Nothing to believe, nothing to expect from justice.
Category: Prison Struggle
Harm Reduction Guided by the Goal of the Abolition of Prisons and Capitalism: An interview with former Direct Action member and ex-prisoner Ann Hansen
(Above) The now closed P4W (Prison for Women) in Kingston, Ontario.
Originally published at Kersplebedeb
Ann Hansen was imprisoned in 1983 for her involvement in the urban guerilla group Direct Action. She is the author of Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerilla and Taking the Rap: Women Doing Time for Society’s Crimes. She wrote the introduction for Margrit Schiller’s Remembering the Armed Struggle: My Time with the Red Army Faction. This interview was conducted in the summer of 2021.
How would you like to introduce yourself?
I am a 67 year old white cis gender female anarchist on parole for life after being convicted of a number of actions in 1984 along with some members of the urban guerrilla group, Direct Action. Since being released from prison, I have been living for almost 25 years now on a small farm that I own near Odessa just west of Kingston, Ontario. I am active with the Prison for Women (P4W) Memorial Collective which has been fighting for a Memorial Garden at the site of the now closed Prison for Women, and a Gallery where the women’s art and writing can be seen in order to give some context to their lives and deaths.We also agitate to improve prison and parole conditions as a harm reduction tactic in order to alleviate some of the suffering, but always within the context of the abolition of prisons and capitalism as the goal, the light that guides us through the darkness
I should also add that my parole conditions have a direct impact on my political activism. In 2012, my parole was suspended for allegedly not telling my parole officer about a Prisoners Justice Day (PJD) film I screened at the Kingston public library in conjunction with a lawyer who outlined our civil rights in the context of large civil disobedience actions. My parole was reinstated by the Parole Board but only after adding this new parole condition in which I must “notify” my parole officer about any political activity in which I am engaged, such as attending events, public speaking, writing, etc. Even though the word is “notify” as opposed to “approve,” they could revoke me for anything. This seems shocking to activists, but any prisoner who has been on parole knows that you can be revoked for anything, anytime. It is very common to be suspended for obscure things like “deteriorating behavior” or “having a bad attitude,” especially if you are not a politicized prisoner. Politicized prisoners usually have some community support and a radical lawyer, so parole suspensions are more likely in the public eye and thus parole officers and the Parole Board are more accountable. “Social prisoners” on the other hand are usually invisible and are less likely to have legal representation so parole officers feel less constrained in terms of suspending them for ridiculous reasons. Continue reading “Harm Reduction Guided by the Goal of the Abolition of Prisons and Capitalism: An interview with former Direct Action member and ex-prisoner Ann Hansen”
$hile: Words of the subversive comrade Marcelo Villarroel from Rancagua Prison
“If we are warriors let this condition be expressed in jail and in the streets and never be defeated by fear, silence and even less by repentance.”
For Sacco and Vanzetti
For our cries for freedom!!!
In memory of my Father.
More than 100 years ago the anarchists of action in some places of the world claimed to be subversives.
94 years ago were assassinated in the electric chair the insurrectional anarchist comrades of Italian origin Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti on August 23, 1927 after a trial that lasted 7 years, 4 months and 17 days.
They were held responsible for acts in which they did not participate, but above all they were murdered for being anarchist subversives of action, convinced of the need for constant confrontation with the state and its oppressive violence. The excuse of power: robbery and homicide.
During the rigged process that ended up seating them in the electric chair, the solidarity of a wide range of anti-authoritarian sectors was not long in coming. All over the planet, through countless actions and gestures coming from the deepest illegality, this indestructible bond of insurrectionary complicity was expressed, capable of crossing territories, languages, temporalities and all kinds of limitations that left an indelible mark in the history of the struggle against the prison society that lasts until today.
Since then, the carictaturized figures in the innocence and victimhood of both comrades have been the predominant discourse of those who have distorted their stories of struggle with the purpose of morigrating the indesmentible insurrectionist character of the anarchic universe of axion of which they were a part. Continue reading “$hile: Words of the subversive comrade Marcelo Villarroel from Rancagua Prison”
Anarchic and subversive words from Chilean prisons, in the framework of the international week for anarchist prisoners
Shouts of war; true sounds of freedom!!!
In this week of solidarity with the anarchist prisoners we make an open call to war, to continue and intensify the conflict against every expression of Power and to strengthen the bonds of affinity for combat among all the anti-authoritarian sectors that exist and walk common paths.
It is from this position that we remember comrades Sacco and Vanzetti as part of the broad sector of anarchic illegalism, who were called “the Galleanists”, who with bombs, expropriations and executions made the American soil tremble at the beginning of the last century. Supported by the creation and multiplication of affinity groups and violent action, the illegalists expanded anarchic ideas from the facts, understanding that word and action are inseparable.
Since then much water has passed under the bridge, many have been the deaths and many prisons have seen the passing of comrades who have proudly confronted Power from the place where it has been their lot to be, nevertheless the ideas that translate into affinity and action have endured and are those that today motivate us anarchists and subversives of the territory dominated by the Chilean State to continue the war from this confinement and in the streets, always bearing in mind the necessary harmony between prisoners and supportive and complicit environments that walk from the confrontation with the normality of the existing. Continue reading “Anarchic and subversive words from Chilean prisons, in the framework of the international week for anarchist prisoners”
Italy – Solidarity with prisoner Andreas Krebs
Source: Inferno Urbano
Via & Translated by Act For Freedom Now!
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We are relaunching solidarity with Andreas Krebs, who is facing a very difficult situation in the prison of Secondigliano (Naples), all the more so as he is seriously ill. We learned about his situation from an imprisoned anarchist comrade who spent some time in jail with Andreas in Germany, and we started corresponding with him (Andreas speaks and reads Italian fluently but has some trouble with writing).
Since this rather outdated summary that we are reproducing here from a blog in solidarity with him, his health condition has deteriorated further and his lawyer has confirmed that the court of Naples has repeatedly refused to accept claims submitted by the defence up to September last year, demanding acknowledgement of the incompatibility of his health situation with imprisonment. Meantime Andreas has been waiting for a biopsy which was ordered urgently over a year ago.
Andreas is in absolute need of solidarity from outside!
Against all jails!
Alongside those who struggle!
Cassa AntiRep delle Alpi occidentali
SOLIDARITY WITH ANDREAS KREBS
Continue reading “Italy – Solidarity with prisoner Andreas Krebs”
Chile: Two text from comrades Ignacio and Luis Avaca
Brief greetings from the cages of our comrades Luis and Ignacio
We are waiting for this concrete and barbed wire to be crossed by complicit cries today. Even if we don’t hear you, we know anyway that you are there, as you have been since we fell. For us, as for so many other imprisoned compasses. That is why we sincerely thank you for all that you have done and for all that you will do.
Those with willing hands, like us and you, know that prison and repression are always possible. It is always best to avoid them at all costs. But, when the time comes, we have to assume them as a new scenario of confrontation.
We are not masters of the truth and we do not have infallible formulas for this path. Perhaps all we can do is try, fail, learn and keep trying. One of the few certainties we have here is that, even if we are in the slammer, we will never be defeated. We have learned this from the experience of many compas who have been in this situation before us and whom we thank deeply for all their support.
We hope that the various expressions of solidarity will multiply for all the prisoners and those who have fallen. Rather than slogans, action will always be the best commemoration.
Active and combative solidarity with all those locked up in the prisons of democracy.
Fellow anarchists, subversive and revolted: locked up but never defeated!
Ignacio and Luis
Source: Publicacion Refractario
Continue reading “Chile: Two text from comrades Ignacio and Luis Avaca”
Metz, France – Boris hospitalised: call for action and solidarity
Source: lille.indymedia
Via & Translated by Act for fredom now!
Our friend and comrade Boris has been in an induced coma in the burns unit of the Grand Est hospital in Metz since the morning of Saturday 7 August 2021 following a fire in his cell. His condition is life-threatening, his respiratory tract being highly damaged by smoke and ash. A first skin graft operation will be carried out as soon as his state of health allows it.
Right away, a journalist from Lorraine Actu, Antony Speciale, rushed to take up the version of the facts provided by Fadila Doukhi, regional delegate of the Force Ouvrière prison union.
Priority was given to the vultures of the media of course, the prison did not even bother to inform the family until late in the day, long after publication in the news columns. Not surprisingly, the guards were congratulated for their responsiveness to this event, which had been directly produced by a year’s imprisonment.
Today, it is difficult for us to understand what happened. Boris is naturally unable to express himself and, it seems, we will only have access to accounts from the screws and the administration aimed at offloading all responsibility on their part. Continue reading “Metz, France – Boris hospitalised: call for action and solidarity”
Chile: ‘The wind brings good signs’. Communiqué of anarchist comrade Mónica Caballero Sepúlveda
As I write this reflection on the day that marks one year since the Chilean State kidnapped Francisco and me, I hear the voices of comrades demonstrating outside the prison. On the other side of the bars, fences and walls, there are restless hands and hearts acting for those of us inside the cages of capital. On this occasion, not only did their shouts reach me, but I also received a pamphlet. The wind brought a beautiful and unexpected gift: beautiful anarchist propaganda!
For those of us who do or have done anti-authoritarian propaganda actions, many times we do not dimension the consequences that these can have on other people. In principle, the objective of any propaganda is to deliver a message, which ideally incites or inspires others to act against the current system of terror. But, perhaps, the receiver of this message will not act, will not be affected by the appeal and will remain a passive spectator. In that case, it is worth asking ourselves, perhaps the propaganda was not effective enough, what is it that leads an individual to confront what dominates him or her? Likewise, what drives someone to live passively in a world of misery and oppression?
I asked myself these kinds of questions on many occasions, sometimes I thought I had found answers but with time I understood that individual freedom, that is, the decisions and actions of others, cannot and should not be measured or foreseen. To speak of individual freedom in the first instance, there must be knowledge of reality and of the factors that create or limit it. In order to decide, it is necessary to know, and propaganda is fundamental in the latter.
In my case, what pushed me to take the path of permanent conflict was undoubtedly the propaganda of others (among other factors). My political knowledge would have been very different if I had not been the recipient of endless propaganda. I don’t know if it was a pamphlet, a street scratch, a communiqué, etc. or maybe it was the set of messages, slogans that led me to question and confront the hegemony of power and the society that sustains and needs it.
Today a simple piece of paper broke all the suggestive measures of this prison and flew to me. This propaganda in this place takes on an extra aspect; it showed me that no matter how much power has or pretends to have us prisoners who fight for a world where only mutual support and solidarity rule, we will never be alone.
We need a lot of propaganda, we need a lot of direct actions, if we want to hit capitalism and the relations it generates, as well as the imposed hegemony of power.
I take this opportunity to send a strong fraternal embrace to the Vergara Toledo family. Luisa Toledo was a propagandist who contributed greatly to the proliferation of many generations of young fighters.
Death to the state and long live anarchy!
Mónica Caballero, anarchist prisoner
San Miguel Prison
July 2021.
Source: Buscando La Kalle
Italy: Ethics wanted – or – a fairy tale at times anarchist
Almost two and a half years have passed since, after only 19 days’ prison – I’m telling you – 19 days, you decided to leave a declaration in a review trial, it was 26/2/19.
When I got to know of your decision at the time, sorrow and anger resurfaced as they did when the texts entitled “dotting i’s” and“I burabacio” made their appearance.
I ask myself and ask you: you declare you are anarchists and revolutionaries, you practice conflictuality in the neighbourhoods in daily life, you live in or frequent squatted places, you organize or take part in gatherings outside prisons, detention centres for migrants, benefits; but what do you talk about on those occasions?!
Empty talk, obviously, if you still haven’t understood when to keep quiet or what kind of declaration to make.
Everything seems as though you participate in order to have a clear conscience and to clock in.
Your declaration handed to a prosecutor is the umpteenth proof, even if some stupid anarchist hadn’t realized it, of the fact that it is we anarchists ourselves who give suggestions to prosecutors to create the famous differentiation between good and bad anarchists, between social and insurrectionalists. Continue reading “Italy: Ethics wanted – or – a fairy tale at times anarchist”
[Estado Chileno/Brasileño] Solidaridad con lxs presxs subversivxs y anarquistas de largas condenas
Gesto audiovisual editado de manera conjunta en solidaridad con lxs prisionerxs subversivxs y anarquistas de largas condenas en lucha en las cárceles chilenas por el Ciclo de Cine Anticarcelario (Chile) y Antimidia (Brasil).
Source: Contra Info