187A

Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for arson attack on COSMOTE van in solidarity with Giannis Michailidis & anarchist prisoners

Posted on 2023/06/04 - 2023/06/04 by darknights

VICTORY IN THE HUNGER STRIKE OF GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

Once again dystopia is dangerously close to us. The state is constantly inventing new ways to undermine more and more our living conditions. Labour rights are now a thing of the past as partial employment contracts, the daily dismissal of trade unionists, often fatal work accidents, wage cuts, and the repayment or non-payment of bonuses under extortionate conditions are the status quo. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly shamelessly obvious how expendable our lives are to the state apparatus. The 57 murders in Tempe, the daily deportations and repatriations of migrant women on equally murderous terms, and the more ‘indirect’ method of the state’s death policy by raising the prices of everyday products, electricity and gas, as well as rents. Of course, even if you have to pay for all this, no one can guarantee that the next day you will still have a house to live in, since there is no longer any protection of the first home and the cops and prosecutors may appear one day in your living room and literally throw you out on the street within a few hours with all the things you have managed to collect.

To enable this condition to be established, a lot of money was spent on hiring cops from every service and buying official vehicles, placing them in ‘key’ places like squares, universities, hills and playgrounds. Apart from their physical presence, the state is more present than ever before through the installation of cameras on every corner, illegally or legally placed, and through the microphones and cameras on our mobile phones. No longer is the ‘big brother’ a fictional character from a novel, but the terrifying everyday life in which we live and grow up, where social control is brutal and universal.

The context of modern totalitarianism could not fail to include the further “upgrading” of the prison system and prisons. The state and those in power, known for their fetishism in punishing and torturing anyone who opposes them, are constantly reinforcing the dungeons of democracy, aiming at the complete annihilation of the imprisoned militants. Thus, in the winter of 2022, in a more comprehensive attempt to fortify the state against the social upheaval that prevailed, the new penal code is passed. According to it, type C prisons were reintroduced under the name of ”maximum security prisons”, disciplinary procedures were tightened, the conditions for granting leave and for the temporary dismissal of those prosecuted under 187A or accused of robbery and drug offences were changed, thus discrediting the position of political prisoners. It also introduces a ban on the transfer of certain categories of prisoners to rural prisons. Continue reading “Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for arson attack on COSMOTE van in solidarity with Giannis Michailidis & anarchist prisoners” →

Greece: Financial support of the four comrades in pre-trial detention

Posted on 2023/04/04 by darknights

The following text is the political view of the Assembly in Solidarity with the four comrades in pre-trial detention Fotis D., Jason R., Lambros V. and Panagiotis V.

On November 14^th, 2021 an unmarked police vehicle rammed into the comrades Fotis D. and Jason R. as they were in motion and then they were taken to the General Police Department of Attica. There, the uniformed garbage of the Greek Police proceeded to mandatory fingerprinting and DNA sampling, in order to link them to the attack on the Piraeus traffic police on the same night. In a process that took only half a day, they raided their homes, making sure to plant incriminating evidence, thus building a weak case against them. At the same time, the media indulged in their usual vile role, talking about homes being bomb and explosives manufacturing facilities, in an attempt to normalise the new criminal code in the public mind (which upgrades the possession and use of Molotov cocktails to a felony). It is worth noting, that the code came into force the day before their arrest. For the millionth time, the fabrication of guilty people by the media, has socially reinforced the prosecution’s argument and created the appropriate ground for the pre-trial detention of our two comrades, who have been held captive for 15 months in the Korydallos and Avlona hellholes.

With the trial date not being set and the case file still open, the interrogator had room to implicate more people. Following a prosecution conducted by the interrogator, on Tuesday morning 20/9, state cops accompanied by a prosecutor, stormed into the house of comrades Panagiotis V. and Lambros V. The comrades were arrested and detained in GADA, where for several hours the reasons for their detention were not known and they were not given the right to communicate with their lawyers or their close ones. The next day, they were tried by the Single-Member Plenary Court in Evelpidon for violation of the weapons law and were later released. Continue reading “Greece: Financial support of the four comrades in pre-trial detention” →

Athens, Greece: ‘Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy.’ Document of the Open Assembly of Anarchists for the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito in front of the Italian Embassy

Posted on 2023/02/21 by darknights

‘Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy.’ Document of the Open Assembly of Anarchists for the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito in front of the Italian Embassy (Athens, Greece, Feb. 16, 2023)

We publish “Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy,” the call for the Feb. 16 initiative in front of the Italian Embassy in Athens in solidarity with anarchist Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike to the bitter end. The enormous movement of international solidarity that has manifested itself in recent months is proof of how to the isolation and censorship of the state and its prisons we will always oppose the tenacity and consistency of our ideas and practices. This text and the initiative of the Open Assembly of Anarchists, reaffirming the perspective of international revolutionary solidarity, are a further contribution in this regard.

* * *

UNTIL THE DEMOLITION OF EVERY PRISON. ALWAYS WITH ANARCHY

Because for those who love life, reacting when it is turned into surviving is a necessary act.
– Anna Beniamino, “Declaration of beginning hunger strike,” Nov. 7, 2022

Alfredo Cospito, imprisoned anarchist convicted of the crime “massacre” in the “Scripta Manent” trial – a charge concerning the double explosive attack on the Carabinieri Cadet School in Fossano, claimed by Rivolta Anonima e Tremenda / Federazione Anarchica Informale (RAT/FAI) – has been on hunger strike against the 41 bis prison regime and hostile life imprisonment since Oct. 20, when he was imprisoned in the Bancali prison in Sassari, Sardinia. Since May 5, and after ten years in prison, the state has chosen to reinforce the isolation of the comrade (who until then had contributed significantly to the debate among anarchists with letters, articles and interventions) through the detention regime provided for in Article 41 bis of the Italian Prison Order (the carcere duro), a law-abomination that, in essence, requalifies imprisonment into a form of special isolation even on the intellectual and sensory level. It is a suffocating stranglehold that almost completely nullifies communication and contact with the outside world, a torture of psychosomatic annihilation against militants in order to force them to political “repentance.”

Moreover, the purpose of this regime is to create a barrier to revolutionary-antiauthoritarian dialogue between comrades inside and outside prisons. Systematic censorship and the attempt to annihilate the very existence of political prisoners reveal the teeth of democracy and the fear of authoritarian forces of those who carry and spread the seed of revolt and attack for the demolition of the world of the state and capital.

Alfredo Cospito, a continuer of anarchist discourse and practice, raises the shield of the hunger strike to repel the vindictiveness of the state apparatus. The Italian state, with its fascist practices-through the last elections and beyond-has a long history of confrontational tension with anarchists, its enemies who over the years have had trials and investigations for their actions and beliefs, even at the cost of death.

Also imprisoned in the same annihilation regime are three political prisoners, members of the Red Brigades for the Construction of the Combatant Communist Party (BR-PCC) arrested in 2003, Nadia Lioce, Marco Mezzasalma and Roberto Morandi, while Diana Blefari – also a member of the BR-PCC and a longtime prisoner in the solitary confinement of the 41 bis regime – committed suicide in 2009.

With the approval of the new Penal Code and with the even more recent approval of the new Penitentiary Code by the Greek state, “maximum security” prisons or wards now have as their purpose “increased supervision” of “unruly” prisoners, apart, of course, from political prisoners, convicted under the main counterrevolutionary legal instrument par excellence applied to guerrilla warfare, 187A; all seven years after the abolition of Type C prisons thanks to the struggle waged through hunger strikes by political prisoners at the time. This latest development in the state’s legal arsenal is nothing less than a tendency to absolutize prison conditions, also placing a regulation on social confinement with surveillance and control outside the confines of the prison and opening a serious possibility for the introduction of solitary confinement and torture models (similar to 41 bis) in Greek prisons as well. Prisoners in Korydallos and Domokos prisons are still engaged in resistance mobilizations against the new and further authoritarian Penitentiary Code. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: ‘Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy.’ Document of the Open Assembly of Anarchists for the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito in front of the Italian Embassy” →

Greece: We are all comrades: Support the 4 persecuted anarchists EN/GR/FR/ES/DE

Posted on 2023/01/08 - 2023/01/08 by darknights

Support economically and politically the 4 persecuted comrades, who are under trial at 6 February 2023. The 4 anarchists are being persecuted, under “anti-terrorist” law, for participating in an allegedelly “terrorist” organization named “comrades”. No one alone against the state! International revolutionary solidarity!

The first solidarity banner for the 4 comrades, Exarcheia 10th March 2020. Banner, “In a world that human relationships are being criminalized, we are all comrades”

Chronicle of the prosecution

On March 8th and 9th 2020, after a state security operation three male and one female comrade are arrested. Τhe authorities’ sole piece of evidence was two cops having ‘visually’ identified the first arrested person on a video of the attack against the Mitsotakis* Foundation. The other three were arrested due to their friendly and comrade relationships. They now find themselves charged with an enormous case file which includes 55 attacks.

Based on the anti-terrorist Act 187A, they are charged with setting up and participating in an alleged terrorist organization under the name of “comrades” . The authorities are prosecuting the comrades based on attacks, actions and public addresses uploaded on counter-information platforms which had been signed using the term “comrades”. In this way, the police are attempting to bring any political action signed by “comrades” together under the umbrella of a collective terrorist organization.

A few words on the construct of the organization “comrades”, from the statement of the prosecuted female comrade in May 2020: /… / Behold then, the State, in its attempt to sell the ideological construct of “war against terrorism” fabricating organizations. They claim the terrorist organization they created by the name “comrades” to be a group that has acted since 2016 up to the present carrying out attacks in Athens. This reasoning goes beyond normality or reality in a way that can only be called ridiculous. In fact, the name of this infamous organization is but a sign-off used by the broader spectrum of anarchist/ antiauthoritarian groups for many years now. It was used, it is still being used and it will continue to be used. Anyone who searches can find hundreds of texts bearing the said signature all over Greece, most probably even abroad. This new stratagem, the use, that is, of a broader signature and its conversion into the name of a terrorist organization, is unprecedented and its only aim can be to “lump” together a wide, diverse and multi-faceted range of action on the part of the broader antiauthoritarian movement, as well as to terrorize all who belong there. It´s now the turn of the “solidary”, the “anarchists”, the “communists” to be called terrorist organizations and there’s no end to the lumping /…/ Continue reading “Greece: We are all comrades: Support the 4 persecuted anarchists EN/GR/FR/ES/DE” →

Greece: Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis – Speech of internationalist solidarity in the context of the trial of the Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense

Posted on 2023/01/08 - 2023/01/08 by darknights

FOR INTERNATIONALIST SOLIDARITY

There are moments when silence is an invitation to crime. There are moments when silence is complicity. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

You are guilty not only when you commit a crime, but also when you do nothing to prevent it when you have the opportunity. Dimitris Tsafendasⁱ

Since May ’22, a counter-revolutionary trial has been taking place against anarchist fighters, for participation in the armed Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense. This trial comes at a time when the state-capitalist regime is climaxing its aggression against the oppressed, the exploited and excluded. The anarchist Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis is also on trial for this case, while he has taken responsibility, both in public and in this courtroom, for his participation in revolutionary struggle through the Organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense, as well as for keeping the weapons (which in the repressive operation of November ‘19, fell into the hands of the state), in order to continue the guerrilla struggle through the experience and strategy of the Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense. The court of appeal of this particular military tribunal of the counter-revolution will be completed in January ‘23.

Throughout the course of this trial, Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis has been defending the right of revolutionary struggle, the necessity of guerrilla organization and of the armed social self-defense against the tyranny of power, and has been deconstructing and attacking bourgeois justice and its counter-revolutionary laws, inside the enemy field. With an eye to the world revolution, from the beginning of the trial, Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis is speaking about movements and struggles in all parts of the globe, expressing solidarity with those who are struggling, with current struggles, with the political prisoners and their fight today, and with reference to fighters who have been killed. These days, a struggle in italian prisons is taking place; comrade Alfredo Cospito is on hunger strike already for more than 65 days, against the state of total isolation, 41-bis, that has been imposed on him. With the awareness of how critical Alfredo Cospito’s struggle is, comrade Dimitris made extensive reference to Alfredo’s fight, during the trial. Meanwhile, the italian authorities rejected Alfredo’s demand for his removal from the 41-bis regime, and the comrade is continuing the hunger strike. Continue reading “Greece: Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis – Speech of internationalist solidarity in the context of the trial of the Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the explosive attack on the house of the First Counsellor of the Italian Embassy – “Carlo Giuliani” Vengeance Cell

Posted on 2022/12/08 - 2022/12/12 by darknights

Since 20/10 Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike against the prison regime imposed on him by the Italian state, under the name 41 bis. Alfredo Cospito has been a prisoner since 2012, having taken responsibility for the shooting of Roberto Adinolfi, director of Ansaldo Nucleare, an action carried out by the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (FAI/IRF). Since then the comrade remains unrepentant and continues to be committed to the cause of social liberation. For this reason, the Italian state decided to impose the 41 bis regime on him from 5 May, a prison within a prison where he will be in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, with one hour of pre-trial detention and meeting with other prisoners, who will be decided by the prison management, imposing full control over him, including which of his fellow prisoners he will associate with. Communication with friends and relatives will be limited to one hourly meeting per month, behind glass, or a 10-minute telephone call where the relative will have to make it from a police station or another prison. His right to possession of books and printed materials is also restricted, as is his correspondence. The exemption regime imposed by the Italian State on political prisoners and detainees through the 41 bis is now promoted for the entire consideration of the sentence and not the 4 years for which it was originally valid.

41 bis is a regime of political, social and sensory extermination, aimed at the complete elimination of all contact with the outside world. The aim is none other than the physical and moral extermination of those who choose the path of revolutionary vigilante justice against the tyranny of the state and capital. The extermination or the forcing of them to renounce their action is the essence of the laws of bourgeois justice, the so-called “anti-terrorist” laws, which provide for special conditions, wards and detention centres, isolation, torture and exterminating sentences, intended primarily for revolutionary organisations and their members, as many as the states label terrorists.

This is where the double contradiction of state terrorism emerges. First, it labels as terrorists those who rebel against the class-imposed terrorism of the rulers, reserving physical and moral extermination through its mechanisms, and at the same time the same mechanisms do not recognise the status of political prisoner or political opponent in those whom they try to exterminate. The State, therefore, cannot do real justice because it cannot speak the truth. Bourgeois “justice” is nothing but a mechanism for imposing and perpetuating class power over society.

Since the 1960s and its own storming of the heavens, the archipelago of the revolutionary, antagonistic movement on Italian soil, with armed guarded marches, occupations of factories and houses, self-motivations, organization of armed feminist movements and revolutionary organizations has proved that nothing is unattainable. From the actions of the BR/PCC in the 90s and 00s, to the attacks of the FAI/IRF and comrade Alfredo Cospito, the revolutionary thread continues to be woven with acts of resistance and emancipation that actively declare that nothing is over, and that revolutionary projects and visions remain relevant and alive in the ranks of the oppressed. And it is this thread, the historical continuity and memory that the fascist Meloni government, and every government before it, wants to silence and eradicate. The Italian state, faced with the archipelago of the revolutionary movement in its territories, has been forced to develop a series of repressive and counterinsurgency tools for decades, of which the 41 bis regime is an evolution. To this day, with the life-long imposition of the 41 bis torture regime, the Italian state is clearly leading its political opponents, those who try to do justice for the oppressed, into isolation and torture. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the explosive attack on the house of the First Counsellor of the Italian Embassy – “Carlo Giuliani” Vengeance Cell” →

Greece: Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis: For Alfredo Cospito. Text of Solidarity by the Members of Revolutionary Struggle

Posted on 2022/11/16 - 2022/11/16 by darknights

For Alfredo Cospito

Text of Solidarity by the Members of Revolutionary Struggle

Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis

The physical and moral extermination of revolutionary fighters and political prisoners, or the coercion of them into political renunciation and repentance, has been the goal of the State and capital throughout time. In order to achieve this aim, States have created special conditions of detention and isolation for those who took up arms against the regime, for those they call “terrorists”.

One example of special detention today is the Italian model under Article 41 bis.

Under Italian law, the Minister of “Justice” is given the right to lift the rules of treatment of some prisoners and order their transfer to special conditions of detention. The special conditions based on Article 41 bis impose complete social and sensory isolation, limiting contacts with other prisoners, limiting visits to one (1) per month with relatives, not by physical contact but through a glass partition, limiting, prohibiting, correspondence and the possession of books, shrinking prisoners’ exercise period to one (1) hour per day and increasing the time of confinement inside the cell.

These conditions are a form of torture aimed at crushing militant prisoners and in general those under this regime. Continue reading “Greece: Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis: For Alfredo Cospito. Text of Solidarity by the Members of Revolutionary Struggle” →

Athens, Greece: Political text by Anarchist Georgia Voulgari, a prisoner in the women’s prison of Korydallos

Posted on 2022/05/23 - 2022/05/23 by darknights

Political text by Georgia Voulgari, a prisoner in the women’s prison of Korydallos.

We are in a daily war, a war with the status quo, with every form of power that eats away at our lives, and in this war I realized where I belong. In a world where patriarchy rapes and kills us, where capitalism crushes us, impoverishing what we call life, in this world where humanity itself dominates nature and animals, perpetuating anthropocentric thinking and speciesism. So I chose sides. For the power complex will not destroy itself, no social change will come about unless our action transcends reformist logics, having a will to believe and a commitment to our ideas, putting theory into practice.

I proudly declare myself anarchist, proud that in this rotten society, the society of submission and spectacle, I did not bow my head before exploitation and power and chose to stand next to comrades who, by supporting the multiform struggle, also wrote their own page in the revolutionary historical memory. So far, living my new life next to them, in squats, through their common struggles for freedom, I learned what solidarity and comradeship is, what it means to give everything for what you believe in even if you are going to lose your freedom. I take the political responsibility that is due to me for my complicity in the incendiary attack that took place on 8/2 at the Foundation for National and Religious Reflection. A fragmentary action, which was not carried out by an organisation, namely the Anarchist Action organisation of which I am accused as a member, but was motivated by the desires and anger of two people against religious obscurantism, patriarchy and state power. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Political text by Anarchist Georgia Voulgari, a prisoner in the women’s prison of Korydallos” →