Internationalist

Since 2006, every week we have gotten together to open prisoners' letters, read their requests, and search through our library to find the books they want. We send a wide range of texts, ranging from dictionaries and GED study guides to Grisham novels, Greek philosophy to radical history.

In addition to books, we also make available thousands of "zines," small booklets on contemporary political subjects like race, gender, direct action, anarchism, popular history, and anti-prison struggles. As we are able to provide multiple copies of these, prisoners are able to form study groups and themselves engage other prisoners in these topics. Ideally, this provides an organizing tool for prisoners and allows them to take the lead in educational efforts behind bars. A copy of our catalog can be seen here.

In the Spring of 2009, collective members began meeting to plan out a regular prison abolitionist reading group for anyone who is working with our group, or is working with prisoners in some other fashion, or who has done time themselves. Prisoners we correspond with have also started getting involved, reading the same texts and sharing thoughts via the mail. This group currently meets once a month, and covers topics such as mental health in prisons, histories of prison rebellions and organizing, social theory as related to the prison-industrial complex, the economic elements of the prison-industrial complex, and many others. To find out about the next reading group time, email us at prisonbooks@gmail.com.
 

Starting in 2007 our collective has published prisoners' art, writing, and poetry, as well as interviews with and essays by political prisoners in our regular publication Words of Fire. We printed our fifth edition in fall of 2009. This publication is a way for prisoners to reach each other and share ideas, as they are sent to dozens of facilities throughout the South.

Starting in February 2010 we have hosted a monthly birthday card writing night to send words of solidarity and support to political prisoners celebrating a birthday that month. Additionally we nationally distribute posters featuring these prisoners to over 130 different groups and individuals, many of whom have used the posters as resource to start their own card writing night.