Conspiracy of Cells of Fire

Notes on New Anarchy – A talk about the New Anarchy trend by Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Spyros Mandylas and Cell of Chaotic Strike (2013)

Posted on 2025/04/21 - 2025/04/21 by darknights

The following interviews were given by Spyros Mandylas and Christos Tsakalos (CCF) on events organized by anarchist collectives (mentioned above each interview) and on self-organized anarchist radio 105FM. In addition, a brochure of Cell of Chaotic Strike accompanies the collected speaches. Some parts within the text might sound repetive, exactly because there were similar questions on different interviews. The point of this article, was to collect most of them (if not all), in order to give a clear picture of what New Anarchy is.

—Dubus Dumno

Anarchist Haunt “Nadir”. Thessaloniki 7/12/2013

Spyros Mandylas, member of the meeting of the Anarchist Haunt “Nadir”.

Q: Would you like to start by telling us which political features shape New Anarchy and how it differs from the traditional one? Also, what kind of problems do you spot within the so-called “official” anarchy?

S.M: In those last few years New Anarchy is being discussed quite a lot, this new drift, so it would be right to give a definition as well; what do we mean with this term and what is its difference with traditional anarchy and that what is called the “official anarchist movement”. The “trend of New Anarchy” is what we used to say some time ago, a new anarchy within Anarchy. I believe that’s how it all started. Its main features are anti-societism, the anarcho-indivualist perception, existential analyses, informal organization, direct action – which is a very basic feature, nihilist perception and much more. We will now look into some individual points to better clarify what this trend is, what this thought is. By “anti-societism” we do not mean, obviously, a pogrom against the populations and innocent citizens. Anti-societism speaks of a war that is waged against the state and, at the same time, harshly criticizes society. So what we are saying is this: the rulers and the administrators of power, are given their positions by certain someones; someone elects them and someone tolerates them. For this reason, the “oppressed” citizen is not without responsibilities. This passivity and voluntary slavery is a problematic situation, which should not be left untouched and out of criticism. Now, another important structural difference, in relation to traditional anarchy, is that New Anarchy does not speak of a social catechism; it speaks of anarchist diffusion of ideas. It’s completely different. This new trend is not meant to persuade, but to communicate. New Anarchy does not talk about the revolution, placing it in an indefinite future, but it talks about the present, here and now. New Anarchy presupposes the coupling of theory and practice and does not want clappers, but accomplices. New Anarchy, as I have experienced it, is aimed for minorities. Nowadays, when various means such as strikes, funeral-like marches, symbolic building-occupation and protests are ineffective and act as decompression valves; we do not consider it just a wrong strategy, we consider it stupid to when you call yourself an anarchist, yet fight for better living standards. Anarchy cannot replace the welfare state, nor can it be a kind of union for students and workers as it has become in recent years.

Q: How would you comment on the term “vanguard” that has been attributed to New Anarchy?

S.M: This characterization of the New Anarchy trend has, in fact, been attributed to some others. This characterization is completely wrong in relation to what this new current stands for. I’ll start by saying what I read recently: “Anyone who thinks they know everything is doomed to learn nothing.” What is true is that there is no person, no book and no trend that says how the revolution will take place. The constant revolt does not obey any truth and has no recipe for how this theoretical revolution will take place. This characterization of “vanguard”, I personally, return it to the official movement, which believes that its actions and interventions in various, cinematic, intermediate struggles, will act as a trigger for the social or any other revolution. Anyone who considers themselves a pioneer is arrogant and, therefore, is doomed to stand still in a situation.

Q: You are involved in the part of New Anarchy’s idea-diffusion. How important do you think it is for a bridge to exist between the trends of New Anarchy and why do you think that the state, in addition to armed action, is targeting such actions? An example of this phenomenon is translation networks and the international media. What do you think is their role?

SM: Speaking of New Anarchy, we are essentially talking about a dialectical relationship between theory and praxis, between the public image and the illegal. This relationship is, I believe, a very important part of New Anarchy. This new trend is essentially made up of direct action teams, collectives, blogs, websites and radios, book/brochure publication or translation groups and much more. This tendency, organized on the characteristics of informal organization, affinity groups, internationalist solidarity and having a specific political analysis, is a very significant and difficult opponent for our enemies. Essentially, when we talk about New Anarchy, we are talking about concepts such as “anti-societism”, “anarcho-individualism” … We are talking about an existential analysis and view that goes beyond the stagnation of a class orientation and refers to the sabotage of social relations.

For New Anarchy, revolution is not placed at an indefinite time in the future, but it is demanded in the present, as we believe that mass preparation cannot in any case be one of the preconditions for revolution. New Anarchy speaks of war on the state and harshly criticizes society. It is clear that for the suffering of the oppressed, the oppressed themselves are not without responsibilities. For me, they are a voluntary mass that through various procedures have advocated for their tyranny.

Now, regarding why the state, in addition to armed formations of direct action, is also targeting public structures (translation and publication structures and so on), this is due in part to the fact that it fully realizes the effectiveness of these operations in ongoing anarchism; the uprising. To be more specific, I believe that the state would prefer armed groups, without public speech and presence. As it would also prefer to see the international media become consumed by harmless, theoretical analyses. So when the state sees that there are some bridges between the two, it makes total sense for it to do everything it can to break them down. In practice, we can see this in Italy over the last two years, where we several repressive operations had taken place; in operation “Ardire”, in operation “Shadow”, we saw exactly this thing. We have seen persecution not only against individuals for direct action but also against translation websites. As it happened, for example, with the “Culmine” website and the “Kerveros” publications. This means they’re doing a good job. If half thing is the immediate action, the other half is how it will reach the recipient.

Operation Phoenix, for example, has already counted eight strikes. The four have taken place in Greece and the other four have taken place in Indonesia, Russia and Chile. If it weren’t for all these networks, that didn’t exist before, we wouldn’t have learned anything. So, we notice how they interact together and how much they break down borders. In recent years, a large volume of political texts has been translated from language to language on these sites and translation networks. For example, there, today you will find the book “Armed Joy” by Nadir Publications. At the same time, a week ago, the book “Armed Joy” was published in Indonesian. The books of the Conspiracy of Fire Cores and the Black International are constantly being translated. This is a terrific job, it is very important. Continue reading “Notes on New Anarchy – A talk about the New Anarchy trend by Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Spyros Mandylas and Cell of Chaotic Strike (2013)” →

Bandung, West Java, Indonesia: “Reject the National Army law”, “No Rules, Just Chaos”, and “Burn World Bank” wrote by a group of informal affinity

Posted on 2025/03/22 by darknights

We are responsible for the burning of Two Hana Bank ATM machines, the Hana Bank office building, a capitalist-owned advertising videotron, and a motor vehicle belonging to the Indonesian National Army. The arson occurred after a space occupation carried out by demonstrators in the aftermath of a demonstration against the passage of the Indonesian National Army Law (TNI law), the arson occurred in Bandung, West Java on Friday night 21/03/2025.

The action carried out by the demonstrators in front of the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) was not ignored at all by anti-riot police, despite the throwing of molotov cocktails, propane, stones and firecrackers into the veranda of the building. Until in the end, we chose direct action by burning at several points above.

We are completely beyond the authority of the language of the state and capitalism, we are irrationality, we are a form of the illogicality of the authority of the language itself. We are one of the informal organizations of the end of the world who do not believe in the coming of enlightenment for tomorrow, because for us the future is a new form of suffering. We are a fire that devours entire city buildings at night. We do not believe in the revolution of the left and other social anarchists. We are writers and poets, insurrection is poetry, poetry is insurrection.

Death to The State!
Death to The National Army!
Death to an Entire Civilization!
Burn The World Bank!
Long Live The Conspiracy of Cells of Fire!
Long Live The Free Association of Autonomous Fire!
Long Live FAI/IRF Long Live Anarchy!

Continue reading “Bandung, West Java, Indonesia: “Reject the National Army law”, “No Rules, Just Chaos”, and “Burn World Bank” wrote by a group of informal affinity” →

Chile: Interview with the band La Lira Libertaria

Posted on 2025/02/16 - 2025/02/16 by darknights

Chile: Interview with the band La Lira Libertaria

Interview between the band La Lira Libertaria in Chile and JURNAL ANARKI in Indonesia.

1. What motivates you in creating this band? The song “Armate” feels like a homage to the memory of insurrectionary Mauricio Morales, how do you elaborate your music and band with anarchist revolt?

The band was formed to show political solidarity and fill the spaces that we frequented around 2009 and a little before: squat houses and social centers mainly. At first the Lira was a paper piece of popular poetry that we printed that year and that rescues the tradition of the popular poets of the late 19th century and early 20th century, but with anarchist content. The formation as a musical band began later around 2010 in the context of the “Bombs Case” and sought to contribute to the spaces that were hit. The song Ármate is undoubtedly a tribute to the comrade Mauricio Morales Duarte who fell in action on May 22, 2009. The lyrics are an adaptation of one of his poems, and the girl who sings it with us was his partner, which is little known. We wrote it for the second commemoration of his death, and we presented it at the now defunct “Cueto con Andes” social center, where Punky Mauri himself visited and contributed to. Some time later, comrade Luisa Toledo would make her words even more well-known: beautifully violent. Sometimes people confuse this and think that they are words from our dear grandmother Luisa, but she took them because it was her favorite song by the band. That way, the songs and its stories are directly related to our recent political processes, and to the revolt and resistance against the neoliberal model in Chile.

2. From our informal discussion in the past you hinted that most of you come from the specific tendency of combative anarchy, can you tell us more about this?

Yes, we all met at the time we were studying, around 2006 onwards, and we were part of the riots and street-based struggles, like so many young people in Santiago. That is why we lived through the processes of the student rebellions of those years and the protests for the release of political prisoners, environmental projects, the denunciation of capitalist democracy and the anarchist movement.

The insurrectional anarchist movement was constantly attacking the system in that decade and even later, when the band was already formed. That’s what our songs are about, that’s why in them there are stories of attack, escape, prison and joyful rebellion too. The band grew up with this marginal discourse, and with the October 2019 revolt it achieved greater notoriety, since it had been talking about the contradictions of the capitalist model for a long time.

3. People from non-latin speaking countries are amazed by the growing anarchist tension in Chile, especially the diverse anarchic movement, the regeneration of the youth, and the especially heavy repression that the anarchists faced amidst all of this yet still retain their combative and insurrectionary action – what’s really making all of this possible?

As I see it, the commitment to the struggle is explained since it is part of generations and generations of combatants, since the times of dictatorship (1973-1990) and even before. It is linked to our families, to our disappeared detainees, and to the indigenous culture itself, which tells us that the Mapuche tirelessly resisted the Spanish.

In that political environment we grow. This is even stronger considering that democracy stained its hands with the blood of the fighters against the dictatorship, and imprisoned those who continued fighting against capitalism. Figures like Claudia López, murdered in the commemoration of the coup d’état in 1998, and so many other Chilean and Mapuche young people, this fueled since childhood our desire to fight, our desire for freedom and our love for our compañeros.

Perhaps that is the most important component, and what explains everything: the love of the struggle and the memory of the comrades who fell fighting and those who still fight to this day. That is why anarchists, despite being beaten time and time again, maintain their action, because it is also a way of carrying within us our beloved compañeros who were taken from us. Continue reading “Chile: Interview with the band La Lira Libertaria” →

Realities Behind the Arrest of Nikos Romanos

Posted on 2024/11/27 by darknights

This is an attempt to provide information and context for those outside Greece concerning the recent state abduction of anarchist Nikos Romanos.

On 31 October, 2024, an explosion in the Athens neighborhood of Ampelokopoi killed the comrade Kyriakos X and severely injured the comrade Marianna M.

They were both in an apartment where an explosive device detonated, knocking out one wall of the building. The state claims they were planning to detonate a bomb elsewhere and that it exploded prematurely. Both Kyriakos and Marianna are anarchists, respected participants in the movement.

The press in Greece is owned by a handful of old families who control most of the remaining greek assets– those that haven’t been sold off to foreign investors. The Greek mainstream media exists to disseminate state narratives, and it immediately began slandering the victims of the explosion as well as engaging in wild speculation– such as that the israeli embassy was the intended target. Whether or not that’s true, it is true that israeli mossad agents came to assist the Greek police in their investigations. Since the explosion, the state has made additional arrests of people it claims are somehow connected to the apartment and its lease, sublease, etc.

As the Greek press promoted the propaganda of the state, there commenced activity in some cowardly corners of the left to distinguish the more “guilty” of those accused from the others. This is the question of who to tar with the labels of “anarchist” and “terrorist” — thereby assumed to deserve repression– vs. who is really “innocent.”

The anarchist movement itself, both in Greece and internationally, has rejected such division and remained strong in solidarity despite a chilling increase in repression. There were multiple support gatherings outside the hospital where Marianna was held under guard and when, shortly after her second surgery, she was transferred to Korydallos prison, comrades also gathered there. Kyriakos has been honored with actions, banners, marches, events and memorials, and will remain a beloved comrade forevermore. There has been no “disavowal,” no step back.

Since the tragedy in Ampelokopoi state repression against those suspected of being “anarchists” has become more aggressive, although this is consistent with an ongoing trend since the pandemic. What we have seen now are not new tactics but an increase in frequency: police actions such as stopping and searching people around the neighborhood Exarcheia, early-morning “preventative detention” of targeted individuals (people considered politically prominent) on the days of demonstrations and marches, and an increase in surveillance of those the greek state has a grudge against, including by parking unmarked cars with surveillance equipment in front of their homes.

Few people in the anarchist movement here have been under as heavy surveillance, long-term, as the comrade Nikos Romanos. He was a friend of the anarchist Alexis Grigoropolous, and witnessed Alexis’ murder by police on 6 December 2008. Since that time Nikos has been arrested many times and accused of many crimes, along with false accusations of involvement with the direct action group Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. Continue reading “Realities Behind the Arrest of Nikos Romanos” →

“We refuse consensus, their dilemmas, social peace.”

Posted on 2024/07/12 - 2024/07/12 by darknights

Responsibility claim for the burnt ballot box in Exarcheia

June 18, 2012

Responsibility claim for the burnt ballot box in Exarcheia, Athens on the night of the election of June 17th, 2012.

Everything around us seems to unwind in coercive binaries: memorandum/anti-memorandum, drachma/euro, fascism/anti-fascism. Perhaps even among our ranks it is necessary to take a position, to take a stance in this liminal conjuncture. Yet we don’t for a moment forget the only real binary: Revolution or consistency with the existent.

We refuse consensus, their dilemmas, social peace. Security concerns the profits of local and international capital; freedom concerns everyone else. The state and capital, the fascist and the banks are no invisible forces. They have names and addresses. They’d better begin to count down their days of plenty.

We look behind, in the past few years, at tough struggles. How can the barricades and the fires of February 12th fit in ballot boxes? How can the voices shouting “Enough!” fit in these boxes, voices raised by the few, the dignified proletarians at the times of wage fear and subordination? How can the struggles fit in those boxes, the struggles fought city after city, neighbourhood after neighbourhood, with the scum of GD? How can our brothers and sisters fit, those who are missing from our side, yet they are always next to us, even when in the cells of the regime?

At these liminal times, which have no space for reservations we attempt the unthinkable and we make the above ‘fit’. The 1000ml of petrol that we placed in the ballot box of the 18th polling station in Exarcheia at the June 17th elections are our 1000 votes, they are our 1000 challenges in an unpacifiable war.

The revolution first and always

P.S. A raised fist for the comrade Olga Oikonomidou*

Claim for expropriation and arson of polling boxes

07/07/2019

Our ears are ringing with the desperate calls from parties and other political actors to participate in the democratic electoral process. A small group of comrades were moved by the pathetic vote beggars and armed with determination, the will for direct action and our sledgehammers we participated in the democratic fiasco. We broke with the above the delegation regime that prevails as normality and formed our own terms of attack and sabotage in their celebration .

We therefore take responsibility for the invasion of the 33rd Athens polling station a few minutes before the end of the process, where we expropriated a ballot box. On our entry we frantically searched the police guarding the polling station, but as we found out while they were there they chose to play hide and seek (successfully, it is true). At the moment of our departure we left a gift of a (stolen by cops) tear gas canister to the deadbeat party clerks and the willing democratic garbage of the election committees. A few seconds later we consigned the inside of the ballot box to the only fate it deserves: fire.

This action is a warm welcome from our side to Kyriakos Mitsotakis and New Democracy, who have promised to finish us off. We are waiting for you…

SABOTAGE OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

FIRE IN THE BALLOTS

Ballot arsonists

DN Note

*Olga Economidou was arrested on 14/03/2011, in Volos, along with another 4 CCF’s members, after a night raid by police’s special forces and Anti-terrorist squads at the house they where living. In December of 2014, she was sentened to 25 years in prison in the Fire Conspiracy Cells case.

She was previously tried for participating in street fights during the Polytehnio memorial demonstration, on 17/11/1998. She was prosecuted for “Volos case” (alleged bank robbery, while being dressed up like cops), for her involvement with explosives and guns, which were found on other people prosecuted for the same case (arrests in Pireus and Kallithea), for the 14 parcel bombs case, for the case concerning 250 attacks by CCF between 2008 and 2011, for the text in solidarity with Anarchist Squat Nadir (second eviction in October 2011) and for instigation concerning “Phoenix” project. She was also under investigation concerning “Ardire” case, which was launched on June 2012 by the Italian prosecuting authorities, which claim to have found and confiscated letters from her, in the houses of Italian comrades prosecuted for the case.

In 2016 she was sentenced to 115 years of prison together with 10 other members of CCF in the trial connected with the escape plan. Now released.

Santiago, Chile: Claiming responsibility for the incendiary attack on a bus. 15 years after your death in action. MAURICIO MORALES YOU LIVE IN THE FIRE. – Incendiary cell for the individual action Severino Di Giovanni BLACK VENGEANCE /FAI-IRF

Posted on 2024/06/07 - 2024/06/07 by darknights

15 years after your death in action. MAURICIO MORALES YOU LIVE IN THE FIRE.

“On my back lying on the floor of the street, with the frozen cement, I see my fall pass close by and I see myself lying on this very spot… with my heart beating in a hurry and the rain washing hard the blood from my surroundings”

Mauricio Morales

“We keep our dead in our hearts. We carry them with us in wild moments when the anarchist attack disturbs the order of this world. Anarchy has neither victims nor heroes.”

Conspiracy Cells of Fire

On May 27, 2024 at a few hours before midnight we stormed a public transport bus. With a clear objective, to break the monotony of the city’s rhythm and illuminate the cold night of May in memory of the anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales.

15 years ago… on May 22, 2009 around 1:30 am, a roar shook the silent and cold night of the Matta neighborhood. The wit that transported in the direction of the damned school of gendarmerie of Chile had detonated in advance, the Punky Mauri as he was known in the anarchist environments, died at the instant of the detonation melting with the device that had been arranged to place in that nefarious institution.

Today we remember you with action. That bomb in which you met your death resounds in every complicit gesture that attempts against domination.

We want to contribute to the call for a Black May, an anti-prison May, an anarchist May. It is still time to generate and strengthen offensive complicities, to keep alive the anarchic action. To keep alive the memory of those who went on the offensive, to be an embrace in solidarity with those who are in the dungeons of capital, to contribute in some way to break its precious social peace.

More than a year after their arrest, we embrace the anarchist comrades Aldo and Lucas Hernandez, this also goes for you.

We call for action and to make visible the prison situation and the attempt to bury through isolation the Anarchist comrade Francisco Solar.

Freedom for: Juan Aliste, Marcelo Villaroel, Mónica Caballero, Joaquín García, Aldo and Lucas Hernández, Francisco Solar, Juan Flores, Anti-speciesist Prisoners, Political Prisoners and Mapuche Political Prisoners.

FIRE AND DYNAMITE TO THE JAIL. FIRE AND LEAD TO THE JAILER.
TO MULTIPLY AND INTENSIFY THE ATTACKS, BY THE EXPANSION OF THE ANARCHIST URBAN GUERRILLA.
AGAINST THE PRISON AND DOMINATION SOCIETY.
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!

Incendiary cell for the individual action Severino Di Giovanni
BLACK VENGEANCE /FAI-IRF

Source: Informativo Anarquista

PDF: “Mauricio Morales Presente” by Black International publications

Posted on 2024/05/30 by darknights

No experience can be summarized with a bit of ink and paper.
Even less the experience of someone who decided to provoke the dominators with every possible way and any place. There are no pages which can effectively illustrate someone who died while fighting against authority. Inside these pages therefore, is not the whole of Mauri’s life.
We do not condense all of his experiences and the moments our paths met.
We honestly desire that this is not the last collection of his writings.
We are not owners of his thoughts, the events he experienced or his analyses.
We hope that more material related to him will come to light, not as a fetish, not as a day on the calendar, but probably as a memory longing its moment.

MAURI, THE INSURRECTIONISTS DO NOT FORGET YOU

PDF: Mauricio Morales Book – Cover

PDF: Mauricio Morales Book – Contents (Greek Language)

English version can be read here: https://actforfree.noblogs.org/2021/05/23/mauricio-morales-lets-turn-the-city-to-ashes-a-collection-of-writings-by-and-for-a-fallen-comrade-antiago-hile-septiembre-negro-2009-english-edition-2014/

(Chile) Mauricio Morales on the map of the international anarchist offensive by Informativo Anarquista EN/ES

Posted on 2024/05/28 by darknights

From Informativo Anarquista, a counter-information project, we write these words 15 years after the death in action of comrade Mauricio Morales, Punki Mauri.

*

Death is an event that inevitably takes us away from the body of the person who has passed away. But as quickly as the body withers, the common imagination turns to the dawn and unfolds the culminating fact of death towards hundreds, if not thousands, of memories, testimonies and actions that forge in the skin a vitality capable of driving a heart that beats in all directions.

Memory is not an exercise in unanimity or homogeneous plenitude. It does not always have the same points of reference or the same explanations. What it is, however, is collective, at the same time as it integrates shades and particularities that respond to their own places, to solitary or loose voices, which converge and meet on certain occasions between one and the other. In this sense, anarchic memory has been a point of connection, a motive for encounter that gives way to the search for and rapprochement of affinities with the decisions and paths that a companion built in life.

Mauricio Morales reflects, in part, what we want to say; how the heart of a dead comrade can be pumped with insistence. That, despite the pain and sadness, the persecutions and imprisonments that this brought, networks were built, complicities were strengthened and his anarchic memory continues to this day. We agree with the now extinct counter-information project Liberación Total (2011), that ‘death is an unbeatable obstacle, but in contrast, forgetting and passivity are walls that we know how to break down. Not only in relation to the comrade Mauri but to every insurrectionary spirit that has to live through the hardest circumstances of the paths we choose in life’.

In the exercise of their memory, the counter-information pages crossed communicational frontiers and provided an effective means of dissemination through which comrades from all over the world learned of Mauri’s death. The publication in them of words written by squatted social centres, friends, publishers, prisoners, action groups and Mauri himself, made possible the translation into different languages and the externalisation of an offensive memory to an international affinity.

Consulting a legend of black internationalism in the book Mapping the Fire (2012), one reads, no more and no less, that the pages of counter-information ‘are the messengers of our decision to get off the train of commitments and start a global journey of anarchy without a return ticket’.

The propagation of Mauricio Morales’ ideas, thoughts and contradictions was and is precisely the sign of a passage without a return ticket, especially because the comrade declared that the ideas coming out of our mouths were not enough, but the ones prevailing in active hands. Thus, the Italian counter-informative project Culmine understands that ‘(…) the affinity that we feel with Mauri is not only limited to the nihilistic aesthetics of his thoughts, no! We know that we have in front of us a comrade in action, one who has always confronted power to its ultimate consequences’.

Contagious of this spirit, in 2009, in a vindication of the explosive attack against the Chilean consulate in Greece, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire wrote that there are ‘people we have never met, but we know that we always look at things from the same perspective’. And a year later, also in reference to the Mauri, Marco Camenisch* expressed from a prison in Switzerland that ‘every death of ours, every failure of ours becomes a victory in the “strategic field” of the offensive’.

As a striking element of the black memory, we deny the rise of martyrs, heroes or untouchable figures, connecting with our dead comrades as a living whole that navigates agitated waters.

15 years after the attempt to attack the nest of jailers; the wall paintings, books, activities, counter-information projects, burning tyres, bottles flying in the wind, whistling bullets, incendiary or explosive planning, continue to carry the name of Punki Mauri through the streets, across languages, kilometres and generations.

Nothing is over, everything continuous.
A death in action is an eternal call to fight.
Together we can continue to keepo ensuring that anarchy lives on

Informativo Anarquista (Anarquist news)
May 2024

DN Note

*Marco Cameneisch is a Swiss eco anarchist in the late 1970s, who was involved in local opposition to the nuclear power industry. In Switzerland, as in other countries, the movement against nuclear power plants utilized tactics of direct action: cutting down electrical pylons, sabotage against power stations, and actions against leaders of the nuclear industry.

On Christmas eve of 1979, Camenisch with René Moser was accused sabotaging a power station belonging to NOK (Nordostschweizer Kraftwerke) at Bad Ragaz, St. Gallen with explosives, destroying two transformers and a power pole. The pair were arrested for the sabotage in January 1980 and after spending a year free on bail, the court of Canton in Chur and Graubünden sentenced Camenisch to 10 years in prison.

In December 1981, he escaped from Regensdorf prison near Zürich, along with 5 other prisoners. During the melée a prison guard was shot and killed, and another was seriously injured. Camenisch claimed he hadn’t been part of the group which committed the shootings. After the escape he spent 10 years in hiding.

In 1989, Swiss federal police and media claimed he was responsible for the killing of Swiss border police officer Kurt Moser at Brusio.

On November 5, 1991, Camenisch was stopped by Carabinieri on Cinquale di Montignoso road, along with fellow anarchist Giancarlo Sergianpietri. Camenisch produced a handgun and opened fire, wounding one of the soldiers. In the ensuing shootout, he was wounded in one leg and arrested. Two guns and six rudimentary bombs were found at his place. He was taken to Pisa hospital, where he remained for six months, and later at San Vittore prison infirmary in Milan. The Italian Court of Massa Carrara sentenced him to 12 years for assault and sabotage of electrical pylons. He served 9 of those years while in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.

In April 2002, Camenisch was extradited to Switzerland and transferred to a prison in Pfäffikon near Zürich. In January 2003, after a hunger strike against the conditions of imprisonment he was suffering, he was transferred to a prison in Chur with better conditions. In 2002 the Swiss government transferred him back to Pfäffikon. In July 2004 he was sentenced to seventeen years in prison for the killing of Kurt Moser.

In November 2006 the Federal Supreme Court nullified this sentence on the basis that the sum of the two prison terms would exceed the maximum of twenty years set by Swiss law. On 13 March the sentence was therefore reduced to eight years. Camenisch has never denounced the actions attrinuted to him or anarchism during his time in prison, and he remained constant communication with the anarchist circles outside. He was freed from prison on 10 March 2017, after 26 years.

Continue reading “(Chile) Mauricio Morales on the map of the international anarchist offensive by Informativo Anarquista EN/ES” →

Greece: Christos Tsakalos – ‘Freedom with an expiration date’

Posted on 2024/05/02 - 2024/05/02 by darknights

Upon leaving the prison gates, every inmate solemnly swears to never look back. Nearly all pledge this vow…

Returning, the overwhelming sense is that the prison has been awaiting your inevitable return. Stepping into the cells of Nafplio, I encountered numerous familiar faces from Grevena, Korydallos, transfers, detention centers. They now blended seamlessly into the stark penitentiary backdrop. Their histories were familiar to me. They had completed their terms and “settled” their societal debts. Both principal and interest accounted for. No reprieve was granted, not a single day spared. I pondered why they remained incarcerated.

“Revoked licenses, suspended freedoms, ancient rulings forgotten..”

Forgotten souls inhabit the penitentiary system. They are the enduring denizens of confinement with brief respites.

Media hounds in their attire and heavy cosmetics snarl for harsher punishments. They foam at the mouth, decrying the inadequacy of the sentences. “Life means life” they howl.

They are unconcerned by the prevalence of life imprisonments in Greece, issued with alarming ease by the judiciary. They disregard the absurdity of sentencing individuals to 70, 80, 100 years—burdens a convict would require two lifetimes to fulfill, extending even beyond death!

Yet, they boast of their adherence to human rights and European values. At least there is no death penalty here. Yet, indeed, there is…

Though they do not subject the felon to the electric chair’s flames, their lengthy sentences corrode him with the acid of time, forsaken within concrete confines. The enduring aspiration of the convict following the trials’ Golgotha is release and the coveted parole…

With each submission, having met all stipulated conditions, he retrieves his dossier, dons his “finer” garments, and with a substantial dose of hope, encounters his judges.

“Denied… He will not make optimal use of the parole. Denied… The good conduct displayed in prison is merely a show.”

The convict has fulfilled his end, and now the judges’ pronouncement foretells his fate. Frequently, they do not even meet the convict during his appeals. His criminal record suffices, while they proclaim not to judge his past. After all, he has atoned for his past actions.

Prisoners are not without fault, yet if the “remedy” is but extended incarceration, it must be remembered that an overdose of medication poisons the recipient. To address the issue effectively, one must identify its origins. No one is inherently criminal. The penitentiary reflects society’s image. When the convict observes that the state’s ethos comprises corruption, deceit, scandals, he emulates these traits.

Simultaneously, ambiguous court rulings and stricter penalties outlined in the revised criminal code breed resentment and survivalist cunning in the prisoner. Marginalized by society and branded by the stigma of imprisonment, he is compelled to perpetuate his malign persona. The judges’ prophecy of “feigned transformation” metamorphoses into a self-fulfilling prediction.

His freedom is subject to an expiration date.

Outside the prison edifice looms the intangible grand prison… With the dread of authentic captivity, society sequesters itself. Fear, defeatism, apathy constitute its bars… The conviction that change is inconceivable. Individuals persist in meandering within their confined spaces, commuting between home and workplace, placating their incarceration with illusory delights and coveted merchandise. Escalating impoverishment, tangible and spiritual, compels them to lower their gaze even further.

For their liberation, the harshest arbiter is the judicial panel. Their very essence. We alone must elect our manner of existence. Embrace the terms of a contented captive or opt for the requisites of genuine liberation and diginity…

Wishing you all the best…

Christos Tsakalos
Nafplio prison

Source: athens.indymedia

Chile: We close the door. Publicación Refractario comes to an end.

Posted on 2024/02/27 by darknights

After more than a decade, the publication Refractario comes to an end, and with it we close the door to this project.

We have delayed these final words and the necessary closure of this project, thinking about resuming it or giving it new formats, but it is imperative to leave some words next to the door before closing. A project built with so much effort and affection deserves a decent closure.

In July 2012 we started this counter-informative project. We generated a materiality in paper that lasted eight issues (from 2012 to 2014), and we also published 5 special issues. Undoubtedly, the heart of our project was the website. In it converged various dimensions of the anti-prison field: news, contingencies, calls, propaganda, reflections, material of interest, memory and practical information.

Throughout 11 years, the project operated, far exceeding the initial objectives. We maintained the rhythm of publication, the space for reflection and positioning at different junctures, while on the other hand the feedback from comrades who translated texts, sent communiqués and fed informal discussions within the anarchist movement made Refractario a useful, current and active tool.

Throughout this period we rejoiced with the release of several comrades from prison, accompanied the trial of many and maintained strong solidarity agitation with several who are still behind bars. Several campaigns managed to internationalize thanks to projects like this one, which allowed us to inform, disseminate and position the urgency in other latitudes. The intention was always to become a space to find accurate information, as well as to open the discussion on so many issues that in these years have strained the anti-authoritarian environments linked to prison, trials and repression.

At the end of January 2006, the counter-information web page “Palabras de Guerra” (Words of War) said goodbye to the virtual world at that time. We highlight some of the reasons that led to its closure, as expressed in its farewell communiqué:

– Excessive volume of information, in most cases superfluous, a reflection of the Western society of excess.

– Accelerated publication rhythms, confronted with natural rhythms.

– An immediatism that generates the need to be constantly informed.

– The emergence of a revolutionary subject whose militancy is based primarily on the Internet.

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