I got emailed a report of an action last Thursday outside the Hiatt's factory in Birmingham.
Hiatt's, as the home page of their website proudly declares, were founded in 1780 and made their initial money supplying handcuffs and shackles to the British government for colonial use. There was an equally lucrative contemporaneous market in slave-collars, but peculiarly their site omits that.
They kept on making leg-shackles until manufacture was banned 20 years ago. Since then they've got around it by making, wink wink, 'extra large handcuffs' whose buyer can easily make them into shackles by swapping the short chains for large ones.
And now it turns out they've been supplying the shackles for the forgotten hundreds being illegally held and tortured at Guantanamo Bay.
Here's what I was sent:
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The protest was called by a local doctor who discovered that the Hiatt's company were supplying the Shackles and Hand-cuffs used on people being held without trial or any hope of justice at the US prison-camp in Guantanamo Bay.
Seize The Day arrived on a flat-bed truck to lead 20 orange-clad dancers in 'The Shackle Shuffle' before an audience of about 15 media, 2 coppers, and assorted local residents. Behind us, comedian Mark Thomas, in regulation Boiler Suit, held one end of a banner reading 'Tackle the Shakles - Call Hiatt 0121 357 4347'. After the song, Mark spoke passionately about the disgrace of the torture industry operating in our country.
He was followed by Abu Bakr, whose brother Omar Deghayes is currently on Hunger Strike with over 200 other victims of gratuitous American military detention. The hunger strike is now in it's 5th week, and if the prisoners demands for humane treatment are not met soon, innocent men like Omar will start to die from starvation.
The realities of Guantanamo abuses were spelled out by UK Lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, who represents many of the inmates, but is not permitted by the US authorities to tell the world everything which he has seen.
However thanks to the widespread reporting of this protest and the interest it generated through the BBC and the Guardian newspaper, the courageous and desperate struggle of the men and boys kidnapped by the Bush regime and deprived of their most basic human rights in the name of "defending democracy" is now in the news.
Public awareness of the Hunger Strike may make a difference for people like Omar Deghayes. Please take the time to read about his case - he needs us.
http://www.save-omar.org.uk
They all need us. Every 'Human Right' we now take for granted was once a Human victory. If we do not protect them now, we may live to wish that we had when the same treatment is meted out to us, or those we love, in the future.
I hope that people reading this will think of other ways to apply pressure on the UK and US government to end the 3 year nightmare of Guantanamo.
There are 3 issues:
1) The export by Hiatt's of shackles - their address and phone number are available, and MPs may also want to raise it in parliament;
2) The plight of Omar Deghayes, who faces execution if the UK government force him to return to Libya upon his release;
3) The restoration of Human Rights to all the detainees, so that the hunger strike can end.
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The Hiatt's factory's address is:
Hiatt & Co Ltd
111 Baltimore Road
BIRMINGHAM
B42 1DN
England
Their phone number is +44 (0)121 357 4347
Their fax number is (0)121 358 7768
Their email address is [email protected]
Need to find out who your MP is and what they're like, with a direct link to email them?
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/
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