‘Interviews’ Archives
Interview with Anarchist Comrade Alfredo Cospito from Ferrara Prison in Italy
Sunday, April 7th, 2019
The following text is from the second part of “Which international? Interview and dialogue with Alfredo Cospito from the Ferrara Prison,” part of a debate that some comrades are undertaking with imprisoned anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito, published in winter 2019 in the anarchist newspaper “Vitriol” in Italian.
Analyzing the history of the movement of the exploited, of the poor, oppressed and proletarians, we see that anarchist ideas are born, nourished and developed in these contexts; on the other hand, most of the anarchists also come from there (of course there are also exceptions). These ideas were born mainly during the birth and growth of industrial capitalism (indicatively from the early 1800s to the 1970s), and up to 40 years ago, the organizations of the exploited and of the workers are mainly mass and the anarchist groups (and the individuals who are part of them) are also the fruit of that historical era. With the advent of capitalist restructuring in the 1980s, followed by a drastic change in the world of work, even anarchist action and organization undergo changes; to the classic organizations of synthesis (or mass), the less rigid structures, based on affinity and informality, are opposed. The new technological restructuring, based mainly on robotics will obviously lead to other drastic changes (mass unemployment) and the new proletarians will probably be employed in moving goods. In this context, in which the impoverishment of the proletarians (and obviously the exploitation of humans, animals and land) and the wealth of the exploiters will increase, does it still make sense to talk about class struggle? Are there still margins to involve – in the struggle for the destruction of this techno-industrial civilization – the exploited, the proletarians, the excluded? Should we try or renew forms of struggle organization?
This question starts from logical assumptions by making the organizational method depend on external conditions. But, for us anarchists, it is not all so simple, linear and logical because, not being “politicians,” in our case, the “means justify the ends,” not vice versa. Consequently, if capitalism “restructures,” it must not change our way of “organizing ourselves” because it is in the means we use that our anarchy lives. (more…)
Tags: Alfredo Cospito, Ferrara, Italy, Vetriolo
Posted in Interviews
Internationalist from the Hambach Forest in the YPJ ranks (Germany, Rojava)
Monday, October 29th, 2018
Elefterya Hambi is an internationalist in northern Syria and is fighting in the YPJ ranks. In an interview, she talks about her reasons why she decided to help create a new social model in Rojava.
Tags: Germany, Hambach Forest, International Solidarity, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Kurdish Struggle, Rojava, Syria, War, Women's Defense Units (YPJ)
Posted in Interviews
From the US Prison Strike to the Greek Prison Struggle: An Interview with Imprisoned Anarchist Christos Tsakalos
Saturday, October 27th, 2018
From It’s Going Down:
Below is an interview with Greek anarchist prisoner Christos Tsakalos that discusses the situation of heightened repression and resistance inside of Greek prisons, and discusses the influence of the US prison strike on Greek prisoners.
The following is an interview with anarchist political prisoner Christos Tsakalos who is currently in his 7th year of 180 year prison sentence in the Korydallos prison of Athens, Greece. He is accused of association with the revolutionary group known as the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire or CCF. Christos has refused to ever claim innocence as he refuses to kneel with remorse for acting against his enemy the state and capitalist society. He was caught while on the run from the state in 2011 in the city of Volos. He has been accused of bank robbery, participating in dozens of actions against the state and capitalism claimed by CCF, and given 115 years for a prison escape in itself. He has remained active throughout his time in prison, and has shown inspiring integrity in his refusal to cooperate or compromise with the state.
CCF was a group that was formed out of the December 2008 uprising in Greece that resulted from the police murder of a 16 year old boy Alexandros Grigoropoulos. The group saw defeat and futility in the street protests happening both in reaction to this murder, plus the dawning austerity of the 2008 crisis, and began a clandestine campaign of revolutionary action. With an extreme effort by the state to crack down on “terrorist” groups, CCF faced an extensive operation against them, resulting in the imprisonment of alleged and admitted members, plus a new dawn of modern surveillance and counter-insurgency strategies by the typically disorganized Greek state.
Christos is one of many political prisoners in Greece who have remained active in prison, and has openly declared solidarity with the prison strikes happening in the USA. There have been solidarity actions in Greece this year alone at the Korydallos and Larissa prisons of Greece. (more…)
Tags: Christos Tsakalos, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Greece, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, International Solidarity, Korydallos Prison, Prison Labour Strike, USA
Posted in Interviews
Smoke Signals – A conversation in the aftermath of G20 in Hamburg (Germany)
Tuesday, August 7th, 2018
First appeared as „Ein Gespräch mit einigen Militanten über die informelle Koordinierung im Vorfeld der G20“ in Rauchzeichen, a magazine published by Autonomous Groups, Fall 2017 and now first published in English on Anarhija. This is late, but not too late. We can use this conversation to prepare something for the coming black bloc attack next year in Biarritz/France, where the G7 summit will be end of Summer 2019.
–
AG: At the end of the summer of 2016, several communiques propose an informal coordination of radical groups in the run-up to the G20 summit in Hamburg. You took part in it. What interventions were you aiming for and which perspectives did it entail for you?
[Chuzpe]: “On the occasion of several big events like the G8 in Heiligendamm in 2007 or around the Destroika prior to the inauguration of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt in 2015, there have been similar proposals and radical campaigns. It is not a very new idea. Starting from an anarchist analysis, I see the necessity of a permanent conflictuality and I’m sceptical towards this staging of a political play where everyone has its role. Focusing on such an event leads often to the side-lining of everyday struggles. But at the same time, I see the possibility of a tension opening up in such moments, in which the scope of our interventions can amplify. (more…)
Tags: Analysis, G20, Germany, Hamburg
Posted in Interviews
Christos Tsakalos: ”The Point is That People Should not Leave from Prison Dehumanized.” (Greece)
Tuesday, November 14th, 2017
via enoughisenough:
Originally published by TVXS. Translated by Black Cat.
Read all the Enough is Enough reports about Korydallos prison; here.
”I am speaking neither as an anarchist nor as a member of the C.C.F.” Christos Tsakalos clarified as we spoke on the phone. ”I am speaking as a member of the Committee of Struggle from Korydallos Prison, which represents 1500 prisoners who have been protesting the past two weeks against the new correctional code, which will result in the violation of the basic rights of prisoners in case it passes”, he explains and highlights that there is an existing network in Greece’s prisons and the mobilizations will escalate if the government does not make concessions.
He also stated that a Ministry of Justice official who went to Korydallos Prison and discussed these matters with the committee found the demands to be fair. Nevertheless, he clarified that this was his own personal stance and not that of the Ministry. ”We will go to extremes because we understand that they are trying to create a prison within the prison” says Christos, who was detained in solitary confinement from 2015 through to 2017, on the other end of the phone line. (more…)
Tags: Athens, Christos Tsakalos, Greece, Korydallos Prison
Posted in Interviews, Prison Struggle
Interview with an activist about the anti-government protests (Belarus)
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017
This interview with an activist from Belarus was recorded on the 19th of March. She gives us the context for the ongoing protest, pictures its development and tells us about the aims of the protest. She also explains who is attending the protest, what this means and what is to expect from it in the future.
Click link for audio:
https://abcdd.org/en/2017/03/20/interview-mit-einer-aktivistin-aus-belarus/
ABC Dresden
Tags: ABC Dresden, Belarus, Repression
Posted in Interviews
Interview with anarchists from Den Haag (Netherlands)
Monday, January 2nd, 2017
From Avalanche – A conversation with two anarchist comrades from Den Haag, NL, an overview of the context, struggle and projects of a few anarchists from this city. We chose to transcribe this interview in order to better understand the particular path, circumstances and moments of revolt that have composed the experience of these comrades.
Tell me a bit about the city itself…
A – Den Haag is a city of 500 to maybe 600 thousand people, it is both the home to poor neighbourhoods, such as the Schilderswijk, the poorest neighbourhood in the Netherlands, and of the biggest institutions of justice of the European Union. The motto of the city is “Peace and Justice”.
It is the host of some of the most important military, intelligence and justice institutions of the European Union… Europol, international summit centres, international courts, embassies…
B – There is also an international zone, protected by security delta, this is not only for the State but also companies, it attracts companies, capital. This city has all changed in the last 15 years, some- one in charge, from one day to the next, decided to flip the switch… and everything changed, all the dozens of squats were evicted, cleaned up, made the space for its new international role… (more…)
Tags: Den Haag, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Mitch Henriquez, Netherlands, Police Brutality, Racism, Repression, Riots, Schilderswijk
Posted in Interviews
Interview with released anti-fascist prisoner Alexei Gaskarov (Russia)
Tuesday, November 15th, 2016
Alexei Gaskarov was released from prison 27th of October, here is a great interview which was translated from Snob by the Russian reader.
Alexei Gaskarov: What Politics?
Alexei Gaskarov: Many People Ask Whether I Am Going to Take up Politics.
But What Politics Are There Nowadays?
Olesya Gerasimenko
Snob
November 1, 2016
Anti-fascist Alexei Gaskarov has been released from prison after serving three and a half years in prison for alleged involvement in the Bolotyana Square riot in Moscow in 2012. Snob asked Kommersant special correspondent Olesya Gerasimenko to meet with Gaskarov to discuss the Bolotnaya Square case, life and education in the penal colony, and the death of the protest movement.
“Why would they ask me about organizing a riot if they knew no one organized it?”
Was your trial fair?
I regret we agreed to be involved in it. Like Soviet political prisoners, we should have stood with our backs turned and kept our mouths shut, and not treated it as an attempt to get at the truth. I had illusions after Khimki. [In 2010, Gaskarov was arrested and charged with attacking the Khimki town hall during a protest in defense of Khimki Forest, but the court acquitted him. — Snob] Several videos showed clearly that the incidents involving me happened before the riot kicked off, according to police investigators themselves. In the end, I ticked off the evidence, the judge nodded her head, but there was no reaction.
The entire trial looked as if the decision had already been made, the sentence written out, and let’s get this over as quickly as possible.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Tags: Alexei Gaskarov, Bolotnaya Case, Khimki, Russia
Posted in Interviews
Interview with Yesim Nurova, animal liberationist (Turkey)
Saturday, September 24th, 2016
Yesim Nurova is a journalist affiliated with R9 Media. She is an animal rights activist known throughout Turkey and Europe. She has organized and led some of the largest animal liberation and animal rights demonstrations and protests, many with a Direct Action component, in Asia. Also, she is the Founder of the Spanish language A.L.F Frente de Liberación Animal Liberation/Animal Rights Community, an animal liberation and animal rights online resource for Spanish speaking activists around the world.
Q-Where are you from?
I live in Turkey.
Q-What organization(s) are you involved with?
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office where I’m an Advisor and Liaison for Europe. Also, I’m a Journalist affiliated with New York City based R9 Media.
Q-Why are you an activist? How did you get involved in the fight for
animal liberation?
I’m an Animal Liberation Activist because animals are the most oppressed beings on the planet. They suffer and endure so much pain at the hands of and service towards humanity. Worldwide there are factory farms, fur farms, leather factories, slaughterhouses, circuses and zoos. All of which imprison them and subject them to violence and exploit them for goods, resources and entertainment. They are slaughtered for food, clothing, accessories, cosmetics, medical testing and medical products. This is unacceptable in the twenty-first century. Animals have the right to live free of suffering and exploitation at the hands of humans. Fighting for the freedom of animals is my fight. I, and in fact all people, have an ethical responsibility towards animals. They cannot fight for their own freedom so the responsibility falls to Activists. They must be liberated from their slavery and I’m in solidarity with them. I’m fighting for their freedom. (more…)
Tags: ALF, Animal Liberation, North American Animal Liberation Press Office, R9 Media, Supreme Vegan Power, Turkey, USA, Yesim Nurova
Posted in Interviews
A-Radio: Interview on the repression against anarchists – Operation Fenix (Czech Republic)
Thursday, September 8th, 2016
Interesting interview about the Operation Fenix which gives a round-up and highlights civil anarchist positions within the anarchist movement in Czech Republic.
In the context of the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners (23.-30th of August 2016), we had the opportunity of talking to a comrade from Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) in Czech Republic. The interview gives a short summary of the repression that started in 2015 and explains the singular cases and their current development, but deals also with the problems the movement had in the beginning to show www.topphentermineonline.com solidarity. Last but not least, you get very good advice on the topic of solidarity and what to do yourselves.
Since the interview, another comrade is in prison. Lukáš Borl, who had been living underground, has been arrested by the police on September 4.
More information (in different languages) on the Antifenix website.
Length: 22:30 min
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2016/09/08/a-radio-in-english-antifenix-interview-on-the-repression-against-anarchists-in-czech/
If you want to write the two imprisoned comrades, please use these addresses:
Lukáš Borl
1.3.1982
Vazební veznice Litomerice
Veitova 1
412 81 Litomerice
Czech Republic
Martin Ignacák
10.8.1986
V.V. Praha – Pankrác
P.O.BOX – 5
Praha 4
140 57
Czech Republic
Tags: ABC Czech Republic, Anarchistisches Radio Berlin, Czech Republic, International Week for Anarchist Prisoners, Repression
Posted in Interviews
A-Radio: The defense of the Rog factory squat in Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Tuesday, July 5th, 2016
In cooperation with Crna Luknja, the anarchist radio show on Radio Student in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, we produced the following interview on the ongoing struggle against the attempted eviction of Rog, a former bicycle factory and an active squat for 10 years now. The interview focuses on the resistance against the attempts of eviction by the city as well as Nazi attacks and also on the political framework right now in Slovenia.
You’ll find the audio (to listen online or download in different sizes) here.
Length: 13:00 min
You can find other English and Spanish language audios here.
Tags: Anarchistisches Radio Berlin, Ljubljana, Rog factory squat, Slovenia
Posted in Interviews
Interview with Nikos Maziotis, imprisoned member of Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)
Wednesday, June 29th, 2016
Some Questions and Answers with N. Maziotis, event at Karditsa self-managed space, June 2016 [excerpts]
Q. How can the anarchist/antiauthoritarian space change from being reactive into a real revolutionary movement? In your opinion, what political characteristics should it have, and what kind of organization and aims?
A: It is a question of political positions. Anarchy, or Libertarian or antiauthoritarian communism is a social proposal and organization. The condition to create a truly revolutionary anarchist movement is the existence of political positions and proposals in order to make clear to the people, the masses and workers, what we believe and what aims we have as anarchists. This means that we must take positions on the burning problems and issues of our time that are the result of the capitalist crisis- such as debt, memoranda, the dilemma of staying in or leaving the European Union, and to make clear what is our goal as anarchists, which is none other than the overthrow and destruction of capital and the state and the creation of a stateless, classless society.
These are issues for which the masses of people, the people affected by the crisis and the policies for rescuing the system, have searched and still search answers, yet the anarchist/anti-authoritarian space had nothing different to offer them compared to the proposals of the mainstream parties (besides slogans perhaps). Also beyond the formulation of political positions and proposals it should be clear by whom or in what ways and means our struggle will promote and implement these political positions and proposals- in other words, how we will make Anarchy a reality. (more…)
Tags: Greece, Karditsa, Lambros Foundas, Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa, Revolutionary Struggle
Posted in Interviews
An Interview with Ulrike Meinhof’s Sister Wienke (Germany)
Thursday, May 12th, 2016
EN: Interview with Ulrike Meinhof’s sister Wienke
FR: Un entretien avec Wienke, la soeur d’Ulrike Meinhof
IT: Incontro con Wienke, sorella di Ulrike Meinhof
Tags: Germany, Red Army Faction (RAF), Ulrike Meinhof
Posted in Interviews
Some excerpts from the presentation by Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle, at Pikrodafne squat, Athens (Greece)
Wednesday, April 27th, 2016
31/1/2016
“We have to sabotage the implementation of the Third Memorandum”
Q: What are the reasons, in your opinion, for the decline in the level of social resistance and struggles against capitalist restructuring and austerity measures and how can we get out of this impasse? What should be the strategy in the anarchist space currently?
A: The cause of the lessening of social resistance is precisely that it had and continues to have a defensive character in face of the unprecedented onslaught of capital and the state after 2010. The capitalist machine has been malfunctioning since 2008, neither finding profitable investments for pumping out ever greater profits nor capital to offset its losses, so it attacks social gains and the working class. And it attacks social security, salaries and pensions, it confiscates property due to debts, reduces labor costs, and seizes public property through privatization.
To compensate for its losses, capital pushes through rescue programs, that is to say the memoranda, wiping out sections of the population that it neither wants to nor can exploit, leading to their destruction. The redistribution of large-scale social wealth by confiscation applies a large-scale policy of theft from society and societal genocide to save the powerful.
Faced with this unprecedented attack that has already left thousands dead and the majority of society immiserated and impoverished, the solution is not to struggle to restore the system and social order to pre-2008 conditions- when the system worked, the banking system was “prosperous” and giving loans, with a welfare state (which in Greece was never well-developed) and a social consensus on the neoliberal reforms of that time. (more…)
Tags: Athens, Greece, Nikos Maziotis, Pikrodafne squat, Revolutionary Struggle
Posted in Interviews
Experiences of anarchist comrade Mikalai Dziadok on how to survive jail in Belarus (A-Radio)
Wednesday, March 30th, 2016
The following recording has been made by the Anarchist Group Dortmund (in cooperation with A-Radio Berlin) during a presentation on March 6, 2016.
In it the former anarchist prisoner from Belarus Mikalai Dziadok shares his prison experiences and gives some advice on how to survive the jail. Total helplessness, psychological pressure, stupid convicts‘ laws, ever-lasting prison terms – this is what Belarusian prison is made of.
You’ll find the audio (to listen online or download in different sizes) here:
Length: 1:29 h
You‘ll find more audios on Belarus from the Anarchist Radio Berlin here.
Read this previous post for details about some of the anarchist attacks which took place in Belarus for which Mikalai was taken hostage in revenge.
Tags: Anarchist Group Dortmund, Anarchistisches Radio Berlin, Belarus, Interviews, Mikalai Dziadok, Repression
Posted in Interviews