CUPLGIA: International Day of Struggle for the Political Prisoners
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a Declaration published by the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CUPLGIA).
On June 19, 1999, Georges Abdallah and 50 other political prisoners formed a platform, all of them revolutionary militants—communists, anarchists, antifascists, or anti-imperialists—detained in the prisons of imperialist bourgeoisie for their political and/or politico-military activities. Beyond their political and ideological differences, they aimed to create a community of struggle within and against the imperialist prison system, reaffirming in unison words that still resonate powerfully today:
“Solidarity is a weapon! The signatories note that the reasons that led them to struggle against the imperialist bourgeoisie, its States, its alliances, its national factions, its compradors, its armed and police forces, etc., have not disappeared; they are more imperative than ever. Never have injustice, misery, and oppression reigned so dominantly over humanity. The laws of the market economy plunge the peoples of the world deeper into misery every day. The denial of the national rights of many peoples, racism, sexism, and the devastation of the ecosystem contribute to this general crushing of humanity for the benefit of a handful of the privileged. It is right to rebel!”
These signatories reaffirmed through this platform their commitment to the cause of the peoples and to the struggle against oppression and exploitation, bringing together militants and combatants from France, Turkey, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Russia, and Belgium, all confirming the legitimacy of their struggle without remorse or capitulation. They called on all forces and individuals in solidarity to “acknowledge the community of struggle they constitute, to reflect this community of struggle in their own support activities, and to develop cooperation and unity among them.”
This day of April 17—commemorated as such—serves to gather around this symbolic date all the supportive allies of our political prisoners incarcerated in France and around the world, who, through their commitment, struggles, and combats—whether anti-Zionist, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist, or anti-imperialist—are part of this community of struggle in service of the peoples’ cause and against oppression and exploitation.
Thus, on this date of April 17, we remember and pay tribute to the first Palestinian prisoner, Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi, released on April 17, 1974, and in reference to whom this date has been recognized as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day since 1975. Alongside him, we salute every day, especially today, all Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Zionist jails: currently, the Addameer organization counts 9,900 of them, including 3,498 in administrative detention, 400 children, and 27 women. The number of administrative detentions has increased sevenfold since 2022, particularly after October 7. These men and women are now in the hands of the enemy for having been and still being at the forefront of the heroic struggle for the liberation of Palestine against the occupier and the barbarity of its settler colonization. It is this commitment of an entire people, this collective will to resist, deeply rooted in Palestinian memory, that their oppressors punish by inflicting torture, deprivation, isolation, degrading treatment, and all forms of death in the Zionist prisons, notably through the deprivation of medical care, as was the case with the great resistance member Walid Daqqah, “our Walid.” Yet, these women and men from Palestine, as well as from around the world, who have risen against the occupier, the oppressor, and the exploiter, are indeed a testament to what Georges Abdallah calls the “torches that illuminate the path of Resistance, liberation, freedom, and emancipation.” It is as such, as Resistance members, that these men and women are imprisoned in Zionist jails, as well as “in isolation cells in Morocco, Turkey, Greece, the Philippines, and elsewhere around the world,” in Spain, Chile, Argentina, the United States, Kanaky, Italy, Corsica, the Basque Country, and beyond. It is as such that we defend them and demand their release on this April 17, which was also declared in 2004 by several organizations gathered for the First International Conference on Political Prisoners in Donostia (Euskal Herria) as “International Day of Political Prisoners.” It is as such that we recognize ourselves in their struggle for national liberation, against the occupier, for self-determination, for their ancestral land, against reactionary anti-popular regimes, against oppression, exploitation, imperialism, and for the cause of the peoples!
However, this April 17—something Georges Abdallah also reminds us of—is not only meant to denounce once again the barbarity of the Zionist occupier and all the “criminal jailers” of our political prisoners; it is not only meant to honor our captive resistance members by recalling their selflessness and sacrifices or their unwavering will to stand firm: “Being captive is not the question; it is about not surrendering!” (Nazim Hikmet). Through the celebration of this Prisoner Day, we are reminded, above all else, of “our duties towards our captive comrades, and first and foremost, the inclusion of their liberation in the overall dynamics of our ongoing struggles.”
So yes, comrades, on this April 17, we reaffirm our commitment to struggle against forgetfulness, to pass on the memory of the struggles, and to remind everyone of the demands of our imprisoned comrades. Through this day, we reaffirm our unconditional solidarity with all Palestinian prisoners who have chosen to resist in all forms against all manifestations of Zionist occupation. We reaffirm with Georges Abdallah that these thousands of imprisoned women and men, now more than ever, in the face of the ongoing genocide and the intent to annihilate everything Palestinian, are at the forefront of the existential struggle of the Palestinian people, which remains active and vibrant. In this sense, it is imperative for us to wield our weapon of international solidarity among peoples to free these revolutionary protagonists from the clutches of the enemy! What applies to these “indomitable captive heroes in Zionist jails” naturally applies to all our political prisoners around the world, including here in France for our comrade Georges Abdallah, who must be declared free during this new hearing at the Appealing Court on June 19!
Palestine will live! Palestine will win!
Let us be worthy, comrades, of the epic of the torches of freedom!
Free them! Free him!
Freedom for all political prisoners, for Palestinian prisoners, and for Georges Abdallah!
Long live the international solidarity of the peoples!
For victory or victory!
Paris, April 15, 2025
Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com
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