Greece: a country in mourning, still in shock, following the death of 57 people in a train crash at Tempe, the deadliest in the country and one of the worst in Europe.
8 days later the dead passengers, mainly young students, are still being buried and people continue to protest against the crime executed by the neoliberal government and a private company, that chose to sacrifice passenger safety for profit, resulting in a passenger service train, carrying more than 350 people, ramming into a freight train, just before midnight on Tuesday 28 February 2023, after they ended up on the same track mainly due to the lack of technical equipment and the incompetence of the stationmaster, causing the front carriages to burst into flames.
Ongoing revelations of staff shortages and substandard equipment have revealed the dangerous state of the privatized rail network. It was indeed an accident waiting to happen.
For 8 days, almost all protests in Athens have been brutally attacked by the so-called “mourning” riot police, under the orders of Mitsotakis government that pretends to care, while they even close down all metro stations around a protest’s starting point to deter people from joining them. Such is the government’s sincerity and repentance for the blood of 57 people on their hands. Regardless, the protest of March 8th was one of the biggest protests in Athens during the last decade, with more than 80,000 people taking part.
Just a few months before the parliamentary elections, the situation in Greece is unpredictable in a place where there is no justice, nor peace.
While the government still tries to evade assuming full responsibility for the train disaster, a general nationwide strike and new protests have been announced for Thursday, 16 March 2023.
For us, his comrades in the Revolutionary Struggle, he is not dead. He is in our blood and in the air we breathe as fighters. He is in our aims and objectives. He is one with our organization and our struggle. He is present every day, every moment.
HE IS ALIVE
13 years from the day that comrade L. Fountas was murdered by a state guard’s gun during a preparatory action of the Revolutionary Struggle.
The comrade fell fighting against the imposition of the monumental policies. He fell resisting the deadly social derailment for which the state and capital are responsible.
Repressive forces have ordered the shifting of the review hearing for the precautionary measures of Operation Sibilla against the anarchists investigated for the publication of “Vetriolo,” scheduled for Tuesday, March 14. The hearing will no longer be held at the court of judges for preliminary investigations (the former Enel building, located in the city), but at the bunker courtroom inside the Capanne prison, also in Perugia (outside the city). This is a blatant, further attempt to silence our comrade, to make the solidarity movement invisible by literally gathering inside a bunker. It will mean that we will also take Alfredo’s battle to the inmates who are incarcerated in Capanne.
Because of this shift, the solidarity presence with Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike since October 20, will be held in front of the prison in Capanne, at strada regionale 220 Pievaiola No. 252, also starting at 08:30.
Get Alfredo out of 41 bis! To forget the prisoners of the social war is to forget the war itself! Revolutionary solidarity with Alfredo Cospito and all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries!
Below is the text of the poster:
SIBILLA STILL PREDICTS THE STORM
SOLIDARITY PRESENCE WITH ALFREDO COSPITO ON THE OCCASION OF THE RE-EXAMINATION HEARING FOR THE PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES OF OPERATION SIBILLA AGAINST THE ANARCHISTS INVESTIGATED FOR THE PUBLICATION OF ” VETRIOLO ”
Those who act against the state and the bosses have already matured such determination that they do not need to be “instigated,” because it is autonomy of thought and action that is expressed, not gregariousness and subordination to orders.
Alfredo Cospito has dedicated his life to an idea that he has continued to assert resolutely even in the face of the worst adversity, as he has been doing since October 20 with the beginning of his hunger strike to the bitter end.
Alfredo Cospito is not an “instigator,” but an anarchist, a revolutionary. The ideas he has always supported, the actions for which he has been convicted (or claimed, as in the case of the wounding of Adinolfi, an executive of Ansaldo Nucleare), represent the reasons for revolt and the need for revolution against the sirens of submission and resignation to this social reality.
SOLIDARITY PRESENCE, TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 8:30 A.M., CAPANNE PRISON, STRADA PROVINCIALE 220 PIEVAIOLA, 252, PERUGIA.
SOLIDARITY WITH ALFREDO COSPITO ON HUNGER STRIKE SINCE OCT. 20 AGAINST 41 BIS AND HOSTILE LIFE IMPRISONMENT
Against Ecology — A Discussion for the Unmanageable
The catastrophe we face is not revealed in the predictions of a scientific caste, nor in the mysticism of rhythms of nature which we have never known in the duration of our artificial lives.
The catastrophe is the daily dose of poisoning which we drink voluntarily: the world of management, entertainment, democracy, technological progress and merchandise. Its power source is human drudgery and submission, turbo-charged by fossil fuels or no-less ruthlessly exploited ‘sustainable’ resources. This is the polluted wasteland which takes survival for as long as possible as its miserable horizon – at an individual level as much as at the level of the species.
In the past, struggles against the most polluting developments have been orientated by ecology but now it is acting as a brake on their potential.
The fumes of ideology can be more suffocating than greenhouse gasses. If we are not careful, we will be led directly into the embrace of a transformed authority – eagerly drawing on the moral fury of the green movement, and all too happy to continue to govern on a necessarily planetary scale.
We need fresh ideas and action to break with the stifling atmosphere of the moment and to arm the struggles of the near future. We need to move beyond ecology, and enter the dimension of a revolt without excuses, without demands and without return to normality.
Touchpaper Anarchist Library
385 Queens Road
New Cross
SE14 5HD
Tuesday 10th January 2023, 7pm. Animal Liberation and Insurrection – Public Discussion
This society is nothing but a row of tightly monitored cages. Non-human animals have been, and continue to be, at the sharp-end of the scientific-industrial system. Locked up, experimented on, artificialised and domesticated – and yet their revolt continues, in escapes, in violent reactions against their capture and on their jailors.
Against this daily misery, what does an insurrection which finds connection with the revolt of non-human animals look like?
What wild horizons of freedom lie at the point where smashed cages meet severed networks of social control, and sabotage and expropriation spreading through the temples of work and consumption?
Tuesday 10th January 7pm
Touchpaper Anarchist Library
385 Queens Road, New Cross
SE14 5HD
Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 71st day of hunger strike (Italy, December 29, 2022)
On December 29th, 71st day of the hunger strike to the bitter end against 41 bis and life imprisonment without possibility of parole, the antagonist radio station Radio Onda d’Urto broadcast a speech by the doctor who is regularly visiting anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito, imprisoned in the Bancali prison in Sassari. We report a partial transcript of the speech and, at the end of the update, the recording of the broadcast (in italian language).
“[…] So, let’s consider that Alfredo is now 70 days into his hunger strike. He started from a weight of 115 kg and today he is at 84 kg. Surely he has a strong physique, he started from a fairly high weight so he has a better chance than others of being able to sustain this hunger strike. It is clear, however, that everything has an end at some point; in the sense that currently his haemato-chemical parameters are quite good, except for the fact that it is going down a bit with the electrolytes. Today he spoke to me about reducing his agony, in the sense that he wants to make it precipitate a little in order to shift the ground a little, a little more, so that he might eventually be transferred from 41 bis. I told him, however, that as far as potassium is concerned, which is part of the electrolytes, like sodium and chlorine, it is indispensable for contraction, especially for cardiac contraction – I am a cardiologist –, in fact, with the electrocardiogram that we did today there are alterations that are found in the ventricular recovery phase, and which show particular waves that result from potassium deficiency. Obviously I got a bit angry because, a few days ago, he stopped taking the supplements [extremely mild, light, which he has been taking for some time], so this is also the cause of the lowered potassium […]. He is a little convinced [to keep taking them, for a few more days] so he promised me that today and tomorrow, while waiting for the results of the tests [which are done about every four days], he will take the supplements. Then, as for the rest, psychologically he is in high spirits, smiling; a couple of days ago they moved him from his cell to another one, so he has air time with three other inmates, and this pleases him very much, because he talks to these other three inmates during air time. As a complexion then, in fact, he is a little better because he was very, very pale, but not pale because he was deficient in red blood cells; pale precisely because he was not taking light. And obviously the calcemia that he still has good is crumbling a little bit from the bones; somewhere, if you don’t take in food, the body subtracts and tries to help in some way. Let’s say that also as reasoning, as lucidity, he is fine; nothing to say about the answers he gives, they are not at all confused. He is reading, now and then he has a bit of blurred vision, he told me a bit of visual impairment, and that goes with the vitamin deficiency, of course. Every now and then, also because he wants to be conscious, he takes a little honey, which is a bit better than sugar […], when he was hypoglycaemic, they used to give him some sugar, but now he takes honey, so he doesn’t have these glycaemic drops any more. Then, for the rest, he is quite well; obviously he has lost a lot, a lot, a lot of weight, even since the first time I saw him, but nothing disastrous from the haemato-chemical analyses […]”.
In the face of the attempted annihilation of Alfredo, it is of the utmost importance that the ideas, deeds, and contribution of the comrade not be forgotten, condemned to oblivion as desired by the repressive apparatus of the state with the Scripta Manent trial, the Sibilla operation, and the transfer to the 41 bis regime.
The recent decree of the Court of Surveillance of Rome that confirms the detention in 41 bis is placed in the same perspective – the annihilation of the comrade – and is indicative of the reprisal that the state intends to give to the anarchist movement. Repression, convictions, decades of imprisonment, however, will not be enough nor can they ever lead to surrender: inevitably, our passion for freedom is stronger than any authority.
We continue the struggle with determination, we support all anarchist and revolutionary initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito who has been on hunger strike for over 70 days, with Ivan Alocco since December 22nd again on hunger strike alongside Alfredo, and with all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries.
The recording of the Radio Onda d’Urto broadcast (in italian language):
Letter – Intervention of the anarchist comrade from Sardinia Omar Nioi
(convicted in the trial of “Operation Scripta Manent”) at the event held in Athens (A.S.O.E.E.) on December 19, 2022 regarding the anarcho-nihilist hunger striker Alfredo Cospito.
Organization: Anarchist Hangout Nadir(Thessaloniki),
Translation project blessed-is-the-flame.espivblogs.net,
Comrades.
The translation from Italian was done by the Counter-Information Group Radiofragmata.(radiofragmata.nostate.net)
First of all, a greeting to all the comrades who were present in this initiative, a greeting and a special thanks to the comrades who promoted it. To this day, the weaving of international relations, exchanges and comparisons continues, as in the past, to be an essential element and always a living part of revolutionary anarchism, in order to strengthen our intentions.
Scripta Manent: A political trial against 20 years of the history of revolutionary anarchism
The events:
At dawn on 6 September 2016, 32 comrades throughout the Italian State were awakened by the civil police (DIGOS). The result of the first part of the police operation called “Scripta Manent”, ordered by the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office through its investigator Roberto Maria Sparagna, is 15 suspects and 7 arrests. On the other hand, an eighth anarchist, in charge of the Anarchist Black Cross publishing project (now closed), is arrested after a house search against him in which batteries and an electrician’s manual were found. In addition to comrades Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai, already in prison since 2012 having been tried and convicted for the injury of Roberto Adinolfi, (CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare) action taken by “Nucleo Olga of FAI/FRI”, comrades Alessandro, Marco, Danilo, Valentina and Anna are arrested. For the comrades, articles 270 bis (on association with terrorist purposes), 280 bis (on terrorist acts with lethal or explosive devices) and 285 (on massacre) are triggered for various reasons, which are in question starting from as far back as 2003 and all relating to a series of attacks specifically signed by the “Informal Anarchist Federation” through the cells FAI/Narodnaya Volya (FAI/ People’s Will), “Cooperativa Artigiana Fuoco e Affini FAI/Collaboration of Fire and Artifacts (Occasionally Spectacular))”, “FAI/RAT ((Rivolta Anonima e Tremenda/Federazione Anarchica Informale – Anonymous and Tremendous Revolt/Informal Anarchist Federation)” and “Nucleo Olga FAI/FRI” (FAI/IRF Cell Olga).
Thus, there is the umpteenth investigation of the Informal Anarchist Federation, another attempt to fish in the darkness just to secure a salary, which between the period of investigation and trial, makes as many servants of the State as possible fatten their pockets. During the first months of this operation, the arrested comrades have been subjected to bans on meeting each other, censorship of correspondence, complete isolation and several transfers. In April 2017, the announcement of the closure of the investigation – for those arrested and under investigation in September 2016 – added, in addition to the crimes previously contested, to 12 of the 17 original accused to Article 414 of the Criminal Code (on incitement to commit a criminal act with terrorist purposes) as authors and/or distributors of the work of the Anarchist Black Cross, the newspaper and the blog, making explicit reference to certain opinion articles and other articles from No. 0 to No. 3. With regard to the offence of incitement to crime, the aggravating circumstance of “committing the act by means of computer and telematic tools” is also mentioned. Continue reading “Omar Nioi – Scripta Manent: a political trial against 20 years of history of revolutionary anarchism”→
Lately the state has been intensifying social misery and repression while at the same time sharpening class barriers, making survival a luxury. It is trying to impose total social control over every aspect of our lives, thus reinforcing its counterinsurgency policy. One of the social groups that experience this control to the greatest extent is the prisoners, being a subject completely cut off and stigmatized from the rest of society, thus becoming the perfect breeding ground for the harshest state policies.
Thus, on 28/10 the new penal code is passed which, among other things, includes the tightening of the conditions of leave and conditional dismissal, tightening of disciplinary procedures, extending the detention time of those accused of criminal-terrorist organizations, robberies or drugs, reintroducing type C prisons as ” Maximum Security Prisons ” and the prohibition of transfer to rural prisons. In this way, the regime of exclusion experienced by political prisoners is deepened while at the same time it is extended to other categories of crimes, increasing the time of incarceration of those who fall into this category. Immediately after the passing of the bill, mobilizations against it started in many prisons throughout Greece, with the participation of many criminal and political prisoners.
Thanos Chatziangelou actively participated in the above mobilizations and was quickly targeted by the state, culminating in his vindictive transfer to Nigrita prison on 19/12, as happened a few days later with Kostas Dimalexis who was transferred to Trikala prison. The purpose of these transfers is to remove the militants, who have not stopped opposing their oppressors, from the communities of struggle they had created. Thanos’ response was immediate, starting a hunger and thirst strike on 19/12 demanding the disclosure of the reason for his transfer and his return to Korydallos prison. Continue reading “Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for solidarity attack on stores with the anarchist hunger/thirst strike of Thanos Chatziangelou”→
At the preliminary hearing held at the Genoa Court on Dec. 7, both defendants were remanded for trial in relation to the crimes charged against them, excluding the aggravating circumstance charged under Art. 270 bis 1 c. p.
The trial will therefore begin with the filter hearing on March 7, and under the ordinary procedure remands both on charges of possession and carrying explosive material, attempted manufacture of explosive/explosive devices. Technically resuming the legal motivation, with regard to the disqualification of the purpose of terrorism, reference is made to the most recent case law on the matter, particularly Supreme Court ruling no. 36816/2020, according to which “it is not sufficient to carry out any violent political action, as it is necessary that the conduct is potentially capable of creating panic, terror and widespread sense of insecurity in the community and is aimed at organs of institutional leadership or constitutional importance, as a function of the attempt to overthrow the constitutional order or overthrow the democratic system.”
In the present case, the judiciary ruled, in line with the preliminary investigation judge’s previous assessment, that there could be no connection between the seized material and the violent actions induced by the prosecution, so the defendants are remanded for trial on the charges outlined above, subject to appeal by the prosecutor.
In addition to this small technical account of the hearing, below are some reflections on repression as a general and continuous activity of the state against the exploited.
Behind every legal choice, college or individual judge, there is a political choice that characterizes sentencing. Repressive activity is not always related in a directly proportional and linear way to the intensity of conflict that social and militant classes pose. The activity of preventing the conflict hypothesis and that of annihilating the internal enemy is continuous on the part of the state, and is aimed at maintaining order and class privilege. There are no happy islands or terms of action and thought within which the repressive response can be avoided, although the absence of radicality in the struggle, by taking away strength from the revolutionary possibility, determines in the social sphere and in the power relations only points in favor of the other side.
These days, with reference to comrade Alfredo Cospito’s struggle, it is pointed out that it is always ready for the annihilation of revolutionaries, through the instrument of torture, which practiced directly, more or less systematically in different historical periods, tends to control and repress every revolutionary expression and struggle, placing the monopoly of violence that characterizes its power at the center, and lashing out against anyone who dares to question this.
The vindictive tendency of the state is aimed at the annihilation of revolutionary identities and serves as a warning to the social partners struggling against the vicious conditions that capitalist exploitation imposes. Continue reading “Italy: Brief account of the preliminary hearing in the Genoa trial against Gianluca and Evelin”→
