I am literally begging anyone who hasn’t signed to sign and circulate this petition. Chelsea Manning is a woman being held in a men’s prison enduring cruel and unusual punishment. This is the farthest Chelsea Manning has gotten amongst the number of campaigns out there right now. Please sign, please circulate and please remember Chelsea Manning. There is no better time than now to campaign for her release.
She’s already served 7 years of a ridiculously cruel 35 year sentence, mostly in solitary confinement, at a men’s military prison. She’s endured mistreatment, psychological abuse, and a near total refusal for most of that time to attend to either her mental or physical care. She’s attempted suicide several times due to the mistreatment.
Her punishment was meted out as ‘an example’ by the military to discourage whistleblowing - she was made the cautionary tale to keep others from spilling damaging secrets about the way the military operates - in the case of what she leaked, we wouldn’t know as much as we do about the Drone program in Yemen, the targeting of civilians, the official policy of the military to ignore torture in Iraq/Afghanistan and a few other nasty things they didn’t want getting to light.
She embarrassed them publicly and diplomatically by revealing some of their more abhorrent practices and so they targeted her (unjustly in my opinion) and slapped on the largest sentence they could muster (without outright killing her).
Her actions were done out of a sense of ethics and to reveal that corruption and criminal behavior being perpetrated by the US military. While what she did is technically illegal I do not believe it unjust - and the extent and nature of her ‘punishment’ has been far too severe.
I do not support the criminal prosecution of whistleblowers like Manning or Snowden who are acting fairly responsibly, and ethically, in their sense of moral duty to reveal corruption and criminality within the institutions they were part of.
There is an adage about shining light into dark corners that I think applies.
Thank you because I didn’t have the energy to answer this.
Following years of abuse at the hands of the U.S. government, imprisoned transparency advocate Chelsea Manning has released a statement announcing that she will be going on hunger strike to protest years of bullying and harassment by the U.S. military, and demand basic respect, humane treatment, and access to needed healthcare related to her gender transition.
Chelsea needs our support now more than ever. If you care about free speech, human rights, and government transparency, sign the petition to show you stand with Chelsea during her nonviolent protest for basic rights and dignified treatment.
Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, was convicted in 2013 and is serving a 35-year term for releasing classified national security materials to the public via WikiLeaks. She will write from prison in Ft. Leavenworth, but will not be paid for her work.
Although The Guardian is far from a perfect publication, this will elevate Chelsea’s voice & experiences to a worldwide audience. Can’t wait to read her first piece!
“Even if journalists who published WikiLeaks’ leaks are not summoned by an American grand jury, the intimidation of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning will be enough. Real journalism is being criminalised by thugs in plain sight. Dissent has become an indulgence.”
Hey all, long time no see! I hope we’re all still firmly committed to the principles of liberty and as such I come to you all with an opportunity to make a difference for someone very special to me.
As many of you probably know Chelsea Manning has been reimprisoned by the Trump Administration for refusing to comply with a subpoena and refusing to provide testimony in a case that threatens the very foundation of the first amendment and freedom of the press.
Chelsea was remanded to federal custody (without charge or trial) back in March and can be held a maximum of 18 months for her refusal to cooperate with this federal grand jury intent on prosecuting acts of journalism. If that wasn’t egregious enough, District Court Judge Anthony Trenga also imposed unprecedented steep fines, $1,000 per day that she refuses to cooperate. At the time of this writing those fines have already accumulated to ~$180,000.
How can you help? Great question! First I encourage you to sign and share the above petition. We are calling on Judge Trenga to end Chelsea’s ridiculously punitive incarceration.
Additionally I encourage you to write Chelsea. She loves to receive letters and words of support from supporters. You can find instructions on how to write her below.
And lastly I make an appeal for money. You can donate to her support network in a number of ways. The first option is to send money directly to her legal team via the below fundraiser.
That money will go to her legal expenses and court costs and fees, which you can imagine are exorbitant.
Alternatively I am operating a personal fundraiser to pay for her phone calls and commissary so that she can buy somewhat nutritional food while in jail and so that she can speak on the phone with her close friends and allies. You can find instructions for that fundraiser below, but the tl;dr is to Venmo me at @anarchakelly or ca$h app at $anarchakelly.
With a brilliant intro from poet Rachel Zavecz, my interview with Aase Berg is now live at FANZINE! Her new book, HACKERS (trans. by Johannes Göransson) is also available from Black Ocean)
AASE BERG: My view on horses has developed through the years. When I wrote With Deer, it was merely an intellectual image, but later on I started riding and had my own horses and I realized that the practice of communicating with a horse is poetry without words. You have to grow into the horse’s body to be able to ride. It’s like dancing, or sex. But the horse is also a symbol of the oppressed. It’s oppressed in itself—the humans control the horses completely—we control their reproduction, their food, their space. And the horse is always protesting in some ways—destroying the fence, running away, sometimes refusing to do what you ask them to do. But it’s a mild protest. If they wanted, they could easily kill you. It’s a communicative protest, not an aggressive one. That fascinates me.
