A place for people to build an autonomous community, rooted in true social justice.
History
Anarchist Black Cross originated in Tsarist Russia to organise aid for political prisoners. In the late 1960′s, the organisation worked to aid prisoners of the Spanish resistance fighting the dictator Franco’s police. Today, ABC is found in many countries around the world.
PDXABC
Portland Anarchist Black Cross (PDXABC,) is a community collective, whose primary mission is prisoner support. PDXABC has no official structure, hierarchy, or membership register. It is not officially part of the Anarchist Federation. We have no policy documents and do not maintain records. Event planning meetings are public, informal and inclusive of a wider community that may, or may not be anarchist, may not hold identical views on every radical peripheral issue; and might not even be aware of what those issues are – so be kind! Movement building requires cross-coalition cooperation and public outreach. Portland ABC consider ourselves loosely allied with the international network of Anarchist Black Cross groups that work to oppose state repression. Our goals and ideology mirror those of ABC internationally. Portland ABC aims to supports worker’s movements and collectives. Our activities range from practical assistance to prisoners, to solidarity actions and campaigns on behalf of prisoners. We give practical support to prisoners of the class war, including:
* Those imprisoned for defending animals and the earth.* People imprisoned for resistance to capitalism: from strikers to revolutionaries. * People framed by the police for ‘crimes’ they haven’t committed. * Working class people locked-up for fighting back against the system and resisting the violence and exploitation in our daily lives. * People imprisoned for escaping from persecution and torture overseas. * People resisting the prison system on the inside and out.Although we fight for changes that makes prisoner’s lives a bit easier, we know that prison will never benefit us as working class people – they must be abolished, along with the rest of the framework of repression that the privileged class uses against us. In all of what we do we are revolutionaries, working toward the creation of a class-based movement that will destroy capitalism and build a new world in its place. The life we are striving toward will be one where we control our own lives from within a system based not on profit and violence, but on co-operation and community.
To contact us:
portlandabc@resist.ca
