There are plenty of things wrong with this country. But politicians don't want to do anything about them. Instead of decisive, bold leadership, our political system produces cash-starved flunkies who gloat over how they create more wealth for the wealthy and take more away from those we have little to begin with. Our governments aren't interested in the health, safety and well-being of people who have to work for a living. It's up to us to watch out for ourselves and hold government and industry responsible for the reckless pursuit of financial gain. Because our elected officials have definitely taken an antagonistic attitude towards us, it's not surprising that some of us are fighting back. It should also not be surprising that government would take strong measures against us when we do.

Just because dissidents aren't being rounded up and executed or gunned down in the streets doesn't mean political repression isn't happening. More laws are being passed to protect corporate property, to increase the penalties for traditional methods of non-violent civil disobedience and define them as acts of terrorism.

The U.S. government has been conducting a low intensity war against its citizens for 30 years now; the war on drugs. To do so, police forces have been armed with military weapons and vehicles. When that's not enough, U.S. armed forces have been called in to invade U.S. territory. With estimates that 25 percent of all Americans regularly use illegal substances-many of these so called drugs are plants and fungi, not pharmaceuticals- our government has found an internal scapegoat enemy much more easy to vilify than Jews. The facts are that the U.S. government benefits from drug trafficking and is willing to go to war to protect cooperative drug lords, as they did in Southeast Asia during the Cold War and as they are currently doing in South America.

IN addition to polluting our social environment with addictive drugs, our government is bending over backwards to allow maximum exploitation of the ecosystems we inhabit. Who will be held responsible for the pollution of our air, water and food supply? We will. And if we can't afford medical treatment, well, we'll just die, won't we? While Wall Street continues o creep up to undreamt of heights, the infant mortality rate continues to climb, also, while the standard of living for the typical American has plummeted out of the range of the rest of the First World.

Many of us have chosen to resist the poisoning of our communities, and we're in prison because of this.

Before gangsta culture was embedded in urban centers, there was resistance to drug dealing in Black communities. There are numerous political prisoners in the U.S. who are doing time for combating drug dealers and pimps. The gangsta playas get lots of praise from rap stars while the men and women who fought to uplift their people are locked away and forgotten. These warriors are so feared by the prisoncrats, they are held in Special Housing Units, kept away from contact with general population prisoners and face greater restrictions within the prison. Some states have entire SHUs filled with politicized prisoner activists and affective jail house litigators.

Prisoncrats can do this by claiming these folks are a threat to the security of their institutions. This has been a very successful innovation on their part, as rules concerning Security Threat Groups and actions that constitute threats to prisons are very vague and can be applied to any situation that suits the whims of prison staff. Legal mail, law books, mail between prisoners, law libraries and prisoner support groups on the outside have all been banned, confiscated or otherwise targeted as security threats by various state prisons.

Religious beliefs and practices, particularly non-Christian ones (Islam, Buddhism, Wicca and Native American) have been classified as STGs in some states, though courts usually remedy this situation.

But prisoncrats have learned how to deal with courts, too. There is a growing trend of closing legal libraries in prisons. Courts have backed them up on this, too. The claim is that prisoners can still access courts through the mail, which is true. But how can a prisoner with no access to case law expect to file a successful motion? If the prisoner happens to have his own law books, she might have a chance. If such a prisoner were to allow other prisoners access to his law books or legal knowledge, that's a security threat violation and she'll lose the books. This is one of the clearest examples of how politically-motivated repression against a few people affects entire communities.

More worrisome to me is that STG rules are being applied to anarchists.

Allegedly invoked after the anti-WTO Battle of Seattle, the anarchist STG jacket will allow courts to issues stiffer penalties for anarchist "gang members" and police to watch them more closely. Ironically, interest in anarchy and anarchists has mushroomed in the past couple of years, so prisoners across the country are asking for anarchist literature--traditionally provided to prisoners for free. The most common reaction I've heard in here is "It's about time people started fighting those bastards (the government and police)."

In prison, the STG jacket means anarchists will have their mail more heavily censored. The peace symbol, hearts, circle A's, squatting tags and other widely used graphics by punk rock bands and peace and justice groups have all been determined to be anarchist gang symbols. Any literature or other mail that has these symbols in them are rejected for being prohibited gang communications. This is done to cut off anarchist prisoners from their outside friends and supporters. And to try to prevent the spread and influence of anarchist ideas inside prisons.

Legal materials-even court documents- disappear or are confiscated as STG material, especially from anarchist prisoners who've been helping out other prisoners.

When anarchist prisoners are sent to SHUs, they are often housed alongside white supremacists and neo-nazis. As a result, anti-racist and anti-fascist street fighters have been assaulted and hospitalized. Guards in the SHUs also like to pass anarchists' mail to other prisoners in order to instigate their attacks.

Across the country- in at least 19 cities- local state and federal law enforcement agencies have formed Joint Task Forces on Terrorism. Despite elected officials' reassurances that the task forces only investigate terrorists, people have been harassed at their places of employment to the point that their employers have fired them. Targeted terrorist groups include labor unions, and anyone who fits the anarchist profile: punk rockers, people with visible body piercing, and people who dress in black.

These task forces were mainly formed to keep an eye out for suspected rioters and the Earth Liberation Front. You can bet they'll be used against anyone who speaks out against the New World Order and an end to the racist just-us system.

What has been the response by the ELF to this heightened level of attention? In addition to increased attacks against the despoilers of the Earth, this quote from Assata Shakur covers an issue of Resistance, the journal of the North American ELF press office:
"It is the obligation of every person who claims to oppose oppression to resist the oppressor by every means at his or her disposal. Not to engage in physical resistance, armed resistance to oppression, is to serve the interests of the oppressor; no more, no less. There are no exceptions to the rule, no easy out…"

Revolution isn't fought by cowards, and now is no time to back down.

Resistance $3 (free to prisoners)
PO Box 4783
Portland OR 97208

Anarchist Prisoners Legal Aid Network
818 SW 3rd Ave PMB #354
Portland, OR 97204
(publishes We Never Sleep- $7-$10 per year, send 2 1st class stamps for sample issue-free to prisoners)

Rob Thaxton is an anarchist political prisoner in Oregon who was convicted of hitting a cop in the chest with a rock during an action where police attacked protesters. Rob received 88 months in prison. Many feel Rob was singled out for his political beliefs and because he is a Latino activist. He has continued to write and organize even behind bars.

Rob Thaxton
#12112716
2605 State St.
OSP
Salem OR 97310