June 11th: international day of solidarity with Marie Mason, Eric McDavid, and other long term anarchist prisoners
Tuesday, June 11th @ Internationalist Books @ 7pm
405 W Franklin St. in Chapel Hill
A Letter Writing night to long term anarchist prisoners.
All supplies provided. Including Snacks!!!
More Information about June 11th: Read the rest of this entry »
From Prison Books:
On Mother’s Day, May 12th, between 50 and 75 people met up in Raleigh to show their solidarity with women at NCCIW and RCCW, two of the largest women’s facilities in the state. The demo was part of a national call-out initiated by the Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective. Noise Demonstrations also happened outside prisons and jails in Bloomington IN, Pittsburgh PA, New York City and Muskegon MI. In Raleigh anti-prison activists, anarchists, Catholic Workers, and others, ranging in age from 5 to at least 70, banged on drums and pots and pans, carried signs and black flags, and lofted banners that read “Free All Mothers,” “ACAB,” and “Love for All Prison Rebels.”
The crowd initially marched up to the fence bordering the dorm buildings of the minimum custody RCCW. We were greeted by women waving and banging on their cell windows, before being pushed back by newly arriving police and panicking guards. We then proceeded to march to and around most of NCCIW, a huge medium custody facility that houses most of North Carolina’s female prison population. NCCIW has been subject to increased scrutiny in the media lately, as joint lawsuits have been filed by women against rapist guards. The facility was the site of a major riot in June 1975, when for five days women prisoners fought guards with broken concrete, metal poles, and landscaping tools.
On numerous occasions we tried to get on to the prison property to be in better view of the prisoners. Though we were prevented from doing so by guards, and had few plans for direct confrontation, we did manage to make contact with several women waving from their cells. Earlier correspondence with several women prisoners involved in radical study groups had already insured that prisoners would be aware of the demo. Handbills were also given out to curious onlookers in the yards and sidewalks of the heavily policed, working-class neighborhood that surrounds the two facilities, and the ACAB banner got special love from drivers and pedestrians alike.
All in all the demo seems to have been a success. The crowd was broader and more age-diverse than previous demos; feeling relatively low-risk and high reward, such demos have been a good place to invite new friends and potential comrades to meet up for the first time. Several conversations with neighbors reinforced the fact that these prisons were surrounded on three sides by a population that detests the constant police presence. In retrospect, given the interest and support received from the area, far more outreach could have been done ahead of time in the immediately adjacent neighborhood, and we hope to do more in the future.
For mainstream coverage of the event, check out: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/05/12/2888689/group-bangs-the-drums-for-imprisoned.html
Celebrate May Day together this year at 5pm at Peace and Justice Plaza with food, music, info, news and friends.
Rooted in struggles against work conditions, May Day memorializes the government murder of five anarchists who were arrested in May 1886 after a labor demonstration protesting the police murder of strikers. The arrested were charged with hurling a bomb at police, despite prosecutor’s admission that they were not even present.
The Haymarket martyrs — as they have come to be known — were immigrants, workers, and organizers who refused to accept their role in the capitalist economy, to be treated like objects while others profited from their labor. They were targeted for their political speech, their organizing, and the threat to state and capital that their ideas represented.
May Day has been celebrated throughout the world as a day of remembrance of all who have been killed by state violence, and a celebration of all who resist it. Recently, May Day demonstrations have been re-popularized by immigrant youth-led walk-outs from school and work in opposition to racist immigration policing and laws. Last year saw one of the largest May Days in recent US history, with walkouts, occupations, attacks on corporate and government property, and large unpermitted demonstrations across the country.
Today, the US government—like all governments–continues to target radical thinkers and organizers, communities of color and immigrant communities, women and gender non-conforming people because we threaten their power. Their biggest weapon is instilling a culture of fear and isolation. We come together today to show that we are not alone and we are not afraid. The Haymarket martyrs advocated for their communities to build power through collective organization and fighting back. Let’s do the same!
for a world in which the streets are safe for everyone
for a world without bosses or bureaucrats
for a world without police and the violence they inflict
croatanearthfirst.com | prisonbooks.info | internationalistbooks.org
If you missed Vikki speaking at UNC this week, or if you were there and didn’t have a chance to pick up a book, come get your copy of these two great books from Internationalist!
Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements
dontleaveyourfriendsbehind
Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women (New edition released Sept 2012) http://
Thursday, April 11th, 7PM.
We are excited to announce a new book from CrimethInc. with this exclusive release event! CrimethInc. publications have long been among the best-selling books at the Internationalist; come see what the hype is about.
Expect an engaging and entertaining presentation.
Whence do Stockholm Syndrome and Broken Window Theory derive their names? What is the common root of aristocracy and democracy? Who gets diagnosed with Anarchia and Drapetomania? How did voting kill Edgar Allen Poe, and why is a crater on the dark side of the moon named for the man who blew up the Tsar?
Alternately scathing and sublime, CrimethInc.’s Contradictionary pulls back the curtain from the war within every word, revealing the conflict behind the façade of the commonplace. In the tradition of Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary, this is no mere miscellany, but a lighthearted work of serious literature, concentrating a wealth of ideas and history into aphorisms and anecdotes.
http://crimethinc.com/
http://www.crimethinc.com/