Report on the gathering at Tirso de Molina [in Madrid], in solidarity with the anarchists arrested in Barcelona and with all the prisoners struck by the repression
Last Sunday, 28 March, about 100 people gathered in the Tirso de Molina square, in a small gesture of solidarity with the people arrested over recent weeks in the Spanish State because of the riots and demonstrations linked to the imprisonment of Pablo Hasél (and not only). Seven anarchist comradesare in prison, accused of trying to set fire to a police van in Barcelona during the demonstrations.
We are not interested in their innocence or guilt, on the contrary we see every attack against the cops of the State who disseminate brutality at their masters’ orders, as totally legitimate. A constant succession of arrests, in our town and elsewhere, which just ended a week ago (for the moment).
Among the participants one could note a feeling of complicity with the hunger-strikers in Chile, the anarchist prisoners, subversives and persons imprisoned following the revolt [of October 2019], with the FACG [Federación Anarquistas Gran Canaria ; Ruymán Rodríguez, one of its militants, had been tortured by the Guardia Civil police ; French translator’s note.] and against the repression of anarchism and its projects in the Canary Islands, and with all those repressed because of their opposition to the State.
Under the watchful eye of a police helicopter and some plain clothes cops (great job of « camouflage » by the men in uniform), the gathering transformed into an animated demo, with cries and slogans against the repression and the State, to end up in place de Lavapiés.
We know that a simple gathering is a small thing to support our arrested and imprisoned comrades, but at the same time we feel it is important to strengthen our presence in the street, without asking the permission of any authority, in which we recognize no legitimacy for regulating protest and struggle. We need to reinforce our presence in the streets, not leave and show we are there, in the streets, in the living areas and places of study and work, there where the struggle is taking place in all its fullness and multiple forms, far from offices, pacts and parliaments.
Now is the time to weigh up these past weeks, this first part of the year 2021. To show our solidarity with those arrested and victims of the repression and at the same time fight fear after having shown that the State, in its democratic form, hits hard, and that cannot be otherwise. But like the reed that bends under the wind’s pressure, we will never break. We will continue and strengthen the struggle on all fronts.
We are not afraid! We are angry!
Freedom for the anarchist and subversive prisoners the world over!
