Thank You For Everything, Georges! — International Red Help

The release of Georges Abdallah was decided on July 17, after more than 40 years of detention. And even if we will only be truly relieved when Georges arrives in his native Lebanon, the event compels us to say a few words.

When the campaign for Georges Abdallah’s release was launched over 20 years ago, the various structures of the International Red Help could not have imagined the length of a struggle that would become formative for us, although it began with just a few modest actions aimed simply at making Georges and his cause known.

The mobilization campaign seemed to follow the usual pattern. First spreading within revolutionary circles, it eventually reached broader forces of the reformist and democratic left. This expansion, reflected in hundreds of demonstrations and thousands of initiatives, can be explained by three elements:

• Firstly, by the obviously political nature of Georges’s detention. We won’t revisit every episode in which the French justice system trampled on all the values, rules, and principles it claims to uphold—starting with the separation of powers—in order to prolong this detention as an expression of the French state’s support and complicity for Zionist and imperialist aggression.
• Secondly, by those very Zionist and imperialist aggressions, those endless massacres of which the ongoing genocide in Gaza is only the latest example. This string of tragedies constantly reminded us over the years of the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance to which Georges belongs.
• Lastly, by Georges’s own resistance—by the way he rejected every form of blackmail for repentance, by the way he endured every hardship of an interminable detention, and by the way he kept alive the historical propositions of the Arab revolutionary left: a free, secular, and democratic Palestine from the river to the sea. Moreover, he has always defended the liberation of Palestine as an integral part of the struggle for a communist and internationalist perspective.

This courage and determination were not only an encouragement to the movement demanding his release. Georges has offered multiple generations of militants a tremendous example of resistance—an active, daily resistance that not only stood firm in its positions but also knew how to connect with the struggles that emerged after his arrest.

Throughout all these years, Georges has nourished and inspired our struggles. So for all of that, with all our heart, thank you Georges Abdallah, thank you and welcome home.

International Red Help
International Secretariat
July 17, 2025

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=20910

#europe #georgesAbdallah #internationalRedHelp #lebanon #palestine #redHelpInternational

Resist to Win: Address to Revolutionary Prisoners

From March 21 to 23, 2025, delegations from Zurich, Geneva, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Milan, Turin, Rome, Brussels and Toulouse met for the biannual Red Help International conference. It took place at a time of intensifying inter-imperialist contradictions amid the multidimensional crisis of capitalism, characterized in particular by the arms race in Europe and the rise of reactionary forces.

We discussed the importance of the fight for the detained revolutionaries in Europe, from the BR-PCC in Italy and PCE(r) GRAPO activists in Spain, to the persecution of Nikos Maziotis in Greece and the arrest of Daniela Klette after 30 years in clandestinity in Germany. The opening of her trial is also a reminder of the choice of revolutionary protagonists, such as in the RAF and in today’s anti-fascist movement, who have decided to continue their struggle underground. A choice that requires us to develop our solidarity. We welcomed the recent release of Comrade Arenas, General Secretary of the PCE(r), and Leonard Peltier, activist with the American Indian Movement. Both after decades of imprisonment and militant continuity.

At a time when the genocide in Palestine has redoubled in intensity, the analysis of the situation on the ground and our tasks in the face of it took an important place in our exchanges. The truce agreement imposed by the Palestinian resistance in January was discussed as a victory – partial but real. It led to the release of over 1,770 Palestinian prisoners, including leaders of the Palestinian left, such as Khalida Jarrar and Wael Jaghoub. The situation in Gaza reminds us that there can be no liberation without resistance. What’s more, the Palestinian struggle has a universal value for all the oppressed, so anti-imperialist solidarity must be understood as directly related to the class struggle here.

In this sense, we must mobilize in support of Palestinians and activists of the Palestinian cause imprisoned in Europe – like the Palestinian Anan Yaeesh currently imprisoned in Italy. In particular, the fight for the release of Georges Abdallah is of strategic importance, given his determination to defend his communist, anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist commitment despite more than 40 years in prison in France. On June 14, a demonstration will take place in the streets of Paris for his release, a few days before a new judicial hearing on June 19 – the International Day of Solidarity with Revolutionary Prisoners. Secours Rouge International is calling for participation in this demonstration, and in this campaign of support.

Similarly, we discussed the current situation in Syria, Turkey and Kurdistan with the participation of a TKP-ML comrade. While the new Syrian government led by Salafists receives imperialist support and reinforces the fracturing of the country, the Kurdish movement and the Turkish revolutionary left are developing tactics that need to be understood, analyzed and evaluated from an independent position of revolutionary internationalism in light of the concrete situation and its trajectory. In this fragile period, the revolutionary process of Rojava necessitates our international solidarity. Having stood alongside this process in the past decade, we are confident in the comrades’ capacities and willingness to navigate the challenges this process faces today. The current mobilization of millions of people against the Turkish fascist regime underlines the firm resolve of peoples to fight back against reactionary forces in the region.

In the face of capitalism’s decaying crisis and the revolutionary possibilities it opens up, pre-emptive counter-revolution is intensifying everywhere. This is what the working classes are facing in Europe, in factories and working-class neighborhoods alike. In the face of this, we must develop self-defense practices to deal with it, by strengthening internationalist and revolutionary class solidarity!

Smash capitalism, construct solidarity!

Red Help International, March 31, 2025

Source: Red Help International

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18675

#europe #PoliticalPrisoners #redHelpInternational #Solidarity

Red Help International Holds Conference

To our imprisoned and clandestine comrades,

On the weekend of November 16 and 17, the sections of the Red Help International came together for their conference. Our discussions focused on the general crisis tendency of capitalism, which is manifesting itself, among other things, in a strengthening of reactionary forces in the West, an intensification of wars like those in Palestine and Kurdistan, and an increase in state repression against social and revolutionary movements.

The ongoing genocide in Palestine and the war in Lebanon were at the center of our discussions. We emphasized the importance of strengthening internationalism with the revolutionary left forces active in resisting Zionism. In this context, we discussed the solidarity campaign with the «Popular Democratic Party» (PDP) in Lebanon and ways to support its political and social work on the ground.

We honor the strength and determination of the resistance at the forefront of the struggle against Zionism and imperialism, particularly the forces of the PFLP, We also honor all those continuing the fight from the prisons of the Israeli state, especially Ahmad Sa’adat. The internationalist struggle for the liberation of Palestine is similarly being suppressed in European societies, where many comrades in Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, and England are imprisoned or face repression. We express our solidarity with them, as well as with Georges Ibrahim Abdullah, for whose release we have long campaigned—a commitment we will continue, even though the court ruling of November 15 represents a step toward his liberation.

In Kurdistan, the liberation movement is facing an intense escalation of attacks by the fascist Turkish state in Rojava and the mountains. Despite these assaults, revolutionary forces on the ground have succeeded in strengthening the revolutionary people’s war and even striking the Turkish regime in the capital, Ankara.

In Europe, bourgeois states continue their offensive against the organized antifascist movement with mass arrests related to the so-called «Budapest complex». These comrades must be supported by all means, as reactionary and fascist tendencies must be fought on antifascist ground. We also extend our solidarity to the political prisoners Nikos Romanos, Marianna, and Dimitra, who were imprisoned in connection with the death of comrade Kyriakos Xymiris due to an explosion in Greece, as well as to Daniela Klette, who was arrested at the beginning of the year in Germany for militant actions of the RAF after having lived in illegality for more than thirty years. We wish her comrades Volker Staub and Burkard Garweg continued success!

The intensification of the situation reveals the internal crisis of the capitalist system and exposes the fears of the ruling classes. These crises present opportunities that must be seized to strengthen international solidarity and the revolutionary movement.

Solidarity with the Palestinian and Kurdish peoples! Solidarity with all peoples fighting against imperialism and colonialism!

Strength to all revolutionary, antifascist, and anti-imperialist prisoners!

Long live international solidarity!

Red Help International, November 2024

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12685

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