Minutes of the July 2002 Anarchist Black Cross Network meeting in Austin, Texas

Agenda:

Introductions
Why Are We Here? / Mission Statement
Immediate Goals
Keeping In Touch
Next Year
Mentoring
Outreach/Speaker Bureau
Starting ABC Groups

Introductions

People were present from:
Austin ABC, Houston ABC, ABC-Melbourne (Australia), Uproar (Dallas), Positive Youth (Pennsylvania), Freedom Socialist Party (Seattle), Books Through Bars (Philly), Philadelphia ABC, APLAN-Portland (Oregon), South Chicago ABC, Alvaro Luna Hernandez Defense Committee, Phoenix Copwatch, New York ABC, Huntsville 8, Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America, San Antonio Prisoner Defense Committee, Earth First (Tucson, AZ), Austin Copwatch, Break the Chains (Eugene, OR), Inside Books Project (Austin, TX), Friends of the Missouri Prisoner Labor Union, Industrial Workers of the World-Austin, Fort Worth, TX, Albuquerque, NM, Lawrence, KS, Louisville, KY, Santa Cruz, CA, Providence, RI, North Carolina, Virginia, Laredo, TX

Why Are We Here? / Mission Statement

Proposal: A short (5-10 sentence) Mission Statement will be drafted by a working group. They will publish the Mission Statement on an ABCN list serve.

The Mission Statement should include the ideas of autonomous groups, communication, accountability, self-critique and an annual meeting. Basic principles include working with communities of color, prison abolition, organizing to win, smashing capital. The working group should use the New Draft Proposal as a model for their work.

The Mission Statement working group should be diverse.

The current list of people working on the mission statement is:
Chris P (Austin), Mitch (San Antonio), Sam (Austin), a woman (not yet named) from Chicago ABC, Mike L (Portland)

The deadline for a proposed Mission Statement is September 11, 2002.

Goals

This agenda item subsumed a number of other agenda items. In the end, we delineated short medium and long-term goals for the Network.
For the purposes of this list, Short Term means in the next 2 years, Medium Term means 2-3 years, and Long Term means 3 years and beyond.

Short Term Goals

1. Working group to write a proposal for the setting up of a national Office by 12/2002
2. Set up a working group to develop the voices of women and people of color within the ABCNthis is projected as a short, medium and long-term goal.
3. Setting up an emergency fund to deal with the possibility of Chris Plummer being forced back to Prison by Sept. 30, 2002.
4. Setting up a Research Committee with prisoner participation by 9/2002
5. Formation of a Publishing Collectivethe collective should strive for a tidy, professional look by 11/2002. The first task of the publishing working group will be production of a conference follow-up newsletter.
6. Creating a fundraising Goal/ Budget by 11/2002
7. Creation of an Emergency Response Network

Medium Term Goals

1. Creation of a committee to coordinate a campaign against private prisons
2. Set up a group to focus on women prisoners
3. Form a critical analysis of prisoner support work in the post 9-11 environment with a focus on the INS Detention centers.

Long Term Goals

1. Smashing the State
2. Prison Abolition
3. Revolutionary Prisoner Trust Fund
4. Creation of a campaign to oppose prison labor and encourage worker resistance in every state system.

Workgroups

The following working groups were established during the conference. These groups are not closed, so people interested in joining a group should contact that group’s point person. Working groups will confer on-line and via phone until they come up with a proposal. Proposals will be discussed on the list serve until a consensus is achieved. Point pople are in Bold Print

Fundraising- Flanagan (PYF-PA), Chris P (Austin ABC), Heather (Phoenix Copwatch), Reckless P. (Austin ABC)
National Office- Chris P, Reckless P
Publication- Anthony R (So. Chicago ABC), Mike L. (APLAN), Jess (Virginia), Houston ABC, John D (Austin), Flanagan
Revolutionary Prisoner Trust Fund- Sam and Justice (Austin ABC)
People of Color Working Group- Ernesto A. (ALHDC-Houston), Mitch (San Antonio), Puck (EF!), Jeannie (Austin Copwatch), Jess, Lorenzo E. (Michigan), Scott (Uproar-Dallas), Brenton (Break the Chains)
Women Prisoner Working Group- Sarah (Inside Books-Austin), Sam, Ann (Angola 3 Solidarity Campaign-Dallas)
Research Committee- Flanagan, Sarah, George Peters (prisoner Anthony will contact)

Keeping In Touch

• We will use a combination of the anarchistblackcross.org web page, list serve and physical mailing list.
• Chris will compile a mailing list based on the comments about the conference that people send to Austin ABC.
• ABCN will request a page or two in anarchist journals and magazines to cover the conference and the network.
• Anthony R will put together a one-page review of the conference.

Next Year

Eugene, Oregon has offered to host the 2003 ABCN conference in June 2003. They plan to host a broader conference on prisoner support followed by a specifically ABCN conference. Everyone is expected to assist in preparations for the conference (i.e. it is not solely on the Eugene folks’ shoulders)

Mentoring

In recognition of the complexity and sensitive nature of prisoner support work, the ABCN will initiate a program to support people interested in going into prisoner support work. The goal of this program will be to insure the sustainability of the work. Mentors will be available to come to your town and help out in the initial period of a new ABC project. Mentors will also be available for phone and email consultations and advice. Interested people may also intern with a mentor at their home project. People interested in starting an ABC chapter are encouraged to take advantage of as many of these programs as possible.
Get in touch with <michaellee98103@yahoo.com> for more information on mentoring .

Outreach

Pam will coordinate the creation of a list of people willing to speak as representatives of the ABCN. People are encouraged to ask others who are not here to join the ABCN Speakers Bureau.

Priority Prisoner List

Ernesto, Webmaster of anarchistblackcross.org, will maintain a database of all political and social prisoners supported by the ABCN. The data base will include prisoner bios, current addresses and a list of prisoners whose current situations merit special attention.

Starting New ABC Groups

The ABCN will ask that people make a 5-year commitment before setting up a new ABC group. New groups are expected to use the mentoring network provided by the ABCN. New groups should work with existing groupsboth ABC and otherwise. Conflict Resolution is recognized as a very important aspect of organizing ABC groups. Each group is responsible for coming up with an appropriate form of conflict resolution for their group.
NY-ABC offers their assistance in setting up a new ABC group.

Statement Against the War On Terrorism

The following statement was presented to the conference: "The Anarchist Black Cross Network urges anarchists and activists everywhere to organize and resist Bush's war on terrorism and the coming U.S. war against Iraq." The ABCN decided that autonomous groups could endorse the call but that the ABCN was not yet in a position to do so. Austin ABC and NY ABC both endorsed the call.

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