No more deaths in custody! Pauline Campbell remembered


photo John O for MOJUK

Campaigners gathered outside Styal prison in Wilmslow, Cheshire on Sunday 10 August to remember all the women who have died there, to protest against all deaths in prison and to remember the massive contribution to the struggle against prison brutality made by Pauline Campbell, who died earlier this year. Pauline had fought for five years to highlight the abuses of vulnerable women in prison, following the death of her 18-year-old daughter Sarah in Styal in 2003. Every time a woman died in prison, she would organise a demonstration outside that prison. She travelled around the country to do this, sometimes accompanied by a group of supporters; other times standing almost alone. She was arrested 15 times and charged five times. Her contribution will never be forgotten. 10 August is Prisoners Justice Day – an annual event begun in Canada in 1975, following the death of prisoner Edward Nalon a year earlier, and first commemorated in Britain in the early 1990s.


photo John O for MOJUK

The demonstration at Styal was called by No More Prison and attended by supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and Brighton Anarchist Black Cross, as well as by Guardian prisons correspondent Eric Allison and stalwart peace campaigner Joan Meredith, who participated in many of Pauline’s prison protests, and who has pledged to carry on her work.

A simultaneous demonstration took place outside Holloway prison in London, attended by supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! - London Coalition Against Poverty and Women in Prison.

Members and supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, London Coalition Against Poverty and Women in Prison gathered outside Holloway Prison on Sunday 10 August 2008, Prisoners Justice Day.

This annual event around the world gives solidarity to all those incarcerated in prison and remembers all those who have died at the hands of a brutal negligent inhuman prison system.

The demonstrations for Prisoners Justice Day 2008 at Holloway Prison in London and in Wilmslow, Cheshire at Styal prison were held as a tribute to Pauline Campbell who tragically died in May this year.



Pauline was the mother of Sarah Campbell found dead in Styal Prison in 2003, aged 18 and the youngest of six women who died in Styal that year. Following Sarah’s death Pauline dedicated her life to raising the issues facing women in prison and in particular campaigning against women’s deaths – women murdered at the hands of the prison service. Every time a woman died, Pauline was outside the prison to highlight the tragedy of yet another loss of a young life, of a mother, a sister, a daughter.

There have been forty such deaths of women in the five years since Sarah Campbell died in January 2003. Outside Holloway prison, placards and banners gave the message to passers by on foot, in cars and in buses: No more deaths in custody! No more prisons! People stopped and many vehicles hooted in support, as chants rang out over the megaphone.

The London demonstration remembered in particular the five young women who have died in Holloway Prison in the last four years: Julie Hope and Heather Waite in 2004, Karen Fletcher in 2005, Marie Cox and Jamie Pearce in 2007.

In the words of Pauline Campbell, earlier this year: ‘No civilised society should tolerate prisons that drive their inmates to killing themselves. Likewise, no civilised government should allow this shameful state of affairs to continue.’

Close down Communications House



Members and supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! gathered at Communications House, Old Street in London, for the monthly demonstration against the British Labour Government’s racist immigration laws and the ongoing detention and deportation of asylum seekers. Communications House and other Immigration Reporting Centres are places of fear for asylum seekers, they may be detained without warning and sent to a removal centre to await deportation.

Over the megaphone, the message was loud and clear:
Close down Communications House! Asylum is not a crime!

Join us on the first Tuesday of every month in London from 1-2pm outside Communications House, 210 Old Street, London EC1V 9BR. For more details email defendasylumseekers@yahoo.co.uk or phone 020 7837 1688

RATB tells Lloyds TSB: Hands off Cuba!

On Saturday 12 July, members and supporters of Rock around the Blockade (RATB) held a lively demonstration outside the Camden branch of Lloyds TSB bank in north London, protesting at the bank’s recent capitulation to the US blockade of Cuba.

Lloyds TSB has written to its business customers who deal with Cuba telling them they can no longer use their accounts to trade with Cuba. The letter states ‘I must advise you to find alternative ways of making payments to your suppliers with Cuban connections.’

RATB is calling on the public to put pressure on Lloyds TSB until they state in writing that they will not discriminate against British companies who legitimately trade with Cuba. We oppose these bullying tactics against British companies who legitimately trade with Cuba and we stand in solidarity with the Cuban people, against attacks and attempts to isolate them.

About the US blockade For almost 50 years the US has imposed an illegal blockade of Cuba. The Helms Burton Act, 1996, the latest addition to the blockade legislation, makes foreign companies who invest in Cuba liable to prosecution in the US. This followed legislation making it illegal under US law for US-owned subsidiaries in third countries to trade with Cuba. The US blockade of Cuba has been condemned by 16 consecutive votes in the United Nations General Assembly. In 2007, 184 countries (including Britain) voted against the US Blockade of Cuba and only four in favour, however the US overturned this vote with their veto on the Security Council.

Contact RATB more details of these actions and other events: BM RATB, London WC1N 3XX 020 7837 1688 office@ratb.org.uk and visit out website www.ratb.org.uk

Lloyds TSB customers and shareholders should write to:

Phil Markey Relationships Manager, Lloyds Bank, 25 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7HN



Patricia O'Muerte

On Saturday 14 June supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) hosted a Break the Chains rally event in solidarity with political prisoners of imperialism.

The rally took place on the east pavement of Trafalgar Square, outside the South African embassy, where from 1986 to 1990 City of London Anti-Apartheid Group held a non-stop picket for the freedom of Nelson Mandela and all South African political prisoners and for the liberation of South Africa from the racist barbaric system of apartheid.



Break the chains was supported by individuals and groups, including:
* Kurdish comrades from Halkevi demanding the release of Abdullah Ocalan from his incarceration and freedom for Kurdistan,
* Rock around the Blockade and the Marti-Maceo organisation of Cubans in Britain who are both campaigning for the Cuban 5, held prisoner in the US
* The London Guantanamo Campaign, who spoke about Binyam Mohammed, the last Londoner in Guatanamo
* Crossroads Women’s Centre, who spoke about the case of Pierre Antoine Lovinski, a human rights activist who disappeared in Haiti last year
* Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) who reported on the activity in support of asylum seekers in Newcastle, the Pledge of Resistance against dawn raids and the current urgent campaign to free TCAR member Mako Oumakani from Dungavel Detention Centre
* London No Borders, who are campaigning in support of detainees resisting immigration detention
* No More Prisons. who are organising a demonstration outside Styal Prison on 10 August to commemorate the life of campaigner Pauline Campbell



FRFI supporters spoke over the megaphone about
* the Lucasville 5 prisoners on death row in the US
* Mumia Abu Jamal, former Black Panther and revolutionary journalist, framed for a murder 27 years ago, on death row and still fighting back
* Palestinian prisoners and the reality of life in Palestine - particularly in Gaza -  where the whole population has been made prisoners.
* British prisons and the Labour government’s plans to vastly increase the capacity of prisons and detention centres to incarcerate the poor and working class
* the importance of standing in solidarity with the oppressed and imprisoned of the world against the barbarism of capitalism and imperialism and Britain’s ongoing vicious war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan
* the racist nature of imperialism in the US where one in nine black men aged 20-34 is behind bars

Towards the end of the rally we received news of an uprising at Campsfield Detention Centre, which we announced on the megaphone. FRFI sends solidarity greetings to the detainees and all those in struggle against detention and imprisonment.



Break the chains!
Solidarity with all political prisoners of imperialism!

On Saturday 7 June, Rock Around the Blockade activists in Glasgow, Scotland took to the city centre to protest against US imperialism's upholding of the convictions of the Cuban Five. Activists distributed literature on the five heroes, petitioned for their release and asked local people to stand in support of the political prisoners. Leaflets were also distributed calling on people to join the demonstration outside the US Consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland on 26 July to demand the release of the Cuban Five and an end to the US blockade of the socialist island. Venceremos!

Emergency protest
US Court of Appeals upholds convictions of the Cuban 5
Viva Cuba



Members and supporters of Rock around the Blockade demonstrated on the north pavement of Trafalgar Square on Saturday 7 June as part of the international Day After campaign, a pledge to demonstrate the day after and the Saturday after the US Court of Appeals verdict. The verdict, upholding the convictions of the Cuban 5, was announced last Wednesday.

Behind the demonstrators were photos of the five, flags, banners, posters and placards, They raised the issue of socialist Cuba and its achievements that the Cuban 5 continue to steadfastly defend; and they demanded that the Cuban 5 go free immediately, that the US get out of Guantanamo and that self-avowed terrorist Posada Carrilles face extradition and trial.

As a huge Cuban flag was waved over the demonstration and chants of ‘justice for the Cuban 5, Free them now!’ rang out over the square, people signed petitions, took leaflets, held placards, chanted and learned more about Cuba, the revolution and socialism. Speakers included activists from Rock around the Blockade and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! They spoke of the importance of raising the profile of the campaign and in the words of Cuban 5 civil rights Lawyer, Leonard Weinglass, building a political mass movement to demand justice for the Cuban 5. A statement in solidarity with Rock around the Blockade sent to us by Gloria La Riva, Free the Five USA, was read out, as were the inspiring words of Gerardo Hernandes following the verdict: ‘We’ll do all the time we have to do, 30 years, 40, whatever, and as long as a single one of you is outside resisting, we are also going to resist, until justice is done.’

The appeal has been rejected but the campaign must go on for justice and freedom for the Cuban 5 – fighters against terrorism who have refused for ten years to compromise their principles.

Long live the Cuban Revolution!
Long live Socialism!
Freedom for the Cuban 5!

Less than 24 hours after receiving the news that the US Court of Appeal had upheld the convictions of the Cuban Five, over 20 activists gathered outside the US embassy in London at 7pm as part of the 'day after' campaign to condemn against the rulings. This emergency protest was called by Rock around the Blockade, which campaigns in solidarity with Cuba's socialist Revolution in Britain. It was joined by representatives from other groups. Mobilisation began at 11pm the night before.

Unable to stand in front of the US embassy, which is protected by a road block and barriers, the activists decorated the eight foot railings with Cuban flags, placards and pictures of the five Cuban heroes. They leafleted passers by and gave speeches exposing the hypocrisy of the US/Britain so-called 'war on terrorism' while Cubans who work to defend their people from right-wing extremists, linked to the US government, are unjustly incarcerated and denied basic legal rights. One speaker pointed out that as well as a protest the event was also a celebration – of the continued and defiant resistance of the Five and the revolutionary people of Cuba, who have resisted US aggression and attacks for nearly half a century. They have shown the world that commitment to ideas, principles and justice is more powerful than all the money and armaments in the world.

A second demonstration is planned for this Saturday 7 June in Trafalgar Square in central London at 12 noon. We hope that all those individual and groups who oppose terrorism and support justice will join us.

Free the Cuban Five! Vive Cuba! Viva Socialism!

Check out the international reports on the "Free the Five" website,

20 January 1948 - 15 May 2008

FRFI is deeply saddened by the death on 15 May of Pauline Campbell, who for the past five years had fought an unrelenting struggle to expose the brutal and inhumane treatment of women prisoners in Britain.   Following the death in 2003 of her 18-year-old daughter Sarah - the youngest of six women who died in Styal that year – Pauline began a campaign of direct action to expose the prison system’s complete lack of care for vulnerable women.  Between April 2004 and April 2008 every time a woman prisoner died, she staged a demonstration outside the prison. There were 28 demonstrations in all.  RCG comrades regularly attended those at Styal, New Hall, Holloway and Durham prisons.  Pauline was arrested 15 times and charged five times.  The latest charges against her were recently dropped and we reprint below an article sent to FRFI just five days before her death, thanking readers for lobbying the CPS on her behalf.

Pauline was completely non-sectarian in her campaigning. She lobbied MPs, spoke to parliamentary committees, emailed journalists, and addressed conferences, marched with other relatives of people who had died in custody, demonstrated alongside peace campaigners, communists, anarchists and feminists.  She wrote regularly for FRFI, as well as for many other publications. 

click here to read her last letter to FRFI and Eric Alisons Comments

On Saturday 3 May, RCG and RATB supporters joined a May Day demonstration through Edinburgh city centre. Comrades marched with banners of Che Guevara and the Cuban 5, distributing leaflets calling for a demonstration outside the US consulate in Edinburgh on the 26 July to demand the release of the five heroes.

Comrades and supporters of the Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! newspaper took part in a sponsored walk on 27 April to raise money for the RCG’s continuing work in building an anti-imperialist and working class movement in Britain. 13 people from Manchester walked the famous Kinder Scout route in the Peak District, the scene of a historic mass trespass in 1932, involving many communists, which led to the land becoming a public right of way. During the 12 mile walk, which lasted nearly seven hours, the comrades carried flags from the USSR, Palestine, Cuba and Bolivia in a gesture of solidarity with the socialist and progressive struggles taking place across the world. The walk marked the beginning of FRFI’s national £10,000 fund-drive. Get in touch if you want to make a donation or take part in a fundraising event.

On 15 March FRFI activists joined the Stop the War demonstrations around the country to mark the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the US and British forces. At the main march in London our loud anti-imperialist contingent was joined by Turkish communists from the MLKP and Congolese activities.

www.ratb.org.uk