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Collective writes to political prisoners

Fri, 02/15/2013 - 12:06 -- Anonymous (not verified)

From The Daily Tar Heel - By Julia Craven

Chapel Hill’s Prison Books Collective is comforting political prisoners one birthday card at a time.

Wednesday night marked the third anniversary of the collective’s letter-writing events, which are held monthly at Internationalist Books and Community Center.

The group meets to write birthday cards to political prisoners.

Fredrick Perlman, a volunteer with the collective, said the group writes to political and politicized prisoners in the United States.

The group categorizes political prisoners as people arrested and jailed for activism, or those who were framed for crimes they did not commit.

This month, the group wrote letters to three members of the Black Panther Party and an indigenous rights activist.

Perlman said about 15 writers attend the event each month, but numbers have ranged from seven to 30.

Prisoners can face many barriers to receiving mail while incarcerated — the main one being prison censorship, Perlman said.

He said he thinks the FBI reads the mail of many of the prisoners the group writes to.

The program helps spread awareness of political imprisonments.

“Since getting involved with the program, I’ve learned there are people who are imprisoned for their political beliefs,” said Ziggy Carpenter, another letter writer.

Member Mike Coleman said he started writing to prisoners to show them they have outside support. He said receiving letters can improve prisoners’ quality of life.

The group often receives responses from the prisoners.

“I have a giant box filled with mail,” Perlman said.

The group is also concerned with the repression of activist groups.

“I want to live in a world that is less polluted, less racist, and less sexist,” Perlman said.

He also said the people who are fighting against these things are being targeted by the U.S. government and large corporations.

The collective is funded by community donations. The group also holds periodic fundraisers and does not receive any grants.

“Rich people don’t want to help poor people, especially not prisoners,” Perlman said. “We enjoy a lot of community support.”

In addition to the letter-writing nights, the collective sends books to prisoners across the Southeast. The group asks prisoners to request specific titles.

Dictionaries are the top requests of prisoners, along with black nonfiction and legal help books, Perlman said.

Meetings are held every Sunday to pack books to send out to prisoners. The group sends about 300 packages per week with an average of three books per package.

The group also participates in anti-prison protests and blogging in order to rally support for political prisoners.

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Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Had an opportunity to say "we're anarchists who want the destruction of constituted authority and power" but instead said “I want to live in a world that is less polluted, less racist, and less sexist."

I appreciate the prison books collective because there always seems to be some disturbances in the NC prisons. But presenting ourselves as liberals doesn't work because people are sick of liberalism.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Hahaha, I love that phrasing. "Less" polluted. "Less" racist. "Less" sexist.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Hi--I read anarchist news but I take a face value whatever a student newspaper says anarchists say.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

not to mention taken as one sentence out of what could have been a much longer conversation...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Are you saying that not using the word anarchist means that you're automatically putting a liberal framework on a conversation?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

No, I don't mean that. I just meant that saying "less sexist" isn't as honest or as interesting as saying "no sexism" yah know?

Although this piece is probably palatable to the average Chapel Hill reader, that's a part of why it's not very good. It's not challenging in any way. If you aim at communicating with people who don't want any kind of revolution then you will reach them; and their lives will go on as before.

Submitted by fredrick perlman (not verified) on

you're right, but this is the quote they used. for some reason they didn't use the cop killer and bank robber birthday card night angle. I'm not that good at sound bites, but maybe next time i'll do a better job of that whole interview thing. sorry I let the team down.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Chapel Hill Books to Prisoners Collective does not identify as Anarchist. Stop trying to peg us as to what we believe or advocate. We support radical prisoners of all kinds, whether they are Anarchist or even Marxists, Leninists, Maoists, Black Nationalists, Animal Liberation/Earth Liberation, etc.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

nice try IGTT 3/10 for getting the name of the group they're impersonating wrong.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

ha ha

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

yeah um no ya got the name wrong. and it is mostly anarchist. whatever....

Submitted by An Anarchist (not verified) on

Sweet ass homophobia !

http://books.google.com/books?id=KhetLynY5jsC&pg=PA354&lpg=PA354&dq=lati...

http://www.queerty.com/gay-bashing-latin-king-goonies-we-are-the-real-vi...

Latin Kings/Queens along with the MOVE organization are the type of groups that "radicals" like Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective would have you support despite their right-wing heteronormative, sexist, and, generally, ignorant beliefs.

http://prisonbooks.info/

Submitted by Ima fukin idiot (not verified) on

Yeah, fuck the move organization!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

You just wish you could even get a shitty student newspaper to cover the pathetic bullshit you do. Get a fucking life.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

yeah. you already posted this comment like a year ago. the exact same comment. really. the trolling is tired. anarchists supported oscar wilde while he was on trial for sodomy charges, generally admire john brown even though he was super christian.....the list could go on forever. Supporting, admiring, or showing solidarity with another person or crew doesnt mean we support every single thing they do or say, but that we feel there might be a meaningful basis for affinity. Locals in NC have built meaningful relationships with kings/queens, and theyre really the only ones to judge whether that makes sense. Find a better way to entertain yourself than by trolling.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

seeing all the work chapel hill/NC @'s are doing in building solidarity behind bars, in their immediate community and outside there own niche' and bickering circle of friends (assuming they are like everywhere else), is actually pretty fuckin' awesome.
So yeah, fuck the weekend window breakers and all the intellectually decrepit trolls you get over the latin kings business, because university bred white kids are going to hate no matter what you do. so fuck em'.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

24/7 all broken windows all the time. Fuck weekend window breaking posers

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

How about not assuming that those who smash things they hate and those that "build solidarity behind bars" are automatically two totally divergent social milieus or political tendencies....

Submitted by An Anarchist (not verified) on

nah, Anarchist person of color like myself is critical of supporting these Latin King Gangster Capitalism fuckers.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

you dumbass racists. all white chapel hill prison books collective romanticizing poc resistance groups. white college kids with Che posters and Malcolm X/Nation of Islam books

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

IGTT 4/10 for effort.However it is clear they're not from chapel hill, it is clear they have never been to a chapel hill prison books work day nor talked to any of us about what we do or why we do it. This troll clearly doesn't do any prisoner support, give a fuck about prisoners nor have a fucking clue as to what a meaningful anarchist strategy for interacting with the pic is or could be. But, no, really, good effort.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Be careful. There's always somebody on anarchistnews ready to defend them. As soon as you criticize Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective for being anti-Anarchist (supporting Deep Green Resistance, MOVE, Latin Kings/Queens, etc type groups that are anti-Anarchist), a member of the group or supporter who is hanging out in a cafe in Carrboro or in the university area will strike back with a stupid comment about not "supporting prisoners."

Some of us support prisoners on an individual level, not through some lame college activist group at a Progressive/Marxist bookstore.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Sort of weirdly self important to say they're anti-anarchist groups, maybe you just mean that they're incompatible with anarchist praxis? Jensen "doesn't like anarchists" because they keep questioning him but it's not like DGR purges anarchists, it's more like some anarchist theory helps you see the huge flaws in DGR's methods.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Deep Green Resistance doesn't allow Anarchists to join. DGR book lays out that Anarchism is a bad strategy of resistance, and, overall, DGR is modeled after the Irish Republican Army.

DGR places Anarchism as a liberal idea, rather than radical idea. Their radical idea is a very hierarchical resistance force that attacks the system, led under Cult of Personality guides Lierre Keith, Derrick Jensen, and formerly Aric Mcbay (he's no longer involved...not a fan of the extreme second-wave feminism of Lierre Keith.)

DGR is highly structured with group leaders, like Ben Barker of DGR Wisconsin (an anti-Anarchist, second wave feminist writer out of West Bend, WI.) His anti-porn and anti-masculinity articles have been on anarchistnews before.....

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

You're giving them way too much credit for uhm ... homogeneity among other things. Where I live, the DGR groups are full of (IMHO) slightly misguided anarchists. Anyway, I've followed jensen's trajectory over the years, read a few of his books way back when and lately, I'd swear half the problem is everybody taking these completely harmless dorks way too seriously.

I WISH they were half as bad as people seem to think. You know, like a real cult of personality would have to be capable of more than confusing a few college kids before I considered it to be any kind of real threat (as opposed to a sad little joke)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

(same op: continued rant) From where I'm standing, if DGR is pulling in kids that were previously hustling for greenpeace and radicalizing them enough that we can actually have a conversation about tactics, meanwhile fundraising for gas money/transport to these isolated locations that are going to be the front lines in the next few years, then whatever. I barely have a problem with it, even though I agree with most of your critique.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

a right wing christian moralist rape apologist and unapologetic racist being accepted into anarchist and "trangressive" "leftist" lit circles with open arms because they have a job at a university and their greatest "victory" is publicly raping a real feminist transgressive artist who they're pathologically jealous of, and everyone else is "scared" of, is the saddest little joke I can think of really.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Well sorry to hear Wisconsin sucks, but there is a big wide world out here. You do make the humble little milieu in my neighbourhood sound a lot better by comparison so thanks for that I guess?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

kill yourself.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

no no no no no

you didn't get my point.....kill YOURSELF

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

most people in the 'big wide world' outside of the internet troll faux-oppression olympics, stockholm syndrome, and a bunch of scared social climbers would know you for what you are.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

"a right wing christian moralist rape apologist and unapologetic racist"

I'm sorry, who and what are you talking about?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

"slightly misguided anarchists"

That's one hell of a statement. How about slightly misguided eco-feminists ? To call them "slightly misguided anarchists" is interesting since their Bible criticizes Anarchists for being "anti-authoritarian."

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

"Some of us support prisoners on an individual level, not through some lame college activist group at a Progressive/Marxist bookstore."

Quit lying, you know you don't do shit.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

So I'm not a part of your Marxist group, I don't do shit ?

ha

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