Freedom for Carola Rockete, stop punishing the (no va) migrants and those who help them. The picture of the bodies of Oscar and Valeria Martinez, 25 year old father and almost 2 years old daughter, moved the world. They drowned in the Bravo river escaping from poverty to the US. In Europe, a rescuer was photographed holding a dead baby in his arms after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. It has been five years since Aylan Kurdi washed up dead in the shores of Turkey escaping the war, and nothing has changed since then.
The drama may develop in the borders of Mexico, Syria, Europe and other regions. But it has a common denominator: the inhumane xenophobia of imperialism, the governments and the bourgeois regime. People escape war, persecution or extreme poverty, in many cases accompanied by their young children. And they are met with an inhumane treatment, locked up in refugee camps, they are returned to their home countries or end up dead.
The richest people in the world, historical and current looters, that are economically, politically and socially responsible for this crisis that affects the poorest sectors, at the same time punish them for the situation they have put them in. This is what Donald Trump, the EU troika and its accomplices represent.
As if the brutal treatment of desperate people was not enough, US and European Union try to criminalize rescuers even harder. In the 21st century, saving lives is punished as a crime. The German captain Pia Klemp was fined and given up to 20 years in prison for helping migrants. Carol Rockete, the captain of the Sea Watch 3 was detained under the accusation of “resisting or violence against a warship”. What was her crime? Trying to land in the Italian island of Lampedusa with 42 people she had rescued in the sea fifteen days ago.
PM Matteo Salvini is responsible for these actions. This fascist says “Italians first” to divert the attention from the many problems the country has and that his government has not solved. In Europe there are several “leaders” that behave like this.
In the Spanish State, the ship Open Arms had saved over 400 people, until the government of Pedro Sanchez prohibited it from sailing into the Mediterranean Sea. The NGO decided to disobey it and continue with the rescues.
The national borders disappear when it comes to allowing the financial flow for the great capitalist businesses, yet are impermeable when it comes to receiving people in an emergency. Even though the European Union denies it and evaluates the gravity of the situation according to it`s occurrence, we are in the face of a systematic humanitarian crisis that worsens minute by minute. Not casually, international lawyers have asked The Hague to investigate the EU for crimes against humanity because of its migratory policy.
Every time one of these atrocities is picked up by the media, two things happen. On one hand, the social anger grows and on the other hand, the executioners deploy their cynicism expressing their condolences. Yet they do nothing to revert the situation. The fascist raise their inhuman policies without shame, the “democratic” bourgeois leaders disguise it, but they go in the same direction. To the exploitation and oppression of the working people, they add the contempt to the most elemental human rights.
From the International Socialist League, we call to the (for a) unitary mobilization for the freedom of Carola Rockete and against the criminalization of rescues, as part of a program with emergency transitional measures. The radical issue is clear: socialism or barbarism. This is a steel disjunctive to prevent capitalism and imperialism from complete destroying humankind.
Óscar y Valeria Martínez.
Aylan Kurdi
A baby drowned in the Mediterranean Sea
The drama of the Mediterranean Sea
Aylan Kurdi
