Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

John Bowden and Guantanamo Bay

Danny | 10.07.2007 13:31 | Repression

I just received a lovely letter from John Bowden. He has been told in writing why he isn't allowed to hear the CD I made for him. An assistant governor at Glenochil listened to it and deemed it contained sectarian songs. When asked for an example she said it was the Seize the Day song "Club X-Ray". She wrote this clearly criticised Guantanamo Bay and such criticisms would offend prison staff.

So the Scottish Prison Service have banned any criticism of Guantanamo Bay, a camp that is condemned worldwide, in case officers are offended. I take it prison officers at Glenochil have a great deal of respect and love for their collegues at Guantanamo.
This is a minor point but it does illustrate several things - the political nature of the prison regime and of Johns detention, the mendacity of the SPS who have given four different reasons for seizing the CD, and the petty-minded harassment that goes on in our prisons. It is also quite short-sighted of the SPS as it is slanderous/libellous of one of Britains best up-and-coming bands and a breach of their copyright. If they had just given him the CD like they initially promised then it would have been forgotten about. It also misrepresents this "happy little song" about a "happy little place".

I'm going to print and post these lyrics to John to see if they get through to him:

Guantanamo Bay / Club X-Ray - Seize the Day

I think most people know about Guantanamo Bay or they've heard a lot about it and it's been bad press mainly, and we think it's been misrepresented. People are saying that innocent invividuals have been walking along the streets in Pakistan and places, they've been picked up by the FBI-CIA and bundled off, find themselves kept in cages in Guantanamo Bay with no right of appeal and possibly facing execution. We say that's all nonsense. It's actually Club X-Ray and they are having a great time there and learning this dance, it's called the Shackle-Shuffle. These two people are going to demonstrate on the stage, like all the people at Guantanamo Bay a very willing volunteer here. You're going to have to imagine that they are wearing orange boilersuits cos that's de riguer at Club X-Ray, and you may worry that she's a child, but you know some of the people at Guantanamo Bay are under 16 years old, that doesn't matter. It's a happy little song. It's a happy little place.

If you're a Sheikh who is a mover
or fundamentally a groover
Get with the brothers on maneuver
Comin at you all the way from Cuba
- Not the Cuba of Havanas
Where the Presidente is bananas
But the Cuba that is free, lookin over the sea
to the Florida Key ( to democracy )
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
Wear a chain on your wrist, do the Islamacist
Bossa Nova with a twist, and it goes like this:
Put your hands on your head (Reach!)
And Shackle-Shuffle to the left (Move!)
You do the monkey-squat and then (Squat!)
You Shackle-Shuffle back again
Bow in prayer to the East (Pray!)
Down on your belly like a beast (Beast!)
You're never gonna be released (Peace!)
Till the day you're deceased
No time for sleeping at Club X-Ray
No time for chilling-out the next day
Although we wouldn't call it torture
We're gonna sweat you now we've caught ya.
At first you feel humiliated
Cos every move is regulated
But as the beat interrogates you
Join the club that liberates!
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
Put your hands on your head (Reach!)
And Shackle-Shuffle to the left (Move!)
You do the monkey-squat and then (Squat!)
You Shackle-Shuffle back again
Bow in prayer to the East (Pray!)
Down on your belly like a beast (Beast!)
You're never gonna be released (Peace!)
Till the day you're deceased
It isn't really so important
whether you came dressed as a combatant
Or just a towel-headed farmer
who had a cousin called Osama
We're not conventional believers
No busy-bodies from Geneva
If you're a friend of Tora Bora
There's no restriction on the door

All you'll need to get in is the beard on your chin,
An indefinite stay and you don't have to pay
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
Put your hands on your head (Reach!)
And Shackle-Shuffle to the left (Move!)
You do the monkey-squat and then (Squat!)
You Shackle-Shuffle back again
Bow in prayer to the East (Pray!)
Down on your belly like a beast (Beast!)
You're never gonna be released (Peace!)
Till the day you're deceased
At this exclusive little venue
Halal is always on the menu
Free Toiletries, and what is more an
Edition of Gideon's Koran
O heck - did I forget to mention
We're busy building an extension
Where every wish will be respected
As you are lethally injected!

We'd a pipeline to lay, but you got in the way,
So we sacrificed you to the needs of the few
In the heat of High Noon you will dance to our tune
An example to all to obey Unocal,
See the prisoners kneel, with no right of appeal,
In the land that is free - free to take liberty -
Till the sea starts to boil, till we run out of oil
In Guantanamo Bay… Hey - Hey!
At the Club X-Ray! (Shackle-Shuffle to the right) Cha-cha-cha.

Danny
- Homepage: http://www.seizetheday.org/albums/theTideIsTurning/guantanamoBay.cfm

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Prison not registered with DP act

11.07.2007 12:25

"According to a report by the UK Information Commission, a "horrifying" number of firms, government bodies and other public agencies have breached rules designed to govern the use of personal information...The Ministry of Justice has warned that in the future, those misusing personal data could be given prison sentences." [1]

A search on the information commisioners website shows that HMP Glenochil, FK10 3AD, isn't registered with the Data Protection act. This means either they have no records on their prisoners and their staff, and no CCTV, or the prison staff themselves could be given prison services according to the Ministry of Justice.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/374288.html

[1]  http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/28059/Horrifying-number-of-data-protection-breaches

Danny


Prisons and Data Protection

11.07.2007 13:36

Don't know how it works in Scotland but the Prison Service in England and Wales has a complicated system for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. You can find this on the Prison Service's website by looking for Prison Service Orders and then finding PSO 9020 which deals with Data Protection Act requests.

Under these provisions, prisoners can make requests to see all info held on them. Stuff is frequently withheld on spurious security grounds and there is endless red tape. However a procedure does exist and the SPS will have to have somethig similar. The individual prisons do, I think, appoint 'data controllers', but the requests for disclosure are done centrally and not via the individual prison.

N


Protect My Datah !

11.07.2007 16:27

Thanks N, but unless you know differently then prisons are as liable as any other public body to register under the Data Protection act. I started writing to Glenochil politely but got beaten back with lies and bureaucracy. I hate the state more thn most but I am smitten with the Information Commisioners office. The Ministry of Justice is threateneing to imprison people who fail to comply with the DP act but they themselves don't comply and aren't exempt. So they can go imprison themselves as far as I care.

On a personal note, my dole was stopped 45 days ago because I failed to sign-on. I tried, and their CCTV witnessed it, but I wasn't able to make a Freedom of Information request before they wiped their tapes because the dole-office isn't DP compliant. It is a loophole to hang them with, a double-edged sword of their own making. I'm going to the dole tommorow, I'll be on CCTV, I'll request a copy of the tape, and then I'll phone the cops since when they can't deliver.
To paraphrase Cartman, it is not so much 'Respect my Authoritah' as 'Protect My Datah'.

Danny
- Homepage: http://www.esd.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/esd/search.asp


Public bodies

12.07.2007 09:30

Don't think an individual prison is a public body. The Scottish Prison Service will be the public body.

N


petty vacant

12.07.2007 12:19

I should have said public buildings. I believe individual buildings within larger organisations have to have a data controller to comply with the data protection act if they maintain local records of staff or clients or if they have a CCTV system. So, my local Shell garage is registered individually as it has CCTV but not for staff records. Shell HQ is also registered for it's CCTV but also for staff records. I can see no legal exemption for civil service buildings - even Buckingham Palace is there and the Queen has legal immunity from everything. So I don't see why HMP Glenochil and my local job centre aren't registered, at least for their CCTV systems.

The implication was clearly spelled out by the Information Commisioner. 90% of CCTV footage that is used in prosecutions should be inadmissible in court. If you are on trial and CCTV evidence has been used as evidence then type in the postcode of the organisation that submitted it and if it isn't registered it should be ruled as inadmissible.

Back to Club X-Ray though. To get the CD into prison I had to get copyright permission from the artists. They granted this permission but only for this one CD and only for John Bowden to hear, several of them were explicit about this. After I learned that a prison guard had played it, I reminded them that it was a breach of copyright unless they had sought Johns permission. Now an assistant governor has knowingly broken copyright again. I know I am being petty, but they started it. I had thought I was going to get the first comp CD into a prison but other prisoners get comp CDs all the time, the guards at reception told me my written permission wasn't even necessary when I handed the CD in. I hope to get from John the written declaration that Seize the Days song has been banned because it is sectarian and critical of the prison service so that I can pass that to the band. If I were them I'd sue but even if they don't it is good publicity "as banned by the prison service".

I'd love to repeat what John wrote about this - I mean the SPS have read our correspondence anyway - but I don't want to distract from his case or preempt his next move. I'd be happy to have John stay at my house and leave him with my nephews and neices, and I wouldn't say that about most peace activists I've met. He is obviously no danger to the public. The prison service are obviously punishing him for standing up to them. It's like in the torture scene in 1984, the torture continued after the confession and it was explained that it wasn't to get Winston to confess, it was to break his spirit and make him believe the confession. the SPS have handled this very stupidly. They think by keeping him locked up in maximum security he is less likely to cause them future problems than if he was released. As long as he is supported on the outside, he is actually much more of a problem for them inside. And it is an awful thing to say, but he is much more of an asset to prisoners rights activism inside than if he were free. I hope he gets released asap and will work for that, as I would have broken and licked their boots under this much pressure, but since he hasn't broken he is a shining example.

He is not even an anarchist, and yet he is under lock down conditions simply for refusing to condemn anarchists as terrorists. He is more free than any of us on the outside who bite our tongues just to protect our benefits or get promotion. Even within prisons dissent is bought off with privileges for obedience. To me at least that fact illustrates that the whole of the UK is a prison island, John is just in the most oppressive wing of that state penitentionary. Johns case and treatment isn't unique, but I can think of no one who embodies libertarian principles to the same degree. As Henry David Thoreau wrote,

"Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." -

Danny


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech