Soidarity is our weapon! Actforfree receive and translated and spread :
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Operation ”Scripta Scelera” against the fortnightly “Bezmotivny”: first initiatives in solidarity, a brief update, some observations
In the early morning of Tuesday, August 8th, a repressive operation – ridiculously named Scripta Scelera (these fine people always come up with some “ambitious” or suggestive name for their operations) [Latin: “written crimes”] – was unleashed by the State’s repressive apparatus in various cities. It was aimed at shutting down the anarchist internationalist fortnightly magazine “Bezmotivny”, thereby striking the action of publication of analysis and reflection as well as, and in particular, texts claiming actions, sabotage and initiatives of attack undertaken by anarchists and revolutionaries throughout the world against the State and capital.
Let’s take a brief look at the facts. Mainly involving anarchist comrades in Carrara and the “Gogliardo Fiaschi” Anarchist Cultural Circle, the operation consisted of notification of an investigation against 10 comrades, all of whom were subjected to house searches (as well as that against the above-mentioned anarchist circle), and significant seizures of newspapers and various publications. Concerning the 10 under investigation (for whom Genovese public prosecutor Manotti twice requested their arrest in prison), the judge for the preliminary investigations ordered house arrest with all restrictions (including electronic ankle bracelets, which were not applied due to lack of the necessary equipment) for four of the comrades, a night curfew from 19.00 to 7am for another five, while one comrade has no restrictions (at the police station they notified him of a two years’ compulsory expulsion order from the province of La Spezia). One of the comrades under house arrest was initially taken to prison on order of the same prosecutor, due to the fact that he did not have a certificate of residence. In the context of the operation, a printing press in Avenza, where the paper had recently been printed, was also shut down (and later re-opened).
On the evening of Wednesday 9th of August, solidarity greetings were screamed from outside the walls of the prison of La Spezia to the comrade locked up inside, in the hope that he’d hear them. Prisoners inside responded. On 10th and 11th August, at the court of Genoa, the hearing for the questioning of the nine comrades for whom the repressive measures had been ordered by the prosecutor took place. On August 10th the judge ordered the transfer of the comrade held in the prison of La Spezia to house arrest, and he arrived home in the evening. The next procedural deadline concerning the repressive measures is the pretrial hearing, the date of which is still to be fixed.
Saturday 12th August, a pre-announced initiative took place in piazza Gramsci in Carrara in solidarity with the comrades struck by the repressive operation. A demonstration of about eighty comrades set off from the gathering in the square, moving around the city centre until the evening chanting “The State has never put a stop to anarchist propaganda”, the text of one of the banners.
A few brief comments concerning this repressive operation. As already said, the investigation – mainly carried out by the DIGOS [political section] of the La Spezia police, the central direction of the prevention police, and the District Directorate of the Antimafia and Antiterrorism of Genova – has concentrated on the editorial activity, publication and distribution of “Bezmotivny” since 2020. Along the lines of what has already been done as part of the operation Sibilla by the Special Operative Regroupment of the carabinieri and by the prosecutor’s office of Perugia with the coordination of the National Antimafia and Antiterrorismo Direction (which it combined with a previous investigation in course in Milan), in which in September 2021 the prosecutor Comodi made a request for eight arrests in prison concerning as many comrades, among whom Alfredo Cospito, for the publication of the anarchist paper “Vetriolo”. This operation was also hinged on to charges of subversive association with aims of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order (art. 270 bis c. p.) and incitement to commit crimes (art. 414 c. p.) with the aggravating circumstance of aims of terrorism. This latest procedure therefore has significant similarities, as well as some differences, with that of the Perugia prosecution (in which, among other things, three of the comrades involved in this latest investigation are also under investigation).
First of all, although this is not an investigation aimed at backing up the detention measure of 41 bis against Alfredo Cospito (in prison for over 10 years and who claimed the wounding of the CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, R. Adinolfi), it continues to show – as emerges with obsessive repetition in the investigative acts – the brazen and vain attempts of the repressive forces to “redefine” relations between comrades, referring to the comrade Alfredo each time as “leader”, “ideologue”, a “theorist with an orientative role in actions”. Anarchist publications are referred to as “instigating” in relation to the realisation of revolutionary actions. In this sense, while war and the warmongering demands of States are the social and political background of our time, the ongoing repressive antianarchist campaign is aimed at silencing solidarity towards imprisoned revolutionaries and above all at striking the principle of solidarity among comrades, among the exploited, in their revolutionary and internationalist stance. Unlike the Sibilla operation for example (where the prosecutor clearly intended to show some “independence”), it is still significant as, given the public prosecutor’s request for 10 prison arrests, this proceeding has had almost complete endorsement in defining the precautionary measures, as for eight comrades the investigating judge referred to art. 270 bis c. p., thereby demonstrating total subjugation to the demands of the prosecutor.
In conclusion, it seems clear how this operation is aimed at striking the movement in its instruments of propaganda and agitation again in order to restore the prestige of the antimafia and the antiterrorism (the National Antimafia Direction also became the Antiterrorism some time ago, a coordinating structure of the offensive against anarchists for years) following the intense international solidarity movement that developed after the transfer of Alfredo Cospito to 41 bis and life sentence without parole, between the following October and April of this year. A mobilisation which, by preventing the comrade’s annihilation by succeeding in preventing an almost certain life sentence, has been a serious spanner in the works for the afore-mentioned repressive offensive and the maintenance of social peace.
Fully aware that this is not an operation against an inexistent “freedom of the press”, “of expression”, “of opinion”, inexistent because of the delusory lies of justice, we persevere in having no confidence in the latter, aware that the “technical” element is always dominated and directed by the “political” one. Precise needs of a political-ideological nature are what lead to these repressive operations and it is certainly not in the field of law that our struggle expresses itself (and, among other things, even if one wanted to it would be impossible to counter accusations essentially directed against comrades’ identity, personality and disposition). Repressive operations such as these do not stop anything at all: as long as there is a society divided into classes, exploitation and every form of social oppression, the State will never be able to stop revolutionary ideas, and anarchists will continue to struggle.
The Anarchist Cultural Circle, open in via Ulivi 8 in Carrara since the Seventies, is still active, with the archive in consultation, distribution and initiatives.
SOLIDARITY WITH GAIA, GINO, LUIGI, PAOLO AND ALL THE COMRADES UNDER INVESTIGATION
[August 15th 2023]