End the frame-ups, free the Hammonds and the Bundys!

The following statement was released Nov. 1 by Mary Martin, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Washington.

The acquittal of Ammon and Ryan Bundy and other participants in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation in Oregon is a significant victory for working people, and a shock to the rulers and their government. It’s a win for working farmers and ranchers, increasingly squeezed by the workings of the capitalist market. It strengthens those fighting to free Dwight and Steven Hammond, framed up and jailed twice on the same charges, as well as those protesting police brutality, racism and defending Native American treaty rights of the Standing Rock Sioux.

The jury’s verdict reflects working people’s growing distrust of government in the midst of the capitalist economic crisis. It represents a blow to the government’s routine use of conspiracy charges, FBI informers and agent provocateurs and other attacks on constitutional and democratic rights. It was a rejection of the government’s vindictive political prosecution, and of the FBI and state police ambush and killing of protest leader Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.

The Bundys still face frame-up charges for standing up to federal agents who tried to confiscate cattle belonging to their father, Cliven Bundy, in Nevada in 2014. The Socialist Workers Party joins the call to drop these charges, as well as those pending against remaining defendants from the Malheur occupation.

We also say: Free the Hammonds! Prosecute and jail the cops who killed Lavoy Finicum! Prosecute the sheriff deputies who killed rancher Jack Yantis near Council, Idaho! Withdraw the cops and state troopers attacking protesters supporting the Standing Rock Sioux!

Related articles:
Oregon land protesters’ acquittal is gain for workers

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