Enrico Malatesta – Dark Nights

Statements by Anna Beniamino, from Rebibbia prison, and Juan Sorroche, from Terni prison, and greetings from Action for Palestine Ireland on the occasion of the “Sabotage the War and Repression” initiatives on February 7 and 8 in Viterbo

Some contributions from inside and outside prisons for the initiatives
“Sabotage war and repression” on February 7 and 8 in Viterbo

On February 7, about 150 people took to the streets in Viterbo for a radical demonstration that showed how it is possible and necessary to link the issues of war and repression: with the resistance of the Palestinian people, against defeatism in Ukraine, against repression as an expression of war policies on the home front, against 41 bis as a war prison, and in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito. These issues were explored in greater depth the following day, again in the city of Viterbo, at a very rich militant conference. Here is the text announcing the two initiatives:
https://ilrovescio.info/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Sabotiamo-la-guerra-e-la-repressione-corretto-al-23.12.pdf

While waiting to publish further material as it becomes available, we are circulating letters from Anna and Juan from the prisons where they are being held as contributions to the conference on February 8. We are also publishing a greeting from Ireland, as partial testimony to the internationalist nature of the days of struggle and discussion on February 7 and 8.

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Contribution by Anna Beniamino from section AS2 of the Rebibbia women’s prison (Rome) for the conference held on February 8 in Viterbo.

First of all, thank you for asking me to contribute to the conference on War and Repression. I will try, starting from the perspective that is, despite myself, clearer here: repression and the ‘local’ repercussions, in prisons, of global policies of war, economic austerity, and the militarization of society.
I am aware that there are no theoretical recipes or detailed, definitive analyses, but only a simple and solid certainty that any real, non-virtual struggle implies reaction and repression.
The problem is ‘only’ to take this into account, to be ready and not to be paralyzed by fear of it, to build solidarity and awareness of one’s own means and ends, with continuity and tenacity. Especially in these times when preventive repressive work is spreading across multiple levels, both covert and overt.
Starting in 2022, when Alfredo was transferred to 41 bis, I wrote several times about differentiated circuits and regimes as well as, long before that, inside and outside prison, about struggles and repression, in ordinary and “extraordinary” terms; I refer back to all this and to my latest notes for the Roman assembly against 41 bis.
Essentially, I believe that the discussion should be resumed… because it is never over, nor have the ethical assumptions that supported it fallen away, so as not to leave a well-established discussion unfinished, not to leave a comrade alone, not to waste an opportunity in which a single battle has shown how we can be together, “irredeemable” and positively recognizable outside the narrow area of the anarchist movement in its content, so as not to leave alone the comrades who are now facing the various trials connected with the mobilization, because credibility is also built on continuity and consistency, because the mask has been removed from one of the pillars of bipartisan rhetoric on “mafia and terrorism,” because the “fight against terrorism” is now a global smokescreen and the current context of militarized capitalism and blatant neocolonialism in the procurement of resources and the opening of trade routes lends itself well to the reception of an anti-authoritarian, anti-militarist message of solidarity among the oppressed. Continue reading “Italy: Statements by Anna Beniamino, from Rebibbia prison, and Juan Sorroche, from Terni prison, and greetings from Action for Palestine Ireland on the occasion of the “Sabotage the War and Repression” initiatives on February 7 and 8 in Viterbo” →

Source: La Nemesi

Émile Henry (Sept. 26, 1872 – May 21, 1894)

“Comrades, courage. Long live anarchy!” On May 21, 1894, the anarchist Émile Henry was guillotined. A few words for a comrade who dedicated his short and intense life, integrally and to the end, to anarchy. So many years have passed – well over a century of actions, dreams, revolutions – and the revolutionary will of this comrade continues to shine with the infinite wonderful facets of our ideal. Émile is immortal.

Aphorisms

Once, the cloister opened for souls weary or disgusted with the spectacles of the world, today we have no other refuge than in hospitals and prisons.

What do anarchists want? The autonomy of the individual, the development of his free initiative, which alone will be able to assure him all possible happiness. If the anarchist admits communism as a social conception, it is by simple deduction, because he understands that it is only in the happiness of all, free and autonomous as he is, that he will find his own happiness.

When a man, in today’s society, becomes a conscious rebel of his own action-and such was Ravachol-it is because he has done in his brain a painful work of analysis whose conclusions are imperative and cannot be evaded except by cowardice. He alone holds the scales, he alone is judge of the right or wrong of hating and being savage, “even fierce.”

I believe that acts of brutal revolt are right, because they wake up the masses, shake them like a violent lash, and show them the vulnerable side of the Bourgeoisie still all trembling at the moment when the Rebel goes up to the gallows.

Everyone has a special physiognomy and attitudes that differentiate him from his fellow fighters. Thus, we are not surprised to see revolutionaries so divided in the direction of their efforts. We wonder what good tactics are: they are everywhere proportional to the amount of energy brought to the action. But we recognize no one’s right to say, “Only our propaganda is the good one; outside of it there is no salvation.” It is an old residue of authoritarianism born of true or false reason that libertarians must not tolerate.

Do what you think is best and do it with love.

To those who say, “Hate does not breed love,” answer that it is love, alive, that often breeds hate.

Hate that rests not on low envy, but on a generous feeling, is a healthy and powerfully vital passion.

The more we love our dream of freedom, strength and beauty, the more we must hate that which opposes its future.

In the history of human progress there is only one party; it is the party of movement.

Socialists do not want to understand that the freedom of the individual is necessary to the true freedom of the people.

In the dedication of his book, From the Other Side, Alexandre Herzen specifies a truly revolutionary and effective attitude when he says, “We do not build, we demolish; we do not announce new revelations at all, we suppress the old lie.” This book by Herzen is full of flashes and revelations, but there is no lack of biting remarks in it either: it is a good book for the prison; and away from the street I like to take it as an echo: “The French cannot rid themselves of the idea of monarchical organization; they have a passion for police and authority; every Frenchman is in his soul a police commissioner; he loves alignment and discipline; everything that is independent, individual, irritates him; he understands equality only as leveling and willingly submits to the arbitrariness of the police as long as everyone submits to it. Put a chevron on a Frenchman’s hat and he becomes an oppressor, he begins to oppress anyone who does not wear that rank; he demands respect towards authority.”

There is one right that overrides all others; it is the right to insurrection. Continue reading “Émile Henry (Sept. 26, 1872 – May 21, 1894)” →