what are some other things other than letter writing and promoting support and spreading information about people's cases that MKE ABC should do?

i think just trying to put ourselves out there would be awesome. a benefit show where someone actually talks would be good and tying in prison to any discussion we can have with people who don't understand why prisons are fucked up

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"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."
-- Mark Twain

I think individual people can do quite a bit too. For instance, there are people who teach GED classes, basic skills courses, creative writing, etc. and while all of these fall under the category of reforming prisons on the surface, the radical potential is there.


There are also prisoner's rights groups that we might potentially tap into. I'll look into that.

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I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots of the deepest hollow next to the streambed
The quiet hum of the earth's dreaming is my new song

I feel like the anarchist black cross shouldn't just be about prison abolition, but more supporting and encouraging resistance because that support is necessary for resistance in the long run to happen. If we did self defense classes or sponsored tactical direct action trainings (especially for protests). Something like the discussion about direct action that happened at the last crimethinc convergence would be helpful for people, to mystify direct action talk about security culture etc, so that more people will stay active as well as out of prison.

I like all of those ideas Mario, especially the defense training for protests.

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The Spectacle wished to make us appear dreadful. We intend to be much worse.

Yeah i totally forgot about that aspect of ABC but it sound awesome as hell. Self defense training in general would be a solid idea--protests, on the street, etc. I saw a guy do a really impromptu self defense training at last years crimethinc convergance and it seemed tactically alot more effective than shit i've seen tought at school and in basic classes. Effectiveness seems to have a direct relationship with the removal of politeness and an apologetic behavior. Go figure.

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"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."
-- Mark Twain

I definitely feel that increasing education and knowledge about why prisons suck should be emphasized by MKE ABC. People can definitely empathize with those in prison for a variety of reasons--but i don't think enough people actually look at the prison system on a macro level. therefore, maybe publishing some a zine of why locals think prisons should be abolished would be useful and informative. otherwise, maybe just have a talk or two at UWM or MATC or CCC or wherever to tell the public what we are all about.

I think that zine idea is awesome. It'd be really easy to compile a zine of like 4-5 interviews with varying positions on the issue. I've also heard of folks doing radio interviews on public and college radio, i can't imagine it'd be to difficult to work something like that out.

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"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."
-- Mark Twain

Maybe the interviews could be part of the first MKE anarchist podcast, if we're still planning on doing that.

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I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots of the deepest hollow next to the streambed
The quiet hum of the earth's dreaming is my new song

The MKE ABC does already distro anti-prison zines, but we haven't made anything locally specific. It's something we could expand though. Interviews with prisoners that ABC writes to in the next issue of Total Destroy would be a good idea potentially (the goal of total destroy has been to be more local to make anarchist projects and ideas more practical and accessible in milwaukee). We could also make a zine with interviews from prioners we're in contact with.

i love the idea of either interviews in total destroy or in a seperate zine. i would read it. maybe.

My only concern with doing interviews for the total destroy zine is the length of time. Prisons are notorious for not giving prisoners their mail in a timely fashion or for mailing it back out so maybe it would be best to do a separate zine. In fact, if Books to Prisoners gets off the ground then a pamphlet for that was in the planning so maybe the interviews could go in that?

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I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots of the deepest hollow next to the streambed
The quiet hum of the earth's dreaming is my new song

I personally dug the idea of the podcast and think that should continue to be worked on. NAW MEAN Y'ALL!!?!?!?!

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"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."
-- Mark Twain