Cover
P2: The Blast, On the Road, School for big brothers, Paper clip gang job, Live and let die
P3: Anarchist frame-up falls down, Patients worry legal pushers, Italian cops tramble flowers
P4-5: Kraakers explode over housing
P6: Hidden persuasion & the Parti Quebecois
P7: CNT splits, Takes two to 'terrorist'?
P8: Rhinos waddle for one percent, Paper cups work best
P9/11: Anarcha-Feminism - Why the hyphen?
P12-14: Bikesheviks - cycling for freedom
P15: New gulag hits body and soul
P16: Links without chains, Breaking into prison, New gulag (continued)
P17-18: German war machine targets anti-nukers
P19: An open letter to the ecology movement by Murray Bookchin
P20: Bookchin (continued), The promise of the 80s
P21-22: Promise of the 80s (continued)
P23: 1980 - Why am i here?
P24-27: Anarchy - an Italian model
P28-29: Bikesheviks (continued), Anarchist literature from the 70s
P30-31: Jay Kinney - Melting down the symbols, Why? (continued)
P32: News for nowhere, Books received, CNT (continued)
P33-35: Roadside notes
Back cover
Issue Eleven, Summer 1980
-Page 2, reports on the creation of a Centre for Conflict Studies at the Univ of NB where cops, etc. can study the issue of political violence.
⁃ very long article abotu anarcha-feminism which would probably be useful to re-read for the women against prison section.
⁃ “New Gulag hits body and soul: 'Treatment' includes prolonged intense isolation and sensory deprivation in 6 by 8 foot cells” by Fred Mobile, page 15-16. Frames the 1980s inside as a war between the keeper and the kept. Discusses changes into the organization of prisons and the language employed. The latter is the “hearts and minds” campaign of the war, the introduction of “living unit officers” and “counsellors” “being parachuted in behind enemy lines to counsel on the benefits of cooperation and passivity.”(15) Notes that “insurrections in the changed times of the 1980's (economic hard times combined with political regression) calls for some new tactics.” And a deeper analysis of the role of prisons in social control. Notes that the 1980s promises to see NA prisons tighten their control on the bodies and minds of prisoners through SMUs to isolate disruptive or rebellious prisoners, and drugging/ behaviour modification, etc. Argues that Third World groups and prisoners are the guinea pigs for these techniques. Discusses the use of thse techniques at Marion, discusses the Marion Brothers organization of strikes and sit-ins and outside legal actions from their supporters. Discusses the success of prisoners' organization in ending behaviour mod programs at Walla Walla. In Canada, “When the noose finally went, the government brought in the new [SMUs], and stiffened prison sentences (up to 25 year minimums with virtually no hope of parole, for murder) in order to appease the law-and-order lobby.”(15) SMUs being used as a first stage for new fish. Suggests that these methods are most often tested out on women prisoners, a tendency which appeared as justified with supposed fears that women were becoming more violent, a statistically false report, nonetheless, “law enforcement authorities pressed for special facilities to accommodate this 'new breed.'”(15) Discusses efforts to have the Alderson unit (where Brown and Shakur were held) shut down, the National Prison Project was ultimately successful in having this unit closed in 1979. Simultaneously, however, a series of max security lock ups for “sick” or “violent” women popped up all over the US.
⁃ “Breaking into prison: Hammer away at the liberating effects of collective, direct action” page 16, author unknown. Discusses how anti-prison perspectives are historically rooted in anarchism. Discusses that reformism only benefits the state, but prisons aren't a bout to disappear tomorrow so what to do in the meantime but continue with “the liberatory effects of collective, spontaneous, direct action.”(16) Points out that yes its true most prisoners come from the working class, but that isn't the sole reason they are there. “For the most part, people wind up in prison because they have learned overly-well the techniques of bourgeois success – especially individualism and competitiveness – without really being in a privileged socio-economic position to reap the advantages. Most of the 'crimes' for which they are imprisoned, everything from armed robbery to drug pushing, are exceedingly faithful likenesses of the kind of legal rapaciousness that bring handsome rewards to the corporate honcho or to the Madison Avenue huckster.” Notes that prison admin try to divide and conquer along lines of race, gender, sexuality, etc. Notes that there are many things one can do within the prison movement “even apart from breaking out or helping someone else break out.”(16) Provides examples of anarchist activities: propaganda campaigns, educational work around solitary confinement, etc. defense committees for specific high profile prisoners, legal actions, and communicating with those inside. Discusses how many anarchists prisoners converted while inside. Emphasizes that the most important task is: “building militancy and solidarity inside the walls.” either organizing cttees of prisoners, or self-help type models such as Men Against Sexism. Points out that, no, supporting these groups who are often angling for reformist goals is not the most revolutionary thing to do. “But it's not the goal in itself that's especially important as far as the political process goes [...] it's the cumulative experience of working in a group, of fashioning a consensus, of taking responsibility for one's opinions and actions that is the only truly revolutionary way of shucking off the vestiges of the old consciousness.”(16)
⁃ “Prison porn” Ken from Matsqui writes an open letter to Joe Remiro arguing that porn is a distraction from prisoners learning and facing their own oppression/ exploitation and the role of the state/ capitalism in creating the conditions of it. But that, furthermore, he complains that feminists are just guilt-tripping prisoners and contributing to their lack of freedom all the while his consumption of porn does exactly that to women. He goes on to argue that the only solution to sexual repression is the abolition of prisoners, but as that doesn't seem to be looming on the horizon perhaps spaces for conjugal visits would do.