“The situation of migrant rights in Thailand continues to be deplorable... The case is unjust and unfair and I’m fighting it for myself and also for Thai campaigners who face the same sort of legal harassment.” (Andy Hall, following his court hearing)1On Monday, British activist Andy Hall was indicted for criminal defamation and computer crime in a case brought about by Thai pineapple company Natural Fruit. This follows two years of persecution, after Natural Fruit took the decision to target Andy for researching alleged labour abuses at one of their factories rather than investigate the claims.We’re horrified by this decision, which not only violates Andy’s right to free expression but also undermines wider research into labour rights abuses in Thailand and the work of other activists.We’re doing everything in our power to try to help him: last week, the Walk Free community sent over 300,000 emails to the Thai government, urging the authorities to do everything they can to get these charges dropped. We also delivered over 180,000 signatures calling for Andy’s release to Thai officials in Thailand and the UK.In just a few weeks Andy will have to return to court where he will be charged and possibly detained pending bail. Will you join the international outcry in support of Andy and send a message to challenge this injustice?P.S. If found guilty, Andy faces 7 years in jail and charges of $11 million. Sonja Vartiala, executive director of Finnwatch, the organisation that released the report Andy provided the research for, has warned that, “At this point, the prospects for Andy Hall to receive a fair trial are looking grim.”2 Take action to demand that these charges are dropped NOW.1 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/11819811/British-campaigner-indicted-in-Thailand-over-report-which-alleged-abuses-at-fruit-juice-business.html2 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/11819811/British-campaigner-indicted-in-Thailand-over-report-which-alleged-abuses-at-fruit-juice-business.htmlmovement of people everywhere, fighting to end one of the world's greatest evils: Modern slavery.© 2015 WalkFree.org | All rights reserved | www.walkfree.org
Letter from Anarchist Prisoner, Emma Sheppard, in support of the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners. For more info on Emma’s case see: https://bristolabc.wordpress.com/support-emma/“The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings for freedom”
– Maya AngelouOur fearful trill is the combination of frustration, despair, indignation and defiance. The “Incentives and Earned Privileges” scheme that dominates prisons today goes a long way to silencing our songs through its passive coercion and pastoralism, but they always erupt sporadically.“We count ourselves among those rebels who count storms, who hold that the only truth lies in perpetual seeking” – Madya Tulokonnivan (Pussy Riot)Being in prison has made me feel humble. My fixed-term sentence is short, and unlike many, I have a release date. I am humbled by the fire and conviction which fuels long term anarchist prisoners, and the many rebels in prison who are “perpetually seeking” in their own ways, free from (and often unknown to) the anarchist subcultures. Quietly rejecting and challenging authority everyday in a way to keep sane inside. These rebels and actions give me hope.“Tigers are more beautiful than sheep but we prefer them behind bars” – Bertrand RusselI do not consider myself a tiger! But as Michael Gove said in his first speech as ‘Justice Minister’: “Civilisation depends on clear sanctions being imposed by the state on those who challenge the rules”. So they put us behind bars and try to drown us in petty regulations. But being here has just made me stronger and given a depth of my understanding of concepts such as privilege and solidarity. They labelled us ‘criminals’ and try to shame us into compliance, or rely on other prisoners to do their work – policing, pandering and grasping of imagined rewards and “earned privileges”. But knowing I am not alone in my struggle gives me strength and vigilance. Gove has begin to change the rhetoric surrounding prisoners: we are now potential assets, we are to quote him, “a literally captive population”. He is promising early release for those who ‘show their chained attitude that they wish to contribute to society’. We are led through our time by those benign dictators, our ‘Offender Managers’, who calmly construct our sentence plans and ‘therapeutic’ programmes (also known as prisons-within-prisons). The Prison “Service” is like an abusive partner: offering calming reassurances whilst deliberately alienating, excluding, and physically and mentally controlling us. This can never be a therapeutic environment. Martin Luther King said we are all “caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. What affects one directly affects all indirectly”. These networks bear down on us in biased and relentless ways. Prison is often the final step for those who have been excluded and controlled by the wider mechanisms of the state their whole lives. The numbers of deaths (at the hands of the screws, filth and suicides) in custody and on the streets continue to rise, discussed and minimized. Self harm is rife within women’s prisons. The Ministry of Justice plan to sell off many parts of the prison estate, its so called ‘dark corners’ (many of which happen to be in prime locations). Gove claims that it is this cleansing desire and economic, which is driving the developments. But whether its the Queen or rich landlords who will benefit, or the Ministry, is irrelevant… It’s all capitalist expansion. “Whoever has passed by the front of a court house or prison and his look didn’t darken at the thought that he could be there as a culprit, then he did not live his life with integrity and dignity” – Quote from Greece, unsure of author I hope that I can serve the rest of my time and license with integrity. I mourn the loss of my anonymity every day. Writing can be terrifying, especially with limited resources, but I will finish with a quote from Audre Lorde:“When we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
or welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it’s better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive”
Solidarity to all anarchist prisoners and everyone harmed by the prison system.
With love and rage,
Nat Turner's Rebellion (also known as the Southampton Insurrection) was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831.[1] Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the Southern United States. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards. The rebellion was effectively suppressed at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, 1831.[2]There was widespread fear in the aftermath of the rebellion, and European-American militias organized in retaliation against the slaves. The state executed 56 slaves accused of being part of the rebellion. In the frenzy, many non-participant enslaved people were punished. At least 100 African Americans, and possibly up to 200, were murdered by militias and mobs in the area. Across the South, state legislatures passed new laws prohibiting education of slaves and free black people,[3] restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free black people, and requiring white ministers to be present at all worship services.
Read the full article HERE:A considerable number of libertarian commentators have remarked on the sheer scale of subsidies and protections to big business, on their structural importance to the existing form of corporate capitalism, and on the close intermeshing of corporate and state interests in the present state capitalist economy. We pay less attention, however, to the role of past state coercion, in previous centuries, in laying the structural foundations of the present system. The extent to which present-day concentrations of wealth and corporate power are the legacy of past injustice, I call the subsidy of history.The first and probably the most important subsidy of history is land theft, by which peasant majorities were deprived of their just property rights and turned into tenants forced to pay rent based on the artificial “property” titles of state-privileged elites.Of course, all such artificial titles not founded on appropriation by individual labor are completely illegitimate.As Ludwig von Mises pointed out in Socialism, the normal functioning of the market never results in a state of affairs in which most of the land of a country is “owned” by a tiny class of absentee landlords and the peasant majority pay rent for the land they work. Wherever it is found, it is the result of past coercion and robbery.
It's useless to wait---- for a breakthrough, for the revolution, the nuclear apocalypse or social movement. To go on waiting is madness. The catastrophe is not coming, it is here. We are already situated within the collapse of a civilisation. It is within this reality that we must choose sides.
Read the full article HERE:
The dead hand of notorious UK spycop Mark Kennedy has reached out once again – this time in France, where a major trial involving a so-called ‘metaphysical anarchist’ cell saw the most serious charge – terrorism – dismissed. In a statement afterwards one of the defendants accused the prosecution of having based its case on false statements made by the police – in other words, fabricated (or exaggerated) evidence. Here is what happened…
On 11 November 2008, twenty French men and women were arrested simultaneously in Paris, Rouen, and in the small village of Tarnac (located in the district of Corr̬ze, Massif Central). Those in Tarnac were living in a small farmhouse Рand in the village they had reorganised the local grocery store as a cooperative and taken up a number of civic activities, from the running of a film club to the delivery of food to the elderly.
The police operation was dramatic: it involved helicopters, one hundred and fifty balaclava-clad anti-terrorist police and massive media coverage. The arrests sparked huge protests in Paris and in other French cities and towns, as well as the village of Tarnac, which describes itself as communist and where those arrested were seen as highly-respected members of the community.
The State and System have factually proven their role against anarchists, anti-authoritarians, fighting people, self-managed spaces and various parts of society.Within the social war there are also losses. The times we are living now are tough. Disgusted by the social relations and the models which they reproduce, against every form of exploitation and authority we aim at the destruction of this rotten system, whether it’s “prospering”, or it’s in “crisis”.We consider multiform action as an integral part of the revolutionary procedures. From the distribution of leaflets in the squares, the occupation of spaces, the self-organization in workplaces and neighbourhoods, up to militant protests, night-time raids and re-appropriations.
The words of our brothers and sisters in captivity, give us the strength to continue.
Nothing is forgotten, nothing is left behind,
the war continues as long as the enemy is here.And the journey continues with “losses”
but also joys, with hardships but also
pleasant surprises.
Therefore, ALL OR NOTHING…Solidarity to those who fight for freedom
and dignity inside and outside the prisons.The destruction of all prisons is a pebble in
the struggle for human dignity, and social
and individual freedom.Rage and conscience until social
revolution. Revolutionary greetings to all
comrades EVERYWHERE AND ALWAYS!S . FROM THE ANARCHIST PROJECT ACT FOR FREEDOM NOW!
