The sentenced handed down to Free for burning three SUVs at Romania Chevrolet in Eugene, Oregon -- 22 years and 8 months -- is yet another reminder of what the law in the United States is designed to protect: not human liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but property. Free's real crime wasn't the destruction of three oversized, petrol-guzzling automobiles, it was daring to suggest that the health of the planet might be worth more than private property.

There is something obviously missing in the story of Jeff Luers confrontation with the law -- justice. Justice is wholly lacking in the tale. Instead there are a list of hypothetical rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, each lined out in deference to the only right that only matters within the American system of jurisprudence: the right to private property.

The IRSP is aware that Free has continued to follow the course of a revolutionary since his incarceration, speaking out on the concerns of political prisoners, prisoners in general, the environment, and issues concerning the broader anarchist and activist communities and applauds him for his continued activism.

To those struggling to win Free's release, the IRSP extend our solidarity and encouragement. To all those struggling on behalf of the environment, to ensure the survival of ourselves and all other species against the inhuman degradation of the earth witnessed under the system of capitalism, we extend our solidarity as well.

We must rid the world of the capitalist system, which sacrifices everything on the altar of profit and replace it with a system which puts human needs -- including the need to have unpolluted land, sea, and air, a preserved ozone layer, no excess of greenhouse gases, and the biodiversity necessary to the survival of humankind, and comrades, there is no time like the present.

Peter Urban
International Department Co-Secretary
Irish Republican Socialist Party

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