arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Alex Asch is unfortunately not an uncommon story. As you read this webpage, realize the connections to you, as a teenager growing up in America. The rights of young people are slowly being dwindled away in this country, and Alex is just another victim of this worsening oppression. Alex is an anarchist. He is also 16 years old. While he lived in NJ he was heavily involved in organizing and doing action around "green" issues such as the tearing down of ecological spaces and animal liberation. He also was a dedicated worker in the Ever Reviled Records Collective. He loved counter-culture, and his presence helped bring politics out of its sometimes stale and analytical rut.

He was a vibrant and lively spirit in our community, in our collective, and in our culture. Alex became a student at the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE), in Plainfield, Vermont to further his education in a supportive environment. To the dismay of his parents, Alex's life was going down a path that was different from their old and obsolete values.

Alex would often have arguments with them about his values, the state of the world, and how it related to what he was doing. Alex's parents would use whatever means they had at their disposal to try to coerce him into adopting their values. They sent him to school psychiatrists, prescribed him sedative drugs, and put him in special programs…all against his will. The school psychiatrists said Alex had Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD), a loosely defined behavioral diagnosis that labels "actively defying", "refusing to comply with rules", and "academic impairment" as "disorders"

On August 10, 2002, a great misdeed was committed at the command of his parents. It was the last day of classes at ISE, and Alex was prepared to come back to NJ. Without warning, Alex's financially wealthy mother hired 2 thugs called "Juvenile Transport Officers" to go into the ISE. They demanded that ISE turn Alex over to them or else face a legal battle. Because Alex cared so much for the institutions that are crucial to social revolution, he willingly submitted himself to the will of the trespassers so ISE would not have to be threatened. Alex was then kidnapped away to "Turnabout Stillwater", a boot camp in Salt Lake City, Utah that is affiliated with the Mormon church. There they treat ODD by holding young people in their camp against their will and subjecting them to sedative drugs and classes with the intent to conform their values to our society.

They also screen mail and prohibit contact to the outside world. Right now Alex is suffering immensely from this experience. Barely any contact from him is getting out nor are letters getting in. Many have been labeled by the authorities at Turnabout Stillwater as "inappropriate". However, a couple letters from Alex have managed to get out. In one he says, "Before actually attempting to develop this letter attempting to articulate my perpetual love, thought, and affection for this friendship…that allows me to escape the exhaustion and frightening miserable emotional state of being brought upon me within my present obviously undesirable situation. All my letters are received and personally developed are read by a group of individuals and of the letter is addressed as fulfilling a set of unacceptable or supposedly 'manipulative' and 'inappropriate' characteristics the letter is unable to be sent or actually received." He says in another letter, "Please allow my thought to maintain itself at the Institute for Social Ecology. The friendships I love and the radical movements maintaining our empowering radical objectives. I'm not entirely sure if the simple word, "degraded", could possibly express the repetitive state of being I maintain."

Despite all this, Alex maintains in his letters that he is not cooperating with their indoctrination, and that he is fixed in principle for the liberation of all life. As of now, Turnabout Stillwater intends to end Alex's imprisonment on June 28, 2004. Alex is every teenager that has been diagnosed by our school system as being unacceptable. Alex is every young radical who has fought for their own space against the will of their parents. He is every teenager that is concerned with the world that they are going to inherit. He is anyone who was alienated by our state capitalist society and fought back against the indoctrination of its values. Organizing for Alex is also organizing for yourself. In the spirit of solidarity, Ever Reviled Records demands that our worker and comrade, Alex Asch, be set free! Like any teenager in America, Alex is not a pet or a toy that is at the whim of his parents.

Alex is a human being and should be allotted the rights of one, including free access to information, communication, and debate. In the few letters that have gotten out from Alex, he has requested progressive books on animal liberation, radical environmentalism, philosophical anarchism, linguistics, sexuality, dialectical philosophy, and countercultural movements. Unfortunately, we are unsure what will be screened and what he will actually received. Please send letters of support and donated books directly to:

Alex Asch
Turnabout Stillwater
2738 S. 2000 E.
Salt Lake City, UT 84109

If you send a book, please contact Ben Grosscup at stokingthefires at riseup dot net (replace the at with @ and dot with .). He is one of the few who have received letters from Alex. We would like to keep track of whether your books get to Alex or not.

Even though there are intense constraints on what can be said and how it relates to whether he receives your mail, the success of our movement strongly hinges on support for our comrades. Some ideas on what to do are sending letters to Turnabout Stillwater expressing your outrage and disgust for what has been done to Alex.

Turnabout Stillwater's webpage is http://www.xmission.com/~php/ .

Register a complaint on email. Demand that Alex get free access to communication with the outside world. Let Turnabout Stillwater know that Alex is not forgotten, that there are people on the outside who are concerned about him, and that we demand his freedom!

"Besides developing a movement for my liberation, I'm not entirely sure what you could do but simply maintain my thought. June 28, 2004 is the day my existence, empowering passions, radical accomplishments, beautiful affection, and simply my true state of being will be brought upon me. Please be there and allow all individuals from the previous summer and even more to be there as well. The first hug will be the first glimpse." -Alex Asch