The ‘Lord Walney 16’ have a new year’s message for him – from prison

The following article is a comment piece by 16 imprisoned activists. You can read more on their stories here.

We are some of the Lord Walney 16 – the sixteen peaceful people imprisoned for a combined 41 years for refusing to be bystanders to the most horrific crimes. We should have been 17. Xavi Gonzalez-Trimmer, our beloved friend, should have been with us. He will always be with us.

Our sentences will be reviewed by the Court of Appeal on 29 and 30 January.

Lord Walney: subverting free speech and the right to protest

We were jailed after former Labour Party MP John Woodcock (‘Lord’ Walney) – lobbyist for the arms and oil industry – called for those resisting genocide, whether from carbon emissions or Israeli bombs, to face the harshest response from the government, the police and the judicial system.

The brutal sentences that followed his report were aimed at ‘deterrence’. They were designed to make us give up.

To be locked up in Britain’s cruel prison system, witnessing the violence and harm undertaken by the state against its own citizens is harrowing. But our resistance is not like the addiction to fossil fuels – a habit to be broken. It is the consequence of a profound commitment to nonviolence and the refusal to be complicit in the destruction of our fellow human beings and the poisoning of life on earth.

We can never give up. The state sponsored assault on our living planet gives us no choice. We will never give up.

And we call on you – all of you who know that what is happening is so wrong – to join us in refusing to be bystanders.

When and where: the Royal Courts of Justice, London, 29-30 January

You can find out more information and sign up to attend here.

Signed:

Anna Holland
Cressida Gethin
Daniel Shaw
Gaie Delap
Dr Larch Maxey
Louise Lancaster
Lucia Whittaker De Abreu
Paul Bell
Paul Sousek
Phoebe Plummer
Roger Hallam

Featured image supplied