What To Do.

        This pandemic has brought many moments of standing at the window just looking out. During one of those sessions of gazing aimlessly out the window, some words rattled through my head, so I just wrote them down.

A Pandemic

Confined to barracks no end in sight
Ordinary socialising now forbidden
Reality that doesn’t seem quite right
Open house all invites hidden
No hugs, no squeezes, no gentle kiss
Any close contact, tinged with fear
Voices received through social media
Invisible enemy prowling near
Repressive laws come with doubt
Undying desire to be out and about
Social contact now made to disappear

Ah well, I suppose it is better than going insane.

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

Off Topic.

      Covid19, coronavirus, pandemic, lockdown, self isolating, social distancing, quarantine, government ineptitude, etc.. Well to get a wee break from that, something completely different.

The Birth of Spirit of Revolt.
       An idea floated around in one persons head, in 2011 he spoke to some comrades, they decided to meet in a cafe and discuss the idea. That was the day that Spirit of Revolt was born. It was the cafe in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, five like minded people started to plan and shape the idea, after much discussion they agreed on the name, Spirit of Revolt, today we are very proud of that creation. Of course it is no longer five individuals, it is quite a wide group of people some come and some go, but we always have a core group of dedicated volunteers that work away in the background, building, expanding and publicising what we believe is a unique archive in Scotland. Apart from gathering, recording, digitising and making easily accessible, anarchist and libertarian socialist history, we arrange outreach programs, in an attempt to bring the history of people’s struggles to a wider public.
       In this present situation of a lockdown, we can’t at the moment work in our room at the Mitchell Library, so we do the best we can working from home and arranging virtual meetings via Zoom, to make sure the archive continues to be a source of interest and information. We have thousands of documents, leaflets, pamphlets, serials, books and booklets, letters, personal documents, posters, comics, banners and other memorabilia. Thousands of these documents/articles are already digitised and can be accessed on our website, so please have a we look and let us know what you think, or if you wish to participate as a volunteer, or you may have material that you wish to donate as long as it fits our criteria.
      We consider what we have achieved to be of great value in recording the history of the ordinary people’s struggles, a history that is all too often overlooked and lost, but is part of what we are and what we want from our society. We are also proud to state that we have done this without any funding, support or association from political parties of trade unions, we owe our success to the dedication of our group of gallant volunteers.

       Four of the original five at the Cafe in the Royal Concert Hall in 2011, the fifth member, Stasia, took the photo, as usual she works away diligently in the background.

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

Little Sparks!

 

     It is only a matter of time. The cracks are beginning to appear, how much longer will compliance be the accepted norm? You can rest assured as more and more people stretch the rules, the police, in their usual arrogant heavy handed over reaction, will do their best to intimidate and subdue any infringement. Don't expect the state to rebuke the police, their mouthpieces will always loudly acclaim that it was the public that was at fault, and the villains are being dealt with severely. Fear is their weapon.

   We can rest assured that this incident reported from Turin in Italy, is not the only one on this planet of lockdown, but don't expect the mainstream media to inform you of these "infringements", they would much prefer to push the scenario of all happy happy, clappy clappy, we're all in this together, to conceal their total ineptitude and stupidity and their complete inability or desire, to create a system that would protect the public from such a situation in which we now find ourselves.

The following from Enough is Enough:

#Turin #Italy – Giulio Cesare street is just the beginning.
           Turin. Italy. April 19. 2020. The now unbridled power of the police has manifested itself today in a catch that tasted like an assault. Shortly after lunch, under the occupation of 45, Giulio Cesare street, a dozen policemen stopped two men with an exaggerated exercise of force and without paying attention to the precautionary anti-infection measures. The violence of the action was such that it aroused the attention of the people in the area who, although locked in their homes, did not remain silent and many took to the streets.
        Originally published by Macerie. Translated by insuscettibile di ravvedimento.
        Among them also some comrades who began to rage against that brutality aggravated by the total and contemptuous disregard for the possible contagion. It is precisely those who effectively impose the lockdown and have the complete management of what happens in the streets of the cities that represent a further danger to health, beyond what their role normally grants them. Numerous police and army vehicles arrived as reinforcements and, in the face of a neighbourhood that was clearly hostile to them, began to put pressure on comrades who were thrown to the ground, dragged and taken away.
       Dozens and dozens of individuals remained in the street and together with a few sympathizers who arrived later and hundreds of residents at the windows created a real protest.
       With incredible speed came the first statements by the city citizen politicians from the right and left who, compete in a disjointed manner for the title of who, over the years, have invoked the repression of anarchists most tenaciously. It seems clear that they are frightened by scenarios that they cannot even imagine because in Aurora neighbourhood the measure seems to be full and after weeks of forced domicile in narrow apartments, a life now literally reduced to starvation, towards the State and its representatives in uniform are beginning to see unequivocal signs of not forbearance.
      In the popular neighbourhoods of the cities this could be just the beginning. In fact, there is news of a group of comrades who, in Milan, in the late afternoon, went from courtyard to courtyard, in the neighborhood of Ticinese, to tell about the events in Turin with a megaphone and that the response from the houses was of heartfelt and noisy solidarity with the arrested comrades.
     There is still no certain news of them, we will soon report some updates. In the meantime, the newspapers say that they are under arrest and that forty people have been denounced for violation of the rules envisaged for the current coronavirus pandemic.
      What happened today, as we said, seems to be only the beginning and it is no coincidence that it happened on the poorest streets of the city.

Freedom for Giordana, Marifra, Samu and Daniele!

Freedom for everyone!

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

State Manslaughter.

       How well has buccaneer Boris and his motley crew been doing in the handling of this pandemic? Well according to the most recent figures, not very well. We are the fourth worst in Europe, but also fourth worst in the world, per head of population. For a supposed highly developed and very rich country, that is a disastrous result by any reckoning. Our lords and masters always punt the story that we are the best at almost everything and we are lucky to live in such a well prepared, organised and caring society. These results show us just how inept at building a truly civilised society our lords and masters are, profit always trumps humanity in this profit driven economic jungle. Surely with all these avoidable deaths we have arrived at judgement day, and will call this bunch of greedy, inept, bumbling careerists to task, then charge them with state manslaughter and make sure that they can never take control of our lives ever again.

	Confirmed deaths (absolute)	Population (in millions)	Deaths per million
Belgium	5,828	11.42	510.24
Spain	20,852	46.72	446.28
Italy	24,114	60.43	399.03
France	20,265	66.99	302.52
United Kingdom	16,509	66.49	248.3
Netherlands	3,751	17.23	217.69
Switzerland	1,429	8.52	167.79
Sweden	1,580	10.18	155.16
Ireland	687	4.85	141.55
United States	42,296	327.17	129.28
Portugal	735	10.28	71.49
Iran	5,209	81.8	63.68
Denmark	364	5.8	62.79

For figures on the rest of the world click HERE:

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

A Personal View.

    I have always maintained that the "lockdown" would only last so long before cracks start to appear and people start to stretch the rules a bit further and further, and if there is a heavy handed put down by the police it could all fall apart. The human is  a social creature, we live by socialising, we like to choose when and where we socialise and with who me socialise. What we are experiencing now is alien to our nature and we will rebel in one way or another sooner or later. We should prepare for that event by organising and coming together in our communities to ensure we don't turn it into a foolhardy free for all, but a determined effort to take back control of our lives in a rational and co-operative manner. I don't know the answer as to how we do that, but if we don't talk about it and prepare for it, we will never find the answer, but I do believe that mutual aid has to be the foundation stone of our new normal. The longer this "lockdown" goes on the more likely there will be of a growing desire to break out of it, we should be preparing for that event.

    In the talking and thinking about such a situation we should also be clear that we are not breaking out to go back to the old "normal", we must make sure that plan is complete killed off. We have the ability, imagination and the desire to create that better world that benefits us all, a world that sees to the needs of all our people. It is there, it is within our grasp, there has never been a better time or a greater opportunity than now to break the mould and start anew. As the Scouts say, "Be prepared".

     I think the graphic blow is a perfect reminder of the old "normal" that we don't want to go back to.

‘Betrayal’ by Mario Sánchez Nevado

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It'll Be Fine!

 

       There is no doubt we are in a very new type of situation, and everybody has their own way of looking at this. Some with despair, some with fear, others with hope, I tend to lean towards the hope side. Though having reached my 86th birthday, sometimes that hope wears a wee bit thin, but it is still there.

      The following is from Madrid Cuarentena City N.2

Everything Will Be Fine.

       It’s the story of a man who falls from a 50-story building. To calm down as he falls into the void he keeps saying to himself:
So far so good.
So far so good.
So far so good…
      But it’s not the fall that matters, it’ s the landing. As in the metaphor of the French film “La haine”, we live in a world that has been condemned to disaster. The continued destruction of the ecosystems to extract raw materials, the systematic degradation of the earth’s crust by monocultures and agro-industry, the expulsion or annihilation of species, the transformation of the oceans in dunghills, the irreversible damage to the ozone layer… has had an exponential advance in recent years. They’ve put us on a path which is more than evident a transformation, for the worse, of life on earth.
     At the same time, we have generated societies that are annihilators of the different, of the enemies of risk and adventure.The perpetuation of hierarchies and authorities, slaves of an economic system that puts the flow of goods above everything else. Profit as the only ideology. In which the virtual imposes itself on reality. The simulation to the experience.
     In recent weeks, campaigns were launched in places like Italy and Spain asking children to draw rainbow posters with the message “everything will be fine” or “andrá tutto bene” and then hang them on the balconies or public buildings. Unfortunately, this illusory and innocent message implies complacency with all of the above, a yearning to return to a reality that is self-destructive for people and harmful to our environment.
     And all this has been accompanied by self-incrimination, considering individuals as guilty agents responsible for the transmission of a virus, when it is clear that diseases do not become pandemics because of the actions of a few people, for that a series of infrastructure conditions (such as overcrowding in large cities, for example), environmental conditions, movement conditions, etc. are needed, and of course they are and were given.
      We assume, then, the orders to stay at home for our own good and that of others, in a paternalistic and patriarchal tone. But when we are forbidden to go on the streets alone, or with the people we share a house with, are we responding to medical or public order criteria?
      Meanwhile, let’s clap on the balconies and hang signs… but maybe it won’t go well. It’s even possible that whatever we do won’t go well. The possibilities for the recovery of the planet are infinite, it is not so much that in this resurgence from the ashes we can continue to exist as a species. But we are not going to deny ourselves the pleasure of enjoying this journey, even if it is the last one. We are going to confront, fight, experiment, imagine… pointing out and hitting those responsible for this reality and moving away with our practices from its perpetuation.
      Another world is possible, said the classic leftist slogan, another end of the world is possible, is the slogan that we have no choice but to adopt, and we do so with passion. Muchxs without hope, but with the flame in the eyes when you are so close that you can look into the abyss.

Translated by Act For Freedom Now.

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

An Exit Strategy.

       At this stage in the pandemic, all the talk is edging towards an "exit strategy", of course an "exit strategy" depends on where you want to go. Our so dedicated lords and masters will no doubt, be eager to get you all back, in a subservient manner, to your usual grind of struggling to pay your bills and hoping there is enough to feed the kids, while making millions for your very rich bosses.  

       If we have a grain of sense we will not accept that road for our "exit strategy". After this experience we surely have other plans other than grinding out a life to keep our bosses in opulence. IWW has some interesting methods of making our "exit strategy" work, and it doesn't include subservience and trying to pick up a decent wage packet. It means we set the agenda, point the direction we will go and doing what is necessary to get there, free from the profit motive. We, the ordinary people,  must take control if we wish to shape the society to the benefit of all our people.

From IWW on twitter:

       “You don’t need a vote to raise hell. You need convictions and a voice.” - Mother Jones.

    We have been told year after year, that the entrepreneurs are the wealth creators  of society, during this pandemic I haven't seen any running around creating that wealth, perhaps it has dawn on them that they need the workers to do that bit. This time round, let's create it for our own people.

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

A Desired Normal.

      It must now be obvious to most people that the system we have been living under has failed us, the people. As we scramble to save lives with a decimated health service and keep hearing the same phony platitudes from our political ballerinas, that the government is doing all it can, doing it right, and everything is falling into place. While 4 weeks into this lockdown, front-line workers are still struggling to get the right equipment. 

     An economic system that was wholly focused on profit for the millionaires and billionaires at the expense of social spending, a system that completely failed to build and maintain the structures necessary for a civilised society. A system that failed to prepare for such emergencies and allowed so many citizens to fall by the wayside, must be seen for what it is, a system that is pure and simple there to enrich those few who are already rich at the expense of the many.

     Knowing this raises the obvious question, what are we going to do about this injustice and abject failure? Mutual aid groups are spring up all over the world, as ordinary people step in to fill the void left by this failed system. People with compassion and a desire to help each other and those more vulnerable than themselves. This surely must be the blueprint for any future shaping of our society. Communities coming together and doing it themselves in co-operation with other groups and communities, with no thought of profit, just seeing to the needs of all our people. I see no reason why we should abandon this method of caring for each other, rather than meekly sitting waiting for our lords and master to get the old greed drive, failed system back up and running. 

    We can and must create that new "normal", based on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and seeing to the needs of all our people. 

       The following short article on mutual aid, how to build on it, where it can take us, its possibilities, its possible problems, and its possible wrong directions. There are plenty of links in the article giving a much wider discourse on the subject that will save us, mutual aid.

The following extract from Acorn:

       Mutual aid features prominently in the anarchist response to the current situation. Here is, after all, a perfect opportunity to put theory into practice and to show that acting together, by and for ourselves, is more effective and empowering than waiting passively for the state to save us.
       There is also the possibility that the self-help community networks built up now could evolve into the bases of future revolutionary activity.
      “Longstanding anarchist forms of organization and security have a lot to offer when it comes to surviving the pandemic and the panic it is causing”.
      “Within communities, mutual aid has been proven as the only way to get through the privations of lockdown and the fear of serious or fatal illness. Communities have acted quickly to share basic supplies and resources”.
       “We are seeing Mutual Aid groups spring up in local communities across the UK as crisis sparks compassion in many who want to help out and reach our most vulnerable, our isolated, the many left behind by successions of uncaring governments”.
     “Social solidarity and mutual aid pandemic care is blossoming in communities large and small”.
See also here, here and here.
     There has been occasional reflection on the limits of such an approach, asking how we can ensure that mutual aid networks do not simply turn into temporary means of helping people adapt to a situation they maybe ought not to be adapting to…
        “If our capacity to care for one another fails to be instantiated in qualitatively different forms, they may very well simply be reintegrated into novel expressions of privation, dispossession, and precaritization in whatever new legal and economic systems that may attempt to establish themselves”.

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The Matrix.

 

       All this present economic system seems to offer the ordinary people is control, servitude, exploitation and a life of constant struggle for a half decent life. With the ever increasing advance of the cyber world we will watch our freedoms evaporate. It doesn't have to go the way that the power crazy control freaks that are in charge at the moment, want it to go. We still have the time and ability to stop this march to total control. We could turn this lockdown into a general strike and start to take control of our communities and work places and shape the world to suit all our people. Or we could meekly walk into their controlled matrix.

The following from Winter Oak, Acorn:

       The First Industrial Repression saw us thrown off the land, forced into crowded towns and cities, used as human fodder for the dark satanic mills of the new steam-powered capitalist world.
       The Second Industrial Repression electrified the rule of The Machine. New generations were born who had never tasted freedom. Their lives and their thinking were increasingly dominated by the rhythms of industrial mass production.
     The Third Industrial Repression heralded the arrival of computers and robots. Human beings were now expected to meekly conform to these automated norms and functions.
       And now we face the onset of the Fourth Industrial Repression (4IR), the most deathly repression of them all…
       The 4IR wants to own, control and profit from everything that exists in this world. Its Internet of Things aims to create a matrix of total connectivity, of which it is the owner. You, your home, your family, your friends, your relationships and your activities will all belong to the 4IR.
      Its technocrats regard you as nothing more than another piece of disposable fleshware, one unit among millions, just another figure on its global balance sheet of exploitation. The 4IR will track you and always know where you are, whom you are with, what you are doing.
       It demands your total obedience. You can have no values, ideals or dreams of your own, only the ones authorised by the system.
       Disobedient units are unproductive units. The 4IR will know how to spot you, if you even so much as consider stepping out of line. Its predictive policing will quickly identify you as an anti-social element, a pre-criminal, a thought criminal. It will send out its robots and its drones to neutralise you and protect the safe functioning of the matrix.

Continue reading HERE: 

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

Feminism in Poland.

         Feminism may be a widely discussed and an accept view point in this country and some others, but there are countries where it has never gone mainstream. Anarchist Radio Berlin was present at the recent and very first Feminist Congress in Poland. This is a short interview in English with one of the oraganisers.

Feminist Congress in Poland

        At the beginning of February 2020, the Anarchist Radio Berlin had the opportunity of participating at the first Feminist Congress in Poland. In Wroclaw we did a small interview with one of the organizers of the congress about the organizing effort and feminism in Poland.

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

Murder By Stupidity.

        Coronavirus, yes, they got it wrong, not by accident, but by only accepting advice from one stream of advice that was available, they chose the experts to follow and ignored others well versed in this type of situation. Blindly following "the science", as if there was no other expert advice available. This is gross stupidity and that single minded stupidity is responsible for a vastly increased number of deaths. They can't just wriggle out of it and walk away, too many people have suffered and died. They must be held to account, those deaths are on their watch and on their hands. Can killing by stupidity be called murder? The public must stand up and drive this bunch of stupid single track minds from ever again being in a position to make decisions over our lives.
An extract From The Guardian:

 

  ‘On 12 March, the government alarmed public health experts by abandoning containment, community case-finding and contact-tracing would stop.’ Boris Johnson arrives at a news conference on 12 March. Photograph: Simon Dawson/PA

     ----Two months on, that anxiety has not gone, although it’s also been joined by a sense of sadness. It’s now clear that so many people have died, and so many more are desperately ill, simply because our politicians refused to listen to and act on advice. Scientists like us said lock down earlier; we said test, trace, isolate. But they decided they knew better. Am I being unfair? The government assures us that its decisions and timing are based on science, as if it is a neutral, value-free process resulting in a specific set of instructions. In reality, the science around coronavirus is in its infancy and developing daily, with researchers across the world trying to understand how the virus spreads, how the body responds – and how to treat it and control it.

Continue reading HERE:

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

State Murders.

       These are difficult times and in some cases quite frightening. No matter how difficult our lives may be at the moment, we should never forget that lives of those entrapped in the various states' prison systems, conditions have always been so. Endemic violence, over crowding, unhygienic, and poor to non-existent health care, is the norm for most prisoners.
      The state has no interest in changing these conditions for the better, and will deal brutally with any prisoners that try to better these conditions.
      I recently posted an article about the death during a hunger strike of a musician in a Turkish prison. Not content with this death the Turkish state sits blindly steeped in its inhumanity while another prisoner is nearing death in the same prison. They will let the prisoner die, but there is a chance that if there is enough public outrage across the planet or even Europe, they might just do something to stop this cruel and totally unnecessary death, solidarity is our weapon. In most states, inhumanity reigns, but in Turkey and Greece, they have developed it to a much higher level. How much longer will we tolerate this inhumanity to fester in our society.

     Mustafa Kocak in Turkey- torture after torture- innocent imprisoned and fighting with death fast.
         Dear friends, human rights defenders! we can't stop to write these alarming information to you. Every day news of injustice are coming and we don't want to watch the family of Mustafa Kocak while facing this pain. Mustafa is in a terrible situation due to the arbitrariness and tyranny of the Turkish state. He is in Kiriklar prison. Above you will have shortly explained the whole case. We want to share with you the video of his sister, in front of prison for weeks with the family Kocak, waiting that he might leave and survive..
        He will die and European Human rights organisations yet didn't respond to our calls, a few deputies sent a letter or made a press statements.
       We need to push the Justice Ministry, also for musician of Grup Yorum brahim Gökcek, who could also die very soon..His friend, singer of the band Grup Yorum died on 288th day of hungerstrike, on 3rd April.
      Both cases explained below.
      Thanks for taking time. Please react with all possible means. Solidarity!

 All other infos and news on:

Free Grup Yorum Twitter and Facebook!
        MUSTAFA KOCAK'S SISTER TELLS IN TEARS THE ONGOING INJUSTICE. THIS FAMILY WILL LOSE THEIR YOUNG SON AND BROTHER IF YOU IF WE DON'T PUSH THE AKP GOVERNMENT TO STOP THIS TYRANNY-
https://www.facebook.com/359325444942815/videos/153370839425775/
         Hear this Voice. Its the elder sister of Mustafa Kocak. She explains that their lawyers are waiting in Izmir for 2 days to see Mustafa but still not allowed to visit him for weeks.
Yesterday the family had a telephone conversation with Mustafa, the prison interrupted the phone call after 6 minutes, while usually he should have right to speak 10 minutes. This was just in the moment the lawyer wanted to talk about his health issue and application for medical treatment.. Sister Mine Kocak says, all doors are closed to get justice, it's an order from above they say. Please help us!
       What is above! Justice ministry? We call again all deputies, politicians, responsible in the government's to intervene as far as they are defenders of democracy!
       This is the call of the sister of an innocent man who will die or better be killed by Turkish government maybe in the next few days.
Mustafa is on death fast for 290 days against a life sentence only for a fair trial that is rejected to him. Why do we continue to watch this??!
THESE ARE OUR CALLS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE FOR MUSTAFA KOCAK AND GRUP YORUM:

Please share on Twitter and Facebook:
#MustafaKocakMustLive
#MustafaKoçakYaşamalıdır
#FreeMustafaKocak
@abdulhamitgul

Make a call or write to the:
Ministry of Justice
06659 KIZILAY / ANKARA
telefon: +90 (0312) 417 77 70
Fax +90 (0312) 419 33 70
E-Mail: info@adalet.gov.tr

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     Greece: from the Greek Prisons Updates, by Solidarity translations

Urgent news from Domokos Prisons:
       Prisons, the black holes of totalitarianism and dictatorship in the universe of contemporary representative democracy. In D Wing of Domokos prisons, special police forces along with the exterior guard raided Nikos Maziotis’ cell by order of the ministry. They handcuffed him as they messed up his cell, and as we were informed they told him that he was going to be held in disciplinary cells. We have no other information so far except that another prisoners’ cell, whose name we don’t know, was also searched.
       Moreover we know that there has been a decision by Domokos prisoners that they would begin mobilizations demanding the de-congestion of the prisons as of today Friday 17th of April. The response of the state and its mechanisms to the demand for de-congestion NOW, is revenge and repression against anything that is moving in a fighting direction. Their purpose is to terrorize and to totally impose the dogma ‘law and order’, a fundamental tool of imposition inside and outside of prison. There will be further updates.

Solidarity Assembly to the members of Revolutionary Struggle
17/4/2020
original post: https://www.athens.indymedia.org/post/1604515/
       Urgent news from Malandrino Prisons
       Last night a bunch of guards invaded the ward where Giannis Michalidis is held in Z wing in Malandrino prisons. After making a mess of the ward, they departed without any findings. It should be stressed that the search was clearly targeting the comrade, since this was the only ward of the whole prison that a search took place. It is not a coincidence that this is taking place when many prisoners are claiming the de-congestion of prisons, as the ministry is turning the blind eye and mocking them.
        Also, last night special police forces raided and took prisoner Vasilis Dimakis from his cell in D Wing of Korydallos prisons. A prisoner who is struggling for many years with all his might against the incarceration conditions in greek prisons. Moreover, searches were made in Korydallos prison.
        It is evident that the new far right leadership of the ministry of Justice in total collaboration with the ministry of Citizens Protection are going on an orgy of revenge and repression against any form of resistance that springs out from the detention centers. They are fooling the prisoners with false hopes at a time when the situation inside the prisons is more dangerous than ever. Let them know that prisoners are not alone and that their JUST demands are paving the way…
IMMEDIATELY MEET PRISONERS DEMANDS
IMMEDIATE DE-CONGESTION IN THE PRISONS NOW
original post: https://www.athens.indymedia.org/post/1604511/
      Statement of prisoners in D2 Wing in Domokos Prisons:
        As of today 17/4 the prisoners of Domokos prisons are beginning mobilizations demanding the de-congestion of the prisons as a preventative health measure in the face of the corona virus pandemic. We begin by refusing lock-down during lunch hours (12-3pm) and work and meals strike beginning from Tuesday 22/4. We agree and support the demands made by women prisoners in Korydallos as well as in the women prisons in Eleonas, where the prisoners revolted on 9/4, after the death of prisoner Azize Deniroglu. As a response to the announced mobilizations, the ministry of Citizen Protection proceeded to make searches in the cells of D2 wing last night (the cells of Varelas and Maziotis), with the obvious purpose of intimidating us. At the same time, they made a punitive transfer of our fellow prisoner Dimakis from the D wing of Korydallos to Grevena prison as a reaction to the Korydallos prisoners mobilizations who are on work strike since 13/4.
       It is clear that repression is the only answer of the ministry of Citizen Protection to the mobilizations of prisoners in Domokos, Korydallos, Eleonas, Chania and their spreading to Malandrino, Corfu. Repression began from the Korydallos women prisons, where the response to the lock-down refusal on 20/3 was to transfer Pola Roupa. Then there was the preventative transfer of Maziotis on 24/3 to Domokos prisons, followed by the riot police raid to stifle the revolt in Eleonas prisons after the death of prisoner Azize Deniroglu and it continues with the cell searches in Domokos and the transfer of Dimakis to Grevena prisons. The ministry, despite the announcements of the secretary of counter-crime policy Sofia Nikolaou who, during meetings with prisoners, promised to proceed to immediate de-congestion measures, proves that they have no intention to go ahead with this until prisoners start dying from the corona virus in prisons.
Prisoners of D2 Wing in Domokos Prisons 17/4

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Wealth From Death.

     The British state always works hand in glove with the arms industry, it is a big boost to the UK GDP, and is sold to us as creating jobs. The human cost matters nothing to the state or its partners, the arms industry. We sell weapons to any despot ruler, autocratic regime, or military junta, irrespective of its human rights violations. For months the people of Chile have been on the streets in mass protests against a government that is corrupt, in the pocket of big business and the US, dictatorial and involved in a very brutal and vicious repression of the protestors. Protestors have died from police brutality on the street or later at home or in hospital. So in steps the democratic UK and supplies this cesspool of corruption and brutality with arms and crowd control equipment, helping the UK economy. Which translates into making millions for greedy shareholders and CEO. This action by the UK state should have the people of this country on the streets in protest against this ruthless money making inhumanity. We should also be on the streets in solidarity with the struggling people  of Chile.

Thanks Loam for the link, UK Arms Sales To Chile: 

       In early February, mourners came together to remember the life of 37-year-old Jorge Mora – a man whose life ended on 28 January, hours after a police truck slammed into him outside a football stadium.

      The funeral in Chile’s capital city of Santiago was supposed to be a peaceful affair for Mora’s family and friends, as well as the many football supporters who came to pay their respects. But, when grief turned to anger and demonstrations broke out, the peace was shattered. 

      Protestors and mourners were soon fleeing stinging tear gas fired off by riot police who showed little care for where and who they aimed at. Many escaped to safety, but one was not so lucky – a tear gas canister slammed into the the head of 24-year-old Ariel Moreno. The impact was so devastating that he was dead two days later.----

 Continue reading HERE:

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Familiar?

 

        As the lock-down continues, frustration will mount and tensions will grow. It is a tinder box and it will only take one incident of heavy handed police activity to light the fuse. There has been sporadic outbursts of anger here and there, the latest in Belgium. Though different circumstances, it does ring familiar with the riots that erupted in Greece, December, 2008, after the police shooting of 15 year old Alexandros Griroropoulos. 

 This from 325:

Belgium:
   Riot in Anderlecht area of Brussels after 19 year old killed by cops

      Enraged youth from the Anderlecht area of the capital city Brussels, Belgium rioted yesterday, attacking cop vehicles and hurled missiles at the cops, injuring one and beating up another. The riot was triggered when a cop patrol pursued a 19 year old on a scooter because he refused to stop for a curfew check. He hit an oncoming cop vehicle head on and died on the spot. Hundreds of angry youth from the local area instantly took to the street after a callout on social media attacking the cops who had arrived to reinforce those involved in the killing. Several cop vehicles were set on fire, one youth liberated a gun from a vehicle, shooting it in the air as he ran off.
       The local youth has been named as Adil and already the media is doing the state’s dirty work by sending out its appeal for calm, using his family as a weapon to suppress the anger of a local youth’s murder and against the curfew. The cops have further reinforced the area today (Sunday), even with water cannon because they fear that the area will breakout in further rioting. Belgium has been in a four-week curfew in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.
       This is a clear sign of the riots and insurrection to come that has now arrived in fortress Europe, after other outbreaks of rebellion in other parts of the world, we are even aware of scum media clearly attempting along with the authorities to suppress any outbreaks of rebellion against the coronavirus curfews*. It is only a moment of time before the global backlash erupts.
     First Wuhan, Now Brussels, Insurrection Everywhere!

    *Riots have erupted in Bristol, China & Palestine, even telephone towers burnt around prison island UK, along with reported raids on supermarkets in the South of Italy in response to ‘lockdown measures’ (curfew!)

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