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NEWS August 20 2001
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| Campaigns – Prison labour/Mark Barnsley Lucy Michaels On Friday 3rd August, activists from the Mark Barnsley campaign blockaded Hepworth Building Supplies in Doncaster to highlight their use of prison labour. Hepworth use prison labour to pack their supplies – filling plastic bags with sand for £5/week is somehow supposed to re-integrate prisoners back into society. Prison labour in Britain is not as commercialised as it is in the USA or China, where prisons are regularly used by companies as call centres etc, though with moves towards further privatisation of the prison system. The issue has been highlighted by the case of Mark Barnsley, who is currently in solitary confinement for refusing to participate in prison labour for Hepworth, calling instead for the opportunity to further his education. Mark, previously a well known community activist, is the object of a long-running miscarriage of justice campaign. One night in 1994 he was coming home from a pub with his girlfriend and baby daughter when he was assaulted by 15 drunk students. Mark was accused of GBH and sentenced to fifteen years in jail. As he refuses to admit his guilt, he is not eligible for parole and has so far served 7 years. Many of the staff at Hepworth supported the demonstration. Activists made leaflets on their paper and used their photocopier; kids from across the street bought waterproofs to those outside the gates when it started raining; and the fire brigade, called in to cut through the d-locks securing the gates, were persuaded that it was no part of their job to help the police protect companies and refused to get the bolt croppers out without taking advice from their union. Eventually Hepworth were forced to cut the locks with their own welding equipment and the damp activists slipped away with no arrests. Contact: Justice for Mark Barnsley - PO BOX 381, Huddersfield, HD1 3XX. http://www.freemarkbarnsley.com/ |