Free All Political Prisoners Calendar 2009

CERTAIN DAYS:

the 2009 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar “It has always been one of our goals in producing Certain Days to inspire organizers to keep on fighting. The calendar is an organizing tool – a fundraiser as well as a medium to spread information – but we also aim to have it be a reminder that we’re in this to win. In trying to select the theme for this year’s edition of Certain Days, we wanted to focus on this – on the hope and inspiration that is needed to sustain the often daunting day-to-day work of creating a more just society.” GET A FREE CALENDAR WHEN YOU PURCHASE THE LATEST KERSPLEBEDEB/PM PRESS PUBLICATION! Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents From the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners. Edited by Matt Meyer with a foreword by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and afterwords by Lynne Stewart and Ashanti Omowali Alston

for more information click here

artwork from calendar  

by political prisoner Alvaro Luna Hernandez by by Jonah Fertig

FOCUSING ON: Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in Canada and the United States. Today’s anti-war, anti-globalization and anti-colonial movements are rooted in the history of earlier struggles for justice, including the mass movements of the 60s and 70s. Many of the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War featured in this calendar were organizers during that period: members of the Black Panther Party, or the American Indian Movement, Puerto Ricans fighting for their homeland, or white anti-racist allies working in solidarity with oppressed peoples. Many of the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War featured in this calendar have been in prison SINCE THAT TIME – 30 years or more. Yet these prisoners are not relics of past movements, they are still active in their political work, and despite the hardships of organizing in prison, they continue to organize for justice in the present day; justice behind bars and justice on the streets. This calendar is our tribute to them.

 

FEATURING ART BY:

Colin Matthes
• Sharon Wasko
• Favianna Rodriguez
• Stefan Pilipa
• Alvaro Luna Hernandez
• Fernando Marti
• Peter Collins
• Jonah Fertig
• Julia Maas
• Christopher Cardinale
• Angela Sterritt

FEATURING WORDS ABOUT:

• Inside Angola Prison, Louisiana’s Last Slave Plantation Organizing for Freedom (by Jordan Flaherty)
• DRUM Elected t Grassroots Global Justice Steering Committee: Lifting Up Grassroots Organzing to End the War (Desis Rising Up and Moving)
• Philly’s Pissed: Organizing Against Sexual Assault (by Timothy Colman)
• Radical Visions for Safety and Justice: Incite! Women of color Against Violence (by Johonna McCants) 
• Palestinian Prisoners, Steadfastness and the Grassroots BDS Campaign (by Kole Kilibarda)
• Organizing Against the War – 1965 (by David Gilbert)
• Inside Books Project, Austin Texas (by Danielle Handler)
• The Place of Revolutionary Love in Grassroots Prison Organizing (by Robert Seth Hayes and Tom Keefer)
• Against fear: prison organizing around HIV and AIDS (by Laura Whitehorn)
• Revolution is the Strategy, Grassroot Organizing is the Tactic (by Michael Vernon)
• Victory Gardens and Self-Help (by Herman Bell)
• The Case of the Cuban Five (by Michelle Schudel)
• Direct action combatnig ethnic cleansing: Common Ground (by Scott Weinstein)
• Warriors complete 20+ stop tour against 2010 Olympics (Native Youth Movement Communications)

All funds raised by Calendar Commitee will go to direct support of political prisoners and anti-imperialist struggles. Funds from this year’s calendar are being shared between the New York State Task Force on Political Prisoners, Addameer (a Palestinian Prisoners Suppoert and Human Rights Association), and the San Francisco Eight. This project is a collaboration between outside organizers and U.S. Political Prisoners Herman Bell, Robert Seth Hayes and David Gilbert.

In the words of the Calendar committee:

It has always been one of our goals in producing Certain Days to inspire organizers to keep on fighting. The calendar is an organizing tool – a fundraiser as well as a medium to spread information – but we also aim to have it be a reminder that we’re in this to win. In trying to select the theme for this year’s edition of Certain Days, we wanted to focus on this – on the hope and inspiration that is needed to sustain the often daunting day-to-day work of creating a more just society.

Grassroots campaigns – past and present, inside and outside prisons – provide many, many examples of how we can win, and how in many ways we already are. Across the continent and around the world people are building community resources and practices that give a glimpse of the society we hope to build. This year’s edition of Certain Days features writing and artwork about such local grassroots organizing efforts. AIDS education, Palestinian solidarity, Indigenous resistance against the Olympics, and ending violence against women are just some of the topics that grace these pages. Many of the images were originally produced as posters or graphics for grassroots campaigns – the art itself is activism.

As mentioned above, this calendar is meant to be an organizing tool. We hope that its content inspires and informs your own work, but moreover if you have fundraising to do for your campaign(s) we encourage you to get in touch about distributing the calendar in your community, and putting the difference between the bulk price and the cover price back into your own organizing. Groups that have done this in the past tell us that this has not only help them raise funds, but allowed them to engage the buyers in a dialogue about the connections between the work they do and the work of winning freedom for political prisoners.

We see strong connections between the struggles inside the prison walls and those on the outside, between the organizing that landed political prisoners in prison in the first place and the campaigns to free them, between prisoner justice work and the many other forms of justice work discussed in this edition of the calendar. We hope to see these connections deepened by dialogue and solidarity between the many movements represented here. There are lessons to be drawn, and inspiration too.

Enjoy the calendar, and keep up the good work!

The Certain Days collective

Be sure to check out these Kersplebedeb pages:

 Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War Page

Literature Rack

Police & Justice Issues Page

See also profile pages devoted toDavid Gilbert and Robert Seth Hayes

to order email info@kersplebedeb.com or else contact one of the addresses below:

To order the 2009 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar and pay via PayPal: ($14.00 per calendar + $1.00 postage) click on the button; to pay via check or money order, or to place a bulk order, please email me at .

Get a FREE Certain Days 2009 calendar when you order a copy of the newly released Kersplebedeb/PM Press title: Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents From the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners. Edited by Matt Meyer with a foreword by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and afterwords by Lynne Stewart and Ashanti Omowali Alston. Let Freedom Ring costs $ 37.95 plus $15.00 postage – to pay with Paypal; click on the button:

For more information of this calendar, go to: www.certaindays.org