Friday, February 11, 2011
Site Moved
I have moved all the material from this blog to the following site: https://sites.google.com/site/anarchyinitaly/italian-anarchist-flyers
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
THE BAD EXAMPLE
of an anti-slavery struggle in Salento
Next February 10, a month after the unrest in Rosarno that showed the whole world the conditions under which poor foreigners live in Italy (exploited, hounded, rejected, deported), the appeal trial in Lecce of some anarchists who fought against modern slave masters a few years ago will come to an end.
If the damned of the earth in Calabria fall victim to the much deprecated forces of “organized crime”, in the are of Salento their hell was the notorious CPT (Center for Temporary Residence—a concentration camp for undocumented foreigners) of San Foca, il Regina Pacis. Kept under guard by the faithful uniforms and managed by blessed cassocks, inside, such violence was perpetrated that it could no longer be concealed by the walls or railings. There were those who had seen, heard and told. It was a huge scandal, and within the palaces of power a certain embarrassment spread. The bishop of Lecce was forced to take up the defense of the one responsible for the center—his altar boy Don Cesare Lodeserto—while it fell to the magistrature to begin the timid investigations. Meanwhile in the streets, rage mounted. While all the sincere democrats demonstrated in favor of legal rights and their norms, the anarchists supported rebellion against the concentration camp and its torturers.
We have just seen how the state—the state that foments war among the poor, by passing xenophobic laws and inciting racial hatred—has intervened in Rosarno to reestablish order: first it deported the rebels in mass, then it arrested a few local mafia bosses. In Lecce, it behaved in the same way, but in the opposite direction: first they arrested the priest who was the author of the abuses of power (in March 2005), then it investigates various anarchists, throwin five of them in jail (in May 2005). Set at liberty again after more than a year in jail, the latter were afterwards condemned in the first degree trial for “association to commit criminal activity” and other specific crimes, while others were sentenced to lesser punishments. Now that the Regina Pacis concentration camphas been closed and the torturer-priest has escaped abroad on a mission in the name of God, the Salentine magistrature would like to settle the outstanding accounts with these enemies of all borders. Not merely to confirm the sentences already inflicted in the first degree trial, but to make them even heavier.
If even for a large portion of the same institutions, the rebellion of the blacks in Rosarno represents an understandable venting, that of the anarchists of Lecce constitutes an unacceptable threat. The slave who rebels against yet another lash of the whip can be partially justified, as long as her fury isn't too excessive and he quickly returns to the ranks (unless it is later used as an excuse for a mass deportation). Individuals who refuse the role of passive and indifferent citizens, who refuse any party discipline, get repressed without hesitation. Because they give a bad example. The state blames the conspiracy of silence when faced with private violence, but claims it as a civic duty before institutional acts of violence.
The anarchists of Lecce did what the best residents of Rosarno didn't have the courage to do. They didn't close their eyes to what was happening, they didn't call on or wait for anyone, they chose to try to directly stop the infamy that was going on in the field. And they did it without political aims or missionary hypocrisy. They saw human beings in chains and rose up against the slave masters.
This is why they want to condemn them, in Lecce, next February 10.
This is why we cannot let leave them alone.
more enemies of all borders
Sunday, January 3, 2010
APPEAL TO TOURISTS
Do you enjoy Italy? Are you satisfied with its monuments, its scenery, its cuisine? Fine, you know that the only reason why you, foreigners, are well received in Italy is because you have the right papers in your wallet, those that are able to open all borders, to win all affection, to ensure every kindness: money.
Tourists, you are not the only foreigners who have chosen our country as your destination. Every day, masses of the poor and desperate also come into Italy -- escaping from war, from misery, from famine. But while you are rich foreigners (tourists), they are poor foreigners (immigrants).
You come with the intention of amusing yourself. They come with the hope of survival.
You get smiles and flattery, they get contempt and violence.
For you the doors of the welcoming hotels open, for them the doors of actual concentration camps open.
When poor foreigners in Italy are not immediately turned away, they get hounded, persecuted, humiliated, arrested, beaten, expelled after a period of detention that can last as long as six months. Anyone who helps them, by giving them hospitality, can be imprisoned for 3 years. Even doctors can end up in prison, if they treat them without denouncing them to the authorities.
In this climate of terror, it is not at all surprising if the Minister of the Interior, after having declared that he wants to be "very nasty with immigrants", has ordered that boats full of the desperate be sent back into the sea; or if a representative of a party in the government has proposed reserving seats in the Milan subway only for Italians.
Tourists, you are visiting one of the Countries that was the cradle of civilization, but the only civilization presently in it is that of racism and xenophobia. Today in Italy, there are no more poets like Dante, no more lovers like Romeo and Juliet, no more inventors like Leonardo; there are only reactionaries, police and inspectors, all provided with handcuffs and truncheons.
You know, tourists, that your money also helps the Italian regime to carry out its politics. By supporting the Italian economy, you support the economy of a racist and xenophobic country. Are you sure you want to do this? are you sure that you also want to be accomplices of the raids, the mass arrests, the concentration camps, the deportations?
It is with a heart full of shame that we urge you: tourists, leave Italy!
Go away from this country, so splendid, and yet so vile.
Go away, right now. Don't finance the war against the poor conducted by the Italian government. Go away and spread the word among all your acquaintances: Italy is a racist country, boycott it!!!
Tourists, you are not the only foreigners who have chosen our country as your destination. Every day, masses of the poor and desperate also come into Italy -- escaping from war, from misery, from famine. But while you are rich foreigners (tourists), they are poor foreigners (immigrants).
You come with the intention of amusing yourself. They come with the hope of survival.
You get smiles and flattery, they get contempt and violence.
For you the doors of the welcoming hotels open, for them the doors of actual concentration camps open.
When poor foreigners in Italy are not immediately turned away, they get hounded, persecuted, humiliated, arrested, beaten, expelled after a period of detention that can last as long as six months. Anyone who helps them, by giving them hospitality, can be imprisoned for 3 years. Even doctors can end up in prison, if they treat them without denouncing them to the authorities.
In this climate of terror, it is not at all surprising if the Minister of the Interior, after having declared that he wants to be "very nasty with immigrants", has ordered that boats full of the desperate be sent back into the sea; or if a representative of a party in the government has proposed reserving seats in the Milan subway only for Italians.
Tourists, you are visiting one of the Countries that was the cradle of civilization, but the only civilization presently in it is that of racism and xenophobia. Today in Italy, there are no more poets like Dante, no more lovers like Romeo and Juliet, no more inventors like Leonardo; there are only reactionaries, police and inspectors, all provided with handcuffs and truncheons.
You know, tourists, that your money also helps the Italian regime to carry out its politics. By supporting the Italian economy, you support the economy of a racist and xenophobic country. Are you sure you want to do this? are you sure that you also want to be accomplices of the raids, the mass arrests, the concentration camps, the deportations?
It is with a heart full of shame that we urge you: tourists, leave Italy!
Go away from this country, so splendid, and yet so vile.
Go away, right now. Don't finance the war against the poor conducted by the Italian government. Go away and spread the word among all your acquaintances: Italy is a racist country, boycott it!!!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
WE ARE NOT SLAVES. WE ARE DYNAMITE
They are old things, from another century. Poverty, which progress seemed to have banished from the West, comes back to make us feel its bite. Bankers aren’t jumping from windows yet, but the poor are filling the streets. Factories and shops close their doors. Millions of people find themselves with no means for facing the future. They were promised that a life passed on their knees, between a job that profited a boss and obedience to the will of the government would at least ensure a quiet survival for them. Now it’s clear to all that this was a lie.
They are old things, from another century. The lines are swelling in front of soup kitchens. The number of thefts in supermarkets is constantly growing. Foreclosure proceedings pile up while there are around 20,000,000 empty houses here in the US alone. And while those on the bottom try not to die of hunger, those on top prepare for the worst, for the feared social explosion. “Zero tolerance” is guaranteed for anyone who breaks the law; new structures of detention are being prepared for natives and immigrants; soldiers and “volunteers” patrol neighborhoods that are under video surveillance. The old and new poor have to know: dying of privation or suicide, these are the only choices permitted to them.
They are old things, from another century. Today, more and more people are reaching out to grab wealth from the places where it exists in abundance. Some even have a dream in their heart, like the two anarchists, Christos and Alfredo, who were arrested in Greece on October 1 for a bank robbery. Christos robbed the bank at gunpoint. They claim that Alfredo aided him, taking the money on delivery. Now the two anarchists, one Greek and one Italian, are behind bars. Prison is the fate promised to anyone who isn’t resigned to dying in misery, the fate promised to the enemies of all exploitation and authority.
They are old things, from another century. A shattered economy, skyrocketing unemployment, the deterioration of living conditions, a war among the poor fomented by stooges of the powerful, the right wing using ever more blatant racist lunacy to gain support for more and more repression, a planet threatened by technological development, States alternating the carrot of democracy with the stick of totalitarianism…
In this sudden return to the past, there is still something missing: the offended dignity that drives desperation away, transforming it into action; the freedom that stops being the right to obey authority and goes back to being the challenge to every form of power; the desire to live that isn’t satisfied with what exists and mounts an assault to snatch what has never been.
IT’S AN OLD THING, FROM ANOTHER CENTURY: INSURRECTION
Anarchists
They are old things, from another century. The lines are swelling in front of soup kitchens. The number of thefts in supermarkets is constantly growing. Foreclosure proceedings pile up while there are around 20,000,000 empty houses here in the US alone. And while those on the bottom try not to die of hunger, those on top prepare for the worst, for the feared social explosion. “Zero tolerance” is guaranteed for anyone who breaks the law; new structures of detention are being prepared for natives and immigrants; soldiers and “volunteers” patrol neighborhoods that are under video surveillance. The old and new poor have to know: dying of privation or suicide, these are the only choices permitted to them.
They are old things, from another century. Today, more and more people are reaching out to grab wealth from the places where it exists in abundance. Some even have a dream in their heart, like the two anarchists, Christos and Alfredo, who were arrested in Greece on October 1 for a bank robbery. Christos robbed the bank at gunpoint. They claim that Alfredo aided him, taking the money on delivery. Now the two anarchists, one Greek and one Italian, are behind bars. Prison is the fate promised to anyone who isn’t resigned to dying in misery, the fate promised to the enemies of all exploitation and authority.
They are old things, from another century. A shattered economy, skyrocketing unemployment, the deterioration of living conditions, a war among the poor fomented by stooges of the powerful, the right wing using ever more blatant racist lunacy to gain support for more and more repression, a planet threatened by technological development, States alternating the carrot of democracy with the stick of totalitarianism…
In this sudden return to the past, there is still something missing: the offended dignity that drives desperation away, transforming it into action; the freedom that stops being the right to obey authority and goes back to being the challenge to every form of power; the desire to live that isn’t satisfied with what exists and mounts an assault to snatch what has never been.
IT’S AN OLD THING, FROM ANOTHER CENTURY: INSURRECTION
Anarchists
GREETINGS FROM GREECE
They’re old things, from another century. Two anarchists get arrested after a bank job. The first robbed it, gun in hand. They say the second helped him, holding the money. It happened in a small Greek village, this past October 1. And so? There are things that happen. And then that is a far away country, with an incomprehensible and untranslatable language. Who do you want to be interested in it? The robber is Christos Stratigopulos, already arrested and convicted here in Italy fifteen years ago on a similar charge. The penalty served, he returned to Greece. Remembered by a few, unknown to most. But the other one arrested is Italian; it is Alfredo Bonanno. Yes, precisely him; who hasn’t heard his name? In its own small way, the news has gone quickly around the world, revived by many press agencies: “one of the major theorists of insurrectionalist anarchism”, “among the major ideologues of anarchy”, “anarchist activist and writer”, “international fugitive anarchist robber”, “theorist of revolutionary violence”, has ended up behind bars again. The promoters of antiterrorism, both Greek and Italian, have rushed in, ready to exploit the juicy occasion. The elements for concocting a fine theorem are all there: a country in which there are still fires blazing after the great insurrectionary conflagration that flared up last December, a Greek anarchist active in the movement, a foreign anarchist known for his subversive theories who travelled around the country holding meetings, a bank robbed.
Christos has taken full responsibility for the act, caused by economic problems, denying Alfredo’s involvement. But, clearly, the judge didn’t believe him. So both are still in jail. The first, because he dared to reach out a hand toward wealth rather than resign himself to dying in misery. What’s more, he is an anarchist. The second, because… because… because maybe he helped his comrade. And, for sure, he is an anarchist. And that’s enough.
They are old things, from another century. Two anarchists get arrested after a bank job. Outside, solidarity is organized. Funds start to be collected; initiatives are prepared. But that’s not all. In Athens, the two prisoners get explosive greetings from the group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, which had just disturbed the crowning of the new Greek premier. In Villejuif, France, someone renders their homage by smashing the windows of the local offices of the Socialist Party. One of the beauties of anarchy is that it doesn’t recognize borders. And in Italy? Bah, here it has been limited to communicating the news, faithfully and coldly reporting the journalists’ poisons. No comment. The drafters of daily virtual communiqués say nothing. The tenders of militant gardens fall silent. The little strategists of the new alliances hush up. The movement has now become a community, and anyone who doesn’t share its rules and language doesn’t exist. He is nameless. In the rush to follow the masses, have individuals been forgotten? Perhaps it’s better this way. Better a sincere silence, if in the face of such an act, one no longer knows what to say, than hypocritical chatter about solidarity. Let’s leave that to the Stalinist annoyances and other ruins. Or to a few third millennium fascists, who on one of their forums rendered “honor” to the two arrested anarchists.
They are old things, from another century. Two anarchists get arrested after a bank job. The first is 46-years-old, the second 72. Whether guilty or innocent, for them being anarchists doesn’t even have the excuse of being an infantile disorder of extremism. Stubborn as they are, they haven’t understood that now is the time to ride the wave of social movements, to defend who knows what in front of places of power, to act as social workers for the damned of the earth. No, they haven’t understood this. The dream that they have in their hearts is much too big to adapt itself to the tick-tock of modern times.
No pardon, no pity.
Good-bye, beautiful Lugano.
Christos has taken full responsibility for the act, caused by economic problems, denying Alfredo’s involvement. But, clearly, the judge didn’t believe him. So both are still in jail. The first, because he dared to reach out a hand toward wealth rather than resign himself to dying in misery. What’s more, he is an anarchist. The second, because… because… because maybe he helped his comrade. And, for sure, he is an anarchist. And that’s enough.
They are old things, from another century. Two anarchists get arrested after a bank job. Outside, solidarity is organized. Funds start to be collected; initiatives are prepared. But that’s not all. In Athens, the two prisoners get explosive greetings from the group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, which had just disturbed the crowning of the new Greek premier. In Villejuif, France, someone renders their homage by smashing the windows of the local offices of the Socialist Party. One of the beauties of anarchy is that it doesn’t recognize borders. And in Italy? Bah, here it has been limited to communicating the news, faithfully and coldly reporting the journalists’ poisons. No comment. The drafters of daily virtual communiqués say nothing. The tenders of militant gardens fall silent. The little strategists of the new alliances hush up. The movement has now become a community, and anyone who doesn’t share its rules and language doesn’t exist. He is nameless. In the rush to follow the masses, have individuals been forgotten? Perhaps it’s better this way. Better a sincere silence, if in the face of such an act, one no longer knows what to say, than hypocritical chatter about solidarity. Let’s leave that to the Stalinist annoyances and other ruins. Or to a few third millennium fascists, who on one of their forums rendered “honor” to the two arrested anarchists.
They are old things, from another century. Two anarchists get arrested after a bank job. The first is 46-years-old, the second 72. Whether guilty or innocent, for them being anarchists doesn’t even have the excuse of being an infantile disorder of extremism. Stubborn as they are, they haven’t understood that now is the time to ride the wave of social movements, to defend who knows what in front of places of power, to act as social workers for the damned of the earth. No, they haven’t understood this. The dream that they have in their hearts is much too big to adapt itself to the tick-tock of modern times.
No pardon, no pity.
Good-bye, beautiful Lugano.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
WARNING
This past September 24, in the
HAS THE MESSAGE GOTTEN THROUGH?
In
HAS THE MESSAGE GOTTEN THROUGH?
This past October 8, in
HAS THE MESSAGE GOTTEN THROUGH?
Yes, it has gotten through.
During the Vietnam war, one of the favorite slogans of the anti-militarist movement was Bring the War Home. Besides being a parody of the more pacifistic “Bring the boys home”, it also had a precise meaning: the war overseas had divided the country to the point that the moment had come to trigger off a war at home. Today, the institutions have brought the war home. The streets are filling with soldiers, divided between patrols and road blocks.
If we don’t want to remain victims or become accomplices of this war of extermination of every form of freedom, the only thing left to us is to take up the challenge.
ABANDONING FOREVER THE DAYS OF POLITICS IN ORDER TO BEGIN THE DAYS OF RAGE
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
THE RETURN OF MAGNA GRAECIA (GREATER GREECE)
“The extreme deception of the modern epoch consists in the fact that today’s murderers have made the rhythm of history their own and that police-caused death operates in the name of democracy” (Hungarian Rising Sun, 1956)
What was already true more than half a century ago is especially true today. In Italy in 2001 as in Greece in 2009, people continue to die at the hands of the state’s lackeys: in the streets, in their houses, in motorway cafes, in the barracks, in prison. But the same happens throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Last week, Turkish police killed a Kurdish demonstrator; meanwhile a thousand kilometers away, in Berlin, a plain-clothes officer fired at a nineteen-year-old man, kneecapping him.
Fortunately, it sometimes happens that the murders, abuses and pompous arrogance of the state don’t just meet with consolidated resignation or sporadic opposition. It happened in Greece, where a year ago, a 15-year-old boy, Alexis, got killed by a police officer when he was found in front of a bar. For months, the whole country has burned with the fire of revolt, a generalized uprising that has rendered the politics of mourning and grief ineffective. No peaceful processions, no petitions to authority, no powerless indignation; only rage and fury against the state and its torturers.
Now the new leftist government gave orders to repress demonstrations organized on the occasion of the first anniversary of that murder, using any means necessary (including murder). On the eve of the anniversary, dozens and dozens of stops and preventative arrests were carried out throughout the country. During the anniversary demonstrations, hundreds of arrests were made in the streets, the setting of savage attacks. Broken bones and heads are no longer counted. One woman demonstrator was intentionally run over with a motorcycle of the police special corps and is in a coma.
But if the leftist Greek government of 2009, in imitation of the rightist Italian government of 2001, has thought that terror would be enough to pacify spirits, it has calculated badly. Magna Graecia is not the present-day drowsy Little Italy, where even state butchery seems to produce only ritual commemorations and implausible revisionism.
The demonstrations of Sunday, December 6, being repressed in blood, new demonstrations were called for the next day. The iron fist of repression also came down on these, with more butchery and another demonstrator gravely wounded. According to official estimates, in just two days, 823 people were stopped, and 159 of them were formally arrested and charged. It is not over… Because Greece burns, it continues to burn, with occupations of schools and universities, palaces and radio stations, with street blockades, with attacks against banks and police stations, with daily demonstrations in every city. Here State Terror isn’t able to impose any obsequious obedience, it only feeds new protests. In the cradle of civilization Eleutheria (freedom) is not the slogan of a party or association, it is a human passion to live, love and defend with force when it gets threatened. Anyone who isn’t willing to barter his or her dignity in exchange for a wage, a loan or a television, knows well that it is better to fight wearing a hood against the powerful and their stooges than to vegetate wearing a tie in their service.
This is the fiery ember that the revolt going on in Greece throws out into the world. To come out of the Great Chill of depression and resignation, of poverty and fear, of power and obedience, the fire extinguisher of politics is good for nothing. In all places, at all times, what we want is the Greek Fire, ancient and mysterious incendiary mixture, inextinguishable because impervious to water.
Some anarchists
Liber ignium ad comburendos hostes
Ignaem græcum tali modo facies: Recipe sulphur vivum, tatarum, sarcocollam et piceam, sal coctum, oleum, petroleum er oleum gemmæ. Facias bullire invicem omnia ista bene. Postea impone stupæ et accende, quod si volueris exhibere per embotum, ut supra diximus. Stupa illinita non extinguetur, nisi urina vel aceta vel arena.
[A relatively literal translation of the above:Book of Fire for Burning Enemies (by Marcus Græcus)
You make the Greek fire in this way: take natural sulfur, tartar,sarco-gum(? animal gum) and pitch, salt cooked from water, petroleum and germ (grain?) oil. Boil all together. Then immerse the oakum (fuse) and light it; if you want you can launch it with a piston, as said above. The flaming oakum doesn’t go out except with urine, vinegar or sand.]
What was already true more than half a century ago is especially true today. In Italy in 2001 as in Greece in 2009, people continue to die at the hands of the state’s lackeys: in the streets, in their houses, in motorway cafes, in the barracks, in prison. But the same happens throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Last week, Turkish police killed a Kurdish demonstrator; meanwhile a thousand kilometers away, in Berlin, a plain-clothes officer fired at a nineteen-year-old man, kneecapping him.
Fortunately, it sometimes happens that the murders, abuses and pompous arrogance of the state don’t just meet with consolidated resignation or sporadic opposition. It happened in Greece, where a year ago, a 15-year-old boy, Alexis, got killed by a police officer when he was found in front of a bar. For months, the whole country has burned with the fire of revolt, a generalized uprising that has rendered the politics of mourning and grief ineffective. No peaceful processions, no petitions to authority, no powerless indignation; only rage and fury against the state and its torturers.
Now the new leftist government gave orders to repress demonstrations organized on the occasion of the first anniversary of that murder, using any means necessary (including murder). On the eve of the anniversary, dozens and dozens of stops and preventative arrests were carried out throughout the country. During the anniversary demonstrations, hundreds of arrests were made in the streets, the setting of savage attacks. Broken bones and heads are no longer counted. One woman demonstrator was intentionally run over with a motorcycle of the police special corps and is in a coma.
But if the leftist Greek government of 2009, in imitation of the rightist Italian government of 2001, has thought that terror would be enough to pacify spirits, it has calculated badly. Magna Graecia is not the present-day drowsy Little Italy, where even state butchery seems to produce only ritual commemorations and implausible revisionism.
The demonstrations of Sunday, December 6, being repressed in blood, new demonstrations were called for the next day. The iron fist of repression also came down on these, with more butchery and another demonstrator gravely wounded. According to official estimates, in just two days, 823 people were stopped, and 159 of them were formally arrested and charged. It is not over… Because Greece burns, it continues to burn, with occupations of schools and universities, palaces and radio stations, with street blockades, with attacks against banks and police stations, with daily demonstrations in every city. Here State Terror isn’t able to impose any obsequious obedience, it only feeds new protests. In the cradle of civilization Eleutheria (freedom) is not the slogan of a party or association, it is a human passion to live, love and defend with force when it gets threatened. Anyone who isn’t willing to barter his or her dignity in exchange for a wage, a loan or a television, knows well that it is better to fight wearing a hood against the powerful and their stooges than to vegetate wearing a tie in their service.
This is the fiery ember that the revolt going on in Greece throws out into the world. To come out of the Great Chill of depression and resignation, of poverty and fear, of power and obedience, the fire extinguisher of politics is good for nothing. In all places, at all times, what we want is the Greek Fire, ancient and mysterious incendiary mixture, inextinguishable because impervious to water.
Some anarchists
Liber ignium ad comburendos hostes
Ignaem græcum tali modo facies: Recipe sulphur vivum, tatarum, sarcocollam et piceam, sal coctum, oleum, petroleum er oleum gemmæ. Facias bullire invicem omnia ista bene. Postea impone stupæ et accende, quod si volueris exhibere per embotum, ut supra diximus. Stupa illinita non extinguetur, nisi urina vel aceta vel arena.
[A relatively literal translation of the above:Book of Fire for Burning Enemies (by Marcus Græcus)
You make the Greek fire in this way: take natural sulfur, tartar,sarco-gum(? animal gum) and pitch, salt cooked from water, petroleum and germ (grain?) oil. Boil all together. Then immerse the oakum (fuse) and light it; if you want you can launch it with a piston, as said above. The flaming oakum doesn’t go out except with urine, vinegar or sand.]
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