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Vote Helen John, Ind.
Sedgefield Constituency
NO STAR WARS
Campaign Tel. No. 01943-468393
There is television footage of John's election announcement,
made at the
International Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
conference, Leeds, UK, available through:
Lynn Ferguson, Mobile No. 078-8921-7446.
Members of the press wishing to
speak to Ms John may make their request directly to the Askham Grange
Women's Prison on 01904-704236.
Helen John and Anne Lee, the Menwith Hill peace women given a long
custodial
sentence for £300 of damage each to the fence at the Star Wars base in
North
Yorkshire, have been transferred to Askham Grange open women's prison.
Please write to them there from now on. Any post sent to Low Newton
should
be sent to them at the new location eventually. The new address
is: Askham
Grange Women's Prison, Askham Richard, York YO2 3FT, England. Ms
John is to
be supplied with special communications facilities to allow her to
continue
the campaign from within prison. She is not disqualified from
running
because of a three month sentence. People are only disqualified as
candidates if they get a prison sentence of a year or more.
Helen John, who is standing as a parliamentary candidate in Prime
Minister
Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency, was given a prison sentence six
times
the normal length for damage at this level. Anne Lee, who only has
four
previous convictions, was given four times the normal sentence length,
even
though the judge said they were "valuable members of society."
Please send
letters of protest about their imprisonment, and about ballistic missile
defence, to: The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, MP for Sedgefield, 10 Downing St.,
London SW1AA 2AA. Helen has applied to the prison governor for a
day
release so that she will be able to attend the election count on 7 June,
as
is her democratic right as a standing parliamentary candidate. Several
women
from the campaign, as well as local supporters, will also attend on the
evening. You can recognise us because we'll be wearing the
white, green
and purple sashes, like the suffragettes, who also went to prison to
protect
our rights.
This Saturday, 26 May, peace campaigners will meet in the constituency
to
continue canvassing the Sedgefield voters. They will be meeting at
1pm in
the car park of the Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre. All peace
campaigners are
welcome to join us. We will also go out again on the following
Saturday.
A text version of Helen John's election communication to the 38,000
Sedgefield constituents follows. The address will be posted out
this coming
week.
In England, the fact that she is running against Tony Blair in Tony
Blair's
constituency does not mean she is running for Prime Minister, as Prime
Ministers here are not directly elected. The party with the largest
number
of seats chooses the Prime Minister, usually the leader of that party.
Ms
John's candidacy is a serious challenge to the government, however.
Labour
has a 25,000 majority in the 38,000 member constituency. This
means that
substantial numbers of people, disillusioned with Mr Blair's
Conservative
policies, will feel free to vote for Ms John without fearing a return of
the
people who actually call themselves Conservatives. Even if Mr
Blair lost
his seat to Ms John, the polls say Labour will win enough seats in
Parliament to form a government.
Protests against Ms John and Ms Lee's harsh prison sentences are being
sent
in from several Scandanavian countries, the United States, Australia and
Argentina, as well as throughout the UK. Some people are sending
letters of
protest to their local English Embassy. Mr Blair will never be able to
say
that ballistic missile defence was not raised as an election issue.
The Menwith Hill Women's Peace Camp[aign] would also like to send
messages
of solidarity to the other anti-nuclear protesters facing prison at this
time, including Bonnie Urfer and Michael Sprong in Wisconsin, who caused
several thousand pounds of damage to a Trident communications facility
[Contact: nukewatch@lakeland.ws];
Fr. Carl Kabat, in Colorado, who damaged a nuclear silo [Contact: bsulzman@juno.com];
Susan van der Hijden (32), from Amsterdam, and Father Martin Newell
(33), who are facing imprisonment for £31,000 pounds of damage to a
nuclear convoy truck, now being tried at Chelmsford Crown Court in
England [Contact: ciaronx@hotmail.com],
and all those citizens of Vieques who are currently imprisoned there
for
protesting against US military insanity [Contact: bieke@coqui.net].
Regular information about all imprisoned peace protesters can be
found on the
following website: http://www.nonviolence.org/nukeresister/ |
