Editor’s note: for Black August 2022 we share both a facsimile PDF as well as a transcription of Safiya Bukhari‘s 1981 pamphlet Lest We Forget, which she wrote and published while incarcerated at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women. Introduction Constantly people of color are confronted with the reality that death is our ever-present companion.…
April 7, 2022 To Governor Gretchen Whitmer, State Police Director Colonel Joseph Gafper, and DHHS Deputy Director David Knezek: We are greatly alarmed that Michigan State police are being sent to target and harass Rev. Edward Pinkney, the noted community activist in Benton Harbor, Michigan. On March 25, 2022 Sgt. Hayward of the Paw Paw…
As time has permitted, and circumstance demands, I find myself wondering. With COVID giving an overwhelmingly unjust advantage to prosecutors that allows them to forego court rules, delay indefinitely for “COVID-like symptoms” or close contact, that allows a person to be held indefinitely while awaiting the opportunity to present their case before a judge, that…
As I’ve been sitting in the belly of the beast, it has been a whirlwind of new discoveries. None have been more impactful than the pressures of surviving financially while incarcerated in the MDOC. Through time, unaccountability, and privatization, they have mastered the ability to force prisoners to survive on the most minimal amount of…
Today I bring you another case where the injustice system has worked to keep another Washtenaw county parolee behind bars for over a year after he beat his case. Yes, after he beat his case in a court of law, Armani Shabazz, MDOC #860854, is still waiting in a prison cell a year later, awaiting…
The world is experiencing the pain and suffering of this pandemic. Businesses are forced to close due to sickness and being understaffed, supplies are in high demand due to shipping shortages, hospitals are undersupplied, overcrowded, and understaffed. Basically everything is experiencing lack and limit, distress and difficulty, as we strive to maintain and survive through…
[Submitted by Friends of H.H.] We can all take a deep breath, avert our gaze, and rest easy. Washtenaw County now has a progressive prosecutor—Eli Savit, whose platform claims that (1) coercive plea bargaining, (2) over-prosecution, (3) prolonged pre-trial detentions, (4) aggressive prosecution of drug possession charges, and (5) racial inequity are things of the…
Although its got a new sports facility and a recently renovated Engineering and Technology building, Eastern Michigan University (EMU) has been known more for the ongoing austerity its workers and students face. If the administration isn’t selling off rights to its parking or dining halls or dorms, it’s firing secretaries in departments whose secretaries are…
This document is the product of a group of revolutionaries in the so-called “Midwestern” region of the United States, to clarify a regional political trajectory for revolutionary abolitionist practice in the Midwest. We define it as a “trajectory” because we think that any strategy and analysis we outline should be subject to constant critique, development,…
Another week has gone by and H.H. is still in SMHU. We need to keep the pressure on to show the MDOC that WE DON’T GIVE UP. Conditions in the Egeler segregation unit continue to be cruel and inhumane. H.H. hasn’t had clean clothes in 4 weeks, continues to be cuffed whenever he leaves the…
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