Black Dove Support Network: Bash Back! Targeted by Subpoenas

Friday, May 15, 2009

Bash Back! Targeted by Subpoenas

Authorities have attempted to deliver subpoenas to at least three midwesternactivists as of early Wednesday afternoon in relation to a Bash Back! action atan anti-queer megachurch in Lansing in November of 2008. Activists disruptedthe church service by demonstrating both outside and inside the building. Therelated complaint lists 14 names, Bash Back! and Bash Back! Lansing, and "JohnDoes 1-20."Prevailing advice early this afternoon is to reject delivery of the subpoenasif one comes to your door.If you have more information, please publish it to TCIMC. A copy of thesubpoena will be posted once it has been obtained.UPDATE #1: The subpoenas are in relation to a lawsuit filed by the right-wingAlliance Defense Fund. The Christian ADF, which filed the suit on behalf ofMount Hope church in Lansing, also is encouraging criminal charges. Numerousunnamed individuals in the suit may be sought in relation to the Mount Hopeaction or other church actions.The press-release from ADF, which you can read here, describes the Bash Back!News website - also targeted by the subpoena - as featuring "terrorist-likegarb." Read more about the history of ADF here.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alliance_Defense_Fund
View a PDF of the complaint filed in U.S. District Court here. The documentfails to respect the gender identities, preferred pronouns or chosen names ofthose subpoenaed/allegedly involved in the activities in question - a perfectexample of why direct actions like the one at Mount Hope church are taken byBash Back! and others. (The complaint is also linked on the ADF website.)http://twincities.indymedia.org/files/MtHopeComplaint-red.pdf

Statement made by Bash Back! News

ADF Fuckers Suing BasThe work of devoted Bash Back!ers and allies determined
that this morning’s hysteria is the result of the Alliance Defense Fund, a
notorious anti-womyn, anti-queer, racist organization. The ADF decided to sue
Bash Back!, Bash Back! Lansing and individuals because the authorities would
not file a single criminal complaint regarding an action at the Mount Hope
Church in Lansing last fall. But that’s not all! Those pesky evange-fascists
are trying to identify and out up to 20 other people involved with Bash Back!
in the hopes that criminal charges will be placed against them. Fourteen people
and 1-20 Jesse “John” Does are named on the complaint.
You can find the ADF press release on their website.
*Warning this Site is an overt manifestion of THE Patriarchy. It may be
offensive and enraging*
www.alliancedefensefund.org
Bash Back! and radical transfolk/queers cannot and will not be intimidated.
Some of us face life and death on a daily basis. This lawsuit aint shit.
BB! News will be setting up an account to raise funds in the near future. Lets
fill our pocket books and resist this suit.
Attached to this posting is a copy of the complaint so the entire world can see
that it is riddled with inaccuracies and out-right lies.
Disclaimer: This Lawsuit does NOT respect the chosen identities of the people
named. Names, gender pronouns, and identities were purposely disrespected by
the complaint. Please keep this in mind when reading and discussing the
lawsuit.
That’s Some Bull Shit!
Bash Back! News
Here is a copy of the complaint.
http://twincities.indymedia.org/files/MtHopeComplaint-red.pdf

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What is the Prison Industrial Complex?

What is the Prison Industrial Complex? The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a complicated system situated at the intersection of governmental and private interests that uses prisons as a solution to social, political, and economic problems. The PIC depends upon the oppressive systems of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia. It includes human rights violations, the death penalty, industry and labor issues, policing, courts, media, community powerlessness, the imprisonment of political prisoners, and the elimination of dissent.How the PIC WorksTo fully describe the PIC, we have to look at the big picture of how it functions. For example, the prison construction boom can be linked to, among other factors, the huge increase in the number of people sentenced to prison terms with the onset of the war on drugs, the repression of radical movements by people of color for self-determination, and the anti-imperialist struggles of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The "war on drugs" and the national and local efforts to destroy radical political movements led to increasing police presence in communities of color and poor communities, higher arrest rates, and longer prison sentences.This boom is also fueled by dramatic and racist reporting about "crime," "delinquency," and "rebellion," creating a culture of fear in which it continues to be acceptable and desirable to many people to lock people (primarily people of color, youth, and poor people) in cages for longer and longer in the interest of "public safety." The way the many parts of the PIC interact is exactly what makes it so powerful and destructive. In order to fight this system, we have to see it for all that it is and recognize what drives and shapes it.Fighting the PICFighting the PIC means fighting the mainstream ideas of public safety and challenging the idea that police, prisons, and the court system make people who are not in power safer. At the same time, we must create alternative ideas of security based on the safety of the people most affected by the PIC.The United States currently imprisons around 2 million people. About 6.5 million people are presently under some form of supervision within the criminal justice system. Women represent the fastest rising prison population. Since 1980, the number of women imprisoned in the U.S. has risen by almost 400 percent. Racism continues to be a major factor in the United States, illustrated by policies and programs that sustain white supremacy. Racism, as it is used through criminal laws that target people of color, is essential to the PIC, not accidental.Prisons Are Not an Answer to CrimeThe wrongdoings we call crime do not exist in the same ways everywhere and are not "human nature". What is considered a crime is determined by the societies we live in. Because we have seen over and over again that locking more people in cages does not reduce crime, we must understand the power relationships that lead society to lock up only certain people. Since prisons do not stop problems like poverty, racism, or drug addiction, we cannot expect them to stop crime. We need to understand that we have no option but to fight and continue to fight until all of the different parts of the PIC that continue to put our survival in danger are eliminated.The Movement Against the PICThe movement against the PIC runs the risk of being shaped by easy victories or simplified struggles that do not recognize and fight the whole system. We must go beyond false separations, such as "non-violent" versus "violent" that place prisoners in opposition to each other. One important place to begin to fight the PIC is by pushing the movement to a more complete race, class, and gender analysis. We cannot allow ourselves to do short-term work that undermines our long-term vision and goals, or rely on the same systems of oppression and domination that sustain and drive the PIC to influence "mainstream" voters and decision makers. In order to do this work, we must continue to create spaces for people with different points of view to have honest discussions and disagreements about directions the movement against the PIC should take.What We Are ForSince we are so frequently asked what we are "for" rather than "against," the struggle against prisons, police, repression, punishment, and the criminalization of entire communities must display a clear vision that a world without the PIC is possible. One way to define and shape what we are for is through creating a culture of resistance, or a culture and society that fill all the different parts of our lives with alternatives to the culture of imprisonment. A new culture must nurture and sustain our struggle and provide space for political education, conversation and debate about what we are doing and what we need to do in the future.In order to figure out why people get locked up and under what circumstances, we need to look at what are sometimes called "root causes." This strategy requires looking at the competing priorities of the systems in which we live and understanding why they work well for some and horribly for others. The systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality, for instance, are commonly understood as privileging some people's needs and ideals over others. By exploring why and how those systems work for some and not for others, we can begin to develop a better understanding of how to include concrete steps in our work that deal with the negative effects of these systems on the people who are most often put in cages.To oppose the PIC, activists must work on both theoretical and practical levels. We cannot only engage in single-issue struggles, because all the issues intersect. How can we best create social change in an era of globalization? The voices of today's radical activists, particularly activists of color, must be at the front of the fight against the PIC. Those who are most affected by the system must be the ones planning its end.Organizing against the PIC is as much about building something as it is about fighting what is destroying our communities. Our organizing is also an ongoing effort to create alternatives, not only to imprisonment, but to the culture of punishment we've become so used to.

Black Dove Support Network

Friday, May 15, 2009

Bash Back! Targeted by Subpoenas

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What is the Prison Industrial Complex?

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