Category Archives: General
Claviere, Italy – Demonstration for Fathallah on 16th January
On Sunday 16th January we gathered in Claviere. We took the public space to finally give voice to Fathallah’s story, this border killed him. Fathallah, a 31-year old Moroccan arrived in France from Italy between 29th December and 1st January and was found dead on 2nd January in the basin of Freney, downstream of Modane. The eighth person we know to have died on this damned border in 3 years.
At 10am a solidarity stand was set up opposite the church of Claviere on the other side of the road, amidst of the comings and goings of tourists and skiers. When the 11 o’clock bus arrived a good number of people passing by joined us. After a few speeches, we walked towards the border. The invisible border between Italy and France covered by the motorway 94 of Monginevro was blocked for two hours. Several speeches were made by people who had known Fathallah, about the current situation in the detention centres, the NO TAV struggle, Emilio’s arrest and updates from Tripoli. Police deployment was massive, as always, from both the Italian and French side. We counted at least 20 vans on either side of the border, with annexed guards, digos, investigation police and some journalists next to them.
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Amsterdam: Some reflections on the eviction of Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8
Last Sunday we were evicted from our home after having been there for 5 days. Here are some reflections on what happened. We had a small taste of what could have been when we made Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 in Amsterdam our home. Even though the last few days have been hard on us, there were many moments filled with joy and hope. The support and acts of solidarity we received from old and new friends, comrades and neighbours have deeply touched us. After 5 days of occupation and what we thought was a successful public revealing of the squat, we were quickly reminded of what should’ve been so obvious to us; that there is no safety for people like us living under the state and it’s capitalist system. All evictions are a form of violence and Sunday was no exception. We have yet to hear all the stories and experiences surrounding the eviction, and we are only representing our own experiences here.
Who we are
We are people with political convictions, with a longing for freedom. Our struggle and our wounds are written and felt in our bodies. We are individuals with hopes and dreams, worries and problems. We squat for many reasons, both political and personal. Out of necessity, because we need housing, but also because in these acts of collective resistance, we create the space to feel free and find each other. Most of us are students at different universities, MBO’s or highschool in Amsterdam and around. Others with us are not in university at all- but would have liked to be- if it wasn’t for the prospect of crippling debt and the financial pressure to go straight into work. Like that of many people, our lives have been defined and shaped by precarity. Our housing situation is precarious. Some of us sleep on couches, in shelters, hostels or squats. Others have rental contracts ( mostly temporary- almost all overpriced). Student life is often described as the time of your life- But it is hard to be alive when you are struggling to survive.
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“The people will still have an opportunity to rid the country of a dictator” – interview with an anarchist from Kazakhstan
12.01.2022
We spoke with a comrade and anarchist feminist from Kazakhstan to get a better understanding of what’s going on and to understand how local activists view the situation. What is the social nature of the uprising, what are its demands and forms, who is leading the armed struggle, and what consequences will these events bring to the region.
Being on the ground, tell us what has been happening and is happening in the country?
The technopolice of Google Maps…
A mafia boss was arrested in Spain in December after 20 years on the wanted list after Italian anti-mafia cops used Google Street View to confirm their ‘traditional methods’ which led to information that he was running a hairdressing salon, a restaurant and a grocery shop in Galapagar, Spain. To his “How did you find me? It’s been ten years since I even called my family on the phone.” “We saw you on Google Maps”, was the reply.
Cherbourg (Manche), August 2020
Uzès (Gard), February 2021
In the Alpes-Maritimes, France, Google used to spot “anomalies”
France Bleu, 23 August 2021 (excerpt)
In the Alpes-Maritimes departmental tax department, there is a new tax super-controller. And its name is … Google. … This is all part of a contract with Capgemini, which subcontracts certain missions to the American company. According to Bercy, the Alpes-Maritimes, Charente-Maritime and Drôme were the first three departments to use this system.
Bavaria, Germany : In Bavaria as elsewhere…
In Bavaria as elsewhere…
When you’re a volunteer firefighter in a small Bavarian town like Höchberg (on the outskirts of Würzburg), you’re not really hired to bring down little cats stuck in trees or to empty cellars flooded by the Kühbach river due to the spread of urban concrete. Even if you often have to deal with it. No, when you are a volunteer firefighter – in Höchberg as elsewhere – you want to fight wicked fires in the name of order and safety. You want to extinguish evil flames in defence of state control and the prosperity of commerce.
Well, for once, you could say they got what they wanted. At least those on duty the day after their binge, because it was on 2 January at around 3.50 a.m. that the alarm finally sounded in the watchful barracks. After having gone to the edge of the village, at the side of the Zeller forest, they were not disappointed on seeing a large relay antenna lighting up the night with its flames. And if many dead-to-the-world honest citizens were previously unaware of its presence among the majestic trees, even though it was doing them a great service by brightening up their meaningless existence, this is certainly no longer the case since they have been disconnected.
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Italy – Restraints and deportations: cogs in the society of exclusion
06/12/2021
As we put the pieces together for this article, reality overtook the atrocities we were about to recount: Abdel Latif, a young man from Tunisia, was killed on 28 November, after three days in a state of mechanical restraint in Rome’s San Camillo hospital. State racism is rampant and what Abdel Latif saw of Italy was segregation in Lampedusa, imprisonment on a quarantine ship, detention in the deportation centre of Ponte Galeria in Rome, restraint in the psychiatric ward at the San Camillo.
Two of the imprisonments that led to Abdel Latif’s death have the Italian health system as a backdrop, for the rest there are the operators of humanitarian host organisations.
Recent mobilizations against psychiatric restraint offered us some reflections and we looked for information concerning the debate on mechanical restraint, a practice that the State declares it wants to abolish with a three-year implementation which should end in 2023. It must be noted that in institutional documents themselves, evaluations start off from data and notes dating back to 2001 and that from these analyses they come to “recommendations” and “suggestions” which since, 20 years on haven’t had any practical confirmation: people continue to die with violence.
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Godissard district, Fort-de-France (Martinique), 27 November. Ripping out the Post Office ATM with a stolen digger, looting and then setting it on fire
Another “very agitated” night