Dispatches from behind bars. Political prisoners speak out.
The official story is that the United States has no political prisoners. The reality is that there are hundreds of people rounded up, placed behind bars, and kept there for inordinately long sentences because of their political beliefs and activities. A project of abolitionist Josh Davidson and political prisoner Eric King, this book is filled with the experience and wisdom of over thirty current and former North American political prisoners. It provides first-hand details of prison life and the political commitments that continue to lead prisoners into direct confrontation with state authorities and institutions. The people Josh Davidson has interviewed include former radicals and Black liberation militants from the sixties and seventies, current antifascists, nonviolent Catholic peace activists, Animal and Earth Liberation Front saboteurs, and more. Their stories are moving, often tragic, yet deeply inspiring.
Collectively, these people have spent hundreds of years behind bars, and their experiences speak directly to the cruelty and immorality of our prison and so-called criminal justice systems. Although their sentences and the conditions they have endured vary dramatically, this wide range of voices come together to embody what bell hooks called “a legacy of defiance.” It is this legacy—of tirelessly struggling to right today’s wrongs and create a better tomorrow—that the prison system tries, yet fails, to extinguish.
Contributors include: Donna Willmott, James Kilgore, Mark Cook, Rebecca Rubin, Hanif Shabazz Bey, Chelsea Manning, Oso Blanco, Ann Hansen, Sean Swain, Martha Hennessy, Jalil Muntaqim, Jeremy Hammond, Kojo Bomani Sababu, Laura Whitehorn, Eric King, Rattler, Ray Luc Levasseur, Elizabeth Mc Alister, Malik Smith, David Campbell, Xinachtli, David Gilbert, Susan Rosenberg, Daniel Mc Gowan, Linda Evans, Herman Bell, Jennifer Rose, Ed Mead, Jerry Koch, Michael Kimble, Bill Harris, Jaan Laaman, Jake Conroy, Marius Mason, Bill Dunne, Oscar López Rivera
Mục lục
Foreword – by Angela Y. Davis
Preface – by Josh Davidson
Acknowledgements – by Josh Davidson and Eric King
Introduction – by Sara Falconer
Interviews
Donna Willmott
James Kilgore
Mark Cook
Rebecca Rubin
Hanif Shabazz Bey
Chelsea Manning
Oso Blanco
Ann Hansen
Sean Swain
Martha Hennessy
Jalil Muntaqim
Jeremy Hammond
Kojo Bomani Sababu
Laura Whitehorn
Eric King
Rattler
Ray Luc Levasseur
Elizabeth Mc Alister
Malik Smith
David Campbell
Xinachtli
David Gilbert
Susan Rosenberg
Daniel Mc Gowan
Linda Evans
Herman Bell
Jennifer Rose
Ed Mead
Jerry Koch
Michael Kimble
Bill Harris
Jaan Laaman
Jake Conroy
Marius Mason
Bill Dunne
Oscar López Rivera
Giới thiệu về tác giả
Eric King is a father, poet, author, and activist. He is a political prisoner serving a ten-year federal sentence for an act of protest over the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. He is scheduled to be released in 2024. He has been held in solitary confinement for years on end and has been assaulted by both guards and white supremacists. Eric has published several zines, and his sentencing statement is included in the book Defiance: Anarchist Statements Before Judge and Jury (2019).