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HANDS OFF JOHN BOWDEN! (28 April 2007)

More than a quarter of a Century ago, John Bowden, then a young man, who had already
spent most of his life in the "care" of the State, committed what might be
characterised as a 'stupid, drunken, murder'. There was nothing even slightly
political about this act, but it was neither premeditated nor committed for personal
gain. It was, unfortunately, something which happens all too frequently when men
quarrel while drunk. Particularly when they have been brutalised by, marginalised
from, and pushed to the very edges of society. In his recently released pamphlet,
Tear Down The Walls! John describes the killing as "a senseless, almost gratuitous
killing", which "reflected the extent of my brutalisation after years of brutalising
treatment in state institutions."

The two older men convicted along with John of the murder were released long ago.
Possibly, had John been less of a man than he is, if he had grovelled his way
through the prison system, turned a blind eye to the injustice all around him,
ignored the suffering of others, and tugged his forelock to every worthless turn-key
in the system, he might too have been released early. But that did not happen.

Soon after his imprisonment, in his own words, John "began to become politicized, to
emerge from the hopelessness, violence, and rage that had characterised my life thus
far." As John's self-awareness and politicization grew, he began to emerge as an
effective prison organiser and an articulate spokesperson for prisoners' rights.

But prisons are not run like liberal democracies, they are run like absolute police
states, where dissent is outlawed, and those who speak out against injustice are
targeted and punished. What John Bowden has suffered over the past 25 years; the
savage beatings at the hands of prison guards; the solitary confinement; the
continual attempts to break him psychologically, amount to torture. John has never
been broken by these outrages however, he has never been unafraid to write in
support of other prisoners being brutalised in segregation units, for example; to
show solidarity with those facing injustice in jail systems all over the world; to
stand up and be counted when it was needed. And for that he has been punished;
punished for being an articulate prison writer; punished for having a deep political
insight and intelligence which outstrips his captors; punished for having the
respect of other prisoners and that of many political activists beyond the prison
walls. John Bowden has paid a heavy price, not just for a few moments of drunken
recklessness, but for his integrity, his empathy, his solidarity, and for his
radicalism.

Time and time again, John's politics, and his contact with political activists, has
been highlighted by the prison system as a "risk factor" and a reason for keeping
him in jail. Nonetheless, after more than a quarter of a Century behind bars, John
Bowden, now aged 50, had progressed through the system to an open prison, Castle
Huntly in Scotland. He has worked outside the prison walls, been regularly released
on weekend 'home leaves', and was being prepared for possible release in June of
this year. All that has recently changed though, with John being moved back to
'closed conditions' at HMP Glenochil.

In the closed world of the prison system, where justice is a stranger, and where
abuse routinely goes unchecked, a man or woman's life may be held in the hands of
the corrupt or incompetent. At times, even the most lowly turn-key may assume
god-like authority, and the word of every single prison employee, no matter how
ridiculous, counts infinitely more than that of any prisoner.

Recently at Castle Huntly, a newly-arrived right-wing social worker submitted a
report on John Bowden, for consideration when his application for release on 'life
licence' is heard by the parole board. In this report Matthew Stillman claims:
"Bowden has written for a self-proclaimed anarchist website called ABC Brighton, and
says he supports many of their ideals and actions. A review of this website brings
into question the nature of this group. The members of this group appear to be
primarily eco-terrorists or para-military members involved in what they see as
battles against political systems and principles."

In any other walk of life, were someone to make such an unfounded and blatantly
defamatory statement against a legitimate prisoner support organisation, the best
they could expect is that they would be laughed at. Unfortunately, in the Kafkaesque
world of prison, the words of this individual carry real weight, and real danger.
Therefore it is important that they are challenged.

While Indymedia chose to report this as an attack on both John Bowden and the
Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), and prisoner support groups and political activists
around the world rallied in support of John, The Dundee Courier chose a different
approach. In a piece headlined, "Castle Huntly Killer's Terror Links", the Courier
chose to basically invent a story out of Stillman's own fantastic perception, doubly
libelling the ABC, and no doubt choosing John Bowden as an 'easy target'.

Seizing on this publicity as an excuse, the Scottish Prison Service immediately
transferred John Bowden back to 'closed conditions' at HMP Glenochil, where he has
been told he will remain for 3 months. While, bizarrely, they claim this is not a
'punishment move', it is blatantly clear that John is being punished because the
spotlight has fallen on the defamatory and malicious nonsense authored by a Castle
Huntly social worker.

As someone who has stood up for countless others during his time in prison, often at
great cost to himself, and who is now being punished for his politics and for
refusing to renounce the ABC, John Bowden deserves our fullest possible support.

At the very least please send a card or letter to John at his new address (below)
and a card reading 'Hands Off John Bowden!' to the Scottish Prison Service. All
constructive support actions are encouraged. Please show solidarity with John Bowden
at a time when he needs our support most.

"For having stood up to and resisted unlawful and inhuman treatment in prison, and
retained some basic human integrity and humanity in the process, I probably shall
now remain imprisoned far beyond what even a reactionary judge deemed an appropriate
period of time all those years ago. Hell will freeze over, however, before I
surrender that part of myself that had the courage and integrity to fight back and
resist when resistance often seemed futile."

John Bowden (from Tear Down The Walls!)

John Bowden, 6729, HMP Glenochil, King O' Muir Road, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire,
FK10 3AD. Scotland.

Scottish Prison Service Headquarters, Communications Branch, Room 338, Calton House,
5 Redheughs Rigg, Edinburgh, EH12 9HW. Scotland E-mail: gaolinfo@sps.gov.uk

If you wish to make a fuller complaint you can also e-mail the Scottish Prisons
Complaints Commission at spcc@scotland.gsi.gov.uk as well as contacting the Parole
Board and HMP Glenochil (contact details given in Indymedia link above.)

Tear Down The Walls! is available from Leeds ABC, price £1.50 plus 50p UK postage
(blank postal orders only please.) It is free to prisoners. Please contact us for
bulk orders.

Leeds ABC, PO Box 53, Leeds, LS8 4WP. England.

LeedsABC@riseup.net

www.myspace.com/leedsabc

Support Augustin Kraus (28 March 2007)

A Czech anti-fascist has been jailed for 14 months for
his anti-fascist work.

His name and adrress is

Augustin Kraus, Vazebni veznice, PP-1, Litomerice, 41
201, Czech Republic.

Why not drop him a line?

Roberto Catrino Lopez on hungerstrike

On October 25 the prisoner Roberto Catrino Lopez has initiated a hunger and drinking strike to protest against the poor medical treatment he’s receiving in the Penitentiary Institution Lelystad (The Netherlands). Roberto is a social prisoner and anarchist who was serving an 18 years sentence, of which the largest part in solitary confinement. During those long years he has been participating in mutinees, hungerstrikes and attempts to escape. This resistance has led him to endure an uninterrupted submission to isolation. Only because he didn’t want to accept the reality of torture and resistance was the only way out.

Roberto is infected with HIV and because of this his immune system is very low currently what makes him very vulnerable for serious complications. Instead of being treated for this disease by a reliable doctor in a suitable environment Roberto has been put in an isolation cell on October 26. This decision will only make his health situation worse because it’s a known fact that isolation involves a lot of stress. This stress is an unacceptable attack on Roberto’s weak state. Needless to say that every form of isolation is an unacceptable form of white torture.

The hungerstrike that Roberto has initiated is a result of the game that the prison and hospital are playing about tracing back his medical file. Nobody wants to hand over his file. Without these records Roberto has no means to demand a proper treatment.

More than ever Roberto needs our support on the outside. We haven’t yet forgotten how he nearly died in April from a double pneumonia after the prison doctor hadn’t taken serious his state of health. Roberto is sick and must be treated for this in freedom with love of his family and friends. Prison is only making people more sick. This only strengthens out vision that prisons don’t serve to resocialise people but only to take revenge andexterminate.

ABC Amsterdam is calling for everybody to harass the Penitentiary Institution Lelystad with phonecalls, emails and faxes to demand a proper medical treatment on a regular basis in a normal environment. Besides that we also demand his release and return to his family and friends in Catalonia to be able to take care of his health in peace.

With this call we’d also like to ask your attention for the other imprisoned comrades who are on hungerstrike currently:
- Jose Fernandez Delgado in Bochum (Germany), who’s protesting against the way the prison is treating him arbitrarily;
- Hamed Hamed Belaid in Villanubla (Spanish State), on hungerstrike since September 5 to make an end to the hopeless isolation during 15 years;
- Javier Caramel in Albolote (Spanish State), in hungerstrike since August 21 because he hasn’t seen his mother for seven years, doesn’t receive his diploma for the studies he did, doesn’t receive hispay for working in the kitchen.

The postal address of the director of the prison in
Lelystad is:

PI-Lelystad
T.a.v. de directie
Larserdreef 300
8233 HB Lelystad
The Netherlands

Tel +31 320 26 74 67
Fax +31 320 26 74 76
Email: info@flevoland.dji.minjus.nl

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM THAT LED TO INSTITUTIONAL MURDER (10 July 2006)

Such is the conclusion of the official inquiry into the murder of Zahid Mubarek, a 20 year old Asian prisoner who was beaten to death by his racist and mentally disturbed cell mate at Feltham Young Offenders Institution six years ago.

The inquiry report, published in June, gives a glimpse of a child prison with a long and notorious reputation for maltreating its inmates and driving a disproportionate number to self harm and suicide. Feltham has for years been infamous for its brutalizing and cruel conditions, and Zahid Mubarek's death there was hardly surprising when seen in the context of the vicious racism that permeated the institution and the treatment of black and Asian boys there.

Reports that Prison Officers at Feltham had deliberately engineered violence amongst the prisoners, much of it racial, entertaining themselves by organizing 'gladiatorial style' fights between prisoners, was partly supported by the findings of the official inquiry into Zahid Mubarek's death and led to the inquiry team taking the unprecedented decision to publicly name 20 staff who it considered responsible in some way for the death of Zahid.

One senior officer, Stephen Martindale, had deliberately and against the advice of a junior officer, placed Zahid in a cell with a known racist who had exhibited obvious psychotic tendencies. It was clearly obvious to the staff 'supervising' Zahid's wing that at the very least Zahid was likely to be attacked and beaten up by his deranged cell mate. This is, however a routine part of the culture at Feltham - boys being subdued and controlled by staff organized violence at every level of their lives. For black and Asian prisoners at Feltham the reality of staff-sanctioned brutality is especially commonplace, serious injury and death always a real possibility.

Had it not been for the tireless and determined struggle of Zahid's family to discover the truth about the death there would have been no official inquiry, Zahid just being forgotten, another hidden victim of a system that allows racist prison officers to freely terrorize and brutalize young black men.

No-one in any position of authority at Feltham or Prison Department Headquarters ever felt inclined to raise the alarm about the culture of violence and fear that prison officials had created at the jail, and even since the publication of the inquiry's report into Zahid's death not one of the officials named in it have been disciplined. In fact the Governor in charge of Feltham at the time of Zahid's murder, Niall Clifford has since been promoted.

Compare the quiet dignity, integrity and bravery of Zahid's family when seeking justice and truth, with the attitude of Colin Moses, national representative of the Prison Officers' Association, who in an interview with Channel 4 News, tried to portray the Prison Officers ultimately responsible for Zahid's murder as victims of what he called, "The blame culture" and said they had been "placed under unwarranted stress by the inquiry," declaring that they, "Just wanted the whole business to go away."

Not once did he express sympathy for the family of Zahid Mubarek, or offer any apology for the behaviour of staff named in the inquiry report.

The reality is that in the current social and political climate of witch-hunting offenders and scapegoating minorities prison officers are being actively encouraged to brutalize prisoners and are operating in the context of a country that now locks up masses of its people on a scale never before seen in the U.K. and far in excess of any other country in Europe.

Zahid Mubarek certainly won't be the last prisoner of colour to be murdered by an intrinsically racist prison system, and make no mistake,he was murdered by that system, but his family have shown that with courage and determination it is possible to put that system in the dock and expose the racists and sadists who administer and operate it.

John Bowden July 2006

Parkhurst Punch

This article, written by long term prison activist John Bowden, is taken from issue 9 of Now or Never, the expaper of Norwich Anarchists.

For every gallon of hooch brewed use the following:

· Fast acting baker’s yeast – two heaped teaspoons
· Three pounds of sugar
· As much pure orange juice as possible – at least four litres
· A small handful of dry white rice
· One peeled raw potato

Mix the lot together in a bucket and seal, but puncture the lid in order to prevent explosion! Leave in a warm place for at least ten days, then strain into bottles and chill.

Believe me, this stuff can be lethal if done properly and has probably been responsible for more prison riots than people imagine!

Guaranteed after effects!

To order, Now or Never, please go to ht tp://www.nowornever.org.uk/

Class war prisoner in Ukraine! (15th June 2006)

Roman Kamynin: armed justice

Given today's work environment, people often have no choice but to work in substandard conditions: overcrowded work spaces, using damaged or broken down equipment. Most have to spend the majority of their day at work, doing unfulfilling work and making objects of little utility to most people. The average worker is under the complete control and often unreasonable wimsy of managers. The financial compensation received by the average worker is often not even enough to scrap out a modest existence. In other words, work today is mostly a steaming pile of dung. As if all of this wasn't enough, there's an especially dubious yet common practice in the former USSR, whereby companies fail to pay workers their salaries for work already completed.

Recently, a typical multi-month failure to pay a salary coupled with personal insults have prompted Ukranian worker Roman Kamynin to kill one of the bosses at his firm. (More details here:htttp://rdforum.narod.ru/txt45-1.htm). Roman is currently serving a 10 year prison sentence. The Network for Workplace Resistance (project of Autonomous Action) is campaigning to raise funds to support Roman and his family.

Please write to us, if:
- you're willing to make a donation for Roman Kamynin;
- you're interested in helping us spread the word about the campaign to support Roman Kamynin;
- you're a member of an art group that can organize a benefit concert or action in support of Roman Kamynin.

Network of Workplace Resistance www.antijob.tk, cockney AT rambler.ru

Call for Catalan Solidarity (10th May 2006)

This is a call out for solidarity and fundraising events for people in Barcelona facing heavy repression.
Police in Barcelona have arrested comrades on attempted homicide charges after attacking a squat party and have also made two arrests in a separate investigation into anti-capitalist sabotage and arson attacks. There have also been arrests and charges against a Queer Mutiny action and the cops generally seem to be cracking down on squatting and other "anti-social" behaviour with on the spot fines etc.

For more information see:

http://karcelona.revolt.org/ (click on EN for English version)

http://www.brightonabc.org.uk/stories.htm#barcarep

There is no legal aid in Spain and people are faced with raising large amounts of money to pay for their defence.

WE ARE ASKING SOCIAL CENTRES, PRISONER SUPPORT GROUPS AND WHOEVER ELSE TO CONSIDER HOLDING A FUND RAISING EVENT ON (OR NEAR) THURSDAY 1ST JUNE.

To avoid everyone who raises money paying separate bank charges which can be pretty high, money can be paid to the Brighton ABC bank account and we can then transfer all the money over in one lump sum. To arrange this please email: brightonabc@yahoo.co.uk

We'll be holding a three course banquet at the Cowley Club here in Brighton- cos we`re posh like that innit!
Solidarity actions against Spanish embassies, consulates and companies have also been called for.
www.brightonabc.org.uk

John Shelley Ghosted (19th January 2006)

A protest by prisoners in the brutal Long Lartin segregation unit, in which the block was "dismantled", has resulted in John Shelley being ghosted to Whitemoor and placed in the so-called 'Dangerous and Severe Personality
Disorder' unit.

It was inevitable that the establishment of such units over the past few years would simply be another weapon for the System to use against prison militants. The cod-science of the 'personality disorder' is something worthy of Stalinist Russia.

John, an articulate and long-standing writer for papers such as Class War, remains on good form, but is sure to appreciate correspondence:

John Shelley,
DP9500,
DSPD Unit,
HMP Whitemoor,
March,
Cambs.
PE15 OPR.

A message from Stuart Highway:

Dear CW

Just got your email message this morning via GM of Network Against Prohibition. Thanks! I've been receiving heaps of letters and cards. The solidarity has been amazing!

I got locked up on 18 October. 3 months for allegedly shattering the windscreen of a police wagon on 12 October 2002. I could've avoided prison by pleading guilty, but I wasn't. The jury found me guilty of the charge, Unlawfully Damage Property. I'm inspired by the example of fighters like Mark Barnsley and Thomas Meyer-Falk. I only got 3 months, they got YEARS, and I don't think Thomas has even got a release date.

I spoke to Legal Aid on Thursday about getting an appeal lodged. Now I'm waiting to see what happens. I might be able to get out of here on bail. Otherwise I'll be out on 12 January 2006.

I think someone else was doing my market stall today. I did it on my own for years. It's great to see so much happening on the outside. We've been watching on the TV news in the evenings these Muslim kids going for it in Paris! Worldwide fightback against racism and capitalism!

I share a dorm with 5 other guys, all Aboriginal. 4 out of 5 prisoners here are Aboriginal, even though Aboriginal people make up only about 28% of the Northern Territories population as a whole. The prisoners are cool and solidarity is strong.

Solid@rity

Steve

Aachen 4 verdict - Anarchists imprisoned

The spectacle of justice ends as the anarchists expected -

Verdicts on the 28th of september 2005, 23th day of trial:

Jose Fernandez Delgado: 14 years
Gabriel Pombo da Silva: 13 years
Bart de Geeter: 3 years and 6 month
Begonia Pombo da Silva: 13 month on probation (3 years)

(in ca. 3 weeks will be a new decision if Bart will be released provisionally)

Jose and Gabriel are Spanish anarchists who had escaped from the isolation units of Spain, (Gabriel had spent 20 years of his life in jail - 16 -36 years old) They were caught after a border check led to a shoot-out and hostage taking. Arrested also were the Belgian anarchist Bart de Geeter and Gabriel's sister, Begonia, who has no involvement with the anarchist movement.

The German State is refusing to look at the evidence of torture within the Spanish prison system, a clear motivating factor behind Jose and Gabriel's actions. After they have spent their sentences, it is expected that Germany will return the prisoners to Spain, to more torture, brutality and isolation.

Actions in solidarity with these anarchists are needed more than ever, for the struggle against State and Capital, for the destruction of all prisons and work-houses everywhere.

Destroy all judges and politicians

For further information :

www.escapeintorebellion.info

Anarchists arrested in Aachen, Germany

On June, 28 2004, four people were arrested in Aachen, Germany, after a shooting with the police and hostage-taking, while attempting to escape a police control. These four persons are Bart De Geeter, José Fernandez Delgado, Gabriel Pombo da Silva and Begoña Pombo da Silva.

Bart De Geeter is a Belgian anarchist, 26 years old, active within the movement for several years, particularly within the solidarity work with prisoners (as a member of the Anarchist Black Cross - Gent, Belgium) and people without papers.
Gabriel Pombo da Silva is a well-known Spanish anarchist, 36 years old, who spent 20 years in prison of which 14 in the infamous FIES isolation regime. In October last year he escaped from prison and ran away from Spain. Gabriel is one of the social rebels/anarchists who struggled for years against the brutal conditions, the isolation, torture and mistreatment within the Spanish prisons.
The 44 year old José Fernandez Delgado is another Spanish anarchist who escaped from prison recently after spending 24 years in prison.
Begoña is 34 years old and is Gabriel’s sister. She lives in Germany and has a 7 year old daughter. Except for being the sister of Gabriel, she has no relation to the anarchist movement.

The four were stopped by the German police just beyond the German border, at a petrol station on the way to Aachen. The reason for the police intervention seems to have been a drug control. When the police wanted to search the car, one of the 4 pulled a gun and shot in the air. In the next moments, the three men took a couple as hostages and fled with a car; the woman though was jumped upon and arrested by the police. The three men were chased by the police, a shooting took place way and back, and when their car broke down they let the hostages go and fled with another car. Finally the three hid in a garage, where they were surrounded by the police, and after some time the three gave in.

The three men have been charged by the public prosecutor of Aachen with attempt of murder (9 times), hostage taking (twice), armed robbery, planning of a robbery and serious traffic violations. Given the course of the events, it is likely that Begoña is held with less serious charges.
At this moment, an international investigation is going on against the international radical left movement, that is: Spanish, Belgian and German anarchists are under investigation and are considered as an “international network”. As far as we know, no investigation has been opened on the basis of article 129a/B of the German Criminal Code (terrorism).
There is also no extradition demand from Spain or Belgium, since the events took place in Germany. Whether more charges will follow, eventually by other EU countries, remains to be seen.
The fact that an international investigation of the international radical left movement is going on became very clear when on August 4, 2004, in Dresden, Germany, the police raided the house of two female comrades. Both are long time activists within the prisoners’ solidarity movement and the organisation Rote Hilfe (Red Help) in Germany. They were asked by the Anarchist Black Cross - Gent, Belgium, to provide lawyers for the detained, and since then they follow up the case together with the ABC-Gent. The two women are now suspected to have planned a robbery together with the four arrested!! According to the police, in the car of the arrested a city map of Dresden was found on which weapon shops and police stations are marked. Also an eventual escape route to the Czech Republic was on this map. This city map, together with the fact that both activists provided a lawyer for Bart and asked for a visit permit, seemed to have been sufficient reason for the police to raid the house of the two women. During the house search, by the Landeskriminalamt Sachsen and the Aachen police, mobiles, computers, writings, letters of prisoners, etc. were confiscated. The two women were not arrested. One of the women made a complaint about the house search, but it was refused as ungrounded by the regional court of Aachen. She appealed this decision.

In the media, the case was initially covered as a spectacular event, good to fill the front pages and to fulfill the need for sensation, and to spread a bit more the fear for all those “dangerous criminals”. When it became known that there is a political background, the first stories about possible connections with ETA, etc. showed up - as usual when it is about Spain/Spaniards. From journalists who don’t know more than what governments, police and justice tell them, you can’t expect more…

We though know that it’s our comrades that have been captured and that they wage a struggle, as we do, against repression and prison, against poverty and exploitation, against exclusion and alienation. We have no doubt that they will continue the struggle inside prison, and we will be on their side outside. We are all prisoners because we neither want nor accept nor are resigned to this miserable world full of injustices, lies and suffering.

We call for international solidarity with our comrades, captured because they struggle to break down all walls and frontiers and for freedom for all.

The latest news issue by the G8 Legal Support group is as follows:

Prisoners Latest
Tuesday, July 12th, 2005

The 5 men who have spent a week in prison in Edinburgh (Saughton prison) and were heard in court today, got released on bail. This means at the moment there is one man left in Edinburgh prison, arrested during G8 protests but now held for other unrelated matters.

There are two women in Stirling (Cornton Vale prison). One convicted for previous unpaid fines, probably out on friday, one on remand until court on friday.

There are two men in Glasgow (Barlinnie prison). One convicted for previous faslane stuff, one on remand.

This also from Indymedia:

ACAB released after 5 nights in solitary

Gary Lawson better known to some of us as ACAB was released today from Edinburgh sheriffs court after spending 8 days in saughton prison in relation to the carnival for full enjoyment in Edinburgh. ACAB and others (including a 16 year old boy) were held on remand since last monday and their cases were heard in a closed court with no members of the public or journalists allowed in. ACAB was placed in solitary confinement after alledgedly calling one of the prison guards a "Haggis Shagger". Almost all of those remanded after the carnival have now been released apart from those with outstanding fines or warrants.

Most of the large number of people arrested in relation to the G8 have now been released on bail, though often with conditions which effectively forced them o leave Scotland. Seven men remain in custody, and are all being held at Saughton prison in Edinburgh:

John Mackie 18769
Gary Lawson 91952
Colin Johnstone 91943
Andras Ozvath 91944
David Watson 91963
Stejn De Meerskman 91948
David Williams 91961

Please take the trouble to send them a letter or card. You can write to hm INDIVIDUALLY at HMP Saughton, Stenhouse Rd, Edinburgh, EH1 3LN. Stamps and Postal Orders (made payable to 'The Governor' ) are sure to be appreciated. When writing, please bear in mind that some of these prisoners may not necessarily be political activists, but could just be people who were in the area and unlucky enough to be arrested. As always, when writing to prisoners, bear in mind that all mail is lkely to be read by the authorities, so don't compromise your security or that of others, and don't vent your spleen on the guards - it's not you that's locked-up.

For more information on writing to prisoners see the Brighton ABC website at www.brightonabc.org.uk

For information on the G8 and what is happening with the prisoners see UK Indymedia.

A prisoner support group is currently being set up for those facing trial or prosecution as a result of arrest over the G8 summit protests. To receive info email: july2005solidarity@yahoo.co.uk

UK G8 LEGAL SUPPORT WEBSITE RE-LAUNCHED!

The G8 Legal Support Group (a working group which
emerged from the Dissent network) has re-launched and
updated its website www.g8legalsupport.info

The website will be updated throughout the course of
the summit protests with breaking news, information on
arrests, prisoner support and solidarity events.

The site features a number of resources for activists.
Most importantly, the Legal Group recommend that
anyone travelling to Scotland download and read the
"Activists Guide to Scottish Law and Police Powers"
available in English and other languages.

Other resources include:
.An online "Witness Statement" to complete if you have
seen an arrest and can help to give evidence to help
the defendant

.Information on the l aw related to Squatting in
Scotland

.Updates on any Emergency Legislation or police powers
that are rushed through by the Government in response
to summit protests

.Information or advice that the Legal Group can
provide based on monitoring the tactics of the police
during the course of the protests

We recommend that activists regularly return to the
website for any updates or changes in law, in the run
up to the summit as well as during the week of the
protests themselves

If you have any questions for the Legal Support Group,
you can contact us by email: g8legalsupport@riseup.net

G8 LEGAL SUPPORT GROUP

www.ldmg.org.uk
Postal address: LDMG, C/o BM Haven, London WC1N 3XX

UK - G8 Remands so far

List of people remanded on Wednesday for actions on Tuesday.

David WILLIAMS - 25 - Cheshire - arrested under Police Scotland Act 1967
John MACKIE - 33 - Dalkieth, Scotland - Breach of the Peace
Gary LAWSON - 33- ? - No Plea or Declaration
Colin JOHNSTONE - 32 - ? - NPOD
Andras OZVATH - 24 - ? - NPOD - charges of 'throwing missiles'
David WATSON - 16 - NPOD - (need to find where he is as he is Y.O.) Stejn
DE MEERSMAN - 21 - ? - NPOD

The following appeared in private(on petition) in relation to charges of
'forming a mob and committing a breach of the peace'.
Samuel BENSON - 19 - Eashom, Scotland
Laurits Bo LILLELUND - 19 - Copenhagen
Julie CHANSEL - 33 - Paris
Stefanie FOCK - 23 - Germany
Henrietta FRANKE - 18 - Germany
Ido KHENAN - 18 - Stirling, Scotland
Robin STOCK - 23 - Berlin
Robert KRUGE - 25 - Berlin
Guiseppena PALADINO - 20 - Italy
Lasse VOSS - 27 - Berlin
Gavin SIMPSON - 33 - Edinburgh
Gilles VACHET - 23 - Paris
Annima MULLIS - 19 - Stirling, Scotland
Mia SAMSING - 21 - Stirling, Scotland
Marie BEAUFRANC - 23 - No Fixed Abode

UK - STATEMENT BY G8 2005 PRISONER SUPPORT GROUP

This is a brief statement, agreed at a meeting in Edinburgh on the 7th
July. It is addressed to the general public, to campaign groups, and to
the mainstream media, and is intended to make clear our views on the
recent wave of arrests and detentions.

During the recent protests across Scotland the police have arrested and
imprisoned around 354 people. We support all the arrestees, almost two
hundred of who are still waiting to be processed through the courts of
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Stirling and Falkirk.

We would like to draw attention to specific abuses of police and judicial
power:

· The use of powers under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice & Public
Order Act 1994. Originally intended to be used to search for weapons, it
has been used as a blanket authority to stop and search, including
searching wallets and taking names and addresses.
· Almost two dozen people have been remanded in custody, including one
aged 16 and one with a child.
· Bail conditions been used as a deliberate tool of repression - enforcing
an effective deportation from Scotland for many, and making life difficult
for many others.
· Blocking the public from attending the sheriff's court. Apparently the
Principal Sheriff has the power to deny access to court proceedings if
there is a 'fear of serious disorder.' It is chilling how this has easily
allowed the creation of secret political trials.

We hope to support all July 2005 arrestees over the next few months.
Please get in touch if you wish to offer support. Writing a letter or a
card to those detained makes a big difference. Any donations are also
welcome, as money for prisoners is very tight.

CONTACTS
July 2005 Prisoner Support Group, c/o 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh,
EH7 5HA

Email: july2005solidarity@yahoo.co.uk

Temporary telephone number: 0131 208 0767

NOTES

We support all those arrested during the anti-G8 protests in July 2005,
whatever the reason the police have given for their arrest.

So far we have 354 confirmed arrests: over 130 arrested during the
Carnival for Full Enjoyment on the 4th of July and 225 during the 6th of
July.

Twenty two people have been refused bail and remanded in police custody.

As of the afternoon of the 7th, 198 people have yet to be processed
through the courts.
July 2005
e-mail: july2005solidarity@yahoo.co.uk

Support Thomas Meyer-Falk

Thomas is a German anarchist in prison that Class War has been in contact with for some time. He recently sent us the following article about his situation:

Eight Years Isolation – an Interim Evaluation
In October 1996 following a bank robbery I was provisionally arrested by the police and placed in isolation in Stuttgart-Stammheim prison. On the basis of several judgements I should complete nearly 17 years of custodial sentences in 2013, and not be let out at all, but taken into protective custody. That means I can be incarcerated indefinitely according to the will of the Justice Department.
I am a so-called Redskin (RASH = Red and Anarchist Skinhead) and a person of plain words regarding the above mentioned further convictions. So, to a court, the description of a judge as a “picturebook example of a fascistic judge” was worth seven years imprisonment. Even asking about their physical health was punished, as a murder threat supposedly lay hidden in it.

Neither in court nor in prison have I recognised it as necessary to pretend false regrets, I represent my personal and political views unchanged and consistently. This also includes under no circumstances ‘co-operating’ with the Justice Department. A few years ago I was informed by the prison that a substantial relaxation of solitary confinement conditions would only come into question should I enter a trust establishing dialogue with the prison and “forswear violence” – in particular promise to neither incite fellow inmates nor to plan a rebellion or breakout.
In the meantime I have sat in jail under conditions of solitary confinement for almost eight years (my only respite was in 1998, when I was briefly deported to Bavaria, where conditions were briefly relaxed) That means 24 hours a day alone, with the exception that I see prison officers when meals or mail are brought. In recent years the daily hour in the jail yard has been relaxed in that another inmate in solitary can come into the yard. Behind this however is not humanity – they are too many prisoners in isolation and were they all to get their yard-hour alone they jail would have to lay on individual yards to allow them exercise.

How is it for me, after almost eight years? I am most bothered by the inability to act, which is dictated by circumstances. Instead of being able to join the struggle out there, in these times of upheaval and increasing repression I sit behind bars. However, what I gather from outside from letters, radio and newspapers strengthens me in not giving up confronting the ruling system.

In that surely also lies a potential danger of eventual embitterment, or of losing touch with reality, the more thankful I am if I am brought back by criticism to the basis of facts. In the solidarity of friends and sympathisers , practices through letters I experience daily that I am not alone, not forgotten. As I am in correspondence with a few prisoners I can say that they see it also – these letters from outside are so important!

I attentively follow political developments at national and international level and it is continually frustrating not to be able to get involved, for example not to be able to go on a demonstration or to become engaged to some extent. Much of my everyday experience in prison (spying, searches, permanent observation) is being progressively introduced outside as well, and I ask myself whether when I return to freedom (when that will be is an open question) I won’t have exchanged one prison for a much greater one. It seems to me all the more important to offer resistance, to defend autonomy, to uncover repressive structures in politics, the justice system and business, to call them by their names – and to set our resistance against them, by fighting for a free and just world!

I am an early riser, mostly I am already awake at 4AM and pace in the half-dark of the cell, it is never quite dark due to the searchlights that illuminate the prison grounds, thus I wonder up and down in the twilight. Through the bars of the window I see here and there the moon or the twinkling venus, smell through the open window the cool of the night.
Freedom consists not only of the possibility of being able, at more or less any time, to freely and unhindered be somewhere else, but also in not allowing one’s intellect and imagination to be locked away. This inner freedom not even the justice system can take from you!

Thomas meter-Falk, c/o JVA Z. 3117, Schonbornstrasse 32, 76646 Bruschal, Germany.

You can find out more about Thomas by visiting www.freedom-for-thomas.de

This article originally appeared in issue 88 of Class War, in spring 2005.

From Anarchist Black Cross Bialystok and ANTIFA Bialystok

Poland-Anarchist in trouble

Patryk Cichon, anti-fascist from Stalowa Wola and animator of RASH
(Red&Anarchist Skinheads) had been sentenced to 3 years of jail for
alleged assault and robbery.

It is clear for us that all case had been based on his political beliefs from
the very beginning. Patryk is well know anti-fascist and anarchist, notorious among nazi-bonehead scum in his city for his uncompromising and militant stand against them in the past. Boneheads managed to convince few of their friends to testify against Patryk and his friend in alleged case of assault and robbery. As it appeared later, his friend had very good alibi and was aquitted, so Patryk ended up as superman sentenced for beating 4 people on his own so badly, that he was even able to take their wallets afterwards!

Patryk appealed this decision and another trial will take place on the beginning of 2005. Adding to that he has 300 euro fine to pay for assault on police officer (average 2 monthly wages in Poland). We can't really do
much to help him with his trial but we can support him financially in this
hard moment. It is necessary to show our solidarity to people who dared to stand against nazi menace and show them that they are not alone!

If you want to help Patryk you can send some money to his bank account-
every little bit counts!

22 1020 4939 0000 0402 0008 9284 Patryk Cichon´ PKO BP SA ODDZIAL 1 WSTALOWEJ WOLI

You can also order benefit CD with anti-fascist oi bands writing to:
sw.rash@wp.pl
CD includes bands:
Los Fastidios, Non Servium, Chaos Urbano, Brigada Flores Magon, Guardia
Negra, Stage Bottles, Les Partisans, Klasse Kriminale, Indaptats,
Pilseners, Reazione, Erode, F.F.D., Curasabun Oi!.

22 February 2005

Request For Anarchist Publications From Bart De Geeter

With the Aachen 4 trial swiftly approaching, Bart De Geeter, our comrade from ABC Gent, arrested with Gabriel Pombo da Silva, Jose Fernandez Delgado, and Begona Pombo da Silva, after a shoot-out with German cops last year, remains strong and focussed.
He is experiencing some delays with his mail, and is not getting too much of it, but is now being allowed some supervised time out of his cell to attend the gym, etc. Bart's address is as follows: Bart De Geeter, JVA Düsseldorf, Ulmenstasse 95, 40476 Düsseldorf, Germany.