Aleksander Kozlyanka, a former anarchist prisoner from Belarus shared with us his thoughts about solidarity and prison system:
Chronicles of the Persecution of Solidarity in One Country
One can endlessly debate the importance and necessity of solidarity. But that would be nothing more than a theory about a beautiful, abstract word-concept. Only when moving from theory to practice does it cease to be so. When it is woven into the very fabric of life, becoming an inseparable part of reality.
Having spent five years in captivity (I will speak of solidarity only in this regard, as during the protests and afterward it took on many different forms in quite different spheres), I repeatedly witnessed mass solidarity, which could have subsequently led the country’s inhabitants along the path from atomized citizens to a conscious civil society, something that, for objective reasons, did not happen. When I was placed in pre-trial detention (March 2021) in a twelve-person cell, almost half were political prisoners. Several times a week, we all received food parcels from strangers. In July 2021, the authorities began mass arrests of these people, depriving us of our food aid. In addition to that, there were other forms: correspondence, which served as great psychological support for the prisoners, and money transfers so we could buy things for ourselves in the prison store. In April 2022, they banned sending letters to political prisoners from anyone other than relatives. Contact with the outside world was limited to only a small number of close family members. They even impose restrictions on political prisoners in this regard, not allowing most or all letters from home. Well, at the beginning of 2024, it was the turn of the people who had been transferring money. In the camp, I was a witness in every sense when investigators arrived and summoned a dozen political prisoners, myself included, for questioning. The questions were: “Do you know who transferred money to you?” To which the answers were: “I don’t know, I don’t remember.” Among those who were criminally charged, most were elderly, over sixty years old. And all these pensioners received real prison sentences, which did not deter such a form of solidarity. In the camp, unexpected meetings took place for this reason. One woman was imprisoned for money transfers to political prisoners, and another for financially supporting the very same woman when she was imprisoned (spring96.org/be/news/120652).
Although the authoritarian regime unleashed mass repression on the public solidarity movement, it did not disappear. It has largely survived in less visible forms: supporting relatives of political prisoners with words of encouragement, money, legal advice, and other guidance. Even a simple tip on what to pack for a loved one in pre-trial detention is a big deal, because such information is almost impossible to get from official state sources, and there are many restrictions, which turns the process of sending items to the detention center and then to the prison camp into a real, unpleasant quest.
To summarize the above. Solidarity is an inherent aspiration of people who see injustice around them. It does not occur by decree from above, but even in defiance of the authorities’ wishes. It exists even in atomized societies, which is impossible without some predisposition for it on an evolutionary, biological level.