» Let’s continue the assault on the existent with all means, undeterred by those who would silence us with weapons from the stockpile of reaction, be they the kick of the democratic jackboot, the empty chatter of opinion or the siren calls of the candy men of hope.»
Jean Weir. Tame Words from a Wild Heart.
«… sometimes it seems to us something so obvious that we forget to insist punctiliously on the anti-authoritarian character of anarchism and, therefore, consequently anti-systemic… Roughly anti-systemic! We are against all Authority. That is our maxim».
Gustavo Rodriguez. Talk at the Squatted Social Center «Casa Naranja».
The authoritarian offensive has not stopped in these times of pandemic, Covid-19 has turned out to be the perfect excuse to deepen social and political control, prisons being the main place of experimentation and application of these measures.
We have systematically read updates on the situation of anarchist prisoners around the world in this particular context. We have seen how our comrade Eric King, who keeps alive his permanent antagonism and his irreducible stance in Englewood prison, has been tortured by the guards and beaten by white supremacists, causing him severe physical and psychological injuries. The same happened to our comrade Dimitra Valavani, who was beaten and tortured, under the pretext that they wanted to obtain a DNA sample and, in recent days, our comrade Giannis Dimitrakis, who was also brutally beaten in Domokos prison by the prison mafia, leaving him in a serious condition, and we still do not know the consequences of this cowardly aggression.
June 11 is the International Day of Solidarity with comrade Marius Mason and with all the anarchist comrades sentenced to long sentences around the world. In the framework of this new June 11, we want to denounce what is happening in all the latitudes of the planet with our anarchist comrades in prison and present our response (without mincing our words) to concretize and consolidate solidarity with all those with whom we have affinity (in theory and in practice) who are continuing the anarchist war behind bars.
The June 11th noise demo outside of Wayne County Jails in downtown Detroit happened one day after the new interim police chief announced a plan to enforce strict noise and crowd ordinances in the wake of a fight in Greektown, which is one block from the Wayne County Jails. This included a plan to significantly increase police presence downtown on weekends.
Wayne County Jails are also presently experiencing a severe staffing shortage, which has led to officers refusing to work and likening their jobs to “being on death row.” In spite of this, we noticed police buses and vans downtown, parked and ready to load up more arrestees. We were not deterred by these intimidation tactics, as we were committed to showing up for the folks in our community being held captive by corrupt Detroit police.
Today, Saturday, June 5, 2021, in the afternoon, the anarchist and subversive prisoners Marcelo Villarroel, Juan Aliste, Joaquín García and Juan Flores have been transferred from the city of Santiago to Rancagua, from the High Security Prison to the concessioned prison of that city.In October 2019, before the revolt, the gendarmerie was preparing a closure of the Special High Security Unit (UEAS), which includes the Maximum Security Section, the High Security Prison and the Captain Yaber Prison for the rich, for its remodelling. The revolt and the pandemic postponed those measures until they were finally carried out today.
The intentions of the powerful are to reestablish the punishment regime originally created by that extermination centre, 27 years ago, in February 1994 for the punishment of subversives who were fighting the democratic transition.
I have a lot on my plate. Like Marius, I’m also a student paralegal – recently enrolled in Blackstone Paralegal Studies Program. I’ve also applied for summer courses at Coastline College.
On top of that I’m always pursuing various writing projects, and have recently been granted a writer’s mentorship after being accepted into the Writer’s Cohort of Empowerment Avenue & Prison Renaissance Project, started by Rahsaan Thomas at San Quentin. All this, in addition to my prison job assignments on the Recycle Crew, ISUDT Intensive, and Inmate Advisory Council (I.A.C.) Transgender Rep.
I’m always busy answering a stack of mail, reading books/zines, and pursuing my legal campaign for Executive Clemency/commutation of sentence, and to challenge the unfair parole denial and housing discrimination. I recently hired the National Clemency Project to help prepare my commutation application packet. I need support letters! Continue reading June 11, 2021 update from Jennifer Rose (usa)→
On May 26, 2021, a large operation occured in the San Clemente sector, Maule region, where repressive forces manage to arrest two comrades accused of sending an explosive device to a Talca police station in November 2020.
At the end of 2020 “entities without face, nothing and nobody that you know” claimed the explosive attack on the police station that ended with two policemen with acoustic trauma. Since then, the Southern Prosecutor’s Office, self-continuing expert in research of this type of actions, together with OS-9 personnel developed the investigation. Continue reading Chile:Two Comrades Arrested for Explosive Attack on Police Station in Talca→
On 24 May 2021, anarchist fighter G. Dimitrakis was murderously attacked with multiple blows to the head by a group of prisoners in Domokos prisons where he is currently being held. Following the attack, Giannis was transferred to the hospital of Lamia in a critical condition. Eight days on, although our comrade has escaped the danger to his life, the damage done is still very serious. Giannis’s strength and mental vigor make us optimistic that he will also come out of this battle victorious.
The cause of the attack on Giannis was his refusal to accept and subordinate himself to the authoritarian and brutal laws that the prison mafia are trying to impose on the prisoners in full consensus with the prison services. The cause of the attack is that he has steadfastly defended his ethical, value and political substance as anarchist, as an insurgent, as a social struggler. The cause of the attack was his refusal to kowtow to those who want to humiliate and violate the weaker prisoners to affirm their prestige in their sick “code of conduct”. It is his refusal to subject himself to the unfavourable correlations and mentalities that prevail nowadays in prisons and overall in social and class antagonism. So his refusal to accept prison as a life condition is ultimately his refusal to submit to the State and its mechanisms.
Strength to the anarchist fighter Giannis Dimitrakis
Giannis stay strong, until freedom!
comrades from act for freedom now!
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Urgent updated information 3 and 5 of june – Comrade Giannis Dimitrakis is in solitary confinement in Domokou prison, an isolation that in the situation of the comrade is obvious torture. Giannis survived the danger that his life was in the first hours, but the blows he received caused multiple haematomas in the head, affecting the basic functioning of his brain.
Wednesday, June 9 at Exarcheia Square at 7pm: Gathering – Microphone of solidarity with the Anarchist Giannis Dimitrakis (followed by a march in the neighborhood of Exarcheia)
I suppose my story is far from usual. It begins as a teenager, not yet 18 years old and angry at socio-economic conditions within his community.
Growing up in working-class Irish Republican areas, it was inevitable that I would be intensely exposed to that ideology and its propaganda. It claimed that all the ills in Irish society could be blamed on British state interference and that only an independent socialist state could offer a solution. The history, the romance, and the already strong presence in the community were hard to resist. I had found my answer.
Being young and inexperienced, my involvement was quite peripheral. It amount to not much more than attending street protests and distributing propaganda. However minor my role, the state took a dim view. I had dared to challenge its status quo; I was now a legitimate target.
Millions of people are in the prisons and dungeons of the world’s rulers. Countless people are on death row, others are there for days, weeks or months, and still others have been there for decades. Only a few weeks ago, it was announced in Germany that Hans-Georg would be released in 2021. It was January 20, 1962, when the Berlin prison gates closed behind Hans-Georg – he has been in custody since that day. He had shot two people after a robbery.
Long-term incarceration is in some ways similar to the death penalty; only, perfidiously, with the death penalty the state is more honest, openly wanting to kill the delinquent. With decades of imprisonment, death is also the often realistic prospect of escaping the walls, but on the way there, body and soul wither away.
International Solidarity to the 3 Imprisoned comrades
The trial of the anarchist prisoners Konstantina Athanasopoulou, Giannis Michailidis, Dimitra Valavani begins on May 31. The comrades had been arrested after an operation of the anti-terrorist unit in the area of Agia Paraskevi in a stolen vehicle in which a weapon was found. Giannis took full responsibility for this. From the first moment of their arrest, a campaign was launched to discredit and criminalize by the media.
Meanwhile numerous accusations were added to their trial in order to frame the comrade as a “criminal organization” with the implication of a more severe sentence. In the trial that starts on May 31, the essence is that the state will try to condemn the struggle choices of our comrades in order to show through their exemplary punishment the futility of the struggle. Risky and costly choices, such as escape from prison, the choice of means, practical solidarity with the persecuted were, are and will remain an integral part of the history of the anarchist struggle.
In October 2019, before the revolt, the gendarmerie was preparing a closure of the Special High Security Unit (UEAS), which includes the Maximum Security Section, the High Security Prison and the Captain Yaber Prison for the rich, for its remodelling. The revolt and the pandemic postponed those measures until they were finally carried out today.
