Anna Beniamino

Greece: 41 BIS is torture – Strength and solidarity with the unrepentant anarchist of praxis Alfredo Cospito EN/GR

Posted on 2022/10/12 - 2022/10/12 by darknights

41 BIS is torture – Strength and solidarity with the unrepentant anarchist of praxis Alfredo Cospito

Anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito has been in Italian prisons since September 2012. He has claimed responsibility for the shooting in the legs of Ansaldo Nucleare CEO Roberto Adinolfi by the Olga Cell of the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI-IRF).

From the very first moment of his detention, the Italian state has exercised all kinds of repressive experiments against the comrade. New prosecutions, new exhausting sentences, disciplinary sanctions, repressive operations against his political comrades. The comrade was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment for the action against Adinolfi, while in prison he was sentenced to an additional 20 years of imprisonment (which is appreciable in total, an equivalent sentence in Greece would be 2 times life) after the prosecutions brought against him within the framework of the repressive operation Scripta Manet. In essence, the comrade was convicted as an instigator for all the actions of the FAI, since he was accused as its founder and leader, in a case that deserves special mention as it is a monument to arbitrary interpretations and vindictiveness.

The Italian state is a hybrid state when it comes to issues of anti-terrorist policy. It is a model state for its brutality and rigour in these matters, having been called upon to manage low-intensity civil war conditions during the period when armed revolutionary movements flourished in the 1960s and 1980s. The Greek state has followed the Italian example on many occasions, one need only recall the similarities between the ‘Marini case’ in Italy and the ‘Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case’ in Greece. Continue reading “Greece: 41 BIS is torture – Strength and solidarity with the unrepentant anarchist of praxis Alfredo Cospito EN/GR” →

Italy: The only viable path. Manifesto in solidarity with the anarchist Alfredo Cospito EN/IT

Posted on 2022/10/12 - 2022/10/12 by darknights

THE ONLY VIABLE PATH

Since May 5, our comrade Alfredo Cospito has been imprisoned under the 41 bis regime. This measure was ordered after months of censorship on correspondence and after the repressive operation Sibilla in November 2021, for which he received a warrant for his arrest in prison. Behind this repressive tightening of Alfredo’s prison condition is the state’s blatant desire to shut the mouth of a comrade who, during these years of imprisonment, has contributed much, through articles and interventions, to the anarchist debate.

The 41 bis is a hard prison regime, created to isolate, silence and annihilate the prisoner, trying to bring him to cooperation with Justice. Established in the late 1980s, it was initially applied in exceptional cases of riots or serious emergencies within prison institutions. In 1992, after the Capaci massacre, it was extended to Mafia convicts. Since 2002 it has also been applied to those convicted of terrorism and subversion, thus as an instrument of political repression. Also currently in this regime are some prisoners belonging to the communist BR-PCC organization. Originally established as a detention regime of a temporary nature, from emergency to emergency, this exceptionality has become the norm. This mechanism is now bread and butter for the majority of the population since the proclamation of the so-called pandemic. It is now evident: established an emergency measure, there is never a return.

Alfredo’s transfer to 41 bis, like the recent convictions of Juan, sentenced to 28 years for an explosive attack on a Lega headquarters, and Anna, convicted along with Alfredo for political massacre, are a real warning from the state: those who spread anarchist and revolutionary practices and ideas are buried alive. The anti-anarchist operations of recent years are also an example of the repressive tightening we are experiencing. In the face of this, we cannot be reduced to cashing in as best we can on the blows the state gives us, waiting for better times.

It is urgent that we lay the groundwork for a revolutionary, international solidarity that is concrete.

The only antibodies to confront the catastrophe to which the state and bosses are leading us day by day are propaganda and action that know how to go to the root, expressing the innermost meaning of our struggle: the destruction of the existent without any mediation.

OUT ALFREDO FROM 41 BIS. ALL FREE, ALL FREE
DEATH TO THE STATE, LONG LIVE ANARCHY!

anarchists

[Received by e-mail]

Continue reading “Italy: The only viable path. Manifesto in solidarity with the anarchist Alfredo Cospito EN/IT” →

Rome, Italy: Presidium at National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate (DNAA) on September 30

Posted on 2022/09/28 - 2022/11/16 by darknights

Presidium at DNAA on September 30 in Rome

Against 41 bis
Against anti-anarchist repression
For revolutionary solidarity with Alfredo Cospito and all comrades affected by the state
Fire to all jails
Free all

Presidium at the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate, responsible for the application of 41 bis.
Friday, September 30, 10 a.m., Vicolo della Moretta, Rome.

Continue reading “Rome, Italy: Presidium at National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate (DNAA) on September 30” →

Rome, Italy: Interruption of a democratic kermesse in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2022/09/25 by darknights

On the evening of September 20, in Rome, we interrupted a democratic kermesse that took place at the Troisi cinema. The evening’s special guests were the critical philosopher Noam Chomsky and the committed filmmaker Ken Loach. We stormed in with a banner that read ‘Against every prison. 41 bis = torture. Freedom for Alfredo’, threw leaflets and read the following text.

ALFREDO OUT FROM 41 BIS
FREEDOM FOR EVERYONE

Since May 5, our comrade Alfredo Cospito has been imprisoned under the 41 bis regime.

The 41 bis is a regime of institutionalised torture, created to isolate, silence and annihilate the prisoner, thus trying to bring him to collaboration with justice. We do not want to demand more comfortable cages, nor do we want to be victims. We are against all prisons, we would like to see them burn. We are not surprised or outraged, we know very well that all this happens within a democratic regime. Democracy is based on the annihilation of the internal and external enemy. This is not a novelty linked to the advent of the so-called pandemic, this mechanism is inherent to representative democracy which, because it provides for representatives, necessarily creates an unbridgeable gap with the represented. Quite simply, for the past two years, we think that democratic regimes have dropped their masks: repression for all, permanent states of emergency, compulsory vaccination, green passes, persecution of those who do not play by the rules, rationing, etc. The situation is self-evident.

The state is giving us a warning: those who spread anarchist and revolutionary practices and ideas are buried alive. Examples of this are the recent convictions of Juan Sorroche (28 years in prison for an attack on a Lega Nord headquarters) and Anna Beniamino (sentenced together with Alfredo for political massacre, a sentence of life imprisonment). The repressive tightening we are experiencing cannot go unnoticed, we cannot get bogged down in wait-and-see. These are hard times, but better times will not come if we do not act now.

That is why it is important to pretend for Alfredo’s removal from 41 bis with all our strength, to spread anarchist ideas and to claim the practices for which he was convicted, practices that have always been part of the anarchist movement.

To the democrats and false critics we have nothing to say… we just wanted to spoil your party.

FREEDOM FOR THE PROSECUTED ANARCHISTS
DEATH TO THE STATE, LONG LIVE ANARCHY

[In italian: https://fuoridallariserva.noblogs.org/post/2022/09/21/roma-interruzione-di-kermesse-democratica-in-solidarieta-con-alfredo-cospito/].

Trento, Italy: ‘War on war’. Incendiary attack against vehicles at the military housing construction site (August 3, 2022)

Posted on 2022/09/25 by darknights

Trento, night of August 2 to 3. Arson attack against the machinery on the construction site of new housing for the military in the south of the city of Trento. A tag “War on war” was left on the spot. Against the war between states, against the state and its war on those who still raise their heads, solidarity with Juan, Alfredo and Anna.

[Published in italian here: https://ilrovescio.info/2022/08/15/guerra-alla-guerra-unazione-a-trento/]

Source: La Nemesi

Cochabamba, Bolivia: Claim of arson attack against patrol car of the Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra la Violencia (Special Force to Fight against Violence)

Posted on 2022/09/18 by darknights

In the early morning of September 12, at 2:40 a.m., we placed an incendiary device composed of four half-liter plastic bottles with gasoline, tied with adhesive tape, which were set on fire by means of a wick that we assembled with 5 matches and 3 incenses tied with rubber bands.

We placed this rudimentary device behind one of the front wheels to ensure that the main damage was in the engine area.

Although all of their cars are incendiary, the choice of a Special Anti-Violence Force van is not random. There is no exception, every police force is the enemy and we don’t buy their song and dance about fighting against gender violence. The patriarchy will fall when the last stone of this prison society falls. We abhor their gendered capitalism. We abhor its State spawn forced on unfathomable differences to satisfy the needs of post-colonial oligarchies. We do not demand anything from the institutions, we do not want any police in our neighborhoods and communities with the story of women’s security. You, murderous cops, are the phallus (now scorched) of patriarchy!

We had a lot of fun imagining how you tried to put out the fire with your little buckets, you lackeys!

This action is for María Fernanda murdered by the police in the EPI of Chasquipampa in 2021, as well as for all those raped and murdered by this enemy institution. We do not want reforms of the police, we want its destruction! We do not demand the judiciary or its ministries, we want to see them burn! We invite you to set fire to their vans with this simple system that we have proven to be effective. It is easy and fun. Continue reading “Cochabamba, Bolivia: Claim of arson attack against patrol car of the Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra la Violencia (Special Force to Fight against Violence)” →

Italy: 25/09 in Genoa against Anti-Anarchist Repression EN/IT

Posted on 2022/09/18 - 2022/09/18 by darknights

Squeezed in the grip of health emergencies, wars, increasingly fierce domestic repression, energy crisis, economic recession, systematic erosion of individual freedoms, dismantling of acquired rights and widening social gaps, we are asked for an act of blind loyalty like that of the dog that, though clubbed, does not shy away from its master’s oppression, of resigned submission to the inevitability of these events: the chorus of politicians of all colors, of masters, of regime shouters re-propose to us the fatuous promise of the solution of the problems that grip the daily lives of most, of the common well-being, to be obtained, as it happens, through “tears and blood” sacrifices to which we should also, ironically, grant our consent in the electoral ballet. It seems to us that this spectacle is a painful rerun. The assent and social cohesion demanded of us are aimed more at feeding the interests of political apparatuses and the business dealings of the masters of the economy, these already closely coalesced at several levels for some time, who thrive on the backs bent by the chain of labor and necessity. To us anarchist comrades, libertarians, rebels, refractory to authority, the way forward seems clear: to resolutely oppose against this power that suffocates us and against the state, the men and women who represent it, against prisons and all places where anyone is imprisoned, against the political and economic institutions that speculate, plundering the planet’s natural resources and degrading our lives. We claim the necessity of the conflict against this state of affairs because we are aware that the oppression we experience is the result of processes that unfold historically in a well-defined way, that this system of exploitation will not exhaust itself, that it is up to us, here and now, to pursue the idea of freedom to which we aspire. And it is to this clash that we bring back, without victimhood, the meaning of repression when it targets us: repression and prisons will continue to exist as long as there is a state to bring down and that will do everything not to fall, exposing any illusion of democratic justice. This confrontation is burying in prison so many and so many of our most generous comrades, Anna, Alfredo, Juan, Monica, Francisco, Davide, Claudio, decades in jail, whole lives facing isolation, censorship, physical and psychological violence of rigid detention regimes. Yet they defend tooth and nail the idea they keep alive in their beleaguered hearts. We do not want to be outdone; their courage and determination inspire our paths out here. Since May 5, our comrade Alfredo Cospito has been locked up in the Bancali prison near Sassari in 41 bis, an extremely severe detention regime that involves almost total isolation, absence of sociability, and almost complete censorship of correspondence, the recording of the monthly 10-minute phone call and the interview reduced to one hour a month behind a partition screen without the possibility of any physical contact, constant body and cell searches, the very reduced availability of even everyday objects (clothes, books, paper and pen) and always subject to the arbitrariness of the jailers. Such a penalizing and fundamentally vindictive measure is clearly aimed at silencing the voice and ideas of a comrade who, over the years, has made a decisive contribution, with his theoretical critique and practice, to the anarchist debate; to annihilate him because he perseveres with determination and dignity in his path of struggle; to dampen, with the specter of exemplary punishment, the initiative of comrades outside in solidarity. In Genoa, three comrades who did not spare themselves in supporting Alfredo and the other imprisoned comrades are affected by special surveillance orders requested by the usual prosecutor Federico Stalker Manotti, in an attempt to isolate them and inhibit those close to them; a further request for surveillance has been issued for another comrade in Genoa, and a hearing against him will be held on September 28. These are the reasons why we have decided to take to the streets in Genoa next September 25, a date, that of the elections, which is symbolic of the farce of the social contract being renewed on the skin of all of us; if the machine of domination advances with all its apparatuses to engulf the lives of comrades, in our most disruptive desire for freedom, hatred of authority and active solidarity we can find adequate levers to crack the enemy’s front. We invite you to join us. When repression becomes tight and lashing, the response must be clear, determined and consistent. Let us break the isolation into which they would like to plunge our comrades. Let us deploy ideas, forces, strategies in response to the anti-anarchist campaign that the state has been waging for almost a decade now.

Solidarity is a weapon, let’s use it!!!

Out Alfredo from 41bis. Against all prisons

Continue reading “Italy: 25/09 in Genoa against Anti-Anarchist Repression EN/IT” →

France: “I know that there, somewhere, other comrades continue the struggle.” Letter from Ivan, anarchist comrade arrested in Paris

Posted on 2022/08/30 - 2022/08/30 by darknights

“I know that there, somewhere, other comrades continue the struggle.”

Letter from Ivan, anarchist comrade arrested on June 11 on the outskirts of Paris

15 VI 22

My name is Ivan, I am an anarchist.

I was arrested by the Sous-diréction anti-térrorisme [SDAT] of the French police on Saturday, June 11, around 3:30 a.m., near my home (suburbs of Paris), on my way home.

I am accused of six vehicle fires, in Paris and Montreuil, between January and June, often in solidarity with anarchist prisoners (the last one, an embassy car, was set on fire in the 17th arrondissement of Paris on the night of my arrest).

The cops followed me for months, listened to my phone calls, installed a camera in the entrance of the building where I live, intercepted my mail (especially letters from imprisoned anarchists) and looked at my bank account.

Another person (we know each other only by sight, but to him all my esteem) has been followed, listened to, etc., but has not been challenged. Courage friend!

The SDAT investigation began in late February 2022 on the orders of prosecutor Louise-Anne Belanger of the Bobigny prosecutor’s office. They also pulled from their drawers another archived investigation, which had been done by other cops, into some 50 arson attacks against vehicles, all in and around Paris, between 2017 and 2021. SDAT “merged” the two investigations, but the judge (Stéphanie Labarge [?], of the Bobigny court) retained only the last six attacks. For the others, I am an “assisted witness” [the equivalent of “person informed about the facts”].

In addition to “destruction by dangerous means,” there is also the charge of endangering the lives of others, refusal to give my DNA, refusal to have my photograph taken, refusal to give fingerprints, refusal to give passwords to computers and phones.

Right now, I am in pre-trial detention at Villepinte Prison. I am fit, I am fine, although I miss my loved ones very much.

Normal, it’s prison, and you have to put it on the line when you are an enemy of this society.

Here, the hardest time is when we come back from the walk. The door closes and we stay here until the next day. But I turn to the window and look out. I know that there, somewhere, other comrades continue the struggle.

As soon as I get more information on this story, I will write more (I don’t have much else to do!).

My thoughts go out to the anarchists in prison everywhere in the world: to Damien (in prison in Draguignan), to Alfredo, to Anna, to Juan, to Toby, to Giannis Michailidis on hunger strike… to all/all of you out there!

Solidarity is the attack!

Long live anarchy!

Ivan

Source: Il Rovescio

Italy: Cassation Scripta Manent: some considerations and clarifications

Posted on 2022/08/11 by darknights

Cassation Scripta Manent: some considerations and clarifications

This writing stems from the need to explain to comrades what will happen after the Cassation ruling for the Scripta Manent trial issued on July 6.

Starting with the most serious convictions, the court requalified the explosive attack against the Carabinieri’s student school in Fossano(Cuneo) on June 2, 2006 and claimed by Rivolta Anonima e Tremenda / Federazione Anarchica Informale as a “political massacre” (art. 285 c. p.), referring the case back to the Turin Court of Appeals for a peggiorative recalculation of the sentence with the risk of life imprisonment for comrades Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino.

In addition, all other convictions handed down in the Court of Appeals were upheld with sentences ranging from 2 years and 6 months to 1 year and 6 months for 11 comrades and acquittals for the rest of the defendants.

The convictions and acquittals as of now are final.

Continue reading “Italy: Cassation Scripta Manent: some considerations and clarifications” →

Rome, Italy: 10 cars are not enough…

Posted on 2022/08/06 by darknights

Rome, 10 cars are not enough…

In the early hours of May 27, we carried out an incendiary action against the Enjoy carpooling vehicles belonging to the multinational ENI s.p.a. (national hydrocarbon company) in the Tuscolana-Cinecittà area of Rome. According to local newspapers, 10 cars were completely destroyed, while four others were seriously damaged.

ENI has always been one of the pillars of Italian capitalism, and its interests coincide with those of the State and, consequently, of the governments that succeed one another in administering it, whether they are of the right or the left, because its profits and infrastructures are strategic insofar as they strengthen the State in which they are located, being fundamental for the preservation of economic power, in the contemporary configuration of the capitalist productive system.

ENI is present in many countries where local and international conflicts are active for the control of energy resources: Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Kazakhstan (note that not a word was heard against the oligarch Putin when he sent his troops to quell the uprisings that broke out in that country), to name but a few. In these places, energy in the form of fossil fuels has been extracted from the earth for decades to feed the energy needs of Western industry, in a pattern that takes the form of true neo-colonialism. These extractive activities, it should be remembered, carry great risks for the environment and indigenous populations, especially in countries where controls and safety systems are consciously minimized in order to maximize profits, as in the case of the Niger Delta, an area severely devastated by continuous crude oil spills and the dispersion of gases and combustion residues resulting from extraction activities into the air. Continue reading “Rome, Italy: 10 cars are not enough…” →