Repression – Page 27

Italy: We do not allow the murder of Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike since October 20th. Call for international mobilization

Posted on 2022/10/28 - 2022/10/30 by darknights

On October 20th, anarchist Alfredo Cospito, during a trial at the Sassari surveillance court, made an attempt to read an articulate statement in which he was about to announce that he is starting a hunger strike against the 41 bis prison regime to which he is subjected and against life imprisonment without possibility of parole. A battle that Alfredo does not intend to stop, until his own death. The comrade, who has been in 41 bis since last May 5th, under a decree signed by then Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia, is now being detained in the Bancali prison in Sardinia.

Alfredo Cospito is an anarchist who has always been at the front line of struggles, never willing to compromise or give up. He is a comrade who has been fighting since the late 1980s, a period in which he was imprisoned as a total objector (for refusing to serve in the obligatory military service) and who, after his arrest in 2012, during the trial that followed, claimed the responsibility for the shooting of Ansaldo Nucleare executive Roberto Adinolfi, an act that was carried out by Nucleo Olga / Federazione Anarchica Informale – Fronte Rivoluzionario Internazionale, FAI-FRI (“Olga Nucleus” / Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front), and occurred on May 7th of the same year in Genoa.

Alfredo has been always active in the defense of comrades affected by repression, in every corner of the world. His struggle objectively concerns all detainees, among whom we particularly remember the three militants of Brigate Rosse per la costruzione del Partito Comunista Combattente (Red Brigades for the construction of the Combatant Communist Party) locked up for more than 17 years in 41 bis (Nadia Lioce, Roberto Morandi, Marco Mezzasalma). In 2009, comrade Diana Blefari, from the same organization, committed suicide after her living in this harsh prison regime.

Alfredo has been uninterruptedly in prison for 10 years, which he spent in High Security sections until his transfer to 41 bis. In 2016 he was involved in repressive operation “Scripta Manent”, accused of subversive association with the purpose of terrorism and multiple explosive attacks. Following a Supreme Court verdict in July this year, the sentence for Alfredo and Anna Beniamino was reformulated to “political massacre,” the only punishment which means prison for life. The Italian state that has always been protecting fascist mass murderers now wants to condemn two anarchists for massacre for an attack that caused neither victims nor injuries. Continue reading “Italy: We do not allow the murder of Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike since October 20th. Call for international mobilization” →

Germany: All my friends are bad kids! – about a (meanwhile discontinued) §129-proceeding against anarchists in Hamburg and Bremen

Posted on 2022/10/22 - 2022/10/22 by darknights

In the following we want to inform you about a procedure according to §129 in Hamburg and Bremen, describe the collective handling of it and give space to individual voices of affected people.

In summer, some people in Hamburg and Bremen opened their mailboxes and there they were again: letters from the Chief Public Prosecutor Schakau of the General Prosecutor’s Office in Hamburg. From 26.05.2020 to 25.07.2022 investigations of different authorities in a §129-procedure against anarchists in Hamburg and Bremen took place. It was about an association construct to which direct actions, mainly in Hamburg, should be assigned over a longer period of time.
Three of the five people against whom the investigations were mainly directed had already been convicted in 2020 in the so-called Parkbank proceedings and were the three official defendants in these proceedings. In the course of the investigation, two other people were selected as potential members of the constructed association, who were similarly investigated.
It all starts (for us) with a report from the BKA to the Attorney General’s Office suggesting proceedings under §129a (formation of a terrorist organization) against the three defendants. However, this is rejected by Attorney General Geilhorn, as are proceedings under §129 (formation of a criminal organization) at the federal level.
One day later, proceedings under §129 begin in Hamburg, led by Chief Public Prosecutor Schakau. In the course of these investigations, measures are initiated against all five suspects of membership; these run from the beginning of May to the beginning of August 2021 and include observations with photo and video recordings, telecommunications surveillance (tapping telephone conversations and reading text messages), the use of IMSI catchers and silent text messages, as well as Internet surveillance (especially the reading of all known and accessible e-mail inboxes).

In the course of this, a large part of the environments of the five defendants were investigated and a large number of people were affected by almost all of the measures. In this context, it should be mentioned that there were at least two people who were not constructed as (potential) members, whose phones were tapped separately with harebrained explanations. It should also be mentioned that the observations and wiretapping measures took place across federal states (Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Bavaria and Saxony) and in several cases by administrative assistance also in other European countries (Austria, Belgium and Spain).
Ultimately, the proceedings are discontinued on 25.07.2022, officially for lack of evidence. “Officially”, because of course – as we know – parallel surveillance against some defendants also took place according to other paragraphs, also under the sign of police “danger defense”. A more detailed processing of the investigations in the sense of “files for all” will be given elsewhere and at a later time. Continue reading “Germany: All my friends are bad kids! – about a (meanwhile discontinued) §129-proceeding against anarchists in Hamburg and Bremen” →

Germany: The Italian state sentenced Juan to 28 years in prison DE/EN

Posted on 2022/10/17 by darknights

DER ITALIENISCHE STAAT VERURTEILT JUAN ZU 28 JAHREN IM GEFÄNGNIS.

Am 9. Juli wurde unser Gefährte Juan wegen eines Sprengstoffanschlags auf ein „Nord Liga“-Hauptquartier in Treviso (Italien) mit einer „terroristischen Absicht“ zu 28 Jahren Gefängnis und einer anschließenden dreijährigen Bewährung, verurteilt.
Wenige Tage zuvor hatte das Kassationsgericht den Angriff auf eine Carabinieri-Kaserne in Fossano (Italien), für den die anarchistischen Gefährten Anna und Alfredo in der Berufung verurteilt worden waren, erneut als „politischer Massenmord“ (ein Verbrechen, das mit lebenslanger Haft bestraft wird) eingestuft. In der Zwischenzeit wurde Alfredo in das 41bis-Gefängnisregime verlegt, ein Regime der totalen Isolation, eine Form der Folter, das darauf abzielt, den Gefangenen zur Abschwörung, Reue, Distanzierung und zum Verzicht auf seine eigene Identität und seinen revolutionären Weg zu zwingen.
Die unverhältnismäßig hohen Haftstrafen (im wesentlichen lebenslänglich) und die Anwendung vom 41bis stellen einen beispiellosen Angriff auf die anarchistische Bewegung dar.
Sie stellen den Versuch des Staates dar, das Spiel mit einem Milieu zu beenden, das subversiv und revolutionär geblieben ist und das jahrzehntelange Ermittlungen und Verhaftungen nicht zu brechen vermochten.

SOLIDARITÄT MIT JUAN, ANNA, ALFREDO
GEGEN DIE FOLTER VON 41 BIS, FREIHEIT FÜR ALLE
DER TERRORIST IST DER STAAT

Der Schmerz und die Wut, die durch die Kenntnis um unsere von den Haftstrafen betroffenen Gefährten verursacht werden, deren Haftende wir nicht erahnen können, stärken nur unsere Überzeugungen:
Wir werden weiterhin den Weg des Kampfes beschreiten, den des ständigen Konflikts, der direkten Aktion. Wie immer, aber ab heute mit einem Grund mehr.

Anarchistinnen und Anarchisten Continue reading “Germany: The Italian state sentenced Juan to 28 years in prison DE/EN” →

Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for a raid on a riot squad of MAT

Posted on 2022/10/17 by darknights

…And life became the biggest lie

There is no police brutality

There are only bloodthirsty protesters in a brutal fury

with the breakneck speed of desperation

the com-mat-asfalites1, the chemical tear gas, the shields.

the helmets, the incubating cages

the snake eggs of the fascist crawling society….

George Tsingos and the Black Circles

Watching the domestic news of the last few months, one will see that despite the social reactions that have developed, the isolation and suppression of the antagonistic movement as well as the imposition of unprecedented social control measures remains a key objective of the Greek state. The gentrification of Exarcheia includes the construction of a metro station in the square, the redevelopment-privatisation of the Strefi Hill and the blocking of access to the Polytechnic and aims to uproot the revolutionary tradition of the area. Similarly, the installation of MAT platoons and all kinds of cops inside the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki aims to sterilize the university premises from any voice of opposition to the bosses. But beyond hitting the movements, the hiring of thousands of new cops, the millions given to equip the police and their constant presence in the public arena on every occasion set the tone of the new social contract. And all this at a time when society is being impoverished anew, with precision pushing those from below to the limits of survival. In a nutshell as Petsas arrogantly informed us adaptation (to capitalist and state dictates) or death.

The effort by the current government to restructure the education system and especially the universities begins the very next day after its election with the abolition of the university asylum. Their pretext was to crack down on lawlessness and instil a sense of security. This was followed by the passing of Law 4777 in the midst of quarantine to avoid major social reactions. The response to those that were manifested was a display of fierceness and brutality. Just a few examples:

the pulling of a gun by a cop at the ΑΣΣΟΕ (Athens School of Economics)
the two evacuations of the occupied rectorate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the space of one month in 2021
the evacuation of the steki at the Biologcko
the hundreds of injuries, beatings and arrests in the last two years in student mobilizations
the firing of asphyxiant inside the ΣΘΕ (School of Sciences) in broad daylight with hundreds of students and workers trapped inside the building and suffocating
the hitting and severely injuring of a student with a flashbang grenade fired at point-blank range
the murderous attack on the crowd attending Thanasis Papakostantinou’s concert during the 3rd Libertarian Festival of Occupied Spaces and Collectives, which almost resulted in people being trampled.

Continue reading “Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for a raid on a riot squad of MAT” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the attack at the metro station Syngrou/Fix

Posted on 2022/10/15 by darknights

In recent times we have seen the intensification of state repression which no doubt aims at the abolition of previous social and class gains. This intensification can be reflected in the violent repression of workers’ strikes, in the entry of police forces into universities, and in the expansion of the attack and repression on any form of social and class resistance (from the repeated police attacks on marches and gatherings to the recent attack on a concert in a university in Thessaloniki*). Amongst the above, another of the main peaks of this attack is taking place in Exarcheia, under the pretext of the metro stop and the redevelopment of the Strefi Hill, the state has launched an unprecedented attack in its attempt to change the political and social correlations within the neighbourhood. The constant presence of MAT riot police and the OPKE (armed SWAT style cop unit) playing the role of an occupying army in order to further territorialise the totalitarian doctrine of order and security within the neighbourhood is the most striking sign of this new strategy and the new reality that the state wants to impose.

However, what is happening in Exarcheia also has a very specific economic and class dimension, since both the metro stop and the redevelopment of the hill of Strefi are included within the more general plans of capital and the state for the reconfiguration of the urban fabric through the processes of redevelopment and gentrification, which have the sole purpose of creating new fields of profitability on the backs of the working class. The airbnb, alternative bars etc. that are popping up one after the other, in combination with the metro and the redevelopment of the Strefi and the army of occupation that is trying to suppress any form of resistance create the necessary conditions for the methodical transformation of the neighbourhood into a politically sterile alternative centre of consumption. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the attack at the metro station Syngrou/Fix” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for an incendiary attack on a MAT riot police truck in Kaisariani by ‘Incendiary Committee’

Posted on 2022/10/15 - 2022/10/15 by darknights

On Thursday 6 October 2022 we carried out an incendiary attack with Molotov cocktails on a passing MAT (riot police) convoy in Kaisariani. In his panic to escape, the cop driving it drove into bystander cars on the road.

We live in the era of constant and generalized war. Every declaration of war is accompanied by a corresponding invocation of the Crisis. Financial, fiscal, health, energy, food, climate… This spectacular ritual of the state apparatus is the prologue to every old and modern war manual: every war operation presupposes the imposition of discipline and rallying at the rear through the spread of fear towards the enemies of the day. A state of permanent emergency to which we tend to become addicted.

In a collapsing world, the Dominion holds on to its monopoly of producing mass insecurity by tooth and nail. If the dangers and threats invoked by those above are increasing in numbers, the orders and commands directed downwards show a clear geometric progression. This is the balance of the violent restructuring of our life, the new social contract of modern totalitarianism. Or in the words of Petsas1 “adaptation or death”. Social experience can translate these words without equivocation. Memorandum or bankruptcy. Mass incarceration or collapse of the ΕΣΥ (National Health Service). Graveyard silence or beatings and fines. Compulsory vaccinations or redundancies. Preventative power cuts or general black outs. And the list may soon stretch to the light bulb switch or supermarket receipt.

The realm of fear and insecurity is the baptism font of the new form of the State and its Violence. The modern capitalist world breeds only police. Police of thought and attitudes, police of norms and culture, police overt and covert, police with shields and automatic weapons, police of crowd management and police of surgical operations, police in the suburbs and in the city centres, police who demand identity cards, passports and health certificates, police who beat, charge and execute, police who sometimes resemble an ideological army and sometimes a fascist battalion. Police of every kind, in every place, in every spot on the map, with multiple jurisdictions and no barriers. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for an incendiary attack on a MAT riot police truck in Kaisariani by ‘Incendiary Committee’” →

Belarus: Hunger strike of Ihar Alinevich – what is known now

Posted on 2022/10/12 - 2022/10/12 by darknights

Ihar Alinevich , an anarcho-partisan sentenced to 20 years for participating in the Belarusian uprising, went on hunger strike. Members of the Anarchist Black Cross collected the latest information about Igor from the Facebook of his mother Valentina Alinevich and from his close friends. Here’s what we were able to find out.

On October 5, Ihar’s lawyer tried to get to him, but did not. He will try to get to him next week. According to unconfirmed reports, Ihar is still in the penal cell, where he was visited by the prosecutor. It is very difficult to get any information about Ihar. Even his mother has not been able to see her son for years; there is no way to get in touch with him by phone; all letters are censored and often do not reach him at all. It may be difficult for foreigners to understand this, but if the country is “out of touch with the laws,” then information can be quite scarce.

Ihar’s hunger strike and demands

Ihar began his hunger strike on September 19. The exact demands are not known for certain, but apparently the last straw was a report on his placement in a punishment cell. Prior to that, he had sent complaints to higher authorities about the arbitrariness of the prison administration, but received no response. Therefore, Ihar suggests that these complaints did not leave the prison at all.

Transfer to prison regime

From the camp where Ihar was serving his sentence, he was transferred to a prison regime. Under what pretext is not known, but he had assumed it would happen. This is a mass phenomenon among Belarus political prisoners. If a person has dignity and will, this is a necessary consequence. Continue reading “Belarus: Hunger strike of Ihar Alinevich – what is known now” →

Italy: Techno-sharia, morality police and psychopolice

Posted on 2022/10/12 - 2022/10/12 by darknights

Adorno defined fascism in his time as “technically equipped barbarism.” While that definition stood out as one of the most precise, it nevertheless left the concept of barbarism in vagueness and ambivalence. Think, in the Marxist sphere, of the successful slogan “socialism or barbarism!”; loaded more and more with positivism and the ideology of a progressive advance toward classless society, Bordiga contrasted it with a resolute and outrageous “communism or civilization!” Not only does industrial and technological development not give birth to communism, it does not in itself “democratize” either customs or social relations.

More than a century ahead of those debates, the very young Leopardi had already centered the issue in one of the first thoughts of his Zibaldone: “Reason is a lamp: nature wants to be illuminated by reason not set on fire.” From this dazzling insight descends the reflection on the oppositional pair civilization-barbarie that runs throughout Leopardi’s work. Barbarie, for the poet-philosopher, is both that which precedes that light and the epoch of the overt and manifest fire, the triumph of a “geometrical reason” that is a “most false system of most true parts,” that is, “reasoned villainy,” the artificialization of lives and passions: in short, excess of civilization.

As the sequel showed, this was not merely a linguistic problem. The world still struggles, and more and more ruefully, with that ambivalence, although it changes its historical forms. Is not “technically equipped barbarism” Islam 4.0 under construction in Iran, a system that merges Sharia, social credit and facial recognition? We read, “Under the new hijab and chastity law enacted in Iran on Aug. 15, women who post their headscarfless photos on the Internet will suffer the temporary loss of certain social rights for a period of six months to a year. In addition, women deemed non-compliant will be barred from entering government offices, banks or traveling on public transportation. Government employees will be fired if their images on social media do not comply with what the Islamic laws dictate. Numerous women have been arrested for not complying with the dress code and forced to confess.” And again, “The Iranian government plans to use facial recognition technology on public transportation. The announcement comes directly from the secretary of Iran’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani.” Continue reading “Italy: Techno-sharia, morality police and psychopolice” →

France: An update on the situation of anarchist Ivan Alocco

Posted on 2022/10/12 by darknights

On October 5, anarchist comrade Ivan, arrested on June 11 and accused of six arson attacks against vehicles, was brought before the judge of freedoms at the Bobigny courthouse. Vice-president Claire Vettier, the same one who had ratified his imprisonment on June 13, renewed the comrade’s preventive detention for four more months.

In the meantime, his correspondence seems to have unblocked. Although old letters continue to gather dust in the examining magistrate’s office, the comrade received two postcards and a letter, sent in the last few days. They gave him great pleasure and he thanks those who thought of him.

Let us not forget the imprisoned revolutionaries.
Solidarity is the attack!

The address of the comrade:

Ivan Alocco
N. d’ecrou 46355
Maison d’Arrêt de Villepinte
40, Avenue Vauban
93420 Villepinte
France

Source: fuoridallariserva

Greece: 41 BIS is torture – Strength and solidarity with the unrepentant anarchist of praxis Alfredo Cospito EN/GR

Posted on 2022/10/12 - 2022/10/12 by darknights

41 BIS is torture – Strength and solidarity with the unrepentant anarchist of praxis Alfredo Cospito

Anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito has been in Italian prisons since September 2012. He has claimed responsibility for the shooting in the legs of Ansaldo Nucleare CEO Roberto Adinolfi by the Olga Cell of the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI-IRF).

From the very first moment of his detention, the Italian state has exercised all kinds of repressive experiments against the comrade. New prosecutions, new exhausting sentences, disciplinary sanctions, repressive operations against his political comrades. The comrade was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment for the action against Adinolfi, while in prison he was sentenced to an additional 20 years of imprisonment (which is appreciable in total, an equivalent sentence in Greece would be 2 times life) after the prosecutions brought against him within the framework of the repressive operation Scripta Manet. In essence, the comrade was convicted as an instigator for all the actions of the FAI, since he was accused as its founder and leader, in a case that deserves special mention as it is a monument to arbitrary interpretations and vindictiveness.

The Italian state is a hybrid state when it comes to issues of anti-terrorist policy. It is a model state for its brutality and rigour in these matters, having been called upon to manage low-intensity civil war conditions during the period when armed revolutionary movements flourished in the 1960s and 1980s. The Greek state has followed the Italian example on many occasions, one need only recall the similarities between the ‘Marini case’ in Italy and the ‘Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case’ in Greece. Continue reading “Greece: 41 BIS is torture – Strength and solidarity with the unrepentant anarchist of praxis Alfredo Cospito EN/GR” →