I had the great honor of interviewing Sean “Shibby” Middlebrough, a humble professional revolutionary, one of the Filton 24 who escaped British custody and is now living underground. We had a rich discussion about his political background, his path into taking direct action with Palestine Action, and the future of anti-imperialist struggle within the imperial core.

For those who don’t know, Shibby was granted temporary bail to attend his brother’s wedding, and he (very logically) chose not to return to prison, where he and his comrades have been detained in horrific conditions without trial or bail, some for over a year.

You can follow Shibby on Instagram and check out his podcast, Diary Of A Political Prisoner.

Before you read the interview, please note that today, 11 December, marks Day 40 of the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike. 8 prisoners are on hunger strike and 5 have been hospitalized so far, some of them multiple times. Their lives are on the line. Take action to support their demands:

• US toolkit (made by Workshops4Gaza)

• UK toolkit

• Follow Free the Filton 24 on Substack (where they publish prisoners’ writings) and Instagram, and Prisoners for Palestine on Instagram and Twitter

• Donate to the fundraiser for the 37 political prisoners in Britain

• Continue taking direct action against the zionist-imperialist war machine!

There are also urgent calls to action to support Indigenous political prisoner Xinachtli (¡Tierra y Libertad!) who is facing extreme medical neglect in Texas prisons. Look at his support committee’s page for more info.

How’s it feel to be free after being locked up for so long?

I wouldn’t know. I’m not free. You’re not free and nor are the readers. We’re not free until we’re all free from the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

Furthermore, I’m underground. Sure, I’ve gained me more “freedoms” such as the freedom to not listen to prison officers shouting and instigating fights and even better, I’ve gained the freedom to feel the elements on my skin and witness the sun rise and set, followed by the spectacular view of the Moon and stars which I didn’t see for over 11 months. Yet, being underground has also severely limited many more “freedoms” I did have even as a prisoner, such as being able to speak to friends & family. I may now witness the Sun rise, but I miss out on my own Son’s growth.

I am of course relieved to no longer be in a 9ftx5ft box 23 hours a day and to be in a more productive and vocal position.

It’s only honest for me to not give the impression that I’m sippin’ piña colada’s with my feet up. I’m still struggling for freedom.

In an article I recently published about the ongoing hunger strike, I characterized your escape as “a qualitative escalation and a massive embarrassment for the paper tiger that is the criminal justice system. It shows that the freedom of our prisoners is a tangible possibility, and demonstrates the range of different tactics by which they might resist conditions of captivity by any means necessary. Our duty on the outside is not just to engage in legal advocacy for the prisoners, but to build a popular cradle of resistance — an underground.”

Just like the hunger strike is a means to resist captivity, so was your liberation, when you found yourself in the unique circumstances that made it possible. And of course there is a long history of prison breaks in liberation movements, whether we’re talking about Assata or William Morales’s prison breaks, who were participating in armed national liberation struggles within amerika, the IRA’s iconic prison breaks at Long Kesh in the north and Mountjoy Prison in the south, or the Palestinian prisoners’ escape from Gilboa Prison through Operation Freedom Tunnel.

So how do you think your liberation could shift the balance of forces, even just by shattering the oppressors’ image of omnipotence? And do you have any message you want to share with international political prisoners who are also locked up for participating in the Palestinian liberation struggle and other connected movements?

Yeah, I read that publication and I love it. Your characterisation of the circumstances are correct.

Firstly, on the building of ‘a cradle of resistance — an underground’ and to tie in with your question, I think an important role of that underground is to do as you say, ‘shatter the view of omnipotence’ of our oppressors by way of giving interviews, writing and speaking truth to power from a position where they’re powerless to do anything about it!

It’s important that we expose the political policing, arrests and abuses of the legal (injustice) system that imprisoned us by a state that aims to protect the actual perpetrators of crime such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity - Israel may be the word that pops into people’s mind, but in reality Israel is merely a proxy-state for western (British-US) imperialism therefore blaming every crime against the Palestinians for example on Israel is literally the purpose of a proxy state, to have the crimes look autonomous, when really the blame is largely on Britain and the US who founded the terror-state to destabilise the middle-east and more easily overthrow anti-western regimes and extract their resources.

I say this not to give a lecture, but because shattering their omnipotence requires truly identifying the quality of the ‘oppressors’, as you put it. They are western imperialists.

Colonialism is merely a method of subduing a people, a qualitative definiteness of Imperialism and for imperialism via the proxy-state of Israel.

If you still doubt that the UK & US are pulling the strings of Israel, but rather that Israel is acting independently then I suggest to attempt to follow the strings. They will lead you to arms factories in the US, Britain & Europe. Once you’ve done that, you can in fact physically manipulate those strings from places like Elbit Systems, Rafael and Teledyne.

You can directly interfere with Israel’s military campaigns (genocide) so that drones are never deployed, tanks and other military hardware are left incomplete by deadlines they’re needed at the front, as Palestine Action have done for years.

If you still doubt that Israel is not merely a proxy state for western imperialism, then look at what happens when you interfere at the source of the monopoly of violence; As European and British Governments condemn Israel’s strategy of displacement and erasure, calling for an end, they simultaneously arrest those who are actually preventing the slaughter. Whats-more, the more of an impact you have, the more they will crack-down on you, as in my case of the Filton 24, they even went so far as arresting us with the Counter-Terrorism pigs for opposing terrorism. In the case of Palestine Action in general, I saw them become a proscribed terror group in my prison cell.

The main argument they had to justify this was what I got told in my 3-day stay at the Counter-Terrorism police station: that a terrorist can be somebody who “opposes British foreign policy”.

There it is.

Arming Israel, what it knows to be a terrorist ethno-state destabilising the middle east and colonising Palestine is literally British Foreign Policy. It has been since 1918.

If it were not, the Filton 24 trial would not be classed as ‘terror-related’. Palestine Action would not be proscribed. Israel would not be continued to be supported economically, militarily and diplomatically by the west, despite their public condemnation.

All they condemn is that Israel has been caught in the act so many times, that they should perhaps go back to a slow genocide. Everything was easier for them before social media around the time of The Nakba.

This is the role of those prisoners who are now underground, sharing what we’ve learned and experienced. There are many other duties that should be performed also as you can imagine.

Our oppressors are the same as they are in most of the world: western imperialists. They are closer to us than they are to the Palestinians.

“Israel is evil” simply isn’t going to shift the balance of forces. A comprehensive understanding of Imperialism and anti-imperialist action will.

Battles can be won without it, but there will always be battles to be fought as long as there is class war.

I implore everybody to study, to understand the enemy & it’s nature, to dedicate themselves to liberation. I see no more urgent and greater reason for people to begin to resist than the Palestinian cause. They are entirely victims of western Imperialism as we have already covered.

We are the source of their continued suffering as long as we the masses are complicit and do nothing. We don’t deserve freedom ourselves as long as we’re benefiting off the murder, misery and exploitation of others.

In regards to messages to International Political Prisoners for Palestine, err... Surely anything I say is completely insufficient as no words can describe my admiration for them and the fury I have for their oppressors?

I guess I’d say that “You know what you did. You know it was totally sick. You’re incredibly cool. Though there may still be many cowards and hypocrites who haven’t matched your conviction and sacrifice, there will be enough people who will be inspired to build on your work and the work of those before us to Free Palestine.

The international political landscape is changing daily on Palestine for Palestine. What has been an unconscionable history will be a better future. I know that for a fact because there are people like you, comrade.”

You have maintained that you did not “abscond” or go “on the run,” that you are a liberated prisoner of war — a prisoner of war of Israel in Britain. Can you elaborate on this term, “prisoner of war,” and why it’s important not to legitimize the state’s criminalization of liberation struggles?

So, Israel kept crying to the Home Office in London over many many years over their factories getting smashed up, having to close for the day and even being economically compelled to permanently shut down their factories so that eventually the UK Government, (I guess shut them up) decided to be harsher on Palestine Actionists.

We know that the Isaeli embassy has had meetings with UK officials and shortly after there’s been arrests and we know that the Home Office has told police to ‘focus not on the rights of the protesters, but on the business’ thereby mass arresting over 30 literal peaceful demonstrators - like, not even a fire extinguisher or sledge hammer anywhere, just banners - forgoing our legal rights to make their demon-baby Israel and Elbit Systems feel loved.

I know that the Home Office told Leicester police this because I was one of those arrested and this came out as disclosure in court. We all got acquitted.

So when it comes to my arrest and the arrest of most of the Filton 24 by Counter-Terrorism police, it had clearly got to a point where Elbit Systems (Israel) were so disturbed and upset by the supremely legendary action at their Filton site that this time they must have suggested the arrest of the 6 who went inside simply won’t pacify them, they need more arrests. It’s my belief that they suggested that we had effectively destroyed their cot when they were sleeping (as Britain’s baby) and this was akin to terrorism, therefore more arrests had to be made so nobody would attempt to destroy their factories again, once and for all.

It’s also my belief that Israel wanted to arrest as many people as they could even with circumstantial evidence but they didn’t have the authority, so they needed counter terrorism police to make arrests that the ordinary police would not make. They, being Britain’s favourite child got their wish.

I’m entirely convinced by knowing the political influence they’ve had on British police in the past, as evidenced in court and FOI documents that ‘Operation Re-comply’ is influenced by Israeli Officials.

Elbit is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer and it got absolutely wrote off yet again. Just why wouldn’t they demand harsher counter-terrorism policing?

Therefore, after a long history of incredible victories and unprecedented action, because of our politics and history, we were arrested at the behest of a foreign entity who’s genocide machine was at the risk of collapse in it’s parent Country. That being said, Israel doesn’t arrest Palestinians or resistance fighters with ordinary police, when Palestinians go to ‘trial’, Palestinians are in a Military Court. They are deemed prisoners of war.

I was imprisoned as a prisoner of war proxy because of Israeli interference with the Counter Terrorism Police. Court in the UK with the ‘Terrorism Connection’ as a possible aggravated factor at sentencing would be the closest they could accomplish to having me tried as a prisoner of war with a similar sentence (decades)

Regardless of who arrests us, we always say that we are not the guilty ones, Elbit Systems is. Court at least in the past was a place where we had the chance to put them on the stand, but that’s became harder as all of our legal defences are ruled out early in case-management. This again is akin to a military court.​​​​​​​ Despite this, we know these trials are purely political trials and history - the true trial - will absolve us all.

That is why I said ‘Peace out’ to HMP Wandsworth, because I want Elbit System’s upper management to fear that I am not in prison, that I am (it’s true) actually under their very beds every night ready to pull them by their ankles into the depths of hell where they belong.

Before your illegitimate incarceration, you hosted a Communist radio show called Rev Lumpen Radio. Can you tell us more about your past political work, and what led you to seeing direct action as the only option? I feel like I had a somewhat similar journey, having been involved in socialist parties and NGOs, but ultimately seeing the Al-Aqsa Flood expose that Pal Action was the only formation meeting the moment in the West in terms of escalation to resist the genocide.

It’s cool you asked about this. Revolutionary Lumpen Radio is the sickest podcast to ever exist. I’m extremely, eternally grateful to all my guests and comrades I’ve had the privilege of hosting and learning from - who’ve been extremely open, honest and informative on all the subjects we engaged in! As well as my listeners and supporters. Thank you.

Honestly, RLR started off because I was extremely dissatisfied with the lack of organised, militant and sincere Marxist Revolutionaries in the imperial core - the belly of the beast - the luckiest place for a Revolutionary to be and effect internationalist change.

I think sporting a habit of smoking a lot of weed, sniffing ketamine and reading a lot of revolutionary theory really - despite the sedative nature of these things - encouraged my productivity in the agitation-propaganda front (I actually sold them as well as i was trying to radicalise the lumpen-drug dealers in my City, it was a crazy time).

But the podcast wasn’t directed at liberals, I did it directly aimed at Imperial Core Marxists, to criticise their methods (or lack of) and educate them in their actual duties as Marxists who aught to be synonymous with revolutionaries. The duty of every revolutionary is to make revolution. Not talk about it. Not just “educate” about it. To make it.

There were and still are a tremendous amount of grifters who make a living talking about Marxism and revolution but that’s all they do, so I let many shots fire in their direction too. In fact they obviously annoyed me more, especially when I started a Serve The People Programme in my community off the proceeds of Revolutionary Lumpen Radio, feeding families who were struggling in what I called “Turning peoples hunger from capitalism into a hunger for socialism”. That was the objective of my STP programme.

People (as I would say to local communist groups) can’t truly learn Marxism if they’re thinking about how to feed themselves.

We need to go into the communities and Serve The People! We need to build bases within the capitalist base and superstructure and from these revolutionary bases we’ll have a revolutionary superstructure that no longer depends on the capitalist one and has a socialist culture. The local communists said it was a waste of money and time. Then my Podcast’s funds couldn’t keep up and shrunk as I put less podcasts out because I was serving the people more. I grew furious and my habits with it.

This pained me because the people in our communities who needed the most help were the lumpen-proletariat, who I wanted to represent. The underclass. The class that’s won most revolutions. You can’t be a worker and engage in revolution - let’s be honest. Your profession must be a professional revolutionary, not a guerrilla fighter part-time and factory worker the rest - now who’s smoking what?

The imperial core Marxists deem the lumpen-proletariat as a “backwards” “counter-revolutionary” class, even though it’s these people who have to most to gain, least to lose and generally are oppressed by the working class by the same bourgeois morality that sees them as social scum. But I know there’s hope in them because I have a lumpen class-consciousness and my left toe is more revolutionary than most.

Don’t get me wrong, I was taught by a local communist group, FRFI and wouldn’t be who I am without them, they obviously are a good place to start and of course I love those comrades. Yet, I guess I was taught and/or self-taught too well because the words of George Jackson hit too hard “come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act.”

I tried to take action serving the people long-term, but I’m not an entertainer, I’m a revolutionary so I couldn’t afford it like the grifting communist podcasters and Youtubers could have if they cared about their community.

I can’t sell newspapers for an org, because I want to bash the ruling class to death with them instead.

Then I heard Palestine Action on a Twitter Space discuss their first major victory, permanently shutting down Elbit Systems Oldham site.

Well, shiver-me-timbers. This is real anti-imperialist work that I’m duty-bound to contribute to as a Marxist Revolutionary, an Internationalist. Serving The People locally is good, but Serving The People Internationally for a people who are oppressed because of your own Countries policies and Imperialist objectives is far more urgent. Also Palestinians are a lot nicer.

A month later (I think) I was taking bricks out of Elbit’s UAV Engines site and using those same bricks to destroy drone engines inside (brick by brick) with 5 other esteemed comrades whom I’ll forever love.

We absolutely dismantled the place. It was wrote off for over a month. It was marvellous. THAT is what freedom is. Freedom is fighting for freedom, it’s a self-replicating phenomenon.

On that action there was literally blood, sweat, tears & broken bones. Broken drones.

I went to work 2 days later with my left hand in ribbons after it got torn to shreds on the razor wire for the factory. A couple of inches of vein had been plucked out of my finger and was in the palm of my hand swimming in a growing pool of blood. My fingers were inside-out in some places, it was quite a sight.

Naturally, that whole experience and others like it redirected my podcasts platform to platforming Palestine Action and the importance of direct action. As I got more caught up, my podcast was on the back burner, as well as my ‘illicit’ habits.

The Patreon still exists (please don’t pay money to it as I can’t access the money) but one day I’d like to fire Revolutionary Lumpen Radio up again.

I have another podcast called “Diary Of A Political Prisoner” that was actually recorded in prison and the Patreon is accessible, which I’ll be updating soon. I’m still all about agitation propaganda of course.

Your political education and theoretical work appears to have been very grounded in the role of the lumpenproletariat in the revolution, and you reference a lot of important Black freedom fighters in amerika, such as George Jackson and Sanyika Shakur. You seem to follow a different tendency, rooted in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist national liberation struggles, than a lot of Western Marxists who emphasize the role of the working class of the imperialist countries in making revolution.

I think this contradiction directly translates to the Pal Action strategy as well — for example, in amerika, we received a lot of pushback on our direct action campaign by people who said our actions would alienate the weapons factory workers and that we just needed to organize them. Of course to this we responded that these workers, even if they experience degrees of exploitation from their employers, are deeply invested in and benefiting from imperialism and genocide, so we shouldn’t wait for them to gain a moral conscience for us to take action, and we shouldn’t see them as the base for revolution. Unions have certainly taken more action and gone on brief general strike in some European countries than they have in amerika, where they have just kept building and shipping the bombs, and endorsing genocidal candidates, but I would say the unions in Europe could and should be doing far, far more as well.

So, do you think there is revolutionary potential within the imperial core, and what does that look like? What strategies are worth taking up and which are futile or social imperialist? Historically, what groups do you look to as reference points and inspiration?

Calla, I love these questions and I’m so happy to answer these things to someone who’s as learned as yourself in these important concepts and phenomena.

As far as I’m concerned, Marxism, the theory of Revolution doesn’t end and is a constant project of practice > theory > practice > theory etc and the practitioners are the revolutionaries because of their understanding that’s came from studying the nature of anti-imperialism, decolonialism and resistance struggles which is to say: Marxist theory and practice. A lot of people use “Imperialism” without studying Marxism-Leninism when Lenin literally defined what it is.

“Decolonialism” is literally a practice that’s came from the revolutionaries who understood Marxism/historical materialism and applied it to their national liberation struggles, but most have never read the Marxist theory of it’s leaders.

Ideology is so important. If you think back, at one point you could not read. You would look at the text on this screen and see nothing but incoherent shapes and symbols. Then you learned to read. Ever since reading (and you can put this to the test) you physically cannot look at these letters/words without reading them! You can’t do it!

When you understand Marxism, your ideology changes, you will interpret the world completely differently; you will understand the mechanisms and forces of geopolitics, economies and culture as they are: a hegemony of the ruling class! You’ll be politically literate. Marxism is the tool we must wield to dismantle capitalism, colonialism and imperialism propped up by it’s libertarian ideology. It’s the only thing that has done so and we cannot hope to understand, much less defeat the forces of oppression without it.

Therefore, yes, you are right and this brings me back to my old Revolutionary Lumpen Radio Podcast a little, I have been vocal in criticism of what are “Eurocentric” Marxists in the imperial core and their lack of engagement with Black or other liberation movements and revolutionaries. Many seem to think that the scientific project of Marxism doesn’t include people like George Jackson, Fred Hampton, Huey Newton & Sanyika Shakur, even Frantz Fanon, Ghassan Kanafani. They’re what Malik Dacoure in my “BLACK Marxism & White Marxism” episode stated, these revolutionaries are seen as “DLC” — something extra, exotic even but not tied in with revolutionary theory in the imperial core. Maybe it’s because they’re not white due to a hangover from bourgeois morality but I think the contributions from these people are very important.

The Black Panthers for eg had a remarkable understanding of Marxism-Leninism. I daresay most white Marxists would get an ‘F’ on the Black Panthers 6-week educational programme.

What they did was come to understand their enemies quality as well as their own position within a class-structured racist system of oppression.

With the Vietnam war raging and black Americans being forced to fight poor non-white people in Vietnam while black people were killed with impunity, or even reward by US state forces, this gave rise to a contradiction and consciousness for extremely brave individuals like Huey Newton to form the Black Panther Party as a Marxist-Leninist party. Though the initial focus was on the ending of police brutality in Black neighbourhoods, it was through their educating the masses as to the white supremacist Country they lived in and how that supremacy is maintained by capitalism, imperialism.

The panthers Serve The People Programmes were an outstanding achievement and never-before practised method in the Imperial core, inspired by Chairman Mao who liberated China.

It worked. It got thousands (hundreds of thousands) of people to understand capitalism/imperialism through racism and it’s power structures. The Panthers forced more concessions by the US Government than any white communist party ever had or has since! That wasn’t even their intention, but by their militancy and education they lifted their communities out of ignorance and despair to give them power.

They united so many people and took back their streets from white capitalists. They literally gave FREE healthcare in the UNITED STATES for goodness sake. They taught their community that they deserved it and socialism will guarantee it.

Furthermore, I’ve actually had the honour and privilege of reading a Black Panther Newspaper IRL. It was in my hands. Within it, there was random artwork that said “Lumpen Power” and other pro-lumpen propaganda because of course most black people at the time were lumpen. They focused on the most oppressed, rather than those workers who just want to organise for a bigger piece of the imperialist pie, so I feel more in tune with the Panthers than white eurocentric Marxists tbh.

Eventually the FBI deemed the “Children’s Free Breakfast Programmes” the biggest threat to the United States. More than any other white, American exceptionalist communist party. Because the Panthers were literally building socialism in the US!! Not the white people. Free breakfast in schools was a concession the US Gov eventually made, as all revolutionary iconography is eventually neutralised.

The FBI sought to “prevent the rise of a Black Messiah” so they assassinated (effectively lynched) 21-year old Fred Hampton because he was just that fucking cool.

So when I study the history, the successes and failures of revolutionary activity, I study them all because they died or were imprisoned for us. I’m not dogmatic, I don’t limit myself to revolutionary theory and practice in the imperial core of the early 1900’s, I study recent revolutionaries such as the Panthers up to the 1980’s. If Marxists can’t address the contradictions of racism, colonialism and the eurocentric problems of Marxism then I think we have a serious yt problem.

On unions and arms-industry workers, well… As I’ve previously said, workers and their unions organise around getting a bigger piece of the imperialist pie, that’s what they’re best at. I can’t imagine them organising to stop working on a weapons factory that they consciously applied to work for and I know first-hand these places have framed photographs of the weapons they produce all around these sites, they’re proud of the work they do and are violent with protesters, even children. There’s no reasoning with these pigs.

I know you got push back around not “organising” the workforce rather than just taking action to shut the site down, I can remember when it happened. It was drama. The US is just a very reactionary stupid place i’m afraid.

Honestly, it’s all very idealistic hoping unions will strike, I think time and energy is better spent organising direct action campaigns to shut these places down ourselves and anybody that says otherwise are looking for excuses to justify their own cowardice and complicity.

I do think there’s revolutionary potential in the imperial core, because I know I exist and I know my comrades exist, including you, Calla.

There is a lot of work to be done. I think it’s important to focus on direct action against the military-industrial complex, tying in their connection with racist imperialist conquests as Palestine Action have done, informing millions of Britain’s & the West’s very contemporary role in oppression and crimes against humanity, removing the mask of what was apparently a group of perfectly civilised Countries, a force of good in the world.

It’s also important to Serve The People! Build programmes locally with the goal of turning peoples hunger from capitalism into a hunger for socialism — tackling alienation, hopelessness and suicide among our neighbours in favour of revolutionary suicide through political education and solidarity.

Increasing in our ranks, the professional revolutionary in favour of the professional wage slave.

We must make the organisation and support of political prisoners a priority just as the Palestinians make their prisoners the focus of their organising. These people are the tip of the spear when it comes to action and we must collectively thrust them and what they stand for into the consciousness of everybody else.

We should look at (in detail) organisations and the individuals who make up The Black Panther Party, Palestine Action and others in recent history that have influenced history in a revolutionary way to inspire us to build on their momentum.

What do you think the future holds in terms of direct action and resistance more broadly?

Yeah, I think the future of Direct Action is just warming up. I think direct action has stretched it’s legs and is ready for the long-run.

In terms of resistance, it’s up to the reader. Will they feel compelled to end the butchering of people, social murder, man-made-extinction or will they have a heart and be guided by great feelings of love?

Any message for your comrades on hunger strike, which just passed one month?

To my comrades on hunger strike, my heart is broken. I see lots of videos reporting/commenting on the events in Palestine and there are random comments about your hunger strike. It is widely known and a lot of people think about you. Of course this is nice but not particularly what will change things.

I am doing what I can to change things, to see that your demands are met just as you would be if you were in my position.

You can follow Shibby on Instagram and check out his podcast, Diary Of A Political Prisoner.

Today, 11 December, marks Day 40 of the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike. 8 prisoners are on hunger strike and 5 have been hospitalized so far, some of them multiple times. Their lives are on the line. Take action to support their demands:

• US toolkit (made by Workshops4Gaza)

• UK toolkit

• Follow Free the Filton 24 on Substack (where they publish prisoners’ writings) and Instagram, and Prisoners for Palestine on Instagram and Twitter

• Donate to the fundraiser for the 37 political prisoners in Britain

• Continue taking direct action against the zionist-imperialist war machine!

There are also urgent calls to action to support Indigenous political prisoner Xinachtli (¡Tierra y Libertad!) who is facing extreme medical neglect in Texas prisons. Look at his support committee’s page for more info.