Posts Tagged ‘Glasgow’
Solidarity with John Bowden in court Friday 24th June – Call-out for Solidarity Demo/Banner drops (UK)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2016
Solidarity with John Bowden – Long time prison resister and anti-authoritarian.
Show your support for John Bowden, a vocal writer and critic of the system we all live under, who is in Greenock Sheriff Court in Scotland, on Friday 24th June, after being accused of assault on a prison guard.
Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, John Bowden was at the forefront of the British prison struggle, leading and being involved in serious acts of resistance against the prison system, and was deeply politicised by the experience. Viewed by most prison staff as a committed and dangerous “trouble-maker”, John was often brutally punished, suffering years of brutality and prolonged solitary confinement. He has been victimised, in one way or another, ever since.
In June of last year, after hearing the evidence of an independent psychologist, the Parole Board decided that after 30 years in prison, John Bowden represented no real risk or danger to the community, and like the two men originally imprisoned with him in 1982, who were released almost 20 years ago, he should now be returned to that community. (more…)
Tags: Demo, Glasgow, Governor Paul Cawkwell, HMP Whitemoor, John Bowden, Scotland, Solidarity Action, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
Glasgow: British-Pakistani man murdered by an Islamic-fascist (UK)
Tuesday, March 29th, 2016
“Unconditional real love for all mankind” Asad Shah
A “popular, well respected and much loved” Ahmadiyya Muslim man, Asad Shah, who ran a local shop in the Shawlands area of Glasgow was murdered 9pm, 24th March, hours after posting messages of peaceful tolerance online and giving out chocolate Easter eggs to his customers. Asad was brutally stabbed to death and had his head stamped on in front of his own brother outside his shop, by a 32 year old sectarian Islamist fanatic who had travelled 200 miles from Bradford to slay Asad. One man from the gym next to Asad’s shop, was also injured during the attack on Asad. Afterwards there was a big outpouring of grief and respect for Asad, with a gathering in the street, tribute of flowers laid and call for unity. More than £87,000 has been raised to support the family of Asad.
Asad belonged to the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith which faces sectarian bigotry from many reactionary and orthodox Muslims and has suffered violence at their hands in those countries. Asad was known to create his own Christmas cards each year for his friends and customers and was very beloved in the community.
“Asad was a humble, gentle man – he did not deserve this. He was also a very social man, always laughing. A real gentleman.” Sister of Asad Shah
Tags: Ahmadiyya Muslim faith, Asad Shah, Glasgow, Islamism, Scotland, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist
'Woolf Report: 25 Years On & Nothing Has Changed' – An article by John Bowden about the prison system's latest attempt to obstruct his move to an open prison (UK)
Friday, May 1st, 2015
In April this year, the 25th anniversary of the Strangeways prison uprising, Lord Justice Woolf, who led the inquiry into the uprising, claimed that conditions in most British jails were now even worse than they had been before Strangeways erupted in 1990.
The treatment of those prisoners confined to usually overcrowded local remand and post-sentence jails (of which Strangeways was and is one), where the great bulk of the prison population are held, has always been significantly worse than the treatment of prisoners in more long-term establishments where the potential for collective unrest has always been traditionally greater.
Prison staff employed in over crowded local jails argue that the transient and difficult to control and manage population of such institutions, coupled with severe cut-backs in staffing levels, make all but the most basic functions of control and containment extremely difficult if not impossible. The operational reality of such an argument finds expression in virtual lock-down regimes and a wholesale warehousing of prisoners, as well as an overtly repressive response to any perceived potential loss or compromise of total control, all ingredients of what caused the Strangeways prison uprising in 1990.
Greenock prison near Glasgow is an archetypal local jail; antiquated Victorian architecture and conditions, and an attitude and behaviour amongst some staff that is often openly contemptuous of prisoners, underpinned by a relationship of power that renders prisoners always vulnerable to abuse. (more…)
Tags: Glasgow, HMP Greenock, HMP Shotts, John Bowden, Letter, Lord Justice Woolf, Manchester, Scotland, Strangeways prison uprising, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle