Greet Imprisoned Resisters upon Their Release
By being present to welcome imprisoned resisters when they are released, you also welcome them back into the resistance movement outside, encourage them to maintain their resistance, and show others that you are undaunted.
Example British Women’s Suffrage Movement
Constance Andrews of the Women’s Tax Resistance League was jailed for a week in 1911 for refusal to pay a dog license tax. Marguerite A. Sidley reported on how the League responded to her release:
Here was a chance for the local branch, and they seized it… Everyone has been talking of Miss Andrews and our preparations to receive her. Open-air meetings, bill-distributing, the carrying of trimmed posters, pushing the decorated coster’s barrow (covered with The Vote and posters) through the town—all have served to draw the attention of the townsfolk to the fact that something unusual was astir. Our two meetings on Cornhill were well attended, and the behaviour of the crowds was remarkably good.
On Friday morning a very large crowd—described in the local press as “an immense gathering”—collected outside the prison to cheer Miss Andrews on her release… Miss Andrews was released, a photographer standing on a wall opposite the prison gate being the first to give the news. The outer gate opened, and as our ex-prisoner came out a lusty chorus of “hurrahs!” showed the sympathy of the crowd. Mrs. Despard said a few words of welcome, and then we formed up in a little procession behind the Ipswich “Dare to be Free” banner… The large crowd followed us all the way, and enquiring heads were thrust through open windows all along the route.
Example Poll Tax Rebellion
The campaign to resist Thatcher’s poll tax organized a march to Brixton Prison, which held most of the resisters then in custody. Police attacked the march and arrested 135 people.
“That evening,” says campaign volunteer Danny Burns, “volunteers were sent to every police station to welcome those who were released on bail.” This not only showed solidarity, but also made the arrested people aware of the legal support available to them and encouraged them to cooperate in their defense. Burns says that thanks to this determined outreach “every single one of the defendants had made direct contact with the campaign within the first week.”
Example White Supremacists in Louisiana
During the white supremacist rebellion against the Reconstruction state government in Louisiana in 1873, Edward Booth was imprisoned for 24 hours for refusing to pay a license tax.
[I]t was agreed among his immediate personal friends, the members of the tax resisting association and their sympathizers, to make a grand demonstration at the hour of his release, and escort him to his place of business, to show their sympathies, and in what approbation he was held for having become the object of an oppression in the defence of his personal rights.
Before the hour of his release, a large concourse of people assembled before the doors of the prison to hail the deliverance of the prisoner, and the anteroom was thronged with friends anxious to proffer the hand of sympathy and condolence.… Mr. Booth filed out of the room and stepped into a carriage in waiting, amid rousing cheers and a stirring air from the band. The carriage led off, followed by the band and the large concourse of people, who gradually fell into an orderly line of twos, to the number of about 400.
The marchers then hung an effigy of the Reconstruction governor from a lamp post while loudly cheering. When the procession reached Booth’s place of business, he gave a speech thanking the crowd for their support and urging them to renew their resistance.
Notes and Citations
- “Miss Andrews Released” The Vote 3 June 1911, p. 71
- Burns, Danny Poll Tax Rebellion AK Press (1992), p. 125
- “The Release of Mr. Edward Booth” The Daily Phœnix (Colombia, South Carolina) 23 April 1873, p. 3