#anarchist prisoners

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Michael Kimble is in prison in Holman, AL and has been instrumental in the work strikes going on there.

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#michael kimble #anarchist prisoners #radical queer #gay anarchists

@GAY FLAMES

Sun, 15 Jun 2014 15:44:27

FromAnarchy Live!

Rebel greetings,

My name is Michael Kimble and I’m a 49 year old, black, gay anarchist being held kaptive by the state of Alabama. I’ve been active for over 20 years in the struggle for a better world. I’ve suffered and weathered all the hate, brutality, and slander the state has thrown at me. I’ve been in rebellion against the institutions of capitalist patriarchy, racism, and coercion my whole life, but didn’t realize it. My rebellion began with the institution of the family.

From an early age I’ve had a strong distaste for authority, starting with my family, who could not reconcile the fact that I was not the “normal” male child, but a somewhat effeminate child. This distaste only became stronger as I became older and ventured out into the larger world. Everywhere I turned I encountered authority figures who constantly attempted to force me to conform to their notion of what I should be and what I should desire. The same as my family.

As I began to understand the dynamics of patriarchy and capitalism, I started searching for an alternative that spoke to my desires and ideas of what the world should look like. Communism, Marxism I should say, was my first embrace, but anarchism resonated more with my way of thinking. Since becoming an anarchist my fighting spirit has sharpened, which brings me to this. Recently, I helped organize and participated in a work strike here at Holman Maximum Security prison and since that time a number of prisoners who were also instrumental in making the strike happen have been placed in solitary confinement for conspiracy and creating a security threat. I, myself, have been added to the state’s list as a Security Threat Group (STG) and labeled a terrorist, simply because of my work relating to the work strike. I’m not surprised by the state’s actions in this matter. As a matter of fact, I expected it. We can never expect the state and its institutions not to retaliate. The state and its institutions are the enemy of the people, and especially the enemy of those who fight to bring about its demise.

We prisoners, and anarchist prisoners in particular, need all freedom loving folks’ support to combat this ever hungry beast. There isn’t much that I can do from this position but to continue to resist and spread the word that a better world is possible but only if we fight for it. And that anarchism is the only alternative for the survival of humanity, wildlife, and the environment.

At this point, I would like to give a shout out to all the anarchists/anti-authoritarians that have given me support and unrelenting solidarity. And know that you have kept me on point when things were not looking so good for me. And to all the anarchists out there, stay strong and know that one day we will run free.

“Anarchists would do best to reimagine what becoming powerful might feel like. It would benefit us to experience our power intimately embodied in spaces where capitalism is being called into question. This means we would not continue to exist as a mere protest movement but rather as criminals experimenting with ways to survive. We would notice that a similar fabric runs throughout society, connecting us not solely with other predominantly white social movements, but also to many people who survive without compromise in this world on fire. We are not individuals acting on our moral impulses; we are a social force becoming aware of its power. Becoming powerful is a matter of making our story a place to inhabit – making our story material. We dream in the face of nightmares, not as an escape into an alternative reality, but as a weapon to change this one.”

Abolish all prisons!
No compromise!

#anarchist #anarchist prisoners #gay anarchists #radical queer #michael kimble #prison rebels

@gayflames

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 10:23:00

FromAnarchy Live!

[PLEASE REBLOG & CALL THE NUMBERS BELOW!]

Clenched-fist salute!

I’m Michael and yes, I’m locked down in one of Amerika’s many prisons in the state of Alabama. But that does not excuse me from the struggle for a better world. And I believe that anarchism is the best alternative to what exists now. I believe this without reservations. Anarchism is not about building state power, but rather, destroying the state and building new humyn relationships based on mutual aid and cooperation and freedom.

I’m not a public speaker, but a warrior in the struggle to build that new humyn relationship, mutual aid, cooperation, and freedom from all coercive power, rather than a soldier, because a soldier is someone who is ordered about without thinking for him/herself in a hierarchical structure. A tool of a ruling power.

Right now there is a struggle going on in Alabama’s prisons demanding a change in the horrendous, unsanitary, and inhumane conditions in the prisons. In the prison I’m at, Holman, birds fly around the kitchen dropping bird shit on prisoners and/or their food, industrial light fixtures are falling from the ceiling injuring at least one prisoner seriously, during the winter months the showers are cold, the dorms are also cold in the winter, inadequate medical care, inadequate outdoors exercise time, inadequate nutrition, harassment of family members during visiting hours, and a host of other serious problems too numerous to list (see “Justice or Just Business” for more). But most of all, we are fighting and struggling for our dignity and humanity.

Prisoners have very few options against the prison system. We have the options of: (1) filing lawsuits, (2) rioting, (3) hunger strikes, (4) work strikes. These four are the most common practices used by prisoners throughout the world. A work strike is what is going down in Alabama right now. The reason a work strike was chosen is simple. To cause the state to lose the profits it rests in off of prisoners’ labor and to force them into making the changes in the conditions that’s demanded.

In January 2014, prisoners in Alabama staged a work strike demanding changes in the laws, sentencing, and prison conditions. The present work strike is a continuation of the January 2014 work strike.

Of course, as an anarchist I know that only by smashing the state and its oppressive institutions will people receive true humyn rights. I say people and not prisoners because there will be no prisons. Also, as an anarchist, I’m an enemy of the state and its rotten institutions and those that support them, invest in them, profit from them even if it’s a wage.

Another option or weapon I didn’t mention until now is the people on the outside in what some of us call minimum kustody (society) and what others call “free-world.” What’s free about it? Anyway, the people on the outside are the greatest weapon we can employ. Those on the outside can use the media (print, TV, social media) to expose the inhumynity going on in Amerika’s prisons. This is a priority. Through exposure, people can be educated as to the true nature of prisons and motivated to move against the state. Also, outside folks can carry out actions such as the George Jackson Brigade actions in solidarity with prisoners in Washington state who was struggling there, the actions carried out by the Red Army Faction in Germany to show their solidarity and disgust with the state, and most recently by anonymous warriors in Indiana in support and solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike there. There’s real risks in these actions for the people carrying them out and one must give it the seriousness it deserves. But one must also understand that prisoners are at serious risk of physical violence against them, possibly death, continued incarceration, isolation just to name a few outcomes. I myself don’t look to come out of this latest work strike unscathed.

But my solidarity with my fellow prisoners is more than lip service. We are already experiencing violence due to the fucked up conditions we all suffer under. A person can’t be so oppressed that they can’t find a way to fight back in some way. And one must use the weapons at their disposal. It’s on!

Tutashinde Mbili Shaka! (Together we can win!)
Death 2 the State!
Until we all are free!
Abolish prisons!

We expect retaliation, possibly including beatings of prisoners who are labeled as agitators.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We ask that you make phone calls to the Warden, the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Correction, and the Governor of Alabama, to check on the situation, our condition, demands, and welfare.

Please call:

Warden Gary Hetzel (Holman Prison): (251) 368-8173

Commissioner Kim Thomas (Alabama DOC) (334) 353-3870

Governor Robert J. Bentley: (334) 242-7100

#radical queer #alabama #prison #prison industrial complex #prison solidarity #anarchist #anarchy #anarchist prisoners #solidarity #michael kimble #new afrikan #political prisoners #prisoners of war #black liberation

@gayflames

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 12:56:13