Mongoose Distro

1/17/22

Dear Comrades,

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and I’m writing from the Federal Correctional Institute in Memphis, Tennessee, the same city in which Dr. King was assassinated despite, or maybe because of, being nonviolent. This murder followed a campaign of targeted harassment known officially as Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO. This operation included efforts to scandalize Dr. King and coerce him into killing himself. The United $tates of Amerikkka clearly and shamelessly documented these efforts in reports that can be read today. Their goal was to keep black wage slaves in their places by brutally executing any effective leaders who stood up and effectively organized.

Now we have black cops, black prison guards, and black wardens, including the black lieutenant here at FCI Memphis. Have things really improved? Ask George Floyd’s daughter. Ask the families of the martyrs: Freddie Grey, Michael Brown, Mark Duggan, Heather Heyer, Kimani Gray, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and Timothy Stansbury, Jr., just to name a few. Ask the families of heroes like Herman Bell, Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, Albert Washington and Mumia Abu Jamal. Ask the family of Tamir Rice, Philandro Castile, Alton Sterling and Emmett Till. Do not harden your heart to these outrages. Say their names! Let the fresh outrages of daily murders break your heart open. Pour that discontent into the foundations of the system that enslaves you and set it on fire.

What is the foundation of this system that murders people on live TV? Remember this: All cops are slave catchers. “All slavery is based on housewivisation.” (Abdullah Ocalan) All housewivisation is based on animal husbandry. All animal husbandry is based on coercion and domination. Every arrest is an abduction, a kidnapping at gunpoint. All imprisonment is human trafficking, a hostage situation in which people and their families are extorted for money and threatened with violent death, beatings and rape. Don’t you dare flinch and look away from that suffering. Cultivate persistent endurance to look at this crime against humanity. Ask yourself: Why are so many resources mobilized to find a missing, wealthy white woman, but no one mobilized a similar militia to find a missing black woman, or to rescue prisoners from the State?

Remember that all “corrections” officers are also prisoners. They are like spiders trapped in their own web. The worker bees can leave. Even drones can fly away. Prison guards serve 8 to 16 hour sentences, sometimes longer. They are being paid to lock themselves up! Long after most prisoners leave prisons the guards keep coming back. No one has a higher recidivism rate than a C.O. In my mind they are exactly the same as prisoners who choose to work for the Bureau of Prisons while locked up, whether as an orderly, in laundry, maintenance or in the kitchen. The only difference is that they get better pay and benefits. They are prisoners of privilege. The irony is that all contraband comes from these house slaves, who then seek to catch inmates with the same contraband they smuggled in.

This prison industrial complex is a microcosm of the tyranny they are trying to perpetuate on a larger scale. It is our duty to destroy this one-sided domination, inequality and intolerance. We have a moral obligation to humanity to kill fascism, despots and dictators. We have to overcome seeing cops as protectors, just as men to overcome seeing women as wife, sister or lover. These stereotypes are passed down by extinct and irrelevant traditions – namely slave catching. A people can’t be free unless their women and their prisoners are free. A people’s freedom is measured by their treatment of their so called criminals. “Women’s freedom is more precious than the freedom of the homeland.”*

The history, or herstory, of the loss of freedom is simultaneously the story of how women, prisoners and animals lost their freedom. The downfall of these peoples, non-male genders, prisoners and non-human animals, is the downfall of civilization, a wholesome society, which resulted in today’s sexist society. The depth of this enslavement of nature, humans and animals, and the intentional re-writing of “his”tory is directly related to the rise of domination, hierarchy and state power.

Men were enslaved after they mastered the enslavement of women. It is an application of the “divide and conquer” strategy. Sexist society used women’s biological difference as justification for her enslavement. “No race, class, or nation is subject to such systematic slavery as housewivisation.”* No one suffers under this system more than black and brown women. But making hungry black women become prison guards, cops and wardens is not the answer. They are just prisoners who’s consent to work as paid slaves is manufactured at the point of the sword of hunger, poverty and violent death of their children at the hands of other cops in low-income neighborhoods.

The 2020 Uprisings were chaotic and dangerous, they were also good. In times of chaos the possibility for change increases in proportion to the clarity of the people’s goals. During these times small steps taken for freedom will result in large leaps forward. Freedom for women, racial minorities, refugees and all marginalized people will emerge as the winners from against the current crisis. Whatever humans build, humans can destroy. Enslavement is not a law of nature or our destiny. We need the necessary theory, program, and organization, and the means to implement them.

These ideas are not my own. These templates for a new world, a necessary utopia, come from Abdullah Ocalan, Murray Bookchin, Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Errico Malatesta, Voltarine de Cleyre, August Spies, Dorothy Lee, Proudhon, Lucy Parsons, Karl Marx and many more. Their ideas are shaping new ways of living worldwide, as people organize, reject and eject police, dictators and fascists from their communities.

The female commander of the YPS, the women’s protection unit of Rojava, which is the people’s autonomous zone in northeast Syria, has this to say about our role in Revolutionary Internationalism, “Many people love these ideas and claim to be about revolutionary change. I challenge all armchair philosophers – Don’t talk about it, be about it. We all must die one day, but most people will toil away as wage slaves, living lives of quiet desperation, and then die as slaves without accomplishing anything other than perpetuating the very same system that dominates and enslaves their body, heart and mind – and their labor. In the face of inevitable death we truly have nothing to lose but our chains. They can kill a revolutionary but they can’t kill the revolution. Death to fascism! Long live Revolutionary Internationalism!”

But it is not enough for us to think nice thoughts and strive to realize them, reality itself must strive towards utopian thoughts. For all of people’s talk about “empowerment” most liberals actually manage to steer us away from effectively addressing social issues and instead retreat into social quietism practices like “personal self-transformation”, “enrichment”, myths, metaphors, rituals and green consumerism. I love yoga and meditation, but magical gymnastics and smoking your own thoughts won’t make you or the world any better than drugs will by themselves. Direct actions based on insights and consciousness are the only way to make ourselves and the world we live in more humane and worth living. We need our needs to be met.

“The new political and social structures cannot be poetic alone, they must also be scientific. Poetry and imagination must be integrated with science and technology, for we have evolved beyond an innocence that can be nourished exclusively by myths and dreams.”**

We can all agree that we must be practical, but we may also feel that it is impossible to stand up to powerful nation-states and their thugs. Just remember that our survival depends on our action and that most of a state’s power comes from the myth that they are all knowing, all powerful and everywhere. They are not. They think they can control us and all of nature, but they fail at this every day. Nature finds a way to live, often violently.

“The compelling dictum “respect for nature” has concrete implications.” (Bookchin) Concrete is right. One of the daily wonders that brings me joy, even here in prison, is the sight of “mere” grass and flowers breaking up concrete. On a long enough time frame nature always wins. Let’s choose to be on the winning team.

“Our animal nature is never so distant from our social nature that we can remove ourselves from the organic world outside us and the one within us.”**

How do we reconcile the reality we live in with the world we need to create in order for all beings to be happy, free and at peace? First of all, “to say peace when there is no peace is to say nothing.” (Bernard Williams) Militant action is necessary in the face of powers which refuse to relinquish power without a struggle.

“The use of armed force can only be justified for the purpose of necessary self-defense. Anything beyond that violates our principles of emancipation. Repressive regimes throughout history have been based on war or have aligned their institutions according to the logic of warfare.”*

In the new revolutionary militant structure no one person is in charge. “We are all here to fight and resist because we want to, or because we feel we need to – and we’re all risking our lives. Why would it be appropriate for one person to tell me how it is I’m going to end my life? Shouldn’t that be my own decision?” (Margaret Killjoy) Every decision is made democratically, in the style of the Spanish anarchists of the Spanish Civil War and the YPG and YPJ of the Rojava Revolution. In militant structures the voting process is streamlined and we practice coming to decisions quickly.

At home, in councils, decision making takes longer, with a lot of people. We listen to one another and discuss things, for as long as it takes.

“We’re a collection of people with a somewhat shared culture who commonly defend certain rough borders and principles. But we’re not a country. We don’t have a king or a parliament or a council or a royal priesthood or trade barons or capitalists or really any vestiges of power at all. There are no laws here, no prisons. Everyone is the master of their own destiny. We are a voluntary association of autonomous groups and individuals who cooperate to provide one another mutual aid. We’re people who have each other’s backs because having someone’s back means someone has yours, and that’s a good way to live.”***

We are an anarchist autonomous zone, like Rojava. All nation-states are just ideas, not physical things. Anyone who tells you that we need police to be safe, that we need to be paid to work and that we need to pay for food – that person and their country are all children. People work because they choose to, because things need to be done and because the community feeds and shelters them. Our community feeds people because we choose to. We feed people simply because we are people.

“Some people here will feed you because you’re militia. But I’d feed you much longer because I know you’ve risked so much on our behalf.”***

We get our food from farmers. They give it to us because they know we redistribute it fairly. They give it to us because we have a good reputation. We don’t need to trade tokens, currency, capital, for food, because we are measured by our reputation.

We don’t believe in prisons. Nation-states put children in cages, take them away from families and communities and give them to police and the wealthy class. They claim the purpose of imprisonment is to reform people and to scare away potential criminals by locking up those who do commit crimes with longer and longer sentences. But punishment doesn’t work!

“It’s a crime against humanity! They put humans in cages and they call it justice. They keep them away from light, from company, from anything that might possibly help them come to understand the need for social behavior, then put them back in cages, for longer, when they act out!”***

And the recidivism rate is incredibly high.

We should give criminals medals “for daring to be antisocial in the face of an antisocial order. Your system seeks to ‘punish’ a class of people it deems ‘criminal’. That’s not the way we work. If a crime has been committed, like theft, assault, murder or rape, we take each instance as it’s own unique event.”***

When people are fed and housed we don’t have theft. People steal things they need, or occasionally things that they want. People steal food, or they steal expensive things to sell to buy food.

“In our community food is free. Shelter is free. Nothing is “expensive” if nothing is bought or sold. Theft is a crime of poverty and where’s no poverty there’s no theft.”***

If someone rapes or murders or is truly unrepentant, they can fuck off.

“If they are clearly a danger, like an unrepentant rapist or murderer, then we’ll probably kill them.”***

If they are just an asshole they can be sent away. Prison doesn’t work.

Councils are our system of self-governance. But a council can only make decisions for itself, and people can decide to abide by its decisions. We get a lot out of being part of society, so if we want to be part of the community we try to abide by the council’s decisions.

“If we had a flag it would be a black one. The negation of a flag. Flags inspire loyalty. We aren’t looking for loyalty, we’re looking for solidarity, for bravery. For us, it’s the mask. We inherited it from the revolutionaries. They used masks so the authorities wouldn’t know whom to arrest later. But we keep it up because the mask is something more than that. It’s the flag and it’s the uniform all in one – at it’s simplest, in the middle of a fight I know who my friends are. I know whom to shoot. But more than that I know my friends and myself are one thing, that my life is only a portion of the whole. I feel powerful with a mask on.”***

What I learned about anarchism at the CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle was largely a negative example. Compared to Rojava it was not impressive. Freedom isn’t enough. We “need freedom and responsibility paired together. Freedom is a relationship between people, not an absolute and static state for an individual.

All people are free. When we speak of freedom, we acknowledge that freedom is a relationship between the people of a society. This relationship of freedom is created by means of mutual respect, the acknowledgment of one another’s autonomy, and the ability to hold one another responsible to themselves and to one another. I feel that to the core of my being.”***

I’m not angry with the U.S. Government or their police. I don’t get angry at a sickness or a hurricane or an injury. They are just something that happens, and we fight them and heal.

Freedom is a relationship between people. My writing is not only for the anarchists and the revolutionaries. This is also for the wage slave, the prisoners, the workers, even for the cops and soldiers. This is not addressed to Rojava but to the people of the United $tates of Amerikkka, so they might know the people their country has betrayed.

“It’s for anyone who wants to know that there are ways to relate with one another besides through the authority of economic or political power. It’s so they know that another way of life is possible, that there are people who live it.”***

I call on you, the reader, to organize yourselves to support the revolution in Rojava however you can – by your presence, contribution, or by creating 2, 3, many Rojavas! Follow the example put into practice by the Internationalist Academy. Plant crops and set up a tree nursery. Create an underground “female road” for abused women to escape from their oppressors. Practice building ecologically balanced homes and found a women’s village for abuse survivors. Practice first aid, build compost and purify water. The basis of any community is a rich diversity of people, plants and animals. Practice companion planting for farm crops and build an edible forest of compatible plants, like fruit trees, berries and nuts. Learn to bake bread, install electrical wires and maintain various motor vehicles, generators and machines. Learn the limits of solar power and other forms of electricity, hydro-power and wind. There is a transition period in which we must be very creative and push ourselves, but I have seen it done in Rojava.

“It is not realistic though to go for the immediate abolition of the State. This does not mean we have to take it as it is. The ecological question is fundamentally solved as the system is repressed and a socialist social system develops. That does not mean you cannot do something for the environment right away. On the contrary, it is necessary to combine the fight for the environment with the struggle for a general social revolution.”*

To make real world progress we must have education, practical projects and the organization of global solidarity. We need experts in the following fields: sustainable forestry and agriculture, water use, irrigation and sanitation, ecological sustainability, renewable energies, mechanical and electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, biology and botany. We need committed scientists.

The reality of these projects is often a culture for sheltered Amerikkkans. There will be days with less food as everyone shares equally and the capitalist nation-states do their best to destabilize our progress with embargos. There will be violent attacks from fanatics like ISIS, as well as mercenaries sent by fascist countries like Turkey and the United $tates. There will be spies and sabotage, but we must find ways to live. There will also be natural disasters as climate change continues.

“The countries that presently exist here need democratic reforms going beyond mere lip service to democracy. The classic state structure with it’s despotic attitude towards power is unacceptable. The institutional state needs to be subjected to democratic changes. At the end of this process, there should be a lean State existing simply as a political institution, which only functions in the fields of internal and external security and in the provision of social security. Such an idea of the State has nothing in common with the authoritarian character of the classic State, but would rather be regarded as a general public authority.”*

The decline of real socialism and the failure of the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War were a result of their failure to take seriously the importance of the gender issues. This has evolved into even more complicated issues today. Women and non-male gendered people may be regarded as an oppressed class.

“As long as we do not discuss freedom and equal treatment of women in a historical and societal context, as long as no adequate theory has been devised, there will not be an adequate practice either. Therefore, women’s liberation must assume a key strategic role in the democratic struggle.”*

This includes the various gendered peoples and other sexual orientations than straight hetero-normative. The revolution will only succeed by being inclusive.

We need to make politics democratic again. Today’s political parties are just propaganda tools of the State who distribute favors. As long as the current parties are in power, a democratic society will not be possible.

“There is a widespread individual and institutional subservient spirit, which is one of the biggest obstacles blocking democracy. It can only be overcome by creating an awareness of democracy in all parts of society. Citizens must be invited actively to commit themselves to democracy.”*

Minorities living in our communities must be invited as well.

“The development of grassroots level democratic structures and a corresponding practical approach must have top priority.”*

“Politics need independent media. Without them State structures will not develop any sensitivity to questions of democracy. Nor will it be possible to bring democracy into politics. Freedom of information is not only a right of the individual. It also involves a social dimension.”*

“The right to native language education must be respected. Even if the authorities do not advance such education, they should not impede civic efforts to create institutions offering language and culture education. The health system must be legitimized by both state and civil society.

An ecological model of society is essentially socialist. The establishment of an ecological balance will only be accomplished during the transition phase from an alienated class society based on despotism to a socialist society. It would be an illusion to hope for the conservation of the environment in a capitalist system. These systems largely participate in ecological devastation. Protection of the environment must be given broad consideration in the process of societal change.”*

Individual rights and freedom of expression are never to be restricted by any country, state or society, whatever reason they may cite. The freedom of an individual frees society. The freedom of a society liberates the individual. The two go hand in hand.

“A just redistribution of the economic resources presently in the possession of the State is particularly important for the liberation of society. Economic supply must not become a tool in the hands of the State for exercising pressure on the people. Economic resources are not the property of the State but of society. An economy close to the people should be based on such redistribution and be use-value oriented instead of exclusively pursuing an economy based on commodification and profit. The profit-based economy has not only damaged society but also the environment. One of the reasons for the decline of society lies in the level of expansion of financial markets. The artificial production of needs, the more and more adventurous search for new sales markets and the boundless greed for ever-growing profits lets the divide between rich and poor steadily grow and enlarges the army of those living below the poverty line or even dying of hunger. Humanity can no longer sustain itself with such an economic policy. This is therefore the biggest challenge for socialist politics: progressive transition from a commodity-oriented society to a society producing on the basis of use value; from production based on profit to production based on sharing.

The exacerbating conflict is cause for concern. Nevertheless, I will not give up my hopes for a just peace. It can become possible at my time.”*

This last phrase is very important for me, because I often feel overwhelmed by the propaganda and mythology of the State. I tell myself “hope is as hollow as fear”. But, recently friends from Rojava, Ireland, the UK, Canada and all over the occupied territories of the United $tates have reached out to send me hope and mutual aid.

“Our idea of a democratic nation is not defined by flags and borders. Our idea of a democratic nation embraces a model based on democracy instead of a model based on state structures and ethnic origins. This would be a model based on human rights instead of religion or race. Our idea of a democratic nation embraces all ethnic groups and cultures.”*

As we come to the end of this message I’d like to share one final idea of Abdullah Ocalan. The term “anarchist”, like “anarchy” has been hijacked by State propaganda to misrepresent our heart song and portray us as terrorists and criminals. Abdullah Ocalan’s proposed “Democratic Confederalism” has all the same characteristics of anarchism because it is based on the writings of Murray Bookchin. His daughter, Debbie Bookchin says, “Help bring a new world into being in Rojava. And spread its vision: that a free, ecological society is possible everywhere.”

“Although in Democratic Confederalism the focus in on the local level, organizing confederalism globally is not excluded. We need to put up a platform of natural civil societies in terms of a world Democratic Confederal Union to oppose the United Nation, as it is an association of nation-states under the leadership of the superpowers. It is necessary to bring together wide-ranging communities within a World Democratic Confederation if we want a more secure, peaceful, ecologic, just and productive world.

Democratic Confederalism can be described as a kind of self-governance in contrast to administration by the nation-state. The relationship between a democratic confederation and nation-states should neither be continuous warfare nor assimilation of the former into the latter. It is a relationship of principles that rests on the acceptance of two separate entities that accept coexistence. In the case of interventions and attacks, not only by nation-states but in general from capitalist modernity, Democratic Confederalism should always have self-defense forces.

Democratic Confederalism is not at war with any nation-state, but it will not stand idly by while assimilation efforts take place. Revolutionary overthrow or the foundation of a new State does not create sustainable change. The State will be overcome when Democratic Confederalism has proved its problem-solving capacities with a view to social issues. This does not mean though, that attacks by nation-states have to be accepted. Democratic confederations will sustain self-defense forces at all times. Democratic confederations will not be limited to organizing themselves within a single particular territory. They will become cross-border confederations when the societies concerned so desire.

Principles of Democratic Confederalism

1. The right of self-determination of the people includes the right to a state of their own. However, the foundation of a state does not increase the freedom of a people. The system of the United Nations that is based on nation-states has remained inefficient. Meanwhile nation-states have become serious obstacles for any social development. Democratic Confederalism is the contrasting paradigm of the oppressed people.
2. Democratic Confederalism is a non-state social paradigm. It is not controlled by a State. At the same time, Democratic Confederalism is the organization of democracy and culture.
3. Democratic Confederalism is based on grassroots participation. It’s decision-making processes lie with the communities. Higher levels only serve the coordination and implementation of the will of the communities that send their delegates to the general assemblies. For one year they are both mouthpiece and executive institutions. However, the basic decision making process rests with the local grassroots institutions.
4. Democracy cannot be imposed by the capitalist system and its imperial powers, which only damage democracy. The propagation of grassroots democracy is elementary. It is the only approach that can cope with diverse ethnic groups, religions and class differences. It also goes together well with the confederal structure of the society.
5. Democratic Confederalism is also an anti-nationalist movement. It aims at realizing the right of self-defense of the people by the advancement of democracy”*

As I finally wrap this up I see that today, MLK Day, there haw been a terrorist attack on a Jewish synagogue in Texas. The people inside saved themselves by attacking the man who held them hostage, while State forces sat around outside. At the same time President Biden makes lip-service to democracy in his flaccid and impotent calls for voting rights for black people and minorities, while we still have yet to arrive at an honest, true democracy. Fascist, populist forces, empowered by Donald Trump, are passing laws that restrict voting rights all across the United $tates. The whole time this farce goes on we fail to acknowledge that the only two political parties, that we are “free” to vote for, fail to represent us and our interests, instead bribing and rewarding their corporate sponsors. For-profit politics is digging its own grave. Our victory over this corrupt system is inevitable. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” I believe that we will win!

Quotes:

*Abdullah Ocalan

**Murray Bookchin

***Margaret Killjoy

Write Dan at:

Dan Baker 25765-509

FCI Memphis

PO Box 34550

Memphis, TN 38184

Section 1983 was passed by the United States Congress over 150 years ago. Section 1983 was originally known as Section 1 of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

Section 1983 does not mention race and it can be used by people of any color, but it was originally passed specifically to help black people enforce the new constitutional rights they won after the Civil War – specifically the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments of the US Constitution. Those Amendments made slavery illegal, established the right to “due process of law” and equal protection of the Laws, and guaranteed every male citizen the right to vote. Although these Amendments became Law, white racist judges in the state courts refused to enforce these laws. Only a strong prison movement can win and enforce significant legal victories in Texas. But, the prison movement can also use court action to help build its political strength. A well-publicized lawsuit can educate people outside about the conditions in prison.

Good court rulings backed up by a strong movement can convince prison staff to hold back so that conditions inside are a little less brutal, and prisoners have a little more freedom to read, write and talk.

Texas Board of Criminal Justice, Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the American Corrections Association has single handedly killed more citizens of Texas with slavers policy and procedures that are and have been “Texas Tradition” for far too long. Industrial Workers of the World; Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee – IUB 613 #1 has officially filed a class-action lawsuit on two of the three slaveholding entities: Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) and this body is made of 9 members of slave policy and procedures creators, the creators of torture and slavebreaking administrative segregation areas in Texas – the root cause of suicides in Texas.

The second is the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The peon-enforcer overseers of the slaves who carry out vicious assaults on inmates just to place the element of fear into the slave population. They will harass, retaliate, discriminate against the slave until he is pushed to suicide. If that doesn’t work, the TBCJ/TDCJ allows dangerous mind altering narcotics into their disobedient units to poison slaves and create informants/snitches, then place them back in population to suicide themselves.

This isn’t even scratching the surface, but the fact remains – we Texans are not believing in this bullshit slavery and want everyone who wants Texas to establish a new set of precedents to end prison slavery, for Texecution to go into a moratorium, and for zero-tolerance of indigence in penal institutions, complete repeal of the 13^th Amendment, reparations for genocidal acts (Sugarland 95), parole legislation, separation of law libraries in TDCJ, and an oversight committee in TDCJ disciplinary proceedings and grievance process. End administrative segregation completely, provide more contact visits, cease mailroom oppression completely, provide clean water, better work conditions and wages in all facilities, end prison rape, and establish voting rights for all inmates in Texas. Resentencing Act/Second Look passed a multitude of innovative legislation to rehabilitate the disabled inmates.

Prison life ruins men’s minds. Cages aren’t for humans, nor animals. Millions of dollars are pumped into religious services, but prisoners being trained to control prisoners is not the answer. The United States District Court-Southern District-Galveston Division Honorable Judge Jefferey V. Brown is handling two lawsuits I filed. The class-action civil action #3:22-CV-00052 is our primary focus. Civil action #3:21-CV-00096 is of high importance and relevant to all of my activism in TDCJ.

However, we need the public’s support. If you have received and preserved my correspondance, essays, complaints from me or anyone on our team, please send copies to clerk Nathan Ochsner: 601 Rosenberg Street room 411, Galveston, Texas 77550.

This is a huge deal in Texas, history in the making. We are requesting legal assistance in the form of a civil rights attorney, media exposure, any and all type of exposure for this specific legal action will change lives and save them too. This is 2022 – Texas needs to catch up with the rest of the world in everything. Agriculture has been used to punish people in prison. We came to prison as punishment, not for punishment.

TBCJ/TDCJ is irresponsible, deceitful, corrupt, violent, vindictive, and opposed to any other forms of rehabilitation other than religious. I am attacked by Christian TBCJ/TDCJ staff violently/politically for being human, too human. They’ve attempted to kill, starve, push me to suicide, retaliated, discriminated against, harassed me for not believing in their forced doctrines, their shock doctrine, slaver doctrine.

Enough is enough. Step forward. Whoever you are, I welcome you to an invisible clandestine war played by the Republican Party of Texas. Thank you for visiting the greatest anarchist media site in the world – mongoosedistro.com, and to our comrades at The Final Straw Radio for supporting IWOC-Texas/New Mexico and Mongoose Distro.

Solidarity and Sabotage,

Comrade Z

3/30/22

Julio A Zuniga 1961551

Memorial Unit

59 Darrington Road

Rosharon, TX 77583

Hello friends,

This is a group message to let everyone know that I ended my short vow of silence after a week.

In other news the cops are still executing black men in the streets, and getting caught on camera doing it.

I am also happy to spread the word that our anarchist YPG comrade who was on a hunger strike in France has been released to the hospital after 37 days of refusing to eat in protest for their indefinite detention without charges. They are a YPG International combat veteran. This highlights the current campaigns of harassment that nation states are making against YPG and YPJ International Volunteers. This is happening in France, Italy and the U.$., all countries with grim histories of colonialism, fascism and slavery. We are being rounded up worldwide and held on trumped up charges because we are freedom and democracy loving anarchists and friends of the noble Kurdish people. I admire our friends who go on hunger strike. Having fasted many times in my life I understand how difficult and dangerous a hunger strike is. Here in the United $tates of Amerikkka the cops will force a feeding tube down the throats of those on hunger strikes, which can itself lead to deadly
injuries, as we have seen in the case of Irish political prisoners.

Right now anarchist political prisoner Eric King is facing further harassment after beating his charges of assaulting a lieutenant who trapped him in a closet and assaulted him, then tried to destroy the evidence. The jury dropped the charges but the prison staff retaliated
by destroying his legal papers, personal pictures and books and then sent him to a higher security prison. He has been threatened by the staff at this prison and has been assaulted by prison staff and prison staff have locked him in areas with neo nazis and fascists in order to have him attacked by racist skinheads. My situation and suffering is nothing compared to his. Please consider looking into his situation by reading the articles distributed online by the Anarchist Black Cross of New York City and then use the information provided to write to officials who can take action to protect Eric from white supremacist police and their gang allies. They are again restricting his ability to
call and write to friends and family and he is not allowed to have books. Frankly, they are torturing’s him and trying to drive him insane.

I have experienced isolation in a similar special housing unit in Tallahassee Florida, as well as “diesel therapy”, where they ship a prisoner around the country, bouncing them around to various prisons for months at a time instead of sending them to one prison for their
sentence. In my experience it is psychologically more straining than war to be alone in a cell for months at a time, without being able to call friends, or read books besides the colonizers bibles, or talk to lawyers who can protect you, not being allowed outside for sunlight and fresh air, without music, colors, art or anything beautiful or pleasant. I
still experience traumatic memories and emotional thought patterns as a result of my six months in isolation. What saved me from throwing my life away was the support of friends on the outside who sent me books, mail, and the Certain Days Political Prisoner Calendar, which is full of beautiful art and poetry and helps one keep track of the passage of
time, the moon cycles and historical days and holidays. Guards have a policy of denying calendars to isolated prisoners, telling lies about the time and date and access to constitutionally protected resources and actively trying to drive people in captivity to violent acts by threatening them, assaulting them, humiliating them and depriving them
of sleep by leaving lights on at night, making lots of noise by banging on the doors and opening cell doors in the middle of the night to make threats. They also tamper with peoples food and refuse religious and medical diets, causing easily avoidable medical conditions, hunger and despair. My lawsuits regarding this harassments was shot down by
unscrupulous judges, so the only way to help people like Eric is to take direct actions yourself.

On a lighter note, and to provide contrast for my situation compared to Eric’s, I just received many books and letters last week as well as money on my account to supplement the poor diet they have been giving me here as a Buddhist and political vegan with lactose intolerance. The quality of my life has improved as a direct result of people organizing
on the outside to give me support. Please provide even more support for Eric King. He needs it more than I do at this point. In fact I would appreciate it if my Defense Committee would send some of the money sent to me to Eric King.

Thanks again for everything, thanks for not forgetting us!
Dan

Dan Baker 25765-509

FCI Memphis

PO Box 34550

Memphis, TN 38184

April 7, 2022

To Whom It May Concern,

Over 2000 letters written this past year alone. I’ve been writing letters for over 5 years with little response. That speaks volumes. My situation should never happen in the United States. It should be stopped. Sadly, this is all too common.

I, David Annarelli, was assaulted and arrested inside my home during a severe mental health crisis in 2016. Unidentified police, with no training for this crisis, illegally entered my home at night via a backdoor without cause or warrant. NO CRIMES HAD BEEN COMMITTED! Instead of de-escalating, police deliberately escalated the crisis even after I voluntarily disarmed. Another officer, also admitting to not identifying himself and ignoring all non-lethal options, violently kicked open a door to my home and recklessly opened fire. Confused and afraid, I returned fire. Everyone survived without serious injury. I was falsely charged with malicious wounding then wrongly sentenced to 20 years in prison by the disgraced Judge Marc Long. FIVE TIMES the recommended 2-4 years. A 321% upward enhancement to cover up gross police errors.

FACTS about the defendant:

NO criminal record

NO history of violence

Documented mental health history

Documented traumatic brain injury

EVIDENCE of a wrongful conviction. False statements by police, prosecution and their career criminal “witness”. Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations. Policy and procedure violations. Police brutality. Abuse by jail and VDOC staff. Every legal option is being pursued. But Virginia is notorious for actively preventing justice and is American by geography only. #Vaisathreat

All of these details were dismissed and/or suppressed by the invalid Floyd County Court. Instead, Judge Long declared from the bench that I would “be made an example of”. Judge Long had a history of reprimands, unhinged behaviors and was twice investigated by the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. In January 2020 his reign of terror ended. He was denied reappointment to the bench by the Virginia General Assembly. Not one case reviewed to undo the damages.

In 2020 the Virginia General Assembly instituted the “Marcus Alert” to stop police from murdering mental health sufferers in crisis, though now the law is “optional” and Virginia continues to inhumanely warehouse us in prisons. Other police reforms included: body camera, deescalation training, exhaustion of nonlethal options, more strict knock-and-announce procedures and warnings before discharging a weapon. Thousands of prisoners, including myself, were never afforded these common sense protocols at the time of their arrest. Virginia destroys lives. Even now Virginia denies us the justice due under new laws. Despotism denied.. When combined with the extreme judicial overreach and abuse of power by Judge Long and the lies of the corrupt prosecutor Branscom fo Floyd County, it would lead any reasonable American to conclude that I, David Annarelli’s case and many hundreds more, deserve immediate reviews. Sadly, Virginia has become a haven for right-wing extremists and Nazis.

Since the Orwellian sentence, I have pursued any and all paths to justice, enduring horrific abuses reported by ignored, and has been denied the fundamental right to challenge the false evidence and lies used against him by anti-American Trumpite zealots. Virginia is occupied. It allows its fanatical judges too much dangerous and unfettered discretion to only whimsically abide, or ignore, guidelines and laws. Virginia encourages its corrupt prosecutors to lie with impunity. This system of right-wing extremism posing as “Justice” must change now!

In my own words, from a concrete box designed solely to torture and harm humans, I have the following message for those who deserve change, and for those with the capacity to affect change by any means:

I’m told I am lucky to be alive. Another Virginia lie. Virginia allowed a judge to falsely claim he knew mire about mental health and TBIs than a specialist with 20+ years of experience who testified on my behalf. Virginia has allowed criminally inhumane abuses by its state employees, reports ignored at every report at every state office. Virginia allows prosecutors to lie on records to wrongfully convict people, and the state’s offices look the other way. “Lucky to be alive” – that is the lowest moral standard of justice imaginable!

David Annarelli is a father, musician, activist and contributing writer to the Prison Journalism Project.

Prisonjournalismproject.org

www.change.org/p/virginia-state-senate-overturn-excessive-sentences-in-virginia

write David at:

David J. Annarelli 1853637

Pocahontas State Correction Center

PO Box 578

Pocahontas, VA 24635

I don’t expect this to serve as a guide. Rather, here is my experience denying the State’s will for you to read; for enjoyment or to learn from my struggle, the choice is yours. There are plenty of guides on running a squat out there, though obviously most concern themselves with following the Law to claim ownership of the property.

My understanding of Oregon Adverse Possession Law is one has to physically live at the property for some 10 years. In essence, Oregon is a very anti-squatter State. While owning a house was my ultimate goal, I started squatting out of necessity. The specifics aren’t terribly important. I was homeless and desperate for some stability. Having guns with no home is a rough situation.

At the tail-end of the last couch-surfing stint I could secure, I found a vacant home a few blocks away. It was as good a candidate as any and pretty big as far as vacant homes go. I went into the house a few times, via a smashed in back window, with nothing but an empty tote bag, my 9mm. and a ton of trash bags. There were 3 bedrooms, though I ruled one out as it was the point of entry. I wanted to clear out a lot of the junk in the place from, presumably, the years of vacancy. It was a mess. I returned a few more times, gradually trash-bagging the upstairs bedroom. It was pretty clean by the time I was done.

Late April or early May, I had my former housemate move my bags into the house. The humor of moving into a house adjacent-to and joint-owned by a veterinary clinic was not lost on me. There were a lot of old uniforms from the vet, uniforms I used for photography purposes in front of the vacant vet. This led to jokes from locals about “Stirner taking [his] dog for a walk”. Life is truly absurd. My first night, I ended up just sleeping on the floor. I was exhausted after moving my boys in. Waking up, my back hurt and I needed food. I didn’t trust anything in the house, so I went across the street. There was a donut shop for food, and a sofa had been recently thrown out too. Frankly, there is too much waste to not dumpster dive.

I positioned 3 sofa cushions as a makeshift twin bed, hung up some art, and cleaned off a shelf to decorate my room a bit. I found a clean faucet for water at a nearby paint store and an open electrical outlet at the dentist next door. Living off the land.

I was poor, obviously. I still am too. I obtained most of the essentials for the squat from shoplifting and robbery. Bed sheets, wet wipes, and cheddar cheese were all one walk-out, one chambered-in-a-store bullet, one use-of-a-brass-knuckles away. I used my knife the most and, in all honesty, crime is fun – just do it. I cycled through outfits and hairstyles to evade LP.

After a few weeks, I managed to secure some support for the squat in the manner of mutual aid. It was more food than I could reasonably steal, a very cool day indeed. I moved it into my room, threw my flag behind it, and posed some gun photos around the food. Most of the food, however, I couldn’t cook. The house had no electricity, no water, no heat. This would become the largest problem, given my Florida-self and the coming cold. Most of the windows were smashed in, letting in a terrible draft. There was a fireplace on the lower level though. The basement had plenty of firewood. Tons of paper and books to burn too.

I have always been a staunch advocate of Propaganda by the Deed. I’d never robbed cash, but felt stores were exploitative enough to warrant it. More importantly, I needed to pay my phone bill and buy items that have proven themselves hard to steal, like candles. On May 19^th, I robbed our local 711 at gunpoint in an act of Propaganda by the Deed. I was in all black, Nike and Adidas, with a change of clothes at the nearby Triple-A.

I waited for a gap in traffic, estimating I’d need, at most, 5 minutes, and entered the store. I took out my 9mm and jumped the counter. I threw a handful of Backwoods cigars into my black tote and had the clerk open both registers. I left with around $900.

Some total-Karen had seen the last seconds of my robbery and called the cops. I couldn’t steal her Buick SUV (sorry Kodak), so I took off running. A second spectator, a total homie, biked with me for a few blocks to throw off the scent for the police dogs.

I opened up my arm jumping the fence at a Catholic high school, narrowly avoiding the first string of cops. I hid in a bush, running to my bag after a second wave of cop cars. With a red dress and coat, Nike slides and Adidas socks, I walked right by the newly formed police line towards the squat.

I got to the squat with little issue, counted the cash and rolled a Backwoods. The next day, I bought a bong for the squat across the street, some Marlboro Black 100s at Fred Meyer, and a few candles. The cash I had now made boosting from self-checkout for food very easy. I’d get a $2 or $3 purchase and bag $30-40 worth of food and drink, much easier than finding camera dead-spots to bag stuff.

Two days later everything popped off. I’d thrown out my hoodie, but still had my mask and kicks. I owned no other kicks. It was cold enough for me to have the fireplace lit, but some Karen called the cops, per usual. Karen said I was trying to burn it down. If only.

I was on Discord flirting with some girls when the Fire Department raided the house. They smashed out the front window and came running in, screaming for anyone in the house to leave. I had my shotgun slung, my 9mm on my thigh, and confronted them at the stairs. “Get the fuck out of my house!” They were scared shitless and left their 4-foot fire extinguisher while fleeing. Then the fire department called the cops. Fuck the Fire Department!

My house was on a tall grassy hill, so the cops stayed on the curb around a hundred feet or so away, maybe more. Around 6 SUVs full of cops contemplated a raid, but as I had the high ground, they were too scared. Good. I had lost most of my ammunition in my recent divorce. The news showed up, 3 or 4 news vans, then everyone left. A terrible situation, yet I was grateful to have defended my squat in the first fight with the State. Now, what to do about robbing the fire department?

Cable news: the block was on fire. Everyone stared at me whenever I was outside. I opted to only enter the squat at nights now, which was anxiety-inducing, as I couldn’t take my shotgun in to stores. I posed in front of the vet with my shotgun and a fur vest, then I tried to lay low.

The next day the police were staging sting operations at the vet. I was checking the mail, strapped, when a Sheriff’s SUV rolled up and ordered me to stop. They were packing heat and jumped out of the drivers seat pointing their pistol. I called his bluff and ran back to the squat, jumped in through the window and took aim, in case I was followed. Understandably, they were still too scared to follow.

A few days passed with no events, until some punks came over claiming to be exploring. I initially thought they were pigs. I had stuck my barrel out the window before I realized. The punks ended up finding me on social media and we arranged for dinner and a party. Modelos, stolen Backwoods and lemon kush.

I took some photos with my mask, then burned it in the house. With my Riot case approaching an arrest warrant, I was trying to finally flee the state. No one knew yet about the robbery I did.

I was partial to just get high, listen to Kodak Black, and figure out another squat location. Guns made mobility an issue, so on the 29^th I set off to make use of the storage unit my ex had graciously left me full of her shit. I couldn’t afford rent, so I planned to visit a mutual aid event downtown after storing my weapons. I’d figure something out from there.

I’d ridden on Tri-Met with my guns tons of times and expected no issue today. Instead, the driver not only called the cops, but lied and told me directly that it was safe to ride. Two stops later, the bus stopped and 20-some cops threatened me with guns for the crime of riding the bus with guns. Law is so restrictive and arbitrary, limiting our freedom of movement. We shouldn’t have weapon restrictions, thus the PPB arrested me and seized all my weapons. Washington County had issued a warrant for me, so I was transferred to their Sheriff’s Office and charged with Criminal Trespassing With a Firearm. This charge came with the release-agreement to not return to the vet.

After a brief train ride, I was back at the vet. I didn’t really respect the State. I still don’t My stuff had mostly been tossed out the window, but some of it was left inside. I moved my bags behind the house and broke in again, this time into the bathroom, as the other window had been boarded up. The hole was like 1×1 foot. The toilet was broken. I needed to unboard the back window, but 20+ screws proved too much for a pry bar. I moved most of my stuff into the attic and assessed the damage.

Most of my shit had been seized or stolen. My copy of Stirner’s Ego was thrown onto my bed. My bong, smashed. The tote I’d robbed the store with was gone. (Through some minor stroke of luck or corruption, it never made it into the police report.) I started looking for a power-drill and for someone to join the squat. Given I was already on cable news, I opted to search online.

I took in some stranger from the nearest train stop who was homeless. He was a construction worker and chill enough. We were walking home with food and decided to stop at the dentist to eat first. A pig rolled up and we took off running. Across the street, essentially, a dollar store had recently closed due to a fire. We hid out behind the store, but my new friend ended up getting a bit too handsy for me. I considered robbing him, but decided to just kick him out. I waited around 30 minutes, then tried to head to the squat again.

On June 3^rd, I got stung at the vet, as the previous pig had ID’d me. This “peace officer” got me in cuffs, behind my back, and then put me in a knee-on-neck chokehold. I screamed that “I couldn’t breathe” for two minutes, eyes wide open, before he stopped. The report was falsified, something about being afraid I’d shoot him, and the chokehold was omitted per its illegality. I had part of my scalp removed by the street.

Washington County Sheriff’s Office confiscated my weed and my bail was threatened to be set at $5,000,000. I was charged with Interfering With a Peace Officer and Violation of a Release Agreement. I was released after booking. After a brief stop at Nike World, for a tennis court cheddar cheese photo, I was back at the squat. Kodak Black had just FritoLay’d and I had just gotten the police to launder my robbery proceeds. I just had to cash out my gift card. Cool.

The pigs hadn’t gotten the house re-boarded, likely assuming I hadn’t gone back in. I bought some more blunts, some Gold Peak Georgia Peach tea, weed, and candles. Back to being high at the squat and figuring out what to do. A trans girl, one I later would learn to be a Maoist and a rat, moved in with me. We threw up some tags in the house. Given my Riot arrest warrant, I decided to try taking a train ride out of state. I bought the ticket on the 7^th for the 8^th, then I spent the night at the squat.

On the 8^th, a few hours before leaving, the squat was raided. There was nowhere to really run and the police had done surveillance with a drone a week prior, so they knew I was likely unarmed. 8 pistols and 2 police dogs, way more outside. I stayed silent, but the girl threw me under the bus and talked at length about me. She was charged with trespassing. I was given Burglary in the 1^st Degree. My $5,000,000 bail stuck, so I now needed $500,000 to get out.

I was in custody for around a month when suddenly I received a secret indictment for Robbery in the 1^st Degree With a Firearm. Given that the girl was in custody and already ratting, I suspect she tipped off the pigs. I hadn’t spoke of the robbery, but not much happens in Beaverton. The case was sudden, solid, and I didn’t want to take a chance with these crackers at trial. After a successful bargain of my soul, I am now here.

Obviously, with a gun, I’d have fought. It’s hard to capture the circumstance in writing, to explain it, so I wouldn’t have changed much. Everything seems easy and clear after the fact.

My first fight didn’t stop, obviously. Now I am in a struggle to have the DOC grant me a vaginoplasty, a medically necessary procedure covered by insurance. I wear nearly the same Nike shoes I used to jump the counter here in prison. One small step for Sofia, one giant leap for trans-kind. I will not be the first incarcerated woman to received vaginoplasty, nor the last, but it is surely a struggle to realize it on my own.

My insurance covers mammoplasty, and although the DOC forbids it as a “cosmetic” surgery, this is on my list of goals as well. Dysphoria is never a cosmetic issue. Given the masculinizing equivilent is permitted, I foresee my mammoplasty as a matter of public support. Vaginoplasty was formerly in this boat, yet here we are. Arbitration being repressive, as usual.

I’d love for my struggle to influence squatting law, but I am not hopeful. The possibility of being charged criminally for all 10 years makes averse possession essentially impossible, as the former owner will be the “victim”. Property is robbery, but with no danger or risk to the robber. Better laws would hardly fix the issue. We need no Law.

The statute used to impose my 90 month, day-for-day, minimum sentence is §ORS137.700. It is known as “Measure 11”. As arbitrary as it gets. Production of Child Porn or Rape of a Minor earns you 5 years, whereas Arson and Robbery have a 90-month minimum. The repeal of this mandate is what’d allow me to try for an earlier release, but given my maximum sentence for my Riot conviction (5 years) I will likely be locked up for a while. At least I get to eat FritoLay snacks for 7 ½ years.

Law is how the State justified its Violence; Morals.

Write to Comrade Candle at:

Sofia Johnson 23976151

Coffee Creek Correctional Facility

24499 SW Grahams Ferry Road

Wilsonville, OR 97070

Comrades,

The Texas Board of Criminal Justice and Texas Department of Criminal Justice are actively sending state agents to retaliate and harass me on an organized level. This is called “conspiring”, “deliberate indifference” and “malice”. Lt. Oki and his 3^rd shift sgt. Durabor made a clear statement that I deserve to be locked-up. They initiated an ICS to attempt to scare, intimidate and/or provoke me. I stayed cool, calm, collected. This petty pretext they fabricated was because I refused to give them my ID.

He requested gas masks, OCS-gas and back-up because I supposedly refused to hand him my ID. This is why I have a lawsuit against TBCJ – dumbass officers who abuse their authority to prove that they can do whatever they feel like and get away with it. Often times they get away with it. Well, here’s your chance to call Memorial Unit and request to know how many disciplinary cases have been written on me since I have expressed to the administration that I have a suit against TBCJ. I ask you to email your findings to the United States District Court – Galveston Division. The State of Texas has been using more corruption since I filed than against any other event on this unit. Don’t allow it to go unseen or covered-up. I do not fear any TDCJ administrator, director, or senator. I don’t fear any of them. In fact, I’m filing another lawsuit on the remaining members of TBCJ just because their retaliation let’s me know that I am doing something right.

Willie Ratcliffe is stopping my outgoing mail. Ms. Lincoln-Moon is stopping my grievances again. Now 3^rd shift officers are using organized tactics to retaliate, harass and oppress me. This is how TDCJ attempts to impose their slave-breaking tactics on the inmate, by using ignorant and, more often than not, immigrant guards who barely speak English. Coincidence? Not likely. Not if you have 9 well-educated Texas Board of Criminal Justice committee members running the show.

This is a call to action, and any legal assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Current list of retaliative officers and staff:

Ms. Polk

Ms. Shannon

Capt. McKnight

Officer Dorber

Sgt. Bey

Officer Hafford

Officer Baugh

Lt. Oki

E-mail this all to district court judges!

Solidarity and Sabotage,

Comrade Z

IWW-IWOC Local 613 #1

“The prison system does not like being reported on and you have to know that going in. You’re going to get backlash. There’s going to be retaliation. It’s part of the deal. I think for a lot of people, they will make a few forays into it and they’ll get stung a couple of times, then they give up. The reality is that it’s hard and you have to be prepared that they may come after you when you say things that they don’t really like. However, when you are in prison, you do not surrender your First Amendment rights to free speech, to comment on reality and be published. Contrary to what a lot of people assert, you have the right to write about whatever the hell you want to write about.”

-K.E. Hartman

3/17/22

Here are some cold hard facts: I am not a writer. I am not a smart man. I am not completely mentally sound, due to various forms of torture I have been through in my life. Today, TDCJ continues to play these childish, slave-breaker games to make me believe that one cell is different from another, when in reality this psychological warfare is all a farce. A cage is a cage is a cage.

Nobody said it better than Sean Swain in Last Act of the Circus Animals. There are more facts to share with you. I am a member/delegate with the Industrial Workers of the World-Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, and as a Texas prisoner, the whole idea of solidarity really appealed to me. The fact is, the union for us Texas prisoners is ideal, but we lack the support both from the IWOC-HQ and our own communities. Sad, but true. No matter what, I haven’t given up.

Today, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice is on a civil rights lawsuit by IWOC members in Texas. Texas TEAMONE has requested and extended solidarity to unite the fight. United States District Court-Galveston Division Civil Action 3:22-CV-00052 has close to 20 IWOC members on it. As we keep moving forward and allow our comrades at the IWW-IWOC to catch up with us, I have to suggest as a militant anarchist, for the brothers and sisters listening to us, the real problem is the policy makers. All comrades and jailhouse lawyers need to file U.S. §1983 on every single TBCJ member, as I have already begun to do. Bobby Lumpkin, Bryan Collier, Guistina Persich, Tammy Shelby are on my lawsuit, including the chairman of TBCJ Patrick O’Daniel. I am filing a motion for leave to supplement defendants and add the remaining eight members of the TBCJ into our class action suit. If you are with IWOC-Texas, file your lawsuit in the same fashion. We have been distracted by their psychological games far too long, and the culprits have been sitting pretty playing God for far too long. The Wizard of Oz has been discovered in Texas. Corruption is being exposed by me, X386969, and it is going to take the solidarity of all of your resources in the free world to help us bring the changes we all need, by any means necessary.

The more lawsuits filed on the policy makers will not only bring us into the political arena as activists for an overdue overhaul of the Texas government and it’s institutions. I do not believe in authority, nor do I believe in prisons. However, this cannot be said about everyone I come in contact with, therefore I am rolling with what I have, because progress is made by stepping forward, not back. Believe me, I was just retaliated on by: Sgt. Bey, Officer Dorber, Capt. Charlotte McKnight, Disciplinary Substitute Counsels Polk and Shannon, Officer Baugh, Officer Hafford, and Sgt. Timothy Williams. IWOC has been attacked by these same individuals since we filed on Chairman Patrick O’Daniels.

Thanks to texasprisonreform.com, mongoosedistro.com, Noname Books, Texas Civil Rights Project, the Marshall Project, certaindays.org, thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net, Haymarket Books, Pluto Press, AK Press, IWOC-NM, TEAMONE. To all of you, please send me some solid contacts to assist us Wobblies at Memorial Plantation.

Does anyone know a good civil rights attorney?!

Solidarity and Sabotage,

Comrade Z

Julio A. Zuniga 1961551

Memorial Unit

59 Darrington Road

Rosharon, Texas 77583

Dear friends,

Last month on February 4th guards at FCI Memphis allowed our friend Patrick Rogers to die. Sources in here tell me that he had regularly medical emergencies, falling down unconscious frequently. The staff became agitated with having to respond to these emergencies and the new Captain here accused him of faking and spread the rumor that he was faking medical emergencies and gave instructions to not respond to these incidents. As a result his medical ailments went untreated for a long period of time. I have been told that he was hit by a truck before coming to this prison and had multiple medical conditions as a result. After falling down yet again he was taken to the Special Housing unit. Guards said this was because he “mouthed off to a guard” while witnesses claim he was taken away because he could not walk. 

Shortly after being taken to the SHU the entire prison went on lockdown. On Friday the 4th of February, he died. His neighbors in Tennessee Unit A say that he was allowed to die by staff because they were concerned that he had a legitimate case for a lawsuit and they were legally vulnerable to legal action. Lt. King came into the unit after he died and callously remarked, “Well, I guess he wasn’t faking!” He was asked if he thought this was funny and unconvincingly replied no, that it was a potential lawsuit. Legal vulnerability and a fear of taking responsibility trumped this Lieutenant’s sense of what a human life is worth. I won’t speak of his sense of humor. Understandably this upset Big Pat’s friends, not to mention his family. I heard about this exchange from one of his friends in the chow hall today as the lockdown was lifted and lost my appetite. As fellow captives of the prison industrial complex we are all outraged within these walls.

Efforts to spread the word about this deadly medical negligence, deliberate indiference and fatal targeted harrassment have been hampered by staff refusing to sell us paper, stationary and stamps during this lockdown. Thanks to sympathetic guards and our constitutional right to contact family the word has already gotten out. My defense committee has been notified and asked to contact Mr. Rogers’ family while raising awareness on various social medias, spreading pamhplets, articles and writting essays. That ball is already rolling. The cops reading this message may try to censor it, but that would be a useless gesture as the cat is already out of the bag. Any attempt to censor journalism and destroy evidence leaves government employees vulnerable to civil action. As a community we have the resources, the solidarity and the ability to take legal action and win. We will. I request everyone reading this to look into the situation and #RememberPat. Contact the American Civil Liberties Union, Prison Legal News and any other groups who you think can be helpful. We need to spread the word about the conditions here before anyone else dies. This can happen to any of us at any time. The current political climate is such that the prison industrial complex wants to incarcerate everyone in the U.$. To be clear their goal is that all Amerikkkans go to jail or prison at some point in their lives. As more laws are invented more and more people’s existances are criminalized and subject to abduction and extortion at the hands of authoritatrian forces. On a long enough time frame more people will have been oppressed by unjust laws and dirty cops than people who have no criminal record. In this was the death of Patrick Rogers and people like him affect all of us. The political is personal. Don’t let them tell you that “that’s just how it is, that life is tough, that it’s just buisiness”.

Take it personally whenever any authority figure makes policies that harm you, your loved ones, your neighbors and your friends. Because it is personal. The gears of justice grind slowly and the creatures of power who have money and power are not ground under these machines, they slide out of under them with a laugh, waving to us as we are destroyed. This machine does not serve us, it serves them.

They say we are faking it when we tell them that they are killing us. They say we are faking it when we tell them to get off our necks. They say we are faking it when we tell them that climate change is genocide for those too poor to migrate. They say we are faking it when we tell them an old prisoner is dying of preventable conditions as prisons are converted into eugenic hospice centers for the elderly poor. Fuck that, fuck them. Please help us raise awareness about these conditions.

Thank you.
Dan Baker
aka Alishare
P.S. The following additional note was written by a friend of Patrick’s:

“Pat Injured himself around Oct-Nov 2021- was unsure what- lower spine (disc) or right hip. Asked to be taken out to see Hospital Doctors- *pain became unbearable over a few days period.
-He could no longer walk to the chow hall due to pain.
-He continued to ask health service for help and all they did was order him an x-ray sometime in the months ahead. As time went on he was in more and more pain. The C.O.’s on the unit would no longer call the food service and order him meals for one of us inmates to bring back for him.
Health service began to tell all the officers that Pat was “faking” and that he had been “seen” and was to await his x-ray appointment. I brought him food back from chow as there was no way Pat could go due to pain.
-Pat requested the use of a wheelchair just to go to get meals and was denied every time by the people at health service from the order of M. Law. He said Pat was “faking” and just being lazy. Pat filed a BP-8 and BP-9 and was working on the BP-10 just to get the use of a wheelchair.
He became very depressed and his health deteriorated quickly.
– A group of Lt.’s and Dr.’s came to the unit one day to tell him he was “faking” and if he called them again they would put him in the S.H.U.. This was spearheaded by M. Law and the Captain.
He eventually became incontinent and was placed in the S.H.U. where he died from an embolism. The FCI was grossly negligent and could have easily prevented Pat’s death.”

Write Daniel Baker:
Daniel Baker, 25765-509
FCI MEMPHIS
P.O, BOX 34550
MEMPHIS, TN 38184