POSTSCRIPT TO “CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON URUGUAYAN PRISONS”.

Months ago we published a text calling for a vision that would critically analyze the state of overcrowding and violence inside Uruguayan prisons and the style of “communication” by the official media. The final conclusion we wanted to reach was that the violence inherent to life within the state and capitalist systems needs prison and injustice to legitimize itself and subsist; that crime and prison is a product of inequality and the treatment is in and of itself dehumanizing, in the way we have to live our lives in society and much more so inside the prisons. It is urgent to take collective action to change our reality and never again to exercise this type of violence used by the state and capitalism.

We want to take this opportunity to correct a mistake we made at the time of producing the text and that we cannot let pass by, firstly to not fall into the trap of authoritarian language that is crystallized in the imaginary of everyday life, and secondly, in pursuit of intellectual honesty. With this postscript, we also wish to offer a first approach to a critical position on the concept of rehabilitation.

Continue reading URUGUAY : POSTSCRIPT TO “CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON URUGUAYAN PRISONS”. →

via: sansnom

The province of Quebec (Canada) has taken several restrictive measures against non-vaccinated people. The first is surprising: formal prohibition to buy alcohol in stores that sell only alcoholic beverages. In order to access these shops, the presentation of a vaccination pass is imperative. The measure seems to be well received by some residents. “I understand that they want to encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated, so much the better if it works. Then there will be fewer people in the hospitals,” said one.

The Quebec government now wants to go further in its restrictions against non-vaccinated people, and plans to introduce a tax for medical care. “Those who refuse to receive their first dose in the next few weeks will have to pay a new health contribution,” said François Légaut, the Premier of Quebec. Some doctors are denouncing a break in equal access to medical care.

Continue reading Quebec, Canada : tax, limitation of access to alcohol… The new restrictions against the non-vaccinated →

Episode 52 (01/2022)

Welcome to the 52th edition of B(A)D news: angry voices from around the world, a commonly produced monthly show of the anarchist and anti-authoritarian radio network, on this occasion composed by Črna Luknja, anarchist show on Radio Student from Slovenia.

In this episode we will hear contributions from:

– Črna Luknja, radio show collective on Radio Študent prepared an interview with a participant in the anarchist publishing network CrimethInc. about the recent fire that hit its central distribution centre. More about how to offer support and mutual aid: https://crimethinc.com/2021/12/17/help-us-recover-from-a-catastrophic-fire-burnt-down-but-not-out Continue reading (A-Radio) B(A)D NEWS – Angry voices from around the world – Episode 52 (01/2022) →

On Sunday 16^th 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 29^th December and 1^st January and was found dead on 2^nd 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.

Continue reading Claviere, Italy – Demonstration for Fathallah on 16th January →

via: Прамень12.01.2022

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.

Continue reading The technopolice of Google Maps… →

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.

Continue reading Bavaria, Germany : In Bavaria as elsewhere… →

 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.

Continue reading Italy – Restraints and deportations: cogs in the society of exclusion →

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

New night of violence in Martinique
martinique la 1ere, 27 November 2021

5th night of violence in Martinique. The events were concentrated in Fort-de-France and in the north of the territory, from Friday 26 to Saturday 27 November 2021.

The most serious incidents concerned the city of Fort-de-France. During the night of Friday 26 to Saturday 27 November 2021, rioters attacked and destroyed the Godissard post office with a digger. “They took the cash dispenser of course. They broke it, took the money and set it on fire”, said a shocked resident.

Further on, the thugs attacked a petrol station to rob the shop…before setting it on fire.

Godissard (Martinique), 27 November. Looting of the Vito service station, before setting it on fire

Continue reading Martinique : looting of ATM, police station, supermarkets, high school and shooting at cops [MaJ] →

Violence in Guadeloupe: the State imposes a curfew in the face of riots against the health pass

Le Parisien, November 20, 2021 (excerpts)

On Friday, the prefect of Guadeloupe Alexandre Rochatte announced the introduction of a curfew between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. with immediate effect, up until Tuesday, November 23, “given the social movements underway in the region and acts of vandalism” having as a starting point the mobilization against the health pass and the mandatory vaccination of carers against Covid-19.

Roads and accesses to the CHU blocked, buildings and vehicles set on fire, schools closed… The anti-pass and anti-vax discontent that has been going on for five days, led by a collective of union and citizen organizations, is now coupled with violence committed by rioters. After a particularly violent night from Thursday to Friday, schools remained closed on Friday and, due to numerous roadblocks, activity is slowing down.

Another “very agitated” night

Continue reading Guadeloupe: blockades, looting and shooting at cops during riots against the health pass →

A comrade in the Netherlands has sent a first-hand report from last night’s extraordinary anti-police riots in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which included Dutch police firing their guns into the crowd.

Some out-of-touch “leftists” have tried to dismiss these riots because they coincided with and/or overtook a protest called by the right wing against new government restrictions. However, something like last night’s youth uprising against police cannot be so simply reduced— as our writer makes clear.

I don’t know where to start writing about this. On the one hand I’m overtaken by emotion, still processing the things I witnessed last night. On the other hand I’m trying to make sense of what has happened from the perspective of someone who believes in social revolution. I don’t think the latter will be something that I can fit into this short, emotionally laden piece of text, but some things need to be said about this right now. What happened last night was so much more than the supposed “fascist riot” many are dismissing it as.

Continue reading Rotterdam, Netherlands: Reflections and Report on the Nov. 19 Riots →

13.10. 2021

We would like to make some comments from an anarchist perspective on the current situation in Switzerland (and similarly in some places in Europe) on the subject of COVID measures, COVID certificates, and on science and vaccines.

For too long there has been a lack of critical voices from anarchist or anti-authoritarian circles in Switzerland. Now is the time to speak out and act. The state presumes to give us back the certainty of having the solution for a return to normality. But perhaps we have forgotten that the anchors of this certainty, this normality, were long ago (for many still current… fortunately) perceived as chains that had to be broken in order to steer the ship towards anarchy; knowing that it would be a stormy sea, but towards an unknown horizon of freedom.

Continue reading About Covid certificates, vaccinations and QR codes. Political thoughts →

Health or security?

In recent weeks, with the introduction of compulsory Covid pass to access restaurants, bars, stadiums, gyms, universities, theatres, cinemas, museums, libraries and other places of gathering and public demonstrations, the Swiss government has de facto imposed compulsory tracing of the movements of the majority of people who live in the territory. After a first attempt in the summer of 2020 at introducing the SwissCovid app which had little success, in recent weeks the Federal Council has put in place a subtle rhetoric of persuasion-coercion to convince as many citizens as possible to get vaccinated, under the blackmail of being denied access to a whole range of places and services, in some cases even including work and education.

As someone wrote elsewhere: “we fear that the instruments established today in the name of public health can be easily reset in function tomorrow for security purposes, that the declaration of one’s identity and the recording of one’s movements will be standardized and that the mesh of social control will dangerously tighten up”. As soon as they are established as “exceptional measures”, instruments such as health passes become irreversible, thus strengthening police power and adding to the strings of devices which in recent years have been increasingly limiting the individuals’ freedom with the excuse of “counter-terrorism” and the “war on the virus”.

Continue reading Switzerland – Against the Covid pass and the world that produces it. →