Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the life in struggle of Suzanne Le Manceau, co-founder of the Collective for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and lifelong struggler for Palestinian liberation. Suzanne passed away on Saturday, 14 September after years of struggle with cancer. Despite her illness, she remained deeply committed to the struggle for Georges Abdallah’s — and Palestine’s — liberation. We extend our deepest condolences to all of her comrades and friends, her partner Bernard, her family and loved ones, including Georges Abdallah, who, with her passing, loses a consistent and beloved source of support and comradeship.
Suzanne attended nearly every demonstration and action, for Palestine and for social justice causes — against racism, for workers and labour rights, against police repression — carrying a red banner bearing the image and the name of Georges Abdallah, the imprisoned Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine jailed in France for 40 years. She co-founded the Collective for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in 2004, visited Georges Abdallah consistently behind prison bars and traveled to Lebanon on multiple occasions in order to visit with his family and the national campaign for his liberation there. As a committed struggler for the liberation of political prisoners, she was also a veteran of the campaign to release the prisoners of Action Directe.
She consistently supported organizers and activists in the struggle and was dedicated to a united approach to build the strongest level of support for Georges Abdallah in France and throughout Europe, confronting the unified aggression of the French state, the United States and the Zionist regime. Samidoun first met Suzanne in person in 2014, when we sent a delegation to participate in the annual march to Lannemezan Prison, where Georges Abdallah is held. This delegation was organized and coordinated by Coup Pour Coup 31, whose members, together with others, later created the Collectif Palestine Vaincra.
Every year, this demonstration draws hundreds to thousands of people from across France and Europe to demand Georges Abdallah’s immediate liberation and to advance the struggle for Palestine. Since the first Lannemezan demonstration in 2010, Suzanne read out Georges’ special statements to these actions to the crowds gathered there to support his liberation. She read out the last of these statements on 6 April at a mass demonstration outside the Lannemezan prison, with the participation of thousands:
Membre fondatrice de la campagne pour la libération de Georges Abdallah, Suzanne Le Manceau lit la déclaration de Georges Abdallah lu pour l’occasion. pic.twitter.com/XS87dSszHp
— Collectif Palestine Vaincra (@Collectif_PV) April 6, 2024
Samidoun had the honour of hosting Suzanne during one of her visits to Lebanon, in an educational event at Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp focusing on Georges Abdallah’s liberation and his connection to the continuing Palestinian struggle in Lebanon — a message that is perhaps more relevant than ever today, as Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance, confronts Zionist colonialism as a strong support front against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and faces Zionist massacres and terror campaigns targeting the Lebanese people and their heroic Resistance.
She was known for her famous phrase: “We are part of his struggle. He is part of our fight!” a slogan that came to epitomize the broad participation of the call for Georges Abdallah’s liberation in all struggles for justice and liberation, in France, in Palestine, and internationally. Suzanne is one of the speakers in Fedayin, the film covering the life and struggle of Georges Abdallah, speaking eloquently about her involvement and the necessity of defending Georges and securing his liberation.
Suzanne lived her life with a dedication to unity and liberation, with love and joy despite the horrors of capitalism, Zionism and imperialism, and with a firm and unfailing dedication to the cause of justice.
Samidoun pledges to continue to march along her path of struggle. For all of us, we can best advance her legacy by advancing the struggle for the liberation of Georges Abdallah and for victory for Palestine. On 7 October 2024, Georges Abdallah will once again have a hearing at a sentencing court in Lannemezan, to take up his lawyer’s 10th request for his release; he has been eligible for release since 1999, and several previous judicial victories have been blocked due to direct government and political involvement. There is currently a month of actions for his release, and a mass demonstration in Lannemezan on the 40th anniversary of his arrest, at 2 pm on 26 October 2024.
Let Suzanne’s passing be a catalyst for all of us to dedicate ourselves even more strongly to the liberation of Georges Abdallah and all of his fellow political prisoners for Palestine, held in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary/PA prisons — and for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea!
