Our History.

        Prisons are books, that contain dark and dreadful tales, tales of brutality, savagery, suffering  and death, but also tales of struggle, explosions of desire for freedom and enduring comradeship. Most of these tales go untold, but they are there, a history of endurance and struggle in the face of continuous state repression, we should tell these tales they are an inspiration to all those who struggle for that society of justice, freedom and comradeship.

The following from Act For Freedom Now: 

        Chile : 10 years after the massacre in the prison of San Miguel: words from Memory and tales of struggle
        If prison walls could talk they would tell the experiences of those who were (and are) locked up behind them; perhaps they would tell us many stories where the poor are the protagonists, or perhaps they would tell us of the immense yearning for freedom that fills the hearts of those locked up in the dungeons and the cells.
      Unfortunately prison walls are silent witnesses of the experiences of the people inside them. It is therefore a precise responsibility of each of us, kidnapped by the State, and of whoever wants to put an end to the present system of terror to tell what happens inside these places. The history of the prisoners is our history and cannot be lost.
        Sadness reigns in prison, is its lady and mistress and dominates the lives of those who end up in this gloomy place. Not only does the prison of San Miguel contain stories full of pain, it has also had many experiences of resistance and struggle.
        In the early 1990s many political prisoners were locked up in this prison, men of several organizations filled the tower cells until they were transferred to the C.A.S. in 1994, a transfer that the combatants opposed arms in hand.
        During the cell searches right after the clashes a large quantity of weapons and ammunition were found: a 7.65 mm Browning gun with seven cartridges; an Italian calibre 38 Trident revolver; a Dachmaur gun with fifteen cartridges; a 7.65 calibre Llama; a bag containing thirteen bullets; another leather bag with 18 bullets; a NEC cell phone and three homemade explosives (1). Several prison guards and a number of prisoners were injured during the clashes, among whom Mauricio Hernández Norambuena (guerrilla and ex-commander of the FPMR, Manuel Rodrìguez Patriotic Front). Commander Ramiro (one of the founders of FPMR) said: “I was seriously injured. I had never been hit by gunfire before, and it was precisely in jail that I was shot for the first time” (2). The same event was recounted by Ricardo Palma Salamanca (ex-guerrilla of the FPMR) in an interview given in Paris on 27th January 2019: “In the middle of the clashes two people were killed, I was also armed but I wasn’t hit”.
        The weapons used in the resistance during the transfers to the C.A.S. had originally been destined for escapes. Mauricio Hernandez tells it like this: “We managed to get various weapons into the prison of San Miguel and had devised a very interesting escape plan with external support, which was joined by fighters of Mapu-Lautaro (Mapuche military leader protagonist in the war of Arauco in Chile and the MIR, Movement of the Revolutionary Left). The idea was to get a large group of prisoners out. There were fifteen or twenty combatants in support outside. There were good weapons but unfortunately the plan failed. The whole operation was organized right down to the smallest detail, the fighters outside occupied a house whose walls adjoined those of the prison, with the intention of blowing it up. They could just go through a gate and get out from that side. Unfortunately, we were transferred to the C.A.S. a few days before the escape and used the weapons for the escape to resist the transfer” (3).
        This was not the only escape attempt from the prison of San Miguel. In 1997, a group of ex-members of the FPRM tried to escape from the prison through the roofs, with a system of ropes and pulleys, so as to reach one of the adjoining roads. But the attempt failed and a revolt broke out, the prisoners involved were transferred to the prison of Colina I and II, among whom Jorge Saldivia, who was killed during a bank robbery in 2014.
      The walls don’t talk but they bear signs that are difficult to erase. Many prisoners tell us that in Tower 5 in the prison of San Miguel, where 81 prisoners died in a fire, the stains of the bodies were never completely erased … The women say that the stains seem to be made of oil, and it doesn’t matter how much wax and paint they put on the floor and walls, they always come through again. Many anecdotes are told about the ghosts and spirits of tower 5, beliefs, myths or reality… but the death of 81 prisoners has never been forgotten by the other prisoners of tower 5, and shouldn’t be forgotten by any other prisoner.

10 YEARS AFTER THE MASSACRE IN THE PRISON OF SAN MIGUEL: ACTIVE AND COMBATIVE MEMORY UNTIL ALL CAGES ARE DESTROYED!

MÓNICA CABALLERO SEPÚLVEDA

ANARCHIST PRISONER

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Covid19 Cages.

        As covid19 permeates through our communities like a toxic fog, and cries of loneliness and isolation increase among our communities, without minimising the suffering of those individuals, we should all spare a thought for those who by state dictate find themselves locked up in insanitary, overcrowded, conditions with inadequate medical facilities, over which they have no control what so ever. Prisoners across the world live in conditions that inhumane as normal, during this pandemic they seldom make the news but they are suffering from this covid19 disaster more than the public at large. In prison after prison the incarcerated have taken the only path left open to them, to riot, in an attempt to get some sort of protection from this virus that is ravishing prisons across the world.
        This report is from America, that extremely rich imperialist power that goes around the world bombing and decimating countries, while killing and maiming the populations to give them democracy. The American prison system is no more or less that slavery, a large profit making corporate controlled inhuman institution. The corona virus has added immensely to the suffering of that slave population. However, no country is blameless in this incarceration, dignity denying cruel procedure, we are all culpably, human dignity and true democracy are impossible while prisons exist. 

The following from Truthout:

                                        Lauren Walker / Truthout

By Ella Fassler, Truthout

        U.S jails and prisons, already death traps, have been completely ravaged by COVID-19. Crowded quarters, a lack of PPE, inadequate medical care, an aging population, and unsanitary conditions have contributed to an infection rate 5.5 times higher than the already ballooned average in the U.S. As of this writing, over 252,000 people in jails and prisons have been infected and at least 1,450 incarcerated people and officers have died from the novel coronavirus. Evidence suggests these figures are underreported, however. (The entire state of Wisconsin, for example, isn’t releasing any information to the public.)
     In response, incarcerated people have shown strong solidarity, coming together to demand baseline safety measures and advocating for their release, only to be met with brutal repression and punishment.
     According to a new report released by the archival group Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest on November 13, incarcerated people in the U.S. collectively organized at least 106 COVID-19 related rebellions from March 17 to June 15. Perilous, a volunteer collective project that tracks information on all prison uprisings, riots, protests, strikes and other unrest within carceral facilities, described this activity as “clearly one of the most massive waves of prisoner resistance in the past decade.”

Read the full article HERE: 

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Death Sentence.

     How many prison riots are we going to see repressed with savage brutality before we all stand up and say, enough is enough. Prison conditions across the planet are all in various degrees of overcrowding, unhygienic, coupled to lack of proper health care, all administered with vindictive and arbitrator rules that are intended to humiliate and intimidate. Prisoners have been rioting from Italy to America, from the UK to Australia and rightly so, as their conditions are now life threatening with the threat of covid19. The unacceptable conditions in prisons are a breeding ground for the virus and next to nothing is being done  to remedy this unacceptable and inhumane situation. A prison sentence is now becoming a death sentence, and this must be stopped. Our full solidarity and support must get behind the prisoners and their demand for justice.
      We have to end this system that depends on brutality for survival, an end to prisons and the system that creates and needs them.

      This short report from prisoners rioting in Australia who are being brutally crushed by the state's violent minders.

  The following from Anarchists Worldwide.

      So-Called Australia, 08.06.2020: Riot cops and IAT (Immediate Action Team) have brutally crushed a prisoner revolt that had spread to 3 separate yards at the notorious Long Bay Prison located about 14km south of Warang / Sydney. During the revolt, prisoners used prison-issue towels to spell out BLM (Black Lives Matter) in one of the yards so it could be seen by media helicopters.
     Update 1 – There is an ongoing Black Lives Matter uprising at Long Bay Prison, NSW. There is massive resistance.
     The Immediate Action Team (IAT) who killed David Dungay Jnr on 29/12/15 and the Riot Squad are deploying massive amounts of tear gas and other chemical weapons into the yards to break the resistance ~ so nobody can breathe.
      Children and elderly people in the surrounding suburb of Malabar are also struggling to breathe.
      Update 2: The IAT and Riot Squad have used attack dogs, indiscriminate use of riot batons and held a gun capable of firing baton rounds to the head of people who had already surrendered and were restrained.
      One person is in hospital with severe dog bite injuries.
     The uprising spread over three yards at Long Bay in scenes reminiscent of the Attica Uprising.
    The indiscriminate use of tear gas in Long Bay is being inflicted on the people most at risk of contracting and dying from Covid 19.
      Some people in neighboring suburbs have fled as tear gas has contaminated large parts of Matraville and Malabar.

 (via Abolitionist and Transformative Justice Centre / Facebook)

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Death Sentence.

        In this pandemic battle most governments boast of their varying degrees of success in the midst of abject failure. However practically none of them are doing anything to relieve the conditions of prisoners, locked up in over crowded, unhygienic conditions, with poor to non-existent health care, despite the fact that they are all aware that the virus is inside most of these hell-holes and the conditions are ideal for it to spread. Imagine what it must be like to be confined to this obvious danger and being unable to do anything to protect yourself.

    Naturally across the world those unfortunate enough to be enmeshed in these institutions of state repression are doing the only thing open to them, rioting in protest at this callous and barbaric treatment. Prisoners have families, they are human beings, but in this type of society all that is denied. 

    This action by prisoners to draw attention to their avoidable situation is happening across the world, this report from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

      The following from The Plague And The Fire:  

      In the prison of Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, an uprising broke out after a prison guard was infected with coronavirus. The protest spread to various pavilions and inmates took control of at least two floors of the building, demanding transfers and health checks for fear of mass contagion. The prisoners then climbed onto the roof of the section from which they unrolled various banners “We don’t want to die in prison” “Genocide Judges. Silence is not my language.” They then started throwing stones and various objects. Mattresses were set on fire. Eleven guards were apparently injured.

      Two days ago, another violent uprising took place in Florencio Varela prison, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. To cause it, the fake audio message from a fake doctor reporting the presence of the coronavirus in the prison.

 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-argentina-prison/we-refuse-to-die-in-jail-argentine-inmates-set-fire-to-prison-in-coronavirus-protest-idUSKCN226310

 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/21/richard-garside-uk-lagging-behind-europe-coronavirus-prisons

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Beneath The Surface.

        The media still put out picture that we, on the whole, are quietly accepting our new enforced "normal", with a "we are all in this together" spirit. Of course this isn't quite an accurate picture of what is happening on the ground, there is considerable discontent and anger bubbling just below the surface. People are starting to move a little further from the rules, there have been riots in various cities across the globe, prisoners around the world are rioting, migrants in camps are rioting, and beneath the surface there is a growing desire to break out of this enforced straight jacket. The latest flash point in Europe has been Paris, after an incident with the police in a Paris suburb.
      There has been four nights of riots in the suburbs of Paris, the police being the main target of the youth from these areas. The riots began on Saturday evening after an incident that people saw as a police officer deliberately injuring a young local motorcyclist. The suburbs of Paris and many other French cities are usually very poor areas with poverty being a way of life for many struggling families. This lockdown has cost many of the residents, already poor, to lose their incomes. In these areas there has always been tension between police and residents, this has been exacerbated by the extra police presence to enforce the virus lockdown. The authorities are concerned that this situation could escalate, and there is every possibility that it will.

 

Reports HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE,  HERE, HERE,

Photo from Sky News

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Inhumane System.

 

      This coronavirus has put some fear in most people as they realise that it can and does mean death to many people. So people take precautions, isolate, good hygiene and clean conditions. Imagine if you're in a situation where you are not allowed to isolate, the hygiene is dubious at best, and the conditions are over crowded and far from clean. You know how this virus spreads and you are aware of these conditions you are forced to live under, what do you do? 

      Prisoners across the globe are crammed in over crowed, insanitary  conditions with insufficient health care and rightly so are rebelling, they have been sentenced to prison not to a death sentence, they are all human and all deserve to be treated as humans. Their conditions at present are a criminal act by the various states.

Thebes, Greece: Rebellion in the women’s prisons of Eleonas in Thebes following the death of a prisoner – Announcement of women prisoners
      9/4/20, The uprising continues in the Women’s Prisons of Eleonas, Thebes. It broke out in the morning, after the death of a 38-year-old prisoner, who developed fever and shortness of breath and died in the ward of the E΄ wing, in front of 20 prisoners. The prisoner died of coronavirus. The other prisoners set fire to mattresses and clothes, while damaging the prison’s refrigerators. A prosecutor has now arrived at the jail and a medical examiner has gone to perform an autopsy. Strong police forces – MAT – who rushed to the prison to prevent the spread of the women’s uprising to all the wings of the prison, carried out extensive beatings and – despite the repression that took place – the uprising spread throughout the prison.
Announcement of women prisoners
      9/4/2020 “Today, April 9, prisoner Azizel Deniroglou died in her ward, helpless, as she also had heart problems and a high fever. She had been begging for help all night as she had chest pains and could not breathe.
According to testimonies, they did not even measure her temperature and we are unaware of the real causes of her death. The shift manager threatened her with a report, because it bothered her. The lifeless body of our fellow prisoner was dragged out with a sheet in front of the shocked eyes of the whole wing. This tragic incident took place in the E wing, where about 120 people are stacked. The prisoners revolted and the uprising spread throughout the prison. Another prisoner died a month ago. The criminal indifference to the prisoners and their health has resulted in the death of many detainees, the government and the Ministry are responsible for sentencing them to death. The government and the Ministry are responsible for the death of this prisoner. We demand the immediate release of patients, mothers with their children and the elderly, who are considered vulnerable, a groups, a total of 1/3 of the prisoners. We will not return to our cells until the end! ”
      Pola Roupa, a political prisoner and member of Revolutionary Struggle, also complained that another woman had died in prison about a month ago. She stressed that: “Despite promises of prison decongestion due to the coronavirus pandemic, nothing has been done yet. Hospitals do not accept inmates from prisons, there is no doctor in Thebes. The vulnerable groups should have been released. ” We are imprisoned. We were not sentenced to death.”

Italy – Revolt in the CPR of Gradisca d’Isonzo
       30/03/2020 Last night prisoners in the CPR of Gradisca, on hunger strike for some days, made their anger and desperation heard again by lighting fires in the cells.
      Police with military back-ups intervened to repress the protest and the fire brigade rushed to extinguish the flames at 9pm, 10pm, midnight and 2am. Furniture, mattresses, and plastic skylights were burning and some cells were damaged. The day before yesterday a person who tested positive to coronavirus and had been taken to the centre from Cremona and put in isolation according to the authorities, suffered a deterioration of his condition, with a high temperature, and was taken to hospital in Cattinara.
      According to what we know, some guards were also put in quarantine, but nothing has been done for the other prisoners of the CPR.
hurriya

 Photo from the Guardian.

 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/01/prison-riots-break-around-world-coronavirus-spreads/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/us-prisons-coronavirus-uprising-riot 

https://observers.france24.com/en/20200407-covid19-riots-iranian-prisons-deaths

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/life-lockdown-coronavirus-sparks-fears-uk-prisons-200406220723216.html

        The list could go but all it would do is re-enforce the fact that we live with a system that has no humanity, a system that sees certain lives as expendable, as long as it works to their rules.

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The Desire To Be Free.

      We all know prisons are meant to intimidate, subdue and repress individuals, to turn them into subservient subjects of the state, and also as a warning to us all, obey or else. However, the human spirit being what it is, the opposite frequently happens, instead of being subdued and subservient, a fire of anger builds up and often displays itself in open rebellion. The states response to this is always savage and brutal and the incarcerated must be brought under the control of the system, no matter the human cost. Despite this brutal state response, prison riots have been part and parcel of the inhumane prison system since the birth of these cages of repression.

        The most recent display of this righteous anger and rebellion in prisons and the state's brutal response, is still to a degree on going in Italy, in St Anna prison in Modena.

      This report from Act For Freedom Now:

      A revolt broke out today, March 8 2020 in the early afternoon, in St Anna prison in Modena.
        The fact was clearly seen from outside as three columns of smoke rose from the wings of the structure, as well as the significant coming and going of guards, and the presence of a police helicopter guarding the area.
Various relatives of the prisoners gathered, those in solidarity and other spectators from the surrounding area, seeing the GOM arriving in antiriot gear and distinctly hearing some shots.
       After some attempt at removal by the police, people still gathered in front of the prison, where vans, ambulances and prison minibuses were seen parading back and forth.
       At some point, after several requests for news by relatives, the Major of the Prison and an emissary from the prison director came out and told them that during negotiations with the rebels barricaded in the wing they had given them back their mobile phones in order to let them call the their loved ones. So they asked family members to answer the phone and convince them to come out.
      Towards the evening, in front of a large antiriot contingent, cops emerged escorting some of the prisoners, striking them while handcuffed; some were on stretchers.
       Already around that time some had escorted a bag containing a dead body.
It was possible to talk to some of the prisoners in the wing next to the field during the events, they gave news of transfers and that they would be the last to be transferred from the section, saying that they were being heavily beaten.
80 people have been transferred, apparently to Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza and Ascoli by at least four prison buses and other vans.
       The media of the regime reconstructed the affair as having started off from the workers’ section then spread throughout the whole prison where the prisoners would have burned mattresses and barricaded themselves in at least one of the structures, and apparently from some video seen taking possession of the armoury.
      Three people died during the revolt. Their identity and the exact cause of death has not been released. Another two are in intensive care.
     There is talk of serious damage to the structure and the destruction of documents. Important causes of the outbreak of the revolt would be the shutdown of visits and lack of mediators due to THE virus, as well as health safety inside the structure.
       Late in the evening there seemed to be rebels barricaded; THE SITUATION IS EVOLVING CONTINUALLY.

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"Fastest Growing Economy In Europe".

        A little bit more of my thoughts on the “fastest growing economy in Europe”. a phoney growth built on a mountain of personal debt. While this is held up as a success story by our corporate minded lords and masters, its fruits to you and I are nothing like a success story. As I mentioned in my previous post on this illusion, child poverty is on the increase, homelessness is on the increase, those in temporary accommodation are on the increase, those sleeping rough is on the increase. We can add to that, this year saw an increase in insolvency and bankruptcies. Then we have the number being locked up in our vastly over-crowed prisons is on the increase, with obvious resultant riots. So the dystopian vision materialises with other details such as a massive increase in prisoners suicides and self-harm. All this is the world of the ordinary people in this the fifth richest country in the world. Where is all that extra wealth generated from this “fastest growing economy in Europe” going? Certainly not to our National Health Service, as it crumbles under the stress of under funding and under manning, in preparation for its slicing and dicing for sale to the corporate greed merchants. Our education system is falling apart for much the same reasons as our NHS, with the result that the future potential of millions of kids will be stunted. Yet we are supposed to feel satisfaction, and take comfort in the fact that we are the “fastest growing economy in Europe”. 

        The crap coming from the mouths of our lords and masters sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, is that ever increasing trade will solve all our problems. Hence their scurrying around post Brexit, screaming about trade deals with all and sundry, dictators, fascist regimes and despots, as long as the corporate world can make money from the deal. As long as we frame the problem in these terms of ever increasing trade, we will lose the argument. Ever increasing trade is the life blood of the corporate world and will only widen the gap between rich and poor, will only fatten the bank accounts of the corporate greed merchants. Instead of pushing for ever increasing trade, we should be framing the argument in terms of building self sufficiency, with a decent life for all, seeing to the needs of all our people, and what ever surplus we have distributing in the form of mutual aid to those communities still struggling for self sufficiency. Removing profit from the equation and allowing the corporate world to die is the only road to equality, the only way to end poverty and deprivation. We should be aiming for a world where all the wealth that is created should be delivery to all those who created that wealth and those who are in need. We should see the phrase, “the fastest growing economy in Europe” as the slogan of the greed driven corporate world and as the death knell of equality.

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When Will We Abolish Slavery??

        Look around and what we see is blatant greed and corruption by the wealthy and powerful, with the people growing more and more aware of this looting and a realisation that the ballot box is just an illusion to fool the subservient. So protests grow, turmoil increases and the system cracks and starts to crumble. In the capitalist system protest and direct action is the only road to real change, justice and freedom. The states answer to this threat is to lock more people up in cages, believing this will solve the problem. However, people in cages are still people, and their resolve to be treated as such will always be there and grow.

        Across the system those locked up are also turning to direct action as much as they can within the confines of the brutal state incarceration. Prisoners direct action is growing, in Greece there is a constant battle within the prison system in America across several states prisoners are on strike, and the latest in Europe is in Belgium, where several prisons have prisoners roiting, to the extent that the Belgian government has sent in the troops. Slavery is not dead as long as we have prisons and those locked up used as productive units to make profit for large corporations, as happens in every country in Europe. In America, prisons are nothing more than large production units useing the inmates as slave labour. All those who are protesting, striking, taking direct action, within the prison system must be able to call on the support and solidarity of all those outside the cages, we are all fighting the same system, exploitation,injustice and corruption.

      A small chronology of the riots spreading the Belgian prisons, where guards are on strike for more than two weeks now…

On Monday 25th of April, the prison guards of all prisons in the French speaking parts of Belgium went on strike, in total 21 prisons. The prisoners are confined in their cells. All activities, like the walk, shower, visit, legal counsel, are cancelled. The police took over the control of the prisons to assure security.

After one week of guards on strike, and with conditions rapidly deteriorating inside, incidents start to spread in many prisons. In some prisons, the situation could be called catastrophic. Prisoners only receive food once a day, didn’t go out of their cells in more than ten days, hygienic conditions are terrible with infections and diseases spreading.---------

Read the full article HERE:

And in America, prisoners strikes are growing.

      Alabama prisoners who have been on strike for 10 days over unpaid labor and prison conditions are accusing officials of retaliating against their protest by starving them. The coordinated strike started on May 1, International Workers’ Day, when prisoners at the Holman and Elmore facilities refused to report to their prison jobs and has since expanded to Staton, St. Clair, and Donaldson’s facilities, according to organizers with the Free Alabama Movement, a network of prison activists.

      Prison officials responded by putting the facilities on lockdown, partially to allow guards to perform jobs normally carried out by prisoners. But prisoners told The Intercept that officials also punished them by serving meals that are significantly smaller than usual, a practice they have referred to as “bird feeding.”----------

Texas.

       Claiming that they are treated like slaves, inmates from up to five Texas prisons have orchestrated a historic workers’ strike. A lack of access to quality food and water, low wages, overcrowding, and poor working conditions were among their complaints.

Striking inmates are refusing to leave their cells for work assigned by Texas Corrections Industries (TCI), a publicly traded company.

        Established in 1963 under the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, TCI uses prison labor to make a variety of products “from hand soap to bed sheets, from raising livestock to making iron toilets and portable buildings,” all of which are sold to local, state, and federal government agencies, as well as public schools, and hospitals ‒ and prisoners receive none of the profits, according to a letter outlining the reasons for the strike.--------

     PRISON INMATES around the country have called for a series of strikes against forced labor, demanding reforms of parole systems and prison policies, as well as more humane living conditions, a reduced use of solitary confinement, and better health care.

       Inmates at up to five Texas prisons pledged to refuse to leave their cells today. The strike’s organizers remain anonymous but have circulated fliers listing a series of grievances and demands, and a letter articulating the reasons for the strike. The Texas strikers’ demands range from the specific, such as a “good-time” credit toward sentence reduction and an end to $100 medical co-pays, to the systemic, namely a drastic downsizing of the state’s incarcerated population.

       “Texas’s prisoners are the slaves of today, and that slavery affects our society economically, morally and politically,” reads the five-page letter announcing the strike. “Beginning on April 4, 2016, all inmates around Texas will stop all labor in order to get the attention from politicians and Texas’s community alike.”---------

Well worth reading these articles in full.

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