Hunger Strike

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

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…” →

Thessaloniki, Greece: Poster for the evicted squat 111

Posted on 2022/08/06 - 2022/08/14 by darknights

Poster for the evicted squat 111 that will be stuck on the streets in the coming days. Below is the text of the occupation and comrades.

In the early morning of Friday 22 July armoured forces of repression entered squat 111 and then evicted it and sealed it with an armoured door, the measures of which seem to have been taken in advance. They confiscated material and, in collaboration with the ever-willing establishment, tried to create an impression, among other things, with sharp kitchen knives and beer.

What is ultimately a squat has been an internal preoccupation from the beginning of their history. It’s the walls; it’s the relationships; it all gets complicated and changed in the course of the scythe of history. All, however, are elevated to full-light stars that point the way to the struggle for freedom and life. Simple as that. These walls, stable and immovable until recently, have housed relationships that are strong but complex and fluid in nature. The paradox of the Argo demonstrates the contradiction of this essentialist conception of the detached and self-contained/moving nature of abiotic beings by linking them to their historical position and the perception of the living beings who observe them and yet are life-giving energies for them. Placing them in dialectical relation to the surrounding world. Squats, therefore, are value-wise equally their walls equally their history, their fixed and transient world. Perhaps one of the most important roles they perform beyond the production of public discourse, interventions of all kinds and intensities, events, is the sharpening of consciences. Our squat, our big house, certainly, although it has fallen short in many ways, if it was anything, was a ‘matrix’ of well-ordered steel consciences that, through word and deed, gave and give steadily from their post in the struggle for freedom. It hosted human and non-human animals, material and archival blossoms on the tree of the struggle for the liberation of nature, land, animals and people. The eleven was neither silence nor storm. The eleven was simply a part of the larger silence before the storm we vowed would come. A page in the tomes of movement history, a thorn in the flesh, another crack in the silence of alienation. “Never say you lost something, better to say you got it back.” Not to the state dregs, nor to oblivion, but to the inevitable end of beings. This knowledge to us non-owners, the natives of cities who have always lived trying not to be trapped does not frighten us. Neither wreckage nor loss frightens us. But we are not comfortable with anything less than everything. Continue reading “Thessaloniki, Greece: Poster for the evicted squat 111” →

Call for International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners 2022 // 23 – 30 August

Posted on 2022/08/06 by darknights

The fact that capitalism does not focus on our needs but on profit, is demonstrated with all its brutality in times of climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of socioeconomic systems all around the world. Those who profit from capitalism enrich themselves through times of disaster. But with ongoing crises we are also experiencing a new era of uprisings from below.

Resistance to the war in Ukraine, Sudanese protests against military rule or the social revolt in Chile are some examples that not only show us the possibilities of organizing and collective struggle. They also highlight how important it is for social movements to learn from each other and support each other in these times. Not only outside the walls but also behind them.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve seen fierce struggles against imprisonment, reminding us that incarcerated people are the ones most affected when everything goes down. Breakouts from Brazilian and Italian prisons, people in jail setting fire to a prison in Thailand and ongoing hunger strikes like those we see in Greece or in polish refugee detention camps are examples of the courage people in prisons are showing to smash the walls.

In all of these struggles, anarchist ideas and values are the fuel for collective resistance. Unsurprisingly the repression against anarchists is increasing and solidarity is needed more than ever. The capitalist system of domination can function because of the continued isolation between people, endless competition, and overlook our real needs and desires. We need solidarity within our friendships, at work, in the neighborhood, in our communities. Those outside and those inside their walls.

Let’s break out together! That is why we are calling again for International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners. Do some action of solidarity! Write letters, organize speeches or film screening, make our comrades visible on the streets with a banner drop or a graffiti and let them show that they are in our hearts and that we are fighting together.

Let’s remember those who fought against this injustice and payed with their lives.
No one is free, till all are free!

If you have any questions or comments, if you would like to send us a picture, a short text, a recording of your event or action, please write to us.

Poster download: Poster2022_en

Source: solidarity.international

URGENT: Occupation at ADEDY (Civil Servants’ Confederation) in solidarity with the hunger striker G. Michailidis

Posted on 2022/07/27 by darknights

A few hours ago we occupied the ADEDY building at 2 Psyllas Street in Syntagma, in solidarity with comrade G. Michailidis who is on hunger strike since 23/5. The occupation will continue until the publication of the council’s decision.

We warn the judicial authorities and make it clear that the delay of the decision or the possibility of a rejection of the decision by the Lamia council is tantamount to state murder of the anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis. We therefore emphatically emphasise the weight of responsibility that weighs on this decision and the timing of the decision.

On Monday 25 July, after 64 days of a hunger strike, the court of appeal in Lamia held a hearing for his release. Although there was a commitment on the part of the council to make the decision in time, we understand that the timeframe for respecting the hunger striker has passed. Indeed, they have been elapsed since the Amfissa council delayed a month in issuing its decision. Any further delay on the part of the Lamia council constitutes further torture and an attempt to eliminate our comrade. Continue reading “URGENT: Occupation at ADEDY (Civil Servants’ Confederation) in solidarity with the hunger striker G. Michailidis” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for an arson attack on a porsche by ‘Children of chaos’

Posted on 2022/07/27 - 2022/07/27 by darknights

In the early morning of 09/07 we placed an incendiary device in a luxury car (porsche), in the area of Vyrona. Our fire did not succeed in destroying the vehicle completely, it only created extensive damage. The fact that the owners of luxury cars sleep with one eye open so as not to lose their expensive property and sometimes get away with it, shows us that we do our job well. Next time they will not be so lucky.

We dedicate our energy to comrade Giannis Michailidis and to every prisoner, political or otherwise, who takes a fighting and dignified stand in the cages of democracy.

Explosive greetings to every grouping or not that acts at night, insulting the petty bourgeois silence.

Long live anarchy in the here and now forever

Long live the informal anarchist groups.

We in turn call for the continuation of hostilities against the state and its patrons.

GIANNIS HOLD STRONG

Children of chaos

Source: athens.indymedia

Patras, Greece: Responsibility claim for arson actions in solidarity with the anarchist hunger striker Giannis Michailidis

Posted on 2022/07/27 by darknights

We take political responsibility for a series of arson attacks that took place in the city of Patras, in solidarity with our comrade anarchist and hunger striker Giannis Michailidis.

On Saturday morning (23/7), at 3:30 am, we carried out an arson attack on a motorbike of a well-known asphalt worker of the city, on Korinthou Street.
On Sunday morning (24/7), at 2:30 a.m., we carried out an arson attack on a Eurobank ATM in El. Stratiotou.

The comrade anarchist and hunger striker Giannis Michailidis has been fighting a tough battle with the capitalist system and its representatives for the last two months, demanding his immediate release from prison, which he is entitled to by law from December 2021. Having completed 8.5 years of imprisonment in the penitentiary hellholes of the Greek state, for his subversive action and his militant dignity, he puts his own body as a barrier against a judicial system of arbitrariness and vindictiveness. With indomitable stubbornness and self-denial, he takes on an entire mechanism of exploitation and oppression, demanding that his demand be met.

It is a given, however, that in this class structured society where the Law and the Order of the Powerful reign supreme, that no other treatment could be given to a militant, who over the years has stood by the side of the outcasts of this world through his words and actions. It is a given that he could not receive the same treatment from our oppressors as the child rapist Lignadis, the unrepentant murderous cop Korkoneas, the real estate magnate Hortaria and every well-bred child of the bourgeois system.

The bourgeois justice as a basic pillar of the capitalist system of production, reflects in a provocative and overt way, that it will be omnipresent, to safeguard the interests of the bourgeoisie, to perpetuate the capitalist relations of exploitation and the disciplining of those who belong to the bottom of the social-class pyramid. Its blatant class bias is therefore not some kind of deviation from its institutional role but its very essence.

Our comrade Giannis Michailidis, who is at the breaking point of his multi-day strike, needs the solidarity and support of the entire subversive movement. Against the callousness of the judicial mafia, the methodologies and the attempted vindictiveness of the state and capital, the world of struggle has the duty to stand up to the circumstances and raise the gauntlet, intercepting the orchestrated climate of terrorism with massive and dynamic marches, solidarity movements, aggressive actions and sabotage.

Freedom to the comrade anarchist Giannis Michailidis, hunger striker since 23/5!

Anarchists

Source: athens.indymedia

URGENT: Critical health condition of 65-day hunger striker Giannis Michailidis

Posted on 2022/07/26 by darknights

URGENT: Critical health condition of 65-day hunger striker Giannis Michailidis

On Monday 25 July, after 64 days of hunger strike, the court of appeal in Lamia held a hearing for his release. Although there was a commitment on the part of the council to issue the decision in time, we understand that the timeframe for respecting the hunger striker has passed. Indeed, they have been elapsed since the Amfissa council delayed a month in issuing its decision. Any further delay on the part of the Lamia council constitutes further torture and an attempt to eliminate our comrade.

As for his health, comrade Giannis Michailidis estimates that he will not be able to drink any water until Thursday, as his body is so badly damaged that he suffers constant palpitations, which make swallowing water impossible. He has now lost 20.6 pounds, more than 28% of his original body weight. In general he states that he has no strength, moves very little and has severe pain in his spleen, left kidney and chest. He is also forced to sleep sitting up due to constant stomach upsets. His blood sugar has dropped to 71 and his blood pressure is 8 and 6. He is very dizzy and cannot concentrate.

The rejection of decisions and proposals so far, and the fact that the council was set on a date when the comrade was on 64 days of hunger strike, blatantly shows that the state and bourgeois justice have two weights and measures. They exterminate, torture and force to death an anarchist militant, while releasing scum murderers and rapists such as Korkoneas, Filippidis, Horterias, Leventis and Lignadis. Justice is class-based, and it is our responsibility to bring justice to the streets by joining forces and fighting actively to end the extermination of Giannis Michailidis. To rally and fight with all our strength for the release of our comrade. To support and accompany the solidarity calls of the coming days:

GATHERING AT SYNTAGMA ON TUESDAY 26/7 AT 19:00

SOLIDARITY ASSEMBLY: Tuesday 26/7, 20:30, Strefi Theatre Continue reading “URGENT: Critical health condition of 65-day hunger striker Giannis Michailidis” →

Athens, Greece: Multiple direct actions claimed in solidarity with anarchist hunger strike Giannis Michailidis

Posted on 2022/07/26 - 2022/07/26 by darknights

Athens, Greece: ‘The hunger strike continues – and so do the breakages.’ Attack on ELTA (Greek Postal Service)

A few hours before the council in Lamia regarding the decision on the satisfaction or not of the request of Giannis Michailidis, we broke the windows of the ELTA in Kaisariani on the road of Ethnikis Antistasis. Of course the council is not interested in this, but Giannis will know that the breaking continues until the release. The answer to the state’s repression is given in the streets. If the forces of the state destroy our marches, the city will be filled at night with alarms waiting to interrupt with their sound the illusion of security.

Freedom to Giannis Michailidis; until the destruction of every prison

Anarchists

Source: athens.indymedia

Athens, Greece: Attack on Aigaleo Town Hall, two municipal service vehicles and the local metro station

Giannis Michailidis has been on hunger strike since 23/5 until today, demanding his release after the rejection of two requests for his release by the councils of the lackeys of political power.

This vindictive attitude of the state towards an anarchist leads us to a minimal gesture of solidarity with his struggle.

In the early morning of Friday 22/7 we broke the facade of the Aigaleo Town Hall, two municipal service vehicles and one side of the elevator of the Metro station across the street.

STATE AND CAPITAL ARE THE ONLY TERRORISTS

FREEDOM TO GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

Source: athens.indymedia

Athens, Greece: Taking responsibility for the attack on DEDDIE (Greek Electricity Distribution Network Operator) and HERON (Electricity company)

The daily brutal class attack that we receive from the capitalist government of the New Democracy and the bourgeois economic power through the inclusion of the basic commodity of electricity in the stock exchange is a blatant attack on the core of our lives.

To defend ourselves against this asymmetrical violence of the state and to cut the root of the bourgeois commodity system that daily gambles our survival, we must resort to the multiform practices of revolutionary, liberatory and de-alienating violence of the competing anarchist and communist movements.

It is in this context that we have found it necessary to intervene and break:

-a branch of the DEDDIE in Kallithea -a branch of HERON in Argyroupoli

Comrades

PS: We send our solidarity to the anarchist political prisoner Giannis Michailidis, who is on hunger strike since 23/5.

Source: athens.indymedia

South London, UK : ‘Life means intervention, decision, struggle, not to be a battery for the machine to work.’

Posted on 2022/07/26 by darknights

This morning 25.7.22, some anarchists interrupted a commuter train on the Docklands Light Railway, connecting the (rapidly transforming) ghettoised districts of Newham and Lewisham to London’s financial centre.

Words from the heart were sprayed on the exterior of the train, especially the name of Giannis Michailidis. A banner carrying a quotation from his public letter from 2013 (‘Tracking my journey in the world of insurrection resistance and solidarity’) was hung from the rail bridge over the central junction of Deptford.

The following text was distributed by throwing hundreds of flyers into the train carrige and off the railway bridge:

Freedom is not an array of consumer choices and ‘experiences’. It consists in the living choice to take your life into your own hands in the struggle.
We can see what happens when, for years, each project of power is left to expand its tentacles over us.
– Neighbourhoods are wrecked to construct vacuum-sealed palaces for the pleasure and profit of the beneficiaries.

– “Economic Strategies”, like raising the prices of food and fuel to discipline everyone back to work post-lockdown, are greeted meekly like a natural law and, accordingly, accumulate astronomical profits for global corporations. Continue reading “South London, UK : ‘Life means intervention, decision, struggle, not to be a battery for the machine to work.’” →