Wednesday, January 05, 2011

New Years Noise Demo Reports


New Year’s Prison Noise Demo – Richmond, VA

From Anarchy Mo

Happy Fuckin’ New Year!

We just celebrated by having the Richmond Anarchist Black Cross’ first
annual noise demo in front of the Richmond City Jail. 7 people attended,
which was small, but really fucking loud! We didn’t plan very far ahead of
time this year- next year should be a much bigger event. It was still a
great way to ring in the New Year and I really hope some of the inmates
heard us and got stoked that something was happening. Any bands or people
interested in organizing for next year’s event or just organizing at all
around jail issues should contact the anarchist black cross-
rvaabc@gmail.com

Starting off the New Year in the middle of a demo sets a tone for me that
I hope will continue.


New Years Prison Noise Demo - Tacoma

Jan. 4, 2011 Anarchist News

The sweet sounds of anti pig hip-hop and the banging of flag poles (with
all black flags on the ends of course) on the thick metal prison fence
created more than enough noise for those inside to hear us on the outside.
About 10 anarchists were gathered with a small sound system at the Pierce
county Jail in the center of the city. People walking by reacted
positively, one person even joining in on taking out some frustration on
prison property was as well brought to tears at the whole gesture. Another
demanding fist bumps from all present and yelling fuck the police at the
prison for a few minutes. Noise demonstrations have happened every month
for the past six months at this particular prison normally ending with us
on the outside stopping the music and asking those on the inside to make
some noise which we can luckily hear and which always fuels our rage at
this rotten system. However this time the police put a end to our event
with their threats of arrest. Some of us traded insults with the boys in
blue as others were moving the sound system away from the distinct smell
of bacon. As this was happening a random car yelled fuck the police at the
pigs as it passed interrupting their show of power and making them
uncomfortable, this obviously warmed our hearts. Soon after everyone left
in two groups and no arrests were attempted or made.

P.S. We would love to hear how noise demos in all the other cities went.


2nd Annual New Years Noise Demo in Hamilton, Ontario

Jan. 4, 2011 Anarchist News

On December 31st 2010, a few dozen people gathered for the second annual
New Years Eve noise demo outside Barton Jail in Hamilton, Ontario. Among
the fierce chanting, there were fireworks set off for the prisoners on
both east and west sides of the jail. A banner with a mailing address
painted on it was held to invite prisoners to correspond with us. The wall
of the jail was spray-painted with “TEAR THIS SHIT DOWN”. A speech was
read on both sides of the jail, expressing solidarity with prisoners and
explaining reasons for struggling against prison. Solidarity was expressed
to the prisoners who were on strike in Georgia, Roger Clement, G20
defendants in custody, and non-status migrants being held at Barton Jail.

Here is a part of that speech:

“This has been a year of increased criminalization, and the beginning of a
prison restructuring by the Federal government in an attempt to keep us
silent, in constant fear, and even more of us locked away. From these
continued attacks on our lives, we will gather strength to fight together.
Whether the prison system is reforming to be more cruel, or disguising
itself as humane, we will struggle against it. Whether it's the police and
cameras in the streets, the judges in the courtrooms, the screws in jail,
we will struggle against them. We strive for freedom.

“Solidarity with everyone who fights for freedom, and all prisoners,
around the world, who refuse to accept forced confinement, isolation and
abuse, who dream of the day that we together destroy these walls.”

The Passion for Freedom is Stronger than all Prisons!
Cops, Screws, Murderers!


New Year's Prison Noise Demo - St. Louis

Jan. 3, 2011 Anarchist News

On New Year’s Eve we gathered with around 35 friends to hold a noise
demonstration outside the Hogan Street Regional Youth Center in St. Louis.
Just before midnight, a torch lit procession made its way to the former
school turned prison where for a brief moment the night was illuminated by
fireworks and the exuberant joy of children’s smiling faces. Jumping
silhouettes behind the dormitory windows echoed our exhilaration in the
street below. A resounding cry of “Our passion for freedom is stronger
than their prisons!” filled the air as two banners were hung on the fence
of the youth detention center – “Every jail is an abuse” and “2011: Year
of the breakout.”

This particular place of confinement has seen several successful escape
attempts in recent years, one of which involved nine rebellious and
freedom loving kids.

In St. Louis city jails, which have also been the sites of individual and
collective escapes, the pigs have been callously denying needed medical
attention resulting in several deaths. This fact was on all of our minds
that night along side the unprecedented five day state wide prisoner
strike in Georgia last month; the former pointing toward the necessity and
the latter to the potential of a renewed collective struggle against
prisons and the society that produces them.

A text circulated around the demonstration called for just such a struggle
while acknowledging the divisions between us (both the physical walls
separating inside and out and the social boundaries isolating us from each
other) and the need to overcome those divisions through a common fight
against our common misery.
Graffiti, spotted in the neighborhood of the kid prison, suggested a few
directions in which to channel our collective rage:

BURN THE BANKS, DESTROY THE PRISONS

AGAINST ALL PRISONS (A)

and POTOSI WILL BURN (A)

Although lasting only four or five minutes, this small action and its
recognition by the kids inside was a step towards re-building our
confidence and creating momentum in the streets. We hope to continue
taking such steps and find others walking with us in the months and years
to come.

For Iole, Davide and the twins.

- some anarchists


New Year’s Prison Noise Demo – Vancouver

January 3, 2011 Anti-Prison Vancouver

On December 31, 2010, we held a noise demonstration at the Fraser Regional
Correctional Centre, in Maple Ridge. We acted as part of an anarchist
international New Years Eve tradition against prisons and the world that
needs them.

About 25 people arrived at the prison in a rented bus. We walked up close
to the fences blaring music towards a temporary outdoor prison wing being
used until they open a new wing of the prison. Screws (prison guards)
lined up between us and the fences. In front, a banner read “Against All
Prisons, For Freedom.” We shot off fireworks and flares, sparklers were
raised with helium balloons and we chanted “The passion for freedom is
stronger than all prisons”, “Fuck prison”, and “No borders no nations,
stop deportation”. We also shouted “Happy New Year!” to the prisoners.

Prisoners shouted and cheered from both the temporary wing and the prison
building. We saw silhouettes of prisoners banging on the windows and a
couple prisoners were actually able to come outside and view us from
behind the fence in the temporary wing.

A short statement was read through a microphone:

“We are here today to express solidarity with the prisoners inside. To
tell you that you are not alone that those of us in the outer walls are
saying fuck prisons, down with every prison wall. We want you to know that
while everyone else tonight is celebrating another year in the prison
world, we are here to celebrate a future without prisons. A world where we
don’t rely on the pigs or institutions to solve our problems for us. A
world where we are truly responsible to each other, where we no longer
have to live in fear of the punishment distributed by the real thieves,
gangsters, and murderers!

Fuck the system! Fuck the screws! Fuck Canada!

Tonight all around North America, people are holding noise demonstrations
outside of prisons because we will not go silently into their dungeons in
ever increasing numbers, just as we will not go silently tonight while
they catalog and warehouse you! Solidarity!”

While leaving our vehicle was stopped by the 6 police cars. No one was
identified. The driver was directed to drive us back directly to East
Vancouver cutting short our plans to go to other prisons.

Many of us were inspired by the shouts from the prisoners. Prison walls
are supposed to impose isolation. Instead, the meaning of those walls was
subverted, they became a meeting place and a vehicle of communication.

Today we had further cause for celebration, we just learned that on
December 30th, three prisoners escaped while on a prison slave crew near a
large park in Maple Ridge. According to corporate news the (ex) prisoners
were serving 9-10 month sentences. If you see them be sure to buy them a
drink!

As long as prisons exist they are a shadow that hangs over us all and no
one is free.

FOR THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE PRISON WORLD!
SOLIDARITY WITH OUR IMPRISONED COMRADES ROGER CLEMENT, JOHN GRAHAM AND
ALEX HUNDERT! SOLIDARITY WITH ALL PRISONERS WHO WANT TO BREAK THEIR
CHAINS!

Other North America New Years 2011 confirmed anti-prison noise demo’s:

Montreal

Hamilton

Toronto

Tacoma


Attacks against Police Station & Probation Office, Bristol (UK)

Jan. 3, 2011 Anarchist News

“January the First. Anarchists saw in the new year 2011 with attacks on
both Newfoundland road police station and the probation office on Upper
York street using easily found stones.

With our action, we breathe revolutionary solidarity for the next year and
beyond to all those engaged in struggle against the state and capitalism
in whatever forms across the planet. we especially think of those behind
bars who became rebels and have risen up and burned Ford prison. we
identify with them, as it would seem we both wish for jails to become
ashes in this moment. each moment cannot fail to bring us closer to the
conclusion we already knew – the only way out of this society that with
its cctv cameras, cops, conformity, e-surveillance, snitches and
repression of dissent begins to resemble the prison more closely. so we in
turn continue our own project of desire for total liberation so attacking
that which attacks us.

To the pigs and their apologists – we will strike again soon. happy new year.

Love & rage across borders, until every wall falls.

Anarchist greetings to the enemy’s hostages of ours, known and unknown to
us, including:

Giannis Dimitrakis, Gerasimos Tsakalos, Panagiotis Argyrou in Greece
John Bowden in UK
Jock Palfreeman in Bulgaria
Thomas Meyer Falk, Gabriel Pombo da Silva in Germany
Aleksey Bychin in Russia
Marco Camenisch, Luca Bernasconi, Costantino Ragusa, Silvia Guerini in
Switzerland”

anonymous autonomous



Solidarity assemblies outside prisons across Greece

Wednesday, January 05 2011 Infoshop News



Each new year’s eve we do not forget those who are buried in the prison
cells of the republic. One more year, we found ourselves next to
imprisoned comrades and all those detained who do not bent neither bow
their head, who dared to resist and fight against the regime. We also
stand in solidarity to all imprisoned activists who fight for better
conditions of incarceration, and claim their self-evident rights even
though they’re still deprived of their freedom.


Athens: more than 400 people gathered outside Koridallos prisons. One of
the louder slogans was ‘Neither criminal neither political [prisoners];
set fire to all prisons.’

Video of the second intervention, outside the female prison wing:

Thessaloniki: about 100 people gathered outside Diavata prisons. On their
return, they stopped at the police headquarters of Thessaloniki (GADTH),
where a comrade is detained after he was arrested during the invasion in
the anarchist squat Nadir; he has made an appeal.

Heraklion, Crete: 30 comrades held a motorized march towards Alikarnassos
prisons, making an intervention at the rear of the prisons with fireworks,
etc.

Volos: at least 70 comrades chose to get as close as possible to the
people behind the bars of the Greek republic. The detainees, who were in
tension since early in the evening, cried out slogans and hit the cell
bars as soon as comrades got there with slogans and fireworks. There was
also a mini demonstration round the juvenile prison.

Grevena: about 70 people gathered outside the Feli prisons, where a live
broadcast of solidarity was held.

DAILY, WE BUILD BRIDGES OF SOLIDARITY WITH ALL IMPRISONED FIGHTERS AND
POLITICAL PRISONERS
FREEDOM TO ALL HOSTAGES OF THE STATE

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2010/12/31/solidarity-assemblies-outside-prisons-across-greece/


North Montreal's New Year's Noise Anti-Prison Demo A Success

Jan 1, 2011 Media Co-op

As twenty-ten comes to an end celebratory cheer is not mutual for those
unfortunate enough to be held prisoner of the state. Refugees,
impoverished and marginalized peoples-- all political prisoners entrapped
in the prison industrial complex, facing mandatory minimums and deplorable
living conditions, are probably not making resolutions and popping some
bubbly. Some say that society’s complacency and ignorance of what goes on
within the walls of Canada’s 52 Federal Prisons is only fueling the
expansion of these operations that are hijacking justice.

Anti-Prison Noise Demos had been arranged across Canada and took place in
many cities across North America on new year’s eve. In Montreal a rally
of 20 or more anti-prison activists and anarchists staged a boisterous
march along the perimeter of a large prison complex comprising of The
Immigration Detention Center, Bordeaux and Tanguay Prisons, and the
Federal Training Centre. The communicated goal of the group was “to
express solidarity with prisoners and break the isolation which is both a
requirement and a function of prisons and corrections.” Banners were
carried and flyers passed out to traffic as others chanted solidarity and
anti-authority slogans and lit fireworks.

“Niq, Screw, Assassin! – Cop, Pig, Murderer!”

There are big yellow signs as you approach the federal complex informing
you that you are entering CSC property and can be stopped and searched at
anytime. The long and winding driveway led the well-organized crew toward
a formidable gate where fireworks popped and pots were banged. The action
came to a head when the CSC came, one minivan at a time. The crowd took
the opportunity to make all the more noise as the street was blocked.
Cheers of response were heard from within the prison walls at least a
hundred meters away. Cloth flags were waving from the barred windows of
the multi storey building.

"Bonne année! Happy New Year!”

The folks on the outside reveled in their small victory; it was a touching
moment.

Two of the security minivans began trying to move the demonstration with
erratic intimidation tactics, driving their vehicle towards demonstrators
at high speeds. To be clear these Correctional Officers are what is known
as Peace Officers, serving the same function as a standard patrol cop,
around the institution. They seemed all the more aggressive and stressed
as the situation and noise carried on unfettered by their presence. Fresh
on the scene two officers exited their van, one with his assault rifle
shouldered; that didn’t go unnoticed amongst the crowd. The demonstration
moved on slowly blocking half the roadway and expressing solidarity in
noise, stopping at two spots to make some noise for other buildings
inhabitants. The local police began arriving and by this time the
demonstration was being flanked by five Laval police cars and forced onto
the sidewalk as it left the complex.

Similar solidarity actions happened in Toronto, Hamilton, New York,
Guelph, Vancouver and many other cities last evening. A call out for the
event in Toronto described the grassroots on the other side of the walls:

“Prisoners are friends and lovers, sisters and brothers, mothers and
fathers, and those locked behind bars are constantly in our thoughts, even
if we do not know them personally. The state may have forcibly ripped them
from our lives and communities, but they are in no way forgotten.”

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