(Download the press release in PDF. April 12, 2018)

To the organisations, militants and workers who participate in the activities of the International Liaison Committee of workers and peoples (ILC)

The brutal decision of Judge Moro of the 13th section criminal court of Curitiba (Parana), Brazil, to order the anticipated incarceration of the former president and candidate in the coming October elections, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has provoked the general indignation of the workers and all the popular layers in Brazil and on the international scale.

This decision, which represents a true denial of justice, seeks in every possible way to prevent Lula from being able to be a candidate in the coming elections and able to convene a Constituent Assembly that would call into question the counter-reforms of the putschist Temer government and which would respond to the demands of the worker and farmer majority of the country, by defending national sovereignty against the multinationals and imperialism.

The ILC, which has led and leads a campaign for Lula to have the right to be a candidate, calls to all the member organisations and militants of the ILC to multiply the activities for the release of Lula so that he will be able to present himself as a candidate.

Already, in all the capitals of Latin America, demonstrations, gatherings and delegations to the embassies of Brazil have taken place and, on the international scale, days of struggle on these watchwords are coming. In Europe, in Lisbon, in Madrid, in Paris, in Berlin, etc. delegations and gatherings have taken place. On the African continent, statements have been issued from Cameroon, Guinea, Niger, etc.

The ILC is actively involved in this movement, which is developing on the world level and, obviously, in Brazil itself for the release of Lula, against the actions of the putschist government and for sovereignty and democracy for the Brazilian people.

Fraternal salutations,

The coordinators of the ILC
Louisa Hanoune, general secretary of the Workers Party of Algeria
Dominique Canut, in the name of the National Bureau of the Independent Workers Party of France.