Our martyrs continue to be present in our struggles
Newsletter ‘In Movement’ 4 (2024)
Internationalist greetings! We have reached our fourth edition of the 2024 International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA) Newsletter In Movement. This month, we invite you to join the international struggles of the International Day of Peasant Struggle and Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, both commemorated on April 17th.
Both days of struggle are a remembrance of our comrades who are victims of the violence of capitalism, imperialism, and Zionism. It is also a moment to honor the martyrs of our struggles for emancipation, rights, and the freedom of the peoples of the world. Let us rise up in the struggle for peasants! Let us rise up in the struggle for the liberation of Palestinian political prisoners!
The International Day of Peasant Struggle is celebrated annually on April 17th. On this day in 1996, the massacre of peasants from the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) occurred in Brazil, known as the Eldorado dos Carajás Massacre, in which 21 peasants were killed by police forces during a march in the North of Brazil demanding agrarian reform.
On this date, various peasant organizations, popular movements, and activists from around the world come together to make visible the struggles and demands of peasants in defense of their rights, land, food sovereignty, and the environment.
This year, La Vía Campesina calls for mobilizations in the streets and on social media around food sovereignty and peasant rights, as well as against the genocide in Gaza, foreign interference in Haiti, economic sanctions in Niger, impunity for human rights violations, free trade agreements, and other peasant struggles in their territories. Read here La Vía Campesina’s call to action.
Also, on April 17th each year, we celebrate Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, established by the Palestinian National Council in 1974. It is a day dedicated to the freedom of prisoners and support for their rights. The date was chosen because it marked the release of prisoner Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi in the first prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel.
In 2024, this day is commemorated in the context of Israel’s genocidal attack against the Palestinian people, with more than 33,000 Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7th, and over 7,000 disappeared (5,000 of them children, as we denounced on April 5th, Palestinian Children’s Day).
Since the onset of the aggression against Gaza, over 6,000 Palestinian citizens, including children and women, have been arrested, bringing the number of detainees in occupation prisons to over 9,000 prisoners.
On April 7th, Palestinian revolutionary organizer and thinker Walid Daqqah died in prison at the age of 62 after spending 38 years imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. Daqqah was killed by intentional medical neglect by Israeli prison authorities in the face of a lack of adequate treatment for bone marrow cancer and chronic lung disease, as well as torture and humiliation carried out by Israeli forces.
Daqqah was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. His life and revolutionary legacy – as well as his intellectual and artistic production that reached millions of people through his writings and drawings – impacted and provoked a collective sadness amongst all those who defend a free and sovereign Palestine against the genocide of the Palestinian people caused by the occupying forces of Israel. His legacy and martyrdom fill us with strength and conviction to continue the fight for Palestine and for the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners.
As the IPA and its more than 200 popular movements, political parties, and unions that form part of the process, we demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people promoted by the Israeli occupying forces.
We call on everyone around the world to mobilize on April 17th for the rights of peasants and food sovereignty and the liberation of Palestinian prisoners.
Let’s internationalize the struggle; let’s internationalize hope!
Updates
For the right to defend Palestine in Europe | After the forced closure of the International Conference for Palestine by German authorities on April 12th, the Italian party Potere al Popolo, along with other organizations from Germany and thousands of other people, took to the streets in Berlin to denounce the ongoing censorship. In Germany, speaking about Palestine and denouncing the genocide perpetrated by Israel has practically been prohibited. In addition to preventing the conference activity with Palestine, the police arrested Udi Raz, who speaks in the video shown at the conference. Udi Raz is Jewish and is part of Jewish Voices for a Just Peace in the Middle East. We stand with Potere al Popolo and the millions of pro-Palestine activists in Europe in the belief: “Defending Palestine today means defending freedom of expression, assembly, and association in Europe.” Learn more here.
Let Cuba Live, end the blockade | The People’s Forum released the emergency campaign “Let Cuba Live: Bread for Our Neighbors,” which is actively raising money to fund the shipment of 800 tons of wheat flour to Cuba as legal humanitarian aid so that millions of people have bread for a month – a $100 donation buys enough wheat flour to produce 70,000 bread rolls. The United States government is starving the Cuban people, and they are experiencing a food shortage crisis due to the brutal blockade. Let’s show the true generosity that the Cuban Revolution has taught us for decades and donate to this urgent campaign. To learn more and to donate, click here.
Five years since Julian Assange’s arrest | On April 11, 2019, WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK. He is currently detained at the high-security Belmarsh prison, awaiting a request for extradition from the United States. The UK High Court granted Assange provisional permission to appeal his extradition to the United States last month. If extradited, Assange will stand trial in the United States and face 17 charges under the notorious Espionage Act, which could result in a 175-year prison sentence. We echo the message of solidarity from Roger Waters and other musicians to demand his immediate release and to unite in the fight against American imperialism. Watch the video produced by Peoples Dispatch with Roger Waters and others on the fifth anniversary of Assange’s detention.
Unfreedom Day in South Africa | The shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) will hold “Unfreedom Day” activities on April 21st to highlight the injustices and inequalities still faced by the masses in South Africa today and in rejection of what the movement calls “fake freedom.” Annually, on April 27th, “Freedom Day” is commemorated in South Africa to remember its first democratic elections, which took place in 1994, following the official end of the racist apartheid regime. AbM was formed in 2005 and organises under the banner of “Land, Housing, and Dignity.”’ With a membership of over 100,000 people, it is the largest social movement to emerge in post-apartheid South Africa. It is at the heart of fighting for genuine freedom worth celebrating.
Stop the imperialist aggression against the Latin American peoples | In the first week of April, in Ecuador and Argentina, two serious violations of sovereignty occurred, alerting the popular movements of Latin America and the world. On one hand, a joint naval base is being established between the US and Argentina in the South Atlantic. On the other hand, Ecuadorian forces invaded the Mexican Embassy, where Jorge Glas, former vice president in the government of Rafael Correa, was granted asylum. This politician led the “Citizen Revolution” in the country and is accused of corruption, which could represent another episode of lawfare in the region. We join ALBA Movimientos‘ call for sovereignty and independence throughout our Great Homeland.
Remembering Chris Hani | The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) launched a new episode of its interview program, “Workers Power,” recalling the revolutionary legacy of Chris Hani. He was a prominent South African political leader and activist born in 1942 and assassinated in 1993. Hani was a prominent member of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), playing a crucial role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. His death shocked the nation and underscored the need for change and reconciliation in the country. To commemorate his revolutionary life, NUMSA’s National Spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, interviewed NUMSA’s Head of Department of Education, Vuyolwethu Toli. Watch the full interview here.
News
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Millions across the Middle East took to the streets to commemorate Quds Day
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Madaar
The situation is worsening in the Middle East, and the Iranian response is deterring Israel
At the international level, the isolation of the Zionist entity is deepening amid widespread popular pressure worldwide in solidarity with the Palestinian people and in rejection of the genocidal war perpetrated by the occupation.
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While progressive sectors argue for a Haitian solution to the crisis, right-wing parties and the Caribbean Community restrict the transition to the deployment of UN troops.
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Why has Niger declared US military presence in its territory illegal?
Only months after forcing its former colonizer France to withdraw its troops, Niger, West Africa’s largest country, has said the presence of US troops is illegal.
Analysis
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