Friday, December 25, 2009



Amadeu Casellas: a life story of struggle Amadeu Casellas is a prisoner who has spent more than 25 years in jail due to his participation in dozens of bank robberies, helping with that money to the funding of worker’s struggles in the late 1970’s. None of his activities involved blood crimes. Amadeu has always been a committed and active person, participating in many actions, in the streets as well as in prisons. When he was 14, in 1973, working at a factory, he discovered anarchism. He believed in the armed struggle and in an essential revolution. In 1976 he robbed the Banco Mercantil de Manresa. During the next two and a half years he robbed more than 50 other banks. In 1979 he enters prison and is welcomed with a brutal beating. During all the time he has spent jailed, he has undertaken many hunger strikes and other types of protests, he has sewed his lips and has made countless denounces: about the prices inside prison, against the irregularities and exploitation of the inmates work, against the faking of blood analysis or penitentiary reports… All of this has caused him many “first grades” (isolation) and transfers from prison to prison, with the intention that he gave up. He has reported abuses to prisoners rights and of the entire prison system. Last year, after holding a 76 day hunger strike, Amadeu gained the compromise of the penal institution to enjoy permits that would allow him to get to the “third grade” (weekend permits, the possibility to work outside prison and just go there to sleep…) and a subsequent freedom. Such compromise was blatantly ignored by the institutions. Since july 15th, Amadeu is again on hunger strike. More than 85 days already. This particular hunger strike started after the repression he has suffered since he wrote some communiqués where he explained, with actual names, some facts related to the people in charge of the Catalonian prison system. Since july 2008, Amadeu has spent more then 200 hundred days in hunger strike! He has been in forced feeding: 3,5 litres a day since september 24th. His lawyers and family find it extremely difficult to talk to him. Many “prison workers” and jail unions have tried to sanction the lawyers. When he wants to smoke, the rest of the inmates of the penitentiary wing of the Terrassa Hospital are forced to go back to their rooms. As well as the hunger strike, Amadeu has felt forced to add a thirst strike so to be able to get visits from family and lawyers. That first thirst strike accomplished his intentions. Since Sunday October 4th, he has started another one because they're trying to transfer him again to prison, because “his health has improved”. Some actions and demonstrations have taken place, in Spain as well as in other countries. We feel the need to ask for solidarity with this anarchist fighter. A call for decentralized actions has been made until he gets his third grade and leaves the hunger strike. It should be noted that Amadeu's position depends solely on the Catalonian prison and political system, not of Spain's. Anyway, actions, information and solidarity should be carried in any possible way. It might also help (as happened during last year's hunger strike, along with many actions) to saturate this fax number and e-mail accounts with messages supporting Amadeu: 5th, blatantly ignored by the institutions. nd just go there to sleep...ding a 76 day hunger strike, Amadeu gained the compromise of the penal institution.-th the intention that he gave up.-hunger strikes and other types of protests, he has Fax number: (++34)932140179 You can send it with this program for free: http://www.myfax.com/free/ e-mail accounts: sindic@sindic.cat justicia@gencat.cat We should not leave Amadeu in the hands of the State. Adelante compeñeros, until the liberation of Amadeu and the demolition of their dirty prisons!

Thursday, December 24, 2009


Letter of those arrested this year in December from the barracks of central police station thesaloniki
At the moment of writing we are at the detention centre of Thessaloniki Police Headquarters where we have been kept in
custody for the tenth consecutive day, the three of a total of seven remanded (three have been transferred to juvenile prisons in
aulona and one to prison Diavata). We were arrested during the sad one-year anniversary of the murder of fifteen-year Alexis
Grigoropoulos. We would like to say a short time after they arrested and EMPRISONED us.
The police conducted "preventative" arrests because of our presence in theory in "dangerous" places (e.g. universities)
because of our participation in a planned demonstration or because of our outward appearance!
The behaviour of our police officers has been grossly insulting and even some of them used the camera of their mobile
phones to record and then make public the audio-visual material on the internet to humiliate us. Also, psychological violence was
added with threats to our physical integrity.
When we were taken to Thessaloniki Police Headquarters, indictment and psychological pressure was applied. We were
refused the right to contact our lawyers and they refused to allow us to provide first aid to one of those arrested who had suffered
savage beatings.
In all cases constructed charges claiming "evidence of unknown persons", we were picked up and taken away by the
police, to punish us and to convince the public that the police “are doing their job”. The above method is common practice for the
construction of indictment, as is shown in a published amateur video clearly showing a cop to be putting a Molotov cocktail
backpack and a former co-defendant was acquitted by the consent of the investigator and prosecutor thanks to this visual
material. The immediate identification of fingerprints to prove and to demolish the framed indictment holding Molotov cocktail
and become once more the dear regular police.
One of those arrested was attacked and brutally beaten by two platoons of MAT riot police (!) because of his presence at
the university and his outside appearance, thus needed immediate medical care that he was not given. At the time of the forensic
examination demonstrating the beating, was added new charges of expenses to be charged and others to be punished.
The conditions of detention in the barracks of the Police Hall of Thessaloniki blatantly violate basic human rights. Keep
from December 6 until December 19 now in detention centres without authorization ….
Please note that there are prisoners in custody in detention centres who have already spent their fifth month of detention,
conditions in detention without absolute right to have the absolute minimum (… information from media, direct medical care,
personal hygiene items ). In cells with no toilets, so coverage of our natural needs in communal toilets depending on the goodwill
of the police, but when not forced to go using bottles and bags.
The sanitary conditions in communal toilets are poor because of the large number of detainees, inadequate cleanliness and
lack of infrastructure and maintenance (one toilet accounted for twenty people, cisterns and taps off, etc.). Ventilation and
heating of premises are non-existent, humidity and lack of light worsen nightmarish all this leading to danger every day our
health (communicable diseases, hepatitis, infections, common flu, viral diseases, I1N1). It has made no preventive measures (e.g.
vaccination or medical examination) to confront I1N1 given the coexistence of large numbers of prisoners in cramped conditions.
According to testimonies of prisoners that held a hunger strike to improve living conditions in detention centres (and add a
fruit salad to the daily diet, right to walk 15 minutes in the hallway, personal hygiene, etc.). These tragic circumstances not only
threaten our health and contribute to the development of aggressive behaviour and depression among prisoners.
There are long-term prisoners with health problems and drug addicts who can not with these conditions in the detention
centres to provide adequate medical care and psychological support. We were eyewitnesses to drug addicts imprisoned and

transferred urgently to hospital for first aid only when the situation came to be critical to life. Witnesses also reported a
disproportionate number of suicide attempts among detainees.
Finally, we want to raise that in our first statement before the magistrate and the prosecutor that of our defence witnesses
has not been submitted. Despite the release of amateur video from the media which acquitted… our co-defendants, indicating the
arrangements for construction of Police guilty, but not the perception of our judicial authorities.
As part of today's democracy is it necessary to shoot the end we all move to show that we are not elephants?
… today who enjoy democracy … intimidation and terror in the exercise of the … constitutionally guaranteed right to participate
in a demonstration?
As part of today's democracy it is a solution to arrest and create "scapegoats" in response to acute social problems;

Requires improvement HOLDING CONDITIONS OF PRISONERS

COMPLAINANT ANY FORM OF VIOLENCE wherever they come from


We condemn the orderly CONSTRUCTION EFFORT GUILTY

We condemn the morality EFFORT, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC U.S. EXONTOSIS

It requires the immediate release of U.S.
dimitris maureas
xrisobalantis pouziaritis
antonis taxatos

Manifesto of the January 19 Committee

On January 19, 2010, a year to the day from the murders of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, we, the organizers of an antifascist march, call on you to join our campaign against neo-Nazi terrorism.

The word fascism has been utterly devalued today. It is hard to find a political movement that avoids branding its opponents as �fascists.� But there are also meaningful interpretations of this term. Many of them have a direct bearing on what is taking place in contemporary Russia.

For some people, fascism is the extreme intolerance intrinsic to authoritarian societies. For others, it is an ideology of exploitation and coercion. For still others, it means the use by the authorities of covert paramilitary units for the suppression of democratic movements. Finally, for some, fascism is a force that murders good people, people like the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and the journalist Nastya Baburova, the young antifascists Fyodor Filatov and Ivan Khutorskoi, the ethnologist Nikolai Girenko, the chess player Sergei Nikolaev from Yakutia, the programmer Bair Sambuev from Buryatia, and hundreds of others. People who define fascism in this way do not divide their enemies into Russians and non-Russians, grown-ups and children, priests and punk rock fans, young activists and defenseless janitors from Central Asia.

It is not a matter of definitions, however. All the murderers come from one and the same environment.

They can be defeated only through a combined effort, only by overcoming the barriers that separate political activists from each other and from people who do not trust politicians and are not involved in the political process. For this purpose we are organizing an antifascist initiative that will unite people of various political persuasions with all those who consider themselves apolitical but who are convinced that the rise of fascism in Russia demands a clear response from society.

The neo-Nazis have changed. They now not only attack marketplaces, they also blow them up � along with railroad tracks, concert halls, churches, cafes, and the entryways of the buildings where their political opponents live. The fascists now not only beat up people on the streets, they also murder them. Neo-Nazi terrorism has become a reality.

If this goes on much longer, Russia will turn into a country wracked by ethnic cleansing and inter-ethnic war. We appeal to everyone who would rather not wait to see this happen. Act now: take a public stance using whatever means you have at your disposal.

We also call on well-known and respected people � scholars, artists, writers, and intellectuals � to support our cause with their good names. We believe that the struggle against the neo-Nazi scourge in Russia must be raised to a new level. It has to become a mass campaign of solidarity that reaches beyond youth subcultures and activist groups. The understandable aversion people feel to politics should not prevent them from recognizing the threat posed by neo-Nazism.

We believe that we have three main tasks today. First, we need to deprive neo-Nazis and racists of the explicit and implicit support they receive from bureaucrats and establishment politicians. Second, we have to drive members of ultra-rightist organizations out of mainstream politics. Third, we must put an end to the practice of using radical right-wing gangs to intimidate and murder social and political activists.

We call on people in various cities and countries to take to the streets on January 19, 2010, and show their solidarity with our cause.''

Llibertat Amadeu Casellas! Solidarity with Anarchist Political Prisoners!




Goldsmiths Autonomy and Solidarity offer solidarity to Amadeu Casellas Ramón, Spanish anarchist political prisoner held for 26 years by the State, with a banner drop from faculty buildings at Goldsmiths, New Cross, South East London.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

England, Nottingham attacking stoichimatatzidiko

On December 18 was attacked by a window in betfredNottincham, England. In a sign of solidarity for the demonstrators and the arrests in Copenhagen during the period of the session on the environment.

The action was by fighters of the ELF and ALF, "was chosen a crowded shopping street in the heart of Nottingham, a city acted Robin Hood always hidden face", stressing the responsibility [...] in Copenhagen and around the world people struggling with their bodies, their voices and now the bricks. The responsibility given by the "liberators of the Earth and Friends of the Animals"

Marius Jacob

So on this 8 March 1905, while the Black Marias were being awaited, the people in charge of maintaining order prepared themselves for every eventuality. They were torn between ‘cautious optimism’ and ‘reasonable caution’, endeavouring not to yield to uncontrolled panic like last week when an apprentice plumber searching for leaks in the guttering upon the roofs of the Passage Couvreur, near the Bicêtre prison, found himself set upon by two gendarmes and handcuffed. Suspected of preparing an escape for Jacob, the unfortunate fellow had been interrogated throughout the night, somewhat brutally, by some overzealous inspectors. (Moreover, there was nothing to show that they were not in fact faced with an accomplice of the Robber). From his vantage-point atop the staircase, the superintendent tries to divine the crowd’s intentions. They are murmuring. Getting worked up. Ready to intervene, narks monitor its changing moods. He picks out scattered anarchists distributing packets of leaflets attempting to offer a justification of Jacob. Their manes of hair, their beards and sombre faces make them readily visible from a distance. Over on the left, three of them are trying to organise a meeting. Four plain clothed inspectors immediately move in to frustrate them. A crowd gathers round. Soon it degenerates into the most immense confusion. Five ranks of chasseurs protect the court-house, not to mention the troops held in reserve. The officials blithely step inside, mingling with the bourgeois who have come to watch the spectacle and who are holding forth on the threshold. Let us go! Disorder will not triumph this time! But the ranting floats off in the direction of the boulevards. The rumbling of the Black Marias reverberates from the cobblestones. The escort appears, a squadron from the 30th Chasseurs Regiment headed by a general in undress. The muffled sound of a song covers everything... la Carmagnole, intoned by prisoners and taken up by 20, by 100, by 1000 raucous voices from the populace. The wagons come to a halt amid a clatter of ironwork. The infantrymen push back the huddled ranks of the crowds. The doors are opened. Four women disembark first, shackled in pairs: Jacob’s mother, Rose his companion and two others pale and skinny and rather elegantly dressed, though their furs are mangy. The Petit Parisien and Gil Blas correspondents will be scathing about them in their reports: but it has to be said that, as these wretches are unloaded, they have been languishing in prison for the past two years and have scarcely had the opportunity to renew their wardrobe at Paquin’s, Worth’s or the Callot sisters’ place. Then it is the men’s turn. Hollow cheeks, fiery looks. ‘A truly strange sort, low-set, supple and agile as a sailor,’ notes Monsieur Beau of the Havas Agency. ‘A queer, devilish head, pierced in the middle by two bright points of extraordinary vivacity,’ notes L’Aurore. ‘A sallow face, the nose strong and flattened, the beard sparse, the lips sparse and pouting, the ears sticking out,’ the reporter from Le Petit Parisien, unkindly notes. He is wearing a broad black bowler hat. He has on a black overcoat with astrakhan collar, a red tie and straight collar slightly crumpled at the edges. In his hand he has a huge briefcase stuffed with papers.’ It appears that inside the prison he has a secretary to whom he dictates his thoughts. His mother and mistress do nothing unless he has first given his consent,’ opines Le Petit Parisien. In any case, there is nothing about him that is redolent of a lout in a peaked cap. Nothing of the sinister-faced ogre. His dress is correct, his toilet painstaking, his moustaches crimped and almost bristling under his strong nose. Of medium build, but squat. He has the air of a civil servant, bordering on that of a teacher or savant. Two by two, his nineteen accomplices line up. Jacob’s face is brightened by a broad grin when he spots the crowd gaping at him. He makes to raise his arms, despite the shackles,. ‘Long live anarchy!’ he cries. ‘Long live anarchy! Long live Jacob!’ answer the onlookers in a burst of applause. The gendarmes step in: they jostle the prisoners, prodding them with vehemence towards the steps. Jacob does not comply. They have to drag him by the arm. His eyes sparkle. He sings the Internationale. The cortege, the women, the public, join in. The song rises into the air and ascends towards the overcast skies. The accused and their guards, followed by the flapping black sleeves of their lawyers, disappear beneath the archway. They vanish into the corridors. The team from Germinal tries to follow in their footsteps. Jénot signals to his men to head them off. The argument lasts barely a few seconds and then the anarchists give up the attempt. They vanish into the crush of people standing around in small knots waiting for God knows what. The courtroom is shabby, dim, grimy, with faded frescoes on the back wall. Some benches and an additional platform have been arranged to accommodate the accused. The exhibits of the prosecution, a real mountain of them, overspill onto the press benches: jemmies, artistically laid out in order of size; bit-braces, drills, hacksaws, glass-cutters; some Edison lamps linked together by five metres of wiring; some oilcans, a few soapboxes. Jacob’s own personal kit, dubbed by him his ‘double bass’ is a wondrous specimen. The judicial police’s best experts have given up on trying to understand the function of several instruments. They admit to never having seen anything like them. According to them there is at least 10,000 francs worth of equipment here. Let us listen to Petit Parisien ‘Upwards of 80 keys in nickel-plated steel, each one actually comprising two keys, for there is an extremely ingenious moving part which, it seems, is of American manufacture. Furthermore, the end of these keys presents a rectangular-shaped recess which makes it possible to tailor a special attachment to the instrument for opening the most complicated locks. The malefactor also carried electric lamps, one of which, collapsible and fitted with reflectors, provided a powerful beam capable of lighting up an entire room. He also had in his possession a highly refined instrument designed to break open safes and from one of the finest companies in New York: a ladder of silk fitted at the ends with two sturdy hooks capable of gripping anywhere and other sundry accessories, all of them equally refined.’ The whole thing fits into a black leather satchel just 70 centimetres long by 95 centimetres high. At noon, the Court makes its entrance. Councillor Wehekind, who seems ill at ease, presides. He is assisted by his assessors Job Vaselle and Thorel. The procurator-general Regnault in person occupies the chair of the public prosecutor, aided by his deputy, Monsieur Pennelier. First item of business: the drawing of lots for jury membership. First sensation: only 5 of those whose names are called are present. The others have been detained by urgent business. Or indeed by illness: one angina attack, some renal colic complaints, some severe bronchitis. An epidemic appears to have descended upon Amiens. Procurator Regnault appeals to a sense of civic duty, to dedication to the law: why did they come forward as volunteers only to absent themselves now? Some medical certificates, properly and duly completed, offer the only reply. To tell the truth, the jury panel members were afraid. They have no wish to get embroiled in some squalid episode. They put themselves forward as volunteers in the trials of murderers, of ‘normal’ thieves. Not of anarchists. That is too risky. Their neighbours have intimated as much to them. Their wives have pleaded with them in the name of their children. And then... this is something that they do not admit... each one of them has received a threatening letter written in vitriol. thrown for a moment, court president Wehekind regains his composure: let some gendarmes be dispatched, accompanied by a doctor, to verify these excuses and summon the dodgers. The sitting is suspended. For lunch. Capitalising upon the absence of the reporters, the troops have left unmanned the approaches to the courthouse, which are now deserted. In the clammy atmosphere about 50 soldiers are napping on the steps, belts unbuckled, rifle laid across their bellies. One would say it was the aftermath of battle. Thousands of leaflets litter the pathway. When at last the court resumes at 2 pm, the definitive jury is at last appointed... pallid men with worried brows and frightened faces. Then comes the establishment of the identities of the accused: ‘Jacob... Alexandre Marius, Fischer the clerk of the court calls out. ‘Present,’ he replies. He is seated peacefully, tethered by his handcuffs to his warder guardian angel. The bowler hat is pulled down tight upon his head. He grins at the angels. The court president, who had not hitherto glanced in his direction, gives a start: ‘Stand up!’ he exclaims. ‘You’re well and truly seated, you are!’ Jacob returns. ‘And remove your hat when you address me!’ ‘You’re well covered!’ ‘You are here to stand trial. You must conform to practice and show greater decorum!’ ‘This is a sham! A parody of justice! I will show regard for you when you show some for the workers!..’ (1) The gendarme escorting him snatches the hat from his head. The remainder of the outburst is lost amid the brouhaha. ‘Silence!’ shouts Wehekind. ‘Silence! Or I will have the court cleared.’ Then: ‘Do you wish to challenge any of the jury?’ he proceeds. ‘I challenge them all,’ answers Jacob, ‘for they are my enemies.’ Everyone catches his breath again. The enumeration of names, surnames, ages, professions proceeds without further incident. However, there is no article in the code capable of preventing the bandits from adopting an air of mockery. Next, the clerk sets about the litany of the 161 pages of the indictment sheet. The public strain to understand. Several of the accused ejaculate expressions of astonishment at the relation of certain exploits of their mastermind, of which they had been unaware. At 6 pm., after various formalities, their first day’s proceedings are concluded. When Jacob emerges, the crowd has formed again and is controlled by the cordons of chasseurs only with great difficulty. Revolutionary songs burst forth on all sides. Two anarchists who succeed in gaining access to the courtroom despite superintendent Jénot’s strict screening procedure rush to the printing works of Germinal, the workshop of Jules Lemaine the shoe-mender. At the back of the shop, the yard and shed, an ancient much repaired hand-operated press has been set up and a compositor’s workroom. On the grimy panels of the front door are two placards: ‘Germinal - Editorial - Administrative - Advertising offices’ ‘Soles (heels included): Men (Hobnailed) 3 Francs and 3.25F.; (stitched) 4F.; women: (hobnailed) 2.50F.; (stitched) 3.25F.; fittings guaranteed invisible, 0.30F.’ Two advertising notices... ‘No more abortions! Scientific and practical means of limiting female fertility, by Doctor Knowlton. Translated from the English by Lennoz. Pamphlet prosecuted and acquitted by the Brabant assizes. Price 0.50F. Apply within.’ And the other reads... ‘Midwife. Cures all women’s complaints. Absolute discretion, receives boarders at any stage of pregnancy. Apply to Mlle. Berthe Leguillier, 388 Route d’Abbeville, Montières. Consultations daily from 1 pm. to 3 pm.’ For the anarchists, 60 years or so ahead of their times, are also actively campaigning on behalf of birth control—which brings them plenty of vexations. By 7 pm., the team, bolstered by a number of persons who have come down from Paris, is in full session, amid the shoes, clogs, awls, gouges, lasts and nails. Feverishly, they set about preparing the special edition which they have resolved to put out just as soon as possible. Pacaud sees to the editorial: ‘Rarely will a trial have caused such a sensation... (...) The judiciary, the army and the police are dumbfounded. The defenders of order have been seized by a tremendous funk that shows itself in the grotesque, not to say pointless deployment of manpower (...). The courthouse has been turned into a barracks (...). But disappointment among the bourgeois newspapers, the mouthpieces of middle-class mediocrity, has been great indeed! Good Lord! Sacrosanct property has been attacked. The quivering bourgeois must have visions of looting and riot flashing before their eyes: all because the demonstrations of hate by those who own nothing against a recuperator such as Jacob have ceased. The prejudices that underpinned the old authoritarian society have melted away. Which just goes to show that our propaganda is on the right track!’ Then he takes the jury to task: ‘Sometimes, doctors’ certificates are convenient.’ He breaks down by profession... each profession accompanied by some epithet of his own devising... the ‘panel list’ from which Jacob’s jurors have been chosen by lot. There is among them, he notes, ‘not one worker, not one peasant, not a single proletarian’. How come? Because if justice was just and were Jacob’s jury made up of twelve workers, he would necessarily have been acquitted! What, then, is the difference between the judges and the judged? It is that the thieves are not the ones that are believed to be so!’ At the corner of a table, Maurice Lucas is drafting another document in the same vein: ‘They have been racking their brains since the start of the investigation to cultivate a mysterious lust for vengeance in the crowd, in the ignoble aim of ensuring that Jacob would be lynched. For the sake of the soundness of its foundations, it was in the interest of society as a whole that some avenging spirit should stir the stupidity of the mob. To meet the requirements of its cause, the people had to anathematise the destroyers of property. All in vain! Today, for all the tremendous obstacles placed in its way, the people are in contact with these revolutionary heroes! Miscalculation and amazement! The accused are men of mettle! Jacob, Pélissard, Augain, Chalus, Soutarel, Baudy and Charles are educated minds, noble hearts devoted to the cause of humanity. How could the people’s sympathies fail to fly to them, who are going to pay with their lives and their liberty for the tremendous wound they have inflicted upon the butchers of the people?’ Jules Lemaire picks up the baton. He is on edge. Demonstrations of sympathy from the crowd were not enough for him. He had called a meeting of all militants in the region for today: he had been expecting a riot: they had made do with a rendition of the Internationale. He looks for, still wishes for a reversal of opinion, a gesture, a backlash, something. But Souvarine, a Russian emigre who by some miracle escaped the clutches of the Okhrana, is not happy with Lemaire’s prose. One does not make revolution with demonstrations, but with bombs. Souvarine has drawn up a text which, according to him, should override all the rest. ‘Even as the dispatches are reporting that in Russia, hordes of muzhiks, starving bands made up of several thousands of peasants in open revolt are roaming the countryside, looting the castles and mansions of the landlords, burning and pillaging with no one capable of opposing them—at this very moment, a sinister comedy is being played out between robbers and robbed in the Amiens courthouse: a comedy that nearly two years have been spent to concoct. We have to believe that fear is the getting of wisdom, for this time the selection of the jury was not without complications. Nonetheless it is an exceptional delight for twelve who own to sit in judgement of 23 dispossessed. COULD IT BE TRUE, AS IS BEING SAID, THAT JACOB STILL HAS SOME FRIENDS AT LARGE WHO ARE MONITORING THE ACTIONS AND MOVES OF THE JURORS, AND PREPARING TO TAKE REVENGE FOR THEM? IT WOULD CERTAINLY BE REGRETTABLE TO HAVE TO RESORT TO WEAPONS OF INTIMIDATION LIKE THE BOMB OR THE REVOLVER, but if this salutary fear had the effect of making them reflect, they would at least grasp one self-evident fact: JACOB, BEING AN ANARCHIST, CANNOT BE A LEADER. Whereupon the thesis of a band of malefactors led by him collapses. The fiction maintained by the hireling press caves in. You have gulled the people long enough: long enough have you managed to induce them to believe the robbed the robber! Today the truth explodes for all to see! The proletariat are awakening, they read, they listen, they reflect, they see clearly. They know that Property is theft. You have the effrontery to pose as fair-minded men! Craven hypocrites, you well know that there is nothing fair in your stinking society. Your learned men, your professors, your journalists are repeatedly forced to concede that injustice, everything most ghastly in the moral and material sense... these are the rules of your beautiful society of carrion flesh and inverts. The risen people are expropriating your like in Russia. A new day has dawned at last when there will be no more judges, no more robbed and no more robbers!’ Having perused Souvarine’s text one by one, the comrades say nothing. Are they afraid perhaps? Do they fear lest he may go out and down one of these grasping bourgeois? Yet he is ready to do just that! And this very evening if need be. To set an example. To strike terror into the others. Violence is atrocious when it serves the master. But sublime when it serves the free man! Let’s go! What is holding them back? But a man enters the shop, a short, bearded, eagle-eyed man with a hooked nose, dressed almost like a bourgeois alongside the rest. He shakes himself as he removes his rain-soaked mackintosh. His name is Charles Malato. One of Jacob’s oldest friends. He made his acquaintance in Marseilles when he was just 17 years old. He himself is aged 40. He is a man who carries some weight, a man that one can tell does not hesitate to lend a hand to the plough if need be. An insurrectionist anarchist. They respect him. He has been out and about making inquiries. He has contacts everywhere, known to him alone. They huddle around him. ‘So?’ ‘So, it’s a hell of a mess. The screw who was in with us has been moved to another department. Jacob has been moved to another cell yet again. It’s back to scratch again.’ A sympathetic silence greets the news. Be that as it may, Malato has managed to get hold of a message from Jacob. Jacob thanks them for all they are doing. However he does not think an escape is feasible at present neither in the Bicêtre nor in the courthouse: he is hemmed in by too many soldiers. It would also be madness to attempt to pull something as he is being removed from the van. It only remains to await a favourable opportunity and then to try to cobble something together... One never knows... In any case, Jacob prefers to be guillotined rather than be the cause of any pointless blood-letting: so, he hopes, when his head falls it will bloody the enemy. They all bow their heads: would they show the same courage in similar circumstances? They have not many chances left to get him out of there. ‘Let’s go to it,’ Malato begins again. ‘In one way he has the finest part. He has conducted himself like a free man. If die he must, he will die like a free man. And then what! At this very moment throughout France, in Paris, in Marseilles, in Lyons, in Perpignan, all of the comrades have their eyes turned to Amiens. We have to live up to expectations. Mustn’t disappoint them.’ ‘Here!’ he concludes after a pause. ‘I’ve brought you this. Libertad sent it for you. He had prepared it in advance. It puts things back into perspective. From our point of view, of course. He will release it to the public simultaneously through Germinal and L’Anarchie.’ Libertad, the redoubtable crutch-borne leading light behind Causeries du XVIIIe and who had just founded L’Anarchie, a libertarian weekly of the individualist persuasion, is known to all present. Soon, despite himself, he is to be the inspiration of the ‘Bonnot Gang.’ The article is passed from hand to hand. They peruse it. Comment upon it. Gradually life returns and so does a diehard hope. ‘At this very moment,’ Libertad writes, ‘there are two collections of individuals in attendance at Amiens. One seems to have scored a victory: it no longer fights, it merely judges. It has even appointed its delegates who deck themselves out in uniforms and adorn themselves with special names: gendarmes, judges, soldiers, prosecutors, jurors. But they fool nobody. In them one discerns the usual partners of the social struggle: robbers, counterfeiters, murderers, according to the circumstances. ‘Securely bound, the members of the second gang may be shackled but beaten they are not. And whenever they shake their heads, delegates and onlookers look like taking to their heels. ‘The folk from the first gang call their operation doing justice and claim to prosecute crime. In any event, it is not remorse that drags their enemies before them, but handcuffs instead. ‘Whether they be judges, officers of the peace, businessmen, inspectors or administrators, no useful work has ever emanated from the ten fingers of the former. They did not make the bread they eat, nor build the mansions where they live, nor make the garments they wear, nor the vehicles which transport them. So what they live by THEY HAVE STOLEN. ‘In another society, Jacob and his friends might find useful employment. Their shrewdness, their expertise, their strength and courage are questioned by no one. They began to burgle society in order to live in the... perhaps mistaken... hope that this would cause disruption in the body of society. That was their only fault—if fault they have committed.’ The following day, the crowd control was equally impressive. Before the proceedings commence, Rose, dragging her gendarme behind her, manages to hurl herself into the arms of her lover who squeezes her to himself. Unexpectedly it is decided that the women are to be held apart from him and he is moved back to the fifth row of the accused instead of the second where he spent yesterday. Even so, he blows kisses to his mother and to Rose. The clerk completes the recitation of the charges whereupon the examination begins immediately: ‘You are a native of Marseilles?’ President Wehekind asks Jacob. ‘Proud of it!’ he answers with a grin, laying the accent on thick. ‘You received good primary schooling.’ ‘Free of charge and compulsory. The people were led to believe that it was for their own good and out of a care for social progress that schooling was made compulsory for them. What a lie! It was in order to turn them into learned monkeys, more refined slaves in the bosses’ hands.’ ‘I am not asking for your opinion.’ ‘You are recounting my life before all and sundry. I have my piece to say.’ ‘Then you were a seaman. The references from your officers are generally good.’ ‘I’ve seen the world, it wasn’t pretty. Everywhere a handful of malefactors like you exploiting millions of unfortunates.’ Outraged cries from those present. The president of the court raises his gavel. Maître Justal, Jacob’s counsel, leans towards him in an effort to get him to moderate his conduct: his client won’t save his skin with this sort of behaviour. Notes. 1. Gold francs are difficult to translate into contemporary money, budgets in those days having little in common with our own. However, one can reckon on the following basis: 20 francs were then the equivalent of one ‘louis’; in 1969 one louis was worth roughly 60 francs. So one need only multiply by three. Which in this instance would give us 15 million revalued francs. A premier main with the house of Worth was then earning 250 francs monthly: a good carpenter was making 300.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009


Anarchists in TroubleToday, Thursday 17 of December, Tamara, an anarchist comrade from Madrid, has been imprisoned in the woman's prison of Wad-Ras (Barcelona). She is accused of having sent an explosive package to Albert Batlle, secretary of penitentiary services of the Catalan regional government. The action was in October, during the struggle against the penitentiary system in solidarity with the prisoner Amadeu Casellas, in that moment on hunger strike.


Today, Thursday 17 of December, Tamara, an anarchist comrade from Madrid, has been
imprisoned in the woman's prison of Wad-Ras (Barcelona). She is accused of having sent an
explosive package to Albert Batlle, secretary of penitentiary services of the Catalan
regional government.

The action was in October, during the struggle against the penitentiary system in
solidarity with the prisoner Amadeu Casellas, in that moment on hunger strike.

Again the state utilizes detentions and imprisonment to terrorize those who confront the
repressive measures of a system that needs prisons to control the poverty and the
rebellion that it produces. Again we call for solidarity and the extension of the
struggle, for the freedom of Tamara and for all of us.

DEMONSTRATION THIS SUNDAY DECEMBER 20th AT 6 PM
IN PLAZA CAN FELIPA, NEAR METRO STATION POBLENOU (BARCELONA)



The Civil Guard has detained the militant anarchist Tamara Hernández Heras as the
presumed author of the mailing of a letter bomb to the chair of the Penitentiary Services
of the Regional Government of Catalonia on the 7th of October, sources of investigation
have informed EFE.

The detention of Tamara Hernández Heras was ordered by the court of instruction #25 of
Barcelona for a presumed crime of attempted homicide. The agents have also searched a
house in the locality of Getafe. The investigation was initiated by the Mossos d'Equadra
(Catalan national police), who disactivated the bomb, an artifact of low potency, and
examined the handwriting in the letter. The detainee may have a judicial hearing next
Thursday.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note from the editor:
The supposed letter bomb arrived at the office of Penitentiary Services in October, as a small group of supporters, including the mother of Amadeu Casellas, was attempting to meet with director Albert Batlle to demand the release of Amadeu, who has been locked up for over twenty years, has already completed his sentence, and has gone on several lengthy hunger strikes to demand his release. While on the one hand the police attempted to create a situation of alarm and are charging Tamara with attempted murder, on the other hand they did not evacuate anyone from the building, not even Mr. Batlle, neither when they discovered nor when they detonated the explosive; in fact other penitentiary officials arrived at the building to meet with Mr. Batlle behind closed doors, while denying a meeting to Amadeu's mother.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Communique in respect to the December 15th detention in Madrid
by Anarchist Black Cross

Tamara is accused of sending a small explosive artifact to the Penitentiary Institutions.
Justice and mass media newly united against the movement of prisoner support.

Once again the media have made us aware today of the detention in Getafe of an
anarchist comrade. And once more the media shamelessly lie with a clear criminalising
intention that we want to denounce here.

Coming from where it comes, we don't lend any credence to that which is affirmed,
that the comrade T.H.H was the author of a letter bomb mailed to the department of
prisons of the Catalon regional government in October. We don't believe it, but we
don't interpret it wrongly either. She, the same as all comrades repressed by the state,
has our unconditional support as much if she is the person responsible for the deeds of
which they accuse her as if she isn't. We simply don't enter into these types of
considerations.

We are left then with a very serious doubt that her authoring of the deeds of which she
is accused is certain, a deep doubt that acquires substance at the time of this writing, when from sources in her defense we have learned that [...] the police are expected to make a declaration tomorrow morning. Little time has passed since the detention, and they have not applied any special legislation, all of which leads us to suspect that, although it must be said that the situation is still confusing, there is no solid base for the accusation.

Notwithstanding, the the media still speak of the comrade as "a leader of the CNA [ABC]." Qualifying her as a leader they demonstrate that they are incabable of understanding that people could exist in this world who do not fight through a hierarchical relation. To say that she is integrated into the structure of the CNA is completely false. The also reveals the card the media are playing.

Let's clear up the meaning of this lie. When the bodies of police try to make an accusation concrete, just like the prosecutor, they try to carry everything to the extreme degree. When the affair has a political nature, the desired extreme is none other than the accuastion of "belonging to an armed gang". This penal figure, to formalise itself, can precisely link the person with an organisation that, in accord with the shared international norms has a series of formalities such as
permanence in time, known revindications, etc. In the past, acronyms of nonexistent organizations have appeared to fill this role, or, as in this case, the person is linked to an existing organization, which suits their purposes even if that organization does not meet all the original criteria. Thus a technical problem is solved to magnify the accusation, and this time as all other times, the media rise to the occasion as lackeys in the service of repression.

All our solidarity for the detained comrade and our desire that tomorrow we can have her
with us again. All our contempt towards those who screen old wives tales, with the clear intention of destroying the life of one person and furthermore, this is the ultimate end of repression, trying to dissolve all the interlocked social relations that prove themselves to be antagonistic in words and in deeds.

Salute and Anarchy.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Action in Solidarity with Tamara

Early in the morning between Thursday and Friday we set fire to two bancs in Guinardó (Barcelona) as two small acts of solidarity.

In the first place, we want to claim this action in support of Tamara, the young madrileña detained this week accused of sending a letter bomb to the director of the Penitentiary Institutions, as the politician responsible for the current situation of the prisoner Amadeu Casellas.

Beyond whether she was or wasn't the author of this deed, we know that this arrest is framed within the attempt to stop all shows of solidarity with Amadeu. A fact that is corroborated by the different reports the Mossos have presented to raise the alarm about the dangerous relations that are being woven in relation to the hungerstrike of this anarchist prisoner. It is in this direction that we understand her arrest and in this direction that we understand our solidarity.

In the second place we want to show our deepest support to the companions detained by the Chilean state. Just as our enemies do not understand borders, as personified by the Italian collaboration with the Chilean police, neither do we, as internationalist proletarians. You are not alone!

Where there is struggle there is repression!
Where there is repression there is solidarity!

More than a thousand march in Keratsini in solidarity to the 21 comrades arrested during the police raid on Resalto, the anarchist social centre of th

More than a thousand march in Keratsini in solidarity to the 21 comrades arrested during the police raid on Resalto, the anarchist social centre of the proletarian suburb of Peiraeus.

More than a thousand protesters marched on Saturday afternoon in the industrial proletarian suburb of Peiraeus, Keratsini, against state terror and the police invasion of Resalto, the local anarchist social centre two weeks ago which resulted in the arrest of 21 people who are being accused of preparing explosives for…some empty beer bottles and a few litters of heating kerosene found in the remises. Initially the state accused the arrested for terrorism but the state interrogator subsequently dropped the charges. The invasion of the 4th of december had resulted to a sponteneous local attack against the police forces guarding the centre a few hours later and to the occupation of the Keratsini city hall which was too invaded by the police with 42 people arrested despite the opposition of the mayor, the local council and the lawyer association of the town who have subsequently published official decisions condemning the repression.

The march gathered at People’s square and after reading texts through the microphone stressing that “the arrested are the physical and political discendents of the guerrillas executed by the Nazis at the blockade of Kokkinia”, the protesters marched around the working class suburb enjoying overwhelming popular support: people chanting anti-police slogans from balkonies and clapping in approval from the sidewalk, despite strong police presence.

The march was part of a 3-day call against state terror by Resalto whose case has become a symbol of the socialist government’s ruthless strategy of counterinsurgency. A hefty monetary guarantee has been imposed on the 21 accused which is being covered by donations and free-donation gigs and parties throughout the country.

On Sunday locals of Exarcheia realised a demo at the square of the area protesting against the persecution of the Resalto comrade. To put the point across regarding the ridiculous claims of the persecuting authorities, the demonstrators made a public display of the exact number of empty beer bottles, hammers, and litres of heating kerosene considered “tools for constructing explosive” – surprisingly the antiterrorist bureau did not try to arrest them…

The march took place within a tense climate across Greece:

In Salonica, the social center of the west territories, opened after the December Uprising, came under attack by parastate thugs who invaded the premises beating people inside and smashing everything on their way. Earlier the same day a police patrol car had come under attack by radicals in the centre of the city, while the night before a security systems shop had been torched.

In Kavala, police detained a group of fly-posting radicals near the autonomous centre and the anarchist squat of the city. The unusual detention could be a sign of collective retribution for the large-scale attack last Thursday when the city centre’s banks were smashed and burned by radicals who have identified themselves in a communique as “anarchists of praxis”.

In Athens, on Friday afternoon the political office of a PASOK (Socialist Party) MP was attacked with an arson mehanism, a further attack after the Thursday night half hour barrage that destroyed half a dozen PASOK offices across the city. Also the PASOK offices of Agioi Anargiroi outside Athens were smashed on Saturday evening.

On a less angry side of things radical, the union of Wind workers has published a communique condemning the police invasion of university grounds during last week’s riots, and the efforts of rectorial authorities and the state to render the asylum a symbolic institution.

ATHENS, Greece — Greek police say a small bomb has exploded outside the office of a governing Socialist lawmaker in Athens, causing minor damage and no injuries.

Police say the device, which was made of camping gas canisters, had been placed at the entrance to Nasos Alevras' office in the center of the capital.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.

Greek anarchist groups frequently firebomb symbols of wealth and authority. The attacks have intensified after last year's fatal police shooting of a teenager in central Athens, which sparked several days of violent protests.

Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation [show] agency information

COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. The FBI used covert operations from its inception, however formal COINTELPRO operations took place between 1956 and 1971.[2] The FBI's stated motivation at the time was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order." [3]

According to FBI records, 85% of COINTELPRO resources were expended on infiltrating, disrupting, marginalizing, and/or subverting groups suspected of being subversive,[4] such as communist and socialist organizations; the women's rights movement; militant black nationalist groups, and the non-violent civil rights movement, including individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, the American Indian Movement, and other civil rights groups; a broad range of organizations labeled "New Left", including Students for a Democratic Society, the National Lawyers Guild, the Weathermen, almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, and even individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; and nationalist groups such as those "seeking independence for Puerto Rico." The other 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert "white hate groups," including the Ku Klux Klan and National States' Rights Party.[5]

The directives governing COINTELPRO were issued by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who ordered FBI agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these movements and their leaders.[6][7]Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Range of targets
3 Methods
4 Illegal surveillance
5 Reports that COINTELPRO tactics continue
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
8.1 Books
8.2 Articles
8.3 U.S. government reports
9 External links
9.1 Documentary
9.2 Websites
9.3 Articles
9.4 U.S. government reports

[edit]
History

COINTELPRO began in 1956 and was designed to "increase factionalism, cause disruption and win defections" inside the Communist Party U.S.A. (CPUSA). However, the program was soon enlarged to include disruption of the Socialist Workers Party (1961), the Ku Klux Klan (1964), the Nation of Islam, the Black Panther Party (1967), and the entire New Left socio-political movement, which included antiwar, community, and religious groups (1968). A later investigation by the Senate's Church Committee (see below) stated that "COINTELPRO began in 1956, in part because of frustration with Supreme Court rulings limiting the Government's power to proceed overtly against dissident groups..."[8] Congress and several court cases[9] later concluded that the COINTELPRO operations against communist and socialist groups exceeded statutory limits on FBI activity and violated constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and association.

The program was secret until 1971, when an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania was burglarized by a group of left-wing radicals calling themselves the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI. Several dossiers of files were taken and the information passed to news agencies, many of which initially refused to publish the information. Within the year, Director Hoover declared that the centralized COINTELPRO was over, and that all future counterintelligence operations would be handled on a case-by-case basis.[10]

Further documents were revealed in the course of separate lawsuits filed against the FBI by NBC correspondent Carl Stern, the Socialist Workers Party, and a number of other groups. A major investigation was launched in 1976 by the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities of the United States Senate, commonly referred to as the "Church Committee" for its chairman, Senator Frank Church of Idaho. However, millions of pages of documents remain unreleased, and many released documents have been partly, or entirely, redacted.

In the Final Report of the Select Committee, COINTELPRO was castigated in no uncertain terms:
Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that...the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence.[8]

The Church Committee documented a history of FBI directors' using the agency for purposes of political repression as far back as World War I, through the 1920s, when they were charged with rounding up "anarchists and revolutionaries" for deportation, and then building from 1936 through 1976.
[edit]
Range of targets

In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, MIT professor of linguistics and political activist Noam Chomsky spoke about the purpose and the targets of COINTELPRO saying, "COINTELPRO was a program of subversion carried out not by a couple of petty crooks but by the national political police, the FBI, under four administrations...by the time it got through, I won't run through the whole story, it was aimed at the entire new left, at the women's movement, at the whole black movement, it was extremely broad. Its actions went as far as political assassination." [11]

According to the Church Committee:
While the declared purposes of these programs were to protect the "national security" or prevent violence, Bureau witnesses admit that many of the targets were nonviolent and most had no connections with a foreign power. Indeed, nonviolent organizations and individuals were targeted because the Bureau believed they represented a "potential" for violence -- and nonviolent citizens who were against the war in Vietnam were targeted because they gave "aid and comfort" to violent demonstrators by lending respectability to their cause.
The imprecision of the targeting is demonstrated by the inability of the Bureau to define the subjects of the programs. The Black Nationalist program, according to its supervisor, included "a great number of organizations that you might not today characterize as black nationalist but which were in fact primarily black." Thus, the nonviolent Southern Christian Leadership Conference was labeled as a Black Nationalist-"Hate Group."
Furthermore, the actual targets were chosen from a far broader group than the titles of the programs would imply. The CPUSA program targeted not only Communist Party members but also sponsors of the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee and civil rights leaders allegedly under Communist influence or deemed to be not sufficiently "anti-Communist". The Socialist Workers Party program included non-SWP sponsors of anti-war demonstrations which were cosponsored by the SWP or the Young Socialist Alliance, its youth group. The Black Nationalist program targeted a range of organizations from the Panthers to SNCC to the peaceful Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and included every Black Student Union and many other black student groups. New Left targets ranged from the SDS to the InterUniversity Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy, from Antioch College ("vanguard of the New Left") to the New Mexico Free University and other "alternate" schools, and from underground newspapers to students' protesting university censorship of a student publication by carrying signs with four-letter words on them.

Examples of surveillance, legal and illegal, contained in the Church Committee report:[12]
President Roosevelt asked the FBI to put in its files the names of citizens sending telegrams to the White House opposing his "national defense" policy and supporting Col. Charles Lindbergh.
President Truman received inside information on a former Roosevelt aide's efforts to influence his appointments, labor union negotiating plans, and the publishing plans of journalists.
The Kennedy Administration had the FBI wiretap a Congressional staff member, three executive officials, a lobbyist, and a Washington law firm. US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy received the fruits of an FBI "tap" on Martin Luther King, Jr. and a "bug" on a Congressman, both of which yielded information of a political nature.
President Johnson asked the FBI to conduct "name checks" of his critics and members of the staff of his 1964 opponent, Senator Barry Goldwater. He also requested purely political intelligence on his critics in the Senate, and received extensive intelligence reports on political activity at the 1964 Democratic Convention from FBI electronic surveillance.

The COINTELPRO documents disclose numerous cases of the FBI's intentions to stop the mass protest against the Vietnam War. Many techniques were used to accomplish the assignment. "These included promoting splits among antiwar forces, encouraging red-baiting of socialists, and pushing violent confrontations as an alternative to massive, peaceful demonstrations." One 1966 Cointelpro operation attempted to redirect the Socialist Workers Party from their pledge of support for the antiwar movement.[13]

The FBI claims that it no longer undertakes COINTELPRO or COINTELPRO-like operations. However, critics claim that agency programs in the spirit of COINTELPRO targeted groups like the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador,[14] the American Indian Movement,[2][15] Earth First![16], the White Separatist Movement[17], and the Anti-Globalization Movement.[citation needed]
[edit]
Methods

According to attorney Brian Glick in his book War at Home, the FBI used four main methods during COINTELPRO:
Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.
Psychological Warfare From the Outside: The FBI and police used a myriad of other "dirty tricks" to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists.
Harassment Through the Legal System: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.[18]
Extralegal Force and Violence: The FBI conspired with local police departments to threaten dissidents; to conduct illegal break-ins in order to search dissident homes; and to commit vandalism, assaults, beatings and assassinations.[18][19][20] The object was to frighten, or eliminate, dissidents and disrupt their movements.

The FBI specifically developed tactics intended to heighten tension and hostility between various factions the black militancy movement, for example between the Black Panthers, the United Slaves and the Blackstone Rangers. This resulted in numerous deaths, among which were the United Slave assassinations of San Diego Black Panther Party members Jim Huggins, Bunchy Carter and Sylvester Bell.[18]

The FBI also conspired with the police departments of many U.S. cities (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Chicago) to encourage repeated raids on Black Panther homes—often with little or no evidence of violations of federal, state, or local laws—which resulted directly in the police killing of many members of the Black Panther Party, most famously the assassination of Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton on December 4, 1969.[18][19][20]

In order to eliminate black militant leaders whom they considered dangerous, the FBI conspired with local police departments to target specific individuals,[21] accuse them of crimes they did not commit, suppress exculpatory evidence and falsely incarcerate them. One Black Panther Party leader, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, was incarcerated for 27 years before a California Superior Court vacated his murder conviction, ultimately freeing him. Appearing before the court, an FBI agent testified that he believed Pratt had been framed because both the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department knew he had been out of the area at the time the murder occurred. [22][23]

The FBI conducted more than 200 "black bag jobs",[24][25] which were warrantless surreptitious entries, against the targeted groups and their members.[26]

In 1969 the FBI special agent in San Francisco wrote Hoover that his investigation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) revealed that in his city, at least, the Black nationalists were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover fired back a memo implying the career ambitions of the agent were directly related to his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".[27]

Hoover was willing to use false claims to attack his political enemies. In one memo he wrote: "Purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt the BPP and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge."[28]

In one particularly controversial 1965 incident, civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo was murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen who gave chase and fired shots into her car after noticing that her passenger was a young black man; one of the Klansmen was acknowledged FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe.[29][30] Afterward COINTELPRO spread false rumors that Liuzzo was a member of the Communist Party and abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with African Americans involved in the civil rights movement.[31][32][33][34] FBI informant Rowe has also been implicated in some of the most violent crimes of the 1960s civil rights era, including attacks on the Freedom Riders and the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.[29] In another instance in San Diego the FBI financed, armed, and controlled an extreme right-wing group of former Minutemen, transforming it into a group called the Secret Army Organization (USA)|Secret Army Organization which targeted groups, activists, and leaders involved in the Anti-War Movement for both intimidation and violent acts.[35][36][37][38]

Hoover ordered preemptive action "to pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them before they exercise their potential for violence."[6][39]
[edit]
Illegal surveillance

The final report of the Church Committee concluded:
Too many people have been spied upon by too many Government agencies and too much information has been collected. The Government has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power. The Government, operating primarily through secret informants, but also using other intrusive techniques such as wiretaps, microphone "bugs", surreptitious mail opening, and break-ins, has swept in vast amounts of information about the personal lives, views, and associations of American citizens. Investigations of groups deemed potentially dangerous -- and even of groups suspected of associating with potentially dangerous organizations -- have continued for decades, despite the fact that those groups did not engage in unlawful activity. Groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and their lifestyles. Investigations have been based upon vague standards whose breadth made excessive collection inevitable. Unsavory and vicious tactics have been employed -- including anonymous attempts to break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions, and provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths. Intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of presidents and other high officials. While the agencies often committed excesses in response to pressure from high officials in the Executive branch and Congress, they also occasionally initiated improper activities and then concealed them from officials whom they had a duty to inform.
Governmental officials -- including those whose principal duty is to enforce the law --have violated or ignored the law over long periods of time and have advocated and defended their right to break the law.
The Constitutional system of checks and balances has not adequately controlled intelligence activities. Until recently the Executive branch has neither delineated the scope of permissible activities nor established procedures for supervising intelligence agencies. Congress has failed to exercise sufficient oversight, seldom questioning the use to which its appropriations were being put. Most domestic intelligence issues have not reached the courts, and in those cases when they have reached the courts, the judiciary has been reluctant to grapple with them.[40][41]
[edit]
Reports that COINTELPRO tactics continue

While COINTELPRO was officially terminated in April 1971, suspicions persist that the program's tactics continued informally.[42][43] Critics have suggested that subsequent FBI actions indicate that post-COINTELPRO reforms in the agency did not succeed in ending the program's tactics.[44] The Associated Press reported in November 2008 that documents released under the FOIA reportedly show that the FBI tracked the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam for more than two decades.[45]

“Counterterrorism” guidelines implemented during the Reagan administration have been described as undercutting these reforms, allowing a return to earlier tactics.[46] Some radical groups accuse factional opponents of being FBI informants or assume the FBI is infiltrating the movement.[47]

Several authors have accused the FBI of continuing to deploy COINTELPRO-like tactics against radical groups after the official COINTELPRO operations were ended. Several authors have suggested the American Indian Movement (AIM) has been a target of such operations.

A few authors go further and allege that the federal government intended to acquire uranium deposits on the Lakota tribe's reservation land, and that this motivated a larger government conspiracy against AIM activists on the Pine Ridge reservation.[2][15][48][49][50] Others believe COINTELPRO continues and similar actions are being taken against activist groups.[50][51][52]

Caroline Woidat argued that with respect to Native Americans, COINTELPRO should be understood within a historical context in which "Native Americans have been viewed and have viewed the world themselves through the lens of conspiracy theory."[53]

Other authors note that while there are conspiracy theories related to COINTELPRO, the issue of ongoing government surveillance and repression is nonetheless real.[54][55]
[
See also
Agent provocateur
Brown, H. Rap, targeted by COINTELPRO
Category:COINTELPRO targets
Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI
William Mark Felt, also known as Deep Throat served as chief inspector of COINTELPRO field operations
Franklin, H. Bruce, targeted by COINTELPRO
Hampton, Fred, targeted by COINTELPRO
Viola Liuzzo, murdered by a shot from a car used by four Ku Klux Klansmen, one of whom was a COINTELPRO informant
NSA call database
Operation Mockingbird
Police brutality
Vineland
Security culture
Red squad - Police intelligence/anti-dissident units, later operated under COINTELPRO
Starsky, Morris, early target of COINTELPRO
Surveillance
The COINTELPRO Papers
THERMCON
Weathermen
State Terrorism

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Cars set alight

LARNACA - Two cars were set ablaze outside their owner’s house in Larnaca.

The incident occurred at around 2am.

Both vehicles were extensively damaged and Fire Brigade investigations showed that the fire was started maliciously.
LARNACA - Two cars were set ablaze outside their owner’s house in Larnaca.
The incident occurred at around 2am.
Both vehicles were extensively damaged and Fire Brigade investigations showed that the fire was started maliciously.

MR | 14.12.2009 23:55 | Climate Chaos | Repression | Social Struggles

For the second day in a row, the police have used pepperspray against the inmates in the climate prison in Valby. Climate activists smashed the cages and used benches to break cell doors open. The police are sending out daily press-releases with the latest news about the many arrests in connection with the protests against the COP15 summit, but some stories never go further than the police’s leadership and are left out of the official accounts.



This is what happened both on Saturday and Sunday where pepperspray was used against the inmates in the so-called ’climate jail’ in Valby. This happened in connection with a prisoner riot that involved several hundred arrested activists.

Modkraft has spoken to several climate activists who witnessed the riot.

"The atmosphere was totally crazy. Several hundred people were shouting and screaming at each other and many tore wooden benches loose inside the cages and began to hit the doors with them" says Mads who was among the people arrested after Sunday’s ’Hit the Production’ demo that took place on Sunday afternoon in Østerbro.

"You could see the fear in their eyes"

257 activists were "preventatively arrested" at Sunday’s demonstration and were taken to the police’s main detention facility, commonly known as the climate jail, on Sunday afternoon.

Mads explains that the police used pepperspray several times against him and the others who sat confined in metal cages measuring 2.4 by 5 metres.

His story is is confirmed by two Swedish girls who Modkraft has also talked to. They say that there was a "chaotic atmosphere" in the prison on Sunday evening where they were also detained in metal cages after the demonstration at Østerbro.

"The police stormed the cages and took everything from us: blankets, water bottles and benches were all removed. They used a lot of pepperspray and it quickly spread around the room.", says Elli.

She tells us that a group of inmates managed to smash open the door of one of the cells. According to Ellie and her friend Marta it was that episode that unleashed the police action on Sunday evening.

"You could see the fear in their eyes. They were very aggressive, and they threatened to use more pepperspray. " says Marta.

As a reaction to the pepper-spray many inmates tore their bed-sheets in pieces and used them to cover their eyes. The two girls described the experience as "traumatic", "humiliating" and "deeply shocking".

"Many people were panicked and scared. It wasn’t possible to get away." says Marta.

Police officers with hearing protection

On the internet forum "Anarchist Debate Forum" a demonstrator called Holst who was also detained at Valby describes the events as follows:

"When I was arrested today, the benches that were tied to the walls with strips were pulled off and used as battering rams against the doors. People made so much noise by chanting and rubbing plastic bottles against the cell bars that the police had go around with hearing protection. Many of the doors that had been destroyed on Saturday had been replaced with thick wooden boards. The rights papers and bedding material were ripped into confetti.

"After some time riot police rushed into the cells to remove all of the benches, (the ones that had not been ripped off the walls were cut off) sleeping mats, and water bottles. They used pepper-spray to come into the cells.

"For the remaining hours, people had to sit on the concrete floor and were given water through the bars of the cells like hamsters."

There were also problems in the climate jail on Saturday evening after the police arrested 968 demonstrators on Amagerbrogade. DR described the situation with these words:

"Inside the prison some of the detainees have among other things, pulled down walls between their cells. Many of the benches from the cells have been removed and the remaining prisoners are now sitting on the floor.

During the disturbance, police officers took dogs into the hall but then decided to take them out again.

Police officer bit in the thigh by a police dog

Another detained woman told Modkraft that she sat together with ten others in a cell in Valby. At one point "people in the cell begun to hang their blankets up so that the cops couldn’t see in. The police reacted by coming in and taking our blankets."

Later, people began to strike the door to the cell so that it broke open. After that, the benches were ripped free from the wall and the police came in with their pepperspray out. They took the two people that had hit on the door, put them in plastic strips and brought them to a new cell where there wasn’t anyone else. The rest of the prisoners in the cell were moved to a new cell.

The episode, which was visible to the rest of the detainees, led to a huge amount of noise that ended with the police bringing dogs into the prison hall. They brought them around the cells until one of the dogs got so worked up that it bit a police officer in the thigh.

Complaints on the way

Like Mads, the two Swedish girls were released on Sunday evening after several hours in police custody. They were driven to a nearby S-train station where they were let out. Neither of them are charged with anything or have received an explanation for why they were arrested in the first place.

All three have decided to complain about their arrest and the treatment they received afterwards. Not because they want compensation, but because they don’t want anyone else to go through the same experience.

"I hope that our complaint can help to change the system. It can’t be right that the police can arrest people who haven’t done anything and put them in cages like animals. It is completely inhuman and borders on torture." says Elli.

According to the legal support group Rusk that deal with complaints from demonstrators, pepperspray was also used against detainees on Saturday 12 December in connection with similar prisoner unrest in the prison in Valby.

"It is totally reprehensible and gives the impression that the police are unable to handle these situations in a constructive way", says spokesperson for Rusk, Marc Jørgensen to Modkraft.dk.

Climate Justice Action, the activist network that are arranging many of the big civil disobedience actions in connection with the COP15 summit, are also outraged at the police’s methods.

"The police’s behaviour is completely unacceptable. The police are supposed to use pepperspray instead of shooting, but in this situation it was used against imprisoned demonstrators who could in no way have constituted a threat. It is time that someone steps in and stops the police’s insane behaviour", they write in a press release.

The police however do not think that they have acted irresponsibly.

"What I have been told is that there was a cage with ten inmates where four or five of them became very violent and used wooden benches as battering rams against the cages. So we decided to use pepperspray against them, but not directly at their eyes", reports police spokesperson Henrik Suhr to politiken.dk about the episode on Sunday evening.
MR
Homepage: http://COP15 prisoners riot in makeshift jail


Correct link
15.12.2009 00:05

http://www.modkraft .dk/spip. php?article12227
MR





COP jail

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this has to come out
15.12.2009 00:10

This news has to come out to the general public... this methods are those of a fascist state, this descriptions remind me too much of those made be my parents when they were in prison in Chile under Pinochet.
anon



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Logic and reason of torture
15.12.2009 00:26

"What I have been told is that there was a cage with ten inmates where four or five of them became very violent and used wooden benches as battering rams against the cages. So we decided to use pepperspray against them, but not directly at their eyes", reports police spokesperson Henrik Suhr to politiken.dk about the episode on Sunday evening".

It's great how barbarism can be acted in out in the most logical and reasoned of manners. But just to show you that this logic and reason is also considerate, he adds that of course they didnt gas the people in cages in their eyes.

ACAB
Always
A



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maybe now you'll believe
15.12.2009 09:16

that this is a fucking war! we must strike back agianst this abuse of our comrades. danish embassy, next on the list, along with the greek and serbian embassies... i can feel a embassy tour coming up!!

we must not allow this to go un-avenged, by legal and illegal means!! solidarity to those on the streets....get ready for the next big demo and do not allow yourselves to be arrested, by whatever methods you need to stay free.

this is it people, the battle, even after all these decades of struggle, is only truly beginning, as the states of the world make it clear, from london to pittsburgh, paris to belgrade, that we will not get our freedom, we will have to fight on for it....fight like we have never fought before.

ACAB
anarchist socialist



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--

Solidarity Poster for Polykarpos Georgiadis and Vaggelis Chrisohoidis (greece)



POSTER SAYS:
did anyone speak of a
KIDNAPPING?
“…A handful of capitalists
have organized a criminal gang
and have kidnapped the proletarians,
demanding for ransom
their labor force,
merchandising their human activity,
their time (which is turned into money),
their own being itself…”
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
to vaggelis Chrisohoidis and Polykarpos Georgiadis
who the persecuting authorities, exactly because they denied to betray values and people,
accuse them as participators in the kidnapping of industrialist Milonas
anarchists from Serres from north-greece


Anarchists solidarity protest outside Korydallos prison, the main prison in Athens, at the time of the change of the year. This protest happens every New Year's Eve for the past six years. This year more than 400 people took part in the protest that interacted with the prisoners inside through shouting mutual slogans and fireworks. The main slogan was "The passion for freedom is stronger that your prisons".
NEW YEAR OUTSIDE IN KORRIDALOS PRISON 2011
Watch live streaming video from agitprop at livestream.com
FIRE TO ALL PRISONS

A society that punishes/the condition of incarceration/the prison of the mind/the prison as punishment/the rage of the damned will sound on the ruins of prisons/those denying obedience and misery of our era even within its hellholes/will dance together on the ruins of every last prison/with the flame of rebellion avenging whatever creates prisons.

To the prisoners struggle already counting one dead and thousands in hunger strike across greece, we stand in solidarity and anger until the destruction of every last prison.


ARSON AND WILDFIRE FOR EVERY PRISON

SOLIDARITY TO ALL PRISONERS IN GREECE


Keny Arkana - La Rage English Subtitles

1976 - 2000 Greek Anarchists Fight for Freedom

(December Riots in Greece)