Social Control – Page 20

Thessaloniki, Greece: Three anarchist comrades arrested in anti-terrorist operation, accused of attacks by ‘Anarchist Action Organization’

Posted on 2022/02/09 - 2022/02/12 by darknights

Three anarchist comrades have been arrested in a large repressive operation by the anti-terrorist unit in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Four houses were raided, the cops are claiming that they found at the addresses, a significant amount of materials to create explosives, pistols, ammunition, fake police and ambulance uniforms, ID’s, a transceiver and a manual for information on the creation of incendiary explosive devices entitled ‘Manual for Direct Action’.

The comrades are accused for the formation and membership of ‘Anarchist Action Organization‘, regarding acts that took place in Thessaloniki, at least since 2016, as well as for ‘terrorist acts’: Explosion, jointly using explosives, the manafacture, supply and possession, jointly, of explosives, including being accused of endangering human life. Other charges include arson, possession of guns and damage to property.

The raid on the houses was initially to investigate the incendiary explosive attack upon the ‘Foundation for National and Religous Reflection’ in Thessaloniki, that occured in the early hours of yesterday.

The three comrades have already passed in front of the prosecuter in Thessaloniki & will be detained awaiting trial.

We will post more info as we receive it.

Solidarity & Complicity with the 3 anarchist comrades arrested in Thessaloniki!

Let us not leave them on their own, not just in word but also in deed!

Anarchists of the Dark Nights & 325 Collectives

Update: From comrades of Tameio/Solidarity Fund for Imprisoned, Persecuted Revolutionaries of Thessaloniki

At dawn on Tuesday 8/2, two people were arrested after an operation by the anti-terrorist police, due to the placement of an explosive – incendiary device at the entrance of the “Foundation for National and Religious Reflection” at 37 Mouson Street in Thessaloniki, according to the media. Later in the afternoon another person is brought in, which turns into an arrest. On Wednesday 9/2 the arrested comrades were passed by a public prosecutor and a criminal case was filed against them, which attributes them to the formation and membership of the organization “Anarchist Action”. The charges against them are: joint explosion, manufacture, supply and possession of explosives and bombs that can cause danger to people, arson, manufacture, supply and possession of pistols, as well as explosives and explosive devices in order to supply organizations and groups and damage to foreign property using explosives. In the morning of 9/2 a solidarity meeting was held outside the Thessaloniki courthouse with a strong pulse and the comrades managed to hear us. The comrades and the comrade were given a deadline for their apology to the interrogator for Friday 11/2.

A more extensive update will follow.

SOLIDARITY MEETING AT THE COURTS OF THESSALONIKI FRIDAY 11/2 9:00

OPEN MEETING OF SOLIDARITY IN ΣΘΕ (School of Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) SATURDAY 12/2 17:00

NO ONE ALONE IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE

STRENGTH AND SOLIDARITY TO THE ARRESTED COMRADES OF 8/2

Solidarity fund for prisoners and persecuted militants (Thessaloniki assembly)

Source: athens.indymedia

Belarus: The case of anarchist Alexander Zaitsev

Posted on 2022/02/06 by darknights

In December, we received information that Aleksandr Zaitsev, who declared his commitment to the anarchist movement, was in pre-trial detention in Volodarka. It took us quite a while to verify this man’s story and get to the bottom of it.

In 2020, Zaitsev actively participated in protests against the regime and was detained at least once in November under “people’s” article 23.34. While in detention, Zaitsev met a man who introduced himself as Dmitry Sergeenko. Comrades from the Pramen team found the real name of this man – Dmitry Akulich, who had been working for many years with the Interior Ministry as a provocateur and prison agent. Akulich actively begins “developing” Zaitsev and by summer both are already planning a radical action: they want to set fire to Sukalo’s dacha. To paint a pretty picture of the investigation, Akulich says that he got in touch with the group “Stork fly” and they paid for him to buy two five-liter bottles of gasoline.

Not far from the dacha both are taken by Almaz. Zaitsev confesses to everything and is now under terrorist article 289 part 3 (punishment up to the death penalty). We do not know Akulich’s status in this case, but he most likely passes as a witness with the false name of Sergeenko. It is noteworthy that Akulich was given a real passport with a fake name to work with Zaitsev.

Now Aliaksandr Zaitsev continues to be held in the pre-trial detention center, awaiting trial. We have almost no information about the anarchist himself, as none of the activists know him.

Remember, if you want to carry out any radical action, you should do it only with trusted people, not with acquaintances. This story also shows that cops actively engage in provocations to continue repression and spin the myth of terrorism.

Now it is extremely important to remember to have a safety culture and take the time to familiarize yourself with texts on countering repression!

Source: ABC Belarus

Italy: Democracy is the other face of fascism

Posted on 2022/02/03 - 2022/02/03 by darknights

DEMOCRACY IS THE OTHER FACE OF FASCISM

Since two years we live in a state of emergency without end, following the advance of a virus that has become a global pandemic. Sooner or later it had to happen in a globalized and capitalist world that for mere profit destroys the natural environment, where goods and people move in a short time from one end of the planet to another (and only the poor are rejected at the borders) and where more than half of the world’s population lives crowded in mega-urbanized cities.

The emergency proclaimed, however, has been used by the state not to put hand to the health sector, decimated by continuous cuts that governments have made over the years and that have caused so many preventable deaths (not only because of the virus), but in order to accelerate all those authoritarian and coercive mechanisms of which the democratic regime is capable.

We are not only talking about the compulsory vaccination for certain categories (health workers, teachers, over 50) about which there would be much to discuss, but especially about the social control put in place, not least the instrument of the Green Passport, which is still only a step towards the race to forced digitization of all the data that concern us. Controlling and trading digital data, as we know, is the new frontier of “surveillance capitalism,” which through emergency management is gaining momentum.

From tracking apps to facial recognition cameras, from the internet of things to artificial intelligence, technology at the service of masters and states, which was not born to simplify our existence but to monitor us, will be increasingly present in our lives, but it is only with the digitization of data and their transmission (5G, ultra-wideband) and interconnection (home automation, smart-city) that this will be possible. It is no coincidence that the PNRR of the Draghi government, the Italian Recovery Fund financed with European money, for a large part serves to channel astronomical sums towards surveillance technologies and the digital modernization of all essential sectors: school, work, telecommunications networks, mobility and health (with telemedicine). It is also not by chance that the Draghi government has made it easier for public administration bodies and institutions to collect and process personal data, through an article of the Capienze Decree that last October abrogated article 2 of the Privacy Code, also reducing the role of the Guarantor in charge of data protection.

For many people perhaps it is not a problem that their data are used by private companies, multinationals and state institutions, through massive surveillance. People still think that because they do nothing wrong, their data is not a secret. But social control is never something that concerns only the sphere of personal freedoms and privacy; there are several reasons to oppose the digitalization of data and invasive tools such as the Green pass, among the most immediate: from the ease of the employer in monitoring his own employee (and riders and Amazon employees know something about it!) to those living in a situation of forced illegality (see undocumented migrants) who see their lives continuously threatened by the increase of increasingly sophisticated monitoring devices. Let’s not forget then the discrimination of those who already today do not have access to new technologies, that is often the poorest people in society, who see their access to rights and social services undermined, conquered years ago at the cost of hard struggles. Continue reading “Italy: Democracy is the other face of fascism” →

Italy: Measure and process updates for Operation Bialystok

Posted on 2022/02/03 by darknights

January 2022

As we approach the end of the trial of Operation Bialystok, it seems to us to be the right moment to spread some considerations on its progress. Although we are not interested in following the pace dictated by repression, nor in taking a victimistic or alarmist stance in the face of the activities of police institutions, we believe it is important to share information and impressions about what is happening at the court level. By conscious choice, we will summarize aspects and moments that we consider noteworthy, at the expense of a detailed and chronological description of the trial in which we are involved.

As far as the framework of the investigation is concerned, we refer to the texts “Sull’operazione Bialystok” (On the Bialystok operation) already published and circulated on the web and “Testo e contesto” (Text and context).

At the time of writing all defendants in this proceeding are at large. On January 27th a positive response was received to a request for the end of the precautionary measures to which 4 defendants were still subject (3 obligations to stay and one obligation to present themselves for weekly signatures), so that at the moment only one person remains under obligations to stay. The differences in conditions are mainly due to the different timing in the presentation of the appeals which brought the same before different courts, and to the specificity of the individual positions regarding the crimes charged.

Broadly speaking, up to now the process has been marked by hours and hours of endless hearings for the delineation of the anarchist context both nationally and internationally, hearings where we defendants have almost never been nominated. Only after many hearings did we begin to talk about the so-called specific facts. There was a certain interest and prominence in the moments in which the international relations of the defendants were exposed; this was not because the prosecution brought who knows what elements, on the contrary, we witnessed a real climbing on mirrors, but more because of the play of roles within the institution of justice. It is evident that an assize court, used to dealing with crimes of a certain gravity, sees in the international dimension of the investigation the possibility of its own raison d’être. And this, we say, on the level of the actual courtroom show; behind the scenes, that is, on the level of the investigation, and therefore of the repressive strategy, we also see something else, that is, a direction that looks like it wants to be taken in the future. These, like others in the past, are attempts, sometimes successful and sometimes less so, to structure on a concrete level the collaboration of police and prosecutors’ offices on an international level regarding investigations. Continue reading “Italy: Measure and process updates for Operation Bialystok” →

Wallmapu: Conviction against those who attacked police

Posted on 2022/02/02 by darknights

After the repression of a Mapuche march in August 2020 in the city of Temuco, skirmishes spread throughout the city. It was just at that moment that a lone policeman received a well-deserved beating, leaving him with a fractured jaw and collarbone, leaving a beautiful image that went viral.

Following surveillance cameras and eyewitnesses, OS-9 personnel managed to arrest three people who had participated in the attack.

At the end of January 2022 they faced trial accused of serious injuries, being considered guilty. The prosecution is requesting 7 years in prison for the two adults and 3 years and a day in semi-closed regime for the teenager.

Sometimes it is costly to defend the order of the rich?
Solidarity with those who attack the police!

Source: Publicacion Refractario

UK: About the total surveillance order facing anarchist comrade Toby Shone EN/DE/ES/FR/IT/PL UPDATED

Posted on 2022/01/27 - 2022/05/02 by darknights

* UPDATE * SCPO HEARING FOR ANARCHIST PRISONER TOBY SHONE HAS BEEN ADJOURNED UNTIL 6 MAY.

Even though the cops couldn’t prove their terrorism case against him after a four year investigation, anarchist prisoner Toby Shone is facing a Serious Crime Prevention Order that will legally sanction the criminalisation and total surveillance of him and everyone around him for years to come after his release.

In November 2020, a series of co-ordinated raids against one of the alleged administrators of the website 325.nostate.net was executed by counter-terrorism cops in the UK as part of “Operation Adream”. Several properties in the southwest of England were searched and one person, Toby Shone, was arrested at gunpoint in the Forest of Dean and charged under the Terrorism Act. This was the first time the British State attempted to prosecute an anarchist under modern terrorism legislation and the first time that somebody was prosecuted for being suspected of running an anarchist website.

Toby was originally charged with providing a service enabling others to access terrorist publications, with fundraising for terrorist purposes, and with two counts of possession of information likely to be useful to a terrorist. He pleaded not guilty, the cops weren’t able to produce any evidence, and the prosecution was forced to drop these charges on October 1^st 2021.

In the end, Toby Shone was sentenced to 3 years 9 months in prison for 8 drug offenses on October 13, 2021. The ‘drugs’ were psychedelics and medicinal plants found at two of the four properties raided in November 2020, all collective spaces. He served 8 months of this sentence on remand at HMP Wandsworth and is currently held in HMP Bristol. He is due for release sometime between August and December 2022. Continue reading “UK: About the total surveillance order facing anarchist comrade Toby Shone EN/DE/ES/FR/IT/PL *UPDATED*” →

Greece: International Solidarity with Revolutionary Anarchist prisoner Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis

Posted on 2022/01/21 - 2022/01/21 by darknights

Graffiti in Athens: “Let us reinforce the guerilla struggle. Bullets to the servants of authority. – Organization of Revolution-ary Self-Defense.

Banner writes: Freedom For V. Stathopoulos. Mitsos stay strong. Solidarity with D.Chatzivasileiadis

https://www.firefund.net/dimitris

To our comrades around the world who struggle for our common liberation,

We, an initiative of anarchists based in Athens, Greece, call upon international solidarity with imprisoned revolutionary anarchist Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis, who is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence for his armed revolutionary struggle in Greece and his involvement in the urban guerilla organization, Revolutionary Self-Defense.

The funds that we raise with this campaign will cover directly the needs of our imprisoned comrade, as well as the expenses for the continuous solidarity actions and events from the initiative on the ground. The financial support of incarcerated revolutionaries is not only an act of solidarity with the fighters who gave everything for our collective liberation and thus a part of our collective self-defense; it is also a crucial tool in the strengthening of the international revolutionary struggle towards the reconstruction of our world based on the principles of freedom: horizontalism, self-organization and equal solidarity.

A brief history of the case and the organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense

Continue reading “Greece: International Solidarity with Revolutionary Anarchist prisoner Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis” →

Belarus: Blood on your hands – information about anarcho-partisan torture

Posted on 2022/01/19 by darknights

28/12/21

Today the sister of anarchist Dzmitry Dubovsky published a short story after visiting the activist in the detention center. In particular, the story is about the torture that was used against the guerrillas in the first days after the detention: the punishers cut the skin off Igor Olinevich‘s heels, and Dubovsky himself was strangled with a bag and suspended in a so-called swallow. Previously, it was already reported that Sergej Romanov cut open his veins because of beatings by border guards.

We are well aware that anarchist activists have repeatedly faced beatings by the punitive authorities. But since August 2020, the cops no longer have any brakes at all. This blatant sadism existed in the so-called “law enforcement” agencies even before the protests began. A person does not turn into an animal overnight. Many tortures and beatings before the “political” were tried on ordinary prisoners.

The story of the anarcho-partisans is just a drop of what is now happening in the country. There are thousands of people sitting behind bars who have no voice at all and we have no doubt that they are being beaten and tortured on an ongoing basis. Even after they are sentenced. The Belarusian dictatorship has evolved from an authoritarian regime into a sect of sadists, ready to shed blood not just to keep power, but to enjoy the process itself. If you have any doubts about the people working in the MIA/KGB system, then think of all those who are now fighting in prisons for your and our freedom.

We will never forget every drop of blood spilled in the fight against the regime. For every groan and cry, not only the officers, but every asshole who carried out the sentence will pay. You may have won in 2020, but the war on the dictatorship continues!

Until everyone is free!

Source: Pramen

Belarus: 18 to 20 years’ imprisonment for Belarusian anarcho-partisans

Posted on 2022/01/08 - 2022/01/08 by darknights

The sentence was announced today for a group of anarcho-partisans who held a series of direct actions against the dictatorship about a year ago. In an attempt to isolate the activists, the trial was held in camera and only the pronouncement of the sentence was made public.

Sentences:

Siarhei Ramanau – 20 years
Ihar Alinevich – 20 years
Dzmitry Rezanovich – 19
Dzmitry Dubousky – 18 years

Enormous sentences for symbolic actions are an example of the dictatorship’s fear of anarchists. So far, these sentences are the longest in the history of political repression in the country.

Source: ABC Belarus

Thessaloniki, Greece: Evicition of Biologica Squat and Call for Solidarity Week 10-17 January

Posted on 2022/01/08 - 2022/01/08 by darknights

The state, cops and university lackies decided on 31/12/2021 to realize an eviction that has already been announced the previous months. After unofficial threats for an upcoming eviction of the Biologica squat during the previous years, in September a project agreement was signed and assigned to a contractor, with the aim of “remodeling” and “utilizing” the spaces on the ground floor of the Biology building were the squat used to be. In the plans, of course, they included the squatted area with the intention of demolishing the surrounding walls and turning it into a secretariat room and a waiting room. In New Year’s Eve as in the long gone 1992 – at that time they build the door of the squat – the university campus is surrounded by police forces while underground cops are moving towards the area of the squat. They invade our liberated ground and after conducting a thorough search, while destroying anything that was in the squat, they take pictures of their “grand” findings and they give the space to the workers to finish off the first stage of their plan, the demolition of the walls. After their intervention all of the ground floor appears to be vandalized. We never doubted the pure hate of the state, cops and university lackies towards liberated spaces.

Thessaloniki’s assembly of the Solidarity Fund for Imprisoned, Persecuted Revolutionaries found a home between these walls in 2016. During all these years the squat has been the starting point of struggles and solidarity actions for imprisoned and persecuted companions, both from the structure of the Solidarity Fund and from other groups and individuals with a central idea to resist the state and capitalist barbarism and stench and defend the prisoners of this war. Political and cultural events, book presentations and self-organized bookstores, screenings, collective kitchens and workshops, local and panhellenic assemblies, bars and concerts for the financial support of political prisoners or to cover court expenses … A few words cannot describe the political bonds, trust and companionship that developed within these walls that we found demolished. This demolition cannot destroy them, as they are our way of life and memories which are reflected in our every thought and action.

The act of eviction itself works for us as a reminder of a war that we never actually forgot was raging. Targeting comrades, persecutions, arrests and tortures, repression in all the ways possible and whatever cost as well as control with upgraded means are some parts of the rotten society in which we live, yet we have consciously chosen to continue to resist and fight side by side. Squats are the starting points of this war and as it seems they do whatever they can to leave us without structures to prepare our counterattack.

State, rectors and academics, cops and other pieces of trash that state their relief after the eviction of squats, praise the success of the law-abiding state and the successful protection of the blessed trinity of law, order and security have apparently failed to mention the above correlations with the attack on the social base, which at the level of higher education was done through the abolition of asylum, and recently through the passage of the new anti-education bill (n.4777), sealing the depoliticization and demise of the university and the devaluation of student and non-student lives.
As long as we keep on fighting, we are not defeated… we create lawless reference points, relationships build on trust and solidarity structures. We have long chose a side in this war.

PS. Papaioannou you have no reason to thank the government and sleep peacefully.

PS2. Solidarity means attack.

WE DEFEND OUR SQUATS
WE CLAIM OUR LIVES

BIOLOGICA AND THOUSAND MORE SQUATS
AGAINST A WORLD OF ORGANIZED RECEPTION
FOR SOLIDARITY, SELF-ORGANIZATION AND ANARCHY

Solidarity Fund for Imprisoned and Persecuted Revolutionaries