On April 16, hooded students of the Instituto Nacional confronted with Molotovs against the presence of riot cops, responding to the harassment and internal repression that they have suffered lately and in particular to the events occurred on Friday, April 12, where a group of students, after going out to demonstrate, officials of the establishment closed the access gate. At that time, some students tried to open the gate to protect themselves from the cop attack, to which the officials responded again by closing it. In that moment of struggle, between pepper spray and other chemicals, a student was seriously injured in the left index finger, having to be taken to a health care facility and end up with the amputation of the distal part of the finger.
Incendiary attack on Armin Papperger Switch off Rheinmetall!
On the night of April 28 to 29, 2024, we carried out an incendiary attack on the Armin Papperger’s property in Hermannsburg, Turnerstr. on the corner of Immenhoop, where an incendiary device was placed on his garden shed. Papperger is CEO of Rheinmetall, one of the big players in the German armaments industry.
Papperger feels at home here in the Südheide. Surrounded by military training areas and not far from the GÜZ combat training center in the Altmark. The Rheinmetall plant in Unterlüß is only a stone’s throw away. This is where thousands of forced laborers who worked for the German war economy at the Rheinmetall-Borsig Rheinmetall-Borsig plant for the German war economy. In a region where, after the war where many National Socialists found refuge after the war, including Adolf Eichmann and the murderer of the Adreatinian Caves, Kappler. In a region where in the 1980s and 1990s regular Nazi military exercises took place regularly in the 1980s and 1990s. Not far from Papperger’s house is Munster, one of the largest military bases in Germany. In he feels safe and well accepted in this environment, including by his friends with whom the hobby hunter occasionally goes stalking. But tonight may have signaled to him that he doesn’t just have friends and that his retreat is not safe.
Rheinmetall is one of the beneficiaries of the so-called turnaround. This can be clearly seen from a few figures: Since 2022, the Rheinmetall’s share price has quintupled since 2022; Papperger himself has replenished his share portfolio with Rheinmetall shares several times. In 2023 the Group, which has been promoted to the DAX index, increased its turnover to 7.2 billion euros, with a target of 10 billion euros for 2024. Before February 2022 the annual production of artillery shells was 70,000 units, 350,000 in 2023 and 700,000 in 2024. Following the takeover of the Spanish ammunition company Expal, Rheinmetall sees itself as the the world’s largest manufacturer of artillery ammunition. The groundbreaking ceremony for a for a new production facility in Unterlüß was attended by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Ukrainian ambassador and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (“Germany must become fit for war”). The new factory is expected to 200,000 shells a year.
Papperger is one of the arms managers with a particularly high media presence. The days when the armaments industry suffered from its image are over. In March 2024, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck assured at a meeting of the 20 most important German arms manufacturers: “We need this industry!” Self-confident and offensively, killing machines can now be presented and advertised. And Rheinmetall has other things to offer besides ammunition, of course tanks in particular: the Lynx and Puma infantry fighting vehicles, the Boxer wheeled tank and the Skyranger anti-aircraft tank. For the Leopard Rheinmetall produces the gun barrel. Rheinmetall also stockpiles various old tank types, which have now been sold to Ukraine, complete with ammunition at a hefty profit. But parts production for the US F35 fighter jet is also on offer.
Rheinmetall plans, produces and murders not only on a national framework. The Group employs over 30,000 workers worldwide in 28 countries. A new ammunition production facility is planned in Ukraine and a maintenance plant for tanks is also due to open there in summer 2024. In addition, the production of infantry fighting battle tanks is also planned. There are also plans for an artillery factory and Rheinmetall is developing a completely new type of battle tank. In the USA, Rheinmetall is participating in tenders and is close to winning a 45 billion dollar contract for the successor to the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. The development of the Russian market is now off the table for the time being. But as recently as 2011, Rheinmetall concluded a contract with the Russian government for the delivery of a training center for the Russian army and saw itself in the role of a pioneer and door opener.
However, the so-called turnaround does not only mean gigantic rearmament armament and new record profits for the arms industry. It also means a reorientation of the entire society towards war. Politicians from almost all parties are outdoing each other with proposals. The reintroduction of compulsory military service, military education in schools, interlinking research and the military,…
The fact that armies and the arms industry are the biggest destroyers of the environment, devour gigantic amounts of resources and, of course, are also the and are of course also the biggest producers of greenhouse gases.
The fight against climate destruction is also the fight against war, the military and the arms industry!
War starts here, let’s stop it here!
Switch off the system of destruction!
Freedom for Daniela!
Strength and luck to all those in hiding from of the radical left and those who agree to militantly attack structures of power!
CALL TO ACTION AND PROPAGANDA 15 YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF ANARCHIST COMRADE MAURICIO MORALES
“Before going to sleep I embrace chaos as an idea that frees my body and my mind because at the end of the day it makes me feel alive. I do not want the search for the grail that emanates freedom in future societies. My fingers seek the bloody flight of the destruction of the chains of the rhythmic fire, of the nearby fire rhythmic fire, of the nearby fire of power and its masters. And my actions when I sleep are directed in that tomorrow when I wake up, I will break with the routine with the routine and in the individual action with the chest like stone swollen by the destruction of this and any destruction of this and any society. Do me a favor: see to it that anarchy lives.”
-Punki Mauri
In the early morning of May 22, 2009 the anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales, Punki Mauri met his death after the early detonation of the explosive device that he intended to install in the Gendarmerie School in Matta neighborhood, Santiago.
Fifteen years have passed since his death in action and we continue to persist in his memory, remembering his warrior life, spreading anarchy in multiple ways and vindicating the insurrectional political violence that is still alive, that manifests itself in the proliferation of the idea and the facts with varied force and intensity, but always alive.
This call invites to a month of black memory, propaganda and action, to the concretion of public and anonymous gestures, without half measures, that the imagination flies, that we feel the blood in our veins, that the heart beats with emotion when we remember our loved ones.
Anarchy is dangerous and for it to continue this way we must endow it, empower it day by day, with discussion, feedback, with contagious propaganda and violent action, each one decides how to put into practice the ideas he/she propagates, the question is to do, without leaders or leaders, without hierarchies, in autonomy.
This humble contribution seeks to be one more contribution to the expansion of the memory of a comrade, positioning himself from the sidewalk of anarchic conflict against order, law, power and all authority.
“In the early hours of this morning, April 26th, we carried out a propaganda action in support of our comrades kidnapped in the jails of the Chilean state. We vindicate each one of their struggles against this system of death that only seeks exploitation in pursuit of its economic interests, destroyers of land and life.
We call for solidarity and action in the face of this punitivist scenario that imprisons those who struggle. In addition to the above, we call to be present in a concrete way with the families in struggle in the different land seizures of the Chilean territory.
Claim of the incendiary attack against a private vehicle belonging to a carabiniere (Rome, March 29, 2024)
“Soon Anarchists we rush to the fight for victory or death with petrol and dynamite every class and the government to eradicate..”Anarchist Song
As the Mediterranean is increasingly a mass grave crammed with the corpses of the oppressed from the global south , Gaza is being razed to the ground worldwide and winds of war blow baleful to every corner of the globe leading the world’s proletarians to slaughter at the hands of master interests, we have decided to act, to attack. Identifying in the military of any side an enemy to be put down for anyone with a tension of freedom, without leaving aside the specific responsibilities of the homegrown weapon, we have decided to direct our hatred and vengeance against the military personnel of the Carabinieri Corps.
In a present in which every revolutionary hypothesis seems like a vain chimera, we have decided to keep fighting: they may deprive us of the hope for a radically different world but not of the thirst for revenge that we feel against those who perpetuate the oppression of one class over another and its defenders (such as the law enforcement) and those who enrich themselves by plundering the planet in a
dastardly manner.
The attack against power in any place and time, even at a time such as today, in which repression is striking increasingly harsher every glimmer of conflict and is burying alive our comrades held hostage in the prisons seems to us the best way to give continuity to the centuries-old clash between oppressed and oppressors, which as Anarchists we feel we are part of.
Hoping that these glimmers of individual revolt can risk this gray and pacified present, we reiterate that as anarchists we put the liberating violence of the oppressed before the systematic violence of those who hold the monopoly of the latter and we affirm the legitimacy of revolutionary violence as an instrument of the struggle against the state and capital.
It is in the firm conviction of the rightness of our ideals made of freedom and equality that lies the courage to fight, in the first person, choosing to take the upper hand and trying to return, albeit in a small way, the blows inflicted by the enemy.
For these and 1000 other reasons we chose to attack by making use of incendiary instruments 1 private car belonging to a cop: The choice to attack in the “private” stems from the desire to make those who choose to defend the social order pay the price for their choices in an increasingly targeted manner, those who choose to defend the established democratic social order, wearing a uniform.
COPS, BOSSES AND BOURGEOIS :
YOU WILL PAY DEARLY AND YOU WILL PAY FOR EVERYTHING.
We take this opportunity to reiterate our solidarity with the Anarchists Alfredo Cospito, Anna Beniamino, Juan Sorroche- Fernadez, Pierlorenzo Fallanca, Luca Dolce, and to all of the Anarchists placed under seizure in state prisons everywhere. You are not alone Comrades.
Incendiary greetings to the fugitives, may life smile on you, see you again on the barricades.
Cell Abele Ricieri Ferrari (DN: Renzo Novatore’s real name.)
(Black International 1881-2024)
Note from La Nemesi:
Errors are present in the opening quote. The song mentioned is “Mano alla bomba.” a translation of the Spanish-language song “Arroja la bomba,” and the portion of the correct lyrics is the following: Soon anarchists we rush / A fighter for victory or death / With oil and dynamite / Every class and the government to undo and eradicate.
According to what is known, the Italian was published in “Guerra di Classe,” a newspaper of the CNT-FAI (Sección Italiana), Barcelona, year II, no. 14, May 1, 1937, p. 6, with the title “Mano alla bomba!” and the indication Adaptation of VIR. Motif of the anarchist anthem “Arroja la bomba.” (VIR is the pseudonym of Virgilio Gazzoli, an anarchist from Pistoia). “Arroja la bomba” was composed during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) and was sung in prisons by imprisoned anarchists.
“The sentences of 23 years and 17 years and 9 months of imprisonment to the anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino are final. The Court of Cassation confirms the sentence bis of the Court of Appeal of Turin. The requests of the defense and of the prosecution of Turin were rejected, and they insisted to the end on obtaining life imprisonment. Rage and love for our comrades! With the practices of which they are accused! Alfredo out since 41 bis!”
Thus communicated the comrades from Italy the final sentences imposed on Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in what was the trial of the Scripta Manent case, which sought to blame both comrades for “political massacre”, based on the action against the Carabinieri school of Fossano.
During the trial at the Court of Cassation in Rome, an appeal regarding the mitigating factors in the conviction for “political massacre” was reviewed, finally reconfirming the sentences already established in June 2023, after the long hunger strike of Alfredo Cospito against 41 bis, which lasted 182 days. In this way, both comrades remain in prison and under the same isolation measures.
It should be noted that during the early morning of April 22 the DIGOS of Turin “carried out 19 precautionary measures (3 house arrests, 1 prohibition of residence and 15 obligations of residence and daily signature) in the framework of the so-called Operation City related to the events of the march of March 4, 2023 in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito”, this as part of a series of repressive intimidation against those who mobilized in support of the comrade.
Despite the persecution and the continued imprisonment of Anna and Alfredo, the signs of solidarity continue, strengthening them from the other side of the wall.
At dawn on Monday April 22, DIGOS issued nineteen judicial control measures against compas, as part of a repressive operation in connection with the demonstration which, on March 4, 2023, set Turin ablaze, against the prison and 41-bis, alongside anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito and others. A demonstration in which hammers, homemade cudgels and cobblestones struck and smashed to pieces symbols of the violence of the state and capital, and which ended right in the courtyard of Radio Blackout, surrounded by the forces of law and order: for a few hours, the insipid normality of existence in an increasingly concentrationary city was interrupted.
Three house arrests for comrades from Turin, Cuneo and Rome, seven residency obligations with daily check-in with the cops, one residency ban, eight obligations with daily check-in with the cops, 75 comrades under investigation, all over Italy. They called this umpteenth repressive operation, coordinated by the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office (prosecutors Paolo Scavi and Enzo Bucarelli), “City”. The charges are devastation and pillage, violence, assault and assault against police officers, with aggravating circumstances.
At the time, Alfredo was on hunger strike, as were other inmates, against the prison and the 41-bis torture regime to which the anarchist prisoner is still subjected today, in Sassari prison, along with 740 other inmates whom the state wants to annihilate.
This operation follows on from all the others which, in recent months, have hit hard at dozens of compas who have committed themselves to an international solidarity movement and to a mobilization which has intensified since 2022.
On April 24, at the Court of Cassation in Rome, what should be the final stage of the Scripta Manent trial will take place, one of the consequences of which is Alfredo’s confinement in the 41-bis regime. […]
Attaque Note: a radio interview with one of Rome’s comrades goes into more detail on this repressive operation, on the charge of devastation and pillage (which can lead to extremely heavy sentences), in addition to those of resistance, violence and threats against a person holding public authority, also in competition, and those of subversive propaganda and apology for a crime or misdemeanor. The investigators paid particular attention to the organization of the event and the way it was run, with damage estimated at around 630,000 euros. This is the second time that the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office has targeted the compas who took part in the mobilization in solidarity with Alfredo, following the proceedings in July 2023. Solidarity with Guido, Lello and Daniele and all the others!
Original source & radio recordings in Italian: Radio Black Out
Opening the tensions of dialogue, we present the following section of interviews with individuals, collectivities and related spaces that make up the anarchic body in different parts of the world.
The interviews are a valuable contribution to the observation in detail and depth; they come, in a certain way, to broaden the view to give us feedback among comrades and to debate with perspectives and projections, that although they may be different, they converge in the ideas and practices of freedom against all authority.
Without further ado, we have in this first venture of dialogues the comrades of Espacio Fénix.
1-How and when did Espacio Fénix arise, and what projects converge in the space?
Espacio Fénix was born in the middle of the pandemic, at the beginning of 2021, in the midst of a series of ridiculous mobility restrictions and increased police intervention under the excuse of controlling and preventing the spread of covid-19.
Thus, a group of compañerxs got together, seeking to open a crack, a fissure within the asphyxiating panorama that was regulating everything, imposing the rhythm of power and where many seemed to be accommodating or waiting for the authority to give us “permission” to resume our lives.
We embarked on the idea of opening a physical space where comrades could converge, where anarchic material could circulate and where new comradeships could be woven and articulated. Thus in May 2021 we opened the doors of the space, we began to set up its infrastructure and in July we held our first activity in memory of compañero Santiago Maldonado.
Claustrofobia Ediciones, the Biblioteca Antiautoritaria Sacco y Vanzetti and various anarchic individualities converge in the space.
2-The “Ciclos de Cine” (Film Cycles) is the tool you have used the most to carry out activities. What is the significance for you of the screening of films, documentaries, etc.?
We started with the film cycles in October 2021 and we have not stopped every Tuesday, month after month, grouping the films by specific themes, seeking to stress our ideas and nourish our arguments with content, it is the beauty of the feedback between colleagues with diverse experiences and views.
From the very beginning, we proposed the screening of films as an excuse to sit down and converse, because after each screening, the central part of the activity comes to life, which is the discussion about what has been screened. There the words run, without leaders, where everyone can expose their dislikes, their liking or the results and analysis that is made of what we have seen. With this gesture we also seek to break the logic of passive spectators, of consumers, very typical of socially imposed roles.
In this sense, we have screened diverse audiovisual material, industry films, documentaries made by compañerxs, films that we like or dislike, always aiming at the discussion and tension between compas.
We do not seek to fill the cultural gaps of authority, nor to be the free panorama for those who lack resources; we seek, by different means and tools to spread our anarchic and anti-authoritarian ideas/actions, therefore the film cycles are just one more tool we choose.
Ciclo de Cine March 2024Ciclo de Cine November 2021
3-Regarding the written material, what is the importance and power that you perceive in it?
The written material certainly has another power, another depth and transcendence, of course the spoken thought is important, but writing allows the ordering of ideas, so as to be able to reflect more carefully on what is going to be exposed and to assimilate/discuss more deeply on what is read.
In a present where immediacy, image culture, the digestible and pyrotechnical, where almost the medium is the message, emptying of content many of our tools, writing/reading is a weapon, which can also serve as a refuge, where to continue polishing and sharpening our ideas.
The written material is an instrument that impels us to grow, to argue and continually revise our positions, widening our views, shining light where there was darkness.
On the other hand, it is necessary to say that written material has always accompanied anarchists, as propaganda for the dissemination of ideas, it is an effective tool to enter into dialogue with more comrades wherever they are: in the street, in prison, or other territories. It is important because it nurtures individual thinking, as well as possible collective discussions.
The written material as propaganda can bring together comrades and depending on the objectives and projections that we have, we can realize initiatives of various kinds. In the same way that we can find ourselves on the path of anarchic struggle, we can also distance ourselves from people who spread anarchist propaganda of other tendencies, for us those who are called to participate in the electoral circus, appeal to platform organization, dream of unity and large federations and those who reject legitimate political insurrectional violence – to give just a few examples – puts us in another place on the sidewalk and in several cases as enemies.
4-There are political-cultural spaces that coexist peacefully with power, while others attract police attention. Why do you think this happens? Are there more dangerous ideas-practices? If so, what would these be?
We don’t think this was the intention of the question, but it is worth clarifying to avoid pejorative atmospheres. For us, anti-power spaces/ideas/practices (truly anti-authoritarian and anarchic, leaving out and fighting the bullshit of “popular power”) by definition do not coexist peacefully neither with power, nor with authority, nor with the police and their investigators of all kinds.
Police eyes and ears are always there, to believe otherwise is naive and dangerous. They let themselves be seen or directly attack depending on conjunctures or panoramas that mark a change of rhythm.
In this sense, it is not the police harassment that defines our comrades’ ties -it is defined by our ideas, values and projections- because valuable initiatives that are undoubtedly a contribution to the anarchic tide, may not receive the police onslaught in an evident and grotesque way and not for that reason be considered “legal”, “innocent” or in any way aspire to coexist peacefully with the power. For example, at present there are activities that do not receive police interference, but that 3 or 4 years ago were seen as a danger and received harassment; we are talking about common pots or self-defense activities. It does not change the activity or the background, but it changes the perception of power or the effect it seeks to achieve as a chain reaction (fear, disarticulation, etc.).
Now, it is important to emphasize that these types of practices carried out by those in power are part of their work, and must be understood as such. They have always existed and will continue to exist, we do not say this in an alarmist way, much less to call for immobility or to “disappear” from certain spaces. Simply because it must be clear, those who consciously decide to undertake a confrontational path to power and propagate it in multiple ways, may encounter those enemy dynamics, therefore, the consequences must be assumed. Continue reading “Chile: Interview with Espacio Fénix EN/ES”→
It is a fact that any education must be available and accessible to every subject who seeks it. Successive attempts, for at least 30 years, to change its character have tended to overturn the obvious. Privatisation in every aspect of our lives (health, electricity, public spaces) cannot overtake the institution of education. We have no illusions about the excellence of education provided by the state (inadequate infrastructure, hierarchy within the structure, discipline, development of national consciousness, etc.), but the establishment of private universities takes it a step further.Private universities (called non-state universities in this case, so that there is the possibility of state subsidies to share the pie with the cronies of the powerful) make exclusion on the basis of economic criteria even more pronounced. Of course, the facade of free and public education does not fool us (the need for tutorials, especially after the introduction of the Single Entrance Qualification (SQF), some paid courses at universities, paid postgraduate degrees, etc.). At the same time, however, bearing in mind that attending a private university requires you to pass the EBE (so there is still the cost of tutorials, and there is talk of paying for textbooks), the exorbitant tuition fees are added, which it is obvious that only the financial elite can cover. Although free education was formally established by the state, we see it being brought back into question, while its degradation continues. The pursuit of free education does not imply the unity of an imaginary student subject. Within this patchwork are the future slaves with their masters, roles based on their already existing or non-existing privileges. The fairy tale of socio-economic advancement through universities is no longer more than that. A fairy tale. The main aim now is to produce slaves, individuals alienated from the commons and whose only existence is work, based on the needs of the market. And who better to provide docile workers than a private university, with a completely targeted curriculum and a complete prevention of any radicalized thinking. Their sterile nature does not allow for any kind of political engagement, which is what they seek to do to democracies in an attempt to bring them up to more “European” and downwardly mobile American standards. Playing on American economic standards, the banks, first and best, have rushed to make extra profit by advertising student loans, trying to steal a little more from the lives of those below who cannot afford to support such high tuition fees. By critiquing and questioning how state-provided education exists, we stand against further impositions of the state and capital on our existence. We know that any change is made in the interests of the few, the bourgeois and the businessmen, against our own needs and desires.
On the basis of this recognition, we recognise the constitution in the same way. From an anarchist view of the facts, the constitution and laws in general are objects instituted by a special caste of professionals in power, whose aim is to perpetuate the political, economic and ideological supremacy of those above and the imposition and oppression that this aim entails on a large part of society.The constitution is something that is drafted by a select few for themselves and creates an illusion of freedom and security in the modern world for everyone else. Here a need of capital (private universities) is recognized and the state is quick to set aside any institutional resistance by finding legal terminology and finally passes the bill making manifest its long-standing desire for a new revision of the constitution which it has been struggling to initiate for years to keep up with the modern demands of capital. This is why our position is not confined to the role of guardian of the constitution, but attacks the foundations of this charter of democracies and beyond.
On the previous strand, the role of the guardian of the constitution was assumed by the domestic left. They are using it as an arrow in their propaganda, when their quiver was empty. Besides, it is well known that the student left is waging an institutional struggle, such as through general assembly resolutions led by their trade union structures and making backstage deals between the factions, the factions try to patronise any struggle that springs up within the universities. A typical example is the “mass” general assemblies that took decisions on weekly occupations, in which only the factions with their own hours and locks participated. The complete de-nationalization of the means of struggle of the occupations, since classes and examinations were held without obstruction in almost all departments, not only undermined the tool of struggle of the occupation, but also left a legacy of disuse of this means.The fetishization of ’06-’07 and the struggles they preached in the 3rd line of each of their texts, makes them appear as archetypes and not as pioneers, as they want to show. This stems from their basic modus operandi, which only aims at extracting political surplus value for the benefit of their organisations.
Putting our stone in the struggle against private universities we chose, on Thursday 4 April 2024, to intervene with our heavyweights in the business-schools Mediterranean College on Patision and Codringtonos and in IEK Akmi on Codringtonos. The facades of both were smashed, while in the latter we entered the interior and smashed computers and monitors. With only our heavy tools and our willingness to act we caused a blow to two of the most famous schools in the centre of Athens.
We salute the comrades who attacked Le Monde, as well as any aggressive action that will follow.
We have arms, we have hammers, and the schools will be reduced to ashes.
This is Toby Shone, an anarchist imprisoned in the operation Adream which was an antiterrorist investigation against the counter-information project 325. I am calling from a prison in northwest England, it’s a long term, high security prison, and the fact that we can steal these moments is very important.
As you may already know, Operation A-dream was a repressive attack by the UK state in which 3 collective housing projects, a family home and storage unit were raided by cops. I was accused of being an administrator of 325.nostate, which earned me 4 terrorist charges: section 2 (distribution of terrorist publications), section 15 (funding terrorism) and two counts of section 58 (possession of information which is likely to be useful for terrorist purposes). I was also accused of several direct actions and membership of FAI, ELF and ALF. Hundreds of police were involved in the simultaneous raids and despite this, only one of the comrades were briefly detained and subsequently released for lack of evidence. It’s clear through the conditions of imprisonment I am held under and the constant monitoring that an active investigation continues with tailings and surveillance of comrades on the outside along with observation of anarchist social spaces.
Why is this taking place? It’s because anarchism is a threat to the existing technocratic order, our direct-action groups have a palpable reality in however minimal way in comparison to the task to be done, and the counter-information constellation continues to shine in the dark nights and become easier to use and navigate. Anarchist publishing is viewed as being an unacceptable endeavour by the police and intelligence services. Reporting on anarchist direct action, social struggles, and uprisings because it forms a narrative of subversion is arguably targeted with as much repression as that towards those who carry out the deeds that are being reported. It’s a strategy which has been in existence for a very long time. In the case of Operation Adream, the police was scared of the explicit anarchist insurrectionalist and anti-civilization rhetoric combined with the distribution of electronic and paper publications. During the interrogations a particular concern of the detectives was the purpose of anarchist paper publication. All the electronic documents have a digital forensic signature known as the hash value which can be tracked across the internet and devices even if deleted from those devices. Paper publications on the other hand, cannot be tracked as they are distributed – an investigation into them requires material forensics and a traditional police enquiry: this needs more resources, money, and personnel and especially the underground publishing initiatives which may have an irregular schedule of publishing and “informal” methods of distribution.
This brings us back to the purpose of anarchist publications: paper copies exist and have the power through being passed hand to hand to have an impactful material reality. They also accumulate forensic traces, the books, magazines, and pamphlets we are talking of, dangerous ideas, which can inspire our lives. Their time duration is different from those digital, and we can view that accordingly. With our publications, even if they are doomed to be in university libraries, mainstream bookshops, or worse, museums and art galleries, they always remain controversial and even illegal in some cases. Their purpose is social war and the destruction of the State. In the investigation files of Operation Adream, dozens of anarchist publications were cited many of which we may take for granted, that are freely available at anarchist bookfairs, squats, social centres and stalls at events. Yet to the police, special unit, and prosecutors these publications form part of an amorphous conspiracy aimed at overthrowing the establishment, which is correct, but not exactly in the perverse way that they wish to interpret it. To explain, we are often confronted by the repressive model that has a special function ascribed to theorists and writers, that of “leadership”. They are accused of giving orders and instructions and then cells or cadres then carry out those orders. I don’t need to tell you that this is an offense to anarchist practice, but it was a clear line of questioning put to me by the counter terrorist division. Does possession of 325 magazine indicate membership of an organization? Does that organization execute actions? And is that organisation part of a larger terrorist infrastructure? These are the types of questions bounced at me. With this scheming, marionettes of repression are formed, arranged in hierarchical structures which reflect their feverish minds. So, in those interrogations the investigators focused in some parts on questioning me about administrative functions, decision making flows, statistics figures, target demographics, research and linguistics, or translations. To the latter the cops wanted to know who was responsible for the translations, how they were organized, and who decided what should be translated.
At what level does the level of repression equate to that of our actions? For me, the answer is straight forward. The level of repression is currently far beyond that of the anarchist direct action. It’s the nature of State’s repression to aim to be overwhelming and our struggle is still only an active minority. In the UK the silence and lack of action highlights the social living death. But it was not always this way. And the future remains unwritten. That’s why police infiltration will continue to try to prevent for ruptures and individual attacks. It’s impossible to separate Operation Adream from the consequences of over a decade of anarchist direct action and social riots in Bristol. Although those things are at low ebb currently, it doesn’t mean that it will remain so. Anarchism remains part of the fabric of this South-West region. And where the reports, communiques and analysis are published will remain high in the list of targets for the State. The hundreds if not thousands of publishers across the world, part of a connectivity of contemporary anarchism, add to our ability to stay relevant and expansive.
Huge changes are taking place in society, and mass discontent has the possibility to form into a needed vital resistance. The new anarchist critique of high technology is cited by various intelligence agencies, State and private, as having the threatening ability to infect the population with a deep anger of the digital future. This future being planned by the bosses is a vast surveillance state which is part of the cybernetic matrix, where machines are taking the place of humans, and the artificial intelligence has inserted itself into every place it can be situated. Likewise, we can see human beings are becoming more machine-like, and their environment is degraded and polluted. Increasingly we can talk about the fact that many complete failures are taking place in various social systems, due to the ecological collapse and economic and post-industrial transformation. Huge territories are rapidly changing from floods, wildfires, draughts and intense storms. Unprecedented challenges are coming very quickly with harsh effects on critical points pertaining to agriculture, migration, division of labour, geopolitical conflicts and so on. Our publications and counter-information networks are a direct way in which we can communicate our analysis and methods of organization. Repression recognizes the danger of the contagion of this message, and the narrative which we possess. To the extent that they illegalize our publications and try to impose exemplary sentences is only a means to and end for them. And this is what we have always faced. If we are effective, we meet repression, prison, death. That’s what many comrades face across the world right now. Essentially some of us have been living under surveillance and investigation for so long, everything we do could be considered as crime, simply existing. That’s worth writing about and when we read and know more about what others are confronting and how, we can gain our power.
Lastly, I want to talk about the censorship I am facing here. Since it’s been a consistent feature of my imprisonment and is also part of the topic we’re discussing. Many comrades face problems with their correspondence and receiving publications. This is not unusual. But it’s worth saying here that I’ve been denied access to the majority of my correspondence and books which I am being sent. Even though I am facing denials by the prison administration that this is taking place, it most certainly is. This is the strength of our newsletters, our books, our letters to catch with comrades, that they make the enemy afraid. In my case, I’m also being denied socialist, autonomous-marxist and communist papers and books, which have been sent to me by those in solidarity from the radical left, as well as books on black history, transformative justice, and prison abolition. The very few anarchist books I have managed to receive I hold them close to my heart, here in my cell. Freedom is written with ink and our blood, like it always has been and will be. Value your books, your newspapers, your letters sent and received, combative memory persists, and we pass it to each new generation without efforts alone.
I’ll finish here and so I thank you for your energy and your attention, and a strong hug to all, and especially those under repression for the written word. For from the words come deeds, and that is the topic we’ve encountered today. Love and rage, thank you.
