Repression – Page 31

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” →

Italy: The only viable path. Manifesto in solidarity with the anarchist Alfredo Cospito EN/IT

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

THE ONLY VIABLE PATH

Since May 5, our comrade Alfredo Cospito has been imprisoned under the 41 bis regime. This measure was ordered after months of censorship on correspondence and after the repressive operation Sibilla in November 2021, for which he received a warrant for his arrest in prison. Behind this repressive tightening of Alfredo’s prison condition is the state’s blatant desire to shut the mouth of a comrade who, during these years of imprisonment, has contributed much, through articles and interventions, to the anarchist debate.

The 41 bis is a hard prison regime, created to isolate, silence and annihilate the prisoner, trying to bring him to cooperation with Justice. Established in the late 1980s, it was initially applied in exceptional cases of riots or serious emergencies within prison institutions. In 1992, after the Capaci massacre, it was extended to Mafia convicts. Since 2002 it has also been applied to those convicted of terrorism and subversion, thus as an instrument of political repression. Also currently in this regime are some prisoners belonging to the communist BR-PCC organization. Originally established as a detention regime of a temporary nature, from emergency to emergency, this exceptionality has become the norm. This mechanism is now bread and butter for the majority of the population since the proclamation of the so-called pandemic. It is now evident: established an emergency measure, there is never a return.

Alfredo’s transfer to 41 bis, like the recent convictions of Juan, sentenced to 28 years for an explosive attack on a Lega headquarters, and Anna, convicted along with Alfredo for political massacre, are a real warning from the state: those who spread anarchist and revolutionary practices and ideas are buried alive. The anti-anarchist operations of recent years are also an example of the repressive tightening we are experiencing. In the face of this, we cannot be reduced to cashing in as best we can on the blows the state gives us, waiting for better times.

It is urgent that we lay the groundwork for a revolutionary, international solidarity that is concrete.

The only antibodies to confront the catastrophe to which the state and bosses are leading us day by day are propaganda and action that know how to go to the root, expressing the innermost meaning of our struggle: the destruction of the existent without any mediation.

OUT ALFREDO FROM 41 BIS. ALL FREE, ALL FREE
DEATH TO THE STATE, LONG LIVE ANARCHY!

anarchists

[Received by e-mail]

Continue reading “Italy: The only viable path. Manifesto in solidarity with the anarchist Alfredo Cospito EN/IT” →

Rome, Italy: Report of the initiative at the DNAA, ‘National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate’ (September 30, 2022)

Posted on 2022/10/12 by darknights

On Friday, September 30, the announced mobilization took place near the Direzione Nazionale Antimafia e Antiterrorismo (‘National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate’, DNAA) in Rome. We were in the square, and we will be there again, to shout our opposition to the current repressive turn, which hits the anarchist movement with particular vehemence. A tightening that has become explicit in recent months with the heavy 28-year sentence for Juan Sorroche, accused of the attack on the headquarters of the Lega in Villorba (Treviso, 2018), with the reclassification as “political massacre” of the charge against comrades Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino for the explosive attack against the carabinieri barracks in Fossano (Cuneo, 2006), with the trickle of repressive operations, special surveillance and other police measures, as well as the seizure of anarchist books and papers, and the closure of counter-information websites.

In particular, the DNAA is directly responsible for the transfer of the anarchist Alfredo Cospito to 41 bis prison regime. An almost total isolation regime, designed with the declared aim of annihilating the prisoner in order to induce him to cooperate. An unprecedented decision as far as imprisoned anarchists are concerned, marking a turning point in the war between the State and anarchism, but one that has already been used for years against some prisoners of the organization Brigate Rosse per la costruzione del Partito Comunista Combattente (BR-PCC). The DNAA, more generally, plays a coordinating and strategic role for the counterrevolution in Italy.

Numerous speeches concentrated on denouncing the maximally oppressive nature of 41 bis, on showing the true face of the anti-mafia, revealing how behind the facade of a popular institution dedicated to fighting organised crime is in reality hidden an emergency institution with exceptional powers aimed at repressing the internal enemy, linking Alfredo’s particular condition and the attack against revolutionary anarchism within a broader repressive climate. Some speeches emphasised how this authoritarian turn comes at a time of profound crisis in international and national capitalism, after two years of pandemic and within the war policies that dominate the governments’ agenda. Faced with the difficulties of capital, the state responds with a pre-emptive social war against its historical enemies. The climate of military mobilization, on the other hand, constitutes the best context for the liquidation of those subjectivities that are unwilling to mediate with power.

After about two hours near the DNAA headquarters, we marched through the streets of the city centre chanting chants, and after a brief moment of tension with the police the demonstration continued towards Campo de’ Fiori square. Crossing the market with slogans and leaflets, another short round of speeches communicated the reasons for our anger to those in the square. The demonstration then came to an end.

Instead, our mobilization is only just beginning. Continue reading “Rome, Italy: Report of the initiative at the DNAA, ‘National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate’ (September 30, 2022)” →

Italy: ‘The winter of capital’

Posted on 2022/10/01 - 2022/10/14 by darknights

The winter of capital

This weekend’s elections were very important for the fate of Europe. No, we are not talking about the miserable staging of the Italian round of elections, but about the referendums held in some occupied territories of Ukraine for annexation to the Russian Federation.

With them, the proxy and regionalized “world war” being fought between Russia and NATO takes a formal turn with important practical consequences. From the moment the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye officially become part of Russia, Putin’s regime can claim that any Ukrainian attack in these territories will be read as an attack on Russia itself. The result is the order for general mobilization, the proclamation of martial law, and the transformation of its industry into a war economy to defend the homeland.

With this strategic shift, the Russian government moves away from the rhetoric of Special Military Operation – a neologism taken in inspiration from “international police missions,” “peacekeeping missions,” “humanitarian wars,” and other fanciful Doctor Strangelove sorties of the much-hated West – to the declaration of outright war. Demonstrating the farcical nature of any electoral mechanism, which always photographs the power relations between dominants and never an abstruse as non-existent “popular will,” Putin ordered partial mobilization even before knowing the referendum outcome, recalling the first three hundred thousand reservists.

From now on, all those states that have been arming the Kiev regime for months and that have enabled it to resist so effectively and to counterattack with unexpected successes become cobelligerent. Those who arm a state to which war is formally declared are also (almost) at war. Europe and the United States will now have to take responsibility for a conflict that they have fueled by all means, with the aim of bleeding the Russian enemy dry, hoping to achieve maximum results with minimum effort, i.e., by sending Ukrainian ascari1 to their deaths.

Rather than expire in the partisan readings of the court pen-pushers and opposing supporters, which as internationalists and enemies of every state we cannot but reject, reiterating our hostility against all sides in the war, it is worth dwelling on a couple of thoughts. Continue reading “Italy: ‘The winter of capital’” →

France: A letter from Ivan, from Villepinte Prison

Posted on 2022/09/28 by darknights

Below is a text by anarchist Ivan Alocco, who was arrested on June 11 and is currently imprisoned in Villepinte Prison, France.
Break the isolation! For immediate revolutionary solidarity with Ivan and all imprisoned anarchists!

–

I am writing to share some thoughts and give some news.
I would like to begin with something that illustrates well the methods of the judicial system.
A few days after my arrest, the judge who instructed the investigation, Stéphanie Lahaye, sent two cops from SDAT [the Anti-Terrorism Sub-Directorate of the Judicial Police] (including the judicial police officer “RIO 1237232” – like machines, they have numbers instead of names) to interrogate my daughter and her mother. Obeying his orders, the procedures of state justice, they tried to pressure a 12-year-old girl. After making her wait in the courtyard of the local gendarmerie barracks during her mother’s interrogation, they allegedly wanted to interrogate her alone. Evidently, her mother refused to leave her.
An ordinary, mundane procedure, a necessary act to establish the truth, according to judges and cops. A way, in my opinion, of trying to spread fear. A warning to my loved ones and to everyone, because, in the inquisitive logic of Justice, people who stay or stand by an anarchist accused of direct action are suspect and must be bothered.

This is somewhat the same logic that was used against me. When the same judicial police officer, during interrogations while I was under arrest, asked me, she reproached me for bringing my support to imprisoned anarchists, in France and in other countries. Of writing to them and occasionally sending them some money. Of course, I often wrote to numerous imprisoned compas and did my best to express my solidarity with them. Because they are anarchists and also because I am convinced of the rightness and necessity of the actions some of them are accused of.
I think solidarity, by any means necessary, with compas affected by repression is fundamental. To avoid openly solidarizing with them, for fear that repression will spread, would be to enter the game of Justice, to accept its logic. A logic that would make us retreat further and further, until we abandon, or almost abandon, the imprisoned revolutionaries. Continue reading “France: A letter from Ivan, from Villepinte Prison” →

Italy: Text from anarchist comrade Davide Delogu

Posted on 2022/09/18 - 2022/09/18 by darknights

We report what Davide has communicated to us in recent days.

“Given the difficulties and misunderstanding that there have been, and which have led to a delay in these words of mine, I reiterate my closeness and unconditional solidarity with fellow anarchist Alfredo Cospito subjected to 41 bis. I also want to send my unconditional solidarity to the comrades in Pozzuoli recently affected by the repression.

We always move forward!”

To write to the comrade:

DAVIDE DELOGU
C.C. Nuovo Complesso
Contrada Cocari
89900 Vibo Valentia. Italia.

Source: Contra Info

DN: Davide is an anarchist from Sardinia. He was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of theft and attempted homicide allegedly of someone who was trying to stop him from leaving the scene of a robbery. He has made numerous prison escape attempts and was also involved in a riot at Buoncammino prison in 2013. Because of his history of prison rebellion, he was most of the time held in solitary confinement, with strong restrictions on incoming mail, books, and political material. In a letter from 9th March 2018, Davide says he is no longer in solitary confinement. He’s in a unit with other prisoners and in a cell alone. His mail is still under censorship. Books and other material are not being delivered. In his time in prison he has shown solidarity to numerous anarchist comrades in Italy.

Belarusian anarchists given prison sentences from 5 to 17 years

Posted on 2022/09/18 by darknights

On 6 September Minsk City Court pronounced the verdict in the criminal case of the so-called “international criminal group”. There are 14 anarchists and libertarians, four of whom have left Belarus. The defendants were charged under 10 articles, including the articles on the establishment and participation in a criminal organization (paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code) and the establishment of an extremist formation (paragraphs 1 and 3 of Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code). The trial was held behind closed doors.

According to the investigation, from 2005 to 2020 unidentified persons together with anarchist Alexander Frantskevich and human rights activist Martha Rabkova united “a number of organized criminal groups”: “Revolutionary Action”, “National self-defense” and Revolucijna Dia (“Revolutionary Day”). Investigators allege that Frantskevich and Rabkova organized the arson of the Gomel District Tax Inspectorate in March 2017 using “Molotov cocktails.” Read more about the case and its defendants in Russian here.

The 10 convicts were sentenced to exactly the terms requested for them by the prosecution:
– Aleksandr Frantskevich – 17 years (strict regime)
– Akihiro Hanada-Gayevsky – 16 years (medium security)
– Marfa Rabkova: 15 years (minimum security)
– Alexei Golovko – 12 years (maximum security)
– Pavel Shpetny, Nikita Drants, Alexander Kozlyanko, Andrei Chepuk – 6 years for each (maximum security)
– Andrei Marach and Daniil Chul – 5 years each (reinforced regime)

It is also reported that the defendants were fined up to 700 basic units (about $8,900).

After the verdict was pronounced, the law enforcers detained relatives of the defendants and other political prisoners, diplomats who were not allowed into the courtroom, as well as random people who came to other trials.

Address for letters: SIZO-1, 2 Volodarskogo Street, Minsk, 220030 Belarus.

Currently, we work on the recovery of libertarian and anarchist movement in Russia, after a long period of stagnation and repressions and we need your help to improve our site. Join our campaign to raise money on Firefund!

Source: Avtonom

Updates on rebel prisoner Andreas Krebs

Posted on 2022/09/18 - 2022/09/18 by darknights

Italy: Time is running out. Andreas Krebs must be transferred to Germany immediatly

The transfer procedure to Germany is underway after the last instance sentence against him in Italy became final on May 6, 2022. Andreas Krebs can thus serve the remainder of his sentence in Germany. However, the translation of the necessary documents and the calculation of the sentence equivalence and the length of the sentence will take more months.

However, Andreas K.’s cancer does not give him much time, so it is urgent to speed up the bureaucratic procedures for the transfer considerably.

After the final verdict, he was transferred from the infirmary of the Secondigliano prison to the normal prison, with even worse medical care than before. He is now in solitary confinement in a ventilated pit that is barely the size of a room. The transfer was justified because Andreas Krebs allegedly refused medical treatment in a hospital.

Andreas, for his part, complains that he should have been transferred to a psychiatric ward and demanded his immediate return to prison.

Source: Anarquia

Solidarity appeal for Andreas Krebs

In the following we publish an appeal for solidarity and donations for Andreas Krebs. Andreas has been in prison in Naples, Italy for several years, before that he spent a large part of his life in various prisons throughout Germany. In the meantime he is in solitary confinement with permanent surveillance.
During his time in prison, Andreas always showed solidarity with other prisoners, publicized his prison conditions and fought against the prison system. He is in very poor health and mentally, his condition has deteriorated drastically in recent years and months. He is dependent on outside support.

Write him letters, donate money! Below are documented some excerpts from his last letters, in which he describes his current condition and situation.

Address:
Andreas Krebs
Reparte T2 Cella 25
Via Roma Verso Scampia 350CAP
80144 Napoli
ITALY

He has to pay for practically everything himself (medicines, food, etc.). If you want to donate money to Andreas:
Recipient: Krebs
IBAN: DE 90 1005 0000 1067 1474 26
BIC: BELADE BEXXX
Purpose: Donation/Andreas Krebs

Continue reading “Updates on rebel prisoner Andreas Krebs” →