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Title: The Empire Strikes Back Author: Felix Frost Date: 2006 Language: en Topics: Imperialism, Europe, EU, nihilism Source: Retrieved on August 23, 2011 from https://web.archive.org/web/20110823074111/http://nihilpress.subvert.info/nihil2.html Notes: Published in The Nihilist #2.
During the 80’s a powerful squatters movement grew up all over Western
Europe. There seemed to be a squat in every town; the squatters had
their own bars, pirate radios and even TV stations. When the city tried
to evict a squat, there were riots in the streets, and battles with the
cops that could go on for days. For American subversives, Europe was a
place to envy.
But today much has changed. Most of the squats are gone, and the few
that still exist face constant threats of eviction. The emptying of
squats is but one of the aims of the European police coordinating
project TREVI. TREVI is an acronym for Terrorism Radicalism Extremism
Violence International. It markets itself to the public as fighting
international terrorism and drug smuggling. Its real purpose is to curb
all resistance to the establishment of the new European superstate. The
European Union is to be turned into an economic and military superpower
in order to keep up the competition with the US/Nafta and Japan/Asean
trade blocks.
As part of the European integration, the internal border control between
the EU states will cease, while the borders to the rest of the world
will be tightened. Vast computer registers are being set up to keep
track of all “shady elements” not wanted in the new Empire. All asylant
applicants are to be registered; as are criminals and subversives.
Another suggestion from the EU planners is that all EU countries must
have laws against participation in “criminal organisations.” Most of the
European countries have such laws already, and in recent years they have
been put in use across the continent:
In Italy, over 70 anarchists are still on trial for “subversive
association” and for belonging to an armed anarchist group that only
exists in the runaway imagination of the Italian prosecutors and
judiciary. Earlier this year, two of the accused anarchists died in
custody. (See following pages.) Despite a total lack of evidence, this
farce of a courtcase continues in the high security “Bunker” of Rebibbia
Prison in Rome.
In Germany, the police regularly search the homes and centers of the
“autonome” movement in their hunt for the editors of the banned magazine
Radikal. They never actually find the makers of Radikal, but succeed in
their goal of harassing and intimidating the radical left. Last year 500
cops came breaking through doors throughout Berlin, this time looking
for the editorial staff of the weekly autonomist newsletter Interim. The
cops confiscated computers and disks, but were unable to find any
incriminating evidence. Charges against 14 people arrested in connection
with the raids were eventually dropped. With the growing European
integration and police cooperation, the German authorities hope to stop
Radikal from being distributed from Holland (where it is still legal).
In England, three editors of the magazine Green Anarchist were recently
sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty in a
“conspiracy to incite persons unknown to commit criminal damage,” by
writing about illegal actions in their paper. Two more writers are
waiting for their trial to come up.
During the EU summit in Amsterdam last year, an entire demonstration of
several hundred people were detained by the police. The charge: being
members of an “criminal organisation.” In Spain, Greece, Austria the
story repeats itself. In Europe today you don’t have to actually commit
any acts of resistance to the new European Empire to be considered a
criminal; just writing about it or discussing it can land you in jail...