7th of August 2016
Dublin Anarchist Black Cross at the Annual Anti-Internment March of Ireland
Sunday.
The Dublin Anarchist Black Cross was in attendance of this year’s anti-internment march. Prior to the march taking place the state put a block on the march from going ahead not giving the march organisers permission to march. This block did not deter people from coming out in support of the march and come out in solidarity with political prisoners in prisons in Ireland….
Over 1,000 people marched from the Busy Bee in Andersonstown in west Belfast, down the Falls Road towards Belfast City Hall. When the march reached the end of the Falls Road the Police had the road blocked with a line/siege of armored Jeeps and armed police preventing the march from reaching its destination.
The march could not go any further, a makeshift platform made from a wooden box was used by speakers to say a few words about the different campaigns they were from. There were speakers from the Justice for The Craigavon Two campaign and the Free Tony Taylor campaign. After the speakers were finished the march ended.
It is the 45th anniversary of internment – administrative detention – imprisonment without trial, which was used to try break a movement that is struggling against British imperialism in Ireland. The decades on since then not a lot has changed in Ireland and through the world, many people still being unjustly locked up and incarcerated…
Police were originally set up by the ruling classes to suppress dissent within the working classes and among slaves in the USA who were attempting to escape slavery. Prisons and all the repressive apparatus of the state are designed to control and pacify the dissent of oppressed people. Only through organised collective action can we overcome these forces to achieve a decent humanity–our ultimate unifying desire.
In the South of Ireland community activists regularly face daily harassment of state forces, the lackeys of British and capitalist imperialism in Ireland. Similar to our republicans up north any move for social justice is repressed and isolated through smear campaigns and Gardai harassment of honest, sincere activists.
The campaigns for political prisoners to released and freed is an international campaign for freedom, our suffering comrades in the occupied territories of Palestine to the modern strike against slavery, the Black lives matter movement in the US, ours, the Irish struggle is a historic movement for dignity and human rights.
The struggle for ultimate, complete freedom is not an easy one, many among the crowd that day know intimately the suffering and loss of struggle, the sacrifices made- Without which we would know no decency or respect in our lives. However those losses cannot be forgotten, the families left behind, a path forward must be forged in respect to their memories.
It is upon all here to move forward for justice and dignity. An injury to one is an injury to all.
4th of August 2016
Solidarity banner drop for the Craigavon 2
Banner drop in solidarity with the incarcerated Craigavon two, from on top the Ambassador Theatre, Parnell St, Dublin by Dublin Anarchist Black Cross.
The aim of today’s action was to highlight the serious miscarriage of justice against John Paul Wootton and Brendan McConville, who have been incarcerated for years, under degrading conditions, on spurious and falsified evidence.
Further action will be taken to the near future to highlight this case.
2nd of July 2016
White line picket in Newry
In Newry Co Down the Anti-Internment Group of Ireland held a white line picket to highlight the prison struggle and fight for justice of Republican prisoners. There were many people in attendance from different groups and organizations giving their solidarity. there was a police presence throughout the picket.
Representatives from four different groups read out statements Cogus, Dublin Anarchist Black Cross, I.R.P.W.A and the Save Moore Street Campaign. The chairperson, Cabs Kavanagh, of the Anti-Internment Group of Ireland thanked everyone and every group in attendance .
Below is the statement read out by former Republican Prisoner and Dublin Anarchist Black Cross representative:
“We are here today at this picket, many people here in attendance are members of different groups and come from different backgrounds, but what brings us here together is the prison struggles, fight for justice and human rights.
In Maghaberry Prison the Republican prison struggle has been going on for well over a decade. The prison regime is particularly brutal.
Prisoners families and loved ones being refused visits without any warning and loved ones being banned for a couple of months at a time also without warning.
There are prisoners being put in forced isolation for no good reason. Life in isolation consists of being locked in your cell for 23 hours every day and having no human contact bar with the screws. There are prisoners serving their entire sentence on the Isolation block for years, Gavin Coyle has spent 5 years in isolation, non republican prisoners usually spend up to 3 weeks on this for punishment. The use of forced isolation is to try destroy the morale, spirit and mind of a prisoner. In Gavin Coyles case the British state are trying to break him down physiologically and MI5 have made several approaches to him in the Isolation block.
The regime in Roe House where the rest of Republican prisoners are held consists of violent assaults on prisoners by screws, controlled movements, forced strip searches (which are sexual assaults in reality). These forced strip searches are even carried out on prisoners that have health problems.
The British and Irish states use all sorts of dirty tricks to jail political activists. There are cases of activists being entrapped by MI5 and the Special Branch. There are many, many cases of state forces falsifying evidence against people and activists in order to suit the agenda the state wants to carry out. This has been blatantly done in the case of the Craigavon 2.
These exact same tactics are being used against anarchist activists across Europe to get activists jailed and used against prisoners and their families to break them. Last year in Greece several anarchist prisoner went on hunger strike as acts of resistance against the repressive Greek state.
One of the prisoners that was on hunger strike for 39 days Tasos Theofilou was sentenced to 25 years in 2014. He was convicted of manslaughter, carrying a firearm and armed robbery of which he has always denied. The only evidence against him was DNA that was found on a moveable object, all the witnesses in trial could not identify him.
Prisons were built to be used against the poor, states also use them as tools of repression against political activists. Here is a quote from a Greek Anarchist that sums up prisons:
“I love life and freedom. Lets fight to tear down the prisons which bury inside them thousands of living people. Lets fight for the vision of social liberation. Lets fight for the liberation of our class from the authority of capital.” – Tasos Theofilou
The Dublin Anarchist Black Cross would like to thank the Anti-Internment Group of Ireland for inviting us here to this event.The Dublin Anarchist Black Cross would like to give our solidarity and support to John Paul Wootton and Brendan McConville and all Republican Political Prisoners, Prisoner support groups and campaigns throughout Ireland fighting the British and Irish so called Justice systems.”
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Excerpted from the ABC Dublin Newsletter.
Check out their pages here:
https://www.facebook.com/dublinanarchistblackcross/
https://dublinabc.ana.rchi.st/
Republican Prisoners:
Justice for the Craigavan 2 Campaign
https://jftc2.com/
Anti-Interment Group of Ireland:
https://www.facebook.com/End-Internment-581232915354743/
Cogus:
https://www.facebook.com/Cog%C3%BAs-POWs-854579574559725/
I.R.P.W.A:
http://irpwa.com/
via 325.nostate.net
