QUEER FIRE: The George Jackson Brigade, Men Against Sexism, and Gay Struggle Against Prison

A collection of histories, speeches, and interviews with members of The George Jackson Brigade and Men Against Sexism. These stories give inspiration for the multiform queer struggle against prison, capitalism, and the state.

queer-fire pdf

3 Positions Against Prison

Text from back cover:

“One and a half centuries ago, slavery was abolished by the United States government. This followed an enormous social struggle over abolition–wars were fought between pro-slavery elements and abolitionist elements. There were slave revolts and armed uprisings. The government intervened. And the Thirteenth Amendment ever-so-neatly includes a loophole allowing for the enslavement of prisoners (“except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”). Moreover, the economic system of chattel slavery was replaced with indentured servitude and industrial wage labor–which the Northern capitalists were struggling to proliferate. So today, we have slavery, although slavery has been abolished. The structures of society that required slaves have remained intact. And in one hundred years, prisons may be abolished, but we will still have prisons as long as capitalism remains intact.”

3 Positions Against Prison pdf

Against Prisons, Politics, Society

Text from the zine:

“There appears to be a trend in radical circles of distinguishing prisoners based on their so-called ‘crimes’, with the intent (conscious or not) to identify ‘political prisoners’ who, by virtue of their actions, are more deserving of support and solidarity. Prisoners who have been targeted by the state due to their political beliefs and/or actions are given special attention amongst radicals, while the rest of the prison population spending their days in a cage are often only an afterthought, used as a means to lend credibility to political ideology, or completely forgotten.

“This privileged and moralistic practice has invaded radical circles and creates a distinction between ‘political’ and ‘ordinary’ prisoner. Political prisoners are said to have been imprisoned unjustly, unlike the rest of the prison population. This can manifest either as an insistence of their innocence (as in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal), or, in cases in which the prisoner has obviously broken the law, they are viewed as acting only in response to unjust laws or conditions (as in the case of Walter Bond). In both cases, their innocence is maintained.”

Against Prison Politics Society pdf

Attacking Prisons At Their Point of Production: A Brief Look at Militant Actions Against the Prison Industrial Complex

Attacking-Prisons-Point of Production pdf

Locked Up

Text from back cover:

“Prison is the most direct, brutal expression of power, and like power it must be destroyed, it cannot be abolished progressively. Anyone who thinks they can improve it now in order to destroy it in the future will forever be a captive of it. The revolutionary project of anarchists is to struggle along with the exploited and push them to rebel against all abuse and repression, so also against prison. What moves them is the desire for a better world, a better life with dignity and ethic, where economy and politics have been destroyed. There can be no place for prison in that world.”

locked up pdf

Survival in Solitary: A manual written by & for people living in control units

Text from back cover:

“The federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, went on permanent lock down in 1983. This created the first “control unit”. Now, in addition to the federal government, some forty states have built these “maxi-maxi” prisons — representations of the angry and cruel repression that grips our country today. Human beings are put alone in a small cell with double steel doors and no window for 23 hours a day. No program, no work, no education, meals alone, and maybe one hour by oneself in a bare dog-run outside. A religious task force calls such conditions psychological pain and agony tantamount to torture. It is torture. Here, now, in the following pages, people who are captives in these cells write about what goes on and how you can survive…”

Survival In Solitary pdf

Anarchy Live! The Writings of Anarchist Prisoner Michael Kimble

Text from back cover:

“Prison has swallowed up millions of people. Those who have been lucky to survive them have problems with housing, jobs, and education, among many other problems stemming from being held captive by the state. Once one has been digested by the state into their prisons, they are forever more targeted for discrimination and further oppression by society.

Prisons must be abolished and the only way to end prisons is to destroy the state. Reform is the only outcome of “Prison Movements.” We have to up the ante. We have to make this muthafucka ungovernable.”

Anarchy Live pdf