Break the chains – 14 June 2008

On Saturday 14 June supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) hosted
a Break the Chains rally event in solidarity with political prisoners of imperialism.

The rally took place on the east pavement of Trafalgar Square, outside the South
African embassy, where from 1986 to 1990 City of London Anti-Apartheid Group held a non-stop picket for the freedom of Nelson Mandela and all South African political prisoners and for the liberation of South Africa from the racist barbaric system of apartheid.

Break the chains was supported by individuals and groups, including:
• Kurdish comrades from Halkevi demanding the release of Abdullah Ocalan from his incarceration and freedom for Kurdistan,
• Rock around the Blockade and the Marti-Maceo Organisation of Cubans in Britain who are both campaigning for the Cuban 5, held prisoner in the US,
• The London Guantanamo Campaign, who spoke about Binyam Mohammed, the last Londoner in Guantanamo,
• Crossroads Women’s Centre, who spoke about the case of Pierre Antoine Lovinski, a human rights activist who disappeared in Haiti last year,
• Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) who reported on the activity in support of asylum seekers in Newcastle, the Pledge of Resistance against dawn raids and the current urgent campaign to free TCAR member Mako Oumakani from Dungavel Detention Centre,
• London No Borders, who are campaigning in support of detainees resisting immigration detention,
• No More Prisons who are organising a demonstration outside Styal Prison on 10 August to commemorate the life of campaigner Pauline Campbell.

FRFI supporters spoke over the megaphone about
• the Lucasville 5 prisoners on death row in the US,
• Mumia Abu Jamal, former Black Panther and revolutionary journalist, framed for a murder 27 years ago, on death row and still fighting back,
• Palestinian prisoners and the reality of life in Palestine - particularly in Gaza - where the whole population has been made prisoners,
• British prisons and the Labour government’s plans to vastly increase the capacity of prisons and detention centres to incarcerate the poor and working class,
• the importance of standing in solidarity with the oppressed and imprisoned of the world against the barbarism of capitalism and imperialism and Britain’s ongoing vicious war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan,
• the racist nature of imperialism in the US where one in nine black men aged 20-34 is behind bars.

Towards the end of the rally we received news of an uprising at Campsfield Detention Centre, which we announced on the megaphone. FRFI sends solidarity greetings to the detainees and all those in struggle against detention and imprisonment.

Break the chains!
Solidarity with all political prisoners of imperialism!