Strange words, but welcome, from an Israeli soldier. You wonder when that trait called humanity will enter the psyche of the majority of the Jewish population in Israel. It is sad to see almost an entire population so steeped in hate all based on an illusion that they are special and their wee man in sky gave them this land more than 2,000 years ago.
“After 7 years of consecutive imprisonment (from the arrest of 5th January, 2017), 8.5 years together with pre-trial detention (arrested on 10/4/2010) and 13 years and 6 months in total, sentence I served for my participation in Revolutionary Struggle, I have been released. The symbolism of the day was strong as this year’s November 17th marks the 50th anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising of 1973. On that day, everyone remembers the dead of the Polytechnic but also all those who have fallen in the struggle for freedom.
For me, this day was dominated by the memory of our comrade killed in the activity of Revolutionary Struggle, Lambros Fountas. But in my thoughts is also the comrade Nikos Maziotis who, despite the fact that he has served 11 years’ “closed” prison and 14 years in a mixed prison – a very long period for a 20-year sentence -, the judicial councils of Lamia are refusing to release him. It is now clear that a unique status of exception has been imposed on Nikos Maziotis, as no prisoner in a similar situation (with charges based on 187A) and with a similar sentence (i.e. not a life sentence) has remained in prison for such a long period of time. This exceptional regime based on political criteria and motives and which in practice nullifies the institution of parole – which according to the law is mandatory and not “gratuitous”, given that it is not left to the personal will of the respective judge – this exemption regime must come to an end. In addition to the flagrant violation of his rights, this special regime of exception is reminiscent of a junta-style treatment of a political prisoner.
Perhaps if more people knew the true history of Palestine and its people, there would be more anger at the Western states and the Zionist apartheid Israeli regime's genocide and land stealing. However, as long as we hold onto the state system and its capitalist bedfellow, then we will always have the type of brutality that we are witnessing today. Peace will come with a world with no borders no states and the world our village.
The following film may be a bit long for some, I think it is well worth viewing it in full.
In conjunction with Call for International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners 2023 // 23 – 30 August.
From Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross
Fire Ant is a quarterly publication focused on spreading the words of anarchist prisoners and generating material solidarity for our imprisoned friends. Begun as a collaboration between anarchist prisoners and anarchists in Maine, Fire Ant seeks to raise material aid for anarchist prisoners while fostering communication between anarchists on both sides of the walls.
Issue #16 features art, poetry, letters, and essays by Sean Swain, Marius Mason, Michael Kimble, and Eric King; and an update on Thomas Meyer-Falk.
Being locked up in one of the states institutions of repression, prisons, you have enough problems of your own, but somehow some find the time and the compassion to think of other people's problems. Another poem from the prisoners in Kilmarnock Prison.
SONNET TO GAZA.
Shalom? This is not the time for clandestine poets
To hurl shoes over Jerricho's fortified walls.
Stay calm. The stench of exploding verse
Will not deter the invading tanks of Saul.
You bragged that the lost tribe of Israel
Would not be dragged through the eye of a needle.
There would be corrective fury. An iron heel.
An eye for an eyelash. A fire that is truly biblical.
So you came in numbers. The Genesis of hate.
Judges & Kings till the job was complete.
Holy revenge against David's puny catapult
Daniel dismembered by the lion's savage maul.
When you heard the words "suffer little children"
Did you think it was one of the Ten Commandments?
KEVIN WILLIAMSON.
From the book Independent Minds, New poetry from HMP Kilmarnock. Published by Luath Press Ltd.
ISBN 978-1-910021-00-2
It's amazing how the propaganda machine for the state manages to convince most people in the UK that we live in an advanced democratic country, ahead of most other developed countries. Of course the intelligent and informed section of the population are aware that this is a load of bullshit. There is the lie that migrants flood here because of our wonderful social services and generous benefit schemes. When in fact or social services is in terminal decline, our retirement age is the oldest in the developed world, many people dying long before they reach the retirement age, and our pensions are the lowest in the developed world. Another aspect of of our so called democratic country is the number of people we lock up in prisons. Recently an Irish judge refused to allow the extradition of a prisoner to Scotland, stating that he could not guarantee the prisoner would be treated humanely, slating our prison system. In Scotland the number of the population held in our dilapidated and cruel prison system is 136 per 100,000 of the population, in England it is 132 per 100,000, where as the European average is 117 per 100,000 of the population. Another factor that tells us of the cruelty of our prison system is the suicide rates. In Scotland the suicide rate per 10,000 prisoners is 16, England and Wales it's 11, the European average is 9. Time and time again our prison system has been condemned as cruel, inhumane and over crowded. The state is not likely to spend money on doing anything about these inhumane statistics, as they see it as a means of helping to produce a submissive population, which they deem necessary for control. While prison walls stand democracy will die.
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.
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!
Those who voice their desire for a fair and free world without borders, and are prepared to take action to further their desires, very often will suffer the full ravages and vengeance of the state apparatus. Brutality, intimidation, and being caged like an animal are some of the state's methods of attempting to create a submissive population. Submission is necessary for control, freedom of expression, justice and fairness can never fit in a governed population. Rules and regulations formulated by those who wish to control the shape of the society we live in, are considered more important than the freedom of the individual. Woe betide those who transgress those rules and regulations in their desire for a free and equal world, they will require and deserve all the support and solidarity we can muster. To the abolition of the state and its prisons.
Dear comrades: as incredible as it may seem to you, I have as yet had neither the desire, nor the ability, nor the will to sit down in front of a machine to (re)-announce my (re)-return to this frenetic world… in any case I have the will to share these brief words.
Be that as it may, finally the truth prevails, and their gray state officials should have recognized that they have kept me KIDNAPPED for many more years than what their “democratic” laws and rights commonly and ordinarily announce.
As life and death is a bureaucratic procedure for those who “conquer more than they convince”, when the release order reached its final rung, just like that, they put me suddenly before the doors of one of their prisons. They did not even take the trouble to warn the lawyers, comrades or family of this fact, forcing me to endure 40 interminable minutes standing there like an imbecile until a prisoner let me talk on the phone….
Anyway, I did not expect the bride and groom of death to apologize, but neither did I expect them to be so vile… the fact is that in the last few months I have lost more than 15 kilos of muscle mass, I will spare you the lurid details of this last attack that has taken more than 3 and a half years to be resolved.
My daughter and my partner have undoubtedly borne the brunt of this vile revenge, and now these weeks of reunion and healing are for them. To all of you, brother and sister, internationalist and solidarity comrades, goes my revolutionary love.
Soon we will begin to build and (re)-build our projects and organizational bases to continue our struggle and commitment for all freedoms. Those who have died in action and those who continue to rot in prison for their militant and revolutionary ideas and commitments are always in my heart and mind.
We will continue the struggle against the state, capital and its mercenaries on all fronts, again and again.
For anarchy and the end of domination!
Gabriel.”
https://informativoanarquista.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/16/espana-unas-palabras-por-parte-del-companero-gabriel-pombo-da-silva/
Translated by Act for freedom now!
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.
There is no limit to the depth of callous vindictiveness that the state will not stoop to to crush any attempt to limit its power over the people. Those who fight hardest against the strangling shackles of the state's harsh power over the population, come in for the most brutal and vindictive of treatment from the paid dogs of the state. Usually those most determined fighters against the state's power, are anarchists, hence they come in for the full brutal force of the state's vindictive brutality. The following is just some of the savage treatment the state indulges in, but these cases can be found in state after state. All states share the same brutal determination to keep control of the population at any cost. Only our determination and solidarity will bring an end to this insane brutality, perpetrated in the name of power and wealth.
The following from Enough is Enough.
Originally published by Terra Incognita.
During the early hours of Monday 19/12 prison snitches/guards inform our comrade Th. Chantziangelou about his transfer from his cell to the 4th wing of the hellhole called the “penitentiary detention center” of Korydallos. After our comrade’s refusal to cooperate with them, the “well-known” hooded prison guards took over and tied him up and began his transfer to the prisons of Nigrita, after his declaration that from that moment on he would be on hunger and thirst strike until he was informed of the reason of his transfer and his immediate return to his cell in Korydallos prison. For hours our companion was unable to contact anyone, not even his lawyer. In the evening of the same day, he remains at the Sub-Directorate of Transfers in Thessaloniki and is now in the hellholes-prison of NigritaSerres. On 25/12, comrade Thanos was admitted to the Serres hospital where he is held under the suffocating presence of police in a room-cell, violating every human right.
In the same way, on 22/12, the anarchist Kostas Dimalexis, prisoner of the 5th Wing of Korydallos, was transferred to the Trikala’s, another smaller city in central Greece,prison.
We have become familiar with the scenarios of these stories and their director is famous for its trash behavior against prisoners. Of course, at a time when a fight against the new penal code has been taking place for two months now, the transfer of Th. Chatziangelou is clearly a vindictive response coming from all those who see in his face the unrepentant rage for freedom, as he was one of the prisoners who actively participated in the mobilizations to overturn this extreme resolution.at a time when a fight against the new penal code has been taking place for two months now, the transfer of Th. Chatziangelou is clearly a vindictive response of all those who see in his face the unrepentant rage for freedom, as he was one of the prisoners who actively participated in the mobilizations to overturn this extreme resolution.
Our comrade still speaks of the intransigence of hostile actions against the rotten world of power and submission, and while they succeeded in throwing him into the cells of their democracy, he continues to speak of our greatest idea, Anarchy. In this struggle he finds us by his side, against every regime of exception, against every breath of any oppressor, against the violence exerted by the existence of their moldy system. Until the last breath, we are together and that cannot be defeated by any of them.
Strength and solidarity to all the political prisoners who have gone on a hunger strike, demanding the return of the striking Th. Chatziangelou to the Korydallos’prisons.
Solidarity with the anarchist Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike since 20/10, as well as with the 11 Turkish fighters who are on hunger strike since 7/10.
Immediate grant of the demands of our comrade, hunger and thirst striker Thanos Chatziangelou.
Listen carefully bodyguards, hands down from the fighters
Solidarity in the prisoners’ struggle against the new penal code
We call for international solidarity actions to support the struggle of our comrade and striker Th. Chatziangelou.
Since 20 October, the anarchist Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike against his detention in total isolation and torture and against imprisonment without parole. Other detained comrades (Anna Beniamino, Ivan Alocco, Juan Sorroche and Toby Shone) as a sign of solidarity and to give strength to Alfredo’s struggle, have also started a hunger strike.Alfredo has been in prison uninterruptedly for ten years, spent in High Security sections until his transfer to 41 bis. The 41 bis is a prison regime of annihilation, as it is designed to cause physical and mental damage through the technique of sensory deprivation; it is a political and social death sentence, aimed at cutting off all contact with the outside world.
Our comrade was transferred to these torture chambers because, despite his imprisonment, he never stopped contributing to the international anarchist debate with articles, editorial projects and proposals.
The re-examination of the 41 bis measure against Alfredo is set for 1 December. This hearing will be very important because it will have to pronounce on the legitimacy of the previous Justice Minister Marta Cartabia’s decision to apply the 41 bis prison regime against our comrade.
Alfredo was convicted, along with Anna Beniamino and other anarchists, in the mega trial Scripta Manent, a trial aimed at criminalising anarchist ideas and hostile practices against all forms of authority and domination. Specifically, Alfredo and Anna were accused of being responsible for the double explosive attack against the Scuola Allievi Carabinieri in Fossano, on 2 June 2006, claimed by Rivolta Anonima and Tremenda / Federazione Anarchica Informale. For this attack, on 6 July, the Court of Cassation reformulated the sentence to ‘political massacre’. Life imprisonment is the only penalty the Italian penal code provides for political massacre. After reclassifying the crime, the Cassation sent the case back to the Court of Appeal to redetermine the convictions. The hearing that will decide the extent of these sentences is set for 5 December in Turin.
The Italian state, which has always protected the fascist strategy of mass murder, now wants to convict two anarchists of massacre for an explosive attack that caused neither victims nor injuries.
There are widespread strikes in this country and across the world, and rightly so, as the living conditions of the ordinary people are savagely decimated in the name of profit and growth. Organising a strike is always difficult, but organising a strike in a prison is fraught with a multitude of problems and dangers. You're enmeshed in the state's incarceration system, under constant surveillance. So we owe it to the prisoners in Alabama's draconian prison system to give them all the support and solidarity that we can muster. The have achieved a massive success in organising a state wide prisoners' strike across the state of Alabama. We need to keep this in the public domain as the authorities will do their utmost to break the strike with the usual savage brutality that is all to common in prisons. We must not let this happen shielded from public view, to appear in the press as the authorities putting down riotous prisoners. This is a legitimate strike to improve conditions that even by a judicial review said they were breaking the law. Since that review, things have deteriorated.
The following extract from It's Going Down.
Thousands of prisoners have launched a historic work strike across what even the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) is admitting is “most major male facilities,” throwing the system into a form of modified lockdown, as prison authorities attempt to break the strike by bringing in prisoners from other facilities. “This is a huge thing, this is a statewide initiative,” said abolitionist organizer, journalist, and podcast co-host of Millennials are Killing Capitalism, Jared Ware, who sat down with It’s Going Down to talk about the strike.
The strikes, which kicked off on Monday, took place alongside protests on the other side of the prison walls in Montgomery, Alabama, which delivered a set of the prisoners’ demands, centered around “broad criminal justice reforms and changes to the state’s prison conditions.” Also central to the prisoners’ demands is the issue of parole. As WAFF-48 reported:
More than four years ago, Alabama prisons were overcrowded to the point of being unconstitutional, according to federal court judges. Now, new data shows fewer paroles may be compounding that problem. In just four years, parole denials in Alabama nearly doubled.
That’s according to data from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles compiled by the ACLU. That data shows the parole board denied 46% of applications in 2017. In 2021, 84% of parole applications were denied.
This crisis also has a racial dynamic, as the ACLU argued in a recent report:
The rate of parole denial is even more severe for black people in Alabama prisons. The current parole board has granted relief to white candidates at more than double the rate of black candidates. So far in FY 2022, 93 percent of black parole candidates have been denied, while 84 percent of white candidates have been denied. Black candidates saw a grant rate of just 7 percent compared to white candidates at 16 percent. The board has provided no explanation for this disparity.
For years, prisoners have been arguing that incarcerated workers could make changes by bringing the prison system to its knees through coordinated strikes. In the text, Let the Crops Rot in the Field, the Free Alabama Movement wrote:
Saturday October 1st. saw the people of Britain take to the streets in their thousands, About 50 cities saw mass protest demonstrations take place in the city centres. Enough is Enough was the rallying call, the anger is growing at this latest cull on the poor, anger at this blatant handout to the rich at our expense. However it can't end there, these protests must grow and tell the powerful, privileged wealthy who shape society in their favour, we will no longer accept poverty as our way of life in the midst of wealth and opulence. We have to take control of our lives and shape society to see to the needs of all our people. Bring an end to a society based on pomp, privilege, power and wealth, all at our expense. We are the creators of all the wealth in this country, and we allow it to be syphoned to the privileged few, why. We must become a land of rebellion to right the wrongs that unnecessarily blight the lives of so many of our people.
A photo from the Glasgow protest, thanks to a friend of a friend.
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.
