Support Mutual Aid for Prisoners!
Give to the Oregon Imprisoned Fire Fighter Fund
Along the west coast and up through the Pacific Northwest, states have used prisoners in different land management efforts - including to fight wildfires. Since last year's unforgiving fire season starting in September, Critical Resistance's Portland chapter, in collaboration with Lane County Mutual Aid (LCMA), Siskiyou Abolition Project (SAP), and Black and Pink PDX (B&P), have been hosting a fundraiser to raise money for the commissaries of the prisoners who fought to protect Oregon’s forests and communities during the state’s deadliest fire season on record.
To show our deep appreciation for them, our goal is to raise at least $200 for each of Oregon's 285 active firefighters. Through raffles, bake sales, resource pooling, individual and organizational donations, we have raised almost $45,000 of our $57,000 goal! The fundraiser ends tomorrow on February 10. With only 1 day left to raise the remaining $12,000, can you help us?
Part of our work to abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC) involves upholding the dignity of the people who are targeted and harmed by its violence, and mutual aid is essential to this. Despite having been criminalized, torn away from family and community, and locked in cages - prisoners are literally putting their lives on the line for the rest of us.
In Oregon, organizers with with LCMA, B&P, and SAP have hosted letter writing nights these past few months, reaching out to these imprisoned firefighters for their consent to send this money to them, as well as to offer to publicize information they want people on the outside to know. In response, the project has received fire reports, firefighting certificates, photographs of fire crews, and courageous accounts of loss and resilience.
Organizers write, “As a mutual aid project, we know that by resourcing people inside we are not only creating meaningful connections that resist the isolation of imprisonment, but we're also supporting the mutual aid work led by imprisoned people that happens inside prisons. For this reason, correspondence is another crucial component of this work.”
Donations can be sent to bit.ly/firefunds, and updates on the fundraiser, political education, and excerpts of letters from the firefighters themselves can be found on our instagram @ImprisonedFireFighterFundsOR
Please share this information with your networks, and stay tuned for more updates on CR Portland and our other chapters' work to build a movement for PIC abolition.
