by International Platform against Isolation
The second year since the international day of struggle against isolation was established – call for action
The issue of imprisonment and prisons, in other words the issue of political prisoners, is an indispensible part of the struggle for all organisations and people who resist and fight, and will be as long as there is a struggle against injustice in the world.
Quite apart from their overall policy of annihilation, the forces which want to prevent the struggle against exploitation and injustice seek to use the prisons to break people who resist them and who think differently. So torture and arbitrary behaviour have become an everyday practice. As the same time, this has become the crudest form of human rights abuse. These means of destroying opposition beliefs and crushing resistance has been employed, developed and made more effective, particularly by the the EU and the USA, since the 1970s, in the form of “White Torture” and isolation practices. As a result of this conception, practices like Control Units, QHS, FIES, F-Types and Guantanamo have been placed on the agenda which aim at destroying human production, personal identity, bodies and minds and which are based on isolation.
In the meantime these policies have acquired a global character. Those who put these policies into practice use standardised practices (treatment) in relation to isolation and prisons.
On the other hand, it is not possible to speak of an internationally directed struggle or the globalisation of the struggle against isolation and prison practices. But the need for such a struggle is greater than ever before.
Open warfare and military occupation carried out regardless of any international law against countries who for one reason or another oppose them, as well as the bans and black lists aimed at destroying legitimate organisations which are engaging in resistance, and the use of isolation to destroy opposition thoughts and the political identity of resistance fighters are nothing other than different aspects of a common practice.
THE PRISONS, POLITICAL PRISONERS AND ISOLATION
The use of isolation practices is at the highest level today with regard to prisons and political prisoners. Perhaps the practice does not exist in all countries today. If some countries do not yet see the need for it, it is because of financial reasons. But those who bombed Afghanistan and Iraq will also try to create further Guantanamos. Those who in countries like Turkey are seeking to drown in blood every democratic demand of the people and who make torture and rape an everyday practice will try to extend their F-Type isolation complexes throughout the entire world.
The attempt to classify even opponents of globalisation and peaceful campaigns as “terrorists” shows that the situation can change even in places where there is still no need felt yet to set up isolation prisons. Today it is necessary to extend the campaign against such illegality and arbitrariness.
It has been shown that in all wars which have been conducted in contravention of national and international laws, the aim was not merely Afghanistan and Iraq but the proclamation of a world empire. It has been shown that the black lists and bans on organisations branded “terrorist” are not simply directed against these organisations but against democratic rights in general. It has been shown that the policy of isolation which today is only used against very “dangerous” prisoners and those branded as “terrorist”, will actually be used against all opposition beliefs and identities.
When Hitler expanded use of the concentration camps, his aim was to turn the whole world into a concentration camp for those who had heretical thoughts. And today, those who use warfare, black lists and isolation are trying to turn the entire world into F-Type Prisons and Guantanamos.
There is a historical and sociological truth: everywhere that there is repression and oppression, there will also be resistance to them.
When this is taken into account, there are sufficient human, judicial, medical, political and even cultural reasons for all organisations, institutions and persons who oppose globalisation to unite against the use of isolation.
DAY OF STRUGGLE AGAINST ISOLATION
In October 2000, political prisoners in Turkey started resistance to isolation practices and the F-Type Prisons by resisting at the level of a Death Fast. The resistance focused on hunger strikes and Death Fasts. But outside the prisons, a broad movement of support and solidarity developed in a democratic framework. Despite everything, on December 19-22, 2000 the state in Turkey started a massacre in the prisons containing political prisoners. The state used firearms and bombs to force these prisoners into the F-Type Prisons. In this massacre 28 prisoners were murdered with gunshots and bombs or were clubbed to death, and hundreds of others were wounded. Injured prisoners were subjected to rape, irrespective of whether they were men or women, and this was how political prisoners in Turkey were transferred into the F-Type Prisons.
In December 2002, in Holland, the International Symosium Against Isolation was held, with participation by representatives and organisations from Turkey, the Basque Country, Palestine, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Belgium, Lebanon, Morocco, Peru, France, Austria, Colombia, Portugal, Denmark and Holland.
The Symposium was supported, with statements, hunger strike actions and so forth by political prisoners from France, Britain, the Basque Country, Spain, Belgium and Germany. At this Symposium, the days December 19-22 were declared the International Days Of Struggle Against Prison Isolation because they symbolise the most extensive resistance to prison isolation anywhere in the world.
This year, we will carry out activities within the framework of the International Days Of Struggle Against Prison Isolation as a central international Symposiums and an event in Florence, Italy. Moreover, actions will be organised in various countries against prison isolation at an international level. At the international level we will also organise a three-day hunger strike in which political prisoners will take part. We call on all people, institutions and organisations which have shown sensitivity on the subject of political prisoners to take part in the Symposium in Florence or to organise actions in their own countries against isolation.
INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM AGAINST ISOLATION
isolation@post.com
Tel: 00.32.2.230.08.66,
Rue Stevin 190
1000 Brussels, Belgium
