Who Was Ali?
Ali Khalid Abdullah was born on August 14th, 1953 in so-called Detroit, Michigan. I’ve not managed to find anything about his early life but it’s clear from his politics that he was at least somewhat interested in Islam and Black Power politics before he went to prison. Ali was imprisoned following an abortive raid on a business with some peers, in retaliation against a local drug dealer. In prison he talked with his peers about drugs, about Islam and about Black power. It’s not obvious how exactly he got in touch with the Anarchist black cross, but at some point he worked with Anthony Rayson of the South Chicago ABC to produce zines and eventually, in 1999, the Journal “In The Trenches” as part of a bigger project to start a magazine and network by and for imprisoned people called the Political Prisoners Of War Coalition (P.P.W.C).
Following 9/11 and the war on Muslims, Ali faced additional isolation from other prisoners, he was a diabetic and was refused his medication which severely impacted his health. From the outside, prisoners in the U.S. and elsewhere and anarchist collectives as far out as Belgium, the UK, Puerto Rico and the Netherlands put on fundraisers and sold his publications to raise him money.
The outing of Ali occurred in 2002 when Anthony raised the concern shared by Kebby Warner to the Anarchist Black Cross, Ali’s response was to lash out and fedjacket Ali who previously had been a long time comrade of his. The ABC and several other groups would withdraw support for him.
Ali would be released in 2008 in poor health, in 2009 he gave a talk at Boxcar Books with Anthony Rayson and the South Chicago ABC and then seemed to disappear from the movement again. That’s kinda where the trail ended. But, by chance, I stumbled on a letter shared alongside an interview by Anthony Rayson, which sadly is corrupted and can’t be played but Anthony also shared a letter from Ali letter dated June 18th, 2014 which explains how he’s dying of cancer, which, at the time of discovery, was inoperable.
Ali would die on the seventh of August, 2014 in a hospital in New Jersey.
Mutt.
10/04/2025.