{"id":7837,"date":"2018-02-07T22:20:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T22:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lavozlit.com\/?p=7837"},"modified":"2018-02-07T22:20:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T22:20:54","slug":"international-campaign-solidarity-middle-eastern-political-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2018\/02\/07\/international-campaign-solidarity-middle-eastern-political-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"International Campaign in Solidarity with Middle Eastern Political Prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freedom for Middle Eastern Political Prisoners<\/a>\u00a0Seeking Social Justice & Democracy<\/h2>\n

 
\nDecember 2017<\/em>
\nBelow are brief biographies of 17 political prisoners who represent some of the courageous fighters for social justice and democracy in the Middle East today. Most have been imprisoned by authoritarian regimes. Some have been abducted by religious extremist organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda.\u00a0 There are at least 100,000 political prisoners in Syria, mostly in the Assad regime\u2019s dungeons. Over 50,000 people have been detained by the Erdogan government in Turkey during the past 17 months. 60,000 political prisoners languish in Egypt\u2019s prisons. There are 6,300 Palestinian political prisoners in Israel. Iran holds hundreds of political prisoners. Saudi Arabia continues to repress any expression of dissent. Against this background, many on the US and European left are selective in their condemnation. Worse still, some self-declared leftist and anti-war organizations openly defend the Assad regime.
\nSome are silent about repression in Iran.
\nIn the face of this situation, the Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists, along with various socialist and labor activist organizations and individuals have initiated a new campaign in solidarity with Middle Eastern political prisoners.
\nThe aim of this campaign is four-fold: 1.To shine a spotlight on the political prisoners who are labor, social justice, feminist, anti-racist and human rights activists opposed to war, imperialism, occupation, authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism and extremism. 2. To oppose all the global and regional imperialist powers in the Middle East: The U.S., Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey and Iran. 3. To demand that both state actors and non-state actors responsible for perpetrating war crimes in the Middle East be put on trial. ( We support initiatives meant to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity by enforcing universal jurisdiction, such as the cases filed in Spain, Germany, France and other EU states by local and Syrian lawyers.) 4. To show that demanding the\u00a0 mmediate release of political prisoners in the Middle East is a crucial part of fighting the rise of authoritarianism
\nand racism at home. What can you do to help? If you wish to take action to express your solidarity with these prisoners, you can do the following:
\n1. Invite a speaker from the Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists to address your union or organization or classroom
\n2. Choose a prisoner and write about them in your blog\/website or your local newspaper
\n3. Join the sponsors of this campaign in organizing activities that connect labor, social justice, feminist, anti-racist, and LGBT struggles in your country to similar causes in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

For More information<\/strong> contact info@allianceofmesocialists.org
\nhttp:\/\/www.allianceofmesocialists.org<\/a><\/h3>\n

For a partial list of initial endorsers of this campaign, see the last two pages of this\u00a0<\/em>brochure.<\/em>
\nInitial Endorsers of the Campaign in Solidarity with Middle Eastern Political Prisoners
\nPartial List
\nDecember 2017
\nOmar Abbas, Syrian student, U.S.
\nFrieda Afary, producer of Iranian Progressives in Translation, U.S.
\nSaid Afshar, Radio Hambastegi (Radio Solidarity), Sweden
\nSaleem al-Beik, writer from Palestine
\nLeila Al-Shami, writer and activist, Co-Author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War
\nMar\u00eda \u00c1lvarez for Convergencia-La Verdad (CS-LV) Buenos Aires, Argentina
\nAnti-War Committees in Solidarity with the Struggles for Self Determination, U.S.
\nUrayz Aydin, Excluded (for political reasons for signing a peace petition) University researcher, Turkey
\nJoey Ayoub, founder of Hummus For Thought and regional editor of Global Voices
\nAlejandro Benedetti for Regrupamiento hacia El PST (rPST-Buenos Aires,Argentina)
\nJairus Banaji, Professor of Development Studies, SOAS, University of London
\nClay Claiborne, Director, Vietnam: American Holocaust, Linux Beach Productions, U.S.
\nJoseph Daher, Swiss-Syrian academic & activist and creator of Syria Freedom Forever, Europe
\nAlex DeJong, Co-director, International Institute for Research and Education, Holland
\nE la liberta, Greece
\nAnn Eveleth, member, Anti-War Committees in Solidarity with the Struggles for Self-Determination, Revive the
\nPeace Movement Network, and Syria Solidarity International.
\nBob French on behalf of News and Letters Committees, U.S.
\nShiyam Galyon, Syrian American writer and campaigner
\nRazan Ghazzawi, Syrian Palestinian scholar and activist, Europe
\nStanley Heller, member American Federation of Teachers (retired) and Administrator, Promoting Enduring
\nPeace and Host, The Struggle Video News
\nRohini Hensman, author of Workers, Unions and Global Capitalism , India
\nMonica Hill, Editor of Freedom Socialist Newspaper, on behalf of Freedom Socialist Party, U.S.
\nMohammad Abd Al-Hakim Ibrahim, Researcher, Egypt
\nElizabeth Juarez, Latina Feminist and Independent Activist in U.S. and member of Feminicidos en Mexico: Esta
\nEs La Verdad Que Se Oculta (Femicide in Mexico: This is the Hidden Truth)
\nYusef Khalil, Middle Eastern socialist, International Socialist Organization, U.S.
\nRima Majed, Sociologist, Lebanon
\nPeshraw Mohammed, leading activist from Socialist Center Review in Iraqi Kurdistan & Germany
\nPiergiorgio Moro, labour activist – Melbourne, Australia
\nYasser Munif, Syrian sociology professor, U.S.
\nDorothy Naor, Israeli peace activist
\nOakland Socialist, U.S.
\nKhury Petersen-Smith, scholar and activist, U.S.
\nBahram Rahmani, Member of the Council of Iranian Writers in Exile, Sweden
\nBeesan Ramadan, Activist, Occupied Palestine
\nJohn Reimann, Former Recording Secrretary, Carpenters Local 713, U.S.
\nFouad Roueiha, Syrian Italian journalist, Europe
\nAhmed Shawki, author of Black Liberation and Socialism and Editorial Board of Haymarket Books
\nDilip Simeon, Author, historian, public intellectual, India
\nErek Slater, Ten-year Veteran Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus driver, -Elected Shop Steward and Executive
\nBoard Member or the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 241 (10, 000 active and retiree transit worker
\nmembers in Chicago and 200,000 active members in US and Canada)
\nTristan Sloughter, Democratic Socialists of America, San Diego
\nAshley Smith, Writer for Socialist Worker (U.S.), Member of Editorial Board of International Socialist Review
\nF. Taban, Editor-in-Chief of Akhbar-e Rooz
\nFarooq Tariq, Spokesperson,Awami Workers Party, General secretary Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee
\nDavid Turpin Jr. , International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 134., U.S.
\nCliff Willmeng, Registered Nurse, Steward, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 7, UFCW Local 7 Vice
\nPresident, U.S.
\nSiamand Zandi, Iranian author, translator and producer of The Campaign in Defense of Prisoners of Conscience, Canada<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom for Middle Eastern Political Prisoners\u00a0Seeking Social Justice & Democracy   December 2017 Below are brief biographies of 17 political prisoners who represent some of the courageous fighters for social justice and democracy in the Middle East today. Most have been imprisoned by authoritarian regimes. Some have been abducted by religious extremist organizations such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882120,"featured_media":7838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"International Campaign in Solidarity with Middle Eastern Political Prisoners","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27806],"tags":[29655,29656,27641,28937,27839,29653],"class_list":["post-7837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internacionalinternational","tag-campaign","tag-eastern","tag-international","tag-middle","tag-solidarity","tag-with"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.3","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t