CLASSMATES
II.
Still
missing:
THE
POLITICAL PRISONERS.
June 2013.
To the adherents of the Sixth in Mexico and in
the World:
To the students of the Little Zapatista School:
Compañeras, compañeros, compañeroas:
In addition to the fallen and the disappeared
in the struggle, who won’t be
present but will indeed be accompanying us in the Little
Zapatistas School, are
the political prisoners who, under various juridical ruses, are
held in the
prisons of the world or in political exile.
There are thousands of them throughout the
world, and our small word won’t
reach all of them. Even as we are relying on our compañer@s in
the National
Network Against Repression and for Solidarity to try to reach as
many as
possible, there will always be some we don’t get to.
That is why we are sending this invitation,
among many others, to some of
the political prisoners who symbolize not only the absurdity of
trying to lock
up freedom, but also, and above all, the dignified resistance
and perseverance
of those who are not defeated by guards, walls, and bars.
Among them you will find:
Alberto
Patishtán Gómez.- Sentenced to 60
years in prison. This June 19th
he will complete 13 years behind bars. His crime: being Mexican,
Chiapan,
indigenous, a professor, and a Zapatista sympathizer. Despite
the evidence of
his unjust incarceration, the judicial authorities are delaying
his liberation.
In the words of one government official: “If we free
Patishtán it will be a
doubly bad sign: it will give evidence that the judicial
system is a bunch of
shit, and it will encourage the struggle to free the other
prisoners. It is
something that does not suit us from any perspective. It is
better to wait
until those who are making so much noise about this get tired.”
But here we
already know that the judicial system in Mexico is a bunch of
shit and that
those who fight for the freedom of the political prisoners will
not tire…ever.
Leonard
Peltier.- Has served 37 years in prison. His crime:
belonging to the native
Sioux Chippewa (Anishinabe-Lakota) people and struggling for the
rights of
native peoples in the American Union. He was taken prisoner in
1976 and
sentenced to two consecutive life sentences (perhaps because his
persecutors
wanted to be sure he wouldn’t get out dead or alive). He was
accused of killing
two agents of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Intelligence). The
incident took place
on Pine Ridge, sacred territory of the Sioux people, in South
Dakota, USA,
where there are uranium and carbon fields.
He was sentenced without any proof and despite
over 10,000 pages of
documentation evidencing his innocence. The FBI’s accusation can
be summarized
like this: “Somebody has to pay.” Robert Redford made a film
about his case, a
film which has never been shown in North American theaters.
Meanwhile, the FBI
“boys” and “girls,” who come off so well in television
mini-series, have killed
250 Lakota indigenous people. There isn’t a single investigation
of these
crimes. This in a country built on the dispossession of the
lands belonging to
the native peoples of that part of the American continent.
Mumia Abu Jamal.- United
States citizen. Prisoner for 30 years. His crime: being a
journalist and an
activist for those discriminated against because of their color,
in the United
States. He was initially sentenced to death, and is now serving
a life
sentence. The whites accused him of killing a white, he was
judged by whites,
sentenced by whites, he was to be executed by whites, and he is
guarded by
whites. This in a country built on the exploitation of the blood
and sweat of
the slaves brought from Africa who, of course, were not white.
Edward
Poindexter and Mondo We Langa.- United States citizens. Their crime: fighting
for the rights of the African
American population in the United States. Victims of the Counter
Intelligence
Program (COINTELPRO) of the FBI, they were accused of killing a
police officer
in 1970 by blowing up a dynamite-filled suitcase. Despite the
confession of the
real culprit, the FBI manipulated and planted evidence against
these two
militants of the Black Panther organization. Various items of
juridical
evidence prove their innocence. They are still imprisoned in a
country that
values the integrity and impartiality of its juridical system.
Julian Paul
Assange.- Originally from Australia and a citizen of the
world. He is now a
political refugee. His crime: to divulge to the world, among
other things, the
corruption of US foreign policy. Assange is currently pursued by
the US and
British governments, the two supposed defenders of justice and
liberty.
Bradley
Manning.- First class soldier in the US army. His crime:
to release a video showing
US soldiers killing Iraqi civilians from a helicopter. Among
those killed are
two journalists. He is also accused of having leaked documents
about the
barbaric US actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The principal
charge against
Bradley Manning, which could lead to his execution, is that of
“aiding the
enemy,” that is, aiding the world in knowing the truth. This in
a country held
together by the lie of a constant external threat (Muslims,
Asians, Latinos,
etc., that is, the entire world), and according to the recently
revealed
“intelligence operations” (really spying), US citizens are also
a threat.
Antonio
Guerrero Rodríguez, Fernando González Llort, Gerardo
Hernández Nordelo, Ramón
Labañino Salazar and René González Sehwerert.- The homeland
of these five people is Cuba, the first free territory in the
Americas. They
are also knows as “the five Cubans.” Their crime: to have leaked
information
about the plans of terrorist groups with bases in the United
States. In June of
1998, Cuba gave the FBI a report obtained by the five Cubans,
including
hundreds of pages of documents, videos, and audios of terrorist
activities in
the US. Instead of dismantling the terrorist cells, the FBI
detained the five
Cubans who, in reality, had saved the lives of dozens of people,
principally
tourists, who would have been the target of the attacks. Antonio
is an
engineer, Fernando a diplomat, Gerardo a cartoonist, Ramón an
economist, and
René a pilot. They are prisoners for the crime of spying, even
though during
their trial the prosecutors themselves testified that the
material they had
obtained did not affect the national security of the United
States, and that
Cuba did not represent a threat. All this in the territory of
they who say they
are fighting international terrorism.
Maria Alyójina,
Yekaterina Stanislávovna
Samutsévich y NadezhdaTolokónnikova.- Russians, members of the punk rock group “Pussy
Riot.” Their crime:
denouncing the complicity of the top clergy of the Orthodox
Church in the
imposition of Vladimir Putin. They were arrested and taken
prisoner for playing
punk music in a church. The lyrics of the song asked the mother
of god to throw
Putin out of government. They were sentenced to two years in
prison for
“undermining the social order.” This in a country that prides
itself on having
liberated itself from “communist tyranny.”
Gabriel Pombo da
Silva.- Anarchist born everywhere and nowhere. He has
been in 20 different prisons
over almost 30 years in Spain and Germany. His crime: being a
person of
principle. To his persecutors he said: There is nothing more
deplorable than a
satisfied slave… an individual disposed of memory and dignity…
it is preferable
to be taken to the scaffolds for having rebelled than living 100
years of
“conditional freedom,” conditioned by the fears and lies that
they have sold
us, indoctrinated in us…” Regarding his condition as a political
prisoner, he
has been clear: “I am certain that for me (as for many others)
the possibility
of getting out of prison for reasons based on their laws is
impossible…because
their legality requires my renunciation of my political
identity… And obviously
whoever renounces their own political identity not only betrays
himself but all
those who have come before him in this long march for dignity
and freedom.
There is nothing heroic nor “martyr-like” (the cemetery is
already full of
those) in this perspective. I believe it sincerely and with all
of my hear and
that is why I am willing to accept “paying my tax” for being
honest with myself
and what I think and feel…”
(…)
Why do I tell you about these political
prisoners, so different and distant
from each other? Because for the Zapatistas, freedom is not the
patrimony of a
creed, an ideology, a political position, or a race. In the
videos you will see
what we are talking about and this will help you listen, which
is how one
begins to understand. These consist of about 15 minutes that
will help you to
peer into the many worlds that exist in this world.
Like these men and women, hundreds of political
prisoners have been invited
to the Little Zapatista School. We have sent all of them a
letter much like the
one I annex here. We hope they have received them, as well as
the books and
audios and videos where we tell our story. We hope that they
accept our
invitation, not because we think we could teach them anything,
but so that they
know what it is we call freedom here.
Here it is:
ZAPATISTA
ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION.
MEXICO.
May of 2013.
For:
___________________________
From: The
Zapatista women, men, kids, and
elderly.
Regarding: Special
invitation to participate in
the Little Zapatista School.
Compañer@:
We send you a
greeting from all of the children,
old people, women, and men of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation.
We write you
because we want to extend to you a
special invitation to participate in the Little Zapatista
School, “Freedom
According to the Zapatistas.”
We know that
perhaps it will be impossible for
you to participate personally on this occasion. But we know
well that the day
will come when the doors of the prisons will open for those
who, like you, have
been taken prisoner by injustice-made-government. And those
same doors
will remain open long enough so that the bankers and their
helpers can go in.
In the meantime,
we will see about a way to get
you the materials. These consist of texts with the words of
our Zapatista
compañeras and compañeros, in their great majority Mayan
indigenous people, in
which they tell their own story of struggle. It is a story
surely similar to
yours, full of the continuous ups and downs that make up the
struggle for
freedom, the pain that fills it, the hope that overflows it,
and that
persistent stubbornness that, like you, doesn’t give in,
doesn’t give up, and
doesn’t sell out.
Perhaps these
won’t get to you just now. It is
very probable that your jailers and prosecutors will
confiscate the material,
alleging that the package contains dangerous material. Because
merely the world
“freedom,” when it is lived from below and to the left, is one
of the many
horrors that fill the nightmares of those who are above at the
cost of pain for
everyone else.
In any case we
wait here for your attendance,
sooner or later. Because if our resolve is for freedom, one of
our
distinguishing characteristics is patience.
Vale. Cheers and let liberty be what it
should be, that is, the
patrimony of humanity.
In the name of all
of the Zapatistas of the
EZLN,
Subcomandante
Insurgente Moisés.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, May of
2013.
(end of the invitation letter to the political
prisoners)
(…)
Well then, now you know a few more of those
invited to participate in the
Little School with you.
Don’t be scared of them. They aren’t criminals;
that designation belongs to
those who keep them prisoner.
Vale.
Cheers and may you find freedom the only way possible, that is,
with all of
them.
(To be continued…)
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante
Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, June
of 2013.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
See and listen to the videos that accompany this text:
See and listen to the videos that accompany this text:
Bishop
Raúl
Vera, always on the side
of those below, talking
about the political prisoner Alberto Patishtán.
……………………….
…………………………
The group “The
Last Poets,” with “True Blues,” a recorrido,
in a blues rhythm, about the oppression of the African American
population
throughout history.
…………………………..
The North American actors Danny
Glover
and Peter Coyote in
solidarity with the 5 Cuban political prisoners in the United
States.
……………………………..
………………………………………….
--
SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!
Free All Political Prisoners!
nycjericho@gmail.com • www.jerichony.org
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