Free the Hunger Strikers in British Prisons and All Political Prisoners!
The Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network stands in absolute solidarity with the ongoing collective hunger strike in British prisons by Prisoners for Palestine. Of the 33 prisoners in Britain held without bail under the "Terrorism" Act for their direct actions against the Zionist genocide in Palestine, six are currently on hunger strike, and dozens more have threatened to join. The hunger strikers are fighting for the following demands:
an end to all censorship of their mail and communications;
immediate and unconditional release on bail; the right to a fair trial, including the disclosure of all communications between Elbit Systems, Israel, and the British state;
de-proscription of Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization;
and the permanent closure of all Elbit facilities and subsidiaries in the country.
In honoring the life and recent transition of Imam Jamil Al-Amin, we reemphasize the centrality of solidarity with our political prisoners, deepening our commitment to their support and freedom, by any means necessary.
Behind the walls of colonial dungeons from South Africa to Ireland, India, the United States, and within Occupied Palestine itself, hunger strikes have been used as a tactic of resistance to captivity when all other means are exhausted. We see this historic strike within the long arc of struggle against prisons mechanized as instruments of imperialist warfare and genocide, and in this case, against the West's weaponization of "terrorism" designations and statutes as a means to repress liberation struggles, both internationally and domestically. The collective West is intertwined in the ongoing collusion to enforce its hegemony in alignment with its zionist settler colonial project. At the heart of this enforcement lies a primary operational arm of western militarism – political imprisonment and mass incarceration – that the state continues to abuse to quell the voices of the masses.
The imperialist state manufactures falsehoods and all manner of propaganda to justify its designation of who is and is not a "criminal" or "terrorist" at any given moment, proving, yet again, that its notion of “freedom” is reserved only for the oppressor. The illegitimate "terrorist" proscription of Palestine Action in Britain is directly connected to the illegitimate sanctioning by the U.S. and Canada of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. The U.S.'s phony "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list (that is, states currently resisting US-led imperialism, like Cuba, Iran, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) is another example of the West's weaponization of "terrorism" rhetoric and sentencing enhancements against individuals, organizations, and states opposing the U.S.-led international system. Most recently, the U.S. has intensified its use of the "terrorism" label to re-occupy Haiti and wage war on Venezuela. These tactics constitute a repressive regime imposing the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the brutal suppression of resistance in Haiti, Congo, and Sudan. Let us not forget that the prisoners on strike were initially incarcerated for taking international law into their own hands and attempting to disarm the genocide, a responsibility for which the collective West has shown nothing but contempt.
The collective organization and resistance of British prisoners has inspired messages and actions of solidarity from across the world, including the Pendleton 2, the freed Lebanese prisoner Georges Abdallah, and current defendant Jakhi McCray. Notably, during the first hunger strike earlier this year by Teuta Hoxha, she was joined by Casey Goonan, the only political prisoner of the "student intifada" in the U.S., and Malik Muhammad, a Black-Palestinian political prisoner of the 2020 George Floyd Rebellion who has been in solitary confinement for nearly two years.
Outside of the prison walls, repression continues to breed resistance in alignment with the hunger strikers' demands. Lift the Ban, a campaign organized under Defend Our Juries, gathered thousands of people in key U.K. cities from November 18 to 29 to escalate the demand to de-proscribe Palestine Action as a "terrorist" organization and end the U.K.'s complicity in Israel's genocide, intentionally applying pressure ahead of the organization's upcoming judicial review. At this point, over 2,350 have been arrested on "terrorism" charges for holding signs in support of Palestine Action and opposition to genocide. Lift the Ban states in its briefing document, "... the Government has overreached itself. Our groups and movements are coming together like never before, finding unity under repression. By refusing to give into fear and by standing together, we will face down this assault on us all .... the authoritarian powers are cracking, the police are struggling to enforce this absurd law, with some police forces outright refusing to make arrests."
The strike's far-reaching effects demonstrate the urgency and inevitability of internationalizing the struggle to free our political prisoners and prisoners of war, and to ground our strategy in an anti-imperialist analysis of the international war on Africans, all colonized people, and the working class.
Meet the hunger strikers' demands!
De-proscribe Palestine Action!
Free all political prisoners and prisoners of war!
Imare: Prisoners for Palestine
