All over the world the ruling forces try to silence those who oppose them and to make them give up the struggle. For that, they use the hardest punishments. By giving life-long sentences to many prisoners, the Italian state also tries to silence the communist, revolutionary and progressive opposition and to make them give up their struggle. However, the state is wrong; wherever there are communists and revolutionaries, they continue to lead the struggle. For them, prisons are just another place of the class struggle. The resistance that has developed in the last weeks in the Italian prisons is a good example for this.

Since the beginning of the year there were fights against the life-long sentence in Italy, and now a huge movement has grown:

Since December 1, more than 800 prisoners who were sentenced to life-long and more than 8350 prisoners with other punishments have been on hunger strike. Family members and sympathisants also support this broad movement, some of them even joined the hunger strike.

Several prisoners declared to continue with the fight against the life-long sentence, that is the same like a death penalty, until death.

December 14 and 15 are the Days of the International Struggle against the Life-Long Sentence in Italy.

The MLCP declares its solidarity with the hunger striking political prisoners in Italy and calls for international solidarity.

Solidarity with the prisoners! Send your protest faxes to the embassies and consulates of Italy and demand the abolition of the life-long penalty and the punishment of isolation confinement!

This will be a long and hard fight, and there might be hard consequences; therefore there must be a broad call for solidarity.

Freedom to all political prisoners!
Long live international solidarity!

MLCP
Turkey/Northern Kurdistan
International Bureau

15 December 2007