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 »
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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 »
“They restrict our free movement on the Earth’s surface by closing the borders. They restrict our free movement in the streets by steadily chasing the cops after us. And after all that we already had to suffer, they even expect us to be friendly and to negotiate with the State quietly for some crumbles? Solidarity with all the rebels!
Please circulate this callout throughout your networks. If you are currently in prison, have experienced time in prison or have a loved one in prison, we welcome your contributions to this journal! If you know somebody who might be interested in contributing, please pass this information on to them. Here is an information sheet that can be printed and mailed to prisoners, and here is a poster you are welcome to print and display in your neighbourhood, workplaces, schools and other community hubs. Details about the journal and how to send in contributions can be found at our website: Running Wild (anarchist collective) in German
Balkan Anarchist Bookfair (BAB) is an annual anarchist event organised each year in a different place on the Balkans. First BAB took place in Ljubljana in 2003. Since then, it has been taking place almost every year in different cities across the Balkans. After Ljubljana in 2003, it was organised in Zagreb (2005), Sofia (2008), Thessaloniki (2009), Zrenjanin (2010), Skopje (2011), Ljubljana (2013), Mostar (2014), Zadar (2015) and in Ioannina (2016). More informations on past bookfairs can be found here. Participation at the bookfair is open for all anti-authoritarian/anarchist groups, publishers, initiatives, places etc. (not just from the Balkans) so feel free to come and set up your stall or just visit the bookfair to participate in discussions. As always, we are open for all suggestions and ideas when it comes to discussions. Also, if you have a text or a book you find interesting and you would like to present it or organise a discussion about a similar topic, just give us a shout. The idea for such a bookfair is not new and it is based on the positive experience of other Anarchist Bookfairs. In many different situations, these bookfairs have proven to be important events and meeting places on both local and international levels. This is why we need your help – come and support this event with solidarity and participation! If you are willing to organise a benefit event for the 11th Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, we would appreciate the efforts very much! The money goes to covering tiny bookfair expenses and for helping comrades with traveling expenses. If you can’t come to the bookfair, you can consider sending some free publications, posters and other materials and we will distribute it for you. Also, you can consider sending books and other publications for sale, we will organise a stall for all of you that can’t come but would like to present your work at the bookfair.Contact us at anarhisticki.sajam.knjiga@gmail.com about details, the address to send stuff to, etc. You can download the bookfair poster from our web page. For more information visit www.ask-zagreb.org in German
On Saturday, 4th of February we gathered in order to show a gesture of solidarity. For this we made a picture with a banner, that says „Free Thun – Love R94 – Hate Cops“. The action happened relating to an event for anarchist prisoners. It was an evening of information about repression and a party to support anarchists financially, that are having trials at the moment. With the label „Feierabendsoli“ it was already the second event like this for anarchist solidarity. The event also aimed at showing that there are other forms of actions in solidarity than simply visiting a benefit party. We send strength and power of endurance to her and to all our comrades in prison! Fire to all prisons! in German We are writing to you from the threatened houseproject Rigaer 94 in one of Berlins once notorious squatting neighbourhoods. Let’s keep walking this path together, but first a short summary of the recent past and our situation. Last year saw us, the neighbourhood and people around, on the receiving end of much police repression, starting with the declaration by the state that our street and neighbourhood was a danger zone (Gefahrengebiet), giving the police extra search and detain powers and a green light for constant street harassment of anyone fitting their vision of a ‘leftist’, not white or somehow not normative person (this evolved into almost anyone being controlled, no matter how they presented). In the beginning of the year, a traffic cop was confronted on the street while trying to give out parking tickets, seven hours later, 500 or more cops were used to raid our house. (This is a more detailed text from the time.) In the summer we saw the occupation of our home and project come to an end from the combination of inspirational street actions and a court process. The solidarity in response to the past attacks on Rigaer 94 was incredibly powerful. Selforganized spaces such as Kadterschmiede in Rigaer 94 have to be defended! We want to keep fighting not just for our housing project but for all those threatened by state violence and oppression- all those fighting for living spaces, all those sitting in prisons, all those fighting for their own autonomous futures, all those who are fighting just to live. All evictions are Day X. Day X means Chaos Teilt unsere Wut!
is primarily a free place where everyone should feel safe. Because we know that safe area in this world based on exclusion and domination, is only illusion, we want to focus on topics and activities geared towards horizontally structured society. In infoshop you can find interesting booksmagazines, pamphlets, zines, etc. from various areas. Black Books is for lectures, workshops, screenings, discussions, but also for meetings with people, on the program anyone can participate. “Anarchist Infoshop” does not mean a closed space only for anarchists, but a place where diversity is welcome. What is definitely not welcome is any manifestations of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism and other forms of oppression. Let’s start by imagining the world differently. opening times: From January 23rd, Black books infoshop will open 2 times a week. in German received February 2nd 2017 No freedom of movement for WMD minions On 2nd of February, starting 06.30 AM, five anti-nuclear activists blocked the pleasantly busy morning traffic at the south gate of Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde (yes, they’re still having this monarchy thing going on) in Faslane, Scotland. South Gate is one of the two main entrances to the base and open under a certain schedule: it doesn’t take all that much to clog up their routines. Base staff did its best to direct the traffic to the North Gate, but soon enough the tailback stretched from the North Gate to a distance of over two miles: we climbed on our caravan roofs and tried to cycle down the line to see the end of the traffic jam, but no chance. “I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit! It’s a cliché, but true! The struggle against nuke weapons should be as out of fashion as other 80’s monstrosities, but now with the likes of President Trump or Prime Minister Theresa May it seems we’re headed towards a new arms race”, says activist Molly Garfield. “May has stated ‘I think we should defend our country, I think we should play our role in NATO with an independent nuclear deterrent’, so there you go. Nationalism, militarism, WMD’s. Down with all that, I say.” The lock-on crew was accompanied by three legal supporters and a photographer. The Ministry of Defence police arrived to the scene in some 20 minutes. Around here, the legal supporters are supposed to have the right to snap photos, feed bananas to protestor’s and observe that the cops at least try to behave. This time MoD’s were having a rotten day. PC 470 (they just like to be identified, don’t they?) tried to bully the photographer off by threatening to “smash that camera if you don’t stop taking photos”, while other simply pushed two observers some 20 metres away, well behind a barrier of uniforms. Not that we would’ve minded much. We were busy being amused by their continuous mishaps. At 07:00 AM, the hobby level cutting team from the base arrived, asking for the suitable camera equipment: only to find out their colleagues couldn’t find any. Next thing you knew was that they’ve managed to get a bolt cutter stuck on somebody’s lock-on, unable to continue. Thus, the traffic jam kept building up and road was nowhere close to get cleared before they managed to bring in the actual cutting team. On their arrival, the photographer was also tossed from the scene and view to locked-on activists blocked with police vehicles. By 09.20 AM all five activists were arrested and transported to the nearest cop shop. The South Gate was closed for approximately two and a half hours. The action was conducted by hippies from the nearby Faslane Peace Camp: thanks for support, one struggle! “On times when taking a stand or expressing one’s opinions gets you ridiculed, labelled as a terrorist or lectured how protesting of any sort is futile, do the bloody opposite. Faslane Peace Camp is rolling on to its 35th year, but seemingly the world leaders and arm dealers are not allowing it to retire any time soon. You could imagine that a nuke sub base would a tricky or dangerous location, but this seems more like a sitting duck for anyone up for a little direct action”, Roxy Newton, another activist, emphasises. The action is the second protest to take place within a short time. Both sparked by the revelation of the Royal Navy misfiring of a Trident II D5 ballistic missile from the HMS Vengeance last June and questions surrounding the cover-up of the test results and general madness of nuke weapons. Activists were also keen to express their solidarity with the Put Down the Sword crew who’ve ably demonstrated that for all the hyperbole espoused by polemic, self-professed Christians, the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” ethos remains the central tenet. The Faslane Peace Camp is a permanent protest camp dedicated to campaigning and protesting against nuclear weapons and related madness since 1982. The camp, located next to the HMNB Clyde, is celebrating its 35th Anniversary this year, and it’s welcoming all interested individuals to participate the fun and games available. No racism, no homophobia, no sexism: just direct action. e-mail contact: faslanepeacecamp@protonmail.com in German
War on the war of civilization.
Trans Prisoner Day of Action and Solidarity January 22nd marks the second annual global Trans Prisoner Day of Action and Solidarity. Scrutinizing glances, abomination, isolation, harassment and sexualized violence are double for trans persons in prisons, owing to the physical and emotional restraints of the literal cage that leaves them no way out. This event is organized at worldwide level by trans prisoners and their supporters. It enables those on the outside to remember those behind bars, show solidarity and increase awareness about issues faced by trans prisoners. It also enables those on the inside to raise their voice and organize together. Action Day in Solidarity with Revolutionary Struggle A global day of action in solidarity with the prisoners of Revolutionary Struggle was called for January 21st. No matter how strongly the authorities may believe that by imprisoning anarchists they can eliminate the (armed) struggle, they’re wrong. In complete complicity, whether inside or outside prison walls, we stand for a world free of domination. In doing so, we do not hope for leftist parties such as Syriza, that’s only interested in social pacification, and has yet again revealed its true face through the arrest of Pola Roupa and her son, as well as with its treatment of anarchist prisoners. Solidarity with all anarchists and other political prisoners, who’ve been kidnapped and incarcerated. On Thursday January 26th 2017 at 10pm we attacked with molotov cocktails against the MAT anti-riot forces that guard the offices of PASOK in Harilaou Trikoupi St., in Exarchia. This action is in solidarity with the hundreds of comrades arrested in Washington D.C. and across the U.S. during the combative manifestations against the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20th. Strength to the IWW member who got shot the same day by a fascist in Seattle. We stand with all those who fight relentlessly against Power. Wherever we are, using whatever means necessary, let’s attack the system of domination. Fire to the borders, cops and prisons! ![]() Stammheim In November and December of 2016, we – a group of anarchist street musicians – played concerts in front of prisons in Switzerland and Germany. We wanted to let at least some prisoners feel that they’re not forgotten. We wanted to bring down the isolation for some moments and send our messages beyond those barbed fire fences and iron bars. After all, we played 15 shows in front of 14 different prisons accompanied by benefit gigs at various places. The reactions we got from inside were – if existing at all – quite different. Sometimes, our songs were immediately answered with cheers and e.g. antifa chants while at 9 shows, we didn’t receive any direct response from the other side so we couldn’t be sure if people could hear us. But for two of these concerts, we later heard about reports from prisoners who were actually able to hear us, the acoustic of the prisons just didn’t allow reactions to find their way to the outside (one of them described the reaction from the inside as a “little uprising” as the majority of the prisoners were shouting, making noises with bars etc, leaving the wardens pretty unsettled). Always when we noticed or heard about any of these reactions, this left us quite touched and gave us some sort of confidence that what we were doing was something important and made perfect sense. It is something that can mean a lot to people and that takes only a low amount of effort. We hope this idea will spread as a form of solidarity and inspire more people to fill prisons with live music (or other noisy things) in the future – not only on New Year’s Eve. At this point, we also want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that supported us along the way. To the people that borrowed us equipment, that set up sound systems, that let us sleep on their couches, that organized benefit gigs, that gave us money, that came to the prison concerts, that broadcasted one of our shows live on the radio letting prisoners know about it in advance (how cool is that?!), that mobilized to the prison concerts in their hometown, that dealt with cops when it became necessary, that cooked for us, that helped us printing zines and mobilization material and of course a really, really big thank you to the person whose truck we could use for five weeks. You are awesome, all of you! Freedom for all prisoners!Fire to all prisons!Write letters!contact: prisontour [ät] riseup [dot] net (this won’t have been the last prison tour, that’s for sure :)) in German received via email In Leuven, Belgium, in the cold night of January 17th, 50 parking meters were covered in paint and the locks of multiple banks were glued. On one of the banks (and in other places of the city) the text was sprayed: “Solidarity with the accused in Aachen! (A)”. A small deed of resistance.. to show that the accused are not alone. Against the banks and their world!
Faced with an apparatus of repression that is developing ever more suffocating forms within a context of on-going technocratic and scientific mania, it is easy to fall into a state of inertia. The aim of this repression, achieved through permanent technological armament, the development of research and studies in the field of DNA and video analysis, and the accumulation and evaluation of data of any sort, is to impose itself on us as undefeatable and inevitable. We are led to believe it is impossible to avoid the total surveillance, acquisition, and storage of data. To counter and overcome this fallacy of total control, we must approach the situations in which we struggle with continued analysis and reflection. We have to seek and share ways to meet these developments on battlegrounds of attack, solidarity and self-organization. We are facing questions that have already been the focus of anarchist analysis for a long time and which haven’t lost (and probably never will lose) their relevance – questions concerning expropriation, repression and solidarity. On Saturday, 11th of February 2017 at 7pm, we invite you to come to Infoladen Aachen in Bismarcksraße 37. We would like to share experiences and thoughts with each other regarding the questions raised above, questions that have been brought into focus by the recent repressive blows against anarchist comrades who are accused of bank robberies in Aachen and who are currently facing trial. More info about the cases and solidarity initiatives: On Thursday night January 12th 2017 we smashed and burned an ATM of Piraeus Bank in Canningos Square. Also this year, our gifts to the status quo are hammerings and flames. We don’t forget those who are in prison cells. in Spanish ![]() (flyer from the demo:) “Alerta antipatriota / We do not forget Shahzad Luqman / The only language I’ve learned well: to fight with rage for freedom / Neither natives nor foreigners; fatherlandless & rebels” On Saturday evening, January 14th 2017, some fifty people participated in the demonstration on the streets of Exarhia called by the anarchist squat Themistokleous 58 on the occasion of completion of one year of the project. The demonstration’s banner read “Resistance, Revolt, Freedom” in English and Farsi, and another banner was dropped from the squat in memory of Shahzad Luqman, murdered by Nazis in Ano Petralona in January 2013: “We do not forget Shahzad Luqman – Bash the fash.” During the action, we handed out leaflets in Greek and English, threw flyers, and shouted many slogans in Farsi, Arabic, English, French and Greek. We thank all those who attended the demonstration in Exarchia. We also send solidarity greetings to individuals, groups and communities inside and outside walls and borders that continue to fight by all available means against Power. We remind that on Saturday evening, January 21st, we’re having a solidarity party at the 58 to support our project financially. Proceeds will cover operational needs of the squat and future actions. in German, Italian, Portuguese “I am a revolutionary, and I have nothing to apologize for. Terrorists, criminals, robbers are those who compose the economic and political life; the institutions and governments that, through the memoranda, are waging the most violent, the most heinous attack on the social base in the name of a “way out of the crisis.” Terrorist, criminal, robber is the State and Capital; those whom I fight committed with all my soul to armed struggle, to Revolutionary Struggle; those whom my organization has targeted all these years of our activity. (…) when the economic and political establishment attacks the social majority in the most merciless way, armed struggle for social revolution is a duty and obligation; because that’s where hope lies and nowhere else. The only hope for a definitive way out of the systemic crisis we are living in this historical period, for a definitive way out of every crisis. It is the only hope towards overturning capitalism, the system that gives birth to crises; the only hope towards overturning the State and Capital. It is the only hope for an armed counterattack of the social base against a system that crushes them. It is the only hope towards overthrowing the State and Capital; for Social Revolution. For a society of economic equality and political freedom for all.” “I am an anarchist, member of the armed revolutionary organization Revolutionary Struggle. The only terrorists are the State and the Capital.” Demonstration in solidarity with Revolutionary Struggle members Saturday January 21st 2017 at 12:00 in Monastiraki (downtown Athens) SOLIDARITY WITH THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE MEMBERS NO EXEMPTION STATUS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE AND CAPITAL BY ANY MEANS –Solidarity Assembly (Athens) Full text of callout in Greek in German, Italian, Portuguese via SeanSwain.org (January 12th 2017)
Although details are still murky, we know that Sean has been without food since December 26th 2016. He was charged with extortion of a deputy warden and had begun a disciplinary process when he began his hunger strike and was placed in a suicide cell. We know that the prison is recognizing his hunger strike and following the associated procedures, which include taking him to the medical unit every day and weighing him and taking his vital signs. It is unclear whether they are attempting to negotiate with him in any way. Please take a moment to write a letter of encouragement to Sean: Sean Swain #243-205 in Greek, German, Italian, French, Portuguese On the night of the 5th of january I paid a visit to the hambach open cast browncoal mine close to Aachen. My goal was to destroy the railroad tracks with a load of thermite i stole from an other industrial company. Thermite burns around 2500 degrees celcius and the steel of the tracks melts around 1500 degrees celcius so the thermite does a lot of damage when ignited properly. I chose the location so it would hurt them most, at the part whare the train can switch to the other track since this part is one of a kind and they have to make a new one on site. When i got there i setted everything up after checking the target and my escape root, the termite i put in 2 plantpots with hole in the bottom to guide the molten mixture to the right place. The stuff is easy to ignite with sparklers which you can get anywhere around newyears but to be sure it all goes up i put around 20 in each spot. I placed the devices and set it ablaze, just in the moment i lighted the 2nd one i saw the hadlichts of an train comming my way. I had plenty of time to get some space between me and the molten mixture and watch the train driving into one of the pots. The tracks and front weel was covered in the burning thermite and making a repetetive noise of the wheels hitting the damaged spot. After one last look at this spectacle i got my ass out of there. Greetings,
On January 10th 2017, Themistokleous 58 Squat in Exarchia completed one year of activity. During this year our squat took a series of initiatives towards intensifying social war, and participated in numerous actions in support of projects and individuals targeted by repression of all authority. We have put forward internationalist anarchic solidarity between rebels, believing that it can only be a reciprocal relationship aimed at building up affinity and complicity against the State, Capital and domination, and we continue to do so by factually tearing down phony divisions based on origin, language, gender, sexual orientation and religious or irreligious background of anyone in any way associated with our project. We have stood up against the diffuse patriotism and racism (both overt and covert), and refused to discriminate against those who migrate on the basis of the status attributed to them by the authorities (refugees vs. non-refugees). We have sought to interlace the struggle against the control and repression of migration with a comprehensive, practical critique against the complex of domination, which is fragmenting and isolating any liberatory attempts to weaken and suppress them more easily. We have shielded the anti-institutional character of our project by all means necessary, keeping the squat and its activities free from the presence and influence of NGOs, media and any intermediary. We have defended our political autonomy without altering the fundamental characteristics of our combative community. At the same time, we chose to meet with others on paths of multiracial clashes, working together whenever and wherever we considered that the respective political and organizational framework corresponded with our goals. Themistokleous 58 Squat is both an anarchic political project and a housing space for people with or without papers. It is a subversive laboratory of theory and praxis, but also a place where individuals live and struggle together on the basis of self-organization, equal participation, horizontality, mutual aid and direct action. After one year of operation of the project, the experiences gained (both positive and negative) during the experiment of the 58 are a legacy of struggle valuable to us for the battles to come. We invite everyone to join us on Saturday January 14th at 21:00 outside the 58 for a demonstration on the streets of Exarchia. We do not forget Shahzad Luqman, a migrant from Pakistan who was murdered by neo-Nazi scum in the Athens neighborhood of Ano Petralona in January 2013. We do not forget the thousands of migrants who were beaten, imprisoned, deported or assassinated by the world of states and their borders. To support the project financially, join us on Saturday January 21st from 21:00 for a solidarity party at the 58; with live music performances by REZA ASKI (voice/guitar, from Iran) and SIMO (rap, from Morocco), DJ sets, food and drinks. BLAST AND FIRE TO THE BORDERS AND ALL PRISON CELLS NEITHER NATIVES NOR FOREIGNERS; FATHERLANDLESS AND REBELS Themistokleous 58 Squat PDF in Greek & English | Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German ![]() Banner hung by the anarchist squat Utopia A.D. in Komotini, northern Greece: “Six-year-old captive; the hatred is growing; cops–judges–media filth, murderers” Today, Sunday January 8th 2017, after a new prosecutor’s order, temporary custody of Lambros-Viktoras Maziotis Roupas was given to the grandmother on his mother’s side, so his captivity in the psychiatric unit(!) of the children’s hospital in Athens was finally terminated. The six-year-old child left the hospital escorted by his first-degree relatives. Meanwhile, there were protests by inmates at Koridallos men’s and women’s prisons, Elaionas women’s prison in Thebes, and Trikala prison. Revolutionary Struggle members Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa and Kostantina Athanasopoulou have interrupted their thirst and hunger strike. A court will decide on the final custody of the child within six months. in Italian
After being forcibly removed from his mother, Lambros-Viktoras Maziotis Roupas—the small son of Revolutionary Struggle members Nikos Maziotis and Pola Roupa—is being held captive inside a children’s hospital guarded by cops(!), without any access to visitations by his close relatives or even the legal representative of his parents. The Greek authorities, and in particular the public prosecutor for minors Mrs. Nikolou, still refuse to entrust the child to first-degree relatives of Pola Roupa. In response to this, three Revolutionary Struggle members—the anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis, the recaptured comrade Pola Roupa and the newly arrested Konstantina Athanasopoulou—have undergone hunger and thirst strike since January 5th, demanding that the six-year-old be immediately placed with his aunt and grandmother (relatives on his mother’s side). In an open letter Nikos Maziotis stated, among others, that: “Our son is the child of two revolutionaries, and he’s proud of his parents. We will not succumb to any blackmail. We defend our choices with our very life”. On January 6th, during the women’s transfer to Evelpidon courts, Pola shouted: “The worms are holding my kid captive at Paidon (children’s hospital in Athens), guarded by armed cops; at the age of six, he is a prisoner of war” and: “Long live the Revolution!”. Furthermore, Pola stated: “I am a revolutionary, and I have nothing to apologize for.” Below is Konstantina’s statement: “I am an anarchist, member of the armed revolutionary organization Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas). The only terrorists are the State and the Capital. I refuse to eat and drink anything until the child of my comrades Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis is delivered to relatives of theirs. On the inside, anarchist prisoners and other inmates at different wings of Koridallos male and female prisons have mounted a joint protest by refusing lock-up, to claim an end to the captivity of Lambros-Viktoras in solidarity with the Revolutionary Struggle prisoners currently on hunger and thirst strike. On the outside, comrades in various cities throughout Greece have carried out diverse actions in immediate support of the anarchist revolutionaries, demanding that the first-degree relatives of Pola Roupa be granted immediate visitation and custody of the underage child. Strength to Konstantina Athanasopoulou, Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, proud members of Revolutionary Struggle. Revolutionary Struggle will neither lay down arms nor surrender to the enemies of freedom. in German | Italian | Portuguese
Every religion is our enemy. It sustains the status quo, pacifying the society with norms that later become laws. It bases its power on believers’ hopes of a future afterlife, stifling any desire for insurgency today, in the here and now. It justifies war based on cultural differences that religion itself has created. This is also the role of the church in Greece’s contemporary reality, and beyond. Its all-powerful political role is exercised by its fascist, patriotic, xenophobic rhetoric, always in tandem and direct relation with politicians, cops, judges and journalists. At the same time it is well-known that the church is constantly trying to expand its economic hegemony and immeasurable wealth, which rests on the possession of huge tracts of land, buildings, etc. With a view to obtaining profits by means of speculation, it sets up a charitable façade which has nothing to do with reality. Finally, it has a huge social and cultural influence, being a pillar of the patriarchal system. It promotes (both externally and internally) heteronormativity, homophobia, and rape culture in its entirety. Its position on the place of women, sexuality or abortion is indicative of its stance on many such issues. Solidarity with anarchists held captive in prisons. |
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