On December 3rd, activists around the world will hold events as part of the third annual International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. In previous years, teach-ins, movie screenings, and demonstrations have been held to raise awareness about political prisoners held in prisons across the world. While the exact number is impossible to ascertain, there are thousands of political prisoners held for their political beliefs, activism, or affiliations in countries such as Turkey, Israel, Mexico, Spain, France, Ireland, and the United States. Moreover, the so-called "war on terror" has enabled states--under the pretext of "fighting terrorism"--to take increasingly repressive actions against dissidents with governments frequently targeting dissenting populations by labeling them as "terrorists." In the collective consciousness, the harsh treatment of political prisoners has been equated with countries with authoritarian governments, with only occasional "exceptions" such as Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib. The holding of political prisoners by democratic governments such as the United States has not received much attention, despite the fact that the United States continues to hold a number of political prisoners, many of whom were involved in the various liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s. One such prisoner, Sundiata Acoli, has been in prison for more than thirty years after being incarcerated in 1973 following a traffic stop and attack on members of the Black Liberation Army.

While political prisoners in the United States do not receive much attention from either mainstream sources or those on the left, there is a vibrant movement of organizations and individuals who have built networks of solidarity to support political prisoners. Groups such as the Prison Activist Resource Center, the Jericho Movement, and the Anarchist Black Cross work to educate people about political prisoners held in the United States, organize solidarity projects (encouraging people to communicate with prisoners, soliciting letters of support for parole hearings, holding demonstrations, publishing prisoners' writings, etc), and continue to fight for the freedom of political prisoners through legal means. Activists have highlighted the fact that political prisoners frequently do harder time than apolitical prisoners and are targets for routine harassment and abuse as part of a continued effort to break their resistance. Those working to free political prisoners within the United States--many of whom were imprisoned for work in liberation, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist struggles--have also firmly grounded their work in challenging the prison system itself with activists targeting the institutionalized racism of the prison system, the dehumanizing treatment of prisoners (torture, lack of healthcare), the criminalization of youth, and other related issues. Much of this work--informed by both the direct experience of working with political prisoners and the analysis of political prisoners--has focused on not only on reforming the prison system but abolishing the prison system and challenging the prison industrial complex's logic that caging and controlling people makes people safer. In addition, solidarity organizing has been done with the direct participation of political prisoners, with prisoners advising organizations outside prison walls, forming organizations such as the Political Prisoners of War Coalition and the Spear and Shield Collective, engaging in movement debate and theory, organizing conferences and benefits and advancing arguments within the United Nations that black liberation prisoners held in the United States should be regarded as political prisoners and treated in accordance with the Geneva conventions.

Many of the political prisoners currently held in the United States are in prison for activities related to the various movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Most, with the exception of Mumia abu-Jamal, receive little attention and have been largely ignored by contemporary movements for social change. As organizing by people of color in the 1960s shifted in a more revolutionary direction, the repressive state apparatus in this country targeted revolutionaries of color through COINTELPRO and other methods of repression. COINTELPRO was designed to disrupt movements like the Black Panther Party and as such activists were frequently murdered (Fred Hampton as an example) or imprisoned with former Black Panther members Imam Jamil (H. Rap Brown), Herman Bell, and Marshall "Eddie" Conway remaining in prison. As repression increased in the black community, some black activists went underground and formed a guerilla organization called the Black Liberation Army (BLA) and many of its members, including Sundiata Acoli and Julil Abdul Muntaqim, still being held in prison. Activists in indigenous movements were also targeted, with Leonard Peltier of the American Indian Movement (AIM) still held in prison. In addition, some white anti-imperialist activists who worked in solidarity with liberation movements continue to be held in prison, with former Students for a Democratic Society and Weather Underground organizer David Gilbert held in prison as well as Marilyn Buck. Numerous individuals involved in the New Afrikan movement organizations such also remain in prison, as well as activists involved the militant struggle for Puerto Rican independence. Moreover, as prisoners held for their involvement in the 1960s and 1970s grow older, some of them are dying alone in prison.

In the 1990s and 2000s as militant resistance to the destruction of the earth and the ongoing slaughter of animals for human greed increased, several individuals have been imprisoned in the United States for their actions in support of earth and animal liberation. Activists such as Jeff "Free" Luers, Rod Coronado, and the SHAC 7 have recently been imprisoned for activities relating to the radical environmental and animal liberation movements. Over the past year the repression in these movements has increased, with the federal government arresting several activists in early December 2005 as part of "Operation Backfire," indicting several activists, and passing repressive legislation designed to equate activism with terrorism via the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. This coordinated campaign--conducted through the FBI, IRS, local police, the courts, grand juries and Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs)--has been dubbed "the green scare" and has targeted activists for harassment and imprisonment at a unprecedented level for recent times and created a media climate in which calls for further repression have been able to gain support.