Operation Scripta Manent

June 11th: International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners

Posted on 2023/05/24 by darknights

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Against Oblivion, Against Despair: A Call for June 11th

Another year passes, and another June 11th is upon us. Once again we’re appreciating all that has unfolded in anarchist struggle over this period, both triumphs and hardships, outside the prison walls, and within. We’re appreciating the beauty in fighting back, and the strength that can be fostered when we refuse to succumb to both oblivion, and despair.

Against oblivion: we refuse to let the state disappear rebels, to erase their sweet or sharp words from our discussions, or to remove or obfuscate their contributions to our shared struggles. Instead, we remember them. Their actions, words, laughter, potential, and humanity. We can act as conduit for each other through prison walls and among generations. They can be kept involved as our struggles shift and change, and we can keep them connected to the outside world, and too the outside connected to them.

Against despair: up against the power of the state, it can feel as if nothing can be done. Despair is a very particular space to inhabit. Despair is not hopelessness, as hopelessness can be a fair assessment of circumstances. One can see and acknowledge hopelessness with a full heart and strong spirit. But despair, despair destroys courage. What is despair, but to value the knowing of suffering without acting against it. We refuse to wallow in the realm of despair, indefinitely. We refuse to let despair destroy our courage.

Instead, we will offer hope to one another. Not a naive or misguided hope that offers false solutions. But instead, an impassioned belief in our capacities as individuals, and capabilities together, to continue on. We can learn from people, like prisoners, who face the full power of the state in isolation and maintain their principles, their humor, their courage, and their resolve. We will act not just based on what’s possible or “strategic,” but on what we know to have value and meaning both out of care and love for each other and in an acting for our own selves, our own aliveness and spirit. Imprisoned comrades are often an incredible example of persevering in the face of hopelessness. Of coming out on the other side of it to the fierce activity of nothing to lose, and nothing worse to be feared.

Continue reading “June 11th: International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners” →

Rome, Italy: About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial + Anarchist Alfredo Cospito ‘interrupted’ his hunger strike undertaken since Oct. 20 [Corrected]

Posted on 2023/04/20 - 2023/04/28 by darknights

DN Note: We have been informed by comrades in Italy that comrade Alfredo has only interrupted his hunger strike, that the isolation that is 41 bis prevents us knowing what his real motivations are at present.

About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial (Rome, April 18, 2023)

A hearing was held today in the constitutional court on the case of Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino on charges of political massacre (art. 285 c. p.) within the Scripta Manent trial.

The current Cirielli law (year 2005, Berlusconi government) prevents mitigating factors from outweighing aggravating factors in the case of recidivism. In Alfredo Cospito’s case, in particular, this would have resulted in a certain sentence of hostile life imprisonment despite the fact that the action he and Anna are accused of did not cause any victims.

The court therefore found this provision unconstitutional. More, reading the terse press release that came out of the building, the court seems to have raised constitutionality doubts in general with respect to all those cases in which the fixed penalty is configured solely as life imprisonment.

Recall that Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike for almost 6 months precisely against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment. A struggle for which his comrade is risking his life and during which he may already have suffered permanent neurological damage. A struggle that Alfredo has always reiterated is not just for himself, but for everyone, particularly in solidarity with anarchist, communist and revolutionary prisoners. Today’s decision will have consequences not only for the fate of our comrade, but is a blow, however circumscribed, to the institution of life imprisonment in this country. Continue reading “Rome, Italy: About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial + Anarchist Alfredo Cospito ‘interrupted’ his hunger strike undertaken since Oct. 20 [Corrected]” →

Chile: In the face of the removal of the Noticias de la guerra social website

Posted on 2023/04/15 by darknights

In 2014, we started this counter-information project dedicated to disseminating and documenting the various attacks on the domain, some of them claimed and others anonymous, maintaining a simple format that kept alive only in and with the very pulse of the conflict.

Without worrying too much, we decided to use the most popular service at the time, “wordpress,” since the websites hosted in other “alternative” servers (noblogs, espiv, altervista, lahaine, entodaspartes, etc.) were not considered to be “alternative”. [altervista does not qualify as an “alternative” server, since it is part of the Mondadori group, ed.]) were often removed, either due to repressive attacks or simply due to the termination of their respective projects.

In October-November 2022 https://noticiasdelaguerrasocial.wordpress.com/ was removed from the web, losing that valuable archive and tool for communication and information among antagonists. Far from appealing to “freedom of expression” or complaining about the servers’ own “privacy policies,” we merely noted the fragility of Internet-based projects. Fragility that we knew a priori, but we decided to bet on informal communication and the diffusion of living and latent conflict.

Questions remain in the air: what are the characteristics of our media? How solid are they? What is their degree of autonomy? Do we have our own infrastructure of communication and counter-information? How dependent or susceptible are we? We need to draw some collective lessons from the Italian state’s repressive attack on communication tools such as Radioazione, Culmine or “Vetriolo.” Continue reading “Chile: In the face of the removal of the Noticias de la guerra social website” →

Italy: Important updates on the prison and health conditions of anarchist Alfredo Cospito (April 5, 2023)

Posted on 2023/04/06 by darknights

Important updates on the detention and health conditions of anarchist Alfredo Cospito

Alfredo has NOT ended his hunger strike!
The reports that have been circulating in the media these days are false and slanderous, as is now the custom in this story: he was offered milk, but Alfredo refused it. If he decides to start feeding again, he will follow the instructions given to him by his trusted doctor long ago.
Ahead of the April 18 hearing, he decided to resume supplements: potassium to stabilize his heart, vitamins to try to curb the neurological problem in his lower limbs, and protein. After the hearing at the Constitutional Court in Rome, which is called to rule on the legal legitimacy in granting or not granting mitigating factors in relation to the conviction for 285 c. p. (“massacre for the purpose of attacking the security of the State,” which only provides for life imprisonment) decreed by the Cassation as part of the Scripta Manent trial, he will decide how to proceed.

He is tired and at times struggles to maintain concentration, but he is lucid and present.
In the prison ward of San Paolo, he is NOT getting mail, not even telegrams.
They are NOT delivering books to him, not even the ones he bought through the Opera prison after authorization.
In the room where he is hospitalized he has only artificial light, it is not possible for him to distinguish day from night.
And finally, the doctors in the prison medicine department at San Paolo, who are following Alfredo, still have a provision not to talk and confront the doctor of trust, but to hand over only medical records. Which in fact prevents him from being cared for in the best way.

LET’S CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE ALONGSIDE ALFREDO!

LET US SEND HIM OUR ANGER AND LOVE, SO THAT HE MAY FEEL THAT THOSE WHO STRUGGLE ARE NEVER ALONE!

[April 5, 2023]

[Received by e-mail and posted at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/04/05/aggiornamenti-importanti-sulle-condizioni-detentive-e-di-salute-dellanarchico-alfredo-cospito-5-aprile-2023/]

Venice, Italy: Appeal ruling in the trial of anarchist Juan Sorroche: comrade sentenced to 14 years and 10 months

Posted on 2023/04/04 - 2023/04/04 by darknights

Appeal sentence for Juan (Venice, March 28, 2023)

We report that last March 28 our Juanito, sentenced in first instance to 28 years in prison for an action against the League’s headquarters in Villorba (TV) in 2018, had his sentence reduced to 14 years and 10 months by the Venice appeals court. This is still a very high sentence for an action that-beyond the intentions of the anonymous attackers-did not result in any deaths or injuries.

Full solidarity with Juan!

On this matter, see:

https://ilrovescio.info/2022/07/15/lo-stato-condanna-juan-a-ventotto-anni-di-carcere/
https://ilrovescio.info/2022/07/14/col-sangue-agli-occhi/

To write to Comrade:

Juan Antonio Sorroche Fernandez
C. C. of Terni
Campore road 32
05100 Terni

[Taken from https://ilrovescio.info/2023/03/31/venezia-sentenza-dappello-per-juan/]

[Received by e-mail and posted at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/03/29/sentenza-dappello-del-processo-contro-lanarchico-juan-sorroche-il-compagno-e-stato-condannato-a-14-anni-e-10-mesi/]

Treviso, Italy : Northern League premises attacked by Haris Hatzimihelakis Cell/Black International (1881-2018)

Tired of being silent, tired of seeing systematic violence every day through racism, sexism and waged labor that take place in society, whose essential values are authority and profit. Sick of exploitation we see all political parties as main responsible, as they repress freedom with the state, reformist and repressive apparatus (TV, the mass-media, associations, the army, the civil protection, etc.) The state and capital are the biggest criminals, they even violate their own laws, they steal through taxes, they kill through wars and waged labor, rejections of migrants’ boats in the sea, concentration camps for immigrants in Europe and Africa, they contaminate irreversibly men, animals and the entire planet, all for their profit and power.

Let’s not forget the hypocritical complicity of society made of citizens who pretend not to see the horrors of present and past racism and nationalism. This acceptance is the pillar of totalitarianism and democracy: in the course of time the authority based on indifference, fear, apathy was able to create Gulags and nazi concentration camps, and today the concentration camps in Libya and outside our homes. It’s history that repeats itself. Continue reading “Venice, Italy: Appeal ruling in the trial of anarchist Juan Sorroche: comrade sentenced to 14 years and 10 months” →

Italy: Alfredo Cospito’s statement at the review hearing for the Operation Sibilla pre-trial measures

Posted on 2023/03/23 by darknights

Alfredo Cospito’s statement at the review hearing for the Operation Sibilla pre-trial measures

First, I wanted to begin with a quote from my instigator:

“Our system has introduced that figure of mortuary isolation that is 41 bis, and that in some respects is more uncivilized even than this pharmacological mutilation. This is to say that our system does not shine with civilization.”
Carlo Nordio, March 28, 2019

This was my instigator of the struggle I started. I never thought I would get this far, I always found melodrama ridiculous, I love comedy more, but that’s how it was. After all, are we or are we not the country of melodrama? And so I have to end on a high note. When I think about it, though, something ironic is there: I am the only asshole who dies in the progressive democratic West because he is prevented from reading and studying what he wants, anarchist newspapers, anarchist books, historical and scientific journals, without neglecting his beloved comic books.

You will admit that this is paradoxical and even a bit funny, I can’t live this way, I just can’t do it, I hope those who love me will understand. I can’t do it to surrender to this non-life, it is stronger than me, maybe because I am an anarchic Abruzzese stubborn. I am certainly not a martyr, martyrs make me somewhat repulsed. Yes, I am a terrorist, I shot a man and proudly claimed that deed even though, let me tell you, the definition makes a bit of a laugh in the mouth of representatives of states that have wars and millions of dead on their conscience and sometimes, like one of our ministers, get rich from the arms trade. But what can we do, that’s the way of the world, at least until anarchy triumphs and true socialism, the antiauthoritarian and antistatalist kind, finally sees the light of day. Tough luck you will say, and so will I, for now the only glimmers of light I see are the acts of rebellion by my revolutionary brothers and sisters around the world, and they are certainly no small thing, because they are done with heart, passion and courage, no matter how scattered and scrappy they may seem. Continue reading “Italy: Alfredo Cospito’s statement at the review hearing for the Operation Sibilla pre-trial measures” →

Italy: Letter from Alfredo Cospito and update on the latest transfer to San Paolo Hospital on March 6

Posted on 2023/03/16 by darknights

Letter from Alfredo Cospito and update on the latest transfer to San Paolo Hospital on March 6

On Monday, March 6 (the 138th day of his hunger strike) Alfredo Cospito was again transferred from Opera Prison to San Paolo Hospital. Recall that the comrade had been an inmate in the Intensive Assistance Service (SAI) inside the Opera prison since Jan. 30, on Feb. 11 transferred for the first time to San Paolo Hospital, and then transferred again to Opera on the 27th of the same month (following the hearing on the 24th in the court of cassation), remaining there for a week, until this last transfer to San Paolo on March 6.

Following the outcome of the Feb. 24 hearing at the court of cassation (which rejected the petition to revoke his detention in 41 bis, further ratifying what had already been decided by the Rome supervisory court in its Dec. 1 hearing), Alfredo stopped taking the mild supplements he had been taking for some time.

Also in the same days as the latest transfer, on March 6, the opinion requested by the Ministry of Justice from the National Bioethics Committee on the possible medical intervention in Alfredo, that is, on force-feeding in case of loss of consciousness, was released. The CNB stresses that it has “no legal, political, moral or ethical legitimacy to formulate an ‘ad personam’ opinion” (and “consequently, the CNB’s response is of a general nature”), without even issuing an unambiguous opinion, thus dividing itself between the “pro-life” and the “pro-choice” (according to the latter, the Anticipated Treatment Arrangement should be respected in any case).

On March 1, during a press conference, Alfredo’s lawyer disclosed a hitherto undisclosed letter-statement by the comrade, plausibly dating back at least a month. We publish its full transcript here. Recall that to date, due to the systematic censorship inherent in 41 bis, it has not yet been possible to read the comrade’s first statement regarding the beginning of the hunger strike, dating back to October 20. The only statement published to date, other than this letter disclosed on March 1, was the one for the December 5 hearing in Turin as part of the Scripta Manent trial.

The state’s choice to annihilate the comrade poses the need to place, once again, no hope in the outcomes of the courts or in the opinions of the various structures deputed to express their views on the contradictions that have opened up in state bodies as a result of the hunger strike and with the development of the international solidarity movement. These are, especially with regard to the courts of the Italian state, structures and figures directly responsible for the very serious conditions in which Alfredo Cospito finds himself. The state, first with the transfer of the comrade in 41 bis on May 5 and later with the cassation ruling of the Scripta Manent trial on July 6, intended to give a warning to the anarchist and revolutionary movement. A warning that after the outcomes of the hearings of the Rome parole court on Dec. 1 and the court of cassation on Feb. 24 was expressed even more clearly, taking the form of a will to total annihilation against the comrade.

To the attempted annihilation against Alfredo and the constant mass-media campaign of slander the whole anarchist movement we respond with the clarity of our ideas and the tenacity of our practices.

Letter from Alfredo Cospito

My struggle against 41 bis is an individual struggle as an anarchist; I do not do or receive blackmail. I simply cannot live in an inhumane regime like 41 bis, where I cannot freely read what I want, books, newspapers, anarchist periodicals, art, scientific and literature and history magazines.

The only chance I have to get out is to deny my anarchy and sell me someone to put in my place. A regime where I cannot have any human contact, where I can no longer see or stroke a blade of grass or hug a loved one. A regime where photos of your parents are confiscated. Buried alive in a grave, in a place of death. I will carry on my struggle to the bitter end, not because of “blackmail,” but because this is not life. If the goal of the Italian state is to make me “disassociate” myself from the actions of the anarchists outside, know that I do not suffer blackmail. As a good anarchist I believe that everyone is responsible for his own actions, and as a member of the anti-organizational current I have never “associated” with anyone and therefore cannot “disassociate” myself from anyone. Affinity is something else. Continue reading “Italy: Letter from Alfredo Cospito and update on the latest transfer to San Paolo Hospital on March 6” →

Italy: ‘To burning hearts’ Statement of the anarchists accused at the trial for Operation Renata

Posted on 2023/02/21 - 2023/02/21 by darknights

Four years after the repressive operation Renata on February 19, 2019, we publish – not for an aseptic “exhumation” of recent history, but because these are texts that address the profound social and individual reasons for the anarchists’ thought and action – the statement of the seven comrades accused during the first-degree trial (“To Burning Hearts”) and a second statement distributed during the appeal trial. In addition, we believe it is important and necessary to find and disseminate the statements of comrades who, during the trials, take the floor continuing to support the ideas and practices of attack against the state and capital.

To burning hearts

Statement of the anarchists accused at the trial for Operation Renata

The anarchist does not look to success, to victory, to competition. He fights, because it is right. And in any struggle loss is part of life. He does not change his mind because he loses, much less give up the next struggle. The System is self-feeding because of the people who do not fight, not because they are invincible. The anarchist’s job is to instill in the people revolt, not in segments but continuous. Like a wave that recedes and then returns. You ask me if we will win? You ask me the wrong question. Ask me if we will fight and I will answer yes.
Luigi Galleani

Today we decided to have our say on the “Renata” operation. In other writings, the investigation has been analyzed, both in its general repressive aspects of the state and with regard to the technological, inquisitorial and legal tools used to hit those who still dare to fight for something different and still blow on the wings of freedom.

We have decided not to turn to the court that will try us nor to the diligence of our repressors. A courtroom is not the place where we choose to speak today.

We want to speak in those places where there is struggle, where there is still critical spirit, wherever there are women and men who are aware that so many things must be changed now, that this state of affairs must be revolutionized.

So we are going to talk about the actions that we are accused of or that are included in the investigation.

These actions-night or day, individual or collective-are part of a conflict that goes far beyond the specific facts or the territory in which they are located. They are the result of a broader clash, that between the exploited, the exploiters and those who defend them.

Of these actions we share the spirit, the ethics, the method, the goals, regardless of who carried them out. They speak for themselves, they are understandable to most, they point to a path – that of liberation. They point the finger at those who live by exploitation and war, hatred and violence, they wish for something more, something that will put an end to the worst atrocities and barbarities, but above all they aim to destroy the wall of resignation, in times so poor in human solidarity, rebellion, critical thinking.

Those who in recent years have said and still say that such actions serve no purpose, that the game is not worth the candle, that nothing will change, that human beings have permanently lost their wits by reducing life to a constant fratricidal war, have stopped dreaming, have stopped questioning those responsible for injustice and the causes that have brought society to a moral, environmental and material level that is disturbing to say the least. Continue reading “Italy: ‘To burning hearts’ Statement of the anarchists accused at the trial for Operation Renata” →

Italy: Update on Operation Sibilla: hearing set for Alfredo Cospito and other comrades under investigation at Perugia review court

Posted on 2023/02/21 by darknights

On Feb. 13, the setting of the review hearing on precautionary measures was notified for comrades targeted for measures in the November 11, 2021 Sibilla repressive operation (including Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike for more than 120 days, and Gianluca, who is currently under house arrest in the Diamante investigation by the Genoa prosecutor’s office). The hearing is set for March 14 at the court in Perugia.

This second re-examination stemmed from the hearing held on June 22 in Rome at the court of cassation, which concluded by granting prosecutor Manuela Comodi’s request, thus annulling the previous order of the review court (which on Dec. 16, 2021 had resulted in the revocation of the precautionary measures). The court of cassation, in spite of what had been expressed by the attorney general (who had called for the rejection of the Perugian prosecutor’s appeal), had thus “exhumed” the investigation by annulling the revocation of the measures and ordering a new review hearing.

Operation Sibilla, carried out by the Carabinieri’s Special Operational Group and the Perugia prosecutor’s office under the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia and Counterterrorism Directorate, played a key role in the genesis and application of the 41 bis detention order for comrade Alfredo Cospito.

Eight comrades (including Alfredo himself), previously investigated by the ROS and the Milan Prosecutor’s Office in another case for 270 bis c. p. (subversive association for the purpose of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order) and 414 c. p. (incitement to commit a crime, with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism) in connection with the editing, publication and distribution of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo,” had been the subject in September 2021, by the Perugia prosecutor’s office, of a request for precautionary measures in prison on the same charges, plus other charges for various reasons relating to additional articles, leaflets and documents, as well as wall writings and for one comrade to a damage to some Poste Italiane cars (Foligno, June 6, 2019) in solidarity with anarchist comrades on hunger strike over the closure of the High Security 2 section of the L’Aquila prison.

At the same time as this request for arrest, a three-month censure order on correspondence was ordered for comrade Alfredo Cospito, which was subsequently renewed several times. The reasons for this censure became clear only a couple of months later, when – with the November 11 operation – the Sibilla investigation “emerged” and PM Comodi’s original request was downgraded by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations. Thus, a new order established no longer eight arrests in prison but six precautionary measures in relation only to the charge of incitement to commit crimes with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism: an arrest warrant for Alfredo Cospito (at the time imprisoned in Terni Prison); house arrest with all restrictions for a comrade from Spoleto; and an obligation to stay in the municipality of residence jointly with the obligation to sign three days a week for four comrades. In addition, other comrades turned out to be under investigation at large, countless searches were carried out, and two websites (roundrobin.info and malacoda.noblogs.org) were subjected to preventive seizure and blacked out (a practically unprecedented fact as far as the Italian-speaking anarchist movement is concerned), remaining unreachable to this day with conventional search engines. Continue reading “Italy: Update on Operation Sibilla: hearing set for Alfredo Cospito and other comrades under investigation at Perugia review court” →

Turin, Italy: Incendiary attack on a telecommunications repeater in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike to the bitter end

Posted on 2023/01/31 by darknights

We learn from the media that on the night of January 28, a telecommunications repeater located in Turin on Via Revigliasco (in a hilly area close to the city) was set on fire. According to various media reports, the fire – which occurred around 4:30 a.m. – resulted in the damage of about 2,000 meters of cables, interrupting service not only for some telephone companies but also for other companies, such as Iren (electricity and gas provider), and for some security systems that use the facility.

The inscription ” Out Alfredo Cospito from 41 bis” was left at the site, in reference to the anarchist comrade imprisoned in the Bancali prison, who has been on hunger strike for more than 100 days against the 41 bis regime (in which he has been imprisoned since May 5) and the hostile life sentence (which is likely to be the final sentence for the comrade at the end of the Scripta Manent trial, which has reached its last trial hearings). Currently, other than the writing found by the repressive forces, no claim or communication regarding the attack appears to have been released.

[Images taken from regime media].

Source: La Nemesi