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Jeff Free Luers writes about State Repression - April 2006
By now everyone knows about the arrests and indictments handed down to 11 people charged with ELF actions. The SHAC 7 have been convicted on all counts for maintaining a website. Rod Coronado has been arrested for explaining how he committed his arsons. Activists have been arrested in Sacramento charged with thought crime. Not to mention the various Grand Jury investigations around the country.
Like it or not, the radical movement has found itself in the middle of a war. The ELF, ALF, anarchists and other radicals have been declared the number one threat to the state. The FBI devotes more time and energy to activists than it does Al-Qaeda.
For every article I write, I wonder if this will be the one that lands me back in the hole. The FBI, in connection with the Oregon Department of Corrections, reviews all my outgoing mail. Some of my mail has been censored and not allowed to go out at all. I am banned from meeting with the media. None of those who were arrested are allowed to contact me, or allowed to be contacted by me.
I'm beginning to feel a lot more like a P.O.W. than a political prisoner.
This crack down on radical activists, though it comes not unexpectedly, has begun to take its toll on me. Some of the charges stem from a solidarity action for Craig "Critter" Marshall and me. I also know people involved with these cases.
Daniel McGowan is one of my closest and dearest friends. I owe so much of the support I've received over the years to him. At his bail hearing they used his support and friendship for me against him. The prosecution used letters and pictures of us as if it were evidence of a crime.
I used to play in a band with Jacob Ferguson, a now known informant. I used to watch his kid. Alleged cooperating witness Sarah Harvey and I lived together for a time. She helped build the first treesit at Fall Creek.
Convicted activist Josh Harper and I go back many years. I still have the article "In honor of Jeff Luers" he wrote after my conviction. He and I have stood the line together many a time, and I do not know a more courageous and dedicated man.
It breaks my heart to see my friends falling subject to the state. I applaud Daniel, Josh and the others who have stood their ground with heads high. I am sick and disgusted with Jake. I hope that anyone cooperating with the state will again find their courage and honor, and refuse to testify.
In these harsh times the role of prisoner support takes on a whole new meaning. And it's not enough just to support those who have been arrested and convicted. The struggle must go on the offensive. The movement can no longer sit back and let the actions of accused stand for the hearts of the many.
These arrests are not intended to target individuals anymore than my sentence was meant to punish just me. The state has declared war on dissent. Our ideals, our dreams, our very existence as a movement has been targeted for eradication.
Detective Chuck Tilby, of the Eugene Police Department, created a report on anarchists for their journals. The content was focused on "Conflict and Terrorism in 2005". The article detailed ways for law enforcement to create protest zones so far away from an event that it would be impractical or seem unattractive to protesters who wanted their message heard. The article suggests that police use infiltration, grand juries and informants against "above ground" activists in attempts to extinguish "under ground" activities.
Incidentally, Chuck is one of the detectives who had Critter and I under surveillance the night of our arrest. During my trial neither he nor any other officer could recall the order being put under investigation, but it did not come from within the EPD.
This is not the first time the state has used tactics like these. Counter insurgency tactics were employed against the American Indian Movement (AIM), and Black Panthers. Very few struggles have succeeded against the United States.
However, two very powerful movements come to mind: the Civil Rights movement and the struggle for the eight-hour workday. There was success because whatever the state threw at them they refused to back down. They continued their struggles with their commitment and determination.
True movements support their prisoners by replacing them on the front lines. Real struggles challenge repression with resistance.
This is a state of emergency. Not only our success, but also our existence depends on your actions. The police state is here. Everything we've long feared is coming to pass. This isn't someone else's fight anymore, it's yours. What are you going to do about it?
-Jeff Free Luers
http://www.freefreenow.org
Organize an event for the
International Weekend of Resistance Against the Green Scare! June 9-11, 2006 http://www.freefreenow.org/june2006.htm
Promotional flyers and web banners are now available for the Weekend of Resistance http://www.freefreenow.org/june2006.htm
Write Free at Jeffrey Luers, #13797671, Oregon State Penetentiary, Salem, OR 97310
Donate to Free's Legal Defense:
1-Online through the 'make a donation' button at http://www.freefreenow.org
2-Send a check or money order to: "Free's Defense Fund" and mail to
POB 3, Eugene, OR 97440
For every article I write, I wonder if this will be the one that lands me back in the hole. The FBI, in connection with the Oregon Department of Corrections, reviews all my outgoing mail. Some of my mail has been censored and not allowed to go out at all. I am banned from meeting with the media. None of those who were arrested are allowed to contact me, or allowed to be contacted by me.
I'm beginning to feel a lot more like a P.O.W. than a political prisoner.
This crack down on radical activists, though it comes not unexpectedly, has begun to take its toll on me. Some of the charges stem from a solidarity action for Craig "Critter" Marshall and me. I also know people involved with these cases.
Daniel McGowan is one of my closest and dearest friends. I owe so much of the support I've received over the years to him. At his bail hearing they used his support and friendship for me against him. The prosecution used letters and pictures of us as if it were evidence of a crime.
I used to play in a band with Jacob Ferguson, a now known informant. I used to watch his kid. Alleged cooperating witness Sarah Harvey and I lived together for a time. She helped build the first treesit at Fall Creek.
Convicted activist Josh Harper and I go back many years. I still have the article "In honor of Jeff Luers" he wrote after my conviction. He and I have stood the line together many a time, and I do not know a more courageous and dedicated man.
It breaks my heart to see my friends falling subject to the state. I applaud Daniel, Josh and the others who have stood their ground with heads high. I am sick and disgusted with Jake. I hope that anyone cooperating with the state will again find their courage and honor, and refuse to testify.
In these harsh times the role of prisoner support takes on a whole new meaning. And it's not enough just to support those who have been arrested and convicted. The struggle must go on the offensive. The movement can no longer sit back and let the actions of accused stand for the hearts of the many.
These arrests are not intended to target individuals anymore than my sentence was meant to punish just me. The state has declared war on dissent. Our ideals, our dreams, our very existence as a movement has been targeted for eradication.
Detective Chuck Tilby, of the Eugene Police Department, created a report on anarchists for their journals. The content was focused on "Conflict and Terrorism in 2005". The article detailed ways for law enforcement to create protest zones so far away from an event that it would be impractical or seem unattractive to protesters who wanted their message heard. The article suggests that police use infiltration, grand juries and informants against "above ground" activists in attempts to extinguish "under ground" activities.
Incidentally, Chuck is one of the detectives who had Critter and I under surveillance the night of our arrest. During my trial neither he nor any other officer could recall the order being put under investigation, but it did not come from within the EPD.
This is not the first time the state has used tactics like these. Counter insurgency tactics were employed against the American Indian Movement (AIM), and Black Panthers. Very few struggles have succeeded against the United States.
However, two very powerful movements come to mind: the Civil Rights movement and the struggle for the eight-hour workday. There was success because whatever the state threw at them they refused to back down. They continued their struggles with their commitment and determination.
True movements support their prisoners by replacing them on the front lines. Real struggles challenge repression with resistance.
This is a state of emergency. Not only our success, but also our existence depends on your actions. The police state is here. Everything we've long feared is coming to pass. This isn't someone else's fight anymore, it's yours. What are you going to do about it?
-Jeff Free Luers
http://www.freefreenow.org
Organize an event for the
International Weekend of Resistance Against the Green Scare! June 9-11, 2006 http://www.freefreenow.org/june2006.htm
Promotional flyers and web banners are now available for the Weekend of Resistance http://www.freefreenow.org/june2006.htm
Write Free at Jeffrey Luers, #13797671, Oregon State Penetentiary, Salem, OR 97310
Donate to Free's Legal Defense:
1-Online through the 'make a donation' button at http://www.freefreenow.org
2-Send a check or money order to: "Free's Defense Fund" and mail to
POB 3, Eugene, OR 97440
For more information:
http://www.freefreenow.org
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Comments
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I dont understand why you guys aren't hammering on the federal lack of action on abortion clinic bombings stretching back decades. They dont investigate or solve most of those crimes, because it means doing to fundamentalist christians what they're doing to you.
Can you imagine? Infiltrators in the churches, dragnets at the revivals, every christian a suspect? Havoc.
But since they don't, that makes enforcement against you, SELECTIVE IN NATURE-- even if the charges against y'all are true.
This is not to say they are or aren't. This IS to say, it is indeed high time you/we/anyone concerned drag this thing out from under the tired old COINTELPRO rug. Sauce for the goose and all that.
Demand equal persecution of the right! or a cessation of prosecutions against the left.
That is only fair.
Can you imagine? Infiltrators in the churches, dragnets at the revivals, every christian a suspect? Havoc.
But since they don't, that makes enforcement against you, SELECTIVE IN NATURE-- even if the charges against y'all are true.
This is not to say they are or aren't. This IS to say, it is indeed high time you/we/anyone concerned drag this thing out from under the tired old COINTELPRO rug. Sauce for the goose and all that.
Demand equal persecution of the right! or a cessation of prosecutions against the left.
That is only fair.
There's another abstract aspect of these eco-activist actions. This message also applies to actions against military recruiters and other tools of imperialism. At some time in the near future the resistance may need to focus efforts on the source of exploitation, not the many symptoms (animal cruelty, environmental destruction, occupation of Iraq, military weapons testing, etc..). In certain instances committing as lesser crime to prevent a greater crime from occurring is allowed and even endorsed by the US Constitution. That goes hand in hand with the Declaration of Independence that states in times of need an oppressive government needs to be "thrown off" by the people. We are in that time..
From the Declaration of Independence;
"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."
The founding fathers were by no means saints, though certain measures like the US Constitution (modeled after true democracy of Iroquois Nation), Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence were put in place to ensure some sort of balance between the powerful and the people. The intention is for the people themselves to become powerful, without a monarchy or other nepotist tyranny dictating laws to people. In this modern US state the corporations have replaced the monarchy, and the government serves the corporations, not the people. Many multinational corporations are heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars, not true to the "free market" claims of Bush/Cheney regime Republicans. Many civil libertarians advocate a truly free market where multinational corporations are disconnected from the government's financial feeding tubes, thereby giving them the death they so rightfully deserve. Then the restoration of regional business like local hemp farms, etc.. Since corporations are non-living entities (despite "corporate personhood" laws), the current actions by the US government are in direct violation of the US Constitution..
Iroquois Constitution;
http://www.indigenouspeople.net/iroqcon.htm
This from the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) lists a few of the crimes of the modern US imperialist state;
"We the People of these 50 States have patiently suffered mounting government outrages against us – lies, corruption, legal plunder and terror. We have waited in despair for reforms and redress, but the outrages have only gotten worse. We can now wait no longer. The fundamental rights of "We the People" must be restored now. Government's role must be limited to protection of our lives, liberty and property. When government ceases to be our protector and instead becomes our master, it becomes an abomination. These are the crimes of the modern American State against its citizens:
They have perverted our relations with other nations, using their power to support foreign despotisms. They have bribed other nations with foreign aid, restricted foreign trade, and exported massive quantities of weapons of death and destruction - fomenting discord, repression and war throughout the world.
In the name of "peacekeeping" and assisting other nations, they have illegally waged war on many nations and innocent peoples, committing mass murder in the name of peace, making the US hated throughout the world, and US citizens the victims and targets of terrorism."
BTW, the ISIL is one of many citizen groups that advocates throwing off the current form of US government, namely the Bush/Cheney regime. However, the loss of civil liberties began long before Bush Jr. came around, though this current regime most definitely perpetuates the destruction and erosion of civil rights..
Some other ideas from throwing off the Bush/Cheney regime..
"Burning the Flag is an act that reminds the Government that the People are the Masters and the Government is the Servant. It let's the Government know who works for whom."
http://www.perkel.com/politics/issues/fourth.htm
The current government repression against eco-activists like Jeff "Free" Luers and many others indicates the continuing erosion of civil liberties. This repression against the people is escalating since the frame-up of other political activists like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and countless others. Slavery has morphed into the US prison system where the majority of African-americans are forced to labor for below minimum wage for long hour shifts. Modern day secessionists who advocate throwing off the Bush/Cheney regime are opposed to all forms of slavery, including the US prison system. The civil libertarians secessionists may have common ground with eco-activists more so than the typical "Sierra Club" liberal who sits in coffee shops and types on their laptop writing mantras about how they disagree with the actions of the elf/alf and distance themselves from any direct eco-actions (including non-violent Earth First!) in general. Maybe another well thought out letter to pro-Zionist Diane "WiFi" Feinstein in between mocha lattes? Then simultaneously dismiss civil libertarians as paranoid "conspiracy theorists" who peek out their windows looking for black-ops (CIA) military helicopters? Ever heard of Project Monarch? Get a clue soon, many lives depend on it..
http://www.abolitionist-online.com/index.shtml
http://www.oilempire.us/secession.html
From the Declaration of Independence;
"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."
The founding fathers were by no means saints, though certain measures like the US Constitution (modeled after true democracy of Iroquois Nation), Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence were put in place to ensure some sort of balance between the powerful and the people. The intention is for the people themselves to become powerful, without a monarchy or other nepotist tyranny dictating laws to people. In this modern US state the corporations have replaced the monarchy, and the government serves the corporations, not the people. Many multinational corporations are heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars, not true to the "free market" claims of Bush/Cheney regime Republicans. Many civil libertarians advocate a truly free market where multinational corporations are disconnected from the government's financial feeding tubes, thereby giving them the death they so rightfully deserve. Then the restoration of regional business like local hemp farms, etc.. Since corporations are non-living entities (despite "corporate personhood" laws), the current actions by the US government are in direct violation of the US Constitution..
Iroquois Constitution;
http://www.indigenouspeople.net/iroqcon.htm
This from the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) lists a few of the crimes of the modern US imperialist state;
"We the People of these 50 States have patiently suffered mounting government outrages against us – lies, corruption, legal plunder and terror. We have waited in despair for reforms and redress, but the outrages have only gotten worse. We can now wait no longer. The fundamental rights of "We the People" must be restored now. Government's role must be limited to protection of our lives, liberty and property. When government ceases to be our protector and instead becomes our master, it becomes an abomination. These are the crimes of the modern American State against its citizens:
They have perverted our relations with other nations, using their power to support foreign despotisms. They have bribed other nations with foreign aid, restricted foreign trade, and exported massive quantities of weapons of death and destruction - fomenting discord, repression and war throughout the world.
In the name of "peacekeeping" and assisting other nations, they have illegally waged war on many nations and innocent peoples, committing mass murder in the name of peace, making the US hated throughout the world, and US citizens the victims and targets of terrorism."
BTW, the ISIL is one of many citizen groups that advocates throwing off the current form of US government, namely the Bush/Cheney regime. However, the loss of civil liberties began long before Bush Jr. came around, though this current regime most definitely perpetuates the destruction and erosion of civil rights..
Some other ideas from throwing off the Bush/Cheney regime..
"Burning the Flag is an act that reminds the Government that the People are the Masters and the Government is the Servant. It let's the Government know who works for whom."
http://www.perkel.com/politics/issues/fourth.htm
The current government repression against eco-activists like Jeff "Free" Luers and many others indicates the continuing erosion of civil liberties. This repression against the people is escalating since the frame-up of other political activists like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and countless others. Slavery has morphed into the US prison system where the majority of African-americans are forced to labor for below minimum wage for long hour shifts. Modern day secessionists who advocate throwing off the Bush/Cheney regime are opposed to all forms of slavery, including the US prison system. The civil libertarians secessionists may have common ground with eco-activists more so than the typical "Sierra Club" liberal who sits in coffee shops and types on their laptop writing mantras about how they disagree with the actions of the elf/alf and distance themselves from any direct eco-actions (including non-violent Earth First!) in general. Maybe another well thought out letter to pro-Zionist Diane "WiFi" Feinstein in between mocha lattes? Then simultaneously dismiss civil libertarians as paranoid "conspiracy theorists" who peek out their windows looking for black-ops (CIA) military helicopters? Ever heard of Project Monarch? Get a clue soon, many lives depend on it..
http://www.abolitionist-online.com/index.shtml
http://www.oilempire.us/secession.html
I'm Sixpack, founder of the Women's Anarchist Black Cross in Portland OR. We were born in 2003 from the Coffee Creek Correctional Institution in Wilsonville OR. We operate on the same ideas as Jeff, that taking the offensive is a must.
We actively seek out and expose police informants and actively fight police abuse. This is our way of eradicating some of law enforcement's most devastating tools against dissenters. We believe that by leveling the field, we can help people stay out of prison, keeping our valued comrades out here on the street, where they can fight beside us.
We have recently drawn federal attention, because what we do is working---We consider this a new kind of "direct Action" that may very well help keep people like Free and the others truly free to dissent.
We plan to continue, regardless of pressure from law enforcement, and with the aid of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center and the National Lawyer's Guild, who have stepped up to the plate beside us.
There is hope for an "informant free" future.
Sixpack,
WABC
We actively seek out and expose police informants and actively fight police abuse. This is our way of eradicating some of law enforcement's most devastating tools against dissenters. We believe that by leveling the field, we can help people stay out of prison, keeping our valued comrades out here on the street, where they can fight beside us.
We have recently drawn federal attention, because what we do is working---We consider this a new kind of "direct Action" that may very well help keep people like Free and the others truly free to dissent.
We plan to continue, regardless of pressure from law enforcement, and with the aid of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center and the National Lawyer's Guild, who have stepped up to the plate beside us.
There is hope for an "informant free" future.
Sixpack,
WABC
For more information:
http://www.wabc.mahost.org
...as a group, anyways. Witch hunts are witch hunts, whomever conducts them.
The one true believer (and probably the only agent, too) will carry on for decades.
The one true believer (and probably the only agent, too) will carry on for decades.
..The Irish finally won their 900 year struggle against British oppression by closing the loopholes within their own communities. People who were found to be collaborators got the shit kicked out of them. I don't agree with or endorse violence at all, but I see no harm in letting people know about how informants trick the people they pretend to befriend, often actually egging people on to wilder actions.
...and everyone knows what a political paradise Ireland is now.
(That was meant sarcastically.)
Ends don't justify means. Rather, means create their own ends.
(That was meant sarcastically.)
Ends don't justify means. Rather, means create their own ends.
It's not quite paradise, but it's a *lot* better than it was under John Bull's heel. After centuries of being bled dry, Ireland is finally prospering again. For the first time in centuries, people are moving to, not away from, Ireland to find a better life.
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