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Tag: solidarity

Midwest Prison Censorship Update 2025: Exposing the IDOC Mail Scanning Scam

Posted on 06/09/2025 - 06/09/2025 by chicagoantireport

View the zine: Screen PDF – Printable PDF

View the Prison Censorship Survey results

Individual articles:

  • “Stop Mail Scanning in Illinois” by Anthony Ehlers
  • “The Censorship of Ideas is a Form of Psychological Warfare: A Message from the Diversionary Treatment Unit” by Hybachi LeMar
  • Mail Scamming: IDOC’s Own Data Exposes how Politicians and Guard Unions are Lying about Drugs in the Mail 

Download the FOIA request data (zip): 2023-2024 IDOC Drug Confiscations, 2024 Drug Exposures

Prison censorship is a front in the fascist american project. For the millions buried by the largest prison system on the planet, we know that access to communication and reading materials remain one of the only ways people behind bars can maintain humanity. Prison is censorship, a system of walls and borders that criminalizes people and ideas: a system we are determined to break by building bridges of solidarity – through sharing books and publishing zines.

Coinciding with the fascistic expansion of police and cop city projects, the prison censorship machine has rapidly marched on, consuming the majority of local, state and federal facilities. Played-out “war on drugs” fear mongering is why most people behind bars no longer receive physical mail: books are banned under cover of “content-neutral” and “publisher-only” restrictions, and private monopolies experiment with dystopian tablet technologies to monitor and profit from all communications.

Illinois has been one of the last holdouts until last year when prison copagandists began another all-too-familiar disinformation campaign. Guards are staging drug exposure hospitalization stunts to take away physical mail – incidents easily disproved as impossible by medical experts and according to IDOC’s own confiscation and exposure data. Unlike other states, this battle is being waged at capitol: multiple bills for and against mail scanning are being debated in Springfield. IDOC has not made any announcements yet, but has signed a new phone/email/tablet contract with ICSolutions: Illinois could fall to all-digital mail unless we organize now to stop it.

One voice that has not been heard from are those behind bars who are bearing the brunt of their draconian machinations. We made sure to share their plans to thousands of our incarcerated correspondents throughout IDOC, asking for comments and strategies on how to fight back and providing information on the bills and the addresses to write congress. Throughout these pages you’ll hear directly how mail censorship affects life behind bars: and special appreciations to the brave souls writing us, refusing to be silenced.

We are determined to stop mail scanning and book bans in Illinois: we share these tools and updates, seeking comrades to help break down the panopticon through underground networks of paper and print. Free the books, free the mail, free the people – free them all!

Reposted from Midwest Books to Prisoners

Posted in REPORTSTagged prisons, solidarity

Casey Support Committee UPDATE 6/6/25: Retaliation and Loss of Privileges

Posted on 06/09/2025 - 06/09/2025 by chicagoantireport

Write Casey and send them support! 

Casey has been retaliated against for filing a grievance against a deputy that threatened  them. The retaliation by the grievance committee came as a variety of writeups based on concocted claims of “filing false information” and “interfering with the operation of the facility”.

Starting Monday 6/9/25, Casey will be on “LOP” (Loss Of Privileges) until 7/8/25.

This retaliation against them means:
– no phone calls
– no visitation
– no commissary
– having to fill out a form to call lawyers

The “loss of privileges” will last for the bulk of their remaining time at Santa Rita Jail as their sentencing date is on 7/22/25.  So make sure to send them reading materials,  letters of love, solidarity, and support!  Let them know we haven’t forgot about them and that these walls can’t separate us!

Send mail to:

Casey Goonan #UMF227
Santa Rita Jail
5325 Broder BLVD.
Dublin, CA 94568

Love and struggle, CSC

Reposted from @freecaseynow (IG)

Posted in NEWSTagged prisons, solidarity

NYE noise demo reportback

Posted on 01/06/2025 - 01/20/2025 by chicagoantireport

NYE Noise Demo @ MCC Chicago

Cheers y’all, to another year of raising hell against the prison state in solidarity with our comrades and community behind the walls. Chicago did it right again with a rambunctious noise demo outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the hellacious downtown federal jailscraper. Mobile laser sound systems blasting, pots and pans clanging; bird whistles and a gaggle of megaphones filled the air with chaotic rhythms. Folks inside loudly banged windows from every cell window and floor, showing us dance moves and light shows of their own. “Free Them All!” we chanted, demanding the release of Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all political prisoners; and called out the pigs for the murder of Dexter Reed in his car, Sonya Massey in her home, Cory Ulmer and Robert Brooks behind bars, just a few of the over 1300 people murdered by police this year. On the street, plenty of passing revelers stopped by to see what the street ruckus party was about, checking out the zine cart and even helping hold the ACAB banner. The crowd marched around the building to make sure people on all sides got to see that they are not forgotten, to share the countdown to the end, to ring in the new year and join in on the dance party happening on the street.

An overwhelming pig presence surrounded the area for hours in advance: cruisers lining the streets with dozens of cops idling on corners, a fence blocking off the plaza was installed since last year. Despite their seeming omnipresence, we resisted, shaking their fences and shooting fireworks bouncing off the heights of those brutalist prison walls, exploding joyously outside cell windows. Later, some went to the ICE field office conveniently located down the street visible from MCC. The pigs were too slow to stop a little redecoration with an important unwelcoming message to incoming Trump ICE dictator Tom Homan: painted on the front efface, “Die, Homan. GTFO Chicago”, “Abolish ICE”. We marched on for several blocks before disappearing into the new year for more late night revelry; unfortunately, after everybody had already dispersed, some sneaky pigs apprehended at random a few people at a CTA train platform; one was held overnight and released with a misdemeanor.

It’s imperative to mark the connections between the carceral state and the xenophonic white supremacist colonial project of of mass deportation; many more prisons and jails are being planned to be built to process the millions of lives they intend to interrupt. Homan, the incoming “border czar” says Chicago is ground zero on day one of the incoming Trump regime: but they underestimate how fiercely determined and prepared people are to defend our city from their racist federal stormtrooper armies. We reject the racialized copagandized ‘dangerous city’ narrative crafted by an entire ecosystem of police scanner bros, racist nightcrawlers, and low-orbit suburban MAGA chuds feeding video clips to FOX and other right-wing outlets, who all year have spread disinformation and sensationalist lies, hyping up crime and demonizing migrants to the point of absurdity. They’ve been laying the groundwork for the incoming regime to attack the good people in our supposed leftist “Sanctuary City”, but even despite this policy, neoliberal administrations fail our newest residents with embarrassingly insufficient social services and decrepit ‘shelters’. A coordinated astroturf campaign from the right has been underway to divide communities and erode the public, an attempt on Illinois MAGA takeover: dustbin of history types Paul Vallas and Darren Bailey have failed mayoral and gubernatorial power grabs, but unfortunately Eileen O’Neill Burke snuck through as new top prosecutor, a racist FOP-backed former judge who in her first week dropped charges against Oak Lawn pig Patrick O’Donnell who committed a brutal hate crime against a 17 year old Palestinian. Caught between cowardly neoliberals and fascist onslaughts, it’s time to break from elections, reforms, and turn to each other to carve new paths.

Crime will be the main vector in which the incoming fascist regime will leverage in justification for their abhorrent plans to deport, meaning our strategy of defending against this must apply abolitionist frameworks and a rejection of “citizenship”, “peace”, and their “law and order”. The struggle to overthrow carceral society is tied directly to the fight for inherent and forever rights and unstoppable force of migration. Facing an untenable dystopic future, more people are realizing the necessity to organize autonomously and collectively, to fight to survive against this fascist wave of aggressive prison politics going buck wild with Trump’s re-election, and to build a more liberated existence. Escalate against the state and support the comrades willing to take risks to bring it all down!

Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that two people escaped from MCC with bedsheet ropes from above the 10th floor of this downtown monstrosity, a reminder that no wall is too high to deter our desires and stop the will of people yearning to be free. Free Them All!!

Submitted anonymously via email.

Posted in REPORTSTagged prisons, solidarity

Nutritional Support for Casey

Posted on 12/09/2024 - 12/11/2024 by chicagoantireport

Send support by
VENMO @ juliepetersonG

There are 2 types of packages that are good for diabetics, the “Protein Pouch” and the “Not Too Sweet (Low Sugar)” package.  They could always use the  “Not Too Sweet (Low Sugar)” package every week, and would also benefit from receiving  the protein pack.  The packages can be viewed at icaregifts.com .  The packages cost $40-50 and there is a $150 spending limit per week for packages.

WHY IT MATTERS:

-Guards failing to identify diabetic emergencies can lead to individuals in custody being seriously harmed when their actions are mistaken for “non compliance”.

-“individuals serving their sentences receive inadequate care & develope serious complications like blindness,kidney failure, and loss of limbs as a result”.

-While being held pretrial it is specifically important to be able to think clearly and strategically about your case, because the state could approach you while you are more vulnerable, and pressure you into making decisions about your case which you wouldn’t make without proper guidance from your lawyer.

PLEASE SUPPORT IF YOU CAN!

Via @freecaseynow

Posted in NEWSTagged prisons, solidarity

Festivals of Resistance

Posted on 12/04/2024 - 12/09/2024 by chicagoantireport

Festivals of Resistance
A Call for Gatherings the Weekend Before Trump Takes Office

Along with others around the country, we invite you to join us in organizing festivals of resistance on the weekend of January 18, immediately before Donald Trump takes office. This is a crucial opportunity to engage in outreach, education, and action ahead of what it is sure to be a tumultuous time.

Once Trump takes power, it will only become more challenging to make connections with our neighbors, create the networks that we will need to face down his assaults, and share the skills we will need to survive his reign. Right now, we have a precious window of time in which to prepare. Let’s make the most of it.

When Donald Trump enters office on January 20, he will order mass deportations, escalate the repression of protesters, dismantle the few judicial and legislative provisions that still protect ordinary people, and consolidate a propaganda ecosystem intended to stupefy us all into obedience. The Democratic Party is willingly handing power to an autocrat they say will bring democracy to an end; the Democrats show every intention of continuing to ratchet their own politics to the right. Authoritarian leftist groups are simply treating this as a recruitment opportunity.

But from Texas to the West Bank, millions of people’s lives are about to get even harder. We owe it to each other to meet the second Trump era side by side in solidarity.

The chaos that will accompany the return of the Trump administration represents an opportunity as well as a challenge. This is a chance to assert an autonomous pole of organizing, carrying forward the lessons of 2020 and the movement against Cop City while continuing the fight against patriarchal violence, white supremacy, and colonialism.

By organizing ahead of Trump’s inauguration, we can seize the initiative and set our own timeline rather than being caught flat-footed and forced to react. We need to welcome new participants into these struggles and foster a revolutionary perspective that can orient us through the challenges ahead. No amount of internet activity could substitute for gathering face to face. The most important battles ahead will not be fought online, but in the streets of our communities.

January 18 is observed as the Day of the Forest Defender. It will be the two-year anniversary of the murder of Tortuguita in Weelaunee Forest. It is an important date to gather, honor the memory of the fallen, and pledge ourselves to resistance and to one another.

How to Participate

You could start by calling for an assembly bringing together everyone who wants to participate in organizing. It could be a public gathering—if you think you can facilitate something on that scale—or an invitation-based conversation bringing together people who have already worked together or at least have cause to trust each other.

For the event proper, you could host workshops and distribute literature teaching security culture, digital security, protest safety and first aid, direct action, reproductive autonomy, forms of organization including affinity groups, and other skills that may be relevant in the years to come.

Local organizers could share stories and lessons from the history of resistance in your area during the first Trump era. You could facilitate discussions to identify what people need to do to prepare for the years ahead—both for their own safety and to ensure the safety of their communities—or to strategize about how to prepare to confront the Trump agenda in your region. You could do an art build for future demonstrations and an organizing fair to connect people to local projects. This will be a chance to expand rapid response networks for community defense and mutual aid.

In some places, the gatherings could conclude with public actions—a first salvo in the resistance to Trump’s plan for mass deportations. Elsewhere, there will be open assemblies, spaces for people to encounter each other and learn new ways of working together and sharing ideas. Small towns can screen documentaries or invite speakers to share their expertise.

It’s up to you and your community to decide what best fits your local context. The important thing is to create a space that can serve as a point of entry for everyone who needs to get connected ahead of the next round of struggles—a space where people can hone their skills and begin to think of themselves as a collective force.

No matter who Trump’s administration targets—whether immigrants, Palestine solidarity organizers, sex workers, schoolteachers, trans people, environmentalists, or people seeking abortions—we must show that we will love and protect one another. If we all pull together, showing everyone who wants to resist that there are movements that they can join, we can begin to build the strength that we will need to overcome the challenges ahead.

Events like this are already being planned in dozens of cities and towns. But time is tight. If we want to be ready, we have to get started now.

Submitted via email

Posted in NEWSTagged autonomous action, solidarity

Fall Anarchist Careshare Schedule

Posted on 10/29/2024 - 10/29/2024 by chicagoantireport

The workshop schedule for the Fall Anarchist Careshare is here! Community agreements, general space & covid accessibility guidelines and more information about the weekend is on anarchistskillshare.noblogs.org. Disclaimer: we are just an account re-posting this! For questions and comments, reach out to chicago_anarchist_skillshare@riseup.net.

Posted in NEWSTagged solidarity

Letter writing to support Casey Goonan and other political prisoners

Posted on 10/29/2024 - 10/29/2024 by chicagoantireport

Join us in person* or virtually
Tuesday October 29 6:30-8:30 PM
at Firefly Fiber Arts Studio 2860 N Milwaukee Ave
or on Zoom registration link bit.ly/octoberletterwriting
* Masks required KN95 or similar

Free Casey Goonan! Abolition now! No more prisoners!

Casey is a dedicated community educator, writer, distroist, and printer who has committed their life to struggles for liberation. A federal investigation by the FBI and several other law enforcement agencies resulted in Casey’s arrest for alleged politically motivated “crimes”.

Since June 17, 2024, they have been incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail in California facing federal felonies that could result in up to 20 years of imprisonment, freeing Casey will likely be a long fight. Just as Casey has persistently for years cared for, supported, and struggled alongside incarcerated comrades, we aim to replicate these actions in solidarity with Casey as they continue their struggle from the other side of the wall.

Casey is the only political prisoner from the college encampments for Palestine. Their case will set a precedent on how direct action and protests are targeted by the state around Palestine solidarity moving forward.

Their next court hearing is November 5th and rapidly approaching – we are hoping to write letters of support to Casey ahead of their next court appearance.

Firefly Fiber Arts Studio (2860 N Milwaukee Ave) is located on the first floor; there is a 2″ threshold into the space and no stairs inside. There are wide ADA standard walkways and an accessible one-person restroom with a wide doorway and support rails. There is a variety of seating that can accommodate up to 25 people. High quality KN95 masks or similar are required for this event. Air purifiers will be provided for this event.

R4ffle to support Casey. Thousands of $$$ urgently needed for legal fees. $5 tickets, tattoos, artwork, jewelry, literature. @FreeCaseyNow for more details.

Posted in NEWSTagged prisons, solidarity

Oct 7 Week of Rage Call to Action

Posted on 09/26/2024 - 09/26/2024 by chicagoantireport

LET the FLOOD of AL-AQSA DROWN the SETTLER EMPIRE!

Call for a Week of Rage from October 7–14: Direct action in solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance and anti-colonial movements in Turtle Island.

To act alongside the Al-Quds Axis and ‘bring the war home’ requires nothing less than a revival of anti-colonial militancy in this occupied continent. Free Palestine means death to amerika.

In commemorating one year of Operation Toufan Al-Aqsa, this is a call to go beyond the routine stage-managed ‘protest’ parades; this is a call to organize and sustain attacks on all entities, institutions, and infrastructures of the genocidal u.s.-zionist settler-imperialist order. Strike fear into the hearts of the comfortable colonizers, unsettle the settlers, just as the Palestinian Mujahideen have done.

Honor the martyrs through action. From Palestine to Lebanon to Yemen, to the millions of Native and Afrikan peoples across these lands—carry on the fight of those who dared to resist the settler-invader hordes and their capitalist slaveocracy. Target the many politicians, pigs, and profiteers that uphold the amerikan settler empire and its zionist spawn.

Share this graphic online, print and disseminate this call to action at demos, gatherings, study groups.

Organize a crew—at least three people—map out the terrain, assemble necessary tools, make a plan, and go on the offensive. For ideas, check out past actions and tactical resources on unityoffields.org, and submit a report back to the_unity_of_fields@proton.me.

As Al-Qassam urban guerrillas have demonstrated, a small dedicated cell can do untold damage upon the enemy. In the midst of total genocidal devastation, the Resistance is still able to obliterate the zionist entity’s tanks with just a few men. Let’s muster the courage and conviction so we too can learn from their revolutionary example.

GLORY to the MARTYRS
VICTORY to the RESISTANCE
WHAT IS COMING IS GREATE

Posted in NEWSTagged Announcement, Palestine, solidarity

Breaking the Borders Fest 2024

Posted on 09/14/2024 - 09/14/2024 by chicagoantireport

In solidarity with Libertarian Library La Social in Tultitlan Edo. de Mexico.

Sept 21st
$15
1756 W 18th St, Chicago
Doors open at 2pm
Film screening at 3pm
Bands

Film screening documentary: A Dead Journey
Last year, more than half a million people went through the jungle. A quarter of them were children. This is the story of one family’s journey through the Darien Gap.

Via @shitcagogigs4fuckers on Instagram.

Posted in NEWSTagged solidarity

Running Down The Walls 2024

Posted on 09/14/2024 - 09/14/2024 by chicagoantireport

September 15
5pm MCC Chicago
71 W Van Buren

In solidarity with political prisoners
5pm Rally & march, 5k marathon run, walk, bike, roll
7pm Bands & DJs

Via @shitcagogigs4fuckers on Instagram.

Posted in NEWSTagged prisons, solidarity

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Recent Posts

  • A Guide to ICE Infrastructure in Chicago06/20/2025
    From @generalstrikeillinois on Instagram
  • Midwest Prison Censorship Update 2025: Exposing the IDOC Mail Scanning Scam06/09/2025
    View the zine: Screen PDF – Printable PDF View the Prison Censorship Survey results Individual articles: Download the FOIA request data (zip): 2023-2024 IDOC Drug Confiscations, 2024 Drug Exposures Prison censorship is a front in the fascist american project. For the millions buried by the largest prison system on the planet, we know that access… Read more: Midwest Prison Censorship Update 2025: Exposing the IDOC Mail Scanning Scam
  • Casey Support Committee UPDATE 6/6/25: Retaliation and Loss of Privileges06/09/2025
    Write Casey and send them support!  Casey has been retaliated against for filing a grievance against a deputy that threatened  them. The retaliation by the grievance committee came as a variety of writeups based on concocted claims of “filing false information” and “interfering with the operation of the facility”. Starting Monday 6/9/25, Casey will be… Read more: Casey Support Committee UPDATE 6/6/25: Retaliation and Loss of Privileges
  • REMEMBER 2020, 1968, 1878, 1791 — WE CAN WIN Handout04/08/2025
    Available for download here. For distribution at protests, festivals, sporting events, waiting rooms, cookouts, libraries, dining halls, courtrooms, traffic jams, emergency rooms, corner stores, public transportation, sideshows, recreation yards, or anywhere else you may encounter others who’ve had enough. (Blackened/improved from a previous document shared early 2025.) \\\\\\\\\\\\ FRONT & BACK TEXT BELOW \\\\\\\\\\\\ REMEMBER… Read more: REMEMBER 2020, 1968, 1878, 1791 — WE CAN WIN Handout
  • Google is a F*cking Snitch04/08/2025
    Repost from Civil Liberties Defense Center Over the last month or so several activists around the country known to CLDC received an unfriendly email from Google. The Google user was informed that Google received and responded to “a legal process” from the FBI compelling them to give up all the info and data related to… Read more: Google is a F*cking Snitch

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