Dublin, Ireland: Solidarity vigil at the Turkish Embassy for imprisoned anarchist hunger striker Umut Firat

IRISH SOLIDARITY FOR UMUT FIRAT

On Wednesday the 1st of February  there was a solidarity vigil for Umut Firat in Dublin, Ireland. Anarchists and supporters of Umut’s hunger strike gathered outside the Turkish Embassy. Turkish embassy staff came out to mock the protesters. Embassy staff called the police to have them get the protesters to remove a banner that was tied to the fence of the embassy. The banner said FREE UMUT FIRAT! SOLIDARITY FROM IRELAND. The police stayed on till the vigil was over.

Umut has been on hunger strike for 53 days now. He has been locked up in prison for the last 23 years. He is on hunger strike because  of the state of emergency the Turkish state has imposed since the attempted coup d’etat in July, and against the harsh prison conditions imposed by the state because of it.

Since the state of emergency Umut as well as all political prisoners held in Turkey have had prison conditions worsened some have been put into isolation, others have been forced into cramped cells, there are forced strip searches, visiting times have been reduced and some prisoners are not allowed visits at all.

These tactics are not new. States across the world have used these same tactics to try and undermine struggles, break morale and spirits of prisoners fighting against prison regimes. We know these tactics only too well in Ireland. We need to give support and solidarity with Umut and all the prisoners in Turkey. Now is a vital time in their struggle, a lot is waging on Umut’s hunger strike. If it is successful prison conditions will soften and become more relaxed than what they are now.

“As a human, Revolutionary Anarchist, Conscientious/ Total Objector, an individual who has been spending 23 years in a lit cell under the darkness of a dungeon, I see all entities of capitalist, statist, nationalist, fundamentalist, sectarian and patriarchal power structure are responsible for all this. I start hunger strike to draw attention to all this, before and after, to emphasize that new forms of struggle and social opposition has been organized, and to reflect my own political, moral and conscientious attitude.”

VICTORY TO UMUT

COMRADE FIRAT IS NOT ALONE

FIRE TO THE PRISONS

FIRE TO THE TURKISH STATE

via insurrectionnewsworldwide.com