've been in it, 25 years or whatever, Pm still not somebody who's been in the movement for a long time. We have so ‘many elders more elder than me who have so much experience, so much expertise, and so much to offer. But,in the time that I was coming up as an activist, prisoner support and political prisoner support was more popular. Maybe that sounds weird, but it was very strange to be an activist that didn’t know these names that we're talking about today, that didn't think of prisoner support as part of the work that they were doing, even if they were involved in immigration nmental issues or whatever else. There was this thread :mo and bravado running through it. Maybe there was a litle bit of macl init that made it appealing to people as young anarchists too. There’s a lot of different reasons probably. But I see young activists who are going in now, and they've got, I think, solid support, which is so important, so essential. We know that from doing years of prisoner support, how important it is to keep them supported. 1 don’t know if I see people that will mention Bill Dunne’s name or some of these longer held pris who are also very much part of our movements. I don't know, sounding like, “Get off my lawn.” Things are different now. I feel like it's on us a little bit to figure out what's happening and how we can make those connections and bridge that gap. Because to me, it’s really a hot issue to get involved in. That does really sound like old person ranting, but Eric King: One of the things that encouraged me to want to push this forward was I was writing people and they didn't know who Oso Blanco wwas. Or I write people and they wouldn't know who Sundiata Acoli was, or Bill Dunne. And Iwas like, “What the fuck are we even doing?” If you're \writing me, you're missing the boat here, because there’s people that have. already been here, who are mountains of men and women, giants of people, who need love and support. I think that's real, and I don’t know \why that's happened. 1 don't know why newer people to the abolition ‘game lose sight of the people that have been in longest. And then there are g thecages 38 people like Josh. Josh has hipped me to a lot of people. Josh taught me who. Kojo Bomani Sababu is. Josh taught me who Kojo is because he keeps those names alive. He keeps them alive in his heart. And we need that. We need people like you and people like Josh to not let our elders become ghosts. Josh Davidson: Yeah. 1 think that's interesting what Sara said, t0o. guess alot of people see the movements different, see them as individual ‘movements here and there fighting for individual causes, but see it differently. And I think a lot of people do. That’s one thing that I love about Rattling the Cages, that it’s got a such a wide variety of people, whether i’s nonviolent Catholic protesters or people who shot cops, they're allin there. ‘Eric King: Shout out to everyone who shot cops. Josh Davidson: They're allin there, and there’s this thread of resistance that connects every single one of them. And it connects all of us on the outside with our movements. I think seeing that thread and making those connections is really important, and hopefully the calendar or Rattling the Cages canbe a part of doing that ‘Eric King: Question, Sara. And this is on the same topic we're having Josh, you can answer next, s well, please. Something I noticed, I don’t wan to call it sectarianism in the movements, but I've noticed that certain people would only write to a water protector, only write to animal rights dudes, only write to this or that, and ignore everyone else. Is that something that you noticed when you were first coming up, or anytime, or is that just something that I'm fabricating in my mind? Sara Falconer: 1 mean, people do gravitate towards certain people that they have that affinity with, like the cause that they're in for or whatever. ‘There's also the names. At the time, there were some more well-known e Mumia Abu-Jamal, who were getting lot of attention. And unfortunately, even with all that public support behind them, they are sill inside. So, one of the things that I've always encourage people f they're getting involved is,if1 can think of people whoare a litle bt lesser known, o that we think are getting fewer letters, Tl often suggest thinking about writing to somebody different. It really depends though. cases like Leonard Peltier, to 5 g thecages Imyself, 1 probably started writing out to prisoners who I thought were ‘more like me, or more into the kind of into the anti-globaliz ‘movement and everything that was happening at that time. 1 think there’s nothing wrong with starting there. But to broaden it, Ilearned so much from prisoners who are very different from me in terms of their life experiences and in terms of their movements. s probably been the best thing that could happen. Eric King: Josh? Josh Davidson: What was the question again? Eric King: The question was about if you've seen, in modern prison support, because you started writing prisoners about two weeks ago, if youve noticed any sectarianism or people focusing on writing one Specific person for one action, but then not show broader support, and theyllleave it at this one specific thing? Have you noticed that? Or am 1 just a baby? Josh Davidson: No, 1 don't think I've noticed it to the level you're talking about. 1 do think that people, ke Sara said, they Il gravitate towards ‘movements or people that they feel familiar with, whether that's carth liberation or animal liberation or antifascism. But 1 can't think of a single person that 1 know who won't write to someonc else because they weren't involved in that movement. Eric King: Because you only know grey-haired people. Josh Davidson: Well, 1 mean, I do know people who wouldn't spend their time writing non-political prisoners, who feel like you only have so much time in a day. Certain people might think, *I will commit whatever time I have to people who are inside fighting for our movements or fighting back against the government.” L wouldn't call that sectarianism either, but I do see that divide where people in anarchist circles will only want to commit their time to writing to political prisoners. Sara Falconer: Yeah. It surprises me sometimes (o talk to somebody who's interested in political prisoner support but does'treally consider themselves an abolitionist of prison in general, o like they're not there vet, right? Those conversations can be pretty interesting, and I think you g theages 37 can, from writing to prisoners outside that list,learn so much and stretch your understanding of the world and challenge yourself'to see somebody else’s reality, even ifit's not the convenient one for you. You don’t have to write to every single person. You can't. But to try on something a bit new, Ithink, is something that I would love to see peaple do more. ‘Eric King: I think that is great advice for life. Challenge yourself o think outside of your realm and maybe show some goddamn empathy to someone clse. We just got a couple questions left. T'm thankful that we're able to run a little late. T do get paid overtime for. everything we go over, so I'm okay with it. [Laughter.] 1 am someone who has seen the benefit of prisoner support in life-saving ways. I met my wife through prisoner support. I met Josh through prisoner support. Rattling the Cages came from prisoner support. Sara, you are in my life because of prisoner support, T've also seen it to where—how do I phrase this?—T've got a friend inside. named Smiles, and anyone who knows me at all has heard me either talk about or post about Smiles because of the impact he had on my lfe, keeping me safe. The first person to write him on behalf of me was Josh. And currently, when Smiles is in trouble, when he’s having problems with prison, the only way I find out about it and can help him is because Josh went out of his way to write him. Josh not only helped save my life, but now he's saving Smiles’life. And I think that is something that maybe people don't realize that can happen through prison support. The impact that someone like Sara or someone like Josh can have, not just on one person—because Josh didn't just save me, he also saved Rochelle and my kids. And he's not just saving Smiles, he’s saving his sisters, his friends, his dad. There's a tree. There's a legacy of life-saving love that comes from prisoner support, Besides just hyping you and Josh up, the question I want to ask s, how would you encourage people to take these steps to go beyond just letters? Because letters are great, but you two both emphasize doing more. You've both been part of broad projects that have affected countless people. What would you say to encourage peaple just to take it a little further, to go into. that decper, tangible support that can really have an impact? Josh, you go ahead and star, or Sara, if you're ready. 5 g thecages Sara Falconer: 'l dive in. T think you know it starts with the letters,right? ‘That's how you're building the relationship. And I think that, again, we don’t want to be doing projects on behalf of people. We want to do it with them, not just with their consent, but their excitement, hopefully, about what we're working on together. I think thats how you build a relationship. But then to find somebody who has something in common, in terms of how they want to do a project. That might be a picce of writing, it might be a piece of art or music. There’ lots of ifferent ways, 1 think, that you can explore depending on how much contact you have with them. O they might want do develop a web presence for themselves so that they can get the word out about their cases and things like that. Think about the skills that you have that you can offer, the resources that you, have, or the things that you might want to learn by doing it. Think about what they need and are interested in, and then sort of try and find that spark that gets you excited about it 1 can think about you guys talking about this project, how exciting it must have been to be like, “Yeah, this is something that we want to do together.” And that's why you want to be able to find the same as if you're having a conversation with somebody on the outside that you want to have a project with. You can float some ideas and just see what sticks. There’s so many resources in the community, from libraries to schools to whatever photocopying you can do at your work or whatever. So, take a lttle bit of stock of what resources you have and what skills you have and what you're excited to do and start sharing. If you're building a relationship with a prisoner, start sharing that. Say these are the types of things P'm really interested in, podeasts or whatever itis. That's a pretty cool way to start the conversation. Eric King: Awesome. Josh? Josh Davidson: Yeah T would just say that finding that common ground, finding something that you're passionate about and that you're cither interested in or good at doing, and that the incarcerated person is also interested in, whether i’s artwork or books or music. Working with Oso Blanco, we're able o highlight this really beautiful art, and Tl just show it one more time because it is so beautifl. But he has supporters who also ‘make music with him, who callin with him and create music over prison phones. And he's written two books with other people who support him. And there's hundreds of people in prison who have different ways that g theages 39 they need support. So finding that, whatever it may be, whether it's ing something, etc... Danielle and I have become so close with people ide who needed help with degrees that they were working on. Think about working on a degree inside and not having access to the internet. ‘Eric King: I can think of that, and it’s horrible. Josh Davidson: Yeah, it is horrible. So, we're able to help print stuff out and help people with getting degrees, with educating themselves, with bettering themselves. Whatever we can do in that capacity, I 1 worthwhile. ‘Eric King: I would like to point out that I've been lifted up by so many peaple. An example of what we're talking about. I've got a comrade named. Marissa, and they were the third person ever to write me 10 years ago, o 11 year, whenever. And when I got out, they introduced me to the at Broken Record Radio Hour where I could go on this radio show and just have an hour to talk about prison. Now I've developed a relationship with those people, and it all happened because Marissa cared enough. 1 was able to go talk in Seattle, Washington because our homie Lawson cared enough to have us out there, me and Josh. There have been these things where if you care enough and you have the ability—because not everyone has the ability—but if you have the ability and you can help someone or develop these outside supports, it is, T could cry talking about you two or even talking to you two because my life has been impacted by not only you but people like you. I've seen firsthand the immense, 1 don’t want to say fucking impact again, T just said it, but impact yowve had on people’s lives. Twenty five years, four and a half weeks, it’s a big deal. So T hope you two both know that what you o is not just support people, it's changed lives. It makes lives better. It keeps people alive. If I could give you both hugs right now I would, riends Josh Davidson: T just wanited to say that I think it makes me a better person, writing to people inside and knowing them ‘Eric King: Well, because you started off a bad person. There's only one way to go. (Laughter.] Sara Falconer: But he'sright, he's right in so many ways. This is why we have tolet people know that they're not forgotten when they go o g hecages that we're out here for them, because it keeps our movement strong and because we get so much from that relationship together. They're not forgotten, and we are building these connections no matter what barriers are in front of us. And that makes us feel safer as activists too, I think. It ‘makes us feel more connected. And, again, we learn from each other so ‘much. 1 get so much out of these relationships. But I think you feeling supported and protected makes us feel supported and protected in the work that we're doing, too. I’ a scary space to be in. and to belike, we're going stand up and do this Eric King: Sometimes I think that people who don't pas abolitionist work don't understand that it’s not a one-sided thing. 1¢’s not. youboth said, this isn't goddamn charity work. Your lives are getting. enriched also. These are relationships, and they’re beneficial in a thousand wways even though they're behind bars. ‘We're going to close out here soon. I wanted to give each of you a chance to talk about projects you're doing now or projects you've done in the past that you just want to emphasize or just talk about the role that it had or the impact it had on your lives. So, Sara, we'll start with you. If there’s anything you want to shout out or give a history rep to, now would be just areally great time. Sara Falconer: Locally here in Canada, there’s actually an expansion of prisons, very much American style, like prison expansion projects that are underway. 1's a wonderful group that’s starting to do so, well has been for awhile now, doing some great organizing work to try and contest that, to try and find ways to et people know that it's happening in their communities, how damaging it’s going to be, and just trying to find ways 1o make it not happen. There is a wonderful local group called BAPSOP. 1 ‘mentioned them before, Barton Prison Soldarity Project. You can find them on Instagram, or if you can't just find me on Instageam, and Tl point you in the direction of these great projects. They are just the most badass organizers. They stand outside the prison with their phone ‘number on a huge banner and wait for people to call them. And that is so powerful because the access to the prisoners, even though they're in the ‘middle of our community, is very limited. This is a brutal condition jil, ke they don't turn the heat on until way far into the winter. They ran out of toilet paper for a significant amount of weeks this last year. Just brutal g theages 0 conditions. They're trying to organize the community, and they work very closely with the families around this stufftoo. So, shout out to all the awesome work that’s happening in Canada, and Prison Radio in Montreal and Kingston and all the cool places. Vancouver, I think, still has one, too, just raising the voices. So yeah, thank you, Prison Radio. ‘Eric King: Josh, shout out some projects, some support things, anyt] youwant to talk about or just let people know about? Josh Davidson: Besides getting a Certain Days calendar since it's the beginning of the new year, check out Rattling the Cages, check out these rad Oso Blanco greeting cards. Also, we've been turning these Rattling the Cages panel talks with Firestorm Books—this is our 10th one—we've been turning them into zines. P'm sharing a link now.! People can download them, print them, send them into people in prison who don’t have the opportunity tolisten to these ‘Eric King: Shout out to Ev! Josh Davidson: Yep. And shout out to ABC groups that are doing this amazing work, whether i’s noise demos or Running Down the Walls, raising awareness and funds for people inside. And Pl just shout out a few political prisoners who have been in for a long time who could use some love. Kamau Sadiki is one. We had his daughter on the first panel talk. An amazing family. Also, Jalil Al-Amin, formerly 1. Rap Brown, who's imprisoned in the federal system, and he's not getting the medical attention he needs. Then also the Virgin Island 3. There's still3 guys from the Virgin Islands who have been in prison since, I believe, 1973. They're in their upper 70s, some, think, in their 805 now. Two of them participated in Rattling the Cages, and in doing so, told them, it was kind of a quid pro quo thing, where they wanted their memoirs and poems produced. So Il be working on that. If anyone wants to help, reach out to the Virgin Island 3 and help share their stories. ‘Eric King: Anyone wants a book done, just hit up, Josh right away! Sara Falconer: osh didn'tlearn that lesson about capacity and saying no ye. archive.org/details/@ratiling._the_cages_zines S g thecages Josh Davidson: Yeah, not yet. T Eric King: 1 end all these by deeply encouraging people to please write prisoners, to start doing so. Please get involved. To all the groups that are still doing that, Tusually talk to you guys on Instagram, but every single ‘group repping prisoners, thank you. You're all doing real great. Shout out to Pushing Down the Walls, too. Those dudes out there are really amazing. Please write Randy Platt, Smiles. He is at ADX, the federal supermax. He is there for slicing a cop. He saved my lfe literally on at least two occasions and had my back countless other times. He did that, putting his life on the line, going against the Nazis in there and puttinga a queer loving antifascist first, and that's a dangerous game inside prison. Please write Randy Platt, aka Smiles, at ADX. And, Libertie, you can go ahead and shut us down. Thank you, everyone. Libertie Valance: Thank you all so much. This has been a really good conversation. Also, congratulations on the 10th event in the series! You've done an incredible job putting these together. And for anyone who hasn't tuned in for all 10 of them, definitely, check out the zines or the youtube archive because they've all been incredible. So many gems. I hope you all have a great evening Bye, take care. g theages 43 People, Places, Events, & Organizations Red Emma’s — a radical bookstore and worker cooperative dedicated (o putting principles of solidarity and sustainabilty into practice in a democratic warkplace. For more information: redemmas.org David Gilbert — a lfelong anti-imperialist who was captured and imprisoned as aresult of an attempted expropriation of a Brinks truck in Nyack, New York,in 1951 He was sentenced (075 years to life but is sentence was commuted by outgoing Governor Cuomo, and he was released from prison after nearly 10 years in November 2021, Though he spent short stints at MCC-NY and other federal prisons and jils, David spent the majority of his forty-year incarceration at the six maximum security men'’s prisons in New York (Attica, Auburn, Clinton, Comstack, Wende, and Shawangunk prisons). While in prison, David was o cofounder of the Certain Days Collective, and he also helped pioncer AIDS awareness programs that saved thousands of ives in prisons across the country David wrote numerous zines, including Our Comumitment I to Our. Communities: Mass Incarceration, Political Prisoners and Building a Movement for Community-Based Justice (:014). He also wrote three books — No Surrender: Witings from an Anti-Imperialst Political Prisoner (2004); Love and Struggle: My Lifein SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond (2012); and Looking at the US. White Working Class Historically (2017, Maximumrocknroll — a punk zine based in San Francisco, and a de facto bible of the punk scene, started as a radio show in 1977 and as a print zine in 1982 that ran until 2019, MRR often published writings by political prisoners and updates from radical movements. Much of their past issues have been archived and scanned: archiveorg/details/maximumrn ‘Anarchist Black Cross — a political prisoner support group with a long and vasied radical history tracing back to support for imprisoned Russian revolutionaries in the 18808, o support for anarchist revolutionaries in the Spanish Civil War and the revolutionary conflagrations in Europe i the carly to mid 19005, In the late 60s, the ABC found a British contingent following Stuart Christie’s release from Spanish prisons which supported the guersilla underground in Europe. In the 705, ater anarchist Black Liberation Army prisoner of war Lorenzo K'omboa Ervin's proposal or an ABC network, US chapters formed to support captured revolutionarics, project that continues to this day. For more information: https:/fsewve.abeL net | ‘Ann Hansen — Ann Hansen stood tral as one of the Squarmish Five, members of aradical Canadian anarchist group known s Direct Action who sabotaged government and corporate property in the 1980s. The group carried out militant actions which included an attack on a BC Hydro substation on Vancouver lsland and the Litton Industries bombing in Toronto, which was preparing to build S g hecages components for US eruise missiles - the explosion played a part n Litton losing, the contract Ann was handed a lfe sentence but was released from Canads’s infamous Prison for Women (P4W) afler nearly eight years. She spent over thirty vears in prison and on parole and has returned to prison twice for parole Violations. Now on the outside, An tirelessly continues her abolitionist cfforts ‘and continues (o inspire younger generations. She has published two books, Direct Action: Memoirs ofan Urban Guerrilla (2002) and Taking the Rap: Women ‘Doing Time for Society's Crimes (2015). ‘Barton Prisoner Solidarity Project — a prison abolitionist project started to develop connections between anarchists on the outside and prisoners inside the Barton Jailin Hamilton, Ontasio. o that end, the group maintains a phone line ‘and PO box to facilitate contact and docs social media/press work and organizes rallies and other events. The project has helped out with hunger strikes, pressuring prisoner administrators, and more. For more informations archive.org/detail/practical-sholition/mode/2up Xinachtli — (Alvaro Luna Hernandez) a lowyer and community organizer from ‘Texas. Xinachtli was recognized nationally and internationally as the national coordinator of the Ricardo Aldape Guerra Defense Committee, which led the struge to free Mexican national Aldape Guerra from Texas's death row after being ramed by Houston police for alegedly killing a cop. Xinachil's human rights work has been recogaized in laly, France, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, and. other countries. In 1976, Xinachli was wronglully convieted, and he was paroled in 1902, Subsequently, in 1997, he was sentenced to ity years in prison for defending himselfby disarming a police officer who drew a weapon on him. The sl evidence clearly showed Xinachti was the vietim of witch hunts and a police- orchestrated conspiracy Lo frame or climinate him. While imprisoned, Xinachtl has helped countless people with his juilhouse laveyering, and he is also an inside member of the Certain Days Collective, which produces a yearly calendar to raise funds and awareness about politeal prisoners. n total, Xinachtl has served over 40 years in numerous Texas state prisons, usually in solitary confinement, where he contines to fight back against his imprisonment Robert Seth Hayes — alter the assassination of Martin Luther King v and the social upheaval which followed it, Robert Seth Hayes joined the Black Panther Party, working in the Pasty's free medical clinics and free breakfast programs. Like many other activists, Seth was forced underground by FBI and police repression of the Panther movement, Once underground, Seth joined the Black Liberation Army. In 1973, following a shootout with police, Seth was arrested and convicted of the murder of'a New York City police officer, and, while ‘maintaining his innocence, sentenced (o 25 years o life in prison. Imprisoned for nearly 40 years, Seth has long since served his sentence. Seth first came up for parole in 1995, but prison officials refused to release him, focusing on his g thecages 45 involvement with the Black Panther Party and his knowledge as to the whereabouts of Assata Shakur and not his conduct while imprisoned. While in prison, Seth worked as a librarian, pre-release advisor, and AIDS counselor, mentoring younger prisoners and contining to struggle for his people. Seth was afounding member of the Certain Days: Freedorn for Political Prisaners calendar collective. Seth passed away at the age of 72 on December 24, 2019. Burning Books — a radical bookstore in Bullalo, NY that opened in September of 2009 0n the anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, Burning Baoks focuses exclusively on socialjustice ssues and works to support individuals and movements that are struggling sgainst oppression and domination in allts forms, and is a partner of - and the main distributor for—the Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners yearly calendar. For more information: hitpsy//burningbooks.com/ Herman Bell — a former member of both the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, and he was imprisoned for 45 years. Herman was captured in New Orleans in 1973, and eventually he, alil Muntaqim, and Albert Nub Washington were convicted of attacks on police. Herman was also implicated in the San Francisco s case and pleaded guilty to a lesser offense. He spent five vears imprisoned in the federal system, in the Marion control unit for two of those years, before spending decades in various New York State maximur sceurity prisons. While imprisoned he was committed to community work, and. heis a founding member of the Victory Gardens Project and the Certain Days Collective. He released in 2018, after his eighth parole hearing. Jlil Mutagim ol was 19 years okd when e was arrested. He's a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, and was one ofthe longest held plitiea prisoners in the world.Jalil was born October 15, 1953, in Oakland, CA. His carly years were spent in San Francisco. Jali participated in NAACP youth organizing during the civi rights movement. In high school, he became a leading member o the Blck Student Uon, often touring in “speak-outs.” Aler the asassination of Dr. King, Jall began o belicve amore miltant response to acism and injustice was necessary. He began to ook towards the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense for leadership and was secruited intothe BPP by sehool frends who had since become Panthers. Two manths shy of his zoth birthday, Jail was captured along with Albert "Nub” Washington in a idnight shoot-out with San Francisco police. While in San Quentin prison in California in 197, Jalillasnched the National Prisoners Campaign o Petition the United Nations to recognize the existence of politcal prisoners in the United States. Progressives natiovide joined this effot and the pettion was submitted in Geneva, Switzerland. Thisld to Lennox Hinds and the National Conference of Black Lavyers having the UN International Commission of Jurists tour US prisons and speak with specifc poliical prisoners. The International Commission of Jurists then reported tha political s g e cages prisoners did in fact exist i the United States. In 1997 Jallintiated the Jericho Movement. Over 6,000 supporters gathered in the Jericho 98 march in Washington D and the Bay Area to demand amesty for US political prisoners on the basis ofinternational law. The Jericho Amnesty Movement aims (o gain the recognition by the US government and the United Nations that political prisoners exist in this country, and that on the basis of international aw, they should be granted amnesty because of the political nature of their cases. Sekou Odinga — Sekou was forced into hiding in 1969 when he and twenty other Black Panther Party members were wrongly charged with criminal conspiracy in the NY Panther 21 case. Several months later, while stll underground, he traveled to Algeria to establish an international chapter of the Black Panther Party. Later, Sekou became an activist in the New Afrikan Independence Movement and a member of the Black Liberation Army. On October 23, 1951, Sekou and Miyari Shabaka Sundiata were ambushed by the NYC police and FBI ents The police murdered Meyari Sekou was eventually captured, tortured, and eventually charged with the liberation of Assata Shakur and the expropriation of money from an armored car. § federal charges under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act and was sentence t0 40 years imprisonment and a $50,000 fine. He. wwas also convicted of six state counts of attempted murder stemming from the defense of himself and Mtyari during the police attack in 1981, For this he was sentenced to concurrent life sentences. Sekou released from prison on 014 and passed away on January 12,2024, at the age of 75 Kou was convicted of two November Marilyn Buck — an anti-imperialist revolutionary who was imprisoned for her participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur,the 1981 Brinks robbe and the 1983 US Senate bombing, Marilyn joined Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) during the height of ativismm against the Vietnarm war while a the University of Texas. In 1967 she moved to Chicago where she edited the SDS. newsletter New Left Notes, and incorporated Marxist feminist into the organization’s politis. In San Francisco, she worked with Third World Newsreel, ‘amedia collective that showeased anti-imperialist and anti- colonialiststruggles around the world. Convicted for purchasing smmunition for the Black Liberation Army in 1973, she was sentenced to 10 years n prison, furloughed in 1977, and went underground instead of returning to prison. Ater her capture ‘and convictions in 1985, she was sentenced t0 80 years in federal prison, where she wrote on women in prison, solitary confinement, political prisoner support, and revolutionary poetry. Marilyn passed away on August , 2010 080 Blanco — an indigenous activist originally serving 50 years in prison for a series of bank expropriations throughout the southwest in 1998199 he ‘undertook to help fund the Zapatistas. 1n 2016, 25 years were taken off his sentence when he won his Johnson v. U.S. appeal making him cligible for release in 2048, He is part o the wolfclan Cheroke Choctaw, raised in New Mexico. His g theages 47 Indigenous name s Oso Blanco, or Yona Unega in Cheroke. He was known to the PBI as Robin the Hood" because he informed the bank tellrs he was expropriating funds to assist the Zapatistas fighting for independence in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Oso Blanco contines his assistance to Zapatistas and native kids from within prison through the Children's Art Project (CAP). Check out the artwork he ereated 1o raise funds for native kids, or sale online as greeting cards and posters, o his new website at frecosoblanco.org. Please support the Zapatista supply warrior’ in his mission and share the link within your networks! Zapatista Army of National Liberation — Ejército Zapatista de Liberacién Nacional (EZLN) — a revolutionary and autonomous Indigenous iberation movement in Chispas, Mexico. The Zapatistas takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the peasant revolutionary, land reformer, and commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution, and sces itself s his deological heir. EZLN's ideology hs been charaeterized as ibertarian socialist, anarchist, o Marxist, and having roots in liberation theology, althouigh the Zapatistas have rejected political classification in their poetic and mythical self-understanding, The EZLN aligns itsel with the wider alter-globalization, anti-nealiberal social movement, secking indigenous control over local resources, especially land. The Zapatistas deseribe themselves as a decentralized organization. The pseudonymous Subcomandante Marcos is widely considered its leader despite his claims that the group has no single leader. Poltical decisions are deliberated and decided in community assemblics. Military and organizational matters are decided by the Zapatista area elders who compose the General Command (Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Commiltee. General Command, or CCRI-CG). Daniel McGowan — a member of the Certain Days collective, and former political prisoner from Quucens, NY. He works with NYC Books Through Bars and the Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCE). At the end of 2005, the FBI opened anew phase ofits assault on earth and animal liberation movements —known as the Green Scare—with the arrests and indictments of a large number of sctivists. “This offensive, dubbed Operation Back! for many of the unsolved Earth Liberation Front (ELF) arsons of the preceding ten years—but more 50, to have a chilling effect on al ecological direct action. OF those charged in Operation Backfire, nine ultimately cooperated with the government and informed on others in hopes of educed sentences. Four held out through a terrilying year, during which it scemed certain they would end up serving decades in prison, until they were ble to broker plea deals n which they could claim responsibility for their actions without providing information about others, ncluding Daniel. A “tervorisim label was applied to Daniel's sentence, and he was ultimately sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, He released on probation inJune 2015 . was intended (0 obtain convictions s ey thecages astrugglemag — a revolutionary magazine that focused on the insights and expericnces of US political prisoners on major issues of the day. 4strugglemag is anindependent non-sectarian revolutionary voice. They are unapologetically anti-imperialist and solidly in support of progressive National Liberation, especially the strugeles of New Alrican/Black, Mexicano/ Chicano, Puerto Rican ‘and Native American Nations presently controlled by US imperialism. Reflecting the work and principles of politicl prisoners held by the United States, strugglemag advocates for Justice, Equality, Freedom, Socialism, Protection of our Mother Earth, Human Rights and Peace. The 4strusgglemag archive is available: strugglemag.org ‘Munia Abu-Jamal — an award winning jousnalist and was one of the founders of | the Black Panther Party chapter in Philadelphia, PA. He has struggled for justice ‘and human rights for people of color since he was atleast 14 years old, the age when he joined the Party. In December of 1952, Mumia, who moonlighted by driving s taxi, happened upon police who were beating his brother. During the ‘melee, a police officer was shot and killed. Despite the fact that many people sav someone else shoot and runaway from the scene, Mumis, in what could only be called a kngaroo court, was convicted and sentenced to death. During the ‘summer of 1995, a death warrant was signed by Governor Tom Ridge, which sparked one of the most effective organizing efforts in defense of a political prisoner ever. Since that time, Murmia has had his death sentence overturned, but s still expected to serve the rest of his life in prison. For more information: freemumis.com Leonard Peltier — a Native American political prisoner serving two consecutive. Iife sentences for a erime he was set up for- -the killing of two FBI agents. In the carly 708, Native Americans on the Pine Ridge Reservation were assaulted and ‘murdered by a group of vigilantes and looked towards the American Indian Movement (AIMD) for help. Hundreds of AIM members oceupied the village of Wounded Knee in Pine Ridge in 1972, demanding an end to the US-backed ‘murder and intimidation of AIM supporters on the reservation and that the treaties signed by the US be honored that gave the Lakota people the right to self-rule the land surrounding the Bluck Hills. Federal authorities surrounded the oceupation with an army of over 300. The Indians refused to back dow. ‘They used weapons to defend themselves and held off the government forces for 72 days. After the siege, Leonard came to Pine Ridge with s few other AIM ‘members in 1975 and set up camp in the villuge of Oglala to protect the village from vigilantes. On July 26, 1975 two FBI agents drove into the property unannounced and unidentified, and a firefight erupted, leaving the two FBI agents and one AIM member dead, while scores of FBI sgents and US Marshals surrounded the property. s believed that the attack against the AIM activists wvas an attempt to create a diversion for asecret agrecment to transfer parts of the Pine Ridge Reservation o the federal government. With fubricated evidence. and preventing Leonard from claiming self-defense, Leonard was convieted to g theages 49 two life sentences in federal prison. The struggle for Leonard's reedom fnally won, and Leonard's life sentence was commuted to home confinement beginning on February 18, 2025. For more information: whoisleonardpeltierinfo George Jackson Brigade — revolutionary anti-imperialis urban guerrlla group founded i carly 197 by a smal group of unemployed working class communists.Allof the peaple publily associated wih the Brigade--Ed Mead, it bo brown, Mark Cook, Bruce Siedel,John Sherman, Janine Bertram, and “Therese Coupez--had long historics o involverment in mass politcal struggle in the Pacific Northwest. 1t was the involvermentin the srugeles of women, prisoners, Third World peaple, gays, and young people that led ther toa commitment of armed strugle. The main point of theie unity was determination to fight capitalism with the force o arms here and now. Among thei actions were bombings against the Washington Departmen of Corrections in soldarity with the 1975 Walla Walla prison uprising, actions in support of working clas srikes, bank expropriations,and prisoner liberation. £d Mead and Bruce Siedel began their actions with the desie to make good on George Jackso's threat o his captors from Soledad prison: “The monster they've engendered in me will return o torment its maker, from the grave, thepi, the profoundest pit. Hurl me into the next existence, the descent into hell won't turn me. 'l cravel back to dog his rail orever.” Ed Mead — a revolutionary guerrilla of the George Jackson Brigade, jailhouse lawyer, prisoner organizer with Men Against Sexism, and founder of Prison Legal News. Ed grew up n rural Alaska and spent time in and out of youth imprisonment. While in federal prison in the 60s for a pharmacy burglary (guilty) and an escape attempt from juil innocen), Ed seriously committed himself o jailhouse Lawyering and also came across radical Marxist and anarchist literature which enabled him intelligently to choose sides. After his release Ed traveled to San Francisco to “join the revolution,” hoping to conneet to revolutionary groups, which he did, and returned to Seattle with new-found skills Upon returning to Seattle, Ed consulted with his good friend Bruce Seidel, wwho was also doing prison work in Seattle. They resolved to enact their politics of confrontation under the name of the George Jackson Brigade. Ed was captured during an unsuccesstul bank expropriation, convieted, and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Ed was sent to the Washington state penitentiary at Walla Walla, where he organized Men Against Sexism, which successfully fought against prison rape and sexism. Ed was a seasoned jailhouse lawyer and prodigious journalist inside, founding the Red Dragon i the 705, The Abolitionist in the 80s, and Prison Legal News, which still exists and is the longest running prison newspaper in the US. Once released in 1993, Ed worked. tirelessly with revolutionary onganizations and prisoner support groups, and worked tirelessly to ree his comrade Mark Cook. Ed published the zine The Theory and Practice of Armed Struggle in the Northwest: A Historical Analysis, and the book Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead. Along with Mark, Ed s S et thecges also s contributor to Ratling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners. Mark Cook — a Black revolutionary member of the George Jackson Brigade. ‘While imprisoned at the Washington state penitentiary in Walla Walla, Mark had founded a chapter of the Black Panther Party and collaborated on an ‘underground prisoner-produced newsletter, The Bomb, which agitated for expanding prisoners' civil ights. With others Mark pushed for and wona (relatively) democratic self-govering body for prisoners, the Residents Governance Counsel, after one of the longest prisoner strikes in US history. After his release he began organizing CONvention, an anaual conference of prison activists. He supported the Brigade out of a commitment to the legacy of George Jackson and the conviction that aboveground and underground work were equally important, Mark captured after the successfl iberation of John Sherman from prison custody. The irony of Mark's case is that he was framed: e was pulled in by police because he was on a watehlist of Black radicals, released but re-arvested after another prisoner informed on him. Throughout his two and a half decades of incarceration, Mark continued to strive for justice ‘and equality for those behind bars and on the outside. Mark released in 2000 and remains a active an organizer now as ever. John Brown Anti-Klan Committee — (JBAKC) — an ant-racist organization based inthe US that protested against the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacist organizations and published anti-racis iterature. Members of he JBAKC were involved n u string of bormbings of military, governmet, and corporate targets n the 19805, The JBAKC viewed themselves as anti- imperialist and considered Alrican Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans to be appressed colanial peoples. The JBAKC s started in 1978 by group of white anti-racist activista with tis to the Weather Underground. They named the organization ater abolitionistJobn Brows, who. advocated and engaged n violence us o means to end slavery i the US. According to founding member Lisa Roth, the event that triggered the formation of the grotp was the discovery that the KKK was acively organiing in Ne York State prisons. In 1950, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committce ditributed a pamphict entitled “Take a Stand Against the Klan", which outlined the group's “Principles of Unity”:Fight White Supremacy in All It Forms! Death to the Klan! Support the Stru Struggle to Free the Land! Follow Black and Other Third World Leadership Support the Struggle of Third Workd Peaple for Human Rghts! Oppose White Supremacist Atacks! of the Black Nation for Self-Determination! Support the Kersplebedeb — a publisher of radical books & pamphlets, and manufacturer of radical agit prop materials bused in Montreal. 1s also a pretty sprawling website, with pages on key political fronts ranging from Palestine to ‘Transgender Liberation, to political pisoners’ struggles in the United States. g theages 8 Tom Manning — an anti-imperialist revolutionary and member of the Sam Melvill Jonathan Jackson Unit, later known as the United Freedom Front (UFF), which condueted sabotage, expropriations, and attacks agains profiteers and symbols of American imperialism in support of global anti-colonial st i the 703 and 80s. As s youth, Tom shined shoes, raised pigeons, and joined the military in 1965, where he was stationed at Guantanamo Bay and in Vietnarm. Tom was sentenced to five years in prison for armed robbery and assault some time after 1965, Tom credits these years or his deep politicization through interactions with other prisoners. After going underground with his wife Carol s a part of the U, Tom, Carol, Ray Lue Levaseur, Patricia Gross, Richard Williars, Jaan Luaman, and Barbara Cursi, who came t0 be known as the Ohio 7, were captured after the largest manhunt in New Jersey history. Tom was sentenced to 58 years in federal prison for his role in killing a police offcer and. the UFF bombings. Tom died in 2010 after maore than 30 years in prison where he continued to struggle untilthe end. Tom' artwork is featured prominently in the political prisoner writing and art collection Hauling Up the Moraing, edited by Ray Luc Levasseur and Tim Blunk, with an introduction by Assata Shakur. IRA — The Irish Republic Army was a revolutionary organization that fought a guersilla war against Briish settler-colonialism from 1919 t0 1921. The IRA was. descended from the Irish Volunteers, founded in 1913, who staged the Easter Rising in 1926, which simed at ending British rule in Ireland, rebellion that was bratally suppressed. Following treaty with the British in 1921 that ended the war ofindependence, a split oceurred within the IRA betsveen members who supported the treaty (Irish National Army), and the majority apposed to the treaty (IRA), who fought a civil war against the Free State Army in 1922-1925, with the intention of ereating a fully independent all-lreland republic. In the decades following the defeat of the IRA, various guerrilla organizations would continue to struggle for independence, such as the eruption of guerrilla warfure during the so-called Troubles from the late 605 to the late 905, Captured members of the IRA and Irish republican political prisoners waged fierce battles for recognition as political prisoners against the British government, such s the 1981 hunger strike which left Bobby Sands and other prisoners dead from Dr. Mutulu Shalkur — & Black Liberation Army politcal prisoner who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for his involvement in the Brinks robbesy. Dr. Shakur was active as a teen in the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), & Black Nationalist group that str change in America. Dr. Shakur lso worked very closely with the Black Panther Party, supporting Lumurmba and Zayd Shakur. He was a member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika, which endorsed the founding of an independent New Afrikan (Black) Republic and the establishment of an independent Black state in the southern US. In the 70, Dr. Shakur worked with the Lincoln Detox program, which offered drug rehabilitation for heroin for Black self-determination and socialist S et thecages addiction using acupuncture. Dr. Shakur was one of several Black Liberation Army members to carry out the October 1981 Brinks robbery, aided by the May 15 Communist Organization and former members of the Weather Underground. 10 June 2022, it was revealed that Dr. Shakur had terminal bone marrow can with six months (o live.” Dr. Shakur passed away from the disease on July 7, 2023, at age 72 sbout eight months after being paroled. Russell Maroon Shoatz — a Black revolutionary and member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) who escaped multiple times from prison, carning the ‘name “Maroon.” Maraon grew up in Philly and as a part of his gang activities spent his youth in and out of eform schools and youth institutions. During the carly and mid-60s, Maroon become politically active n the Black liberation ‘movement, co-founding the Black Uty Council, which later merged with the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1965, In August 1970, at the height of the state repression of the Black liberation movement, Maroon and four others became fugitives (“The Philly 5%, after a police officer was killed ina retaliatory attack on a Philadelphia police station. From August 1970 to January 1972, the date of his capture, Maroon was active on the armed front of the Black Liberation Army. Maroon was sentenced to life after his capture and conviction. In September 1977, Maroon three other Black prisoners liberated themselves from the Huntingdon state prison in Pennsylvania. Two of them were recaptured. another was killed, but Maroon remained free for a month, flecing, from a massive “slave hunt” by local, state, federal, and milita forces. In March 1980, Maroon and another Black political prisoner of war liberated themselves after a Black activists smuggled a revolver and sub-machine gun into the institution. Al three were captured after a gun battle with local, state, county, andfederal forces. Despite enduring over 22 consecutive years of solitary confinement, Maroon organized iberation schools in the prisons, and remained committed freedom fighter. Maroon was granted compassionate release in 202, after sullering from cancer. Maroon passed away less than two months Iater, on December 17. Masoon is the author of Maroon the Implacable: The Collected Witings of Russell Maroon Shoatz, The Dragon and the Hydra: A Historical Study of Organizational Method, and an autobiography, | Am Maroon: The True Story ofan American Political Prisoner. ‘Donna Willmott — i 1969, Donna traveled to Cuba as past of the first contingent of the Venceremos Brigades. Donna worked with numerous groups to implement revolutionary change and was supportive of political prisoners. before her own arrest. In 1985, Donna and others were arrested in connection with s planned escape attempt of Pucrto Rican politcal prisoner Oscar Lépez Rivera. In 1994, after spending nine years underground, she and her codefendant turned themselves in, and Donna subsequently served twenty-seven months in prison at MCC Chicago and FeI Dublin, followed by six months in a halfay house in San Francisco. Since her release, she has worked tirelessly to abolish solitary confinement and ensure that younger generations continue efforts for g theages 55 rudical change. She is a mentor with the Anne Braden Anti-Racist Organizer Training Program and a member of the Catalyst Project. RAF — The Red Army Faction was an anti-imperialist communist underground guersilla group of West German revolutionaries who carried out armed actions against US imperialism. The RAF engaged in a series of bombings, assassinations, Kidnappings, bank robberics, and shootouts with police aver the course of three decades. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mabler. The RAF emerged from the 1966 student protest movement in West Germany and was formed with the intention of complementing the plethora of revolutionary and radical groups across West Germany and Europe. In 1970 after Ulrike and others freed Andreas from custody, many of the RAF traveled to Jordan where they trained with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas and looked to the Palestinian cause for inspiration, and guidance. After the arrest of the revolutionaries of the st generation ofthe RAF, they were held i solitary confinement in the newly constructed high sceurity Stammheim prison, where the counter-insusgency tacties of solitary confinement were developed belore being exported to the US. To protest sgainst their treatment by authoriies, they went on several coordinated hunger strikes. Eventually, they were force-fed, and Holger Meins was killed of starvation. The sccond generation of the RAF emerged in 1975 with series of armed actions that culminated in the so- capitalist was kidnapped by the RAF with demands o free the RAF prisoners. ‘The German state did not relent, and the situation escalated fter a Palestinian | RAF operation hijacked a German airplane (allof the guerrillas were killed by German police),the three main RAF prisoners (Andreas, Gudrun, and Ulrike) were most likely murdered, and the Nazi capitalist was killed in retaliation. The RAF continued operations well into the 19905, and former RAF guerrilla, ke Danela Klette, continue to be discovered and imprisoned even into the 20205. lled "German Autumn” of 1977 when a former Nazi ‘Angela Davis — a Black Marist and feminist political activis, philosopher, academic, and author. A longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), she was also afiliated with the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party, while a philosophy professor at UCLA. A leader in the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee, after Jonathan Jackson attempted to iberate the Soledad Brothers through an attack on the Marin County Civic Center in 1970,an arrest warrant for Angela was issued after it came to light that she had bought several of the guns Jonathan used in the attack. She was captured by the FBl and released on bail after a 16 month international “Free Angela” campaign. Angela was acquitted of the charges in June 1972 Angela was twice the Communist Party’s candidate for viee president.In 1997, she co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison industrial complex. Angela's books and theories are a loundation in the prison abolition movement. S et thecages Zinn Education Project — a project that promotes and supports the teaching of eople’s history in classrooms across the country, modeled after socialist historian Howard Zinn's A People’s History of the United States and A Young People’s History of the United States. For more information: v zinnedproject.org] Leslie James Pickering — inspired by the animal liberation movement, Lestic began to study radical and revolutionary movements of the past. His studies led. 1o his eventual involvement in an organization known as the Liberation Collective in Portland, Oregon. When the organization received a communique from the Earth Liberation Front, co-founder Craig Rosebraugh and Lestic established the North American Easth Liberation Front Press Office (NAELFPO) in 1999, Leslic currently is u professor at Nisgara University, specializing in social and environmental rights. Leslic has published the books, The Earth Liberation Front: 1997-2002 Mad Bomber Melville, a biography of the revolutionary Sam Melville and Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism: The Collective Autobiography of the RNC s, as well s many zines. Sekou Kambui — Sekou s of Afikan Cherokee heritage, born n 1948, in Alabarma. Throtsghout the 19603, Sckor participated in the Civil Rights Movemen, organized youth for demonstrations and marches across Alsbarma and providing sccurity for SCLC, CORE and SNCC. Sekor has been an active Juilhouse laveyer and prisoner rights actvistfor more than 20 years. Sckou Joined the Black Panthers n 1967 Wiile in Detroi, he became a member o the Republicof New Alka (RNA),before returnin o Birmingham, Alsbama worked with the Alabama Black Liberation Front,the Inmates for Action (IF) defense coramittee, and the Afro-American Peoples Party in the mid-19705. Selcou was falsly arrested o Jamary 2,197 and charged with the murder of o white mers; KKK offcal from Tuscaloosa, Alsbama, and an il millionire from Birmingharm. Sckou was convicted on both trial and sentenced to lf in both cases. While behind bars,Sekou steadistly continued bis socalactivism. He nitiaed legalefforts around medical malpractice, over-crowding, and other abusive prison conditions. He formed and led a Social Consciousness Group which provided cultural and politcsleducation for fellow prisones. His dedication tojustice touched people wherever e went. Unfortunately, only wecks afer his relcase,he was disgnosed with cancer. Despite his llness, Sekou was able o participate in a nationsl tour with the Red Flame of Freedom, and attended the frst ational conference of the Formerly-Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples’ Movement. Sekow bravely coped swith his llness untilhis death on May 10, 2017 ckou Ray Lue Levasseur — & member of the United Freedom Front and the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit who spent over 20 years in prison. The group. Known as the Ohio 7 Ray, Patricia Gros Levasseur, Barbara Curzi-Laaman, Carol Sacier Manning, Tom Manning, Jaan Laaman, and Richard Williams —were g teages S5 working.class revolutionaries charged with actions against US military facilitis, recruitment centers, and corporate headquarters. These sctions were done i solidarity with the people of South Africa and Central America, who were bearing the brunt of US imperialism. Ray spent twenty-one months imprisoned in Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville and at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee, between 1969 and 1973, before spending. twenty years imprisoned from 1984 to 2004 for his actions with the UFF. Ray has published three zines—Family Values; Letters from Exile; and The Trial Statements of Ray Luc Levasseur—l of which are to be republished by Kersplebedeb and Burning Books in 2025. Linda Evans — an anti-imperialist political prisoner for 16 years, and before her. imprisonment she was involved in many organizations, including Students for o Democratic Society, the Weather Underground, and the May 19th Commaunist Organization. She was captured in 195 and convieted for her part in the Resistance Conspiracy Case. Her sentence was commated by outgoing president Bill Clinton in 2001 Linda was imprisoned at various jils, inchuding the DC jal and FC1 Dublin. Since her release, she has co-founded All of Us or None, a grassroots civl rights organization of formerly incarcerated people and their families, and she works tirlessly with California Coulition for Women Prisoners, the Drop LWOP Coalition, the Immigrant Defense Taskforce of North Bay Organizing Project in Santa Rosa, and the successful campaign to ree Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Along with her pastaer Eve Goldberg, Linda wrote The Prison- Industrial Complex and the Global Economy (2009). Laura Whitehorn — Linda served almost 15 years in high seeurity federal prisons for her involvement in the anti-imperialst armed actions that culminated in the Resistance Conspiracy Case of the mid-1980s. She served time at the Baltimore City Jail, the DC jail, 1 Lexington, FCI Alderson, FCI Dublin then called. Pleasanton), and the high securiy unit in Marianna, Florida. Laura was involved in anti-imperialist organizations inchuding the Weather Underground Organization (WUO) and the May 19th Communist Organization, and rights and AIDS support groups. Since her release at the turn of the century, she has been involved in a number of causes including campaigns to free political prisoners and is a cofounder of Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), a community based organization founded and led by formerly incarcerated people and fammily members. Laura edited and wrote the introduction for The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison and Fighting for Those Left Behind (2010) and wrote the introduction to Vietoria Luw's Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women. She and her partner, the writer susie day, participated in a prison, labor, and scademic delegation to Palestine in 2016, ‘Susan Rosenberg — Susan spent 16 years in high security federal prisons for her involvement in the anti-imperialist armed actions that culminated in the S et thecages Resistance Conspiracy Case of the mid-1980s. Her sentence was commuted by outgoing president Bill Clinton in 2001, Susan was imprisoned at the Lexington high security unit at FCI Lexington, the first maximurm security prison for swomen in Marianns, Florids, and FCI Danbury, and she also spent time in the DC il She was involved in the May 19th Communist Organization, the Puerto Rican independence movement, the movement to Ban the Box, and the successfol fight for the release of longtime political prisoner Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Susan published the book An American Radical: Plitical Prisoner in My Own Country (zom). Rebecea Rubin — Rebecea received a five-year sentence for hes involvement with actions committed in support of the Earth Liberation Front during the late 19905 and carly 20005, A shy animal lover from Vancouver, Canads, Rebecea found herself on the run for seven years before surrendering to face draconian charges in the midst of the Green Scare. She served four years and four months and spent several months in various holding facilties and Oregon ails before spending two years imprisoned at FCI Dublin in Californis, followed by time in o reentry center in Portland and then home confinement. She did not et this time impact her love for nature or her sense of humou. Jake Conroy — a longtime animal rights activist who was sentenced o four yes in prison for his involvement in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruclty (SHAC USA) campaign. ake has been involved in various forms of activism since the mid-19905, working on campaigns both local and internationsl. The SHAC 7, as he and his codefendants became known, were tried as domestie tervorists for running a website and supporting controversial tactics and ideologies. Since his release, he has remained tirelessly committed to the struggle on many fronts, He is currently the host of the Three Minute Thursdays show on his Cranky Vegan YouTube channel and is cohost of Radicals and Revolutionarics, an oral history podeast about direct action movements. ‘Running Down the Walls — since 1999, prisoners and supporters throughout North America have participated in the annual event know as Running Dow the Walls (RDTW), a non-competitive 5K runjjog/walkroll 0 raise awarencss ‘and funds for political prisoners. Over the years, RDTW has raised thousands of dollars and lots of awareness around the struggle to free political prisoners Bill Dunne — Billis an anti-authoritarian sentenced t0 90 years for the attemped liberation of comrades from Seattl’s King County Jailin 1979 and for attempting to break himselfout of Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1982, Bill was charged with possession of an sutomatic weapon, auto theft, and siding & abetting the escape. Charges further alleged the operation was financed by bank expropriations and faciltated by llegal acquisition of weapons and explosives. Bill and his codefendant, Larry Giddings, were accused by police of being, ‘members of a small, heavily armed group of revolutionarie associated with g theages 57 the anarcho-communist Wellspring Communion. Dunne has made the rounds of the federal prison system-—including a stint a the infamous Control Unit in Marion, linois, where he assisted prisoners with political & academic education. Bill alo organizes solidarity runs in conjunction with the Anarchist Black Cross Federation's Running Down the Walls and has edited & written for astrugglemagazine. Bill also helped run the newsletter Prison News Service” from Marion, which was incorporated into the Toronto anarchist prisoner support magazine Bulldozer. Kojo Bomani Sababu — a New Afrikan Prisoncr of War, currently serving a 55 year sentence for actions carried out by the Black Liberation Army and attempted escape from prison with Puerto Rican independentista Oscar Loper Rivera. At a very young age, Kojo began to develop a New Afrikan consciousness. Growing up in Atlanta City, New Jersey organizations like the Nation of slam were strong within the Black community. The organization helped Kojo gain his first experiences i nation.-building, In 1965, Sababs crossed paths with the Black Panther Party in Atlanta City. He began to participate in their political education course. In 1972, Sababu was sent 1o the Ne Jerscy ‘Trenton where he met two Black revolutionaries, Kuwasi Balagoon and ‘Andaliwa Clark, who influenced his political development. When he was released he joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1975, four members of the Black Liberation Army expropriated funds from the Broad Street National Bank in Lawrence Township, which turned into a shootout with palice. Three members of the BLA (Kojo Sababu, Ojore Lutalo, and Larry ‘Anderson) were arrested, while a fourth membe was able to avoid arrest, and were charged with possession of stolen property, possession of a dangerous weapon and being a fugitive. In 1976, Kojo was sentenced to two lfe prison terms for the killings. While in prison Kojo became active in the Inmate Legal ‘Association (ILA), a non-profit legal aid organization that provided free legal assistance to prisoners and which sill exsts today. In July 1986, three individuals were arrested, and six others were being sought on charges that they were involved in a plot to liberate Puerto Rican prisoner of war, Osear Lopez- Rivera and Kojo Sababu from USP Leavemworth in Kansas. Among those charged, besides Oscar and Kojo, were Jaime Delgado, Dora Gareia, Claude Marks, and Donna Willmott. In August of 2009, Ojore Lutalo, Sabb's co- defendant from the bank expropriation was released from prison. Sabibu, however, remains behind bars for his participation in these actions. He remains committed and unawavering despite his imprisonment. State Prison in three years later Prison Radio — an independent multimedia production studio producing content for radio, television, and films for 30 years and distributing throughout the wrld. Prison Radio challenges unjust police and prosecutorial practices which result in mass incarceration, racism and gender discrimination by bringing the voices of incarcerated people into the public debate. broadeasts examine core issues that create crime and disenfranchise heir radio S5 et thecges Their educational materials serve as catalyst for public activism; strengthening movements for social change. Prison Radio's productions illustrate the perspectives and the intrinsic human worth of the more than 7.1 million people under correctional control i the U.S. Mumia Abu-Jamal as a correspondent o Prison Radio has published 2,126 commentaries over the decades, us o continuation of his radical peaple’s ournalismn, They can be listened to on Prison Radio: wwwprisonradio.org/correspondent /murmis-sbu- jamal) Kamau Sadiki — a former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLY), whois currently serving a life sentence for the killing of an Atlanta police officer in 1971 With the US counter-insurgency program COINTELPRO that attempted to neutralize and destroy revolutionary organizations like the Black Panther Pasty, ‘many members felt they had no choice but to go underground or risk imprisonment and death, which Sadiki did in 197 In 1973 he was captured as part ofa federal stakeou for a bank expropriation and was tried with his co- defendant Assata Shakur —which ended first in a mistrial and after a second trisl with s jury acquittal. In 1974, he was tried in another bank expropriation, found. guily, and sentenced to s years in prison. During these trials, Assata was. pregnant with a child she shared with Sadiki. She would later escape to Cuba, Sadiki's case was part of a renewed campaign during the early 20005 to target former revolutionaries from the 19605 and 705. Sadiki has claimed his innocence, stating that the government refused to allow testimony that would exonerate him and used his case us a way to pressure Sadiki to help in capturing Assata. Sadiki was convicted and sentenced in 2003, His health continues to deteriorate 10 this day, and support for his iberation i crucial. For more information: freckamar.com Jall Al-Amin — formerly known as H. Rap Brown, the Imarm came (0 prominence in the 19608 as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Justice Minister of the Black Panther Pasty. He i peshaps most famous for his proclamation during that period that “violence i as American as cherry pie,” s well as once stating that "If America don't come around, we're gonna burn it down.” In 1965, Jamil went underground aer facing weapons and incitement to riot charges following a rally that oceurred in Cambridge, ‘Maryland which lef Jamil with a shotgun wound (o the head. Afler 18 months in hiding and on the FBI's Most Wanted list,Jamil resurfaced in an attack of a New York City bar which was targeted for its exploitation of the community. This action resulted in a shootout with police that eft Jamil and two cops with injuries. Jamil subsequently spent 5 years in prison for charges related to the incident. Upon his release, Jamil opened a grocery store in Atlanta, which he ‘maintained untl 2000 when he was arrested for the murder of a Fulton County cop. Later that year, another man confessed to the shooting. In 2002 Jamil, was convicted and sentenced to lfe without parole. For more information: whathappencdzrap.com g theages 59 ‘Virgin Island 3 — Abdul Azeez, Hanif Shabuz Bey, and Malik Smith - a group of activists aceused of murdering eight people in the US. Virgin Islands. The murders took place during s turbulent period of rebellion on the Islands. During the 19705, s with mch of the world, a movement to reist colanial rule began to grow in the U, occupied Virgin Islands. From 1971 101973, there was a small scalle Maus Mau rebellion taking place on the slands. This activity was down- played by the media, for fear it would damage the tourist industry, which the islund's survival depends on. For more information: via.org. ot thecges Imprisoned by the US government for expropriating from banks to fund the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), Oso Blanco has been using art to continue his mission. This artwork was created by Oso Blanco after he had been captured in 1999. Proceeds from the sale of these greeting cards will benefit children in the autonomous Zapatista zone of Chiapas, Mexi fons here on Turtle Island. frecosoblanco.org/blog/greeting-cards-posters/ and on reservi g theages 6 ©On the Road My legs are tied with a rope, and my arms are bound (5 e p— sweet of woodland flowers and hear the birds. Impossible to keep these from me. Anyhow, now the road is not so long, ‘And I am not alone. ~Ho Chi Minh exists no magic ke the magic of truth and Justice. There 10 beauty like the beauty of freedom. ymany places the grass is growing wild. In many places the, out of control. One day soon you wil sce the grase out of keyholes, over fences, through police barricades. You grass growing out of the barrels of guns and you will hear the sing of freedom. It is inevitable. Nothing can stop it, nothing it. In the words of Agostinho Neto: Here in prison rage contained in my breast 1 patiently wait for the clouds to gather blown by the wind of history No one Can stop the ratn. grass is growing. Watch! From Assata Shakur's introduction to Hauling Up the Morning / Izando la mahana: Writings and Art by Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US, edited by Ray Luc Levasseur and Tim Blunk archive.org/details/hauling-izando Write to Political Prisoners Mentioned in This Conversation Texas Department of Criminal Justice ‘Xinachtli* #255735 Post Office Box 660400 Dallas, Texas 75266-0400 *Address envelope to Alvaro Hernindez. 0s0 Blanco® #07909-051 USP Vietorville Post Office Box 3900 Adelanto, California 92301 *Address envelope to Byron Chubbuck. Smart Communications/PA DOC Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM8335 SCI Mahanoy Post Office Box 33028 St Petersburg, Florida 33733 Bill Dunne #10916-086 FCI Butner Medium 11 Federal Correctional Institution P.0.BOX 1500 Butner, NC 27509 Kojo Bomani Sababu® #39384-066 FMC Butner Post Office Box 1600 Butner, North Carolina 27509 “Address envelope to Grailing Brown. addresses may not be up to date for amonthly updated lst of political prisoners visit nycabe:wordpress.com g thecags Write to Political Prisoners Mentioned in This Conversation Kamau Sadiki® #0001150688 Augusta State Medical Prison 3001 Gordon Highway Grovetown, Georgia 30813 *Address envelope to Freddie Hilton. Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin #99974-555 FMC Butner PO Box 1600 Butner, NC 27509 Abdul Azeez® #19-1878 Citrus County Detention Facility ¢/o Securus Digital Mail Center Post Office Box 20187 ‘Tampa, Florida 33622 “Address envelope to Warren Ballentine. Hanif Shabazz Bey® #19-1952 Citrus County Detention Facility /o Securus Digital Mail Center Post Office Box 20187 “Tampa, Florida 33622 *Address envelope to Beaumont Gereau. Malik Smith* #19-187 Citrus County Detention Facility /o Securus Digital Mail Center Post Office Box 20187 ‘Tampa, Florida 33622 *Address envelope to Meral Smith. addresses may not be up to date for amonthly updated list of political prisoners visit nyeabe.wordpress.com ationg the cages Support Political Prisoners As yowve heard & read, it is vital that we support the political prisoners of our liberation movements. Providing support builds bridges across and through prison bars, giving those locked inside a connection to the outside world. Your support matters. Get involved. Write to a political prisoner—a simple letter provides a needed eseape. Visit them in prison. Ask what a political prisoner needs and do what you can to help them. Offer them support. Visit the NYC Anarchist Black Cross website (nycabe.wordpress.com) and learn more about those currently imprisoned for political reasons. Buy a Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar (certaindays.org). Visit your local Books Through Bars group and send books to those. incarcerated (booksthroughbarsnyc.org/resources). Join your nearest Anarchist Black Cross group (abef.net) Visit rattlingthecages.com to learn more. 6 ot thecages Rattling the Cages 1) Political Prisoners, Mass Incarceration, & Abolition Eric King, Herman Bell, David Gilbert, Susan Rosenberg 2). Continuing the Struggle Inside & Out Eric King, Ashanti Alston, Ray Luc Levasseur 3) Antifascism Behind Bars. Eric King and David Campbell 4)Black August & Prisoner Support Eric King, dequi kioni-sadiki, Harold Taylor 5) Eric King in Conversation with James Kilgore Eric King, James Kilgore 6) Post-Prison Activism & Archiving Resistance Eric King, Jake Conroy, Claude Marks 7) Until All Are Free Eric King, Jason Hammond, Jeremy Hammond 8) Revolutionary Women Behind Bars Eric King, Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, Nicole Kissane 9) Becoming Politicized in Prison Eric King, Josh Davidson, Heetor Rodriguez, Farhan Ahmed 10) Rattling the Cages: How We Dit It & How You Can Too Eric King, Sara Falconer, Josh Davidson 11) Abolition Is a Family Affair Eric King, Sharon Shoatz, susie day, Rochell Bricker 12) Looking Back at the George Jackson Brigade Mark Cook, Janine Bertram, Eric King all conversations are available @FirestormCoop on youtube ationg the cages linktr.ee/rattlingthecages Hear from Rattling the Cages creators Eric King, SaraFalconer, and Josh Davidson about. creating this oral history project, the importance of inside-outside collaboration, and how replicating these oral histories is something you can do, too. Members of the Certain Days calendar collective, Sara and Josh talk about. a quarter century of creating this calendar, building relationships with our political prisoners, and why our support. matters. FORESTORM DK