Answering to Martin Sostre’s Answering to Martin Sostre’s Ghost Stephen Wilson This essay was first published by Black Agenda Report February 1, 2023 https:liwww.blackagen host About the author: Stephen Wilson is a queer Black writer, ectivist, and student who is currently imprisoned in PA-DOC. He is a founding member of Dreaming Freedom ®racticirg Abolition, a network of self organized prisoner study grcups building abcitionist community behind and across prison walls. Answering to Martin Sostre’s Ghost rior to my incarceration, | had never heard of f Marlin Sostre. Despite his being one of the most well-known prisoners in the US during the early 1970s and being the first US political prisoner to have his case adopted by Amnesty International, he was unknown to me. Ard most imorisoned people today. This should not be. As Lorenzo Korn'boa Ervin, former political prisoner and mentee of Martin Sostre wrote: “He almost singlehandedly won democratic rights for prisoners to receive and read revolutionary literature; write books; worship alternative faiths: to not he rairoaded in unfar ciscplinary hearings and held incefinitely 1n solitary confinement; and to have cultural studies programs.” As a currently incarcerated prison (dis)organizer and abolitionist who is deeply involved in political education and mutual aid work, | have benefited greatly from the struggles Martin spearheaded, the baitles he fought and the victeries he achioved My first encounter with Martin was via a zne: The Prison Letters of Mertin Sostre. After reading this zine, | was angry and disappointed that | had never heerd of him before. But mere importantly, | was inspired. | fourd a role model, someone who nad effectively organized and built. community oehind the walls. Martin was a praciiliover, a person of action. He lived his theories, correcting trem as he waked. This fact is not only an inspiration, but also a challenge As my krowledge of his work and life ncreases, my abilities anc capacities as a (dis)organizer de too. Martin has taught me to always be a student, 2 noticer. His continued apenness to change and growth significantly impacts my praxis. He was never dogmatic. Throughout his life, he embraced different philosophes, imbibing what was beneficial to the strugg e and discarding wnat wasn't. He had been a member of the NOI, a Black nationalist, and anarchist, and remained a practitioner of yoga. Like another inspiring Black political prisoner, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Martin taught me to reman tumble, to never believe | have it all figured out. He taught me to always be @ student. This is how cne remains open to growth. Along with always being 2 student, Martin has shown me how to be a good noticer. He has shown me how to enter a community, finc out what is going on, what the people need, what they want and how they are currently meeting those needs and wants. He taugnt me to look around and take in the scene before diving into the work. Too often, organizers enter communities believing they already know the problems and solutions. They create top-down solutions and don't listen to the people. Martin has taught me that we must put the people first. Get to know them. Listen to them. Take direction from them. We are there to assist, to empower the people. He taught me the value of noticing and learning from the people. This lesson hes made my work more impactiul and effective. Another lesson Martin has taught me is to make things easy for the people. The populations we are building with are often struggling :o survive, struggling to make ends meet. When Martin opened his bookstore in Buffalo, he created a space for people to learn and build community, Money wasn't an issue for the people. They would sit for hous and read without purchasing materials. He made sure the materials were accessible and provided a learning space. All cne had to do was show up. He made political education easy for the people. | try to do the same. The most impactful lesson Martin taught me was the power of collectivity, the importance of community. He knew that our strength was n our relationships. Wherever he was, whether in general population or solitary confinement, Buffalo or New Jersey, he was always building community. He was continually reaching out and bringing people in. He knew, like J. Sakai said. you can be the best firefighter in the world, but you cannot put out the fire alone. It was the strength of his relationships that won his freedom. He created community on both sdes of the walls. None of us will singularly create a world we can all thrive in, As Audre Lorde wrote, "Without community, there is no liberation.” Each day, | have to answer to Martin's ghost. | have to ask myself if what | am doing would make him proud. As | said before, Martin was a practitioner, a person of action. He knew that revolution isn't something you feel, it is something you do. | hear him asking me: What are you doing? A maior part of my work is extending his legacy. And the best way to do that is to practice what he has taught me, being an example for future revolutionaries. Stephen Wilson February 2023 SCl-Fayette Martin Sostre (1923-2015) was a political prisoner, jailhouse lawyer, and Black anarchist of Puerto Rican descent. After being released from prison, he opened a radical Afro-Asian Book Shop in Buffalo, NY, which was later raided by the FBI, State troopers, and the police. 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