A weekend Festival of Resistance drawing together the themes or anti-prison campaigning & prisoner support, and organising against border controls and the demonisation of migrants.
You don’t need to be a genius, nor an anarchist, to see the links between the two, as the number of prisoners and detained migrants rockets, as state surveillance reaches new levels of intrusiveness, all against a backdrop of global financial crisis and the start of a major economic depression. The state is clamping down on dissent, preparing for social unrest, and as usual scapegoating the most vulnerable sections of society.
This weekend of events will look at alternatives to the current failing economic & social policies, and highlight examples of resistance.
Friday 24 October, 7pm – Why prisons don’t make our communities safer.
All welcome at Kebele centre, 14 Robertson Rd, Bristol BS5 6JY
Bristol ABC present a free workshop, led by Sam Lamble, a community organiser, anti-prison campaigner and academic, which examines:
The social costs of prisons, especially for women, transpeople, queers, people of colour and poor people; building links between anti-violence work (e.g. organizing against rape, assault, abuse) and prison abolition; drawing connections between prison abolition and other social justice struggles, such as border activism and immigration detention, anti-racism and anti-colonial struggles, antipoverty and homelessness work, resistance to the “war on terror”, ending psychiatric abuse, fair wages for workers & fighting corporate irresponsibility; alternatives to punishment and imprisonment; how to build communities without prisons.
On-line resource pack: http://www.mediafire.com/?spducjbhkqp
Saturday 25 October, 11am to 2pm – Bristol ABC host a vegan café and infoshop with anti-prison / prisoner solidarity info, campaigns, books, pamphlets & fundraising merchandise. Free entry, vegan breakfasts for a small donation.
At Kebele centre, 14 Robertson Rd, Bristol BS5 6JY
Saturday 25 October, 6pm to midnight – Subvert 2008 Benefit gig organised by the Bastard Squad Collective, raising funds for Bristol ABC and Bristol No Borders. 6 Live bands, 7 quid on the door, at the White Hart, Whitehall Rd, Easton BS5.
Full details here http://www.geocities.com/bastardsquadcollective/subvert.jpg
Sunday 26 October, 6 to 9pm – Bristol No Borders vegan café and film night.
All welcome, free entry, at Kebele centre, 14 Robertson Rd, Bristol BS5 6JY.
In the café a set vegan meal for a small donation, plus a series of short films highlighting the struggles against border controls and the criminalisation of migrants, along with their resistance.
Bristol No Borders: Organising against migration controls and working to break down the barriers that divide us. See http://bristolnoborders.wordpress.com/
The Bastard Squad Collective: Benefit events for anarchist projects, ecological defence, and anti-capitalist struggle. See http://www.geocities.com/bastardsquadcollective/