Trial

Support economically and politically the 4 persecuted comrades, who are under trial at 6 February 2023. The 4 anarchists are being persecuted, under “anti-terrorist” law, for participating in an allegedelly “terrorist” organization named “comrades”. No one alone against the state! International revolutionary solidarity!

The first solidarity banner for the 4 comrades, Exarcheia 10th March 2020. Banner, “In a world that human relationships are being criminalized, we are all comrades”

Chronicle of the prosecution

On March 8th and 9th 2020, after a state security operation three male and one female comrade are arrested. Τhe authorities’ sole piece of evidence was two cops having ‘visually’ identified the first arrested person on a video of the attack against the Mitsotakis* Foundation. The other three were arrested due to their friendly and comrade relationships. They now find themselves charged with an enormous case file which includes 55 attacks.

Based on the anti-terrorist Act 187A, they are charged with setting up and participating in an alleged terrorist organization under the name of “comrades” . The authorities are prosecuting the comrades based on attacks, actions and public addresses uploaded on counter-information platforms which had been signed using the term “comrades”. In this way, the police are attempting to bring any political action signed by “comrades” together under the umbrella of a collective terrorist organization.

A few words on the construct of the organization “comrades”, from the statement of the prosecuted female comrade in May 2020: /… / Behold then, the State, in its attempt to sell the ideological construct of “war against terrorism” fabricating organizations. They claim the terrorist organization they created by the name “comrades” to be a group that has acted since 2016 up to the present carrying out attacks in Athens. This reasoning goes beyond normality or reality in a way that can only be called ridiculous. In fact, the name of this infamous organization is but a sign-off used by the broader spectrum of anarchist/ antiauthoritarian groups for many years now. It was used, it is still being used and it will continue to be used. Anyone who searches can find hundreds of texts bearing the said signature all over Greece, most probably even abroad. This new stratagem, the use, that is, of a broader signature and its conversion into the name of a terrorist organization, is unprecedented and its only aim can be to “lump” together a wide, diverse and multi-faceted range of action on the part of the broader antiauthoritarian movement, as well as to terrorize all who belong there. It´s now the turn of the “solidary”, the “anarchists”, the “communists” to be called terrorist organizations and there’s no end to the lumping /…/ Continue reading “Greece: We are all comrades: Support the 4 persecuted anarchists EN/GR/FR/ES/DE” →

Greece: ‘To break the codes of repression’, Financial support for court expenses of comrade Kostas K. EN/GR

Posted on 2023/01/08 by darknights

Back in the distant 2007, at a time of underlying and subtle social processes that would culminate in the December 2008 uprising, the authorities were looking after one of their favourite children. George Voulgarakis, a member of the deepest party-apparatus of New Democracy and Minister of Public Order, is caught up in the maelstrom of phone tapping scandals and ‘disappearances’ of Pakistani migrants and refugees. The state, however, always takes care of its children and Voulgarakis goes on “vacation”, away from the “hot potato” of the Ministry of Public Order, taking over the “loose” Ministry of Culture.

But some people do not forget and do not forgive. At 10:00am on July 3, 2007, a few hours after Voulgarakis and his police escort arrived at the ministry on Bouboulinas Street, they were attacked by a group of twenty comrades, with Molotov cocktails and a bag full of gasoline canisters and camping gas canisters, that fell into Voulgarakis’ own vehicle. The policemen open fire on the comrades, only thus managing to make them retreat.

In the text in which they claimed responsibility, they state:

“The attack on Culture Minister G. Voulgarakis was carried out as a sign of solidarity with the imprisoned militants. The Minister of Culture was chosen because a representative of the government is always a target of militants, let alone when he has served as Minister of Public Order and his term of office has remained unforgettable. He was the political head of the Ministry of Order when he intercepted and monitored the conversations of hundreds of citizens through vodafone. He was the political head of the Ministry of Order and responsible for the abduction and interrogation of dozens of Pakistani migrants. Finally, under the orders of Voulgarakis and on the occasion of the robbery of the National Bank in January 2006, for which Yannis Dimitrakis is on trial on 6 July, the anti-authoritarian movement was subjected to one of the most furious assaults of recent years with pogroms, kidnappings, slander, smears and finally prosecutions of anarchists. Freedom to those imprisoned in the cells. Solidarity to all persecuted comrades. As for their shooting, deliberately at point blank range and not in the air, the cops had better be careful because such moves can be met with the same price.”
Continue reading “Greece: ‘To break the codes of repression’, Financial support for court expenses of comrade Kostas K. EN/GR” →

Bristol, UK: Anarchist comrade Toby Shone’s SCPO was rejected by the court!

Posted on 2022/05/06 - 2022/05/09 by darknights

To the wild celebrations in the public gallery, the presiding judge rejected the application for anarchist comrade Toby Shone’s Serious Crime Prevention Order, declaring there were no grounds for it to be applied under the circumstances. Shouts of ‘Not one step back!’ were responded to with Toby shouting ‘The Revolution is inevitable!’

The result of the court means that comrade Toby will now be released at the earliest in August of this year, if his application for electronic tag is permitted. It is highly likely that it will be refused. If refused, he will be released on December 28th 2022 on automatic halfway release. The extreme conditions of surveillance and control, that would have led to him not only being cut off from his comrades, but his family, friends and partner. It would have restricted his way of living, his ability to fuction as an anarchist, with many conditions that have been listed before, such as his use of electronic devices through to him having to declare who visits his residence. It would have lasted 5 years and could have been renewed. If it had been broken by Toby it would have led to him serving 5 years in the hellholes of the UK prison system.

The SCPO was a direct attack on Toby as an anarchist, his alternative way of living and his connections to those he is close to. It was clearly linked to the anti-terrorist cops attempting to apply repressive measures on him after the terrorist charges in his previous original trial were dropped.

The move by the anti-terrorist cops sets a new repressive environment on this prison island, that now just like in other European countries such as we have seen with the many repressive operations against comrades in Italy and Greece, that anarchists are deemed as terrorists by the state, that anyone daring to fight back against authority will be subject to such repression. Also it is clear that the British state wants to attack the connections, the affinities, the friendships, even love, of those they want to punish. This a similar vindictive tactic we have seen been used in other countries as well, such as the targetting of partners and family members of revolutionary organisation Conspiracy Cells of Fire members in Greece.

‘Operation Adream’, the repressive attack on Toby, on 325, is also an attack on the anarchist circles and alternative lifestyles as a whole. The years of imprisonment are piling up for those who dared to rebel during the Kill The Bill protest last year, that was attacked by cops and led to a riot. Those who live ‘off-grid’, from Roma/Gypsies/Irish travellers through to van or carvan or boat dwellers, along with squatters are also feeling the full force of British state’s, the Tories, Boris Johnson’s and Priti Patel’s repressive shaping of racist right wing ‘Build Back Better’ UK.

There is indeed a ‘storm coming on the horizon’ as comrade Toby mentioned, it is time for all of us who feel it to move towards it, to revolt against the destruction of our lives, our very existence.

This is only the beginning, ‘Nothing Is Over, The Conflict Continues!’

Some anarchists in solidarity with anarchist comrade Toby Shone

[Chilean Prisons] Taking responsibility. Excerpt from the declaration of anarchist comrade Francisco Solar

Posted on 2021/12/29 by darknights

Source & Translated by Act For Freedom Now!

Received 12/21/2021:

Extract from the judicial declaration of anarchist comrade Francisco Solar taking responsibility for sending explosive packages to the 54th station of the carabineros [Federal Police of Chile] and against the former Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter in July 2019, action claimed by “Cómplices sediciosos/Fracción por la Venganza” [Seditious Accomplices/ Vengeance Faction] and for the double attack on the Tánica building on February 27, 2020, in the midst of the revolt, action claimed by “Afinidades Armadas en Revuelta” [Armed Affinities in Revolt].

(…) In November 2017, our idea was to move away from the big cities, mainly Santiago, because of its frenetic way of life, and to start a self-sustaining project. Although I opted for that way of life, I did not stop thinking that the most appropriate way to fight against an overpowering system based on authority and predation is through violent revolutionary action. Only from this is it possible to achieve moments of destabilization that, even if they are fleeting instants, reveal the vulnerability of power

In the middle of 2018 I decided to start pursuing that kind of action (…) Once I made that decision I started to think about some target, being clear that if I was going to take a great risk, the action had to be powerful. I thought of carrying out an action as a response, as revenge against people linked to repression and business power. Both criteria were fully met by Rodrigo Hinzpeter, who in 2019 was manager of the Quiñenco group, whose president is Andronico Luksc. Hinzpeter had also been Minister of the Interior under the first government of Piñera, leaving a trail of repression that will be difficult to forget. He harshly repressed social and student mobilizations, trying to pass a law marked by prohibitions of all kinds, known as the Hinzpeter Law. As Minister of the Interior he was politically responsible for the murder of young Manuel Gutiérrez, harshly repressed the social mobilizations in Aysén and Freirina, militarized the Mapuche territory, resulting in hundreds being wounded, many of them children, and countless prisoners.

Continue reading “[Chilean Prisons] Taking responsibility. Excerpt from the declaration of anarchist comrade Francisco Solar” →

Berlin, Germany: Start of trial of Adel

Posted on 2021/10/22 by darknights

Dear friends, dear comrades, today in exactly one month, on Friday, 19.11.2021, the trial against our friend and comrade Adel begins in front of the district court Tiergarten. In the sense of antifascist self-protection, we call for supraregional and solidary trial observation! Persons are expected, who are to be assigned to the violent right-wing radical spectrum and numerous cops among them also scene-knowing officials are loaded as witnesses. No Nazis in the courtroom! Let’s not leave Adel alone and show a clear edge against fascists and class justice! In front of the court building in Moabit there will be an antifascist rally. Afterwards we will move together into the court to attend the first day of the trial critically and to set a sign against the criminalization of legitimate antifascist interventions! We will announce the time of the start of the trial and the antifascist rally in time. A detailed call will follow soon.

FREEDOM FOR ADEL AND ALL ANTIFASCISTS

Chile: Text of Mónica, Marcelo, Juan, Joaquin, Francisco and Juan before the trial against comrade Pablo Bahamondes: Let’s multiply the gestures of solidarity and insurrectionary complicity

Posted on 2021/10/12 - 2021/10/12 by darknights

Our comrade Pablo Bahamones Ortiz was arrested along with Herny Mendez (today imprisoned in the former penitentiary of stgo) and Hugo Moraga (in the street after an abbreviated trial that sentenced him to 3 years) while they were being transported in a vehicle on September 8, 2018 under an investigation regarding an explosive attack occurred in April 2017 in the Corporation of Judicial Assistance of Melipilla for which the prosecution asks him 13 years in prison. In addition in said vehicle are found various handmade weapons for which Pablo is accused of manufacturing, transporting and carrying weapons and ammunition, specifically 6 shotguns, 1 box of cartridges, 1 revolver and 12 shots, asking the prosecution 23 years, totaling a total of 36 years of prosecutorial request.

His option and positioning for the permanent confrontation that led him to prison has been maintained and deepened inside the prison being an undeniable contribution both in the intra-prison struggles and in those that take place outside these walls uninterruptedly and without pause. This way of understanding and carrying out life in prison breaks with the passive figure of the victim prisoner that places him as a mere recipient of solidarity aid, positioning the comrade as an active subject in the uprising of varied and confrontational initiatives such as the hunger strike that we carried out together for 50 days demanding the repeal of the amendment to Law 321 and for the release of our comrade Marcelo Villarroel.

It is from this combative stance that as anarchist and subversive prisoners we call for solidarity with Pablo during the trial that will begin on September 27th using all the means at our disposal and all our imagination that allows us to generate constant complicit initiatives as well as to strike hard blows to power. Continue reading “Chile: Text of Mónica, Marcelo, Juan, Joaquin, Francisco and Juan before the trial against comrade Pablo Bahamondes: Let’s multiply the gestures of solidarity and insurrectionary complicity” →

Greece: Conclusions of the Revolutionary Struggle Trials for the Attack on the Central Bank of Greece (ECB Branch) & IMF – Pola Roupa

Posted on 2021/07/13 by darknights

On 14/4/2021 the curtain fell on the four courts that judged the attack of Revolutionary Struggle against the Central Bank of Greece, the ECB branch in Greece and the IMF, action that took place on 10/4/2014.

The decision to sentence me to 6 years for »simple complicity» in the attack and 3 months for »stealing the car» used in the action, shows the huge discrepancy with the first judicial sentence imposed on me, which was life imprisonment and 26 years of imprisonment. A discrepancy that does not have to do (only) with changes in the penal code, but reflects the distance between the judgment of different courts on the same issues, a distance that is mainly due to the different approaches to the cases that could not but have a political background. The frenzied vengeful attitude of the first two courts that tried me and comrade Nikos Maziotis to the maximum penalty for this action of Revolutionary Struggle is not explained by the existence of the Hun legal fossil of Article 270 of the Penal Code on the explosion, which was enacted in 1969 by the Colonial Junta to impose life sentences on those who chose attacks as resistance against that regime. After all, no post-Junta court has ever imposed a life sentence for any bombing and Article 270 of the Constitution is, in fact, ineffective to enforce its extreme version. Until only two courts imposed life imprisonment on me and Nikos Maziotis, making full use of this legal monstrosity of the Junta for political revenge.

Knowing the history of this law, we had repeatedly highlighted it, both in court and in texts we had made public, speaking of the need to withdraw it. The fact that it has «endured» so many years is not due to the negligence of the countless lawyers who have «served» in the legislature since 75, but to a conscious political decision, initially due to the explosive «post-coup» social period, in which there were many massive social reactions (riots, wildcat strikes, attacks, etc.). But his extreme version was never applied in other cases in the forty years since the end of the colonels’ junta.

In court during my appeal – following the prosecutor’s proposal – I said that the obsessively hostile attitude of the courts towards us is linked to political pressures on judges, which need not always be direct, but can be formed in a very vindictive political environment created around us by the executive, and which, combined with the personal political attitude of the judges and their personal ambitions for career advancement, form the conditions of the trials as the reasons why the executive and the legislature chose professional judges instead of citizens of the mixed jury to judge dynamic political opponents of the regime had been mentioned by I. Manoledakis saying: »… judges, subjected to hierarchical dependence and expecting their professional development within a hierarchically structured body, may be subjected to pressures in the opposite – punitive – direction, which is not the case with lay judges. As for the professional hardening of professional judges, which makes them stricter than lay judges, this, in my opinion, is not an advantage but a disadvantage for the administration of justice.» («Security and Liberty») Continue reading “Greece: Conclusions of the Revolutionary Struggle Trials for the Attack on the Central Bank of Greece (ECB Branch) & IMF – Pola Roupa” →