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
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 »
Received on 19/11/2018: The second issue of Paper Chained has been published online. This is a journal that supports publication of writings and artistic expressions from people affected by incarceration. Click here to download the PDF, and visit the blog of Running Wild here to read more.
A banner tied in Yogyakarta, reading: “SOLIDARITY WITH ALL ANARCHIST AND ANTI-FASCIST IN RUSSIA, LONG LIVE ANARCHY! MIKHAIL”.
Anarchists and Anti-Fascists in Russia have faced a wave of repression from the State following an action carried out by a 17-year-old young anarchist named Mikhail Zhlobitsky who blew himself up at the Arkhangelsk city FSB building on the morning of October 31. After the action some Anarchists and Anti-Fascists were arrested and received continued repression.
We hope for solidarity and strength for all anarchists and anti-fascists in Russia, Indonesia and worldwide.
From the Anarchist Individualist Network of Yogyakarta to comrade Mikhail, all Anarchist and Anti-Fascist in Russia!
Received on 10/11/2018; for the case of Mikhail Zhlobitsky check here and here:Narrm / Melbourne so-called Australia: Graffiti mural in memory of 17 year old Russian Anarchist-Communist Mikhail Zhlobitsky who died while carrying out an explosive attack against the FSB (Federal Security Service) Regional Headquarters in Arkhangelsk, Russia on October 31st.
They are facing potential incarceration for helping migrants in danger in the French Alps. Bastien, Benoit, Eléonora, Juan, Lisa, Mathieu et Théo will face justice on November 8th in Gap.
They are prosecuted for «helping undocument foreign nationals to enter national territory, in organized gang”. The envisaged penalty is 10 years in prison and 750.000 euros fine. What should they amend for ? Being involved in a march against the far-right, little band called «Bloc identitaire», which was obstructing the border the border so as to retaliate against migrants trying to cross it.
Even though the notion of «organized gang” was meant to tackle organized crime, it is now being used against volunteers involved in the NGO’s Tous migrants and, as for two of them, La Cimade. More generally, this provision is now being misused as a tool to intimidate citizens who show solidarity with migrants trying to cross the French Alps.
The prosecutor’s office has, hence, chosen to prosecute pacifist activists while enabling the far-right activists of “Bloc Identitaire” to evade punishment, as they didn’t face any charges.
Echoing a recent French Constitutional Court’s ruling, which enshrined the principle of fraternity as a constitutional principle, we are calling for the dropping of all charges against Bastien, Benoit, Eléonora, Juan, Lisa, Mathieu, and the end of any prosecution against them.
Solidarity with the «7 of Briançon»! We all stand against the “crime of solidarity”! We are all criminals for being solidary in “organized band”!
This morning Villa’s eviction didn’t happen. We stand ready to defend the place.
In the last few days lots of people came bringing solidarity and we continued organising the resistance together, working on the barricades and discussing on what to do in case of actual eviction.
The Halloween Taz organized by Telos Collective from Saronno has been moved to Villa Vegan, on this blog you can find a communique about the need of occupation as a practice and the decision of moving this event.
We reiterate the call to bring direct support, being present here and organizing together.
Useful things to bring here: food, construction materials and tools.
Next appointments in Villa:
Wednesday 31st october: Punk show to support the prisoners of Scripta Manent Operation.
HALLOWEEN NIGHT
Friday 2nd november: Dinner and public meeting against the eviction
For following updates check the blog.
To contact us write to villavegansquat at inventati.org
Text received 10 / 27 / 2018
VILLA VEGAN UNDER EVICTION
In recent days it has come rumor that they want to evict Villa Vegan Tuesday, October 30th.
We believe it is a trust information and we are determined to resist, so let’s make a call to all the people in solidarity reach us to prepare together resistance and mobilization against the eviction. It is welcome anyone who wants to support the place, who has crossed over the years, who has carried on the struggles that here have found complicity, all the comrades who they think that if they want to evict an anarchist space occupied by 20 years must cost him dear.
In all these years of occupation Villa Vegan has hosted comrades from all over the world, has given logistical support to many self-managed projects, especially those from the hardcore punk scene, and a lots of fights, including those of against prison system and in solidarity to prisoners, ecologists and for liberation animal, against racism and CIEs (renamed then CPR), transfeminist queer and against gender violence, antifascist; struggles that refuse relations with institutions and always in opposition to the capitalist system and the state.
With the evacuation of the occupied spaces, the interminable overbuilding, the raids against the migrants, irregular and unwanted people of each type, the urban “redevelopment” of the neighborhoods, the growing militarization and surveillance of the roads, they want to transform the places where we live in the showcase cities useful only to run the economy and in dormitories for those included in the rhythm of production and consumption, closing more and more every possible resistance space. For this reason every eviction does not concern only the specific place that comes attacked but the more general plan of social control by the political and economic power, and must be opposed.
We invite those who can pass and stop – even to sleep – in Villa Vegan in these days.
On 19 October our two comrades were arrested because of a court sentence given to them for taking part in anarchist protest against European Economic Congress (EEC) 2015 which was held in ceKatowi.
Our friends where sentenced to community services because of the crime called “infringement of privacy”. They were protesting in empty abandoned tenement house which was city property. They wanted to protest against the inherent contradiction between empty property and homelessness and to show injustice of savage capitalism.
Arrest is a consequence of avoiding these community services. One of activists went to prison for 2 months till 15 of December. He is kept in prison in Tarnowskie Góry (Silesian region). From the very beginning he started hunger strike, because he doesn’t have possibility to eat vegan food. Administration refused to pass him warm clothes. The cell is not heated and he has no any jacket. According to official rules, prison keeps 50% of all money income. Anyway, director of this penal facility doesn’t allow him to use prison shop, or to buy food for him during dates with visitors.
About the other detainee we have no information. Police didn’t want to inform anybody about his situation, because of formal causes (administration refuse to allow him date with relatives, because he doesn’t remember the exact address of their place of residence). That is why we don’t know the condition of his imprisonment.
We support our friends. Law considers community services as an opportunity to strengthen the society, but in our opinion it is only another way to force people to do something and to exclude them form economic debates. Our comrades are trying to show that self organizing and radical actions can do much more for society than community services.
Police were intruding their relatives in their work places, in their houses. They tried to get any information about a location of our anarchist friends. Police threatened families by telling lies about prolongation of sentences or by telling a notorious lie that one of our comrade is sentenced because of stalking.
We are sympathizing with the arrested activists. Today each one of us is a stalker of business elites, European commissioners, prime ministers and heads of international corporations who are debating every year during EEC behind the closed doors. They are making decisions on the future of the society and it is the society who bears the burden of their decisions.
By protesting against EEC we wanted to show that it is not the elites but the people who should decide about the future – workers, local societies who need to self-organize for their common good.
We want to stress that the arrested comrades are not victims – they are resistant and we support their decision of rejecting to perform punitive community services.
NO ONE DOES NOT WANT YOUR TOTAL LIBERATION CAN BE CONSIDERED YOUR ALLY
If we do not extend the critique of fascism to democracy, capitalism, prisons, homelands, patriarchy, property, speciesism and any regime that involves being governed: we are condemning ourselves to a unique historical entanglement that only will eventually stop give way to an uninhabitable planet. The social democrats who are electoralists they are too comfortable – condemning the atrocities of the right and hiding their own – simply want to be on the streets and in government at the same time.
Authoritarian regimes gain ground quickly and efficiently because the goals they pursue are mediocre: there is no complexity in subjecting others through guns, taxes, lies, and propaganda – 90% of political projects are compromised with this (all necessary infrastructure is already built and functioning).
In reality, no one who treats you as a doctrinal mass, no one who understands the struggle as a victimizing hobby and alien to your creative and offensive ability, no one who does not want your total liberation can be considered ally.
“Your torture won’t kill our ideas.” Anarchists and antifascists march in Petersburg on May Day 2018
Rupression.com campaign statement about the accused
In February 2018, a campaign was launched in Russia to support those accused in the Network case. Among the main goals of the campaign were fundraising for legal costs, organizing humanitarian support for the arrested and offering support to their relatives. The resources gathered have so far been distributed according to the financial circumstances of the respective families and the needs of the arrested. Further financial support is being distributed according to the choices made by those the arrested throughout the investigation.
Currently two of the accused, Igor Shishkin, and Yegor Zorin, are firmly siding with the investigation.
Igor Shishkin has not filed a torture complaint, although traces of torture were reported on his body by the independent Public Oversight Committee (ONK). He has signed agreement prior to being present in
court, which means that he has fully admitted his guilt. He is actively cooperating in the investigation of the criminal case, and also giving testimony against other suspects. If the case by the prosecution is substantiated with the testimony given by Shishkin, his sentence will be reduced (as defined in the chapter 5 of the statute 317.7 of Russian Codex of Criminal Prosecution, UPK RF). Igor is the only accused to have been visited by official Russian Ombudsman for human rights Tatyana Moskalkova, but he did not report any torture during the visit. Since then he has sided with the prosecution during a cross-interrogation with another defendant. This position is detrimental to co-defendants, and results in additional pressure for everyone struggling for themselves and for justice.
Yegor Zorin, in the autumn of 2017, after being tortured, admitted his guilt and has cooperated with the investigation ever since. He never filed a torture complaint.
In the framework of the support campaign, we do not consider it possible to support defendants cooperating with the investigation, against the interests of the other co-defendants. Thus, financial support for these defendants is not provided from the common fund. In case you want to support Shishkin, you may do so via his relatives (link).
All the defendants in the case, Shishkin and Zorin included, have been tortured and manipulated by the authorities. We are ready to provide support for Shishkin and Zorin, when they choose to take part in a
collective strategy of defense, instead of an individual one.
Radical anti-abortionists of „Euro Pro Life e. V.“ and „Arbeitsgemeinschaft Lebensschutz München“ are planning a „1000 crosses for life“ march through the city of Munich on the 27th of October to protest against abortions.
We will not accept this kind of antifeminist and homophobic propaganda and will respond to the march accordingly. That’s why we’re calling for a feminist demonstration to claim our right for physical and sexual self-determination and creative actions to sabotage the march. Join us at 1pm at the Max-Joseph-Platz in Munich.
27th of October 2018, 1pm, Max-Joseph-Platz, Munich
In times of mass-mobilizations by right-wing forces we have to defend hard-fought achievements, forge alliances and join forces to develop our emancipatory positions further and bring them to the streets. This is especially relevant because the „Pro Life“ movement is hugely benefitting from the right-wing backlash. They don’t only profit from it, with their concept of the heterosexual, white family, they are also intentionally spreading (extrem) right positions.
On the 27th of October radical anti-abortionists will march through Munich. They have a Christian worldview and are demanding to make abortions illegal.
They pretend to be „pro life“ and pretend to represent a „culture of life“ … this is complete travesty when you look at the 47,000 people dying each year worldwide because they do not have access to safe abortions.
Pro Choice doesn’t mean pro abortions. But a world where no one needs abortions won’t exists. There always were abortions and there always will be abortions. This is why we’re fighting for a world in which a pregnant person can take a decision without being harassed and pressured by radical anti-abortionists, stigmatized by the society or criminalized by the State.
Contrary to the assumption of many abortions are still illegal in Germany and will be prosecuted with up to three years in prison if the pregnant person doesn’t stick to the rules. One of these rules is that someone who wants to get an abortion has to go to a counselor to get a certificate and wait for a minimum of three days before a doctor can perform the abortion. To apply criminal law to abortions is the ultimate expression of our patriarchal society. This is why wedemand to eliminate §218 StGB!
Another paragraph that anti-abortionists misuse to pressure doctors is §219 StGB, which regulates advertising for abortions. Due to the ambivalent legislation people who need factual and balanced information about abortions struggle to get it. This is why we demand to eliminate §219a StGB and express our solidarity with doctors who are affected.
Many positions of „Pro Life“ activists are conservative, right-wing and nationalist. They’re pushing the white, heterosexual small family as the sought after norm and thereby agitate agains queer people and LGBTI*. They’re collaborating with (extrem) right forces such as the parties Christlich Demokratische Union/ Christlich Soziale Union (CDU/CSU) or the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). A high-level representative of the CDU sent his greetings to the homophobe „Marsch für das Leben“ (march for life) in Berlin, an AfD representative publicly wished that „migration to Germany should happen through the birth canal of German women“. Others relativize NS crimes by putting abortions on the same level as the Shoa calling it „Babycaust“.
These disgusting positions can’t go unchallenged – not in Berlin, Salzburg, Bern, Munich or anywhere else in the world. Because we love who we want, and we live how we want.
Our demands
self-determination when it comes to gender and sexuality
the elimination of §218 and §219a StGB
full cost reimbursement by the insurances in case of an abortion
more clinics and medical practices where abortions are carried out
abortion as a compulsory part of the medical education
elimination of the possibility to not perform an abortion due to doctor’s conscience issues
access to free contraceptives
social rethink: it shouldn’t matter if a child is born with or without a handicap. We are against the normative selection through prenatal diagnosis
equality for all ways of living
Our feminist struggle includes the fight against state, nation and capital. If you can identify with these demands, join us on the 27th of October 2018 at 1pm at the Max-Joseph-Platz in Munich. Protest for an emancipated society and against patriarchy.
Right-wing and conservative forces are not welcome at our demonstration.
For a long time, we hesitated how we would take the word. First of all, we have led discussions that have allowed us to understand what we have. Then we set up this site kronika.noblogs.org about global anarchist practice. That’s what we missed here, and that makes sense to us.
There are many important topics and we do not have the capacity to do it with everyone. We will try to bring at least some information about attacks, campaigns, projects, communiqués … about living anarchist practices.
In the way, there are state pawns and their fake critics, such as „anarchists“ from academia, leftists, journalists, pacifists and other reformists. We will go against their way. We will be of explaining our attitudes here. No, we do not believe we will change the strength of the arguments of their attitudes. But we want to bring
food for the brains to our comrades.
There will be those who would like us to be locked in prison or tell us the cops to disrupt our activity. We do not want to make it easier for them, so we will take care of strengthening the security culture. We do not want to give the cops unnecessary opportunities to blows. But we rejoice in each blows given to them and to other watchmen of the capitalist shit. We will bring information about them.
The Chronicle of Resistance (Kronika odporu in Czech language) archives reports of anarchist practice, presents analyzes and suggestions for action. We start during the Solidarity Week with anarchist prisoners and join the rebels who have been striking in US prisons since August 21.
We walk the path of resistance.
https://kronika.noblogs.org/
Tuesday, October 2nd 2018, Jazzy and Winter were released after their court hearing.
Both of them sat more than two weeks in pre-trial detention. Now the Düren district-court decided not to continue enforcing the restriction-order.
Both of them are now free, and their identities still unknown to the authorities!
But there are still three “Hambi”s in Prison: UPIII, Andrea (UP 20) and Eule. All prisoners need our support! You can write an e-mail to abc-rhineland@riseup.net and they will print it and send it to them.
Vetriolo — Anarchist paper — Issue 2 — Autumn 2018
It’s been a long while. After a year we are publishing another issue of Vetriolo, issue number 2. We haven’t brought out the paper more frequently up to now, nor have we wanted to. Not that we didn’t have anything to say during this time, on the contrary. However we have never strenuously followed the possibility of giving a strict periodicity to the publication, which because of its form (with fairly concise texts of agitation, analysis and topicality as well as more extensive and complicated theoretical articles) is not suited to it. At the same time we’d like the paper to come out without long delays. In any case we think that this paper is an important instrument for the anarchist movement regardless of the frequency with which it comes out. The pages of Vetriolo have always been and will continue to be a means aimed at discussion, dialogue and confrontation among anarchists. The paper will continue to give time and space to dialogue and debate among revolutionaries, including those who find themselves imprisoned. In this issue there are writings and articles by Marco, Anna and Alfredo, imprisoned following the arrests of the repressive operation ‘scripta manent’ of 6th September 2016.
Anarchists have always appropriated instruments to nourish anarchist ideas and anarchism itself with discussions and actions. In this paper we will try to continue to give space and time to debate, polemics, reflexion, study and analysis. We won’t tire of repeating it; these are aspects that we consider distant from chatter, sterile opposition, commonplaces and hassles, which we believe afflict certain contexts of the anarchist movement. In this respect, the paper will never be representative of some special faction, ‘trend’ or line to be followed or complied with. We have no thoughts to be contemplated or flags to be waved. On the contrary we have the awareness of a clear difference in certain of our convictions compared to those of others. We are aware of the fact that renouncing anarchism means renouncing all revolutionary and subversive possibilities. We have the will and the intention to banish all forms of petty superficiality.
It seems that today those who content themselves with assimilating facts and notions that are easily memorized and shared are many. So many objective immediate things. Nothing too complicated, and very little to reflect upon. There are those who praise real and proper ‘ignorance’ and reject ‘theory’ as something out of place, boring, of secondary importance. Something authoritarian even. In fact, not by chance, you can happen to be told that you want to ‘rip off’ and deceive someone merely by exposing and expressing your ideas. Revolutionary ignorance? Certainly not. This kind of misery is typical of those who can’t perceive the complementarity between thought and action. We’d like this paper not to be ‘used’ passively, we’d like thought not to remain crystalized between the lines and columns of a publication, but animate the discussions going on among anarchists, to contribute to the clarification of intents and perspectives and give space to the various aspects of the antiauthoritarian struggle against power. Precisely for this reason we are calling on comrades who might be interested in taking on the circulation of the paper in their own areas as widely as possible, and we also invite them to send us reflexions and criticisms.
We know it is an ambitious project. This paper includes ideas but not as a mere container. It has the claim of wanting to explore the various ‘threads’ of reading, analysis and reflections that are developed and examined by and by. Therefore we won’t limit ourselves to setting them out and composing them in each issue of the paper. Moreover a good part of the texts are aimed specifically for this publication and were created as such, so have a specific meaning in this project. Each time we will analyse questions, thoughts and ideas that we think are important, necessary and impellent, and along with them we intend to proceed in understanding the reality around us. We have this obstinacy, this kind of stubbornness that we don’t want to renounce. And wanting to understand is not necessarily the same as wanting to be understood by everybody.
In particular in this issue we ‘discovered’ a spontaneous ‘conspiracy’ between the most important editors’ articles in respect to the topic of the interpretation to be given to the ongoing technological revolution. Alfredo Cospito talked about that in his interview, of which we have published the first part and which we will circulate further in the coming months; we faced it from a philosophical point of view concerning the ‘theoretical status’ (not) to be given to the concept of Nature, by criticizing metaphysical misunderstandings within eco movements; we also took it from an historical point of view, in the article dedicated to the birth of the State; and in the transition between so-called Bronze Age and Iron Age we identified the historical moment when authoritarian society implemented its military structure and the division of labour it required. But we didn’t stop at theory; we ‘dared’ interpretations we believe are fundamental to understanding the current times. As in the previous issue, we have observed the social crisis which new technologies are seen to inflict on the poorest classes of humanity (starting from the employment question, a real taboo for anarchist reflection in recent years), and this time we went even further: we suggested that new technologies are directly linked to so-called ‘crisis of globalization’ (why exploit a child in Vietnam when the bosses will be able to ‘print’ shoes directly with 3D printers?) and that phenomena such as Brexit, Trump, Orban, Salvini, etc., are the results of an historical trend towards a new robotic nationalism.
In other words general theoretical analyses meant to seize instruments adequate to the attack on the actual world. For, upturning the slogan which belonged to the no global: ‘another world is impossible, it is this one that we have to fight against’. So there’s much talk about elasticity, flexibility, the ability to be understood by others, happiness in adapting to the running times (but where are these times going if they’re running?) Often when you mention elasticity you imply the art of compromise, and for understanding you imply the art of negotiation. And for many this means being flexible, which also means becoming adaptable, malleable, kin to being manipulated and at the same time incredibly rigid. For in a certain sense the world got us accustomed to being rigid, of a rigidity which led to having blinkers and chains well planted in our heads. But why should elasticity and flexibility always be the same as compromise and negotiation with a reality that disgusts us? We think we can go further. Ours is the elasticity of a sling, a flexibility that aims to strike harder. Precisely for this reason we reflect, analyse and study the State, capital, science, technology, the economy, the misery of politics and the outcomes of the revolutionary movement. Certainly not to amuse ourselves or to find a hole for future collocation.
In this issue:
– Elastic like a sling
– 2007 – 2017. Ten years of revolts and refluxes
– Parallel convergences. A contribution by Marco from the prison in Alessandria
– From the popular front to the civil front
– 24-hour monoculture
– The whole truth…
– Considerations on the cages of democracy
– The unbearable dullness of being scientific
– Dreams of captivity and captivity of dreams
– Infinite eyes
– Rapist and boss
– Against State anarchism
– The birth of the State
– What international? Interview and dialogue with Alfredo Cospito from the prison of Ferrara. Part one
– The New monsters: ‘social but not class’ anarchism
– A leftist story. Part two (1943 – 1962)
– The fun has ended
2 euros per copy; for distributors, starting from five copies, 1.50 euros per copy. Postal fees: 1.30 euro (up to 2 kg). Postal fees in Europe: 5 euros approximately. Free for prisoners.
For orders, contacts, reflections and criticism and to send potentially interesting material to the editors, write to: vetriolo[at]autistici.org
Some prisioners from diferent spanish jails are going to start a new hunger strike. In the last hunger strike the 1th of May, they didn’t get attention from media or society so they are going to make theirselves in danger again to get the rights that they legally have. Their objective is having a less hard diary life and prove that jail is not the solution: It’s just a place to shut in people that are not agree with the system or these who are not productive for it.
These are the demands of the prisioners:
1-Stop tortures
2-Abolish FIES, punishment “special regime” and isolating departments
3-Stop dispersion
4-Separate medical services from Penitential Institution to avoid deals between doctors and warders
5-Application of the articles 104.4 and 196 RP to all chronic sick prisioners
6-Let people with mental sickness be out of jails, specially of closed and isolating regimes
7-Provide support groups and psychologist and not just methadone and medical drugs. The psychologist have to be independent from the Penitential Institution to not promote passivity and State’s dependance
8.-Acknowledgement of killed people in spanish jails from the beginning of the democracy until today and admit the warder’s responsability
9-Open classrooms, workshops, gyms, and formative and cultural activities for prisioners that supposed to be “unrecoverable”
10-Stop using “módulos de respeto” to blackmail prisioners
11-Stop body searches to prisioner’s families and visits,stop using X-rays and let prisioners communicate without limits or bureaucratic requirements.
12-Stop criminalize solidarity between prisioners and prisioners’ support groups. We all are together and if you attack them, you are attacking all of us!
The Hambacher Forst is in the focus of the media, since Thursday 13.09. is a major police operation inclusive SEK (Special Deployment Commando) evicting the tree houses. There are different ways of resistance, but especially the left press and NGO’s like to report about non violent protest, to claim it for themselves. In our report we want to focus on militance, but we don’t see it as the only important part of the protest. Here follows a chronic of militance, resistance and repression in Hambacher Forst. Of course this chronic is not complete, because many actions are done by small groups and we only know about the actions, that where told to us.
Since 13.09. a few thousand cops are nonstop in the forest, to finally evict and destroy all of the tree houses. But the eviction of the forest and the preparation for it started way earlier. In August, there was a call on the Hambi blog to prepare for the eviction. In the call was assumed, that the eviction is planned between 22.08. and 22.09.2018. Because of this many activists came to the forest, to fight against the eviction. Daily people built barricades, new platforms, lock-ons etc. to make the eviction more difficult. It was also made clear to the cops and RWE securities, that the forest is a dangerous place for them, where they should not feel comfortable.
The way to the Danger Zone
As a few cop cars are standing in one of the main entrances of the forest on 21.08., they are kept in distance by a big group of militant people with mollies and stones. On the next day, the cops stop two cars with pointed guns in the village Buir. They confiscate one of the cars, which is the bus of the Alf kitchen collective. They try to make the Alf collective responsible for the mollies and even after they give the bus back, the bus gets raided several times again. The bus is not only a home of people, but also an important kitchen for the forest.
On the 24.08. there is a major police operation with heavy machinery to evict barricades. Probably it is especially about the barricades in the forest entrance at the Secu-Road. In the evening, new barricades are being build in the entrance and the cops come back to destroy them and to steal the tools. This time they are chased out of the forest with stones. While the cops run away, one of them even pulls out the gun and aims at the people who run after them. Reinforcement and 2 ambulances arrive to pick up the cops.
On 25.08. the cops discover another car barricade and a possible explosive near to Lorien and they want to remove it. They are being attacked by mollies, stones and fireworks and have to leave the forest, when it starts to get dark. In a press release, the cops ask for a peaceful action consent and for distancing from violence.
One day later, about 400 cops come to the same place to evict. Some 25 masked people fight them with stones but are forced back by the great number of cops. Meanwhile new barricades are set up. But the barricades could only be defended for a short time each.
On the next day again a few hundred cops are in the forest and the Meadow Camp is surrounded. The operation is probably a preparation or a test.
On the 28.08. there is a raid in the Meadow, supposedly to search Molotov cocktails. The majority of the people at the meadow are brought to the police station in Aachen, because they don’t give their identities to the cops. All the others are send off until the evening. The Cops use the day to steal everything what’s possible. They take glass bottles, slingshots, crow’s feet, climbing gear, money, id cards and electronic devices. With the reason, that you can commit crime with it aka build barricades they steal wooden pallets, solar panels and water canisters. In the end tunnels where filled up to prevent danger and a lock on is being removed. With that the cops also destroy the library. In the evening, all of the people are released from custody, of some of them, the cops could not find out the identity. At the day after the raid was a solidarity demo from Buir to the Meadow.
In the following days cop and security cars are being attacked several times with stones and fire. Also diggers of RWE, that are working close to the forest, are chased away repeatedly. After one of these actions, more than 20 RWE securities run after the activists. The activists fight back with mollies and stones. Some of the secus are throwing stones but only dared to go a few meters into the forest.
Meanwhile the police union demands not to put the cops into the dangerous forest, until the cutting season of the forest is clear.
Since 31.08. the forest and the surrounding area is declared as a “danger zone” and the cops try to search every car and person, that is on the way to the forest.
In the evening of the 02.09. there are burning barricades and a cop van is attacked and damaged with stones.
Ongoing escalation
The next major police operation is taking place on the 5. and 06.09. The cops want to evict all the ground structures and barricades inclusive tripods and monopod. Some of the structures where defended with piss and shit, that is flying from above to the cops who have to leave the area.
There are solidarity demos again from Buir to the forest. On Sunday the 09.09. more than 1000 people are participating in the forest walk where one week before about 400 people joined.
In the morning of 10.09. a cop car and a secu car are being attacked each with stones and fire. Also the front window of an RWE vehicle gets smashed. After these attacks the cops call the forest phone and threaten to clear the undergrowth next to the secu road, in case of another attack. In the same night the secu road is blocked by a burning barricade. A cop van that comes close to the barricade gets covered with stones and has to escape. While the barricade is burning, the secu-point, that was converted into a fortress after several attacks in the past, gets attacked by many people with stones and molotovs. At the same time barricades are being build on the old highway. After a short time, about 40 armored cops and an eviction tank line up in the secu-point and go towards the attacking people who move to a hill. When the police tries to surround the attackers, it is raining stones from above. According to whitenesses, one could hear several cries of pain from underneath. After the cops keep distance again, the activists move back into the forest.
In the next morning the burning barricade is maintained with new firewood and there is another attack to a secu car. The cops threaten, that they will come on the 12.09. with a huge presence plus SEK and to shoot, when things would be thrown at cops.
On the 12.09. there are burning barricades in different entrances of the forest. A group of cops gets attacked by a few people on the secu road with stones. One cop shoots in the air and than aims at the attackers.
Final eviction (?)
In the morning of the 13.09. the major operation starts, which is planned to be the final eviction of the forest. Heavily armed SEK and climbing cops start to evict the tree houses. The people in the houses thought about many things, how they can make the eviction as difficult and expensive as possible, so the cops make progress very slowly. One of the first tree house villages that should be evicted is The North. When the first barricades in front of the entrance to The North are getting evicted, the cops are being attacked with stones, slingshots and Mollies. The cops escape into their cars and try to defend themselves by driving with full-speed towards the attackers. They did not get anyone but the cars remain with scratches and dents.
Afd-Nazis, that dare to go into the forest with police escort to watch the eviction, are being chased away by a group of militant people with shouts and stones. The escorting police is running faster than the Nazis.
When the first machines try to cut a way to the The North, again masked people run towards cops and RWE workers and throw with stones. The workers have to move back, you can hear cheering from the treetops and the work can not be continued for a while. The armored cops that are in the majority can force the attackers slowly back. BFE (arrest units) troops come to reinforce the cops and the activists have to move away.
In the evening, the cops manage to get more and more control over the forest and it is getting harder to attack the cops in the forest. But there is still attacks for example with shit, which are especially shitty for the cops and there is a call for decentral militant actions 1
Also there are more and more people showing solidarity with Hambi. Everyday, hundreds of people try to get into the forest and on the forest walk of 16.09., about 9.000 people are joining. Only a few of them manage to brake through the police chains. There are solidarity actions and demos in many cities.
Some thoughts
The broad Solidarity is helpful for the Hambi to stay and it causes more pressure on RWE and the cops. One example is that 3 companys takes back the lent cherry-pickers after a few days of eviction. It would be nice, but it’s probably not the case, if many of the people in solidarity are also in solidarity with the militance. And that they realize, that the struggle is in the eyes of many people in the forest not only about the preservation of a small peace of forest neither the exit of brown coal. These reforms would not change anything in the whole shit of capitalism and state. The people, that can not go on their forest walk anymore want to have back their state of law and their democracy but they don’t realize, that there is almost nothing more totalitarian than a democratic state, that promises fundamental rights as long as the people obey. As soon as people question the authority of the state and it gets more dangerous, the state is adjusting the laws.
We stay militant, no matter if in Hambi or somewhere else. No matter if the wide public accepts us or if we have to fight against this whole shit with a few good comrades. Hatred and violence against the fucking cops, against RWE and any other large enterprise, against democracy and any form of authority. Our hearts are burning as our mollies do!
Notes:
It should be mentioned, that such forms of action exclude other forms of action completely:
In the moment it is quite easy for the cops to make a difference: reflecting safety jacket + industrial safety helmet = RWE, or at least press; and people dressed in any way don’t belong in the forest and are targets for them. In this situation there would be many possibilities for false signals of group membership:
Acitivists with reflecting safety jacket and industrial safety helmet could often easily get into closed areas in – for the cops – stressful situations, and suddenly lock onto their heavy machines.
If their is stress and chaos among the police in the woods, they would also let pass any car with RWE-Brand, and so forth …
If then the Cops have to start controlling ANY person with great detail in this area, the RWE dudes as well, it would be a massive obstacle for his eviction.
But such methods of creating (even more) chaos drop out completely if you have to worry getting stones and molotov cocktails thrown at you if you wear cop feinting outfit.
Here it seams best to use militancy especially against things. There are more than enough moments when cop cars and RWE machines are without people inside in the woods, to which then for instance you could set fire.
In the context of the annual week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners, some anarchists in Sydney visited the Indonesian consulate in Maroubra on Thursday the 23rd of August.
A banner was tied to the fence around the consulate reading: “Bebaskan tahanan perang kelas di Yogya” (Freedom for class war prisoners in Yogyakarta). Dozens of leaflets were also distributed and scattered outside the embassy.
Anarchists in Yogyakarta have faced a wave of repression following the 2018 May Day demonstration, which saw flaming barricades in the streets, a police post torched and a call for the local Sultan to be killed.
Dozens of anarchists and class war comrades were arrested following the demonstration and a number of them are still in prison facing trail.
We wish solidarity and strength to all anarchist and revolutionary prisoners in Indonesia and worldwide.
These flyers predict two DIY festivals that will take place next year on the European continent. In July the AGRO-CRUST #9 in Catalonia and in August the MORE NOISE FOR LIFE #13 in Czech Republic. Although there are differences in the concept and the organization of both the spirit of the DIY Kontrakulture is the same. We are and are by the same brother/sisterhood that unites us in our antisystem principles. We seek the active involvement and participation of people who’re aware and respectful of the conditions of both events. We encourage everyone to launch proposals and to make efforts to support the revolutionary cause that
means to organize and working an event of this kind without any profit encouragement for the benefit of political causes (prisoners, animals).
For a radical social change, long live the anarchy!
The ongoing uncertainty resembles a blindfolded free fall. The time seems to pass at cyberspeed and simultaneous standstill. An feeling of grandiose freedom and deep fall at the same time. And before I knew it, suddenly I find myself in the middle of a jungle, sitting on the ground, surrounded by trees, scrubs and branches, which block my view, scratch my arms and legs and inflict here and there deep wounds on me. However I am surrounded by life, by movement and little by little I fit in the
rhythm. Deep inside of me I know though that I am still falling. So I am searching for hold and orientation on the outside. I grab a droopy liana to straighten myself up. It feels real, consistent, certain. I hoist myself up on it, hoping to see some other lianas, that can help me to blaze a trail.
In unsteady times, like we are experiencing now, the fantasma embodies this liana, real, consistent, certain. Through it we have created a possibility for us to get in touch with comrades from all-around to exchange notes on the specific issue of clandestinity. About all the different facets, angles of view, consternations and perspectives, which such a situation brings with it. And in the best case scenario this newspaper can open up mental connections, can encourage comrades to deal more intensely with the possibility of going underground, can offer an anonymized platform for speaking about the unspeakable.
In the editorial of the first issue we wrote „[we] hope to be able to contribute with this paper to the anarchist project and to grow with it“. By reading through it again we stumbled upon this sentence, because it didn’t really strike us as precise anymore. The decision to go unterground is not offensive by itself, just as this newspaper project is not subversiv by itself. Rather the questions are how one deals with it, what kind of decisions one makes in that situation and what kind of
potential one finds out in particular and therefore is able to implement. Because the anarchist project, the social revolution, needs a relevant social dimension of conflictuality by strong-willed and brave individuals, who don’t shy away from unambiguous words, followed by concrete acts of subversion. We still nourish the strong need to stoke up the social conflictuality on every level. We still want to be more than wandering ghosts on the sidestage of a society, which is not ours.
We still want to be offensive against all kind of authority and oppression in spite of our situation. But how can we intervene
socially? To put ourselves offensively beside the oppressed and to voice our ideas of freedom unambiguously, without handing ourselves to the enemy on a silver platter? It is these questions, which keep us, and we believe many others in similar situations, busy and we want to immerse deeper in the following issues.
Concluding we want to say, that we were very excited about the received articles and the very fast translation of the first issue to german. For security reasons we reserve the right for the following issues, to not specify received articles as such. Except of historical writings or publicly available publications, for example Incognito, which for the purpose of announcement on their part we gladly provide with an indication of source.
In the night from Sunday to Monday, the BIG (Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft) was attacked with fire and paint. They are responsible for the construction of the prison in Puch.
We attacked the Hypobank with paint. It’s a symbol for the politics of corruption and speculation of ÖVP and FPÖ.
We smashed the windows of the State Departement of Finances and attacked it with stinking bombs, because we are attacking the state.
In Salzburg, on September 16th, because the austrian governement is carrying out an EU summitmeeting a few days later to implement more restrictive practices of surveillance and control, especially against migrants.
We don’t care for the demonstration against the summit, where participants will be filmed, surveilled and criminalized. We don’t play by the rules of the rulers.
For two weeks RWE, with the assistance of a large police-deployment from all over the country, has been evicting the Hambach Forest-occupation, near the city of Cologne. Since Sunday 9/16 further two people are in custody jail. This means that all in all five activists are imprisoned in custody jail.
The police arrested the two anarchists on Saturday. They are not officially known by the police. They allegedly locked-on together in a tree-house, in the occupation “The North”. The state prosecutor and the judge are accusing them both of “Strong case of resistance towards enforcement officials (Vollstreckungsbeamte)”, §113 Abs. 2 StGB.
The imprisoned activist Winter, became an internet-sensation, as a moving speech directly after the arrested was shared on social media. “They are probably thinking that they have won, but they can’t win, because they need the forest just as much as we do. They also can’t win the fight, because so many people out there stand behind us. And they just don’t understand, that we don’t fight for just us, but for all of us,” said Winter at the arrest.
Landing in custody jail on the background of these allegations, is only possible through the law-change of the “Penal code (StGB)” from the end of May 2017, where the minimum sentence for “Resistance against enforcement officials” was raised to 6 months. Furthermore, there was the decision by the Higher Regional Stuttgart, in the context of the “Stuttgart 21 Protests”, in which locking-on “in anticipation of police-deployment” was valued as equal to “violent resistance”. Both of these are sharpenings of the law, that particularly are directed towards leftist activists.
For three days the accused were not given the possibilty of contact with their lawyer – also in front of the judge & magistrate. Jazzy said, that she throughout the days clearly had demanded to see her lawyer, and stuck to her right to legal defense. In her speech, Winter talked about not identifying yourself: “They will never understand, how it is to live with people, for whom it doesn’t matter what your name is.”
The Anarchist Black Cross, in its role as prisoner-support, gives the advice: “No person must assist in their own legal prosecution. On this question we point to §136 StPO, which gives the elementary right not to give your identity, even though this is often misused or forgotten in trials. We are asking all people close to the imprisoned people, to accept and support the wish of Winter.”
More information about the Hambacher Forst prisoners under: abcrhineland.blackblogs.org
We are BEK collective that started the BEK social centre which opened this spring in Zagreb, Croatia. Our squat/social center is completely DIY, based on non-hierarchical structure and our acts are inspired with the idea of anarchism.
All our programs are free (based on donations) and our goal is to include all the people from the community that want to participate so we could truly make our squat a social center, open for everyone to come and be a part of it!
The building we are in was built in 1950 and until recently it was an educational center for blind and visually impaired children. In the March of 2015 long needed renovation works were halted and it was permanently closed as an educational institution. The government did not provide adequate solutions for a new building that could satisfy the children’s needs nor to stop the further decay of the closed building.
Now we have a chance to make an open space for people and animals, but the building requires a lot of work, materials and time. To collect the money necessary, we have started a crowdfunding campaign, so what we need from you is your support.
If you think this idea and project is worthy of your help, we would be very thankful if you could promote our campaign in any way, like sharing, donating, posting about us and talking to your friends, families, colleagues, pets, plants etc. :)
This is ABC South-West speaking. We would like to introduce ourselves as the newly-founded Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) group for Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany and its surrounding areas. ABC’s goals are to show solidarity with prisoners and people suffering from repression, to connect those affected as well as solidary people and to offer support. This includes following and accompanying legal processes, so that cases of repression and violence are made public and nobody has to fight alone. In this context we will regularly post reports of ongoing court cases. We plan to create a list of prisoners in the region and – with your help – write letters to them, turning solidarity into action.
Part of our aim is also to go beyond mere descriptive work and to criticize and attack the roots of imprisonment and repression, namely state, borders, police brutality and the justice system.
The ABC seeks to offer information, discourse and networking for self-defense and self-empowerment. The website should act as an information platform where you can contribute texts and reports for publication, where a collection of helpful links and other material such as zines can be found, and where the framework for exchanging experiences is given. In time this will create an archive made up out of the collected contents, which can aid in observing and understanding developments in repressive structures as well as the corresponding possibilities to counteract them. In order to develop an overview of ongoing legal cases we are working on creating a chronicle of repression and solidarity. In order to do this we need your help! Send us (encrypted) information on legal processes, police actions, prisoners, acts of solidarity and so on.
A further important issue is the documentation and criticism of the continuing militarization of police, state, and companies, as well as public surveillance and militant law-making, justified by the pretext of fighting terror and the creation of imaginary enemies.
It is not our goal to be an anti-repression-service-center, but rather to unite to fight repression with you. The ABC South-West considers itself a horizontal anti-authoritarian group. In the moment we are still under construction and so are not able to take on new members for the time being. We are working towards local and international networking and would welcome the broadcast of the ABC homepage, as well as any helpful tips and information from your part. Check out the website’s download area where you can find posters to print and distribute yourselves.
Throughout a history of relentless and brutal police interventions, those occupying Hambacher Wald in opposition to RWE’s ecological devastation and structural violence, have been forced to seek recourse in even more inventive methods of non-violent resistance, often putting their own safety at risk.
Over the years many of us have been physically violated, persecuted and put in jail for defending life in Hambacher Wald and beyond. Incessantly the police has chased us down – in this fatal instance in a tragically literal sense.
Even if no direct causation can be established between police activities and Stefan’s lethal fall, throughout the current police operation a series of life-threatening interventions have been observed, such as the cutting of traverserses with people in them and – Germany, what?! – the emission of carbon monoxide in a subterranean chamber.
How many more broken bones do we need, how many more fatalities, until we will collectively open our eyes to the reality of police violence, to the role of the police in perpetuating mass-destructive corporations structural violence and to the police’s institutional function of protecting the interests of the wealthy to the detriment of the oppressed? The sudden death of Stefan has not altered our initial motivations for being here. However shamelessly the police may proceed to evict the Hambacher Wald occupation, we shall not flinch, we shall not surrender – we are here, and if we must, we will come back. For the forest and for Stefan.
On Wednesday afternoon about 3:45 pm, the movement journalist, blogger and activist Steffen Horst Meyn, died in the tree house village Beechtown in Hambach Forest. He crashed while attempting to document an ongoing eviction action by the Special Task Force of Police (SEK), from a suspension bridge from about 20 m height. Rescue workers on the ground tried to resuscitate him. However, he died a little later, still in the forest, in a rescue helicopter. Photos taken by Steffen shortly before the accident
According to our information, there is no direct connection with the acute local police action at the time of the accident. But we know first-hand that the deceased only climbed into the trees because he was permanently prevented by the police from doing his press work on the ground.
“ After the press was often restricted in their work during the last few days in the Hambach Forest, I am now 25m up on Beechtown to document the evacuation work. There is no barrier tape up here.” Steffen Horst Meyn
