Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 11:56:43 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Only as Free as the Padlocked Prison Door


From: Independent Media Center - Philadelphia
http://www.phillyimc.org/

Thursday August 03, -AT-02:53PM
Only as Free as the Padlocked Prison Door
By ron jacobs

Only as Free as the Padlocked Prison Door

The folks arrested in the past few days in the streets of Philadelphia
are political prisoners.  They are in the Roundhouse and Holmesburg
jails because they were expressing their political beliefs.  There is a
very real likelihood that some of them will face serious felony charges
and there is the further likelihood that a few will face some kind of
federal charges concerning  intent to riot when it is all over. 
Although I still believe that a federal prosecution on these types of
charges are more likely under a Bush regime, they could also occur
should Gore win the election in November.  If one recalls what happened
in 1968, although it was the Democratic convention that was disrupted by
the infamous Chicago police riots, the Nixon justice department
conducted the prosecution of the Chicago 8 conspiracy.

Prisoners who either have been released or been able to reach the
independent media from jail tell of beatings in the jails, denial of
food, water, and medicine, and the denial of legal counsel to those
arrested.  This is but a prelude to what lies ahead.  The police are but
the most obvious participants in the system of oppression in this
country.  Beatings of prisoners happen all the time in our nation's
jails.  Indeed, in the communities of color in our nation, men and women
are beaten by police even before they are in jail and often without even
going there.  And, as we all know, more than a few are killed without
any type of due process even considered.  None of these comments are
meant to diminish the brutality of the police in Philadelphia this week
nor should they be construed to diminish the experiences of those
sisters in brothers currently being held under less than humane
conditions in the jail of that city.

If we are to learn from the experiences of the past--recent and
historically--we must ensure that the movement does not become a
movement that spends all its energy getting people out of prison.  Nor
must it become one that forgets those who are in prison.  The work
around Mumia Abu Jamal and other political prisoners has been
instructive in this matter in that Mumia, Black Panther Geronimo ji Jaga
Pratt, and others are insistent in relating their situation to the
greater struggle for social justice.  If (or perhaps when) the trials of
those arrested in Philadelphia begin and especially if serious charges
are brought against those the government deems the movement's leaders
(as they did in 1969 after Chicago), it is up to us to link any struggle
for their freedom to the greater struggle in the world against global
capitalism, racism and militarism.  In short, we must turn the tables on
the prosecution and put the system they represent on trial. 

After the protests against the WTO in Seattle there were those in the
movement who attempted to separate themselves from that action's more
militant protestors--the so-called anarchists.  This was, plain and
simply, doing the work of the state.  We should not allow this dynamic
to occur, even if we have sincere problems with the tactics of certain
groups within our amorphous coalition.  When this dynamic exists, the
state and its law enforcement apparatus has no qualms about exacerbating
those differences, which often leads to our more militant sisters and
brothers going it alone if they are arrested.  One very recent example
is that of Rob Thaxton (or Rico) who is spending seven years in the
Oregon prison system for his involvement in J18 activities in Eugene in
1998.  His trial drew little support outside of northwestern U.S.
anarchist circles and, perhaps because of that (and the obvious
prejudice of the judge), he received close to the maximum sentence. 

If more of our comrades end up in prisons this can be a beneficial
organizing opportunity.  As historical events like Attica and the
struggles for justice in California prisons in the Sixties and seventies
showed, prisoners of capitalism are open to political education and
organization.  However, it is important to remember that organization of
those on the outside is equally important and that the emotional and
political perspectives of the two groups (outside and inside prisons)
are not always the same.  While life is undeniably brutish in many
working class communities in the world, prison is even more so. 
Consequently, the sense of desperation is often magnified when one is
inside.  This means that one is often prepared to take very desperate
measures that, while making perfect tactical sense to a prisoner, do not
make a similar sense when considered objectively from the outside.  In
addition, the controlled environment of the prison allows for even more
police interference and manipulation of people and projects than occurs
in the "free" world.

All this said, let us take inspiration and instruction from those in
jail in Philadelphia and those political prisoners throughout the United
States.  The struggle to free these prisoners and the struggle to free
us all from the economic prison of global capitalism and its evils are
one and the same. 

<< Chuck0 >>

This was the year *everything* changed.
      -- Commander Ivanova, 2261

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        - Jens Bjørneboe