Support Imprisoned Comrades: The Toronto G20 “Main Conspiracy Six”

On November 22, 2011, six of our friends pled guilty to counselling charges for organising to disrupt the Toronto G20 summit in June, 2010. On November 28, 2011, Erik Lankin, Adam Lewis and Peter Hopperton were each sentenced to 3-5.5 months in jail. Leah Henderson expects to be sentenced to 10 months on December 20, 2011. Mandy Hiscocks expects to be sentenced to 16 months on January 13. Alex Hundert expects to be sentenced to 13.5 months, date to begin TBA.

Click here to follow the link to a support flyer for the “Main Conspiracy Six” facing imprisonment.

Click here to read the collective statement of the G20 Main Conspiracy Group, individual statements of co-defendants, and statements read to the courts.

Guelph Anarchist Black Cross is providing some of the support for these comrades. We are fundraising money to facilitate meeting the everyday and immediate needs of comrades facing jail and of their support networks. Specifically, we will be putting money towards: sending letters and reading materials to those incarcerated; transportation costs for family, friends and supporters visiting them; collect phone call bills; canteen; rent money when they get out; and storage for their belongings. We need help providing funds for this material support.

Here’s how to donate to the Guelph ABC G20 Support Fund:

1. Paypal: guelphabc@riseup.net or click the button on http://guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com

2. Deposit cash to the following TD bank account: Transit # 00182, Institution # 004, Account # 00185228263.

3. Write a cheque or money order to Guelph ABC with G20 in the memo line.

Mail to the PO box below.

Letters to comrades in jail is encouraged, to help them stay connected to struggles and communities, and to break the isolation inherent in prisons. It is possible that folks will be moved between jails during their incarceration. We will try to keep their addresses updated on our website. You can also send letters to the address below and we will forward them. When writing letters, remember that they will be read by prison guards.

Guelph ABC, PO Box 183, Guelph, ON, N1H 6J6, Canada.

Check out http://guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com for regular updates and more information. Your support and solidarity is deeply appreciated. Most importantly, keep up the struggle. In solidarity with anarchist prisoners worldwide, and all prisoners fighting for freedom.

Prisoner support film and letter-writing night

FILM & LETTER WRITING NIGHT

Wednesday 13 July, 7 to 9pm
The Factory social space, Cave St/Portland Sq, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8RU
All welcome, free entry, donations welcome. Cake & drinks available.

FILMS
Ashanti Alston
The former political prisoner & anarchist black panther spoke at Monkeywrench books in Feb 2010 (Texas, USA). He talks about his politicisation, the black panther movement, black liberation army, solidarity & anarchism (50mins)

Submedia punk shit up!
Submedia bring us their classic brand of humorous political updates from around the world. In this episode they talk about the Vancouver ice hockey riots, Chilean urban ecodefense & updates on those facing charges following the G20. (15mins)

Whilst we were away Bristol rebelled

The Bristol ABC blog has been quiet the last 8 weeks, whilst Bristol has been very rebellious and making national headlines. We’ve not exactly been away, but lack of people to do the work has meant the blog hasn’t been maintained as we’d like it to be. In fact those of us who have been around and about and healthy have been very busy locally, including helping out with legal and prisoner support. We’ll be trying to keep the blog upto date from now on, and we have a pile of info and news to pass your way.

Stokes Croft
Whilst Stokes Croft is actually just a fairly short street to the north of the city centre, it has become known as an ‘area’ that extends north, west and east into surrounding streets and neighbourhoods. On April 21/22 and 28/29 it was the scene of some fairly serious resistance to a police invasion and attempts at repression, events that have been heavily reported on Bristol Indymedia, and the local corporate press, and nationally. Whilst some saw it as just opposition to Tescos locally, in fact it was much more than that. Such high profile resistance does come inevitably with a state and media crackdown afterwards, with at least 50 arrests so far, and the need for some serious defendant solidarity.

Legal support and defence fundraiser

Benefit for Canadian G20 legal defence and Bristol bust fund

Kebele Sound Collective and friends brings you a punk and ska fundraiser supporting direct action defendants, with:
Cartouche – melodic punk from the barricades of Paris
No Choice – legendary anarcho punk from South Wales
Na No and the Nachos – skanking new ska pink band from Bristol

Saturday April 9th from 8pm
The White Hart, Whitehall Road, Easton. BS5 9BJ.
£4/£3 conc

Here’s where the money goes:

Support for imprisoned student as Met cops pay out to G20 protesters

Support has been growing recently for young imprisoned student Edward Woollard, with both a Facebook campaign and a new support website.

cops defend their Millbank masters, and fail

Woollard was sentenced to 32 months in prison after dropping a fire extinguisher off the top of the Tories Millbank Towers back in November 2010, after it was stormed by students furious about education and EMA cuts. Villified by the media, its worth noting Woollard didn’t actually hurt/hit anyone, soon expressed his apologies, and had no previous convictions. His sentence was undoubtedly political – the politicians needed a ‘criminal’ to make an example of, and put other students off protesting. That hasn’t worked though has it.

Meeting in London for all arrested at London student protests

Were you arrested at any of the student demonstrations in London last November, December, or even last Saturday?

If you were, then this meeting in London on 6 February is for you. It has been organised by two London-based groups involved in providing unconditional legal support and info for our movements – the Legal Defence & Monitoring Group (LDMG) and the Green & Black Cross (GBC). Here is their callout:
New venue update: Malet Suite at University of London Union (ULU), 6 Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY from 12 to 3pm.

Interview with released Ottawa 3 defendant

The Ottawa 3 were charged with a firebombing in spring 2010, an action that was made in solidarity with the upcoming anti-G8/G20 protests in and around Toronto in late June. One of the 3 defendants, Joseph Roger Clement, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3.5 years. The other 2 have been released.

An interview with one of the 3, Matthew Morgan Brown, has been recorded and released on an excellent and entertaining Sub MediaTV broadcast reviewing 2010. Link to video and campaign support info.

Updates on Canadian G20 defendants and prisoners

News received from friends at Toronto ABC…

Toronto G20 Arrestees
June 2010 saw mass protests against the G8/20 meetings in Toronto. There were also mass arrests, with 1093 detained in brutal conditions. Of these over 250 were released facing pending charges, while a few outspoken community activists remain in jail or under house arrest, facing more serious charges.

The Canadian government is clearly hoping to utilize the “conspiracy” model pioneered in the SHAC 7 and RNC 8 cases to terrorize dissidents involved in laying the framework for protests. Your general messages of solidarity to the individuals under house arrest and in jail will mean a lot to them.
More info: g20.torontomobilize.org and Toronto.mediacoop.ca and torontoabc.wordpress.com

Trial starts at last for EDO Decommissioners but still no justice for the Tomlinson Family

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).

Writing in solidarity and for freedom

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.