Torture 2.

 

                                              Image courtesy of The Parliament.

          State prisons are not what they are sometimes labelled, correction centres, rehabilitation centres, reform centres, they are in fact death centres. When incarcerated in one of the state's and sometimes private run prisons, (run for profit) something has to die. The state's hope is that it is your desire for freedom and you can be released into the community a subservient digit in their plans. However if that spirit doesn't die then you will  go through the various processes to make it happen, even if the end result is your death. Solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, broken sleep, and a multitude of other inhumane endeavours to break you desire for freedom. Some prisoners take the dangerous road of hunger strikes rather than meekly submit to the state's  demands that they abandon their desire for freedom. We owe them our unstinting solidarity and support, their struggle for freedom and justice is our struggle. 

Image courtesy of BBC.

The following article from Act For Freedom Now.

 

Financial support for the surgical expenses of an anarchist comrade.

Dear comrades
         The Solidarity Fund for imprisoned, persecuted revolutionaries (Tameio), has been trying to obtain, since being established in 2010, a regular and consistent political, moral and material support to the political prisoners and imprisoned fighters. Alongside, it has also actively aided with legal expenses and bails of persecuted comrades and it supported prison struggles. Solidarity, as a crucial political act, is extended to include comrades who need our active support.
       With respect to this, we would like to inform you about the firefund that has been created by a group of comrades from Athens for the financial support of an anarchist comrade who faces substantial medical expenses, needing to promptly have a costly surgery.

https://www.firefund.net/medical23

In solidarity,
Solidarity Fund (Tameio)
Italy - General news ,sabotage, actions and Solidarity with anarchists arrested and all those under investigation, Revolutionary Prisoners News, Solidarity Events, e.t.c.
Greece: Announcement of the hunger strike of Anarchists and Fighting Prisoners in Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito
16 February 2023

        16th of February, Hunger Strike of Anarchists and Fighting Prisoners in Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito
        The 41-bis prison regime is the completion of the prison structure into a masqueraded death sentence. The execution, in this case, does not end in one moment, like with a gunshot, the tightening of the noose, the application of electrical current or the injection of poison into the body, rather it lasts a lifetime in a state of social coma, in a state of non-world. And so, spread through time. Out of this world, the death sentence has evaded history, just like the state pursues oblivion for all the prisoners of the social war who are buried alive in the state of 41-bis. The 41-bis regime has already murdered one fighter, Diana Blefari Melazzi.
       The 41-bis regime and the law about “massacre” are the legacy of the european counter-revolution from the time of Piazza Fontana (Strage di piazza Fontana). This civil war never ended. The states, and particularly the Italian one, carry on the counter-revolution so that the flame may never flare up again. All the systems follow, step by step, the examples first introduced as special warfare, e.g. the white cells of West Germany, the F-type prisons in Turkey and the FIES prisons in Spain to the Type-C prisons in Greece or the new high security prison system A.A.; the still active Hitler-inspired law about indefinite extension of one’s sentence on “preventative” grounds, by which comrade Thomas Meyer Falk is being held for another 10 years (25 in total) in Freiburg prison in Germany, to the different methods of extorting declarations of repentance, and from Asinara to Imrali.
        Anarchist Alfredo Cospito is fighting for the flame to flare up again. Let’s reassert the fight of the comrade. It is our duty to defend in deed the battle that Alfredo Cospito is fighting. A struggle for and against time itself. This particular hunger strike does not concern only the comrades in the italian territory, but it is internationalist, and so the star of internationalist solidarity must shine on the side of Alfredo Cospito and all those who are fighting from within a special prison regime. From Greece to every point in the planet – for all those fighting for freedom.
       Because defeat is not captivity, but losing one’s faith in the possibility of wining. So, we are collectively going on a hunger strike, according to each one’s capacity, so that we may stand by the side of anarchist revolutionary Alfredo Cospito, but also, against the death regime of 41-bis. At the same time the struggle against the new prison code in Greek prisons is continuing.

Anarchist and Fighting Prisoners

Giannis Michailidis
(1 day hunger strike)

Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis
(3 day hunger strike)

Thanos Chatziaggelou
(1 day hunger strike)

Iasonas Rodopoulos
(1 day hunger strike)

Kostas Dimalexis
(3 day hunger strike)

Lambros Vougiouklakis
(1 day hunger strike)

Panagiotis Vougiouklakis
(1 day hunger strike)

Stathis Nikolouzos
(1 day hunger strike)

Stergios Kalaitzidis
(1 day hunger strike)
 

Fotis Daskalas
(1 day hunger strike)

 

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

Man's Inhumanity.

       This pandemic has brought misery and fear to millions across the planet, but none more so than those incarcerated in the various state's prisons. The conditions in these institutions of state repression are at best brutal and deplorable, added to these conditions has been the covid19 outbreak. This combination of inhumane conditions linked to the spread of the covid19 virus within the prison system has lead to riots in countries across the world, though not always reported. Sometimes the determination for human justice within these state hellholes takes the form of hunger strikes. Recently in Turkey we witnessed the Turkish state let two young prisoners die from the results of hunger strikes, that is not exactly unknown elsewhere. This report from the state of California in America is just another one of those cases where we search for words to describe this unacceptable and inhumane state function. The words from a 1784 dirge by Robert Burns,  "Man was made to mourn", spring to mind, "Man's inhumanity to man".

The following from It's Going Down:

       Perilous Chronicle reports on the ongoing hunger strike at Corcoran prison in Central California. 

 

 photo: Alfaz Sayed

By Ryan Fatica
          In the southern part of California’s Central Valley, about halfway between Bakersfield and Fresno, sits Corcoran, California—a small farming town surrounded on all sides by acres of cotton and tomato fields. Perched at the town’s southern tip are two of the state’s largest prisons. Together, their denizens make up about 33% of the population of Corcoran. One of the facilities, the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (CSATF), is the state’s single largest, housing 4,481 prisoners, about 130% of its intended capacity.
        At the end of October, in the midst of a rapidly spreading COVID-19 epidemic at the facility, a small group of prisoners in D yard have announced a work stoppage and hunger strike in protest of what they consider to be institution’s “failure to protect” them from the spread of a virus from which they have no means to protect themselves. “I have lost all hope in humanity because of how California and CDCR [California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation] has Failed to Protect individuals like myself,” wrote David S. Cauthen, Jr., 32, a prisoner at CSATF who says he is currently on day 14 of his hunger strike.
        In an email to Perilous, Cauthen explained that the purpose of the protest is to draw attention to the spread of COVID-19 at the facility and to protest staff misconduct. “The primary goal is to set a constitutional standard on CDCR and all of its officers, staff members and medical personnel,” Cauthen wrote. “California and CDCR cannot expect inmates to follow the law as it relates to correctional officers giving orders, while all the while officers are breaking the rules that say CDCR must protect prisoners against any harm to life of themselves.”
        The Corcoran treatment facility is home to the California prison system’s largest active COVID-19 outbreak, with 502 active cases and counting. On Wednesday, the number of positive cases at the facility jumped by almost a hundred in a single day. Of the total number of COVID-19 cases at the facility, 482 have been diagnosed in the last 14 days, according to statistics maintained by the California Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (CDCR).
        There is reason to fear that the true magnitude of the prison’s outbreak is not reflected in these statistics. Estimates of false negatives produced by PCR testing range from 20%-67%, depending on the stage of illness at which patients are tested. In one study, researchers called the rates of false negatives they found “shockingly high.” Given this reality, it is statistically likely that at least 764, or 20%, of the 3,823 prisoners at CSATF tested in the last 14 days were given false negatives. If so, it’s likely that at least 28% of prisoners at the facility are currently infected with COVID-19 and the true number could be much higher.
        Late last week, the strikers released their list of demands through the prisoner support group Oakland Abolition and Solidarity. Their demands include:
Universal and voluntary testing available to everyone in the facility with results provided immediately. Restore safe programing and basic necessities namely law library, access to telephones, showers, dormitory cleaning supplies, hot meals, and canteen. Create mechanisms of accountability by which independent family and supporters on the outside have visibility on CDCR’s plans and actions during and after an outbreak like this. According to Cauthen, officials at CSATF have visited the strikers in order to resolve their demands but have refused to officially recognize the strike. Officials at CDCR did not promptly respond to requests for comment.
       As the strike enters its third week, the safety and health of the strikers may be in jeopardy in the absence of serious efforts toward resolution on the part of prison staff. “The hunger strike will last until we notice our physical health taking a turn for the worse,” Cauthen wrote. “But even once we do begin eating, our work strike will continue and members will fail to perform work for corrections.”
      Linda Osby, Cauthen’s mother, receives only sporadic updates on the hunger strike from her home in Texas. While she appreciates that Cauthen is doing something to improve conditions at the prison for everyone, she views the hunger strike with some trepidation. “He’s been in there 18 years,” said Osby, “I’m just ready to have him home.” She’s nervous to see her son taking these risks, but she is also praying for him. In the end, she has faith that he will get through it: “God has him covered in everything he does.”
        For updates on the hunger strike and other struggles in California prisons and beyond, follow Oakland Abolition and Solidarity on their website and on Twitter: @OaklandAboSol

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

Solidarity Knows No Borders.

      Syriza still playing the financial game and trying for modifications in the financial Mafia's master plan. Still waving the left wing flag, but still ignoring all the political prisoners in Greece hell-holes called prisons. Principled people are putting their lives on the line, in the name of freedom, but still the "party of the people" ignores their cry for justice. However they are not forgotten by their comrades on the outside who continue to show solidarity.

      The latest update on the hunger strikers incarcerated in the Greece's draconian dungeons of despair, from Contra Info:

        Till this day, March 23rd 2015, dozens of political prisoners have gone on hunger strike (most of them since March 2nd), demanding that the following be abolished: the special “anti-terrorist” legislation, and particularly articles 187A (terrorist organisation) and 187 (criminal organisation); the special repressive law (hoodie law); and the type C prisons, which are completing the state of exception for political prisoners. They also demand that the use and processing of DNA as means of evidence be limited; and that Savvas Xiros (who, despite having a 98% disability, is being systematically exterminated by the State for 13 years now), as well as the relatives of Conspiracy of Cells of Fire members be immediately released from prison.

      We, a group of solidarian comrades from the anarchist milieu who support the demands of the hunger strikers, have occupied the ‘105.5 FM Sto Kokkino’ radio station in Athens. We chose to occupy this specific station for obvious reasons: it is the radio outlet of the establishment and currently also of the government, or plainly the speaking trumpet of the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition.

The ‘105.5 FM Sto Kokkino’ radio station, same as the vast majority of media scum, distorts both the overall context of the struggle waged by the hunger strikers and the actions in solidarity with them. This occupation is an action stemming from the broader movement of solidarity with the prisoners, who are giving a fight that concerns us all.

      We of the occupation in ‘105.5 FM Sto Kokkino’ are taking this means into our own hands and making counter-information a weapon! This action is part of the wider polymorphous movement of solidarity with the political prisoners on hunger strike.

Victory to the struggle of the hunger strikers!
Until every prison is torn down!

‘105.5 FM Sto Kokkino’ Occupation

Greek original: Athens IMC (March 23rd 2015)

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Prisons Don't Equate With Civilisation.

     So Greece has Syriza, a supposed party of the people, but the state apparatus under their control, still treats political prisoners in an inhumane manner. Nothing has changed in the manner of treatment of those who are in prison for their desire to destroy the capitalist system and replace it with a system of justice for all. Prison conditions in Greece are among the worst in Europe, and the prison hospital is not a hospital, but a dumping hole for sick prisoners. Due to unjust laws and draconian conditions, hunger strikes in Greek prisons are an ongoing affair. 

      This latest update from Contra Info, on Dimitris Koufontinas, who has been on hunger strike since March 2nd.

       Since yesterday morning, March 21st, hunger striker Dimitris Koufontinas (convicted 17N member) has been transferred from the type C maximum security prison of Domokos to the provincial hospital in Lamia, where he’s being held in a room-cell with no window. In addition to the miserable conditions, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for supporters to communicate with any prisoner who may find themselves moved to this hospital.

      Can any society that treats people in this inhumane fashion be called civilised? States may raise the flag of democrat, left of centre, social democrat, liberal or whatever, and all claim to be for the people, but they all retain and expand their prison system, and it is there for the one specific purpose, to protect their power and privileges.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The UK's Gulags.

        From Athens to Harmondsworth, solidarity with the hunger strikers and all prisoners in revolt.

       Prisons are the state's last resort before execution, though a number of state's have abolished official state murders, (executions), but prisons remain and become more brutal in there surveillance and isolation techniques. Degrade, humiliate, harass and repress, all strategies to control that are common in prisons across the world. The state will introduce whatever legislation it pleases to make something a “custodial” offence. In the case of many migrants, there has been no offence, no sentence, no defined term, just the indefinite custodial act, at the whim of the state apparatus. What is more repugnant, is the fact that lots of these hell-holes are run by private companies on a strictly for profit basis. The detainees are secondary to the profit, it is to the companies benefit to hold as many as possible, for as long as possible, for as cheaply as possible. A sure recipe for abuse and deteriorating conditions. As always, as conditions deteriorate, so the anger grows, and rightly so. However those unfortunate enough to be caught up the the state's repressive prison/detention Gulags, should not have to fight their battles alone from the inside. Their conditions, and justice, demand our solidarity. Without that solidarity the state will brutally crush any internal protests, all hidden from the public gaze, all behind high stone walls. An abundance of repression and brutality goes on on a daily basis behind those high stone walls. We can't be deaf and blind to their call for help.

This from Rabble:

      Tuesday evening 10 March. Rebellion is spreading across the UK’s “gulag archipelago” of migration prisons.

     Hunger strikes and yard occupations and other protests are now taking place in at least 6 UK detention centres. The protests started last week in Yarl’s Wood (Bedfordshire) and in the Harmondsworth and Colnbrook migration prison complex near Heathrow airport. (See previous reports here and here.)

     Today we heard that 50 people were on hunger strike in Tinsley House, with protests also at nearby Brook House, both inside the perimeter of Gatwick Airport. Hunger strike has also started at Moreton Hall (Nottinghamshire). There may well be others.

     In Harmondsworth, some prisoners have now been on hunger strike for a week (picture above from yesterday). See this video featuring interviews by phone with some of the people detained there. Also see the Detained Voices website which is receiving and spreading words from friends on the inside.

      Today there were due to be three mass deportation flights of prisoners from UK detention centres to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Albania. In particular, it is known that a number of people deported to Afghanistan recently, particularly from ethnic minorities, have been killed or imprisoned and tortured by state and para-state forces upon arrival in the country.

Full article and photos HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Syriza And Democracy.

      Syriza or no Syriza, the Greek state apparatus is still a fascist institution. It has draconian laws in place which Syriza has not even hinted at repealing. They have laws governing "criminal organisations" and "terrorist organisations" which sees legitimate protesters detained in high security prisons. Then their is the so called "hoodie law",  acts committed with concealed physical characteristics, plus forced DNA samples. Admitted Syriza has a bitter loosing fight on its hands with the European financial Mafia, but it could still be addressing these matters on simple democracy at home.

      The conditions in Greek prisons are probably the worst in Europe, this from Wikipedia: Amnesty International and other human rights bodies such as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture have repeatedly expressed concern about the prison for its overcrowding and inhumane treatment of detainees. ^[4][5] In 2007, a special committee composed of physicians of the Division of Health Inspections of the Prefecture of Piraeus and Piraeus Medical Association has reported that the hospital and the mental clinic of the prison operate without even the minimum conditions of hygiene, with aging infrastructure and big shortages in medical and nursing staff.^[6] 

      Because of these totally inhumane and undemocratic conditions, there is another prisoners hunger strike taking place in Greece. Will Syriza handle this hunger strike  any different from the way the last incumbent "managers" of the Greek state apparatus handled the last one?

Greece's only prison hospital.

View video of interior of Greece's only prison hospitals.

This from Contra Info:

On March 2nd 2015, combative prisoners launched a hunger strike in various Greek prisons. Their main demands are: the abolition of Article 187 (criminal organisation) and Article 187A (terrorist organisation) of the Greek Penal Code; of the “hoodie law” (acts committed with concealed physical characteristics); of the legal framework for Type C prisons; of the prosecutorial provision of forcible taking of DNA samples – and the immediate release from prison of Savvas Xiros (convicted for his participation in the R.O. 17 November) on health grounds.
So far, those who have joined the political prisoners’ mobilisation and collective hunger strike are three urban guerrillas incarcerated in the E1 wing of Domokos type C prison: Dimitris Koufontinas, Kostas Gournas, and Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis – and five participants in the Network of Imprisoned Fighters (DAK): Antonis Stamboulos (Larissa prison), Tasos Theofilou (Domokos prison), Fivos Harisis, Argyris Ntalios and Giorgos Karagiannidis (Koridallos prison). The rest of the comrades who participate in the

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Democracy Under The Financial Mafia.

         I recently posted an article about the mass prison hunger strike in Greece, a protest against an extremely repressive system and proposed draconian legislation. Here is an update with the hunger strike now in its forth day. It is now wide spread across all the Greek prisons. with more than 4,000 prisoners now taking part in the hunger strike protest. By the 23rd. June those participating in this protest against cruelty and repression were: 

Koridallos, Athens: 1,300 inmates 

Patras: 550 inmates 

Grevena: 400 inmates 

Larissa: 300 inmates 

Chania, Crete: 280 inmates 

Domokos (where the Greek State intends to establish the first maximum security prison): 4 wings; that is, 240 inmates 

Amfissa: 200 inmates 

Corfu: 120 inmates 

Trikala: 120 inmates 

Malandrino (one of the toughest prisons; also where Ilir Kareli took the life of a miserable torturer-guard): 120 inmates 

Avlonas (juvenile prison): 100 inmates 

Nigrita, Serres (where prisoner Ilir Kareli was recently murdered by torturers-guards): 80 inmates 

Nafplion: 50 inmates 

On the evening of June 24th – 2nd day of mass hunger strike of over 3,900 prisoners across Greece 

         To date that figure is is now 4,180. For so many people to take such desperate action, tells you something is rotten at the heart of the system. We owe them all the support and solidarity that we can muster. More information HERE.

— nearly 60 anarchists made an anti-prison intervention outside the house of Antonis Samaras, Prime Minister of Greece, in the northern suburb of Kifissia, Athens. Comrades threw anti-repression leaflets in the streets and shouted slogans such as:

Read the full article on Contra Info HERE 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk