ILPS salutes political prisoners, calls for immediate release!

As we commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, Commission 3 of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) salutes all political prisoners in Palestine, Kurdistan, Turkey, Mexico, Peru, India, the US and elsewhere in the world who ardently defend people’s rights from imperialism and fascism.

Political prisoners are activists, freedom fighters, advocates, human rights defenders, and individuals who were deprived of their liberty and remain in detention as a consequence of their political beliefs and aspirations. In the Philippines, there are now 629 political prisoners languishing in jails across the country, with nearly 400 arrested under the fascist Duterte regime. Political prisoners in Mexico and Peru have been targeted for their fight against imperialist plunder of resources, resisting transnational projects that adversely affect indigenous communities. Thousands more are detained in Kurdistan and Palestine, for waging their struggle for their right to self-determination and asserting their collective right as peoples. Many more oppressed peoples are unjustly incarcerated because of the brutal and oppressive prison industrial complex in the US. Thousands of political prisoners in Turkey were arrested by the brutal Erdogan government. India’s political prisoners are a consequence of a regime that pillage the country’s resources while conducting crackdowns on critics.

To repressive governments and imperialist nations, political prisoners are enemies, but to the peoples of the world, they are an inspiration. These individuals who voice out the real situation in their countries and defend their communities against imperialist wars of aggression are among those who also propel the peoples’ resistance in order to change a global system that knows only war and profit. They refused to be silenced, even in detention. Their fight, their ideals will raze the prison walls to the ground.

With righteous indignation, peoples’ resistance rages on across the world: in Bolivia, where the working class, indigenous majority have taken to the streets to combat the US-backed military and its far-right, racist leadership; in Chile, where the courageous youth engage in mass civil disobedience to counter austerity measures imposed on the masses; in Palestine, where political prisoners conduct collective hunger strikes to challenge Israeli occupation and insist their inalienable right to return to their homeland.

Confronted with collective, organized, and militant movements, the fragile edifices of  imperialism and its puppet regimes are bound to collapse. Even from behind bars, the peoples’ aspirations will definitely triumph.

In waves of vehement voices, we continue to call for the release of all political prisoners! We stand with the peoples of Palestine, Peru, India, Kurdistan, Mexico, Philippines, Turkey, the US and other countries in their fight for freedom. As thousands of activists and freedom fighters are imprisoned, tortured, killed or disappeared all over the world, we continue to march forward to move and compel this system to action, bearing the sacrifices of our comrades to intensify resistance against State repression within our own borders, and against the terrorism of imperialism globally.

ILPS Commission 3 firmly stands in solidarity with all political prisoners and unequivocally demand their immediate and unconditional release.

Long live international solidarity! Free all political prisoners now!

Statement of ILPS Commission 3 on International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War