#prisoner resistance

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

I don’t particularly like self-promotion or talking about myself, but with the 90th anniversary of this event coming up, I should really post about this. I am nervous/excited to announce my article, “If You Want Anything, You Have To Fight For It: Prisoner Strikes at Kingston Penitentiary, 1932-1935″ was published in the Canadian history journal Labour / Le Travail earlier this year.

Link: https://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/view/6150.

If anyone reading this wants a PDF copy, I can arrange that - please send me an ask! By May 2023 it will no longer be paywalled and will be free to read for everyone and anyone.

The article is about the strikes and riot that took place at Kingston Penitentiary, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, between October 17-20, 1932. I was lucky enough to be able to consult sources that have never been used before, including thousands of pages of interviews, manifestos, letters, and petitions written by those incarcerated at Kingston Penitentiary. The article focuses on:

- the conditions and organization of the Kingston penitentiary in the early 1930s - how prisoners organized the strike, by writing manifestos and debating tactics in the workshops and cellblocks of the penitentiary - the ideology and demands of the revolts, including the prisoner’s focus on ending corporal punishment, ending what they called “slavery” (forced labour), resisting the arbitrary “despotism” of guards and the warden, and creating an inmate committee to run the prison  - the prisoner struggles that took place in the years after the riot to enforce the demands made in October 1932

I also tried, and hopefully succeeded, in placing this prison riot as part of the broader upsurge of protest by the unemployed, impoverished and marginalized in 1930s Canada (instead of treating it in isolation, as often happens with studies of prisoner rebellion). I’ve been researching this topic for a long time so it's nice to see something finally coming together. I hope you find it interesting. Share, if you wish!

[sayruq]

[republikkkanorcs]

[angelxd-3303]

Do you know a funny idea I had? Luigi, king penguin, the penguins and lumalee escaping from prison and defeating Bowser, I think they would be very capable of doing it without help XD

Ok, I take back everything I said about the penguins, I'd die for them all.

Bonus Post-Revolution cuddles:

[awarmbowlofhomemadesoup]

I now have one from a cartoon, one from an anime, and one from a novel series.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[rejectingrepublicans]

[nando161mando]

MAPUCHE RESISTANCE!

Last week, indigenous Mapuch fighters set fire to a police station in Chile. In solidarity with the indigenous prisoners of the Angol Prison, in Araucania.

[houseofpurplestars]

Meanwhile in the west bank:

🚨 The IOF has invaded #Tulkarem, opening fire and targeting residents with gas bombs.

In #Nablus, the IOF is sending reinforcements in preparation for the demolition of the home of martyr Muath Al-Masri, who was assassinated in May in an operation that included over 200 IOF soldiers, following his operation with martyr Hassan Qatnani that killed three settlers in the Jordan Valley.

🚨 Documentation of the IOF bulldozer that caught fire after it was targeted with an explosive device in Nour Shams camp, #Tulkarem (Video 1).

Fierce armed clashes are continuing in the camp, as well as in #Nablus (Video 2), where the IOF has invaded to demolish the home of martyr Muath Al-Masri.

🚨 Local sources report that Star of David ambulances are present in Nour Shams camp in #Tulkarem as the IOF attempts to withdraw it's damaged bulldozer, amid fierce and ongoing armed clashes with the resistance.

🚨 The IOF abducted liberated prisoner Hisham Abu Hawwash from his home in Dura, #AlKhalil.

Hisham Abu Hawwash, 42 years old, was liberated from zionist prisoners after his victorious 141-day-long hunger strike in January 2022 following his abduction without charge or trial in October 2020.

t.me/PalestineResist

[guerillas-of-history]

On Palestinian Prisoner's Day, RNN affirms that there is no liberation without the freedom of all our prisoners from the prisons of the zionist entity and Palestinian Authority! #FreeThemAll

Our prisoners—the bone marrow of our liberation movement—are facing escalating zionist repression at this moment at the hands of fascist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the racist zionist entity.

They are abducted and abused in the prisons of the occupation because their ideas are a threat. Our prisoners are not innocent, not only because of what they have done, but because of what they are capable of. They have demonstrated their capabilities to educate, resist, and unify workers, women, and refugees in the revolutionary struggle against the entity.

This ability is the real threat to the security of the fragile zionist entity. The efforts made by our prisoners that threaten the occupation should be celebrated, not victimized. The prisoners' struggle is the spearhead of resistance. No one confronts the occupation more than them, as they do it in every moment and action.

Our movement grows stronger because of their struggle from the darkness, and their imprisonment is a testament to the strength of the struggle.

Free them all!

[dailyanarchistposts]

I am currently detained in an Israeli jail, the result of refusing to attend or cooperate with criminal charges laid against me and two others for joining Palestinian protests in the West Bank against Israel’s colonial rule. Because I am an Israeli citizen, the proceedings in the case are held in an Israeli court in Jerusalem and not at the military court, where Palestinians are tried.

It has been almost nine years since the last time I was incarcerated for more than a day or two. Much has changed since. Politically, reality does not even resemble that of a decade ago, and none of the changes were for the better.

Politically, the world seems to have lost much of its interest in the Palestinian struggle for liberation, placing Israel at one of the historical peaks of its political strength. I am in no position to discuss the profound changes within Israeli society and how even farther to the right it has drifted. Israeli liberals are much better suited for such a task, because they hold their country dear and feel a sense of belonging that I cannot feel and do not want to feel.

Personally, I am older, more tired and, mostly, not as healthy as I was. Of course, the price I have paid for my part in the struggle is a fraction of that paid by Palestinian comrades, but I cannot deny its subjective weight on me: from physical injuries, some irreversible, through sporadic despair, anxiety and sense of helplessness, to the encumbering sensation of loss and the presence of death – and the grip all these have on my day-to-day life. And yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Right now, just as it was back then, sitting in prison is better than any other alternative available to me.

The legal fallacies that riddle the case against us are of little significance. While it is fair to assume that had I agreed to cooperate, the trial would have ended up with an acquittal, my refusal to recognize the court’s legitimacy is based on two main grounds.

The first is that my Palestinian comrades do not enjoy the luxury of being tried in the relatively comfortable conditions of the Israeli courts. Rather, they are tried as subjects in the parody of a legal system that are Israel’s military courts. Unlike me, Palestinians do not have the option of refusing to cooperate with their captors, since the vast majority of them are tried while remanded into custody for the duration of their proceedings.

Additionally, the punishment Palestinians are faced with is significantly harsher than that specified in Israeli law. Thus, in this regard as well, despite refusing to recognize the court’s legitimacy, the price I am likely to pay is significantly lower than that paid by my comrades.

The second, more fundamental ground to refuse to cooperate is that all Israeli courts, military or otherwise, lack any legitimacy to preside over matters of resisting Israeli colonial rule, which employs a hybrid regime, ranging between a distorted and racially discriminatory democracy in its sovereign territory and a flat-out military dictatorship in the occupied territories.

Faced with the tremendous shift to the right in Israeli politics, the shrinking remnants of the Zionist left – once the country’s dominant elite group – are consumed by lamenting the decline of Israeli democracy. But what democracy is it they wish to defend? The one that has dispossessed its Palestinian citizens of their lands and their rights? The one that, at best, views these Palestinian citizens as second-class? Perhaps it is the democracy that governs the Gaza Strip through vicious siege while it reigns as a military dictatorship in the West Bank?

Despite the obvious nature of the Israeli regime, Israeli liberals are not willing to contest the fundamental premise of internal Israeli discourse and acknowledge that the State of Israel simply is not a democracy. Never was.

To join the fight to topple Israeli apartheid, the few Jewish citizens of Israel willing to do so will first have to recognize that they are overprivileged and be willing to pay the price of relinquishing that status. An open rebellion against the regime has been taking place for decades, carried out by the Palestinian resistance movement. The price paid by those involved in it is immense. Jewish citizens of Israel must cross over and walk in their footsteps.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Prisoners’ Justice Day is coming up on Wednesday, August 10, 2022. As usual, the Prison Radio collective at CFRC 101.9 FM - Queen’s University Radio will be taking over the airwaves at 101.9 FM and CJAI 92.1 FM on Amherst Island (near Millhaven Institution) from 4-10PM to talk about the day and to honour and remember those we have lost inside Canadian prisons and jails since the first PJD in 1975.

Along with our special content, we’ll be playing song requests and messages of love and solidarity from friends and supporters going out to local prisoners, many of whom will be fasting and refusing work to mark PJD.

Our signal reaches Collins Bay Penitentiary, Joyceville Institution, Millhaven Institution, Bath Institution, the Quinte Detention Centre and across Lake Ontario to the prison in Cape Vincent, New York.

Send a message or song request by writing to: 

427 Princess Street Suite 409 Kingston, Ontario K7L 5S9 By e-mail: cfrcprisonradio@riseup.net Phone: 613-417-3359 Social media: @cprkingston

[sleepyfortress]

The Big Three Constellations trying to lure Dokja into accepting their sponsorship

OD just thinks they’re dumb

Meanwhile KDJ be like:

[republikkkanorcs]

[chaiaurchaandni]

#freeAhmadManasra

[moon-mirage]

Here's my take on Effie Trinket and yes, I wanted her to look a bit off-putting. 😝

I added the rose theme towards the end on a whim - I'm not really good at drawing flowers, especially roses but it it fit the pink vibe so well. The lips are based on the movie make-up but instead of no eyebrows, I went with the highly arched, over-dramatic, thin eyebrows sported by 1930s Hollywood divas.

It was definitely fun to draw her because of the over-the-top fashion and hair. I'll probably draw her some more just because it's so much fun coming up with those outrageous styles. 😄