June 30th, 2026 marked three years since the Feds demanded we turn ourselves in. It was also the day Pep was scheduled to move to Home Confinement. The BOP failed to complete the necessary paperwork to process that transition so he remains in the halfway house until further notice. As we await the next steps in our own situation we remain painfully aware of the continued evolution of the government’s attacks on liberatory movements but what’s even more troubling is witnessing the degradation of our movement principles by people who proclaim themselves comrades.
This piece is being written because a new wager and political understanding is being developed that threatens the movement by and large. There are those within the orbit of liberation that are actively causing harm through their word and deed. Whose actions and that of their supporters are producing daily new consequences that deviate from long-held traditions and codes of non-cooperation. This threat seeks access to our resources of time, money, and attention. When someone abandons and sacrifices their comrades by offering information to the state, the movement has an obligation to no longer stand in solidarity with that person.
While any one of us may be captured, subject to the great strife of the gavel or noose – to abandon dignity is not just an act of suicide, it drags others down with you. Such consequences demand our attention.
When we think about the political maturation necessary to stay principled under the pressure of federal repression, we think about the hard won wisdom of all the freedom fighters who paved the way throughout history. The people who left lessons and legacies for us to learn from and lean on. Knowing who has traveled this terrain and what they have sacrificed, undoubtedly provides a lifeline when a raid, arrest, and conviction turn your world upside down.
For guidance, we can turn to the wisdom of movement elders and ancestors like Sekou Odinga, Kuwasi Balagoon, Judy Clarke, David Gilbert, and Silvia Baraldini who issued a statement in 1982 called Destroy All Traitors.
“To minimize the development of traitors we must build movements based on clear principles, deep politicization, a strong commitment to oppressed and exploited peoples… We must teach that the state is our implacable enemy and fight for total noncollaboration as a basic principle.”
The codes revolutionaries live by exist to keep a movement alive long enough to find possibilities of emancipatory horizons. Thus, it is necessary at minimum, to hold the line of non-cooperation of any kind, and at best, raise the bar for what collective protection and defense can look like. Let us be clear: we are not victims of social injustice, we are targets in the cross-hairs of the US War Machine. If we are to survive, we must arm our spirits and stay committed to our convictions.
For those of us who have walked through the great halls of (in)justice, who have been steadfast supporters of those locked up, or who have done time themselves – it is known that the only thing that comes with you is your self-respect, integrity, and moral fortitude. Solidarity is what we receive for such commitment – it is the lifeblood that sustains us. The state has the power to strip everything else away.
In this landscape of war around and upon us, it is our acts of radical care and the fight for others that bolster our ability to win; love is a verb. It is a privilege to hold our comrades secrets and reflect back the best of what our movements have to offer. We lend political defendants and prisoners our hearts and minds because they carried themselves with dignity which honors the political legacies we walk in and the ones we hope to leave for those to come.
Solidarity with the Prairieland 8.
-K & P
*There were requests to name names in this piece, however our stance is this:
Once you are a traitor we no longer know you by your name – the only name we know you by is traitor.
