North American Anarchist Black Cross conference to be held Summer 2002

Founded in the early 20th century, the Anarchist Black Cross movement seeks to bring attention to issues related to incarceration, criminalization and the treatment of adults and juveniles in state, private and federal correctional facilities.

While ABC groups do attempt to address grievances through various channels, historically the ABC tendency has not been geared purely toward reform. ABCs differ from reform groups in that they strive to build a movement to end the prison-industrial complex, and initiate work with this goal in mind. Prisons, organizers state, have become a replacement for social needs and are disproportionately applied against economically disadvantaged people and people of color (especially Black and Chicano/Latino people). Repression or prisons, they add, do not make people fundamentally safer. A decrease in anti-social crime is only likely to happen when it is accompanied by a dramatic change in our economic, social and political systems. These conditions lie at the root of both crime and the reasons for a prison system.

The event, hosted by the autonomous Austin ABC collective and former political prisoner and Texas anarchist Chris Plummer, comes on the heels of the release of “A New Draft Proposal for an Anarchist Black Cross Network,” which advocated the creation of a new network of anarchist anti-prison groups. Organizers say they expect this conference will bring together organizers to network around issues of prisoner support, prison abolition and anti-authoritarian struggle; and for founding the Anarchist Black Cross Network. The initiative was recently covered by the Berkeley newspaper Slingshot (http://slingshot.tao.ca/displaybi.php?0074013).

Some goals of this meeting include: to build our solidarity and communications among the various autonomous prisoner support tendencies; to learn together and from one another via our experiences, and educate on the ins and out of prisoner support, freedom campaigns, etc.; to get autonomous anarchist anti-prison groups acquainted and developing an ABC network; and to help people interested in prisoner support work to organize effective ABC groups in their communities. Those affiliated with an autonomous Anarchist Black Cross group, anti-prison group, prisoner support collective or who are active in the movement against prisons, criminalization and incarceration; and those interested in forming an ABC group or in being involved in supporting the movement against prisons and in support of prisoners are welcome to attend. The last North American Anarchist Black Cross conference was held in New York City in 1994.

Please get in touch if you would like to make a presentation, attend or have ideas for the event. Contact: Austin ABC, P.O. Box 19733, Austin, TX 78760-9733 or email austinabc_ [at] hotmail.com. Via the web, visit http://www.anarchistblackcross.org.