94.-seven-years-of-noise-demos.pdf
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Sais
Noses/of the AA of
New. ‘s. Prison._Demos
in Southwestern. Ontario
~. ‘
SY 2008-2015

THAIS OO
TP
Contents
Seven Years Against Prison

Past Texts on Southern
Ontario Prison Demos

Communiques from Previous
Years

Other Relevant Texts
Call for international noise demos
For a Black December

All texts available online at

thehamiltoninstitute.noblogs.org
Seven Years Against Prison

Notes on the practice of prison noise demos
in South-western Ontario — 2008-2015

“The prison door opens, and now he knows what to do; keep the memory
alive, leave no space for oblivion, never forget the comrades left behind, pick
up the thread of insurgency from where it was interrupted, pour the poison
of insubordination into the reproduction networks of the capitalist society”

From “For a new combat position of anarchist insurgency ~ For a
Black December”; by imprisoned anarchists Nikos Romanos and
Panagiotous Argirou

For the past seven years, anarchist and other radicals in South-
western Ontario have celebrated New Year's Eve with noise
demos outside of the areas many prisons. We love to party and
celebrate on New Year's and this tradition has allowed us to do
so in a spirit of antagonism and solidarity. We can have fun in a
way that actually inspires us and that brings some joy to people
who are locked up.

Connecting through the walls with prisoners is a direct action
against the alienation and separation that prison creates and it
transforms the urban space, bringing in to focus the prisons that
dot the landscape and making vivid the coercive violence of the
state that controls our lives. Prison impacts us every day,
whether or not we're locked up, and the New Year's Noise
Demos make this conflict tangible.

One of the initial intentions of the noise demos in Hamilton was
to participate in an international practice of anarchist solidarity
with prisoners. In 2009, it was a direct response to a call to
support an international hunger strike campaign by anarchist
prisoners, launched by Gabriel Pombo Da Silva from a prison in
Germany.
The following year, several of our comrades were still locked up
from the G20 mobilizations and there had been demos earlier in
the year at Vanier/Maplehurst and The Don Jail in support of
anarchist and other prisoners held there. This marked a time
when, for many of us, the reality of prison intruded more
starkly into our lives and the combative anger of the demos that
year showed an escalation in hostility still anchored in the spirit
of international solidarity, particularly with prisoners in the US
state of Georgia who were on hunger strike and with an
international call for new year's noise demos (the exact same
text has been re-released this year as a fresh call for demos).

This year, let's show our solidarity with the international call for
a Black December released by anarchist prisoners in Greece,
Nikos Romanos and Panagiotis Argirou. They called for
insurrectionary actions around the world which they hope “will
be the detonator for the restart of anarchist insurgency, inside
and outside the prisons”. Their call has already been answered
by more than fifty actions around the world, including in
Canada, where an attack on a police vehicle and a
confrontational march in Montreal have been claimed as part of
Black December. (There is a timeline of actions at
rabble.org.uk).

From 2011, the demos expanded — to support prisoners in
struggle at the Grand Valley Prison in Kitchener, to visit
anarchist prisoners in West Toronto and in Penetanguishene,
the Syl Apps youth prison in Oakville - while continuing to
anchor themselves with a stop at Hamilton's Barton Jail. This
prison, described as ‘a monument to human misery’, that looms
over one of Canada's poorest urban areas, remains very
overcrowded and kills several of its prisoners every year.

The shit-eating screws of the OPSEU union use the Barton Jail as
a centre-piece in their disputes with the province, allowing
conditions there to degenerate to deadly levels to improve their
negotiating position. In 2012, a so-called “strike” action by the
guards only ended after a prisoner died following a month of
lockdown. (But can they really be thought of as workers when
their job is to manage the misery of others? Would not such an
action more accurately be called hostage-taking or extortion?)

This year, we're stopping at the new Toronto South, or Mimico,
prison on the Toronto-Mississauga border. This new maximum
security nightmare, which, when full, will be among the largest
prisons in Canada, has already seen at least two prisoners die in
the year it's been open. Prisoners there describe being locked
down three or four days a week and being persistently denied
needed medical care. There is no yard in this jail - they meet
their requirement for outdoor time by putting prisoners in a
concrete room with windows. There are no real visits either -
although friends and family still have to travel to the jail, they
can only see their loved one by video screen.

The Mimico prison is an escalation of the cruelty and cynicism
of the system against us all and it deserves to be vigorously
opposed. The intensive management and surveillance of the
lives of those locked inside it mirrors the increasing social
control we experience outside. The prisoners there have been
courageously organizing to demand better conditions, using
hunger strikes, press releases, and collective demands, and they
definitely deserve our support and participation in a shared
struggle.

It's beautiful that we've kept the tradition of New Year's noise
demos alive for so many years — as a chance for collective joy,
for collective rage, a chance to dramatize the violence of the
capitalist system, to remember its many victims, a chance to
participate in an international mobilization against prisons and
the world that needs them. Happy fucking New Years.

“prison is not a domain reserved for specialists such as those who have
done time themselves or have a particular rapport with individual
prisoners, it is the underlying reality of everyday life, each and every
discourse of capital taken to its logical conclusion.”

Alfredo M Bonanno, in Locked Up.
Past Texts on Southern Ontario Prison
Demos

Barton Street Noise - Jan 2013
Published in the 2013 zine “The Noise on Barton Street”

This New Year's eve, for the fourth year in a row, a band of
freedom-loving hooligans gathered outside of the Barton Street
jail to bang drums, set off fireworks, and show support to the
six-hundred people locked up there during the holidays. This is
part of an international tradition of noise demos that seeks to
celebrate the new year by breaking down the alienation created
by prison walls, the injustice system, and the police state. As
someone who has been both waving and shooting off fireworks
outside the jail and banging on the glass from inside, I can tell
you these demos are deeply inspiring for everyone involved.

This is the second noise demo at Barton in the past few months.
In September, the prison guards at Barton, in a self-serving
display of cowardice and contempt for those locked up, walked
off the job for 27 days. This lead to prisoners inside being on
lock-down for a month. To draw attention to this abuse of
power, a large festive demonstration marched to the jail from
Beasley park.

The demo included friends and family of a dozen different
prisoners at Barton who were able to tell us more about the
deteriorating conditions inside the jail as the lock down dragged
on, Imagine being three people locked in a roo, the size of your
bathroom, only getting out for a half-hour every two days to
take a shower and maybe make a phone call. For weeks.

While promoting the demo, we heard from a medical worker at
the jail, who declined to give their name for fear of reprisals by
management, who described the conditions inside as “way, way
worse than people have been talking about so far. Not getting
showers or clean clothes is just the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn't
be surprised if something bad happened here soon.”
Sure enough, by the end of the week, a man had died. Police
never released his name (He was since identified as William
Acheson). The fucking screws went back to work the next day,
and our local newspaper, The Spectator, dutifully set about
covering up the death. Their headline focused on the possibility
that the man had died from drug use. No tests had been done on
the deceased, but The Spectator chose to emphasize an off-the-
cuff theory from the police rather than look critically at how the
prolonged lock-down made a tragedy inevitable.

Holding prison demos on Barton Street is an important way for
us to raise awareness about the reality of prison. It's also
important for validating the experiences of many, many, many
people in the downtown whose lives are impacted by prison.
The realities of prison are seldom talked about, and this silence
contributes to the isolation of those whom it effects. When we
break the silence, we break down some of that alienation. When
we break the silence, we reject the logic that blames a man for
his own death after 27 days of lockdown.

The level of ignorance about prison in Canadian society at large
is pretty shocking. During a prison demo a couple of years ago, I
had a conversation with a man who accused me of supporting
“rapists and murderers” when we confront the prison system.
This view is based on the sensationalistic reporting of
mainstream journalism, who love to hold up an accused
murderer for everyone to condemn.

But who is actually in the Barton Jail? The Barton Jail is a
detention centre, so without exageration, every single person
incarcerated there is either waiting for trial - meaning they are
still supposedly presumed innocent, even though they are being
held in a squalid maximum security prison - or they have been
sentenced to less than two months. Anyone sentenced to more
than two months would have been sent to one of Corrections
Ontario's correctional centres, in Penetanguishene for instance,
or if they'd been sentenced to more than two years, to one of
Corrections Canada's penitentiaries. There are no convicted
murderers in the Barton Jail.
In fact, fully two-thirds of incarcerated people in Canada have
not been found guilty of any crime. They are simply being held
waiting for trial because they were denied bail. That's who is in
the Barton Jail.

How can someone condemn our support of prisoners without
even knowing who prisoners are? How can someone advocate
for sending others to jail when they have no idea what jail is
like? How can anyone trust the police, the courts, and prison to
fundamentally mould our society when no one wants to talk
honestly about them?

Walking along Barton Street, it's hard to tell that more than 600
people are trapped behind those brick walls. We can't see them,
we can't hear their voices, and most people wouldn't listen even
if they could.

When we're making noise at Barton or at any jail, we're not
asking for a kinder, gentler prison system - we are against
prison and the society that requires it. We are in support of all
prisoners because they are all victims of the state's violence and
impunity. We are breaking the silence that the prison creates,
the silence that could so easily kill a man in our neighbourhood
just this fall.

Solidarity with Prisoners, not OPSEU 248
From Linchpin.ca

The Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre or Barton Jail as it is
more commonly known, has been on lock-down for over week
now due to a “labour dispute” between guards and upper
management. The guards, members of OPSEU local 248, are
alleging health and safety concerns, and have refused to search
cells after a piece of metal fixture went missing in the jail on
Monday August 13th. The guard’s refusal to work has lead to a
lock-down situation with management taking over operations of
the jail.
While news coming out of the jail has been sparse, disturbing
details have emerged concerning the situation. Several inmates
managed to contact the Hamilton Spectator, which on August
15th reported that they had not had access to clean sheets or
clothing for a week. Stories have been leaked of inmates being
given a choice between "a shower or a phone call", lawyers have
been denied access to their clients, and visitors have been
barred from the facility. One family held an impromptu protest,
holding signs that read "Time to Judge our System" and "They
are not animals" outside the jail in support of their loved ones
locked up.

With the lock-down now well into its second week, the scene at
the prison is what one might expect at any workplace
experiencing a strike: union members have gathered outside the
workplace day after day, drinking coffee, and heckling
management as they enter the facility. But, the differences
between the situation now unfolding at Barton Jail and a
standard strike or work refusal are immense - because prison
guards are not workers.

If we understand prisons as a workplace, it is inmates
themselves who are either doing actual productive labour
(textiles, manufacturing, printing, etc) or work required to run
the facility (aundry, janitorial, etc). Prison guards on the other
hand, are a primary factor determining the working conditions
and enforcing disciplinary measures. In any other workplace,
these factors would define a relationship between workers and
management.

Why then are jail guards represented by the Ontario Public
Sector Employees Union? Unions are meant to be organizations
for the defense and advancement of our interests as a class.
Allowing jail guards into our labour organizations is in
immediate contradiction to this purpose and a long-term
liability for our movements.

As austerity measures continue to intensify and our prison
system expand, this question becomes particularly pressing for
workers, students and the unemployed. The Omnibus Crime Bill
C-10 became law earlier this year, making sweeping changes to
legal landscape and is projected to increase the prison
population at a provincial level by up to 32% a year. The state
has prepared to accommodate this increase by pouring an
estimated $4 billion into the proliferation of the Prison
Industrial Complex by building new prisons and expanding
existing facilities.

These provisions are especially heinous as they are imposed
parallel to the ongoing gutting of job opportunities, benefits,
education, social services and welfare. Austerity will inevitably
lead to deepening social conflict within our communities, and
have the most severe impact on the vulnerable among us who
will provide the bodies to fill the new prison beds.

Increased precarity, incarceration, general social conflict and
insecurity will potentially see the rise of numerous mass
movements in the coming years. The nature of these movements
however, is yet to be determined. If we hope for militant labour
and community organizations that are built to fight for our
interests as a class, we need to clearly define what those
interests are and how they will inform the composition of said
movements.

If we intend for our movements to fight for anti-racist and
feminist ideals, an equal standard of living for all, and an end to
exploitation, opposing the Prison Industrial Complex is
absolutely integral to these goals. The potential for building true
class-wide solidarity is realized in isolating and rejecting the
unionized functionaries of the prison system from labour or
community solidarity, while also supporting the prisoners who
are on lock-down, organizing work stoppages, or on hunger
strike.
Communiques from Previous Years

First Noise demo
Posted on 325.0rg

Hamilton, Ontario, Kanada ~ New Years Eve Noise Soli Demo
On December 31, 2009, about 30 anarchists took to the streets in
Hamilton, Ontario surrounding the Barton St. Jail (or the Hamilton-
Wentworth Detention Center). Our intention was to show solidarity with
prisoners locked behind those walls, and also as an act of solidarity with
the revolutionary prisoners on hunger strike throughout the world.

This action was an attempt to break the isolation between inside and
outside the prison walls. We used our voices, drums, fireworks, whistles,
and other noise-makers to disrupt the day-to-day normalcy of the prison.
We chanted: “The passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons!” ,
“No prisons, no borders, fuck law and order!” , “They might take our lives
away, but not our dignity. Our hearts will pound against their walls until
we are all free!”

Prisoners waved and banged on the windows while we were outside. We
wished them a Happy New Year. There was also a banner that said
“ESCAPE” attached to helium balloons that was freed next to the prison
and floated into the sky. It was originally intended to say “escape into
rebellion” but our 120 latex helium balloons weren't enough to lift it into
the sky. We decided to cut it down to roughly 6 x 3 feet because we
wanted a flying banner.

A speech was read on two sides of the prison through a megaphone. Here
is the speech:

“Im standing here today because I refuse to accept the leash of
submission that this society hopes to tie around my neck. With every one
of its laws, courts, cops, prisons and networks of surveillance, it's made
very clear that the “life” we're supposed to accept is nothing more than a
life sentence in an open prison.

“Lm here to stand in solidarity with the fifteen social rebels who've been
on hunger strike in prisons around the world because they continue to
refuse the meek existence that the state and capital tries to impose on
them with every weapon that it has available.

“I'm also here in solidarity with the man who escaped from the [custody
of] Barton Jail a little while ago, as well as his accomplices, and anyone on
the inside who yearns for freedom and will do what it takes to take their
lives back.

“Because with every act of solidarity and with every individual who
attacks this prison world, alone or with others, the walls that stand
between us begin to look a hell of a lot a thinner. For an end to prisons
and the world that needs them!

“Let’s escape into rebellion!

This prison is located close to downtown Hamilton in a working-class
neighborhood. For many of us who have spent time or live in Hamilton,
Barton Jail is not an abstract or seemingly invisible place - it is a constant
threat and reminder of the reality of prison. People who live here have
spent time in it, know people who have, or are well aware that they may
one day find themselves kidnapped behind its walls. These might be some
of the reasons why people getting groceries at the supermarket next to the
jail and people walking by, who checked us out, took the time to express
their solidarity. Some people stood with us and cheered, while others took
part in the noise demo by honking their car horns in the supermarket
parking lot. One woman used the megaphone to wish her own happy new
year to the prisoners. Also, a child took a picture of the flying banner. The
excitement both on the inside and the outside revealed possibilities of,
and will only push us further in, the struggle against prison and its

world



FREEDOM FOR THE IMPRISONED REVOLUTIONARIES ON HUNGER
STRIKE AROUND THE WORLD!

SOLIDARITY WITH COMRADES FIGHTING AGAINST PRISON, INSIDE AND
out!
Second demo:
Posted on 325.0rg

On December 31st 2010, a few dozen people gathered for the second
annual New Years Eve noise demo outside Barton Jail in Hamilton,
Ontario. Among the fierce chanting, there were fireworks set off for the
prisoners on both east and west sides of the jail. A banner with a mailing
address painted on it was held to invite prisoners to correspond with us.
‘The wall of the jail was spray-painted with “TEAR THIS SHIT DOWN”. A
speech was read on both sides of the jail, expressing solidarity with
prisoners and explaining reasons for struggling against prison. Solidarity
was expressed to the prisoners who were on strike in Georgia (USA),
Roger Clement, G20 defendants in custody, and non-status migrants being
held at Barton Jail



Here is a part of that speech:
“This has been a year of increased criminalization, and the beginning of a
prison restructuring by the Federal government in an attempt to keep us
silent, in constant fear, and even more of us locked away. From these
continued attacks on our lives, we will gather strength to fight together.
Whether the prison system is reforming to be more cruel, or disguising
itself as humane, we will struggle against it. Whether it’s the police and
cameras in the streets, the judges in the courtrooms, the screws in jail, we
will struggle against them. We strive for freedom.”

“Solidarity with everyone who fights for freedom, and all prisoners,
around the world, who refuse to accept forced confinement, isolation and
abuse, who dream of the day that we together destroy these walls.’



‘The Passion for Freedom is Stronger than all Prisons!
Cops, Screws, Murderers!

Noise demo 2012
Posted on anarchistnews.org

For the second year in a row, anarchists and our friends in Southern
Ontario went on New Year's Eve anti-prison road trip. Starting off at
Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, about 60 of us set off
fireworks and called out greetings to the women inside; many of whome
happened to be out in the yard or were able to open their windows and
send some noise back our way. Despite what screws at this prison have
said at past noise demos, it very much seemed like the women
appreciated the visit, with those outside dancing to the beats that were
being pumped out by our portable sound system and drum squad, and
those inside screaming out kind wishes and whoops. Grand Valley is the
same prison where guards were found exchanging drugs for sex with
inmates and where Ashley Smith was killed.

We then hit the road and arrived in Hamilton for the fifth annual noise
demonstration outside Barton Jail. About 30 of use set off the remainder
of our fireworks stash, spraypainted the walls, and threw snow and
paintballs at the prison’s vehicles. As has become commonplace at
demonstrations outside Barton, the sound of prisoners banging on their
windows reverberated through the neighbourhood, filling this participant
with both joy - that we could provide a break in the daily misery of prison
~ and rage that those windows and walls exist in the first place.

After embarrassing a sad cadre of police officers who “just wanted to talk”
after the demonstration had ended, we returned to the warmth of home
and each other, dancing until sunrise.

To the undercovers who were apparently waiting for us in Milton ~ not to
worry, welll be seeing you soon.

-Southern Ontario Anarchist Roadwarriors
(SOAR, for Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance, was an acronym used by
many anarchists in mobilizing against the G20)
Demo 2014
Posted on anarchistnews.org

For the sixth year in a row, anarchists in Southern Ontario held noise
demos outside prisons in the area, to show our hatred of prisons and the
world that creates them, to show solidarity with folks locked up, and to
build our collective strength with a tradition of fun, rowdy demos. This
year, we visited the Syl Apps Youth Detention Centre in Oakville and made
the usual stop at the Barton Jail in Hamilton.

The Syl Apps Detention Centre, like all youth jails in Ontario, is run by a
private corporation that specializes in managing and controlling the lives,
of young people. This jail is run by Kinark, which also runs school
programs and summer camps. This jail, like the psychiatric prison
recently built on the Hamilton mountain, is on the cutting edge of the
blending of mental health hospitals and prisons, criminalizing and
incarcerating people on the basis of who they are rather than what they
have done. The youth in this jail responded enthusiastically to the
fireworks, the drum band, and the solidarity, dancing, banging on their
windows, and flicking their lights.

The Barton jail is a notorious monument to human misery and cruelty in
Hamilton's Beasley neighbourhood. It's filthy, overcrowded conditions
contribute to frequent deaths, which the guards seize on opportunistically
for their own political ends ~ the expansion of the prison system. The
guards in this jail represent a vanguard within the prison guards’ union,
supporting the disgusting and deadly conditions of imprisonment while
leading the charge for a more advanced system of incarceration. Four
people have died in the jail in the past year, and hundreds more suffer
disastrous health consequences or violence as a result of their
imprisonment.

The prisoners at Barton have come to expect the noise demo and always
respond with lots of yelling and banging from inside; unfortunately, this
year the police also seem to have expected it more than in the past. A
couple of cops arrived quickly and began attacking the people they
believed were setting off fire works, and the skirmish quickly escalated
with the arrival of more cops, including, oddly, Hamilton's chief of police.
Two people were beaten and arrested, but, in a strange new year's gift
from the cops, were released without charge, Many others were de-
arrested by the more than fifty people at the demo who attacked the jail
with paint and continued setting off fireworks. We're glad to put on a
good show of collective rage and resistance for folks on the inside, who
pounded louder as the confrontation heated up.

‘The New Year's prison demos are an important tradition in this area. The
experience of collective resistance makes the partying that comes after
into a celebration of strength and solidarity in the face of the systems of
control and domination.

Other relevant texts

2010 call for international noise demos
Printed in Fire to the Prisons, Spring 2011
Re-released in 2015 on facebook as a call for demos this New Year's

Noise demos outside of prisons in some countries are a continuing
tradition. A way of expressing solidarity for people imprisoned during
the New Year, remembering those held captive by the state. A noise
demo breaks the isolation and alienation of the cells our enemies create,
but it does not have to stop at that.

Prison has a long history within capital, being one of the most archaic
forms of prolonged torture and punishment. It has been used to kill
some slowly and torture those unwanted ~ delinquents to the reigning
order - who have no need of fitting within the predetermined mold of
society. Prison is used not only as an institution, but a whole apparatus,
constructed externally from outside of the prison walls. Which our
enemies by way of defining our everyday life as a prison, manifest
themselves in many places, with banks that finance prison development
(ike Wells Fargo, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Bank of the West, and.
Barclays), companies that are contracted for the development of prisons
Gike Bergelectric Corporation, SASCO Electric, Engineered Control
Systems, MacDonald Miller Facility SLTNS and Kane MFG Corp.),
investors in prison development (like Barclays Intl. and Merril Lynch) to
the police and guards who hide behind their badges and the power of the
state.
Solidarity is not only an expression by way of our own revolutionary
poetry which is defined by a developing anarchist analysis, but as an
expression of actions put into practice within the social war daily. That is
why we propose to others who have a certain reciprocal understanding of
the prison world and the conditions it creates to remember this day, to
mark it on their calendars. To locate points of attack. To not limit
ourselves to just a noise demo, but proliferating actions autonomously
from one another. That break the mundane positions we lock ourselves
into by our own internalization.



To all our comrades known and we have yet to know. Just because we
have not met, does not mean we do not act in affinity with one another.
ur struggle continues not only on the outside, but on the inside as well.
Prison is not an end, but a continuation. Through individual and
collective moments of revolt, by the methods one finds possible.

Like fire our rage must spread.
Against prison, and the world that maintains them.
For the social war.



An excerpt from: For a new combat position of anarchist insurgency -
For a Black December
from contrainfo.espiv.net

‘There is much more to be said about December ’08 and its insurrectionary
heritage, as manifested through the dozens of direct action groups which
proliferated explosively across the country, creating a front of internal
threat. A period when anarchist direct action undermined the social
normalcy almost on a daily basis. But what we want above all is to
remember...

‘To remember what December ’08 was and how anarchy, having a leading
role, contributed to the manifestation of dynamic situations, which gained
resonance in the international anarchist movement.

To remember the time when anarchy overcame the fear of arrest,
captivity and violent repression, and therefore acquired a tremendous
self-confidence, moving on to actions and gestures that, until then,
seemed impossible; a self-confidence which was manifested in the whole
range of anarchist polymorphous action, from simple public
interventions to all kinds of occupations, and from spontaneous
confrontational practices to more organised offensive actions.

We want to remember our young comrade who was guilty of his
spontaneity, which he paid with his life. Under other circumstances it
might have been us in his place, as the same insurrectionary
enthusiasm pervades us since then, and besides, EVERYONE should
remember their origins instead of exorcising them.

We want to remember the beauty of paralysing the social space-time
through smaller or larger social short circuits.

We want to remember how dangerous anarchy may become, when
anarchy wants to...

Our proposal to place the wager of setting up a multifaceted
insurrectionary anarchist front is simple; an action campaign by the
name ‘Black December’ which will be the detonator for the restart of
anarchist insurgency, inside and outside the prisons.

‘A month of coordinated actions in order to know each other, take to
the streets and smash the displays of department stores, occupy
schools, universities and city halls, distribute texts that will spread the
message of rebellion, place incendiary devices against fascists and
bosses, hang banners on air-bridges and main avenues, flood the cities,
with posters and flyers, blow up houses of politicians, throw Molotov
cocktails at the cops, tag the walls with slogans, sabotage the smooth
flow of merchandise amid Christmas, loot the displays of abundance,
carry out public activities, and exchange experiences and rationales
around various topics of struggle.

Black December does not seek merely to become some days of rioting;
instead, what we want is to create ~ through multiform and multilevel
anarchist action ~ an informal coordination platform on the basis of
which the subversive impulse will be brought together; a primary
attempt for an informal coordination of anarchy, beyond the
predetermined frameworks, which aspires to build on this particular
experience of struggle so as to set both subversive proposals and
fighting strategies in motion.
And in the spectator...
Printed March 15, 2014

This past New Year's Eve, Hamilton native James Ireland was in jail
serving 101 days for assault and theft — not a lot to celebrate. But as a
pleasant surprise, a group gathered outside that night, setting off
fireworks for the inmates. The crowd started out on Ferguson Street, and
then went around to the other side, off Elgin Street next to a grocery store
parking lot, where Ireland could see the bursts of colour from his cel.

There had to be at least 50 people out there, he says, and it made his night
as he and the others banged on the windows, cheering in celebration. "It
was so awesome. We just kept banging on the windows, and they just kept
dancing and lighting fireworks for us ... the whole jail was going crazy,
he says.

"and then the cops came and shut it down and made them all leave.

He posted to the local Facebook page Only in Hamilton in early January, to
thank the folks who thought of them. "I really wanted these guys to hear
that we really, really loved that they did this," he said. "It’s so hard to cope
in there, but on New Year's Eve it was the worst ... I been in for three
(New Years Eves) now and that was the best thing anyone could of done.”
“For people to come out and spend their time, its just unbelievable.”

Connor Poynter, 20, was one of those people. He says he took part because
after having many friends go through the system, he knows how much jail
"sucks" for people on both sides of the fence. Lighting off fireworks, he
says, is a symbolic tradition that dates back to prisoner rights movements
decades ago. "It is really effective at showing folks locked up that they
haven't been forgotten," Poynter says

and it is enjoyed by people on both sides of the walls. It is a small
symbolic way of breaking down the walls.”



Now back on the free side of the fence, Ireland is hoping to stay out so he
can head down there this New Year's Eve to make it special for the guys
inside.