Author Archives: Sean Swain

Bastille Day

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

July 14th is my favorite holiday. The only secular holiday I celebrate. I’d like to invite you to celebrate it with me, and if we celebrate it properly we might even celebrate it together.
I am talking about Bastille Day. Some history:
Back in 1789, the people of France were pretty angry with their government. It would seem that the government of France in 1789 was a lot like every government that’s existed for the last 6,000 years of hierarchical dystopia, including the current governments all over the globe, to some lesser or greater degrees. But 1789 in France was one of those rare moments like the L.A. riots or Occupy where the growing discontent and anger, and the indignation of being ignored provoked the people to do something a little more…radical.
They took to the streets and tipped over cop wagons, and they smashed windows and took bread. You know, a general state of disorder that happens a hundred times a year in our modern world, an outburst that normally exhausts itself and leaves a little glass to sweep up, while everyone goes back to their assigned seat… and then logs on to consult Crimethinc to find strategies for sustaining these disorders.
But I get ahead of myself. Back to France. The French peasants- an underclass- in the midst of their riot, did something totally Continue reading →

Sean Swain, INC

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

I’ve been thinking about incorporating myself. Not quite sure what the process entails, going from mere human to corporation. I hope it’s not too painful.
Recently, the United States Supreme Court ruled that corporations have religious rights. A company called Hobby Lobby took exception to some of the provisions in Obamacare that relate to employee coverage of some forms of birth control, claiming the company had an objection on religious grounds. The Supreme Court agreed and now Hobby Lobby, a corporation, is exempt from some of the portions of existing law due to the corporation’s religious beliefs.
Must be nice to have the right to hold religious beliefs, but I wouldn’t know. I’m just a mere human. My experience is, as a human, I have no right to beliefs whatsoever.
In 2009, when I arrived at Mansfield Correctional, the State ignored its own laws and placed me on a gang list for my “beliefs.” Unlike the situation with corporations where beliefs put the corporation beyond the laws, being a mere human, beliefs allowed the state to transcend the laws for purposes of monitoring and harassing. Even after I went through the bureaucratic process of having my religion recognized by the State – Neolithic Indigenism is now a recognized religion just like Christianity or Buddhism – Investigator Angela Hunsinger kept me on the “gang” list because one of the central tenets of Neolithic Indigenism is rejection of institutional Continue reading →

Immigration

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.
I think I have a solution to the immigration problem. But before I reveal what the solution is, maybe I should first point out what the immigration problem is. The problem is that governments regulate it in the first place. If you think about it, corporations aren’t regulated at the border. They can cross all borders and transcend all boundaries. Corporations are multinational. Money also passes freely across borders. Products. There are treaties the size of phone books that were signed in order to liberate products from being regulated at national borders. And we all know that jobs travel across national boundaries all the time.
In fact, the only thing regulated at the border is….people. That means corporations have more rights than you. So do green pieces of paper with dead slave-owners faces on them. Sneakers and cheese puffs have more rights than you. Even jobs. That means the machinery we use to toil all day for food rewards can cross a border before we can.
The reason for this makes perfect sense if you think about the purpose for national borders existing. Corporations need national borders. Those borders are essential for creating artificial pockets of poverty. Consider the situation on the U.S.- Mexico border, for instance. There you have a situation where you find hungry people on one side Continue reading →

I.W.W.

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

X380847. That’s my membership number in the Industrial Workers of the World. The I.W.W. has been around since 1905, making typical unions with the bosses and bureaucratic party, nervous, since the stated goals of the I.W.W. is the abolition of the wage system altogether rather than reformist efforts to “improve” the conditions of the owners and union bosses. Unlike every other union that sought to divide the workers into trades, the Wobblies, as the I.W.W. was called – had the ambitious program of unionizing all workers into one big union and thereby put the power into the hands of all workers collectively to shut down the industrial production system entirely.
Like the famed anacho- syndicalist unions of Spain, the F.A.I. & C.N.T, Wobblies promoted worker direct action. In the teens and 20’s, Wobblies were targeted with charges of criminal syndicalism, sabotage and sedition.
Yeah. It was treason to demand a fair shake, to imagine power wrested from the hands of Crapitalists.
Still is, of course.
After FDR’S New Deal and the rise of the more reformist and industrial friendly unions like the AFL-CIO, Teamsters, and United Workers , the threat and the influence of the I.W.W. faded. Between state repression and the major unions collaborating to squeeze out the Wobblies, the I.W.W. was largely neutralized during a time when anarchists were evolving new strategies and approaches that didn’t necessarily involve the seemingly impossible task of organizing all the workers of the entire of the entire world into the same union. But the Wobblies did not go away. They didn’t become extinct. They’re still Continue reading →

Anarchist News Award Acceptance Speech.

“Hey, Gary… how’s this repression working out for you?”

Anarchist prisoner Sean Swain receives his award from AnarchistNews.org, who named Swain the “Stalwart Anarchist Prisoner of the Year” for 2013!

The effort to get the award to Sean at his cell in Ohio’s supermax facility wasn’t easy! It involved difficult plumbing access, a lot of coordination, and virtually miles of prison sheets torn into strips and knotted together!

Swain has said that all credit for this award rightfully goes to Ohio Department of Retribution and Corruption Director Gary Mohr and his fascist repression! “The only way for him to improve upon this dubious distinction of creating the anarchist prisoner of the year would be to approve commissary sales of vodka bottles, rags, matches and gasoline,” said Swain.

In response, ODRC Director Mohr approved statewide commissary sales of rags, matches, gasoline and vodka bottles. After signing the policy change, the ODRC Director reportedly said, “fuck my life,” and crawled under his desk.

“Uh… WINNING!”

Since the Final Straw Radio show, for which Swain has a segment each week, has been broadcasting Thursday nights at 9PM in Columbus Ohio, at WCRS, Director Mohr has cancelled the Thursday night naked twister officer party. This latest policy change could signal that Ohio’s ruling fascists have totally given up on swivilization.

Sean Swain’s acceptance speech.

Sean’s Security Level Reduced!

Our call-in efforts have proved successful. Sean’s security level has been reduced to 4AT. Here’s Sean’s description of what that is:

“Good news. I was moved to 4AT. It’s not much different than 4B, but I get 2 ½ hours with three other prisoners and I have access to phone everyday. I get contact visits again, on contact visit days, whenever those are designated.”

SUPPORT ACTION: Flood the ODRC Records Office

In the midst of the Army of the 12 Monkeys persecution, which got Sean sent to level 4B at Ohio State Penitentiary, Ohio’s supermax facility, there were a series of disciplinary hearings before the Rules Infraction Board (RIB). Sean says these hearings were completely absurd, blatantly unjust, and terribly embarrassing to the prison authorities. I don’t know about you, but I’d love to hear Sean run debate circles around the bumbling (and sometimes intoxicated) ManCI investigators and officials.

We haven’t had a good laugh in a while, so we’re trying to get access to the recordings, or at least transcripts of these hearings. It’d be awesome to get audio or video of fascist fuckweasels drunkenly informing Sean that he has no rights and they don’t care about how obviously manufactured and inane the “evidence” used against him is. We expect a good mix of tragedy and comedy for maximum entertainment value. Unfortunately, the Ohio Department of Retribution and Corruption is living up to Sean’s name for them, by giving us the run around and losing track of our requests for the last few months.

So, we’re asking ya’ll to help us out. They can “misplace” one public records request, they might even be able to overlook or ignore a half dozen more, but we’re betting they’ll have trouble slipping twenty, thirty, a hundred through their many bureaucratic cracks. You may have heard or read stories about angry prisoners plugging their sinks and toilets, setting off fire sprinklers and flooding the range. Well, now you can participate in the office paperwork equivalent. Filing a request is easy. Just copy the information below, put in your personal information, and send it to the ODRC at the address provided.

If you can send it certified mail, they’ll have a harder time denying that they received it. If you fax it you can save on postage and also get a record that they received your fax. If you don’t have free access to a fax machine, just google “free fax” and they’ll be a handful of sites that send faxes for you. The ODRC records fax number is: 614 752 1086

If you get a reply, please contact us at insurgent.ben@gmail.com to let us know.

Custodian of Records
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
770 West Broad Street
Columbus Ohio 43222

[DATE]

RE: RECORDS REQUEST

Dear Sir or Madam:

I make the following request for public records pursuant to Revised Code Section 119.032 and in accordance with Ohio Administrative Code Section 5120-9-49, which defines a record as “any item that is kept by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (Department) that: (1) is stored on a fixed medium, (2) is created, received or sent under the jurisdiction of a public office and (3) documents the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the department.” The records requested are not precluded by OAC 5120-9-49 subsection B:

The digital recording of disciplinary hearing identified as MANCI-12-007219, held 24 October 2012 at Mansfield Correctional Institution,
The digital recording of disciplinary hearing identified as MANCI-13-002794 held on 13 May 2013 at Mansfield Correctional Institution, and
The digital recording of disciplinary hearing identified as MANCI-13-002907 held on 09 May 2013 at Mansfield Correctional Institution.

Please be advised that, pursuant to Subsection E of OAC 5120-9-49, this constitutes a request for “specific, existing records,” requiring the department to provide a prompt inspection at no cost and that you may with hold or redact these public records only with “explanation and legal authority.” Be advised also that the requester of records is willing to provide the necessary medium for the requested records, such as a disc or flash drive at requester’s cost, and is willing to provide an email address or other such information for the direct transfer of the information requested.

The requester of records may be contacted for “negotiation” to help in identification, location, and delivery of the requested records at the information below.

Thank you for your time and kind consideration.

Respectfully

[YOUR NAME]

[street address]

[PHONE NUMBER]

[email address]

Les Dillon

Les Dillon (416-607) was transferred to the Ohio State Penitentiary after a year of the Twelve Monkey regimen at Mansfield Correctional. Les admitted to being Monkey # 9 of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Les was offered “deals” several times. These “deals” would dismiss his disciplinary convictions if only he would identify Sean Swain (243-205) as a member of the army of Twelve Monkeys. Les refused and now spends extended time in total isolation at Ohio’s super max.

Les Dillon could use a pen-pal, some embossed envelopes and reading materials (zines or “appearing new”softcover books from publishers/ distributors only). His interests include Irish history, learning Gaelic, anarchist theory and practice and the Insane Clown Posse (I.C.P.). He is a skilled artist.

Write to Dillon at:

Les Dillon (416-607)
OSP
878 Coitville-Hubbard RD
Youngstown,Ohio 44505

Sean Recommended for Transfer

Few weeks ago we asked you to call Sean’s case manager Scott Nowak and ask him to give Sean a security level reduction. Nowak has recommended Sean be transferred to 4AT pending approval of Unit Management Chief Ms McDonnough.

Please call McDonnaough at (330) 743-0700 ext. 2164 and ask her to approve the recommendation.

Thank you.

Call-In, Write-In, E-Mail Campaign: Security Level Review Hearing

A cell block at Ohio State Penitentiary

In the month of July, Sean goes up for a security level review. This gives him the opportunity to drop from level 4B to 4A and get out of solitary confinement. These are some guidelines for anyone who feels moved to call, write, or e-mail his Case Manager Scott Nowak to encourage his lowered status:

Scott Nowak
Case Manager, D-Block

Ohio State Penitentiary
878 Coitville-Hubbard Rd
Youngstown,Ohio 44505

(330) 743-0700 ext. 2437 scott. nowak@odrc.state.oh.us

Sean has suggested a few talking points…

“First, a list of things not to say:

1) Don’t mention that you are naked and that your in the OSP Parking lot…waiting

2) Don’t talk about your gun collection

3) Don’t refer to prison staff as “fuckweasels” “assclowns” “fascists” “pigs” or “turds”

That pretty much covers what not to say.

Continue reading →