The RKOB received the following call for solidarity against the arrest of the companeros Ruben "Pollo" Sobrero and Leonardo Portoreal. We completely support this call and call others to support it too.

Long live international working class solidarity!

* * *

"For the immediate release of Ruben "Pollo" Sobrero, rail militant leader"

On the morning of Friday 30,  Argentine trade union leader Ruben "Pollo" Sobrero, leader of the militant rail metro line Sarmiento, was arrested. Under the false accusation of "train burning" on Citadel stations and Haedo. Sobrero is chairman of the Body of Delegates of the Sarmiento line, renowned fighter in defense of railway workers against privatization and opponent of the leadership of the TBA Railway Union.

The proof of the falsity of this charge is that also being held is Leonardo Portoreal, who for years ago has not worked on the railroad.

The assemblies of the Sarmiento line workers have decided to start a strike demanding the immediate release of Sobrero and Portoreal and call for broader solidarity in defense of their peers.

This measure is part of the policy of criminalization of protest carried out by the government of Cristina Kirchner and the company TBA. Sobrero and other militant leaders had been accused rail and acquitted in other similar cases.

We call upon the widest international solidarity to ensure the immediate release and Leonardo Portoreal and Ruben Sobrero. We call on the trade union, political, student and human rights in the world to repudiate this fact and join this demand for freedom for workers falsely accused and arrested in Argentina."

Socialist Left

September 30, 2011