Benefit VOKU for "Presos em Luta", Portugal presos em luta - 14.03.2009 16:30
Next thursday, 19 of march, 7.30 p.m., there will be another benefit voku, this time in the MKZ, in amsterdam. On March 23, 1996, a “riot” took place in the Fortress of Caxias (a prison near Lisbon, Portugal), provoked by the interests of the State - aiming to put an end to the diverse prisoner struggles at the time. Of the180 prisoners there, the big majority suffered beatings for several days afterwards. Some of them ended up with multiple fractures and cerebral commotions, and one prisoner got blinded by plastic bullets, shot by the mercenaries of the State. This riot passed the prison walls and installed itself in the public opinion, generating a debate where some opinions went so far as to question the existence of the prison itself and its role in society. Thirteen years later, the State wants to blame 25 of those prisoners, accusing them in a judicial process, of mutiny, arson and prison damages, while trying to silence a whole context of corruption, impunity and of serious violations of the human dignity, as well as the struggles of resistance of the two previous years in the portuguese prisons!… But it takes just a glimpse to the press between 1994 and 1996 to verify the scandalous systematical violation of the “prisoner’s rights”. And that the hunger strikes, work strikes, letters and bulletins opposing and resisting to such cruel reality, were a part of the everyday-life of the prisoners in those times. Against such “whitening” by the state, against the forgetting of the context in which the “riot” happened, some individuals and groups made an important publication. “Presos em Luta” wants to bring back to light the events that happened between 1994 and 1996, in almost all of the Portuguese prisons, to show repudiation before such an absurd process, to dismantle the farce of the accusation, and to denounce the repressive performance of the state organisms, which had an active role in the increase of the terror lived in the portuguese prisons in the 90s – and that even today, sadly, continues. The publication needs to be reprinted as soon as possible. The first 1500 copies were mainly distributed outside prisons, and among friends, and they were gone in a very short time. It is a free publication, but it costs a lot of money to print. So, please come and bring your friends to the people’s kitchen, have delicious food, and support Presos em Luta! More info on: www.presosemluta.tk Solidarity and freedom for the 25 of Caxias! AGAINST THE THEFT OF OUR LIVES… NO COURTS, NO PRISONS!!!!!!!! E-Mail: presosemluta@gmail.com Website: http://www.presosemluta.tk |