Political prisoners “are our messengers, our dreamers, and our pioneers,” writes celebrated Marxist and abolitionist Angela Davis within the preface to Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners. “They train us that we shouldn’t have to accede to current modes of organizing our collective existence. They remind us that there’s life past racial capitalism, past heteropatriarchy, past the horrible internet of carcerality, which they boldly critique even because it has captured their our bodies. They’re harbingers of the liberty to return.”
Rattling the Cages, edited by abolitionist Josh Davidson and political prisoner Eric King, consists of interviews with dozens of present and former political and anarchist prisoners. This assortment explores why these interviewed had been imprisoned and the way they maintained their political convictions whereas incarcerated. The gathering is printed by AK Press, a worker-run, collectively managed anarchist writer and distributor.
“The conversations that comply with present resilience, dedication, and an dependable dedication to the struggles for which these freedom fighters proceed to struggle,” Davidson writes within the preface. “Their principled resistance within the face of the unimaginably merciless and tortuous situations they survive speaks volumes to their character.”
Collectively these political prisoners, who embrace radicals and Black liberation militants from the ‘60s and ’70s, present anti-fascists, nonviolent Catholic peace activists, Animal and Earth Liberation Entrance saboteurs, and extra, have spent a whole bunch of years behind bars.
“I need to actually seize what their jail expertise was like, what they actually really feel about help, so the following technology (god prepared there will likely be a subsequent technology) will know what their moms and dads went by way of,” wrote Eric King, who helped to guide these interviews from his jail cell. “We can’t let these experiences go to waste. We can’t flip our backs on these folks with apathy or indifference. We have to love them the way in which they beloved the world sufficient to struggle for it.”
King himself has been confined in egregious situations at a few of the most brutal federal prisons throughout the nation after making an attempt to throw two Molotov cocktails at an empty federal constructing at nighttime to help the Ferguson rebellion in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, in 2014. Whereas incarcerated, he has been the sufferer of assaults by jail guards and white supremacists, held in solitary confinement for a number of years, and had his entry to mail and cellphone calls interrupted and withheld.
Regardless of the hardships he confronted whereas incarcerated due to his political convictions, King has remained a devoted anti-fascist, anarchist, anti-racist and vegan. His release date from federal prison is February 2024. Royalties from ebook gross sales will likely be break up between King’s household and the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) Federation’s Warchest program, which gives monetary help to presently imprisoned political prisoners.
The interviews on this assortment present not solely “the inhumanity of the carceral system and the depravity that the state embraces to take care of energy,” within the phrases of Davidson, but additionally “that no stage of carceral torture can kill the revolutionary hope for a greater world.”
Davidson spoke to Truthout’s Zane McNeill in regards to the strategy of bringing this assortment into the world and what we are able to be taught from this “legacy of defiance,” within the phrases of bell hooks.
Zane McNeill: You point out that this ebook is the results of years of correspondence and dialog with anarchist political prisoner Eric King. How did your relationship with Eric start and the way did you each work collectively to compile these tales?
Josh Davidson: I began writing to Eric in 2016 or 2017, after my fellow Certain Days collective member Daniel McGowan prompt it as a result of he thought we each had quite a bit in frequent. Seems he was proper, and Eric and I’ve been corresponding ever since — primarily by way of letters, but additionally emails and cellphone calls when he has had the uncommon alternative.
As I describe within the preface to the ebook, Eric and I had been each studying Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing when he got here up with the concept of interviewing political prisoners with the intention to deliver voice to the experiences they endure in struggling to create a greater world. As soon as we bought the preliminary concept, the ball began rolling fairly rapidly. We got here up with about two dozen questions which I then began sharing with as many present and former political prisoners as I might discover.
I carried out the interviews — about 40 of them, which took just a few years — however Eric has stayed as concerned within the mission as doable given his continued confinement. Resulting from mail bans, mail restrictions and the final price of sending mail to these inside, Eric has but to see the ultimate manuscript, so I’m actually wanting ahead to him and the opposite contributors seeing the ultimate product. I hope that I’ve been capable of do justice to their tales, and to focus on their commitments to struggling for one thing higher.
In your preface to Rattling the Cages, you discover how “all prisoners are political.” What do you imply by this? How do these interviewed on this assortment outline themselves, or not, as “political prisoners”?
Typically talking, the time period “political prisoner” refers to somebody being confined for actions, help of or membership in a bunch struggling for freedom from oppression, an oppressive authorities, or exploitation of peoples, animals or the Earth. (See extra definitions like that in the Certain Days calendar.) Nevertheless, at a bigger stage, from the cops to the courts, the politicians to the prisons, it’s laborious to disclaim that politics will not be concerned within the mass imprisonment of nonwhite peoples the world over.
These I interviewed had been both “political prisoners” as outlined above, or people who turned extra politically aware whereas incarcerated, also known as “politicized prisoners.” As Sara Falconer wrote in her stunning introduction, these interviewed “are organizers, contributing to ongoing struggles and sharing radical critiques.” And I feel “organizers” works nicely right here, as a result of whether or not inside or out, these I interviewed have spent their lives organizing to create a greater future.
Eric mentions in his acknowledgment that “this ebook was a labor of affection, and likewise threat.” What dangers have you ever each confronted by placing this ebook out into the world? What dangers have these interviewed thought of when talking with you?
There are all the time dangers concerned when retelling histories, particularly of those that have confronted probably the most repressive arms of the state. I used to be cautious with sure questions and made a degree of avoiding something incriminating, and the contributors, I’m certain, took the identical precautions. However I feel those that took the most important dangers listed here are the contributors who stay imprisoned — those that determined to talk up even whereas confined.
As Eric mentioned, although, the ebook can be a labor of affection. I really feel so honored to have the ability to collaborate with him on this mission and to have the ability to assist amplify the voices of every of those that selected to contribute to Rattling the Cages. The outpouring of affection and solidarity that the contributors and others who’ve helped with this mission have shared with Eric is really wonderful, and I hope that it continues after he’s lastly launched.
What do these interviews train us about jail life and the political commitments that proceed to guide prisoners into direct confrontation with state authorities and establishments?
I feel there are a number of classes to be gleaned from these interviews, and from the experiences and repression that these interviewed had been capable of survive. There are three vital issues we are able to be taught, which nearly everybody I interviewed made a degree of mentioning.
First, jail isn’t the tip of the road; jail is one other entrance within the ongoing battle to create a greater world. The identical issues that exist on the earth additionally exist in jail, and are typically amplified. Understanding that, and being ready to proceed the battle behind bars is vital to bear in mind — each for imprisoned activists and for outdoor organizers offering prisoner help.
Second, don’t lose hope. Prisons are the epicenter of state repression, and people locked up face a lifetime of trauma, however the carceral system has completely failed when it comes to suppressing the revolutionary dedication of individuals combating for one thing higher. I feel Jalil Muntaqim gives a superb instance. Jalil spent 50 years in jail for his involvement with the Black Liberation Military. Fifty years. But, after I interviewed him just a few months after his launch from jail, he was simply as pumped about getting out into the streets to make some change as I think about he was again within the late Sixties, when he joined the Black Panther Occasion. I discover that dedication extraordinarily inspiring.
“No stage of carceral torture can kill the revolutionary hope for a greater world.”
The third lesson, which each contributor made a degree of discussing, is the significance of outdoor help, not just for political prisoners, however for all folks within the carceral system. Don’t let jail partitions and bars act as a barrier to the relationships that exist between folks inside and outdoors of prisons. It’s these relationships which can be key — they assist maintain these locked up alive; they permit wonderful inside-outside tasks to flourish (e.g. Sure Days, Ear Hustle, 4strugglemag, Fire Ant, Children’s Art Project, Mongoose Distro, and the record goes on and on); and typically they culminate in profitable freedom campaigns that see these freedom fighters coming dwelling the place they belong.
Eric says that one of many objectives of this mission is to look past the struggling that political prisoners have confronted by the state and whereas incarcerated. What are a few of the moments you discovered about in your interviews that present the enjoyment that political prisoners have created of their lives and resistance work?
There have been, surprisingly, many moments of pleasure that folks shared from their time incarcerated. Nearly all of that pleasure got here from the very relationships I simply talked about above. Whether or not seeing household or comrades within the visiting room or constructing friendships by way of political training and strolling the jail yard, it’s the connections to others — the humanity and the solidarity in battle — the place these I interviewed discovered pleasure.
Additionally they discovered pleasure in acts of resistance to the jail system. This nonstop resistance was additionally one thing that got here by way of very clearly in lots of the interviews. From organizing strikes to collectively stopping abusers, from facility-wide closures to non-public triumphs, these political prisoners — these organizers — discovered pleasure within the battle itself. As Michael Kimble, one of many contributors, wrote to me, “Josh, issues are dismal, however I do discover moments of pleasure. However actual pleasure comes from resistance, battle, hanging a blow towards the system. I don’t know methods to do anything. I don’t need to do anything.”
This ebook itself is an act of resistance in that it amplifies the voices of those that the carceral system is making an attempt to silence. Eric has spent years on finish in solitary confinement, shipped across the U.S. merely to be saved in a cage, and his communication restrictions have been unprecedented. Nonetheless, collectively we made this oral historical past assortment occur — regardless of the mail restrictions, regardless of the surveillance and repression, regardless of the partitions, cages and razor wire fencing. I feel that’s one thing to be joyous about.
How does this assortment transfer us to hitch the battle for liberation and create a legacy for future political prisoners and abolitionists to construct upon?
It’s my hope that this ebook serves a twin objective: to offer an archival abolitionist doc that highlights the historical past of battle of activists throughout generations and throughout actions, and likewise to function a catalyst for youthful folks, for them to acknowledge their half on this historical past and to behave upon it, whereas there may be nonetheless time. I hope that readers are capable of determine with a few of the contributors and to acknowledge that although the actions are numerous — for Black liberation, to guard the Earth and the surroundings, for LGBTQIA rights, and towards capitalism and imperialism and so on. — the battle is one. Our shared future depends upon us appearing now, within the spirit of those that fought earlier than us and with their identical goals in thoughts. Straight forward, like Mutulu mentioned.
As famous above, Rattling the Cages is a fundraiser, with proceeds being break up between the ABC’s Warchest, which gives month-to-month stipends to present political prisoners, and Eric, in order that he’s capable of have some monetary stability as soon as he’s launched. Preorders for the ebook started on September 1, and thru September 18, AK Press and Burning Books are collaborating to supply 15 p.c off the ebook, with $5 from every ebook offered going to the ABC’s annual 5k fundraiser, Running Down the Walls. So, discover a Working Down the Partitions occasion close to you and buy Rattling the Cages earlier than September 18, in order that you can also help the political prisoners from our liberation actions.
Sara Falconer writes within the introduction that political prisoners “know too nicely the lengths the state will go to take care of management. They typically need assistance with assets, combatting censorship, and discovering platforms for his or her phrases — which is one thing many people on the skin can provide.” What can we do to help political prisoners?
Effectively, after attending the closest Working Down the Partitions and buying Rattling the Cages, I’d counsel writing to somebody inside. Discover a political prisoner by way of the ABC’s Illustrated Guide and write to 1 that pursuits you. Discover a native Anarchist Black Cross group, assist out at your nearest Books Through Bars, purchase a Sure Days calendar, go to somebody in jail and provide help in no matter means you possibly can. Educate, agitate and arrange. You can also assist amplify the voices of these locked away. Discover a method to collaborate with them that makes use of your abilities and pursuits.
Sara additionally wrote in her introduction, “I do really feel that now we have a accountability to help folks in jail and to work to dismantle this unjust system. However past that, we additionally achieve a lot from the relationships we construct with one another. At occasions I’ve felt much more supported by my mates inside than the opposite means round. This work is tangible. It retains me grounded and retains me dedicated to battle even after I’m feeling pissed off and burned out.”
Supporting political prisoners, and anybody behind bars, isn’t straightforward work, however it’s wanted. It’s an integral a part of the custom of organizing and motion constructing that can, with our continued effort, result in one thing higher. So, do what you possibly can to assist these locked up, after which do some extra. You received’t remorse it.
