Posts Tagged ‘Letter’
Operation Scripta Manent – Statement to the court by Alfredo Cospito (Italy)
Sunday, November 26th, 2017
Corrected version received from Anarhija (27/11/2017)
Benevento 14 August 1878 – Turin 16 November 2017
The Trial Against Malefactors[1]
“The Union of Egoists is your instrument, it is the sword with which you increase your natural strength; the Union exists thanks to you. Society, on the other hand, demands much from you and it exists without you; in short, society is sacred, Union is yours; society uses you, the Union–you use it “ – Stirner
“Gentlemen, the time of life is short … if we live, we live to tread on kings” – Shakespeare, Henry IV
“I work for every crime I have committed in my life, I’m afraid of every desire I have not satisfied in my life” – Senna Hoy
I want to be as clear as possible, my words sound like an admission of guilt. As far as it is possible to belong to an instrument, to a technique, I claim with pride my affiliation with FAI-FRI. With pride I recognize it throughout its history. I belong in full and my contribution is signed by the “Olga Cell”. If this farce was limited to me and Nicola I would be silent today. But you have involved a significant part of all those who have shown solidarity in these years, among them my dearest friends.
At this point I cannot refrain from telling my own story, by silence I would be complicit with the attempt by you to strike at an important part of the anarchist movement. Comrades dragged behind bars and tried not for what they did but for what they are: anarchists. Processed and arrested not for having claimed, like I did, an action with the acronym FAI-FRI, but for having participated in assemblies, written in newspapers and blogs even more simply giving solidarity to their comrades during a trial. I will not take shelter behind these comrades.
(more…)
Tags: Alfredo Cospito, Analysis, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, Italy, Letter, Nicola Gai, Nucleo Olga FAI/FRI, Operation Scripta Manent, Roberto Adinolfi
Posted in Prison Struggle
‘Ready or Not…’ by anarchist hostage Alfredo Cospito (Italy)
Thursday, November 23rd, 2017
In these three years I was faced with choices which led me by the hand through a path fraught with crossroads and bifurcations.
Like on a minefield, I had to decide carefully where to step, with my pride and my self-respect at stake. The first choice I had to face with was whether I should continue to contribute, or let the prison overflow me, patiently waiting to get out. As limited as my situation is, I chose to continue to contribute through the written word. Once I made this decision I faced another crossroad: whether to confine myself — ecumenically — from this “high point” of my “status” (sic.) of a “revolutionary” prisoner — to bestowing blessings in each directions, applauding to every anarchist practice, paying attention not to make any enemies; or to use the weapon of critique, ever more harshly, trying to outline some analysis, to open some discourses. I chose the easier way (at least for me): openly push my critique to the extremes, at the cost of isolation (less letters, less information, less generic solidarity).
But always aware of the abyss between the thought and the action.
Words, strong as they may be, always carry something that sounds phony, even when they pose real, concrete risks, which may effectuate in years of prison for apology or incitement. (more…)
Tags: Alfredo Cospito, Analysis, CNA Italia, Italy, Letter
Posted in Cognitive Liberty
Statement of anarchist comrade Gioacchino Somma – Start of the “Script Manent” trial (Italy)
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017
16/11/2017
To the Court of Turin
Today, as well as for all the future hearings of this trial that sees me accused along with my brothers, sisters, but above all anarchist comrades, I will not give you the satisfaction of seeing my face in a courtroom of this tribunal.
I have never gone to the courtrooms where my funeral was being prepared in the past and I will not do so now!
I am anarchist, individualist, anti-authoritarian and above all I am for the insurrection, which has as one of its primary goals that of destroying places of death like this one and the prisons.
I will not be part of the spectacle set up by a judge who, suffering from hunger cramps, has put himself the payroll of a State that I do not recognize, being a citizen of the world in flight from its borders; I will not be there to listen to his delusions nor wait for the end to hear someone judge me “guilty or innocent.” (more…)
Tags: CNA Italia, Counter-info, Gioacchino Somma, Italy, Letter, Operation Scripta Manent, RadioAzione, Repression, Trial, Turin
Posted in Prison Struggle
Letter from Nataly Casanova, Enrique Guzmán and Juan Flores (Chile)
Sunday, November 19th, 2017
Translation note: the following letter written by the imprisoned anarchist comrades Nataly, Enrique and Juan, was written for the SOLIDARIDAD A FLOR DE PIEL tattoo and body art convention that was held in solidarity with the prisoners of the social war in Santiago on November 4th.
These words were born and flew from the prison cells of San Miguel, the special high security unit and the former pententiary, to send a greeting of complicity that we dedicate to the comrades who have organized and given life to the SOLIDARIDAD A FLOR DE PIEL tattoo and body art convention…
With these first words from within the torture centres, we would like to send fraternal and complicit greetings to those who, at the intersection of rebellion and insubordinate creativity, organized and participated in this anti-prison initiative…a solidarity initiative for those who feel the bitter taste of prison every day – the anger, the frustration and the indignation of not being able to materialise the war because they are surrounded by bars, cameras and guards… (more…)
Tags: Chile, Enrique Guzmán, Juan Flores Riquelme, Letter, Nataly Casanova, Santiago, Trial
Posted in Prison Struggle
Letter from imprisoned anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito (Italy)
Sunday, November 19th, 2017
Originally published in Vetriolo, anarchist journal, number 1 / Autumn 2017 (this text is also online here).
Note from Insurrection News: This English version of Alfredo’s text was translated by us from the French language translation by the comrades from Attaque.
Note from Vetriolo: Alfredo wrote this text of salutation for the number zero edition of Vetriolo, in November-December 2016. This letter, as is well known, was blocked by the prison censorship. Now we can publish it. We recall that in recent months the censorship has increased a lot, a tightening vise obviously ordered by the Prosecutor Sparagna, and not just the simple zeal of the prison guards. Apparently there are definite orders about what can and cannot be sent or received (Vetriolo, for example, was not received by anybody) [comrades imprisoned for Operation Scripta Manent]. To protest the censorship,
Alfredo went on a hunger strike from May 3 to 13.
Break the isolation!
******
With charges that could lead to 30 years of prison time hanging over my head like a sword of Damocles, the need to communicate projects and reflections may seem absurd. Under the influence of censorship, which modifies all that I write and say, the fact that I am continuing imperturbably to communicate and write reflections that inevitably lend themselves to repression, may seem stupid and insane. It is stupidity and madness that I cannot do without, to feel alive and active.
One choice, back against the wall: continue the fight. Continue with all means at my disposal.
The inspiration for writing this article was given to me by the inquisitor Sparagna, who during his ‘monologue-interrogation’, maintained, with barely concealed embarrassment, that he would have broken us [the 22 comrades under investigation from Operation Scripta Manent] by isolation, thanks to the ‘scorched earth’ that the anarchist movement would have made around us in Italy.
(more…)
Tags: Alfredo Cospito, Italy, Letter, Operation Scripta Manent, Repression, Trial, Vetriolo
Posted in Prison Struggle
‘What It Looks Like To Be Anti-Fascist In Prison’ by Eric King, anarchist prisoner (USA)
Tuesday, November 14th, 2017
via itsgoingdown:
Below is a statement written by anarchist prisoner Eric King in October. For more info on how to support Eric, go here.
What does it look like to be antifascist in federal prison in 2017? It may not be what you think.
If you picture coming into the feds with your fist swinging, taking on every racist, swastika wearing trash you see, that is not a reality. That line of thinking will get us nowhere. Racism at the federal level is very real and played out in a very archaic way. At CCA Leavenworth I pictured going into ANY spot guns blazing, taking on bigots in a very macho, aggressive, violent way. At CCA that was actually somewhat doable, even at Englewood-FCI (low security) it was somewhat a reality because you could dog them out and clown them for their ridiculousness… the reality is though, that the higher up in custody you go and the further west coast you end up, the more serious the game gets and the less likely you are to be able to express your own antifascist ideas without facing some serious backlash. (more…)
Tags: Anti-Fascism, Antifa, Eric G. King, Letter, Racism, USA
Posted in Prison Struggle
‘Security Threat Groups: The Industry of Gangs’ by Sean Swain, anarchist prisoner (USA)
Tuesday, November 14th, 2017
via itsgoingdown:
This following essay is written by anarchist prisoner, Sean Swain, and was originally released on the Final Straw Radio show. For more info about how to support Sean, go here.
In Ohio prisons, pretty much everyone is in a gang whether they’re in a gang or not. If you’re an Ohio prisoner and you’re not in a gang, prison administrators will put you in one. And if there’s no gang for you, they’ll just create a new one.
The reason is, it’s a federal bloc grant swindle. Here’s how it works:
The U.S. Department of Justice keeps a kind of database on what it calls “Security Threat Groups,” or STGs, not to be confused with STDs, or “sexually transmitted diseases.” The Department of Justice does not monitor chlamydia or gonorrhea. Yet. At least, as far as I know.
(more…)
Tags: Gangs, Letter, Racism, Sean Swain, USA
Posted in Prison Struggle
Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, imprisoned members of Revolutionary Struggle on hunger strike (Greece)
Monday, November 13th, 2017
November 11, 2017
THE ROTTEN SYSTEM AND THE ABSENCE OF RESISTANCE ARE THE REASONS FOR THE ROTTING OF SOCIETY
Almost 10 years after the outbreak of the crisis with the collapse of the financial system, bank bankruptcy, and seven years after the commencement of the era of the memorandum and the monitoring of the country by the troika (IMF, EC, ECB), the social base in this country has suffered the strongest blow since the Second World War.
Greek puppet governments have definitively delegated substantial economic and political governance to EU supranational organizations and indirectly to the capital markets and are imposing new measures of social euthanasia for large sections of the population in this country, they are now insignificant for their added value to capitalist wealth. That’s why it does not matter if they disappear. This condition of condemnation is also a prerequisite for the survival of the system itself, for the preservation of the political regime, for the perpetuation of capitalism. (more…)
Tags: Athens, Greece, Hunger Strike, Letter, Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa, Revolutionary Struggle
Posted in Prison Struggle
‘Insurrection Cannot Be Negotiated’ – Text by Panagiotis Argyrou, imprisoned member of CCF/FAI (Greece)
Monday, November 13th, 2017
Time is the illness of reality. In prison, time seems to poison the atmosphere. The air thickens as though it is flooded with lead filings and each and every day our lungs are infested with this oxygen so toxic that it weighs on us again and again, more so with each passing day.
You feel so burdened that at some point you begin to think that every step you take, removes a day from your life; each step and a day less, each step and a day less
During these almost 6 years and a half of my imprisonment, I always felt like I was killing so many days while moving endlessly back and forth in courtrooms. I have seen the despicable ritual of trials taking place in the name of Democracy too many times repeatedly and every single time I walked away with packs of decades of sentences on my back.
However, it is not only the harsh sentences imposed on me by all this bureaucratic barbarity which has been grinding lives in the millstone of justice that bothers me the most, but also the arrogant and self-righteous style of the judges that execute our freedom while maintaining the illusion of representing something special. (more…)
Tags: Athens, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Greece, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, Letter, Panagiotis Argyrou
Posted in Prison Struggle
Text from Tasos Theofilou about his release from the court (Greece)
Saturday, November 4th, 2017
The depth and intensity of my gratitude for the people who with whatever means supported me all these years far exceeds my ability to express it. At the same time, my discharge from all categories is much more important than a personal vindication. It is a victory for the world of the struggle against repression. A victory of the underdogs against the deep police state. A victory of the movement and alternative media against the dominant mainstream media. A victory of counter-information against the regime’s propaganda. A victory of the movement against the depravity of authority.
(more…)
Tags: Athens, Greece, Letter, Tasos Theofilou
Posted in Prison Struggle
Concerning the juridical situation of our comrade Marcelo Villaroel Sepulveda (Chile)
Tuesday, October 24th, 2017
To read and share…
NO TRIALS, NO CONDEMNATIONS!!! MARCELO TO THE STREETS NOW!!!
[EN]
[PT]
https://tormentasdefogo.espivblogs.net/2017/10/18/sobre-a-situacao-juridica-do-nosso-companheiro-marcelo-villarroel-ou-como-a-vinganca-do-estado-perpetua-em-silencio/
International revolutionary solidarity to Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda!
Tags: Chile, Letter, Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda
Posted in Prison Struggle
Letter from imprisoned anarchist comrade Fernando Castillo (Mexico)
Tuesday, October 24th, 2017
[EN] To read and share:
This letter from our imprisoned comrade is a call for solidarity and support to raise an autonomous library inside prison…
https://tormentasdefogo.espivblogs.net/2017/10/19/letter-from-anarchic-comrade-fernando-barcenas/
[PT] Para ler e compartilhar:
Essa carta de nosso kompa encarcerado é um chamado por solidariedade e apoio para construir uma biblioteca autonoma dentro da prisão…
https://tormentasdefogo.espivblogs.net/2017/10/19/carta-do-companheiro-anarquico-fernando-barcenas/
TO WRITE TO THE COMRADE IN SOLIDARITY:
Fernando Barcenas Castillo
Reclusorio Preventivo Varonil Norte: Calle Jaime Nuno no. 155,
Colonia Guadalupe Chalma, Cuautepec Barrio Bajo, C.P. 07210, Ciudad de México, Mexico
cna.mexico[at]gmail[dot]com
Tags: Fernando Barcenas Castillo, Letter, Mexico
Posted in Prison Struggle
Statement for Kostas B. from Pola Roupa & Nikos Maziotis, Imprisoned Members of Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)
Monday, September 25th, 2017
Déclaration de Nikos et Pola (Lutte Révolutionnaire) pour Kostas B., antifa tabassé par la police [fr]
At dawn on 17/9, the 16-year-old Kostas B. was brutally beaten by police officers and arrived at the intensive care hospital KAT. The political leadership of the police, the Ministry of Public Order and the SYRIZA-ANEL government covered for the police, presenting the incident as a traffic accident, but a series of facts and testimonies refutes this Besides, if a traffic accident had occurred during an escape attempt of the sixteen-year-old, as is said, why did he not go directly to the hospital with an ambulance, but instead ended up in GADA [police headquarters] in handcuffs and with the police dragging him as he could not walk?
This happened after an anti-fascist demonstration on the anniversary of the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, which originally started at the US Embassy as an intervention in honor of Heather Heyer, who was murdered in Charlottesville, USA, at an anti-fascist demonstration, and then the demonstration went to the headquarters of Golden Dawn in Mesogeion. There clashes started with the police forces guarding the offices of Golden Dawn. (more…)
Tags: Golden Dawn, Greece, K.B, Letter, Nikos Maziotis, Pavlos Fyssas, Pola Roupa, Police Brutality, Revolutionary Struggle, SY.RIZ.A.
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Athens – Letter by imprisoned anarchist comrade Panagiotis Z. (Greece)
Wednesday, September 13th, 2017
“I read somewhere that in the whole world, in all those millions, there are no two boys or two girls that are same as two drops of water.The same thing happens with revolutionaries. Each one carries in their participation their own dreams, their own loves. Their own self, their own “I can”. Alas, if it was otherwise. We would be either machines or amoebae.
And the history the whore, that’s how they write her, both the bourgeois and the communists: horizontal, flat. They speak about peoples, they speak about masses. Nobody from them could ever feel the intensity, the passion, the climax and the fall of entire worlds, in only one twenty-four hours from the life of the revolutionary.”
‘Fine, you got killed early’
Chronis Missios
Everything started in 2012 in a protest, where I participated too against the memorandum, as all the people. In the end of the protest others went home, others to some coffee shops, others to the Exarcheia Square. I continued on foot towards my residence. That has little importance for the State and it’s lackeys, since they didn’t allow me to defend myself before my custody.
On the evening of Tuesday 25/07/2017, while I was leaving the house of a friend – I state that it was not my house – I was surrounded by 25 garbage of State Security, they handcuff me and lead me to the General Police Directive announcing to me, that there was pending an arrest warrant for three months for which I was never informed about. After about 30 minutes, the chief called me to his office and when I entered he gave me his hand. Reflexively, I laughed, told him to hold himself and I sat to listen. He mentioned, that he knows that I’m a good guy, but he suspects, that I participate in protests of the movement. I didn’t deny or accept anything. I replied nothing. Next, he mentioned some names without asking me anything specific. Then impersonating the profile of the ‘good’ cop he told me, that they are not going to my house ‘because my mum is elderly, they don’t want something to happen to her’. All of this lasted 5 minutes. (more…)
Tags: Greece, Korydallos Prison, Letter, Panagiotis Z.
Posted in Prison Struggle
For the thirteen years of prison to Irianna (Greece)
Tuesday, August 29th, 2017
This is a communique from Irianna B.L’s partner, Konstantinos Papadopoulos:
14th March 2011. Anti-terrorism squads raided the house I was renting in the neighbourhood of Cholargos in Athens and arrested me as a suspected member of the revolutionary organization ‘Conspiracy of Cells of Fire’. That night Irianna had the bad luck to sleep at mine. She was taken to the police station and interrogated, fingerprinted and submitted to DNA samples taking. She was released on the same day.
I was released on bail 3 days later.
10th November 2011. According to the reconstruction of a ‘witness’, who was never to be seen again, not even in the trial, weapons were found, which were never used, in the Polytechnic of Zografou in Athens.
11th January 2913. Irianna was arrested as a member of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and for illegally transporting weapons on the grounds of a tiny DNA trace found on a magazine which was part of the lot of weapons located in the Polytechnic. A year and a half since those weapons were found and after the police had had her DNA for two years.
Irianna was released on bail, this time, without the judge of the special tribunal making her details or picture public. The task was instead undertaken by the then minister of citizens’ protection Nikos Dendias with an informal communique. (more…)
Tags: Athens, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Greece, Letter, Repression
Posted in Prison Struggle