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The Irish Freedom Committee participates in the First Annual International Day of Solidarity
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Chicago IndyMedia
Irish
Freedom Committee NewsList
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IFC Solidarity
Statement Saturday, December 03, 2005 The Irish Freedom
Committee extends our fraternal greetings to The Jericho Movement and to
political prisoners around the world today, the first International Day
of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. We extend our heartfelt greetings to nearly 100 Irish Republican political prisoners currently interned in Irish and British jails; to their families and loved ones; and to the activists and supporters on the outside working on their behalf, who suffer continuous harassment, police abuse, and death threats for their work. Irish Republican Political Prisoners are among the longest-sentenced political prisoners in the world, with many serving 20- and 30-year sentences. Irish Republicans are routinely sentenced on the basis of the sole, uncorroborated opinion of a senior police officer. Evidence tampering is rife, and the in the military-style, no-jury courts where they are sentenced; justice is a stranger. Conditions under which our political prisoners are held are among the worst in Europe, with many incidences of severe medical neglect; including in one recent case the near-amputation of a young prisoner’s leg in a British jail, due to lack of basic remedial health care; and in another case, the prolonged death of a 48 year old prisoner, due to gross medical neglect in an Irish jail. As Irish Republicans, we share a common cause with many resistance movements. We share a common cause in the fight for the restoration of our sovereignty, our freedoms, and our basic human rights and civil liberties. We share a common belief that it is systems, and not peoples or races, which are the sources of our repression. We share a common duty to our political prisoners, who have sacrificed their freedoms for their political beliefs; and to their families and loved ones, who must pay the greatest price. As Irish Republicans, we also share a common cause with other resistance movements in the repressive methods used to silence us. We share the common burden of black propaganda, both from repressive governments and from co-opted former revolutionaries. We share the burden of extreme and draconian sentences meted out to our arrested activists. We share the plight of isolation, both in the tactics of imprisonment inside the jails, and on the outside, with COINTELPRO style attacks against us. Today, the first
International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners
of War, we share with you the common HOPE that our actions today will
bring renewed light to the dark cages where political prisoners of all
nations are kept. We share
in the common cause of unity in struggle.
We salute your efforts, and we share in the belief that Our Day
Will Come - Tiochfaidh Ár
Lá! The Irish Freedom Committee Dec. 3, 2005 |
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