Dear Essex, It is our birthday again. I am sitting here in this tomb of sorrow thinking about your weapons. Since I picked them up, I have been questioning whether I can carry the responsibility you shouldered. You told us that someone would have to answer the mail you leave, the messages on your phone … Continue reading Dear Essex / 4.16.2021
In The Belly, Vol 3
Our third issue just reached comrades in PA, through their painfully slow book delivery system. That means we are posting it online now. Here are two PDFs, one is a reader and one is a Booklet, thanks to the comrades who made this beautiful booklet-making tool In The Belly 3, Reader: in-the-belly-vol-3-readerDownload https://abolitioniststudy.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/in-the-belly-vol-3-reader.pdf In The … Continue reading In The Belly, Vol 3
You Gotta Learn the History: an Interview with Michael “Safear” Ness
Michael “Safear” Ness is an imprisoned abolitionist organizer at SCI-Fayette in Pennsylvania. IA is an outside friend and comrade. IA: When and how did you become an abolitionist in your thinking? And in your practice? Safear: I’ve been radical since before abolition was in my vocabulary. Meaning, I was always someone who wanted to understand … Continue reading You Gotta Learn the History: an Interview with Michael “Safear” Ness
Defend Stevie Against Violent Retaliation!
Image: "Bars 1" by Josh MacPhee, thanks to JustSeeds. Description: Black background, with white bars bent and broken in the middle. Stephen Wilson, a Black queer abolitionist organizer and a prisoner of the state of Pennsylvania, is once again facing retaliation, harassment, and repression at SCI-Fayette. A rank-and-file prison cop named Digiacomo, who has for … Continue reading Defend Stevie Against Violent Retaliation!
Study Groups & Moving Together: An Interview with Stephen Wilson
Fences, by Rini Templeton, thanks to JustSeeds Stephen Wilson is a Black queer abolitionist writing, organizing, and building study groups and community behind the wall at SCI-Fayette in Pennsylvania. Ian Alexander is his friend and comrade on the outside. This interview is the first in a series that will be published together as a zine. Ian … Continue reading Study Groups & Moving Together: An Interview with Stephen Wilson
Who’s Got A Hand In This Sh*t?
By Michael "Safear" Ness (Written January 22, 2021) The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections refuses to waste money on individual COVID-19 tests for the prisoner population, instead preferring to test each prison's accumulated sewage for COVID levels. An official PA DOC memo dated January 21, 2021 from Secretary of Corrections John E. Wetzel states, "Facilities will … Continue reading Who’s Got A Hand In This Sh*t?
Vaccine Fact Sheet
Our brilliant Chicago comrades at NU Abolition & Northside Prisoner Letter Writing Coalition made this fact sheet to send to all your imprisoned friends and contacts. Please send and share widely! "Vaccine hesitancy in the Black community and prison populations is a result of decades of medical neglect and abuse and is a fair reaction … Continue reading Vaccine Fact Sheet
In The Belly Special Issue
The Imprisoned Black Radical Tradition DEAR COMRADES, This is not Volume 3 of In The Belly, it’s a special issue. While ITB is regularly written primarily by imprisoned people, Editor-In-Chief Stephen Wilson wanted to share this document with you. It is a roundtable, a series of interviews, that he conducted with a group of non-incarcerated … Continue reading In The Belly Special Issue
Solidarity with Garrett Felber!
By Stephen Wilson ‘The things prisoners wrote really jumped off the page.’ Illustration: Eva Bee https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/10/writing-to-prisoners-unlocks-more-than-you-would-think Whenever you conceptualize social justice struggles, you will always defeat your own purposes if you cannot imagine the people around whom you are struggling as equal partners. Therefore if, and this is one of the problems with all reform … Continue reading Solidarity with Garrett Felber!
Why Should Prisoners Embrace Indigenous Resistance?
An Imprisoned Abolitionist Analysis of Our History is the Future by Nick Estes By Safear Before you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, take some time to learn the true history of the Indigenous people of America. In the mythology of American propaganda, the Indigenous are portrayed as characters in a story from the past. Have you … Continue reading Why Should Prisoners Embrace Indigenous Resistance?