we receive and trasmit:
Miguel Balderos is an anarchist who was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison in 2011 for setting fire to the Santa Cruz city prosecutor’s office.
Current mailing address:
Miguel Balderos F81930
CSP Solano
PO Box 4000 14G5UP
Vacaville CA 95696
from contrainfo:
Panagiotis Avdikos is currently confined in Aghios Pavlos ‘hospital’ of Koridallos prisons, after a long hunger strike.
He was arrested outside his home on April 18th, 2011, accused for possession of drugs. He almost immediately decided to start a hunger strike in order to protest for the police frame-up which resulted in his incarceration in the dungeons of the Greek democracy.
He’s been on a hunger strike since May 2011 (with a brief interruption in August). The negligence of the authorities that refuse his release, thus maintaining the prison system of barbarity and atrocity, is the reason why Panagiotis is now in danger of losing his life.
On Tuesday morning, November 29th, in Komotini (northern Greece) comrades from the Anarchist Hangout Utopia A.D. made an anarchist intervention/counter-information action regarding the prisoner hunger striker Panagiotis Avdikos, distributing texts in central locations of the city, but also outside the courts and at law firms. They also handed out texts to the local Bar Association. Their leaflets contained mainly the letters of the prisoner.
Here’s the latest letter from Panagiotis:
After my previous statement, I would like to inform you of the following:
On Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, the Appellate Judges Council of Athens held a meeting and decided to deny my request to be released under restrictive conditions due to the completion of 6month pretrial detention, thus ordering the continuation of my preventive imprisonment, showing complete disregard for my life.
All competent authorities showed gross, murderous negligence, as if I were nothing to them. It seems that my life is of no value to the ministry and the judicial authorities of Athens, who keep their eyes shut before the injustice and the reality. On Saturday, November 12th, 2011, at 7.30 in the morning, fellow inmates found me in a state of coma here, in my bed in Koridallos hospital for prisoners, and the doctor put me on an intravenous drip; according to the medical diagnosis, I suffered from a circulatory shock —all of my organs stopped working.
On Sunday afternoon, November 13th, 2011, although I was put on drip, my blood sugar levels remained low (30), so the doctors here ordered my transfer to the Attikon referral hospital, but I refused to go; I’d rather die than participate in the theatre of the absurd that is played at my expense, while all competent authorities, the judges and the ministry show gross negligence towards my case. I will continue the hunger strike, and if they continue to disregard me, I shall also stop receiving sugar water in order to die and give an end to this hypocrisy against me, and perhaps my death will make those responsible respect the life of simple people like us. By this time, I suffer from a cardiac edema and my feet are swollen, in particular from the knees down, and my body is also slightly swollen in general, which means that my state of health can deteriorate rapidly at any time, resulting in my death!
I thank you all for your support.
Panagiotis Avdikos
The Corinthian Inmates Solidarity Group — collectivity Antistrofi Metrisi (‘Countdown’) of Corinth — calls for a gathering in support of Panagiotis Avdikos outside Koridallos prisons on December 3rd, at 15.00.
Freedom now to Panagiotis Avdikos!
Down with the prison walls! Down with the State-murderer!
Solidarity is our weapon!
from Guelph ABC:
On November 22, 2011, six of our friends pled guilty to counselling charges for organizing to disrupt the Toronto G20 summit in June, 2010. Erik Lankin, Adam Lewis and Peter Hopperton began serving jail sentences of 3-5.5 months on November 28, 2011. Leah Henderson expects to be sentenced to 10 months on December 20, 2011. Mandy Hiscocks expects to be sentenced to 16 months on January 13. Alex Hundert expects to be sentenced to 13.5 months, date to begin TBA.
To view/print/distribute the support pamphlet for the “Main Conspiracy Six” facing jail time, click here.
To read the collective statement of the G20 Main Conspiracy Group, individual statements of co-defendants, and statements read to the courts, visit: conspiretoresist.wordpress.com.
Guelph Anarchist Black Cross is providing some of the support for these comrades. We are fundraising money to facilitate meeting the everyday and immediate needs of comrades facing jail and of their support networks. Specifically, we will be putting money towards: sending letters and reading materials to those incarcerated; transportation costs for family, friends and supporters visiting them; collect phone call bills; canteen; rent money when they get out; and storage for their belongings. We need help providing funds for this material support.
Here’s how to donate to the Guelph ABC G20 Support Fund:
1. paypal: guelphabc at riseup dot net or click the button on guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com
2. Deposit cash to the following TD bank account: Transit # 00182, Institution # 004, Account # 00185228263.
3. Write a cheque or money order to Guelph ABC with G20 in the memo line. Mail to the PO box below.
Letters to comrades in jail is encouraged, to help them stay connected to struggles and communities, and to break the isolation inherent in prisons.
It is possible that folks will be moved between jails during their incarceration. We will try to keep their addresses updated on our website. You can also send letters to the address below and we will forward them. When writing letters, remember that they will be read by prison guards.
Guelph ABC
PO Box 183
Guelph, ON
N1H 6J6
Check out guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com for regular updates and more information.
If you have any questions, concerns, or want to know more about what we do, please don’t hesitate to email us: guelphabc at riseup dot net.
Your support and solidarity is deeply appreciated. Most importantly, keep up the struggle.
In solidarity with anarchist prisoners worldwide,
and all prisoners fighting for freedom.
Guelph Anarchist Black Cross
from anarchistnews:
As thousands of people in cities all across the world gathered on November 20th to memorialize the 23 transgender women that were murdered in the past year as named by transgenderdor.org, some of us decided to skip the opportunity of silently listening to the politicians of the “trans community” recite the names of our dead over candlelight, romantic as it sounded. Instead we ventured into the mist and fog of a northwest autumn night and put up some graffiti as small gestures of antagonism towards the state, the bashers and the leftists who use the blood of trans women to build campaigns of hate crime legislation and reform. We are against hate crime legislation because we are against prisons, against the infuriating portrayal of police as protectors, against rising for their judges in their detestable courtrooms, against (though not surprised in the least by) the way that such legislation is used to defend those in positions of power and because we are, at heart, hate filled criminal enemies of civilized society.
By the end of the night several walls and surfaces had been subject to the vandalism of the trans symbol, circle a’s, the largely sprayed proclamation “Too Many Trans Deaths, Not Enough Dead Pigs” and 20 feet of silver letters across a darkly painted business rooftop reading “Vengeance for Shelley Hilliard!!!! (A) Bash Back!”
Shelly Hilliard, also known as Treasure, was a 19 year old trans woman from Detroit who was identified by a tattoo earlier this month after her burned torso was found on the side of the highway. Krissi Bates was found stabbed to death in her Minneapolis apartment in January in a brutal murder that was described as “over-kill.” Tyra Trent was strangled to death in her Baltimore apartment in February. Miss Nate Nate Eugene Davis was shot and left behind a Houston dumpster in June. Lashai Mclean was shot in the street in Washington, DC in July. Camila Guzman was stabbed to death by a john in New York City in August. Gaurav Gopalan died from trauma to the head in September and Chassity Vickers was shot in Hollywood just four days ago, on November 16th.
These are just a few examples of transsexual homicides in the US alone that made headlines this year. Women whose lives and deaths get summed up by reporter after snake-eyed reporter who can barely manage to contain their contempt for the queer and make no effort whatsoever to disguise their disdain for anyone alleged to have been a criminal or whore. Funeral services become the rushed lowering of mangled corpses into the ground, in anticipation of a grave on which to spit. This was exemplified by the pastor of Lashai Mclean’s funeral, who repeatedly referred to her by male pronouns and went as far as to incite a mass walk out of the many trans attendants by claiming that “When you live a certain lifestyle this is the consequence you have to pay.”
While we remember our dead let us not forgot about those still struggling, especially those who are facing charges and/or living lives in cages.
In June Catherine Carlson was sentenced to 10 years in an Idaho prison after being convicted of first degree arson, unlawful possession of a bomb, using a hoax destructive device, and indecent exposure. Before her conviction she had locked herself in her trailer for years and left only when necessary, approximately once every ten days when she needed food and could no longer subsist off of coffee alone. Every time she left her home she was taunted by police. Despite having had her name legally changed for over three decades, she couldn’t get her given name removed from her license. She was jailed on four occasions for driving without a license in her stubborn and inspiring refusal to acknowledge the state’s attempt at controlling her gender. Eventually this torment led to rupture. Catherine constructed what appeared to be four pipe bombs, left them next to a propane tank, set her trailer and her truck on fire, and walked down the highway naked until being stopped and arrested. She is currently being held in the hole of a men’s prison despite having had sex reassignment surgery.
On the night of June 5th in Minneapolis, Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald was harassed outside of a bar for being black and trans and had a glass smashed in her face. A fight broke out and minutes later her attacker, Dean Schmitz, had been fatally stabbed. CeCe was arrested, charged with murder, got bailed out after a month in isolation and is currently awaiting trial.
Three trans women were arrested in connection to a flash mob attack on a New York City Dunkin Donuts that happened on Christopher St the night of May 16th. Christopher St is a street with a rich history of queer and trans resistance (including the Stonewall Riots) and an apparent inability to rid itself of the fierce homeless trans youth it is known for despite decades of gentrification and “quality of life” campaigns. During the flash mob, two dozen transgender youth stormed the shop, threw chairs, destroyed expensive coffee machines and looted goods. Those arrested have been charged with assault, criminal mischief, menacing, rioting and criminal possession of a weapon.
In August, off duty officer Kenneth Fur took it upon himself to remind us that police are the absolute enemy. He became angry when three trans women in DC refused complicity in his entitled assumption that his pig salary could buy any trans body he encountered on the street. So angry, in fact, that he climbed onto the roof of their car and shot the passengers inside. One woman was grazed by a bullet, one was shot in the hand and the brother of one of the women was shot in the chest. The cops were kind enough to show up and escort the injured individuals to the hospital…in handcuffs.
A few days ago Brooke Fantelli was repeatedly tased in El Centro, Ca by a Bureau of Land Management ranger. Brooke was stopped for public intoxication while taking pictures in the desert. After being ID’ed the ranger told her, “You used to be a guy.” and then tased her with her hands up. Once she was on the ground he tased her again, this time in the genitals.
Also this month, Andrea Jones was arrested for indecent exposure, or more accurately, for exposing the legal system as the brutally illogical apparatus of control that it is. Andrea went topless in a Tennessee DMV after they refused to change the gender on her ID to female. As a “male”, she said, she had the legal right to take off her shirt. She was jailed for three weeks, lost her job and will most likely have to register as a sex offender. As usual, cops and CO’s are free to rape us and expose us to sexual violence meanwhile charging those they take hostage as “sex offenders.” Those most vulnerable to this tactic of the state are the gender variant, queer inmates and black men who are demonized in racist smear campaigns by the media as “rapists” every time a cop gets shot.
Finally, we want to mention Amazon, a transsexual lesbian who has been in prison for the past 30 years and is serving life in California. In a letter that was published in a Black and Pink newsletter earlier this year she says “I am from Gender Anarky Collective in the prisons. We are a militant organization fighting for transsexual medicine in the form of female hormones and sex-corrective surgery, and against all forms of hate, genocide and discrimination by cops or prisoners alike, and are also a self defense structure and will fight, have fought, and are fighting for ours on the yards. I am currently in the hole for ‘battery on an inmate with a weapon.’ Two other girls are here with me, one for three counts of assault on staff who jumped on her. We survive by aggressive self defense.” She then proceeds to denounce activism and engagement in politics, describing instead the necessary “post-apocalyptic civil war madness” that the myth of social peace works desperately to keep us from. “Prison is government. No government in the world is going to allow anyone to deconstruct its prisons, come what may. Therefore, to actually abolish prisons, the government must be destroyed, overthrown.”
Here’s to the end of the capitalist system that the police imprison us to protect and to freedom for trans women, and freedom for us all. As our hearts burn with the loss of our loved ones, may their cities burn as well.
Dean Schmitz was not the first and he will not be the last!
VENGEANCE NOT REMEMBRANCE! WE WILL NOT REST IN PEACE!
from culmine, translated by war on society:
Words from Esteban Huiniguir, Juan Aliste, Freddy Fuentevilla and José Miguel Sánchez for the prisoners of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.
Note: Comrades of the world!!! From Chile with joy we can now share with you the words of the imprisoned comrades José Miguel Sánchez, Esteban Huiniguir, Juan Aliste and Freddy Fuentevilla, who have responded to the solidarity call issued from Greece by the imprisoned comrades of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.
Our comrades today find themselves held in the High Security Prison (CAS) in Santiago, Chile and almost all are ex-members of Marxist-Leninist political-military organizations who fought the dictatorship and of whom some have also fought later under democracy in the 90s against capitalism. These armed organizations were the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), the United Action Movement – Lautaro (MAPU-Lautaro, also known as MJL, Lautaro Youth Movement) and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).
Today, our comrades who write do not necessarily still embrace Leninist ideas, but it is better that they speak for themselves.
From Chile, we send all of you a solidarity salute of internationalist complicity.
Some in solidarity from outside the prisons.
November 2011.
* * *
Words from José Miguel Sánchez
CELLS OF FIRE COMBATANTS PRESENTE.
From one corner of the world, receive an affectionate and combative embrace, and a fraternal salute from another prisoner of capitalism.
From the C.A.S. in $hile we receive your communique and we make ourselves part of it. Our thoughts travel to each prison of the world where they try to annul free thoughts, the enemy will never quiet nor crush our rebellion, our values are not stopped by shackles, here our desire of struggle is nourished day by day, the injustices and abuses strengthen our indomitable desire of struggle against the exploitative systems of the world.
Our growing contempt for prisons and their henchmen is innate, these bars confirm for us that our struggle is just and necessary, we believe that direct action is an effective method for striking the system that tries to trample our rights. We are not immobile, behind the walls our struggle is strengthened and sharpened.
Here we are those who do not sell ourselves to power, the intransigents, those who want nothing to do with the circles of the left that sell themselves to the highest bidder, we are those who do not believe in flattering gestures, nor do we conform ourselves to the crumbs left over by the powerful. Our goal is complete freedom and the vanquishing of the exploitative system that sinks and humiliates our people.
Comrades, receive our solidarity and support, you are not alone, the entire world will be witness to the dignity with which you face your trial, fortitude and struggle is our slogan, strength compañeros.
My case is like those of many combatants, I am an ex-political prisoner of Pinochet’s Dictatorship, ex-member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), I was liberated upon the assumption of the pseudo-democracy in 1991, and I was imprisoned again that same year for having some rifles and not believing in that made-up democracy. I was condemned to 20 years for the rifles and an assault, of this sentence I’d spent 17 years and 6 months in prison when as a favor from the prison a break of 2 years had me leave, a release I broke on not returning to sleep in the prison. I scorned that “favor” and now I am completing the 2 years and 6 months I had left to complete my sentence; as you can see, I have nothing left of the sentence, and I will leave to continue to struggle against the oppressive system together with those who know that nothing has changed.
My name is José Miguel Sánchez Jiménez, I am held in the High Security Prison (C.A.S.) in $antiago, $hile, together with other comrades who have stood up against the prevailing system such as: Juan Aliste, Freddy Fuentevilla and Marcelo Villarroel, having known each other since the anti-dictatorial struggle. I am 52 years of age, married and father of 4 daughters, carpenter and electrician by profession, and I am anti-system.
I hope to continue receiving your notices and thus to mutually strengthen each other.
To destroy all the prisons and capitalist systems!
With affection,
José Miguel Sánchez Jiménez
C.A.S. Module J. Santiago, $hile, October 19th, 2011
* * *
Words from Esteban Huiniguir.
My name is Esteban Huiniguir R., I am 41 years old, I was born in 1970. I was a militant of the MAPU-Lautaro party. During the 90s I was condemned to 11 years in prison for “Illicit Terrorist Association” and the attack on the home of the ambassador of Spain on October 10, 1992. I completed 8 years of this sentence from October 13, 1992 to May, 2000.
In 2008 I was detained during the Day of the Youth Combatant on March 29. My home, which I shared with other guys, was raided, searched as usual but they only found 5 plants of Cannabis Sativa. For this illegal growing I was sentenced to 4 and a half years for trafficking and illegal growing. Presently I serve the sentence in the CAS, module “J.”
Dear comrades, I write to you from the CAS sending a fraternal greeting to all those who in the distance share histories of rebellion and insubordination and who by consequence live in transit in prison.
At over 3 years of this my second sentence, which is 4 and a half years, what has been the most ignominious for me was when I had to face the incomprehension, the social prejudice of those who do not want to hear and are driven by the media’s communication campaign. Despite this, I am together with my friends and companions… I also receive with great gratitude the solidarity of other accomplices who manifest in the street in this combat against capital. Then there are my little siblings who gave their youth, their commitment and their life. Norma Vergara, José Luis Oyarzun, Andrés Soto (Papi), big Pablo Muñoz… and so many others: although you are no longer here and they do not want to listen, we are still us and you; for that, thanks.
I know little about you in the personal sense, your lives and histories, but your present condition, your conviction and how you wanted to confront your trial speak very well of yourselves. Walk with all my support, since it is true that the street, the trial and the prison are trenches where one must continue fighting.
I do not have much more to say right now nor will I pretend a grandiloquent discourse since for me the practice of direct action is not made with words but by lighting a wick that smells of benzine, with black powder, and if the moment requires (the prison), with closed fists utilizing what they leave us our body exposed to fatigue and hunger.
So then comrades, come what may, say what they will, you will remain proud and exemplary. It was good to know that you exist, so far away, with your histories, your slogans, your bottles and black powder for the social war of all peoples.
Health and rebellion.
With our fallen in our memory.
Not one minute of silence, and a lifetime of combat.
Esteban Huiniguir R.
* * *
Words from Juan Aliste.
The social war is an issue of class, it is a question of life that transcends the obstacles (borders) traced by a common enemy, capital with its system of domination, exploitation, repression and misery at the hands of the power of the rich. As hostages of the chilean State and its bourgeois government of the wealthy, from the carceral jaws of its society, we escape in the libertarian complicity of vindicating direct action in the flesh with the fertile idea of subversion from individuality to real collectivity.
History repeats itself and the long experience of power to submit those who struggle is transversal, their fascist machinery with sustained methods in repression in conjunction with police, judges and media of disinformation expand fear and terror to legitimize their prisons, murders and tortures. Moreover, the State lies to hide the indomitable heartbeat of our lives, concrete and in-the-flesh proof is this complicity of blood that we allow to strengthen ourselves in adversity, communicating with each other, knowing each other, hating together the mornings and rescuing the tenderness in each gesture of action from our comrades. So the prison, in its prisons, is no more than the reaffirmation of all that we abhor, from their courtrooms, murderers of children and sowers of misery.
Dear partners in struggle, with the uncompromising taste to drink* my life, carrying on my back the certainty that in the face of misery there is no freedom, I take my bones to light that wick, I salute you with the happiness of being alive, I clench my hand, I sharpen my sight and the totality of the senses. May the oxygen from your proposal be the unstoppable inception of coordination. To begin, my greetings, your thoughts are ours, echos of a libertarian uproar.
Health! While there is misery there will be rebellion!
Combative solidarity with those who fight!
Juan Aliste Vega, subversive imprisoned by the Chilean State,
accused for the expropriation of Banco Segurity, the clash with the police
causing the death of one of their members and serious wounds of another.
High Security Prison, Santiago, Chile.
* also ‘to take’ as in to claim or seize – transl.
* * *
Words from Freddy Fuentevilla.
Esteemed comrades of CCF, a fraternal embrace full of rebellion. To tell you that we are joined by a common reality, whether in Greece, Latin America or whatever corner of the world. Redeemed in these lines is more than the individual, the collective. The causes for which we are imprisoned, with more or less nuances, are the same cause, we are rebels, we are subversives, anti-capitalists, anti-imperialists, we are the pueblo-pobre,* we are not victims, we are not complicit in a history without redemption, we are not indolent, we are never their slaves, we are neither guilty nor innocent.
When the State decides to annihilate us, persecute us, and incarcerate us, it is not mere coincidence, but because each one of us symbolizes danger for any State. They demonize us with their language since it not our own, the prison is part of their language, part of the social war and the class war. I must say that it has affected us to live imprisonment, not only in this territory called Chile, also in Argentina, and in each prison I always saw the same subject, my pueblo-pobre, my class brethren, my brethren of the trenches; at the same time, the executioner is always the same, their police.
In the game of what we are and what we are not, we make it clear that we are not victims, we are combatants, and this is not only words, this is what our history and our present tell us. This reality has made us embattled, not by our seeking nor desire, but we make a mission of our dreams, our choice of conscious struggle, the unrenounceable struggle for happiness.
Brothers and sisters, I send you my strength, my dignity, my solidarity. Borders and flags do not exist between peoples, solidarity and internationalism are not only words in the wind, they are a weapon.
“Here nothing is over and no one yields, the struggle continues”
Freddy Fuentevilla Saa. MIRist prisoner.
High Security Prison, Santiago, Chile, October 2011
Note: Freddy Fuentevilla is imprisoned for the same case as Juan Aliste, accused of participating in the assault on a bank in 2007 that ended with the death of a police officer.
* Fuentevilla’s phrase “pueblo-pobre” means “the people, the poor”; we leave it in Spanish. – transl.
from culmine, translated from Spanish by sabotagemedia:
Once more
A Reach Out to the comrade
A Clenched fist to the enemy
Comrades of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire organization I write to you within hours of starting the “bombs case” trial, a bad copy of the “Cervantes Case.”
Power and its minions try to convict for the placing of an incendiary device in a church, for this reason I risk a sentence of 5 to 20 years of effective penalty, that within the framework of the anti-terrorism law. The fire of the witch hunt is being prepared.
Until August 14th 2010, I lived in squat house la Krota, where there was an anarchist library (this was a feast for the police that foul day), my beautiful home became one of the “power centers” of the prosecution, one of the foundations of the failed terrorist conspiracy thesis … what an insult to whom spits on the exercise of the powerful. The inhabitants of this place openly propagated anti-authoritarian ideas, which the state fears.
My detention (which lasted 9 months in prison and 3 months of house arrest) did not take me by surprise, the mass media were laying the foundation for several months before, the crudeness of it just amazes me, I expected more of the “police intelligence”, against me there is no direct evidence of my participation in this or any attack there is only an accusation of ideas, this is not to hang on to the legality or to defend my innocence, the anarchist task cannot be otherwise than illegal. Every hour sitting on the bench of the accused I feel dirty from being part of this democratic process, I have nothing to prove to any court the only opinion that matters to me is my accomplices in the crime of fighting for freedom and anarchy. They want me in jail for not kissing the cross, repentance for not lowering my head before them. The outlook is vague, they may achieve imprisoning my body or perhaps in the near future, dissidents of capital have a booked ticket to jail, those are the costs of wanting to expropriate our lives from the executioners of the lovers of order.
I brother with you without ever exchanging a word, every day that capital takes away from you doesn’t go unnoticed, I know what the loneliness of a cold cell is, the rage that dries the mouth to see the door close and to hate every morning you see that guard, solidarity to me isn’t a pity or “humanitarian” exercise, its a tool of anti-authoritarian struggle, I can not live anymore in capital’s social peace, it hurts me and makes me restless to see more in their cages, whether they speak or not the same language, whether or not they’re the same species, have tail, feet or feathers.
Comrades you have been a wonderful contribution to the dissemination of revolutionary nihilist and anarchist ideas, keep it up, your letters are always a pleasure to read.
Today I can enjoy a sky without bars, the touch of the skin of a comrade, walk the streets of this lifeless town, in a couple of weeks… Who knows?
And finally for you dear persecutors who analyze each comma with a myriad of specialists to build a new process, I hope you find it, your masters will be proud.
War against all forms of domination. Sedition and revolt!!
Long live the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, may they spread across the globe!
May the jailers, judges, prosecutors and butchers tremble, fire to the prisons and slaughterhouses!
In the struggle for the destruction of authority no one is alone!
Prisoners at war to the streets! Diego Rios, Gabriela Curilem flee away from cameras and uniforms!
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!!!
Mónika Caballero
Anarchist
Accused in the bombs case
Santiago, Chile
from culmine, translated by war on society:
“This is a war and we are warriors” *
Words in solidarity with the comrades of the CCF
Solidarity, a word often used in this society, from the military interventions disguised as humanitarian aid, to the donations in supermarket shopping, to the collaboration between good citizens and the police, to those who “struggle” to expand animals’ cages for their well-being. All expressions where Domination recuperates and impregnates every corner with its logic, removing words’ value and limiting them to miserable campaigns so that citizens can sleep with their tranquil consciences after taking a couple of sleeping pills. It is the feelings of inferiority that Domination wishes to impose as “solidarity,” either as compassion and pity, or submission and admiration, where in the first case, someone who has more than another gives some scraps to alleviate for a moment their misery. This is driven by the pity one feels for the other who has nothing. And in the second case, someone who’s assumed inferior to another who holds power and authority–collaborates with the latter’s work without having any gain other than thanks for helping to perpetuate order.
For me, solidarity is a tool of struggle for expressing in different ways support and respect between the oppressed who resist and/or confront the managers of misery. For me it is a relation between known and unknown individuals who do not see themselves as superior or inferior but as equivalent, where also often gestures are sent and received anonymously with the sole intention of being present and making tangible the fact that no one is alone.
This is how I understand solidarity and this is how I have taken up deeds ever since I chose the path of liberation, where it is necessary to support those who struggle in different parts of the world, from within the prisons to outside of the walls. During these months that I have been in captivity I have felt the force of each gesture, of every one, your letters and foods, the banners, leaflets and fire.
Before having been on the other side of the walls, contributing how I could and wished, but now the conviction of which “solidarity” is not a dead word will take more force than ever. It is for this reason that in this letter I wish to send my greetings to the comrades who have assumed the political responsibility of belonging to the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and now are incarcerated in different prisons of the territory dominated by the Greek State. It is the firm and dignified conviction that you have taken, from the anonymity of your attacks and your subsequent claims, which are a contribution and impulse of struggle that pass through borders and languages, to the posture that you have assumed since you were incarcerated.
I believe that solidarity between prisoners, revolutionaries and subversives is a potent weapon in the struggle against the prisons and their guards, for this reason the CCF’s proposition or Gabriel Pombo da Silva‘s initiative with the International Hunger Strike are gestures that seek to interlace experiences and relations between comrades, so that together, as a contribution to an informal and diffuse environment, we advance towards the destruction of Domination, where each comrade writes their contributions, critiques, experiences and proposals, where no imprisoned comrade is alone, because if they touch one of us, they touch all of us, or as they say in these parts: “no aggression without retaliation.”
In the letter that you wrote as a proposition for this pamphlet, you reference that you rejected your lawyers for various reasons and although this also depends on more factors that are unanswered due to my distance, it still is another demonstration of courage in the face of Power and its laws that you will be your own defenders. Here, for my part and that of other comrades, legal defense is driven by the “Popular Defender,” who is supported by the “Legal Picket” (law students), who offer their support as a form of solidarity, visiting prisoners and contributing how they can in the legal sphere.
To conclude I want to launch two initiatives: one concerning the solidarity campaigns and the other concerning the debate and development of ideas. The first is that the dates of the trials against comrades around the world be disseminated in advance, to serve in this way to call for solidarity with each comrade who faces trial.
The second initiative is to debate the ideas/practices of Animal Liberation, which have been developed by comrades in Mexico, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, and now finally in Bolivia and which on the part of the CCF, only Damiano has made reference to in one of his letters. Themes such as ecology and anti-technology have already been established, thus I believe that the struggle against animal exploitation is part of the integrity of the struggle, in order to thus point towards total liberation, bringing an end to every form of domination.
Fraternal greetings to Christos, Gerasimos, Mihalis, Giorgos N., Haris, Panagiotis, Olga, Giorgos P. and Damiano.
Also to the others accused in this case, especially to Panagiotis M. To all, my greetings which cross walls and seas to each one of your cages.
Honor to Mauricio Morales, Honor to Lambros Foundas
Solidarity with all prisoners of war.
Mono
Prisoner of War, Nihilist tendency
Maximum Security Section – High Security Prison
November 2011.
I wish to extend my greetings to those comrades who contribute to this dialogue that breaks the borders, I refer to those who translate letters from and into various languages, such as for example the book Dynamiting the Existent: Reflections on Minoritarian Combat which in these days of captivity came to my hands, as well as the internet sites (liberaciontotal.lahaine.org, culmine.noblogs.org, actforfree.nostate.net…) which cover the transfers and actions that happen in Greece.
* this phrase was shouted from the CSO Sacco and Vanzetti after the death of Mauri and when the police tried to enter. The phrase is clear, in this war we are not soldiers, we are warriors with autonomy and honor, we do not struggle for medals and/or other stupidities, but to take back our lives, for total liberation at whatever cost.
from culmine, translated by war on society:
Today the first hearing in the trial of the “Bombs Case” was held, in which 5 comrades are still accused, risking a great quantity of years, only for the fantasized idea of the prosecutors that they are guilty of some of the explosive attacks that happened in Santiago in the last years, with ridiculous charges of placement and financing.
The comrades implicated in this case are:
Omar Hermosilla and Carlos Riveros, accused as those who provided the mney to finance the costs of the terrorist attacks, as well as Mónica Caballero, Felipe Guerra, Francisco Solar, accused for the placement of the explosive devices at different points in Santiago.
Today, various comrades in solidarity met outside of the Justice Center, where the trial was being carried out, and displayed banners and pamphlets in support of the comrades of the Bombs Case.
The “Bombs Case” is not over
Solidarity with the accused comrades!!
Freedom to the Political Prisoners
from the $hilean press, November 22, 2011, translated by war on society:
The morning of the day of Tortuga’s formalization of charges, in Valparaiso GOPE deactivated a bomb in the Hernández Motores car dealership located at the intersection of Rodríguez and Chacabuco. The other bomb was found at 2:30 am and was located in the Falabella bank; the bombs were made of a bottle, some containers and a wick, at the place leaflets were found in support of Luciano Pitronello (Tortuga), who today was chared and now is in preventive detention for 75 days in the prison hospital of Santiago 1.
from culmine, translated by war on society:
communique from Revolutionary Anarchist Cell – Gabriella Segata Antolini, member of Autonomous Cells for Immediate Revolution – Praxedis G. Guerrero (CARI-PGG)
Why, or of what, is Norberto Ribera so afraid?
This is the question that we have asked ourselves recently on receiving the welcome news that the package had arrived at its destination. Unfortunately, one of the greatest tyrants of the Catholic church, one of the most brutal, repressive, dominant and sadistic, did not open the package, due to the fear of being struck in his own arena, in his reign, he preferred to expose his private secretary to any attack on the part of those who do not see in Norberto an image of respect but rather, as we would any leader of a terrorist State, we see him as a target for delivering a blow to the Catholic Church as an Institution. Effectively, the package contained a book, the title of which is not relevant, the explosive apparatus inside was composed of a galvanized metal pipe full of dynamite, 9V batteries, cables, and shrapnel — pieces of metal cut in pointed shape — and an ignition apparatus.
The Revolutionary Anarchist Cell – Gabriella Segata Antolini, member of CARI-PGG, claim the sending of the explosive package addressed to the Archbishop Norberto Ribera, which was carried out in a coordinated manner during the same weeks of November 1 to 15 of 2011.
What Cardinal Norberto represents, is in truth, a Capitalist State of mental and social control experimented in most brutally during the middle ages in the Inquisition, but also on the thousands of people who for being “different,” dressing differently, loving differently, thinking differently, fucking differently and maintaining their lives differently from what is imposed by the religious Morality in society, have been and continue to be murdered for an ideal and a moral system of life that represents one of the most concrete points of oppression and control: religion!
The act of attacking — or attempting to — one of the most powerful hierarchs of the Mexican Catholic State, represents the rejection of and the absolute rupture with the ideas created by Humankind for the control not only of the same Humankind, but of nature in its entirety. It represents a blow at a symbol that for past centuries has come to suppress the practice of absolute and unlimited freedom — in the case of the dictators, striking forcefully at the struggles of anarchist and revolutionary workers; condemn individual freedom, freedom of thought, freedom of choice; negate the individual and dissolve him/her into a mass of people that walks aimlessly, following an illusory hope blindly — and in many case honestly — which the Catholic Hierarchy uses to expand their capital and dominion.
The church pacifies the conflict or possible conflicts for change from the bottom and the wars of liberation, because it is complicit in the States, it fools and manipulates the individual, it perpetuates fear of evil and impedes making free use of one’s natural violence — self-defense — fooling one to resign oneself, bow one’s head and receive the blow on the other cheek. Their (truly) antiquated and badly toned opinions in political influences generate a brutal idea of morality and false ethics in society and their allied “governments” which throughout history have contributed to murder through discrimination, and in Mexico today have been the fundamental cause of many comrades being imprisoned under the crime of “parental murder” (abortion) in the lower region, they have also been the cause of the deaths and condemnation of many anarchist comrades.
We find on a blog — and many other places — that our attack is condemned. Strategic critique — if that’s what’s spoken — is acceptable, but ethically and morally there is no defense that can be used in favor of a Murderer for hire, of a protector of pederasts, dominator and leader of one of the most Powerful capitalist states, at least in regard to mental control.
The Catholic Institution and Norberto Rivera have neither defense nor Ethical argument in their favor, since our attack — being effectively completed — is not more brutal than the brutality and the terror hidden behind the Church-institution and their religious ideal. Surely Norberto Ribera, will try to (or totally be able to) fool his “faithful,” deflecting the intentionality of this and whatever future attack against the representatives of the Catholic Church, arguing that it is against his followers, when on the other hand he knows that it is against his Morality, his faith, and his Religious State.
1920 and 1936… return, not out of nostalgia, but because at least from the perspective of struggle against religious dominion nothing has changed and things cannot continue as they are, without a touch of vengeance. Prepare yourselves for what is coming…
–
NEITHER GOD, NOR MASTER, NOR DEVIL, NOR ANY RELIGION, CALLING ITSELF CATHOLIC, JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, ETC… AS FORMS OF CONTROL AND DOMINATION.
SOLIDARITY, MUTUAL AID, COMMUNALISM, AND INDIVIDUALISM ARE ETHICS, VALUES AND PRACTICES — ALSO ANARCHIST — THAT WE SHOULD FOR NO REASON ALLOW TO BE CONTAMINATED BY THE RELIGIOUS “MORALS” THAT ENCOURAGE SUBMISSION AND OBEDIENCE.
AGAINST EVERY TYPE OF AUTHORITY.
DEATH TO THE STATE… LONG LIVE ANARCHY!!
AUTONOMOUS CELLS FOR IMMEDIATE REVOLUTION – PRAXEDIS G. GUERRERO (CARI-PGG)
INFORMAL ANARCHIST FEDERATION / INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY FRONT (FAI/IRF)
from the bourgeois press:
Police have raided several Northeast Portland homes taken over by anarchists who claimed they were part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Police were tipped off about the situation Sunday. Responding officers found that the squatters had changed the locks on the homes.
Inside they found anarchist literature, drugs and weapons, including machetes.
Photos: Anarchists take over NE Portland homes
“There’s the body armor in there, the bucket of projectiles: broken up concrete, rocks,” Portland Police Sgt. Jeff McDaniel told KGW. “There was some body-armor-type stuff for someone who might want to fight the police for one of the protests.”
But he explained that most of the protesters were non-violent.
“The sad thing is they’re trying to associate themselves with the Occupy movement, which has basically been peaceful,” he said. “But this clearly shows that [the anarchists] truly want to come down there and cause problems.”
The owners of the homes asked that the addresses not be released.
Police detained one man found inside a home. He said he had lived there for a week. He was given a warning for trespassing.
Five hours west of Prince George BC, members of the Unist’hot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation have set up a direct action camp to defend their land, water and way of life from pipeline developments.
The Pacific Trails Pipeline (PTP) would transport natural gas from fracking in north eastern BC to the coastal Kitimat LNG terminal. Seen as a ‘trail blazer’ project, this would clear the way for other massive projects, such as opening a corridor between the Alberta tar sands and the pacific ocean. Other companies already proposing pipelines include: Pembina, Kinder Morgan and Enbridge. All these pipelines aim to increase the oil and gas production for export to asian and american markets resulting in a large spike in oil tanker traffic that would threaten the entire coastal region. The Unist’hot’en have declared that none of these pipelines will cross their territory.
So far there have been two consecutive summer gatherings (2010/2011), the construction of a cabin at the action camp which stands right in the path of the planned pipelines, and early this month (Nov. 2011) Wet’suwet’en warriors set up a blockade to meet PTP on route and successfully turned them around. With actions and events starting Dec 9th in Vancouver, Prince George and elsewhere we will be continuing to escalate solidarity with this resistance.
The three major shareholders of the Pacific Trails Pipeline are Apache Canada Ltd. (40 per cent and operator), EOG Canada; formerly known as Enron (30 per cent) and Encana (30 per cent). These companies all have many offices and projects all over the world.
While this call out is focused specifically against the PTP, solidarity on Dec 9th means confronting destructive resource extraction projects in your own community as well. Solidarity means recognizing the threads between our struggles and understanding a collective self interest.
Towards free communities and total liberation from capitalism and the state.
– East Van Anarchists in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Warriors
For more info:
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/events/8824
http://unistotencamp.wordpress.com/
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/grassroots-gathering-resist-proposed…
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/pacific-trails-pipeline-and-taseko-m…
http://stoptheflows.tumblr.com/
http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/
from non-fides.fr:
On July 5th 2011, Labège PJJ (Legal Protection of Youth) offices were visited, turned upside down and tagged as a protest against its participation in jailing young people. While the PJJ cried over its work conditions, at the Lavaur EPM (Youth Jail), which is coordinated by the PJJ and the prison administration, kids considered as lost were smashed up by the infamous ERIS unit (Regional Team of Intervention and Safety).
On tuesday November 15th, in Toulouse, seven homes, some of them squats, were raided and searched by a hundred policeman. Computers, telephones, books, posters and personal effects were seized. Following these events, seven person were placed in custody, four other ones were interrogated and a family in the process of getting legal papers, was arrested and released within the same day.
After 32 hours police custody, four were placed in remand on request of Mr. Suc, the examining magistrate. A person is on probation, another must remain at disposal of the judge as a witness. Criminal charges are: “participation within a group in order to prepare violence against people, destruction, property damage”. “Violence committed within a group without causing inability”, “degradation or deterioration of property within a group”.
That the people arrested are guilty or innocent does not matter. By always building more walls, by physically locking up us behind bars or in cages, the legal and prison system is hitting us today, as it does every day on many other ones, to preserve the white, middle-class, patriarchal privileged.
One will not conceal our rage, nor our solidarity.
Freedom for all the jailed women and men !
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