Georges Abdallah Freed!
On 15 November, the French sentence enforcement court approved Georges Abdallah’s appeal, ordering his conditional release after nearly 40 years behind bars; the longest held political prisoner in Western Europe. On 6 December, Abdallah will be a free man, his only condition being to leave French territory permanently.
Georges Abdallah is a Lebanese communist who has struggled for the Palestinian cause since Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1978. His militant activism led to his arrest in 1984, in Lyon, France, and his subsequent life sentence. At his trial and during all his time in prison, he has maintained that ‘I am a fighter, not a criminal. The path I have followed has been imposed on me by the human rights abuses perpetrated against Palestinians.’
In 1999, Abdallah completed the minimum portion of his life sentence. He has not stopped appealing for his release since. The French government has used every trick in the book to make sure he stays in prison, including retroactively applying laws meant to prevent reoffending. All of Abdallah’s previous appeals had been rejected, except one in 2013, but which ultimately did not come to pass, as the government refused to carry out Abdallah’s expulsion order which was at the time the condition for his release. The US has also consistently pressured the French government to keep Abdallah in prison. Already, the court’s decision is already being appealed by PNAT, France’s National Terrorism Prosecution Office.
As long as Abdallah has been imprisoned, there has been a campaign lead by pro-Palestine groups, including Samidoun, advocating for his release, and pointing out the irregularities in the treatment of his case. This is a huge victory for the campaign to free Georges Abdallah, and the Palestine movement as a whole. Never caving under pressure and the brutality of the imperialist states’ repression, Abdallah has been an example to us all in the Palestine solidarity movement of the resilience and spirit of resistance it will take to see an end to Zionism and imperialism.
Sign on to the statement to oppose the French government’s appeal of Abdallah’s release here:
https://forms.gle/mFdw1WsMcPp4K9Aq9
SARAH GUEBRE-EGZIABHER
North London
Socialism on the map in the US
This US presidential election decisively demonstrated the deep chasm between the needs of the working class and the solutions offered by the two-party imperialist system. Within this chasm, third parties in the US had the opportunity to offer US citizens an alternative to the two-party imperialist system. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), an explicitly Marxist, Leninist, Communist organisation, stood their own candidates: Claudia De la Cruz for US President and Karina Garcia for US Vice President.
Their platform explicitly demanded the seizure of the 100 largest corporations in the US, their conversion into public property and the creation of a working-class democracy. It tied those demands to the need to fight racism, fight sexism and fight capitalism’s destruction of the environment and linked these issues to the fight against imperialism abroad, against the US war machine funding genocide in Israel and drumming up support for war against China and Russia.
Through the work of thousands of party volunteers, De la Cruz and Garcia made it to ballot or ballot write-in status in 44 states. They and other third parties were so threatening to the Democratic Party that Democrats successfully sued to kick them off the ballot in both Georgia and Pennsylvania. Even so with this platform, De la Cruz and Garcia were able to garner over 150,000 votes (still counting), the highest number of votes for a communist candidate ever in US history. Deep crisis in US imperialism has generated huge support for communist politics, a trend that the PSL will hopefully use to build working class power in the US.
SOMA KISAN
US citizen living in London
Belgian Workers Party speaks in London
As a Belgian communist I was excited to see Peter Mertens, the ex-president, now general secretary of the Belgian Workers Party, in London. He was invited to speak at Pelican House, a leftish event space in East London. The proper start of my communist education was with the party’s youth wing, and I have always supported them because of everything I learned thanks to their organisation: it was in their local group that I first read bits of Marx and Lenin and took my first steps into activism. However, the evening with Mertens was somewhat of a disappointment. The party has been participating in elections for about 15 years, and I could really tell the shift they have made to cater to potential voters, from the more revolutionary politics they had before. Mertens has openly distanced himself from his predecessor Ludo Martens (almost the same name, I know), a fiery defender of the Soviet Union and Marxist theory. Mertens kept using the word ‘socialism’ instead of ‘communism’ and even said they used to be a communist party. It makes me wonder if I misremember my time with them. Did I overestimate their radicalism because I was a baby communist and everything seemed radical to me? Or is the youth wing just that much more revolutionary than the rest of the party? Or did the party simply change so much in just ten years just to be more easily digestible for voters, moving away from actual radical politics to cast a wider net? I suspect it is the latter. Parliamentary elections corrupt and deform – a revolutionary heart cannot beat within a party standing for elections. A bit of a wake-up call for me, as I always put so much faith into my beloved Belgian Workers Party. But it’s what I needed to know to look forward.
BIRTE VANWELKENHUYSEN
West London
Prisoners request FRFI subscriptions
Hello comrades,
I was recently released from HMP Garth where I had difficulty receiving your newspaper, however I did manage to get two copies of your paper which I enjoyed a lot. It is essential that we can access this paper and other publications inside the prisons. I gave these FRFI copies to other prisoners to read and when I was leaving, they asked me to contact you and to request subscriptions for them, because they enjoyed reading it. Thank you, a lot, for your support during the time I was in prison, it means a great deal and I don’t forget it.
For revolutionary solidarity,
TOBY SHONE
Formerly incarcerated comrade
at HMP Garth
FRFI sends our paper free of charge to all prisoners who request it. Please send requests for prisoner subscriptions to [email protected]
You can also help to fund this work by taking out a solidarity subscription for our incarcerated comrades at revolutionarycommunist.org/subscribe/
Support the Starmer 2!
Two Glasgow FRFI supporters, known as the ‘Starmer 2’, are facing trial on 9 and 10 January at Glasgow Sheriff Court, for multiple fabricated charges of police assault, breach of the peace and resisting arrest. FRFI is mobilising to make sure there is a noisy court rally and plenty of people inside the court, wearing their keffiyehs, to witness proceedings. The two were violently arrested at a peaceful protest outside the Scottish Labour Party’s Winter Gala dinner at the Crowne Plaza hotel on 7 December 2023. They were held overnight in the cells. Labour leader Keir Starmer had travelled from London to speak at the event and he was confronted with protest during his train commute and following his arrival at Glasgow Central station as well as at the hotel where heavy handed police arrived in number.
On 11 October 2023, Starmer had publicly declared his support for the Israeli state cutting off power and water supplies to the Gaza population. Now as British Prime Minister Starmer and the imperialist Labour Party he represents, have continued their open support for genocide. Join us to call out this war criminal who should be the one in the dock not the Starmer 2!
Court Protest: 9 and 10 January, 9am, Glasgow Sheriff Court, G5 9DA
DOMINIC MULGREW
Glasgow
Nigerian government cracks down on dissent
The Nigerian government increasingly turns to aggression and repression to stifle dissent as the cost-of-living crisis deepens. Millions are pushed to the brink by spiralling inflation, devastating austerity measures, and the removal of fuel subsidies policies championed by the Tinubu administration. Similar to the current Labour government, they have chosen to criminalise dissent rather than address the people’s suffering.
Recent events illustrate the extent of the crackdown. The illegal detention of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) leader Joe Ajaero signals a deliberate attempt to intimidate organised labour. This follows a pattern: from the raid of the NLC’s Abuja headquarters, to the killing of over 40 protesters and the arrest of over 2,500 during the #EndBadGovernance demonstrations, the state’s hostility to resistance is evident. Now, at least eleven face the death penalty under fabricated treason charges.
These actions are not only about silencing dissent but also about redirecting attention from the suffering of ordinary Nigerians; the economic policies causing mass starvation are sidelined in the public discourse.
Despite the government’s attempts to silence them, Nigerian workers and youth have shown extraordinary courage. Their protests are part of a global struggle against capitalist exploitation. FRFI comrades took part in a protest called by the Spartacist League’s Partisan Defense Committee outside the Nigerian embassy in London, recognising the shared fight against repression. The government’s aggressive response, while horrifying, highlights the power that working-class movements still hold, in challenging oppressive regimes.
OYIN ADE
Manchester
FRFI Manchester screens Blacks Britannica – a call for revolutionary action
In Manchester we screened the previously banned film, Blacks Britannica at the aptly named Inspire Centre. The documentary itself was definitely inspiring, showing the history of antiracist struggle in England and particularly Manchester; the film was a strong call for revolutionary action.
The conversations after the film were incredibly engaging and everyone in the fully booked room partook. It sparked thoughtful discussion focused mainly on state racism, organising tactics and community. It was impossible not to link it to the ongoing genocide in Gaza; the gentrification that threatened black communities then is a shade of the destruction the capitalist machine deals in presently.
Blacks Britannica was a reminder of the necessity of the struggle we are engaged in against capitalism and its exploitative and destructive nature. What touched me most was the political education level of the working class in the 1970s. I left feeling energised to learn and educate. Only when we can accurately describe the system we live in, can we dismantle it.
JOSHUA BALLARD
Manchester
Blacks Britannica was produced and directed in the US by David Koff and Musindo Mwinyipembe. They aimed to expose the institutional and state racism that is present both in the US and Britain and call for revolution in the world’s dominant imperialist nations.
Find it on the ReelBlackOne YouTube channel. They are facing demonetisation by YouTube and call for support against being ‘blacked out’ in this way.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 303 December 2024/January 2025
