”There are people unknown to you that watch you from the shadows, while you haunt the anarchists, and they wait for the favorable moment to haunt the haunters on their turn.”
STRENGTH TO K. SAKKAS AND M. SEISIDIS SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THE IMPRISONED ANARCHIST COMRADES FIRE TO THE PRISONS LONG LIVE ANARCHY
August 2016: Hundreds of mink freed from cages at a fur farm in Linwood (Wellesley Township), .
claim:
“A LETTER TO THE PUBLIC
LAST EVENING WE TOOK A ROADTRIP TO LICHTY MINK FUR FARM 5531 SCHUMMER LINE LINWOOD ONTARIO WHERE THOUSANDS OF ANIMALS ARE NEEDLESSLY KILLED EVERY YEAR FOR THE STUPIDITY OF FASHION
WE CUT HOLES IN THE FENCE AND OPENED THE CAGES TO HUNDREDS OF MINK SETTING THEM FREE TO THE NIGHT
WE ARE PROUD THAT WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THESE ANIMALS
CONFINING AND KILLING LIVING BREATHING BEINGS FOR CLOTHING IS AN ABOMINATION AND ATROCITY WHEN WE CAN EASILY MAKE CLOTHES FROM SYNTHETIC MATERIALS WITHOUT BLOODSHED
LICHTY FUR FARM IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM A PUPPY MILL
THE SPACE EACH MINK HAS IS BARELY ENOUGH TO TURN AROUND AND THESE ANIMALS ARE TREATED NO BETTER THAN DISPOSABLE TRASH
THESE DEATH FACTORIES THAT PASS THEMSELVES OFF AS FARMS FLY IN THE FACE OF WHAT IS DECENT AND JUST
ANY LAW THAT ALLOWS FOR ANIMALS TO BE TORTURED AND ABUSED HAS NO PLACE AND NO RIGHT TO BE RESPECTED BY RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE
THIS LIBERATION IS DEDICATED TO ANITA KRAJNC FROM TORONTO PIG SAVE WHO STANDS ON TRIAL TODAY FOR SIMPLY GIVING WATER TO THIRSTY PIGS ON SLAUGHTER TRUCKS.
THIS IS A MOCKERY OF JUSTICE AND AN ABSURDITY OF REASON THAT A LAW WOULD CRIMINALIZE AN ACT OF KINDNESS
MOTHERS AGAINST FUR FARM CRUELTY”
We are part of what the press call ‘vandalism’, we are part of what citizens call delinquency, we are the individuals who tend to break the murderous routine with small actions, individuals for whom self-compassion and mercy have given way to tangible reality, a reality that shows its worst face in everyday life, a life that is crying out for destruction so as to give space to the overwhelming impetus of autonomy and total freedom.
In a context of struggle, plunder and destruction become essential for insurgents, rebels and anyone who is against the system; undoubtedly spontaneous and organized practice will always be there. As secondary, technical and university students are begging the State for improvements in education, the minorities that long for sedition continue to annoy the authorities and to foment widespread disorder. (1)
Without thinking twice we take advantage of certain situations that we’ve been targeting for a while – at different times and contexts – the ‘education centres’ in Santiago of Chile, we plundered them, destroyed them and occupied them in order to spread the seed of anarchy in many ways; we took advantage of this for individual purposes and also – and mainly – for political anti-authoritarian projects. There was no exception this year, we plundered electrical appliances and various equipment which will help us in future political actions. We stole them from the promoters of inequality, morality and power. (2) For our part we’re satisfied, even if we will aim higher and higher, there are plenty of places.
Plunder and destruction are political exercises that make us smile in complicity with our affinity ones as we put them into action against the target chosen during the organization of an action. Routine is being broken up, we leave no space to authority’s lovers or those who play politics and go to the police and protect the property of others who ruin their lives with huge debts.
It’s time we became faster, we expect nothing nor do we have anything to expect from education and its puppets (comrades, leaders, directors, politicians); we negotiate nothing nor do we have anything to negotiate with the State/Capital; we need to start acting towards the exacerbation of the conflict with power so as to see it being destroyed in front of our eyes.
In memory of anarchist-nihilist comrade Sebastián Oversluij Seguel, who together with unknown persons emptied a room of a great many computers and electrical appliances for political purposes in the Juan Gómes Millas campus, Universidad de Chile, on 19th November 2010. (3)
Without any doubt such an inspiring story calls us to dedicate our raids and destructive gestures to Pelao Angry, who fell in an expropriation action in Pudahuel on 11/12/2013.
SEBASTIÁN O SEGUEL ILLEGAL GANG
WINTER, JULY – $HILE 2016
(1) We’ve been appreciating disorder, plunder and destruction during students’ demonstrations since 2006, with continuity in autumn 2008 and a decrease in intensity in 2011, which has lasted to this day with variable presence and strength. Throughout all these years, unquestionably, with an anarchist/anti-authoritarian fighting presence that left no one indifferent.
(2) Municipio de Santiago: the damage amounts to over 1,300 millions [of Chilean pesos]
(3) Extract form the second edition of the book ‘Promesa de Guerra’, December 2015.
As the United States totters ever closer towards total collapse and WW3 looms on the horizon, one question burns with increasing intensity in the minds of Anarchists everywhere: what can I do to help destroy things?
Not since the heyday’s of the early 1900’s has the moral and social fabric of America the Brutal been so close to the tipping point, the minds of an entire populace so close to boiling over. We live in a unique age, a transitory position; Radicals of every stripe are quickly abandoning the long dead tactics of the Protest Left in favor of militant activity, going so far as to form armed squads. The State not only knows this but expects it, which says something quite dire about what lies ahead of us consideringthe massive build-up of military units for such an occurrence. Things are bad, real bad, and people everywhere feel the need to do something. The fact is violence DOES work and people are starting to realize that.
Radicalism has long been clubbed by the idiotic beliefs perpetuated by the Democratic party. With Bernie’s betrayal people are starting to look for alternatives. There is an itch on the arm of Leftists everywhere, a sullen pimple begging to be popped. There is talk of “realrevolution” and what that might entail. It’s a question whose time has come. The religious belief in nonviolence that we’ve all had passive-aggressively shoved down our throats states that an individual must allow an entity in opposition to see the evil in his or her own ways and voluntarily change because apparently people switch out belief systems like vape liquids. This, as if by magic, will somehow spread across society and create lasting change. Of course it’s all a lie. This foolish notion places an extraordinary amount of faith in the human conscience and assumes people are rationally deciding the course of their actions and has proven it’s bankruptcy. If the dogma of “conscious choice” were true the entire field of advertising wouldn’t exist. If an individual had a working conscience in the first place would they actually engage in activities with threaten and destroy various forms of life on this planet, support a state that exports war and death to millions across the globe? The entire system depends upon people NOT acting rationally and not ethically reflecting on those same actions. I can assure you cops and soldiers sleep like babies.
Other factions, primarily on the Left, want us to wait for some Grand Revolution, accepting our lot as tools in some dialectical gear work, forced to silently taking blow after blow until enough critical mass has been reached until….well, nobody seems to know. Serfinski in Blessed is the Flame notes that almost every concentration camp run by the Nazis had an organized resistance, some even with weapons. Thousands of prisoners were part of these organizations actively plotting the moment they would put an end to the widespread slaughter and liberate themselves. The problem was that the plot never came to fruition, times were never quite right, things were never ready enough. The bodies continued to pile up as fast as each new unspeakable horror was unleashed yet hierarchical leaders remained steadfast in waiting for the picture-perfect weather. Even social protests like better wages, social security, more rights, while certainly admirable, are mobilizations with an expire date that lead back to passivity. The only thing we learn by waiting is to wait.
People want to act, want to do something. Scores of the restless are filled with piss and vinegar looking for a target. Hands are willing with only one question remaining: who the fuck do they do it with?
It’s a question I’ve asked myself, and one that lead me to message the fine folks over atInsurrection News, a clearing house for “news, counter-information & incitement from the global front lines of anti-capitalist insurrection & social war.” The way I saw it there were a few outfits out there, but you’d be hard pressed to find one better than the infamous Informal Anarchist Federation, a shadowy “terrorist” group better known by its Italian acronym of FAI, the same one whose “death squads” I covered for Disinfo:
“[The] FAI/FRI made it clear this is no collection of high-school students with a passing interest in Bakunin. This is hardcore Propaganda of the Deed.“The fire, the attack, the threat against any representative of the church and the power is fully justified,” noted the Anarchists, “We have the weapons and our willingness to attack them. Their days of revelry are over.”
These guys and gals don’t play around and aren’t interested in “influencing the argument” or “moral victories.”
Masked Anarchists striking fear into the heart of the bourgeoisie? Be still my beating heart! So where does one sign up?
The short answer: you don’t.
The long answer is much more complicated.
“FAI doesn’t really have a membership as such, it is an informal organization,”explains Insurrection News. While it may not have offices, ranks, or official structures, that’s not to say one couldn’t become part of it. “A person is only an FAI member when they carry out an action under the FAI name. It’s more of an idea than some kind of actual organization.”
Alfredo Cospito, the jailed Anarchist who was convicted of an FAI-FRI action (kneecapping that nuclear power company executive) elaborates and highlights the effectiveness of this “informal” organization in a letter from prison:
“I’ll never tire of repeating it, in my opinion the informal federation must ‘limit itself’ to being a simple instrument which even comrades like myself, totally extraneous to any organization, can use, giving themselves the possibility of relating with other individuals or nuclei scattered around the world. FAI-FRI is a weapon of war, and the simpler its structure, the more elementary its dynamics, the more efficient it will be. Reducing its complexity increases its effectiveness….
Rather than wait to be issued commands the FAI operates as a symbolic mast-head for individuals or groups to gallantly raise their own black flag of Anarchism; there is no leader to capture, no informants to pay off, because cells do not come into contact with one another.
Both coordination and assembly are exposed to repression, everyone knows everyone else, it’s like a house of cards, if one falls all the others fall. The FAI, in a very simple and natural way through the collective experience of dozens of groups scattered throughout the world has, without even realizing it, substituted these two old methodologies with revolutionary campaigns that don’t need deadlines or reciprocal knowledge, only the actions speak. There’s no need for coordination when it is sufficient to communicate the beginning of a campaign with claims, pieces of writing that follow the actions and open debates among different tensions (insurrectionalists, individualists, nihilists, social and anti-social anarchists) thus creating new trajectories that are never characterized by uniformity, ideology, politics. As for the assembly this is a way of politicizing, and rendering ideological the simple and natural relations of affinity, friendship, love, sisterhood, brotherhood that every FAI-FRI group has within itself and which concern their most intimate lives and only in the moment of the action intertwine with the existence of the informal federation…
The informal federation follows its trajectory of war which within the limits of its strength wants only to destroy and build nothing. An unpredictable trajectory, which is never ideological, never political, never constructive, and which sometimes intersects with that of the ‘real movement’. Two trajectories with quite different objectives, the first the anarchist movement, combative, violent, revolutionary with its assemblies and specific organisations and the second the FAI-FRI, a simple instrument, elementary, basic, informal to make war, strike, then disappear, communicate without ever becoming visible. The two trajectories must be kept separate from each other as they would annihilate each other if they came together.
Above all one thing must be clear, one is only part of the FAI-FRI in the moment of the action, then each one returns to their life as anarchist, nihilist, individualist, to their own projects and rebel or revolutionary perspectives with all their adjuncts of assemblies, coordinations, affinity nuclei, occupations, communes, struggles in the territory and so on and so forth.
The FAI-FRI (at least that’s how I see it) is not a party or a movement and even less an organization, but a means to strengthen single affinity groups or single individuals of action through international campaigns that unite our forces without coordination, without surrendering precious freedom.
A means that can be used by any anarchist who aspires to destruction here and now. It’s not a perfect instrument, many things could be improved starting with the international campaigns, which, I think, have never been exploited to the full. Imagine concentrating forces on objectives of the same kind, on an international scale…“
Powerful words and big claims. But does it work?
Map of ELF / ALF attacks and damages.
Other organizations, such as the Earth Liberation Front and it’s sister organization the Animal Liberation Front have used similar informal, cellular structures to devastating effect, causing millions of dollars worth of damages all without a single arrest from 1997 to 2000 noting in one FAQ:
“This cell structure has been extremely effective in ensuring the continuation of the organization with minimal arrests. Law enforcement, particularly in North America are trained to recognize and deal with organizations that have a leader, a hierarchy and a central headquarters. The ELF does not contain any of these.Due to the autonomous and underground aspects of the ELF cells, an infiltration into a cell by no way means the entire movement will be stopped. If one individual or even one entire cell is captured by authorities, other individuals and cells will be free to continue their work as they operate independently and anonymously from one another. The cell structure is a type of guerilla tactic which has been successfully employed by various movements around the world for ages. It can be a successful tactic when used properly against a greater military power.
The ELF does not have any sort of physical membership list or meetings you can attend to become involved. Remember, the ELF revolves around not a physical base or classically designed structure, but instead an ideology. If you believe in the ELF ideology and you follow a certain set of widely published guidelines, you can conduct actions and become part of the ELF.
Individuals interested in becoming active…need to follow the above guidelines and create their own close knit anonymous cell made up of trustworthy and sincere people. Remember the ELF and each cell within it are anonymous not only to one another but also to the general public. So there is not a realistic chance of becoming active in an already existing cell. Take initiative, form your own cell and do what needs to be done!”
As mentioned before the FAI has been notoriously successful. 180 fire and bombing attacks were carried out by one group alone under the name of “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire,” filling the servants of the State with more dread than any “occupation” could have. Attacks are oriented around aspects of society in specific campaigns rather than location-driven co-ordinates, allowing members to strike in any way they deem feasible. A call for revenge in the name of fallen anarchists called “Black December”yielded at least 63 successful actions in one month across multiple continents. Says another FAI text,“Using specific campaigns as a strategy (for example against the prison system or the plunder of the earth and of animals) we can easily cause a short circuit to the normal functioning of society. For example, a campaign against prison that includes posters and leaflets against prison, sabotage and arson against the companies that build prisons and/or get rich with their management, letters to imprisoned anarchists, attacks on jailers and prison governors, explosive attacks on judges in solidarity with anarchist prisoners, would unquestionably be a strong campaign that would cause cracks in the prison walls. This kind of mobilization can strike the prison regime and create unpredictable situations inside the prison, and even help the comrades who want to escape.”
Attacks can be carried out by individuals or cells of comrades, reject the idea of any centralist model and chosing to start from the basis of individual initiatives that want to collectivize. As one group put it“At group meetings, each comrade had the opportunity to propose a plan of attack, thereby opening up a debate on planning, timing, political analysis, and operational problems posed by a given target’s location. During these discussions, there was no guarantee that we would reach agreement. Opposing arguments sometimes developed into a powerful dialectic, especially regarding the strategy and prioritization of timing, and quite often there was more than one proposal, so we then had to choose which we were going to select and which we were going to keep in “storage” to be refined in the future.”
From there a number of communiqués were signed by groups (Nihilist Faction, Breath of Terror Commando, Terrorist Guerrilla Unit) that arose out of each separate initiative, an ingenious method that leaves cops guessing and chasing dead ends. After reaching anagreement, whether as the entire collective or as a separate initiative, the attack is usually planned. Each member contributes; information was culled from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet; the area where the action was to take place is reconnoitered and mapped; the approach to and withdrawal from the target laid out (avoiding cameras and police checkpoints), including alternate routes in case something unexpected happened, and of course keeping in mind the eventuality of a confrontation with the pigs. There were also support groups, “hideouts,” ways of asking for help, etc.
Of course the FAI isn’t just anything and everything. The FAI are nihilists, individualists, and insurrectionists of the highest caliber. To add one’s voice to such a chorus is to be well acquainted with the songs of destruction they sing and the theories behind them. The above video does a good job of giving you a quick primer on just what Insurrectionary Anarchism is. Rest assured though its actual action they live for, not theoretical posturing. A childhood brush with arson holds much more weight than a college degree in dialectics.
110 years ago the leaders of the world slept uneasily on feathered beds, nightmares of bomb-wielding Anarchists chasing them from the front page of the morning paper to the borders of dreamland and everywhere in between. It was an age where no office was too mighty and no life too noble to be removed jut as ruthlessly as the rulers treated the people. Stories of daring and adventure were as common as the concrete victories they produced in the lives of those that actually had the nerve to pursue them. It was an age so restless, so burning with brimstone, it was enough to keep Anarchism on the map even with a century of bitter defeats ahead of it.
Those same conditions are here again. So too can be the victories.
Cops making interrogations from door to door on Canvey Island, were met with their patrol car in flames when they returned to it. That’s what you get for trying to get the neighborhood to snitch on each other!
To the anarchists of praxis
To the prisoners and fugitives of the social war
On the night of August 18 we activated an incendiary device during the journey of the 110 Transantiago bus in the neighborhood of Maipú. We do not whether our handcrafted ingenuity was a success or not as the action was silenced by the media.
We carried out this action in accordance with our ideas, principles and convictions. We seek to attack the service that transports thousands of people that reproduce the gears of the capitalist system. This service is one more cog, one that is destroying the earth and is complicit in the death of human and animal comrades. Our action damages the machinery of the social order, the law, its guardians, civilization and power.
Against all odds, when times are tough, we do not immobilize ourselves and continue to attack. We are not indifferent to the political prisoners, nor to the solidarity campaigns that arise for them, despite the various onslaughts of power. For our prisoners, fugitives and fallen we continue unabated.
Like yesterday, today and tomorrow, the attack is first! Fire and gunpowder to civilization! Let’s multiply the anarchic attack everywhere!
Herminia Concha Nucleus of Attack
(via Contra Info, translated into English by Insurrection News)
Comrades Tamara Sol and Natalia Collado have sent this statement on the occasion of the following initiatives: Anti-authoritarian Day for Comrades Tamara Sol, Natalia and Nataly at the Libertarian Library Manuel Rojas, Sunday, July 17 and the 1st Anti-authoritarian Café Literario at the Kanno Suga and Denjiro Kotoku library, Saturday, July 30.
To the comrades, those in affinity, to those present. We were surprised to learn of this initiative, and we consider it very highly knowing that it is an initiative that comes from people whom we do not know or with whom we have no ties, who as individuals and as a group feel the desire to come together in an act of solidarity and affinities, which we greet with the affection and strength that we receive and which gives us the energy to face the prison context as we would like to.
Three weeks have passed since we found ourselves in the maximum-security section of the prison where, unlike the rest of the prison population (the other pavilions), we cannot get out of the section unless handcuffed and with a guard at our side to control us. Likewise we are prevented from participating in learning or recreational activities apart from going out a couple of days to play women’s football at the field.
This highlights the fear that institutions have for libertarians, anarchists and people who collide with the system and civilization. This in the women’s prison at least.
But in this context we are trying to break the isolation and control also of our ideas through learning spaces such as a kitchen garden that we have built from recycled materials, and at the moment we are waiting for the tailoring and screen printing project here in the section, in addition to other things that we have in mind.
We want you to know that we are happy to be together and to be working to nourish our ideas and also strengthen more bonds and practices such as forms of confrontation with the established order. And on this point we are preoccupied about the arrests of comrades that have increased following the new law on weapons and explosives control involving prohibitive convictions and no benefits from 3 to 5 years for those with a weapon or a Molotov, as well as for those who activate incendiary devices or explosives.
Faced with this new panorama, and weighing up the costs in terms of a greater number of arrested comrades, we think that at the time of passing to the attack through an action, it is important to consider the aim, the potency and effectiveness thereof and at the same time broaden the objectives and see the weak points of the patriarchal, techno-industrial capitalist machine, physically as well as morally and in ideas.
We recall as points of reference actions such as attacks, expropriations for which now sees a comrade in captivity in Spain; the wave of churches burned in the South; the technological and scientific centers destroyed; the car bomb at Microsoft; Rote Zora’s actions against patriarchy; the CCF, the Mapuche and the affinity groups that organize and conspire in anonymity…
From these cells, we send you our love, receiving the strength and solidarity that you have generated.
Tamara Sol Farías and Tato (Natalia Collado).
S.E.A.S. (Maximum security section of San Joaquín prison).
While the situation in the rebellious Northern Part of Friedrichshain is calming down for the moment and we find time to build Rigaer 94 back up again, the social war around us is continuing with its normal intensity. We received news about the state attacks on people and squats in Thessaloniki. Here and there we are fighting against the social democracy and confront the social war with polymorphous struggle. Whether in the black july or in our daily local conflicts, we are involved in a common fight that gains power in its mutuality.
In this very moment, the greek state seems to be striking out with a general attack against autonomous structures. In Thessaloniki and in other cities, self-organized structures of migrants are especially becoming more and more endangered. While fullfilling its function as a manager of migration-streams, the state attacks those who try to move, self-determined, through a world of exploitation and oppression and who won‘t bow to it‘s authority.
Three occupied houses in Thessaloniki were affected and over a hundred people arrested. One person was killed during the eviction [Correction received: one day after the three evictions, a young migrant woman died due to medical negligence at one of the state’s detention facilities in Thessaloniki.]. In Athens, squats which are being used by migrants are also threatened with eviction. The goal is to create an atmosphere of fear, while oppressing those who are self-organising and attacking the authority of the state.
At this point, it should be remembered that the greek government is in the hands of Syriza. It is the left-radical, socialist party which is also supported by german left-wing groups and gets invited to reconciliation-events of the „movement“ like the 1st of May.
To the leftists who are shocked and stunned by these actions by the greek government – what did you expect? To think that you put so much into this and all other left-leaning governments and are now once again in utter disbelief and mumbling in chorus „but human rights!“.
The lesson once again – the clowns on the top of the hierarchy care not for you or your social democratic ideals. These attacks are to be expected and they are to be met with equally debilitating responses. We have no faith in their empty populist politic and it must be shown up for what it truly is. To expect anything from these parties is to give them the power to continue to shit on us. They feed on our social guilt and sympathies. We must fight to extinguish this power. Our attempt at organizing and living autonomously is of course a threat to those people. The state will spew humanitarian rhetoric until the reality of losing some of its power hits. The state support of migrants and refugees and any concepts of „freedom“ is shallow propaganda. Any attempt to realize autonomy is met with violence and repression and this must be expected. Any area people self-organize, build new structures and attempt to destroy state-imposed divisions and replace them with our own self-determined frontlines are a direct threat to the state.
You can walk along your pre-organized protest-route, but stray any further and your so celebrated liberties will suddenly „disappear“. The state will not allow you to have something it hasn‘t already assigned you. You must take it.
The only foundation of social democracy and all the preachers of social peace is their role in managing society. Their task is to identify social processes and detect its main actors, so as to try and buy them with promises of power. The support for Syriza, which even came from “anarchist” circles, resulted from the struggle for “counter-power”. Left parties are still recruiting new members from those movements who are obsessed with the idea of unifying all the different forms of attack and resistance into one group or organisation.
There have also been several attempts from the parliamentary democracy, concerning the conflicts around Rigaer Straße, to use „wannabe rebels“ to try and steer the struggle into a certain direction. Especially in the case of the green party, who has been showing up and trying to intervene in every neighbourhood meeting since the beginning of the year.
In this way, our place for struggle is turning into a place for politics, even though our hatred towards politicians is the foundation for self-organisation and self-defence, aka, attacks.
The green party in Berlin has invited the Riager 94 and its neighbours to negotiations with „important people“ over and over again. These invitations have been consequently declined. But the powerful know that they just need to keep searching a little longer until they find someone eager enough or at least clueless enough, to put themself forward and speak on behalf of the whole neighbourhood. We need to sharpen our senses so as to detect these offers from the powerful before they can do any damage. This search begins from within ourselves.
In a shameful display, the politicians from the ruling green party are actually comparing the three week long siege of the Rigaer straße with the events around the attempted eviction of the Ohlauer School squat in Kreuzberg two years ago. The school was mainly used by migrants and illegalised freedom fighters. The strategy of the government to counteract the growing radical structures, contained not only brutal repression and police terror, but also several offers for peaceful solutions. With this strategy they managed to destroy the Oranienplatz squat in Kreuzberg, where some people from the movement agreed to negotiate with the government. This led to them actually supporting the police as they executed the eviction of Oranienplatz.
But the Ohlauer School successfully resisted, after the fighters occupied the roof and threatened to jump should the police enter the school. Finally, the squatters reached an agreement with the green party, who wanted to avoid visions of dead bodies in Kreuzberg being connected with their party. During the following months, many of the fighters faced repression and deportation, which weakened the radical structures. Even today, the government keeps coming up with unending ridiculous lies to try and clear the school of the last remaining squatters. This absurdity is seen in their latest claim to want to evict the school in order to make room for a state controlled refugee camp.
This same strategy was used during the eviction of Rigaer 94, in which existing conflicts and contradictions within the different radical struggles, were used to try and create deep divisions. By claiming the „Kadterschmiede“ would be turned into a refugee camp for syrian refugees, they tried to undermine any attempt to combine the struggles behind the same barricade and becoming a much more powerful resistance force.
Concerning this, the Rigaer 94 wrote:
„We have to confess, that the police had good reasons to develop this insidious plan of moving refugees into kadterschmiede. The struggle against gentrification and the police have a strong history in the neighbourhood. But fights against racism are another story. Herein lies the dark side of autonomous politics: it operates within the context of wider society, it makes concessions towards the majority to gain resonance and is betraying itself in segmented fights. Of course, we are also fighting for an anti-racist neighbourhood. But in our case, when we were accused of not wanting refugees in our surroundings, it was connections from outside the neighbourhood that had to raise their voices to extinguish these claims. If this was an actively anti-racist, less Western-European neighbourhood (including us), there would be no basis to this argument.“
The Rigaer 94 called for a Black July as a strategy against the process of social peace and harmony. This informal organisation was picked up by many groups and turned into direct actions.
The Black July had a definite strategic effect, with the consequent decentralisation of the attacks bringing the berlin police to their knees. While the police had to focus their forces mainly on the besieged house and the surrounding area – plus create a 14 person strong investigation unit whose only „success“ was to arrest one of their own spies – many groups, large and small, reached for the 10 million euro damage goal. For three weeks until the last night of the siege, things burned and shattered – and not just in Berlin.
The more important and longer lasting effect than the strategic goal of recapturing the Rigaer Straße, was the moment that fear was defeated. While we execute our attacks and fight our daily fights, we are going to have to face situations in which the state will try to divide us and break our spirits. During these difficult hours, days or years, the informal anarchist offenisve will continue to carry its courage into the last corners of this earth. Be it through the iron bars of Moabit, Korydallos or isolation cells in Cologne.
We send rebellious greetings to the imprisoned fighters in Thessaloniki, as well as to Aaron and Balu in Moabit and Lisa in Cologne. We have been using the calmer nights to turn the walls of Rigaer Straße into canvases of solidarity for them and for all those imprisoned.
We raise our fists to all the freedom fighters in greek squats and the Ohlauer Straße in Berlin!
On 4 August news appeared in the local media (Il Resto del Carlino) about the search at the home of a Bolognese anarchist after a police control following a fight in the house and the subsequent intervention of the Digos alerted by the police during the search. The media reported, “In the house were materials in common use as a fertilizer, acetone, hydrogen peroxide, but also combustible powders. Substances that, if handled in a certain way, could create an explosive mixture. That’s not all. Documents and writings of antagonistic areas, in particular anarchist were also found.” Actually it was not a charge with bail, as reported by newspapers, but an arrest for possession of explosive material, and the comrade is now locked up in the prison of Bologna Dozza pending a judicial hearing of validation.
Here is the communique of some anarchists in solidarity
We are spreading the news that our comrade Divine found the police at his door the evening of Tuesday 2nd August, following a dispute in the house. The shit entered immediately, carried out a search and alerted the digos [political police]. As reported by the press of the regime, during the raid objects and substances in common use were found which if linked together with alchemic skills could have created an explosive device, as well as various papers relating to anarchist milieu. As everybody knows, even soup that’s gone off can become a weapon in the home of an anarchist.
Divine was taken to the police station and held there for a number of days without any possibility of communicating with the outside or with lawyers. The following day the press wrote of an individual who gravitates in the anarchist area being found at home with potentially explosive material and immediately released on bail. The news was false given that, in spite of many attempts, no one managed to see Divine or to get any information about his release.
In fact, 4 days later confirmation came that the comrade is being held in the prison of Bologna on charges already reported by the press [manufacturing and possession of explosive material].
The hacks of the regime’s contemptible cover up by giving false news thus allowing Divine’s prolonged isolation, should be pointed out. We are not surprised at the state’s ferocity towards its enemies and attempts at isolation won’t stop us from continuing the attack on the existent and its active collaborators.
We are at Divine’s side, as we are with all the comrades enduring state repression, and are even more determined to continue our evil ways.
Update:
While awaiting the judge’s decision, we got confirmation that Divine is to remain in prison custody.
To write letters and telegrams in solidarity:
Divine Umoru
Via del Gomito 2, CAP 40127, Bologna
A few anarchists
Divine has been transferred to section AS2 in Ferrara, the address to write to him is:
Divine Umoru
Via Arginone, 327
44122 Ferrara
The solidarity presence outside Bologna prison called for August 20 has therefore been moved to Ferrara, August 21.
Tuesday, June 21 at dawn, the Mossos d’Esquadra Corps kicked down the door of the house of an anarchist comrade of Barcelona, where he lived with his companion and other housemates. All were awakened by guns pointed on them and were handcuffed for hours while police raided and devastated the home, located in the neighbourhood del Eixample. Eventually, the comrade was arrested and transferred to Madrid, where the National Court ordered his detention on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the prosecutor of Aachen, accusing him of having participated in the expropriation of a branch of Pax Bank that took place in November 2014.
It is for this same action that the comrade arrested on April 13 in Carmel is also in prison. In this case, however, the police decided not to use the staging and media spectacle it had used during the April operation, not issuing any press release and not notifying the media of the operation.
According to what we have been able to find out, the arrest warrant is based on the supposed coincidence between a trace of genetic material found in the Pax Bank in Aachen and a DNA sample that Mossos had taken from the comrade, simulating a BAC control for alcohol. During this false control, the police got him to blow into a breathalyzer and kept the plastic tip to extract the genetic profile of the comrade from the remaining saliva.
After a relatively brief imprisonment in the Madrid Soto de Real prison, the comrade was transferred to the prison of Aachen – in the Land of North Rhine – Westphalia (in West Germany) – where he is in conditions similar to those of the comrade arrested in April: one hour’s air a day, held in the remand building, only a few hours visit a month, unable to call those close to him and control of all communications. The visiting format is particularly degrading; visits take place in the presence of two police officers from the unit conducting the investigation and an interpreter who translates the conversation simultaneously.
However, this is not the first time that the comrade has faced the challenges of punishment and the prison institution. His current detention adds itself to a previous sentence of over 10 years served in Portugal – where he is from -, during which he was noted for his denunciation of abuse and violation of prisoners’ rights, for participating in hunger strikes, organizing with other prisoners to improve their living conditions, urging them to abandon the drugs with which the institution makes the enclosed population submit and personally creating a large libertarian library to promote awareness and the political formation of the prisoners, a continuation of the work as bookseller that he had developed before entering prison. His combative attitude and his solidarity put him in the firing line of the prison administration and finally he was judged as one of the 25 accused in the well known mutiny of Caixas*. Once outside, the comrade moved to Barcelona, where he has often been seen participating in meetings, street demonstrations and activities of the libertarian movement.
Today, along with the comrade arrested in April, he faces the upcoming trial where he will be judged for his alleged involvement in the November 2014 bank expropriation.
We point out that with him three people are already implicated in what the German police describe as a “series of robberies” that took place in Aachen between 2012 and 2014, counting the Dutch comrade who is on provisional release pending trial in September. There it will be decided whether she should be re-extradited to Germany, where she has already served several months of preventive prison, accused of having carried out an expropriation in 2013.
We send all our strength and our solidarity, our respect and our support to who is being prosecuted in the name of the capitalist order and its foundations: exploitation between equals and the submission of the whole of life, social relations and territories to the blind logic of profit, the conversion of money into more money, and the enrichment of some on the impoverishment of all the others.
Freedom for the persons accused of expropriating banks in Germany! Freedom for all persons in struggle incarcerated and accused!
(*) In this mutiny, which occurred in March 1996, the growing wave of struggles by prisoners in the Portuguese prisons throughout the 90s reached a climax, giving rise to a generalised movement of protest in the Caixas penitentiary, one of the most overcrowded in Portugal where the non-respect of rights that continued after the overthrow of the dictatorship was the most obvious. The protest movement that demanded as a minimum the application of these constitutional rights, was stifled by savage beatings against the 180 hungerstrikers who participated in the mobilization.
