Bristol Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) hosts a monthly letter writing night at Kebele Social Centre with the aim of providing a basic support to prisoners by writing to them, since the main goal of state power is to isolate our comrades from the movement. We mainly write to ‘political prisoners’, but also believe that every prisoner is a political prisoner.
Wednesday, April 14th, 7 to 9pm, at Kebele Social Centre, 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol, BS5 6JY.
This month we will focus on the cases of some Russian prisoners. Social movements in Russia have faced severe repression in recent years, and so have quite a few prisoners there. Come to learn a bit more about their cases and those of other prisoners.
Russia was the birth place of what became known as the Anarchist Black Cross. The ABC was formed in the period 1905-1907 when it was realised a previous organisation, the Political Cross, was acting in a sectarian manner and only sending funds to marxist/socialist prisoners, and not the annarchists & social revolutionaries. In the early 20th century thousands of anarchists and social revolutionaries were sent to labour camps and exile, so the first ABC groups (called Anarchist Red Cross until 1919) were founded inside and outside Russia to support them. The organisation was international, with a co-ordinating group based in London from 1906, involving the likes of Rudolph Rocker. The ABC has continued, in one form or another, since then, in many different countries. You can read more on the history of the ABC internationally by checking out the ‘history’ section here.