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”→
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.
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”→
The request for deferral of Alfredo Cospito’s sentence to house arrest rejected by the Supervisory Courts of Milan and Sassari
27/3/23: The Supervisory Court of Milan replied by rejecting the request for house arrest for health reasons for anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito.
At the same time the Sassari court reached the same decision. In both cases with the long motivations already written. The comrade’s behaviour is defined instrumental in obtaining changes in political and judicial decisions.
While contradictions are accumulating within the political and judicial apparatuses (e.g., opinion of the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate, the Attorney General of the Supreme Court, Sibilla re-examination, etc.) each time one is faced with an organ that has the power to resolve the question raised by the comrade’s struggle immediately, the party of the death sentence applies all its political power to block any possible way out.
This was in all probability the last chance. To all of us the human and historic task to make the State pay the highest possible price for this murder. Now and in the future.
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”→
Update on the review hearing for re-examination of the precautionary measures in operation Sibilla and statements of some of the comrades under investigation (Perugia, 14th March 2023)
The hearing for re-examination of the precautionary measures for anarchists in operation Sibilla of 11th November 2021 took place on March 14th in the bunker courtroom inside the prison of Capanne in Perugia. It concerned the comrades for whom measures were ordered on charges of incitement to commit a crime (414 criminal code), aggravated by the aim of terrorism, in connection with the drafting, publication and distribution of the first six issues of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo” and other articles and interventions.
Among the comrades under investigation are Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike for over 140 days, and Gianluca, currently under house arrest for a year now for the investigation Diamante.
This second re-examination resulted from the Court of Cassation’s ruling last June granting the prosecutor Manuela Comodi’s request, annulling the previous order of the review court which had revoked the precautionary measures in December 2021.
Alfredo Cospito participated in the hearing by video link from the Milan prison of Opera and three comrades under investigation were present in the courtroom in the Peurugia prison of Capanne. The hearing took place behind closed doors, while there were around 40 comrades in solidarity outside. The three comrades under investigation who attended the hearing in the bunker courtroom spoke (two of them with written statements) and each greeted Alfredo warmly. Alfredo made a long statement, in which he was very lucid and was loaded with his usual sarcasm (‘I prefer comedy to melodrama’).’I want to start with the words of my instigator,’ he began, quoting a stance of the current minister of justice Nordio going back to 2019 concerning 41 bis. The comrade then reiterated the meaning and perspective of the hunger strike against the detention regime, which he called a ‘medieval muzzle’ and a ‘metastasis that will spread to political dissent’. Alfredo said he does not accept this non-life and will go on until the end. “For anarchists, who have no organisation, the given word is everything.” That is why he will keep his word, going on to the bitter end. “I will leave with dignity. I hope that those who love me understand that.” The comrade wished to point out that, in the situation in which he is imprisoned, “the only remnants of light I see are the acts of my anarchist brothers and sisters around the world”, “Thank you anarchists. I love you”. Finally, he concluded: “Abolition of the 41 bis regime. Abolition of life imprisonment without parole. Solidarity with all anarchist, communist and revolutionary prisoners in the world”.
Unfortunately, due to the peculiarities of 41 bis, designed specifically to gag prisoners, Alfredo’s full statement is not currently available. We will release it as soon as possible.
After a ridiculous intervention by prosecutor Manuela Comodi who swore that the ‘Perugia public prosecutor’s office is totally uninvolved in the 41 bis measure’, in open contradiction with the words of her boss Cantone (also present in court today), the hearing was closed and the court reserved its decision on the precautionary measures against the investigated comrades.
The decision to move the venue of the hearing to the bunker courtroom of Capanne prison was an obvious attempt to remove the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo away from the city centre. This aim was not achieved because after the hearing the solidarity presence reconvened at the canteen of the University of Perugia, where a banner was unfurled, leaflets were distributed and megaphone interventions were held for over an hour.
Repressive forces have ordered the shifting of the review hearing for the precautionary measures of Operation Sibilla against the anarchists investigated for the publication of “Vetriolo,” scheduled for Tuesday, March 14. The hearing will no longer be held at the court of judges for preliminary investigations (the former Enel building, located in the city), but at the bunker courtroom inside the Capanne prison, also in Perugia (outside the city). This is a blatant, further attempt to silence our comrade, to make the solidarity movement invisible by literally gathering inside a bunker. It will mean that we will also take Alfredo’s battle to the inmates who are incarcerated in Capanne.
Because of this shift, the solidarity presence with Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike since October 20, will be held in front of the prison in Capanne, at strada regionale 220 Pievaiola No. 252, also starting at 08:30.
Get Alfredo out of 41 bis! To forget the prisoners of the social war is to forget the war itself! Revolutionary solidarity with Alfredo Cospito and all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries!
Below is the text of the poster:
SIBILLA STILL PREDICTS THE STORM
SOLIDARITY PRESENCE WITH ALFREDO COSPITO ON THE OCCASION OF THE RE-EXAMINATION HEARING FOR THE PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES OF OPERATION SIBILLA AGAINST THE ANARCHISTS INVESTIGATED FOR THE PUBLICATION OF ” VETRIOLO ”
Those who act against the state and the bosses have already matured such determination that they do not need to be “instigated,” because it is autonomy of thought and action that is expressed, not gregariousness and subordination to orders.
Alfredo Cospito has dedicated his life to an idea that he has continued to assert resolutely even in the face of the worst adversity, as he has been doing since October 20 with the beginning of his hunger strike to the bitter end.
Alfredo Cospito is not an “instigator,” but an anarchist, a revolutionary. The ideas he has always supported, the actions for which he has been convicted (or claimed, as in the case of the wounding of Adinolfi, an executive of Ansaldo Nucleare), represent the reasons for revolt and the need for revolution against the sirens of submission and resignation to this social reality.
SOLIDARITY PRESENCE, TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 8:30 A.M., CAPANNE PRISON, STRADA PROVINCIALE 220 PIEVAIOLA, 252, PERUGIA.
SOLIDARITY WITH ALFREDO COSPITO ON HUNGER STRIKE SINCE OCT. 20 AGAINST 41 BIS AND HOSTILE LIFE IMPRISONMENT
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”→
Foligno: You bet we’ll remember, and how! About the 41 bis for Alfredo Cospito: Those who are responsible
YOU BET WE’LL REMEMBER, AND HOW!
ABOUT THE 41 BIS FOR ALFREDO COSPITO: THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE
In recent days, a media campaign of mystification and lies has been going on around the hunger strike that Alfredo Cospito is carrying on to the last breath against life imprisonment without appeal and 41 bis. We’ve heard it all. The prime minister Giorgia Meloni, with her usual victimhood, went so far as to suspect conspiracies about the coincidence of the start of the hunger strike with the launching of her government.
Another lie circulating is the one about a phantom alliance between anarchists and the mafia, deduced from wiretaps between Alfredo and the only three people he is allowed to see in the prison yard. The State, which decided to lock an anarchist up in 41 bis for the first time, is now instrumentalising the fact that that anarchist speaks to the only human beings he can meet. Sociability groupings which, by the way, are decided centrally by the ministry in Rome! In truth, it was with the creation of the DNAA (Direzione Nazionale Antimafia e Antiterrorismo) that the State wanted to set up a war machine against revolutionary insurgency, a machine that had as its weapons the exceptional tools that hitherto only applied to the anti-mafia. We are witnessing a complete reversal of the facts: those who merged completely different realities into the bureaucracies of the judicial and penitentiary administration are now crying ‘bonding’.
Similarly, we are aghast when we hear again the president of the council Giorgia Meloni assert that she will not negotiate with anarchists. And not just because everyone in Italy knows that the State only negotiates with the mafia. Statements like these denote that those in government have completely lost touch with reality. It is the anarchists who, since time immemorial, have never wanted to deal with institutions.
Anarchists who, as is well known, have no leaders, no ambassadors, no recognised interlocutors. So they have nothing at all to negotiate about. Anarchist conflictuality does not arise from the instigation of a jailed ‘leader’ and is not moderated in exchange for the survival of a comrade held hostage by the executioners of repression. Our conflict arises from visceral class hatred fuelled every day, not by political sophistry, but by exploitation, blackmail, misery, and the injustices of this society. The 41 bis was intended to be a warning to anarchists, it was not! Continue reading “Foligno, Italy: You bet we’ll remember, and how! About the 41 bis for Alfredo Cospito: Those who are responsible”→
Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 99th day of hunger strike (Italy, January 26, 2023)
With the publication of the following texts – an update circulated yesterday, January 26th, and two transcripts of as many radio speeches by the trusted doctor, dating back to January 26th and 19th – we provide an update on the current serious health condition of anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito 100 days after the start of the hunger strike.
The attempted annihilation against Alfredo was ratified by the State in July and December last year, first (by the Court of Cassation) with the reclassification as ‘political massacre’ of a charge in the Scripta Manent trial, then (by the Court of Surveillance in Rome) with an order confirming his detention in 41 bis, the most afflictive detention regime in Italian prisons, to which Alfredo was transferred on May 5th.
In the face of this attempt at annihilation, it is of the utmost importance that the ideas, deeds, and contribution of the comrade are not forgotten, condemned to oblivion as desired by the repressive apparatuses with the Scripta Manent trial, Sibilla repressive operation, and the transfer to the 41 bis prison regime. To the isolation and censorship of the State and its prisons we oppose, today as yesterday, the tenacity and consistency of our ideas and practices.
“Allow me to say, with a modicum of pride, that my life (like the life of every anarchist worthy of the name) is characterised by the attempt to make theory and action coincide. To the servants of Power I say only one thing: you can keep me in jail for the rest of my life but resign yourself, you will not succeed in taking away my coherence and self-respect, let alone the pleasure and desire to fight you“.
(Alfredo Cospito, ‘About Sibilla Operation’, 2021)
An update on the current health condition: the comrade collapsed, the torturers took him to hospital and then returned him to 41 bis
Serious news is arriving from Bancali prison, where Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike for 99 days. Our comrade now moves around in a wheelchair, he has worrying microchemical values, he has serious thermoregulation problems, that is, he is getting colder and colder, he covers himself with many jumpers and several pairs of trousers.
Perhaps in order to warm himself up, he decided to take a shower last night, around 11:30 p.m.. There Alfredo allegedly collapsed, fell and broke his nose in a compound manner. In addition, due to low platelets, he allegedly started to lose a lot of blood from the wound. For these reasons he was rushed to the hospital in Sassari. After initial treatment, the murderers of the prison police took him back to prison.
Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 71st day of hunger strike (Italy, December 29, 2022)
On December 29th, 71st day of the hunger strike to the bitter end against 41 bis and life imprisonment without possibility of parole, the antagonist radio station Radio Onda d’Urto broadcast a speech by the doctor who is regularly visiting anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito, imprisoned in the Bancali prison in Sassari. We report a partial transcript of the speech and, at the end of the update, the recording of the broadcast (in italian language).
“[…] So, let’s consider that Alfredo is now 70 days into his hunger strike. He started from a weight of 115 kg and today he is at 84 kg. Surely he has a strong physique, he started from a fairly high weight so he has a better chance than others of being able to sustain this hunger strike. It is clear, however, that everything has an end at some point; in the sense that currently his haemato-chemical parameters are quite good, except for the fact that it is going down a bit with the electrolytes. Today he spoke to me about reducing his agony, in the sense that he wants to make it precipitate a little in order to shift the ground a little, a little more, so that he might eventually be transferred from 41 bis. I told him, however, that as far as potassium is concerned, which is part of the electrolytes, like sodium and chlorine, it is indispensable for contraction, especially for cardiac contraction – I am a cardiologist –, in fact, with the electrocardiogram that we did today there are alterations that are found in the ventricular recovery phase, and which show particular waves that result from potassium deficiency. Obviously I got a bit angry because, a few days ago, he stopped taking the supplements [extremely mild, light, which he has been taking for some time], so this is also the cause of the lowered potassium […]. He is a little convinced [to keep taking them, for a few more days] so he promised me that today and tomorrow, while waiting for the results of the tests [which are done about every four days], he will take the supplements. Then, as for the rest, psychologically he is in high spirits, smiling; a couple of days ago they moved him from his cell to another one, so he has air time with three other inmates, and this pleases him very much, because he talks to these other three inmates during air time. As a complexion then, in fact, he is a little better because he was very, very pale, but not pale because he was deficient in red blood cells; pale precisely because he was not taking light. And obviously the calcemia that he still has good is crumbling a little bit from the bones; somewhere, if you don’t take in food, the body subtracts and tries to help in some way. Let’s say that also as reasoning, as lucidity, he is fine; nothing to say about the answers he gives, they are not at all confused. He is reading, now and then he has a bit of blurred vision, he told me a bit of visual impairment, and that goes with the vitamin deficiency, of course. Every now and then, also because he wants to be conscious, he takes a little honey, which is a bit better than sugar […], when he was hypoglycaemic, they used to give him some sugar, but now he takes honey, so he doesn’t have these glycaemic drops any more. Then, for the rest, he is quite well; obviously he has lost a lot, a lot, a lot of weight, even since the first time I saw him, but nothing disastrous from the haemato-chemical analyses […]”.
In the face of the attempted annihilation of Alfredo, it is of the utmost importance that the ideas, deeds, and contribution of the comrade not be forgotten, condemned to oblivion as desired by the repressive apparatus of the state with the Scripta Manent trial, the Sibilla operation, and the transfer to the 41 bis regime.
The recent decree of the Court of Surveillance of Rome that confirms the detention in 41 bis is placed in the same perspective – the annihilation of the comrade – and is indicative of the reprisal that the state intends to give to the anarchist movement. Repression, convictions, decades of imprisonment, however, will not be enough nor can they ever lead to surrender: inevitably, our passion for freedom is stronger than any authority.
We continue the struggle with determination, we support all anarchist and revolutionary initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito who has been on hunger strike for over 70 days, with Ivan Alocco since December 22nd again on hunger strike alongside Alfredo, and with all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries.
The recording of the Radio Onda d’Urto broadcast (in italian language):
