political prisoners

Nine Years After US Supported Coup, End Injustice In Honduras

June 28, 2018 Staff, Alliance For Global Justice Educate! coup, Honduras, political prisoners

June 28, 2018, marks 9 years since the US-backed coup d’etat in Honduras: 9 years of increasing violence and impunity, poverty and inequity for the Honduran people who made clear once again their rejection of the coup regimen in the elections held on November 26, 2017 —- election results that were overturned by fraud and repression. The US government continues to support the Honduran regime politically and economically including millions of dollars of security/military aid that facilitates human rights violations. The Canadian government continues to support the extraction industry dominated by Canadian mining companies and other Canadian mega projects in tourism and energy industries. These projects are responsible for environmental and health damage as well as the violent repression and displacement of indigenous communities.

‘This Is Huge’: Black Liberationist Speaks Out After Her 40 Years In Prison

June 27, 2018 Ed Pilkington, Theguardian.com Educate! History, Philadelphia, political prisoners, Racism

The first member of a group of black radicals known as the Move Nine who have been incarcerated, they insist unjustly, for almost 40 years for killing a Philadelphia police officer has been released from prison. Debbie Sims Africa, 61, walked free from Cambridge Springs prison in Pennsylvania on Saturday, having been granted parole. She was 22 when with her co-defendants she was arrested and sentenced to 30 to 100 years for the shooting death of officer James Ramp during a police siege of the group’s communal home on 8 August 1978. She emerged from the correctional institution to be reunited with her son, Michael Davis Africa Jr, to whom she gave birth in a prison cell in September 1978, a month after her arrest. “This is huge for us personally,” Sims Africa told the Guardian, speaking from her son’s home in a small town on the outskirts of Philadelphia where she will now live.

MOVE 9’s Debbie Africa Freed From Prison! Keep Up The Fight For All Political Prisoners

June 26, 2018 By Ava Obrecht, Liberationnews.org Uncategorized political prisoners

On June 16, Debbie Africa of Philadelphia’s MOVE 9 was granted parole just two months before the 40th anniversary of the brutal police attack carried out at the MOVE headquarters. This decision is a major victory for the movement to free political prisoners, as Debbie Africa is the very first member of the MOVE 9 to be paroled. Debbie had been unjustly denied parole nine times since 2008. Debbie Africa was serving 30 to 100 years in prison for a murder she did not commit. Debbie will return home to her daughter, Michelle, and her son, Michael Davis Africa Jr., who she has been separated from since the day she gave birth to him inside of her prison cell at 22 years old. MOVE is a Black liberation and environmental organization founded by John Africa. Its mission is to advocate for life in a system that violently oppresses Black people and exploits the Earth for profit. The members participate in organized protest surrounding gentrification, animal welfare and the military industrial complex.

Letter To The People Of Brazil

June 22, 2018 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Socialistproject.ca Create! Brazil, Electoral Politics, political prisoners

For two months now, I have been unjustly incarcerated without having committed any crime. For two months I have been unable to travel the country I love, bringing the message of hope of a better and more just Brazil, with opportunities for all, as I always did during 45 years of public life. I was deprived of my daily life with my sons and my daughter, my grandsons and granddaughters, my great-granddaughter, my friends and comrades. But I have no doubt that they have put me here to prevent me from being with my larger family: the Brazilian people. This is what distresses me the most, because I know that outside, every day, more and more families are back to living in the streets, abandoned by the State that should protect them.

Brazil: ‘Free Lula!’ Protests Continue In Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte

April 13, 2018 Staff, Telesurtv.net Resist! Brazil, Electoral Politics, political prisoners, Protests

Demonstrators marched through the country's largest city chanting "Free Lula Now!" Demonstrators, including trade union and political party representatives, marched through Brazil's largest city Sao Paulo late Wednesday chanting “Free Lula!”. The protesters are a continuation of the series of protest, which began last week, calling for former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva be freed from prison. Adding to the hundreds of persons, who protested in Sao Paulo, thousands more, including members of social movements and unions, also took to the streets of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, to demand Lula's release. Minas Gerais state congressman Rogerio Correia, said “only the people are capable of overcoming the crises that the 2016 coup brought to Brazil.

Take Action Now To Support Yaqui Political Prisoner Fidencio Aldama Pérez

March 15, 2018 James Patrick Jordan, Afgj.org Educate! Indigenous People, Mexico, political prisoners

Recent events in the Yaqui traditional territory, located in Sonora, México, give us worrisome lessons about neoliberalism and cultural genocide. The Yaqui lands are enduring threats to the Rio Yaqui that put the entire people, ecosystem, and culture at risk. But there are other, more valuable, lessons to be learned, and these are lessons about struggle and solidarity. The threats include the diversion of water by the Independencia aqueduct to serve big agribusinesses and an industrial zone populated with foreign and transnational factories in the city of Hermosillo. Presently, the traditional agriculture of the Yaquis is so affected that there is the possibility that they will not be able to sow winter crops for the coming year. On February 17, Irrigation District councilor, and president of the 4P8 Irrigation Module, announced that, “We always say that the Independencia aqueduct would affect us, and this is already happening.

Still Struggling For Freedom After 43 Years

February 8, 2018 Leonard Peltier, Counterpunch.org Resist! Freedom, Indigenous Activist, Leonard Peltier, political prisoners

I am overwhelmed that February 6th is the start of my 43rd year in prison. I have had such high hopes over the years that I might be getting out and returning to my family in North Dakota. And yet here I am in 2018 still struggling for my FREEDOM at 73. I don’t want to sound ungrateful to all my supporters who have stood by me through all these years. I dearly love and respect you and thank you for the love & respect you have given me. But the truth is I am tired and often my ailments cause me pain with little relief for days at a time. I just had heart surgery and I have other medical issues that need to be addressed: my aortic aneurysm, that could burst at any time, my prostate and arthritis in my hip and knees. I do not think I have another ten years, and what I do have I would like to spend with my family.

U.S. To Release Ahmed Al-Darbi, Less Significant Prisoners Have No Hope

August 14, 2017 Andy Worthington, www.closeguantanamo.org Resist! Guantanamo Bay, political prisoners

By Andy Worthington for Close Guantanamo - In the long and cruel history of Guantánamo, a major source of stress for the prisoners has been, from the beginning, the seemingly inexplicable release of prisoners who constituted some sort of a threat to the U.S., while completely insignificant prisoners have languished with no hope of release. In the early days, this was because shrewd Afghan and Pakistani prisoners connected to the Taliban fooled their captors, who were too arrogant and dismissive of their allies in the region to seek advice before releasing men who later took up arms against them. Later, in the cases of some released Saudis, it came about because the House of Saud demanded the release of its nationals, and the U.S. bowed to its demands, and in other cases that we don’t even know about it may be prudent to consider that men who were turned into double agents at a secret facility within Guantánamo were released as part of their recruitment — although how often those double agents turned out to betray their former captors is unknown.

Newsletter – This Juneteenth, End “US Way Of War”

June 18, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Black Lives Matter (BLM), Confederate Flag, Juneteenth, killed by police, Living Wage, Police abuse, political prisoners, Wars and Militarism

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. We just returned from the weekend-long United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) conference in Richmond, VA. This is the fourth UNAC conference since its founding in 2010 to create a vibrant and active anti-war movement in the United States that opposes all wars. The theme this year was stopping the wars at home and abroad in recognition that we can't end one without ending the others, that they have common roots and that it will take a large, broad-based and diverse movement of movements to succeed. Speakers at the conference ranged from people who are fighting for domestic issues - such as a $15/hour minimum wage and an end to racist police brutality and ICE raids - to people who traveled from or represented countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Korea, the Philippines, the Congo, Iran, Syria, Colombia and Venezuela, which are some of the many countries under attack by US imperialism.

Oscar López Rivera Returns Home – To A Movement

May 23, 2017 Asraa Mustufa Asraa Mustufa, www.chicagoreporter.com Resist! Chicago, political prisoners

By Asraa Mustufa Asraa Mustufa for The Chicago Reporter - Earlier this year, former President Barack Obama commuted the sentence for Oscar López Rivera, who served 35 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and charges related to his work with the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacionala (FALN). The militant Puerto Rican independence group claimed responsibility for a series of bombings beginning in the 1970s that resulted in five deaths. López Rivera’s supporters argue that prosecutors presented no evidence linking him to any FALN act that resulted in casualties. On Thursday, López Rivera returned to his home neighborhood of Humboldt Park. In 1967, after serving in the Vietnam War, he became an organizer in the community, where he led a campaign to create Roberto Clemente High School and open an alternative school for Puerto Rican dropouts. He also co-founded El Rincon health services for drug addicts and helped establish a local office of ASPIRA, which supports the educational and leadership development of Latino youth.

Why I Fought For Chelsea Manning

May 18, 2017 Evan Greer, www.opencanada.org Resist! Chelsea Manning, political prisoners, Whistleblowers

By Evan Greer for Open Canada - Chelsea Manning is my friend, but I’ve never seen her face to face, or given her a hug. That’s because Chelsea has been in prison for the last seven years, sometimes held in conditions that the United Nations considers to be torture. She has been serving what was meant to be a 35-year sentence — all for helping to expose some of the U.S. government’sworst abuses by making public thousands of military documents. This week, Chelsea will be released. I have to type those words again to believe them. This week, Chelsea Manning will walk out of an all-male, maximum-security military facility in Leavenworth, Kansas, and begin the rest of her life. This moment may never have come. Chelsea attempted to take her own life twice over the last year of her incarceration, after years of abuse and harassment at the hands of the U.S. government. She was first locked up as a whistleblower, but as a transgender woman behind bars she was systematically denied medically recommended health care, and routinely subjected to degrading treatment even as the Obama administration trumpeted its support for LGBTQ rights.

Chelsea Manning Released From Prison After Seven Years

May 18, 2017 Anne Meador and John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Chelsea Manning, political prisoners

By Anne Meador and John Zangas for DC Media Group - Early this morning, Chelsea Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth after seven years of imprisonment for releasing thousands of documents, cables and videos to Wikileaks. The video “Collateral Murder,” which showed the cold-blooded killing of Reuters journalists and Iraqi civilians by American soldiers in an Apache helicopter, provided visual evidence of U.S. military’s brutality and lack of accountability. Protesters gathered outside Fort Meade, Md. on June 1, 2013 during Chelsea Manning’s trial. DC Media Group interviewed Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers. “I’m here to celebrate an American hero, and a hero of the first amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of thought. And Bradley Manning has really stood for that all his life. In a way he’s been an outlier for a long time, and I admire him for that,” Ellsberg said. Anti-war activists worked hard and behind the scenes to increase political pressure to gain Manning her freedom. They protested outside Fort Meade, Maryland, where her trial was held, and blocked the gates outside Fort McNair, Washington, DC where the Commander made the final sentencing decision.

Chelsea Manning Is Free (Today)!

May 17, 2017 Joseph Gibson, www.couragetoresist.org Educate! Chelsea Manning, political prisoners

By Joseph Gibson for Courage to Resist - Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst jailed for her 2010 disclosure of classified information, is free tomorrow. Manning will leave Fort Leavenworth after having been imprisoned for 7 years. She was supposed to serve 35, the longest sentence ever handed down to a whistleblower in the United States, but after an impassioned activist campaign calling for her release President Obama commuted her sentence before leaving office. “This fantastic news goes a long way to making amends for the brutal treatment Chelsea was illegally subjected to while awaiting trial. It’s tragic that Chelsea had to spend 7 years imprisoned for releasing documents that should never have been classified in the first place, and were clearly in the public interest,” declared Chelsea Manning Support Network co-founder Jeff Paterson. “All of us who worked on Chelsea’s behalf are overjoyed. It feels unreal.” “I feel fantastic. Getting the news that President Obama had commuted Chelsea’s sentence was overwhelming and filled me with joy” said Nancy Hollander, who was the lead attorney for Manning’s appeal. “I wished I could have immediately hugged Chelsea. She has served a long and difficult sentence and her release is long overdue. It will be great to see her as a free woman.”

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