Repression – Page 28

Italy: ‘The homeland of Beccaria? A homeland of gravediggers’ – Anna Beniamino

Posted on 2023/02/21 - 2023/02/21 by darknights

The homeland of Beccaria? A homeland of gravediggers

So many people are digging for a corpse, but no one takes the responsibility of being the executioner. At the same time, it’s full of gravediggers ready to throw shovels of mud preparing the grave for the anarchist. A confused and dishevelled ballet around the gallows with many bit players: ‘zero tolerance’, institutional blame-game, audience depending changes of course, the spectre of anarchy that keeps the government, or rather the state, ‘under checkmate’, and then the ‘mass-murdering’ anarchists colluding with the mass-murdering mafiosi, with the appearance on stage of the PD [Partito Democratico, “Democratic Party”].

A poorly written and poorly acted theater, a scramble of ignorant ‘experts’, of professional and compulsive liars, of low journalism, sloth and cowardice that does nothing but reveal what is the potential of an individual waging a struggle alone against the state moloch. A moloch, by the way, that by its own makers claim must be very fragile if a few writings on the walls, broken shop windows and a few burnt cars are enough to put it in ‘danger’.

Whichever way you look at it, the struggle of an anarchist thrown into a torture regime has broken the prevailing narrative. Despite the ridiculous attempt to credit him as colluding with (or, even worse, directed by…) the Mafia, despite the ridiculous attempt to misrepresent his acts and words, it would seem that a little critical sense prevails, and that the attempt to undermine his credibility and integrity achieves the opposite effect of bringing out the linear coherence of anti-authoritarians and revolutionaries who continue to defend their ideas and practices without being distracted by the fireworks of post-modern media politics. And that unite, whereas repression would divide.

Shifting the focus away from the smokescreen that has been raised, which forces one to respond to low-grade rubbish, it would suffice to sustain oneself on the cornerstones of anti-authoritarian thinking: to talk of a weld between anarchists and the Mafia (and its corollary: that antagonism in the streets supports the ‘mafiosi’) is an oxymoron, just as it would be to speak of a weld between anarchists and the State for who, in case anyone had forgotten, has always made the rejection of political delegation a bulwark against the representative drift and the trafficking that underlies it. Exactly why opposing imprisonment and torture does not mean sanctifying the people inside, who are often enslaved subservients (and/or also applying) the same political and authoritarian dynamics.

Anarchism is guilty of having been swept aside and mistreated by official historiography or swallowed up in the vortex of inculture of 21st century digital illiteracy, yet its contribution to the development of the tensions and revolutionary path of the last two centuries has been fundamental, although often overexposed to the risk of instrumentalisation, internal purges or self-dissolution, unable to make the results obtained bear fruit in the long term.

However, anarchism has the virtue of being a mala erba, tenacious and difficult to uproot, which relapses more powerfully if one tries to eradicate it. That is what we are experiencing. Its mercurial ability to unite and divide, its fluidity and unpredictability have given it the ability to raise one of the thorniest, most censored and misrepresented issues: prison and torture regimes.

So much needs to be discussed, in the immediate term and in perspective. Now there is a man to support, all the way to the end, since too many are playing without restraint on his very life.

Anna
February 5th, 2023

Translator’s note: Cesare Beccaria was a Lombard enlightened man of the 18th century who was particularly concerned with the punitive system. He is considered advanced because, among other things, he opposed the death penalty.

[Translation received via e-mail and published at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/02/20/the-homeland-of-beccaria-a-homeland-of-gravediggers/]

* * *

(IT) La patria di Beccaria? Una patria di becchini
(EN) The homeland of Beccaria? A homeland of gravediggers
(ES) ¿La patria de Beccaria? Una patria de sepultureros

Italy: ‘To burning hearts’ Statement of the anarchists accused at the trial for Operation Renata

Posted on 2023/02/21 - 2023/02/21 by darknights

Four years after the repressive operation Renata on February 19, 2019, we publish – not for an aseptic “exhumation” of recent history, but because these are texts that address the profound social and individual reasons for the anarchists’ thought and action – the statement of the seven comrades accused during the first-degree trial (“To Burning Hearts”) and a second statement distributed during the appeal trial. In addition, we believe it is important and necessary to find and disseminate the statements of comrades who, during the trials, take the floor continuing to support the ideas and practices of attack against the state and capital.

To burning hearts

Statement of the anarchists accused at the trial for Operation Renata

The anarchist does not look to success, to victory, to competition. He fights, because it is right. And in any struggle loss is part of life. He does not change his mind because he loses, much less give up the next struggle. The System is self-feeding because of the people who do not fight, not because they are invincible. The anarchist’s job is to instill in the people revolt, not in segments but continuous. Like a wave that recedes and then returns. You ask me if we will win? You ask me the wrong question. Ask me if we will fight and I will answer yes.
Luigi Galleani

Today we decided to have our say on the “Renata” operation. In other writings, the investigation has been analyzed, both in its general repressive aspects of the state and with regard to the technological, inquisitorial and legal tools used to hit those who still dare to fight for something different and still blow on the wings of freedom.

We have decided not to turn to the court that will try us nor to the diligence of our repressors. A courtroom is not the place where we choose to speak today.

We want to speak in those places where there is struggle, where there is still critical spirit, wherever there are women and men who are aware that so many things must be changed now, that this state of affairs must be revolutionized.

So we are going to talk about the actions that we are accused of or that are included in the investigation.

These actions-night or day, individual or collective-are part of a conflict that goes far beyond the specific facts or the territory in which they are located. They are the result of a broader clash, that between the exploited, the exploiters and those who defend them.

Of these actions we share the spirit, the ethics, the method, the goals, regardless of who carried them out. They speak for themselves, they are understandable to most, they point to a path – that of liberation. They point the finger at those who live by exploitation and war, hatred and violence, they wish for something more, something that will put an end to the worst atrocities and barbarities, but above all they aim to destroy the wall of resignation, in times so poor in human solidarity, rebellion, critical thinking.

Those who in recent years have said and still say that such actions serve no purpose, that the game is not worth the candle, that nothing will change, that human beings have permanently lost their wits by reducing life to a constant fratricidal war, have stopped dreaming, have stopped questioning those responsible for injustice and the causes that have brought society to a moral, environmental and material level that is disturbing to say the least. Continue reading “Italy: ‘To burning hearts’ Statement of the anarchists accused at the trial for Operation Renata” →

Athens, Greece: CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY FOR AN INCENDIARY ATTACK ON A CAR DEALERSHIP by Carnivalists of fire

Posted on 2023/02/21 by darknights

Source: athens.indymedia

Via & translated by Act for freedom now!

Athens: CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY FOR AN INCENDIARY ATTACK ON A CAR DEALERSHIP

“Fortune knows that we defy it, and the more it beats us, the more we despise it.” William Shakespeare

In a few months, as we all know, the four-year rule of new democracy with Kyriakos Mitsotakis as prime minister will come to its “happy” end. Before the government even started, it promised many times that (like another Papadopoulos (dictator leader on 70s) it would ”crack down on anarchy” thus declaring open war on all anarchist-revolutionary-rebellious parts of society.

After 4 years of evictions of squats, bans on strikes and marches, State murders, extreme repression and imprisonment of innocent but proudly ‘guilty’ comrades, we are still here. Although we have had some resounding disappointments and defeats (let us not hide behind our finger) we proudly declare that the anarchist revolutionary movement has not fallen and will never fall without a fight. And that is the only way we ought to look to the continuation of our struggle. For unlike theirs our way has no end. Our road is eternal, etched with the blood of those who sacrificed for Anarchy and Freedom and carved in the footsteps of fire.

That is why we are taking responsibility for the incendiary attack on a car dealership in Kallithea at dawn on 12/2, which, make no mistake, was not for extortion or for blackmail, as the media declared the next day, but as a small blow to the image of normality, security and social peace that prevails in Greek society. We dedicate this attack to all our comrades who, unrepentantly and without fear, still look the enemy in the eye and take it on. Because the ruins of a ‘beautiful’ delegation that tries to cover up the vulgarity of society will always fill us with satisfaction.

Vulgarity that takes its cruelest form inside the prisons in an attempt to physically and mentally dehumanise the prisoners and cut them off from the rest of society, reinforcing the already existing social apathy. But make no mistake! The spirit is not flattened and the voices are not silenced. A prime example is the struggle of the prisoners inside Greek prisons that has been going on for months against the new Penitentiary Law and continues despite the vindictive transfers. We stand proudly by your side!

“Thy wild dogs want liberty; they bark for joy in their cellar when thy spirit endeavoureth to open all prison doors.” Nietzsche

Solidarity with the hunger striker Alfredo Cospito

Strength to comrade Thanos Hatzianggelou who carried out a hunger and thirst strike against his vindictive transfer

Solidarity to the 4 comrades who were imprisoned for the attack on the Piraeus traffic police, to the 4 who are being prosecuted for the ”comrades-compañeras” case and to Kostas Dimalexis who was imprisoned for the attack on Real

Internationalist inflammatory greetings to the Chilean comrades Aldo and Lucas Hernandez Valdes, who were imprisoned for the explosive attack against the National Directorate of the Gendarmerie

Carnivalists of fire

Italy: Update on Operation Sibilla: hearing set for Alfredo Cospito and other comrades under investigation at Perugia review court

Posted on 2023/02/21 by darknights

On Feb. 13, the setting of the review hearing on precautionary measures was notified for comrades targeted for measures in the November 11, 2021 Sibilla repressive operation (including Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike for more than 120 days, and Gianluca, who is currently under house arrest in the Diamante investigation by the Genoa prosecutor’s office). The hearing is set for March 14 at the court in Perugia.

This second re-examination stemmed from the hearing held on June 22 in Rome at the court of cassation, which concluded by granting prosecutor Manuela Comodi’s request, thus annulling the previous order of the review court (which on Dec. 16, 2021 had resulted in the revocation of the precautionary measures). The court of cassation, in spite of what had been expressed by the attorney general (who had called for the rejection of the Perugian prosecutor’s appeal), had thus “exhumed” the investigation by annulling the revocation of the measures and ordering a new review hearing.

Operation Sibilla, carried out by the Carabinieri’s Special Operational Group and the Perugia prosecutor’s office under the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia and Counterterrorism Directorate, played a key role in the genesis and application of the 41 bis detention order for comrade Alfredo Cospito.

Eight comrades (including Alfredo himself), previously investigated by the ROS and the Milan Prosecutor’s Office in another case for 270 bis c. p. (subversive association for the purpose of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order) and 414 c. p. (incitement to commit a crime, with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism) in connection with the editing, publication and distribution of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo,” had been the subject in September 2021, by the Perugia prosecutor’s office, of a request for precautionary measures in prison on the same charges, plus other charges for various reasons relating to additional articles, leaflets and documents, as well as wall writings and for one comrade to a damage to some Poste Italiane cars (Foligno, June 6, 2019) in solidarity with anarchist comrades on hunger strike over the closure of the High Security 2 section of the L’Aquila prison.

At the same time as this request for arrest, a three-month censure order on correspondence was ordered for comrade Alfredo Cospito, which was subsequently renewed several times. The reasons for this censure became clear only a couple of months later, when – with the November 11 operation – the Sibilla investigation “emerged” and PM Comodi’s original request was downgraded by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations. Thus, a new order established no longer eight arrests in prison but six precautionary measures in relation only to the charge of incitement to commit crimes with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism: an arrest warrant for Alfredo Cospito (at the time imprisoned in Terni Prison); house arrest with all restrictions for a comrade from Spoleto; and an obligation to stay in the municipality of residence jointly with the obligation to sign three days a week for four comrades. In addition, other comrades turned out to be under investigation at large, countless searches were carried out, and two websites (roundrobin.info and malacoda.noblogs.org) were subjected to preventive seizure and blacked out (a practically unprecedented fact as far as the Italian-speaking anarchist movement is concerned), remaining unreachable to this day with conventional search engines. Continue reading “Italy: Update on Operation Sibilla: hearing set for Alfredo Cospito and other comrades under investigation at Perugia review court” →

Athens, Greece: On the first day of the trial of comrade Kostas K. Second hearing today 14th February

Posted on 2023/02/14 by darknights

The trial of Kostas K for the attack on the vehicles of Minister Voulgarakis and his police escort in July 2007 started on 18 January at the Mixed Jury, with the significant presence of comrades and women.

( https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1622704/ )

The proceedings started with the testimonies of cops (state security, Voulgarakis’ guard, the ministerial guard). Despite the fact that one of the subpoenaed cops (Voulgarakis’ personal bodyguard who had opened fire on the comrades who had carried out the attack) was not present, the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses were completed in an orderly manner, more deconstructing the indictment than adding anything to it.

Next came the defence witnesses: a biologist who thoroughly demonstrated the inconsistencies and inadequacy of the prosecution’s case, which has dna as its sole “evidence”, and a comrade-sister of Kostas K.

And while the comrade was preparing to apologize, the prosecutor practically interrupted the proceedings, calling for the forcible bringing in of the last cop witness to testify, hoping that in him the last lifeline could be found, in order to save the deconstructed indictment.

The next hearing set for February 14 (9am) will begin with the cop’s testimony, if he eventually attends. This will be followed by the “apology” of comrade Kostas K

To break the codes of repression

Solidarity with comrade Kostas K

Tuesday 14 February – 9am, MOD Degleri Street

Source: athens.indymedia

Bolzano, Italy: Statement at the appeal trial for the Brenner demonstration

Posted on 2023/02/08 by darknights

Today, Feb. 3, the last hearing prior to sentencing in the appeal trial for the anti-border march (Brenner, May 2016) was held at the Bolzano court. This is the statement read in the courtroom, signed by some 20 defendants:

Statement at the appeal trial for the Brenner demonstration

If there is a place where words do not express mere opinions without consequences, this is certainly the court. In a few days, in this courtroom, it will be decided whether and for how long our future will consist of bars and prison.

This is no reason to keep silent.

In the repressive doggedness that the various public prosecutors’ offices in this country have long reserved for the anarchist movement – of which the 130 years in prison dispensed in the first-degree verdict in this trial is a good example -, in these days it is reaching its zenith. The state seems determined to condemn to death fellow anarchist Alfredo Cospito, now on his 107th day of an all-out hunger strike against the torture of 41 bis and against hostile life imprisonment. Alfredo’s determination, on the one hand, and institutional ferocity, on the other, decisively overshadow for us the outcome of this trial and our individual fates.

In a country marked by a long trail of real massacres carried out by state apparatuses with the manpower of neo-fascists-this is not only a historical truth, but even a judicial one-, to be convicted of “political massacre” are … two anarchists (Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino), for “a massacre without massacre attributed without evidence.” The most odious falsification of the anarchist idea and practice, taking Alfredo to the grave for living of 41 bis.

If this is the logic, then 130 years in prison can be doled out for a demonstration that caused, according to the same prosecution, 8,000 euros in damages. Consistency, as they say, is in the whole.

While there is talk of the Constitution, the rule of law and peace, reality tells us that the democratic governments of the West are leading us straight toward conflict with Russia, that is, on an inclined plane at the bottom of which is World War III, with the accompanying annihilation of terrestrial life.

The fury against dissent in general and against anarchists in particular is the home front of that war. The 41 bis is prison of war.

That is why Alfredo’s great courage and the solidarity he was able to muster are so frightening. They are part of that humanity that will never side with NATO bombs, just as our comrades in Russia do not side with Putin’s bombs.

While it is up to you to choose whether to join the chorus of repression that is nowadays more disproportionate, our thoughts and hearts are with Alfredo.

Bolzano, February 3, 2023

Giulia Perlotto, Carlo Casucci, Kamilla Bezerra, Massimo Passamani, Manuel Oxoli, Luca Rassu, Roberto Bottamedi, Marco Degosus, Arianna Viola, Mattia Magagna, Roberto Bonadeo, Agnese Trentin, Andrea Parolari, Stefano Diani, Benedetta Antonucci, Matteo Nascimben, Sirio Mafrini

Source: Il Rovescio & oltre il Ponte

Via: La Nemesi

France: Ivan ended his hunger strike

Posted on 2023/01/27 by darknights

On January 23, I ended the hunger strike I started on December 22, in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito’s struggle against the regime of isolation and psychological torture 41 bis.
I wish him a lot of strength in this difficult moment and I thank all those who have supported me during these 32 days (and, more in general, who have supported me for seven and a half months).

Today, January 25th, I went before the JLD, who decided to renew my preventive detention, for another four months.

Besides, here are some small episodes of prison-judicial repression.
On Monday, January 9th, for the second time (the first one was on December 6th, as if by chance, shortly after I had been heard by the investigating judge and also shortly after the end of my previous hunger strike), the henchmen searched the cell I share with a fellow prisoner (definitively condemned).
In both cases, they found two cell phones, with their chargers.
We’re going to the disciplinary commission tomorrow, January 26. It went surprisingly fast: usually there is a delay of two or three months, between a search which makes them discover forbidden objects and the corresponding disciplinary commission. Is this another aspect of my “special treatment” (like the mail blocked for months, the impossibility of access to certain activities, to work or to trainings…) or simple, petty reprisals for the two hunger strikes?

Moreover, there is something that makes me think that the search of January 9 could have been made on request of the Investigating Judge (who was necessarily informed of the phones found on December 6). Indeed, the next day, the head of ELAC (the “big guys” of the AP) who led the search, asked me (alone) to sign a document “for the exploitation of my phone”, something we had never seen, here (and that they did not ask me in December). Obviously, I refused to sign.

Otherwise, I’m fine and remain determined.
Courage Alfredo!
Long live Anarchy!

Ivan
Villepinte prison
January 25, 2023

To write to him :
Ivan Alocco
n. 46355
M.A. of Villepinte
40, avenue Vauban
93420 – Villepinte

Source: Anarchist Bure Cross

Italy: Vicious, obtuse and stupid. DAP officials want to gag even Alfredo’s doctor

Posted on 2023/01/25 by darknights

Yesterday, Jan. 23, the Department of Penitentiary Administration in Sassari, in the person of “Director on Mission” Carmen Forino, forwarded a formal ban against Dr. Angelica Milia, the doctor who visits Alfredo Cospito in the Bancali prison. The doctor is warned against making any statement to Radio Onda d’Urto, under penalty of revoking her authorization to visit Alfredo. All this “in order not to thwart the purposes of the regime under Article 41Bis.”

In short, DAP officials-on whose shoulders fall the responsibility, to stick to recent history alone, for the massacre carried out in Italian prisons in March 2020, as well as the beatings and torture perpetrated in Santa Maria Capua Vetere in the following month-would like Alfredo not only to crack in that grave in which he was locked up, but to crack in general silence. As a poet wrote at another time and to other state officials, “You are murderers, gentlemen; and I would also add (this is a point of view I cherish) that you are ridiculous murderers.”

Being the most vicious and most obtuse part of state institutions-used to being accountable to no one for their repressive actions-the DAP is also the stupidest. Only fools, in fact, can write in black and white that the very fact of informing about the state of health of a prisoner on hunger strike for ninety-six days succeeds in “nullifying the purposes of the regime under Article 41Bis.” Here it is, then, the purpose of 41Bis, openly and brazenly declared by Ms. Forino: to banish her inmates from the world of the living, mute bodies that no one should talk about.

Vicious, obtuse and stupid, you will get the exact opposite.

Source: ilrovescio.info

Continue reading “Italy: Vicious, obtuse and stupid. DAP officials want to gag even Alfredo’s doctor” →

Genoa, Italy: Nat, Beppe and Robert also acquitted at appeal trial for Operation Prometeo

Posted on 2023/01/24 by darknights

Genoa Jan. 23 – Nat, Beppe and Robert were also acquitted on appeal for not having committed the act. The three comrades were arrested by Ros carabinieri in 2019 as part of Operation Prometeo, as they were believed to be the authors of package bombs sent in 2016 to two Turin magistrates and the director of the Dap in Rome.

The charge for Giuseppe Bruna, Robert Firozpoor and Natascia Savio was bombing.

According to the indictment, the three comrades allegedly sent the explosive packages, which were intercepted before they were delivered, to Turin prosecutors Roberto Maria Sparagna and Antonio Rinaudo, who were engaged in investigations into the anarchists, and to Santi Consolo, then director of the Dap in Rome. According to investigators, the comrades had met in Genoa and planned and assembled the parcel bombs. Framing them would be one of the envelopes on which a price tag from a Chinese goods store in the Ligurian capital had been left.

This morning outside the courthouse some 20 comrades organized a gathering in solidarity with Nat, Beppe and Robert and Alfredo Cospito. A number of banners were then hung in San Lorenzo Square.

Russia: Radical Resistance 18-19.01.2023

Posted on 2023/01/24 by darknights

A wave of detentions of partisan heroes has just swept across Russia. Three young men aged 17, 18 and 19 were detained in Buryatia. In Mordovia an 18-year-old guerrilla named Artem was detained, in Voronezh a 17-year-old Nikita was detained. For sabotage on the railroad, the young men are awaiting charges of terrorism. But the repression doesn’t stop the partisan resistance.

January 18.

Vladivostok

Partisans set fire to the signaling, centralization and blocking units near Vladivostok. They managed to stop the movement of freight and military echelons in the Primorsky region.

Petersburg .

An unknown guerrilla tried to set on fire the main uniform warehouse of the Leningrad Oblast Federal Guard Service on Zanevsky Prospekt. The guerrilla drilled a hole in the window of the warehouse and poured kerosene on it, but for some reason failed to set it on fire.

January 19

Krasnoyarsk

An unknown guerilla burned down signaling units on the Trans-Siberian Railway, which caused train delays.

Source: a2day