All posts by Act for freedom now!

Berlin (Germany): Acquittals at the “We are conspiring” trial!

The final day of the trial in the “We are conspiring” case took place on July 15. According to the prosecution, during the night of February 16, 2023, the accused wanted to set fire to the German railway company’s cables. The prosecution pleaded acquittal at the end of its closing arguments, citing lack of evidence. The lawyers also pleaded for acquittal, which the judge, after 15 minutes’ consideration, pronounced!


Here’s the statement the two defendants read together after the lawyers’ closing arguments:

We were arrested 17 months ago. We sat isolated from each other for a day and a half in the detention center on Tempelhofer Damm (Berlin) and were brought before a custodial judge. We then had to report to a cop station around 85 times and scribble our signatures on a piece of paper to prove that we had not yet evaded trial. Our DNA was taken and run through databases. For a total of 15 days, we were being surveilled by the secret police in our daily lives, with our friends and comrades, and had our home entrances filmed. For a few days now, we sat in front of this court where our guilt is being tried.

Continue reading Berlin (Germany): Acquittals at the “We are conspiring” trial!

About the coordinated sabotage against the fiber optic network in the middle of the Olympics.

While the SNCF is just beginning to recover from the sabotage against the high-speed train network, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games don’t seem to be at the end of their troubles, as a new “massive sabotage” occurred on Sunday night (July 29), this time striking the long-distance fiber optic network (the backbone).

Between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., the digital highways of the fiber-optic network were deliberately cut in at least ten départements (Ain, Aude, Ardèche, Drôme, Hérault, Bouches-du-Rhône, Oise, Marne, Meuse, Vaucluse), with far-reaching consequences, since the section of these cables in the long-distance network of infrastructure operator SFR affected many other telecoms operators. These include Free, Bouygues, Orange (telecoms provider for the Paris 2024 Olympics), TDF, OVH, SFR, Netalis, Axione, as well as Vodafone, British telecom and Colt (British operator serving 28 European countries).

By Tuesday July 30, the official estimate was that 195 cell towers had been affected by sabotage, and at least 17 departments had experienced problems ranging from internet outages to higher-than-usual latency (including Oise, Bouches-du-Rhône, Meuse, Drôme, Aude, Hérault, Seine-et-Marne, Essonne, Ain, Allier, Vendée, Ardèche, Loire, Creuse and Lot-et-Garonne). And to illustrate what high latency means, i.e. a severe slowdown in the Internet connection, a geek posted on a specialized site the route taken by his data packets: “To do Lyon (Orange network) <> Roubaix (OVH data center), the data goes: Lyon → Marseille → Singapore → Canada → London → Roubaix”…
Continue reading About the coordinated sabotage against the fiber optic network in the middle of the Olympics.

Germany: double sabotage on the Bremen-Hamburg railway line

Was it an anonymous nod to the unexpected delegation that brought much of France’s rail traffic to a standstill a few hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, or was it a happy coincidence? In any case, a few days later, on the night of Sunday to Monday July 29, a double sabotage attack paralyzed part of Germany’s high-speed rail network.

The first fire occurred at around 4 a.m. in Bremen’s Bürgerpark district, igniting a shaft of cables along the track. The second fire, which occurred the same night, involved cables of a railroad near Hamburg, 150 kilometers away. Conclusion for the two major industrial and commercial cities in northern Germany? ICE high-speed trains between North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg were unable to reach Bremen’s main station, while long-distance trains from the southwest to Hamburg were also diverted. The same was true of the regional rail operator metronom, whose trains experienced long delays and partial cancellations throughout the day.
Continue reading Germany: double sabotage on the Bremen-Hamburg railway line

Berlin: Attack on office of SPD politician Lars Düsterhöft by some Anarchists (Germany)

Attack on the citizen office of the SPD politician Lars Düsterhöft (42) at Siemensstraße in Berlin-Oberschöneweide!

Four holes burst in the window with the photo of the SPD Member of Parliament Lars Dürsterhöft. In addition, “We condemn Germany 4 Genocide” sprayed on the wall.He made the attack with reference to the Middle East war public even on Facebook, was shocked that he was only now being held responsible. He hadn’t been able to sleep quietly for a long time, as his participation as a member of the SPD in the genocide in the Palestinians robs him of sleep.

State security police took over the investigation.At first, he condemned the attack and spoke of shooting at his photo. The police later informed that the damage to the window was probably caused by a sharp tool. Later he came to the conclusion that the damages and the slogans on the wall are attached to the fact that “criminal actions, for example German arms exports for Western imperialism, e.g., originate from the Federal Republic of Germany and deeply hit him and shake him.He asks himself: “What is the next increase that someone with the pistol stands in front of me and shots? He writes on his Facebook page: “will several thousand people be executed in Berlin by AI-controlled drones like in the Gaza Strip?”
Continue reading Berlin: Attack on office of SPD politician Lars Düsterhöft by some Anarchists (Germany)

THE GREEK STATE CONTINUES TO TORTURE INSIDE ITS PRISONS (Greece)

A closed prison is also a closed account with Tyrranny. It is neither a sight nor an architectural work of art, but the mass grave of thousands of bodies that were imprisoned, tortured, deprived and burned to death not ever seeing the sun again without the bars or a break. When you look at a prison, think of how many people were subjected to the violence of isolation, how many were buried alive in solitary confinement, how many were deprived of their families, their people, their self- evident right to freedom. How many marched in sections through the wing courtyards, turning into each wall again and again, how many lost what was most

beautiful in themselves and became alienated, emotionally humiliated and cold.

In these cells the Greek state once imprisoned people who fought for the freedom of this country, people who resisted decay and misery, people who could not reconcile themselves to a life of submission and rebelled. In these cells, the Greek state murdered fighters who did not cooperate, who did not repent and whose death became a symbol of resistance and freedom. Today, the Greek state is still murdering people in its prisons because they are claiming, outside of bribes and favours, their self-evident rights. Because they do not bow down to their captors, but they demand better conditions of detention, they demand better lives, and they not sign their death in silence.
Continue reading THE GREEK STATE CONTINUES TO TORTURE INSIDE ITS PRISONS (Greece)

AGAINST THE COALMINE AND ITS WORLD : HAMBI WILL NEVER SURRENDER! [ENG/DEU] (4.8.24) (Germany)

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AGAINST THE COALMINE AND ITS WORLD:
HAMBI WILL NEVER SURRENDER!

Georg Gelhausen is the name of the mayor of Merzenich, a CDU politician foolish enough to think that much of the Hambacher Forest (a.k.a. one of Europe’s biggest autonomous zones, still squatted after more than 12 years) lies within his jurisdiction. He and some environmental minister had invited themselves to the forest for 23.7.24, allegedly to gather information on how to best protect the forest – ironically, a habitat (less than 10% of which still remains) that Georg’s administration green-lit being utterly destroyed by RWE back in 2018.

More moderate attempts to establish the state’s authority had already been made here, through proposals to clear gravel from the forest paths, to establish official meeting points for the emergency services, or even to kindly remove one of our strongest barricades (an oak tree which fell across one of the main access points to the forest). His insistence on visiting on July 23rd represented an escalation in his strategy, given his threat that, if we would maintain our cheerful legacy of making politicians unwelcome in these woods, he would be required to take “security measures” – in other words to bring the cops.

The night before the occassion, however, dear Georg cancelled his picnic, along with an additional four visits he had scheduled for the next week, having learnt that we would not be rolling out a carpet for him.[1] Instead we had been up late freshly erecting barricades – which neither the cops nor RWE’s security forces made it through that day.
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Perama Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim

Perama Athens, Responsibility claim

On Friday, June 9, in the neighbourhood of Perama, we set fire to polling booths of multiple party choices on the occasion of the European election process, an act of defiance against the party apparatus and the oppressors of our lives. We want to send a message to Yiannis Lagoudakos, New Democracy politician, newly appointed mayor of Perama. When he vents his fascist anger against vulnerable minorities such as the Roma he should not forget the recent incident when the water hose rained down on the mother while he was making threats to kidnap her children, and that in the face of fascist violence nothing will be left unanswered.

From what it seems, the mirror of electoral delusion has been cracked. The mechanism of the elections and the entire Euro-parliamentary mafia is given meaning in the social conflict. The high rates of abstention from the European election process represent the maximum amount of dissatisfaction from society as a whole. At least in the Greek axis, right and left together and their ends have collapsed in the eyes of the youth and not only. What remains is the strengthening of self-organized social forces on the basis of radical formation, the creation of informal direct action groups and the cooperation between persons with the characteristics appropriate to the circumstances. Beyond the difficulty of the times and the hardening of State control over our lives, the anarchist struggle must examine the rebuilding and reconstitution of the insurrectionary process as well as its strategic framework for preparing and restarting new battle structures.

Continue reading Perama Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim

(Chile) Anarchist Comrade Luciano Pitronello, “Tortuga”, is dead.

Comrade Luciano Pitronello, “Tortuga”, has died.

We are making it known that a few hours ago (11/08/2024) the anarchist comrade Luciano Pitronello “Tortuga” died, due to the seriousness of the injuries caused by an electrocution accident while he was working on the afternoon of Friday, August 9th 2024.

Comrade Tortuga participated and contributed actively in different anarchist/anti-authoritarian projects, where he always positioned himself in open confrontation with the world of power. In June 2011, a homemade device that he intended to install in a bank in the centre of Santiago exploded in his hands, causing him serious physical injuries. During the judicial process against him, he refused to give away the other comrade who was with him on a motorbike the night of the failed attack.

Bon voyage Luciano, you will live forever in the conflict, in the knife and the word.

via: informativoanarquista.

Fenouillet (Haute-Garonne) France : five bullets and counting?

 five bullets and counting?

What’s the life worth of a 28-year-old driver from the “Traveller community”, as the press modestly calls him, when he tries with dignity to escape a police checkpoint behind the wheel of his vehicle? Five bullets were fired by the gendarmes, one of which pierced the headrest and exploded his young skull. It happened in the northern suburbs of Toulouse on Thursday July 25, shortly after 10pm, in Fenouillet. His name was Maïky and he came from the Ginestous camp, just a stone’s throw away.

Before Maïky was pronounced dead during the night, almost 200 people immediately turned out in front of the Purpan hospital, in particular to find out whether he had any chance of survival, and to wait for his partner and their month-old daughter, who were with him in the car, to be discharged. Not content with committing yet another murder, the uniforms gathered in front of the hospital fired tear gas at the family, in an attempt to contain the rising anger once the fatal outcome was known. But vengeance can also be a dish best served hot, and there’s no shortage of targets: on the night of Thursday to Friday July 26, the cement manufacturer Lafarge, whose site is close to the Ginestous camp, was attacked: four mixer trucks were set on fire in a matter of minutes.

All day the following day, the small crowd in front of the hospital refused to give up, demanding that Maïky’s body be returned to them so that he could be laid to rest as soon as possible. This was done after an straight-forward autopsy of a gendarme shooting him in the head, while a reconstruction of the execution was carried out with the two gendarmes-shooters, before they were released from police custody without being referred to an examining magistrate by the public prosecutor’s office, as this would have had the disadvantage of giving relatives access to the case file. The prosecutor hoped that these relatives would eventually calm down ahead of the funeral scheduled for Monday July 29.

“It’s a job well done”, he might even have thought from the comfort of his armchair, before heading home to watch the day’s Olympic results, such as the mixed team rifle shooting. The next morning, however, he was faced with the terse headline of a major regional daily: “Deadly refusal to comply: fires and urban violence in Toulouse, millions of euros worth of damage”. For the Lafarge trucks were just a foretaste of a vengeance that had no reason to run out so quickly.

Fenouillet, night of July 26 to 27: fire on the premises of electronic components manufacturer CSI (Cimulec group)

On the night of July 26 to Saturday July 27, while TGV traffic was still largely disrupted across much of France, a boss and his 60 employees were left with nothing but tears in their eyes. Shortly after midnight, the 1,800 m² warehouse of CSI Sud-Ouest became a vast inferno, which is no small feat when you consider that the company’s activity was more harmful than anything else: the production of electronic components for the Cimulec group, which describes itself as “one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of highly reliable printed circuits for harsh environments (defense, space, aeronautics, nuclear, rail, etc.)”.

And given that this charming company was located precisely in Fenouillet, in the area of Maïky’s police murder and not far from the Ginestous camp, the public prosecutor had no hesitation in entrusting the investigation to the Division de la criminalité organisée et spécialisée (DCOS). Especially as the firefighters had their work cut out trying to extinguish the blaze, since a hundred people with masked faces were waiting for them behind barricades, and the cops who came to reinforce them were subjected to a barrage of stones and mortar fire. Having reached the end of their tether, the firefighters found that the fire was now “generalized”, and the damage to CSI Sud-Ouest is now estimated at several million euros.

Fenouillet, night of July 26-27: fire on Toulouse-Métropole premises and eight vehicles

But why stop there, once the first reflex is not to seek justice from those responsible for the death of a loved one, but to let loose all one’s rage against a world that generates gendarmes and prosecutors? Right next door to the now-defunct CSI Sud-Ouest is a Toulouse Métropole building, which logically met the same fate: a hundred-square-meter building belonging to the agglomeration and eight of its utility vehicles were consumed by flames in the course of the same night. The mayor of Toulouse (and president of the Métropole) was more moved by the arson than by the five gendarmerie bullets fired at the recalcitrant driver, with Jean-Luc Moudenc immediately calling on “the State to take all necessary measures to find those responsible and severely punish these acts.”

Three days after Maïky’s death, no one can speak for the unidentified individuals who set fire to Fenouillet. But everyone can learn something from it: in the face of police murders, a whole world remains to be demolished, and it’s often closer than we think…

[Synthesis of the regional press (La Dépêche & France3), July 29, 2024]

via: sansnom

Translated by Act for freedom now!

CROYDON SOUTH LONDON,UK : If they fail to show up, why let the moment go to waste?

CROYDON, SOUTH LONDON.

If they fail to show up, why let the moment go to waste?

In the context of increased violence on the part of the cowardly thugs who bow before bosses but go on the hunt for those who appear different from themselves, rumours circulated that just such a group would descend on Croydon on the night of Wednesday 7th August (one of hundreds of locations supposedly floated for that day on various right-wing channels). But a group of youth (the media report around 50) were already out in North End Road in Croydon, on the evening of Wednesday the 7th, by the looks of things, in order to greet the expected fascists with a well deserved warm welcome.

As it so happened, no one showed up. But why let the moment go to waste?
The crowd, who the media report as ‘wearing balaclavas’, began to drag objects into the road, set fires, and greeted the intervening cops on their way with fireworks and projectiles. Regrettably, 10 youth from the group were later arrested and some charged with ‘violent disorder’ and ‘going equipped for arson’. The media were quick to insist on the “anti-social” nature of these events, drawing a distinction between the phenomenon seen in Croydon and the attempted pogroms and “counterprotests” taking place elsewhere recently.

Continue reading CROYDON SOUTH LONDON,UK : If they fail to show up, why let the moment go to waste?

From: Domokos prison, Anarchist Nikos Maziotis: On the Latest Rejection of My Parole (Greece)

Nikos Maziotis: On the Latest Rejection of My Parole

For the 5th time, the Lamia Criminal Court has recently rejected my request for conditional release despite the 3rd consecutive positive prosecution. During the last 2.5 years since I have reached the law of suspension by law, Lamia’s judicial councils, including the Lamia Council I had once appealed, have rejected a total of 6 times my request for conditional release. It is now very likely that I will be one of the few prisoners nationwide – if not the only one – with a temporary prison sentence with the maximum sentence of 20 years under the 2019 Presidential Code that will get the entire sentence without parole. And I will probably be the only one of dozens of political (anarchist and other) prisoners who have spent the last 20 years in prison with a sentence of temporary imprisonment, who is exempt from parole. Of course, the reasons for rejection are still political-opinional: that I refuse to recognize as criminal the acts for which I have been convicted, namely the action of the Revolutionary Struggle, as mentioned in the recent rejection decree, but also the precedent of September 2023.

The issue of repentance for the political opponents of the political-economic regime has now been historically established as a necessary criterion and condition for the granting of conditional release, thus continuing the historical tradition of the Greek state in other eras, from the years of the Metaxas dictatorship, the years of the civil war and the post-civil war period to the junta of the colonels.
Continue reading From: Domokos prison, Anarchist Nikos Maziotis: On the Latest Rejection of My Parole (Greece)

Montreal,Canada : L’espoir c’est la lutte: Reflections on the Night Demo of July 19th.

On July 19th, under a calm night sky, over 60 people assembled in downtown Montreal to march for Palestine. The demonstration was publicized without using social media, resulting in no police presence visible at the gathering location. The account that follows comes from a couple of participants in the demo. We hope to share an understanding of what went down for those who weren’t there and make some suggestions for next time.

Around 10pm, the march set off, a front banner announcing “L’espoir c’est la lutte” alongside a circle-A, and a banner reading “Liberation to the people, liberation to the land” bringing up the rear. Snaking through streets beneath skyscrapers and chanting, the energy in the crowd gradually rose as we acclimated to the strange reality: no bike cops, no riot cops, no cops in front, in back, or on the sides, just us and our friends and comrades, and their friends and comrades, and theirs, our black bloc and keffiyeh bloc protecting us from the hundred or so surveillance cameras that would inertly record our stroll.

The march lasted sixteen minutes. Fireworks were set off upon reaching Square Victoria, site of the Al-Soumoud camp, dismantled two weeks prior. Demonstrators quickly began breaking bank windows, hitting a CIBC and Scotiabank. Heading against traffic on Saint-Jacques, we were greeted ecstatically by Friday night party-goers, who stepped into the street to cheer, and drivers who rolled down their windows to high-five black-gloved militants. Some supportive passersby began excitedly following the demo as it continued towards the Caisse de Dépot et Placement du Québec (CDPQ). The CDPQ, which had been singled out by the Al-Soumoud camp a block away, has $14 billion invested in companies complicit in the genocide in Palestine. Though its windows appeared challenging to break, several were tagged, several others shattered, and a smoke device was tossed through an opening into an office space, hopefully setting off sprinklers and causing water damage.
Continue reading Montreal,Canada : L’espoir c’est la lutte: Reflections on the Night Demo of July 19th.

About the coordinated sabotage of TGV lines a few hours before the Olympic Games.

Vandières (Meurthe-et-Moselle), July 26, 2024. Fiber optic cables set on fire during coordinated sabotage of the TGV network.

On the night of Thursday July 25 to Friday July 26, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, high-speed train (TGV) lines were attacked in all directions leading to the capital. A “massive, coordinated attack to paralyze the network”, as many newspapers headlined. On Friday alone, “250,000 customers” were affected by these acts of sabotage, and “almost 800,000 over the weekend”, according to the rail company. “Through the SNCF, it’s a part of France that’s being attacked, and it’s the French people who are being attacked”, SNCF boss Jean-Pierre Farandou immediately declared, while denouncing the saboteurs as “a bunch of kooks, irresponsible people”. For her part, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera couldn’t contain her anger: “These are the Games for athletes who have been dreaming of them for years and who are fighting for the Holy Grail of climbing these podiums, and we’re going to sabotage that for them! Playing against the Games is playing against France, it’s playing against your side, it’s playing against your country.”

In the Nord region, the TGV network was sabotaged at Croisilles, near Arras (Pas-de-Calais), cutting off international rail traffic to London, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. In the east, the network was cut off at two separate points: between the Meuse TGV station and Lamorville (Meuse), and between Pagny-sur-Moselle and Vandières (Meurthe-et-Moselle). To the west, the line was cut at Vald’Yerre, near Courtalain (Eure-et-Loire), affecting both the direction to Brittany (Rennes, etc.) and Gironde (Bordeaux, etc.). And on the South-East line (Paris-Lyon-Marseille), an attempt at sabotage took place at Vertigny (Yonne), which apparently failed after the saboteurs were surprised “by railwaymen who were carrying out maintenance operations during the night”, leading the gendarmes to get their hands on “incendiary devices” which had not been ignited and were immediately sent to the lab.

Map of sabotage on high-speed lines on the night of July 25-26, 2024 (Le Monde)

Furthermore, in the Paris suburbs, also concerning the network to the west, an overhead power line was ripped down between Montparnasse station and Vanves-Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine) by a TGV train that tried to use a more conventional line that wasn’t designed for it (Transilien’s N), further aggravating the consequence of the sabotage… which, for the SNCF, means an incident “linked to the malicious acts committed on the Atlantic high-speed line”. As for the background, its CEO deplored “the obvious desire to cut Paris off from its main high-speed lines just before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games”, in a press conference held on Saturday July 27.

All in all, this pre-Olympic summer night was officially marked by five targeted sites across France, with four successful sabotages and one thwarted, between 1am and 5.30am. Each time, fiber optic cables were severed or set on fire, in small channels running along the tracks, and located not far from signal boxes coordinating important nodes of rail traffic, where the tracks split in several directions. “With [such] a fire, we’re actually losing two branches of the network each time”, explained SNCF Réseau boss Matthieu Chabanel (Le Figaro, 26/7). Indeed, these now burnt-out cables control the switch motors, but are also used to transmit information to the signaling stations. As soon as the signaling or switch control cables were damaged, cut or burned, the systems immediately went into red light mode,” explains Vincent Téton, Deputy Director General of Operations and Production at SNCF Réseau, who is also in charge of crisis management coordination. “Trains running on the affected tracks then stopped automatically”. (Le Parisien, 27/7).


Continue reading About the coordinated sabotage of TGV lines a few hours before the Olympic Games.

[From Greece] Update about the the special “state of exception” for the anarchist Nikos Maziotis, convicted comrade of Revolutionary Struggle

We would like to send you some news about the imprisonment of anarchist comrade Nikos Maziotis -who is in Domokos prison for his actions in Revolutionary Struggle- and the special “state of exception” for him.

as a summary:

The Lamia Misdemeanors Court Council recently rejected the comrade’s request for conditional release. This is the sixth time his request has been rejected (five rejections by the first-instance council and one by an appellate court where he appealed only once). Three of the six requests Nikos Maziotis has submitted for his release were rejected by a council presided over by the same judge. And in all three instances, his request was accompanied by three consecutive positive prosecutorial recommendations.

With the recent conditional release of the Nazi Michaloliakos, the above was proven once again. According to journalistic, legal, and judicial circles, this decision was signed by Christina Papagianni as president of the Lamia Misdemeanors Court Council. Thus, with the decision No. 121/30.4.2024, the specific one was released, while his first release request was accompanied by a negative prosecutorial recommendation. From the very beginning, there was not only political cover but also a concerted and coordinated effort by state (and judicial) authorities to keep the name of the council president who released the Nazi. This attempted cover-up did not succeed. The president’s name was immediately revealed through leaks from journalistic (and not only) offices. And despite the fact that the Nazi is now back in prison (after an appeal was filed against his release by an appellate prosecutor), the selectively biased stance of far-right elements within the “justice system” who release Nazis, yet are the same ones like this particular judge who keeps comrade Nikos Maziotis imprisoned, can no longer remain hidden.
Continue reading [From Greece] Update about the the special “state of exception” for the anarchist Nikos Maziotis, convicted comrade of Revolutionary Struggle

ANARCHIST BOOK FAIR BERLIN-KREUZBERG 2024, 5-8 SEPTEMBER AT NEWYORCK INBETHANIEN (Germany)

It is with great pleasure that we announce that an anarchist book fair will take place from 5 September to 8 September 2024 at NewYorck in Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2 A, 10997 Berlin-Kreuzberg.

The book fair should not only serve to give anarchist books, ergo anarchist ideas, more space. Above all, we want to intensify debates that must lead to practical action. Books and all written products are important vehicles that can connect us all – yet books themselves are nothing, it is the content they carry that is useful – it is the practice that forms a real movement.

Continue reading ANARCHIST BOOK FAIR BERLIN-KREUZBERG 2024, 5-8 SEPTEMBER AT NEWYORCK INBETHANIEN (Germany)