LETTER FROM KASTRO SULEIMAN DAKDUK, SYRIAN POLITICAL REFUGEE AND ACTIVIST

Letter from Kastro Suleiman Dakduk, Syrian political refugee and activist living in Greece for the last 18 years)

Comrades and friends,
I send you and convey you the militant greetings of all those arrested in the demonstration against the Summit of inhuman capital, the professionals of war and the responsible for the misery of many peoples.
Today, in Diavata prison there is a gentle breeze. Last days it was very hot. If one doesn’t take a shower at least three times a day it is impossible to stand it, especially after the doors lock. In each cell 10 people are huddled, in 5 bunk beds. Fortunately, before some time, prisoners made a hunger strike and managed to be let have small fridges inside the cells.
They have split us in three floors. Fernando Perez and Tsitsas are on the first floor, in different cells, me and Carlos Martin are on the second floor, again in different cells, Simon from England is on the ground floor. He is the only one with whom we have no contact. I hear his name when the lawyer comes to visit and I would like to know how he is doing, because he was badly injured from the beatings. Two others were taken to another prison- I would like to learn their news also.
The four of us, without Simon, communicate with difficulties. And I inform you that your solidarity, your support and the struggle you are doing for our freedom gives us strength and patience, because solidarity is stronger than their weapons, stronger than the violence, repression, prisons against any struggle, any resistance.
As for those who are not stating their support to the imprisoned fighters with various excuses, e.g. that they (the prisoners) were in some blocs of the demonstration with which there is disagreement in the form of action and the way they function, or that we told this person to come to our bloc and he didn’t come etc, for myself I say that I was in one bloc that is the whole demonstration, and the arrested are arrested of the whole demonstration. This moment we are locked inside as an example of intimidation for every militant who wants to resist. Solidarity and support, when it is only for our political-party-comrades, or only for those who agree with us, or only for those that are doing what we want, then they lose all their meaning and importance.*
In a period where war is legitimized and resistance is criminalized, where a demonstration is considered as guilt and felony, the movement has to choose: either resistance or compromise. And when within such a period, that the war of the powerful is legitimized with the slaughter, the miseries and the humiliation of the entire humankind, while resistance of the powerless is criminalized, the movement compromises with the logic of the powerful, then we can kiss everything goodbye (...)
Solidarity must be shown to all hostages of the state, to all victims of any dictatorial expression of inhuman regimes. To all those who resist, to all those who dare. To all those who are ready to die for a moment of freedom and dignity, than living a life of humiliation, oppression and slavery.
And as one passer-by from the history of struggle used to say: “When the Nazis arrested one Jew, I said I’m not Jew, I don’t care. When they arrested the neighbour for being a communist, I said I am no communist, I don’t care. Now that I am arrested, there is nobody to care for me”. The good thing with this example is that all “militants” remember it in various discussions and concentrations. Probably they like it as a nice text, as a good writing piece.
So, today there is a gentle breeze and we manage to take a breath - the last ten days the cell was hot as an oven.
THE STRUGGLE DOESN’T STOP WITH PRISON, OPPRESSION, VIOLENCE, REPRESSION AND DICTATORSHIP. THESE ARE REASONS FOR THE STRUGGLE TO BECOME STRONGER.
FREEDOM FOR ALL THE SOCIETY, FREEDOM FOR ALL THE WORLD

July 6, 2003 Diavata Prison, Kastro
(transl.* Referance to the absence of solidarity by the majority of Left, or to the “selective solidarity” shown for him by leftists, who talk about Kastro’s imprisonment and don’t say anything about the other demonstratorsarrested. )