John Bowden, a long time class war prisoner, is constantly attacked by the prison service and various so called 'libertarians'. Here, he raises interesting questions about the nature of political action for self described 'anarchists', 'liberals', and 'Marxists'.
Is politics meant to be a holier than thou search for pure working class positions, which the working class are never part of, or is our politics meant to be for liberation of the working classes?
Is politics meant to be a holier than thou search for pure working class positions, which the working class are never part of, or is our politics meant to be for liberation of the working classes?
Here's a letter John Bowden had published in this months Insidetime;
Ben Gunn's excellent article in your July issue: 'Reform Groups - speak to us, not for us', raised some important questions concerning the role and nature of the established prison reform organisations and who it is they truly represent and serve.
Ben suggests that, on the whole, the professional prison reformists tend to be little more than self-serving careerists motivated more by an intention to ingratiate themselves with penal policy makers and enforcers in a collaborative attempt to legitimise the image and function of prisons. Ben has expressed an irrefutable truth here, and one supported by historical evidence and experience.
Groups like the Howard League, for example, are in fact the latest manifestation of a Victorian, liberal, middle-class project to make prisons more socially acceptable and more effective in regulating and disciplining the lives of what were viewed as the rebellious poor.
The reality is that 'respectable' prison reform organisations are as terrified as those who administer the prison system by the concept and possibility of an organised movement of prisoners empowered by unity and solidarity - such a dynamic threatens the existence of both groups.
When prisoners collectively organise they shift the balance of power within jails and create their own agenda for change, which is an absolute anathema to liberals and hard liners alike, because it challenges both the system and assumptions on which the powerlessness of prisoners is based.
When prisoners defy these imposed assumptions by organising on their own behalf, and articulating their rage and vision for radical, fundamental change, both those employed to keep them in their place and those who claim to represent their best interests feel deeply threatened.
John Bowden - HMP Glenochil
Ben Gunn's excellent article in your July issue: 'Reform Groups - speak to us, not for us', raised some important questions concerning the role and nature of the established prison reform organisations and who it is they truly represent and serve.
Ben suggests that, on the whole, the professional prison reformists tend to be little more than self-serving careerists motivated more by an intention to ingratiate themselves with penal policy makers and enforcers in a collaborative attempt to legitimise the image and function of prisons. Ben has expressed an irrefutable truth here, and one supported by historical evidence and experience.
Groups like the Howard League, for example, are in fact the latest manifestation of a Victorian, liberal, middle-class project to make prisons more socially acceptable and more effective in regulating and disciplining the lives of what were viewed as the rebellious poor.
The reality is that 'respectable' prison reform organisations are as terrified as those who administer the prison system by the concept and possibility of an organised movement of prisoners empowered by unity and solidarity - such a dynamic threatens the existence of both groups.
When prisoners collectively organise they shift the balance of power within jails and create their own agenda for change, which is an absolute anathema to liberals and hard liners alike, because it challenges both the system and assumptions on which the powerlessness of prisoners is based.
When prisoners defy these imposed assumptions by organising on their own behalf, and articulating their rage and vision for radical, fundamental change, both those employed to keep them in their place and those who claim to represent their best interests feel deeply threatened.
John Bowden - HMP Glenochil
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Comments
Hide the following 9 comments
hmmm
21.08.2008 13:07
But I don't see that he is addressing the question posed at the top of the article at all. Not here anyway.
prison solidarity activist
Open your mind
21.08.2008 14:06
Intellectual
John Bowden is in jail for murder!
21.08.2008 14:26
Concerned of Leeds
John Bowden is in jail for murder!
21.08.2008 14:29
Concerned of Leeds
Fek off cop from leeds
21.08.2008 20:50
Not so much 'concerned', more 'conservative from Leeds'.
Klass War
Klass War my arse!
22.08.2008 11:53
Concerned of Leeds
Response to John's letter
23.08.2008 13:03
Prison does not work in any way at all. The gentleman from Leeds does indeed sound like a policeman. I know from my own experience of the police in brighton and Hove what a contemptible collection of bullying cowards they are. I am writing a book called 'Justice? - You decide - which tells my story as to how i became involved in prisoner support and a section of this will concern john - here is a very brief section
__________________________________________________________________
People can and do change, move along their paths and in due time find who they really are. This I believe is what has happened to the subject of this chapter. My good friend and comrade John Bowden. It was during his many years in Prison that John changed. As he thought and read and became one with those around him he could recognise a common humanity shared with his fellow captives. Change happens where it will and John became a revolutionary. Oppression and cruel abuse of all that makes one a vulnerable human being will engender resistance. It can do no other. A revolutionary is a true human being, someone who the great Anarchist thinker Alexander Berkman called ‘a soldier of humanity’ who has found his true self; he/she can see the truth and rather than compromise all that makes them human a revolutionary confronts state oppression and says ‘no.’
__________________________________________________________________
Best wishes to all true comrades in struggle
George Coombs
e-mail:
georgecmbs@tiscali.co.uk
Anonymous Coward of Leeds
24.08.2008 10:30
Mark Barnsley
Howard League in its own words
26.08.2008 10:12
“Criminalising and locking up troubled and neglected children as young as ten is inhumane and shameful. By neglecting them while in custody we exacerbate the likelihood of reoffending on release. It is time to rethink and restructure the way we deal with our most vulnerable and challenging young people
Extract from Director's blog May 2008
'And a follow up to my jury service. I did a horrid 6 day case
involving an allegation of rape by a 16 year old boy on a girl just
turned 15. I am not allowed to go into detail, but I do think that
both these young people were let down by the system. The girl was
seriously in need of help and support, well before this incident, and
the boy should not have been charged with the offence. The verdict? 11
to 1 to acquit, and yes, I was the one. Not because I thought he was
guilty of rape but because he was guilty of unlawful sexual
intercourse, but he wasn't charged with that, so I didn't want a
unanimous verdict. I just hope that someone is now giving support to these kids.'
that same activist (not a Mr though)