Diana Blefari

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.

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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: Hunger Strike of Anarchists and Fighting Prisoners in Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2023/02/16 - 2023/02/16 by darknights

Hunger Strike of Anarchists and Fighting Prisoners in Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito

The 41-bis prison regime is the completion of the prison structure into a masqueraded death sentence. The execution, in this case, does not end in one moment, like with a gunshot, the tightening of the noose, the application of electrical current or the injection of poison into the body, rather it lasts a lifetime in a state of social coma, in a state of non-world. And so, spread through time. Out of this world, the death sentence has evaded history, just like the state pursues oblivion for all the prisoners of the social war who are buried alive in the state of 41-bis. The 41-bis regime has already murdered one fighter, Diana Blefari Melazzi.

The 41-bis regime and the law about “massacre” are the legacy of the european counter-revolution from the time of Piazza Fontana (Strage di piazza Fontana). This civil war never ended. The states, and particularly the Italian one, carry on the counter-revolution so that the flame may never flare up again. All the systems follow, step by step, the examples first introduced as special warfare, e.g. the white cells of West Germany, the F-type prisons in Turkey and the FIES prisons in Spain to the Type-C prisons in Greece or the new high security prison system A.A.; the still active Hitler-inspired law about indefinite extension of one’s sentence on “preventative” grounds, by which comrade Thomas Meyer Falk is being held for another 10 years (25 in total) in Freiburg prison in Germany, to the different methods of extorting declarations of repentance, and from Asinara to Imrali.

Anarchist Alfredo Cospito is fighting for the flame to flare up again. Let’s reassert the fight of the comrade.

It is our duty to defend in deed the battle that Alfredo Cospito is fighting. A struggle for and against time itself. This particular hunger strike does not concern only the comrades in the italian territory, but it is internationalist, and so the star of internationalist solidarity must shine on the side of Alfredo Cospito and all those who are fighting from within a special prison regime. From Greece to every point in the planet – for all those fighting for freedom.

Because defeat is not captivity, but losing one’s faith in the possibility of wining. So, we are collectively going on a hunger strike, according to each one’s capacity, so that we may stand by the side of anarchist revolutionary Alfredo Cospito, but also, against the death regime of 41-bis.

At the same time the struggle against the new prison code in greek prisons is continuing.

Anarchist and Fighting Prisoners

Yiannis Michailedis

(1 day hunger strike)

Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis

(3 day hunger strike)

Thanos Chatziaggelou

(1 day hunger strike)

Iasonas Rodopoulos

(1 day hunger strike)

Kostas Dimalexis

(3 day hunger strike)

Labros Vougiouklakis

(1 day hunger strike)

Panagiotis Vougiouklakis

(1 day hunger strike)

Stathis Nikolouzos

(1 day hunger strike)

Stergios Kalaitzidis

(1 day hunger strike)

Fotis Daskalas

(1 day hunger strike)

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” →

International Red Help call for a day of mobilization in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike to the bitter end against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment

Posted on 2022/12/12 by darknights

Call for an action day for Alfredo Cospito

On October 20, anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito began a hunger strike against the 41a prison regime, a struggle he intends to carry on until the end. Anarchist prisoners Ivan Alocco [the comrade ended the strike on Dec. 1, ed] and Anna Beniamino joined the strike, as did Juan Sorroche, who ended it after a month

The 41bis is the harshest prison regime in Europe. Created in principle to prevent members of the mafia from continuing their activities from prison, it was soon extended to revolutionary prisoners to prevent them from interacting with the outside world. Three prisoners of the Brigate Rosse-PCC, Nadia Lioce, Roberto Morandi and Marco Mezzasalma, have been subjected to this system for 17 years. The value of their resistance must be measured by the understanding that it would be enough for them to make an act of political surrender to get out of this regime.

Only by understanding these regimes of isolation as a means of pressure, as torture, to extort repentance, can we give its true meaning to the suicide of Brigate Rosse-PCC activist Diana Blefari in 2009, after four years in 41bis. Diana could no longer bear 41bis but refused to be betrayed. This choice was also a form of resistance, and it has a precedent, that of Luis Rodríguez Martínez, of the Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups of the First October (GRAPO), who committed suicide in 1983 after three years of total prison isolation. Continue reading “International Red Help call for a day of mobilization in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike to the bitter end against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment” →

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” →

Italy: We do not allow the murder of Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike since October 20th. Call for international mobilization

Posted on 2022/10/28 - 2022/10/30 by darknights

On October 20th, anarchist Alfredo Cospito, during a trial at the Sassari surveillance court, made an attempt to read an articulate statement in which he was about to announce that he is starting a hunger strike against the 41 bis prison regime to which he is subjected and against life imprisonment without possibility of parole. A battle that Alfredo does not intend to stop, until his own death. The comrade, who has been in 41 bis since last May 5th, under a decree signed by then Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia, is now being detained in the Bancali prison in Sardinia.

Alfredo Cospito is an anarchist who has always been at the front line of struggles, never willing to compromise or give up. He is a comrade who has been fighting since the late 1980s, a period in which he was imprisoned as a total objector (for refusing to serve in the obligatory military service) and who, after his arrest in 2012, during the trial that followed, claimed the responsibility for the shooting of Ansaldo Nucleare executive Roberto Adinolfi, an act that was carried out by Nucleo Olga / Federazione Anarchica Informale – Fronte Rivoluzionario Internazionale, FAI-FRI (“Olga Nucleus” / Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front), and occurred on May 7th of the same year in Genoa.

Alfredo has been always active in the defense of comrades affected by repression, in every corner of the world. His struggle objectively concerns all detainees, among whom we particularly remember the three militants of Brigate Rosse per la costruzione del Partito Comunista Combattente (Red Brigades for the construction of the Combatant Communist Party) locked up for more than 17 years in 41 bis (Nadia Lioce, Roberto Morandi, Marco Mezzasalma). In 2009, comrade Diana Blefari, from the same organization, committed suicide after her living in this harsh prison regime.

Alfredo has been uninterruptedly in prison for 10 years, which he spent in High Security sections until his transfer to 41 bis. In 2016 he was involved in repressive operation “Scripta Manent”, accused of subversive association with the purpose of terrorism and multiple explosive attacks. Following a Supreme Court verdict in July this year, the sentence for Alfredo and Anna Beniamino was reformulated to “political massacre,” the only punishment which means prison for life. The Italian state that has always been protecting fascist mass murderers now wants to condemn two anarchists for massacre for an attack that caused neither victims nor injuries. Continue reading “Italy: We do not allow the murder of Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike since October 20th. Call for international mobilization” →

Italy: Against 41 bis, revolutionary solidarity with anarchist Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2022/05/09 - 2022/11/16 by darknights

Thursday, May 5, the imprisoned anarchist Alfredo Cospito received notification of the provision against him of the penitentiary regime of 41 bis. At the moment Alfredo is still detained in the prison of Terni, in the dedicated section. We do not know if this is a provisional destination and if it will be followed by a transfer to another institute. The decree has been ordered, as foreseen by the law, directly by the Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia, former president of the Constitutional Court. Let us recall, very briefly, that 41 bis is a particularly afflictive penitentiary regime, which provides, in order to prevent any form of communication, isolation, absence of sociability and any internal activity, silence, censorship of correspondence, one hour of monthly meetings with the glass partition and the “intercom”, then the recording of the meeting itself, 10 minutes of phone calls per month with an authorized family member forced to call from inside a Carabinieri barracks. Inmates are forbidden to receive newspapers and books, most correspondence is blocked in advance because of its contents, moreover, it is not possible to buy newspapers and there is a strong limitation in the availability of objects inside the cell (books, clothes, food, paper and pen are limited).

It is not the first time that such a measure is applied to revolutionaries, in 2006 four prisoners of Brigate Rosse were interned in such facilities (one of them, Diana Blefari, committed suicide in October 2009, shortly after being declassified from 41 bis). This is a precedent that, despite the mobilizations, has not yet been disarticulated.

In these first hours of anger, we must dwell on two issues.

On the one hand, we note the personal, physical attack on an anarchist comrade who in these ten years has never lowered his head: a comrade who claimed to have shot in the legs the CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, Mr Adinolfi. The fact that Alfredo could not be isolated and his revolutionary contribution silenced was a thorn in the side for investigators. This has led in recent years to further restrictive measures against him, such as the censorship of correspondence and the serving of an arrest warrant in prison for Operation Sibilla on November 11, through which the repressive forces have attempted to remove from circulation a newspaper and publications that over the years have reported the articles and contributions of the comrade. We must make Alfredo feel the solidarity of a movement that is not tamed, that has not forgotten him, that does not leave him alone; we must make sure that this solidarity breaks the bans and breaks the isolation. Continue reading “Italy: Against 41 bis, revolutionary solidarity with anarchist Alfredo Cospito” →