The weekend is not just about tattoos. Workshops will be running throughout the weekend and will give you the opportunity to get clued up about prison abolition and find out how you can get involved in campaigns to support prisoners and help bring down the prison system. There will also be practical workshops on DIY printing amongst other things and a range of different stalls distributing books, zines and clothing! Plus throughout the weekend there will be gigs, parties and meals for you to get stuck into. We’ve got a lot up our sleeves!
Full program can be found here: BTC2018 Program
Workshops confirmed so far include:
Panel on intersectionality in the DIY tattoo world
Listen to people share their experiences in the DIY tattoo world in this group discussion about intersectionality. With time for questions and answers.
Introduction to Prison Abolition
What is prison abolition? Is it not just a really utopian idea? How will we deal with murderers, rapists, X, Y, Z? This workshop is for folks who are new to the idea of prison abolition and want to understand what it is all about. With the Empty Cages Collective.
What about the Rapists? Prison Abolition and Sexual Violence
It is clear that police, courts and the prison system are failing to end rape culture. So, what are the alternatives? How do we respond to rape in non-carceral ways? This workshop will explore some of the complexity of these issues and introduce frameworks such as Transformative Justice that pose radical alternatives to responding to harm, as well as feminist ways to end sexual and state violence.
With the Empty Cages Collective and Sisters Uncut.
www.prisonabolition.org | http://www.sistersuncut.org
Prisoner Letter Writing
All weekend there is a dedicated space for prisoner letter writing. Addresses and information on different prisoners will be available, as well as cards and card-making materials. Please take a moment over the weekend to let a prisoner know they are not alone.
End Indefinite Sentences! Smash IPP!
Close to 3000 people are locked in cages indefinitely in England and Wales. Known as imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences, prisoners must serve a minimum tariff after which the parole board gets to decide whether or not they will be released. But prison bureaucracy – totally outside of prisoners’ control – means that, in practice, many IPPs serve over 5 times longer than they are initially sentenced. This indefinite torture has severe impacts on prisoners, as well as their loved ones. Even once they are granted parole, IPPs are faced with 99 year licences.
Come to this workshop to find out how you can support IPPs, their families and friends to end this cruel treatment once and for all!
“Honour our Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living” – Trans Liberation and Prison Abolition
Transphobia in prisons means trauma and death for trans people. Trans people – and in particular working class trans people, and trans people of colour, are locked in cages within the criminal justice system. Judges have discretion about sending trans women to men’s prisons where they are bullied, abused and murdered. Trans masculine people are targetted by guards in women’s prisons and abused. This workshop critiques the systematic harm of those who defy the colonial gender binary by their very existence. Learn how to get involved in supporting trans prisoners, fighting for their freedom, and for the fall of all prisons everywhere.
Conserve and Control Book Reading with Otter Lieffe
Otter Lieffe is a working class, femme, trans woman in and out of Berlin. She has been involved in grassroots activism for nearly two decades. Since releasing her first novel she has been organising in the US and UK to get books to trans women in prison.
Otter’s novels, Margins and Murmurations and Conserve and Control, tackle queer incarceration as a central theme. They call us to renew our struggles against oppression and to proudly reclaim the margins that so many of us call home.
ACAB – How to out maneuver the Police and Public Order
The Activist Court Aid Brigade (ACAB) are a recently formed trans positive group providing invaluable knowledge and emotional support to those facing state repression. At this workshop you will learn about legal powers and limitations of cops during protests, what to do if you get arrested and what happens if you are charged.
The UK Border Regime
Throughout history, human beings have migrated. To escape war, oppression and poverty, to make a better life, to follow their own dreams. But since the start of the 20th century, modern governments have found ever more vicious ways to stop people moving freely.
The UK border regime includes the razor wire fences at Calais, the limbo of the asylum system, and the open violence of raids and deportations. Alongside the Home Office, it includes the companies running databases and detention centres, the media pushing hate speech, and the politicians posturing to win votes. It keeps on escalating, through Tony Blair’s war on refugees to Theresa May’s “hostile environment”, spreading fear and division.
This workshop introduces a new book on the UK Border regime that describes and analyses the UK’s system of immigration controls. It looks at how it has developed through recent history, at the different actors involved, and at how people resist. The aim of the workshop is to help people understand the border regime, and ask how we can fight it effectively.
Corporate Watch is a not-for-profit co-operative providing critical information on corporations and capitalism. Since 2008, one of our main research areas has been the border regime and the companies that profit from it.
Creative writing workshop with Otter Lieffe
What could a strong, diverse – even utopic – resistance movement look like and how could we create it together? How do we counter the various oppressions we face and how do we build alternatives? How can speculative fiction amplify the voices of marginalised people?
Speculative fiction has a powerful history of imagining other possibilities. In this workshop, Otter Lieffe, author of Margins and Murmurations, will share some of her writing techniques and hold a space for some creative, speculative fiction writing. Otter will invite us to dive into our visions of resistance and utopia and to turn some of those images into writing.
No experience of fiction writing is necessary to participate. The safety and comfort of participants will be a first priority throughout. During the workshop, participants are invited to share their work in pairs or to the group but at no point will there be pressure to do so. There will be paper and pens available but if you prefer working on a laptop or other device, please bring it along with you.
Puppet show: Hyper-industrialisation hits the fishing village – it’s time to take action!
Watch an anti-capitalist puppet show! “A small group of onlookers watches from the shore as their quiet village slowly develops into a burning chaos of industrialisation. An old hag hides in the caves below the town. Mr Mckelley searches the beaches for treasure. A selkie transforms from a seal to a human as her curiosity leads her in the world above the water level. Cargo ships dock and deposit their goods. A cruise ships arrives and the town is awash with tourists. What will happen to the island?”
Prison Island: Prison Expansion in England, Wales and Scotland
Learn about one of the biggest prison building programs in generations. The Prison Estates Transformation Programme aims to create 10,000 new prison places by 2020 through the construction of mega-prisons across the UK. Find out about ongoing resistance to the plans and how you can get involved. With Corporate Watch and Community Action on Prison Expansion.
www.corporatewatch.org | https://cape-campaign.org
DIY Risograph introduction
Learn the basics of how to print with a Risograph. Then put your skills into practice by making postcards to send to prisoners.
Subvertising and Arts Activism with Brandalism Collective
Subvertising (the art of subverting advertising) has become an increasingly popular tactic for groups wanting to challenge corporate messages in our city streets. In this practical session, we’ll look at the tactics used by groups to take over commercial advertising spaces for political arts purposes. And provide you with the tools you need to get out there and do it yourself.
#PrisonStrike2018
This summer, prisoners in the US began one of the largest prison strikes in history. Learn about this movement to end prison slavery from an active organiser in the United States. Talk by the Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee in Oakland, California. The talk will be accompanied by a short overview of IWOC activity in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland including Government attempts to massively escalate the exploitation of prison labour.
iwocoakland.wordpress.com | https://iwoc.iww.org.uk
How Prison isn’t the end of struggle
A talk by the filmmaker and friend of Barry Horne about the forthcoming film on his life as an animal liberation activist, prisoner and hunger striker. Barry died in 2001 in prison from the effects of a 68 day hunger strike against animal experiments. The talk will feature a 5min trailer of the upcoming film.
Always Anti Fascist – how to beat the far right and the state in the fight against fascism
From the “Free Tommy” movement to the election of Donald Trump, fascism and the far right are on the rise, presenting an ever greater danger to marginalised people everywhere. At the same time, those resisting the right are faced with increasing levels of state repression – in the form of policing, surveillance and imprisonment. Come to this workshop to learn about anti fascism, how you can get involved, and how you can support anti fascist prisoners.
With Bristol Anti Fascists | www.facebook.com/bristolantifascists
Repression of Anarchists and Anti Fascists in Russia
Learn about recent repression of anarchists in Russia. On the eve of the presidential election and the World Cup, repressions began in Russia. Activists are being kidnapped, beaten up, electrocuted, forced to sign false confessions. The Russian Secret services are incriminating participation in a mythical terrorist organization called “Network”.