www.freemario.org

Thrown into prison for 12 years for the 'offence' of defending his brother from a Nazi skinhead attack Mario Bango is a young Roma, but also a revolutionary communist in Slovakia. The nazi skinhead who died from banging his head when he fell had a minutes silence in the Slovakian parliament whilst Mario was forbidden to make a political speech during his trial. He was vilified as a 'violent thug' in the national press, the right wing lining up to condemn him for defending his younger brother. The racist judge sent him to prison for 12 years, which means he will spend all of his young life in a cell surrounded by racist prison guards.

Write letters of protest to the Slovakian government, to the Embassies in your country, but also write to Mario - tell him that you support his case, he can read and speak excellent English and loves to receive letters.

Here is a letter that has been received by a Swedish comrade in the L5I who is in touch with Mario.

(Sorry for the long paste, it is not posted elsewhere on the net&#33

Màrios address:
Mário Bango, nar. 8. 6. 1982
Pr. 41,
019-17 Ilava,
Slovakia

*

Ilava prison, 27 July 2005

Dear comrade,
Thank you very much for your letter, which I received yesterday. I'm
allowed to recieve letters from comrades and I'm very glad for that.
We also have TV and radio in the cell, but no Internet - this is a
question of far away future since conditions here are very backwards
in this course.

The world is now in shock after the terrorist attacks in London and
Egypt. Are all London comrades alright? The attacks are terrible.
When UK-US imperialists kill thousands of people in Iraq, media was
silent. Only if the occupation forces are defeated an end will be put
to the terrorist attacks.

It's a weakness of the international communist movement that the
Islamists have the leadership of the resistance in a war between
imperialism and a semi-colonial country. I believe that communists do
need to take in their hands to be more active in the Iraqi resistance.

Yes, Stalinism is full of disgusting nationalism. I'm shocked by your
quotation [from a leading Swedish Stalinist, in a debate with the
Swedish L5I and CWI sections on immigrant labour]: "Polish constructor
workers, go back to Poland"! This is just like when the Slovakian
nazis say: Gypsy, go back to India! I have a message for the Stalinist
leader: You go back to the rubbish-heap of history!

I saw a discussion on Slovak TV between a woman, a MP for the
communist party, and the leader of the nazi Slovakian National Party.
The nazi with disgust attacked communism and spread his nazi garbage.
And instead of defending our big ideals, the communist MP talked about
how nationalism is a good thing.

Because I'm black everybody can see that I'm a Roma. Racial prejudice
is deeply rooted in our society. The constitution indeed ban any kind
of racial discrimination, but these are only words on a piece of
paper. These prejudicies will be smashed by the revolutionary war. I
often think about it. An example of racism is what happens in the city
of Presòv (in eastern Slovakia). They've build a wall to separate Roma
and Slovaks. This is nothing but a ghetto for blacks. And I ask:
Where's the European Union?

I have a newspaper, Solidaire, by the Belgian Stalinist group PTB.
There's an article in it about president Chavez. They have a really
non-critical view of him, and I think this is a mistake. Yes, Chavez
has support from the poorer layers of society, and I like his reforms:
in areas like agriculture, nationalisation of the petrol industry,
free health care and building houses for poor families. But this is
only better left reformism. Without a real revolution, without
workers' power, Venezuela will continue to be a semi-colonial country
with only a "bit better" capitalism. The people of Venezuela have the
chance to smash this system and to put forward the victory of
socialism in Venezuela and for the poor people of all of the world.
But for real victory they need another leader than Chavez.

Several weeks ago I read a very encouraging book from the library
here: The History of the civil war in Russia. The Bolshevisk were
besieged from all sides, but they won. Fantastic!!! This encouraged me
to lend a Russian dictionary. Russian ABC is very difficult, but I
hope to learn at least several words.

Comrade, I'm standing strong, and thinking of you and all comrades.

With revolutionary, Bolshevik greetings, your friend,
Màrio