Topics: anarchism in the United Kingdom, anti-prison, International day of solidarity with Anarchist prisoners, Kill the Bill, prison abolition movement
Notes: Message from Ryan Roberts during his prison sentence, reflecting on prison, the anarchist community and the International day of solidarity with Anarchist prisoners.
The 11th of June is the International day of solidarity with long term Anarchist prisoners. On this day we make a call for solidarity and to keep the light of revolution alive. Mutual support, care and unity are our strengths to bring down capitalism and keep our communities organised. Prison solidarity is not just a day or a week in the calendar, it’s every day, every hour, and every minute counts. Bring prison solidarity into your everyday life. Write letters to your friends in prison. You don’t know anyone? Choose some local and international names and start to write to them. Prisons are built to isolate people, break that wall and don’t let anyone be forgotten. We’re in this together, fighting the same unfair rotten system. No one left behind. No one is free until we’re all free. (A)
Write to Ryan here:
Ryan Roberts
A5155EM
HMP Lowdham Grange,
Old Epperstone Road,
Lowdham,
Nottingham,
NG14 7DA
Have you heard me yelling about my dramatic queer enemies-to-lovers pro-wrestling comic? Want to support me as I make chapter 2? Want to finally be able to read the beginning with ease? Well.... do I have news for you! You can now buy the digital pdf of the first chapter of Count the Lights!
The physical book is also still available, if you'd prefer to hold the thing in your hands (I know I would). You can get that HERE :)
Hey UK folks, if you would like to do something that could end up being lifesaving for an incarcerated person, a KTB anarchist named Ryan Roberts has been ill with a severe cough in HMS Swaleside for months but is not receiving any diagnosis or treatment beyond painkillers.
Ryan Roberts (Prisoner number A5155EM) needs urgent medical attention
- He has a bad cough, which has been ongoing for some months
- He has been given basic pain relief, but it hasn’t stopped the cough getting worse
- He has additional symptoms; chest tightness, breathing difficulties, and difficulty speaking, and the constant coughing keeps triggering migraines
- Ryan has the underlying condition asthma, which is likely contributing to the issue
Actions that need to be taken by HMP Swaleside
- Ryan needs to be seen immediately by a qualified medical professional to diagnose and prescribe treatment for the underlying cause of the cough
- He needs to be allowed to to receive effective treatment for the illness
- It is clear the cough is not going to resolve with simple pain relief by this time; proper diagnosis and effective treatment is needed
How you can help
- Call HMP Swaleside on 01795804100 and request to speak to an orderly officer to request Ryan receive proper diagnosis and treatment
- Call Safer Custody on 01795 804295 and explain your concerns, or leave a voicemail message after hours
- Send an email addressing HMP Swaleside Governer Lee-Ann Williams on [email protected]
- Fill in a Safer Custody Concern Form at https://www.prisonersfamilies.org/hmp-swaleside.
If you think the prisoner is at immediate risk please call the switchboard on 01795 804100 and ask for the Orderly Officer and explain that
Please put your relationship as “friend” on the form.
Access to medical treatment is a basic human right that applies to incarcerated people as much as anyone else, and someone being untreated with a respiratory illness in an incarcerated population right now is frankly very frightening.
Support Ryan & Ryan! | Bristol Anarchist Black Cross
-A buck of misfit toys that are grumpy old men have their Vietnam war in Mexico, and end it all in a bloody shoot out
-you know, fucking awesome
-gotta love how after actor William Holden says the immortal line “If they move...kill em!” Then comes the title card “directed by Sam Peckinpah. Now that is a screen credit
-what I love most about him as a director is how in the middle of utter chaos he gives these victims of circumstances their blaze of humanity and dignity; the warm embrace of comfort that life otherwise denied them
-I think it’s worth noting that Peckinpah was also an alcoholic, so there is fair amount of lusty rambling, and utter spikes of lucidity
-it’s just endearing as Holden and Ernest Borgnine argue and support each other
-This is such a lived in world, each of the visual elements so assured and soaked in attention
-actor Warren Oates has great fun shooting the wine barrels and lapping up their liquid ambrosia
-what a train sequence. The way it’s held together by sheer willpower is mesmerizing
-westerns really do capture the mood of the times better than any other storytelling form (tied with horror); it’s as if the vast open lands allow emotions to paint in the negative space
+ the sheer heartache of the world in the late 1960s chalk outlined here (largely in red)
-quite spiffy to see an US filmmaker take back the dance lead from the (so great) Italian motion pictures
-I also think there is something captured in the scene of the ants attacking the scorpion; how the energy of crowds can destroy things individuals never can
-truthfully there isn’t a great deal of specific characterization in any one individual in this film (Pike being the main exception)
-it’s when they come in unison, like walking out of the whorehouse to their eventual death, that the film stirs up a swell of deep affection
-the beginning of this film is almost overwhelming; after numerous start and stop stills, the bank robbery has so much information backed in with quick cuts, like trying to get in 20 minutes of shoot outs in 8 minutes
-life can come at you fast, indeed
-I don’t consider this Peckinpah’s best film (call me crazy, but “Ballad of Cable Hogue” is my pick) but as a vivid statement of purpose, of screaming behavior, it obliterates the target
There was something tugging at Debbie’s heart that she was trying to push away, but it was nagging at her and something was telling her to listen.
“Here,” Rose said, gently putting an envelope in Deborah’s hand. “Ms. Miller left this for you. I won’t make you read it, but I think you should sit with it. Give her a chance. It doesn’t come around all that often, you know?”
“What doesn’t?” Debbie asked, perplexed, as she ran her finger over the edges of the letter and then over the lopsided, messy, script of her name on the front.
“Love.”
Debbie continued to lay in the grass until the sun had almost dipped completely behind the trees. Rose had left her own her own, the letter rotating over and over between her fingers over the last few hours as she considered it and what Rose had said to her.
Rose was sweet and kind, always giving people the benefit of the doubt. And while wearing her heart on her sleeve often got it injured, Debbie admired her bravery and trust in people.
She decided to take a note from Rose’s book and give Ms. Miller the benefit of the doubt, at least when it came to the letter itself. She’d give Lou another chance. Who knew what lay inside the envelope? Maybe good. Maybe bad. But she’d always be left wondering if she never looked.
Bracing herself for the worst, she tore open the envelope, pulling out a long, handwritten letter that she held up to the sky.
Debbie,
You have every right to be furious with me. And more, every right to turn down my proposal and question my motives.
It seems that my reputation proceeds me and that unfortunately, I am more infamous in a cruel way than I wish to be. I do not want to be seen that way by any, but most of all, I do not want to be seen that way by you.
You are full of anger and questions and so, I suppose I owe you answers and explanations for my behavior.
I remember you speaking with Mr. Frazier at the ball when Mr. Roberts was courting you. And I can assume that he has told you that I deprive him of a living. That I betrayed my father’s promise to him for selfish reasons and left him without solace. I assure you this isn’t true.
I held up my father’s arrangement as I take agreements such as that very seriously and treat business honestly. Mr. Frazier refused such a living and instead, request money in exchange to which I obliged.
Unfortunately, Mr. Frazier quickly spent through his savings, coming to me again with the same request. This time, I refused him, yes. But I hope you would understand or have done the same in my situation.
Instead of moving forward, Mr. Frazier further betrayed my trust, trying to elope with my sister, merely for her dowry. It is true he is no friend to me or my family, but I hope you agree that I am not to blame and that his character speaks for itself.
You should also know that I find your sister, Rose, quite lovely and an admirable young woman. I spent some time with her and Mr. Becker when she came to stay and she did not seem as bright and bubbly as I once knew her. Rather, she seemed quite reserved and indifferent to Mr. Becker.
It may not have been my place, but I assure you, I only want what is best for her and your family in the future, so I intervened when I saw fit.
I presume I have missed my chance to ask for your hand, but I hope I can ask for your forgiveness and your friendship. I have come to grow quite fond of you, Debbie, and I hope you feel the same towards me.
Now that Nora is pregnant they needed a bigger house. Thankfully since both of them have alright paying jobs and they sold Ryan’s apartment, they had enough money for this beautiful house built by SimLicy that I renovated to fit them perfectly.
Count the Lights chapter two will be out….. drumroll please…. In two months!!! Really excited about the next installment and pumped about the work I’m doing this time around. Thanks for being patient with me and still wanting to read my gay wrestling comic. More info to come soon!!
