Vegan Prisoner of Conscience Letters
THREE LETTERS from Chris “Dirt Blackcrow” McIntosh

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

Birthday: 17th July.
Please send cards and letters NOW!  

***all letters are printed with Chris McIntosh's permission.

Chris McIntosh 22/04/06

Yo, hello there,

What's up? I'm just writing now coz I just got the stamps I needed. I'm doin okay…Still alive. I guess that's something, right?

I appreciate you writing to me and offering me a forum on your site.

Vegan recipes? Heh,heh! I was a street crustie so I ate whatever I could pull out of the trash or dumpster or could bum from people coming out of restaurants. Even though I'm a vegan I like freeganism. Freegan is good because it's the least consumer orientated than anything else in my opinion.

You asked me my thoughts on activism. Well, here they are. My thoughts on activism are that the days of protests, nonviolent actions and other demonstrations are over and that now the time has come to meet extreme activism with the full measure in return. I believe even the hardest direct action we are seeing now is still just playing around with a power structure that's not playing around at all. The question I have therefore is: Why are we then not giving as good as they are?

When it comes to “animal rights”. I don't personally believe in “animal rights”. I don't believe it's our place to bestow “rights” upon ourselves or any other organism. Who are we to think we have that power? It's an ego trip. I believe many people think humans are supposed to hold some sort of positive dominion over all life. This is false and it's lame. When you say “animal rights” then you allude to some illusion that you can use. It's the same as the “justice system” bestowing “justice” for the oppressed. We know that's not true, don't we? It's a weak reliance on a system that spits in our face. I only truly believe in total animal liberation. By total I don't mean liberating an animal and placing him/her in a sanctuary or a “caring home” – that's still imprisonment. Total liberation is physically destroying the oppressor then liberating the animal into an eco-system and then leaving him or her to live their own life in peace.

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts. I didn't write anything about prison life because you really can't describe it. I'm in a maximum security prison and unless someone's been in this situation, at this level, they can never understand it.

About Bill Rodgers though…I believe the US is pretty dirty and does kill people. However I don't believe he was murdered. I mean I have met some people that have done it a lot tougher than Bill and didn't get taken out. I just don't think he could handle it. Some people can't. Anyway thanks again. Keep it real.

No Surrender, Chris.

Chris McIntosh 14/05/2006

I got your letter a little while ago and the awesome book you sent – “Welcome To The Machine”. I just finished reading it. I also wrote up some questions for you to give to Derrick along with your own. Let him know I also really liked “A Language Older Than Words”.

Josh {Harper} and his girlfriend were present at my guilty plea hearing which was pretty cool of them.

What's up with you? Do you surf living in Australia , or go swimming? I love the beach. Do you have a lot of punk shows in Enmore?

I don't know a whole lot about Australia but I used to love watching that show on Animal Planet with the crocodile hunter. I can't believe I've forgotten his name! Steve, that's it!

The dudes a beast yo… Have you watched it?

I was just reading in a magazine about a drunk Australian dude who got into his car and there in his car was a King Brown snake…heh,heh. So he thought it would make a cool pet so he grapped it and the snake bit him. He places the snake in a plastic bag. He's drunk as fuck, right! So he sticks his hand in the bag and the snake bites him 8 more times…Well, he lived but he lost his arm and is paralyzed…I like snakes overall though. I just don't fuck with them. You have all kinds of shit that can kill you in Australia . It's amazing really. The Great Whites, Crocs, Snakes, Wild Dogs… Makes taking a hike kind of risky. Heh, heh!

Anyway, No Surrender, Dirt.

06/06/06 heh, heh yesterday

Yo, hello there,

Got your letter. It was really encouraging because I thought the questions would be laughed at. I've got a lot of respect for Derrick {Jensen}. I was so stoked to hear he was sending me a copy of Endgame . I look forward to it. So you're a kiwi by birth. That's cool. A lady from New Zealand sent me a bunch of stuff from there on organic living.

I think, if I remember correctly, that I have read {about the suburb} Enmore in the magazine ‘High Times' a while back. It's like outlaw, have I got it right?

I think it's kinda fucked, Australia 's tight-assed policy on not letting anyone in who's got a criminal history. They should have stuck with the whole Founding idea…dissidents and other unwanteds by authorities can find a place… Granted back in those days it was forced colonialism but still it just seems pretty shitty. I'd come over to stay but…I was listening to the radio and they were interviewing this Australian girl. I was blown away by her accent. That sounds lame but it's true. It's like a cross between the British accent but way cooler. Is the Australian accent regional like England 's is?

Are you into literature? Yo, you've gotta check out this book I'm reading. It's the outlaw bible of American literature. It's vicious. It's got a collection of excerpts from dissident underground writers of the 1900's.

Anyway about Mario Savio's famous free speech quote. I liked it. There's so much emotion in it and you can feel his heart beating in what he says. It's like the Machine is just so fucked. He doesn't give a fuck. This life means nothing under the Machine and so through the attritional cost of our bodies being ground into hamburger, we shall stop it. He's right but radicals in this western culture are way too comfortable to engage in anything beyond propaganda of the deed.

So yeah! I'm in the hole still. I can't seem to stay out of lock-up for long. Trouble finds me … heh, heh.

{Chris is in the hole for fighting with a child molester}

I've started listening to jazz lately and I like it. But not a whole lot is going on. Please stay in touch.

Yours, Dirt.

 Support Chris McIntosh: the Chris McIntosh Story so far

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.