Calls for solidarity and support with arrested students after London protest

(Urgent update 15/11/10: News coming in that the excellent FITWATCH website quoted below has been taken down by the police and suspended for 12 months, for allegedly ‘attempting to pervert the course of justice’! FITWATCH was set up to resist and monitor the behaviour of the police’s Forwards Intelligence Teams (as in FIT), who harass campaigners and stick their cameras in people’s faces in a threatening way. This means you cannot access FITWATCH’S excellent advice on the link below, but you can now read it here, here and here. Solidarity with FITWATCH, they do great work.)
Update 17/11/10 – FITWATCH website back up!

At least 57 students have now been arrested since the national student demo and storming of the Tory party HQ at Millbank near Westminster last Wednesday 10 November.

So far the media have been disappointed to find all those nicked are bona-fide students, and not clandestine anarchist rioters. At least 10 arrested are under 18 years old, and probably from FE colleges. There is no doubt the numbers arrested will escalate as the cops trawl the vast amount of media and cctv footage, along with the photos people have put up foolishly on social network pages & websites.

Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 moves prison after 40 years

Yes that’s right, according to a mailout by the Angola 3 campaign, Albert has been moved to another prison after more than 40 years, and for nearly the last 38 years he’s been in solitary confinement.

Just think about the complete inhumanity of that for a moment…nearly 38 years in isolation, over 40 years in one prison, and most of that time for a murder he didn’t even commit. The American dream? Land of the free? What a sick joke. Its time to set them all free.

Albert Woodfox’s new address since the start of November is reported to be:
Albert Woodfox
NIA #3-CCR
David Wade Correctional Center
670 Bell Hill Rd.
Homer, LA  71040, USA

No justice for Oscar Grant as hundreds arrested

Oakland (USA) killer cop gets just 2 years

Whilst in the UK it seems cops never get done for killing members of the public like Ian Tomlinson (UK G20 protests), in the USA they kill so many that occassionally one goes to trial. But that doesn’t mean justice is done. Obama’s election has just meant business as usual! News just in from OccupyCalifornia via Denver ABC (links include video footage):

Why prisoner support is important

We have produced a simple new flyer entitled ‘Why Prisoner Support?’ that we’ll be distributing at upcoming events in Bristol. You can download the flyer as a pdf here why prisoner support and it would help if you can make copies and distro it in your local area.

The flyer is an edited version of a longer article written last year, that sets out clearly why anarchists should involve themselves in prisoner support – the longer article is below.

Video on Gaza demo in London

Received by email: Thought you might be interested in this video about police repression during and after the gaza protests in London. As am sure you know, many people were repeatedly brutally attacked by the police in their own homes. Its only five minutes, so doesn’t go into much detail, but it is punchy and should help to make people more aware of what happened in the past year… Would be good if you could publicise it too, as original attempts at publicising it went flat when the youtube link was stopped..:

For the video click here.

More info on NoMoreIsolation blog.

Free Renata Zelazna Letter Appeal

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!

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.

Judiciary backs the State and finds Smellie not guilty

The judge gave her verdict on Wednesday at Westminster magistrates court, in the non-jury trial of Sgt Smellie, the Met police TSG riot cop accused of assaulting a woman at last years G20 protests. Smellie had backhanded, and then hit twice on the leg with his metal baton, Nicola Fisher, the woman concerned. The question revolved around whether or not his baton strikes were excessive, as his backhander was deemed appropriate even by the prosecutor.

District Judge Daphne Wickham found no evidence had been provided to show use of the baton was not measured or correct. She said: “It was for the prosecution to prove this defendant was not acting in lawful self-defence. The prosecution has failed in this respect and the defendant has raised the issue of lawful self-defence and as such is entitled to be acquitted.” The judge said Sgt Smellie had a “mere seven seconds” to act when Ms Fisher ran in front of him hurling abuse at a vigil held on 2 April to mark the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at a previous demonstration. (from BBC report).

Smellie in court, but G20 Bristolian found not guilty

Sgt Smellie, a riot cop in the Met’s Territorial Support Group (TSG – fully trained riot thugs), has been up in Westminster Magistrates Court all week so far on a charge relating to the anti-G20/police brutality protests on 1 and 2 April last year in central London around the financial district. Smellie is charged with ‘common assault by beating’, which relates to his violent assault on a woman on 2 April when protesters gathered in response to the death of Ian Tomlinson the day before.