solidarity with political prisoners
Monthly letter-writing night for people to come along and send cards/letters to people imprisoned for their political activities. These small gestures can be a real boost for people locked up for their beliefs, and an opportunity for you to find out more about their cases/campaigns and prison reality. Whether you just write a short one-off solidarity note, or go on to engage in long-term correspondence…is up to you. Read More
first week goes well for the EDO-smashers
The first week of the trial of the EDO Decommissioners was dominated by questionning of EDO boss Paul Hills, who was in the dock from Tuesday to Friday, and will be back again on Monday. He did not have a pleasant time as the defence team dug into what exactly EDO get up to, and with who. He was openly accused of lying by the defence, and at one point was warned by the judge of the risks of perjuring himself. Of interest to anti-militarists will have been discussions around export licenses and the inter-connected nature of the international arms trade, along with its links into political patronage. Also worth noting was the judge’s ruling that the jury be given as background info a very brief summary of the Goldstone report into Israel’s bombing of Gaza in 2008/9.Read More
Campaign to support Renata
(Renata is a young Polish student and anarchist who has spent some time in the south of the UK involved in various campaigns and projects. After moving to Holland to pursue her interests, she ran into some serious shit. The following info has been circulated by some of her friends and supporters. There is plenty of background info to read here and here, and our previous report here).
Image circulated by Renata's friends
Renata Zelazna (aka Zebra) is a friend of ours, and a vegan and anarchist who is now on remand over an unfortunate chain of events. She was arrested in April 2010 in Holland where she had moved to study, after an altercation with construction site workers which ended up with police threatening her in her own flat. She was holding a knife that she was chopping vegetables with – leading to charges of attempted murder!Read More
Jock’s appeal now being prepared, but it may not be heard for 6 months!
Latest news: in late May the senior judge in Jock’s case finally provided his written report on the reasons for the guilty verdict last December. It’s in Bulgarian of course! Jock’s defence team can now apply for an appeal hearing, which may take 6 months to be heard. In the meantime Jock has been stuck in isolation since 19 February and remains locked in a small room 23 hours per day, although ironically prison overcrowding means he shares with another prisoner. He can receive mail (letters only, no books etc), and visitors if you happen to be in the area. See our previous reports on Jock here.
Support Jock
(supporters of Jock have released the following statement and info, please do what you can)
Jock Palfreeman is a 23 year old Australian who had the courage to stand up against 16 Nazis on a night out in Sofia, Bulgaria. He witnessed the fascists chasing and attacking two young Roma boys. Jock ran to the boys’ aid, he did his best to keep the Nazis at bay by waving a knife at them but they attacked him. Jock was left with nowhere to run and had no choice but to defend himself. Andrey Monov, one of the Nazis, was stabbed and killed and another, Antoan Zahariev was injured. The Roma boys ran away.Read More
Monday 7 June at Hove Crown Court sees the long-awaited start of the trial of the EDO Decommissioners, some 17 months after their action to shut down the EDO ITT/MBM arms factory in Brighton. At long last they will have their day in court and, if all goes well, be free from the restrictive clutches of the state.
There are 9 defendants in the Decommissioners case, 6 from Bristol and 3 from Brighton. 7 have been on various forms of restrictive bail, whilst 2 from Bristol are currently on remand. Of the 9 defendants, 1 from Bristol intends to plead guilty to the main charge relating to damage to the EDO factory. Whilst this is regretable, given that individuals circumstances it is understandable. 
The remainder are pleading not guilty to both the damage and conspiracy charges, arguing that they acted to prevent a much greater crime (the Israeli state’s bombing of civilians in Gaza). The attitude of the defendants is that it is not they who are on trial, but the bosses of EDO and the politicians and corporations who facilitate the trade in military weapons and the subsequent mass murder. (There is similar trial of anti-militarists ongoing in Belfast at the moment – details here).Read More
An all-White jury in Rapid City, South Dakota, took less than two hours on April 22 to return a not-guilty verdict in the trial of former American Indian Movement (AIM) member Richard Marshall (of the Lakota Nation) in connection to the murder of fellow AIM member Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed Marshall supplied the gun used to kill Aquash.
Aquash was a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia and a skilled organizer and warrior with AIM who was targeted and threatened with death by the FBI. When her body was found on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in February of 1976, the FBI tried to cover-up her identity and true cause of death by having her buried as an unknown “Jane Doe” who had supposedly died of exposure, despite an obvious bullet hole wound to her head. A second autopsy requested by family members revealed the murder. At the time, an FBI-supported death squad made up mostly of reservation police officers had killed some 60 members of AIM and traditional Lakota people on Pine Ridge. Other death squad murders had also been passed-off as death by exposure by the FBI’s pathologist and were not investigated.Read More
Renata Zelazna is a Polish anarchist and vegan that has been studying and living in Holland. She is also spent some time living in Brighton, UK.
Recently while she was staying in Holland, she was violently arrested by the Dutch police after a claim that she had thrown a stone at a machine on a building site. But during her arrest, it is claimed that there was some trouble, and the police are now trying to charge her with attempted murder of the policeman who tried to arrest her. More info can be found here.Read More
A weird and wonderful DIY prisoner support benefit in London in a secure squatted venue. Includes stalls from Bristol ABC and the Bent Bars project. Full details on the image, ring 07404981936 for the squat location. Enjoy!
This blog has been pretty quiet the last month, just the one post the other day about the continued persecution of Amadeu Casellas
Its not that we’ve given up, or have been too busy participating in the general election. No, the simple reason is that we are a small group, only 2 of us update this blog, and we dont have daily desk jobs that allow regular web access.
banner at Derry 2008 protest for international prisoner solidarity
As a small public group we continue as before with our contribution to political prisoner solidarity and against the growing prison society around us. In practice that means updating this blog, meeting privately and communicating with some prisoners, offering support to a few local activists facing repression, running a monthly public prisoner solidarity letter-writing night, and whenever possible highlighting the importance within our movement of solidarity for those activists and others unlucky enough to face court action and/or get banged up inside prison. For those hundreds of politically conscious activists in the Bristol area who missed our monthly letter-writing night last night, we produce here our updated UK and international prisoners list prisoners_MAY 2010 feel free to take the time to support one or more of them.
Over the last month we have been disgusted by the bare-faced cheek and lies of UK mainstream political parties, and we know that the ‘LibDem-newTory scum coalition’ means nothing but bad news for the vast majority. None of the parties offered any new ideas on justice nor prisons anyway, just the same old persecution, punishment and more prisons. We note prisons went over capacity during the election campaign, at over 87000 prisoners, but the political elite don’t care because in any case they refuse to enact the European Court decision 6 years ago that sentenced prisoners are entitled to vote. For some good insight into the boring mundanity, repression and petty rules of daily prison life check out Prisoner Ben’s Blog. (Note: prisoner Ben Gunn’s most recent parole hearing was abandoned due to deliberate bureacratic malpractice. Ben is currently some 20 years over his tariff).
We are appalled that the Decommissioners trial has been delayed yet again, whilst one Decommissioner Elijah Smith continues to languish in prison on remand for 16 months without a trial. We note that justice in the UK remains a distant prospect, as evidenced by the release of a 30 years old secret police report that fingers the cops for killing Blair Peach in 1979, and the fact that over a year after Ian Tomlinson died in London after a police assault, not one cop faces any charges. But we are inspired by the resistance movements in Greece and Thailand, whilst noting the level of oppression faced by comrades in Greece. And we remain inspired by the everyday small acts of rebellion, resistance, mutual aid and solidarity that occur everywhere all the time. Our dreams of freedom and a new world can never be contained in the capitalist systems 5 yearly ballot box.
Amadeu
Only two months after releasing him, the Court of Barcelona has sentenced anarchist ex-prisoner Amadeu Casellas and what they refer to as his wife Yamileth B.P. to three years and a 2,400 Euros fine for attempting to smuggle heroin into Quatre Camins prison.
Casellas was in prison for over 25 years, till April 2010. He was jailed for the first time in 1979 after a series of bank robberies. He is widely known for his anarchist views and undertook several hunger strikes to protest against prison conditions. He has denied the charges and has also denied being married to Y.B.P., whom he says has been used.Read More