Friday, December 26, 2008

PFLP Leader Sentenced to Thirty Years in Prison: Anti-Imperialist Camp Update

Courtesy of the Anti-Imperialist Camp
Newsletter

1) Israeli kangaroo court: Palestinian leftist leader to
linger for life in prison

2) Beirut Resistance Forum: participants' list

3) KKEml: political analysis from within the Greek rebellion

4) India: repeal/withdraw ‘anti-terror’ bills

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1) Solidarity with Ahmad Saadat

Today a Zionist military court sentenced the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to 30 years of prisons. The verdict concludes completely ridiculous court proceedings which violated any democratic juridical norm possible.

“When the Israelis arrested him, they accused him of having killed Zeevi, but this accusation did not appear in the sentencing which proves that his arrest was political and was not related to security issues,” PFLP member Khalida Jarar stated today.

Saadat pays for his steadfastness in his opposition to the Zionist occupation. While significant parts of his leftist organisation have been wavering between the collaborators of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority on one side and the Hamas-led resistance movement on the other side on the ground of a false secularism, Saadat always maintained his support for the resistance regardless of its political affiliation. He rightly enjoys the highest esteem of the Palestinian people and the anti-imperialist movement across the world.

One of Ahmad Saadat’s in front of the Zionists posing as judges: “This is your court and you possess the force to celebrate the trial and convict me on the basis of your lists of accusations, the public one and the secret one, and you can dictate a sentence prepared by the political and security apparatuses that are behind this trial. But I too possess a will obtained from the justice of our cause and the determination of our people to reject any decision from this ‘kangaroo court'...”

So goes the “only democracy in the Middle East”…

Call by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Saadat:
http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5910&Itemid=55

Further information:
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org

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2) Beirut Resistance Forum: participants’ list

Find below an extraction of the participants’ list of the International Forum for Resistance, Anti-Imperialism, Solidarity between Peoples, and Alternatives to take place in Beirut from 16-18 January 2009:

Lebanese Communist Party
Karamah Party, Lebanon
Popular Campaign Against the Siege of Gaza, Lebanon
International Action Center- Ramsey Clark, USA
Anti-Imperialist Camp, Europe
Tayad (Solidarity Prisoners Families), Turkey
Iraqi Democrats Against the Occupation, London
Stop the War Coalition, London
Stop the War Coalition, Greece
Party Red, Norway
Socialist Unity Centre of India
All India Democratic Youth Organization
All India Mahila Sanskritic Snagathan
All India united Trade Union Congress
All India Anti-Imperialist Forum India
Carolus Wimmer, Vice President Andean Parliament, Venezuela
Victor Hugo Morales, President Andean Parliament, Bolivia
Kifaya, Egyptian Movement for Change
Mohammad Salem, Marxist Communist Indian Party, Indian Parliament
Shahid Sadiki, Bahjan Samaj Party, Indian Parliament
Strategic Research Centre for Arab Iranian Dialogue
MLKP, Turkey
Usama Hamdan, Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, Lebanon
Abu Imad El Rifaii, Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Lebanon
Abu Firas Isa, Palestinian Revolutionary Communist Party, Lebanon
Marwan Abdel Al, PFLP, Lebanon
Mobinul Hayder Chowdhury, Socialist Party, Bangladesh
National Nasserist Organisation Lebanon
Troops Out Now Coalition USA

See the entire preliminary list:
http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5884&Itemid=244

Call for the Beirut Forum:
http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5831&Itemid=244

Programme of the Beirut Forum:
http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5872&Itemid=244

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3) Greece: Let’s turn our rage into an essential political answer!

by Vassilis Samaras
Secretary of KKE(m-l) Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist)

The Anti-imperialist Camp does not agree to the KKEml’s thesis of a decisive inter-imperialist rivalry which leads them to speak of an US attempt to topple the Karamanlis government. Therefore they refrain from struggling to bring down the government which actually has been the political goal of the vanguard of the recent popular rebellion. We strongly believe that the imperialist system remains under US leadership. The developing momentum against the American Empire is first of all driven by the popular resistance movements. Inter-imperialist difference definitely do not surpass the red line of a common imperialist front against the popular resistances.

We nevertheless believe that the KKEml’s analysis provides deep insights into the rebellion:

“This Left neither wishes nor can offer these people a real political way out; the fact that it has lost –due to its responsibility- its prestige and ability to influence the development.

This goes back decades ago but there are also important recent
indications. It was the way, these allegedly left forces, addressed the university students’ movement, the struggle for insurance and pension rights [in 2007], in general the way they addressed the assault of the capital on labour relations and the rights and gains of the workers and youth. We could say that these forces had the opportunity to re-link with the struggling people, to play the role of a genuine left force in the struggles that had been waged, to re-gain at least a part of their lost prestige. Instead, what they did with their political stance, was to encourage the government to escalate its assault.

Today they are talking about provocateurs and agents of the system. Certainly, there are (there were always) provocateurs and agents of the system. Certainly there are various incompetent leaders and gurus of anarchism who saw the opportunity to conform their role. We could also refer to the forces that refuse to open a political front against such concepts and practices but choose an opportunist stance.

But if we insisted on these aspects we would miss the whole picture. And the whole picture is the mass participation of thousands young people who wish to fight, who seek their path and are influenced by such concepts.

The basic conditions of this situation are two: The first one is the rage against the system. The second one is the fact that this Left, with its specific features and political stance, its discredit cannot offer a way out to the questions of this youth. This is the main problem.

Although things don’t seem so optimistic there is also another aspect, the basic one.

It is the “change” taking place not today but for quite some time. It is the fact that for years the people have started understanding the nature and the goals of the system for the future. It is the fact that a whole generation of young workers and students has been released from the influence of the system and turns against it. At the same time they refuse to accept the logic of a conciliatory Left. There is no doubt that there are shortcomings and weaknesses due to the kind of the Left that has existed for decades.

But the main element is that here lie the seeds of the future. In these conditions the fighters will emerge and rise and within the struggle they will realize their role and responsibilities and they will lead the movement.

In regards with the role of the existent political subjects of the Left, the ones who understand, want and can, that is to contribute decisively in the development of this process and towards this direction.”

See full analysis:
http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5911&Itemid=55

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4) India: repeal/withdraw ‘anti-terror’ bills

We, the following organizations had gone through the full texts of the two "anti-terror bills” that have recently been passed in both houses of parliament and the stated objectives and reasons for promulgation of such acts.

While expressing our deep anguish and condemnation in no uncertain terms of Mumbai incident of November, 2008 and other similar acts of violence on the citizens of India, we note with concern that taking advantage of such acts, the Government of India and political society as such have been increasingly using military language to emphasize the urgency of the situation and trying to introduce a distinct repressive turn in the politics of criminal justice of our country , manifested in the security legislations and law enforcement measures, such as TADA, POTA, and very recently. The Unlawful Activities (prevention) Amendment Bill, and the National Investigation Agency Bill, 2008.

Full call:
http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5912&Itemid=55

To sign the petition visit:
http://www.petitiononline.com/UPTA/petition.html

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Anti-imperialist Camp
http://www.antiimperialista.org
camp@antiimperialista.org

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