Ireland: It Is Forbidden to Forget

Robert Gerard Sands, pseudonym Bobby Sands was born on March 9, 1954, in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, died on May 5, 1981, at the age of 27, in Maze Prison, Down County, Northern Ireland, from starvation, that is, from 66 days on hunger strike, he was a politician, social fighter, revolutionary, British parliamentarian and guerrilla of the Provisional IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army).

Sands was born into a Catholic family.

In 1972, Sands decided to join the IRA, and in October of that same year he was arrested on charges of possessing firearms.

Then in April 1973 he was sentenced to five years in prison.

He was released from prison in 1976, and immediately resumed his activities within the IRA.

He was accused of being involved in the bomb attack at the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry in October of that same year, but was not convicted due to lack of evidence.

Sands and at least five other IRA members were accused of taking part in a shootout with the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Although his active participation in it could not be proven, Sands was convicted of possession of firearms at trial, and sentenced to 14 years in the Maze prison.

In prison, Sands dedicated himself to writing, delving into both journalism and poetry.

In the late 1980s, Sands was elected Commanding Officer of IRA prisoners interned at Long Kesh, succeeding Brendan Hughes, who was taking part in the First Hunger Strike that followed the blanket protest.

The blanket protest was part of a protest movement framed by the Northern Ireland Conflict.

The protest began due to the progressive elimination, as of March 1, 1976, of the status of political prisoners for Republican prisoners.

The prisoners refused to accept these changes, refusing to wear the prison uniform.

The imminent disappearance of the category began to cause friction between prisoners and prison officials.

The protest began on September 14, 1976.

At the end of April 1978, a fight occurred between a prisoner and a prison officer in Block 6.

The prisoner was taken to solitary confinement, and a rumor spread through the wing that the prisoner had been beaten very badly.

On 27 October 1980, IRA members Brendan Hughes, Tommy McKearney, Raymond McCartney, Tom McFeeley, Sean McKenna and Leo Green and INLA member John Nixon began a hunger strike aimed at restoring the prisoners’ political status.

After a fifty-three-day hunger strike, during which McKenna fell into a coma on several occasions and was on the verge of death, the government seemed to recognize the prisoners’ five demands.

In January 1981 it became clear that the prisoners’ demands had not been granted.

On February 4, the prisoners issued a statement saying that the British government had failed to resolve the crisis and declared their intention to begin a new hunger strike.

Bobby Sands was nominated for deputy in the elections and won the seat on April 9 with 30,493 votes.

After Sands’ victory, the British Government led by Margaret Thatcher approved the Representation of the People Act of 1981, which prevented the nomination as electoral candidates of those prisoners serving sentences of more than one year in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland 🇮🇪.

The strike began on March 1, when Bobby Sands refused to eat, and ended on October 3.

Ten men, including Sands himself, died as a result of the strike.

Bobby Sands would die on May 5, 1981, after 66 days on hunger strike.

Simón Bolívar Coordinator

Rescuing Historical Memory.

Up those who fight! ! !

Without Memory there is no Victory

The only fight that is lost is the one that is abandoned! ! !

Only the fight will make us free! ! !

Sow Memory so that oblivion does not grow

From Venezuela 🇻🇪 Land of Liberators 534 years since the beginning of the Anti-imperialist Resistance in America and 215 years since the beginning of our Independence.

Coordinadora Simón Bolívar
Caracas – Venezuela 🇻🇪.
May 2026.

Coordinadora Simón Bolívar Venezuela, Resumen Latinoamericano, May 7, 2026.

Basque Country: Iñaki Bilbao on Hunger and Communication Strike After Being Placed in Solitary Confinement

Basque prisoner Iñaki Bilbao Goikoetxea, known as Txikito, has begun a hunger and communication strike after being placed in solitary confinement in Zaballa prison for refusing to remove political symbols, including Basque and Cuban flags, from his cell window. Detained for a total of 42 years cumulatively and sentenced to long sentences for his involvement in ETA, he is one of the longest-serving prisoners in detention in Europe. He has already carried out several hunger and communication strikes in recent years to denounce his conditions of incarceration, including the long periods of isolation and restrictions on rights in prison, but also to demand “an independent, socialist, united and Basque-speaking Basque Country”, as during his long hunger strike that began in September 2020.

Source: https://secoursrouge.org/pays-basque-greve-de-la-faim-et-de-communication-dinaki-bilbao-apres-son-placement-a-lisolement/

Turkey: MLKP Prisoners Join Seda Baykan’s Hunger Strike

Political prisoner Seda Baykan continues a hunger strike against the conditions of isolation she has been subjected to for four years in Diyarbakır Women’s Prison, reaching the 35th day of her mobilization on May 5, 2026. She is demanding either to be transferred to an establishment where she would be held with other political prisoners, or to be moved to another prison, denouncing a strict isolation regime.

In solidarity, MLKP prisoners launched rotating five-day hunger strikes, successively taken up by prisoners incarcerated in Tekirdağ and Gebze, in a coordinated movement of support.

Source: https://secoursrouge.org/turquie-des-prisonniers-du-mlkp-rejoignent-la-greve-de-la-faim-de-seda-baykan/

Today in Labor History May 5, 1981: Bobby Sands (1954-1981) died from starvation, ending his 66-day hunger strike. Sands was an Irish political prisoner and member of Parliament who had been locked up in the notoriously brutal Maze Prison near Belfast. The strike was an attempt to get the British government to grant political prisoner status to Nationalist inmates, rather than treating them as common criminals.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #ireland #republican #IRA #BobbySands #HungerStrike #maze #prison #PoliticalPrisoner

Retaliation Against Mapuche Political Prisoner Lonko Facundo Jones Huala for Hunger Strike

Public Complaint – April 28, 2026

Yesterday, Lonko Francisco Facundo Jones Huala began a liquid hunger strike after 11 months of preventive detention without formal accusation or sentence in Unit 6 of Rawson, Chubut. During yesterday morning he filed a written complaint addressed to the Federal Court of Bariloche, to the Head of Unit, to the Executive Branch and to whomever it may concern, for the serious prison conditions in which he is found and the constant violation of his rights as a member of an indigenous people; writing where, in addition, he specified the demands for which he is mobilized. However, the management of the maximum security prison where he is located, in the city of Rawson, did not send the text of the complaint to the court (as it should have done). Today, the Bariloche court confirmed to its lawyers from the Lawyers’ Guild that the prison did not send the letter.

At the same time, starting yesterday, when the hunger strike began, the Rawson Prison staff (shift chief and requisition staff) exercised mistreatment and discrimination when they announced the strike. So today they did not allow him to go to school, arguing that because there is a strike he could not attend. However, they forced him to go out into the yard. This is yet another violation of his rights.

We denounce this situation because it is serious, it is no coincidence that the note exposing the prison conditions just disappeared, even from a legal point of view because the document did not even reach the defense lawyers.

Below we transcribe the note issued by Lonko Facundo Jones Huala. Enough political persecution. For Lonko, his freedom now and/or transfer to Esquel.

4/27/2026

To the Federal Court of Bariloche, to the head of the Unit, to the Executive Branch, to whomever it may concern, their office.

With the greatest consideration, I address you in my capacity as a Mapuche political prisoner, in order to inform that I have once again begun a Liquid Hunger Strike, of an indefinite nature, with the possibility of converting it into a Dry Strike.

As Lonko, traditional authority of my Lof, community, ensuring respect for my political and cultural rights means doing so for all my people. I not only come to denounce political imprisonment, but also, and therefore, the worsening of detention conditions. First, because of the distance from my family and community, and then, because in this unit there are no prison conditions for anyone, least of all political prisoners of the Mapuche culture.

To the ignorance of the federal prison service and society, it must be added that, according to the changes in personnel and leadership, the protocols with respect to my culture change. From the beginning, lawen’s entry was not respected in a complete and correct way, but also, having brought partial solutions, these are unknown today. The exit to the realization of my llellipun is altered according to the procedures or requisition shifts, being corrected only when there are managers with good will.

In everyday life there is no going out to the patio, it is mandatory only once a week when they want, even in the rain and due to search procedures, where they repeatedly break belongings or steal. These patios do not have access to bathrooms and we must walk through urine and human excrement.

The conditions of the pavilion are worsening instead of improving, being more internal, the freezer is smaller, due to the failures of the electrical system that burned the previous one due to leaks in the cables. Winter is coming and the people in charge who broke the heater haven’t fixed it. Floods are daily, like water cuts, just as a detail of daily life. As far as my culture is concerned, very little is respected. I cannot wear my clothing, nor carry out my practices except when the service allows it, but aggravated by the distance, it becomes practically impossible to carry out, for example, the wetripantu, Mapuche New Year, even if it is authorized. They are breaking my family and community ties, attacking my culture and spirituality. I do not have access not only to Lawen, but also to Mapuche food, and not only am I not convicted or even prosecuted, even with ten conduct. Held in a maximum security prison just for seeking dignity and justice for my people.

We have and demand the right to our territory, language, culture, medicine, spirituality, organization, justice.

Before the ships arrived, we were already here, we still are and we will be here in the future. We already know your corrupt world, but you do not know ours, there are still possibilities to build in harmony and remedy the dispossession.

Ngechen müley tañi mogen

These are my demands:

-Decent prison conditions.

-Fair trial, due process.

-Transfer to the U14 of Esquel due to family proximity and to my lof.

-Application of ILO Convention 169, measures other than imprisonment.

-Cessation of political persecution and prosecution of all Mapuche fighters.

-Return of ancestral territory to the lofs in conflict.

-Political, non-judicial or repressive solution to the historical conflict.

-Application of article 75, paragraphs 17 and 22 of the National Constitution.

-Intervention of human rights organizations and international mediators for an appropriate political solution.

-Remove all Lof and Mapuche organizations from the list of terrorist organizations.

-According cultural protocols in the penitentiary system and every institution that they force us to transit.

-Cessation and withdrawal of mining, oil, transnational companies and landowners from Wallmapu.

-Freedom for all Mapuche political prisoners.

Without further ado, waiting for a prompt and favorable resolution. Greetings sincerely.

Francisco Facundo Jones Huala, Mapuche political prisoner.

DNI: 32,320,648

Lonko Curramapu, Cushamen. Pavilion 5. Rawson Headquarters.

Resumen Latinoamericano, April 29, 2026

Via @meidastouch on Instagram:

ICE detainees on hunger strike. Jordan reports what they’re risking everything to expose.

Full story on Status Coup Substack.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXae-QLif2-/

#ICE #ImmigrationNews #HungerStrike #BreakingNews #HumanRights