Expropriation

Greece: Thanos Chatziaggelou – ‘Don’t ask if we will win or if we will be defeated – Just fight!’

Posted on 2022/05/16 - 2022/05/19 by darknights

Solidarity message of the imprisoned member of the Organization Anarchist Action to the unrepentant anarchist Claudio Lavazza, in response to the appeal of his 25-year-old sentence which is to be examined on the 17th of May.

While being imprisoned in the most dystopian Hall of tyranny a combination of a few words on a piece of paper could never vividly describe the ideal of revolutionary intransigence. How could anybody fit a moment a life of disobedience, complexly devoted to the relentless struggle without leaving out any important detail.

Until today, there are only few people who wholeheartedly attempted to build a bridge filling the gap between a life and survival. These people who devoted their whole existence to the bright direct actions of the revolutionary base against the fierce doctrine of tyranny for the “end of history”, laid down their lives in the wholehearted hostilities of the revolutionary base. They enlisted sternly and unyieldingly on the fractious front of subversion, bled while comrades were perishing in battle, but imprisoned in the face of the danger of repentance and legitimacy, they chose ironclad pride.

Comrade Claudio Lavazza belonged to the same mixture of figures of struggle that divided them by a very important “particularity”: injustice and exploitation, social decay and tyranny were not just statements but issues that concerned them individually and collectively. They did not adapt ideology and politics to their lives; they devoted the absoluteness of their existence to vital and militant resistances. Enlisted in the armed ranks of the Italian Autonomy, he chose very early on the path of illegal freedom in the face of repression and political degeneration from statements of repentance. Continue reading “Greece: Thanos Chatziaggelou – ‘Don’t ask if we will win or if we will be defeated – Just fight!’” →

Athens, Greece: Demonstration at the French Embassy in solidarity with the anarchist prisoner Claudio Lavazza (17/05)

Posted on 2022/05/14 - 2022/05/14 by darknights

The open assembly convened after the call of the Anarchists’ Initiative against State Killings decided to convene a demostration at the French Embassy (7 Vassilissis Sofias Avenue) on Tuesday 17 May at 18.30, the day when the appeal of comrade Claudio Lavazza is being considered, through which he is demanding his release from prison. Below is the text of the appeal.

FREEDOM FOR CLAUDIO LAVAZZA

THE FRENCH STATE TAKES REVENGE ON POLITICAL PRISONERS

Our anarchist comrade Claudio Lavazza has been in prison since 1996, having already completed 25 years of continuous detention. He is one of the longest serving political prisoners in Europe. Claudio was one of the militants who took up arms to oppose capitalist rule politically and militantly.

An insurgent proletarian who participated in conflicts and expropriations in the early years of joining the movement in the dynamic 1970s in Italy. Armed fighter of the revolutionary movement of the 70’s-80’s afterwards. Member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism, a horizontal guerrilla group with strong ideological influences from workers’ autonomy. Participant in the coalition of groups under the name ‘Organised Communists for Proletarian Liberation’, an armed project to support fugitives and free comrades and comrades-in-arms from prison. Accomplice to the 1981 attack on the prison in Frosinone where imprisoned militants were released.

At a time when the meaning and content of words had not been surrendered to museification, revisionism, and limited activism. But it found meaning through the practical cultivation of hope in those imprisoned and “exiled” from the legal order by the relentless repression of the state and the parastate. That words like freedom and solidarity would be put into practice with guns in their hands. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Demonstration at the French Embassy in solidarity with the anarchist prisoner Claudio Lavazza (17/05)” →

Athens, Greece: Update and contribution from the event on the case of anarchist Claudio Lavazza on 14 April at ASOEE

Posted on 2022/05/04 - 2022/05/04 by darknights

On Thursday, April 14th, the event of the Anarchist Initiative against State Killings, concerning the case of the anarchist comrade Claudio Lavazza, took place at the ASOEE with a relatively massive presence of comrades. The presentation was read as well as the transcript of an interview Claudio has given about his case and a video was shown concerning the expropriation of a bank in Cordoba and the subsequent confrontation with the police forces where he was arrested. Finally, comments and statements were made by comrades about the connection between Claudio’s experience of struggle, especially the years he participated in the Italian movement, and the present day, and it was decided to call an open assembly to organize a meeting at the French embassy on May 17, the day when the comrade’s appeal against the decision of the bourgeois justice system that forces him to serve another 5 years in prison until he is released will be heard. Below is the text of the submission where you can also find a Pdf file.

We will begin our submission by answering the simple question. Why do we consider solidarity with the comrade Claudio Lavazza important today? We answer by saying that in Claudio’s person we see a part of the revolutionary memory of contemporary revolutionary history.

Claudio from an early age was an insurgent proletarian who was actively involved in the mass movement and proletarian struggles of that period in Italy. But what was the historical context that fuelled the great struggles of that period?

“The post-war environment and the Cold War”

On a macro-level, the end of the Second World War and the new balances of terror that took shape in the international environment after the use of nuclear weapons of mass destruction in 1945 in Japan by the US and the subsequent nuclear arms race from 1949 onwards (when the USSR acquired the corresponding technology), influenced the intensity of the historical period of the Cold War, the milestones of which were the Greek civil war (1946-1949), the Chinese revolution in 1949, the Korean civil war (1950-1953), the lifting of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis a year later in 1962. These developments were decisive for the so-called transition to the so-called ‘peaceful coexistence’ process, which largely involved the establishment of strict non-intervention zones. These zones were in the perceived centre of the western and eastern world, i.e. almost the entire northern hemisphere of the planet, which of course did not prevent any of the main Cold War competitors from intervening even militarily in their own immediate zones of influence and even more so on the periphery of the perceived undeveloped world, moving the hot fronts of warfare to Latin America, Africa and Asia. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Update and contribution from the event on the case of anarchist Claudio Lavazza on 14 April at ASOEE” →

Athens, Greece: Freedom to anarchist Giannis Michailidis – Gathering – Solidarity March Saturday 9 April 20:00 PM Εxarcheia Square

Posted on 2022/04/02 by darknights

GATHERING-SOLIDARITY MARCH
SATURDAY 9 APRIL 8PM ΕXΑRCHIA SQUARE
FREEDOM TO ANARCHIST GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS
STRUGGLE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

Anarchist prisoner Giannis Michailidis has been imprisoned for more than 8 and a half years in the cells of democracy and 3 years in fugitive status in two different periods. His consistent commitment to the anarchist struggle, his unrepentant stance in front of the executioners of bourgeois justice, his practical questioning of the world of power and bourgeois legitimacy has put him in the crosshairs of the repressive and judicial mechanisms for years.

Giannis was prosecuted on the basis of a trumped-up charge of the mass revolt of the prisoners of Korydallos prison against the violent seizure of the then hunger-striking anarchist prisoner Dinos Giagtzoglou.

A persecution that targeted, without any evidence beyond solidarity texts, all the political prisoners of that period in order to put them in a new regime of hostage-taking, discontinued leaves, transfer from rural prisons, etc. Faced with the risk of prolonging his imprisonment and being transferred from the rural prisons where he was being held Giannis chose freedom, making an escape that allowed him to walk the paths of freedom for which he has fought consistently and at great cost throughout his life. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Freedom to anarchist Giannis Michailidis – Gathering – Solidarity March Saturday 9 April 20:00 PM Εxarcheia Square” →

Madrid, Spain: Note from the comrades updating the Bankia case

Posted on 2022/04/02 by darknights

On October 29, 2018, two anarchist comrades from Madrid, we were arrested accused of a sabotage with fire to a Bankia ATM on April 13 of the same year. The action was framed in solidarity with Lisa, who was sentenced to 7 years for a bank robbery in Aachen (Germany), right now in third degree.

There has been a deal between the sides: 1 year suspended sentence for each partner and 7000 euros civil liability paid before the trial.

We were facing 3 years in prison and 17,000 euros of civil liability. Having assessed all the options, we made this decision taking into account all the surrounding factors. The deal is to assume the guilt.

Thank you very much for the solidarity expressed in a thousand and one ways to all comrades around the world.

Fight against all authority now and always!

France: Telephone interview with Claudio Lavazza

Posted on 2022/03/31 - 2022/03/31 by darknights

March 6, 2022

(Taken from Radiocane)

Q: Listeners have probably already had the opportunity to learn about the events that you have lived throughout your long imprisonment in Spanish jails from reading your biography. Let’s start now with the case that led to your current detention in France. What facts does this case refer to?

A: Yes, I have a 10-year sentence set by the Paris Criminal Court on November 8, 2019, for armed robbery and kidnapping. This sentence was recently reduced, a week ago, to five years. And my release date is scheduled for May 16, 2025, so three years from now. This is due to a calculation of the credits for sentence reduction made by the Mont-de-Marsan Prosecutor’s Office, starting from 30 years instead of 25 as the legal limit for the accumulation of sentences in the Spanish system. Well, if this limit had been established by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, if this limit had been enforced, I would have had to be released immediately. Instead, she changed her mind, because she decided that French law should now be applied. A doubly wrong analysis, as my lawyer has already told you in a letter. Technically, it is explained in this way only to understand, in fact, if article 132-23-1 of the French penal code says that convictions pronounced by the criminal jurisdictions of the European Union must be taken into account, on condition that they do not aggravate the situation of the convicted. The legal limit of 30 years of accumulation in French law would therefore be “valid”, in quotations, if I had been sentenced to life imprisonment. This limit would be reduced to 20 years if my sentence had been 30 years, but it is 25 years! So the deliberate error of the prosecutor is obvious. It is Article 362-2 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure. Technically it is quite simple to understand, but when there is a political will behind it that opposes freedom, everything becomes vindictive. Continue reading “France: Telephone interview with Claudio Lavazza” →

Spain: Solidarity with the repressed comrades, accused of burning a Bankia ATM EN/ES

Posted on 2022/02/20 by darknights

On October 29th, 2018 two anarchist comrades from Madrid were arrested accused of a fire sabotage to a Bankia ATM on April 13th of the same year. They have recently received the news that their trial has been dated for April 7, 2022.

The Prosecutor’s Office together with Bankia and Mapfre (the bank’s insurer) are asking for 3 years for Damages and 17,000 euros in Civil Liability. In the police statement, the fact is related to a statement uploaded to counterinformation websites in which the action was vindicated in solidarity with Lisa, sentenced to 7 years (now in third degree) for a bank robbery in Aachen (Germany). They also say that the comrades are recognized anarchists, mentioning identifications at rallies, poster-attachments or arrests in evictions. All this rhetoric is used to justify the ideological aggravant since the comrades, being anarchists, hate the banks, and Bankia in this case would be a victim of this “ideological hatred”. Continue reading “Spain: Solidarity with the repressed comrades, accused of burning a Bankia ATM EN/ES” →

Athens, Greece: Claudio Lavazza – A whole life dedicated to the struggle

Posted on 2022/01/21 by darknights

Our anarchist comrade Claudio Lavazza has been in prison since 1996, having already completed 25 years of continuous detention. He is one of the longest serving political prisoners in Europe. Claudio was one of the militants who took up arms to oppose capitalist rule politically and militarily.

An insurgent proletarian who participated in conflicts and expropriations in the early years of joining the movement in the dynamic 1970s in Italy. Armed fighter of the revolutionary movement of the 70’s-80’s afterwards. Member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism, a horizontal guerrilla group with strong ideological influences from workers’ autonomy. Participant in the coalition of groups under the name ‘Organised Communists for Proletarian Liberation’, an armed project to support fugitives and free comrades and comrades-in-arms from prison. Accomplice to the 1981 attack on the prison in Frosinone where imprisoned militants were released.

At a time when the meaning and content of words had not been surrendered to museification, revisionism, and boundary activism. Instead, it found meaning through the practical cultivation of hope in those imprisoned and “exiled” from the legal order by the relentless repression of the state and the parastate. That words like freedom and solidarity would be put into practice with guns in their hands. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Claudio Lavazza – A whole life dedicated to the struggle” →

Chile: Poster in defence of revolutionary expropriations

Posted on 2022/01/11 - 2022/01/11 by darknights

“We are not productive, it is true, but neither are we complicit. We are not productive, yes we are thieves if that’s what you want – if your inaction needs such pettiness to console itself – but we refuse to be slaves. From today, face to face, showing our teeth to the enemy. From today you will fear, no more humiliation. From today, we are at war with bourgeois society.”

– Severino Di Giovanni.

“Revolutionary robbery, expropriation, the recovery of means and resources for the continuation of our anarchist-subversive projects are part of the theoretical-practical arsenal that always accompanies the fighting minorities that rebel and fight against power. Only we can support the practices and ideas that walk the path of freedom and aim to take control of our lives into our own hands.”

Source: Buscando la Kalle

Via & translated by: Ragnarok

Greece: Text, letter by Anarchist prisoner Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis

Posted on 2021/08/24 - 2021/08/24 by darknights

Informative announcement:

From October 2019, following my injury during the expropriation in a local store of a state casino in Holargos (Athens), I fled the nexus of preventive and criminal repressive control. The side effect of my injury was the discovery of a set of illegal tools of resistance and the revelation of my relationship with the guerrilla organization Revolutionary Self-Defence. Being an outlaw, I made public my political responsibility for the intended reconstruction of the guerrilla struggle, starting with the example of the Revolutionary Self-Defence Organization. Reversing the condition of political isolation of the one who escapes the blackmailing conventions which the state seeks and which serves it (wherever it comes from), I participated to the maximum in the public movement dialogue, with an eye to the evolution of the revolutionary class struggle. The period of exile was a transitional attempt to reposition myself in the global socio-political space of resistance in order to go forward. In the first year, the breaking of deep-rooted barriers was not achieved. I remained trapped in an isolation related to the collective impasses of the Greek movement.

On Monday, August 9, I attempted the expropriation of a bank fund in Pefka area, in Thessaloniki. As I was leaving the area, in a car and having previously ridden a motorcycle, I was stopped and taken prisoner by uniformed state mercenaries who had mobilized to locate and trap the perpetrator of the robbery. My capture is not in the slightest connected with my earlier search by the special anti-guerrilla mechanisms and, more broadly, by police and digital surveillance. Until I said my name, they did not know who they had arrested.

Initially, I was detained at the police headquarters in Thessaloniki (AMET), in the garbage detention centre, together with the other social prisoners. I am now in the underground wing of the women’s prison in Korydallos, which was built 2 decades ago specially for the political prisoners of the repressive operations against the 17N and the Revolutionary People’s Struggle and through which the captured guerrillas of the Revolutionary Struggle organization and the rest of the political prisoners of the most relevant court cases have passed. The political prisoners Dinos Giantzoglou, Christodoulos Xiros and Savvas Xiros are currently in the same wing. The serving of the sentence (16 years) of the expropriation court in Holargos and the case of the Revolutionary Self-Defence Org. has begun.

So far the new case file concerns only the expropriation of the bank and, with the exception of a point of dubious concept (accusation of “use of weapons”), attributes accusations which, according to the ideological codes of bourgeois law, first correspond to acts by which I undertook the expropriation of the bank, the showing of a weapon, the temporary and potentially compensated appropriation of 2 private vehicles as necessary means for the expropriation of the bank and the refusal to be photographed during the pre-investigative phase, as a refusal of consent to the persecuting regime. Although neither the tactical defeats with their serious personal consequences nor their collective and personal background can be hidden, and although I considered a public trial for this specific bank expropriation to be of little importance as a political battleground, I do not recognize the law of what they are historically: a rule of subjugation to idealized class domination. For the political defence of each of my actions and all of them in class and cultural terms, the comrades can refer to the hundreds of pages I have written in the past year and a half. I hope to be able to publish a political account of the latest developments soon.

With the proletarian uprising in the heart, anarchy in the mind, libertarian communism in practice and ecumenical socialist self-government in the program I confirm my presence where a new free world is being conceived.

Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis

16/8/2021

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Source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1613901/

Via & Translated by Act For Freedom Now!