Memories.

 

          Away back in 1986 I was part of the small  Amnesty International group that planted a wee tree in the grounds of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to mark 25 years of Amnesty's work.. Forgot all about but recently thought I would try to re-visit it, but wasn't sure exactly where it was planted. So today with my partner we sought out the tree and it was, no longer a slim sprig of a tree but a beautiful powerful knuckled tree with its magnificent roots plunging into the earth. Of course when we planted it, I didn't need the extended aluminum arm, it seems age has acted on both of us, but the tree seems to be going from strength to strength. I only hope the fight for freedom and justice grows stronger like our wee tree.

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Those Sub-Human Beings, Migrants!!

         Most countries propaganda wing paint their particular plot on the planet as a wonderful place to live. However their state mentality of borders, those imaginary lines drawn on the planet's surface by power-mongers, means that they create a new class of beings. They are called migrants, and somehow this group are deemed to have no human rights, to be suspect of all manner of crimes, to be undesirables and therefore can be herded like cattle and enclosed in over crowded concentration camps, in appalling conditions, men, women, children, aged and infirm, it matters not, they are migrants and the state so deems them to be "different".
        Ask people what Australia is like, and in most cases you will get a glowing report of a vast land with lots of undeveloped areas, and a great place to live. Beaches, cities and of course the outback. Few will mention concentration camps, but like all other states, concentration camps are part and parcel of the Australian state's make up.

        From Amnesty International:

        From the the BBC: 

       From The Post Magazine:

        
          The following is a book review from Revolutionary Feminism In Action, The Freedom Socialist Party:

      A hush falls over the thousands-strong crowd at 2019 Melbourne’s Walk for Justice for Refugees. Behrouz Boochani is giving the keynote speech by phone link from Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, where he’s been illegally imprisoned for six years. An award-winning Kurdish journalist who refuses to be muzzled, Boochani is now a household name in Australia. He draws large audiences wherever he speaks and his writing is widely published.
        Faced with imprisonment in Iran for his journalism and advocacy of Kurdish rights, he fled for his life in 2012. Having made it to Indonesia, he boarded a boat to Australia where he hoped to start a new life. Although Boochani meets all the criteria for refugee status, according to the UN Convention on Refugees, Australia has locked him up indefinitely, with more than a thousand others, on Pacific island hell-holes.
        No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison is Boochani’s first book. He wrote it in defiance of the Australian government, which goes to great lengths to silence refugee voices — and fails. The impact of this powerful exposé is unstoppable. Boochani was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. His book is now a best seller in Australia and gaining international attention.
        How this work was written is extraordinary — it was crafted as thousands of individual text messages! Boochani did not dare commit his ideas to paper lest they be seized in one of the regular prison searches. No Friend is an intense collaboration between the author and his translator, Omid Tofighian. The depth of their partnership is revealed in the translator’s introduction and afterword. Boochani wrote in Farsi, the language of his oppressors. Tofighian then translated the Farsi into English, the language of Boochani’s jailers and torturers.
       Refugee reality. In the opening four chapters, Boochani narrates every detail of the dangerous journey from Indonesia. Each passenger, desperate for a new life, is acutely aware of boats that have sunk and he captures the fear on their faces. The journey is a mixture of anxiety, sheer terror, discomfort, hunger and exposure to the elements and rough seas.
        After a brief detention on Christmas Island, Boochani and hundreds of others are exiled to Manus. And then begin the days, weeks, months and years waiting without news regarding their status which fuels periodic rumors throughout the prison. The despair, boredom, humiliation, hunger, thirst, pain, toothache, heat, humidity, filthy conditions, insomnia, and psychological pressure — all combine as tools of torture. But there’s also the larger-than-life personalities, the hope, resilience, the sharing of cultures, friendships and solidarity.
        Boochani describes the jail’s pecking order. At the bottom are the incarcerated refugees; the Papuans who work in the center are only slightly higher than the prisoners. He calls them Papus. They wear different colored uniforms and must follow orders from Australian officials without question. The Papus are paid a mere fraction of what the Australians get. At any opportunity, says Boochani, they will display some kindness and empathy. He explains, “The reason I don’t really see the Papu as a real officer and consider him as just a kind of extra person is because Papus are basically stripped of any kind of autonomy of power in the prison. They are only there because the system is obliged to accept them as part of its agreement.”
       The book’s characters are composites of Boochani’s fellow prisoners: Mani with the bowed leg, the irascible Iranian, the father of the months-old child, the young Rohingya boy, the comedian, the insomniac, the hero, the man with the thick moustache, and many others. Just a handful of refugees are named — those who have tragically died in custody. Their stories are woven throughout the text. Twelve have died, seven of them in Manus prison.
       Reinforcing resistance. This unique book is a beautiful work of art combining narrative and poetry. Woven throughout the lyrical text is Boochani’s sharp political analysis. He characterizes Manus as a “kyriarchal system,” that is, one built on multiple types of discrimination (e.g. sexism, racism, ethno and caste superiority, colonialism etc.) based on domination, submission and oppression. He calls it Australia’s border industrial complex. The government pays corporate profiteers millions to run its offshore prisons.In essence, Boochani spotlights Australia’s punishing imperialist role in the Pacific.
        The book reaches its climax during the two nights of prison riots in February 2014:
       Violence expressed through the chanting of pithy slogans/ Violence, rechannelled in questions by prisoners gnashing their teeth in rage and indignation/

What is my crime?/
Why must I be in prison?/
And other questions more like demands/

         The power was cut, the prison stormed, hundreds beaten, and Boochani’s best friend, Reza Berati, was murdered. No prison authorities involved have been called to account.
       The voice of global refugees. Those marooned indefinitely in Manus are refugees escaping homeland persecution, resistance fighters through sheer survival. They are Rhohingya fleeing Myanmar government atrocities, Tamils persecuted in Sri Lanka, and peoples from all parts of the ravaged Middle East, many of them Kurds. Boochani reflects on the home he fled: “These were the days when war was part of our everyday lives and ran like blood through our identity … A war that devastated our families and sizzled and incinerated all of our vivid, green and bounteous homeland.”
        His magnificent book symbolizes the broader Kurdish struggle and makes a stand for refugees in every hemisphere, up against the cruelties of collapsing capitalism.

Send feedback to FSnews@mindspring.com.

 TO LISTEN TO THIS AND OTHER ARTICLES FROM THIS ISSUE, CLICK HERE.

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Rubble And Death Are The Hallmarks Of Western Victories.

         Once again the the Western imperialists, claiming the high moral ground have been exposed, as the brutal, savage, warmongering power seekers, that we all know them to be. The latest report from Amnesty International on visiting Raqqa, states that the Western allies attack on the city of Raqqa saw the worst artillery and air-strike bombardment of any city since Vietnam. Their evidence is of total destruction of an entire city with the indiscriminate killing of civilians. Of course the picture the Western imperialists pedal to the world is precision targeting with smart bombs and artillery, taking care never to kill civilians. When you pulverise an entire city with modern fire-power and say that no civilians were killed, you are a lying hypocrite. 

Photos from The Independent:

     This is what a glorious Western victory looks like to an Arab.

From The Independent:

        US, Britain and France inflicted worst destruction 'in decades' killing civilians in Isis-held city of Raqqa, report says, 'More artillery shells were launched into Raqqa than anywhere since the end of the Vietnam war' says Amnesty International

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How Dare They Nationalise Their Oil!!

       According to Western propaganda spewing from the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, Iran has been, and still is, the king of the world's evil empire. According to that organ of the state and the corporate juggernaut, the babbling brook of bullshit, all things nasty, all terrorism, all human rights failures, stem from that country. The West's vision of Iran is shaped by nothing more than power and wealth for that elite bunch of parasites, oil is the driving force of that hatred. Some years ago, the people of Iran had the audacity to nationalise their countries oil, and to the West, that is an unforgivable crime. All the wars of the West are for the same reason, wealth and power to that small cabal of obscenely rich moguls who control the world in which we live.

This from The Canary: 

        The US just fired at Iran. But there’s something vital that the media won’t be telling you about ongoing tensions.
On 25 July, the US Navy fired ‘warning shots’ at an Iranian patrol boat in the Persian Gulf. This isn’t the start of World War Three as some media outlets may suggest; but it is a sign of continuing US-Iranian tensions. And it comes just weeks after the release of declassified documents which highlight the issues at the very heart of these tensions. We probably won’t be hearing such historical context in the mainstream media any time soon, though.

Newly released documents show tensions exist for a reason

As Noam Chomsky pointed out in 2013:

-----for the past 60 years, not a day has passed in which the U.S. has not been torturing Iranians… [It] began with a military coup, which overthrew the parliamentary regime in 1953, installed the Shah, a brutal dictator… When he was overthrown in 1979, the U.S. almost immediately turned to supporting Saddam Hussein in an assault against Iran, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians, used extensive use of chemical weapons… Right after that, Iran was subjected to harsh sanctions. And it continues right until the moment.

      And in June 2017, newly released documents showed exactly what was at the heart of CIA involvement in the 1953 coup. As Foreign Policy reported:

------the CIA plot was ultimately about oil. Western firms had for decades controlled the region’s oil wealth… [Then, Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad] Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry. A fuming United Kingdom began conspiring with U.S. intelligence services to overthrow Mossadegh and restore the monarchy under the shah… [Eventually,] Iran’s nationalist hero was jailed, [and] the monarchy [was] restored under the Western-friendly shah…

        The US long denied its involvement in the coup. And Washington only drip-fed documents to the public over the years. But even the 2017 release was incomplete; with a number of original CIA telegrams having either ‘disappeared’ or been destroyed long before. And retired history professor Ervand Abrahamian believes the US was so reluctant to publish this information partly because it “shows how involved the U.S. Embassy was… in internal Iranian affairs”.
As Noam Chomsky highlights, Amnesty International regularly described the shah as “one of the worst, most extreme torturers in the world”. And Foreign Policy stresses that the 1953 coup fueled “a surge of nationalism which culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and [poisoned] U.S.-Iran relations into the 21st century”. In 1979, Chomsky says, Iranians “overthrew a tyrant that the United States had imposed and supported, and moved on an independent path”; and as a result, the US has punished them ever since.

      US hypocrisy and self-interest still at play in Iran

      In 2017, current US President Donald Trump is ramping up tensions with Iran. But not because of democracy or human rights. Instead, his hostility is largely because Iran’s regional enemies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, are US allies; because there’s a barely reported conflict occurring over oil pipelines in the Middle East; and because Iran does not bend easily to America’s will.
Indeed, Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia back in May contained no talk of freedom, democracy, or human rights. But it was full of talk about terrorism; full of talk about deals with America’s “magnificent” Saudi “friends”; and full of verbal attacks on Iran. Trump said:

Continue Reading: 

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The Crime That Was Iraq, Blew The Region Apart.

        Anybody with a grain of sincerity accepts that the invasion of Iraq was raw Western imperialism in all its savagery, it was nothing more than a brutal grab for resources, spearheaded by today's leading imperialist power, America. Of course the UK and other minions of the American empire wanted a slice of the plunder, so the played their part. The architects of that vicious onslaught on the people of Iraq have now slipped into wealthy sidelines of the empire, to live out their lives in opulence, but the people of that region are still in the turmoil of war and slaughter. All this will always be dressed up as bring down a dreadful dictator and bring democracy to the people of Iraq. In that region soaked in blood, the flower of democracy has still not seen the light of day. The savagery and the viciousness unleashed by the Western imperialists has spread across the whole region. Millions live in constant terror, trauma, poverty, death and destruction, so that the West can control the resources of that region. 

      The Chilcot inquiry is meant to throw some light on the reasoning behind the whole Iraq disaster, but what will be revealed, and what will be concealed, for so called "security reasons". The establishment will do its utmost to make sure that the truth of this human disaster will never be revealed to the public.

This from Stop The War:

The People's Chilcot Tribunal
8th June, 3-8pm
Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre Auditorium
17-25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA
London

          The date of the publication of the Chilcot report is fast approaching. It is clear that the establishment will try to deflect attention away from the examination of the lies and the crimes which the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq entailed.
          They will also try to hide the real economic and geopolitical motives behind the invasion. Under Western occupation, Iraq was treated as a "blank slate". Paul Bremer, the US-imposed governor of occupied Iraq, quickly imposed a neo-colonial constitution which forced open Iraq's markets to Western corporations and enabled them to privatise/plunder the major Iraqi companies and natural resources, including oil of course.
         Stop the War Coalition is hosting a People's Chilcot Tribunal to establish who was to blame for Iraq's ongoing tragedy, including over a million deaths, the spread of fundamentalism and conflict across the region, including millions of desperate refugees who are still fleeing for their lives from a region ravaged by war. There will be testimony from a wide range of people including former UN envoy to Iraq Hans von Sponeck, ex-soldiers Ben Griffin and Geoff Martin, writer Tariq Ali, Iraqi dissident and lecturer Sami Ramadani, journalist and playwright Richard Norton-Taylor, political commentator Peter Oborne, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, CND general secretary Kate Hudson and Peter Brierley from Military Families Against the War.
         Tickets are selling fast so make sure you book your place now. Please invite your friends as well. We will also hold a public meeting the day after the report is released.

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Death From A Loving Religion.

         For centuries religions have persecuted those who would dare to disagree with their mythological fantasies. They have handed out horrific and barbaric punishments, from burning at the stake, to beheading, the cutting off of hands or feet, to other unbelievable tortures. We like to think that we live in an enlightened age, where we have tamed the beast of religious fundamentalism, but sadly the monster still stalks the earth. There are lands where the only law is the barbaric law of a so called loving good. In Saudi Arabia during 2015 there were at least 151 executions, the highest number since 1995, when there were 192. These executions can be for crimes as petty as drug use, in the case below, where a young man is facing the death penalty, it is for writing poetry. No matter what the poetry contains, what humane, sane individual, can say, hand on heart, the poet deserves to be executed? 

Free Ashraf, poet facing execution in Saudi Arabia

Help us reach 50,000

       Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian poet and artist who lives in Saudi Arabia, has been sentenced to death for ‘apostasy’. The Saudi Arabian authorities claim that his poetry has questioned religion and spread atheism.
      Ashraf has committed no crime. He is a prisoner of conscience. Ask the Saudi Arabian authorities to free him now.

      Ashraf, a 35-year-old poet and artist, is sentenced to be executed by Saudi Arabian authorities for his art. On 17 November, the General Court in Abha, south-west Saudi Arabia, found Ashraf guilty of ‘apostasy’ – renouncing Islam – for his poetry and sentenced him to death.

Arrested for poetry and pictures on his phone

      Ashraf was initially arrested on 6 August 2013 following a complaint registered against him by another Saudi citizen, who said that the poet was promoting atheism and spreading blasphemous ideas among young people. Ashraf was released the following day, but then rearrested on 1 January 2014, when he was charged with apostasy – he had supposedly questioned religion and spread atheist thought with his poetry. He was at the same time charged with violating the country’s Anti-Cyber Crime Law for allegedly taking and storing photos of women on his phone.
      On 30 April 2014, Ashraf was sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes for the charges relating to images of women on his phone. The General Court accepted Ashraf’s apology for the charges of apostasy and found the punishment to be satisfactory.
     However, the court of appeal recommended that Ashraf should still be sentenced for apostasy, and his case was sent back to the General Court, which in turn sentenced him to death for apostasy.
     Throughout this whole process, Ashraf was denied access to a lawyer – a clear violation of international human rights law, as well as Saudi Arabia’s national laws.

A death sentence for ‘apostasy’

Apostasy (Riddah, in Arabic) is the renouncing of Islam. Saudi Arabia follows Sharia (Islamic) law, and ‘apostasy’ can be punishable by death. Yet ‘apostasy’ is not a crime – it is a violation of someone’s right to belief or choose our own religion. It should never incur punishment.
       In addition to that, the death penalty, according to international law, may only be used for the ‘most serious crimes’ (recently interpreted by UN experts to refer to ‘intentional killing’). Apostasy is not a crime at all, let alone a serious one.
       The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment – it violates our right to life and our right to be free from torture. At Amnesty, we believe the death penalty should never be used.

What we’re calling for

       Quite simply, we’re calling for Ashraf to be freed. He has committed no crime, and as such should not be imprisoned, let alone face execution. We’re asking the Saudi Arabian authorities to drop Ashraf’s conviction and all charges against him. We’re also asking for them to stop executing anyone for ‘apostasy’.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

More On American Authoritarian "Democracy".

       You get charged, you go to trial, you are found guilty, you are sent to prison. You spend years in prison and then you are filled with jubilation, your conviction is overturned. You imagine your life after your release, but somehow it doesn't happen, you are kept in prison. The situation is repeated, your conviction is overturned for a second time, but still no release, 43 years in solitary confinement, your conviction overturned twice, and still no parole, they still want you locked up, WHY? American justice at work.

This from Amnesty International: 

Albert Woodfox, 43 years in solitary confinement.

     Albert Woodfox has been held in solitary confinement for nearly 43 years for a crime he maintains he did not commit, a claim that much of the available evidence supports.  Sent to solitary confinement in 1972, Albert is 68 today.

    He is mentally and physically frail from being kept in conditions described as torture by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, who has called on US authorities to release Albert from solitary confinement with immediate effect.
      On 2 March Albert has a bail hearing. Demand state officials not to appeal his bail request and to give Albert a long overdue chance at justice.

Give Albert a chance at justice

      Albert was convicted of murdering a prison guard in 1972, and he has always maintained his innocence. Evidence appears to corroborate his claim, and suggest that the Louisiana authorities served the sentence and condemned him to decades of solitary under racially and politically motivated circumstances.
     Albert co-founded the Angola prison chapter of the Black Panther Party, with the hope of demanding basic rights for inmates from within a discriminatory and often corrupt system.
     He believes that his political activism and demand for racial equality have been a large factor in not only charging him with the crime, but keeping him in solitary.

Tell state officials not to oppose Albert's bail

      Louisiana authorities have no legitimate reason to continue to keep Albert in solitary confinement: his prison records are exemplary, and clearly state that he poses no threat to himself or others. And still, prison authorities have refused to conduct a meaningful review of Albert’s isolation since 1972.

Call for long overdue justice for Albert

Thank you,

Karen Middleton

Individuals at Risk Manager
Amnesty International UK

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The State, Home Of Racism.

       A mixture of capitalist greed and religious differences has turned our planet into a world of poverty, misery and bloodshed. People fleeing the consequences of this festering toxic cocktail, face hardship, hatred and death. The journey of the migrant can, on occasions, be worse than the nightmare they are fleeing. Our system fosters racism by continually marking the immigrant as "different", "inferior", "scroungers", somebody to be feared, when in fact they are just like you and I, a collection of bus drivers, shop assistants, doctors, plumbers, taxi drivers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sister. All they are doing is trying to survive in an exploitative violent system, trying to do the decent thing by their families, or fleeing persecution. The state is the enemy of unity and solidarity between people, it is the protector of this inhuman, brutal system of hatred and exploitation.

   This latest incident by the Greek state, against a group fleeing from Afghanistan and Syria, although brutal and horrific, is by no means unique.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI Index: EUR 25/002/2014
22 January 2014

     Amnesty International urges the Greek Government to carry out a transparent and thorough investigation into the circumstances which led to loss of life in the Aegean Amnesty International expresses its profound concerns over the loss of life of migrants and refugees including several small children near the island of Farmakonisi on 20 January 2014. In the early hours of Monday, 20 January 2014, a fishing boat carrying 28 migrants and refugees including many small children capsized and sank near the island of Farmakonisi. The group consisted of 25 Afghans including ten children aged between one and nine years old and three Syrians.
        Sixteen individuals including a child were rescued by the Greek coastguard. However, the bodies of a mother and a child belonging to the group were found by the Turkish authorities the next day. According to news reports, the bodies of two more women and two children washed up today on Turkish shores leaving six children still missing. Amnesty International has been informed that the survivors received medical treatment on the island of Leros and since then –except one- have been held in the Leros police station.
       According to the official statements of the Greek coastguard, the fishing boat carrying the migrants and refugees was found not moving and with no lights on near the island of Farmakonisi in the early hours of last Monday. The authorities said that in view of the bad weather conditions, a decision was taken to tow the boat to the island of Farmakonisi and that during the towing operation the migrants and refugees on board moved to the one side of the boat leading to its capsize and sinking. A search and rescue operation followed the incident which still continues.
     On the other hand, the testimonies survivors provided to the UNHCR according to a press release issued by the organization, resemble the testimonies Amnesty International has previously collected on push-back operations of the Greek coastguard – the practice of summarily turning back a group of migrants across the border towards Turkey. UNHCR press release reports that the survivors alleged their boat was being towed by the Greek coastguard with great speed towards Turkey when it capsized. The Greek coastguard, however, denied these allegations in a subsequent statement this afternoon and reiterated that the boat carrying the refugees and migrants was towed towards the island of Farmakonisi, not back towards Turkey.
      Push-back operations carried out by Greece deny people the right to explain their individual circumstances and raise any protection or other concerns. As such, they are in breach of Greece's international obligations and EU law.
     Amnesty International has continuously called on the Greek authorities to stop these push-back operations not only because they are completely unlawful but because they put people’s lives at risk as a result of the way they are being carried out. Testimonies collected by Amnesty and published in a previous report point to a blatant disregard for human life shown by the Greek coastguard during push-back operations carried out in the Aegean Sea.
       Interviewees who described being returned to Turkey from the Aegean said that their inflatable boats were rammed, knifed, or nearly capsized while they were being towed or circled by a Greek coastguard boat. They said their boats’ engines were disabled and their oars removed, then they were just left in the middle of the sea. Life-endangering practices were also reported by people caught after crossing Greece’s land border with Turkey along the river Evros.
      Amnesty International calls on the Greek authorities to initiate a thorough, transparent and independent investigation into the incident of 20 January 2014 off the Coast of Farmakonisi Island; bring to light the circumstances which led to loss of life and prosecute those who are responsible.
      The organization further calls the Greek government to investigate all allegations of collective expulsions (push-backs) and ill-treatment on Greece’s land border with Turkey and in the Aegean and prosecute officials involved. The recent loss of life on the Aegean is yet again another reminder of the dangerous journeys migrants and refugees have to endure to reach Europe. Since August 2012, at least 136 refugees, the majority of whom were Syrian and Afghan, lost their lives in at least twelve known incidents attempting to reach Greece by boat from Turkey. EU and member states should ensure effective search and rescue at sea by focusing their efforts into saving lives rather than protecting border

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The State And Human Sacrifice.

        State officials sit in marble halls and decide a human being must die, this is justified by adhering to some man made code, they call it justice. In ancient times they took a human life to appease their chosen God, and we call it human sacrifice, what's the difference? The sad and abhorrent aspect of this cruel, brutal and barbaric act is that it is advocated and carried out by human beings, people with names and addresses, families and friends, and they walk among us without any display of blood on their hands and a justification that they are only doing their duty. To advocate the killing of a human being in a cold blooded frame of so called rationalism is nothing more or less than savage barbarism.

The following is an appeal from Amnesty International. 

 

	Amnesty International UK
	Warren Hill is scheduled to be executed on Monday 15th July. Please act now.

The US State of Georgia is set to put Warren to death by lethal injection on Monday at 7pm (midnight UK time), despite the fact seven doctors have unanimously agreed that he is intellectually disabled - so executing him would be unconstitutional.

What’s more, the family of the man he was convicted of murdering and several jurors at his trial have said they don’t want him to be executed. We desperately need your support to ensure the US Supreme Court intervenes to stop this injustice.

-->

      If Warren’s execution goes ahead, the Georgia authorities would be ignoring the wishes of the victim, Joseph Handspike’s, family. They would be ignoring several jurors at his 1991 trial who said they would have sentenced Warren to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole had it been an option, which it was not. They would be going against the medical opinion of seven doctors who examined Warren and unanimously agreed that he has intellectual disabilities.

And they would be going against the US Constitution. In 2002, the US Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities was a cruel and unusual punishment and therefore banned under the 8th amendment.

        Act now to stop the execution of Warren Hill on Monday 15 July

     It’s down to the individual state to prove who is intellectually disabled, and Georgia requires proof ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, higher than any other US state. Warren was not found to meet this standard, but since then three doctors who gave evidence have changed their minds, and are now among the seven who believe he is intellectually disabled. Warren has already come within hours of death at the hands of the state. Eighteen people have been executed in the US so far this year. Please take action today to ensure that he is not the nineteenth.

      Act now to stop the execution of Warren Hill on Monday 15 July

     The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. One day we’ll get the whole world to abolish it, but until then we need your support to fight it, one injustice at a time.

Thank you for your continued support. Please forward this email on - we need as many people as possible to speak out today.

Kim Manning-Cooper,
Death Penalty Campaigner

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41 Years Solitary Confinement!!

        Another reminder of what goes on in the land of the preacher of democracy and freedom, the Good ol' US of A. This appeal from Amnesty International.

	Amnesty International UK
	After 40 years of ‘inhuman’ punishment, conviction overturned for third time
	Albert Woodfox has spent most of the last 41 years in solitary confinement, locked up for 23 hours a day in a 6.5 x 9 foot cell. Yet a judge recently overturned his murder conviction for the third time on the basis of racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson prior to Albert’s re-trial in 1998. Now the Attorney General of Louisiana has a choice: appeal the ruling and drag out Albert’s ordeal for many more years, or let it stand - paving the way for Albert to be re-tried or freed.

	Dear John, My name is Robert H. King. I was released on 8 February 2001, after spending 31 years in prison - 29 of them in solitary confinement at the infamous Louisiana State Prison also known as 'Angola'. Confined there with me were Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, the other two friends who make up 'the Angola 3'. Herman and Albert have now spent 41 years in prison. And though neither are any longer housed at Angola, both remain in solitary confinement at another prison - a punishment Amnesty has described as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'. Call on the State of Louisiana to end Albert Woodfox's ordeal Prior to and since my release from prison, I have continued to campaign to free Herman and Albert. Last week, that campaign took a huge step forward with the ruling by a federal district court that there was racial discrimination in the selection of the jury foreperson prior to Albert's re-trial in 1998. Louisiana's Attorney General could appeal against this ruling – he has two weeks left to do so. Or he could do the right thing and end four decades of injustice by letting the ruling stand, clearing the way for Albert to be re-tried or simply walk free at last. Call on Louisiana to allow Albert Woodfox to be retried or walk free I know what being locked up in that cramped, dark cell does to a man, and I fear for my friend Albert whose physical and mental health is failing fast. The sense of how cruelly and unjustly Albert and the rest of us were treated still burns as strong as ever - as does my will to end their ordeal. This isn’t the first or even the second time Albert’s conviction has been overturned. Previously judges have cited racial discrimination, misconduct by the prosecution and inadequate defence in their rulings. There is also troubling evidence that a key eyewitness against Albert had been bribed, and no physical evidence linking him to the murder has ever been found. Call on Louisiana to allow Albert Woodfox to be retried or walk free However, I also know how many of you share my sense of injustice and that we can count on your ongoing support. When I spoke to Albert last week he asked me to pass on his gratitude to his ‘legions of supporters’ across the world, particularly to all of you in the UK. Wednesday 17 April will mark the 41st anniversary of our incarceration in Angola. Please help ensure that this year it is a day of hope - or even freedom - for my friend, Albert Woodfox. End Albert Woodfox’s ordeal: email the Attorney General now Power to the people!  As ever, Robert H. King The only freed member of the Angola 3

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A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

       Like the man said, "Prison is a crime against humanity." In America there are more people locked up in prisons than any other country in the world, while we in the UK also come very high on that list. I believe that in the UK approximately 80% of those in prison are in for non-violent crimes and a high proportion have mental health problems, and addiction problems. More hospital cases than prison cases, but this is capitalism. However under the present system we will not be able to abolish prisons, but there are those who do try to do something about those unfortunate enough to get caught up in this destructive system. Everybody knows Amnesty International, there is SACRO (Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) there is also Anarchist Black Cross and Jail Guitar Doors. Until that day when the prison walls come down by the force of justice, those on the inside still need support.

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?

      The "Arab Spring" so hailed by the West, certainly hasn't brought about a bed of flowers for the people of those countries involved. The state still rules with an iron fist or it has descended into religious/tribal factions each vying brutally for power. Somewhere in this mess people are still struggling for justice and freedom.

This from Amnesty International:

Egypt: Troops and Police acting above the law

In December 2011 49-year-old Azza Suleiman (pictured) attended a large protest near Tahrir Square. As she started to leave, she saw a group of soldiers violently beat and strip another female protestor. Act now to end the abuse

Concerned, Azza and some others tried to help carry the woman away. But the soldiers reacted violently: they beat Azza so severely that she lost consciousness. Even then they did not stop. Their attack was so vicious it left Azza with a fractured skull and impaired memory. To date, no one has been held accountable for this violence.

Azza’s treatment at the hands of the authorities is horrific but her story is not unique. Over 100 peaceful protestors have been killed by troops and police forces since early 2011 when Egyptians bravely took to the streets to demand political reform.

Despite President Morsi making some positive changes since taking power, troops and police remain above the law. Find out more

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