Click here for the latest compilation of every other week updates.

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner, please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

One part of NYC ABC‘s every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing event is presenting updates and announcements. These typically relate to or are written by PPs and/or POWs. Since February 2011, they’ve been printing and mailing hard copies of the updates and announcements to about a dozen imprisoned comrades.

In April 2013, along with other collectives and individuals, they expanded printing and mailing to include all U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of war. As of September, 2014, that work has diffused over several support crews, collectives, and individuals.

Please download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the same.

NYC ABC is an anarchist collective focused on supporting US-held political prisoners and prisoners of war and opposing state repression against revolutionary social justice movements. NYC ABC is a Support Group of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. More information available at nycabc.wordpress.com

[Mirrored from tcj.com]

The Spectre

Lefteris “Boban” Papathanasis, Mauro Vanetti, Vangelis Zikos
Kersplebedeb Publishing
$17USD/$22CAD
104 pages
Buy Now

Review by Ian Thomas, August 25, 2026

Corporate interests have outstripped the supposed hegemony of nation-states for a while now. That fact has spilled beyond boardrooms and corner offices and into the realm of the everyday. The game is the same as it ever was, to make the line go up. Attended by that zero-sum focus on growth and an equally binary disdain for whatever gets in the way of it, oligarchs and their pet politicians are content to run the play that has almost always paid reliable dividends: pit the working class against each other. 

By undercutting the unity of the working class, rulers continue to run roughshod, unabated, over the whole fucking world. But generations of austerity, war, and deregulation—all in the name of making the line go up for someone, somewhere—have frayed the social fabric so irreparably that through those rips and tears spill humans, lives. The intensity of it all—marked by screaming pundits and the endless scroll of human suffering— might make it all seem novel, but it’s very, very old. 

art from The Spectre (Kersplebedeb Publishing, 2026) by Lefteris “Boban” Papathanasis, Mauro Vanetti, Vangelis Zikos

The stakes, too, are the same as they ever were: survive or perish. With enough training, it is easy to see a competitor in the neighbor vying for the same ostensibly limited resources. It is a mentality that makes interlopers of everyone outside our social circle; familial, religious, or national. In this vein, the immigration crisis that has  dominated headlines in recent years seems designed to foment the same hostilities that have always lent legitimacy to the geopolitical boundaries that constitute the borders of nations. Borders that, for the working class, only demarcate the limits of movement and of imagination. 

The Spectre—illustrated by Lefteris “Boban” Papathanasis and written by Boban, Mauro Vanetti, and Vangelis Zikos—argues that these old wars renewed can still be fought with old weapons; that the blunt force of solidarity can dull any cutting edge that seeks to divide the working class. The book takes aim at the phenomenon of “Red-Brown Politics,” in which the fascist nationalism of the the far-right makes common cause with the militant labor positions of Communism. Literalizing the conceit of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx, they enlist no less than Karl Marx to elucidate the timelessness of a class struggle that nonetheless feels unique to the current moment, making psychopomps of Marx and, later on, Lenin to usher the protagonist, an aspiring influencer named Diego, through his dark night of the soul.

With a portly physique and an egg-shaped beard, Marx the comic book character is summoned into corporeality by the indignity of Diego’s misinterpretation of his class analysis. Diego embodies a prevailing sentiment that argues for nationalism under the auspices of class solidarity. Under the confining strictures of the nation-state, Diego assumes nationality as prerequisite of class. Diego reasons it is the influx of immigrants—and all their attendant needs and concerns—that undermines solidarity and power for the Italian working class. Even as a self-described devotee to the “Old Left,” Diego holds the same position as the xenophobic Right. Marx works mightily to expand Diego’s narrow vision of class solidarity. The phantasm philosopher spirits Diego to times and places that illustrate Marx’s conception of class solidarity, from a meeting of cigar-makers on the eve of a strike to a riotous rally on the eve of revolution. 

In Marx’s utopia, destiny is ascribed by workers, not borders. Pundits like Diego either act in bad faith or misunderstand Marx’s vision. Diego’s position is foundational to what has come to be known vulgar Marxism, an oversimplification of the Marxist philosophy that rejects the necessity of international class solidarity to move Marx’s vision from the realm of the theoretical into the real world. 

Typical of complaints emanating from the Right, Diego’s argument requires an out-group on whom the blame for every social ill can be placed. While I am not familiar enough with Southern European culture or Italian politics to speak with any authority on who Diego is meant to analogize in the book’s original context, there are numerous English-speaking commentators to whom Diego’s position can be mapped. Getting lost in the sauce knows no borders.

Nearly a decade ago, Irish writer Angela Nagle published “The Left Case against Open Borders” in American Affairs, in which she argued that “[O]pen borders has long been a rallying cry of the business and free market Right,” before enumerating the various Right-wing think tanks who argue for free trade and globalization from a Libertarian perspective, as if two groups can’t want the same thing for different reasons. The piece was another example, typical of its era, of academic heterodoxy designed to court controversy and stimulate debate. But the 2018 article followed her influential 2017 book, Kill All Normies, which posited that the fringe extremism of online ecosystems was instrumental in securing Donald Trump’s first presidency and enshrining the legitimacy of the nascent populist movement known then as the Alt-Right. Taken together, these pieces paint a condescending picture of the American working class as marks and rubes that must be saved from themselves, but it isn’t much of a leap to say that the grievances of the Alt-Right served as a lingua franca to the cringe, contrarian causes that animate the Right as it exists today. Nagle still hasn’t quite pierced the veil of mainstream discourse, but populist soothsayer Tucker Carlson, who makes similar arguments, has never been more influential.

As comics go, The Spectre—a collaboration between Greek and Italian creators—offers a more swaggering and hopeful conception of an ascendant and effective Left than its North American counterparts. Left comics emanating from North America tend to focus, probably correctly, on the systems that immiserate and oppress people within its borders and throughout its empire. Racism is North America’s Original Sin. 250 years into its existence, America has yet to atone for its past, let alone come to grips with how that past informs its present. 

The varied aesthetics of the long-running comics anthology World War 3 Illustrated, for example, is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to introductions to radical perspectives. The constraints of the anthology format, though, preclude great depth on any subject. Even when arranged thematically, the assembly of stories can be dizzying. Make no mistake, I am heartened by the continued existence of World War 3 Illustrated. I hope it goes for fifty more years. But to a reader who is not sympathetic to the possibilities that its existence invites, it isn’t hard to see the collection as a litany of marginal victories and outright defeats. It’s a potent reminder of all the work that needs to be done. 

Conversely, while The Spectre is not exactly joyful, it is a refreshingly playful rejoinder to a grave debate. Boban employs a clean and buoyant bigfoot style. To many readers, their depictions will evoke the proportions of nineties Hip-Hop and Nü-Metal: bulbous, bouncy, and contorted into confident postures, like characters embroidered on a JNCO pocket. That aesthetic, of course, borrowed heavily from the graffiti of the late seventies and eighties and Boban’s depiction of Marx would look right at home emblazoned on the side of a slowly rolling boxcar. Boban’s economical approach delivers an incredible amount of dimension and texture with ostensibly simple hatching at different weights and in different directions, coupled with spot blacks. And though much of The Spectre consists of characters in dialogue, making nuanced arguments, the precision of their thick lines is a pleasing counterpoint to the verbal density.

Even in translation, The Spectre’s depiction of Southern Europe does not offer one-to-one correspondence with the concerns of North America. But  there are enough similarities to indicate that something systemic is amiss. The universality of experience both facilitates and necessitates the translation of The Spectre into English from its original Greek. In the introduction to the English translation, attributed to Kersplebedeb, the publishers argue that:

“Proletarian politics emerging [sic] from the actual lived experience of the proletariat. Which has always included people who have moved from one region or country to another is search of work or safety. Indeed, migrants have repeatedly formed a critically important section of the proletariat, bringing with them their knowledge and experience from different places and traditions of struggle.”

Late in The Spectre, there is a scene in which an anti-immigrant protester, a middle-aged man, locks eyes with a pregnant émigré, arriving to the mainland in an overcrowded raft. 

“We didn’t put it in you, you damn bitch,” the assembled protesters shout in unison. A pair of old men observe the conflict at a casual remove. “It’s a bit much, sure, but they’re not wrong,” one of them remarks disinterestedly. As Marx and “the Lefties” arrive to enter the fray, Diego is caught, once again keeping company with the fascists. Admitting that he “should have stuck to the tried and true,” his “teacher,” Marx, hurls a brick that flattens Diego and the racist crowd, a blunt force of solidarity, dulling the cutting edge that seeks to divide the working class.

Click here for the latest compilation of every other week updates.

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner, please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

One part of NYC ABC‘s every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing event is presenting updates and announcements. These typically relate to or are written by PPs and/or POWs. Since February 2011, they’ve been printing and mailing hard copies of the updates and announcements to about a dozen imprisoned comrades.

In April 2013, along with other collectives and individuals, they expanded printing and mailing to include all U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of war. As of September, 2014, that work has diffused over several support crews, collectives, and individuals.

Please download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the same.

NYC ABC is an anarchist collective focused on supporting US-held political prisoners and prisoners of war and opposing state repression against revolutionary social justice movements. NYC ABC is a Support Group of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. More information available at nycabc.wordpress.com

Click here for the latest compilation of every other week updates.

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner, please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

One part of NYC ABC‘s every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing event is presenting updates and announcements. These typically relate to or are written by PPs and/or POWs. Since February 2011, they’ve been printing and mailing hard copies of the updates and announcements to about a dozen imprisoned comrades.

In April 2013, along with other collectives and individuals, they expanded printing and mailing to include all U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of war. As of September, 2014, that work has diffused over several support crews, collectives, and individuals.

Please download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the same.

NYC ABC is an anarchist collective focused on supporting US-held political prisoners and prisoners of war and opposing state repression against revolutionary social justice movements. NYC ABC is a Support Group of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. More information available at nycabc.wordpress.com

Click here for the latest compilation of every other week updates.

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner, please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

One part of NYC ABC‘s every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing event is presenting updates and announcements. These typically relate to or are written by PPs and/or POWs. Since February 2011, they’ve been printing and mailing hard copies of the updates and announcements to about a dozen imprisoned comrades.

In April 2013, along with other collectives and individuals, they expanded printing and mailing to include all U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of war. As of September, 2014, that work has diffused over several support crews, collectives, and individuals.

Please download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the same.

NYC ABC is an anarchist collective focused on supporting US-held political prisoners and prisoners of war and opposing state repression against revolutionary social justice movements. NYC ABC is a Support Group of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. More information available at nycabc.wordpress.com

Click here for the latest compilation of every other week updates.

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner, please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

One part of NYC ABC‘s every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing event is presenting updates and announcements. These typically relate to or are written by PPs and/or POWs. Since February 2011, they’ve been printing and mailing hard copies of the updates and announcements to about a dozen imprisoned comrades.

In April 2013, along with other collectives and individuals, they expanded printing and mailing to include all U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of war. As of September, 2014, that work has diffused over several support crews, collectives, and individuals.

Please download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the same.

NYC ABC is an anarchist collective focused on supporting US-held political prisoners and prisoners of war and opposing state repression against revolutionary social justice movements. NYC ABC is a Support Group of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. More information available at nycabc.wordpress.com

[Originally posted to ThreeWayFight.org on July 3, 2026]

By Matthew N. Lyons

With the court cases against the Prairieland ICE protesters and the Minnesota 15, the Trump administration has ratcheted up its authoritarian power drive. The regime is trying to criminalize radical politics and grassroots organizing, as a cornerstone of its campaign to suppress all political dissent.

In the Prairieland case, a federal judge slapped extraordinarily harsh sentences—ranging from 30 to 100 years—on eight defendants connected with a July 4, 2025 demonstration at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas. Benjamin Song, who was convicted of attempted murder for shooting a police officer in the shoulder after the officer drew his weapon, received 100 years. Eight of the nine were convicted of “providing material support to terrorists” for acts such as owning a printer used to make pamphlets and being part of a leftist book club. One defendant, who wasn’t even at the July 4th protest, got 30 years for “concealing” documents—i.e., transporting a box of zines. (Eight days later, an additional seven Prairieland defendants, most of whom had pleaded guilty, received sentences ranging from 2 to 50 years.)

The Minnesota 15, meanwhile, are fifteen organizers charged with federal conspiracy and other crimes for participating in the community defense against Operation Metro Surge, ICE and Border Protection’s campaign of mass roundups, physical attacks, and murder in the Twin Cities and beyond this past winter. According to the June 2026 indictment, the alleged conspiracy aimed at “preventing the enforcement of federal immigration law by force, intimidation, and threats” and, more simply, “opposing the authority of the United States government.” None of the Minnesota defendants are accused of injuring officers; most of the acts cited as evidence of their complicity include things like attending protests and meetings, posting to social media, and wearing clothes with political messages.

These and other prosecutions of radical organizers (such as the Spokane 3, convicted of conspiracy for a June 2025 anti-ICE protest) have been fueled by President Trump’s particular take on anti-radicalism, in which the spectre of “antifa” takes on demonic features with little or no connection to the realities of militant antifascism. Scapegoating leftists has been integral to Trump’s message for years, but it got a big boost following the September 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk, which Trump and other right-wingers immediately blamed (without evidence) on the radical left. In a special TV tribute hosted by Vice President Vance a few days after Kirk’s death, presidential advisor Stephen Miller declared that the federal government would “use every resource…to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy” the “terrorist networks” that supposedly brought about Kirk’s killing. Soon after, Trump signed an executive order designating antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization”—even though it’s not even an organization—and instructed federal agencies to “investigate, prosecute, and disrupt” protesters engaging in “anti-capitalism,” “anti-fascism,” and “anti-Americanism.”

The demonization of antifa is an example of countersubversion ideology—a form of conspiracism that portrays enemies secretly plotting not to oppress society, but to subvert it. In the United States from the colonial period through the 19th century, countersubversion ideology was embodied in fears of slave revolts, emancipated African Americans, and radical labor organizers. Countersubversion ideology infused the Red Scares that followed World War I and World War II, the two intervals in the 20th century when federal anti-leftist repression was most intense.

The Trump regime’s campaign against antifa echoes the 20th-century Red Scares, and it also builds on several decades of gradually expanding state repression, which both Republican and Democratic administrations have pushed forward. George W. Bush gave us the USA Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, but Barack Obama dramatically expanded the surveillance state, and Joe Biden’s administration prosecuted January 6 defendants with new and expansive conceptions of criminal conspiracy that helped pave the way for what the Trump regime’s prosecutors are doing now.

Trump’s repression goes far beyond criminal prosecutions. The regime has kidnapped, imprisoned, and deported hundreds of thousands of people under its anti-immigrant policy. It has used an array of administrative levers, such as investigations, regulatory threats, and withholding allocated funds, to bludgeon political critics. Trump and other top officials have also vilified opponents as evil, insane, traitorous, or subhuman—and this rhetoric has inspired vigilante attacks.

And unlike the 20th century Red Scares, Trump’s repression supports a far-reaching effort to transform the federal government along dictatorial lines. The regime has been reshaping ICE and Border Protection into secret police forces that seek to operate with little or no legal constraints, dismantling or restructuring large sections of the federal bureaucracy to suit its political whims, and concentrating unprecedented power in the presidency.

The Trump regime’s drive toward dictatorship is far from complete and far from inevitable, but it’s already made substantial structural changes that won’t be undone just by switching presidents or parties in power. Over the past several decades, Democrats have preserved or extended most Republican-led repressive measures, and we should expect this to happen again if the Democrats return to power and are left to their own devices. Whichever of the two major parties is in charge, dismantling state repression will require sustained mass-based resistance.

At the same time, the drive toward dictatorship isn’t a sign of strength; it’s a sign of weakness. On a subjective level, it reflects Trump’s profound personal insecurity; on a structural level, it reflects a dysfunctional political system, a state that has lost much of its popular legitimacy, and a ruling class that is fragmented and lacks a cohesive strategic direction. Even Trump’s own coalition is deeply fractured. These weaknesses mean opportunities for mass-based opposition and radical organizing based on liberatory principles.

The crackdown against “antifa” has picked up steam because grassroots resistance to the regime has spread and become more effective. Mass community defense in Minnesota didn’t end anti-immigrant kidnappings, but it forced the regime to end Operation Metro Surge and dramatically reduce the number of ICE agents in the state. Prosecution of the Minnesota 15 is payback for this defeat.

With the Prairieland defendants, Minnesota 15, and others hit by the Trump regime’s anti-radical crackdown, we need to defend those targeted despite political differences, to practice “non-sectarian defense of other anti-fascists,” as Anti-Racist Action inscribed in its Points of Unity 30 years ago. To this end, some organizations have issued statements of solidarity, as for example the National Lawyers Guild did with the Prairieland defendants and National Nurses United did with the Minnesota 15.

I’ll close with a social media statement from one of the Minnesota 15 defendants:

“Through all my years as an activist I’ve always said that the best safety is having a community around you that cares what happens to you. That’s why my codefendants and I are going to keep raising hell, keep talk[ing] about this, and keep standing with our community as it faces attacks by a regime bent on revenge for our city’s legacy of resistance. My codefendants and I are not and never have been some clandestine ‘cell.’ What we have done, we have done in the broad light of day, in full view of our neighbors, coworkers, and friends. We are not ashamed, and I am personally honored to have such hot and brave comrades as I am blessed with.”

Ways to Help:

Support the Prairieland Defendants (DFW Support Committee)

Legal Defense Fund for the Minnesota 15 Anti-ICE Organizers

Support the Spokane 3 (Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane)

Image credits:

Prairieland Defendants poster courtesy of the DFW Support Committee.

Minnesota 15 poster image courtesy of Unicorn Riot, CC BY-SA 3.0. 

Click here for the latest compilation of every other week updates.

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner, please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

One part of NYC ABC‘s every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing event is presenting updates and announcements. These typically relate to or are written by PPs and/or POWs. Since February 2011, they’ve been printing and mailing hard copies of the updates and announcements to about a dozen imprisoned comrades.

In April 2013, along with other collectives and individuals, they expanded printing and mailing to include all U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of war. As of September, 2014, that work has diffused over several support crews, collectives, and individuals.

Please download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the same.

NYC ABC is an anarchist collective focused on supporting US-held political prisoners and prisoners of war and opposing state repression against revolutionary social justice movements. NYC ABC is a Support Group of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. More information available at nycabc.wordpress.com

Click here for the latest compilation of every other week updates.

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner, please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

One part of NYC ABC‘s every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter-Writing event is presenting updates and announcements. These typically relate to or are written by PPs and/or POWs. Since February 2011, they’ve been printing and mailing hard copies of the updates and announcements to about a dozen imprisoned comrades.

In April 2013, along with other collectives and individuals, they expanded printing and mailing to include all U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of war. As of September, 2014, that work has diffused over several support crews, collectives, and individuals.

Please download and mail the current edition to prisoners with whom you correspond and share links with those who might be interested in doing the same.

NYC ABC is an anarchist collective focused on supporting US-held political prisoners and prisoners of war and opposing state repression against revolutionary social justice movements. NYC ABC is a Support Group of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. More information available at nycabc.wordpress.com

As Laurence summarizes, it was the shift from rebels to revolutionaries.

The interview is divided into two parts and aired on June 2 and June 16, 2026. You stream or download those episodes on CKUT’s website.

Many related books are available from LeftWingBooks.net.

Time Shadows: A Prison Memoir [1976–81]

And Flowers Grew Up Through the Concrete: A Prison Memoir 1981–1992

Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle, 1976-1981

“John Lennon’s Dead”: Stories of Protest, Hunger Strikes and Resistance

See the whole Ireland collection at LeftWingBooks.net