In this article, social prisoner John Bowden exposes the violent control methods carried against young people in UK prison. The prison guards who act out their brutal fantasies on young people are not isolated ‘bad’ individuals but part of a de-humanising authoritarian system of exploitation and power. This situation is not simply a case for the United Kingdom, young people are imprisoned in disgusting conditions everywhere, and all these prisons must be torn to the ground with the guards scattered. Fire to the Prisons.
In 2004 15 year old Gareth Myatt died whilst bring restrained by three members of staff at a privatized children’s prison called Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in Warwickshire. In the same year 14 year old Adam Rickwood hanged himself in another privatized children’s jail, Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in Co. Durham. A Judge later ruled that the guards who restrained Adam shortly before his death had used unlawful force on him. Six years later and following a sustained campaign by parents of imprisoned children and groups like the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) a shocking government document detailing control methods used on children, some as young as 12, in custody has been revealed under the Freedom of Information Act. Read the rest of this entry »
In recent days, the battle to stop the destruction of the forest in the Moscow suburb of Khimki has heated up. Activists have been protesting the building of an $8 million high speed toll highway between Moscow and Petersburg. This highway would destroy beautiful forestland around Moscow. Environmentalists say the highway can bypass the old oak forest.
The flashpoint has been in the city which is called Khimki, right outside Moscow. There is a history of violence sponsored by the local authorities in this town. In the most famous case of political terrorism, in November 2008, Mikhail Beketov, outspoken editor-in-chief of the regional «Khimkinskaya Pravda» (Khimki Truth) newspaper, was savagely beaten in front of his home. The attack was clearly related to his criticism of local authorities and the highway being built. As a result of his injuries one of his legs was amputated, and head traumas he suffered during the attack have left him unable to speak. Current reports on his condition indicate that his second leg may have to be amputated.
Khimki authorities thus have a reputation for dealing brutally with anybody who dares oppose them. Read the rest of this entry »
“A noise demonstration took place outside of the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre (Barton Jail) in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. Around 25 people marched around the prison, chanting slogans (the passion for freedom is stronger than all prisons; no prisons, no borders, fuck law and order; they might take our lives away but not our dignity, our hearts will pound against their walls until we all are free; smash the borders, fuck the state, all these walls are going to break; no justice, no peace, fuck the police; etc), shooting off fireworks, and making speeches.
This demonstration was held to continue creating a visible presence and tension against prisons and the world that needs them, as well as to take direct action in solidarity with the insurgent spirit: with everyone who chooses the dignity of struggle above the servility of obedience.
The 19th of July marked the beginning of a hunger strike in Saint Paul’s Hospital (the infirmary ward of Korydallos prison near Athens, Greece). … Solidarity with prisoners in revolt, inside and outside the jails of this prison-world!
“On the evening of July 21, 2010, the ATMs of an RBC in Guelph, Ontario. were smashed up and the money slots filled with adhesive.
RBC, as many may know by now, is a financial backer with the Tar Sands as well as the Toronto South Detention Center, a 1,650 bed super maximum prison facility being built in Mimico, Ontario.
Fuck you RBC.
Solidarity with friends and comrades dealing with court, house arrest, police,etc.
Solidarity with Nikos Maziotis currently on hunger strike, and Panagiota Roupa imprisoned in Greece during the birth of their child.
Solidarity with the west coast for hating the cops and for showing it.. FTP!”
“The power of effective and dynamic prisoner support was, in my experience, never better illustrated than in the way a prison authority climbed down on this occasion, and it was an incredibly empowering experience to be a part of it.” John Bowden
There are important lessons to be learned from last year’s successful campaign in support of prisoner John Bowden, and in defence of the Anarchist Black Cross. When comrades are attacked, it is not a time for complacency, but a time for determined and decisive action. In our struggle against the State, our collective strength and solidarity is the only weapon we have.
Below, John Bowden gives an assessment of the campaign to defend himself and the ABC against the lies of prison social worker Matt Stillman, who in a crucial parole report, described the ABC as a “terrorist” and “paramilitary” organisation with whom John was in contact. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the past three week three mobile phone antennas have been destroyed by fire in the Nottingham area. In each instance the action was performed with fervour and carried out in anger at the capitalist culture. A culture which seeks to dominate its surroundings in order to increase it’s power over it’s inhabitants.
These actions were simple and repeatable. The tools were old rags, flammable liquids and a lighter. They were carried out against a telecommunications industry which facilitates capitalisms ongoing destruction of the planet and the manner in which it deforms the social relationships we engage in.
We carry out this action, and actions like it in solidarity with all those who choose to fight against repression, the state and capitalism whenever and wherever the opportunity arises.
We dedicate this action to all those who are imprisoned by civilization, but continue to struggle against its cage.
Institut-A is a one year running anarchist infoshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. The space is an open space for anarchists and the like, plus also general public. Institut-a have been the main motor and the only infoshop in Jakarta that survived. Through times the space have been a place for d.i.y hc/punk/and even indiepop gigs in order to gain benefit for the existence of the space. Institut-a provide materials such as books concerning anarchism and other anti-authoritarian publications.
Unfortunately, since Institut-a is a rented place, the time for contract is almost over.
Therefore we need solidarity by anarchists and the like whom share the same concern for this sort of project. You can contact the email below for further details.
And to see more of their activities with pics, please visit:
Last night four people locked themselves inside the shafts of the old Itsasondo mines in the Basque Country (on the Spanish side of the border) in order to “stop the construction of the High-Speed Railway (HSR)” and to denounce the “social model of which these construction sites are just the outer mask”. They are demanding the “immediate cessation” of the tunnelling work taking place in that same area.
“We know that the risks are high. We’ve gone deep down underground in order to strengthen with our bodies this very earth. We are locked inside the mines so as to defend our ideas and denounce the lack of sense of those who hold power. Our bodies are our weapons and direct action is our path”.
This is what the four people who have locked themselves inside the mines of Itsasondo had to say about their act of “resistance” to the HSR. The statement was communicated to the press by fellow opponents of the mega infrastructure in a press conference in which they also warned of the dangers of the Ordizia-Itsasondo tunnel.
They reported that of the 37 surveys and test drillings that were meant to be done before the construction project, only one actually took place.
From inside the mines, the activists who have locked themselves in explained that the construction work is taking place in Mariaratz, Olaberria, San Martin, Berostegi and Itsasondo. “Near here, in the Mariaratz construction site, there are daily explosions… explosions which destroy the earth and everything on top of it. It’s highly possible that the mines will collapse if the explosions and drillings continue, threatening the lives of these four people. Therefore, we demand the immediate stop of the works taking place”.
The protesters have called on people to participate in the meetings that will take place every day at 19.30 in Itsasondo and in the demonstrations called for this Friday in various places and also in the protest march
which will take place on Sunday, departing at 17.00 from the square of the town of Ordizia.
Anyone able to spread information and to express solidarity with this protest action in other parts of the world is asked to do so as soon as possible! The action of these four comrades must not remain isolated!
“On 14/06/10 we stormed into a super-market of the chain Masoutis on M.Kyriakou street, we took basic need goods (olive oil, pasta, milk etc.) and destroyed the anti-theft systems and the surveillance camera while we also smashed the cash machines and burnt all the money they had inside.
From the beginning we had decided that the goods of the appropriation would be distributed among the comrades who participated, not outside the super-market. With this choice of ours we want to make clear that this, and other practices aim not at promoting some of us as saviours of the society – rather, we want society itself to familiarise itself with such practices and to embrace them without waiting for the “revolutionary” philanthropist/ friends of the poor. Especially in a period like this one, where the rottenness of the present system is pushing it toward collapse. As for the term “Robin Hoodies” (in Greek: Super-market Robins) we believe it consists another typical attempt to twist the meaning of such actions by Mass Media, which present comrades as some sort of elite stealing for the poor. In result, the distribution of the goods is presented in a way that refers to the narcosis and the passivity reflected in the thinking “someone will think-act-take care of us”.
We do not believe in a society of “weak-minded” people who must necessarily be ruled, as is wished by the ruling propaganda. We are happy when people walk on with the belief that their life belongs to them, away from mediators and needless gabble, when they organise under the premise of solidarity, anti-authoritarianism and self-organisation; under the guidance of active negation and attack. When they do not fall for the fallacy of the regime that “by helping each other we will scrape through the crisis”. It is important, finally that when distributing goods you have no way of telling if the recipients are indeed in solidarity, even if that is not active, or if they are just hypocrites taking care of themselves only – and perhaps even, in another case, they would be the first to inform to the police. Of course we applaud similar actions by comrades who distribute the goods: as as we said earlier the aims are the same.
The burning of money is a symbolic action speaking for itself. These little pieces of paper that turned into ashes within seconds have managed, in even less seconds, to destroy lives, relationships, to transform the human and her desires by transforming life into indexes, digitalising feelings and experiences, simplifying the feelings of joy and misery down to the ‘alternatives’ – I have/ I have no money.
As for the action itself it took place exactly as planned. Our getaway was relaxed and with no unexpected incidents. We used bins to block off some roads precautionary while we made sure to know the movements of the cops before and during the action. It is telling that pigs of the Z force (motorcycle cops –trans.) were sitting around confused by the fountain on Egnatia Ave, obviously waiting for reinforcements and tried to approach only when we were already gone.
We are consciously and actively in solidarity with every other action sabotaging capitalism within the urban environment in which we act.
PS 1. A warning toward the “macho Greeks” who might want to become heroes: they’ll receive the treatment they deserve, exactly as it happened when one of them was spotted to be calling the cops – he was chased, along with the bunch who were about to intervene. But as the saying goes, “the mother of the fast one has never mourned”
PS 2. We can only laugh at the misinformation of the media about supposed clashes with repression forces, trolleys filled with goods that we never managed to hand out etc…
PS 3. Of course we support the appropriation of money for the needs of the movement, it is just that we wanted to give a different context to this particular action.”
At a 50,000 strong leftist anti-government demo against economic restructuring and capitalist crisis, Berlin riot cops were attacked with an explosive device after baton charging a section of the crowd. 13 police had minor injuries and two needed serious hospital treatment.
“Machines sabotaged at Banks Group’s Shotton opencast coal mine near Cramlington. On the morning of the 24th of May 13 machines were sabotaged at Shotton opencast coal mine. One excavator, two bulldozers and ten heavy earth movers were damaged. The damage included cut electrics, cut hydraulics and coal dust in oil tanks.
Also 150 meters of water pipe was slashed, flooding an area of the mine. Shotton opencast is operated by Banks Mining and started working in 2008. It is expected to extract 3.4 million tonnes of coal, two million tonnes of shale and 750,000 tonnes of fireclay over an eight-year period.
This action was taken by a group of autonomous people resisting total environmental destruction, climate change and civilised culture, and in solidarity with all people who are struggling against the coal industry. “
“On Wednesday 2nd June a Tesco express in Hartshill, Stoke on Trent was visited out of hours by Palestinian solidarity activists. petrol pump hoses were D-locked together. doors padlocks and cash machines were superglued. ‘Israeli murderers’ and ‘Boycott Israel’ were sprayed on the garage and the supermarket. The impunity and arrogance of the state of Israel and its supporters will only diminish when an avalanche of meaningful actions are taken against them. … “
The Italian media repeat the same refrain: your life is under threat, you must be scared. The ideology of security places all of us in a world of ghosts. Punks, foreigners, vandal kids are other actors in this comedy of horror. Journalists recruited by various bosses instil the fear of the diverse and encourage the lynching of the poor. The victims of this murderous ideology follow one another like in a war bulletin: extremely overcrowded jails, murders committed by cops, torture in police stations, detention camps for immigrants, fascist aggressions. No surprise, then, if the journalists of capital yell the need for security and their desire for cameras in every street and soldiers in every piazza. Read the rest of this entry »
This communiqué, written by anarchists from Ferrara (northern Italy), exposes an appalling episode that occurred in Comacchio, a town in the province of Ferrara. Apparently just a provincial story, but one that reminds us of the unacceptable conditions imposed by this murderous system, a story that concerns all of us.
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Psychiatry makes recourse to more and more terrible means to take away the freedom of those whom it considers deviant according to its biased vision of ‘normality’.
On May 28 2010, in a lively town in the province of Ferrara, where a reactionary rightwing mayor has just been elected, a 34-year-old man was subjected to the hideous activity of psychiatric doctors and of their best mates in uniform (police and carabinieri-paramilitary police).
It all started when police were alerted that a man had entered a church and started swearing during the mass. Eventually the man went outside a bar, where he exhibited some martial arts postures. This is what the local press reported, as it depicted the man as ‘a public danger, someone to be scared of’. Read the rest of this entry »
“In the early hours of June 7th, some anarchists smashed the windows of a Sodexo office in Montreal. Sodexo is the parent company that makes food for Canadian prisons.
Prison is much more than fours walls of the a vile institution; prison as a condition is reflected and reproduced in the world that surrounds us.
It is the cameras on every street corner surveilling our comings and goings; it is the DNA and fingerprint databanks that record our most personal details; it is the borders and constant threat of detention and deportation that would keep us from freely choosing where we want to live.
To Sodexo (and all others that contribute to the upkeep and functioning of prisons) we say screw you and your choice of ham and cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, when what we really want is to burn the prisons to the ground.
“Last night, a group of individuals decided to turn their anger into action – striking a number of targets on Whiteladies Road.
The list is this: HSBC bank, windows smashed with hammers, red paint thrown inside. Morgan Beddoe estate agent, every window smashed in reach and damage to door. Conservative Party office just off Whiteladies Road, window smashed. Territorial Army, windscreens smashed on their civilian vehicles in the car park.
These attacks responded to the recent murders on the aid boat at the hands of the Israeli armed forces which has hit such huge news recently (perhaps because some victims this time are white children of the Western middle classes, as opposed to the routine deaths that pass unmarked by the media on a daily basis in Palestine and for that matter everywhere else) – but this is also our own trajectory in the over-due counter-offensive against the colonisation of our lives by capitalism right here. Solidarity is best when it serves to extend your own struggle in compliment of others. This action was simple, required little planning and no expertise, hit our enemies directly and was more uplifting than any contained demonstration we have witnessed in recent time.
For many the choice of targets may speak for itself – banks being well known locally in their recent glut of recession and repossession, besides being an integral part of the systematic economic exploitation that this world is currently based on, and of course HSBC specifically bank-rollers of the Israeli state’s regime of terror. Estate agents, fronting the gentrification and driving those who cannot afford their dream further out in the age-old class war. Politicians, whatever their claims and colors, claim power over us all to repress, rule and further their own corrupt aims. Armed forces, to back them up whenever they chose to extend their influence or crush dissent.
Let us not forget the prisoners of the Gaza demonstrations of January 2009, incarcerated for bringing militant popular struggle back on the agenda in the anti-occupation movement.
Let us not forget all the prisoners, from Greece to the U.S.A, who realised that attack is the best way out of this social prison and took action accordingly. For a world without money, private property, politics and occupation.”
Update: Michal Pawlak has been released on bail pending trial.
Michal Pawlak is a comrade from Poland that was arrested on December 6th , 2009 during the demonstrations for the one year since Alexis murder and the uprising that followed. He has remained in prison awaiting trial ever since. As is usual he has been accused by the cops based on unsubstantiated and circumstantial evidence, as for example his t-shirt that had some anti-cop slogan written on it. On June 1st Michal stood in front of the board of judges who will decide in the next couple of weeks whether his imprisonment will be continued. At the same time the cops-murderers of Alexis have been set free until the end of their trial as due to a load of legal tricks their 18th month pre-trial detention expired before a court ruling on their case. Even though their imprisonment will in no way give us a sense that “justice has been served” or extinguish our rage against all those who destroy our lives, nonetheless if this example serves as anything it is to remind us who the so-called justice system is here to protect. Read the rest of this entry »
“The UK Border Agency offices in Derby were d-locked last night. And a written message was left.
This action was carried out in solidarity with the European wide week of actions against the deportation machine,
We believe that acts of resistance -both large and small- against those who profit from and those who facilitate the deportation machine should be carried out whenever and wherever possible.
ANTI-MINING STRUGGLE IN BRGY. ANISLAGAN PLACER SURIGAO DEL NORTE, PHILIPPINES
(A View of Endless Resistance)
Anislagan, characterized by plain, rolling to hilly and mountainous terrain, with a total land area of 841.24 hectares forms part of the watershed area of Placer. Its total population is 1,392 persons (around 319households). Majority of the residents are farmers, mainly producing coconut, rice and banana. Anislagan was severely hit by typhoon Lilang in 1980′s, which practically destroyed livelihood and property. This forced the residents to engage in gold panning along the river to feed their families. Read the rest of this entry »
On February 24 2010 four immigrant kids are arrested in the centre of Ferrara [northern Italy] and taken to the carabinieri (paramilitary police) station of Via Del Campo. There the cops attack the kids furiously: it looks like the usual story of police brutality hidden behind the walls of a prison, the darkness of a neighbourhood in the night or, as in this case, the conspiracy of silence in a police station. Read the rest of this entry »
44 pages of antisystem anarchic-insurgence. Featuring amongst other texts:
- One Year After... (August 2011)
- War against the information-age : a future of mass social control
- Perspectives about the energetic collapse of the techno-industrial society
- Bio-economy, a way out of the crisis
- Class modifications
- Excluded and Included
- Science in the aid of control : Robotics and aerial drones
- Radioactive spills and nuclear crisis
- On Sabotage and Terrorism
- FAI-FRI/CCF "Lone wolves are not alone".
Radical Media
International Network of Counter-Information & Translation
Act for Freedom Now
Greek resistance and repression news, prisoners letters + more.
Anarchist News.org
A non-sectarian source for news about and of concern to anarchists.
Asimetris
Anarchic news from Indonesia and surrounding areas.
Avtonom
Anarchist-communist page of action, news and reports (Russia).
Bite Back
News from the frontlines of eco & animal liberation.
Non-Fides
French social war news and translations.
ParoleArmate
Armed words. Multi-language space of discussion, translation and propagation of texts of considered affinity. The editors are a target of Operation Ardire in Italy.
Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis, Kostas Gournas are imprisoned anarchist comrades in Greece who have taken responsibility, as well as of slain comrade Lambros Foundas, of membership of the Revolutionary Organisation - Revolutionary Struggle. Their actions and their articulate anarchist analysis of capitalism and their high hopes for social revolution press a question to each reader who is ready to rebel and embrace their freedom. On 24 October 2010 their trial began. You can find updates about the process translated into English here and here. Update: N. Maziotis, P.Roupa and their baby-son, Victor Lambros have escaped into clandestinity and gone underground. Stay Free.
"This pamphlet is a meeting point of comrades from all over the world. An imaginary meeting since the walls and bars of the prisons where we are temporarily keep our bodies hostage. But our meanings remain free, escape from the cells of prison and are expressed with words continuing to provoke authority.
Words that still smell of fire and gunpowder, words which carry with them all of our hate for the system, words unrepentant and armed, words which transfer stresses and desires, words which break the isolation of prison, words full of passion for the mutiny we want to continue, words from Chile, Mexico, America, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, Indonesia..."CCF
Free international solidarity zine for the released comrades Eat & Billy. Featuring an introduction by the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire of the first phase and anarchist of praxis Theofilos Mavropoulos.
The so-called "Security Case" concerns our revolutionary comrades Juan Aliste Vega, Marcelo Villarroel Sepulveda, and Freddy Fuentevilla Saa, who are currently held captive in prisons of the Chilean State. Some background info. See also here.
