Nestora Salgado, embattled comandanta of the community police of Olinalá, Guerrero, is at the heart of a whirlwind of struggle in Mexico. She was arrested in a roundup of leaders of the indigenous self-defense movement in the state of Guerrero in August 2013. A dozen of them are still in prison. The fight to free… Read more »
political prisoners
Updates: Mumi Abu-Jamal, Rasmea Odeh, Marissa Alexander
Silence Mumia Abu-Jamal? Never! “Social change and social transformation form the raison d’etre of Goddard.” Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke these revolutionary words by phone from his prison cell during his commencement speech to Goddard College on Oct. 4, 2014. Abu-Jamal, a renowned journalist skilled at exposing crimes of the U.S. “justice” system, was framed for the… Read more »
AN URGENT ALERT — Nestora Salgado is on a hunger strike and needs your help
As we go to press, brave indigenous leader and political prisoner Nestora Salgado is protesting her illegal detention with a hunger strike. For nearly two years, Salgado has been held in a Mexican prison, without trial, because of her leadership of a community police force tackling drug lords and corrupt officials in the state of… Read more »
Freedom Socialist Letters to the Editor, June 2015
MUMIA VERY ILL Public pressure needed to save his life! (Excerpts from an email from freemumia.com.) On Saturday, May 2, Pam Africa and Abdul Jon visited Mumia Abu-Jamal at SCI Mahanoy. He was weak, stable, alert and still in the infirmary. Mumia’s attorney Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center submitted an expert medical recommendation… Read more »
Encuentro con Comandante Nestora Salgado
A Nestora Salgado se le encarceló bajo falsas acusaciones y se le ha maltratado severamente desde agosto de 2013. Se puso en huelga de hambre, lo cual consiguió que les hicieran concesiones a ella y a los demás prisioneros políticos. Cuauhtémoc Ruiz, miembro del Comité Nestora Libre de México y del Partido Obrero Socialista nos… Read more »
A visit with Comandante Nestora Salgado after her hunger strike
Nestora Salgado has been jailed on false charges and severely mistreated since August 2013. She led a hunger strike that forced concessions for her and fellow political prisoners. Cuauthémoc Ruíz, a member of the Comité Nestora Libre, Mexico, and the Partido Obrero Socialista, gives this account of his recent visit. On Sunday, June 21, I… Read more »
Nestora Salgado fasts for freedom, inspires defiance across Mexico
“Nestora Salgado’s name has become a symbol of resistance for many women struggling … against patriarchal violence and for indigenous communities,” said R. Aída Hernández Castillo in the Mexican daily La Jornada in August. But the state sees her only as a threat. Aug. 21 marked the two-year anniversary of her imprisonment on false charges,… Read more »
Prison neglect jeopardizes life of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Although political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is free of his death sentence, he still suffers under life in prison without parole. And the legal system is still trying to kill his eloquent radical voice for justice and prisoners’ rights. In 2014, when Mumia gave a recorded commencement speech for Goddard College, his alma mater, Pennsylvania lawmakers… Read more »
Freedom Socialist Letters to the Editor — October 2015
RASMEA ODEH Support her appeal Show your support for Palestinian rights activist and political prisoner Rasmea Odeh at a rally in front of the courthouse on Wednesday, October 14, and then fill the courtroom immediately thereafter. Rasmea’s defense and the prosecution each present their oral arguments to a three judge panel of the U.S. Court… Read more »
Solidarity grows as Rasmea Odeh awaits appeal result
In October 2015 in Cincinnati, the defense team of Palestinian-American community leader Rasmea Odeh argued her case in the U.S. Court of Appeals. A decision was expected in one to three months. Odeh was convicted on trumped-up charges of falsifying answers on her immigration application over a decade ago and sentenced in March to 18… Read more »