Friday, June 7th at AKA Autonomous Social Centre (the red & black house at the corner of Queen and Wellington: http://goo.gl/maps/phtf7)
Film screening and discussion on political prisoners and criminalization.
5:30 PM: Screening of H3, a film about Irish political prisoners’ hunger strike in 1981.
7:00 PM: Dinner. Barbecue (free or by donation) in the back yard.
8:00 PM: Facilitated discussion on resisting criminalization.
Please come out for the film, the discussion, or both. The facilitator’s description of both parts of the evening is below.
For more information or to request childcare, contact EPIC at epic (at) riseup (dot) net
Let’s take some time to reflect together on resisting criminalization!
Criminalization: the process by which behaviours and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals.
In Part I of our beautiful Friday, we will watch the movie H3, which tells the story of the Irish Republicans imprisoned the H-Blocks of LongKesh. In 1981, at the apex of a 5 year resistance campaign against the British government’s attempt to criminalize Republican prisoners (and, through them, the Republican struggle), the prisoners began a hunger strike which would result in the deaths of 10 prisoners and, eventually, the winning of the Republicans demands. H3 is the semi-fictionalized story of the hunger strike, written by two people involved in the events. It’s an inspiring portrayal of the prisoners’ lives on the protest, the tremendous hardships they faced, and how they continually re summoned the courage to face them, both as individuals and as a community.
*I’ll wear no convict’s uniform
*Nor meekly serve my time
*That England might
*Brand Ireland’s fight
*800 years of crime
The film will be followed by a brief period of question, answer, and discussion, before a wonderful BBQ dinner!
After relaxing and recharging over a dinner break of good food and maybe some casual conversation, we’ll reconvene for part two of our evening.
Part II will be a discussion of resisting criminalization from an abolitionist perspective. After a short introduction giving some more detail about the Republican resistance to criminalization, we will open a facilitated discussion about what resisting criminalization does or could mean for anarchists and abolitionists in our context. How can a fight against our own criminalization, or the criminalization of any given person or group, be carried on without reinforcing the criminalization of others?
Here’s hoping you’ll be able to make it to both parts, and the BBQ too! If you can’t, well, come for one thing or another. They’ll build on each other in wonderful ways (at least we hope so!), but better that you come for some than none at all.
*Introductions to both parts will be given by Dave, a Montreal anarchist who will talk about Ireland for as long as you let him and is trying to make that information relevant to anarchist and anti-prison struggle in the present context.*
