💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › brian-mccarvill-combat-dispatch-106-volunteers.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 08:02:19. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-06-20)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Combat Dispatch 106: Volunteers Author: Brian McCarvill Date: 2003 Language: en Topics: Anarchist Black Cross, prison, Rob los Ricos Source: Retrieved on January 1, 2005 from http://www.greenanarchist.org Notes: from Green Anarchist #70, Autumn 2003
I chose the term “Volunteers” because it is apropos to combat. “Comrade”
or “comrades” is another term that I like to use a lot in conjunction
with combat. I feel as though the two terms are genuinely applicable to
Anarchists. I am an Anarchist. As an Anarchist I try to frame my
thoughts, my mode of Life, my spirit, in terms of Anarchism. My
Anarchism. My Anarchism is what I believe it to be, not what I am told
it should be. Still, my Anarchism is fluid. I constantly thirst for, and
seek out, Anarchist literature and comraderie, from anywhere and
everywhere that I can. As a prisoner in the Oregon gulag, all contact
with outside Anarchists was gradually being choked off. More on that in
a moment. Let me close this opening paragraph by stating that
“Volunteers” and “combat” extend beyond the confines of Anarchism.
“Volunteers” and “combat” encompass the struggle to move the revolution
forward. Given this very simple request, both “Volunteers” and “combat”
will tolerate and seek extra-Anarchist support.
Back to the situation within the Oregon prison system.
In 2000 the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) “documented” [1]
Anarchists as a security threat group (STG). [2] At first, this STG
designation by ODOC definition earned Anarchists designation as a gang.
Prior to this secretive documenting, interaction between myself and
outside Anarchists was relatively free and open. Rejection of Anarchist
publications was rare. As far as I know, no Anarchist publication has
ever caused an actual security problem within an ODOC prison facility
that I had the pleasure of being interned in. [3] Once the documentation
occurred, almost all Anarchist literature was intercepted and rejected
by ODOC. The reasoning tendered for almost all of the rejections was the
display of the circle-A or Anarchist Black Cross symbol. It is the rare
Anarchist publication that does not contain either a circle-A symbol or
an ABC symbol. ODOC was aware of this and they wrote a provision into
their mail rule which declared the circle-A, the ABC cross, and the
black flag depictions within Anarchist publications to be “gang / STG
paraphernalia”. They followed up this declaration with a policy of “zero
tolerance for any gang / STG-related activity”. My interaction with
outside Anarchists essentially ceased to exist. I was pissed.
I was not the only one pissed off. Other Anarchist prisoners, comrades
of mine and yours, were equally pissed off. We all attempted to
challenge the rejection problem by utilising ODOC’s administrative
review process. While I was at EOCI (Eastern Oregon Correctional
Institution), every once-in-a-while one of these administrative reviews
would terminate in my favour. This did not last long before I was
transferred to OSP (Oregon State Penitentiary). At OSP, not one single
administrative review for any anarchist prisoner that I knew of
terminated in the Anarchists’ favour. [4]
We were in a quandary as to what to do about this problem. It became
obvious to me that only a court injunction was going to get us any
relief. I was loathe to file such an action. Tried pleading our case
with all of the ODOC brass who’s sphere of influence touched upon the
mail rule, or whom could influence the mail rule. It was totally
fruitless. It appeared that the lawsuit avenue was to be our only chance
of relief. It was a big chance. I was an experienced prison litigator
and prison legal assistant. I knew that the courts were not friendly to
prisoner litigation. Coupled with the bad press that Anarchists were
getting in Oregon it seemed hopeless. Still, nothing ventured, nothing
gained. We were already in a position of total repression. We could only
improve our situation. However, a loss in court would only seal our fate
in the form of our current dilemma. I filed suit, McCarvill v. DeHaan et
al., United States District Court, District of Oregon, case no.
02-1167-KI, Portland, Oregon.
The combat had begun. I do not want to bore you with the ins-and-outs of
litigating the suit. Anyone truly interested in this aspect of the
combat can access the court file and gain a pretty good idea of the
massive effort required to prosecute such a suit from the perspective of
a prisoner. [5] It was formidable, I can tell you.
We won the suit. Notice that I said “we”. I could not have accomplished
this win alone. This is the point that I wish to make. Had I been alone
in this effort I would have lost.
There was all manner of support in this combat. This is Anarchism at
work. This is revolution at work. In the matter at hand this was
victory. Of course, not all Anarchists, particularly those who pose
themselves as ethically pure Anarchists, or principled Anarchists, chose
to participate. This is certainly OK. I support them in their
principalities. They are often keepers of the flame, the ones that can
be relied upon to perpetuate both theory and history, to pacify with
knowledge and truth, noble, pertinent, and necessary tasks to be sure.
But, be that as it may, there is a war in progress, the litigation that
I started was a battle in that war, militarily speaking, an engagement.
Once started, the litigation was, in fact, approached as a battle. It
was all or nothing. This was no skirmish. As in any battle, militarily
speaking, to win against a formidable enemy, a firmly entrenched enemy,
an enemy with superior firepower that holds the high ground, the tactics
would necessitate creating multiple fronts and out-flanking the enemy on
all of those fronts. This required more than me as the litigator, much
more.
My cellmate at the time, and comrade, Rob los Ricos, came up with a plan
to mobilise outside forces. A second front was born. Rob, with myself in
full agreement, organised a campaign wherein outside supporters were
requested to protest ODOC’s repression by sending both of us postcards
with a large circle-A symbol displayed over the words “This is not a
gang symbol”. Hundreds of postcards flowed in. ODOC reacted by throwing
both of us in the hole for 120 days, convicting us of “unauthorised
organisation 1”. [6]
The hole time turned out to be a blessing in disguise as far as
litigating the lawsuit was concerned. Approximately 90% of the written
discovery efforts were conducted by me from the hole. Yes, I had to hand
print it all on unlined paper with a miniature pen the size of a
run-of-the-mill birthday cake candle, but I had plenty of time to
accomplish it all. Had I been in general population, I would not have
had the opportunity to perfect the tremendous amount of written
discovery. This proved to be a key downfall in the enemy’s defences on
the central front.
As I hammered at the enemy with the full frontal attack of the
litigation, the outside support network kicked into full mobility. The
Anarchist Prisoners Legal Aid Network, with us from the beginning, both
raising and supplying monies that supported the litigation, went on line
and otherwise organised massive publicity for the battle. APLAN also
coordinated the continued postcard campaign, as well as an effort to
arrange declarations in support of the litigation from interested
Anarchists from all over the world. [7] Break the Chains and Green
Anarchy of Eugene, Oregon, mirrored APLAN’s efforts, providing a
position statement and kicking the bushes for declarations. John Connor
and Green Anarchist of London, England, provided an in-depth position
statement. Joanne Rankin and comrades of Dublin, Ireland, held a
fundraising event and provided much appreciated moral support — thank
you, Joanne. Ryan Foote and Mishap zine of Eugene, Oregon, provided an
in-depth position statement and support that considerably freed-up ODOC
restriction on zines. John Zerzan provided much-needed declarations that
substantially took the legal substance away from ODOC’s position.
Countless others from everywhere contributed declarations, postcards
and, probably most important to me, moral support.
It turns out that, had I approached the litigation on my own, the cause
would have failed. Had ODOC been approached without the litigation, the
cause would have failed. Because we approached the battle
multilaterally, with full force and conviction, we won. Anarchist
comraderie was the binding influence. In this age of information we are
a power to be reckoned with. The isolation that accompanied Anarchist
individualism in the past is no longer a detriment. Organisation, as a
verb, not an entity, as in this instance, is a proven battle winner.
Winning the war is next. It involves combat. Fuck Uncle Sam, the
revolution needs you.
Combat begets casualties. War is hell. How true. Revolution is not a
dinner party, after all. [8] Casualties were suffered by us all around.
Impact, both immediate and long-term, varied by degrees as to the
participants. I am reminded of a conversation that I had with two of the
defendants from the lawsuit, Greg Atkin, the OSP safety officer, and
Jacy Duran, the then-central mail administrator. [9] Prior to my actual
filing of the suit I had told Duran and Atkin (to his credit, Atkin had
brought Duran to my cell door in an effort to solve the circle-A
problem) that the only avenue of relief that I had left was to actually
file suit. I asked them both if there would be any hard feelings in the
event that I did file suit and of course they both professed that there
would not be any “paybacks”.
I am currently sitting in ODOC’s showcase isolation unit prison, Two
Rivers Correctional Institution (TRCI). How and why did I arrive here?
If you have had enough wherewithal to read this far, you obviously are
able to rationalise the answer. I am getting ahead of myself here
somewhat. Let me back up.
The first casualties in the battle were absorbed by you, our supporters,
and us prison rank and file, in the form of monetary cost. Court filing
fees were $150.00. Legal copies and postage expenses quickly took off
exponentially, costing multiple hundreds of dollars all total. You
raised these funds for us. Your actions and support in doing so
constituted a state defence. Although the state complains of costs,
there is no impact upon its individuals, it simply squeezes its
taxpayers a little harder. The costs to you and I are intended to deter.
Capital at work controlling us.
For me this has never been an obstacle. For you, well, I must say,
thankfully, that those of you who were not deterred, occurred, and
hopefully will continue to occur, in adequate numbers to move the
revolution forward. To those of you who were deterred by either
financial cost, time incurred, or simply by the necessary effort, I
implore you to get the fuck out of the way, take your social-climbing
non-committal arse elsewhere — there is no place in the revolution for
you.
I recognise that outside support for us prisoners, whether it be
monetary, physical effort and/or moral support, takes away from other
valuable life experience. I think I speak for more than myself when I
say that we prisoners deeply respect and appreciate your efforts.
Economic impositions upon us, the prisoners involved (Rob los Ricos and
I here) are, of course, amplified very quickly as we deal with very
small amounts of money in our lives. We were immediately impacted when
we lost our jobs and were thrown in the hole for the postcard campaign.
As long-term prisoners, it was rather easy to take this in stride,
particularly because of the outside support that we receive. Still, the
state imposes the penalty as a deterrent, it’s all that it knows.
Personally, I lost 100 or so days of good-time as well as my prison job.
In the long run, the loss of income will become a considerable hardship
factor in my quality of life and my ability to interact with the
outside. The hole time (120 days) and the loss of good-time are somewhat
inconsequential deterrents.
The greatest casualty suffered by me is my transfer to TRCI. The state
knows this, it is why they did it. There was a clamour from the outside
and from me to ODOC high-rankers to restore Rob and I as cellies and to
our jobs. Even the attorney general’s office recommended return of the
jobs and no transfers. But authority must have its pound of flesh,
gained in this case through the mental anguish inflicted upon me through
the transfer to TRCI. Not only did they knowingly separate Rob and I,
the worst thing they could do to me, they transferred me to the only
prison in Oregon that has no means of ever sitting with back support.
They did this with the full knowledge that I suffer from severe spinal
trauma and wedged discs. So they know they are torturing me mentally and
physically. Still, separating Rob and I was and is a tremendous blow to
my good mental health. We pose absolutely no threat to ODOC of any kind.
Filing of the lawsuit, your support, the engagement, was an affront to
ODOC security’s fascist ego, nothing more, nothing less. They simply
cannot stomach that they were wrong, both morally and legally.
Authority, like a trod-upon viper must bite and bite it has.
I am currently in physical and mental agony as I write this piece.
Perhaps by the time it is read conditions will have improved. I know
that comrades at APLAN have put out a call for a write-in campaign to
ODOC officials on my behalf. Asking that I be returned to OSP and be
given adequate medical treatment via indy-media on the Net. Regardless,
I’m a casualty of war, of combat, a willing casualty. We must not be
daunted by authority, by capital, or by combat. It has been said that
history is written by the winner. My friends, we should have and
maintain every intent to write that history.
Â
[1] This is ODOC’s terminology. Webster describes a document as: “A
paper that furnishes information, proof, or support of something else”.
[2] This according to a sworn statement by Benny Ward, ODOC’s STG
manager.
[3] Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution at Pendleton, Oregon, and
the Oregon State Penitentiary at Salem, Oregon. My interaction with
outside Anarchists earned me my transfer from EOCI to OSP for
“administrative security concerns”.
[4] At least not until the date this dispatch was written.
[5] The court file will show you documentation actually filed. It will
not show you the tremendous amount of written discovery that took place
in the form of Requests for Production and Requests for Admissions
submitted to each of the ten separate defendants. This was a brutal,
voluminous task, but proved to be exceptionally effective. The court
file should be accessible online for anyone wishing to view the
documents filed.
[6] Of course we first had a fair trial!
[7] Declarations are sworn statements on par with affidavits. Federal
courts allow declarations. Declarations do not require the declarant to
swear before a notary public. The court accepts the declarant’s
statement as true as a matter of independent honour.
[8] Please forgive my quoting of Mao but many of his observations are
fairly astute on removal from the ideology.
[9] Duran proved to be extremely vindictive. She rose to her position of
ODOC authority via a stint as a line officer and an Internal Affairs
officer. Since the prosecution of this action, she has been supplanted
as head Central Mail Administrator by Randy Geer. Duran’s vindictiveness
was instrumental in the backlash against this author.