Statement in Solidarity with Joel Bitar

The ACAC19 Support Committee would like to announce our solidarity with Joel Bitar, recently arrested in New York City and extradited to Toronto.

From SupportJoel.com: “On Thursday, February 14th, at 6 o’clock in the morning, federal marshals arrested an American activist, Joel Bitar, in his New York, NY home on a provisional arrest warrant issued by the US Attorney’s office, acting on a foreign extradition request from Canadian authorities. The complaint against Joel cites 26 counts, almost all relating to property damage that occurred during the G20 summit protests in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in June 2010. […]”

It’s unclear what the precise motivations for his arrest are but we understand fully the common denominator among our enemies – in this case, international enemies – is to promote fear among us. We want Joel to know that he is not alone as his capture seeks to make an example of him. Moreover we reject that his arrest would disable our organizing, confidence or acts of solidarity. We hope that a viral solidarity with Joel manifests in the many forms we have observed for those struggling against repression alike such as the Grand Jury Resisters, Felicity Ryder, those of the Mapuche People’s struggle, those of Villa Amalias and Skaramanga and Luke O’Donovan to name a few.

Freedom for Joel, the ACAC19 and all others who aggressively combat domination – Inside or outside of prison walls. Until then, our unrelenting solidarity,
The ACAC19 Support Committee