“Take Down the Prison System, It All Goes Down”: A Letter from Sean Swain on Prisoner Support

by Sean Swain / Earth First! Newswire

[EF! Newswire Editor’s note: This letter was sent to the Earth First! Prison Support Project. Sean is a regular contributor to the Earth First! Journal. For more information on Sean Swain, visit seanswain.org]

This is Sean Swain, using someone else’s return address to write to you since I have this blacksite communications ban. All of my outgoing communication is blocked. Fortunately for me, these fascists aren’t very bright.

Feel free to read this at the Rondy or reprint in the EF!J.

About that communications ban: I’ve figured out, through trial and error, as a result of stubborn resistance over decades, what the fascist fuckweasels fear most. And I would like to share that with you so we can develop a new model for prisoner support.

I think that the fact that my captors have me on complete blacksite status contrary to their own laws is a pretty good testimonial to the fact that this is one letter they don’t want you to read. So, I’m going to do what I can to earn that kind of flattery.

First item to discuss is the Army of the 12 Monkeys. They emerged while I was at Mansfield, and of course I was blamed for it. In 2012, out of nowhere, their manuals and flyers were EVERYWHERE on the compound. I won’t bore you with the details again since I’ve already described this a thousand times and the story is available at seanswain.org, but suffice to say, that the 12 Monkeys inspired a prison-wide sabotage campaign that cost the prison upwards of SIX FIGURES in the span of a few weeks. Collapsed plumbing, smashed windows, jammed locks, small arson fires… The significance of this uprising was that it appeared to be decentralized – no leadership; and it appeared to involve prisoners across all demographics. Further, and this is key: the 12 Monkeys made no argument as to why prisoners ought to attack the system and they made no demands.



Those materials are available online through anarchistnews.org and probably through seanswain.org. I can’t imagine that prison officials could find a way to keep those materials out of the prisons if dedicated abolitionists want to get them in.

So, just imagine for a moment if materials like that were introduced at several prisons rather than just one. The whole system would be in a state of constant crisis.

Now, to the second topic: Blast!Blog. Right now, somewhere online, there’s a website where prison fascists who engage in state terror can have their crimes against humanity posted. I’m sure you can find it through seanswain.org. Don’t yet know the domain name. But, what’s significant about this this site is, there are message boards where anonymous postings can happen. So, at least in theory, SOMEONE in the world can post a state terrorist’s home address there.

This is significant not just for someone who wants to burn that state terrorist’s house down. It’s significant because just by posting the information, the state terrorist becomes a target, potentially, for 7 BILLION people on the planet. So, when the state terrorist’s house does burn down, it’s really hard to narrow down the list of suspects.

The whole world knew he was a shitbag.

Gasoline is cheap. Matches are free.

I know the prison fuckweasels are very, very afraid of this web feature because they accused me of violating the security of the entire prison system just by coming up with the IDEA. Now that it exists, these fuckweasels are terrified.

Good.

Which leads me to the third topic. I wrote a June 11 statement where I suggested that prison abolitionists should locate prisons and follow prison workers home. It’s perfectly legal to do that. In that statement, I went on to say that IF they torture us, we burn their cars and houses down. Prison officials claimed that’s a threat. So, all my communication is blocked.

So, for just a minute, let’s imagine a not-so-distant future where prisoners all over the place encounter materials that have proven to cause serious disruption of the prisons, and those prisoners make the prisons unmanageable from the inside. At the same time, abolitionists everywhere follow prison workers home, developing a database of home addresses, so that when prisoners complain of abuses, those doing the abuse get their addresses posted online.

I’m talking about a not-so-distant future where state terrorists sleep in tents and ride bicycles to work every day so they can make futile attempts to quell a continuous campaign of sabotage and rebellion that drives the government into absolute bankruptcy and forces the hierarchs to devote millions of dollars to maintain an unraveling order.

What I’m suggesting is, we have the capacity to abandon the old, tired models of prisoner support where we simply accept the captivity of our loved ones. We can develop a militant direct-action approach to prisoner support based on the idea that all of us, on each side of the fence, have a role to play in attacking the prison system so long as it continues to exist.

Low risk, high yield.

And, really, I’m not just talking about attacking the prison system. I’m talking about bringing down swivelization as we know it. No government can exist without the power to punish. And if we coordinate efforts to bring down the prison system, the government loses its power to punish.

So, essentially, what I’m proposing here is a declared war against the existing shit society, by taking out one of its principle, necessary supports. Want to end clear-cutting and fracking? Take out the prison system. Want to end racism and misogyny and patriarchy? Take down the prison system. Want a world free of oppression and war and colonization? Take down the prison system.

Take down the prison system, it all goes down.

The fascists have used the justice and prison systems to lock up radicals in order to maintain order OUT THERE. What they have done is created the opportunity for YOU to introduce disorder IN HERE.

So, that’s my vision of the new model of prisoner support. Empower prisoners to participate in bringing the whole thing down. By this time next year, the United State could be in constant crisis as its control systems implode.

Just an idea.

We own the future. And we can make that future happen right now.

Stay dangerous.

Freedom,

Sean Swain

P.S. I was never part of the Army of the 12 Monkeys, and my legal counsel is currently challenging my frame-up. But I saw some of their materials and they had some catchy sloganeering. IF the Army of the 12 Monkeys was looking to expand its vision and ultimately to bring everyone OUT THERE into the Army of the 12 Monkeys, they would probably end a communication like this by writing, “We are everywhere. We are growing. We are the Army of the 12 Monkeys.”

P.P.S. Once you shred this, there’s really no evidence I said any of this. Sure hope this blacksite status continues indefinitely.

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