Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 05 2002 @ 06:27 PM CDT

living in a tiny town of Lawrence Kansas (small, not rural) i can asure you it\'s not imposible to do something with a minority of people. two years ago we started with six people running an anarchist collective and it\'s expanded into an anarchist living collective, a radical library of over 1,000 books, an active (and organizing) IWW branch, various womens collectives, hosting the north american anarchist gathering, various radical events, and cooming in novemver we will be hosting the Kansas Anarchist Caucus, and tonight we are meeting to establish the Lawrence Anarchist Black Cross. Once you get your shit together and live acording to your beliefs and do so consistantly you will atract people and projects will grow. as far as jerome \"doing something\" as a penpal of his and supporter of his case he is the president of the Missouri Prisoners Labor Union, and a heavy advocate of anarchism from inside of the Jefferson City Correctional Institution. talk about a \"small\" group of anarchists. When some of the liste serve crybabies do life in prison and serve over a year and a half in the hole for advocating their ideas like jerome has, then maybe I will listen. lastly if your just going to write a prisoner who\'s in the hole to tell them how stupid you think they are, try doing time yourself, maybe your life and think about how much you really need someother ass hole to tell you why your stupid. i hope to shit you didn\'t send that letter. im failing to see how \"go fuck yourself\" is really constructive criticism towards someone who\'s actually trying to do something. maybe you need to get off your cross and start organizing in your small town. two people can do alot for prisoners, and you wont know untill you try.
solidarity,
-llowell-

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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 05 2002 @ 09:32 PM CDT

not that anyone will read this comment this far down, but i would like to respond to \'llowell\' by saying that i only told him to \"go fuck yourself\" in the event that he is just trying to get me to march in his parade. i don\'t know who he is, and i don\'t think i was overly disrespectful to him considering that all i knew about him was from his whiny, negative, and insulting letter. in fact, i think my post was completely reasonable; re-read my post and tell me where i was out of line. does he think that no-one has tried to start anything out here? it\'s not easy, especially with elitists always telling us we\'re not doing enough.
if you think it\'s a bad idea for me to write him, then i won\'t, but i\'m not writing him to tell him how stupid i think he is. i\'m writing to tell him that i do support him, and i wish he would support me, and to defend myself and my position. if i want some pumped-up elitist telling me how worthless i am trying to get me to do what he wants, i\'ll join the fucking army.
he\'s the one who bothered sending a letter telling me how lazy and \"do-nothing\" i am, why shoudn\'t i write back? if he sends out a letter like that, he should expect to get some feedback, isn\'t that the whole point?

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, September 02 2002 @ 10:49 PM CDT

I think all of us in all states, should pay attention to this. Prisoner support may not be fun or glamorous or cool, but it is vital. I know I haven;t done anything for the many political prisoners in my state,

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, September 03 2002 @ 01:21 AM CDT

Missouri is a mostly rural state. I live in a small town, and I\'ve seen enough of this state to know that most of it is the same. Small populations and long distances make organization extremely difficult. Most of my activism has to do with meme warfare, and maintaining an atmosphere of personal expasion for everyone around me. No, I\'m not very active in any of those groups, but I don\'t feel bad; I don\'t trust organisations. When I claim to be an anarchist, it has nothing to do with what clubs I am a member of, or how many protests I have been to. Anarchism (really, any political ideal) is about how I make decisions every day. Every time I help break down heirarchies, and empower the individuals around me, I am an activist.
I know for a fact that St Louis has a lot of passionate and extremely dedicated people working with Food Not Bombs, Indymedia, the CAMP, etc. There are also groups working in Kansas City. At the NAAG this summer the midwest councils showed a lot of potential, but the biggest problem out here will always be connecting small groups over long distances. We can\'t do things the way they do them in large population centers, we have to re-think the function of activism in rural areas. Simply copying the processes used in urban areas cannot be expected to work.
In conclusion, I don\'t want to be offensive, but I do want to give you something of a reality check. Saying things like: \"I doubt if my words here will cause you to do something because you are so used to your

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, September 03 2002 @ 04:11 AM CDT

hey! let\'s start an anarchist bootcamp! get all these do-nothings PUMPED, AGGRESSIVE, READY FOR ACTION! WOO! ARRRGH! YAAA!

jerome, your work sounds admirable, but...shit...the elitism isn\'t very endearing.

don\'t tell us how to revolt.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, September 03 2002 @ 09:38 AM CDT

I\'m originally from Kansas City, which is a big city in the area, but I\'m familiar with rural Missouri and Kansas. Missouri is a very rural state with a few big cities. It\'s kind of amazing how isolated one can get in parts of Missouri. At the risk of prescribing a solution to this problem, let me say that a regional network might be the best first step to providing support for isolated anarchists and radicals. Several years ago I set up an email list for anarchists in Kansas City and Lawrence. I could do the same for Missouri if anybody was interested.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, September 03 2002 @ 12:10 PM CDT

I think a state-wide list is a great idea - I know there are groups in areas other than my own that are/want to be active be communication virtually never happens.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, September 03 2002 @ 06:12 PM CDT

I hope that all of the offended people from Missouri will just go ahead and write to Jerome and ask what they can do to help him. You don\'t need to live in a huge city to do principled prison support work. My town is smaller than St. Louis and we\'re starting up an ABC chapter here. If we can do it anyone can.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, September 03 2002 @ 08:07 PM CDT

This \"political prisoner\" is just another McAnarchist.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, September 04 2002 @ 01:10 AM CDT

a what?

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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 05 2002 @ 01:58 AM CDT

I am tempted occasionly to whinge and moan about the support I get in OZ,then I remember I was trying to provoke a grotesque overreaction.
Don\'t forget how exposed you are helping prisoners.Some have to hang back and stay hidden or we could all get rounded up,then what?
If someone posts an e-mail I can write to the chief screw,tell him he doesn\'t have long to live,something like that.We all do what we can.

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