Tag Archives: anarchist prisoners

SOLIDARITY TO THE ANARCHIST PRISONER FOTIS TZIOTZIS

On 26/2/2018 is the court of our anarchist comrade Fotis Tziotzis at
Thesaloniki.
This time he is accused of robbery by heavy armament at a branch of
“piraeus bank” in Thessaloniki.
As main evidence against him are presented the following: that he is
left-handed,fit greek and a common t-shirt which was found at his
house.Evidence that is non-existent fiction.
Beyond all of this ,whenever the comrade was going to be transferred to
courts in Thessaloniki for some of the cases ,he is transferred one or
two days earlier than the date of his trial and is held in the
subdivision of transfers courts (just outside Thessaloniki). The purpose
of this process is the attempted terrorism of the comrade through the
systemic mechanisms whose yarns are initiated by the director SAKAREKOS
IOANNIS.Fotis’ strength and determination is not bent by these insidious
and ordinary tactics.

Comrade Fotis Tzotzis has mentioned:
As for us,we are determined to stand next to each partner who remains
stubborn and rigid in his ideals and values.Comrades like Fotis Tzotzis
chose to challenge not only the omnipotence of the state, but also the
monopoly of violence from it.The regime seeks a gradual crush of every
total refuser of its domination.
We seek to inflate the challenge of this domination until the state is
fragmented.

We call Anarchist comrades internationally to meet every opportunity by
any means expressing unwavering support and solidarity with Fotis and
every Anarchist prisoner.By making it clear that comrades inside and
outside the walls are not and will never be alone.

EVERYONE AT THESSALONIKI ON 26/2/2018 AT 09:00
ROOM: 366 FLOOR: 3rd
STRENGTH AND SOLIDARITY TO THE ANARCHIST PRISONER FOTIS TZIOTZIS

Abc solidarity cell

Chile: Update on Anarchist Prisoners Nataly, Juan & Enrique; on trial since March 24, 2017 (Eng/Esp)

Received and translated by Insurrection News on 30.07.17:

The trial against the compañerxs began on March 24. It was expected that the trial would be long and exhausting, and it has been so far, since the prosecution had announced the presentation of 186 witnesses, 87 experts, 231 documents and 648 pieces of evidence.

As was previously reported at the beginning of the trial, the accusations of and convictions sought by the prosecution are as follows:

* Enrique Guzmán: Accused of making the explosive device used at Police Station No.1 in Santiago Centro. This charge has been formalized under the anti-terrorism law and the prosecution are demanding 10 years imprisonment.

* Nataly Casanova: Accused of making the explosive device used at Police Station No.1 in Santiago Centro, of placing the explosive device in the subway car at Los Dominicos metro station and possession of material for the preparation of explosives. The charges have been formalized under the anti-terrorism law and the prosecution are demanding 20 years imprisonment.

* Juan Flores: Accused of placing the explosive device used at Police Station No.1 in Santiago Centro, of placing the explosive device in the subway car at Los Dominicos metro station and the placement of the explosive device at Subcentro. The charges have been formalized under the anti-terrorism law and the prosecution are demanding life imprisonment for him.

At present the compxs are facing the daily ordeal of attending the trial. They are taken from their cells very early each day for the start of the trial sessions at approx. 9AM and then are returned to their cells at 2PM.

In the courtroom they are seated together however they have no contact with each other as a cop sits in between each compx to separate them.

A long and strenuous phase of the trial has been the presentation of evidence by part of the prosecutor’s office (DNA, traces, items seized in raids etc) as well as the current phase of statements by witnesses for the prosecution.

The witnesses for the defense have still not been heard and include friends and relatives, so they can’t enter hearings if they are not testifying as witnesses, which limits the possibilities of obtaining information about what is happening in the trial.

Via letters the compxs have been and will continue to be informed of the actions and initiatives of solidarity for them, and it has been transmitted to them the importance of writing and sharing how they have been coping with the trial and how they feel about the solidarity campaign.

From Chile, all of us who take part in some way supporting Nataly, Juan and Enrique salute the solidarity initiatives promoted by compxs from Argentina, Greece and other latitudes.

Against all the trials and condemnations of power, anarchic solidarity strengthens our affinities by sharpening our action against authority!

Death to authority!
Long live anarchy!

******

(Chile) Sobre la situación de Nataly, Juan y Enrique, en juicio desde el 24 de marzo.

El juicio contra lxs compañerxs fue iniciado el 24 de marzo. Se esperaba, y así ha sido, que el juicio fuese largo y extenuante, ya que la fiscalía había anunciado la presentación de 186 testigos, 87 peritos, 231 documentos y 648 evidencias.

Como ya se informó al iniciarse el juicio, las condenas y acusaciones de
la fiscalía son las siguientes:

*Enrique Guzmán: Acusado de la confección del artefacto explosivo usado en la 1° Comisaria de Santiago Centro. Formalizado por ley antiterrorista, la fiscalía pide 10 años de cárcel.

*Nataly Casanova: Acusada de la confección del artefacto explosivo usado en la 1° Comisaria de Santiago Centro, de la colocación del artefacto explosivo en el vagón de metro en los dominicos, tenencia de material para la confección de material explosivo. Formalizada por ley antiterrorista, la fiscalía pide 20 años de cárcel.

*Juan Flores: Acusado de la colocación del artefacto explosivo usado en la 1° Comisaria de Santiago Centro,de la colocación del artefacto explosivo en el vagón de metro en los dominicos, de la colocación del artefacto explosivo en el Subcentro. Formalizado por la ley antiterrorista, la fiscalía pide cadena perpetua en su contra.

Actualmente, lxs compas están abocadxs a enfrentar el juicio, los sacan muy temprano desde las celdas cada día para iniciar las sesiones del juicio cada día a las 9 de la mañana aprox., y los devuelven a eso de las 14hrs.

En la sala de audiencias están juntxs, pero no pueden tener contacto directo pues les han puesto entre unx y otrx un gemdarme para separarlos.

Una fase larga y extenuante ha sido la de presentación de pruebas por parte de la fiscalía (seguimientos, ADN, elementos  incautados en allanamientos, etc), así como también la actual fase de declaraciones de los testigos de la fiscalía.

Los testigos de la defensa de lxs compas aun no declaran e incluyen a personas cercanas y familiares, por lo cual estas no pueden ingresar a las audiencias mientras no declaren como testigxs, lo que limita las posibilidades de obtener información sobre lo que pasa en el juicio.

Lxs compas a través de cartas se han ido y se seguirán enterando de las acciones e iniciativas de solidaridad, y se les ha transmitido la importancia de que puedan escribir, a modo de compartir cómo han estado enfrentando el juicio y de retroalimentación de la solidaridad.

Desde Chile, quienes tomamos parte en apoyar de alguna forma a Nataly, Juan y Enrique, saludamos las iniciativas de solidaridad impulsadas por compas de Argentina, de Grecia y otras latitudes.

¡Contra todos los juicios y condenas del poder, la solidaridad anárquica fortalece nuestros lazos afilando el accionar contra la autoridad!

¡Muerte a la autoridad!
¡Que viva la anarquía!

insurrectionnewsworldwide.com

Athens, notification for the protest out of the American embassy

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Inside the framework of the international day of solidarity to the struggle of the us prisoners that was called by the anarchist black cross-solidarity cell, a protest out of the american embassy took place. ABC solidarity cell, Assembly for the solidarity to political prisoners, Assembly for the solidarity to the prisoners’ struggle against slavery, A.S.M.P.A., Assembly of anarchists communists for the class counter attack against the European union as well as ather comrades participated in the protest. During the protest, slogans were shouted, flyers were spread, texts were given out and banners were hanged.

Anarchist black cross – solidarity cell

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ITALY – ACCOUNT OPEN FOR THE COMRADES ARRESTED IN OPERATION “SCRIPTA MANENT”

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A REMINDER THAT THE ACCOUNT OF CROCE NERA ANARCHICA IS OPEN FOR MONEY COLLECTED FOR THE ARRESTED COMRADES:

N° Carta PostePay: 4023 6009 1934 2891
addressed to: Omar Nioi

BEING AN EMERGENCY THE MONEY WILL BE USED TO SUPPORT THE COMRADES IN PRISON, BUT ALSO FOR LEGAL COSTS.

FOR ANY INFORMATION, HERE IS THE ADDRESS OF CROCE NERA ANARCHICA:
CROCENERANARCHICA@AUTISTICI.ORG
VIA:CNA

Call for a concerted solidarity campaign for the struggle of us prisoners

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Prisons in the usa – The dark side of slavery in american society

In order to be in the position to understand the importance and necessity of the us prisoners’ struggle, we first need to analyze the role of slavery in the foundation and evolution of the american state and its historical and integral ,until today, link with the capital.
Slavery in its many forms was actually the foundation on which the omnipotence of american overlordship was gradually built. The root of this phenomenon can be traced back in the era when the christian empires of europe started a race to conquest unknown lands, founding colonialism regimes, in the era of brutal genocides of the indigenous populations and the slave trade of the non-white african population.
Since then and until today, the social and political circumstances have rapidly changed, mainly because of a heavy blood tax that has been paid from beneath, towards the direction of the total shaking off of slavery as an institution. However, it continues up until today, more or less covered.
Today’s prisoners’ class and racial composition, the spreading of private prisons, the institutionalization of enforced labor as a form of criminal sanction, the exploitation of prisoners by big companies highlight the fundamental connection between state-capitalism-slavery and prison.

Slavery in the first colonial systems
During the first years of the “new world’s” colonization and until the early 18th century, most of the settlers were not free but were under a status of an idiotype slavery, known as “indentured servitude”, which aimed in equipping the colonies with cheap workforce. The “indentured servant” signed a contract according to which she/he was mortgaging her/his freedom and provide her/his work to a master for a period between 5 to 7 years and, in exchange, the latter covered her/his transportation expenses to the colony. In practice, it was happening by the signature of the contract between the “indentured servant” and the ship owner and the subsequent transferring of the contract to the new master, as soon as the ship arrived to the “new world”. The institution was initially introduced in 1619 through Virginia Company. It has been calculated that 80% of the refugees in the american colonies before american revolution were under this status, while only 40% managed to survive.
“Interventured servants” consisted of three categories : 1) poor immigrants seeking for a better life in the colonies 2)immigrants forced to leave their country because of religious prosecutions or other reasons 3) convicts. It constisted of both white and non-white population. More specifically, in the plantations of the south, the institution favored the further expansion of the land ownership, since it got connected to the headright system. Headright was the right of every coloner in about 4 acres of land. The big landowners managed to expand the landownership since they were both subzitized with the 4 acres for every worker they brought in through the “interventured servitude” system and took profit on the workforce of the “interventured servant” that had in their ownership.

So, although slaves existed in the english colonies already since 1600, this constitution was preferred among plantation owners. But, when the “interventured servants” started to gradually regain their freedom somewhere in the middle of the 17th century, the land they were given was of bad quality and under the danger of indigenous raids, soon resulting in the creation of a poor and unsatisfied social layer, whose existence annoyed the bag landowners who later manned their plantations with permanent slaves.
Moreover, although european “interventured servants” were already under a status of transient slavery compared to the permanent slaves, many of them acted together with non white, african and american indigenous slaves in order to escape, resist to their masters or organize uprisals. The ruling class was displeased by this alliaance and answered with a tactic of separation between the white and the non white population, like happened, for example, in Virginia with the voting of Virginia Slave Codes in 1705. In an case, already during the 18th century, europeans willing to travel to the american continent under the status of “interventured servitude” had considerably decreased, especially after the disclosure of the conditions in the plantations. The ruling class, on the other hand, within the tactic of separation had started to grant privileges and lighter work to the white” inteventured servants” compared with the non-white, african and american indigenous slaves. In this way, the alliance between whites of all layers and racial discrimination gradually started to form a structure. The “interventured servitude” system was abolished after the civil war through the 13th amendment of american constitution in 1865.

First prisons and enforced labor until the end of the civil war

Imprisonment as a form of criminal sanction was established in america a little before the american revolution of 1765. The first period, during which imprisonment was massively used as a means to deal with offenders, the “mentally ill” and the poor, can be found in the early 1800, in the jackson era. During this period, imprisonment and enforced labor constituted the main sanctions for most crimes until the civil war. In the south, however, were slavery was widespread, imprisonment didn’t have much to offer to the sustainment of order, since slaves were in the mercy of their masters. Despite this fact, imprisonment of white people took place in some parts of the south.
The first occasion of enforced labor of prisoners in favor of private companies and of the state is found in 1820 in the prison Auborn in New York. The constitution quickly expanded to the north and, later, to the west. In 1825 in Kentucky, joel scott paid 1000 dollars in order to use the prisoners of the local prison as a work labor in construction projects. After that, he proceeded in building his own private prison to house them. Deals like this can be found in 1844 in Louisiana and in 1852 in California. Despite the above, the main exploitation of prisoners as a work labor and the evolution of the conception around the utilization of the excluded populations will take place after the end of the civil war.

The inclusion of enforced labor in the criminal system (convict leasing)

After the end of the american civil war (1861-1865), capitalism will dominate in the usa and will gradually highlight it into the superpower that is today. Between 1865-1920, corporate interests were served in all government levels. Governments obeyed almost completely to the big companies. In many occasions, industrial corporations were the ones to set the value of their own property for tax reasons, instead of tax inspectors. Private and public sectors were, in a great degree, undividable, for example, in 1880 the owner of the biggest bank in Montana was at the same time its governor. Capitalistic development, however, did not follow a straight line. Since the middle of the 1870s until the middle of the 1890s (a period named the “great depression”), economy wobbles from massive bankrupts, inflation and the merciless competition between the companies for the reduction of labor costs. Within this framework, the utilization of prisoners as a workforce constituted an ideal solution and the institution of “convict leasing” was spread in both the south and the north and the 2/3 of prisoners were assigned to private companies. Companies signed contracts with the state that the workforce would be replaced in case a prisoner got ill or was considered as unsuitable.
The explosive development of the industry and economy was, in a big degree, connected with the specific configuration of the criminal system. The need for cheap labor force leaded to massive criminalization of behaviors and massive arrests. People were sent to prison for insignificant excuses, like gambling and consuming alcohol. While capitalism was gradually evoluting towards its monopolistic form (which will reach after 1890) prisoners started to be assigned only to the most powerful corporations of every state.
The institutionalization of slavery as a criminal sanction through the 13th amendment of the us constitution served as the legal base for the institution. In the south, convict-lease system was spread everywhere and constituted the new way of utilization and disciplination of the recently libareted slaves who were now under a status of discrimination, imposed on them through jim crow’s laws, under the ideological construct of white supremacy. In the prisons of the south after 1985, 90% of the prisoners were non-white. Prisoners were assigned to the mines, to railway companies and to the iron and steel industry. All the extractive companies of the south, as well as the agricultural economy of cotton and sugar, was based on the prisoners’ labor. In the north, there was also a close cooperation between the industries, commercial and agricultural companies and all of the order enforcement authorities as well as the judicial system. Sheriffs, local magistrates, policemen, judges and governors were all working together for the systems’ conservation. Labor unions, syndicates and labor parties reacted to the institution, initially as far as the utilization of prisoners as specialized workforce was concerned, because it was against their interests.
Prison labor was also utilized as a counterweight against the workers’ effort to organize. Companies, in cases of strikes and claimings, could replace their workforce with prisoners who worked under harsh and lethal conditions. This way, a lot of mine strikes were broken.
But, in 1890, during a mine strike, TC&I company tried to use prisoners in order to break the strike. Strikers and their allies, friendly towards the workers’ movement “the knights of labor” started guerilla war with attacks to the prison’s fence and liberated prisoners. They after denied to obey to the governor’s order to return them back and armed conflicts followed. Since 1890, uprisals and prisoners’ strikes started to happen more and more often, especially in the north, where an important percentage of prisoners were veterans of the American civil war, but also, ex- workers.

The development of the prison-industrial complex

Since the 70s and until today, prisons continued to constitute a privileged field of profit and repression in the usa, while, at the same time, through the the prison-industrial complex, we are passing into new forms of social control and surveillance. The interaction and cooperation in the prison system between industry and private prisons, construction companies, prison supply companies, companies exploiting the enforced labor of the prisoners and of the political conservation in general, is conceived by this term.
This way, american state’s propaganda for the social legalization of the army-industrial complex, making huge profit during the cold war, was gradually replaced by the prison-industrial complex, this time, using the excuse of the “war on drugs”.
During the 60s, 70s and 80s, CIA, after secretly getting involved in the drug trade taking place in vietnam and nicaragua, channeled large quantities into the poor neighborhoods of people of color. During the 70s, a lot of companies got transferred out of the usa seeking cheaper workforce resulting in a rise of the unemployment in the poor neighborhoods and a big part of the non-specified unemployed turning to thefts and drug dealing. This phenomenon, offered the suitable political excuse in order for reagan to start, in the middle of the 80s, the campaign of “war on drugs”. A big wave of arrests of non-white people followed this tightening of the legal armory, leading to the overpopulation of prisons. While the expenses for the maintenance and building of new prisons overcame the abilities of the state’s budget, private prisons constituted an advantageous solution, not only for the state but, for the capital as well. In 1984, investors in Tennesee, having connections in the government, structured Corrections Corporations of America (CCA). The idea was to fοund private prisons and rend the bed to the government. The utilization of private prison reached its peak in the 90s during clinton’s presidency, when private prison companies took on the imprisonment of refugees without a residence permits and prisoners of “high risk”. In 2000, private prisons’ industry donated 1,2 millions to 830 candidates. Today, the largest of private prisons’ companies are CCA and GEO Group (ex Wackenhut), while the percentage of inmates in them in 2013 was calculated to be the 8% of the total population of prisoners in the usa.
Together with the institution of private prisons, prisoners’ enforced labor, based -as referred above- on the 13th amendment, is still a field of profit and management of the excluded populations.
Prisoners work without syndicate rights, days off or alliances, under miserable conditions. Their denial to work has as a consequence disciplinary punishments and privilege deprivations. The last 30 years more than 37 states allow private companies to use prisoners with the symbolic payment of between 0,93 and 4,73 dollars a day. Companies exploiting the work of prisoners are, among others, IBM, Boeing, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Nothern Telecom, TWA, Nordstorm’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, Starbucks and Honda.

Prisoners’ struggles – Resistance finds its ways and spaces to be manifested

As expected, the asphyxiating status of enforced labor as part of the penalty, this disguised form of modern slavery, compresses and crushes the prisoners so much that, little by little, the seed of resistance is being born, a seed growing on anger and desperation. Since quite some time, a series of fermentations inside the American hellhole, which are actually slave galleys, has led to the planning of a concerted struggle inside prisons, targeting towards the definitive abolition of this brutality which euphemistically calls itself “social contribution”. Despite the great difficulties in the communication among prisoners, the thirst for fighting managed to overcome all obstacles so to finally the struggle plan to be communicated in such a degree, that we can maybe be talking about one of the biggest concerted fighting campaigns form the prisoners themselves.
The starting point of such a struggle has been set by the commissions of prisoners themselves on 9/9/16, a date-symbol for the struggles of us prisoners since, 45 years ago, on September 9 1971, the uprisal in the Attica prison of New York took place which constituted the biggest and most dramatic prison uprisal in the usa history. The basic occasion was the murder of the inmate George Jackson from the Black Panthers by the jailers.
As Anarchist Black Cross, we consider that the peak of this struggle has a special importance, since it constitutes a collective scream of dignity form the inside of the modern hellholes of a state that has made imprisonment into a science, being a model and example for every ambitious totalitarian state.
The status of slavery in prisons is the epitome of brutality inside imprisonment conditions since it abolishes the individual status of every person and targets towards her/his total submission between the gears of multinational leviathans.
As anarchists, we cannot whistle with indifference in front of a struggle orienting from the damned of the social margin, being under an idiotype status of slavery and still claiming, even under the adverse conditions of imprisonment, a breath of dignity and self-determination.
The inmates will conduct their struggle by actually denying the procedure of enforced labor, carrying out an abstention of their predicted duties, actually a kind of strike from inside the prison, which is being punished with disciplinary punishments and isolation. A struggle in the root of which there is political disobedience and sabotaging to corporate interests which have identified themselves with the most ruthless forms of exploitation.
The prisoners have outwardly addressed a call for the support of their fight from whoever feels that this struggle has anything to do with her/him and finds a piece of herself/himself inside it.
Inside this framework, as Anarchist Black Cross-solidarity cell we had conducted an event and notification on 4/8 in the squat Themistocleous 58, together with comrades from the translating network of antireport Contra Info, during which, a comrade from Anarchist Black Cross of Portland had extensively spoken on these issues aiming to the notification of the domestic anarchist movement for the struggle that would follow from 9/9.
We are willing to manifest our solidarity to the inmates of us prisons by any means and for all the duration of their struggle. Towards this direction, we are calling all the collectives, all the Anarchist Black Cross cells internationally but also anyone wishing to support in her/his way, to concert our powers in an International Day of Solidarity which can be a point of reference for the international solidarity movement for that struggle and will constitute an occasion for further sharpening of our later actions. We propose that day to be the 1st of October.
We consider that the perspectives, the at-stake-issues, and the stockpile that this specific struggle can leave behind, constitute an open challenge for every fighter wanting to contribute to the conduct of an internationalized and concerted struggle inside and out of prisons, against the modern slavery and the economical dictatorship of multinational companies.
Solidarity and Strength to the struggle of the inmates in the us prisons!
Struggle is the only perspective in order to live with dignity!
Fire to the prisons!

Anarchist Black Cross- solidarity cell

Text from anarchist prisoners from D wing in solidarity to the struggle of the prisoners in usa

The 9/9/71 marked one of the most important dates for the struggle against prisons. The uprising in Attica would still be a major event, even without the subsequent massacre committed by the cops who acted in compliance with the mandates of the Law and Order doctrine, which has found various diversified applications in the western world until today.

Back then, the liberation movements (black liberation, anti-war movement, feminist movement etc.) that were active outside prisons influenced a substantial number of US prisoners, who chose to position the prison -as a space and institution- in the core of struggle for change in the status quo.

Prisons constitute a fundamental tool in the hands of the state and its pursuit to get rid of all those who are deemed superfluous or dangerous to the deathly hush it seeks to impose.

The more capitalism evolves and reaches its limits, swallowing down human beings, natural resources and entire ecosystems in its destructive course of action, the bigger profits it demands, resulting in millions of people being turned into slaves.

The Pan-American strike which is due on 9/9 means to convey a straightforward message:
“We refuse to be slaves any longer”.

Forced labor in public or private, federal or state prisons turns nearly 2.500.000 prisoners in the US into slaves to international corporations.

“This is a call to end slavery in America. This call goes directly to the slaves themselves”, as we read in the prisoners’ announcement.

We know how hard it is to fight capitalism where it’s the most powerful, namely the US; and we also know that depriving it from part of its profits is the only way to inflict a severe damage.

That’s why the upcoming strike is of utmost importance.

That’s why we stand in solidarity and salute the subversive dignity of the prisoners in the US.

VICTORY FOR THE PRISONERS’ FIGHT IN THE US

SOCIAL REVOLUTION TO ABOLISH STATES AND CAPITALISM

Some anarchist prisoners from Greece
Korydallos Prison Block D

USA: Poster for September 9 Nationwide Prisoner Strike against Prison Slavery

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Text from the poster:

“We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such… What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed.”
L. D. Barkley, participant in Attica rebellion

On September 9, 1971, the inmates of Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York seized control of the prison. The Attica uprising, which lasted for five days, was not the first and certainly not the last prison rebellion. And yet its importance is indelibly marked within the history of the struggle against white supremacy and the prison society we still inhabit today.

In the forty years since Attica, prisons have swelled to bursting with the tragedies of disrupted lives, fractured families, and broken communities. In the last decade, resistance movements have steadily grown behind the prison walls. From the statewide work stoppage in Georgia prisons of 2010 to the hunger strike that spread throughout the California prison system in 2013; from fires lit in I.C.E. detention centers in Texas to riots and prison takeovers in Nebraska and Alabama, prisoners across the country are wide awake and on the move.

This September, prisoners, their families, and supporters on the outside are coordinating a nationwide prisoner strike to take place on the 45th anniversary of the Attica rebellion. This historic effort holds within it the potential to expand and embolden the movement against the horrific conditions of confinement, the prisons themselves and the society that creates them.

Towards the destruction of all prisons and the creation of a free and genuine human community!

Download Poster  Grayscale Version

supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org

antistatestl.noblogs.org

itsgoingdown.org

iwoc.noblogs.org

(via 325)

Poster for Week of International Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners August 23-30

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Week of International Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners August 23-30

This international week of solidarity has been called to express solidarity with anarchists imprisoned by the state in many places of the world.

Let’s set alight the quiet nights and express our solidarity with our siblings and comrades by shaping our praxis of attacking, sabotage, destroying and setting fire to everything that controls us, that indoctrinates us and herds us and makes us places, or tricks us into passivity.

When faced with imprisonment, there is no place for resignation, only for the unbreakable desire to see the world burn!

FIRE TO THE PRISONS!
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!

(via insurrectionnewsworldwide)

Greece: Statement from CCF comrade Christos Tsakalos for June 11th

June 11th is an international solidarity day. A day against oblivion. A day for all those who are missing from the streets.

For everyone of us that learned to count our steps within the prison yard and divide our day between locking after locking and our night in tallies.

At the same time, June 11th is a day of war. It’s a day of rebellion because law and order may rule but they do not reign.

The existence of anarchist prisoners reminds us of the existence of the anarchist war. A war that sometimes burns slowly and sometimes blinds the sky with its fires.

Every war has its losses. There are comrades that were lost to cop’s bullets or from a bomb that “was in a hurry” to explode…

Comrades that will not be beside us in the next conspiratorial rendzevous.

And then there are those who got caught in the enemy’s snare. An enemy that is baptized in democracy and takes revenge with prisons and courts.

A democracy that likes to carry its captives as trophies from prison to prison, in special conditions, charged with dozens of years of punishment…

Inside the cell, a question that slaps you often visits you…

– “Was it worth it?”

They say that if your enemy doesn’t chase you, you must be doing something wrong…

Transports, special courts, special conditions of solitary confinement, hunger strikes, prohibition of visits, arrests and imprisonment of relatives, new trials, attempted prison escapes..proof that we didn’t give up…

The prison may take away our freedom, but we carry the war against authority within us, in every prison transport, in every cell search, in every locking of the door.

And sometimes, when the prison walls seem to grow taller and every locking from the guard echoes inside your head, you know that you are not alone.

You know that it didn’t simply happen to you, it isn’t just bad luck that you were caught.

You know that you are the continuation of a thread, a story that began with the rebellion of Spartacus and even more before that…

You know that there are others like you within the cells of Chile, in custody in Mexico, in prisons in the USA, in FIES status in Spain, in vague detention in Germany, in supervision of thought in Switzerland, within special cell-blocks of isolation in Italy, in underground solitary confinement in Greece, in conditions of barbarism in Russia, in captivity in Poland…

And this gives you strength…you feel like an accomplice.

And all of us are connected with bonds of memory and perspective.

Memory for those who were imprisoned, tortured and executed before us in far more difficult times, and perspective for those who continue the thread of history walking against the hands of authority’s clock…

So…the answer to the question is…

– “YES, it was worth it and if I turned back time, I would do the exact same thing again, a thousand times.”

And if someone asks again..

– “But the prison, isn’t it a defeat?”

The answer is simple…

– “Victory is defined by the life you live…That’s why we are winners.”

Christos Tsakalos, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire / FAI-IRF
Underground Cell Block of Korydallos Prison

via insurrectionnewsworldwide.com

A contribution to June 11th from anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos (Greece)

“A contribution to the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners”

Many things have been stated about the value of solidarity, and everything has its importance because it contributes to the attempt of giving meaning to a sense that constitutes a vital ingredient for our plans and actions. I will try to state in my own way an existential aspect of solidarity obviously through my own experiences. Solidarity means first of all emotions. Beautiful, wild, but most of all authentic emotions. Emotions that constitute the driving force for the growth of anarchist dynamics, which are liberating and beloved sounds and senses in the city, by yelling slogans, building barricades and by throwing blazing bottles that target the servants of authority. Solidarity doesn’t mean identification, but complicity with everyone that chose to engrave liberating routes in the map of the anarchist insurrection. It’s a relationship and within this relationship experiences are being developed and common desires are being produced for the destruction of this world, not in a vague future, but first of all within ourselves and then around us. Destruction to the degenerated relationships that this world is producing, in its depictions, in its symbols, in its officials and in its loyal servants.

It’s been about 1.5 year since the time I was locked in a room-cell of a hospital with all the symbols of the state’s enforcement around me (armored cops, orders of district attorney regarding force feeding) that I was seeing and learning about dozens of wonderful actions of revolt and defiance that were unfolding in the streets. No matter the contradictions involved in such a conclusion, these days with all their roughness and difficulties were the ones that I was feeling my heart beating through a primitive feeling of joy and my mind was traveling far away, to blazing horizons without bars and iron fences. From the burned police cars in police departments of Athens and the incendiary attacks, to the cars of the MEP (members of the European Parliament) in Brussels to the solidarity gatherings of friends and comrades outside the hospitals, from the combative demonstrations and the barricades that behind them their enraged eyes were meeting beneath their hoods, to the occupations of city halls and universities that were transforming to spaces of struggle, by creating points of diversion in their operations and spaces of dispersion of anarchist ideas. The feeling that anarchy is able to find spaces and ways of vital development and stay alive and dangerous was one of the most beautiful and powerful emotions that I believe are reflecting the power of solidarity.

“That is how I want to see these years in prison, consider them as part of a conscious choice, a choice that in spite of the known and obvious limitations, allows a different perspective, not only concerning the anti-prison struggle but the anarchist struggle in general. In this respect I think that we imprisoned anarchists are not just ‘prisoners’; to reduce us solely to this definition would be like reducing our contribution and preventing us from continuing to participate in the struggle for total liberation in all its breadth and complexity”. – Francisco Solar

So, just as moments of struggle like the international day of solidarity with anarchist prisoners don’t constitute anything more than one more triggering event to sharpen the subversive remembrance and remind ourselves that the struggle against domination means at the same time a struggle against prisons. Because the offensive and destructive actions against the penal complex constitute moments where freedom seeps through our bodies and breaks the captivity status that they’re forcing on us. Till the human gestures between prisoners and free comrades acquire again the warmness of a hug, the fires and explosions will reflect our desire to meet again with our own conditions. Till all are free.

Strength and solidarity to all anarchist prisoners

Nikos Romanos

via 325.nostate.net