Showing posts with label Act for Freedom Now. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Act for Freedom Now. Show all posts

Saturday 18 November 2023

The Stars.

 

           AK Press a machine that keeps on producing gems. This From Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library October 2023


           

             In 2013 Barry Pateman wrote a piece about Ethel Mannin’s No More Mimosa, his contact with Spanish anarchist exiles and the contrast between the revolutionary situation they had been part of and the grim reality of defeat. ‘Exile meant the end of nearly everything they had known. […] A terrible protective dignity became their defense against a world that had cast them adrift.’ [1]
          The anarchist exiles were hardly a homogenous bloc. Different choices, experiences, attitudes and status within the movement before 1939 saw to that (never mind the difference between being exiled in, say, France or Mexico). As a child, Octavio Alberola went into exile with his family: his father was the rationalist schoolteacher José Alberola Navarro who clashed with some members of the Durruti Column: ‘The revolution’s purpose is not providing opportunities for vengeance, but rather to set an example.’ [p.20]
           In exile in Mexico, Octavio met Fidel Castro and Che Guevara before they were famous; and also fell foul of the unwritten rule that refugees should not get involved in Mexican politics. After that, Alberola was part of the anarchist resurgence (and not only within the Spanish movement) that we think of as part of the sixties. Partly this connected with the confidence of a new generation, as seen at the Limoges Congress of 1961: ‘On one side stood the “veterans,” the militants who had fought against fascism in the civil war. They were now twenty-two years older, fifty years old and up. Mature, tempered people who proceeded at a comfortable pace. On the other side were the “newcomers,” the children of exile, who had left Spain at a very young age or been born elsewhere. With no investment in the myth, they didn’t hesitate to make action the priority.’ [p.114]
          Octavio was part of this ‘activist’ current, being involved in Defensa Interior and the First of May Group. Neither group succeeded in assassinating Franco but their other strand of symbolic actions generated much negative publicity for the Spanish dictatorship. Not to mention a certain amount of controversy within the movement. After the Ussia kidnapping by the First of May Group,[2] leaders of the CNT denounced the ‘thoroughly negative initiative’ [p.176] only to be answered ‘They at least are living in the present rather in the past like some older militants who once had credibility, or in the future, like others who make anarchy the way they would construct scale models once their working hours are over or when they have time on their hands’.[3]. Some veterans, Like Cipriano Mera or Juan Garcia Oliver, were involved in the Defensa Interior, so it was not purely a difference of generations.

Continue reading. 

          The Weight of the Stars: The Life of Anarchist Octavio Alberola by Agustín Comotto with Octavio Alberola, translated by Paul Sharkey.
https://www.akpress.org/the-weight-of-the-stars.html

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Thursday 10 August 2023

The State.

  

                                                 Image courtesy of Socialist Party

       While assistant Fuhrer, Braverman, keeps drawing fascist legislation out of her rabbit hole at an ever increasing rate, much to the applause of her stormtroopers in Parliament, she is not lone. Across the globe states are moving further and further to the right in an attempt to keep control of an every increasingly angry population.

      The capitalist system has succeeded in it is aim of syphoning the world's wealth and resources into the hands of a few billionaires and multi-national corporations. However the public are becoming ever more alienated from their grand plan and unrest is rising. It becomes ever more obvious that poverty and destitution are not inevitable results of some immutable law of nature, but the results of a human designed economic system. Wars are not the natural state of humanity, they are engineered by those same billionaires and corporations to further their aims of world domination. All this requires a submissive population, and that is becoming ever more difficult, unrest is on the rise, and rightly so. Hence the ever increasing repressive laws and and punishment for those who dare to dissent and challenge this insane economic system based on greed of the few. There can be no freedom or justice if inequality is the norm, there is a better world we all have it in our minds and hearts, all we need is the will to create that better world for all. Resistance to state repression is now an necessity, if freedom and justice is our desire.

The following from Act For Freedom Now.

      
  Carrara, Italy : REPRESSIVE OPERATION AGAINST THE ANARCHIST PAPER BEZMOTIVNY

Testo (1)
         At dawn today, 8th August, the State, through the public prosecution of Genoa (in the figure of prosecutor Federico Manotti) and the DIGOS of La Spezia, carried out yet another repressive operation against the anarchist movement. Their aim is to silence any revolutionary desire and aspiration – as already happened with “anatianarchist laws” over a hundred years ago.
         Ten anarchists have been accused in this investigation including five comrades of Carrara for whom the prosecutor had requested imprisonment, which the judge for preliminary investigations Riccardo Ghio changed to four house arrests with full restrictions, followed by five forced residences with curfew, and one comrade with no restrictions. One of the four comrades under house arrest was ordered to be taken to prison as he did not have a certificate of residence: so Luigi has been transferred to the prison of La Spezia.
         As well as the house searches the historic anarchist place in Carrara, Anarchist Cultural Circle “Gogliardo Fiaschi”, was also searched. Magazines, books, leaflets, posters and digital material were confiscated.
        The comrades have been accused of subversive association with aims of terrorism (art. 270 bis of the penal code) and incitement to commit criminal acts (art. 424 c.p.) aggravated with aims of terrorism in relation to the publication, starting from 2020, of the internationalist anarchist fortnightly “Bezmotivny, as well as offence to the honour and prestige of the president of the rebublic and illegal printing.
         Updates to follow concerning initiatives that will be carried out in solidarity with the comrades.
         Revolutionary solidarity with the arrested comrades and those submitted to restrictive measures!

No gods, no State, no servants, no bosses!

Anarchist Cultural Circle “Gogliardo Fiaschi” Carrara, 8th August 2023


The address for writing to Luigi:


Luigi Palli
Casa circondariale di La Spezia
Piazza G. Falcone e P. Borsellino n. 1
CAP 19125
La Spezia (SP)
Italy


via: ilrovescio.info
Translated by Act for freedom now!
Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info
    

Tuesday 11 July 2023

Fires.



FIRES OF THE FUTURE.
 
I am fire,
I surge, I hiss,
sometimes bursting forth in a flame
that lights up the world
illuminating unimagined dreams.
Then the black cloak
blankets out the glow.
Again all is dark,
but, still
beneath the surface
I surge, I hiss,
I endure, waiting, seeking,
building up pressure.
One day I will explode
destroying forever
the Tartarean crust of oppression.
I am fire,
I am the people.


           The foundations of the capitalist society are built on bricks made of the work and exploitation of the ordinary people. These foundations are very weak, as pillage and plunder rampages across humanity and injustice roars with laughter. There is always a simmering anger just below the surface, and sometimes it explodes through the chimera of stability and lets the dream of freedom and justice run free scattering the seeds of hope. It always takes the state's full exercise of power and brutality to quell and control this explosion, but it can never extinguish that simmering anger and desire for justice and freedom.
          One such explosion was recently plainly visible in France, where anger burst forth and claimed the streets and displayed what it thought of this subservient exploitative and brutal system. The anger was plain to see as the state's brutal apparatus tried to stem the flow of that desire for freedom and justice. 
           The following extract is from an article that documents the physical result of the explosion of anger but can't detail the feelings that started it and the feelings that it has lit in the hearts and minds of so many. Long live anarchy, which will blow like a breath of fresh air through the decaying pungent smell of exploitation and injustice. 

Image courtesy of Daily Mail.

Today’s Figures on the Riots

 In total, between the night of June 27 to 28 and July 2 to 3, there were officially 12 031 vehicles burned, 2 508 buildings burned down or damaged, including 273 police and gendarmerie premises, 105 town halls burnt or damaged, 168 schools were attacked. 722 law enforcement personnel were injured.

3,625 people were taken into custody throughout the territory (1,124 of whom are minors). Among all those arrested, « the average age is between 17 and 18 (…) the youngest is 11 years old and the oldest 59 years old, one third are minors”, “60% of the total have no criminal record”, «10% of the people arrested are non-French and there have been 40 placements in administrative detention centres» according to the Minister of Interior. Of the detained persons, 990 of the age of majority and 253 minors were referred to the prosecutor’s office, and 480 of the age of majority were referred to the court for immediate appearance. To date, 380 people have been sent to prison, whether they have been sentenced or placed in pre-trial detention pending trial.

Continue READING 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info     

Monday 22 May 2023

In Memory.

 

The following from Act For Freedom Now.

¡Punky Mauri Presente! In memory of Anarchist Mauricio Morales, 22 MAY 2009 -22 MAY 2023.


Before Going to Sleep

Before going to sleep I reflect on modernity
and I don’t get used to the artificial smell
Nor to the plastic that envelopes water,
nor to machines nor to military helmets,
Nor to ties and their suits.

My hands don’t get used to the artificial connection in virtual universes
Connected lives in wireless networks, my eyes search for the eternal fire of
rebellion among the multitude of corpses and only in isolated gazes, the
conscious individual emerges with dagger eyes that resist dying in the
democratic cemetery.
Before going to sleep I embrace chaos
as an idea that liberates my body and my mind
Because after all, it makes me feel alive.
I do not want to search for the grail that will liberate future societies.
My fingers search for the bloody flight of the destruction of the chains of
the rhythmic fire, of the close fire of power and its masters.
Upon sleeping, my actions are designed so that tomorrow, after waking up,
I will
Break the routine, in a solitary action, with my chest like a swollen stone,
by the destruction of this and of any society.
Do me a favor: see to it that anarchy lives.


Before dying in the sludge of the street we will imitate Mauricio Morales!

“Love yourself and be violent, beautifully violent, until everything is des- troyed. Remember that whatever violent action against those who promote equality is completely justified for the infinite amount of violence they sub- mit us to.

.…. Love yourself and combat terrorism, burn, conspire and sabotage and beviolent, beautifully violent, naturally violent, freely violent.”
-Mauri


 Comrade Mauri

You are with us!

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Tuesday 13 December 2022

Bugs.


            We live in the surveillance society, we see it all around us, in pubs, shops, bus and rail stations, along the street where we walk, where we drive, they are there those ever watching eyes of the surveillance cameras. However what about the ones we don't see the hidden bugs, that most people think only appear in James Bond movies, how wrong they are. People who stand and speak out against the injustices and inequalities in this society can and do come in for some extra surveillance by means of the hidden bug. It can be in your car, in your home unseen quietly monitoring your every word. The following example is from Italy, but  you'll find it happens in every country.

The following from Act for Freedom Now.

       Same old story, same place, same shack. Discovery of a bug in a flat in Rome

    

             Probably in the days leading up to the event of November 12th in Rome in solidarity with Alfredo and the other prisoner comrades on hunger strike, someone sneaked into the house where we live and planted a bug.
             Perhaps with a sense of irony, or perhaps with investigative “acumen,” that in the continuous misinterpretation of “solidarity and complicity” that develops among anarchists will have made them expect a collective fast, the intruders thought the most suitable place to accommodate their bug was the back of the kitchen oven Powered by the cord of the same household appliance, it also came with a battery. The incident is aggravated by recurrence, as another bug had already been found in the same place, powered by the same power cable, several months ago. Time passes but control remains.
            We will not be intimidated by the attention paid to us by some of those responsible for the detention of the revolutionary prisoners.
            Our thoughts are fixed on the comrades who even from inside jail are continuing to fight.

To them all the esteem, anger and love they deserve.

Marco and Sandro

via: fuoridallariserva Translated by Act for freedom now!

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Sunday 18 September 2022

Chile.

   
                                                 Image courtesy of NPR.

       The people of that part of the planet that goes by the name of Chile have been fighting on the streets for freedom and justice for some considerable time. The longer the struggle the more brutal the state repression, the more young people get caught up in the mesh of the state's judicial and prison system. No evidence is so inefficient, no evidence is so outlandish for it not to convince the authorities to hold and incarcerate the youth of that land. 

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

Do Not Publish.


            This filming corresponds to a fiction based on information provided by different coordinating committees and popular defenders of the Chilean people, and at the request and need of the relatives and friends of political prisoners in the context of the Revolt. There are more than 1500 children, siblings, nieces, nephews, nephews and friends who have been imprisoned for months and even years. These are some of the «evidences» against them:

I took a selfie in a place near the crime scene.
Their clothing was similar to that of the police cameras.
Bragging posts about actions that occurred during a protest.
Message to bump into a demonstration on the day of the events.
Appears in color in independent press broadcasts live on the day of the events.
Has a tattoo in the same area as the suspect, although the design cannot be distinguished.
On that day the defendant was not at home.
He participates in a soup kitchen and a group from a vulnerable part of town.

             As absurd as it may seem, these are some of the «evidences» that by themselves, according to Chilean justice, can keep you in prison for investigation for YEARS, and in the worst case, serving a sentence.
           «DO NOT PUBLISH» is directed mainly to people active in the street demonstration and related media. «DO NOT PUBLISH» immediately seeks to get the demonstrators to take the security measures they have in their hands. The emphasis is on NOT POSTING content on your social and messaging networks where your appearance, identity and clothing could be ATTRIBUTABLE for direct action and eventual criminal investigation and potential incarceration.
            This post is accompanied by the following clarification both to report the gross amount of forced accusations at the expense of inaccurate and disconnected evidence; and to emphasize how necessary self-care is when you are at a demonstration. And so, the MISTAKES OF THE PAST ARE THE LEARNING OF TODAY AND TOMORROW.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Sunday 7 November 2021

Storms.

      Another bulletin, magazine, serial, call it what you will, but the more the merrier. Our literature should be on ever street corner, every workplace, it should be read, discussed and ideas put into practice. The only way to get people to pick up your ideas is to make them easily available. When people start to really want to change society and they look around for ideas, and they will, if our ideas aren't on the table, then they will not be pick up. Our literature is our message of hope, a well of ideas for that better world for all.

This one one is Storm Warnings, issue 45 (September 15, 2021) :

          “Reality has never taken the imagination hostage to such an extent as it has in these last days. Our desires and our wildest dreams are dominated by an invisible catastrophe that threatens and confines us, tying our hands and feet to the shackle of fear. Something critical is being played out right now around the unfolding catastrophe. Ignoring the few Cassandras who have been issuing warnings for decades, we have now moved from abstract ideas to concrete facts. As the current emergency with all its prohibitions demonstrates, what is at stake is not only the possibility of survival, but something much more important: the possibility of living. This means that the catastrophe that affects us today is not so much imminent human extinction – to be avoided, we are reassured from above and below, thanks to an absolute obedience to the experts of social reproduction – but rather the invasive artificiality of an existence whose omnipresence prevents us from imagining the end of the present.”


For reading

 For printing (A4)

For printing (Letter)

Previous issues HERE: 


 Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Wednesday 21 April 2021

Solidarity.

         All prisons are hell-holes, edifices to state repression and savagery, essential part of the states apparatus for creating a submissive population, of course they fail miserably. While they still stand, those enmeshed in its vile tentacles deserve our support and solidarity.
       The following is an opportunity to go all arty and at the same time support comrades caught up in the states loaded judicial system.

Image from Act For Freedom Now.

 From "Unoffensive Animal"


 
             As you all know, one of the main jobs we do is supporting comrades in prison and folks who have to cover fines after taking action. The reality of it is that we never make enough money in order to cover everything we would like to cover, even counting PayPal donations, patreon donations and merch.
         Luckily, many of you are super generous and want to help in any way possible. These time, we bring you something just a tad different thanks to @goaskforde, who has donated artwork to raise funds to support prisoners.
          We are going to run a little raffle for a couple of weeks. The tickets can be bought through our website for 7.50 GBP and you can get as many tickets as you want. If you win, @goaskforde will send:
– “Now” Framed original 10×12″ ink drawing of a wolf
– “Light a Match, Burn a Prison” signed 8×10″ fine art giclee print
– Large vinyl “Boltcuttter Birdie” sticker
– Large vinyl “Praying mantis” sticker
         In addition, we will send a hoodie of your choice (stock dependent!) and a bunch of stickers.
         So if you like art, or simply if you’d like to support us and help us keep helping folks, please grab yourself a ticket or two down below:
We will announce the winners on the 3rd of May, so you have 14 days to get as many tickets as you can and to share this around as much as possible!
         Also, please follow @goaskforde on instagram and support artists as much as possible. You can also find the artwork on www.goaskforde.com
Solidarity

 Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Monday 19 April 2021

Re-born.


          A few weeks ago I posted an article about the Dutch police closing down several anarchist sites by seizing their server. One of the sites closed down was "Act For Freedom Now", you'll be delighted to hear that the site is up and running with a brighter cleaner look. 325 was another site closed down, but we should not point the finger at the Dutch authorities alone, these operations of stifling and trying to silence any voices that dare to speak up against the present economic system of capitalism with all its attendant miseries and corruptions, are done with international co-operation. We see it in Greece, France, Germany, America anywhere where the state reigns, authority will be brutal to any opposition to its power and privileges. At the moment Myanmar is probably the most open scene of state savagery and repression.
        The following statement is from 325, one of the sites the Dutch police, with the approval of other states, tried to silence. 
 
 Statement on the Repressive Attack upon International Counter-Information

         On 29.03.21 the Dutch police raided the data center that holds the nostate.net server, seizing the server itself as the part of a criminal investigation into 'terrorism'. Nostate.net is a collective that provided a platform for international movement websites from prisoner solidarity groups, multiple campaign collectives, anti-summit pages and international counter-information. Significant sites that used nostate.net as a platform that have been targeted by this repressive attack by the Dutch police are Anarchist Black Cross Berlin, Montreal Counter-Info, Northshore Counter-Info, Act For Freedom Now! (now re-activated on noblogs.org https://actforfree.noblogs.org/) and 325.
         We as a collective are aware that this was not just an attack by the Dutch police, but was done in coordination with the Counter Terrorism Unit of the United Kingdom in connection with their recent repressive attacks upon the anarchist circles in this country. Not only have they been threatening ourselves, but recently threatened nostate.net unless they shut down our site. Along with this they demanded information be given to them of the identity of anyone involved in 325. The extent that the authorities will go to attack us and anyone they suspect of aiding us is of no surprise to us, the examples through history of state forces repressing anyone who dares to stand and fight them are numerous.

 Read the full article HERE:


 Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk   

Saturday 3 April 2021

Shut Down!

        The blood stained hand of the police state ever tightens its grip, only strong united resistance and solidarity will stop its intended paralysis of freedom. This morning when I visited a site I often visit for information of what is happening across the world, Act For Freedom Now, I was greeted with this message:
       The server on which this website was hosted was confiscated by the Dutch police on March 29th, 2021 for reasons unknown so far. The website will be reconstructed as soon as possible. Please be patient.
nostate.net

       I suppose innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply any more. How many times have we seen sites and information shut down on the say-so of the rich and powerful, and it would be foolish to think it is done to protect the ordinary people.
That is why it is so important that we the ordinary people come together and join in the campaign, in which ever way we can, to "Kill the Bill" another draconian piece of legislation that strengthens the hands of the police and its attendant apparatus at the expense of the ordinary freedoms we sometimes take for granted.

Demonstrators during a ‘Kill The Bill’ protest in Finsbury Park Credit: Aaron Chown/PA

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk   

Monday 4 January 2021

Nothing Is Finished.

         A new year message from Act For Freedom Now:

 NOTHING IS FINISHED EVERYTHING CONTINUES

        These are tough times. Disgusted by imposed social behaviour and the models it reproduces, against every form of authority and exploitation, we aim at the destruction of this rotten system, whether it’s in “crisis” or is “prospering”.
As the State and system continue to assert their proven role against anarchists, anti-authoritarians, fighting people, self-managed spaces and various parts of society, we consider multiform action an integral part of the revolutionary process. From the distribution of leaflets in the squares, the occupation of spaces, self-organization in workplaces and neighbourhoods, to militant protests, night-time raids and re-appropriations.
       The words of our brothers and sisters in captivity give us the strength to continue. Nothing is forgotten, nothing is left behind, the social war will continue as long as the enemy persists.
       The multiform actions of the many groups and individual comrades in Greece and around the world have always raised our spirits and strengthened us. In the struggle there are also losses but the journey continues. With its losses and its joys, its hardships and also its pleasant surprises.
Solidarity and respect to all those around the world fighting in every way, inside and outside the walls, against this rotten system.
NOTHING IS FINISHED, EVERYTHING CONTINUES.
Comrades from the anarchist project Act for freedom now! 
January 2021
 
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk   

Tuesday 15 December 2020

Chile.

        It is just a little over a year since that patch of land known as Chile exploded with the righteous anger of the people, and they took to the streets to vent that anger at the system and institutions that had been grinding them down for years. They attacked official government buildings, police stations, and other edifices that represent this corrupt and exploitative system. Fourteen months on and the fire still burns, the people of Chile still carry on that fight for freedom and justice. Chile is not unique, the same system ferments wars and grinds people into poverty on a binge of greed and corruption the world over, and like Chile, revolt is on the streets in country after country. Our aim should be to unite all those struggles as one final battle in the war against this state/corporate plundering of the planet, corruption and domination of our lives. Their struggle is our struggle, one people, one world, our world of equality and justice for all.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

Chile – The new issue of Confrontación is out

NOTHING IS OVER!
WE ARE STILL IN REVOLT AGAINST EVERY AUTHORITY

A year after the start of the revolt that exploded in Chile on 18th October 2019, we continue to spread Confrontación. Greeting all those who have remained active in the struggle against the established order before, during and after so-called the “social explosion”, we remain in the streets with a new printed issue.
     A year has passed since 18th October and over these days we have carried anarchist rage against this oppressive system with the warmth of the moments of struggle we continue to share among comrades and occasional accomplices in solidarity, in the heat of the revolt.
      We also have a vivid memory of each instance of repression and state violence on our bodies/minds and the many murdered, tortured, assaulted and maimed. To this we add the referendum of 25th October for a possible change of the Constitution, an institutional trap that doesn’t concern or represent us.
       Like any moment in history, our context has its own possibilities, difficulties and challenges that form the struggle scenario. Here we want to share some reflections, questions and practical ideas to connect us with the concerns and desires of those who refuse to allow the triumph of normality imposed by Power and the democratic delusions being put on today’s agenda.
FOR A FREE LIFE BUILT ON THE RUINS OF THE OLD WORLD OF THE STATE AND POWER
      For those of us who for years have been spreading the revolt against all authority in word and deed, the struggle doesn’t pass through changes in the State apparatus. A year has already passed since a revolt that had different components and whose horizon of rupture with the established order has unfortunately remained trapped by the illusion of presumed structural changes starting from the possibility of a constitutional change, a reformist solution agreed by the political class in November 2019 faced with the impossibility of stopping the advance of a violent revolt without leaders or managers.
      A wide range of sectors adhered to solutions offered by the institutions with greater or lesser diffidence towards the constituent electoral process, channelling energies and debates towards this scenario with a logic similar to the plebiscite held in 1988 for a return to democracy with peaceful means after almost a decade of mass protests and anti-dictatorial subversive actions. The plebiscite – as an experience re-conducted to the present time – was also born from the pact between dictatorship and a political class ready to guarantee social pacification and the continuity of the dominant economic and political regime.

$hile, October-November 2020
CONFRONTACION ES PDF
If you want paper copies write to confrontacion@riseup.net 
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk  

Tuesday 27 October 2020

Twins.

       It is sometimes difficult when you see our so called "political representatives", in their fine clothes and polite civilised manner, that they oversee and manage the cruel, vicious and barbaric prison system. A system deeply rooted in violence and inhumanity, a relic from our more barbaric past, but which our well manicured "political representatives" deem necessary to keep them in their privileged position of wealth and power. Prisons are institutions of violence, repression and  intimidation, and are intended to be so, as a deterrent to those who would dare to challenge the status-quo. As long as the state survives, the savagery and barbarity that is the prison system will persist, they are inseparably linked like Siamese-twins.  

The following from Act For Freedom Now: (Translation is not perfect, but you grasp the viciousness) 

 Rotative Hunger strike in spanish prisons

        From last 1st of September on at least 14 prisoners, mostly anarchists, take actually part of a new rotative hunger strike against the precarious health conditions in the spanish prisons. They reinvicate also a 14 point program against isolation custody (FIES/DERT), tortures and physical and psychical violence from the prison guards, dispersion of prisoners far from their home, etc. Every comrade is doing a 10-days-hunger strike, one following other, every month 3 prisoners.
      Violence in spanish prisons is very common, every year 200 prisoners die inside spanish prisons violently or from drugs, no medical attention or diseases. Actually in corona times, the conditions in jail are mostly insupportable (bad food, no activities, no visits…).
        Last month of August our comrade Carmen Badía Lachos was violated from a prison guard inside the ‘hospital’ part of the Zuera-prision (Zaragoza).
      She suffers cancer and use a wheelchair to move, so this psychopath had an ‘easy game’ to act like a coward. Carmen did a public communicate about this machist crime. Last year Carmen did a very long hunger strike (more than 2 month) to denounce her health conditions to get released from prison because of her incurable cancer. The prison-administration denied her petition… The violator got threats to kill from an anonymous prisoner.
       Long term prisoner Claudio Lavazza in August was brought back to Spain after being judged in Paris for a big bank-robbery (in 1978) and he got sentenced 41 years later to ten years of prison in France! Claudio was arrested in 1996 after a bank-robbery in Cordoba where died 2 cops in a battle of gun-fire.
        Also still in prison our anarchist comrade Gabriel Pombo da Silva, actually in the jail of Leon. He got transferred from Aachen/Germany in 2013 to Spain with the special condition that he had to finish just his sentence from Germany in spanish prisons and then he’d be free from all anterior sentences. So in 2016 he became free. But his freedom in Spain didn’t have a long stand… just because one judge from Girona opinion that Gabriel should finish his 30-years-sentence from 1990… that would be 16 years more behind bars! But his friends and comrades try to bring the case to the superior tribunal of justice, so the last word is still not spoken.

Solidarity with the anarchist/revolutionary prisoners all around the world!

Down all prison walls!
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk   

Friday 23 October 2020

Local Kids.

          The latest issue of The Local Kids, Autumn 2020, No. 6, is just released well worth downloading the PDF and having a wee read.
 
        The last months we saw different shades of curfew being imposed throughout the world. Apparently in this highly developed society (in the sense of the multiplication of institutions and technologies that penetrate every aspect of life) a pandemic can only be dealt with through the most blunt weapon of repression. To come together, to see eye-to-eye, is branded irresponsible and forcibly disbanded, with a glaring exception for profit-making, exploitative relations.
          Physical intimacy and tenderness suddenly become something threatening with deadly consequences. Meetings and physical contact are declared to be something abnormal and forbidden. Don’t kiss, don’t hug, don’t touch. Yes but touch the screens. The physical is banned from our real world and replaced by the virtual. The situation serves as an ideal opportunity to push ahead the total digitalization of all aspects of life. This is the definition of this society of a human life; work and consume, preferably without leaving the confinements of the home and permanently accompanied by a fear of potential infection which puts one in a constant state of anxiety.
          Levels of fear went through the roof not only because of the unknown risks of a potentially deadly virus, but also because of the violence unleashed against perceived potential transmitters. Everyone who doesn’t display the good behaviour of the responsible citizen, is deemed suspect. The understanding of solidarity and responsibility was deformed and equated with obedience and trust in the state. Though not everyone went along with this narrative, the streets and squares did empty. Interaction moved to the internet, a space inherently linked to
surveillance (data gathering) and shaped by unknown or misunderstood parameters (algorithms). Some might accept this (self-)imposed separation and isolation, others are starting to doubt if they want to live a life devoid of encounters that are not ruled by capitalist logic.
          The flow of goods will continue, the economy will be kept alive, the transfer of all aspects of life to the digital will be guaranteed. Thus creating an unstable construct of infrastructure where mobile phone antennas, fibre optic cables and the supply by trucks, trains etc. are more and more important. Could this mean possibilities to sabotage their apparent security at their sensitive points? By experimenting with these possibilities, can we perhaps feel, sense and touch life a little more?
PDFs on thelocalkids.noblogs.org
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk