- from Cumberland

by Peter Gelderloos

On July 12 I went to prison for resisting global militarism in the service of profit: my government was training killers to do our bankers' dirty work. I do not for a second regret the hardships I have incurred by refusing self-surrender and going directly to jail from the courthouse. I have won myself a tour of Georgia county jails and the federal prisoner transit system, and a plethora of other experiences that have taught me the meaning of structural violence, and have shown me the hidden domestic face of the system that is allowed to rampage more visibly in poorer parts of the world. It is in this context that I recently jumped out of my assigned bunk and wrote the following.

Every time a person is thrown into prison marks another failure on the part of society. Each clang of those metal doors swinging shut is an admission of ineptitude. The closing mouth of the jail says: "I give up! I have not dealt with this problem so I will hide it away. I will swallow this sickness and hope it does no harm." And that a nation should preclude any attempts of reconciliation and repair by regimenting a system of required imprisonment is indicative of the greatest immaturity, apathy, and tyranny.

The government requires you to pay its taxes: you need their assistance; to follow its laws: you need their protection; to fill out its paperwork and honor its bureaucratic channels: you cannot endeavor or create without their guidance. But once you are a criminal, you are on your own. The logic of the State is that we are not capable of taking care of ourselves, but once we break their laws we alone are suddenly responsible for our actions. Interesting, that only as outlaws do we become individuals.

Of course, to be an individual, no - not to be a member of the cult of individualism, but to be a true, autonomous individual is to be outside the law. For a full individual has the right and ability to freely associate with other individuals and work in common to achieve those ends that one working alone cannot fulfill. Contrary to the individual, the Law is an attempt to monopolize morality in the hands of the State, it is the assumption that we lack the maturity to take care of ourselves outside a coercive system, and need the guidance of those vested souls who somehow escape the limitations of that irrefutable thing called human nature, which they most vocally profess to exist.

Sisters and brothers: let us be outlaws together, cast off military and structural violence, and open the doors of the prisons and dank chambers of State, to deal with those problems that have too long been hidden from us.

In solidarity,
Peter Gelderloos

[Peter Gelderloos is serving a six month sentence for repeated trespass at the School of the Americas, Ft. Benning, Georgia.]