[Ppnews] Letter from RNC8 on the State of State Repression

[Political Prisoner News]

Letter from RNC8 on the State of State Repression
by RNC8

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/01/26/18636296.php
Tuesday Jan 26th, 2010 2:03 PM

Dear friends, families and supporters,

The last time that we wrote, we were only weeks beyond the 2008 RNC, 
and still figuring out how to navigate our case with a sense of 
collectivity and integrity. Now, more than a year after the fact, we 
find ourselves in a sort of limbo. Day to day, we don't feel the 
intensity of repression that we did in the weeks surrounding the RNC, 
yet the trial looms somewhere in the distance and we're not really 
free to move on. We return to court on February 2nd, and may come out 
of the hearing with a trial date certain. While it's hard to remain 
upbeat about the prospect, we hope to make the final push towards 
trial energizing for ourselves and our supporters alike, and we feel 
certain that a strong show of court solidarity will make a huge 
difference in the outcome of our case.

The past year has been difficult, both in dealing with our own 
situation and in watching as State attempts to subvert and disrupt 
anarchist movement gain steam, following well-established patterns of 
repression against dissident political movements throughout history.

In late 2008 and 2009, Ramsey County prosecuted more than a dozen 
felony cases resulting from the RNC. Abusing their unchecked power to 
slap on charge after unfounded charge as a way of coercing people out 
of exercising their right to trial, and with the constant threat of 
terrorism enhancements, prosecutors extracted numerous plea 
agreements from individuals who came to the RNC protests outraged at 
this oppressive system and willing to take a conscientious stand against it.

During the fall of 2008, well-known and controversial radical 
activist Brandon Darby was outed as a paid FBI informant. This 
happened as a result of his entrapment of Brad Crowder and David 
McKay, two young men who traveled from Texas to MN for the RNC 
protests. Though Brad and David both eventually plead guilty to 
federal charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, facts 
surrounding the case and testimony given during McKay's initial 
mistrial make it clear that Darby went out of his way to create the 
unlikely scenario in which the crimes were committed. Darby, whose 
crimes of conscience will go unpunished, has already robbed two 
people of their freedom, but the extent of his cooperation and the 
damage it has done to our community remains to be seen.

In April of 2009, Indiana residents Tiga Wertz and Hugh Farrell were 
arrested and charged with racketeering as a result of their work 
organizing against I-69, the US segment of the NAFTA Superhighway. 
I-69 will displace small farmers, wreak environmental destruction, 
and facilitate the movement of goods and capital at the expense of 
the continents' poor and working people. Tiga and Hugh are still 
awaiting trial, which will likely not start before 2011.

Late this fall, two friends and comrades of ours in Minneapolis, 
Carrie Feldman and Scott DeMuth, were subpoenaed to a federal grand 
jury in Davenport, IA, which is investigating a 2004 Animal 
Liberation Front action at the University of Iowa. Scott and Carrie 
were teenagers in Minnesota at the time of the ALF raid, and though 
they have no information to give about it, they refused to cooperate 
with the grand jury on principle. They were both jailed on civil 
contempt on November 17, 2009, and two days later, Scott was indicted 
under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). He is currently out 
awaiting trial and Carrie remains jailed in Iowa, where she may sit 
for another nine months. Carrie and Scott's involvement in RNC 
organizing, their affiliation with known antiRNC organizers, and 
materials seized in RNC raids, have all been used so far in 
prosecutorial attempts to vilify them and their politics.

Scott is only the seventh person ever charged under the AETA. In 
February of 2009, four people in Santa Cruz, CA, became the first 
AETA indictees, accused of first-amendment protected activities 
including leafleting and chalking sidewalks. Last spring, BJ Viehl 
and Alex Hall in Utah were also charged under the AETA in relation to 
mink liberations. BJ recently plead guilty, citing the improbability 
of a fair trial in such a heavily conservative state, and will 
probably be sentenced in March. Alex is still awaiting trial.

The same day that we go to court here for our next hearing, Jordan 
Halliday will start trial for felony contempt of court, a charge he 
is facing after months of incarceration on civil contempt for 
refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Utah.

This fall, comrades from the Tin Can Comms Collective sustained a 
raid and two arrests at the G20 mobilization in Pittsburgh. After 
returning to their home in Brooklyn, NY, the two arrested were 
subjected to yet another raid, this time on their house. State 
charges related to the G20 were subsequently dropped under 
circumstances that suggest the existence of an active federal 
investigation of Tin Can's activities.

Needless to say, anarchists have taken quite a few hits this year. 
Yet these cases are only one manifestation of the systematic 
repression of movements for social change. Even as anarchists have 
yet again become a primary target of State repression, the U.S. 
continues its war on Black and Puerto Rican revolutionaries, and their allies.

In January of 2007, charges were brought against eight former Black 
Panthers (the San Francisco 8) for the 1971 murder of a police officer.

The case, re-opened with post-9/11 anti-terrorism funds, is based on 
information extracted through torture. Several of the the SF8 are 
former or current political prisoners. By summer of 2009, most 
charges had been dropped or drastically reduced in plea agreements. 
As of this writing, the last remaining conspiracy charge was dropped, 
leaving a single charge against Cisco Torres.

In recent months, the State of Pennsylvania has engaged in a new push 
for the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely convicted of the murder 
of a police officer in1982 and held on death row ever since. His 
supporters across the globe are mobilizing, yet again, to prevent 
this- our movements have kept him alive thus far, and it falls on us 
yet again to prevent his State-sanctioned assassination.

Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican independence movement- which has won the 
release of most of its political prisoners over the past decades- is 
preparing a final push for the release of two of the remaining three, 
Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar Lopez Rivera.

At this moment, dozens of political prisoners sit in U.S. prisons and 
jails, many of them having been there for decades and some who may 
never get out. The State would have us believe that political 
prisoners do not exist in this country, which holds a full quarter of 
the world's incarcerated people in its prison plantations. It is our 
common commitment to a radically transformed world that they intend 
to subvert with every new arrest, detention and prosecution, and our 
only defense is an acknowledgement of the fact that this is happening 
day in and day out, and a commitment to fight it at every step of the way.

As we look towards what could be the final stage of our own case, 
we're left to ponder the impact of our work. It is our hope that our 
supporters also support every person named in this letter, and every 
target of State repression left unnamed. Whether we're acquitted or 
convicted come trial, the greater measure of our success will be the 
extent to which our case builds the movements to which we belong.

See you at trial,

the RNC 8

<http://rnc8.org/2010/01/letter-from-the-rnc-8-january-2010/>http://rnc8.org/2010/01/letter-from-the-rnc-8-january-2010/ 





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