Picket in support of John Bowden
John O | 07.06.2007 08:46 | Repression
Join the latest action in support of long-term prison resister John Bowden and the Anarchist Black Cross Network on Friday 8th June in London.
As part of the ongoing campaign in support of John Bowden and his parole application and against the labelling of him and the Anarchist Black Cross network as "terrorists", Brighton ABC are calling for a picket of the
Parole Board HQ
Grenadier House
99-105 Horseferry Road
Friday 8th June at 12:00.
John has consistently resisted the brutalization of prison system throughout his 25 years inside and is being targetted for refusal to bow down and tow the line by the prison authorities. Having patently failed to break John through systematic beatings, ghosting and years of sensory deprivation in solitary confinement, the prison authorities are now trying to prevent John ever getting out using the smoke screen of the politically motivated ravings of Matt Stillman, a right-wing American social-worker brought in from outside the prison service to deliberately concoct a negative parole report.
In this supposedly objective report Stillman writes "Bowden has written for a self-proclaimed anarchist website called ABC Brighton, and he says he supports many of their ideas and actions. A review of this website brings into question the nature of this group. The members of this group appear to be primarily Eco-terrorists or Para-mililtary members involved in what they see as battles against political systems and principles." As we have seen recently in Spain and Italy this is part of a slippery slope by which the authorities, by labelling ABC groups as terrorist organisations because their prison support work involves contacts with prisoners that use extra-judicial methods in their actions against the organs of state repression, they can target all anarchists for repression as terrorist.
Support the campaign by coming along to the picket. Bring banners. Or if you can't make it ring, fax or e-mail the Parole Board on that day.
Parole Board for England & Wales
Grenadier House
99-105 Horseferry Road
London SW1P 2DD
Telephone: 0870 420 3505
Fax: 020 7217 0118
Email:
info@paroleboard.gov.uk
Chairman: duncan.nichol@paroleboard.gov.uk
Chief Executive: christine.glenn@paroleboard.gov.uk
Parole Board of Scotland
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh
EH11 3XD
Telephone: 0131 244 8373
Fax: 0131 244 6974
Send a card reading 'Hands off John Bowden' to the Scottish Prison Service Headquarters, and also don't forget to send John a card or letter to support him in his struggle for freedom.
Check out
http://www.myspace.com/friendsofjohnbowden for more information about his case and for a letter written by John about what has been happening to him.
John Bowden,
6729,
HMP Glenochil,
King O' Muir Road,
Tullibody,
Clackmannanshire,
FK10 3AD
Scotland
Scottish Prison Authority:
Audrey Parks,
Governor,
HMP Glenochil,
King O' Muir Road,
Tullibody,
Clackmannanshire,
FK10 3AD. Scotland
Scottish Prison Service:
Scottish Prison Service Headquarters
Communications Branch, Room 338
Calton House, 5 Redheughs Rigg
Edinburgh, EH12 9HW. Scotland
E-mail: gaolinfo@sps.gov.uk
Tel: +44(0)1259 760471
Fax: +44(0)1259 762003
Posted by: Brighton Anarchist Black Cross
e-mail: brightonabc@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.brightonabc.org.uk
Source for this message:
Brighton Anarchist Black Cross
As part of the ongoing campaign in support of John Bowden and his parole application and against the labelling of him and the Anarchist Black Cross network as "terrorists", Brighton ABC are calling for a picket of the
Parole Board HQ
Grenadier House
99-105 Horseferry Road
Friday 8th June at 12:00.
John has consistently resisted the brutalization of prison system throughout his 25 years inside and is being targetted for refusal to bow down and tow the line by the prison authorities. Having patently failed to break John through systematic beatings, ghosting and years of sensory deprivation in solitary confinement, the prison authorities are now trying to prevent John ever getting out using the smoke screen of the politically motivated ravings of Matt Stillman, a right-wing American social-worker brought in from outside the prison service to deliberately concoct a negative parole report.
In this supposedly objective report Stillman writes "Bowden has written for a self-proclaimed anarchist website called ABC Brighton, and he says he supports many of their ideas and actions. A review of this website brings into question the nature of this group. The members of this group appear to be primarily Eco-terrorists or Para-mililtary members involved in what they see as battles against political systems and principles." As we have seen recently in Spain and Italy this is part of a slippery slope by which the authorities, by labelling ABC groups as terrorist organisations because their prison support work involves contacts with prisoners that use extra-judicial methods in their actions against the organs of state repression, they can target all anarchists for repression as terrorist.
Support the campaign by coming along to the picket. Bring banners. Or if you can't make it ring, fax or e-mail the Parole Board on that day.
Parole Board for England & Wales
Grenadier House
99-105 Horseferry Road
London SW1P 2DD
Telephone: 0870 420 3505
Fax: 020 7217 0118
Email:
info@paroleboard.gov.uk Chairman:
duncan.nichol@paroleboard.gov.uk Chief Executive:
christine.glenn@paroleboard.gov.uk Parole Board of Scotland
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh
EH11 3XD
Telephone: 0131 244 8373
Fax: 0131 244 6974
Send a card reading 'Hands off John Bowden' to the Scottish Prison Service Headquarters, and also don't forget to send John a card or letter to support him in his struggle for freedom.
Check out
http://www.myspace.com/friendsofjohnbowden for more information about his case and for a letter written by John about what has been happening to him. John Bowden,
6729,
HMP Glenochil,
King O' Muir Road,
Tullibody,
Clackmannanshire,
FK10 3AD
Scotland
Scottish Prison Authority:
Audrey Parks,
Governor,
HMP Glenochil,
King O' Muir Road,
Tullibody,
Clackmannanshire,
FK10 3AD. Scotland
Scottish Prison Service:
Scottish Prison Service Headquarters
Communications Branch, Room 338
Calton House, 5 Redheughs Rigg
Edinburgh, EH12 9HW. Scotland
E-mail:
gaolinfo@sps.gov.uk Tel: +44(0)1259 760471
Fax: +44(0)1259 762003
Posted by: Brighton Anarchist Black Cross
e-mail:
brightonabc@yahoo.co.uk Homepage:
http://www.brightonabc.org.uk Source for this message:
Brighton Anarchist Black Cross
John O
e-mail:
mojuk@mojuk.org.uk
Homepage:
http://www.mojuk.org.uk
Comments
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what he is in prison for
07.06.2007 13:16
In 1980 John Bowden (22), then a heavy-drinking petty criminal who had already spent most of his life in various different types of penal institutions, killed Donald Ryan in the Camberwell flat belonging to Shirley Brindle (34). Bowden had been drinking at the flat, together with Michael Ward (27), David Beyley (48), Brindle and Ryan. In addition to drinking, they had been playing cards. They had also been making sandwiches with a joint of meat, which they cut with an electric carving knife.
In the course of this heavy drinking session an argument started between Bowden and Ryan Ryan pulled a knife, but Bowden grabbed the electric carving knife and cut Ryan across the hand severely injuring his fingers. Ryan was obviously in some distress, but his hand was bandaged with a cloth and they carried on drinking and playing cards. Eventually Bowden said he would take Ryan to the hospital, saying that first he would just dress the wound in the bathroom upstairs, but thinking that Ryan would later seek revenge, Bowden killed him, He then, together with the others, chopped up the corpse, and cut off the head. Various parts of Ryan's dismembered body were dumped around the area, but the head, which the gang viewed as harder to get rid of, was kept for several days in Bowden's fridge.
Eventually, the gang were arrested and the 3 men were given life sentences. Shirley Brindle was convicted of helping to dispose of the body. All the defendents had criminal convictions, as did Donald Ryan, who was a convicted child sex-offender.
John Bowden was represented at the trial by Michael Mansfield QC.
interested
This is more interesting
07.06.2007 15:07
As far as I recall only John and one other were given life sentences and the third was acquitted.
I've known John for many years, during most of which he has described himself as a communist, sometimes with anarchist leanings (!) More importantly he is an anti-authoritarian, non-sectarian, a defender of the rights of the oppressed in or out of prison to conduct their own struggles.and a welcomer of any solidarity offered to that struggle by progressive people, whatever ism they individually or collectively subscribe to.
Against a background of systematic destruction of prisoners' rights and ability to organise over the last 15 years, he has continued to write, speak and organise, and to point out that attacks on prisoners are not just attacks on prisoners but are attacks on the working class and oppressed. He shows this concretely to people he comes into contact with and helps them make sense of the awful experience of imprisonment and understand why they are there in a completely different way to the story told by the gaolers.
This is why the system hates him.
Nicki
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