Tag: UK
Chile: In the face of the removal of the Noticias de la guerra social website
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”
UK: London’s secretive “smart stations” roll-out
The digital slave-system of the Fourth Industrial Repression is being imposed on us by stealth.
Various aspects of the sinister technology have gradually crept in over the years under the excuse of fighting crime or terrorism or, more recently, of combating the spread of a so-called pandemic.
As we saw in our recent article on “15 Minute Cities”, we are now being told that it is all about urban planning and making life generally more pleasant for everyone by reducing traffic congestion and pollution.
Anyone who sees through this greenwashing attempt is dismissed as a paranoid fool or as a dangerous conspiracy theorist spreading fear and disinformation.
And yet the whole premise of this official spin is blown out of the water by the fact that smart infrastructure (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is being rolled out in contexts that have nothing to do with private vehicle use.
We have got hold of a very interesting document from Transport for London on the current testing of smart surveillance at Willesden Green tube station, which is due to continue until March 31, 2023.
If this project were really about “providing the best possible service” to passengers on the British capital’s underground railway network, as claimed, then you would think that it would be loudly and proudly announced and discussed, with information widely available in a democratic public consultation.
But the fact that the document, entitled “Smart Station Proof Concept”, is marked “restricted” for internal TfL use reveals the secrecy being deployed to sneak through this new stage of the incremental theft of our freedom.
In the public interest, we have decided to publicise its contents.
The “exciting” project for the Jubilee Line station combines existing CCTV cameras with “visual analytics technology” to provide 24-hour real-time monitoring, via a “Smart Stations Dashboard”.
As well as counting everyone entering and leaving the station, the smart spies will be issuing “notifications” for a range of “triggers” including not just gate-jumping or smoking, but also “loitering” or a “person sat on a bench (Excessive Time)”, which turns out to be anything more than ten minutes! Continue reading “UK: London’s secretive “smart stations” roll-out”
London, UK: Vandalism at the Italian Cultural Center in London in Solidarity with anarchist Alfredo Cospito
Vandalism at the Italian Cultural Center in London
It appears that on 24th February, something unfortunate happened to the Italian Cultural Institute in London.
At this sophisticated outpost of the Italian state, guests are invited to enjoy a current series of lectures, from handpicked academic experts, on the great social and political issues of the day, with the ambassador in attendance. The previous week, the audience was treated to a discussion of the energy transition, and next week the theme was to be Justice.
All this makes it so regretable that the building’s romanesque facade, with elegant white columns and heavy wooden door, seems to have been soaked in paint by some vandal[s] clearly without the capacity to appreciate such things.
Maybe it was some disbeliever[s] in capitalism’s ‘sustainable’ future? Unhelpful people looking to provoke, always making trouble for sensible plans.
It would be a particular shame if the act casts a shadow on next week’s lecture. A gathering of cultured and cosmopolitan persons to hear about such a delicate subject as Justice surely calls for a glass of Italian wine and a canape consumed in peaceful contemplation.
Could it be that the irresponsible[s] wanted to pour scorn on the Italian State for its massacres in the prisons during the 2020 lockdown? Or for its dependable and bloody role in securing the border of europe against the pressure of irregular migration?
But another troubling interpretation remains. After all, Alfredo Cospito, whose struggle by hunger strike against the notorious isolation regime of 41bis is in its last critical stages, had yet another appeal rejected later that same day, by the wise members of the Italian judiciary.
This struggle, having stirred a whirlwind of action sweeping beyond the walls of the prison, even accross national boundaries, is becoming so severe that it is SUPPOSED to have increased the security around diplomatic buildings of the Italian State internationally for some time now.
Whatever the truth, we can be sure that the impulses behind such an act can only contribute to the general atmosphere of indignation and lack of dialogue with power that Alfredo Cospito’s struggle, against the terms of life and death set by authority, seems to have enflamed everywhere.
Source: Act for freedom now!
London, UK : FREEDOM IS NON-NEGOTIABLE. ALFREDO COSPITO OUT OF 41 BIS – SO AS TO CONTINUE TO LIVE PROUDLY AN ANARCHIST IN ITALY HAS DECIDED TO DIE PROUDLY. Two posters for Alfredo Cospito that have appeared in some streets of London
Source: Act for freedom now!
London, Two posters for Alfredo Cospito that have appeared in some streets of London.
we receive and spread:
FREEDOM IS NON-NEGOTIABLE
ALFREDO COSPITO OUT OF 41 BIS
Alfredo Cospito has made the choice of hungerstrike to the end against the Italian prison regime 41 bis, a concrete grave, where the law has tried to bury him to prevent the spreading of his ideas of freedom and the need to attack its enemies.
Power needs to model, predict and measure, always trying to avoid the worst for itself. But when people stop accepting blackmail, stop listening to the forecasts, and then even the warnings, and start to act – then things can become unpredictable.
With Alfredo, the Italian State has encountered something it can’t factor into its calculations – it is trying to calculate a struggle without measure.
Alfredo Cospito won’t accept barter for his freedom. His uncompromising demand pours out of the dungeon and into the streets, refueling the social tempest beyond walls and borders.
The cost of losing the veneer of control is enough to bankrupt any authority.
But Freedom is non-negotiable and without limit.
SO AS TO CONTINUE TO LIVE PROUDLY AN ANARCHIST IN ITALY HAS DECIDED TO DIE PROUDLY
using his body as a weapon to attack the judicial conspiracy to distort his person, his struggle and the very essence of anarchism in order to bury him alive under the anti-mafia law 41bis.
with Alfredo Cospito
end 41bis now!
“There are two types of solidarity. A passive one that all too often serves only to wash away conscience for someone’s own inactivity and that does not bridge the gaps between words and deeds.
And then the active, concrete, real solidarity that some call revolutionary, created in silence and anonymity, where only destructive actions speak even through the words that follow. Needless to say which one I prefer.
In final analysis, the best solidarity that i could receive is to see the planning of this new anarchy, in all of its forms, continue to move forward, insensible to the strokes of repression. I will not deny it, in
every action that someone salutes us as anarchist prisoners, both in Italy and the rest of the world, my heart fills with joy.
This is my life today. The war continues, never give up, never give in.” Alfredo Cospito 2014.
FIRE TO THE PRISONS!
London, UK: Against Ecology– A Discussion for the Unmanageable
Tuesday 21st February
Against Ecology — A Discussion for the Unmanageable
The catastrophe we face is not revealed in the predictions of a scientific caste, nor in the mysticism of rhythms of nature which we have never known in the duration of our artificial lives.
The catastrophe is the daily dose of poisoning which we drink voluntarily: the world of management, entertainment, democracy, technological progress and merchandise. Its power source is human drudgery and submission, turbo-charged by fossil fuels or no-less ruthlessly exploited ‘sustainable’ resources. This is the polluted wasteland which takes survival for as long as possible as its miserable horizon – at an individual level as much as at the level of the species.
In the past, struggles against the most polluting developments have been orientated by ecology but now it is acting as a brake on their potential.
The fumes of ideology can be more suffocating than greenhouse gasses. If we are not careful, we will be led directly into the embrace of a transformed authority – eagerly drawing on the moral fury of the green movement, and all too happy to continue to govern on a necessarily planetary scale.
We need fresh ideas and action to break with the stifling atmosphere of the moment and to arm the struggles of the near future. We need to move beyond ecology, and enter the dimension of a revolt without excuses, without demands and without return to normality.
Touchpaper Anarchist Library
385 Queens Road
New Cross
SE14 5HD
PDF: Anarki & Pembebasan Hewan – Jurnal Serangan Liar / Anarchy & Animal Liberation – A Journal of Wild Attack IN/EN
PDF: Anarki & Pembebasan Hewan – Jurnal Serangan Liar
Penulis: Warzone Distro
Sumber: Warzone Distro
Alih bahasa & penyunting: Rudal Jelajah
“Hubungan anti-otoritarian dengan hewan non-manusia (dan bumi) dikombinasikan dengan serangan klandestin terhadap masyarakat industri dapat dilihat sepanjang sejarah. Dahulu dan sekarang, banyak anarkis tidak hanya mempertahankan gaya hidup vegan sebagai penolakan hierarki dalam hubungan mereka dengan hewan non-manusia, tetapi juga mengakui perlunya menghancurkan peradaban itu sendiri.
Zine ini dibuat dengan tujuan untuk menggambarkan hubungan antara veganisme, anarki individualis, dan serangan insureksioner dengan menyoroti beberapa dari banyak kelompok dan sel yang mengubah kemarahan menjadi tindakan”
EN: Anarchy & Animal Liberation: A Journal of Wild Attack
PDF: Anarchy & Animal Liberation – A Journal of Wild Attack
From back cover:
“The anti-authoritarian relationship with non-human animals (and the earth) combined with clandestine attack against industrial society can be seen throughout history. Past and present, many anarchists not only maintain a vegan lifestyle as a rejection of hierarchy in their relationships to non-human animals, but also recognize the necessity for destroying civilization itself.
This zine was created with the intention of illustrating the relationship between veganism, individualist anarchy and insurrectionary attack by highlighting a few of the many groups and cells that turned anger into action.”
Source: Warzone Distro
London, UK: Animal Liberation and Insurrection – Public Discussion
Tuesday 10th January 2023, 7pm.
Animal Liberation and Insurrection – Public Discussion
This society is nothing but a row of tightly monitored cages. Non-human animals have been, and continue to be, at the sharp-end of the scientific-industrial system. Locked up, experimented on, artificialised and domesticated – and yet their revolt continues, in escapes, in violent reactions against their capture and on their jailors.
Against this daily misery, what does an insurrection which finds connection with the revolt of non-human animals look like?
What wild horizons of freedom lie at the point where smashed cages meet severed networks of social control, and sabotage and expropriation spreading through the temples of work and consumption?
Tuesday 10th January 7pm
Touchpaper Anarchist Library
385 Queens Road, New Cross
SE14 5HD
Resisting Techno-Tyranny: A Dialogue
This conversation between Paul Cudenec and the Italian group Resistenze al nanomondo was first published in the July 2022 issue of the printed journal L’urlo della Terra and has recently also been made available online, again in Italian.
1. Resistenze al nanomondo: Can you can tell us about your story, your path, when you started developing a critique of techno-scientific developments and what thinkers you learned from?
Paul Cudenec: I don’t think I could separate my critique of techno-scientific developments from the rest of my opinions and analysis. I have been an anarchist for 30 years now, but even before then, in my youth, I felt a strong instinctive aversion to high-tech consumer society. On the one hand it was associated with everything that I most disliked – big business, the state, the military, authority and control in general. On the other hand it stood against everything that I most appreciated – nature, freedom, community, a sense of historical and cultural continuity. The arrival of CCTV cameras in England was a wake-up moment for me. I worked at the time as a journalist with a local newspaper in one of the first towns to have cameras installed and, since I knew for a fact that there was very little crime there, it was clear to me that this project was nothing to do with fighting crime, as was claimed, but was the roll-out of something much more sinister. I wrote a punk song about this in the mid-1990s (which I put online last year), warning about “the cameras that steal our liberty” and the techno-tyrants who were going to scan our DNA, put microchips in our brains and turn us into robots. With the local anarchist group, which I subsequently helped to create, we used to hold annual protests against the cameras, marking the anniversary of their installation as “Big Brother’s Birthday”.
As you will gather from the above, George Orwell was, unsurprisingly, an influence on me. The history of the Luddites was another inspiration (via Kirkpatrick Sale among others), along with anarcho-publications like Green Anarchist, SchNEWS, Do or Die, Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and various EF! publications. I also read David Watson’s Against the Megamachine, Fredy Perlman’s Against His-story, Against Leviathan, the Unabomber Manifesto plus a lot by John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen. I have more recently been influenced by reading the likes of Miguel Amorós, Jacques Ellul, Theodore Roszak, Charlene Spretnak, Renaud Garcia… But intertwined with that thread of my self-education have been other inspirations. The English nature mystic Richard Jefferies has been very important to me, as has René Guénon, who combined his metaphysics with a strong critique of modernity. I have also read elsewhere about sufism, Taoism, comparative mythology, English folklore, Indian philosophy, German idealism, Jewish anti-capitalist romanticism, Jungian psychology… What interests me, above all, are the connections between these accounts and traditions, or rather, perhaps, the new space that is opened up for our reflection when we consider them together, in the same conceptual context. Continue reading “Resisting Techno-Tyranny: A Dialogue”
Salzburg, Germany: Solidarity with Alfredo, Anna, Juan, Toby, Ivan / G4S car set on fire
In the night from first to second December 2022 we set fire to a car of G4S. This was an act of solidarity for the anarchist prisoners Alfredo, Anna, Juan, Toby and Ivan.
G4S is actively profiting from prisons and runs prisons in United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.
solidarity means attack!
Source: de.indymedia