Defend Rhodri! Retaliation at Berwyn

Prisoner Solidarity Network

The Prisoner Solidarity Network have just received news that Rhodri ab Eilian was assaulted by prison staff at HMP Berwyn yesterday (10th February 2021). This attack comes less than two weeks after Rhodri stepped forward to speak publicly about discrimination, racism, and the denial of language rights at the prison. Both Rhodri and the PSN see this assault as a clear example of retaliatory violence and call on everyone to mobilise urgently in Rhodri’s defence.

Following yesterday’s attack, one of the staff involved threatened further violence, telling another prisoner he was going to “punch his little head in.” Rhodri knew the risks and still did what’s right. It’s our responsibility now to defend him. We’re calling on people to: Contact relevant authorities to demand Rhodri’s safety and ensure disciplinary action is taken against the responsible staff. We’ve compiled a list of contacts below and a template email you can use.

• Contact the prison governor, Nick Leader, and make your feelings about the issue clear. Nick Leader can be contacted at nick.leader@hmps.gsi.gov.uk
• Tweet HMP Berwyn at @OfficialBerwyn and reply to their posts to raise awareness about what conditions are really like.
• Prisons Ombudsman: mail@ppo.gov.uk Chief Inspector of Prisoners: hmiprisons.enquiries@hmiprisons.gov.uk
• Independent Monitoring Board: imb@justice.gov.uk
• North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner – Arfon Jones: OPCC@nthwales.pnn.police.uk
• Local MP – Sarah Atherton: sarah.atherton.mp@parliament.uk
• Senedd Member Wrexham – Lesley Griffiths: Lesley.Griffiths@senedd.wales
• Senedd Regional Member North Wales – Michelle Brown: michelle.brown@senedd.wales
• Senedd Regional Member North Wales – Llyr Gruffydd: llyr.gruffydd@senedd.wales
• Senedd Regional Member North Wales – Mark Isherwood: mark.isherwood@senedd.wales
• Senedd Regional Member North Wales – Mandy Jones: mandy.jones@senedd.wales
• Welsh Affairs Committee: welshcom@parliament.uk
• Welsh Language Commissioner: post@cyg-wlc.cymru

To whom it may concern, I’m contacting you to request an urgent intervention in response to staff violence at HMP Berwyn. You will be aware of ongoing concerns about discrimination, racism, and the denial of language rights at the prison.

Yesterday (10th February 2021), less than two weeks after speaking publicly about conditions at Berwyn, Rhodri ab Eillian was assaulted by staff. Despite being fully compliant with instructions, ab Eillian was mobbed by a group of prison officers and subject to unprovoked and excessive restraint, leaving him with shooting pains through one arm and shoulder and bruising. His injuries have been logged by prison healthcare staff. This has been followed today by further threats from officer 777 – one of the group involved in the assault.

There is the clear implication this attack was retaliatory, following immediately on from ab Eillian’s public statements about staff misconduct at the prison. The use of intimidation and violence to suppress such allegations is completely unacceptable. This incident only exacerbates existing concerns regarding the management of the prison.

I’m contacting you to request you support calls to ensure ab Eillian’s safety and that appropriate measures are taken to address the prison officers responsible.

Yours sincerely,

Statement demanding that no more babies die in prison

End the imprisonment of pregnant people and the avoidable deaths of babies in prison

Prisoner Solidarity Network (IWOC)

We are prisoners, ex-prisoners, academics, health workers, local councillors and social justice groups who were outraged and broken-hearted to hear the news that two babies have needlessly died in prison in the last year. We call on the Ministry of Justice to release all pregnant people immediately and to put measures in place in the courts to end the imprisonment of those who are pregnant.

One baby died at HMP Bronzefield a year ago in September 2019 and another at HMP Styal in June 2020. In both cases the mother gave birth in a prison cell rather than at hospital. The prisons and the Ministry of Justice have refused to release information publicly about why the mothers were not taken to hospital, despite being in labour. These deaths, and the resulting trauma for the families of the babies, could have been prevented with appropriate support and access to health care.

It is well known that access to healthcare is routinely denied to people in prison and the specific health needs of pregnant people are often ignored. In 2018, the Care Quality Commission found that prisoners had died due to prison staff failing to respond properly to medical emergencies. A more recent report from the Nuffield Trust found that prisoners miss 40% of hospital appointments and that prisoners had been admitted to hospital with life-threatening conditions caused by lack of treatment for diabetes. Research into conditions for pregnant people in prison found that they

do not have access to extra or additional pregnancy specific nutrition, they do not always have easy access to a midwife, to pregnancy guidance or support, to maternity wear, heartburn tablets and.. not even a comfortable bed or breast pads’ (Abbott and Baldwin 2020).

An audit by the Nuffield Trust shows that in 2017-18 six births took place outside of hospital, presumably in cells or ambulances, accounting for about one in 10 births to prisoners recorded by the NHS in that year. While the Ministry of Justice does not publish statistics on this, research by Dr Laura Abbott found that midwifery care was often denied to people who felt they were in labour and that several prisoners and staff members had experience of births happening in prison cells.

The prison system manages people within it based on models of security and risk, which are incompatible with care for and protection of human life. Prison is not an appropriate environment for pregnant people; it is not conducive to either the mother’s or the unborn baby’s health (Abbott and Baldwin 2020). Organisations supporting pregnant people in prison have repeatedly informed the Ministry of Justice over several years of the poor conditions and lack of access to healthcare in prisons, as well as the serious risk of mothers and/or babies dying as a result. The Ministry of Justice has failed to take action.

This issue is now even more urgent due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Pregnant people have been included on the government’s list of those clinically vulnerable to COVID-19. In addition to this, prisons have responded to the pandemic by keeping prisoners locked in cells for 22 – 24 hours per day, increasing the risk of pregnant people going into labour in cells or being unable to access maternity care. The government acknowledged this with a promise in March 2020 to release pregnant women and women with babies in prison Mother and Baby Units, in order to allow them to safely self-isolate in the community. Despite this promise, pregnant people are still languishing in prison. We call on the Ministry of Justice to act immediately on this promise and release all pregnant people and mothers with babies in Mother and Baby Units, in order to prevent further harm and deaths.

Throughout pregnancy, people should be provided with care and support towards optimal well-being, safety, and dignity for themselves and their infant. Prison cannot and will not ever be able to provide this.

The government needs to act immediately and we demand that all pregnant prisoners and mothers with babies in Mother and Baby Units are released from prison by the 1st of November with adequate housing and support. If this is not done we will continue to campaign until this demand is met.

Signatories and Cymraeg

Resources

Baby dies in UK prison after inmate ‘gives birth alone in cell’

Revealed: concerns over string of incidents at UK prison where baby died

Two babies have died in a prison cell as women in jail are refused basic medical care

Why Do We Still Imprison Pregnant Women?

Why Has Another Baby Died In Prison?

Pregnancy and childbirth in English prisons

RADICAL WORKERS’ BLOC AT TOLPUDDLE 2019

Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival and rally 2019 Friday, 19th to Sunday, 21st July 2019. View map No stall this year, apparently they were “oversubscribed”. Nah we don’t either, more time to get drunk then.

On the plus side the IWW are back, with a new improved stall run by Dorset branch.

Wob kitchen will run from Friday evening to Sunday lunch, next to the Big Tent; you’ll hardly notice the difference. Wessex Solidarity will make some of our literature catalogue available on the day. We’ve lots of new stuff that isn’t in the reference library as we’re running out of storage space – it hasn’t been updated for years. Why not get in touch now if there’s a subject you’re particularly interested in.

Catering Cadre: Comrade Les, our Wob kitchen chef is offering free training on outside and event catering for Radical Workers and groups who want to feed their members, homeless or unemployed workers in a safe and cost-effective way. Topics including:

• Basic Health safety and hygiene.
• Basic budget and Menu planning.
• Basic dietary requirements.
• Basic safe use of LPG and Butane gas cookers.

Let us know if you’re interested or come and see us about it at the festival.

Safe Space Policy: “don’t be a dick”.

This year we ask Radical Workers to be especially kind to members of the Prison Officers Association, as they are ever so sensitive, and easily upset by loud noises and rude words.

Bloody hell it was hot! Tolpuddle R.W.B. 2018

Kurdish Solidarity Cymru. Decentralised Day of Action in Solidarity with the Kurdish Hunger strikers

Kurdish Solidarity Cymru call on you to support a boycott of Turkish holidays in solidarity with Kurdish hunger strikers. Please join us for a decentralised day of action on the 4th of May. We encourage creative actions on the day, and for groups and individuals to immediately start  writing to travel agents asking them to stop selling Turkish holidays until Abdullah Ocalan’s isolation is broken.

In the UK Imam Sis, a 32 year old Kurdish resident of Newport, has been on an indefinite hunger strike since the 17th November 2018. His condition is rapidly deteriorating. He is part of an international movement of hunger strikers; almost 10 000 Kurdish activists and political prisoners are on hunger strike worldwide. They are calling for an end to the isolation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose been held in a Turkish prison for 20 years and denied access to family and lawyers since 2011. Imam explains why the demands of the hunger strikers are so important here: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/abdullah-calan-erdogan-imam-sis-welsh-parliament-a8846926.html

We will concentrate our efforts on the travel agent Tui, formerly known as Thompson. There are branches in most towns and cities in the UK – an opportunity for a mass decentralised action in solidarity with the hunger strikers. Find your local branch here: https://www.tui.co.uk/shop-finder People can also register complaints to: https://www.tuigroup.com/en-en/meta/contact or via the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TUIUnitedKingdom/

We have the potential to raise awareness of the hunger strike, and the fact that Turkey as a state tortures Kurds and supports ISIS. A place totally unsuitable to go on holiday and support economically. Tourism accounts for 11.6% of Turkey’s economy, contributing $26 billion to their economy in 2017. This income helps fuel Turkey’s war on the Kurds. There are also direct links between Turkish holiday and arms companies. Over 2 million people from the UK visited Turkey in 2018, making the UK one of the top 5 countries supporting Turkey’s tourist income. We cannot rely on governments alone to pressure Turkey, attacking their economy through boycotts is an important part of the campaign.

A picket, a stall, an occupation, or creative forms of direct action –  your solidarity can be as limitless as your imagination. Why not use your local May day march as a convergence point for taking action?  By the 27th of April we will have produced leaflets, posters and other resources for all to use at actions that will be available to download on the Kurdish Solidarity Cymru website.

Please send reports of any actions, we can then pass it on to the hunger strikers themselves. E-mail a report to kurdishsolicymru@riseup.net or Tweet with the hashtag #Fast4Apo.

​Together we will break the isolation and stand with the Kurds who have already sacrificed so much in their fight against the fascism.