Marxist Esperanto and Socialism in Cell 26: Reading, Thinking, and Writing in the H-Blocks, 1983–1989

In 1976, the British government opened the newly built H-Blocks at HMP Maze and phased out special category status. The new high-security prison was opened literally on the other side of a fence from the Long Kesh internment camp. From then on, all incoming republican and loyalist prisoners were treated as ordinary prisoners, while their comrades on the other side of the fence continued to enjoy special privileges. This situation led prisoners to protest about their treatment as “ordinary” prisoners, resulting in the blanket and no-wash protests and eventually in two series of hunger strikes in 1980 and 1981, which