Contact To contribute translations, editing-corrections and/or original material for publication, such as updates from the streets, reportbacks from actions, responsibility claims, texts of imprisoned or persecuted comrades, calls, brochures, opinion articles, etc.: contrainfo(at)espiv.net
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Contra Info is an international multi-language counter-information and translation node, an infrastructure maintained by anarchists, anti-authoritarians and libertarians who are active in different parts of the globe. More »
 On August 4th 2016, an info event was held at Themistokleous 58 squat in Exarchia (Athens), with the participation of Contra Info translation counter-info network and ABC Solidarity Cell, where a comrade from Portland ABC discussed details about the US wide mobilization against prison slavery and white supremacy on the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion (September 9th–13th 1971). Check out an interview on Radiofragmata web radio, as well as the recordings of the presentation during that event, here. (You can also hear another conversation, with the same comrade from Portland ABC, aired September 4th 2016 on The Final Straw.)
On August 25th, anarchist communist Tasos Theofilou, currently incarcerated in Koridallos prison (Athens), released a text explaining what September 9th mobilization in the US is all about. Excerpt from his writing: “Since 2010 there have been a number of mobilizations in US prisons, from hunger strikes and work stoppages to rebellions, for either elimination of solitary confinement or betterment of prison conditions, or the improvement of working conditions and remuneration.”
On September 5th, a meeting took place at the Polytechnic School in Exarchia, called for by the Solidarity Assembly for Political Prisoners & Imprisoned and Prosecuted Fighters. A new Athens-based assembly was formed to support the US prison strike. It was decided to release a poster in Greek and English, hold a PA’s gathering outside Koridallos prisons, and make a call for two days of solidarity action across Greece, between 16th and 17th September.
On September 8th, ABC Solidarity Cell published a statement regarding “US Prisons – The Dark Side of Slavery in American Society”. Excerpt from their text: “We are willing to manifest our solidarity in every possible way with US prison inmates throughout the duration of their struggle. In this direction, we call every collective, every cell of Anarchist Black Cross internationally, but also whoever wishes to support in their own way, to coordinate our forces on an International Solidarity Day that will be a point of reference for the international solidarity movement to supporting this struggle and will provide an opportunity for further intensification of our actions in the coming period. We propose this day to be October 1st. We consider the prospects, stakes and legacies that this particular struggle in US prisons may create to be an open challenge for every fighter who wants to contribute to waging an internationalized and coordinated struggle inside and outside prisons against modern slavery and the economic dictatorship of multinationals. Solidarity and strength to the struggle of prisoners in US prisons! Struggle is the only prospect of living with dignity! Fire to the prisons!”
On September 9th, the Urban Guerrilla Cell of Conspiracy of Cells of Fire FAI/FRI, namely Christos Tsakalos, Gerasimos Tsakalos, Giorgos Polidoros and Olga Ekonomidou, anarchists incarcerated in Koridallos prisons, released a revolutionary statement titled “Gentlemen, the Dragon Will Fly Out” in support of the US prison mobilization as of September 9th, and in memory of Jonathan P. Jackson, George L. Jackson, and Attica prison rebels. Excerpt from their writing: “In every part of the Earth, prisons are a monument of people’s enslavement. Prisons are the most concentrated form of tyranny; the face of Power, without any makeup; the punitive nature of democracy; the vengeful sense of its justice. Every attack, every act of rebellion, every mobilization that disturbs the operation of prisons is a kick in the guts of oppression. It challenges its omnipotence, within its own walls. Certainly, the September 9th mobilization against slavery in US prisons may not be the anarchist utopia of freedom we wish for, but it can be a pebble in the pond that creates small ripples in the water. And oftentimes these ripples precede the outbreak of an enormous tide…”
On September 9th, some anarchist prisoners in the 4th wing of Koridallos men’s prison published a collective writing in support of the US prison strike. Excerpt from their text: “We know how hard it is to fight capitalism there where it’s most powerful, in the US; we also know that depriving it of a part of its profits is the only thing that can inflict substantial damage. That’s why this prisoner strike is so important. That’s why we send our solidarity and greetings to the rebellious dignity of prisoners in the US.” (Full text translation here.)
On Friday evening September 9th, the newly formed Assembly of Solidarity with the Struggle of Prisoners against Slavery, alongside other anarchist supporters from Athens, held a noise demo in the proximity of Koridallos prisons to spread the word about the mobilization in US prisons, but also in solidarity with all inmates in Koridallos women’s facility, who are protesting the deplorable prison conditions since August 26th. During the action comrades unfurled banners reading: “Solidarity with the struggle of US prison inmates against slavery” and “From Koridallos to Lucasville, fight against prison slavery”.
On Friday night September 9th, ABC Solidarity Cell hung a banner at the gate of the Polytechnic School, on Patission Street (downtown Athens), reading: “Solidarity with the struggle of prisoners in the US as of September 9th – We are not made by history; we create history”.
In Agrinio (western Greece), comrades of Apertus squat expressed their solidarity with the US prison mobilization, as well as with inmates at Koridallos women’s prison: “(…) the resistance to the barbarity of incarceration is an integral part of social and class struggles taking place everywhere; against the restructuring, tightening of security, and privatization of prisons; the road to freedom passes over the debris of every prison.”
Now is the time for uncompromising complicity with prison rebels in the US, Mexico, and all over the world!
    In the early hours of September 9th, some anarchists of Barcelona went to McDonald’s on Travessera de Gràcia Street to show our solidarity with the imprisoned comrades on strike in the United States.
A small action with which we intend to manifest that solidarity between the oppressed knows no borders or nations.
We also took advantage of this occasion to point to this multinational as responsible for the assassination and exploitation of countless human and nonhuman beings, making it clear that we won’t allow them to continue their criminal work without encountering resistance from the oppressed.
Against every authority!
Death to the State and its false opponents.
Spanish | Greek
 We dropped a banner from the main entrance of the Polytechnic School in the city centre of Xanthi, reading: “Respect and solidarity to the arrested comrades of FAI”. Our thoughts go out to the comrades arrested for FAI attacks in Italy and all incarcerated comrades everywhere.
 Roundup of actions across the world on It’s Going Down (continuously updated).
Also watch “Attica Is All Of Us” video from Freedom Archives; via Support Prisoner Resistance.
 On September 6th 2016, Torino’s section of the DIGOS antiterrorist unit unleashed an anti-anarchist operation under the name “Scripta Manent”. House searches were conducted in various regions of Italy. Anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai, incarcerated since September 2012 for kneecapping Adinolfi (Olga Cell FAI/FRI), received a new arrest notification in prison. Additionally, six arrests were made on the outside (five in the context of this operation; one as outcome of a house search).
Operation Scripta Manent seeks to attribute to the accused a series of actions claimed by FAI (Informal Anarchist Federation) in Italy. Therefore, the comrades Marco, Sandrone, Anna, Danilo and Valentina, alongside Alfredo and Nicola, are likely to face charges of “subversive association with terrorist intent”.
Below are their mailing addresses (that may change at any time):
Marco Bisesti
Alessandro Mercogliano
C.R. Rebibbia, Via Raffaele Majetti 70, 00156 Roma, Italia
Anna Beniamino
C.C. Via Aurelia nord km 79,500 n. snc 00053 Civitavecchia, Italia
Emiliano Danilo Cremonese
C.C. Via San Donato 2, 65129 Pescara, Italia
Valentina Speziale
C.C. Via Ettore Ianni 30, 66100 Chieti, Italia
Nicola and Alfredo are held in the AS2 wing of Ferrara prison:
Nicola Gai
Alfredo Cospito
C.C. Via dell’Arginone 327, 44122 Ferrara, Italia
Daniele, an editor of Croce Nera Anarchica, was captured that same day in the context of another arrest proceeding, after police found some batteries and an electrician’s manual in his apartment. He is likely to face charges of “possession of materials for the manufacture of explosive devices”.
The comrade can be contacted at:
Daniele Cortelli
C.C. Regina Coeli, Via della Lungara 29, 00165 Roma, Italia
Sources in Italian: Informa-azione & CNA; in English: ActForFreedomNow
Rebellion simmers in the streets and behind the prison walls. This poster series is a small contribution to the current momentum – may insurgents find each other and link up, even if they’re fighting on apparently disparate fronts!
The below files are ready to print and agitate.
Here’s to a hot September!
Freedom: color pdf | b&w pdf for printing
Orchestration: color pdf | b&w pdf for printing
Milwaukee: color pdf for printing
 via: zinelibrary | a resource for subversive pdfs
 The state attorney of Turin, represented by Arnaldi Di Balme, was not pleased with the sentence of nonsuit due to the “ne bis in idem”, that because of lack of jurisdiction the case was not allowed to proceed. Now they are getting back on track appealing against all the jurisprudence and asking for a new process. Once again the persecutor is insisting on claiming that the transport of explosive material and the attempted attack to target IBM in Switzerland was planned in Italy.
The attorney is trying to proof this based upon the participation of Silvia, Billy and Costa in the Coalizione contro le nocivitá / Coalition against nocivity (toxicity/harmfulness). An experience of struggle against harmfulness that during its active years has created an active projectuality against bio- and nanotechnologies.
These attempts of repression should come as no surprise; the law is built specifically to repress critical and struggling environments that go against this exploitive system.
For us it remains clear that it is a necessity to get rid of this ecocidal system that uses science and research as their executive branch.
For those who would like to deepen their understanding we suggest the reading of the publication “Solidarity and Complicity – A collection of texts around the attempted sabotage of the IBM nanotech labs in Switzerland and on the expression of solidarity when the repression got the upper hand” (at the moment only in Italian).
(August 26th 2016)
 Freedom for anarchists all over the planet  The States are the only terrorists… Solidarity with comrades in prison  Until the demolition of the last prison… Solidarity with our imprisoned sisters and brothers!  Hey, beware! The mind is their target…  From Greece to Chile, blast and fire to every prison Some days ago, we spray-painted slogans in the centre of Karditsa and blocked ATMs in response to the international call for a week of actions in solidarity with imprisoned anarchists.
We don’t forget our imprisoned sisters and brothers throughout the world!
No imprisoned anarchist left alone!
The passion for freedom is stronger than all prisons!
Strength to fugitive comrades!
Anarchists
(September 2nd 2016)
 During the night of September 1st 2016, we sabotaged several ATMs in Hamburg to show solidarity with our comrades.
The extradition hearing of a comrade, who’s prosecuted by the German State for a bank robbery in Aachen, took place in Holland on September 1st.
Our solidarity goes out not only to her but also to the other anarchists affected by this anti-anarchist repression.
Solidarity, rage and anarchy!
German // Update on extradition court case in Amsterdam
 On April 1st 2016, prisoners in US hellholes released a call to action against prison slavery, announcing a coordinated prisoner workstoppage all across the country to take place on September 9th 2016 – date that marks the 45th anniversary of the bloody Attica prison rebellion.
Inmates at various US prisons have already undertaken workstoppages and hunger strikes ahead of September 9th.
We call for an open assembly on Monday September 5th at 19:00 in the Athens Polytechnic School (Gini building, entrance from Stournari Street, Exarchia) to share updates and prepare interventions-actions in view of the US prisoner mobilization.
Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners
& imprisoned and prosecuted fighters
in Greek
 “(…) This is a call for revolutionary solidarity against the slavery and extermination imposed by economic plunder… in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and all other places touched by civilization, know that we are preparing ourselves within Mexican prisons; but that will continue to be demonstrated through actions… To war alongside our imprisoned brothers and sisters, slaves of the United States, who are rising up and coordinating a nationwide strike in North America’s prisons on September 9th 2016, and with all other captives and slaves in the rest of the world… Until we are all free.”
– Fernando Bárcenas Castillo.
English full text translation on It’s Going Down
 On September 9th [the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion], prisoners across the United States will begin a strike that will be a general work stoppage against prison slavery. In short, prisoners will refuse to work; they will refuse to keep the prisons running by their own labors. Prisoners are striking not just for better conditions or changes in parole rules, but against prison slavery. Prisoners state that under the 13th Amendment which abolished racial slavery, at the same time it allowed human beings to be worked for free or next to nothing as long as they were prisoners. Prisoners see the current system of prison slavery to thus be a continuation of racial slavery, which is a system that generates billions of dollars in profits each year for major corporations in key industries such as fossil fuels, fast food, banking, and the US military.
Soon after the passing of the 13th Amendment, many former slaves were soon locked up in prisons on petty offenses, quickly returned to their former roles as slaves. Over a century later, the Drug War sought to deal with the growing unemployment rate brought on by changes in the economy (outsourcing, financialization, deregulation, etc.), as well as the threat of black insurrection which grew in the 1960s and 70s, by throwing more and more people in prison. At the same time, the state and corporations continued to look towards prison labor as a source to generate massive profits.
Due to all of these factors, at the present time round 1 in 100 American adults is locked behind bars, and many more are on probation, parole, house arrest, or in immigrant detention facilities. While African-Americans, Native, Latino, and poor whites make up the bulk of the prison population, black, brown, and red convicts make up much a higher percentage of inmates than their white counter-parts. For instance, there are currently more African-American people locked within the prison industrial complex than were held in racialized slavery prior to the American civil war in the 1860s. It is in this climate that prison rebels have organized themselves to carry out the strike.
It is also important to state that September 9th is being called by a wide variety of groups, but in general comes out of such organizations such as the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), which is a self-organized prison group that has spread to states across the US. Anarchists have played a key role in supporting this organizing, and the various hunger strikes, work strikes, and prison riots which have also broken out in facilities such as Holman Prison. Support has come from various prison groups, Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) Chapters, and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a section of the IWW, which currently has about 1,000 members across the US in prison. To help build capacity around the strike, anarchists have also organized several conferences and carried out a wide variety of actions, from noise demonstrations, to banner drops, to graffiti campaigns.
But we need the help of the international anarchist movement to build this momentum. We are calling on comrades across the world to help us. We are asking all groups, federations, unions, networks, cells, and individuals to consider taking action, organize an event, and spread the strike. Ideas for actions are as follows:
1.) Organize a demonstration outside a US embassy, military base, or US government outpost. Let them know that people across the world are in solidarity with the strike.
2.) Organize a noise demonstration outside of a local jail, prison, detention facility, or juvenile hall.
3.) Organize an action that draws a connection to the corporations that makes money off of prison labor in the US. Worldwide targets include McDonald’s and Wendy’s fast food chains, Starbucks coffee chain, BP (British Petroleum), Victoria’s Secret lingerie stores, American Airlines (which flies into many international airports), and many more.
[While almost every business in America uses some form of prison labor, here are just a few more of these companies: Avis, Walmart, Microsoft, Nike, Nintendo, Honda, Pfizer, Whole Foods, Aramark, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Fidelity Investments, Saks Fifth Avenue, JCPenney, Kmart, Macy’s, and of course UNICOR, the corporation created and owned by the federal government to oversee penal labor.]
4.) Drop banners, write graffiti, wheat paste flyers, and get up news of the strike around your town.
Lastly, we will add that the strike will begin on September 9th, and will go for a long time. Prisoners are already expecting to face repression, and some organizers have already been place in solitary and harassed by the FBI. It is up to us to have their backs on the outside and build support for the strike and make it part of struggles everywhere. Strike will not end on September 10th, but continue, so help us prepare for the long haul.
Long Live Anarchy!
Fire to the Prisons!
Free everyone!
*
More information, updates and organizing materials:
Support Prisoner Resistance – supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org
Free Alabama Movement – freealabamamovement.wordpress.com
IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee – iwoc.noblogs.org
IT’S GOING DOWN – itsgoingdown.org
Portland ABC – pdxabc.org
Anti-State STL – antistatestl.noblogs.org
325 – 325.nostate.net/tag/prison-labour-strike
 “Strength to the comrades Sakkas and Seisidis – Nothing is over – The struggle for revolution and Anarchy continues” (paper-banner by Terra Incognita squat in Thessaloniki, Greece) On August 17th 2016, Kostas Sakkas and Marios Seisidis stood trial in Athens concerning the circumstances of their arrest in Sparta (August 4th).
During the trial, which lasted several hours, there was a constant presence of comrades in solidarity with Marios Seisidis and Kostas Sakkas, who stated to the court that they are anarchists and explained their reasons for becoming fugitives from the law. Both denied the charges and exposed the lies of the prosecution witnesses (three cops). The prosecutor stated that, based on the beliefs of the two accused alone, there is sufficient evidence that they committed a punishable act. Marios Seisidis was sentenced to 32 months in prison for using forged ID card and vehicle registration plates, stealing a vehicle and resisting authority; Kostas Sakkas was sentenced to 33 months for the same offenses, and also received a 200 euros fine for traffic violation.
Kostas Sakkas is now held in Koridallos prison (Athens), and Marios Seisidis is currently incarcerated in Malandrino prison (Phocis).
Open letter from the prisoners of Greek prisons to the jointly responsible ministers of public order and justice:
On the 3rd of August 2016, the recently released—and former co-prisoner of ours—Pëllumb Marnikollaj goes to Patisia Police Station [Athens] to present himself before the relative authorities in fulfillment of the conditional terms of his release. Under up-until-now unexplained circumstances, he is transferred to Red Cross Hospital and, eventually, to the morgue. Shortly before being buried as of unknown identity—and despite the fact that his identity was known to the authorities—his relatives collect his corpse and allude to torture and defenestration.
We are not the ones in charge of judging on what really happened. However, the number of reasons, which we have, not to believe the version of the Greek Police equals to the thousands of prisoners found in Greek prisons. It’s not merely the clumsiness in the way police attempted to cover the incident up; neither the fact that their explanations go against any common sense. (Come on, misters of the Greek Police. Who would believe that not only a prisoner, but even a citizen that visits a station to have his ID card issued would ever be allowed to roam around police offices, opening and closing windows undisturbed?)
We have every reason to believe the family’s version of the needless death of our co-prisoner because every single one of us has endured the atrocities that take place inside the interrogation offices of police stations. We might not have had a first-hand defenestration experience; however, plenty of us have been under its threat as form of a not at all uncommon method of interrogation. We have, also, all been surprised by the fact that the windows of police stations are adorned with “flower boxes”.
That we draw up this letter and make it public does not at all mean that we have the slightest hope for an investigation or that those responsible will eventually be held accountable. It’s already straightforward that we, the poor, the unemployed, the immigrants, all those who fill up your prisons are obliged to pay the price of our deeds. In contrast, those who brought us here by means of sweeps, batons and automatic guns will always enjoy the immunity that you open-handedly offer them, since double standards apply when it comes to decisions upon what is regarded as crime and what is not.
Finally, we make it clear to all that we, as prisoners of the Greek prisons, do not intend to take sides in the game that the Greek and Albanian embassies play. We only want a reply. Even if we take the provocatively untrue version of the police seriously, Messrs. Ministers, is it the capacity of former prisoner or that of immigrant that allows a human being’s death to be dealt with such worthlessness that not even objects deserve?
PS: As an action of protest, we will be delaying our night return to our cells by one hour for three days.
Prisoners of Greek prisons
the text in PDF | in Greek
 Sean Swain’s Final Straw Radio segment
aired July 2016; available on SeanSwain.org
Full transcript:
I’ve never understood the obsession of regulating other people’s sexual behavior. It sure seems like we live in a world where most people are more concerned about what other people are doing with their pants down than they are about what they themselves are going to do with their own pants down. I’ve never had that luxury, I guess. I’ve got a face for radio. I’ve always had to focus intensely on my own options for sexual activity, whenever they fall into my lap. That means two things: It’s never occurred to me that I should concern myself with the genital friction that others create or with whom they create it or by what means. So long as it’s consensual and no animals are harmed, what’s the big deal? Maybe it’s a hierarch thing; I don’t know.
Here’s what I’m thinking: Consider the person you imagine to be the most sexually active human you know. How many hours per day does that particular specimen spend in flinging DNA? If we average it out, figuring in the days with no activity over the course of a lifetime, and we average it up, does even the most active of us spend more than an hour a day creating protein puddles? I don’t think so. I would suggest to you that we spend more of our time over the course of our lifetimes eating than we spend flinging DNA.
–/–“This call is originating from an Ohio correctional facility and may be recorded and monitored.”–/–
So shouldn’t we be more concerned regulating how people eat? It seems to me that, by the logic of the sex police, we should have some strict social mores related to eating more so than sex. And we should have serious consequences for violating those mores. In a rational world, we’d care more about whether people are chewing with their mouths open or using a salad fork on their main course than we’d care about the gender of their sex partners or the placement of their bodies when knowing each other in the biblical sense. We’d stone sinners who talk with their mouths full. Eating dessert before your vegetables would be an abomination.
Since we spend more time eating than we do flinging DNA, shouldn’t we care more about regulating how people eat than how they *uck? What’s the obsession with other people’s sexual behavior? More often than not, of those two behaviors eating is done most publicly and has the greater potential impact on others. Public eaters chew with mouths open and force us to see it. Those who talk while eating sometimes get their half-chewed food on us. Very seldom do you see people going at it like spider monkeys at the mall. And even when they do, it doesn’t take long. And you shouldn’t be close enough to them that you get anything on you. And it’s still more entertaining than that idiot kid with the pizza and fries falling out of his face or the giggly girl with strawberry milkshake spraying out of her nose.
In a sane world, the vendors at the ballparks would sell condoms instead of pretzels.
In a sane world, we’d also recognize that we spend far more time sleeping than we spend creating protein puddles. So we’d exercise far more regulatory control over sleeping in bed rather that the non-sleeping behavior in bed. For instance, our social rank would be dependent upon whether we sleep on our backs, on our side or on our stomachs. Snoring could result in jail time or—in serious and repeated violations of the snoring ordinance—burning at the stake. After all, we spend hours and hours a day sleeping. If we spent the same amount of time creating friction with our genitals as we spend sleeping, it would look like we had sex with blenders. We’d all be walking funny.
We really need to get over this obsession with socially regulating others’ genital friction. Isn’t it time we stop letting the least imaginative among us decide what our sexual norms are?
See you at the mall.
This is anarchist prisoner Sean Swain from Warren Corruptional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio. If you’re listening, you are the resistance.
*
You can write to Sean at:
Sean Swain #243-205
Warren CI, P.O. Box 120, 5787 State Route 63
Lebanon, Ohio 45036 [USA]
received August 14th 2016
This is an individual statement after the trial that followed an action against the Orthodox Church in Thessaloniki. Although this statement doesn’t represent anybody except myself and may include an uncompleted picture, I decided that it should be spread. Never trust the media!
Unsurprisingly, the three evictions in Thessaloniki on 27th of July resulted in furious actions. The squats were evicted by a coordinated police operation to do the Church a favor and satisfy their thirst for revenge. The Church is in this case not only an agitator but also responsible for the eviction and demolition of Orfanotrofio squat (a selforganized space and housing squat for immigrants since December 2015).
On 31st July, 25 people in solidarity have been arrested at the Metropolitan Church in the center of Thessaloniki. Thanks to the authorities of the Orthodox Church, everybody had to stand trial on 1st of August, for an action that interrupted the Sunday Mass. Most of the arrested people refused to provide fingerprints, considering the consequence that they will get an additional accusation. During the trial a big crowd expressed their solidarity and full-throated support. After some hours in the court the show was over and only those who didn’t participated in the procedure of fingerprints/photographs got sentenced. Everyone got released, but this trial is just a tiny chapter of the script that the court performs every day. And we know as well that the court fulfills the cruel interests of the state and the bosses.
Apart from that, we do not intend to make the authority by the Church look harmless. The Church has the same pillars as any other institution: obedience, modern serfdom and punishment, among others. Everybody who despise their authoritarian, patriarchal and colonial ideology becomes an enemy. Of course, we are their enemy as well. That the passion for freedom is not compromisable with conservative values and the duty to obey authority should be clear.
When it comes to religion it isn’t very clear for everybody, sometimes not even between those who fight together. To demand free exercise of religion or to dream of an utopia without religious conflicts is not a neutral position. It is a position which is taking for granted that religion is just an idea. Religion is not an idea everybody can create, transform and use, it is an instrument of power. The meanings are given by those who have the power to define values, laws and unwritten laws. It is likely that believers become an agent for their religion, but power is in any case a precondition to reframe the ruling definitions. For centuries the Church is seeking domination without knowing any limits and gained power by expanding their beliefs. Therefore an anarchist perspective must be against religion and not (only) against religion used as a vehicle for propaganda or conflicts motivated by religion.
Anarchy is something that we cannot break down to an ideology or a single idea. That’s why anarchism has many different tendencies, but there are of course practices that we can count as fully contradictory. Support for political parties and elections is for example undermining anarchist basics. We should definitely discuss more about an anarchist approach regarding religion. The indoctrinated habit to question any kind of attack against religion, is something that needs to be reconsidered and understood as belittlement. From my point of view „freedom of religion“ as a law and a concept is just victim blaming.
If we enter the courthouse it becomes obvious that the state and the Church build the same repressive organism. A painting of Jesus Christ (Fuck the Artist!) above the judge and the holy bubblegum in front of the judge symbolize the power of the Church and the strong interconnection with the state institutions. Wherever people pay in to religious beliefs, authorities will try to use them for their adventure of a giant-empire.
It was not the first time that the Church attacked selforganized structures of unconditional solidarity and resistance. Knowing that it was neither the last eviction, as a minimum response we have to confront Syriza with our rage and fight for the continuity of rebellious communities. If the caricatures in the parliament, in the church and in the media want to feed us with lies about humanitarian war-zones/borders/military camps: Lets destroy them first!
Finally, I must say that I refused to give my fingerprints because there are absolutely no reasons why I should help the armed dogs doing their filthy job. I made my decision. It is a decision against the law that represents the state and the capital. Laws that protect fascist murderers and police officers who kill unarmed people. This time we were all successful in the crucial moments, when they wanted to take our fingerprints. While this time they took only fingerprints from few people who agreed in the procedure, there have been many times before, where the police took them by force, being extremely violent.
If they try to break the solidarity between us – Lets destroy them first!
Nothing is over, everything continues!
Fuck charity! Squat the world!
Recently two anarchist comrades, Marios Seisidis and Kostas Sakkas, were arrested in the area of Sparta and beaten by police because they refused to provide fingerprints and photographs.
Strength to Marios Seisidis and Kostas Sakkas!
Latest update concerning M. Seisidis and K. Sakkas here.
 received August 14th 2016
On August 3, several anarchists in The Hague, the Netherlands, and one from outside the city received a letter from Mayor Van Aartsen with the intention of imposing a two month area ban for the Schilderswijk, a working class and immigrant neighborhood in the center of the city. The mayor wants to use the so-called “Football Law,” which is now being used against political activists for the first time. In recent times, anarchists in The Hague have dealt with much repression, much of it directly from the mayor’s office.
50,000 euro damage claim for De Vloek eviction
On September 9, 2015, during the eviction of social center De Vloek which had been squatted for 13 years, ten people were arrested. Five of them remained in prison for two weeks after being accused of committing violence against the police. Several months after their release, the ten people who had been arrested received a letter from the mayor of The Hague with a 50,000 euro damage claim. Upon further investigation into the specifics of the amount of the claim, it was apparent that it was largely based on costs that had nothing to do with the eviction: the removal of containers full of rubble that was allegedly used to make barricades, guarding the terrain after the eviction (De Vloek was demolished directly after the eviction) and cleaning paint from paint bombs off of the street (the street wasn’t even cleaned, but repaved a few weeks after the eviction in accordance with scheduled maintenance).
This huge sum was not payed, which has resulted in a lawsuit that is still ongoing. The demand for such a high compensation doesn’t happen so often but is also not new. Earlier, after the eviction of the Ubica, a squat in Utrecht, an exorbitant sum for compensation was also demanded. The punishment of those who resist is not only accomplished through prison terms; they also try to drive the “guilty” to financial ruin. In this case, the punishment of people who resist against eviction is also the catalyst: The VVD, the political party of van Aartsen asked the city council to claim all of the “damage”.
Closing the Autonomous Center
The mayor however didn’t stop at the damage claim for the eviction of De Vloek. The Autonomous Center (AC) also had to pay the price. The AC was evicted from its location in the Bezuidenhout neighborhood after more than five years. Afterwards, three buildings were squatted on the Harstenhoekweg in order to continue with the activities of the AC.
The mayor tried to plan a scheme with the owner of one of the buildings to evict it because of alleged danger of asbestos. A lawsuit followed, which the mayor lost, and the building was not allowed to be evicted. A few months later, a letter arrived saying that the mayor intended to shut down the building where the AC is located because it would be housing an illegal cafe. This is how the mayor has tried to close places that are structurally important for the anarchist movement. The procedure to close AC is still ongoing.
Insurrection in the Schilderswijk
When Mitch Henriquez was choked to death by the police in 2015, thousands of people in the Schilderswijk rose up against the police and the state. Hundreds of people attacked the police station and there were four nights of clashes with the police. The insurrection was an expected reaction to the latest police murder and to the years of racist police brutality in the neighborhood.
For years, anarchists and anti-fascists have been taking action against racist police brutality in the neighborhood, and that is a thorn in the mayor’s side. Several neighborhood organizations tried to deal with the problem of police brutality, but all of these groups worked together with the police and the municipality, or they wanted to join them around the table. Anti-fascists and anarchists are always without compromise in the struggle against the police and their violent practices, and they will not work together with police or the municipal government. The mayor and police have devoted a lot of time to attempting to break the connection between anarchists and the neighborhood, and their protest. Officers went to community centers where flyers were spread to intimidate people into not working with anti-fascists and anarchists; otherwise it could have consequences for their subsidies. Police officers were also sent out to remove posters and demonstrations were prohibited by the mayor. During and before demonstrations, officers kept young people at a distance through intimidation.
This however did not yield the desired result. At several demonstrations, many residents of the neighborhood were present and after the murder of Mitch Henriquez the neighborhood rebelled en masse. Afterwards, the mayor in conjunction with the police tried to place the guilt on the anarchists, using them as a scapegoat while trying to break the solidarity of the neighborhood. This witch-hunt against anarchists continued at the end of April when an anarchist was arrested in the Schilderswijk on suspicion of having spread the Anarchist Newspaper, with a text about the insurrection in the Schilderswijk. The comrade was held for four days at the police station and accused of instigation against authority. Later on, a prison term of eight weeks was demanded, but acquittal followed. The Home Office has gone into appeals.
Besides the previous examples, anarchists and anti-fascists in The Hague can expect structural “special” attention from the police and the mayor. Demonstrations are prohibited, individual anarchists are intimidated on the street, there have been attempts by the police to win informants, and actions where anarchists are involved can expect a huge police presence.
Bureaucratic Repression
Besides the traditional forms of repression such as raids, arrests, and prison sentences, about which there is much anger in the anarchist movement, lately repression has manifested itself in a more subtle, bureaucratic and administrative form during the last period. This makes it more abstract and less susceptible to solidarity. If the walls of repression are clearly visible in the case of an imprisoned comrade, then in this form of repression, one gets caught in a web of ongoing lawsuits and appeals. In the case of the area ban, they are trying to break the active area of the struggle by forbidding certain people from stepping foot in a neighborhood where social struggle is happening and where it is being fought together.
We Are Not Victims
We don’t expect the repression to end here. The mayor and police will stick to the charted course. But we don’t feel in the least as if we are victims of repression. The police and mayor must decide for themselves if they want to have it out for a group of anarchists. Repression will not turn us into sitting ducks and apathetic victims. For every hit one of us takes, we will hit back. It only makes us more resolute to continue the struggle for unconditional freedom. Because we have nothing to lose but only to win, because we are like weeds that keep growing between the bricks of the stifling state, because their time has passed and the time for anarchy has come, and no police officer or mayor will stop us!
Our struggle for freedom is stronger than their repression!
Some Anarchists from The Hague
in German
 “I keep my heart flaming, courageous, restless.” [Nikos Kazantzakis]
Solidarity with anarchist fighters Kostas Sakkas and Marios Seisidis! Banner hung in the central square of the city of Karditsa as a minimum display of solidarity with Marios Seisidis and Kostas Sakkas. Strength to our comrades! Nothing is over, everything continues. The passion for freedom is stronger than all prison cells!
Solidarity means attack!
Self-managed Hangout of Karditsa
 Banner in the Athens district of Zografou which reads: “Fire to the prison cells! Strength to Sakkas and Seisidis!” (Anarchists expropriated material from the Zografou municipality for the purposes of this banner.) On August 5th 2016, Kostas Sakkas and Marios Seisidis were brought to the Athens police headquarters and subsequently to the court, where their hearing was postponed. The two comrades have now reportedly been transferred to separate prisons far away from Athens; Marios Seisidis to Malandrino prison, and Kostas Sakkas to Domokos prison. Both will stand trial in Athens on Wednesday August 17th concerning the circumstances of their arrest in Sparta.
The new issue of “Wildfire” is out now. Download PDF here.
 Summer is almost over but things are burning up in the prisons and in the streets. All around the United States, prisoners and comrades in the “free world” are gearing up for the beginning of coordinated anti-prison actions on September 9th, 2016. In just a few weeks, the Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners begins, marking with fire the state murder of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti on August 23, 1927, turning memory into active revolt for all anarchist combatants locked behind bars today.
In this issue of “Wildfire”, comrades continue the debate on reformist action that has been raging since issue 1, bring to light the presence of queer and transgender prisoners in ongoing prison rebellions, comment on recent retaliation against police, critically discuss prisoner apathy and revolt, and give a glimpse of possibilities for September 9th.
We hope that the coming months will be ones we, and our enemies, will never forget.
CONTENTS
–“Time…is Never Worth My Time” by Boots
–“Assuming the Risk of Demanding Real Social Change Requires Imagination and Daring” by Lacino Hamilton
–“Free Trans Political Prisoners” by Jennifer Gann
–“Oppression of Religion Inside” by Thomas Derring
–“Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” by Todd Shepard
–“We Hear You” by Provisionals
–“No Correction, Only Coercion” by Woody
–“The Untold Story” by Michael Kimble
–“A Message to a Message” by Anarcho-Faheem
–“Identity Crisis: Who Am I?” by Blacc Lion
–A letter from Luke O’Donovan
–“Violence is Not the Answer” by Sean Swain
–“Birth of the Free Virginia Movement” by the Free Virginia Movement Collective
–“The Parable of the Boiled Frog: The Virginia DOC’s Protracted, Low-Intensity War Against a Complacent Prisoner-Class” by Uhuru B. Rowe
–Another installment of Buckin in the BOP by anonymous
–A chronology of the past few months of anarchist action and prison rebellion
If you would like a PDF with a slightly more ‘prison-friendly’ cover, please write to: WILDFIRE — c/o The Future, PO Box 3133, Bloomington, IN 47402 (USA)
Email: wildfire [at] riseup [dot] net
On August 3rd 2016, several anarchists in the Netherlands received police visits. In The Hague, the police delivered letters containing the intentions of the mayor Jozias van Aartsen to prohibit anarchists from setting foot in the Schilderswijk neighbourhood for the coming two months.
On August 8th 2016, we threw hundreds of flyers from the tenth floor of the city hall in The Hague, reading “Stop repression against anarchists! Stop police brutality – Down with the mayor Van Aartsen!” and also distributed hundreds of leaflets outside the city hall. An hour later, we repeated this at the Hague Market in Schilderswijk. The reason for this action is the mayor’s attempt to impose an exclusion order against anarchists.
Here is the text of the leaflet, which was previously published as an article.
We will not be intimidated by the mayor, the police or anyone else. Our struggle for freedom and anarchy is uncompromising and continues unabated!
Long live anarchy!
Autonomen Den Haag
On August 1st 2016, a riot erupted at Holman prison in Alabama following an altercation where several inmates and at least one prison guard were injured. Prisoners barricaded themselves inside the C-dorm, which houses 114 inmates, setting fires and resisting the antiriot squad (CERT) that arrived to suppress the rebellion. Power and water were shut off, and the entire prison was put on lockdown. This is only the most recent in a series of riots at Holman prison. In March 2016, the warden was stabbed when he set foot in the C-dorm, and prisoners rioted repeatedly, setting fires, putting up barricades, etc.
 Below is a letter from anarchist comrade Michael Kimble, placed in segregation following the latest riot at Holman prison; received August 8th 2016 from Anarchy Live:
Continuous Rebellion
At the moment I’m writing from segregation (lockup) after being stripped, handcuffed, slapped, and placed here by the CERT (riot squad) on Monday, August 1, 2016 at approximately 11:45 pm. It’s now Wednesday and I haven’t been given my personal property (shoes/slides, soap, deodorant, clothes, toothbrush, etc.) nor have I received a 72 hour investigation notice as to why I’m being held in segregation.
I’m assuming that I’m being held for being involved in a rebellion (riot) that popped off on August 1, 2016 at around 3:06 pm. Initially there was a fight between prisoners, but escalated into a rebellion against the guards when they tried to intervene after being told numerous times that things were under control.
The guards didn’t listen and was chased out of C-dorm, which has become a space of self-governance and resistance against prison officials. Fires were set, control units taken.
I’m one of about ten prisoners who was also placed in segregation.
So, if you don’t hear from me personally, it means that all my property, including letters, addresses, phone numbers, have been destroyed or lost. I’ve had to borrow writing materials to get this out.
in Greek
 Received August 4th 2016:
Ding Dong – It’s the State
On Sunday July 10th 2016, it came for another time to house searches in Zürich and St. Gallen. This time it was 3 of these raids. The reason stated on the search warrant that had been authorized through Zürich’s prosecution was “arson, etc.”, as we came to know. In a more detailed explanation of the search warrant it became evident that it was about an alleged incendiary attack on a telecommunication antenna in Waidberg, 8037 Zürich that happened in the night between Saturday and the same Sunday.
While in Zürich the house searches were performed by cops in plain clothing and in uniform, the special forces of St. Gallen used this moment to turn it into a training session: battering ram, balaclavas and machine guns, dozens of wannabe Hollywood-cops, forcing the residents of the raided house to lay on the floor, while rifling every room from top to bottom. Beside their unsatisfying result – in all 3 cases they had to leave with unused handcuffs – they show for another time with this action what the police effectively stand for: the repressive arm of the State, equipped with all means, in order to defend it and to neutralize potential enemies. And in this category fall all those who do not accept an unfailing authority above oneself; those who do not accept to be cut off from society’s wealth, those who do not accept to be alienated, isolated and put under surveillance by technology, while day by day the illusion of unity, happiness and unlimited possibilities are being flaunted.
Should the justification of the search warrant prove itself as factual event, it is essential to defend this attack, which directed against those structures contributing to the transformation of our autonomy into radio signal irradiated slavery. Because every spreading fire needs a spark…
Article translated from the anarchist newspaper of Zürich
„Dissonanz“, n°32, July 20th 2016.
Additional note: In the context of the house searches the police were looking for a specific person, without success. Until July 29th, there was no further news of this person being arrested. We wish to the comrade a lot of strength for his path outside of the clutches of the State.
Italian & German
 In the early hours of Friday August 5th 2016, it became known that Marios Seisidis and Kostas Sakkas were arrested in the area of Sparta, Peloponnese. Following their refusal to give fingerprints and pose for mug shots, they were badly beaten by police. The captive comrades are expected to be transferred to Athens.
Anarchist complicity with Marios Seisidis and Kostas Sakkas!
 Biblioteca KAOS is threatened with eviction on August 4th 2016. The anarchist squat Utopia A.D. hung a banner and put up posters in the city of Komotini, in a minimum display of solidarity with the companheirxs in Porto Alegre.
Solidarity with the anarchist squat Biblioteca KAOS in Brazil!
Conflict is the only answer!
 Flyposting by Utopia A.D. in Komotini in solidarity with Biblioteca KAOS in Porto Alegre, that’s threatened with eviction; also ‘Fuck Nations Squat the World’ postering in solidarity with the heavily repressed squatters in Thessaloniki.
 in Portuguese & German
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