There are many possible ways to respond to the murder of Jo Cox. I don’t want to tell you what to think or feel about it, or to claim that the events prove the validity of my ideas in one way or another. Still, all that said, I know there are a lot of people looking for ways to react. And personally, I would respectfully suggest that, if you would like to make a gesture based around kindness and warmth, you might want to reach out to some of the people who’re currently serving prison sentences as a result of physically challenging nationalist violence.
Yusef here in the UK, Jock in Bulgaria and Joel in Sweden all made a stand against the kind of hatred that took the life of Jo Cox (and Mushin Ahmed, and very nearly Sarandev Bhambra, and so many others, not least those who would have lost their lives had Grégoire Moutaux’s plans come to fruition). They fought back against racists and fascists, and as a result they’re currently locked up, isolated from society; if you’re feeling that you’d like to make a stand for compassion and the simple-but-yet-incredibly-hard-to-put-into-words importance of feeling connected to other people, and against the kind of rotten ideas that poisoned the minds of Tommy Mair and Grégoire Moutaux and Zack Davies and Dale Jones and too many others… I think you could do worse than to put pen to paper and try and chip away at that isolation a little bit.
Yusef Asad
A4424DD
Huntercombe Prison
Nuffield
Henley-on-Thames
Oxfordshire
RG9 5SB
Joel Almgren
KVA Tidaholm
Skogsholmvägen
522 85 Tidaholm
Sweden
Jock Palfreeman
Sofia Central Prison
21 General Stoletov Boulevard
Sofia 1309, BULGARIA
On a similar note, if you’re feeling sick and upset about homophobic violence in the USA, and you’re feeling love for those who challenge that violence, you might want to share it with Michael and Luke.
Michael Kimble
#138017
3700 Holman Unit
Atmore, AL 36503
USA
Luke Patrick O’Donovan
#1001372271
Washington State Prison
P.O. Box 206
Davisboro, GA 31018
USA
Cautiously pessimistic 