Boston ABC
The Boston Anarchist Black Cross is, as ever, hard at work defending radical movements and supporting prisoners. We continue to correspond with, do research for and send free literature to prisoners, and we're keeping up our $20 monthly contribution to Jericho Boston's commissary fund, which goes toward meeting the material needs of political prisoners. Our medium-term project of revising our distro of literature continues steadily as we clean up our old titles and add new ones to the literature we both table and send to prisoners.
Anticipating the relocation of two of our core members at the end of the summer, we held a strategizing session to re-state our goals and outline our future work. It was a productive and energizing meeting, but, as a very small collective, we will be hurting for people when these two leave. If you're in the Boston area and value our mission of prisoner support and anarchist legal defense, there is no better time to get involved than now!
We did some year-end math and found that in 2009 we were able to strike a healthier balance of spending and fundraising than in 2008! In expenditure land, our war chest has opened a few more times since last you heard from us. We answered the call for Carrie and Scott's need for money, as the two Minneapolis-based activists, age 20 and 22, are facing a federal grand jury in Iowa investigating animal rights vandalism from 2004. Scott was released in November and faces conspiracy charges under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, but Carrie is still in jail for contempt of court, so write her a letter!
We sent money to help get Indigenous prisoner Oso Blanco a lawyer after he was tortured and had his religious rights violated in prison. He has thus far served 10 years of an 80-year sentence for expropriating $165,000 from banks to send to the autonomous Indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico. We were also able to respond promptly to help bail Ojore Lutalo out of a rural Colorado jail from absurd charges of “endangering public transit” on his way home from speaking at the L.A. Anarchist Bookfair. Recently released from prison after 27 years, his train charges were mercifully dropped when it was found that the accusations were completely unfounded. We also conducted a Know-Your-Rights training at Emerson College – because party kids have rights too!
In fundraising land, our fancy Saintless Valentine's Day dinner was a fun-tastic, delicious success. We raised a healthy amount of money for not only our operating expenses, but also for Jason Vassell in Western Massachusetts, who continues to face assault charges two years after defending himself from a racially motivated attack (more info at justiceforjason.org). We once again raised a modest amount for our group and the Certain Days Collective by selling their gorgeous Freedom for Political Prisoners calendars. Now we're gearing up for the Self-Styled Anarchist Fashion and Craft Show on March 13, where we will exhibit and sell fashion and functional designs made and modeled by local radicals. It promises to be a spectacular spectacle!
If you can neither make the fashion show nor regularly come in contact with our fine collective members, we are pleased to announce that we can now electronically accept your money via PayPal at bostonabc
Boston ABC
P.O. Box 230182
Boston, MA 02123