Brushes with the Law

Cop killer and/or political prisoner Tom Manning paints from behind bars.

by Shaun Brady

ARRESTING: Mujeres de Chiapas by Tom Manning. He has spent the last 22 years in federal prison. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

On the surface, Tom Manning's artwork is hardly controversial. Largely consisting of portraits and images from nature, Manning's paintings are colorful, elemental American primitives, tending toward a rudimentary Gauguin feel.

No, any controversy would relate not to Manning's images, but to where they were created. Manning has spent the last 22 years in federal prison, sentenced to 53 years for seditious conspiracy as part of a northeastern revolutionary group called the United Freedom Front, and 80 years for the killing of a New Jersey state trooper.

A few dozen of Manning's paintings will be on display at the Rotunda this Friday in an exhibit titled "Can't Jail the Spirit" organized by the Philadelphia chapter of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. The opening reception will feature a discussion with Weather Underground member Laura Whitehorn; Manning's fellow UFF member Kazi Toure; and local organizers.

Like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Manning inspires cries of "political prisoner" or "cop killer" from either extreme of the political divide. Born and raised in working-class Boston, Manning joined the military in 1963, where he was stationed at Guantanamo Bay before serving a tour in Vietnam. After his return he served five years in prison for armed robbery and assault. "That time in prison combined with his experience in the military radicalized him," says Tim Fasnacht, a volunteer organizer with the ABCF.

The UFF formed in Portland, Maine, in 1974 and carried out a series of bank robberies and bombings over the following decade intended to protest American involvement (or lack thereof) in South Africa and Central and South America.

"They decided that they wanted to do what was termed 'armed propaganda,'" Fasnacht says. "That means planting small, low-level bombs at different corporate or government structures. Today, the thought of that is almost unthinkable just because of the ramifications, but they never killed anybody. That was never their intention. So it's a different mentality from al-Qaida-style terrorism, where you want to go for maximum body count. They just wanted to make as much noise — literally — as possible."

The ABCF, says Fasnacht, defines a political prisoner as "somebody that was active in a political organization and were arrested for whatever reason. They could have been arrested for speech — Martin Luther King was a political prisoner who was arrested for nonviolence, just speaking his beliefs — for civil disobedience, or for more proactive work, but the key part is that they were politically motivated."

The show, Fasnacht says, concentrates on how the ideas behind these activities live on, even behind bars. Much of Manning's art is portraits of political activists and oppressed people (along with nature scenes and depictions of jazz musicians). "Tom still maintains his political views," Fasnacht says. "Obviously he's opposed to capitalism and all the ills that capitalism produces: unemployment, racism, sexism, inequality. He still believes that there's a need to build a revolutionary resistance movement within the United States. The prospects for that today are pretty slim — obviously after the '70s and then with Reagan's victory in '80, the progressive movement suffered a big setback. But it's just a reflection of the times we're living in. I'm sure there's always been apathy, but today it's a cultural phenomenon."

As a result, the show's subtheme, and much of the focus of the speakers gathered for the opening reception, is "rebuilding a progressive left-wing revolutionary movement."

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Fasnacht admits that, especially in post-9/11 America, even those sympathetic to the group's cause may balk at endorsing their methods. "The average person's gonna look at their cases and say, 'These guys are cop killers or bank robbers,'" he says. "But you've got to look at the motivations behind it. It wasn't for their own materialistic gain, lining their pockets. There's always a motive behind it. The politics are there."

Still, the ABCF's work is centered on material and monetary support for prisoners, not so much on rearguing their cases. "We try not to focus on what they did exactly," Fasnacht says, "but on the fact that these guys have spent most of their adult lives fighting for something. The least that you can do as a fellow political activist, whether you agree personally with what they engaged in, is at least support them while they're in prison in whatever way you can. But in the post-9/11 world, the issue of what people consider violence is a tricky issue, and it probably has deterred some activists from wanting to get involved."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Can't Jail the Spirit: Art By Political Prisoner Tom Manning, Opening Reception Fri., Aug. 24, 5 p.m., $5-$10 suggested donation, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., www.abcf.net, www.therotunda.org.