Uganda: Opposition figure Kizza Besigye denied bail http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TQ5Jdk #Uganda #KizzaBesigye #Opposition #HumanRights #PoliticalPrisoner

One year in prison for saving lives…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4QonHSOA54A

It is now one year since Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician, neonatal specialist, and hospital director, has been imprisoned under Israel’s so-called Unlawful Combatants Law...

#FreeHusamAbuSafiya #AMA #Silent #ImmediateRelease #PoliticalPrisoner #Gaza #SavingLives #IndefiniteDetention #NoEvidence #Israel

Interview from Underground with Liberated Filton 24 Prisoner Sean “Shibby” Middlebrough

I had the great honor of interviewing Sean “Shibby” Middlebrough, a humble professional revolutionary, one of the Filton 24 who escaped British custody and is now living underground. We had a rich discussion about his political background, his path into taking direct action with Palestine Action, and the future of anti-imperialist struggle within the imperial core.

For those who don’t know, Shibby was granted temporary bail to attend his brother’s wedding, and he (very logically) chose not to return to prison, where he and his comrades have been detained in horrific conditions without trial or bail, some for over a year.

You can follow Shibby on Instagram and check out his podcast, Diary Of A Political Prisoner.

Before you read the interview, please note that today, 11 December, marks Day 40 of the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike. 8 prisoners are on hunger strike and 5 have been hospitalized so far, some of them multiple times. Their lives are on the line. Take action to support their demands:

• US toolkit (made by Workshops4Gaza)
• UK toolkit
• Follow Free the Filton 24 on Substack (where they publish prisoners’ writings) and Instagram, and Prisoners for Palestine on Instagram and Twitter
• Donate to the fundraiser for the 37 political prisoners in Britain
• Continue taking direct action against the zionist-imperialist war machine!

There are also urgent calls to action to support Indigenous political prisoner Xinachtli (¡Tierra y Libertad!) who is facing extreme medical neglect in Texas prisons. Look at his support committee’s page for more info.

How’s it feel to be free after being locked up for so long?

I wouldn’t know. I’m not free. You’re not free and nor are the readers. We’re not free until we’re all free from the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

Furthermore, I’m underground. Sure, I’ve gained me more “freedoms” such as the freedom to not listen to prison officers shouting and instigating fights and even better, I’ve gained the freedom to feel the elements on my skin and witness the sun rise and set, followed by the spectacular view of the Moon and stars which I didn’t see for over 11 months. Yet, being underground has also severely limited many more “freedoms” I did have even as a prisoner, such as being able to speak to friends & family. I may now witness the Sun rise, but I miss out on my own Son’s growth.

I am of course relieved to no longer be in a 9ftx5ft box 23 hours a day and to be in a more productive and vocal position.

It’s only honest for me to not give the impression that I’m sippin’ piña colada’s with my feet up. I’m still struggling for freedom.

In an article I recently published about the ongoing hunger strike, I characterized your escape as “a qualitative escalation and a massive embarrassment for the paper tiger that is the criminal justice system. It shows that the freedom of our prisoners is a tangible possibility, and demonstrates the range of different tactics by which they might resist conditions of captivity by any means necessary. Our duty on the outside is not just to engage in legal advocacy for the prisoners, but to build a popular cradle of resistance — an underground.”

Just like the hunger strike is a means to resist captivity, so was your liberation, when you found yourself in the unique circumstances that made it possible. And of course there is a long history of prison breaks in liberation movements, whether we’re talking about Assata or William Morales’s prison breaks, who were participating in armed national liberation struggles within amerika, the IRA’s iconic prison breaks at Long Kesh in the north and Mountjoy Prison in the south, or the Palestinian prisoners’ escape from Gilboa Prison through Operation Freedom Tunnel.

So how do you think your liberation could shift the balance of forces, even just by shattering the oppressors’ image of omnipotence? And do you have any message you want to share with international political prisoners who are also locked up for participating in the Palestinian liberation struggle and other connected movements?

Yeah, I read that publication and I love it. Your characterisation of the circumstances are correct.

Firstly, on the building of ‘a cradle of resistance — an underground’ and to tie in with your question, I think an important role of that underground is to do as you say, ‘shatter the view of omnipotence’ of our oppressors by way of giving interviews, writing and speaking truth to power from a position where they’re powerless to do anything about it!

It’s important that we expose the political policing, arrests and abuses of the legal (injustice) system that imprisoned us by a state that aims to protect the actual perpetrators of crime such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity – Israel may be the word that pops into people’s mind, but in reality Israel is merely a proxy-state for western (British-US) imperialism therefore blaming every crime against the Palestinians for example on Israel is literally the purpose of a proxy state, to have the crimes look autonomous, when really the blame is largely on Britain and the US who founded the terror-state to destabilise the middle-east and more easily overthrow anti-western regimes and extract their resources.

I say this not to give a lecture, but because shattering their omnipotence requires truly identifying the quality of the ‘oppressors’, as you put it. They are western imperialists.

Colonialism is merely a method of subduing a people, a qualitative definiteness of Imperialism and for imperialism via the proxy-state of Israel.

If you still doubt that the UK & US are pulling the strings of Israel, but rather that Israel is acting independently then I suggest to attempt to follow the strings. They will lead you to arms factories in the US, Britain & Europe. Once you’ve done that, you can in fact physically manipulate those strings from places like Elbit Systems, Rafael and Teledyne.

You can directly interfere with Israel’s military campaigns (genocide) so that drones are never deployed, tanks and other military hardware are left incomplete by deadlines they’re needed at the front, as Palestine Action have done for years.

If you still doubt that Israel is not merely a proxy state for western imperialism, then look at what happens when you interfere at the source of the monopoly of violence; As European and British Governments condemn Israel’s strategy of displacement and erasure, calling for an end, they simultaneously arrest those who are actually preventing the slaughter. Whats-more, the more of an impact you have, the more they will crack-down on you, as in my case of the Filton 24, they even went so far as arresting us with the Counter-Terrorism pigs for opposing terrorism. In the case of Palestine Action in general, I saw them become a proscribed terror group in my prison cell.

The main argument they had to justify this was what I got told in my 3-day stay at the Counter-Terrorism police station: that a terrorist can be somebody who “opposes British foreign policy”.

There it is.

Arming Israel, what it knows to be a terrorist ethno-state destabilising the middle east and colonising Palestine is literally British Foreign Policy. It has been since 1918.

If it were not, the Filton 24 trial would not be classed as ‘terror-related’. Palestine Action would not be proscribed. Israel would not be continued to be supported economically, militarily and diplomatically by the west, despite their public condemnation.

All they condemn is that Israel has been caught in the act so many times, that they should perhaps go back to a slow genocide. Everything was easier for them before social media around the time of The Nakba.

This is the role of those prisoners who are now underground, sharing what we’ve learned and experienced. There are many other duties that should be performed also as you can imagine.

Our oppressors are the same as they are in most of the world: western imperialists. They are closer to us than they are to the Palestinians.

“Israel is evil” simply isn’t going to shift the balance of forces. A comprehensive understanding of Imperialism and anti-imperialist action will.

Battles can be won without it, but there will always be battles to be fought as long as there is class war.

I implore everybody to study, to understand the enemy & it’s nature, to dedicate themselves to liberation. I see no more urgent and greater reason for people to begin to resist than the Palestinian cause. They are entirely victims of western Imperialism as we have already covered.

We are the source of their continued suffering as long as we the masses are complicit and do nothing. We don’t deserve freedom ourselves as long as we’re benefiting off the murder, misery and exploitation of others.

In regards to messages to International Political Prisoners for Palestine, err… Surely anything I say is completely insufficient as no words can describe my admiration for them and the fury I have for their oppressors?

I guess I’d say that “You know what you did. You know it was totally sick. You’re incredibly cool. Though there may still be many cowards and hypocrites who haven’t matched your conviction and sacrifice, there will be enough people who will be inspired to build on your work and the work of those before us to Free Palestine.

The international political landscape is changing daily on Palestine for Palestine. What has been an unconscionable history will be a better future. I know that for a fact because there are people like you, comrade.”

You have maintained that you did not “abscond” or go “on the run,” that you are a liberated prisoner of war — a prisoner of war of Israel in Britain. Can you elaborate on this term, “prisoner of war,” and why it’s important not to legitimize the state’s criminalization of liberation struggles?

So, Israel kept crying to the Home Office in London over many many years over their factories getting smashed up, having to close for the day and even being economically compelled to permanently shut down their factories so that eventually the UK Government, (I guess shut them up) decided to be harsher on Palestine Actionists.

We know that the Isaeli embassy has had meetings with UK officials and shortly after there’s been arrests and we know that the Home Office has told police to ‘focus not on the rights of the protesters, but on the business’ thereby mass arresting over 30 literal peaceful demonstrators – like, not even a fire extinguisher or sledge hammer anywhere, just banners – forgoing our legal rights to make their demon-baby Israel and Elbit Systems feel loved.

I know that the Home Office told Leicester police this because I was one of those arrested and this came out as disclosure in court. We all got acquitted.

So when it comes to my arrest and the arrest of most of the Filton 24 by Counter-Terrorism police, it had clearly got to a point where Elbit Systems (Israel) were so disturbed and upset by the supremely legendary action at their Filton site that this time they must have suggested the arrest of the 6 who went inside simply won’t pacify them, they need more arrests. It’s my belief that they suggested that we had effectively destroyed their cot when they were sleeping (as Britain’s baby) and this was akin to terrorism, therefore more arrests had to be made so nobody would attempt to destroy their factories again, once and for all.

It’s also my belief that Israel wanted to arrest as many people as they could even with circumstantial evidence but they didn’t have the authority, so they needed counter terrorism police to make arrests that the ordinary police would not make. They, being Britain’s favourite child got their wish.

I’m entirely convinced by knowing the political influence they’ve had on British police in the past, as evidenced in court and FOI documents that ‘Operation Re-comply’ is influenced by Israeli Officials.

Elbit is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer and it got absolutely wrote off yet again. Just why wouldn’t they demand harsher counter-terrorism policing?

Therefore, after a long history of incredible victories and unprecedented action, because of our politics and history, we were arrested at the behest of a foreign entity who’s genocide machine was at the risk of collapse in it’s parent Country. That being said, Israel doesn’t arrest Palestinians or resistance fighters with ordinary police, when Palestinians go to ‘trial’, Palestinians are in a Military Court. They are deemed prisoners of war.

I was imprisoned as a prisoner of war proxy because of Israeli interference with the Counter Terrorism Police. Court in the UK with the ‘Terrorism Connection’ as a possible aggravated factor at sentencing would be the closest they could accomplish to having me tried as a prisoner of war with a similar sentence (decades)

Regardless of who arrests us, we always say that we are not the guilty ones, Elbit Systems is. Court at least in the past was a place where we had the chance to put them on the stand, but that’s became harder as all of our legal defences are ruled out early in case-management. This again is akin to a military court.​​​​​​​ Despite this, we know these trials are purely political trials and history – the true trial – will absolve us all.

That is why I said ‘Peace out’ to HMP Wandsworth, because I want Elbit System’s upper management to fear that I am not in prison, that I am (it’s true) actually under their very beds every night ready to pull them by their ankles into the depths of hell where they belong.

Before your illegitimate incarceration, you hosted a Communist radio show called Rev Lumpen Radio. Can you tell us more about your past political work, and what led you to seeing direct action as the only option? I feel like I had a somewhat similar journey, having been involved in socialist parties and NGOs, but ultimately seeing the Al-Aqsa Flood expose that Pal Action was the only formation meeting the moment in the West in terms of escalation to resist the genocide.

It’s cool you asked about this. Revolutionary Lumpen Radio is the sickest podcast to ever exist. I’m extremely, eternally grateful to all my guests and comrades I’ve had the privilege of hosting and learning from – who’ve been extremely open, honest and informative on all the subjects we engaged in! As well as my listeners and supporters. Thank you.

Honestly, RLR started off because I was extremely dissatisfied with the lack of organised, militant and sincere Marxist Revolutionaries in the imperial core – the belly of the beast – the luckiest place for a Revolutionary to be and effect internationalist change.

I think sporting a habit of smoking a lot of weed, sniffing ketamine and reading a lot of revolutionary theory really – despite the sedative nature of these things – encouraged my productivity in the agitation-propaganda front (I actually sold them as well as i was trying to radicalise the lumpen-drug dealers in my City, it was a crazy time).

But the podcast wasn’t directed at liberals, I did it directly aimed at Imperial Core Marxists, to criticise their methods (or lack of) and educate them in their actual duties as Marxists who aught to be synonymous with revolutionaries. The duty of every revolutionary is to make revolution. Not talk about it. Not just “educate” about it. To make it.

There were and still are a tremendous amount of grifters who make a living talking about Marxism and revolution but that’s all they do, so I let many shots fire in their direction too. In fact they obviously annoyed me more, especially when I started a Serve The People Programme in my community off the proceeds of Revolutionary Lumpen Radio, feeding families who were struggling in what I called “Turning peoples hunger from capitalism into a hunger for socialism”. That was the objective of my STP programme.

People (as I would say to local communist groups) can’t truly learn Marxism if they’re thinking about how to feed themselves.

We need to go into the communities and Serve The People! We need to build bases within the capitalist base and superstructure and from these revolutionary bases we’ll have a revolutionary superstructure that no longer depends on the capitalist one and has a socialist culture. The local communists said it was a waste of money and time. Then my Podcast’s funds couldn’t keep up and shrunk as I put less podcasts out because I was serving the people more. I grew furious and my habits with it.

This pained me because the people in our communities who needed the most help were the lumpen-proletariat, who I wanted to represent. The underclass. The class that’s won most revolutions. You can’t be a worker and engage in revolution – let’s be honest. Your profession must be a professional revolutionary, not a guerrilla fighter part-time and factory worker the rest – now who’s smoking what?

The imperial core Marxists deem the lumpen-proletariat as a “backwards” “counter-revolutionary” class, even though it’s these people who have to most to gain, least to lose and generally are oppressed by the working class by the same bourgeois morality that sees them as social scum. But I know there’s hope in them because I have a lumpen class-consciousness and my left toe is more revolutionary than most.

Don’t get me wrong, I was taught by a local communist group, FRFI and wouldn’t be who I am without them, they obviously are a good place to start and of course I love those comrades. Yet, I guess I was taught and/or self-taught too well because the words of George Jackson hit too hard “come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act.”

I tried to take action serving the people long-term, but I’m not an entertainer, I’m a revolutionary so I couldn’t afford it like the grifting communist podcasters and Youtubers could have if they cared about their community.

I can’t sell newspapers for an org, because I want to bash the ruling class to death with them instead.

Then I heard Palestine Action on a Twitter Space discuss their first major victory, permanently shutting down Elbit Systems Oldham site.

Well, shiver-me-timbers. This is real anti-imperialist work that I’m duty-bound to contribute to as a Marxist Revolutionary, an Internationalist. Serving The People locally is good, but Serving The People Internationally for a people who are oppressed because of your own Countries policies and Imperialist objectives is far more urgent. Also Palestinians are a lot nicer.

A month later (I think) I was taking bricks out of Elbit’s UAV Engines site and using those same bricks to destroy drone engines inside (brick by brick) with 5 other esteemed comrades whom I’ll forever love.

We absolutely dismantled the place. It was wrote off for over a month. It was marvellous. THAT is what freedom is. Freedom is fighting for freedom, it’s a self-replicating phenomenon.

On that action there was literally blood, sweat, tears & broken bones. Broken drones.

I went to work 2 days later with my left hand in ribbons after it got torn to shreds on the razor wire for the factory. A couple of inches of vein had been plucked out of my finger and was in the palm of my hand swimming in a growing pool of blood. My fingers were inside-out in some places, it was quite a sight.

Naturally, that whole experience and others like it redirected my podcasts platform to platforming Palestine Action and the importance of direct action. As I got more caught up, my podcast was on the back burner, as well as my ‘illicit’ habits.

The Patreon still exists (please don’t pay money to it as I can’t access the money) but one day I’d like to fire Revolutionary Lumpen Radio up again.

I have another podcast called “Diary Of A Political Prisoner” that was actually recorded in prison and the Patreon is accessible, which I’ll be updating soon. I’m still all about agitation propaganda of course.

Your political education and theoretical work appears to have been very grounded in the role of the lumpenproletariat in the revolution, and you reference a lot of important Black freedom fighters in amerika, such as George Jackson and Sanyika Shakur. You seem to follow a different tendency, rooted in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist national liberation struggles, than a lot of Western Marxists who emphasize the role of the working class of the imperialist countries in making revolution.

I think this contradiction directly translates to the Pal Action strategy as well — for example, in amerika, we received a lot of pushback on our direct action campaign by people who said our actions would alienate the weapons factory workers and that we just needed to organize them. Of course to this we responded that these workers, even if they experience degrees of exploitation from their employers, are deeply invested in and benefiting from imperialism and genocide, so we shouldn’t wait for them to gain a moral conscience for us to take action, and we shouldn’t see them as the base for revolution. Unions have certainly taken more action and gone on brief general strike in some European countries than they have in amerika, where they have just kept building and shipping the bombs, and endorsing genocidal candidates, but I would say the unions in Europe could and should be doing far, far more as well.

So, do you think there is revolutionary potential within the imperial core, and what does that look like? What strategies are worth taking up and which are futile or social imperialist? Historically, what groups do you look to as reference points and inspiration?

Calla, I love these questions and I’m so happy to answer these things to someone who’s as learned as yourself in these important concepts and phenomena.

As far as I’m concerned, Marxism, the theory of Revolution doesn’t end and is a constant project of practice > theory > practice > theory etc and the practitioners are the revolutionaries because of their understanding that’s came from studying the nature of anti-imperialism, decolonialism and resistance struggles which is to say: Marxist theory and practice. A lot of people use “Imperialism” without studying Marxism-Leninism when Lenin literally defined what it is.

“Decolonialism” is literally a practice that’s came from the revolutionaries who understood Marxism/historical materialism and applied it to their national liberation struggles, but most have never read the Marxist theory of it’s leaders.

Ideology is so important. If you think back, at one point you could not read. You would look at the text on this screen and see nothing but incoherent shapes and symbols. Then you learned to read. Ever since reading (and you can put this to the test) you physically cannot look at these letters/words without reading them! You can’t do it!

When you understand Marxism, your ideology changes, you will interpret the world completely differently; you will understand the mechanisms and forces of geopolitics, economies and culture as they are: a hegemony of the ruling class! You’ll be politically literate. Marxism is the tool we must wield to dismantle capitalism, colonialism and imperialism propped up by it’s libertarian ideology. It’s the only thing that has done so and we cannot hope to understand, much less defeat the forces of oppression without it.

Therefore, yes, you are right and this brings me back to my old Revolutionary Lumpen Radio Podcast a little, I have been vocal in criticism of what are “Eurocentric” Marxists in the imperial core and their lack of engagement with Black or other liberation movements and revolutionaries. Many seem to think that the scientific project of Marxism doesn’t include people like George Jackson, Fred Hampton, Huey Newton & Sanyika Shakur, even Frantz Fanon, Ghassan Kanafani. They’re what Malik Dacoure in my “BLACK Marxism & White Marxism” episode stated, these revolutionaries are seen as “DLC” — something extra, exotic even but not tied in with revolutionary theory in the imperial core. Maybe it’s because they’re not white due to a hangover from bourgeois morality but I think the contributions from these people are very important.

The Black Panthers for eg had a remarkable understanding of Marxism-Leninism. I daresay most white Marxists would get an ‘F’ on the Black Panthers 6-week educational programme.

What they did was come to understand their enemies quality as well as their own position within a class-structured racist system of oppression.

With the Vietnam war raging and black Americans being forced to fight poor non-white people in Vietnam while black people were killed with impunity, or even reward by US state forces, this gave rise to a contradiction and consciousness for extremely brave individuals like Huey Newton to form the Black Panther Party as a Marxist-Leninist party. Though the initial focus was on the ending of police brutality in Black neighbourhoods, it was through their educating the masses as to the white supremacist Country they lived in and how that supremacy is maintained by capitalism, imperialism.

The panthers Serve The People Programmes were an outstanding achievement and never-before practised method in the Imperial core, inspired by Chairman Mao who liberated China.

It worked. It got thousands (hundreds of thousands) of people to understand capitalism/imperialism through racism and it’s power structures. The Panthers forced more concessions by the US Government than any white communist party ever had or has since! That wasn’t even their intention, but by their militancy and education they lifted their communities out of ignorance and despair to give them power.

They united so many people and took back their streets from white capitalists. They literally gave FREE healthcare in the UNITED STATES for goodness sake. They taught their community that they deserved it and socialism will guarantee it.

Furthermore, I’ve actually had the honour and privilege of reading a Black Panther Newspaper IRL. It was in my hands. Within it, there was random artwork that said “Lumpen Power” and other pro-lumpen propaganda because of course most black people at the time were lumpen. They focused on the most oppressed, rather than those workers who just want to organise for a bigger piece of the imperialist pie, so I feel more in tune with the Panthers than white eurocentric Marxists tbh.

Eventually the FBI deemed the “Children’s Free Breakfast Programmes” the biggest threat to the United States. More than any other white, American exceptionalist communist party. Because the Panthers were literally building socialism in the US!! Not the white people. Free breakfast in schools was a concession the US Gov eventually made, as all revolutionary iconography is eventually neutralised.

The FBI sought to “prevent the rise of a Black Messiah” so they assassinated (effectively lynched) 21-year old Fred Hampton because he was just that fucking cool.

So when I study the history, the successes and failures of revolutionary activity, I study them all because they died or were imprisoned for us. I’m not dogmatic, I don’t limit myself to revolutionary theory and practice in the imperial core of the early 1900’s, I study recent revolutionaries such as the Panthers up to the 1980’s. If Marxists can’t address the contradictions of racism, colonialism and the eurocentric problems of Marxism then I think we have a serious yt problem.

On unions and arms-industry workers, well… As I’ve previously said, workers and their unions organise around getting a bigger piece of the imperialist pie, that’s what they’re best at. I can’t imagine them organising to stop working on a weapons factory that they consciously applied to work for and I know first-hand these places have framed photographs of the weapons they produce all around these sites, they’re proud of the work they do and are violent with protesters, even children. There’s no reasoning with these pigs.

I know you got push back around not “organising” the workforce rather than just taking action to shut the site down, I can remember when it happened. It was drama. The US is just a very reactionary stupid place i’m afraid.

Honestly, it’s all very idealistic hoping unions will strike, I think time and energy is better spent organising direct action campaigns to shut these places down ourselves and anybody that says otherwise are looking for excuses to justify their own cowardice and complicity.

I do think there’s revolutionary potential in the imperial core, because I know I exist and I know my comrades exist, including you, Calla.

There is a lot of work to be done. I think it’s important to focus on direct action against the military-industrial complex, tying in their connection with racist imperialist conquests as Palestine Action have done, informing millions of Britain’s & the West’s very contemporary role in oppression and crimes against humanity, removing the mask of what was apparently a group of perfectly civilised Countries, a force of good in the world.

It’s also important to Serve The People! Build programmes locally with the goal of turning peoples hunger from capitalism into a hunger for socialism — tackling alienation, hopelessness and suicide among our neighbours in favour of revolutionary suicide through political education and solidarity.

Increasing in our ranks, the professional revolutionary in favour of the professional wage slave.

We must make the organisation and support of political prisoners a priority just as the Palestinians make their prisoners the focus of their organising. These people are the tip of the spear when it comes to action and we must collectively thrust them and what they stand for into the consciousness of everybody else.

We should look at (in detail) organisations and the individuals who make up The Black Panther Party, Palestine Action and others in recent history that have influenced history in a revolutionary way to inspire us to build on their momentum.

What do you think the future holds in terms of direct action and resistance more broadly?

Yeah, I think the future of Direct Action is just warming up. I think direct action has stretched it’s legs and is ready for the long-run.

In terms of resistance, it’s up to the reader. Will they feel compelled to end the butchering of people, social murder, man-made-extinction or will they have a heart and be guided by great feelings of love?

Any message for your comrades on hunger strike, which just passed one month?

To my comrades on hunger strike, my heart is broken. I see lots of videos reporting/commenting on the events in Palestine and there are random comments about your hunger strike. It is widely known and a lot of people think about you. Of course this is nice but not particularly what will change things.

I am doing what I can to change things, to see that your demands are met just as you would be if you were in my position.

You can follow Shibby on Instagram and check out his podcast, Diary Of A Political Prisoner.

Today, 11 December, marks Day 40 of the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike. 8 prisoners are on hunger strike and 5 have been hospitalized so far, some of them multiple times. Their lives are on the line. Take action to support their demands:

• US toolkit (made by Workshops4Gaza)
• UK toolkit
• Follow Free the Filton 24 on Substack (where they publish prisoners’ writings) and Instagram, and Prisoners for Palestine on Instagram and Twitter
• Donate to the fundraiser for the 37 political prisoners in Britain
• Continue taking direct action against the zionist-imperialist war machine!

There are also urgent calls to action to support Indigenous political prisoner Xinachtli (¡Tierra y Libertad!) who is facing extreme medical neglect in Texas prisons. Look at his support committee’s page for more info.

source: Calla Walsh Substack

Today in Labor History December 23, 1921: President Warren Harding issued a "Christmas amnesty," freeing Eugene V. Debs and 23 other political prisoners who had been imprisoned for their opposition to World War I under the Sedition Act. Debs was a founding member of the IWW, a socialist, and a 5-time candidate for president of the US. In the 1912 election, he won 6% of the vote. He also led the 1894 Pullman Strike of over 250,000 railroad workers.

In 2023, the U.S. launched its #WithoutJustCause campaign to seek the release of the over 1 million political prisoners around the world, ignoring/denying the fact that it has its own political prisoners, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been in prison through eight different presidencies. Very few political prisoners have been pardoned historically, particularly those on the Left. Here are a few exceptions:

*Washington and Adams both pardoned several men convicted for the Whiskey Rebellion.
*Hayes pardoned the anarchist Ezra Heywood for his 1878 conviction for violating the Comstock Act (for publishing articles in support of free love).
*Teddy Roosevelt pardoned Filipino revolutionary Servillano Aquino, ancestor to future Philippine presidents Benigno and Corazon Aquino.
*Coolidge commuted the sentence of Marcus Garvey, convicted of mail fraud, but then had him deported.
*Ford granted amnesty to over 50,000 Vietnam War resisters.
*Jimmy Carter granted clemency to Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores Rodriguez, Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire in the U.S. House of Representatives and wounding five Congressmen in 1954
*Clinton pardoned Elizam Escobar, Puerto Rican artist and activist, convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1980; and commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a Puerto Rican clandestine paramilitary. He also commuted the sentence of Susan Rosenberg, former radical activist and domestic terrorist, convicted of illegal explosives possession in 1984. She also was involved in several Brink’s armored car robberies, providing material support to the Black Liberation Army, and helping Assata Shakur escape from prison.
*Obama commuted the sentence of army whistle blower Chelsea Manning. He also commuted the sentence of Oscar López Rivera, an FALN member serving 55 years for seditious conspiracy
*Trump posthumously pardoned Susan B. Anthony for illegally voting in 1872, in spite of the fact that Anthony, herself, never would have accepted a pardon, as it would have wrongly validated the trial proceedings and the fine she refused to pay.
*Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier to home confinement for life.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #prison #union #strike #solidarity #socialism #sedition #IWW #worldwarone #antiwar #politicalprisoner #eugenedebs #mumia #leonardpeltier

Today in Labor History December 22, 1946: Kuwasi Balagoon was born. In the early 1960s, while still a teen, he got involved in the Cambridge Movement, a Maryland civil rights movement that was becoming increasing militant, including advocating for armed self-defense. They were involved in the Cambridge Riots of 1963. He then served in the military and settled in New York after he was discharged in 1967, where he joined the Black Panther Party. He was also a tenants’ rights activist, organizing rent strikes, resisting illegal evictions, and once threatening a corrupt landlord with a machete. He also led a tenants’ rights demonstration in Congress leading to a melee with Capital Police after House Speaker, Tip O’Neil, ordered the cops to “Get those niggers out of here.”

While in prison, as member of the Panther 21 (accused of several bombings), he became disillusioned with the Panthers, became an anarchist and joined the more militant Black Liberation Army. He escaped from prison twice. In 1979, while on the lam from his second prison escape, he helped to free political prisoner Assata Shakur, who fled to Cuba and who recently died there (2025). In 1986, Balagoon died in prison from AIDS. In 2019, PM Press released a collection of writings by and about Balagoon called, “Kuwasi Balagoon: A Soldier's Story.” And the prison abolitionist group, Black and Pink, which supports LGBTQ and HIV-positive prisoners, has, since 2020, run a "Kuwasi Balagoon award" for those living with HIV/AIDS. During his trial, he represented himself, admitted his guilt, but argued that his actions were justified in the war against the colonial, genocidal state. He was also open about his bisexuality. Yet many obituaries omitted this fact in what some activists have decried as the erasure of "internal struggle against homophobia and patriarchy."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #blackpanthers #BlackLiberationArmy #racism #newafrika #assatashakur #prison #lgbtq #aids #hiv #politicalprisoner #author #writer #books #BlackMastodon @bookstadon

Political Prisoner Malik Muhammad on Palestine Action, Islam, and Anti-Imperialism: Vox Ummah Interview

Introduction

The publication of this interview on December 19th marks day 48 of the historic Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike—the largest prisoner hunger strike in the u.k since 1981, when prisoners from the Irish Republican Army undertook a prolonged and militant refusal of food in protest of the british government’s withdrawal of their special status as prisoners of war.

The eight Prisoners for Palestine hunger strikers—Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Jon Cink, Kamran Ahmed, Teuta “T” Hoxha, Lewie Chiaramello, and Umer Khalid—have taken up their predecessors’ same weapon of the body, declaring their refusal to eat until all five of their audacious demands have been met. Many of them have been held on “remand” (pre-trial detention) for over a year for alleged direct actions taken against Elbit Systems, the weapons manufacturer in britain which makes 80-85% of the zionist entity’s land weaponry and drones. These weapons are currently being used in the holocaust of Gaza, to lay waste to Palestinian lives.

The hunger strikers’ demands are as follows: end all communications censorship; release them on immediate bail while awaiting trial; a fair and transparent trial with all records related to Elbit released in full; the deproscription of Palestine Action; and lastly, the permanent closure of every Elbit facility on british soil.

The strike has been met with a wave of international support: Italian prisoner Stecco has chosen to expand the strike across Europe; federal defendant Jakhi in the so-called u.s. declared his solidarity with the hunger strikers and undertook a 10-day solidarity fast; recently liberated Lebanese political prisoner Georges Abdallah released a statement of admiration and solidarity, along with Abdel-Nasser and Ammar, Palestinian prisoners who were liberated by the resistance earlier this year in the Al-Ahrar Flood exchange.

Earlier this year, in August of 2025, T. Hoxha —who is currently on hunger strike again—was the first of the Palestine Action prisoners to initiate a solo hunger strike when the prison officials at HMP Peterborough revoked her job in the prison library, withheld her mail, and represented her as a danger to the other prisoners because of her political beliefs. Hoxha’s strike gained international attention when Casey Goonan—at that time the only federal defendant from the 2024 Student Intifada—announced they were joining the strike in solidarity with her, refusing to eat until her demands had been won. A week later, Malik Muhammad—the subject of this interview—also joined the strike in support of Hoxha’s demands.

This historic act of internationalist solidarity undertaken by political prisoners across multiple geographies directly paved the way for Palestine Action’s current larger hunger strike, serving as a model of militant anti-imperialist solidarity in the service of Palestine from those facing the brunt of the state’s repression.

It is necessary for us to maintain internationalist solidarity because ‘that’ isn’t happening ‘over there’ to ‘them’ but oppression is ‘HERE’ and happening to ‘US’ all. Our movements are stronger together. The people are stronger together. Don’t let them separate us. And remember as Palestinians starve in Gaza, so do the unjustly held 12,000 Palestinian prisoners, and the ones in US prisons and ‘detention’ (death) centers, prisons in the UK, Australia — they are all the same. The prisoners are living under forced displacement, oppression, occupation.

— Malik’s response to Hoxha’s August 2025 hunger strike

Malik introduces themself as an “anti-fascist, anarchist, a revolutionary, a writer of everything creative.” They are a Black and Palestinian direct actionist serving an absurd ten-year sentence in Oregon for their legitimate actions during the George Floyd Uprising of 2020. In retaliation for their organizing behind bars, they’ve spent the majority of the past two years in solitary confinement, in a battle against mail censorship — the same mail censorship that is being waged against our Palestine Action comrades in britain.

Reading their many writings and interviews is an exercise in frustration. Here is a serious militant and revolutionary who is burning to engage with the larger struggle, but has been trammelled at every turn. James Yaki Sayles defines political prisoners as “conscious and active servants of the people”, but how can our prisoners remain conscious and active elements when the people allow them to languish and die alone behind bars? Georges Abdallah, liberated after 41 years in a French prison, attributes his ability to remain a part of the wider movement to his comrades on the outside. By constantly supplying him with news of the resistance in the outside world they gave him the necessaries of political development; by publicizing his voice they made it into a weapon of theory in the service of resistance.

I was surrounded by men and women dedicated to the cause who allowed me to keep resisting, by making my resistance part of the struggle against the genocide in Gaza. They gave me a permanent voice on the outside, allowing me to speak about the struggles of various peoples and other political prisoners. So, I wasn’t just a prisoner. I was a fighter who was in prison.

— Georges Abdallah

For those of us who consider ourselves supporters, sisters, and defenders of political prisoners, our primary responsibility is to serve as intermediaries between them and the international war against imperialism. Hundreds and thousands of revolutionaries and potential comrades are crying out to be seriously engaged with in this struggle on every level. This interview aims to be a bridge into this war for our sibling Malik, who calls on those of us on the outside to transmit their call to action to our political prisoners in the u.s.—the only way that international hunger strikes are possible.

Interview with Malik Muhammad

How do you see the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike as part of a broader, international struggle against imperialism?

Imperialism is upheld through state-sanctioned violence, and part of that violence involves the systemic kidnapping of people they call prisoners. To recognize freedom as a collective struggle is to know that none of us are free until all of us are—including and especially those who have been stolen from us under the guise of “public safety.” They want to silence and lock away the fighters and their voices. What I see in the case of my Pal Action siblings is a settler colonial state trying to distract from the sins of its past — namely, Britain’s complicity in zionism and the Nakba. A state that at once “decries” a genocide it won’t even acknowledge is happening, all the while violently repressing those who object to it. The state’s only tool is a hammer, the only language it speaks is violence. But the perpetual struggle for freedom transcends generations.

When you were organizing in 2020, did you see yourself and the Black liberation movement as part of that war against imperialism? How have your politics developed since then, especially in the two years since the Toufan Al-Aqsa?

Afrikan liberation is the struggle against imperialism and settler colonialism. First Nation liberation and sovereignty and Palestinian liberation are one struggle, and cannot be separated from each other. They exist in an interconnected and interwoven web of oppression and resistance. What affects one directly affects the other. As my dear sibling Lisa says, “that” isn’t happening “over there.” No. We are told to believe so but that’s not the case.

I feel that resistance against this unique fascist state is important because of its central role in the exploitation of land, lives, and cultures at such rapid rates, all while destroying the planet. So while my direct actions [in 2020] were taken against this [u.s. settler] state, they didn’t happen in a vacuum–just like the actions of the Palestinian resistance. The oppressed are never the ones who initiate violence. How could we be, when the state is the one who constantly perpetuates violence against us?

My politics haven’t changed much. I’ve been an anarchist ever since I was a kid and discovered radical blogs on Tumblr. [In regard to Palestine], I would say that in spite of my anti-state beliefs, for a time I held onto hope for a two-state solution. It’s hard to tell a people to “fuck the state” when they don’t even have one to call their own to begin with, when they’re still fighting and struggling for their right to exist at all. It was the same with Afrikans here [in the so-called u.s.], which is why the Black Power movement often had statist ideals.

But [the events of] October 7th reinforced for me that “resistance is essence”, and under occupation, it is a right. It reminded me that perhaps the freest we can ever be is in the moments when we are resisting, when the people take fate and destiny into their own hands and take action. As Jonathan and George, Assata and Mutulu, Oso, Hanson, Peltier, Xinachtli, Tyler and Luigi, the IRA and my Pal Action siblings, all faithful resisters within the death kamps, the ones we don’t hear about, and the slave rebellions lost to history.

Like John Brown meeting the hangman’s noose, we do only what we feel called to do by our creator. The genocidal campaign the zionist entity has waged against the Palestinians after they were forced to hear the cries of the unheard on October 7, that barbaric, internationally-sponsored terror, that all reaffirmed to me that my hope will always be in the people, not the state. The mutual aid, the resistance in the face of genocide, people pulling bodies from rubble, the fighters and the martyrs–all that carnage mixed with all that resilience. Beautiful resistance and faith. That reminded me of my core belief that resistance is essence.

One of the demands of the prisoners in the UK hunger strike is to be able to “send and receive communications without restriction, surveillance, or interference.” Shine White, Xinachtli, and almost every political prisoner reports censored and withheld mail. Why is freedom of mail such an indispensable thing for a prisoner?

Letters and communications are a lifeline for us. The state wants to break us by locking us away. They want us disappeared and forgotten about. And even if we aren’t forgotten about, they want us to feel like we are anyway. I’ve had mail withheld for so long. I know guys who have gotten garbage bags full of mail after a whole year.

They try to break your spirit, make you feel like there’s nothing to fight for, and that you should just give up. That’s why it’s imperative to always correspond, even more so when the mail is withheld. They can hide a few parcels from their higher-ups and deny there ever was any, but if you flood their inboxes it helps pressure the [prison officials.] And when the prisoner does eventually get that huge stack of mail, it’s a beautiful reminder that they’re loved, and their strength can be renewed.

The oppressor’s only tactic is to intensify their repression, to wait us out. So our memory must be longer than the state’s. That’s why we should never forget [the prisoners.]

How should the outside movement be working to bring political prisoners into the anti-imperialist struggle?

Any way you can. I don’t think there’s a one size fits all solution. Like anarchy, it’s fluid, and there’s room for a diversity of tactics. Never be afraid to dream or think bigger than the established box. Do what has been working and leave behind what hasn’t, and try things you never have. Our imagination must also be bigger than the state’s. They only know one use for a hammer, while an anarchist recognizes the versatility of that tool.

Writing to and communicating with a political prisoner is the bare minimum. Building and platforming their voice, strategizing in ways that would directly aid those inside, making sure they know that they’re part of a movement that transcends the bars and gates and walls, that they’re only on a different front but still fighting the same fight. More than that though, making sure they know that they’ll be free by any means. See, Assata was [freed]. So they should know that they’ll be freed by any means. And that they’ll be supported in any actions they take.

What makes a hunger strike effective or ineffective? How much of its power comes from public pressure vs the will of the strikers themselves?

Hunger strikes are most effective when you know your ‘why.’ The will must be there, but it’s all in the ‘why.’ The power is always within the people. Under repression, to refuse to eat, to starve yourself purposefully, is powerful in itself. The power is with you the second you refuse. The state threatens violence to coerce and control. So we say, “You can beat me, deprive me, but my intent is to still not eat. I’m the one with the power. And you just pretend.”

Public pressure is imperative too: You [on the outside] have power too. It’s imperative to keep the striker alive with that public pressure. Because when you go down that path, you know why. And you’re prepared to die for it. You know your red lines, the demands that you will accept instead—but you are still prepared to die for it. The public’s job is to not let you go that way.

That’s where pressure is imperative. You support in all the ways you can, apply pressure in all the ways you can, and you also accept that the power is with that person, too. That they must be trusted to make the best decisions for themselves, even if that means it meets an disagreeable end. They eat only at their own will. You hope to expedite that, spread their message, even if they go.

A hunger strike is never ineffective. As revolutionaries, we never die. We just spread, and multiply. Like our ideas, they’re always here. Because [as Fred Hampton said], you can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t jail the revolution. You can kill a revolutionary son, but you’ll only martyr another one. You can steal a revolutionary daughter, but you’ll only add water for the revolution to drink from. So–we have the power, you have the power. The state has none.

Are there any verses from the Quran you reflect on most in regards to the struggle you are waging?

“Beat back the oppressors wherever you find them.”

Are there any Islamic figures you think about most during this period of struggle?

The prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) and his refusal of riches to renounce Allah. He said, “You can give me the moon in my left hand, and all the stars in my right hand. And still I would never renounce the teachings of Allah.” It’s that resistance, that steadfast dedication that inspires me.

How does the struggle for Palestine in the global north become re-ignited in a meaningful way? How does the global north escalate?

International solidarity. Radical direct action, autonomous groups acting together, sabotaging systems to directly hinder the genocidal IOF. The global north needs to hear us now, or be us later. Militancy and direct action is imperative. Resistance is essence, and under occupation, it’s a right.

The world is occupied, and whether you live in a prison, or an open-air minimum like the so-called u.s. or u.k, or a harsher maximum open-air prison like gaza, the state occupies land, lives and people. Do we play at revolution, or do we make it? October 7th should be a rallying cry for radical direct action everywhere. Palestinians have managed to resist one of the world’s most powerful and best-equipped militaries. As George Jackson said, “Their reliance on their technology will be their downfall.” The system is fragile, and can be brought down. A stone thrown can crumble a nation. The system must be raged against because none are free until we all are free.

Is there anything you’d like to say directly to the hunger strikers or any of the prisoners associated with Palestine Action?

Resistance is essence, siblings. You’re never forgotten. Know your “why” and the “how” will come. We are not separated by these man-made monstrous constructs. We are connected in spite of them—and in some ways, because of them. The state creates its own monster, so be Frankenstein’s monster and destroy him. Refine yourself inside—plot, plan, rally, foment, organize and resist. Prison is only another front of the struggle. Until we all are free, none are. So remember: resistance is essence; under occupation it’s a right. I love you siblings. Love, rage, and solidarity.

Conclusion

During the hunger strike led by T. Hoxha in the summer of 2025, people called for international protests at british embassies, press and media, and direct pressure on the prisons and the government through continuous phone calls and emails.

Prisoners for Palestine is calling on us to take these actions once again. But the hunger strikers’ demands have a right to be enforced through greater measures. Again and again, the u.s. left has shouted down calls to direct action & basic property damage in the name of “a diversity of tactics”. The effect of this, ironically, is a impotent political movement almost entirely reduced to legal parades and useless finger-wagging at politicians. A hunger strike is a last-ditch tactic taken up by prisoners who have no weapons left but their own bodies. It throws the movement at large into sharp relief: while our imprisoned comrades scrape away at the concrete with broken spoons, we put our jackhammers and our pipes into some backyard shed and close the door.

Aren’t our comrades’ lives worth the same as Bobby Sands’, or Assata Shakur’s, or Abdel-Nassar and Ammar’s? When will it seriously be time for a diversity of tactics? Who will bring out the tools? Two years after the Toufan Al Aqsa, Palestine Action remains one of the few examples of genuinely effective solidarity. And now its prisoners, who took up the crowbar and the hammer, are left to starve by their imperialist government, their bodies degrading alone in concrete cells.

The strikers’ demand for bail can be answered by the british public. Self-liberated Sean “Shibby” Middlebrough, of the Filton 24, answered it on his own behalf. But the call to shut Elbit down must be answered by the general public, and it must be answered in defense of not only the lives of these hunger strikers, but the lives of every Palestinian left to be killed in winter floods — in lines to buy rotten food — in bombed out hospitals — in the tunnels of Rafah, the most honorable men of our time — in “israeli” torture chambers — and, for Malik Muhammad and his comrades, in the heart of the empire, the british-amerikan prison cell.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Toolkit (u.s. version)

Contact script for political prisoners

british embassy locations (worldwide)

Elbit locations (u.s.)

STAY UPDATED

Prisoners for Palestine website and Instagram

Free Malik Now website and Instagram

This interview was conducted in collaboration with Malik Muhammad’s representative team. Vox Ummah has not edited any of the content. We hope you take the time to read this interview, and after digesting its content, renew your struggle for the Palestinian cause and stand in solidarity with those facing state repression because of their principled stand against Imperialism.

If you want to get involved, here are 8 different ways to stand in solidarity with the hunger strikers.

source: Vox Ummah

Michael DeForge on Art and Organizing + Xinacthli Medical Emergency

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2025/12/14/michael-deforge-on-art-and-organizing-xinacthli-medical-emergency/

Today in Labor History December 13, 1986: Kuwasi Balagoon died of AIDS while in prison, while serving time for a Brinks robbery. Balagoon had been a member of the Black Panther Party. While in prison, he became disillusioned with the Panthers, became an anarchist and joined the more militant Black Liberation Army. He escaped from prison twice. In 1979, while on the lam from his second prison escape, he helped to free political prisoner Assata Shakur, who fled to Cuba and who recently died there (2025). In 1986, he died in prison from AIDS. In 2019, PM Press released a collection of writings by and about Balagoon called, “Kuwasi Balagoon: A Soldier's Story.” And the prison abolitionist group, Black and Pink, which supports LGBTQ and HIV-positive prisoners, has, since 2020, run a "Kuwasi Balagoon award" for those living with HIV/AIDS. During his trial, he represented himself, admitted his guilt, but argued that his actions were justified in the war against the colonial, genocidal state. He was also open about his bisexuality. Yet many obituaries omitted this fact in what some activists have decried as the erasure of "internal struggle against homophobia and patriarchy."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #blackpanthers #BlackLiberationArmy #racism #newafrika #assatashakur #prison #lgbtq #aids #hiv #politicalprisoner #author #writer #books #BlackMastodon @bookstadon

“#PoliticalPrisoner’s mum asks hunger strikers to eat – or Starmer will let them die”

by Skwawkbox with The Canary

@thecanaryuk
@palestine@fedibird.com
@Palestine@masto.ai
@palestine@lemmy.ml
@BBC5Live
@BBCRadio4
@BBCNews
@AlJazeera
@UKLabour

“So, she sent a message asking the hunger strikers, who are now in their second month of starvation, to end their strike because #Starmer’s genocide-collaborator regime is perfectly prepared to let them die”

https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2025/12/12/political-prisoners-hunger-strikers/

#Press #UK #HungerStrike #Filton24 #Labour

Update on the Health of Mexican Anarchist Political Prisoner Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel

Translated from the Spanish-language post on the Auditorio Che Facebook page.
Learn more about Mexican anarchist political prisoner Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel here.

December 6, 2025, 3:40pm

Dear family, compas, friends, and community:

Thank you very much for all your letters, love, and solidarity with our beloved Yorch. We have read each and every one of your messages and we are very grateful because we know that he hears us and knows that he is not alone.

We want to share with you that our compañero’s health has become more delicate every day. Even with the dignified attention that he is finally receiving and the enormous and loving efforts made by doctors and hospital personnel charged with his treatment, due to the advanced state of deterioration he was in upon arriving at the hospital – where he is now – it has been very complex attending to his urgent condition. After the long period of medical neglect, the effects of the damned prison on all facets of prisoners’ health – and more in this case, where the violence of the State and UNAM orchestrated repression against him – and his prior medical issues which themselves paint a picture of potential complications due to his hospitalization, multiple surgeries, and irreversible damage suffered in 2019 when Yorch survived appendicitis that was not treated in time.

Sadly, our compañero now does not have the possibility of recovering a dignified quality of life and he has a very high probability of remaining in the state he is in now and due to the risks presented by the procedures and treatments indicated by his clinical state in the coming days. During recent weeks, Yorch was wandering from site to site without precise information. We did not receive clear news regarding his condition, treatment, or anything else. The prison authorities and those of the various hospitals where he has been this past month did not inform us of the severity of his condition until he arrived at the current hospital and we learned minutes before they had to intubate him – due to neurological failures that don’t allow for him to breathe unaided – that this was just a small part of the series of complications he has. The situation took us completely by surprise.

With pain in our hearts, we believe that the most loving thing we can do at this time is to take responsibility that the best for our Yorch is that he stops suffering and that his body may finally rest. He needs our accompaniment, solidarity, and support to face this difficult and painful transition. We know that he is faced with a complex decision that, on one hand, he would want to stay here with us and attend to your calls for strength and recovery, but, on the other hand, his body no longer has the possibility of meeting these desires.

With much attention, we ask that you send all your love, care, fire, and wishes so that he may go through this transition accompanied by us and have a dignified death. We want you to have the opportunity to say goodbye in the way that each of you are able. To do so, we call upon you to gather, starting now, from your different geographies and collectivities to place a candle, flowers, smoke, punk and noise songs…all that can transport your wishes from your hearts to his.

We also thank you for continuing to send your letters to yorchlibre@gmail.com. You can write about your history with him, what he means to you, and the way in which you would like to say goodbye. As difficult and painful as this is for every one of us, it is very important for his process. We will continue reading your words during visits, which are unfortunately limited to people authorized by the prison since the beginning of this long journey of hospitalizations and transfers.

We continue fighting for his freedom and dignity, be it in life or in death.

Fire to the prisons, free Yorch now!

PS: We know that many of you have greater concerns due to your direct relationship with Yorch, but we hope you understand that this is the information we have available. We regret that we cannot respond to every message we receive, but time and mental capacity do not allow for that. Without getting into personal issues, we appreciate your respect for our path and for being part of this struggle. Thank you also for caring about us and looking out for our well-being.

source: Anarchist News

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=25182

#anarchism #jorgeYorchEsquivel #mexico #northAmerica #politicalPrisoner #repression

Palestine Action Prisoner Hunger Strikes, Elbit Systems and UK Complicity In Gaza (with Francesca)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2025/11/30/palestine-action-prisoner-hunger-strikes-elbit-systems-and-uk-complicity-in-gaza-with-francesca/

#RicardoFloresMagón died on #ThisDayInHistory in 1922. A key figure in the #MexicanRevolution, his newspaper #Regeneración coined #Zapata's #TierraYLibertad. His collaborations with #IWW and his editorial positions led USA to make him a #PoliticalPrisoner at #Leavenworth in 1918.

Action Alert for Political Prisoner Xinachtli

"For weeks, Xinachtli has been struggling with a worsening medical condition, and his health is deteriorating fast. He is having difficulty walking, standing, and using the bathroom, and he has already suffered two falls, cracking his head on the floor in his second fall.

He is currently in the McConnell Unit’s medical department without a diagnosis, without access to his medical records, and without a phone cord to contact people outside. At 73 years old, after more than 23 years in solitary confinement, this is elder abuse, medical torture, and neglect."

https://www.abcf.net/blog/action-alert-for-political-prisoner-xinachtli/

#FreeXinachtli #ActionAlert #PoliticalPrisoner #Abolition

Jamil al-Amin critical update: November 2025

"With aching hearts, we share that Imam Jamil has an estimated prognosis of only 3 months to live following the gross neglect by the prison system of Imam Jamil’s cancerous tumor growth on his face."

https://www.abcf.net/blog/jamil-al-amin-critical-update-november-2025/

#JamilAlAmin #Abolition #PoliticalPrisoner

Jailed Tunisian opposition leader Jawhar Ben Mbarek assaulted in prison, family says http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TPFMKR #Tunisia #HumanRights #PoliticalPrisoner #OppositionLeader #HungerStrike

New Flyer for Anarchist Political Prisoner Hridindu Roychowdhury

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=22374

#anarchism #anarchist #HridinduRoychowdhury #northAmerica #politicalPrisoner #us

We are working on a documentary about former political prisoner Eric King. Please consider supporting our work!

https://www.patreon.com/cw/ABRAMedia

#PoliticalPrisoner #Prison #Denver #Colorado #Indie #Media #alternative #antifa #antifascist

Letter From Political Prisoner Xinachtli

TDCJ Beeville, Texas

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=22001

#antiColonialism #northAmerica #politicalPrisoner #Solidarity #us #Xinachtli

Posted on 2025/10/14 On Devotion by Peppy and Krystal and the 2026 Certain Days calendar

Have you ever known love so deep, a life without it is unlivable? The fabric of our worlds are woven with love. The lengths that we go to protect this love is instinctual, a self preservation.

We, derived from earth’s elements, creatures of the land we live on are driven to defend our bodies as an abstract state politicizes our existence and attempts to distill all landscapes into battlefields. A struggle between authority and autonomy, state sanctioned violence versus defense of self-sovereignty. As anarchists, we reject their technologies of oppression. As anarchists, we will always reach beyond ourselves moving in concert with others for the great expanses of liberation.

When nefarious actors chose to gather within the academy around a falsehood posed as a question, we chose direct action as means of intervention. While they asked, “Should Transgenderism be regulated by law?” We answered unequivocally with our bodies, fireworks, and homemade smoke cans: “Fascism is not to be debated, it is to be destroyed”. Liberalism and the University mask the true genocidal ambitions of the fascist project by providing a “free speech” platform; a rallying space for organizing, recruitment and legitimization. Our actions in April ’23 were partial but not isolated. We see our lives as part of community organizing that enjoins militancy and care in an effort to preserve the possibility of communal life. And as the state continues to intensify and expand it’s violence, re-affirming its colonial ways, the clarity of its mission and that of ours is clear.

Reaching now from behind concrete walls and inside invisible lines of prison society, we extend our open palms to wave – to offer and receive greetings of solidarity. Prosecution, persecution and imprisonment are always a possible hindrance when we devote ourselves to the labor of revolutionary love but let us not dwell too deeply on temporary confinements. Rather, let us focus on the many horizons before us and what we will do to reach them. Remembering, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Total solidarity with the interconnected struggles for self-determination and collective defense everywhere.

source: Free Peppy and Krystal

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=21997

#anarchism #northAmerica #peppyAndKrystal #politicalPrisoner #resistance #us

The outspoken critic of the Cuban government was released from jail after a request by the US. #cuba #politicalprisoner www.bbc.com/news/article...

Cuban dissident José Daniel Fe...