London
Solidarity Picket of the Parole Board HQ, Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DD. 12.30-2.00pm. Please bring placards and banners.
Edinburgh
Solidarity Picket of the Scottish Parliament. Commencing 3pm. Please bring placards and banners. Also see Scottish Indymedia for details of a support meeting to be held in Edinburgh the previous week.
Brighton
A day of solidarity at the Cowley Club, which will include card-signing, letter-writing, and access to a phone provided by Brighton ABC. 12.00-5.30pm
Leeds
Solidarity actions will take place plus a get-together at The Common Place to sign cards, write letters, etc starting at Noon and running throughout the afternoon. Copies of John’s pamphlet Tear Down The Walls! will also be available.
Useful addresses:
John Bowden, 6729, HMP Glenochil, King O' Muir Road, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, FK10 3AD. Scotland. (Please sends letters and solidarity cards, SAEs, postal orders made payable to ‘The Governor’.)
Audrey Parks, Governor, HMP Glenochil, King O' Muir Road, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, FK10 3AD. Phone: 01259 760471. Fax: 01259 762003. (Messages of protest.)
Social Services Department, Perth & Kinross Council, 2 High St, Perth, PH1 5PH. Phone: 01738 475000. Fax: 01738 475710. (Complaints about social-worker Matthew Stillman.)
Scottish Prison Service HQ, Communications Branch, Room 338, Calton House, 5 Redheughs Rigg, Edinburgh, EH12 9HW. E-mail:
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Comments
Hide the following 9 comments
Good luck
02.07.2007 13:53
Mark, Leeds ABC
Brighton Event addition
03.07.2007 09:16
Come along and join us for a coffee and help protest against the victimisation of John Bowden and the vilification of the ABC.
Brighton ABC
e-mail:
brightonabc@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.brightonabc.org.uk
Apologies
03.07.2007 17:01
I've got caught up in the Glasgow attack, apologies.
Danny
Was that you then Danny...
04.07.2007 09:57
Rudeboy
Cheating, snivelling, Gits.
04.07.2007 12:11
Is there any way of contacting the psychologist that conducted John's 2003 assessment? Perhaps he might care to weigh in, as it seems the SPS are not happy with his work.
Rudeboy
Is there a doctor in the airport ?
06.07.2007 16:18
The impression I got from talking to John the one time I met him is the social-worker who smeared him is a US citizen not employed by the SPS. The social worker he replaced was a female who recommended his release. They sacked her for recommending his release, smearing her (and John) as having an inappropriate relationship. Now none of that makes any sense. The prisoners meet their social-workers in open spaces full of people and watched by prison officers. So the SPS social-worker must have been sacked for saying what the authorities didn't want to hear. Even then, why would they have to hire an outside - foriegn - social worker in to say what they want to hear, why not just coerce another SPS social worker into declaring John unreleasable ? Why are US social workers even allowed to work in the Scottish Prison Service ? I'd presume because the union wouldn't tolerate that but I don't know. It is worrying that the people in the SPS aren't smart enough to think up plausible lies.
I don't have much info on John except what I've read here, one visit and a few letters. I hadn't heard of him or ABC before the last Edinburgh demo. I can see from other posts on IM about John my support is just drawing flak, I have 'history' here I realise now I have to sort out once and for all. For instance, I got followed home from his demo by two CID and I was able to leaflet them about him to my amusement, but they were following me for an unrelated post on IM that I'd been grassed up on. I will keep supporting him and the new group from afar, and I'll keep engaging with the prison authorities and politicians and prisoners, but it is best if I work alone for now.
As for publicity for the 13th, I have been on that, radio stations etc, but the name Rudeboy just gave me another idea, thanks. There is an active Ska revival in Scotland, I'll hit their messageboards.
Danny
Leeds Support For John Bowden – Friday 13th July
09.07.2007 15:14
John Bowden is a long-term prison militant, who has been in jail for more than 25 years. While not originally imprisoned for anything political in nature, John has been a bulwark of the prison struggle and of prisoner solidarity throughout his time inside. He is a highly articulate political writer; a fierce critic of injustice wherever he sees it. His willingness to speak out, and to support other prisoners, (he was for example instrumental in first helping to publicise the case of the ‘Birmingham 6’), has not been without personal consequences. John has spent years in segregation, being ‘ghosted’ to every corner of the British penal gulag, and has suffered countless beatings and years of daily abuse. Even after more than 25 years the harassment and victimisation continues.
Until very recently John was in an open prison at Castle Huntly in Scotland. He had spent two years working unsupervised in the outside community as a volunteer on projects for the mentally ill and socially vulnerable, and had qualified as a literacy tutor for people with learning difficulties. For almost a year he had also been allowed frequent home leaves, and was not regarded as any form of risk to the public. All this changed however, when Matthew Stillman, a right-wing American social-worker (who for example, insists on calling Irish people ‘Micks’), accused John of having links with a ‘paramilitary’ and ‘terrorist’ organisation – namely the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)!
The ABC are a perfectly legal and entirely legitimate prisoner support organisation, with origins that go back to Tsarist Russia. Autonomous branches of the ABC exist all over the world, including groups in Brighton and in Leeds.
Stillman’s lies are easily refuted, but they were eagerly taken up by the Scottish Prison Service, who used them as a pretext for ‘ghosting’ John from Castle Huntly to a maximum security prison at Glenochil. Since a massive campaign was launched in support of John however, and Stillman’s report came under more scrutiny, the SPS have begun to waver. John remains in maximum security conditions though, with all that entails, and Stillman’s enormously prejudicial report currently remains on his parole dossier.
John Bowden’s parole application is due to be considered in August, and the latest Prison Service campaign is clearly aimed at preventing his release. More than that however, it is designed to intimidate other prisoners thinking of supporting their fellow prisoners, and to damage the ability of the ABC to function as an arm of assistance.
For months, since the ABC was vilified, and John Bowden victmised, Leeds ABC have been helping to co-ordinate an international campaign of protest, which has seen solidarity actions everywhere from Edinburgh to Japan, and a constant stream of protest aimed at SPS HQ. This Friday, July 13th, sees the second International Day of Solidarity in support of John and the ABC (see
In Leeds various support actions are planned, and Leeds ABC will be holding an info stall at the Common Place on Wharf Street (between Calls Lane and Swinegate.) There’s a large card to sign for John, and there’ll be postcards to send for the SPS (who you can also e-mail.) Come along and show your support and find out more about the work of the ABC, we’ll be there from 12 noon until 3.00pm. It’s also an opportunity to purchase John Bowden’s excellent pamphlet Tear Down The Walls! The café will be open as usual on Fridays, selling tea and coffee and a range of vegan food.
If you’re unable to be there you can still help:
John Bowden, 6729, HMP Glenochil, King O' Muir Road, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, FK10 3AD. Scotland. (Please sends letters and solidarity cards, SAEs, postal orders made payable to ‘The Governor’.)
Audrey Parks, Governor, HMP Glenochil, King O' Muir Road, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, FK10 3AD. Phone: 01259 760471. Fax: 01259 762003. (Messages of protest.)
Social Services Department, Perth & Kinross Council, 2 High St, Perth, PH1 5PH. Phone: 01738 475000. Fax: 01738 475710. (Complaints about social-worker Matthew Stillman.)
Scottish Prison Service HQ, Communications Branch, Room 338, Calton House, 5 Redheughs Rigg, Edinburgh, EH12 9HW. E-mail:
For more information e-mail Leeds ABC at
To find out more about John Bowden and the campaign in support of him see www.myspace.com/friendsofjohnbowden or the main feature on UK Indymedia.
Leeds ABC
e-mail:
leedsabc@riseup.net
John Bowden Demo @ SCOTTISH PRISON SERVICE. ->NOT Parliament
11.07.2007 17:12
The SPS is located in The Gyle, which is 15-20mins west of Edinburgh, on the outskirts of Corstorphine and just off the Glasgow road.
J
e-mail:
truthaddict1@riseup.net
Hull
12.07.2007 13:09
Newland Av, Hull. Call by between 5 and 6
Solidarity with long-term prison-resister John Bowden will include
Card-signing, letter-writing
Letters and solidarity cards
Messages of protest
Complaints about social-worker Matthew Stillman
Postcards reading ‘Hands Off John Bowden!’ and other forms of protest
Idea are very welcome
Suggested donation, stamps as postcard etc will be provided.
Johnny ex
- e-mail:
Friends of John Bowden