On Saturday 23 September, South London FRFI supporters organised a protest outside Belmarsh prison in solidarity with all IPP prisoners and especially to highlight the fightback of Joe Outlaw. We were joined by comrades from FRFI North and West London, as well as from Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA), Anarchist Black Cross and TRAPPED.
Introduced in 2005 by a Labour government which had sworn to be ‘tough on crime’ and which presided over a massive rise in the prison population, the sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) is a draconian indeterminate sentence with a short custodial minimum period followed by indefinite detention unless the Parole Board directs that someone is safe to be released. Although officially abolished in 2012 this was not retrospective and some 3,000 IPP prisoners remain behind bars.
Moving toward the front of Belmarsh Prison together with over 40 friends of Julian Assange, who were setting off on a solidarity bike ride protest, we held an open microphone, with demands to free all IPP prisoners, calling the prison system for what it is: an instrument of class repression under capitalism.
The protest heard from FRFI supporters, former prisoners, and JengBa and Assange campaigners. Speakers highlighted different forms of the struggle against the prison system, whilst expressing solidarity with Joe.
Joe Outlaw had sent us a letter, which was read out to the demonstration. Joe has valiantly fought back against the prison system by staging two prison rooftop protests, highlighting the brutality inflicted upon IPP prisoners. As a punishment for these actions, he is being held in solitary confinement.
The government has refused to implement recommendations which would result in the freeing of IPP prisoners and is planning to build yet more prisons and step up the repressive use of imprisonment both for political activists and for people whose main ‘crime’ is being poor. We must continue to organise from beyond the walls and see the fight against prisons as a fight for the entirety of the working-class.
JENGBA – www.jointenterprise.co
Trapped – www.shows.acast.com/trapped-the-ipp-prisoner-scandal
