UK prisoner updates

First up, some good news!
Frank Fernie, a 20 year old student from York, serving 12 months for violent disorder during the March 26 anti-cuts demo, has been released early on a 7pm to 7am home curfew.

Secondly, we have another prisoner to add to our list, that we have been in touch with for some time:
Michael Newton (A6611CE) – HMP Preston, Wing C4–17, 2 Ribbleton Lane, Preston, Lancs, PR1 5AB
Serving 12 months for a J30 action and multiple other minor charges. This anarchist from Cumbria is due out on early release on 30 December (we hope).
Shortly before being arrested, Michael had compiled a fundraising dvd for prisoner support groups. If you asked about a copy you’ll know now why you never heard back. Michael welcomes letters, posters and pictures.

We have updated our prisoner lists with this info.

Resistance Rhymes – A Fundraiser For Bristol Defendants

The always up for it Kebele Sound Collective, in association with various itinerants & dissidents, crank up the pressure this Friday with a night of truly international (and local) rabble rousing n ranting hip hop. Profits from the gig will go towards supporting defendants in Bristol facing charges from recent street-level acts of resistance.

Anti-repression round up

So two weeks after the wave of disturbances swept across England, and the state’s blinkered response is clear to one and all – revenge against all those that stepped outside the accepted norms of of our disfunctional society. Unless of course you are a politician, media tycoon, corporation, or cop, in which case the normal rules dont apply and you are free to get away with just about anything – like stealing £’s thousands and millions, and of course shooting people dead.

What we are seeing is naked class justice from the ruling class directed at the working class, as they break all the rules they expect us to abide by and make up new ones to suit themselves along the way. Or to look at it another way, on the 10th August they were scared, very scared, and they didn’t like it one bit. So thousands arrested, over 1600 so far railroaded through emergency courts, hundreds of images of people published by the media before any sort of trial, unusually long prison sentences and irregular bail conditions handed down, and so on. With the prisons & police cells full to bursting with both remanded and sentenced prisoners, it only needs one spark for the whole prison system to break down, whilst the conditions inside the prisons will cause many prisoners to break down. The suicide of a remand prisoner at Bristol prison last weekend will not be the last (remember that whatever charges the person may face, they aint even been to trial yet). Meanwhile back on the streets its business as usual for the ruling class with rising unemployment and inflation, more cuts to services, devalued wages and pensions and savings, and of course more bank bailouts from public money.

Bristol Defendant Solidarity

Bristol ABC has agreed to host a page for Bristol Defendant Solidarity. Here’s the intro to the page:

Bristol Defendant Solidarity
Bristol arrestee support first made an appearance in late 2010 providing support and advice by phone & email during/after the student protests. Now following the Stokes Croft resistance of April 2011 the Bristol Defendant Solidarity (BDS) has been formed, incorporating and building upon the work of arrestee support. BDS involves a number of activists with experience of arrests, police station and court processes, suing the cops, and legal, defendant & prisoner support.

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.

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.

Seasonal letter writing night for political prisoners

Bristol ABC’s monthly public letter-writing session sending seasonal solidarity greetings to prisoners around the world. For our last letter-writing bash of the year we will be in two places at the same time.

We’ll be at both venues from 7 to 9pm on Wednesday December 8. We should be on time, but if we aren’t it’ll be down to the latest students anti-fee rises and general anti-cuts protests that day. Hopefully we’ll see you at all events.

At least 10 arrested as thousands wrongfoot cops in Bristol

[Update 1/12 – MP’s to vote at Parliament on the fee increases & other relevant changes on Thursday 9 December. Mass protest London & locally 9 December. Day of action against fees and cuts on 8 December. Further Bristol protests 4 and 5 December.]

Several thousand students, schoolkids and supporters marched, ran and charged around Bristol for about 5 or 6 hours today in the latest protests against rises in university fees and cuts to benefits such as EMA.

Police lines and attempts to kettle protesters were breached multiple times as the up-for-it crowd led cops a merry dance around town. At one point in mid-afternoon as the crowd surged once more into Broadmead and Carboot Circus, it seemed as if the cops just gave up for a while. However the crowd was more exhuberant and joyous, than destructive, and did not attack these temples of consumerism. Later as the numbers dwindled up near Bristol Uni, the cops tried it on and made a number of arrests, resulting in a solidarity demo outside Trinity police station. Good reports on Bristol Indymedia, keep checking their newswire. The UWE occupation continues, Bristol UNI students have an AGM coming up, and LibDem MP and pledge-breaker Stephen Williams faces a protest on Friday.

Legal and practical advice for revolting students and supporters

Don’t forget those students and youth arrested so far!

Hot on the heels of the effective mass protests on 24 November across the UK, a further ‘national day of action’ against students fees increases & cuts across public services has been announced – Tuesday 30 November, meet 11am at College Green. Details here, here, and on Yuk-Facebook (for Bristol).

 

Revolting youth take central Bristol

Here is a fine report on the 24 November Bristol protest, and here a statement from the successful occupation of Bristol Uni student union. Meanwhile the occupation at UWE continues. Here is an interesting comment on the violence on demos debate. Here is a good article on the recent history of the policing of protests.