On 26 October 2024, over 4,500 people marched in the largest-ever demonstration in Lannemezan, calling for the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine jailed in France for 40 years. The annual march proceeds from the Lannemezan train station to the prison, where Georges is held. The demonstration also called for an end to the genocide, solidarity with the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
A wide array of organizations participated in the action, including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah, Samidoun Paris Banlieue, Spain, Basque Country and Sweden; Secours Rouge, labour unions like the CGT, collectives across France for the liberation of Georges Abdallah, Palestine solidarity organizations like Urgence Palestine and the AFPS, political parties and organizations like the NPA, Revolution Permanente, and many others, including parliamentarians from La France Insoumise; antifascist and anarchist groups; Lebanese, Palestinian and Arab communities, Kanak solidarity organizations, leftist Turkish and Kurdish organisations, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle, youth and student groups including Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire, Jeunes Révolutionnaires, and Fédération syndicale Étudiante; and many, many others.
This marked the first major action since the passing of Suzanne Le Manceau, lifelong activist and committed struggler for Georges’ freedom. The massive turnout was a tribute to her work — and to the growing, widespread movement for Georges’ release, especially as Lebanon confronts the Zionist war machine and as a growing international movement stands together for an end to genocide, occupation and colonialism in Palestine. A new request for his freedom — the 11th — was made on 7 October 2023, and the court is expected to rule on 15 November. While Georges Abdallah has been eligible for release since 1999 and several of his requests for release have been approved, they have been repeatedly blocked by French officials, working hand in hand with U.S. officials, who, from Condoleeza Rice to Hillary Clinton, have continued to demand his ongoing imprisonment.
Georges Abdallah issued the following statement to the demonstration, which was read out to widespread cheers and salutes from the crowd:
Dear comrades, dear friends,
Years, very long years, behind these abhorrent walls, yet the same determination and enthusiasm always echoes in your solidarity-driven mobilization…
Knowing you are gathered here today, confronting these barbed wires and watchtowers just a few meters from my cell, fills me with strength and warms my heart. Yet, what emotion, comrades, friends, to see that, for the first time in so many years, it is not our tireless Suzanne reading this short statement. As you know, our dearly beloved Suzanne passed away a few weeks ago. Certainly she lives on forever in our hearts and memories as a vibrant flame, especially in such circumstances.
Dear comrades, dear friends,
Your solidarity-driven mobilization leaves no one here untouched; you see, the atmosphere in these dismal places, this entire prison environment, changes when the echo of active life strikes the lifeless routine of a deadly prison existence… Thus, some social fellow prisoners discover, as if by magic, even if only for a brief moment, the beauty and strength of inherently selfless human relationships, solidarity despite so many years behind bars… survivors in cultural and emotional deprivation, without real contact with society for years, this awakening of enthusiasm and humanity does not go unnoticed; it is seen in their eyes and revealed in their often sincere yet fleeting spontaneous comments.
Comrades and friends, the echo of your slogans, your songs, and everything else, passes beyond these barbed wires and watchtowers, it resonates in our minds and transports us far from these bleak places.
Dear comrades, dear friends,
At the dawn of this forty-first year of captivity, finding you here, in the diversity of your commitment, offers a resounding rebuke to all those who counted on the waning of your solidarity momentum. It underscores that the shift in the balance of power in favor of incarcerated revolutionary protagonists always depends on the solidarity mobilization on the field of anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist struggle.
Thus, we can say without the slightest hesitation that the most meaningful support we can offer our imprisoned comrades is rooted in real engagement in the ongoing struggle. Only by embracing solidarity on this ground does the imprisonment of our comrades start to weigh heavier than the potential threats tied to their release.
Comrades and friends, in this time of global capitalism’s crisis and the exacerbation of all its contradictions—this era of war, large-scale massacres, repression, fascism, propaganda and manipulation, of great struggles and mobilization, and especially of the inspiring surge of active youth amid the inherent barbarism of dying capitalism… for the first time in human history, millions of people are actively witnessing an ongoing genocide. For over 380 days, the genocidaires continue to wreak havoc in Gaza and the West Bank, now expanding their war to Lebanon with the active support of the main imperialist powers in the West. Yet, thanks to the heroic resistance of the Palestinian popular masses and their fighting vanguards, and thanks also to the massive solidarity mobilization around the world, Palestine resists and, more than ever, reclaims its rightful place at the forefront of the international scene.
With this in mind, dear comrades, dear friends, it may be useful to remember that active international solidarity is proving to be a an indispensable weapon in the fight against the ongoing settler colonialism in Palestine and the genocidal war deeply inherent to it. It is always through this active solidarity that we can participate in changing the balance of power here, in the belly of the imperialist beast, and elsewhere in building the “Historical Bloc,” a global framework and potential subject of the Palestinian national liberation movement.
Dear comrades, dear friends,
Of course, it is urgent to do everything possible to counter and stop the Zionist barbarism under way in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. The fact remains, however, that despite the genocidal, large-scale aggression against Gaza these days, in which tens and tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded have been added to the terrible widespread destruction of Gaza’s entire living space, the resistance remains unshakeable, protected and endorsed by the Palestinian popular masses.
Gaza will never raise the white flag of surrender. Neither the Zionists nor any other criminal force will ever succeed in breaking the will of the resistance in Gaza.
Shame on all those who, in the face of genocidal Zionist barbarism, call for us to look the other way!
May a thousand initiatives flourish in support of Palestine and its glorious resistance!
Capitalism is nothing but barbarism; honor to all those who oppose it in the diversity of their expressions!
Together, and only together, we will win!
Palestine will live, and Palestine will certainly win!
To all of you, comrades and friends, my warm revolutionary greetings.
Your comrade, Georges Abdallah
Saturday, October 26, 2024
