International Week of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (Update)

International Week in Solidarity with Political Prisoners, Prisoners of War and Political Exiles
Monday, November 28th – Saturday, December 3rd, 2005

Calendar of Events (Followed by Background Information)

FILM FESTIVAL

“Political Convictions: Liberating Political Prisoners”, film festival in
honor of the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners.

Monday, November 28th & Tuesday, November 29th
New College of California Cultural Center
766 Valencia Street, San Francisco.
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Wednesday, November 30th & Thursday, December 1st
Laney Community College
Irma Walker Conference Room #401 - Student Center
900 Fallon Street, Oakland.
6 – 9 pm

DAY OF ACTION

Friday, December 2nd
Oakland Federal Building
1301 Clay Street
Oakland
12 – 2 pm

DAY OF SOLIDARITY

Saturday, December 3rd
First Unitarian Church
685 14th Street
Oakland
7 pm


Film Festival Features

Monday, November 28th – Co-Sponsored by New College’s Activism and Social
Change Program.
* The Real Eco-Terrorists.
* Call me Nuh.
Tuesday, November 29th – Co-Sponsored by the New College’s Center for
Education and Social Action and New College’s Activism and Social Change
Program.
* Beyond the Walls.
* Hambre de Justicia.
Wednesday, November 30th – Co-Sponsored by Club Knowledge.
* All Power to the People (excerpts).
* Mission against Terror.
Thursday, December 1st – Co-Sponsored by Club Knowledge
* Women in Struggle.
* Repatriation (excerpts)

Additional Sponsors (Whole Week)
* California Anarchist Prisoner Solidarity
* National Coalition to Free the Cuban Five
* Club Knowledge – Laney College
* New College’s Activism and Social Change Program.

BACKGROUND

Annette "So –Ann" Auguste, imprisoned in Haiti. The Mamburao 7, imprisoned in the Phillipines. Manal Ghanem imprisoned by the Israelis. The Aachen Four recently imprisoned in Germany. Mumia Abu Jamal, Jalil Muntaqim, Sundiata Acoli, Marilyn Buck, the Cuba 5, Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez - all imprisoned in the United States.

Are any of these names familiar? They are a few of the tens of thousands of political prisoners held in prisons and jails around the world. The repressive governments which incarcerate and criminalize them hope that the world outside will never know their names or learn why they really are in prison.

The United States has some of the longest held political prisoners in the world – women and men who were part of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Black Panther Party, MOVE, the Puerto Rican Independence movement and the white anti-imperialist movement, who were fighting for self-determination and social justice in the sixties and seventies. Many were targets of the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO program which launched campaigns of assassination, disinformation and frame-ups in order to crush people’s liberation movements and social dissent. The same system which
has kept them in prison for over three decades criminalizes and
incarcerates over 2 million people in the United States today.

Since September 11th, the United States has greatly expanded the number of political prisoners and detainees it holds inside its borders and around the world. In the name of waging its "war against terrorism" and under the authority of the Patriot Act, the U.S. has:
- Suspended international human rights laws including the Geneva
Conventions; invented the term enemy combatant in order to avoid
observing international law; detained hundreds without charges at
Guantanamo; kidnapped people around the world through its program of "extraordinary rendition"; and escalated the use of torture from Abu Ghraib to Baghram and Belmarsh (England)
- Targeted Arab, South Asian, Muslim and Latino communities with police sweeps, arrests based on false charges of aiding terrorist organizations and accusations of gang affiliations. It has used the threat of deportations to divide immigrant communities and turn people against each other.
- Opened an offensive against progressive lawyers such as Lynne Stewart, Chowkwe Lumumba, and Manlin Chee. Used grand jury witch hunts to reopen political cases from the 1970’s and harass young activists from the current animal rights and environmental rights movements. Labeled all of these activists as terrorists.
- Slashed basic civil rights and constitutional protections through such programs as random subway searches, surveillance of library readership, no-fly lists and secret courts that approve wiretaps and email surveillance of progressive activists.
- Used the media to spread a climate of hate and fear in which
vigilantes such as the Minutemen are promoted, hate crimes are
supported, and people are encouraged to spy and inform on each other.

As increasing numbers of people around the world say no to occupation, coup d’etats, grinding poverty, brutal repression and endless war, the United States and its allies are spearheading the globalization of repression to crush all opposition to the imperialist system.

To challenge the globalization of repression, Filipino political prisoner Donato Continente, suggested initiating an International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. On December 3, 2005 people in countries around the world including Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti, Brazil, Italy, Switzerland, England, India and the U.S. will mark this day with rallies, marches and other forms of resistance. Join us in making this day a step forward in building a global movement of resistance to imperialism and creating stronger bonds between the peoples of the world.

Freedom and amnesty for all Political Prisoners! Respect International Human Rights Law! End all torture!