Monthly Archives: July 2019
Iran: Neda Naji, Actor who Starred in Emma Goldman Docu-Drama, Still in Prison for May Day Protest
via: Anarchists Worldwide
We support political prisoners in Iran: Neda Naji is a student, labor rights defender, and actor, who played the Russian Anarchist Valentia in the Iranian documentary drama Emma Goldman: Living My Life. On May 1, 2019, Naji and more than fifty other participants including Marzieh Amiri, Anisha Asadollahi, and Atefeh Rangriz were arrested at a Labour Day demonstration and detained by security forces and have not been released
According to a non-political woman prisoner in Qarchak Prison (also known as Shahr-e Rey prison) in Eastern Tehran, two of the political prisoners—Naji and Rangriz—were beaten for not wearing veils (chador/hijab) on July 6, 2019. As a result of this violent attack, Naji suffered injuries to her head and eyes, and Rangriz suffered injuries to her shoulder and leg. They were transferred to the health ward but returned to their cells without adequate treatment. Jamal Ameli, Neda Naji’s husband, wrote on his Twitter account: “Head Officials in Evin Prison are not responding to questions from Neda Naji’s family about her condition. Neda and Atefeh are in danger within Qarchak Prison and nobody hears our voices.”
In addition, a number of others, including Amir Amirgholi, Amir Hossein Mohammadifard, and Sanaz Allahyari, who provided news coverage of the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane and Ahvaz Steel worker protests have also been imprisoned. Amir Hoseein Mohammadifard and Sanaz Allahyari have been on hunger strike since July 4, 2019. Esmail Bakhshi, leader of the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Workers’ Syndicate in Khuzestan province, southwestern Iran, who was freed after being brutally tortured was arrested three weeks after his release for publishing an account of the torture he experienced in prison. Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian, the student journalist covering the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane worker protest, are still in prison. 34-year-old blogger, Soheil Arabi, an Anarcho-Syndicalist political prisoner, has been on hunger strike in protest of horrible prison conditions and lack of security for prisoners since June 15, 2019. Arabi has been banned from making purchases from the prison commissary.
(original Persian source) – Asranarshism)
Canada, Hamilton : Anarchist Comrade Cedar Released from Prison
Anarchist comrade Cedar Hopperton has been released after spending nearly a month in jail for allegedly violating their parole conditions after giving a speech arguing that police should not be part of the queer community and applauding those at Pride who stood up to the police and fascists.
Despite the fact that they weren’t at Pride, Cedar spent weeks in jail in a clear case of retaliation by the Hamilton police against Cedar for expressing their anarchist convictions. Cedar went on hunger strike after their arrest, and the queer and anarchist communities of Hamilton mobilized in their support.
The Tower, an anarchist social space in Hamilton, posted on Facebook Tuesday that Cedar was free, along with a photo of Cedar holding a “Free Cedar” poster.
“The rumours are true, and this time it’s a good thing — Cedar is free!” The Tower said. “A statement with more details is forthcoming.”
Asaf Rashid, Cedar’s lawyer in the parole board challenge, confirmed that Cedar was released in relation to some credited time around their incarceration. Cedar was initially due to be released at the end of July.
The parole board dismissed the false claim by Hamilton police that Cedar was at Pride.
Cedar’s release is a victory for the anarchist movement in Hamilton and beyond and a defeat for the oppressive Hamilton police force.
Germany: Prison Van Torched in Solidarity with Imprisoned and Fugitive Comrades in Bremen
“The prison is looking for you”…”We have found you”
During the night of the 4th-5th of July we torched a Bremen JVA (Bremen Prison) truck in the fenced TÜV NORD parking lot in Bremen-Walle.
JVA Bremen is characterized by miserable conditions, the cells are overcrowded, rain leaks in and medical care is either extremely bad or completely denied.
But we do not want to make a plea for the reforming of criminals or even to strengthen the illusion that there is such a thing as a ‘humane’ or ‘just’ prison.
Our only concern regarding the system of confinement is to sabotage the prison industry! Because it is a structure that aims to break ‘resistant’ and unadapted subjects. The suicide rate in JVA Bremen during recent years proves this.
Cynically, the vehicle was adorned with a slogan, which is part of the advertising campaign to employ workers at JVA Bremen – “You are the key”, this is the role they have actually intended for us.
Our thoughts are with the comrades who are not with us right now. They sit within the architecture of the enemy, their existence is behind bars where they are punished by the deprivation of their freedom of movement.
But the fire was not only for them. We do not want to forget the people who escaped the inhumane idea of imprisonment. Those who have left everything behind and are now on the run.
But not only do we out here fight against the prison society. Even behind the walls people try to preserve their dignity and freedom. We also send solidarity greetings to them.
Freedom for all prisoners.
Greece: Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos free after six years of imprisonment.
Nikos Romanos is finally free He was released on 11/7/19, from Korydallos Prison in Greece, having served the sentences imposed on him.
The comrade was arrested in February 2013 along with three other comrades for a double armed robbery, at the Agricultural Bank and the Hellenic Postbank in Velvento, Kozani.
US: Anarchist comrade Willem van Sponson dies in liberatory assault on ICE compound in Tacoma
Anarchist comrade and long-time antifascist Willem Van Spronsen has been fatally shot by cops in Tacoma following an armed attack against the repressive, dehumanising and degrading incarceration policies of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) at one of the growing number of US State institutional concentration camps.
69 year-old Willem valiantly attacked the institution on his own with incendiary devices and a home-built AR15 rifle, knowing the likely outcome of his actions.
He successfully set one vehicle on fire and then exchanged gunfire with Tacoma police officers who fatally shot him. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
A communique was released by Willem prior to his liberation attempt outlining his clear critique of the ‘visible fascism ascendant’ and a surprising appeal to American patriotism in the unabashedly, brutal face of the capitalist corporate state.
His actions will not be forgotten and it remains to be seen if his resolve and determination will be translated into other actions against the slide into fascism by the US state.
Full final message and communique available to read via anarchistsworldwide.noblogs.org
I am not affiliated with any organization, i have disafilliated from any organization who disagree with my choice of tactics.
the semi automatic weapon i used was a cheap, home built unregistered “ghost” ar15, it had six magazines. i strongly encourage comrades and incoming comrades to arm themselves. we are now responsible for defending people from the predatory state: ignore the law in arming yourself if you have the luxury, i did.
In Love and Rage: – Willem Van Spronson 1950 – 2019
Italy: Solidarity with Andreas Krebs
There is also an German and Italian version of this text!
Our friend and companion Andreas is currently imprisoned in Naples (Italy). Since his imprisonment in Germany Andreas has been known as a rebellious prisoner. In April 2019 he was sentenced in Italy to 24 years in jail. In addition, Andreas has recently been diagnosed with kidney cancer. His health is deteriorating and we fear for his life. Actually, he should undergo surgery months ago, but the Italian authorities refuse to transfer him to a hospital.
Andreas was in the clutches of the German judicial machinery for years and he was in jail for a total of 16 years. He is a rebellious prisoner, participated in building the prisoners’ union (GGBO) behind bars, he went on hunger strike several times against the prison conditions and also participated in a solidarity hunger strike for the prisoners in Greece. To date he repeatedly publishes texts against the prison society, in which he describes everyday life in captivity.
In autumn 2014, after his release, he met his current wife Jutta. Both decided to spend a quiet retirement in the south of Italy. At the end of December 2016 there was a dispute with his former employer, who attacked Andreas and strangled him. Andreas stabbed him in self-defense with a penknife. Sadly, the victim died in the hospital three days later under mysterious circumstances, although it was said shortly after the act that he would survive.
Argentina: Anarchist Comrades Released from Jail as All Charges Dropped
via: AMWEnglish
On November 14, 2018 the accidental detonation of an explosive device that would be placed in the tomb of the miserable Colonel Falcon in the Recolega Buenos Aires cemetery, produced a series of wounds to the comrade Anahi Salcedo, who was stopped along with someone else in the place. In parallel, another comrade was arrested after being intercepted after throwing an explosive device at the house of Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio.
These three arrests are the beginning of an anti-anarchist hunt that led the State to raid different buildings and social centers, as well as arresting a dozen people who lived or had any relationship with a building occupied as a housing solution.
Chile: Statement by Anarchist Prisoner Marcelo Villarroel on the 10th Anniversary of the Death of Mauricio Morales
via: AMWEnglish
10 years after the death in combat of Mauricio Morales …
To all those who confront the present from autonomy, with insurrectionary memory, in resistance and subversion!
10 years ago Mauricio Morales Duarte, the punky Maury died. One night at the end of May, a rumble was heard, in the vicinity of the south center of Santiago, in the gendarmerie school the punky Maury departed in his eternal bicycle to the route of all those who have lost their lives in this everyday exercise of struggling to be free by confronting the domain in all the spaces of reality.
At that time, I was a prisoner in unit 11 of Neuquén, Argentina, when on a cold May morning, I learned what had happened. The inevitable pain of loss was multiplied by anger and pride. Your choice of life in struggle as a contribution to the anarchist and insurrectional tension as an expression of social war earned my repeated respect.
10 years since then, the remembrance of your history and the memory of your actions are expressed as part of our arsenal of life in conflict that everyday we carry in all the most unsuspected corners on the planet… it has already been said many times by comrades around the world speaking different languages, but the same language of war in eternal complicity with those who attack power, prison, hierarchies, the police and all authority.
We always share your words and history, we make you talk with those who died before and dance the same wild melody of the attack. Memory, Resistance, Subversion is our insistence that contains all the experiences of struggle and direct conflict including by those we do not know but we know nevertheless… the struggle for total liberation is dispute and daily conflict in all spaces of reality.
And for that reason I encourage the proliferation of the initiatives that set out to destroy the existing order and certainly your example walks between us without any doubt. From the high security jail of Santiago in Chile, I greet all those who make this activity possible and to all of those that decided to move to attack against this rotten world in which today we survive.
On the third day of hunger strike …
MAURICIO MORALES PRESENT IN THE FIGHT OF THE LIBERTARIAN AUTONOMOUS SUBVERSION!!
WHILE THERE IS MISERY THERE WILL BE REBELLION!!