December 2014
A year later of the brutal sentence:
Acquittal Now!
The brutal sentence dictated by the Videlaist tribunal of Caleta Olivia, under the command of the oil companies, will turn one year on December 12th. Cristina Kirchner was the one who gave the order. We were sentenced to life in jail because we struggled against the tax on the wages and against outsourcing. This demand today is a banner of the fight of millions of workers that cannot stand that they keep putting their hands in our pockets.
While the sentence, which is intended to be used to silence our struggle and discipline the workers so that we don’t fight for our demands, stalks our heads, like it does with thousands and thousands of workers, the justice of those on top, here in Argentina and the world, sets the murderers and repressors of the people free.
It fills us with indignation that while we are forced to live under this situation of permanent anguish, we see the rulers with their hands stained with blood to walk free and in good health. It is outrageous to see Mubarak released and freed from any charge of the massacre on thousands of workers during the revolution that started in 2011, while the jails of Egypt are overwhelmed with thousands of fighters, a great number of which are sentenced to life in jail and even to death.
We are filled with rage as we see that in the Zionist jails, day by day, the number of enslaved and tortured Palestinian increases, while the war criminals Zionists keep expelling the Palestinian from their lands.
It is shameful to see Obama, the biggest criminal and executioner of the peoples of the world, to carry out the worst atrocities against the workers and to be treated as the man of “democracy” while his police massacres the black youth every day and it’s acquitted, as it happened with the one who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson. In the country of the north, the biggest shameless and thieves walk happily down the streets of Wall Street and thousands of black and immigrant workers pile up in jails.
We are outraged when we see the politicians responsible for the disappearance of the 43 Mexican students and thousands of workers (that every day appear buried in mass graves) to be free and with good health, while the ones fighting for the appearance alive of the 43 and against the sufferings that the people live in that country are brutally suppressed and put to jail.
We’ve had enough with being sentenced to live in this situation, and that’s why we do not keep our mouths shut, so that our acquittal is conquered immediately, right now. We are like Niko Romanos, a young Greek fighter who is in prison and in hunger strike, relentlessly fighting from the cell together with thousands that are fighting on the streets for his release. Here in Argentina, suppression, prosecution and attack on the workers’ gains have multiplied after our sentence. Quebracho leaders Esteche and Lescano continue locked in jail, and the number of prosecuted has surpassed the 5 thousand (a year ago) and now there are 7 thousand. There are still workers imprisoned in Corral de Bustos. Thousands of dismissed workers and suspended ones were imposed based on repression. Recently, thanks to the struggle and demonstrations, 5 comrades from Santa Cruz regained their freedom. However, there’s a sentence on them dictated by the court of Rio Gallegos, which is a tribunal that acts with the same modus operandi that the one of Caleta Olivia that sentenced us, With the struggle, we conquered their freedom, but now, we’re going for their unconditional acquittal.
This is how this justice and government treat the workers that fight for better living standards, while De La Rua, Duhalde, Kirchner and a never-ending list of politicians are free, when they stole (and still steal) everything that belong to us and suppressed and killed thousands of workers. They should be the ones going to jail. We don’t accept to be judged by this government and justice that kidnapped and then killed Luciano Arruga. We do not accept that the ones that made Julio Lopez disappear want to condemn us. They are the terrorists, the torturers, and criminals that fill their pockets at the expenses of our work, repression, jail and massacre on the people. We are the ones fighting for a decent life.
Today, while all the politicians are preparing themselves for the elections and want the condemned workers to be forgotten, the oil workers of Las Heras are not alone. We fight for our freedom together with thousands of workers across the world and in Argentina, where millions of workers are coming out to the struggle against the tax on the wages, which was the demand of our struggle in 2006, for which today we are condemned. The theft of the worker wage is a suffering that millions of the workers are living today, with an unbearable inflation.
WE ARE NOT ALONE. The struggle for our acquittal and release is attached to that of millions of workers that today are fighting against the tax on the wages, the labour outsourcing and decent work. Without our acquittal, without dropping all charges to the more than 7 thousand worker and popular fighters and without the release of all the political prisoners, this struggle will be more difficult, because with hostages in jail, whether this government or the next one will keep on attacking the living conditions of the workers and the people.
We have to unify all the struggles and demands of the workers. The unity and coordination has to be above any party interests. The militant workers, overcoming the union leaders that sell out our fights, need to advance in conquering a common list of demands and a joint struggle plan to impose each and every of our demands, starting for the freedom, acquittal and end the legal process to all the workers in jail, sentenced and under legal process. Therefore, a delegation of the Commission travelled to Buenos Aires, to coordinate the struggle and for making that this December 12th we’ll be thousands taking to the streets.
The road to conquer the unity is the one we took in Las Heras in 2006: the assemblies, the strikes, the picket lines, demonstrations, in which, under the war cry “we are all oil workers”, occupied and unemployed workers, unionized and non-unionized workers, workers off the books and on the books, got unified and put the oil companies’ bosses in check using the worker’s methods. That is what this government and the oil companies deserve. They keep on starving us even worse than in those years, while they gain a lot of money. In Patagonia, life is each time more expensive and money is not enough. Furthermore, they continue to take money from our wages and they still refuse to give a miserable bonus to be able to spend decent holidays with our families. We can’t take this situation any longer. That’s why thousands of oil workers came out to the strike. Our acquittal has to be a demand in the struggle plan and the oil workers strike. Let’s return the struggle of 2006.
The oil workers of Las Heras ARE NOT ALONE. If we still can sleep next to our families is because of the fight of millions of workers in Argentina and the world. It was because a year ago we confronted the Videlaist tribunal together with the Palestinian prisoners, the pro-independence Basque prisoners and George Abdallah who refused to eat their food portion in solidarity with us, together with the Japanese workers, those from Southern and Northern Africa, the Chilean youth and thousands of workers around the world.
Next December 12th won’t be just another day. Undoubtedly it will be a day of international struggle not only for our acquittal but for the release of all the political prisoners of the world. 12/12 has already become a day of struggle for the workers of the world. The Palestinian prisoners and the organizations that fight for their release are promoting this fight in the whole world. In the occupied Palestine actions are being prepared, as well as in Southern Africa, the old world, Chile and Argentina. The forces to set up the International Network for the release of the political prisoners of the world (the one we’ve been fighting for since last year) are already in movement and we will come out to the streets on 12/12.
To be able to unify the struggle for our acquittal, for dropping all charges to the workers under legal processes, for the release of the comrades that are in jail and for all the worker’s demands, we are preparing a worker and student congress in Las Heras on 12/12, with relatives and friends of other condemned comrades. Therefore we call all the workers to hold assemblies and vote delegates to go to Las Heras, to march and set up the National Coordination Table of the prosecuted and sentenced workers. In Buenos Aires, we call to take to the streets and march to the House of Santa Cruz, as part of the International Persecuted Workers Day.
ENOUGH WITH PERSECUTING THOSE WHO FIGHT! ENOUGH WITH STEALING OUR WAGE! ENOUGH WITH JOBS OFF THE BOOKS! ENOUGH WITH STARVATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT!
THE STRUGGLE FOR OUR ACQUITTAL, FOR THE RELEASE OF ALL THE POLITICAL PRISONERS AND FOR ALL THE WORKER’S DEMANDS… IS ON THE STREETS AND THE FIGHT!
LET’S PREPARE A GREAT FIGHT!
Because we want our acquittal and the release of all the political prisoners NOW… Because we cannot take the high cost of living anymore… To defeat the tax on the wages… to end with the outsourced work and to have work for all… as we voted in our Congress in October last year
Oil worker’s strike for our acquittal and all our demands:
STRUGGLE PLAN AND GENERAL STRIKE
