Patrick Mac Manus
Patrick Mac Manus Blog

What does Colombian political prisoner Liliany Obando have in common with Mumia Abu-Jamal, Lynne Stewart and the Cuban Five? All of them are incarcerated in prisons built by the U.S. government. Since the mid-1990s, seven new military bases and a rash of state-of-the-art prisons have been built in Colombia. Under the pretext of the “war on drugs and/or terrorism,” the U.S. has funnelled billions of dollars into Colombia’s efforts to crush dissent.

The U.S. government has been intervening in the affairs of Colombia since the 1950s, providing military training and economic aid to combat primarily two armed reformist organizations — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Liliany Obando, a sociologist and independent filmmaker, was arrested in 2008 and charged with “rebellion” against the government and aiding the forces of FARC, which has been declared a “terrorist” organization.

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Ismail Patel
Patrick Mac Manus

"An open-air prison camp where people die from treatable illnesses and suffer malnutrition while living besides openly running sewage – this is Gaza’s reality, and it is man-made by Israel."

The siege on Gaza enters its fourth year this year. The consequences have been catastrophic, but the images of this catastrophe are for the most part kept away from the world and its media.

With Israel controlling all borders, the only lifelines available to Gazans have been a maze of underground tunnels along the border with Egypt. This forced black-market has claimed lives and is being continually challenged by Israeli bombings and Egyptian reinforcement of the border with an underground steel wall.

For the needs of Gaza’s 1.5 million people to be met, there needs to be 1,300 containers of merchandise and foods passing across the Karni Crossing every day. The supplies that do manage to pass fail to meet even 20 pert cents of the populations’ needs. The result has been 80 per cent poverty, dependency on aid for even their daily meals and hundreds of deaths from lack of medical equipment and supplies.

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Thomas Elholm, Juridisk Institut, Syddansk Universitet
(Innsendt av Patrick Mac Manus / Foreningen Oprør )

Er de senere års nye regler unødigt vidtgående indgreb i borgernes retsstilling?

Virkning af sortlistning

En dag i 2002 opdagede Hr. Sison pludselig, at alle hans finansielle midler var blevet indefrosset. Han opdagede det ved, at købmandsregningen ikke var blevet betalt som normalt via banken. Banken forklarede, at staten havde krævet alle hans finansielle midler indefrosset pga. mistanke om forbindelse til terrorisme. Sison var derfor frataget enhver råderet over sine bankkonti og alle øvrige finansielle midler, inklusive den månedlige socialhjælp på ca. 200 euro. Senere blev han – ligeledes på grund af sortlistningen – bedt om at fraflytte lejligheden, som han havde fået tildelt af kommunen. Familien fik dog lov til at blive.

Sidenhen har Sison flere gange fået EF-domstolenes ord for, at sortlistningen af ham strider mod grundlæggende retsgarantier, senest ved dom af 30. september 2009 (sag T-341/07). I dag – 7 år efter sortlistningen – har Sison stadig ikke fået en tilstrækkelig begrundelse for, hvorfor han optræder på listen. Retten i Første Instans finder ikke, at de beviser, som ligger til grund for sortlistningen, knytter Sison til terror. Derfor er det heller ikke godtgjort, at EU-rettens betingelser for at sortliste Sison, er opfyldt.

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Socialistisk Information
Innsendt av Patrick Mac Manus/Foreningen Oprør

For et år siden blev firmaet Figthers+Lovers dømt. For nylig blev talsmanden for Foreningen Oprør dømt. Efter straffelovens bestemmelser om, at støtte til terrorister ikke er tilladt. Imens deltager Danmark i en krig i Afghanistan, under ledelse af amerikanerne, som blandt andet indebærer, at de udenlandske styrker samarbejder med grupper blandt afghanerne, der i andre sammenhænge ville blive betegnet som terrorister! Er De forvirret? Ikke underligt, for der arbejdes her med to standarder: én for folk, som vil afprøve grænserne for demokratiet og friheden, og en anden for, hvad en stat må gøre, når den udråber sig som repræsentant for demokratiet og friheden.

I øjeblikket forberedes en anden retssag, hvor terrorparagrafferne tages i anvendelse. En ung mand er sigtet for at have overvåget og registreret organiserede nazister.

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Patrick Mac Manus
Rebellion (Denmark)
Translated from the Danish by Ron Ridenour.

1. At the Copenhagen City Court, Rebellion (Denmark) is accused of the transferral of financial support to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The demand is imprisonment. Judgement will fall on February 8.

2. History has been driven by peoples’ resistance and change throughout the centuries on all our continents. All change has been created through conflict, from the times of slavery to our own days.

3. The American Declaration of Independence was written by insurgents against British colonial power in 1776, a declaration of “unalienable rights”—among these the rights “to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. And the right to resistance against every regime that violates these rights: “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted after World War 11, accentuates: ”Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”

These are declarations created through a hard-won history, which Rebellion (Denmark) determinedly will defend.

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Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine / Dissident Voice

"This won’t stop me or us. We will continue to seek an end to these terror laws, to their terror wars. Our struggle is worth it regardless of court judgments. We act in the long history of solidarity, supporting those who fight for liberation and self-determination."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine salutes the efforts of the Danish comrades in Oprør (Rebellion) and Fighters + Lovers to challenge so-called "anti-terror" laws and defend the right to support national liberation movements. We salute Patrick Mac Manus and all those who struggle around the world in solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people and all oppressed peoples and call upon all to emulate this example of courageous defiance and solidarity in the face of injustice and oppression.

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Patrick Mac Manus

Mandag den 15. marts afsiges dom mod Foreningen Oprør i Københavns Byret. Anklagemyndigheden kræver atten måneders ubetinget fængsling for støtte til befrielsesbevægelser.

Forening Oprør griber fat i en umistelig tradition og en historie, som er grundlæggende for os alle. Vi lever i én verden, der har behov for globalt samarbejde og solidaritet. Danmark en del af denne verden.

Uden det oprør, der ned gennem alle generationer har skabt og forsvaret menneskerettigheder, var vi ikke blevet til. Den tilkæmpede historie søges i disse år annulleret. Det er i stigende grad ’ulovligt’ at handle efter de grundlæggende erklæringer, som er udsprunget af en fælles og tilkæmpet virkelighed.

Menneskerettigheden er ikke opstået ved et skrivebord. Menneskeretten er opstået i generationernes og århundreders kamp om bedre vilkår.

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Patrick Mac Manus

Terrorlovene antaster de demokratiske rettigheder og retten til politiske aktiviteter, fastslog eksperter på onsdagens høring, som samlede 80 mennesker

Kan en lov, som er vedtaget af Folketinget være antidemokratisk?

Ja, lyder det korte, men præcise svar fra tidligere justitsminister og nuværende formand for Retssikkerhedsfonden, juraprofessor Ole Espersen.

Han var en af paneldeltagerne i onsdagens høring om terrorlovenes konsekvenser for de politiske rettigheder. Høringen var arrangeret af foreningen Oprør. Foreningens talsperson Patrick Mac Manus er anklaget for at have støttet den palæstinensiske befrielsesorganisation PFLP og colombianske FARC med i alt 100.000 kroner.

80 spørgelystne tilhørere tog imod Oprørs invitation og fyldte godt op i baghuset til Verdenskulturcentret på Nørrebro i København. I ekspertpanelet sad udover Ole Espersen også advokat Hanne Reumert og jurist Peter Vedel Kessing fra Institut for Menneskerettigheder.

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