Designed and printed by Dre.
Today is June 11th, the international day of solidarity with Marius Mason and all long-term anarchist prisoners! Read the 2024 call including updates on international political prisoners, and the 2024 statement from Marius Mason.
Then later this month, join us for a J11 themed card-writing event! We’ll be getting together on Monday June 24th, 6:30pm at Wooden Shoe Books to sign and send cards to Bill Dunne, Casey Brezik, Malik Muhammad, Marius Mason, and others.
The first official J11 was held 20 years ago in support of Jeff Luers and all eco-prisoners. In 2014, Jeff told the story of its origins and subsequent evolution:
In June 2000, I along with Craig Critter Marshall set fire to 3 vehicles at a Eugene car dealership in an effort to call attention to climate change. Unbeknownst to us I was currently under investigation and surveillance by the same counter terrorist unit that years later would be responsible for operation backfire. As a result, we were arrested and after a year of court battles Critter was sentenced to 5.5 years and I received a sentence of 22 years and 8 months.
Across the country and the world people expressed outrage that a young idealistic youth was to serve more time in prison than he had been alive for an action that harmed no one. In the years that followed that outrage would take shape in the form of the international day of solidarity with Jeff Luers and all eco-prisoners.
The majority of my incarceration was spent defending my actions to a skeptical public and media all the while being punished by the state for my articulate defense of direct action.
It was through this media campaign and the amazing work of my support group that my support network began to grow. Before my second year was finished Critter and I had been added to the list of political prisoners being supported by the Jericho Movement, ABCF, and numerous other prisoner support groups. We were among the first eco-prisoners in the US to be accepted in radical circles as political prisoners.
On June 11 2004, after years of networking and public outreach, the first international day of solidarity with Jeffrey Free Luers and all eco-prisoners was held. The event quickly drew the fury of the state and the FBI issued an unprecedented national security alert warning of imminent eco-terrorist attacks across the nation. News headlines for a week warned of the attacks, showing my picture along with the eco-terrorist caption.
In the years that followed June 11 came to be a rallying cry for social and environmental justice movements the world over to protect our planet and to demand that those that have sacrificed their freedom doing so be recognized as political prisoners and not terrorists. I have spent the years of my life since my conviction combating the application of the terrorist label to activists and eco-activists in particular.
As an anarchist and a veteran activist who spent 9.5 years of my life in prison because I fought to protect an imperiled planet, I humbly ask that we remember that June 11 is about gaining political recognition for eco-prisoners and their struggles.