March 15th Solidarity Demo for Jock Palfreeman

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Jock Palfreeman Solidarity Demo

photo from a solidarity demo in Moscow

Thursday 15th March 2012. 11 am

Demonstrate outside the Bulgarian Embassy in solidarity with Jock Palfreeman the young Australian man who was set up by the Bulgarian police and criminal justice system after he stepped in to stop an attack on a young Roma in December 2007. Jock Palfreeman was sentenced in December 2007 to 20 years in Bulgaria’s notorious Sofia Central Prison.

See the Free Jock website for in-depth information and analysis about Jock Palfreeman’s trial and imprisonment.

11 a.m. Bulgaria Embassy. 186-188 Queen’s Gate. London. SW7 5HL

Watch the One Night in Sofia documentary for interviews with Jock Palfreeman, his family and supporters.

Check the 5 minute interview with Professor Dave Barclay, forensics expert.

Love and Struggle booklaunch and Weather Underground film screening

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Love and Struggle booklaunch and Weather Underground film screening Tuesday March 13th at Hydra Books (34 Old Market Street) at 7:30pm

Bristol ABC are pleased to host the booklaunch for David Gilbert’s new book, Love and Struggle and we will also be screaning The Weather Undergound film.

Watch the trailer for the Weather Underground movie here.

Watch a promo trailer for Love and Struggle here.

Want to find out a bit more about the book? Go to the publisher’s website or ready this:

A nice Jewish boy from suburban Boston—hell, an Eagle Scout!—David Gilbert arrived at Columbia University just in time for the explosive Sixties. From the early anti-Vietnam War protests to the founding of SDS, from the Columbia Strike to the tragedy of the Townhouse, Gilbert was on the scene: as organizer, theoretician, and above all, activist. He was among the first militants who went underground to build the clandestine resistance to war and racism known as “Weatherman.” And he was among the last to emerge, in captivity, after the disaster of the 1981 Brink’s robbery, an attempted expropriation that resulted in four deaths and long prison terms. In this extraordinary memoir, written from the maximum-security prison where he has lived for almost thirty years, Gilbert tells the intensely personal story of his own Long March from liberal to radical to revolutionary.

Kevan Thakrar – Jury Verdict Must Stand – Self Defence is No Offence 18th Feb.

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Will the Prison Officers ever let go?

Since the 9th November 2011 the day Kevan Thakrar was acquitted by a jury of his peers of attacking three prison guards; prison officers have been calling for a retrial. Over 4,000 people have signed a misleading online petition calling for the retrial of Kevan. 56 serving prison officers, 1 serving prison governor and 1 serving police office, have publically signed the petition. Accusations of jury nobbling in the trial began to circulate in January, an investigation by CPS/police found there were no grounds whatsoever to indicate there had been any interference But who started the rumours leave it up to yourselves to guess who!

Media in the north of England, Chronicle / Journal / Sunday Sun/The Advertiser/Sunderland Echo, have been relentless in promoting the prison officers. All have been written to, giving Kevan’s side of the story, using only court transcripts, not one of the papers has printed a single line.

Many of the papers, showed pictures of injuries the prison officers had received; but when they were sent pictures of brutal assault on Kevan for publication, publication was refused on the grounds that the pictures were too horrific!

Kevan feels strongly that the hostility of serving prison officers and the constant media witch-hunt is preventing his progress out of the notorious Close Supervision Centre at HMP Woodhill.

Kevan has requested that his letter below should be distributed far and wide.

**********************************************************************

Kevan Thakrar – Jury Verdict Must Stand – Self Defence is No Offence

Following my unanimous Not Guilty verdict at Newcastle Crown Court for attempted murder x 2 and GBH section 18 x 3 against Frankland prison staff, by a jury of 12 white British members of the general public, I have been hearing a lot about how this was due to me suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Although it is correct to say that due to the serious gang attack I sustained whilst on remand at HMP Woodhill on 31 May 2008 that I do indeed have PTSD, the reason why I am innocent of any assault on Frankland prison staff is because I acted in self-defence.

Had I not defended myself, I would have suffered life-threatening injuries in a pre-planned racist attack. Staff at Frankland had taken exception to the assistance I was providing to victims of assault by staff in the segregation unit and decided my time was up.  How dare I report staff criminality to the police!

The actual tipping point came when I wrote to Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods.  I asked for her assistance in putting a stop to the racial attacks by staff and culture of criminality which was being covered up by a code of silence.  The help Roberta Blackman-Woods MP gave me was to send a copy of my letter to the governor of Frankland (thank youŠ) who then had enough.

Unfortunately I was still almost killed after I defended myself.  The Durham police have attempted to cover this up and I am yet to see any of the media report these real facts.

The Prison Service, which feels embarrassed by this whole situation, has kept me locked away in the isolation unit of the Close Supervision Centre at HMP Woodhill.  For two years now, the psychological warfare has included stopping all communications to friends and family through mail and phone, and non-stop aggression.  I am an innocent man, wrongly imprisoned in the first place, and proven to be innocent of the false allegations made by corrupt prison staff – am I really worth £250,000 of taxpayers’ money?

I am sure everyone can understand my safety in prison from corrupt, criminal prison staff is now much harder to ensure. It must be difficult for Prison Service management to find a safe location for me to progress through my wrongful sentence, so I wait with anticipation to see where they will move this innocent man to.

It is a sorry state of affairs made worse by the pathetic lies coming from the corrupt prison officers’ camp in order to increase the possibility of compensation.  Surely the time has come for the oppressors to give up with their unjust acts and recognise that the 12 members of the jury saw the truth.  The time has come to move on and learn from mistakes made on all sides; attempts to spin more lies, half-truths and misrepresentations to cover up the racist, sadistic nature of the Prison Service institution help no-one.

The jury were unanimous: I acted in lawful self-defence using reasonable threat against the threat posed.  The way forward is to seek to eliminate that threat so no other prisoners have to experience the torture and no innocent bystanders get burned by the fire which the corrupt staff continue to fuel.  A ‘rehabilitation revolution’ can never occur until an independent body is tasked with rooting out these problems and is paid for every corrupt official exposed.

Stop the rhetoric; it’s 2012 – let’s step into the future, not fall back into the past.

Kevan Thakrar, Saturday 18th February 2012

Kevan Thakrar
A4907AE
HMP Woodhill
Tattenhoe Street
Milton Keynes
MK4 4DA
www.justiceforkevan.com

Source for this message:
Kevan Thakrar
MOJUK
original article

Anarchist anti-fascist murdered in Samara, Russia – friends and family need support!

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Nikita was at a local meeting against election fraud, holding placate "We do not need no authority! Liberty or death! Our candidate is self-governance!"

On the 9th of February, 6:30 in the morning in area of institute “FIAN” a janitor found body of Nikita Kalin, born in 1991. 8:00 police arrived, and 11:00 AM  police contacted mother of the murdered man. According to Nikita’s mother, he was stabbed 61 times, besides this his ribs were fractured multiple times, and head was wounded as well. No property was stolen. Currently a suspect of the murder is arrested, and Nikita’s blood was found on the clothes of the arrested.

It is obvious, that Nikita was attacked by a group, and the police also told his mother off the record, that detained suspect is a national socialist activist, and refuses to name any suspects. Besides the brutality of the murder, the police investigaters have still not questioned Nikita’s mother, or his friend who was the last person who saw it. Due to this, we suppose that there will be an attempt to cover the case, as it often hapens in Russia. As well, suspect has already hired a lawyer. We suspect, that investigation is working on interests of the arrested, and thus support is necessary. At this point, a human rights organisation has provided a lawyer, but funds are still needed for funeral costs.

Nikita was from a simple working class family, and never hide his anti-fascist and anarchist views. In case you want to help friends and family of Nikita with funeral costs, you may donate to Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow: http://wiki.avtonom.org/en/index.php/Donate

For more information go here: https://avtonom.org/en/news/anarchist-anti-fascist-murdered-samara-russia-friends-and-family-need-support

Prisoner Hunger Strikes

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Around the world hunger strikes are used by prisoners as a last resort in struggling against the oppressive prison system. Here’s an update about a couple of hunger strikes from Palestine and the United States, but there are probably many more hunger strikes going on as people on the inside resist.

From Palestine… It has just been announced that Khader Adnan’s 66 day hunger strike is over and that he will be released in April from “administrative detention” (means that Israel can detail him indefinitely). There were grave fears for his deteriorating health.

From the United States… It has been announced that Christian Alexander Gomez died earlier this month while on hunger strike in Corcoran State Prison. The 27 year old man passed on six days after he and 31 other prisoners in the Corcoran State Prison’s administrative segregation unit began refusing food to protest restrictions on access to health, good food and legal services.

Prisoners in the Corcoran Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) have been striking for periods of time since late December 2011. It’s likely that some number of prisoners have continued striking up to quite recently. As of February 9, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), disclosed that 30 men were still striking and a representative in the office said that prisoners had been intermittently striking for the last month. The CDCR has consistently misreported the numbers of prisoners on strike around California, and the group Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity heard rumors of numbers anywhere from 50 to 200.

The Corcoran strikers are rallying around 11 demands. The demands of the Corcoran strikers are somewhat different than those of the strikes sparked in Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU) this past summer and fall, which at one point included 12,000 prisoners in 13 prisons across California. Administrative Segregation Units are often used as holding places for prisoners in route to SHU facilities, or who are waiting for release back into general population.

February 20th has also been called as a national occupy day in support of prisoners in the United States. Check out their website here: http://occupy4prisoners.org/

If A Tree Falls Screening & Discussion @ Kebele

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Bristol ABC Presents:

If A Tree Falls: Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Thursday 26th April 2012
w/ talk & discussion on activist security

Food served from 6:30pm, film starts at 7:30pm

In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front– a group the FBI has called America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.”

For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado.

With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.

IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT (http://ifatreefallsfilm.com/) tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members.

Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thrilller, the film interweaves a verite chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.

Drawing from striking archival footage — much of it never before seen — and intimate interviews with ELF members, and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them, IF A TREE FALLS explores the tumultuous period from 1995 until early 2001 when environmentalists were clashing with timber companies and law enforcement, and the word “terrorism” had not yet been altered by 9/11.

 
Suggested donation for food: £2.50
 
Kebele Social Centre, 14 Robertson Rd, Easton, Bristol. BS5 6JY
Vegan food served from 6:30pm, films start at 7:30pm

If A Tree Falls Screening & Discussion @ Kebele

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Bristol ABC Presents:

If A Tree Falls: Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Thursday 26th April 2012
w/ talk & discussion on activist security

Food served from 6:30pm, film starts at 7:30pm

In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front– a group the FBI has called America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.”

For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado.

With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.

IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT (http://ifatreefallsfilm.com/) tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members.

Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thrilller, the film interweaves a verite chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.

Drawing from striking archival footage — much of it never before seen — and intimate interviews with ELF members, and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them, IF A TREE FALLS explores the tumultuous period from 1995 until early 2001 when environmentalists were clashing with timber companies and law enforcement, and the word “terrorism” had not yet been altered by 9/11.

 
Suggested donation for food: £2.50
 
Kebele Social Centre, 14 Robertson Rd, Easton, Bristol. BS5 6JY
Vegan food served from 6:30pm, films start at 7:30pm

February Prisoner List – Radical Zine Fest

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The New Year was welcomed in with demonstrations outside (and inside?) prisons around the world. Many of our comrades are still inside and struggling against a system which seeks to silence and erase them. Writing a letter or postcard may not seem like much, but it can make a big difference to someone on the inside – raise their spirits, let the screws know they’re not alone, keep them engaged in the struggles that they were involved in on the outside, and help them to navigate the prison system… Click here to download the prisoner list:feb prisoner list

No one forgotten and nothing forgiven!

Bristol ABC will also be at the Bristol’s first Radical Zine Fest to distro zines and do letter writing. The Zine Fest is noon to 6pm at Kebele, followed by a delicious vegan meal and mulled cider will be available after 6pm. Be there or be square!

Bristol Radical Zine Fest WEbsite

Montly letter writing

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Bristol ABC will be holding our monthly letter writing night at Kebele this Sunday.

We will have our prisoner list ready as well as stationary galore… so come along if it’s your first time writing or if you regularly correspond with folks on the inside.

There will also be a delicious vegan meal available thanks to the Kebele cafe!

Letter writing 6:30-8pm
Kebele, 14 Robertson Rd., Easton, Bristol, BS5 6JY

Be there or be square!