Posts Tagged ‘Catalunya’
Barcelona: Another comrade detained and extradited for the case of bank expropriations in Aachen (Catalunya)
Saturday, August 20th, 2016
Tuesday, June 21 at dawn, the Mossos d’Esquadra Corps [Catalan Police] kicked down the door of the house of an anarchist comrade of Barcelona, where he lived with his companion and other housemates. All were awakened by guns pointed on them and were handcuffed for hours while police raided and devastated the home, located in the neighbourhood del Eixample.
Eventually, the comrade was arrested and transferred to Madrid, where the National Court ordered his detention on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the prosecutor of Aachen, accusing him of having participated in the expropriation of a branch of Pax Bank that took place in November 2014.
It is for this same action that the comrade arrested on April 13 in Carmel is also in prison. In this case, however, the police decided not to use the staging and media spectacle it had used during the April operation, not issuing any press release and not notifying the media of the operation.
According to what we have been able to find out, the arrest warrant is based on the supposed coincidence between a trace of genetic material found in the Pax Bank in Aachen and a DNA sample that Mossos had taken from the comrade, simulating a BAC control for alcohol. During this false control, the police got him to blow into a breathalyzer and kept the plastic tip to extract the genetic profile of the comrade from the remaining saliva. (more…)
Tags: Aachen, Bank Robbery, Barcelona, Catalunya, Germany, Repression
Posted in Prison Struggle
Words in solidarity with the comrade arrested in Barcelona (Catalunya)
Monday, June 27th, 2016
Every heart is a time bomb
On 13th April 2016 the Mossos d’Esquadra in collaboration with the German police raided three places, two of which were private homes and one was the squat Blokes Fantasma.
The repressive operation concluded with the arrest of our comrade, for whom there was a European arrest warrant after Germany accused her of participating in a bank expropriation in the country in 2014.
The comrade has been held in solitary confinement in the prison of Soto del Real (Madrid) since 14th April and has expressed her opposition to being extradited; but judge Angela Murillo of the fourth section of the Audiencia Nacional gave in (as usual) to the request of the German state and on 26th May she ordered our comrade to be extradited within 10 days, after which she’ll be put in a maximum security prison.
The prosecutor in Aachen (Germany) is the same one that issued a European arrest warrant on 24th June 2015 against a Dutch anarchist comrade, who was arrested on the Greek-Bulgarian border and imprisoned for two months.
She was then extradited to Cologne, where she spent 4 months in jail, also charged with expropriating a German bank in 2013. She was released on bail on 16th December 2015 and is awaiting trial. (more…)
Tags: Aachen, Bank Robbery, Barcelona, Catalunya, Germany, Madrid, Repression, Soto del Real, Spain
Posted in Prison Struggle
Communique about the latest repressive operation in Barcelona and in solidarity with the comrade imprisoned in the prison of Soto del Real (Catalunya & Spain)
Monday, April 18th, 2016
On Wednesday April 13 at 5am an operation of the Mossos d’Esquadra [Catalan Police] began in which two private homes and a squat in the neighbourhood of La Salut, the “Blokes Fantasma” were raided and the twenty or so people living in the building were detained for twelve hours.
In addition to the looting and destruction that accompanies any police search, the operation resulted in the arrest of a comrade who had already been imprisoned within the framework of the Pandora Operation, and for whom since 11 April there was a European arrest warrant on charges of participation in bank expropriations in Germany.
After her transfer to the Spanish National Court, judge Eloy Velasco ordered preventive detention for our comrade, who has been transferred to the prison of Soto del Real.
As she is also charged in the Pandora trial (currently under instruction) and that she herself has expressed her desire not be extradited, our defence has called for a “conditioning” of the European extradition order, claiming that she be held in custody in the Spanish State until the trial pending here is held. Within a maximum period of 2 months (extendable for another month), the High Court would have to decide whether the handing over of our comrade to the German authorities can be temporarily suspended or not. From the German press we learned that she has been linked to an expropriation that occurred two years ago in the town of Aachen, during which, again according to the press, the assailant group took a significant amount of money from the bank without causing any injuries or personal damage. (more…)
Tags: Bank Robbery, Barcelona, Catalunya, Operation Pandora, Repression, Soto del Real, Spain
Posted in Social Control
Acerca de los Grupos de Ayuda Mutua promovidos por la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain)
Monday, March 14th, 2016
Durante el año 2015 la Generalitat de Catalunya, a través de su consejería de salud, impulsó un proyecto con el nombre de ‘Activa’t’. Este proyecto como informa la nota de prensa del gobierno catalán trata de convertir a los familiares de personas con trastornos mentales en ‘agentes activos’ en el proceso de atención y recuperación de la ‘enfermedad’. Se trataría de ‘poner a disposición un circuito estructurado que permita el acceso a la información, formación y fomento del empoderamiento, así como el apoyo continuado con acciones coordinadas entre los recursos ya existentes de las diferentes redes que intervienen en la atención a la personas’. Un objetivo muy loable, pero sobre el que queremos reflexionar algunos aspectos que consideramos problemáticos.
En primer lugar, se trata de un proyecto que lanzan las instituciones políticas en un momento en el que los recortes sanitarios se han afianzado en nuestro sistema de salud. Desde 2008 hasta el 2015 se ha invertido mucho menos en materia de salud y eso se ha hecho notar en los recursos disponibles, tanto en lo que se refiere a camas hospitalarias o unidades de atención, como de ratio de profesionales por habitantes. (more…)
Tags: Anti-Psychiatry, Catalunya, Spain
Posted in Cognitive Liberty
Barcelona: ATMs and security companies damaged and set on fire by Individualities for the Diffusion of Chaos – FAI / FRI in solidarity with anarchist prisoners (Catalunya)
Tuesday, December 8th, 2015
Barcelona, Spanish State: The attack continues in the face of the blows inflicted by power
After the recent police operations against anarchist milieus, so much has been written and said; statements and opinions mainly denounce or ‘condemn’ the repression inflicted by the authorities. After the latest repressive operation and the reactions that followed, we reckon we should give our point of view.
Starting from the fact that the ongoing repression is the State’s logical response to those who consider themselves (or the State considers) its enemies, we don’t understand certain communiqués full of victimization, where in practice (and with the most appropriate words, of course) they beg the State to stop unleashing its cops ‘indiscriminately’ against anarchists. And they say that repression is unjustifiable, and of course they use and abuse the word ‘frame-up’, and say we do nothing wrong, and that they attack us because we ‘think in a different way’… They try to give a picture of ‘normality’ and endeavour with all means to make this picture clean and socially acceptable. They do their best to take distance from violent words and actions; and as they become entrapped in the game of power and use the latter’s language, they make distinctions between ‘good’ anarchists and ‘bad’ ones, thus promoting criminalization from within their ranks.
At this point some of these ‘anarchists’ don’t feel ashamed at giving pitiful interviews to the media, and what is worse they pose as spokespersons of the ‘anarchist movement’ (and then of all social movements); these would-be politicians and leaders of the masses try their best to alienate anarchism from its subversive and conflictual character, and present anarchism as a simple movement of activists, deprived of any words or actions that clash against power and the established order.
Then there are those who just talk of how terrible repression is, how all comrades are under strict surveillance, and one can’t do anything; this kind of attitudes only spread collective panic and paranoia, and these are the attitudes of those who hide their inactivity behind the pretext of ever present repression, surveillance, ‘I’m being strictly watched’, etc. Anyone who is reluctant to take responsibility can be so according to their personal decisions; but to hide oneself behind uncontrolled and often groundless fear and to spread discouraging feelings wherever one goes, is dangerous and counter-productive. This doesn’t mean that there are the ‘brave’ ones and the ‘cowardly’ ones; it’s perfectly normal to fear police checks, prison, beatings, torture and murders committed by cops and jailers…
But spreading fear leads to panic and paranoia, and in turn this leads to discouraging speeches calling for inaction, maintaining that ‘to behave’ is better for both oneself and other comrades so as not to be the objects of police investigations.
To conclude this topic it must be said that even if the State has shown us nothing more than the tip of the iceberg, this is nothing compared to what could happen; in fact it’s sufficient to look at repression currently occurring in other areas of the world (and not even that far) or in the Spanish State itself a few decades ago. It should be clear that as we stand as anarchists we live with the risk and possibility to be hit by the machine of repression, also at the margins of our practices, because, as we’ve seen, there are times when the same repressive machine tries to stir fear among the enemies and strikes everyone rather than inflict targeted blows; as a consequence anyone of us can be a target.
However, in spite of the deployment of police operations, arrests and slanders that have been carried out (and in spite of what has to come yet), power knows that there will always be individuals who cannot be controlled or frightened, no matter what, our desire to destroy everything that oppresses us cannot be put off. We are glad to see how in spite of everything, they didn’t manage to stop the attack on the existent; every day there are some who still don’t give in to fear and social submission and go on constant attack. Multiform anarchist action keeps on spreading through many neighbourhoods, cities and countries in the form of publications and militant texts, posters, graffiti, banners, sabotage, fires and explosions, roads blocked with barricades, clashes, attacks on the buildings of power and disorders during demonstrations…
Although the Spanish state prefers not to make claims known so that actions are silenced, we know for certain what’s happening, with more or less frequency. The violence of the minority will continue, and we talk about violence openly and without troubles because we are convinced that power won’t fall by itself, nor will any Messiah come from heaven with a solution.
We don’t use words such as ‘self-defence’ or ‘counter-violence’; nor do we talk of anarchist violence only in a context of mass uprising when it’s more acceptable. We’ve found out that in spite of everything, insurrectional practices and attacks are still possible; police can’t be everywhere, they don’t spy on us all or control us all, some common sense, good planning and good will are more than enough to prove that the picture of a controlled and pre-arranged world is just an illusion; it’s up to us to break this illusion of tranquility.
For in the face of the blows of power and the misery of some ‘anarchists’ who only care to give an image of good innocent boys to society in order to be safe, we arm our desires and passions, and go on the attack. To the masses and their inactivity we offer our aggressiveness, we expect nothing and throw ourselves into constant anarchist revolt.
We are the rebels who have decided to carry on and run the risk, and dare live anarchy here and now.
Words without action are dead words to us, so we take the occasion of this communiqué to claim the following actions carried out in several neighbourhoods in Barcelona: the fire on vehicles of security companies, private ones as well as State-owned ones; attacks on bank branches through damages to windows and ATMs caused by hammers, stones, paint and fire; fire and destruction of urban structures.
With this communiqué we want to give our warm greetings to our prisoners, especially Monica and Francisco, who have been in pre-trial detention for over two years always with their heads held high; to comrades Nicola and Alfredo, the comrades of the CCF and the comrades imprisoned in Chile; and we want to remember our fallen ones and greet those who day by day continue to bet on constant conflict and anarchist insurrection, and make anarchy be once again a threat.
For a Black December everywhere!
For the black international of the anarchists of action!
For the spreading of chaos and Anarchy!
Nothing ends, the war continues…
Individualities for the Diffusion of Chaos – FAI / FRI
–
via: croceneranarchica
Translated by act for freedom now
Tags: Alfredo Cospito, Arson, ATM Burned, Barcelona, Black December, Catalunya, Chile, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire : Imprisoned Members Cell, Francisco Solar, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, International Solidarity, Monica Caballero, Nicola Gai, Sabotage, Spain
Posted in Direct Action
Minneapolis: Solidarity rally for arrested anarchists in Spain (USA)
Monday, November 9th, 2015
Updated: Here’s the reportback.
Almost a year ago, the Spanish State began a campaign of repression against anarchists, arresting dozens, including nine in late October, and five more in November of this year. Their imprisonment is justified with the invention of a fictional terrorist group, the GAC-FAI-IRF. No attack has ever been claimed with this set of acronyms, and the GAC (Coordinated Anarchist Groups) are only the authors of a recent book, Contra la Democracia (eerily similar to the Tarnac Affair and The Coming Insurrection in France, 2008).
On Saturday we will rally in solidarity with those arrested, at 6:00pm at the corner of E Lake St & Minnehaha Ave in Minneapolis.
More info here: Efecto Pandora & Conflict MN.
Tags: Catalunya, Demo, GAC (coordinated anarchist groups), International Solidarity, Minneapolis, Spain, USA
Posted in Social Control
Solidarity posters for the arrested anarchist comrades (Spain, Catalunya)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2015
Some anarchist individuals take the initiative to get these posters out in solidarity with our arrested comrades in the latest blow, Pandora II, and Monica and Francis, whom the Spanish government has extended the detention for another two years. The idea was to get them out in different languages so that solidarity will spread across borders. The posters are ready to download and print. Let’s cover your walls with our solidarity!
If they search for us door to door, we will resist them shoulder to shoulder!
Neither innocent nor guilty, just anarchists!
Tags: Catalunya, Flyposters, Francisco Solar, Monica Caballero, Operation Pandora, Repression, Spain
Posted in Social Control
Statement from the 9 anarchist comrades released from detention (Spain, Catalunya)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2015
via Publicacion Refractario & Insurrection News:
On Wednesday October 28 nine of us were arrested in connection with a new anti-terrorist operation orchestrated by the Catalan Regional Police in collusion with court number 3 of the Spanish National Court. After the ransacking and looting of our homes and the Libertarian Ateneo de Sants (an anarchist social center in Sants) we were taken to different police stations on the outskirts of Barcelona. The next day we were delivered to the Civil Guard and transferred to Madrid. On Friday at noon we were brought before Judge Juan Pablo Gonzalez. The judge ordered two of us to be released with charges, 6 of us to be bailed upon payment of a bail surety and unconditional imprisonment for our comrade who is currently locked up in Soto del Real prison.
We the detainees who at present are back on the street wish to make a series of reflections and political positions:
The generic accusation against all 9 of us is “belonging to a criminal organization with terrorist aims.” Specifically we are charged with being part of ‘GAC-FAI-IRF,’ which as we all know is a concept that has been constructed by the police. A set of acronyms which they have quite calculatedly mixed together – the coordination of anarchist collectives (GAC) along with the ‘signature’ used internationally by some groups to claim acts of sabotage (FAI–IRF).
The construction of this organizational framework gives the police all of the repressive
resources that the anti-terrorism laws provide: closed courts, greater legal uncertainty, much tougher sentences for comrades convicted of carrying out certain actions, isolation, special prison regimes, the criminalization of personal friendships / partners and relatives, amplified media coverage and social stigmatization etc. It is enough to say that during the whole process of our detention – from the moment we saw our homes being invaded and looted right up until we were brought before the judge – we did not even know what we were being accused of. (more…)
Tags: Catalunya, Enrique Costoya Allegue, GAC (coordinated anarchist groups), Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, Mossos d'Escuadra, Operation Pandora, Repression, Spain
Posted in Social Control
Comrades arrested accused of terrorism (Catalunya)
Thursday, October 29th, 2015
Update: 8 released on bail.
10 comrades arrested in Barcelona and Manreza (Cataluña, Spain) accused of membership of GAC (anarchist coordinated groups). At the moment the information comes from state media.
[Urgente] Compañeros detenidos en Barcelona y Manresa con acusaciones de terrorismo.
Desde las seis de la mañana los Gossos* d’Esquadra (policía autonómica
catalana), bajo órdenes de la Audiencia Nacional, registran locales y
viviendas de compañeros/as anarquistas en Barcelona (barrios de Gracia,
Sant Andreu y Sants) y en Manresa. Según los medios de intoxicación de
masas, los arrestos son la continuación de la “operación pandora” contra
lo que la policía y los jueces creen que son los GAC (Grupos anarquistas
Coordinados), a quienes acusan de ser los responsables de los ataques
reivindicados por grupos anarquistas durante los años 2012 y 2013
(habría que recordar que según la Fiscalía General del Estado desde el
año pasado el anarcoterrorismo ya no tiene capacidad para atentar).
Según la prensa del patrón, hay ya 9 o 10 detenidos/as, y otros tantos
registros, entre ellos, el del Ateneo Libertario de Sants.
Seguiremos informando.
¡El Estado es el único terrorista!
¡Libertad anarquistas detenidos!
* Juego de palabras: Gosso en catalán es perro. El cuerpo policial se
llama Mossos d’Esquadra.
Tags: Catalunya, GAC (coordinated anarchist groups), Raids, Repression
Posted in Social Control
Barcelona: Solidarity demo with anarchists persecuted by the State – 13 June 2015 – Operation Pandora/Piñata (Catalunya)
Sunday, June 21st, 2015
An “anti-repression” demonstration brought together nearly 500 people this Saturday, June 13, 2015 in Barcelona under the slogan “if they attack us for our struggles, we will respond with struggle,” it was called in solidarity with incarcerated and persecuted comrades following operations ‘Piñata’ (two are still detained, three others released under judicial control) and ‘Pandora’ and more generally against the repression of squats, and those who struggle against the state and this society.
(more…)
Tags: Barcelona, Catalunya, Demo, Operation Pandora, Operation Piñata, Repression
Posted in Direct Action
Three of the five anarchist prisoners of Operación Piñata released + 13 June day of solidarity demo in Barcelona (Catalunya, Spain)
Saturday, June 6th, 2015
On June 1 we got the great news that three of the five comrades being held in preventive detention, accused of being part of a terrorist group under Operation Piñata (including one who was already arrested and imprisoned in Operation Pandora) are being released without bail. They still have all their charges and have to sign in frequently at court, and two of them are prohibited from leaving the country.
Operation Pandora was launched in December in Catalunya, and Operation Piñata on March 30 all across the Spanish state but focused in Madrid. The operations resulted in the arrests of 26 anarchist comrades (plus the arrests of over a dozen more for resisting the raid on a social center) on anti-terrorism charges, the raids of dozens of houses and social centers, the theft of cash, and the seizure of computers, harddrives, phones, etc.
(more…)
Tags: Barcelona, Catalunya, Demo, GAC (coordinated anarchist groups), Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, International Solidarity, Operation Pandora, Operation Piñata, Repression, Spain
Posted in Social Control
Brighton: Demo – Sunday 12 April in solidarity with anarchists in Spain & Catalunya – 'Operación Piñata' (UK)
Saturday, April 11th, 2015
**NB: There is a demonstration organised for Brighton at the Clock-Tower on Sunday 12th at 6pm**
Last Monday (April 30th) there was a new repressive strike against the anarchist movement in Spain. Thirty-eight people were arrested in a police operation under the name ‘Operación Piñata‘. Fifteen of them are facing charges of terrorism and five are in preventive imprisonment. The raids were carried out on private homes, social centres and squatted spaces in Madrid, Barcelona, Palencia and Granada.
These police raids were carried out in a very open way, trying to create the maximum social alarm. The media have published the names of the people arrested and the groups they are involved in, presenting the fake police accusations as fact. They talk about ‘anarchist terrorism’ and organisations with leaders, hierarchical infrastructures and various ‘capitation’ methods the arrested allegedly use to ‘fund’ their ‘illegal’ activities.
These raids are a continuation of police operation ‘Operación Pandora‘, which took place last December within the context of the increasingly repressive politics employed by the Spanish government. (more…)
Tags: ABC Brighton, Brighton, Catalunya, Demo, International Solidarity, Operation Pandora, Operation Piñata, Spain, UK
Posted in Direct Action
Barcelona/Granada/Madrid/Palencia: Operation Piñata raids (Spain & Catalunya)
Monday, March 30th, 2015
Via squat.net:
This morning in Operation Piñata (following Pandora in December) cops have raided social centres and arrested people (at least 26) in Barcelona, Madrid, Palencia and Granada.
La 13-14 in Madrid announced it was being raided this morning.
CSOA La Redonda in Granada released a communique condemning the raids, which they said occurred without a warrant.
Centro Social (re)Okupado La Quimera in Lavapies, Madrid was evicted. It also stated no warrant was shown after its doors were smashed at 06:30 and added:
“This is just another attack on the anarchist movement with intent to criminalize and victimize our struggle.”
Other raided social centres were la Magdalena and La Enredadera de Tetuán.
In solidarity!
On squat.net:
Estado español: Zarpazo represivo, al menos 26 detenciones. Desalojan el CSOA La Quimera
La policia espanyola deté 27 persones en una operació contra col·lectius anarquistes
Tags: Barcelona, Catalunya, Granada, Madrid, Operation Pandora, Operation Piñata, Palencia, Raids, Repression, Spain, Squatting
Posted in Social Control
Sabotage in solidarity with those implicated in Operation Pandora (Catalonia)
Saturday, February 7th, 2015
In the morning of Friday 30th January, just after the secrecy of the investigation was lifted and the news disseminated of the impending conditional bailing of comrades, we decided to express our solidarity in the streets. We sabotaged the cashpoints and the windows of the following Santander Bank offices:
In Mataró, the branches in the streets of Camí del Mig, Plaza de Granollers, Plaza Santa Anna, Carrer Sant Cugat, Avenida de América, Via Europa. We also sabotaged the branches of the same bank in El Masnou, Vilassar de Mar and Premià de Mar.
We chose the bank Santander because it is the only entity responsible for managing the cash flow in prisons of the Spanish State, generating around 100 million euros per year, according to official figures. Speculating and turning a profit on the basis of this important amount of money, the fruit of suffering and incarceration of thousands of people.
We celebrate the fact that our comrades are again on the outside, but even so, we are well aware that we still have a long and difficult path ahead, and that as long as resistance exists against the domination of the capitalist system, the state and it’s repressive mechanisms will try to put an end to it.
That the flame of solidarity isn’t put out.
Freedom for Mónica and Francisco!
– ContraInfo
Tags: ATM, Catalunya, El Masnou, Francisco Solar, Mataro, Monica Caballero, Operation Pandora, Premià de Mar, Sabotage, Santander Bank, Solidarity Action, Vilassar de Mar
Posted in Direct Action
Why attack democracy? (“Coordinated Anarchist Groups”, GAC)
Thursday, January 1st, 2015
Democracy justifies itself by principles which, though they are repeated a thousand times, do not become true, but have become so internalised that even its opponents believe in them. The popular idea of the goodness of this regime has become so ingrained and immobile that change appears impossible, no one now proposes any other forms of organisation, or even other forms of living.
To us the daughters of democracy, they have told us that this is the best of all regimes, our parents and grandparents lived under a system where coercion and repression were more direct, and now that things are gentler, we are obliged from birth to accept it. How is it that we are becoming a generation more impoverished than those before, without going through a war? Because of a situation that is imposed by this system as inevitable.
The free association in which democracy is said to be based is nothing of the sort, because from birth we are obliged to belong to this regime without being allowed to choose other forms of life. We do not associate freely within educational institutions because other ways of learning are made illegal, we do not associate freely within work because we do not control what we produce, nor the time clock, nor do we have the capacity to organise ourselves together with companions.
Universal suffrage, a concept that throughout history has been praised as a victory for increasingly greater parts of the population, puts itself in question. They have always told us that the vote is free when in reality it is a limited choice, because consciousness is not free, it is subject to the propaganda of the regime and the culture defended by the groups in power. It also denies freedom by reducing it to no more than giving an opinion, “yes” or “no” or on what party is going to govern, denying us the possibility to develop other proposals for living together. And because it is anonymous, is there no freedom of expression?
In democracy we give up our interests, the satisfaction of our needs and the organisation of human relations and of life, into the hands of others. By means of the vote we supposedly choose those who can better represent our interests, but here we collide with reality: the political parties defend their own interests in accordance with the rules they themselves have established, they seek to accumulate levels of economic and political power in order to maintain their domination and influence on the rest of society. (more…)
Tags: Catalunya, GAC (coordinated anarchist groups), Madrid, Operation Pandora, Repression, Spain, Why attack democracy?
Posted in Library