Break the chains – International solidarity with the political prisoners of imperialism!
SATURDAY 14 JUNE, 12 – 3pm
NORTH PAVEMENT , TRAFALGAR SQUARE , LONDON
SATURDAY 14 JUNE, 12 – 3pm
NORTH PAVEMENT , TRAFALGAR SQUARE , LONDON
Join us to protest in support of imperialism’s prisoners in Britain and around the world.
Bring banners, placards, leaflets, drums. All welcome – let’s make our voices heard.
ORGANISED BY FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM!
SUPPORTED BY
ROCK AROUND THE BLOCKADE, LONDON GUANTANAMO CAMPAIGN
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
BCM Box 5909, London WC1N 3XX
Tel: 0207 837 1688
A war is being waged against the poor and against all those who protest against the domination of the world by imperialism. Imperialism holds millions of prisoners across the world. But as prisoners in struggle have always said – you can jail the revolutionary but you can’t jail the revolution!
USA
In 2007 the US prison population rose to an all-time high of 2.3million. More than one in every 100 adults in the US is now a prisoner. One in 106 white men one in 36 Hispanic and one in 15 black men are behind bars. Among black men aged 20-34, the figure rises still further to one in nine. In this massive prison system are political prisoners who the US government tries unsuccessfully to silence. They include
- Former Black Panther Mumia Abu Jamal - in prison since 1981 - sentenced to death
- The Lucasville Five – convicted following the uprising in Lucasville prison in 1993 – sentenced to death
- The Cuban Five – in prison since 1998 for defending their country against terrorism – sentenced to life imprisonment
Guantanamo
- 270 prisoners still detained without trial in an illegally occupied part of socialist Cuba as part of the so-called ‘war on terror’
Britain
Since Labour came to power in 1997 it has created 3,000 new criminal offences and the prison population of England and Wales has increased by 20,000. Out of every 100,000 people, 148 in England and Wales and 142 in Scotland are now in prison. This does not count those detained in mental hospitals or immigration detention centres. Plans are in the pipeline to build three massive new ‘Titan’ prisons, as well as more immigration detention centres.
The British government currently holds:
- 140 prisoners convicted, remanded or detained for ‘terrorist offences’
- Hicham Yezza – an employee of Nottingham University, currently facing deportation to Algeria to save the government embarrassment for falsely charging him for supporting terrorism
Palestine
There are over 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons – more than 750 detained without trial
Since the start of the intifada in 2000 over 2,500 children have been arrested.
Free the prisoners! Break the chains!
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