FREE JOEL: Updates

3/25 – We now have a Free Joel Fund going to help him get commissary and pay fines. You can donate here:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=K5G5QSK9QQTKJ

3/25 – Joels Mailing/Address as of now :

Multnomah County Inverness Jail
C/O Dow, Joel D.
SWIS ID: 745437
11540 NE Inverness Drive
Portland OR
97220

Tel. for the Jail is 503 988 5060

Please call the Jail to request that Joel receive vegan meals.

(Note – Remember, everything you send IS HANDLED BY AN OFFICER but Joel would surely appreciate letters of love and support. Include nothing but letters written on one side of each numbered sheet of paper, no symbols [as this could be “gang related” as they say], do not use paperclips, staples, or even glitter. etc.)

Facebook support group.

From Greece to the US: Thank You

After our car was broken into in Berkeley and large amounts of valuable things were taken out, we’ve been awed by the flood of support from US anarchists. We’d been touring around the country for a month in a borrowed car on a shoestring budget, giving presentations about the Greece insurrection, and were hoping to leave that day for the next talk, when we found our window smashed open and several boxes of books and equipment missing. Thanks to the generosity of our networks, this hardly slowed us down.

The folks of Little Black Cart immediately got the word out and set up a link for collecting donations. The folks at AK Press replaced one of the boxes of books for free, and helped us find another of the titles that had gone missing. A local anarchist paid to get the car window replaced. Donations flooded in from around the country. People cooked for us, helped us make phone calls, and put us up for another night.

The result is that we were able to leave the next day, still in time for our talk in Oregon, with our car repaired, all our books still in stock, and the strong possibility that Void Network will be able to replace their stolen projector and hard drives (even though the files are gone for good). And if between now and then we can find a free projector, we’ll even have some extra money from fundraising, which we’ll give to the support campaign of Scott and Carrie, who are inspiring us all by sticking fast to their beliefs despite being jailed and threatened with prison time.
[Faster!]

We’d especially like to thank the folks of Portland, Oregon, for keeping it real. We’d be really sad if this tour accomplished nothing more than to distribute a book, and if books did nothing more than to inform people as they ponder the routines they’re trapped in. The day after the talk in Portland, the cops killed someone, and people who had just gathered to talk about the inspiring, fiery responses to a police murder on the other side of the world, and about their own limitations locally, came together again to fight back against the aggressions of the State, to interrupt the routines of apathy and forgetting, to not let another murder be silenced, to wipe the arrogant smiles off the faces of the police.

We don’t think it’s a coincidence that Greek chants shook the streets of Portland: “Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons!” “And now one slogan to unite us all: Cops! Pigs! Muderers!” And we don’t think it’s any small matter that in the strongest of states, that supposedly most pacified of societies, if only for one night, cops had to be mobilized from surrounding towns to patrol the streets, and the local force was called in to protect the police stations.

The solidarity actions are continuing in Portland. They could spread, if folks in other places let themselves feel affected by it. It’s only a huge country if we let ourselves feel far away from the folks on the other side of it, only if we are liberals in the gut and in the heart who, even though we know better, continue to FEEL like this is an isolated issue unrelated to us.

At the second day of protest in Portland, someone got arrested and is facing several felony charges. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105650556133594 We hope Joel gets even more support than we did.

It’s time to believe in ourselves.

And one day very soon, it will be time for anarchists from the US to travel to Greece, travel to Spain, to the rest of the world, and tell people there about the amazing and courageous struggles that are being created here.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for fighting. Thank you for existing.

In struggle,
Tasos, Sissy, and Peter

THIS WED: Guantanamo Bay Letter Writing Night

Wednesday, March 31
6:30pm
6th Avenue United Church of Christ (6th ave and Adams st.)

Nearly eight hundred Arab Muslims were captured and imprisoned at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after President Bush declared his “War on Terror”
after the events of 9/11. Many, if not most, of these men were brutally
tortured at prisons in Pakistan and Afghanistan (and elsewhere) before
being brought to the Guantanamo Bay beginning in January 2002. Over eight
years have passed, and there are still about 190 men that are imprisoned
there. Almost none of these men have been charged with any criminal
offense. Virtually none of them have been provided due process to
demonstrate that their imprisonment is illegal under United States and
International laws.

Some lawyers, on a completely pro bono basis, have volunteered to
represent these men against the illegal and oppressive regime which causes
them to remain imprisoned. These lawyers, in conjunction with human rights
organizations and other activists, are fighting in the courts, through
diplomatic channels, and in the public spheres to secure due process of
law for those detainees that remain imprisoned. One aspect of the
humanitarian work that has been underutilized so far is the direct
communication by the outside world with the detainees themselves, to
remind them that they have not been forgotten, and that many members of
our society remain committed to securing justice. There are methods
through which we can communicate with these men, to let them know that the
fight is still being waged, and that they are not forgotten.

At the event lawyers who are representing several detainees will be
present to further discuss all of the issues implicated by the Guantanamo
Bay experience. They will answer your questions about the legal issues,
the conditions of confinement at the prisons, the horrific torture
inflicted
upon their clients, and any other issues which you would like to talk
about. You will also have the opportunity to write letters to the clients.

Childcare and translation will be provided.