Showing posts with label state violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label state violence. Show all posts

Wednesday 13 July 2022

State Killings.

       Further to my previous post on hunger striker Giannis Michailidis, and the inhumane treatment he is receiving at the hands of the Greek state, I post in full a letter from Lamia prison by Giannis.

The following is from Enough is Enough:

         Lamia. Greece. A letter from anarchist prisoner Giannis Michailidis, who is on hunger strike since May 23, 2022.

Originally published by Anarchist News.

        Since the anthropocentricity of the majority of our society attributes the above mental attributes exclusively to humans, I will probably be accused of anthropomorphism (you will tell me of all you have been accused of, did that bother you?). However, I do not attribute characteristics to scorpions that are not inferred from their behavior, such as rational thought. It is encouraging that newer neuroscientific research suggests that the architecture of neural circuits associated with the function of consciousness in humans and other mammals is even detectable in insect brains.
       How does this relate to the current situation? A few hundred million years after the appearance of scorpions, a being walked the earth that constructed permanent enclosure structures for other living beings, including its own kind: cages and guardians.
       Many intelligent animals in captivity stop eating and are driven to death (e.g. of the dolphins that are captured, few survive). Countless people in captivity, (since so long ago that the beginnings have been erased) have gone on hunger strikes in prisons to gain their freedom or dignity. This is the equivalent of self-centering by beings with enough intelligence to try to provide a way out of the impasse. That is why nowadays, the hunger strike is internationally recognized as a historically powerful means of struggle, especially for prisoners.
       In Greek circumstances (where even the junta of the colonels backed down on hunger strikes) modern judges and prosecutors are governed by a different perspective. The majority are driven by ultra-conservative views and, having caused untold pain to tens of thousands of prisoners who have been deprived of their long-term freedom, they work for a torture industry entrenched behind obvious lies such as correctionalism. Like slaughterhouse workers, or like fighter pilots bombing the enemy’s cities, they have killed any trace of empathy in themselves and can eat their lunch by convincing themselves that they are doing something useful. That is why they see the hunger strike as a means of challenging their omnipotence and show zero tolerance.
       How else to interpret, what judges and prosecutors write, up to the 46th day of my hunger strike, when the prosecutor’s proposal of the court of appeal for my release was issued?
        I was preceded by two councils where I was tried for what the judges believe I will do and I was held on remand as a “risk of committing further offences”. In the second even theirs they didn’t ask me a single question, not even about the facts and just issued a predetermined decision after 40 days (30 of which already on hunger strike). Without even a rationale, it took them 40 days to write “in accordance with the prosecutor’s proposal, to avoid unnecessary repetition”. I was treated with defiant indifference.
        In the face of this squalor, I started a hunger strike. And in the announcement of its opening, I listed both the arbitrary acts against me and numerous examples where the judges have opened wide the doors when it comes to children of the system (cops – murderers, prison guards – torturers, fascists, big capitalists).
       Meanwhile, in the midst of my strike, Alexandros’ killer, one of Zack’s killers who did as much jail time as I do hunger strike time, and rapist Filippidis have been released early on the improbable grounds that the potential victims are not at risk because he is now known for his actions and will avoid him. And I who completed 3/5 of my sentence 7 months ago “have not yet been corrected as not enough time has passed” according to the prosecutorial reasoning! Unrepentant murderers are enjoying what I have been fighting to earn for 50 days risking my life, what I have been entitled to for 7 months, freedom.
      Seemingly unrelated, and yet relevant, is the murder of the chimpanzee that escaped from Jean-Jacques Leshwar’s wild animal prison. I wonder if Greek ‘justice’ will deal with a serial killer and torturer of wildlife? Too much money…
      Anyway at this moment, my own stinger has already pierced my body and is spreading poison destroying its vital organs, probably irreversibly. However, it will inevitably pierce, even if only temporarily, the murderous order that sustains this system of generalized enslavement and exploitation of nature (human and otherwise)…

THE ONLY DEFEATED STRUGGLE IS THE ONE NEVER GIVEN

FREEDOM OR DEATH

11/7/2022,

Giannis Michailidis  

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Tuesday 29 March 2022

Sudan.


          While our media are all a frenzy over the Ukrainian affair, you would tend to think that all is well in the rest of the world. However, that is far from the truth, their are brutal wars and repressions dotted all around the planet, Yemen, Somalia, Palestine, Rojava, to mention a few, and practically no media coverage of the situation in Sudan. The people of Sudan have been continuing to hold mass peaceful protests against the military coup that took place on October 2021. These ongoing peaceful protests have been met with savage and brutal force by the military war lords in charge of Sudan, resulting in many grotesque injures and deaths. Despite the viciousness of the state repression, the people continue to take to the streets and face down the state violence. They deserve our fullest support and solidarity, their fight for freedom is our fight.

The following from Enough is Enough:

           Sudan. March 25. 2022. Mohammed Abdellatif, 28 years old, was killed with a shotgun as he was shot at close range in the chest, abdomen, and neck by the joint security forces in Wad Madani during yesterday’s Marches of the Millions, bringing the total number of martyrs since the October 25 military coup to 90.

Originally published by Dabanga.

           In a preliminary field report on the Khartoum marches yesterday, the Socialist Doctors Association (SDA) said that the number of injuries recorded was 43, including 8 bullet wounds from live ammunition.
        The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) confirmed that the coup authorities in Khartoum are still using deadly violence against the peaceful revolutionaries and that the revolutionary protesters are still adhering to their peaceful protest tactics, ‘which have proven their strength against bullets and the security arsenal’. The total number of injuries in the Khartoum North (Bahri) marchers on Wednesday, March 23, reached 7 cases, including 5 injuries from live bullets, including a wound to the chest. The doctors’ report indicated that there were other cases of injuries that were treated by field aid teams, and they are not included in the list.

Shotgun use

         The joint security forces used heavily used shotguns as part of their repression of the Marches of the Millions in February and March, and a number of revolutionaries were killed whilst hundreds sustained injuries from shotguns. The surgery of such shotgun wounds is complicated by the difficulty of removing the scattered shrapnel that can settle next to some vital organs. A shotgun firearm designed to shoot a cartridge known as a ‘shotshell’, which usually discharges numerous small sub-projectiles, like shrapnel. According to the CCSD, 101 cases of shotgun wound infection were monitored on March 21, 2022, including a serious injury that led to the loss of an eye in the processions of the city of Wad Madani.
         The committee announced its report entitled ‘The New Killer’, issued yesterday, that it had recorded 4 deaths and 327 cases of gunshot wounds with this firearm since the coup of last October 25. The committee also mentioned in its report the presence of some other light injuries with shotguns that are treated by field teams.

All over Sudan

        Three central cities that witnessed Marches of the Millions yesterday Khartoum, Khartoum North (Bahri), and Omdurman. All three witnessed brutal repression by the joint security forces during their march towards the Republican Palace and the march in Omdurman’s streets heading to the parliament buildings.
        The repression led to a number of wounded who were transferred to hospitals whilse others were treated in the field. The joint security forces met the peaceful demonstrators with excessive force, using tear gas, live bullets, and stun grenades in an attempt to prevent the peaceful processions from reaching the Republican Palace. The Omdurman processions managed, under the sound of stun grenades and tear gas, to reach Parliament. The demonstrators chanted throughout the capital, condemning the coup of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) leader Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Commander Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo.
        Marches of the Millions, called for by the Resistance Committees also took place in several cities in the states, including Wad Madani, Port Sudan, Nyala, Atbara, Singa, El Geneina, and El Gedaref. Everywhere, the protesters demanded full civilian rule and the return of the military to their barracks and held the coup authorities responsible for the deterioration of the economic and living conditions in Sudan. A member of the El Gedaref Resistance Committees told Radio Dabanga that the El Gedaref demonstrations moved past the murals for the martyrs, next to the morgue, and met on Marches of the Millions Revolution Street in the city center with chants denouncing the coup and demanding full civil rule. The police confronted the demonstrators and closed the El Gedaref market.

 

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Sunday 20 March 2022

Police.


          In country after country the opinion of the people is that they don't want the police, they have had enough of police brutality. Injury and deaths mount up from police action, but  rarely or never is there a successful prosecution of a police officer. When they are armed, they shoot people, when they are not armed with firearms, they beat people up. Their approach is always confrontational, provoking, threatening and arrogant. They are the intimidating tool of the state, there to stifle any possible threat to the existing structure of society, a society that is controlled and governed by the rich and powerful. We don't need the police, we can look after our own communities in a more reasonable and humane manner, we don't need their violence and brutality. Their aim is a subservient and submissive population that will not step out of the line they have been allocated by the powers that be. They are the state's protectors of wealth, power and privilege.



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Thursday 10 March 2022

Our Enemy.

 

             So often many people are taking sides in this latest imperialist blood-letting, "nasty evil Russia" or bully "American imperialism". We would do well to remember that no matter the excuses raised for war, it is always the ordinary people who shed their blood and it is always the rich and powerful who reap the blood stained spoils. The only side we should take is against all states and borders, against all power groups of state/corporate plunders of the planet, we have no enemies among the ordinary people, our real enemy is the borders raised by the privileged, rich, powerful groups who shape the direction of society, all to enhance their already over privileged and powerful positions. When it comes to supporting a war, the motto of the ordinary people should be Non Serviam, I will not serve, that doesn't mean we should be apathetic and ignore the blood letting by the pampered privileged parasites of this world. We should direct our anger at the power mongers, the state apparatus and their bedfellows, the corporate world. We have no fight with teachers, bus drivers, farmers or lorry drivers, our fight must be with rich and powerful who foster and ferment wars and divisions between ordinary people of the world.   

The following from Act For Freedom Now.    

            The war has finally arrived. After two years of preparations for war, chants, flags, discipline, the «we are at war» announced since spring 2020 is finally real. The tragic news coming from Ukraine is the trigger they were seeking for the definitive militarization of our society.
           Wars are always a bloodbath for the exploited and profitable business for the bosses. We are not interested in the contrasting reasons of the propaganda made by the belligerents. The exploited in Russia as well as in Ukraine, Italy and the United States are our brothers, their blood is our blood. Governments, generals, businessmen, financiers are our enemies, our executioners, those who starve us.
The arrogant insatiable thirty-year old NATO expansion and Russia’s internal crisis were the mixture for the explosive situation which we find ourselves thrown
          On the one side, a long series of imperialistic precedents such as the bombardments in Serbia, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the support of criminal gangs such as those ruling Ukraine, where trade unionists are burnt alive; on the other, regimes such as Putin’s and Lukašenko’s, which hold together with the glue of encirclement paranoia and imperial nostalgia, where anarchists and opponents are arrested and tortured. In the face of all this filth no front is ours. Our enemies are not the exploited on the front, but all rulers, starting from those in our country.

Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Saturday 30 October 2021

Killer Cops.

      Every state by necessity has its police force, it needs its paid thugs as it tries to control the population and stop them from making changes to society that would benefit all and remove the power and privileges of the parasite class that try to control all aspects of our lives.  They can beat up, kill and maim but are very rarely brought to justice, and if they are held to account by the loaded judiciary, they usually get off very lightly indeed. This case from Greece is replicated in some form or other in states across the globe. Where there is state power, there is no justice, no freedom.

 

           In the early hours of Saturday 23/10/21, 7 bike cops were chasing a car they thought was stolen. In it were three young guys, which the cops recognized as roma. A bit later, there were 38 fire-shots, aimed not at the tires of the car (in their supposed attempt to stop it), but higher; in a clear attempt to injure/murder the passengers of the car. All shots were fired by the cops. The three young guys were unarmed. Nikos Sampanis, the 18-year-old co-driver was instantly killed, as he was hit with 2 bullets on the chest. A 16-year-old is injured and still in hospital and the 14-year-old driver ran away amidst gunfire. The cops were initially arrested and were charged with the felony of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.

         A few minutes after their *arrest*, Spyridon Georgiadis, Minister for Development and Investment, tweeted his congratulations to the murderous cops. The Citizen Protection Minister, Takis Theodorikakos, paid them a visit in jail. For “symbolic reasons” as he stated.
        From the very first moment, mass media in Greece focused on the fact that the murdered young man is a “roma”. Additionally, they falsely reported that he had a heavy criminal record. This was proven to be a blatant lie. In fact, the notorious police reporter Nina Karamitrou posted a photo of a man with dark skin holding a gun, presenting him as the dead Nikos. The photo was fake. The cops’ attorney, A. Kougias, characterized the roma community in Greece “a plague”. Al. Kougias is a well-known lawyer from criminal cases but also a defense lawyer in cases of the Greek mafia. He was also the defense attorney for the cop that murdered 16-year-old A.Grigoropoulos in 2008.
        The greek reality is that the roma community is constantly targetted by the authorities and subjected to racism and discrimination in the greek society. The roma community is a typical case of a marginalized community.
         Yesterday evening the investigator and prosectutor decided to release from custody with no restrictive measures all cops with felony charges. Once again, minutes after the decision, the Citizen Protection Minister, Takis Theodorikakos, expressed his “satisfaction on the decision of the independent judiciary”.
Your democracy is fed on blood – The cops murder – Corrupt Greek Mass Media fabricate news directed by the state and capital – The judiciary harbours and enables
WE DO NOT FORGIVE – WE DO NOT FORGET
 

 
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk  

Thursday 1 July 2021

Live Free.

            Autonomous spaces, where people organise in a co-operative manner the way they want to live, free, in peace, co-operation and harmony are essential bullet holes in this authoritarian system of control freaks and profit gobbling maniacs. However the state can't tolerate free thinking people who live in harmony outside their cage of submission. The Greek state has used every brutal tool in its authoritarian armoury against these autonomous spaces brutal evictions, detention and prison sentences, bricking up doorways, and mounting a military style occupation of the area. However, the Greek state is not alone in this onslaught against the free thinking people, state after state is doing likewise, and never much of a mention in the state mouthpiece the mainstream media. The following extract is from Germany, but it could be Russia, France, Chile or any of the other capitalist oriented states.

Originally published by Kontrapolis
 
To the companions of Köpi Wagenplatz
         We know exactly how you feel right now. We went through the same shit almost a year ago. The whole chaos of barricading, clearing things out, keeping things there. Arguing, liking each other, all the fear of losing the long used and long loved home. All the questions of where to go afterwards and at the same time knowing that we will not lose our home, because we can still defend ourselves, because we will still defend ourselves.
        Of course the Liebig34 was and is quite different from the Köpi Wagenplatz. But when it comes down to it, we can count on each other. We want to say again a big thank you how you have supported us shortly before the eviction and really on all levels. Without you we wouldn’t have been able to get things going so well and we wouldn’t have had as much fun. And above all, we would not have gotten to know each other better. Thanks for that! For support and new friendships.
That’s why we want to ask everyone to support Köpi as much as we do! More than 30 years of self-organization do not just pass us by. Köpi Wagenplatz is similar to the Liebig a super diverse bunch of people and therefore quite unique. Few Wagenplätze in Berlin have existed for so long and more and more are being evicted and more and more are needed.
        We can’t imagine a Berlin without the Köpi and the Köpi Wagenplatz and we don’t want to. We have experienced the best concerts in Köpi. We all forgot about time for a whole weekend and hung out in the Köpi yard by the fire bin for far too long, drank beer and forgot when next Monday wll come. All in all, we all have our different exciting stories that we don’t want to miss. Köpi is so much more than a place to live! Köpi is a super international place where so many different spaces, people and collectives are. “Köpi bleibt Risikokapital!“ That is clear. Let’s show the profit-oriented system what it means when another self-organized project is taken away from us. Let’s show the pigs that they can’t take away our ideas of freedom. Better burning hearts than dead dreams!
         It is the same as always, Köpi Wagenplatz must be defended to the last.

We wish you a lot of strength!
See you soon your Liebig34
Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Saturday 29 May 2021

Colombia.

     When the people take on the state in an attempt to bring justice and freedom to the ordinary people, they should have no doubt the extent the state will go to, to suppress that drive for justice and freedom. Recent examples are Myanmar, Belarus, and ongoing in Colombia. At the moment the people of Colombia have been in constant revolt for months now, and the cost to the ordinary people is a sickening toll of death, torture, disappearances. These incidences should be warnings to the people of what to expect from their particular state apparatus should they decided they have had enough of its authoritarianism, corruption, injustice and inequality. The end of the state system will be a blood bath not a bubble bath, but it is the only road to freedom and justice for the ordinary people.

The following from Crimethinc: 

‘Colombia cries but does not surrender.’ Photo: Misión Verdad

May 27 — Jhon Erik Larrahondo, 21, of Cali. Alison Meléndez, 17, of Popayán. Camilo Arango, 19, of Tuluá.

        These are but a few of more than 60 victims confirmed dead of government terrorism against protesters by the U.S.-armed and funded Colombian Armed Forces, police and death squads since the national uprising against the regime of President Ivan Duque began on April 28.
      Thousands have been arrested. Hundreds more have “disappeared” — and bodies have begun to turn up, washed up on the banks of rivers and buried in hastily-dug mass graves.
      Colombia is called the Israel of Latin America, and like its counterpart in West Asia, the country’s brutal capitalist rulers loyally serve their masters in Washington, D.C. Colombia is a member of the U.S.-dominated NATO military alliance — the only one in Latin America.
      The elite Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) of the Colombian National Police — established on the initiative of U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999 to repress leftist movements — is carrying out murders, police brutality, sexual assaults, and, in the style of its Israeli Defense Force trainers, has blinded numerous protesters with shots to the eyes.
       In Cali, the epicenter of state violence, a warehouse owned by the Éxito Supermarket chain stands revealed as a bloody torture center. “When human rights organizations were finally able to enter to do oversight, they found pools of blood in the underground parking lots, blood even on electrical appliances in the warehouse, a nauseating smell. And they were totally prevented from visiting one of the floors of the parking lot,” according to reports compiled by Resumen Latinamericano.
        “For two days, live protesters were brought to this shopping center, families and the community denounced in anguish, shouts were heard, repressive forces and garbage trucks circulated incessantly.” As of May 23, more than 200 people have disappeared in Cali alone.
        In a statement demanding an end to the disappearances, the Legal and Humanitarian Team of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission reported: “Since May 14, the first reports of the existence of mass graves were known in the rural area of ​​the municipalities of Buga and Yumbo, where [the police] would take the bodies of many young people from Cali.”
        “Since the start of the strike, the Colombian State has kidnapped and disappeared more than 600 people,” Resumen reported. “Some of them have appeared floating in the Cauca River, others buried. In recent days the police have been increasing the practice of enforced disappearance, taking away protesters who then do not reappear.”
Duque, assassin!
          President Duque and the media label the protesters “terrorists,” even while his government draws out talks with some groups in the leadership of the national strike movement, including the National Unemployment Committee (CNP) and Central Union of Workers (CUT).
        Duque & Co. accuse Cuba and Venezuela, the FARC-EP and ELN guerrillas, even faraway Russia, of causing the uprising — anything, anyone but their own greedy, repressive policies that have left 42.5 percent of the people in poverty and a quarter unable to eat three meals a day, according to Colombia Informa.

Continue Reading:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk   

Sunday 6 December 2020

Alexis.

 

  

     Across the world on a regular basis, there are mass protests against police violence, it is common practice to hear of police brutality, and racism plays a large part in their acts of violence. However it is not always racism at the root of this police violence, it is part and parcel of their training, restrain, be forceful, intimidate etc., and of course that feeling that they are the law, and above reproach. It was not racism that ended the life of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos, it was police callous brutal arrogance.

Alexis Grigoropoulos, youth murder by police officer.

       Today, December 6th. 2020, marks the 12th anniversary of the murder of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a Greek police officer. It was a Saturday evening and two teenagers are out in Exracheia Athens, having a coffee, a chat, a laugh, a police car passes, and according to who you read, the police officers came back on foot, there were words the police officer fires two bullets and young Alexis falls to the ground and dies on the street in the arms of his teenage friend Nikos Romanos. The police officer claimed that he fired his gun in the air to scare the boy and teach him a lesson, but those two “warning shots” ended the life of a teenager.

Nikos Romanos being arrested years after police murdered of his friend Alexis.

             This brutal unnecessary killing of of a youth by the state's henchmen, brought a hurricane of mass protests across Greece, that lasted for months, and rightly so. Each year since, in Athens and other cities across Greece, people remember this brutal killing of a youth, and mark it with mass protests.

       Epaminondas Korkoneas, the Greek cop who murdered young Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released from prison July 2019. His release follows a verdict of an appeals court in Lamia, central Greece. The court upheld the conviction of Korkoneas for the deadly shooting of Alexis Grigoropoulos, but reduced his sentence from life to 13 years in prison. He was released after serving the most of the reduced sentence. He is not a subject to a parole or any other restriction. Let's not forget, that it was the system that killed young Alexis, a system of authority, governance and control, a hierarchical system of power.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk  

Sunday 29 November 2020

Accidental?


 

        The evidence revealed in the following article on the death of a young man, is just one example of why the feelings of the public, regarding the police and our judicial system, range from mistrust to downright hatred. The police and the judicial system exist in a bubble that makes them untouchable and beyond true public scrutiny and accountability. It takes courage, considerable time and tremendous perseverance to try and burst that bubble, many have tried, but few have succeeded. Public exposure of these incidents can help burst that bubble.

                                               Photo courtesy of No Majesty.

The following, including the film, was taken from Anarchist Film Group: 

         When Rod Charles first heard that his great nephew Rashan had died whilst being detained by a police officer, he assumed that the incident must have merited whatever action the officer took. Why wouldn’t he? Rod Charles had served for 30 years with the Metropolitan Police, retiring at the rank of Chief Inspector, and Rashan was a young man with low level criminal convictions.
       That first news came on the day Rashan died, Saturday 22 July 2017. Rod recalls: “It wasn’t until 20 or 24 hours later, the Sunday morning, when a niece called me to say Uncle Rodney have a look at some footage what’s on CCTV which has been uploaded to YouTube. And it was when I looked at the footage on YouTube, that changed everything.”
        Somebody had uploaded a few minutes’ fuzzy footage recorded on a mobile phone from a CCTV monitor in a Hackney supermarket. It showed a police officer pursuing Rashan into the shop, grabbing him from behind, hurling him to the floor with a combat throw, and heavily restraining him. It showed a second man joining the restraint, pinning Rashan down, and helping to handcuff him when he was limp and unresponsive.
       “The officer was not at fear of harm from Rashan. He threatened nothing to the officer. No member of the public nearby was threatened by Rashan,” says Rod. “The nature of the force being used. . .has caused me and continues to cause me a lot of concern.”
       Rashan Charles was 20 years old, a loving father to his daughter, who was coming up to two years old when he died. He was a beloved son, friend, nephew, cousin, brother and, as Rod puts it, “an integral part of the family”.
        In our new documentary film, “Accidental Death” of a Young Black Londoner, The Case of Rashan Charles, Rod Charles examines previously unseen footage that reveals more about what happened to Rashan. Rod questions the quality of the investigation into Rashan’s death, the “accidental” deletion of evidence, the tactics of police lawyers and the conduct of the coroner at the inquest that concluded with a finding of “accidental death”.
       Our film shows, for the first time, curious interactions between the man who helped restrain Rashan and several officers at the scene, interactions that raise questions about the official narrative.

 


Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Monday 26 October 2020

Take Sides.

       You don't like violence, then few people do, so when looking at the violence in our world, where should you direct your anger? At the unimaginable brutal, savage violence of states that bomb cities and countries killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people for power and wealth, that put police armed like robo-cop on the streets of our communities, or those same states that promote and protect corporate organisations that plunder the planet to the extinction of our ecosystem? Or those who would pick up a stone and throw it at the openly violent face of that state apparatus, or who attack the symbols of that violent state machine in hope of bring an end to the whole violent structure of the modern corporate/state system of capitalism? The state is violence, it can only survive by the violent repression of dissent, the state and capitalism are two fangs of the same vicious economic system that spawns mass poverty, deprivation, homelessness, wars, divisions between people across the planet, gross inequality and injustice, these are all degrees of violence. So why shouldn't those at the receiving end of this brutal system take to self defence and fight to destroy it, in an attempt to bring peace and equality to to all our people. When you stand and condemn violence in our society, be thoughtful and careful with which side you stand.

The following from Anarchists News:

Death to the State! Solidarity with Mónica and Francisco.
        Throughout history, anarchists have always suffered persecution by the State. This is because the simple idea of a world, free and in solidarity, where the coercive power of the State is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, is in itself a threat for those who hold power. And those people who put these ideas into practice and confront State violence can take for granted that they will catch the attention of the State's repressive apparatus.
        Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar are going through that. They were kidnapped by the State on July 24th, 2020. Now they risk spending various years in some Chilean prison.

Freedom for Mónica and Francisco!

         All the support to the struggle of the mapuche people which also suffers the repression of the Chilean State!
         This video was made as part of the Day of Agitation and Propaganda for Anarchist prisoners, August 14, 2020.


[Video transcript and translation below by Anarchist News:]

       Quote on screen: "It's not cruelty, nor thirst for blood, nor any other criminal tendency, what induce a man to attack organized power. On the contrary, it's above all due to a strong social instinct, due to a strong abundance of love and an overflowing of sympathy with the pain and sorrow that surrounds us" - Emma Goldman
Narrator voice-over in Portuguese and subtitles in Spanish:
        "In the morning of July 24th, 2020, the Chilean State arrested Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar in another attempt to criminalize anarchists. The State tries to disguise all the brutality and violence inherent in its existence by accusing anarchists of violence. But there's no way to compare the violence of colonialism, the military, the police and neo-liberalism, with rocks, Molotov cocktails and other tools used by peoples that resist genocide and oppression, and the destruction of all the ecosystems that maintain all the life on Earth. And it's those same States who are responsible for the greater part of the violence in the world, who feel they have the right to judge us and call that "justice".
        Freedom for Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar and for all the people that were kidnapped by States!"
       Mónica Caballero addressing the court: "Death to the State and long live anarchy!"
        Francisco Solar addressing the court: "Long live anarchy!"
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Friday 4 September 2020

Mr. President.

      Most people seem to accept that Trump is the worst President of the USA ever. That's quite an accolade considering the liars and butchers that have held that post before him. To me the main difference with Trump and the other  figureheads of American imperialism, is the fact that he has a big mouth and doesn't hide his racism and fascist and homophobic views, he openly revels in them.
The following extracts are from Arrezafe:

Monday, April 16, 2018: Peace protesters trying to tear down the Truman statue in Athens
       Two days ago, Greek police forces, on orders from the SYRIZA-ANEL government, brutally attacked anti-war protesters as they tried to topple the statue of US President Harry Truman. This 3.2-meter statue - "a fossil of bloody US imperialism" , as the KKE called it in a statement - has been in the center of the Greek capital since 1963.
      Recent events give us an opportunity to remember who Harry Truman really was. A representative of US imperialism, Truman was the author of the most horrendous war crime of the previous century. We refer to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
         "Being in possession of a bomb, we have used it ... We will continue to use it until we completely destroy the military power of Japan. Only its surrender will stop us ... We thank God that he has placed it in our hands, and not in the hands. of our enemies, and we pray that He guides us to use it in his path and for his purposes . "
        These gruesome words were spoken on August 9, 1945, by the President of the United States, Truman, during a radio address to the American people. It was three days since the terrorist Enola Gay had dropped the atomic bomb called “Little boy” on Hiroshima and another bomb was sowing death, destruction and chaos in Nagasaki.-------
And:
  ----------Numerous American officials, as well as academics, have exposed Truman's blatant lies. For example, the US Strategic Bombing Survey group, which had been assigned by President Truman himself to study air strikes in Japan, was writing in a report prepared in July 1946:
      "Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the opinion of the Study that certainly before December 31, 1945, and in all probability before November 1, 1945, Japan it would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not gone to war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated . "
       For his part, the then Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces who later became President of the United States, General Dwight Eisenhower, said: "The Japanese were ready to surrender and there was no need to hit them with that hideous thing . " We could cite many testimonies from various officers of the United States Army (Admiral Leahy, General MacArthur, Under Secretary of War McLoy, etc.) that confirm all of the above.
       History has documented the tremendous effects of the nuclear holocaust on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman and his administration are responsible for more than 200,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of radiation-related post-attack casualties.-------
And: 
      "Hero" for the Greek bourgeoisie - "Butcher" for the people.
      The war criminal Harry Truman, who sowed destruction in Japan, is the same butcher who, three years later, ordered the bombing of the heroic guerrillas of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) in the mountains of Grammos. It was during the Greek Civil War that the United States intervened to help the Greek bourgeois class against the Democratic Army of Greece . In February 1948, American General James Van Fleet arrived in Athens and became the commander-in-chief of the Greek bourgeois army. 
         In 1949, the Grammos Mountains in northern Greece became the field where the American air force first used Napalm B bombs. In just one battle, in Grammos, the Americans dropped 338 napalm bombs from US positions. DSE. Years later, napalm bombs were used by American assassins in numerous imperialist wars: from Korea to Vietnam and from the 1991 Gulf War to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
      Quite a record for a fundamentalist Christian, one of the many who have no problem with mass killings and then asking their god of love and peace to bless their actions. Trump is at home, among a long line of liars, hypocrites and mass murders, who have sat on that throne of savage American imperialism.
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Friday 7 August 2020

Phony Tears.



Beirut, Lebanon, today.

 Beirut, Lebanon, July 2006 after Israeli bombing
 
Beirut, Lebanon, 2006 after Israeli bombing.
 
        I always get sick in my stomach when I hear officials of various states weep at death and destruction in other countries, when they themselves are responsible for shedding the blood of countless thousands across infrastructure they have destroyed, time and time again. Beirut has experienced a disaster of blitzkrieg proportions and its nearest neighbour, who has on several occasions devastated the infrastructure and killed thousands of citizens of Lebanon and Beirut, now stands with tears that burns holes in truth and ridicules humanity. Israel has no shame, no humanity, what has happened in Beirut has been perpetrated on a greater scale in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, time and time again by Israel. I saw no tears then, and I don't accept their tears now.
 
Gaza after an Israeli visit.

The following article first appeared in Haaretz
     Official Israel presented itself as shocked at the disaster that struck its neighbor, Lebanon, yesterday. Almost everyone put on a sorrowful face. Except for Richard Silverstein, who writes a blog, Tikkun Olam, no one accused Israel of causing the disaster. Except for Moshe Feiglin and a few other racists, no one expressed satanic joy over it. Fortunately, former Israeli army spokesman Avi Benayahu ran Feiglin out of the race: “With such statements, you don’t belong to the Jewish people,” declared Benayahu, the man of Jewish morality, and the stain was removed.
     Benayahu is right: The Jewish state never caused such disasters, and when our enemies fell it never rejoiced. The Israel Defense Forces, whose voice Benayahu was, never such caused destruction and devastation, certainly not in Lebanon, certainly not in Beirut. What does the IDF have to do with the destruction of infrastructure? An explosion in the Beirut port? Why would the most moral army in the world have anything to do with bombing population centers? And so the country’s leaders hastened to offer help to the stricken land of the cedars, such a typical Jewish and Israeli gesture, human, lofty and moving to the point of tears.
     True, the Israel Air Force thumbs its nose at Lebanon’s sovereignty and flies through its skies as if they were its own. True, Israel has devastated Lebanon twice in war, but who’s counting. Israel’s president issued a statement of condolences to the Lebanese people, the prime minister and the ministers of foreign affairs and defense said they had “given instructions to offer humanitarian and medical assistance to Lebanon.”
     As if all this beneficence was not enough, the mayor of Tel Aviv ordered the municipality building illuminated with the colors of the Lebanese flag. Words fail. All past hatred has been set aside, Israel is now a friend in need to its suffering neighbor. Maybe it was Tu B’Av, the holiday of love, marked yesterday. But still, a vague memory threatens to spoil the how-beautiful-we-are party, which we love so much around here.
      Was it not that same defense minister that only last week threatened that same Lebanon with destruction of infrastructure? Didn’t the prime minister also threaten Lebanon? And how does destruction of infrastructure look in Lebanon? Just like what was seen in Lebanon on Tuesday. The sound of thunder shook the city, black smoke billowed over it, destruction and devastation, civilian blood spilled, 4,000 injured at hospital doors, as described in horror by the ambassador of a European country in Beirut, who had previously served in Israel. She was injured Tuesday in the blast and was in shock.
    Half of Israel and the entire IDF General Staff know how to recite the acclaimed Dahiya Doctrine. Every second politician has threatened to carry it out. That is our language with Lebanon and Gaza. It’s the doctrine espoused by the Israeli Carl von Clausewitz, former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, the current hope of the Israeli left, when he was chief of the Northern Command.
     And what is this sophisticated doctrine? It’s the use of disproportionate, unbridled force against infrastructure, the sowing of destruction and shedding of as much blood as possible. “Flattening” – to teach the enemy a lesson “once and for all.” The IDF has tried this more than once in the past, in Lebanon and in Gaza, and it was a dizzying success story. It looks just like what was seen in Beirut on Tuesday.
     Not a week had passed since Israel threatened to destroy infrastructure in Lebanon if Hezbollah dared avenge the killing of one of its fighters in a limited military action on the border, and Israel the destroyer becomes Israel the merciful. Would you accept humanitarian aid from such a country? Is there a more sickening show of hypocrisy?
    When Israel demolished Dahiya and other neighborhoods in Beirut, the Tel Aviv Municipality building was not illuminated with the colors of the Lebanese flag. When Israel killed thousands of innocent women and children, old and young, in Gaza during the criminal Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge, the municipality was not lit up in the colors of the Palestinian flag. But on Wednesday we were all so humane, so Lebanese for a moment. Until the next Dahiya.
     Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Levy has won prizes for his articles on human rights in the Israeli-occupied territories. - "Source" -
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Saturday 25 April 2020

Enemies Of The State.


     The state is all about control, control of the population to make sure that wealth, privileges and power stay where they are. They will do all they can to silence, stifle or intimidate those who would dare to speak out against this unequal and unjust system. They are the strong arm enforcers of the capitalist system. Some states do this in a quiet underhand subtle manner others are more open on their brutal attack on dissident voices, useing, apart from open violence, completely fabricated scenarios and false evidence to put those dissident voices in cages to try to keep their voices from being heard and turn them into subservient citizens. 
     Anarchists are always at the forefront of the attack on this authoritarian  system of privileges and power to the wealthy pampered few, while trying to create a society of mutual aid, where the people control their own lives in communities of co-operation linked to like communities, a world of equality and sustainability, that sees to the needs of all our people. So these are the people that the state fears most, those struggling to change the entire system, so these are the ones on which the state will come down hardest. Lies, fabrication, false evidence and raw brutality will be its tools, whichever it feels will work to preserve the status quo. It would be prudent for those in the areas controlled by the more subtle states to be warned that the other tools are still in the tool box of the so called democratic states.
 
 
       The Continual Anarchist Witch Hunt & the Scenario of State Incompetence
      Only a few weeks ago comrades in Tangerang were arrested for graffiti and the media sensationalized the arrests followed by false information from police declaring that on the 18th of April the Indonesian anarchists had planned mass looting nation wide. This was proven false. Moreover police were trying to make a ridiculous scenario in which a petit criminal they caught was forced to do a live video declaring himself as “The sole leader of the anarchists”, fortunately this video has become a national joke. Even before, many of the activists and journalists criticized police evidence concerning books. Police confiscated books and showed them off to the media and it was mostly non-political books, many of these books were fiction or non-fiction reports that were published legally. Hence, it is concluded that this evidence — books —are not court materials. But the Indonesian police are more than ready to exaggerate their own stupidity. Mass looting, prison riots, and even people dying of hunger has already happened throughout Indonesia.
      The Absurd Arrests and the Isolation of the Defendants
      Most of the defendants concerning the case were mostly doing graffiti. While it is clear that the graffiti was to incite riots, the state and the police seem so myopic or they’re consciously doing it to divert from the real issues as part of their strategy to veil the whole incompetency of the state in dealing with the crisis. Young anarchists were arrested in West Java and more recently in the city of Malang, East Java. This case is different to that of the Tangerang anarchists, the anarchists in Malang were arrested just because they were directly involved in social struggles against land grabbing, state corporations, and other grassroots struggles, one media report went as far as saying that the prosecution of these anarchists is just because, or as the police statement to the media said: “they are anti-capitalist.” These state scenarios smell like rotten eggs coming from idiotic bureaucrats.

      One of the more outrageous arrests that occurred just a few days before was of a journalist who is very critical of government policy. Ravio Patra wrote about the state’s falsification of information about COVID-19 and published a comprehensive article on an independent news portal. Afterwards, his Whatsapp account was hacked — Whatsapp officials stated that it was true, his Whatsapp account was breached — and that all of a sudden he received messages via his account saying that “its already crisis, its time to burn, lets loot on 30th of April”. Before this Ravio already contacted some experts about why he couldn’t seem to control his own account. Not many hours after, he was out of contact. Until most of his friends and advocacy groups confirmed that he had already been arrested.
      We can say that the bureaucrats and police acted recklessly but in this time of pandemic it seems they can do whatever they want to prosecute anyone, especially people connected to the anarchists. In this latest scenario, we can see how the Indonesian state acted in a totalitarian manner. We will not go down in silence. This anarchist witch hunt has got to stop and we cannot beg the state to do it for us. Their absolute incompetency and their rotting infrastructures will go down. Down with surveillance and the society of control, decompose the state right now!
      PS: The funny thing is that most anarchists in Indonesia are and were involved in countless public kitchens in a form of mutual aid and the state are and were always trying to criminalize everything.
      We are the criminals, we don’t fucking value your laws. We’re going to help you die soon.

Circle of Marvelous Individualists
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