December 3, 2022

TOWARDS DECEMBER 12: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF STRUGGLE FOR THE PERSECUTED WORKER

9 years after the brutal sentence to life imprisonment and prison for the oil workers from Las Heras, Santa Cruz…

ACQUITTAL NOW!
LET'S FIGHT TOGETHER FROM THE JAILS, AND IN THE STREETS!

Against the persecution, jail and murder of those of us who rise up in defense of our rights, for bread, freedom and dignity…

Let the voices of all political prisoners be heard beyond the bars of the dirty prisons!

 One class, one enemy, one fight across borders!

It is now 9 years since the sentence of life imprisonment and jail that has fallen on the oil workers of Las Heras and their families for fighting against the imperialist oil companies.  Under the orders of the government of Cristina Kirchner, this brutal sentence was handed down against them in 2013 by the judges, servant of the monopolies.
The comrades were convicted of the "crime" of fighting in 2006 against the damned "income tax" (a tax created by the Kirchners to steal part of the workers' miserable wages) and for the move to the oil collective agreement of the thousands of workers who work in the oil wells under a much lower paid construction collective agreement (they raised the demand for “equal work, equal pay”).
For this enormous fight, six of them were imprisoned for more than three years, their town occupied by the repressive forces sent by the Kirchners and a constant persecution was exerted upon their families and fellow workers.
The struggle of hundreds of labor and human rights organizations from Argentina and the world converged with the oil workers and their families on December 12, 2013, the day the judges read their sentence. It was because of this great global action that, despite having been sentenced, effective imprisonment was postponed indefinitely, and they are still together with their families fighting for the acquittal.
From the very day of the brutal sentence, the International Network for the Freedom of Political Prisoners and Justice for Our Martyrs stood up fighting alongside the Commission of Convicted Workers, Relatives and Friends of Las Heras and dozens of organizations from Argentina and the world.

 Thus, we joined the Mexican fathers and mothers who fight for the appearance alive of the 43 Ayotzinapa normal students disappeared by the State.  We have fought together with the relatives and victims of the 2019 Senkata massacre and also with our brothers and sisters, the prisoners of the 2019 revolt in Chile and their families, as we do with the mothers of the young people on the front lines of Colombia, who have risen in 2019, 2020 and 2022. We remain more united than ever to them for unconditional freedom for political prisoners and justice for our martyrs.

For this reason, from the Network we seek to deepen the common struggle of all the comrades that are persecuted and made political prisoners, we put all our forces so that their voice is heard, as well as the voice of their families and of all the organizations in the world that confront governments and regimes subservient to imperialism that repress, persecute and assassinate those of us who stand up for our rights.

Today we see the huge uprising of the exploited in Iran after the assassination of the martyr Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, which was the spark that set the whole country on fire.  THE STRUGGLE OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE MUST BE TAKEN ON BY ALL THE WORKERS' ORGANIZATIONS OF THE WORLD!  THEIR REVOLUTION MUST SUCCEED!

Stand with the political prisoners in Evin jail and all the dirty prisons in Iran!  Immediate freedom to all the male and female comrades!  Enough of executions and death sentences by the regime of the murderers!

 The damned Iranian regime, with its murderous police, has already massacred more than 600 martyrs since this heroic uprising of Iran's exploited.

 That is why this December 12, "International Day of Struggle of the Persecuted Worker" we are making an international call to fight together, going beyond bars and borders and raise the cry of "An injure to one, is an injure to us all!  ALL TOGETHER WITH THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION!

 We must unite this fight with that of our brothers and sisters in Syria bloodied by the genocidal al-Assad and by Putin together with the Iranian regime and where the best fighters of the revolution are tortured to death in the Saydnaya prison.  LONG LIVE THE HEROIC RESISTANCE OF THE SYRIAN WORKERS AND EXPLOITED!  Let us stand together with the workers and the poor people of Iraq, together with the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the Zionist occupier FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL!

Let us make our own the cry of Freedom! to the more than 200 young prisoners and 20 thousand persecuted in Russia, for opposing the war in Ukraine and the regime of the butcher Putin!  We must also stand up in Belarus, where the hated regime of Lukashenko, a friend of Putin, with the same method of terror, savagely repressed the mobilizations of 2018, with dozens of assassinations, hundreds of arrests and prosecutions.

 A single fight from the jails of Greece together with comrade anarchist Giannis Michailidis who heroically resists the humiliations by the Troika government!  Free Giannis and all the rebellious Greek youth now!

 Our brother and sister workers in China are confronting the government of Xi Xing Ping against labor precariousness and slavery and are being imprisoned and savagely repressed to guarantee the capitalists' super-profits with the sweat and blood of their comrades. Everybody with the workers and exploited of China!

 Stand with the family of martyrs from Marikana, South Africa who are still fighting for justice!

 Let's be standing for the unconditional freedom of the Cuban working class youth and workers who won the streets for bread on 11J 2021, imprisoned and sentenced by judges and the Díaz-Canel government in Cuba.  This fight is one and a single one in Latin America where we are still seeking justice for the martyrs of repression and for the freedom of political prisoners from the enormous revolutionary combats of 2019-2020 in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, the Fernandezes government, under the orders of large landowners such as Lewis and Benetton, have repressed the Mapuche comrades of Villa Mascardi, imprisoning 7 women, of whom today 4 are in house arrest along with their children.  Unconditional freedom to the comrades!  Trial and punishment of those responsible for the murder of Santiago Maldonado, Rafael Nahuel and Elías Garay!  Drop all charges againts the more than 7,000 defendants for fighting!
This December 12, then, we call on all workers' and human rights organizations to fight together with the prisoners in Iran and with all the prisoners and persecuted in the world and for workers' and people's courts to judge and punish all the murderers of our martyrs.

 LONG LIVE THE INTERNATIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE WORKERS AND EXPLOITED!

 The rebellion of the slaves is not a crime, IT IS JUSTICE!

International Network for the Freedom of Political Prisoners and Justice for Our Martyrs