Support Chris McIntosh

“ If you can tremble with indignation every time an injustice is committed in the world, we are comrades”. – Che Guevara.

Just in case you want to skip the details, we want to inform Abolitionist-Online readers that Chris McIntosh's birthday is coming up on the 17 th July. He will be 24 years of age. We ask you to flood his cell with love and support. Please send a card and/or a letter. Chris is a great reader, writer and loves books. He has a wish list at: www.supportchris.org

Write to:

Christopher McIntosh #30512-013
FCI Fairton
PO Box 420
Fairton, NJ 08320
USA

All letters of prisoners that we have published in the Abolitionist is done so with each prisoner of conscience's permission.

The Chris McIntosh Story so far:

Chris McIntosh is an anarchist and environmentalist whom the US government charged with an arson attack, last year, on a MacDonald's restaurant in Seattle , Washington , USA , an action that was jointly claimed by the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front.

Despite there only being some property damage to an empty restaurant, the US government initially charged him with terrorist offenses with a penalty of a minimum thirty year sentence in a federal prison. Those charges were based on the testimony of two well-known police informers. Faced with that, Chris pled guilty to lesser charges with a penalty of eight to ten years. He is currently serving an 8 year sentence.

Chris is a vegan. So far while in prison he has undertook a hunger strike to protest against the federal detention centres inadequate provision of his dietry needs. He was forced to call off his hunger strike after five days under threat of being force fed by detention centre staff.

We believe that his case highlights the fact that under capitalism crimes against private property are considered more serious than crimes against people, especially when there is a political motive. Even an eight to ten year sentence is more than many paedophiles, rapists, or killers receive. The initial charges of terrorism would be farcical were there not such serious penalties attached to them.

Despite no person ever being harmed in a ALF or ELF attack, the US government, in particular the FBI “has made the prevention and investigation of animal rights extremists and eco-terrorism … domestic terrorism investigative priority.”- John E.Lewis, deputy assistance FBI director of counter terrorism speaking at the U.S Senate Judiciary Committee, May, 2004. This witch-hunt is culminated in what is commonly now known as “The Green Scare” (see our interview with lawyer-activist Lauren Reagan. Lawyer to Jeff “Free” Luers.)

In conclusion, we send our solidarity to Chris McIntosh and his supporters, and we condemn the US federal and state governments for their morally unlawful heavy-handed treated of Chris and other activists like Jeff “Free” Luers (who received a twenty-two year sentence for a property crime where no person was harmed). We stand with these activists in condemning a system where property and profit come before people, non-human animals and the environment.

We urge everyone reading this to lend their support to Chris McIntosh as a political prisoner.

Further information about Chris can be found online, with his wish list, at: http://www.supportchris.org

Beyond Bars: A Conference on the Politics of the Prison Industrial Complex
On Saturday, December 3 rd , 2005 close to two hundred people attended “Beyond Bars”, a conference exploring the politics of the prison industrial complex. One woman who spoke that day was Christina McLean, a friend and supporter of eco prisoner, Chris McIntosh.

Click Here to read a transcript of what Christina said.

Click Here to read some letters from Chris McIntosh to Abolitionist Online