BY BABEL MUNAWAR
ATHENS, Greece - Supporters of jailed political activist Mark Curtis traveled to the island of Crete July 14-16 to win new backing for his fight for freedom. Two dozen people viewed the video The Frame-up of Mark Curtis at meetings at the Labor Center in Chania and at a youth hostel in Rethymno.
In Crete, a largely agricultural region and major tourist area, many construction workers are immigrants from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The discrimination and abuse these workers face helped prompt their interest in Curtis, a U.S.-born worker who fought for the rights of immigrants in the United States.
A flyer circulated at the meetings by the Refugee Solidarity Movement, the antiracist group that organized the video showing, denounced the arrest and deportation orders against two Libyans and a Syrian working in Crete, two of whom expect to face victimization from the regimes in their countries if expelled.
"For a year now the social security administration has been denying people without papers the right to a `health book' through which they can receive medical attention," said Suleiman, a construction worker from Syria. Workers are forced to pay into the system, but cannot get heath care without showing a residence permit.
Using the Latin, Arabic, and Greek alphabets, 15 people signed letters to the Iowa State Parole Board demanding Curtis's release.