Update on the transfers of political prisoners (Greece)

On 03/01/2015, at night, the members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire Christos Tsakalos and Gerasimos Tsakalos, the member of FAI Andreas Tsavdaridis and the anarchist Spyros Mandylas were transferred to the special wing[*], in the basement of the womens’ section of Korydallos prison. The four comrades are well and high-spirited, they are able to communicate and their psychology is good. At the moment, there is no information about the rest of the comrades of C.C.F. concerning if and when they are going to be transferred as well.

The post will be updated as the situation develops.

Inter Arma

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[*] The ‘special wing’ is a dungeon.

PDF: ‘Negation’ a new counter-info project from Scotland (UK)

The first issue of Negation, a new periodical anarchist publication from Scotland is available now.

From the editorial:

This periodical bulletin exists to widen the current of a nihilist-anarchist critique in Scotland and whatever that may bring.

It is your sole responsibility to steal back your life. However, if you are content with shitty food, mundane shopping, police surveillance, civility, boredom and a slow death from cancer and pollution, then perhaps this publication is not for you…

We do not care for “recruits” nor do we seek to seem reasonable in the eyes of anyone.

– Until next time (A)

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The first issue has articles covering:

Countering the Congress of the Institute of Animal technology 17-20th March 2015 (Scotland).

Some thoughts on resisting fracking in Scotland.

Glasgow Anarchist Black Cross

Against the Grain.

Destroy Anthropocentrism

FOR AN END TO ALL CIVIL NORMALITY

Sentences announced for the 3rd trial in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case (Greece)

The sentences for those accused in the third trial of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case, including the Nea Smirni case were announced in Greece on the 29th December:

Christos Tsakalos: 24 years and two months, 1.500 euro fine.
Gerasimos Tsakalos: 21 years and two months, 1.200 euro fine.
Mihalis Nikolopoulos: 20 years.
Giorgos Nikolopoulos: 24 years and two months, 1.200 euro fine.
Damiano Bolano: 24 years and two months, 1.200 euro fine.
Panagiotis Argirou: 19 years and nine months, 1.300 euro fine.
Giorgos Polidoras: 25 years, 1.200 euro fine.
Olga Economidou: 25 years, 1.200 euro fine.
Theofilos Mavropoulos: 25 years, 1.200 euro fine.
Kostas Sakkas: 16 years (the comrade is underground, having violated his
bail conditions and is wanted)
Alexandros Mitrousias: 14 years.
Giorgos Karagiannidis: 14 years.
Giannis Mihailidis: 5 years.
Dimitris Politis: 6 Months.

It should be remembered that on 4/12/14, Stella Antoniou and Kostas Papadopoulos were acquitted of the charge of participation in a terrorist
organization in the same trial.

Stella Antoniou was found guilty of simple complicity in aggravated weapons possession and was sentenced to 6 years suspended sentence and Kostadinos Papadopoulos was found guilty of weapons possession and was sentenced to 6 months suspended for 3 years. Both have been released.

Solidarity with all imprisoned fighters!

Fire to the prisons!

Nikos Maziotis transferred to C Type prison in Domokos (Greece)

via actforfree:

After Nikos Maziotis’ communication with a comrade, we are informed that as of today 30/12/14 he has been transferred to the C Type prison of Domokos.

The comrade is in a wing on his own. His moral is high.

NO COMRADE ALONE IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE

SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON

Assembly of Solidarity for political prisoners, imprisoned and persecuted fighters

Nikos Maziotis
Geniko Katastima Kratisis Domokou,
Ε Pteryga, 35010 Domokos,
Fthiotida, Greece

Prisoners cause DIY explosion at Strangeways, Manchester (UK)

via in the belly of the beast:

Inmates sparked a terror alert after a home-made bomb exploded in a cell at the category A Strangeways Prison in Manchester earlier this year.

The incident happened inside a cell on D Wing after prisoners used a plastic bottle and other household items available from the canteen to create a small IED. The noise is said to have ‘shook the whole wing’ although no-one was hurt and only a small amount of damage was caused.

A former inmate who witnessed it reportedly said, ‘One of the prisoners was boasting about how easy it was — and showed people how to do it. He was using everyday items you can get in a prison really easily.’

Officers from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit were scrambled to the prison in response. Prison bosses mounted an operation into the July 15 incident and are said to have accused eight prisoners of endangering staff and other inmates.

Although the incident occurred during the summer, details of the scare have only just come to light. A Prison Service spokeswoman said the bang had been caused by a ‘small improvised device’. They added: ‘On 15 July, an incident led to a very small amount of damage being caused to a cell. There were no injuries caused to staff or prisoners during this incident.’

Text by CCF-FAI/IRF – Imprisoned Members Cell about the proposal of Nikos Maziotis concerning the Solidarity Assembly (Greece)

via 325:

Text from the comrades concerning the creation of an assembly of solidarity and action with the political prisoners.

SOLIDARITY MEANS ATTACK

i) C’ Type prisons – an act of war

C’ Type prisons wish to become the monument of the State’s victory against the urban guerrilla warfare. It is a bet for us, if we’re going to let a thousand tonnes of concrete, bars and locks beat the human will for freedom, a bet which is to be answered through action by the enemies of the regime and the friends of freedom.
For years now, politically, TV personalities of the system and salaried pen-holders of the police, have engaged in a mud fight against the urban guerrilla warfare, aid at depoliticizing it. “Osmosis of criminals and terrorists”, “cooperation between terrorists and organized crime”, “revolutionary pool” are the vanguard of the lie. Propaganda wishes to hide, covering with its mud, the self-evident constant revolt. A constant revolt of the ones who refuse to live as slaves and attack with arms against the leaders, the silence, the conservatism and the resignation of the majority of society.

Wishing to decouple the possible perspective of the violent insurrectionary action and to mutilate its diffusion, power uses lies and slander in order to present the armed urban guerrillas as insane criminals. And all this, at the same time when their bloodthirsty democracy makes thousands of people commit suicide and poisons every moment of our lives through the terrorism of poverty, repression, a police state, loneliness, exploitation, while it tricks the naive ones through the fake freedom of consumption, spectacle, mass entertainment, digital reality and the civilization of the mediocre. The highlight of the political propaganda against the urban guerrilla warfare was set up early in 2014, after the escape of Christodoulos Xiros on prison leave, who instead of coming back to prison voluntarily, chose the path of illegality and complicity with the new urban guerilla warfare. Headlines and reportage with catchy titles like “New Year’s terror-eve with the CCF”, “prisons are safe houses of terrorists” became the flagship of lies. What bothered power most, together with the escape of comrade Christodoulos Xiros, was that despite our arrests, we have never turned into dormant trophies in the hands of our wardens. For the unrepentant urban guerrillas, prison is not a palace of fear, it is a place of captivity that digs in and tempers more the willingness for rebellion and freedom. Continue reading “Text by CCF-FAI/IRF – Imprisoned Members Cell about the proposal of Nikos Maziotis concerning the Solidarity Assembly (Greece)”

Mikalai Dziadok has sentence extended by 1 yr (Belarus)

via avtonom:

As part of the investigation into the ‘Shangri La’ incidents,  Mikalai Dziadok underwent a psychiatric forensic examination in prison. Mikalai has been sentenced to 4.5 years of imprisonment within the frames of the so-called ‘case of anarchists’. He was found guilty of malicious hooliganism. On November 20, 3.5 months before his release from jail, a new action against him was taken for severe disobedience to the prison rules. Mikalai Dziadok now faces a new prison term of up to 1 year.

He also has been deprived of a short period of time with his wife, allegedly for having created a disturbance in his cell. It sounds weird, because it was after this conflict that he asked to be moved to a solitary cell, as he didn’t feel safe in the former one.

Another anarchist, Ihar Alinevich, who is also in prison, writes about his friend Mikalai Dziadok:

“There have been a lot of different events but they hardly mean anything in contrast to Mikalai’s circumstances. In fact, although we always keep in our mind that it may happen, it always happens all of a sudden. Mikalai has case-hardened his character so any change of events may knock him down. Unfortunately, as usual it is the relatives who suffer the most in this case. Continue reading “Mikalai Dziadok has sentence extended by 1 yr (Belarus)”

Anarchist comrade Monica Caballero on Operation Pandora from Brieva prison (Spain)

via actforfree:

If I were to choose a different life I would not change it for anything.

I vividly remember the intoxicating feeling that came over me when I began to question authority; I remember the many contradictions and questions. In this discovery of ideas I found many people that made their ideas into practical material in their libraries, publications, social centres, etc. … in their everyday life … they lived their lives in the here and now. It did not take long for me to want to do the same.

I remember the anxiety I felt when I heard there were comrades imprisoned for putting their ideas of freedom into practise; sisters of ideas in all corners of the world in the jaws of the panoptic beast. That distressing feeling never changed, but is accompanied by gestures of solidarity.

We are many; the anarchists on the other side of the wall, and after Tuesday December 16 our numbers have grown.

The tentacles of power dropped into anarchists´ spaces, libertarian social centres, a squatted house and homes of several anarchists in Catalonia and Madrid. The hunt captured eleven companions, of these, seven have been kept in prison, accused of belonging to an armed group of a terrorist nature. It is no coincidence that comrades arrested are part of my immediate circle; indeed, more than half of them frequently visited me in jail. The judicial hammer has punished solidarity.

I cannot keep silent before such misery, the State´s repressive revenge borders on delirium. The media (spokesmen for the rulers) talks about bosses and subordinates, I stress to them and anyone who harbours any doubts – we are anti-authoritarian, no one is above me, nor am I above anyone!

The spaces attacked in Catalonia, were not arbitrary, firstly, the Kasa de la Muntanya is an important symbol of the squatting movement, and with its 25 years distanced from capitalist logic they have made their contribution to many generations of dissidents to this system of terror. The libertarian social centres and anarchists spaces that were attacked never hid their ideals, providing fertile ground for sowing the seeds of freedom.

The costs in this struggle for the recovery of our lives are very high, nobody said it would be easy, but undoubtedly if I were to choose a different life I would not change it for anything. In this fight against domination no cages or walls can silence our voices, but without you, comrades, our voices are transformed in echoes.

If you, my recently jailed comrades, are ever able to read these words, I tell you that I’m certain you will remain incorruptible and rise to the occasion as you always have.

I remember every time I read or heard “solidarity is a necessary weapon for anarchists”. Today I hope that those memories come true … making our ideas action.

Brieva prison, December 2014.

Operation Pandora: Democracy imprisons 7 more anarchists (Spain)

via contrainfo:

On December 16, Operation Pandora was unleashed. The State’s security forces burst into different houses and squats in Barcelona and Madrid, and eleven anarchist comrades were kidnapped.

This kidnapping—and it couldn’t have been done any other way—was coordinated with the media, who helped justify and legitimate it with heart and soul, spreading the news that the police had carried out an operation against international anarchist terrorism. This kidnapping of eleven comrades set off a multitude of rallies and demonstrations that same day in different cities—Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Zaragoza, for example—thousands of people coming out in solidarity with the kidnapped comrades and showing rage and hatred towards the State’s new repressive operation against the libertarian movement.

Two days later, on December 18, the news came to light that Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez, with an ample repressive history behind him, ordered pretrial detention without bail for seven of the eleven comrades, in so doing giving greater media and political justification for the repressive campaign. We have to remember that this new repressive operation is closely related with the still-open repressive case against the anarchists Mónica and Francisco, who have already spent a year in pretrial custody, in isolation, and to remember that the torturer Javier Gómez Bermúdez was also responsible for imprisoning those comrades.

The persecutor Javier Gómez Bermúdez justifies the pretrial detention of these seven comrades with such compelling reasons as “there are indications that support the hypothesis that they are part of coordinated anarchist groups with terrorist ends” and that “they seriously upset the public peace.” However, as anarchists, we are not going to play the game the System imposes on us, the game of concepts, assessments, guilt, innocence or “investigation” processes; as anarchists, we recognize neither their Justice, nor their Law, nor, of course, their Public Peace; not only do we not recognize them, but we fight them and we declare war on them without quarter. We’re not concerned with what our kidnapped comrades did or didn’t do or say; we don’t recognize the categories of “innocent” or “guilty” imposed by the System, categories that only make sense when recognizing and legitimizing the Law and the Judicial System. Continue reading “Operation Pandora: Democracy imprisons 7 more anarchists (Spain)”

Text of Nikos Maziotis for the formation of an Assembly of Solidarity (Greece)

In the text below Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle, suggests the creation of meeting of solidarity for all political detainees and prisoners in struggle. At the same time this is an open call to all comrades and companions of the anarchist / antiauthoritarian domain to participate and support this endeavor.

The text is also sent to all political detainees and imprisoned fighters.

Comrades, companions- this text addresses you concerning the Type-C prisons, and my proposal for the transformation of that meeting as much as it concerns the issue of solidarity.

Comrades, companions- passing legislation of the Type-C prisons is an expected development in the repressive attack of the state against the armed Revolutionary Organizations and against armed action. Subsequently it brings into legislation changes and reforms that have been under way for about 14 years and is directly linked to the political and economic conditions, applicable for years internationally, including none other than the “war on terror” and the neoliberal reforms intended to impose the dictatorship of the markets with its doctrine of supranational capital.

As Revolutionary Struggle, since the beginning of our activities in 2003, I believe that we properly analysed the political and economic conditions in the early nineties when we first started our activities: conditions relating to the globalisation of the capitalist system. This includes both the neo-liberal reforms that led to the economic and civilian-relevant nature of globalisation and were designed by the dictatorship of transnational capital and the “war on terror” launched in 2001 following the attacks on the United States. The system, therefore, in order to impose the dictatorship of markets proceeds with increasingly harder crackdowns and tends more and more towards the totalitarian.

In Greece that same year the economy was opened to transnational capital after the so-called “scandal” of 1999. This resulted in the stock market integration in EMU (economic and monetary union) in the Eurozone in 2002. It is therefore no coincidence that in the same period, even whilst lagging behind Western Europe and the US, the Greek State is proceeding to legislate the first anti-terrorism laws in 2001, the Organised Crime and Terrorism Bill facilitated by Justice Minister Michalis Stathopoulos. The law was passed after pressure from the US and Britain and targeted members of the armed Revolutionary Organizations and more specifically N17 which was the only guerrilla organization active at that time. This law was named the “law against organized crime” and it was done with the obvious purpose of serving the tactics of the state: to deconstruct the political characteristics of armed revolutionary organizations, to depoliticize and clean them of the language of ideological action and to present them as a ordinary criminal offenders . All those accused and on trial for N17and ELA actions in 2003 and 2004 respectively are on the receiving end of this law.

Despite the fact, however, that this law originally targeted members of the armed Revolutionary Organizations, the state also uses it for the hardening of general law enforcement regarding illegal incriminations. They are aggressively utilising the provision of “criminal organization” using the device of “conspiracy” and this has resulted in an increase of total sentences. However, do not confuse cause and effect: the law ‘Stathopoulos’, the first anti-terrorism law, was made primarily for members of the armed revolutionary organizations, but the result has been generalised and increased in scope to also apply to cases of organized delinquency. Continue reading “Text of Nikos Maziotis for the formation of an Assembly of Solidarity (Greece)”