TheAnarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly theAnarchist Red Cross, is ananarchist support organization. The group providesprisoners with political literature and also organizes material andlegal support forclass struggle prisoners worldwide. It commonly contrasts itself withAmnesty International, which is concerned mainly withprisoners of conscience and refuses to defend those accused of encouraging violence.[1] The ABC openly supports those who have committed illegal activity in furtherance of revolutionary aims that anarchists accept as legitimate.[2]
In the early 20th centuryRussian Empire, dissidents including anarchists andsocialists were jailed, exiled, or killed for their resistance tomonarchy. Different political groups and organizations got together under thePolitical Red Cross umbrella to provide material support for those repressed. The Political Red Cross split whenSocial Democrats began filtering the group's support towards people with ideological alignment,[3] thus creating the Anarchist Red Cross to help all social revolutionaries without regard to their political affiliation.[4] By 1907, the Anarchist Red Cross had expanded to Russia,Europe, and theUnited States, particularly as Russians fled persecution, but from exile, continued to support imprisonedpolitical dissidents. TheRussian empire fell in 1917 and by releasing its political prisoners, obviated any need for the Anarchist Red Cross. But as theBolshevik communists rose and adopted thetsar's tactics, anarchists once again returned to prisoner aid. The group later changed its name from Red to Black Cross to not invoke the internationalhumanitarian aid organization theInternational Red Cross.[5]
Black Cross chapters in the early 20th century focused on helping anarchist dissidents during theSpanish Civil War,World War II, and inFrancoist Spain. In the 1970s, the Black Cross turned away from international aid toward local political issues. American chapters responded to increased government crackdown on radicals following the 1960scounterculture, in which activists were entrapped and imprisoned during theFederal Bureau of Investigation'sCOINTELPRO program. By the early 2010s, the American Anarchist Black Cross had supported around 100 jailed anarchists .[5]
In 1967, a British iteration of the Anarchist Black Cross formed uponStuart Christie's return from Spanish prison.[6] The group combined with Black Flag, which itself consisted of members of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Committee active in the 1950s and 60s.[7] The British Anarchist Black Cross is associated with publications includingBlack Flag (which has been produced since around 1970),Bulletin of the Anarchist Black Cross,Mutual Aid, andTaking Liberties.[8]Black Flag, in particular, is known for its advocacy for "class war anarchism". The Anarchist Black Cross publishing program considers itself less attached toliberalism than that of groups likeFreedom Press. The Anarchist Black Cross continued its activity through at least the late 1990s.[6]
The Black Cross's aid efforts includefundraising, acts of solidarity, and other forms of support of prisoners and their families. Fundraising events involveconsciousness raising and community collaboration, and funds raised are used to buy prisoners stamps, writing implements and other basic needs. Solidarity efforts include letter-writing nights, distributing literature, and advocacy campaigns alongsidehunger strikes and forclemency. These acts aim to reduce prisoner isolation and improve their living conditions.[5]
In 1918,Nestor Makhno organized new chapters of the Anarchist Black Cross as an adjunct to his anarchistRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine in the territories ofUkraine they controlled during theUkrainian War of Independence.[9]
In September 1919, agrenade attack at a meeting of the Moscow Committee of theBolshevik Party was used as a pretext formass arrests of anarchists all over Russia by BolshevikRed Army forces and theCheka. Anarchist militants were arrested; even the Insurgent Army and its general, Nestor Makhno, was hunted down at the orders ofLeon Trotsky, determined to cleanse Russia of all anarchists with "an iron broom".[10][11] It soon became clear that some kind of anarchist prisoner aid organization would have to be created once again to help anarchists held in Bolshevik prisons. InMoscow,Kharkiv,Odesa, and many smaller cities, new Anarchist Black Cross and similar organizations, such as the Society to Help Anarchist Prisoners, were formed, devoted mainly to supplying food to anarchists and other dissidents on the left. The work proved difficult, even where food was easy to obtain, as it would often be confiscated by BolshevikRed Guards encountered on the way.[12]
During the 1960s, the Anarchist Black Cross was reformed inBritain byStuart Christie andAlbert Meltzer with a focus on providing aid for anarchist prisoners inFrancisco Franco'sSpain. The reason for this was Christie's experience of the Spanish State's jail and the importance of receiving food parcels. At that time there were no international groups acting for Spanish anarchist and Resistance prisoners. The first action of the re-activated group was to bringMiguel García García, whom Christie met in prison, out of Spain on his release. Christie went on to act as the group's International secretary, working for the release of others.[13] The group's bulletin became a newspaper—Black Flag—strongly allied with the anarchist tradition of revolutionaryclass conflict.[14][15]
Several small American chapters merged in 1995 to form the Anarchist Black Cross Federation and unify their tactics for supporting political prisoners. A parallel organization, the Anarchist Black Cross Network, was formed in 2001 to pursue prison issues more generally, with looser conditions for membership.[16]
Anarchists contributed to the campaign to freeMumia Abu-Jamal, the jailed journalist and formerBlack Panther.[17]
In early 2024, Russian authorities designated the Anarchist Black Cross Federation as an "undesirable organization".[18]
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