Letter from RNC8 on the State of State Repression

by RNC8 Tuesday Jan 26th, 2010 Indybay.org

Dear friends, families and supporters,

The last time that we wrote, we were only weeks beyond the 2008 RNC,
and still figuring out how to navigate our case with a sense of
collectivity and integrity. Now, more than a year after the fact, we
find ourselves in a sort of limbo. Day to day, we don't feel the
intensity of repression that we did in the weeks surrounding the RNC,
yet the trial looms somewhere in the distance and we're not really
free to move on. We return to court on February 2nd, and may come out
of the hearing with a trial date certain. While it's hard to remain
upbeat about the prospect, we hope to make the final push towards
trial energizing for ourselves and our supporters alike, and we feel
certain that a strong show of court solidarity will make a huge
difference in the outcome of our case.

The past year has been difficult, both in dealing with our own
situation and in watching as State attempts to subvert and disrupt
anarchist movement gain steam, following well-established patterns of
repression against dissident political movements throughout history.

In late 2008 and 2009, Ramsey County prosecuted more than a dozen
felony cases resulting from the RNC. Abusing their unchecked power to
slap on charge after unfounded charge as a way of coercing people out
of exercising their right to trial, and with the constant threat of
terrorism enhancements, prosecutors extracted numerous plea
agreements from individuals who came to the RNC protests outraged at
this oppressive system and willing to take a conscientious stand against it.

During the fall of 2008, well-known and controversial radical
activist Brandon Darby was outed as a paid FBI informant. This
happened as a result of his entrapment of Brad Crowder and David
McKay, two young men who traveled from Texas to MN for the RNC
protests. Though Brad and David both eventually plead guilty to
federal charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, facts
surrounding the case and testimony given during McKay's initial
mistrial make it clear that Darby went out of his way to create the
unlikely scenario in which the crimes were committed. Darby, whose
crimes of conscience will go unpunished, has already robbed two
people of their freedom, but the extent of his cooperation and the
damage it has done to our community remains to be seen.

In April of 2009, Indiana residents Tiga Wertz and Hugh Farrell were
arrested and charged with racketeering as a result of their work
organizing against I-69, the US segment of the NAFTA Superhighway.
I-69 will displace small farmers, wreak environmental destruction,
and facilitate the movement of goods and capital at the expense of
the continents' poor and working people. Tiga and Hugh are still
awaiting trial, which will likely not start before 2011.

Late this fall, two friends and comrades of ours in Minneapolis,
Carrie Feldman and Scott DeMuth, were subpoenaed to a federal grand
jury in Davenport, IA, which is investigating a 2004 Animal
Liberation Front action at the University of Iowa. Scott and Carrie
were teenagers in Minnesota at the time of the ALF raid, and though
they have no information to give about it, they refused to cooperate
with the grand jury on principle. They were both jailed on civil
contempt on November 17, 2009, and two days later, Scott was indicted
under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). He is currently out
awaiting trial and Carrie remains jailed in Iowa, where she may sit
for another nine months. Carrie and Scott's involvement in RNC
organizing, their affiliation with known antiRNC organizers, and
materials seized in RNC raids, have all been used so far in
prosecutorial attempts to vilify them and their politics.

Scott is only the seventh person ever charged under the AETA. In
February of 2009, four people in Santa Cruz, CA, became the first
AETA indictees, accused of first-amendment protected activities
including leafleting and chalking sidewalks. Last spring, BJ Viehl
and Alex Hall in Utah were also charged under the AETA in relation to
mink liberations. BJ recently plead guilty, citing the improbability
of a fair trial in such a heavily conservative state, and will
probably be sentenced in March. Alex is still awaiting trial.

The same day that we go to court here for our next hearing, Jordan
Halliday will start trial for felony contempt of court, a charge he
is facing after months of incarceration on civil contempt for
refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Utah.

This fall, comrades from the Tin Can Comms Collective sustained a
raid and two arrests at the G20 mobilization in Pittsburgh. After
returning to their home in Brooklyn, NY, the two arrested were
subjected to yet another raid, this time on their house. State
charges related to the G20 were subsequently dropped under
circumstances that suggest the existence of an active federal
investigation of Tin Can's activities.

Needless to say, anarchists have taken quite a few hits this year.
Yet these cases are only one manifestation of the systematic
repression of movements for social change. Even as anarchists have
yet again become a primary target of State repression, the U.S.
continues its war on Black and Puerto Rican revolutionaries, and their allies.

In January of 2007, charges were brought against eight former Black
Panthers (the San Francisco 8) for the 1971 murder of a police officer.

The case, re-opened with post-9/11 anti-terrorism funds, is based on
information extracted through torture. Several of the the SF8 are
former or current political prisoners. By summer of 2009, most
charges had been dropped or drastically reduced in plea agreements.
As of this writing, the last remaining conspiracy charge was dropped,
leaving a single charge against Cisco Torres.

In recent months, the State of Pennsylvania has engaged in a new push
for the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely convicted of the murder
of a police officer in1982 and held on death row ever since. His
supporters across the globe are mobilizing, yet again, to prevent
this- our movements have kept him alive thus far, and it falls on us
yet again to prevent his State-sanctioned assassination.

Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican independence movement- which has won the
release of most of its political prisoners over the past decades- is
preparing a final push for the release of two of the remaining three,
Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar Lopez Rivera.

At this moment, dozens of political prisoners sit in U.S. prisons and
jails, many of them having been there for decades and some who may
never get out. The State would have us believe that political
prisoners do not exist in this country, which holds a full quarter of
the world's incarcerated people in its prison plantations. It is our
common commitment to a radically transformed world that they intend
to subvert with every new arrest, detention and prosecution, and our
only defense is an acknowledgement of the fact that this is happening
day in and day out, and a commitment to fight it at every step of the way.

As we look towards what could be the final stage of our own case,
we're left to ponder the impact of our work. It is our hope that our
supporters also support every person named in this letter, and every
target of State repression left unnamed. Whether we're acquitted or
convicted come trial, the greater measure of our success will be the
extent to which our case builds the movements to which we belong.

See you at trial,

the RNC 8

http://rnc8.org/2010/01/letter-from-the-rnc-8-january-2010/>http://rnc8.org/2010/01/letter-from-the-rnc-8-january-2010/


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