On the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War 2022

Today, the Commission 3 of the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) calls on all ILPS member organizations, allies, friends, compatriots and networks to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War by echoing our call across the world: To struggle is just! Fighting for people’s rights is not a crime! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Our thoughts and solidarity are with the political prisoners of our respective movements and countries, who share the common aspiration of justice, genuine peace, liberation and people’s rights. We are greatly inspired with their courage, that despite difficult conditions of detention, and all the threats to their life, liberty and safety, they have never allowed their spirits to be cowed and defeated.

Today, we continue to express our strong support to the more than 4,650 Palestinians in multiple prisons, and which includes 180 children and 32 women. We salute the 30 political prisoners who held a hunger strike in September 2022, to demand that their basic rights as political prisoners be given to them, including humane conditions inside detention, and ultimately, a stop to unjust detention without due process or trial. Together with our Palestinian brothers and sisters, we say free all Palestinian political prisoners!

We salute the political prisoners who have been unjustly arrested, detained, and spent time in prison, but who, since their release, have shown that prisons can only deter one’s physical body and movement, but never the fervor against fascism. At the same time, we continue to demand the release of currently detained political prisoners in West Papua, Moluccas, Indonesia, Kurdistan, Iran, Syria, Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico, Basque, Belarus, Peru, Brazil, Nicaragua, the United States, India, Palestine, and in many other countries.

We demand freedom for elderly couple, 80-year old Izaak Siahaja and 72-year old Pelpina Werinussa Siahaja, detained since June 2019 in Indonesia; the seven Papuan students Melvin Yobe, Melvin Fernando Waine, Devio Tekege, Yosep Ernesto Matuan, Maksimus Simon Petrus You, Lukas Kitok Uropmabin, and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere, who were arrested and detained in December 2021, for raising the Morning Star flag in West Papua; and Victor Yeimo, international spokesperson of the West Papua National Committee, who is ailing and yet remains in detention after his arrest on May 9, 2021.

We call for the humanitarian release of Basque long-time political prisoner Patxi Ruiz, whose health has since deteriorated while in detention, yet continues to assert the humane treatment of prisoners. We demand the unconditional freedom of lawyer Aytaç Ünsal, who also became ill while in detention. We likewise call for the freedom of imprisoned members of Grup Yorum and all the political prisoners in Turkey.

We join the people of India in demanding the just and humanitarian release of activist and professor Dr. G. N. Saibaba, whose release was recently stopped by the high court of India. His health condition should likewise be grounds for his humanitarian release, and his being continuously stripped of his basic rights as he remains in detention should be condemned.
We demand the release of Kurdish political activist, Zeinab Jalalian, who has been in Iranian jail since 2008, and is one of the many women political prisoners all over the world. We also call for the release of women political prisoners like Filipino activist Reina Mae Nasino, whose child fell ill and died, away from her.

Their physical bodies may have been held captive in the darkest cells, and their captors may have tortured their bodies in an effort to dampen their spirits, yet their courage and hope continue to illuminate the greater struggle and movement of the peoples of the world who continue to fight for life and limb, against oppression and exploitation by imperialism, their local masters in respective neocolonies and countries, and the state mercenaries who continue to be instruments of fascism and terror.

The struggle continues, as many still fall victim to unjust arrest and detention, fabricated charges and false testimonies, and the criminalization of protest and dissent. The global trend of arrests and detention of activists, critical oppositionists, revolutionaries and dissidents should be condemned by rights defenders worldwide, who assert that activism is neither a crime nor an act of terror.

The united and struggling people of the world are one in saying: to rebel is just, amid a world crisis that makes the rich richer, and bleeds the poorest people of the world dry. As long as we believe that another world is possible for the generations to come, our resounding call for genuine freedom should reverberate in all corners of the world.

A better world is possible, and we are in solidarity with all freedom-loving people and rights advocates in opposing all forms of repression, and more importantly, the oppressive and exploitative society that is imposed on us.

To cry out for freedom, at this point of history, is to call for the smashing of imperialism.

Free all political prisoners!
Down with imperialism!
Activism is neither crime nor terrorism!
Continue the fight for people’s rights!