The Anarchist Black Dragon was a prison newsletter of the Anarchist Black Dragon Collective, which originated in Walla Walla Prison and operated in Washington state prisons in the late 70's and early 80's. It was created by and for prisoners and consisted of both anarchist-individualist and anarchist-communist prisoners. The collective was a split from the authoritarian core of the Walla Walla brothers prisoner group which was a group formed in the isolation unit of Walla Walla named "Big Red". Those in this unit united in a struggle against the conditions of isolation and abuse by guards, and were able to mobilize the whole prison in a 47 day work strike that won their 14 demands. In the following years the ABDC went on to initiate their own actions against the system in the form of letter writing campaigns, hunger strikes, prison riots, and hostage takings. What follows are just a few excerpts from issues 5 and 6.
“Hell, you don't find no rich people in prison. This is a class society and the poor catch all the crap. Everyday and everyway we're told that money and power is where its at but we usually have nothing ...not even jobs. The system has never worked for us so we try to bypass it. Now we're in prison at the bottom of this sewer system.” A.B.D.C. #5
"Some folks have been saying that I am a bit too radical, a little too extreme. But freedom is a all or nothing proposition. People are not free in any respect if there is even the slightest bit of authority clouding the skies of liberty. By allowing any form of oppression, suppression, or repression to clasp itself upon the neck of a man we deny ourselves the same right(s) that authority is denying him...
I will be free, and there is no force on the entire earth that can deny me this or stop me from my appointed risks ...
Comments have been made that I tread the fine line between legality and illegality, between political theory and charges of criminal anarchy and sedition. But there is no other way to live in todays world unless one allows the chains and fetters of the slave to bind him in (in)voluntary servitude – forever. Some battle the chimera of Tyranny with words and ideas, some with guns and bombs. As for myself, I prefer the open air of outright rebellion, demonstrating publicly the impotence of the Machine, the inhumanity of the State, the cardboard armor it employs against the paper spears of the people. But I reserve the right to play with matches, to confront them at any or all opportunities. A game, perhaps, but a game so serious that life and death, slavery and freedom are the only goals, the only stakes worth playing for.
I am an Anarchist. I cannot be bought. My price is EVERYTHING. Who is willing to pay me that?"
--John Bosch A.B.D. #6
“Passive resistance? -SHIT- Its them or us.” A.B.D.C. #5
"So here I am in prison. Quit? “Retire”? Sure the day the State is gone forever or the day my body quits (“retires”) from working. Until that day comes I'll oppose the State at every turn. If my family and I get back together the fight will go on. If we don't the battle will rage anyway.
It's not just me. There are a lot of people who feel the same way. Count us, America. We're one hell of a big army. An army composed of people tired of the bullshit. An army that knows that “Law and Order” is not only a phrase of conflicting words and false advertising, but a smoke screen behind which the powerful hide their abuses of the lower classes.
Check out your history, America. Your wonderful police forces were founded by the rich to protect their interests. Check out the Haymarket riot and the Steel, Coal, and Railway strikes. Check out the history of this “Law and Order”. Look at Attica, San Quentin, and McAllister. It will turn your stomach America. And if it doesn't, that just more proof of the extent of the damage.
Retire? Quit? Over my dead body!"--John Bosch A.B.D. # 6
“You can do anything you want to do and nobody need ever know your name. To wait for others is to wait forever and admit at heart you are a coward. Use your imagination wherever you are. Maybe you alone can only annoy the enemy, but if we all did something we could give 'em the blues, even overthrow 'em....” A.B.D.C. #5
http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/node/633
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