Repression – Page 30

Italy: An update and some considerations on Operation Sibilla and the 41 bis against anarchist Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2022/06/25 - 2022/07/24 by darknights

A hearing on the precautionary measures ordered for the repressive Sibilla operation was held at the Court of Cassation in Rome on June 22. The hearing stemmed from an appeal by prosecutor Manuela Comodi against the order of the Perugia review court, which on Dec. 16 had resulted in the annulment of the precautionary measures taken on Nov. 11 in the repressive operation. The Court of Cassation, in spite of the opinion of the Attorney General’s Office (which had called for the rejection of the Perugia prosecutor’s appeal), granted PM Comodi’s request, annulling the order of the review court and ordering a new hearing. The precautionary measures are not effective, and a new review hearing will be ordered for the coming months at the Perugia court.

We would like to take the opportunity of this update to dwell on the reasons that led to the crackdown, adding some of our own considerations derived especially from the recent order to transfer Comrade Alfredo Cospito to a 41 bis detention regime.

In September 2021, following years of investigations conducted by the commands of the Special Operational Grouping of the Carabinieri in Milan and Perugia, eight prison arrests for as many anarchist comrades were requested by the Perugia prosecutor’s office. This order was partly rejected and downgraded by the judge for preliminary investigations. 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.

Thus, on Nov. 11, dozens of searches were carried out by the ROS of the Carabinieri, the Sibilla investigation concerning some 15 comrades was notified, and six precautionary measures were imposed in connection with the charge of incitement to commit a crime with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism: an arrest warrant in prison for Alfredo Cospito (at the time already imprisoned in the Terni jail); the arrest of comrade Michele Fabiani, who was placed under house arrest with all restrictions; and finally, the obligation to stay in the municipality of residence jointly with the obligation to sign three days a week for four comrades. On the very day of the operation, two websites (roundrobin.info and malacoda.noblogs.org) were also blacked out, making their online addresses untraceable, and at present they are still unreachable on Italian territory through conventional browsers (due to technical limitations, the repressive forces were able to order the blackout only in Italy, since it was not possible to completely eliminate the websites in question). As mentioned earlier, after a little over a month, the precautionary measures were all cancelled by the review court. Continue reading “Italy: An update and some considerations on Operation Sibilla and the 41 bis against anarchist Alfredo Cospito” →

Italy: You’ll find us in our place as we can’t stay in yours. On the “Diamante” investigation

Posted on 2022/06/25 - 2022/06/25 by darknights

You’ll find us in our place as we can’t stay in yours. On the “Diamante” investigation

At dawn on 16th March 2022 two anarchists were arrested in Rome by the DIGOS police and the ROS carabinieri on orders of the Power of Attorney of Genoa and Public Prosecutor Federico Manotti.

The charge is fabrication and possession of explosive material (article 1 and 2, bill 895/67) with the intent to attack public safety (article 435 of the penal code), all this with purposes of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order (article 270 bis 1) in collusion with other persons yet to be identified.

Alongside this investigation named “Diamante”, there is another open investigation named “Tenaglia” following incendiary sabotages on pylons, repeaters and server booths which occurred in 2021 in Liguria, and even episodes that happened many years ago, listed, even only formally, and mentioned in previous investigations and failed investigations by the same prosecutor in Genoa. This seems to be more like a strategy to exaggerate the repressive operation, given that there is little or nothing that concretely links these episodes to the reason for the arrest for possession of explosive material.

Obviously in the investigation there is the usual revisitation of significance and analyses often incoherent and botched, which intend to schematise the “trends” of the anarchist movement into “formations” and a superficial job of copy-and-paste on things already written in other anti-anarchist investigations, which we absolutely think are pointless to dwell on.

The investigation that led to the arrest started with the finding of explosive material, electrical material and other devices in a forest in Liguria in June 2021. In the papers of the investigation we read that containers were found by an unknown person who later declared he was looking for drugs, and who after the finding went to report it to the carabinieri together with a friend. The pair collaborated with the police and gave directions and descriptions, and were considered suspects, investigated, intercepted and shadowed by the same carabinieri they turned to, and were later exonerated.

After the finding of the containers, the carabinieri set up photo/video traps to “catch” anyone who went near the area. Subsequently a male person was photographed from behind near the spot, a person whom the police declared they recognized and had identified. Continue reading “Italy: You’ll find us in our place as we can’t stay in yours. On the “Diamante” investigation” →

Athens, Greece: Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos denounces deep parastate with far-right tendencies

Posted on 2022/06/23 - 2022/06/23 by darknights

Our anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos releases a text denouncing the parastate and fascist actions of the Greek cops inflicted upon him, his family, friends and comrades. The comrade has been under surveillance on and off since his release three years ago by the fascist scum of the Anti-Terrorist Unit, which has now hit a new level since the beginning of the hunger strike by his friend and anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis, who has been subject to further imprisonment despite serving the required amount of time that would trigger his release.

The repression our comrade is facing should be considered and analysed within the international context of repressive tactics by states against those who dare to fight back without fear. With the current international environment, such as the war in Ukraine, the impending economical crisis threatening on the horizon, technological developments, the repressive apparatus of all states is entering a new stage to counter the struggles that are coming.

Nothing is over, the conflict continues…

Without further hesitance, we let our comrade’s words speak for themself:

The events that I am about to recount took place on Monday 20/6 in the afternoon outside my friend’s house in the centre of Athens. They concern yet another incident where police surveillance by the anti-terrorist police crosses the boundaries and red lines that exist and defines the peculiar relationship between a secret service and its potential target victims.

So let’s get to the facts. The hunger strike of our friend and comrade Giannis Michailidis, who is fighting against the arbitrariness and methods of the bourgeois justice system by putting his body in a barricade, has been going on for the last period of time. He is in a regime of preventive detention because while he has served the sentence imposed on him, the judicial councils, acting as thought police, reject his requests for release, foreseeing his future behaviour as other Pythias*. In essence, they are punishing him not for what he has done and for which, according to their laws, he has served his sentence, but for what they think he will do, based on interpretations that have nothing to do with reality.

During this period, the surveillance of the anti-terrorist police against me has become a daily occurrence, while their presence outside my family’s house has become daily and provocative, with large groups of anti-terrorist police officers defiantly rushing around in their vehicles. This event was interrupted following an engagement with these police officers on Saturday 18/6, where it was emphatically stressed to them that their defiance must end and that their continued presence there would not be accepted. Which was accepted and they ceased their defiant presence, so there is no point in me expanding on evidence that exists and will not be published unless there is a substantial reason. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos denounces deep parastate with far-right tendencies” →

UK: Text from Anarchist prisoner Toby Shone June 11th

Posted on 2022/06/13 by darknights

Text from Toby Shone June 11th

War in the Heavens

J 11. Open Letter in solidarity with Juan Sorroche
Hi, Juan. I’m writing this letter to express my solidarity and send you a big flaming hug of anarchy for the date of June 11th. This date, which is the date of the sentencing demands from the prosecutor, and also is the date for the International Mobilization for Anarchist Prisoners, is one more day in our intransigent lives.

Most likely, you may not remember me, but we met approximately 15 years ago, in Carcelona (i.e. Barcelona, a play on words which mixes the word “Barcelona” with “carcel” or prison in Spanish – translator’s note). I recall your broad smile, your laugh, and your warm and strong heart.

I saw your letter in Respiro number two with a collage of sunflower
seeds and a zen squirrel! Comrades from the Anti-repression fund of the Western Alps sent it to me while I was in the prison of Bristol, which I’m now banned from. When I see the artwork letters of my comrades, it gives me strength. I want to share this vitality with you and all the other comrades through this letter.

Anarchist direct action has precise objectives – it advances towards
those responsible for tyranny and the structures they administer. Our struggle is irrevocable, empirical and international. It is the state which carries out the massacres. It is the state which terrorizes. All the piles of corpses at the borders of Fortress Europe and drowned in the Mediterranean are mass murders. The results of the failed military interventions in Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, just to mention a few, are mass murders in the service of Western interests. Multimillion dead from poverty, malnutrition, and economic adventurism, are mass murders. The killings by police on the streets or in custody, the deaths in prison and at the hands of nationalist fascist gangs are mass murderers. And those responsible where are they? With power. We may be imprisoned but our hearts are free. As anarchists we have nothing to explain to the enemy nor apologize for. It is the state which must justify itself and it is the state which is on trial.

It is said that “mountains and rivers differ in each region. But the
wind and the moon are the same throughout the skies we look upon.”

This is the love of the comrades and the compassion which navigates.
Five continents of fire. Five arrows. Five Fingers form a fist.
A fist of solidarity.

We’ll escape beyond the sun.
And nothing can stop us.
04/06/2022
G4S Park, UK
Toby Shone

Source: Act for freedom now!

Bologna, Italy: Two repeaters set on fire

Posted on 2022/06/03 - 2022/06/03 by darknights

“Social war on state war,” this was the writing left on the night of May 22 near 2 repeaters set on fire near Bologna. A minimal gesture of active insubordination to a state that lives on wars and massacres and today accuses anarchists of massacre, that sends weapons but flaunts itself as a bearer of peace, that legitimizes the use of torture through the 41bis regime. We act, because for 2 years they have been intermittently locking us in, blackmailing us and taking away our ability to deal on the basis of free choices with what was happening. All to run the money machine of capitalism. And today we find ourselves the rich richer, the poor poorer and society more alienating, judgmental and suspicious. Now, with war, it happens again: emergency, national unity, sacrifices, because the bosses, beyond their country, have to assert and proceed with their interests, on the skin of those who are under the bombs, those who go to jail for protests, those who impoverish. If we don’t want the war they are waging on us to make the world an unlivable place, it’s time to agitate, to fight back and strike even unpredictably because they must know that in front of their plans there are those who are immobile and silent and do not want to be.

For Anna, Juan and Alfredo
Against the torture of prison and 41 bis
For all x prisoners who struggle

Source: Il Rovescio

Athens, Greece: Intervention at ΕΣΗΕΑ (Athens Daily Newspaper Editors Union) in solidarity with the hunger strike of anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis

Posted on 2022/06/02 - 2022/06/02 by darknights

10th DAY OF THE HUNGER STRIKE OF GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

Update from today’s intervention at ESIEA

The assembly in solidarity with the hunger striker Giannis Michailidis, who has been on hunger strike since 23/5, held an intervention today at the ESIEA building, in order to give visibility to the struggle of his comrade. As soon as the intervention started, the vice president of ESIEA was negative even with the hanging of the banner. We made it clear to him that we had come with the specific purpose of highlighting the hunger strike and that we would leave when we felt that the comrade’s hunger strike had been sufficiently highlighted. He threatened us that he would call the police and we replied that we would not leave the building until we had left safely and had achieved our purpose. He ordered all the telephone lines and computers in the building to be shut down to prevent the propaganda of the action.

We are not in a position to know if the vice president ultimately called the cops or if they came on their own. Two Delta groups (Motorcycle cops) came to the scene and even without any legitimacy they entered the ground floor and threatened us with arrest. We re-stated that we would not leave unless the police forces left.The determination of the solidarity groups to remain in the building made it clear to the president that in order to end the intervention the cops had to leave.

The banner was hung from the rooftop and leaflets were thrown.

About the choice to intervene in the ESIEA

We have no illusions about the mainstream media. However, against the constant tactic of the state apparatus to silence the hunger strikes, we had to intervene in order to make the demand for the immediate release of Giannis Michailidis heard. The regime media that wrote about the intervention did not post the text. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Intervention at ΕΣΗΕΑ (Athens Daily Newspaper Editors Union) in solidarity with the hunger strike of anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis” →

Greece: Giannis Michailidis – Announcement of a hunger strike for my release GR, EN, DE, IT, FR, ES

Posted on 2022/06/02 - 2022/08/03 by darknights

GR: Γιάννης Μιχαηλίδης: Ανακοίνωση έναρξης απεργίας πείνας με στόχο την αποφυλάκιση μου

After 8.5 years in prison, after all these arbitrary actions against me, I decided to put an end to my 11 years of suffering, by putting a stop to the practice of pre-trial detention, or the additional punishment of escape through legal loopholes. After 5 more months of pre-trial detention, I start a hunger strike for my release. This choice, with the deep motivation of the much desired freedom, I intend to support it with the same consistency that I have supported my choices so far and for which I am being persecuted.

“Woe to those who will accept prison as a condition of life, and from the brightest sunlight, the smallest ray” – The rallying cry of the Alikarnassos prison uprising

For 11 years I have experienced state vengeance against choices in line with my values and ideas. The difficult journey, from which I choose to share some blatant vengeful acts of arbitrariness against me, began in the distant 2011, when an arrest warrant was issued against me for the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case, for which I was eventually acquitted as there was not the slightest connection between me and the charge against me. It was the incrimination of a relationship of solidarity with wanted anarchists that put me in their place when they were arrested.

After 2 years of being on the run, I too am now walking through the heavy doors of prison, as the existence of a warrant that entails a decade of incarceration has led to certain choices and consequent mistakes. The comrades who were arrested at the time in the bank robbery in Velvento, Kozani, were tortured by the police, which is common, and then the Ministry of Public Order published photos of our swollen faces, provoking a public reaction. Of course, no police officer was accused of this by the blind Greek justice system. Continue reading “Greece: Giannis Michailidis – Announcement of a hunger strike for my release GR, EN, DE, IT, FR, ES” →

UK: “Like Mercury” Open Letter for Dan Baker, aka Alishare – from Toby Shone

Posted on 2022/06/01 by darknights

Open Letter for Dan Baker, aka Alishare – from Toby Shone

Alishare, I heard your message of solidarity, thank you, it gave me strength. I would turn the energy with this open letter, and I hope to kick a brick from the walls. One more time. In a flurry of black feathers and lunar wisdom, a murder of crows delivered your statement and those wily crows told me about your situation in FCI Memphis.

I want to add on to this dialogue and talk about three anarchist comrades imprisoned in Italy. The first is Anna Beniamino who is serving a 17 year sentence for the Scripta Manent case in a high security regime in Rebibbia prison (Rome). The Scripta Manent case involved the arrest of 7 anarchists accused of subversive association with terrorist intent and a series of direct actions claimed by the Informal Anarchist Organization. An absurd farce with obscene conclusions. The second comrade I want to mention is Alfredo Cospito who has been locked up since 2012 for the Adinolfi case for which he was sentenced for nearly 11 years and is now waiting for the confirmation of another sentence of 20 years for the Scripta Manent case. Alfredo was recently struck with the legislature 41 bis, special security regime. Each month, he can only receive either one phone call (10 minutes) or one visit strictly with family members with glass and recorded; he can only walk in the yard with maximum 3 other prisoners previously approved by prison security; he cannot receive books, censorship is applied to his correspondence (number of letters per month is extremely limited), and he has a very limited amount of items which he can keep in his cell. Several international agencies have continuously condemned the 41bis prison regime as torture. The third comrade I want to mention is Juan Sorroche. On the date of the international day of with long-term anarchist prisoners, June the 11th , Juan will face a court hearing in Treviso. Juan is on trial accused of an attack against an office of the Lega Nord political party claimed by the “Cell Haris Hatzimihelakis/Black International (1881/2018)” that happened in August 2018. Juan who was already serving time for other judgements, is now facing a long sentence in this other political trial. Like all the imprisoned anarchists around the world, these three comrades deserve the support and solidarity that the international anarchist movement can give them. Continue reading “UK: “Like Mercury” Open Letter for Dan Baker, aka Alishare – from Toby Shone” →

Berlin, Germany: Burning of Hertz truck – not only for hunger striker Michailidis

Posted on 2022/06/01 - 2022/06/01 by darknights

We use simple means to sabotage the enemy’s infrastructure. That the car rental company Hertz is an enemy became known not only after an attack on their branch* and further fires of their vehicle fleet in Athens. Not only the Greek police is equipped by Hertz with vehicles at preferential conditions, but also in other states active and former cops and military are supported according to self-advertisement.

Hertz is one of the companies that force the constant need for mobility. Everything and everyone must always be immediately available everywhere. Delivery services, rental vehicles and Uber now dominate traffic in cities. Along the way, they create data collections about moving things and people for the police’s tracing computers, Hertz also by filming drivers while they drive.

In the social war and in the war state against state, we stand flagless on the side of the oppressed against the oppressors and Hertz stands on the side of power, sometimes under the Greek flag in the jeeps of OPKE, sometimes under the US flag on the trucks of the National Guard or under the flag of capital on their vans, with which they profit in Germany from the compulsion of the citizens to constantly move to another place from expensive apartments.

On the night of May 25, we set fire to a Hertz truck in the northern Berlin district of Reinickendorf as a minimal sign of our solidarity for Giannis Michailidis, who has been on hunger strike in Malandrinos prison since May 23.

We also wish Lina, who has been in pre-trial detention for 18 months, much strength and freedom.

At the same time, our action is in the framework of similar acts around the world that burn to ashes everything that can be useful for the war.

… until the destruction of the last cage. (A)

Source: Kontrapolis

Continue reading “Berlin, Germany: Burning of Hertz truck – not only for hunger striker Michailidis” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim – Incendiary attack on General Post Office vehicles

Posted on 2022/05/27 - 2022/05/27 by darknights

For more than a decade we have been experiencing the invasion of capital on our lives, through the neoliberal restructuring of the relations of production. The cycle that opened during the period of the memoranda has never closed, but instead the state and the bosses are upgrading and deepening their domination and exploitation to this day.

The present condition should not be superficially assessed by the movement as a setback in relation to a social democratic period of a different balance of forces, workers’ conquests and gains. In fact, the previous period finally prepared the ground for the current selection. Social democracy, as the last political stage of the capitalist model of production, aims at securing the necessary consensus needed by the political system to validate the continuous and intensifying capitalist restructurings. The social and political assimilation of the working class has taken place decades ago since the radical and subversive movements retreated by surrendering to the welfare states, institutional trade unionism and finally abandoning the revolutionary perspective.

The mosaic that composes the contemporary reality in Western societies places the proletarian struggle in a symbolic position of workers’ mobilizations and demands. By recognizing the workers as the only subject of its conduct, they exclude those most affected by the capitalist juggernaut, that is, those excluded from the capitalist means of survival, labour, as well as those who are even lower down. As long as this body is excluded from the class struggle the threat of privatisation and individualisation of a struggle, which inevitably takes the form of resistance and simple survival and the dissipation of our misery, takes on flesh and blood. Solidarity among all the oppressed is a necessary ingredient for overthrow and emancipation. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim – Incendiary attack on General Post Office vehicles” →