On 12.09.24 the political prisoner Leonard Peltier turned 80 years old. On that day there was a rally in front of the US Embassy. We are publishing our speech here retrospectively.
You can find more information about the action here: https://freethemallberlin.nostate.net/2024/08/01/berlin-12-sep-24-freiheit-fuer-leonard-peltier/
A radio report with many impressions and contributions in german from the rally can be found here: https://radioaktivberlin.nostate.net/2024/09/18/berliner-kundgebungsbericht-fuer-die-freiheit-von-leonard-peltier/
Dear comrades, dear fellow activists,
I greet you on behalf of Rote Hilfe Berlin. Unfortunately, I cannot be with you today due to illness, but I am pleased that my words are here. Leonard Peltier is 80 years old today. We wish him much strength, perseverance and solidarity on his birthday and every other day. Leonard Peltier has spent 48 of these 80 years in prison. For more than half of his life he experienced the full harshness of US prison repression. This has clearly left its mark. His health suffers enormously from these inhumane conditions and the lack of adequate medical treatment. His condition is life-threatening.
Leonard Peltier is an activist of the American Indian Movement and was sentenced to two life sentences in 1977 for the murder of two FBI agents. The legal proceedings were clearly politically motivated. It is known that the FBI and other responsible parties manipulated witness statements, concealed exculpatory evidence and exerted massive pressure to this day. Prison fulfills many functions worldwide, but one very important one is to weaken emancipatory and left-wing movements and struggles and to isolate individual comrades. Leonard Peltier himself once said: “A political prisoner is someone who stands up for the rights and freedom of his people and is imprisoned for that reason alone.”.
Also in Germany, many comrades are isolated, deported and imprisoned in order to criminalize and weaken entire movements. The Antifa Budapest trial is currently underway. Our comrade Maja was illegally abducted to queer-hostile Hungary. Others are still in prison and others are being persecuted.
For decades, Kurdish comrades here in Germany have been branded with the label of terrorism, persecuted and imprisoned so that the state can satisfy its own geopolitical goals. 13 Kurdish comrades are currently in prison here. They are all accused of being members of the PKK. But also Palestinian comrades who are fighting for a better future are being massively persecuted.
In order to combat these movements, the state is using the restrictive asylum and residence laws in addition to criminal law.
Prisons are already a place where there is hardly any room for life, joy or prospects. But the efforts of political or militant prisoners are met with even more violence and harassment in this isolated system. Our comrade Andreas Krebs, in Tegel Prison, is also confronted with this on a daily basis. In addition to the withholding of magazines, mail, stamps, flyers and other things, his alarming state of health is almost constantly trivialized or ignored, despite loud requests. Only recently he had to spend a few days in a prison hospital, where it was discovered that he had been given the wrong medication for over 9 months. Everywhere in the world, the health and lives of prisoners are being put at risk.
But where there is repression, there is often resistance. As was the case with Leonard Peltier.
His 48 years in prison are not only a story of repression, but above all of resistance. Leonard Peltier fought against prisons and imperialism for 48 years, right up to the present day. He has repeatedly spoken out publicly against a wide variety of abuses and injustices. For 48 years, he has become an important voice from prison for all left-wing movements worldwide. His clear stance, despite or precisely because of the enormous repression, gives comrades everywhere the strength to continue their own struggles, no matter how big the hurdles are. And it is also 48 years of solidarity that will continue to fight for his liberation worldwide until the end. Because the state’s strategy of breaking movements through imprisonment and isolation can only work if those affected are left alone. And this is precisely the reason why we are also meeting here in Berlin today, in front of the US Embassy. Only together can we achieve change.
Leonard Peltier once said the following:
“My continued imprisonment has served some good purposes. My defense committee has served as a training ground for other activists in their defense of freedom and justice.”
This sentence shows how clearly he sees himself and his experiences and actions as part of an entire movement.
Solidarity, as he also says, must be practiced. It must be put into practice and incorporated into everyday life. It must also be intersectional, because as a long-standing anti-repression structure, we know very well that we must not allow ourselves to be divided in the face of persecution and criminalization. It has hit some, but it has affected us all. Despite all our differences in ideas and practice, criticism and disputes, we should stick together and show solidarity in the face of state repression.
Solidarity can also be as diverse as our left-wing movement itself: organize information events, demos, rallies and actions, collect money for prison accounts and, above all, let them feel your solidarity.
Write to the prisoners, even if it’s just a few lines of solidarity on a postcard. This can give strength to the people who receive them and shows the state that we have not forgotten the prisoners. There can never be too much mail.
Let’s not leave people alone, let’s join together in the fight for a better future for all.
In this spirit
Free Leonard Peltier
Free Them All
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