Council of All Beings, MCD, Mutual Aid and Winter in America

 

Still no heat here. No cruel and unusual punishment! "13th amendment or end it!" people  chanted at MDC.

 Friday  night we walked through the East Village, toward 6^th street community center.

JK invited us to  join

“Faeries, Imps, Starchildren, Creatures of the four thousand directions, Lords and Ladies of the Winds, Denizens of the Underworld, Fire Beings, Aliens and You of the Unnamed Mysteries,
Donald and Lilith call you to the Council of All Beings. No humans. 
It is time for Imbolc, time to spark the Inner Fire, as the seeds feel the first stirrings under the returning Sun. Listen most carefully for One who will ask you to carry Her voice to the Council.”

Its the time of Imbolic,

honoring Brighid, the goddess of the hearth,

between  this solstice  and that.

Winter  and spring.

new beginnings and of purification

ready for the first births of spring. ...

Feasts and fire. ...

Lighting candles, chanting,

walking backward.

Familiar words.

Hoof and horn

We All Come From The Goddess
And To Her We Shall Return
Like A Drop Of Rain,
Flowing To The Ocean

Hoof and horn, Hoof and horn
All that dies shall be reborn
Corn and grain, Corn and grain
All that falls shall rise again

Sage and Crone, Sage and Crone,
Wisdom's gift shall be our own.
Crone and Sage, Crone and Sage,
Wisdom is the gift of age.

Recalling a garden and the water,

a bird that flew by,

looked me  in  the eye

on new year.

Swimming with a stranger in Sardinia.

A friend visiting.

Walking to class, for

a conversation about mutual aid

Could it be:

“…besides the law of Mutual Struggle there is in Nature the law of Mutual Aid, which, for the success of the struggle for life, and especially for the progressive evolution of the species, is far more important than the law of mutual contest….”

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, Peter Kropotkin 1902

Can we have mutual aid instead of mutual contest?

Or is  our time mediated by larger social  forces -

evicting the faeries, ripping down the trees,

prisons and evictions?

The dynamics explored in Capital Volume One

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land

“From 1814 to 1820 these 15,000 inhabitants, about 3,000 families, were systematically hunted and rooted out. All their villages were destroyed and burnt, all their fields turned into pasturage. British soldiers enforced this eviction, and came to blows with the inhabitants. One old woman was burnt to death in the flames of the hut, which she refused to leave. Thus this fine lady appropriated 794,000 acres of land that had from time immemorial belonged to the clan. She assigned to the expelled inhabitants about 6,000 acres on the sea-shore — 2 acres per family. The 6,000 acres had until this time lain waste, and brought in no income to their owners… In the year 1835 the 15,000 Gaels were already replaced by 131,000 sheep. The remnant of the aborigines flung on the sea-shore tried to live by catching fish. They became amphibious and lived, as an English author says, half on land and half on water, and withal only half on both…But the brave Gaels must expiate yet more bitterly their idolatry, romantic and of the mountains, for the “great men” of the clan.”

“It is the negation of negation….”

writes the  philosopher  toward the end,

proposing a unity of opposites and contradictions.

“Capital is not a thing, but a social relation between persons which is mediated through things…”

That mediation is still  grinding out profits  over people, displacing and incarcerating.

As the machines take over.

Thinking of Fred Hampton, long gone,

“If you dare to struggle, you dare to win,” he reminded us before he was shot.

“We're going to fight racism not with racism, but we're going to fight with solidarity.”

And Amadou,

all those marches twenty years ago.

It’s a wallet not a gun, police misconduct 101

we chanted when this unarmed immigrant from the Bronx shot at 41 times by the NYPD.

Marching for days and days,

 night after night.

The brutality continues. 

One in five CUNY students endure food insecurity.

Prisoners with no electricity, no heat in  Brooklyn,

for days and days.

Dark days, winter in  America. 

But people gather,

shine a light.

All Saturday and Sunday, people gathered, family members, kids, nieces, sisters, brothers at

MDC Federal Detention  Center  in  Sunset Park.

Tried to rush inside. 

To see what’s going on

Teargas.

Police outside with guns.

Crowds with signs and solidarity.

Sunday I joined after Church.

Walking through the space, I could hear the clanking on the windows of the people inside with no heat or light. 

Lockdown inside. 

Outside, kids held signs, saying:

we love you

the inmates are people too

we pay your salary

we demand answers.

we hear you

abolish inhumanity

compassion call for action.

we love you

MDC is criminal

No Cruel and Unusual punishments inflicted

we love you Javier!

you deserve better

Uncle Tyrone I love you

We hear you. 

The  world is watching Tye I’m fighting.

You are heard, you are loved

Doesn’t the 8^th Amendment of the Constitution prohibit

cruel and  unusual punishment?

Prisons freezing,  prisoners  in  the dark. 

Brad Lander posted:

“SUNDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE FROM MDC: I was able to tour the Sunset Park jail again this afternoon, along with @Nadler @Stringer. Our collective pressure, the continued presence of family members, protestors, and neighbors is making a difference. But not yet enough.

The power remains off. Prisoners have been on lockdown since Thursday evening. Stuck in their cells, unable to shower, many w/o laundry or a change of clothes. Unable to see, call, or e-mail loved ones. Eating dinner in dark cells (where their toilets are). Stressed & anxious.

On the brighter side: It is warmer today outside, so it is warmer inside as well. And some federal defenders were able to get in to see their clients for the first time this week.

The warden told us that the contractor expects to pick up the last-needed part at 7 am tomorrow (Monday), and expects to have power restored by 12 noon. (This could have been done far, far earlier if prison officials had shown any urgency).

There’s no doubt in my mind that the raised voices of family members, neighbors, and protestors outside is making a difference. First, to the prisoners themselves, who told me so. They are grateful to be seen & heard, to have people acknowledge their humanity.

While we were just inside the prison security area, a group of family members, other elected officials, protestors, and media came into the reception area & sought entry. Corrections officers quickly swarmed & pushed them out ... using pepper spray. Both a reporter & a guard got it pretty bad. https://twitter.com/RosaGoldenso…/status/1092139013790674945

If and when the power comes back on tomorrow morning (I’ll be there to see), residents will again have light. The ability to call or e-mail loved ones. Family visitation. The ability to leave their cells. But ...

Even when the power comes back on, humanity compels that we have a lot to do. The prison’s heating system remains badly inadequate. If there are more freezing cold days this winter, there will be cells at MDC that are too cold for human beings.

And we need accountability for how this crisis was allowed to go on for so long. What emergency protocols should have been in place? Who failed to execute them? What changes to we need at FBOP (and for city & state jails, too).

The family members & protestors aren’t leaving until the power is back on (so I’ll be back out to see them tonight and tomorrow morning). But even when they do, let’s make sure their voices, their insistent demand for justice, compassion, and heat are not forgotten.

Jumaane D. Williams

February 2 at 11:46 PM ·

“When we were inside we saw that conditions at #MDC are horrifying- now sometimes too much heat, sometimes not enough.

People there don’t seem to care about the humanity of those inside. At first they would t accept the supplies that have been brought in. But we are forcing them to change- we have to stay in these streets to get the work done.

Thank you to everyone who’s standing with us.”

"That was one of the most  screwed  up  situations I've  ever  seen in my life," noted Stephen. 

By Sunset, the lights were on. 

Brad Lander wrote:

“Never thought prison lights would look as good as this. The power is back on at MDC. Thanks for all your activism and solidarity to help make it happen.”

Watching the whole thing unfold,

I  thought of Gil Scott Heron’s homage to injustice,

and winter  in  America.

 “From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
And to the buffalo who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
Looking for the rain
Looking for the rain

Just like the cities staggered on the coastline
Living in a nation that just can't stand much more
Like the forest buried beneath the highway
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow

And now it's winter
Winter in America
Yes and all of the healers have been killed
Or sent away, yeah
But the people know, the people know
It's winter
Winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
'Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your soul, Lord knows
From Winter in America

The Constitution
A noble piece of paper
With free society
Struggled but it died in vain”

But people are still fighting.

And mutual aid

“for the progressive evolution of the species, is far more important than the law of mutual contest….”