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Title: The Marini Trial
Author: Various Authors
Date: 2002
Language: en
Topics: insurrectionist, Italy, repression, the State

Various Authors

The Marini Trial

Introduction

Those who rebel consciously against the ruling order, those who attack

it without respite in however small a manner, are a real threat to the

system of domination and exploitation. When these individuals are also

those for whom anarchy and revolution are not just fine words, but

reflect their decision to face life and struggle in a particular manner,

the state recognizes that their revolt will be ongoing and needs to be

suppressed. Therefore, it develops various strategies for repression,

using the legal, police, judiciary and prison systems to keep those who

rebel occupied with defending themselves,

The Marini trial against anarchists in Italy, which has been going on

for several years (the investigation beginning nearly ten years ago),

provides a concrete example of this process. Even though the specific

aspects of the legal framework the prosecutor, Marini, is using and the

specific functioning of the judicial system in Italy are not precisely

the same as those we deal with here in the US, there is a great deal we

can learn about the general repressive functioning of the state from

these events.

In addition, some understanding of these events can provide a basis for

more intelligent solidarity. Solidarity with our comrades who are on

trial or in prison is essential. But revolutionary solidarity means

something other than mere “support” that often seems to become nothing

more than charity work that actually distracts from revolutionary

struggle and may even lead to a compromise of our own principles.

Daniela Carmignani has described revolutionary solidarity as “A project

which is a point of reference and stimulus for the imprisoned comrades,

who in turn are a point of reference for it”. In other words, it is a

continuation of our insurgent practice with a focus on attacking the

specific institutions and structures which have caused our comrades to

be imprisoned. Writing to prisoners, finding ways to get the money

necessary for legal expenses, publishing information and the like are

all fine and necessary things to do, but they only become aspects of

revolutionary solidarity when they are part of a project of attack

against the institutions that arrest, judge and imprison us.

Revolutionary solidarity is, thus, not a matter of defense, but of

attack.

A Summary of the Marini Trial and Related Events

In order to grasp how the Marini trial developed, it is necessary to go

back a bit to an arrest that happened shortly before the investigation

officially began. On September 19, 1994, five anarchists, Jean Weir,

Antonio Budini, Christos Stratigopulos, Eva Tziutzia and Carlo Tesseri

were arrested near Rovereto, Italy following an armed robbery at the

rural savings bank of Rovereto. The same day Antonio’s house in Milan

was raided. The local media immediately began a campaign of

vilification, speaking about fictitious international criminal

organizations, Red Brigade connections, terrorist gangs and the like,

and also implying that the comrades were responsible for several other

unsolved robberies. Individual anarchists in Rovereto immediately

leafleted and posted flyers in the area, denouncing the attempts of the

police and the press to build a frame-up. Comrades throughout Italy also

expressed their solidarity. Meanwhile fascists attempted to close down

Clinamen, a self-managed anarchist center in the area, using both

petition and arson in the attempt.

On September 30, a summary trial in the first degree took place.

Comrades from all over Italy showed up to show the support. This trial

ended with three five year sentences (Jean, Antonio, Christos) and one

six year sentence (Carlo) Eva was set free as unconnected to the

charges.

Immediately the authorities began proceedings against the four relating

to two other robberies that happened the previous July in Ravina. The

four arrested anarchists issued a declaration (see below) claiming the

robbery of the rural savings bank in Rovereto, but pointing out that the

new charges were an attempted frame-up. Formal charges for the robberies

in Ravina were issued on November 4.

Numerous acts of solidarity occurred including the posting of flyers,

the publication of dossiers in solidarity with the comrades, boisterous

gatherings in front of the prisons where they were locked up involving

fireworks, graffiti and banners calling for the liberation of the

comrades and the destruction of the prisons and a variety of other

actions.

At the same time, police harassment against anarchist on the outside

increased with raids, searches, detentions and interrogations. The

anarchist weekly Canenero was raided in December 1994, and a court

ordered issue number 9 of this weekly to be confiscated less than a

month later. Anarchists were harassed, detained, arrested and given

exorbitant fines for posting flyers. Homes, publishing projects,

anarchist spaces and the like were all raided and Alfredo Bonanno,

active in the anarchist movement for over twenty years (and defined by

the authorities and the press as “a leader”), was sought, though he was

not making any attempt to hide.

On January 30^(th), 1995, the public prosecutor of Rovereto called for

the second degree of the trial about the robbery in Rovereto, claiming

that the sentences of the trial of the first degree were too short.

Raids continued against anarchists. On April 19^(th), the preliminary

hearing regarding the two robberies with which the Italian authorities

were trying to frame the four imprisoned anarchists was held, and the

trial was set for October 13, 1995 in Trento. The authorities needed

some time to try to build up a case on this one as we shall see. On May

30^(th), when anarchists gathered in front of the Trento prison in

solidarity with the imprisoned comrades setting off fireworks, 28

comrades were detained by the police and four were given expulsion

papers banning them from the region.

On June 1, the second degree trial for the Rovereto trial took place.

All the four imprisoned had their sentences reduced by 1 year 8 months,

but Eva was again charged and sentences to 3 years and 4 months in spite

of the fact that she and the four comrades deny she participated in the

robbery.

When the time for the first hearing of the trial dealing the two

robberies in Ravina, Trento in Italy came on October 13, 1995, the trial

was postponed until November 14 because the judges “had a lot of work”.

Then it was postponed again until December 12, at which time it was

postponed until January 9, 1996.

In the meantime, the repressive machinations took a new turn. At dawn on

November 16, 1995, Special Operations Units (ROS) of the Italian

military police — on the order of the Roman public prosecutor, Antonio

Marini — raided and searched the houses of a few dozen anarchists

throughout Italy and the islands giving notice of investigations for

some very serious crimes (“subversive association”, “armed band”,

“attacks against public utility installations”, “complicity in robbery”,

“possession of arms and explosives” and for some even “complicity in

homicide”). The next day, anarchists who were already in prison on

various charges were also searched and given notification with regard to

the same investigations. Among these were a few comrades who had been

imprisoned for a kidnapping which they had always declared they had

nothing to do with.

Anarchists responded by publishing flyers and putting up posters in some

cities on the very day of the searches, in order to denounce these

latest repressive operations. But the extent of this operation was not

yet obvious.

A national manifesto dealing with Marini, the prosecutor behind the

investigation, roused the interest of journalists, thus forcing Marini

to issue an official communiqué. Thus, on January 3, 1996, articles

appeared in most of the daily papers describing the investigated

anarchists as kidnappers, rattling off a series of lies, and justifying

it all through the existence of a mysterious “penitent”.

On January 9, the trial in Trento (for the robberies in Ravina) began

again. At the conclusion of the hearing, the prosecutor of Trento, Bruno

Giardina, let it be known that Mojdeh Namsetchi, a former girlfriend of

Carlo Tesseri had been collaborating with the prosecutors of Rome and

Trento for a few months, but said that for security reasons her

questioning would have to take place at a distance. So the hearing was

adjourned until January 16 in order to prepare the necessary tools.

On January 16, anarchists filled the hall, waiting for the farce to

begin. Of course, the “penitent” began by claiming to have committed the

robberies with the accused anarchists. The questions she was asked were

mere prompts, requiring mainly yes and no answers. She claimed that

three more anarchists also took part in the robbery: Guido Mantelli,

Roberta Nano and Emma Sassosi. Proclaiming that she had never been an

anarchist, she said that she committed the robbery “for love”. Already

in this questioning there were some contradictions with a transcript of

an interrogation supposedly carried out over two months earlier by

Marini and Giardina (particularly, she showed ignorance of the meaning

of words that she is reported to have used in the transcript).Throughout

the questioning, the only thing she was able to keep straight was the

names of people supposedly involved in the robberies. She seemed to be

incapable of remembering anything else, or if she did, these “memories”

conflict with known reality. It was obvious that she was poorly coached

in a fictional account. But the judge was prepared to get the trial over

with that day with the verdict the state would desire. Marini resorted

to this young woman who was in dire straights at the time, because he

could not find any anarchists willing to cooperate. The language he

found in anarchist texts from those under investigation — individuality,

informality, affinity — did not fit the picture he desired to paint.

From the time of the searches in November, 1995 through the end of this

trial, anarchists kept up activity in protest — demonstrations, flyers,

special publications, and other activities. One of the more creative

ones was a traveling display of torture instruments that have been used

from the middle ages up to today entitled “From Holy to Democratic

Inquisition”, that visited various cities in Italy from December 16,

1995 until the end of February, 1996. The text of a poster relating to

this event is published below. Another example of the sorts of

activities going on was the occupation on January 24, 1996, of the

office of a Communist party newspaper described in a text below. There

were various other materials spread and public interventions made

throughout this period.

Meanwhile, on January 31, 1996, the last hearing of the trial against

the anarchists for the two robberies was held. Anarchists from

throughout Italy filled the courtroom. Using over-crowding as their

excuse, a flying squad of the police launched a pursuit against

anarchists in the corridors of the court and then in the streets,

causing some injuries. In the meantime, in the courtroom, after

Giardina’s harangue, the defense attorneys dismantled the frame-up piece

by piece, showing the political nature of the trial. Nevertheless, a

conviction was necessary to guarantee the continued usefulness of the

“penitent” in future trials against anarchists. So Jean Weir, Antonio

Budini and Christos Stratigopulos were sentenced to 6 ½ years, and Carlo

Tesseri was sentenced to 7 years. The sentence of January 31, based

solely on the testimony of the “penitent”, legitimated her word for us

in further trials against anarchists. But there was still to be the

appeal trial.

At this time, along with various initiatives by anarchists against the

frame-ups, comrades in Greece held protests, and comrades in Germany set

up funds to help comrades fight the situation.

For the next several months, there is little specific to report. Marini,

along with prosecutors, Ionta and Vigna, continued the harassment of

anarchists to try and find evidence for the heavy charges he had issued.

Then on the morning of September 17, 1996, about 300 armed and masked

members of the ROS raided about 60 houses, issued 29 arrest warrants,

declared 39 others to be under investigation and imprisoned several

anarchists. The charges included “armed gang” and “subversive

association”, along with numerous specific criminal charges including

homicide and kidnapping. A few eluded their grasp, so that by December

20^(th), it was known that 14 anarchists were in prison, 4 were under

house arrest, 3 were out on bail and 8 were living outside Italy as

fugitives.

In the meantime, anarchists posted flyers, organized demonstrations and

carried out a variety of actions against the repression. For example, On

October 24, unknown anarchists broke into the Palace of the Great Guard

in Verona and postered and graffitied all the flat surfaces leading to

the cancellation of a public exhibition. The four anarchists under house

arrest continued a hunger strike they began shortly after their arrests.

On December 4, 1996, some unknown anarchists broke into the Italian

consulate in Malaga, Spain where they destroyed office equipment, stole

some documents and left messages of solidarity with those being

prosecuted in Italy. The statement claiming this action made the

intentions very clear. About two weeks later, four people attempted to

rob a bank in Cordoba, Spain. The failed robbery ended up in a chase and

shootout in which two cops were killed. Three of the four arrested

robbers — Claudio Lavazza, Michele Pontolillo and Giovanni Barcia were

known anarchists, two of them from Italy. The three known anarchists

were also charged with the break-in in Malaga for which no one had been

arrested. Of course these charges were then brought into the Marini

investigation as well, since the “organization” Marini claimed existed

was supposedly international.

The appeal trial for the two robberies also came to an end in December.

In this appeal, the prosecutor, hoping perhaps to get a confession or

some form of cooperation form the four imprisoned anarchists, actually

called for reduced sentences for the second robberies, but also to lower

the chance of the reversal of the sentence. The defense attorneys

pointed out the connection between this trial and the Marini trial,

exposing the many contradictions in the penitent’s testimony and showing

how the prosecutors were so intent on getting a conviction simply in

order to validate this penitent for future use in the Marini and other

trials against anarchists where little real evidence existed. The

convictions were, nonetheless, upheld, though the sentences for this

second conviction were reduced to two years for each of the four

defendants.

The beginning of the hearings of the Marini trial perpetually got

postponed — from December 16, 1996 to late January, 1997 to late March

to May to early July. Marini claims the need for more investigations as

the reason for these postponements.

Here I would like to take the time to go into more detail on the way in

which Marini has built up his fairy tale. In 1993, Alfredo Bonanno and

some other anarchists gave a series of public presentations in Saloniki,

Greece. One of the talks, “Recent Developments in Capitalism” (later

printed in Anarchismo #72 and available in English in the pamphlet The

Insurrectional Project) included a section that when it was first

written in Italian was entitled “organizzazione informale” or “informal

organization”. Apparently there is no precise Greek translation for

“informal”, so the title was changed to “organizzazione rivoluzionaria

anarchica insurrezionalista” (“revolutionary anarchist insurrectionalist

organization”) and the name was carried back into the printed Italian

version (and the English version). So here Marini found a name and

acronym (ORAI) for the alleged “international criminal anarchist

organization” of his fantasy. He further invented a history and an

organizational structure. Marini and his investigators claim that an

anti-militarist meeting that took place in Forli, Italy in 1988

represented a historic split in the Italian anarchist movement between

the “hard wing” and the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI), that at that

time, the FAI expelled the “hard wing”, and that from this “hard wing”,

the ORAI was formed, a group that Marini claims can only be thought of

as criminal, unlike the sincere, idealistic and peaceful FAI. The

organization is furthermore, according to Marini’s fantasy, divided into

two tiers. The open tier consists of periodicals, publishing houses,

anarchist public spaces (anarchist squats and centers), solidarity

groups such as the Anarchist Defense Committee (CDA) in Turin, web-sites

and the like. Most of the activities of this tier are not illegal in

themselves, but, according to Marini, provide the basis for the illegal

activities of the other tier of the organization. The other tier is the

clandestine tier, the small core of hardened militants who supposedly

carry out the robberies necessary for funding the organization as well

as doing bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and so on. Alfredo

Bonanno is proclaimed to be at the head of this pyramid. So this is

Marini’s fantasy. There is no need to point out how such an

organizational structure would contradict the most basic of anarchist

principles. But Marini neither knows nor cares about such things. His

aim is to criminalize anarchists, and the structure of the fantasy

organization he has dreamt up criminalizes even the publication of a

paper or the posting of a flyer that expresses solidarity with those

accused of specific crimes. This is no longer an expression of

solidarity among comrades, but part of a conspiracy of a vast criminal

organization.

Now to return to the events related to this situation.

Actually before the first hearing took place, in December 1996, two

imprisoned anarchists, Pippo Stasi and Garagin Gregorian, issued a

communiqué that in which they seemed to be claiming to start a new

anarchist armed organization. And in early 1997, the editors of the

anarchist weekly Canenero decided to print this communiqué, which they

interpreted as a proposal rather than a declaration of fact since there

is obviously no opportunity for imprisoned anarchists to practical carry

out such a project, along with their critique of it entitled “The

Fullness of a Struggle Without Adjectives” which points out the

necessity of rejecting all specializations including that of the

specialized armed group. Their aim was to start a deep examination and

discussion of the question. Unfortunately, instead, due in part to the

pressures of repression but also to other circumstances, very few people

were open to carrying such a discussion forward. Instead, a number of

comrades began to make unfounded accusations against the editors of

Canenero, some even going as far as accusing them of dissociation (a

reference to a practice in Italy in which certain people imprisoned for

the insurgence of the 1970’s would “dissociate” from their own actions

and their comrades in exchange for lighter sentences, a concept which

Antonio Negri helped to formulate), while others simply said that this

was not the time to debate such matters. The state strategy of

repression was clearly working on some levels, causing conflict among

anarchists and lowering the level of discussion.

In April, 1997, two anarchist were arrested in France to be held until

the French authorities made a decision about whether to extradite them

or not. A month later, Massimo Passamani, accused of being the

secretary-treasurer of the group, was arrested there as well. In the

meantime, on April 25, a letter arrived at Radio Popolare in Milan

(formerly a pirate radio station that was increasingly going commercial)

claiming a bomb attack at the Palazzo Marino in Milan signed

“Revolutionary Anarchist Action”. The station turned the letter and a

surveillance camera film of the person who brought it over to the

police. A phone call clarifies that the attack was made in solidarity

with the imprisoned anarchists and demanded their release. On June 20, a

raid was made on the Anarchist Laboratory in Milan. Based on the very

blurry video of a woman making the delivery, Patrizia Cadeddu, a woman

who had been involved in anarchist activities since the early 1970’s and

one of the founders of the Anarchist Laboratory, was arrested in

connection with the bombing. On July 2, the Laboratory was evicted, but

the squatters chose to sit in.

Meanwhile, the preliminary hearings of the Marini trial began in earnest

on July 1. Marini demanded the addition of new charges relating to the

bank robbery in Cordoba, the attack on the Italian consulate in Malaga,

Massimo Passamani’s arrest, the bombing on April 25 in Milan, the

anarchist use of the Internet, and anarchist publications.

On July 10, 1997 Radio Blackout, a pirate radio station in Turin

received an anonymous letter containing an “informative note for

internal use only relative to a possible investigative action to be

carried due to anarchist destruction” written by the ROS. Dated December

19, 1994, this “informative note for internal use” summarizes the

previous twenty years of investigations against anarchists and goes on

to give some detail of a proposed investigation and frame-up that

precisely parallels the Marini investigation. It speaks of the specific

creation of Mojdeh Namsetchi into an acceptable “penitent” in order to

use her to develop a case for a fantasy organization of the sort

described above. They speak of the need to link various unsolved illegal

activities with known illegal activities of anarchists and with various

anarchist publications. So the plan was already in place by the end of

1994. Radio Blackout exposed this on the radio and turned it over to

defense lawyers, who brought it up in court.

Nonetheless, on July 18, the preliminary hearing concluded with a

decision to take the case to court. Eighteen of the defendants would be

tried for “subversive association”, but not “armed gang”. Ten were

released with no charges. Thirty-eight were charged with “subversive

association”, “subversive association with the aim of terrorism”, “armed

gang” and “receiving stolen goods”. The trial date was set for October

20, 1997.

On July 25 and then again on August 4, Radio Blackout was searched by

the military police to collect information about the ROS note. In the

second search they took an inkjet printer seeking to find evidence that

the note was a forgery.

On October 20, 1997, the first hearing of the trial which dealt

primarily with administrative matters took place. There were various

actions of protest and resistance.

On November 1, Alfredo Bonanno and Emma Sassosi were released after a

year in prison.

On December 8, 1997, the preliminary hearing of the anarchists arrested

for the robbery in Cordoba, Spain took place.

On December 10, various individuals occupied the Italian National

Tourism office in Paris, France to protest Massimo Passamani’s arrest

and detention there.

On January 13, 1998, during the second hearing of the Marini trial, the

defense lawyers requested the release of imprisoned anarchists.

On January 18, the police mad another raid on Radio Blackout seizing a

computer, a printer and disks in the attempt to find evidence of a

forgery of the ROS document. Of course, again nothing turned up.

On January 28, the Italian anarchist Angela Maria LoVecchio was arrested

in the Netherlands for extradition to Italy.

In February of 1998, the CDA disbanded. On February 4, Massimo Passamani

was released in Paris where he remained for the time being. Trial

hearings continued.

In March, the repression broadened. On March 6, two squats in Turin were

evicted. Three anarchists — Edoardo “Baleno” Massari, Maria Soledad Rosa

and Silvano Pellisero, were arrested and charged in connection with

sabotage on the tracks of a high speed train line being built in the Val

Susa valley. On March 7, there were riots and street-fighting in protest

of the evictions and arrests. On March 9, residents of El Paso Occupato,

an anarchist occupied space in Turin, were charged with “illegal defense

of a crime” for publishing a flyer in solidarity with the rioters. On

March 15–17, there were demonstrations and blockades in Turin.

In the meantime, hearings of the Marini trial continued. Then on March

28, the body of Edoardo “Baleno” Massari was found hanged in his cell,

an apparent suicide. On April 1, there was a national demonstration for

him. On April 3, Edoardo’s funeral took place in the small town that he

came from. His family, friends and comrades made it very clear that this

was to be a private funeral for those who knew and loved him.

Nonetheless, the flocks of journalistic vultures felt obliged to invite

themselves. The anarchists came together and collectively kicked them

out. In the process, one journalist, Daniele Genco — known for his

friendship with the cops and particularly responsible for a smear

campaign against Edoardo — was apparently injured. So on April 17, the

anarchist Luca Bertoli was arrested for the beating Genco at the

funeral. Two other anarchists, Arturo Fazio and Andrea (Drew)

Machieraldo, were also being sought in connection with the so-called

beating. On April 24, Luca was placed under house arrest.

In the meantime, on April 22, Silvano Pelissero was put in a maximum

security facility to keep him at a distance from any solidarity

demonstrations.

On April 26, thirteen people were convicted in Ivrea in connection with

a demonstration that occurred years earlier in support of Edoardo

Massari years earlier when he was in prison on other charges.

On April 28, the press headquarters in Turin was attacked with eggs.

On June 2, 1998, a few more “penitents”, the Sforza family, were brought

in as witness. The Sforza family were apparently small-time gangsters

facing hard time and willing to make a deal. They had been used several

years earlier to convict anarchists in the Silocchi kidnapping. The

anarchists in prison for this continue to deny any connection with the

kidnapping. By this time Angela LoVecchio was back in Italy under house

arrest.

On June 15, the four anarchists arrested in Cordoba, Spain were charged

with more robberies in Salamanca, Albaceta and Zamora.

On July 1, Maria Soledad Rosa, who was under house arrest after her

arrest on charges relating to the high-speed train line sabotage

(including charges of “subversive association”), committed suicide.

On July 13, in a preliminary hearing, three people involved in Radio

Blackout were scheduled to go on trial for forgery in April 1999.

On the days before Silvano Pellisero, from July 18 through 20, there

were demonstrations involving blockades and the burning of garbage cans

in solidarity with him. On July 28, his trial was scheduled for December

On October 13, 1998, the Marini’s prosecution began. He sought to

include letter bombs that had occurred in recent months. He also sought

to include a car bomb attack outside the Milan police station that had

occurred several years earlier that was claimed by the Secret Army for

the Liberation of Armenia. He also tried to claim that the publications

Anarchismo and Provocazione, both available publicly, were

“semi-clandestine”.

I don’t have the precise date, but sometime during this period, the four

anarchists who had been in prison for the robbery near Rovereto since

1994 were released.

Throughout 1999, the Marini trial continued with the prosecution

presenting its case. Marini presented his theories. Documents were

produced. Mojdeh Namsetchi and the Sforza family presented their

testimony.

In addition, hearings continued in relation to the three anarchists who

were charged with the beating of Genco. Throughout these hearings,

statements of solidarity were made by anarchists pointing out repeatedly

that the removal of the journalists from Edoardo’s funeral was a

collective action.

The anarchists on trial for the Cordoba robbery in Spain were sentenced

as follows: Claudio, 49 years; Giovanni, 48 years; Giorgio, 48 years;

Michele, 3 years. Then, in the fall of 1999, the first degree trial for

the attack against the Italian vice-consulate in Malaga, Spain took

place and the three anarchists were sentenced to 11 years each for this.

On October 8, the trial against the three people from Radio Blackout who

were charged with falsifying the ROS document began.

In December 1999, the first degree of Silvano’s trial cane to an end and

he was sentenced to 6 years, 10 months for “armed gang” and “possession

of explosives” charges. Anarchists in the courtroom insult the court and

prevent arrests. There is rioting outside the courtroom. Silvano was put

under house arrest pending the second degree of the trial.

In the meantime, Patrizia Cadeddu’s trial continued until January 2000,

when, at the end of the third degree, she was sentenced to 3 years, 9

months for the delivery of the letter claiming the bombing at the

Palazzo Marino in Milan.

In February, the first degree of the Marini trial went into its final

stage as Marini gave his final statement. This statement required five

full-day sessions, and he ended by requesting sentences against 52

defendants — 30 for “armed gang”, 16 for “subversive association” and 7

for specific crimes. The sentences ranged from 8 months to life. In the

course of his presentation he claimed that since for anarchists theory

and practice are one, “intention is enough” to justify conviction.

On March 20, the first degree of the trial of Andrea, Arturo and Luca

came to an end. Luca was sentenced to 3 years, 2 months; Arturo to 3

years, 6 months; and Andrea was absolved.

In the meantime, in Spain, the third degree court confirmed the

sentences for the Cordoba robbery, but during the trial it came out that

the cops, not the robbers, has shot the security guard. The comrades

were locked in the harsh FIES units and have been active in the

struggles against these units while inside.

The defense arguments in the Marini trial were spread over 6 sessions in

March, April and May 2000, showing the absurdity of the prosecution’s

constructions and the untrustworthiness of the “penitents”. On May 31,

the first degree court passed sentence. There were 39 acquittals and 13

convictions. All “armed gang” and “subversive association” charges were

dropped. There were 13 convictions for specific crimes with sentences

ranging from 1 year to life. Mojdeh Namsetchi was given a two year

sentence, but it was suspended. Her conviction was necessary to maintain

her credibility as a “penitent” witness, but clearly the state did not

want to punish this useful (if poorly coached) tool. Those who were not

already in prison for specific crimes were left “free” to await the

second degree trial.

Though it was certain that Marin would appeal this outcome that was for

less than the prosecution desired, he chose to wait for a number of

reasons, hoping to build up a stronger case for the associative charges.

In the meantime, one of the anarchists who had been included in Marini’s

persecution, Marco Camenisch, after many years in prison in Italy for

attacks against nuclear facilities and other targets, was extradited to

Switzerland to face charges there, and remains in prison in Switzerland.

It is quite evident that Marini was not finding it easy to build the

kind of case he desired for the second degree trial. But the state

hysteria about terrorism that was used to justify a wide variety of

repressive measures after the attacks of September 11, 2001, provided an

opportunity to play on certain fears. So in 2002, Marini made his

appeal, and the second degree of the trial began in November. Marini

tried a few ploys such as bringing Giovanni Barcia over from Spain, but,

of course, the anarchist refused to cooperate. So Marini had nothing new

to say. This didn’t prevent him from using five sessions to say it. He

ended his speech with a call for sentences for 46 defendants including

four life sentences. The defense presented its case in several sessions

in December and January (2003), and in the process tore apart Marini’s

case. Nonetheless, on February 1, the court convicted five of the

defendants on charges of “armed gang” and “subversive association” along

with specific criminal charges. The individuals convicted were Francesco

Porcu, Orlando Campo, Gregorian Garagin, Angela Maria LoVecchio and Rose

Ann Scrocco. Rose Ann is currently a fugitive. In addition, Alfredo

Bonanno was convicted for specific crimes, but without any associative

charges. All other defendants were exonerated. The sentenced for those

convicted ranged from 6 years and a 2000 Euro fine for Alfredo Bonanno

to life in prison with 18 months of day-time isolation for Francesco

Porcu. The third degree of the trial has not yet happened and may not

happen for a few years. In the third degree, the entire process of the

precious degrees is examined, sentenced may be changed or overturned or

the judges may decide that the entire thing has start all over again.

While the second degree was going on, Horst Fantazzini and Carlo

Tesseri, two of the anarchists charged in the trial were arrested. Horst

had only recently been released after 25 years in prison. He died during

the night of December 24–25. Apparently, it was a heart attack that

immediately killed him, but when his family went to identify the body,

they noticed that it was badly bruised, as id from a beating. Another

case of the police eradicating a “dangerous individual”.

Since the end of the second degree, new investigations of alleged armed

bands and subversive associations, such as “Revolutionary Anarchist

Action” and “International Solidarity”, have been open. In addition,

people who were involved with the anti-state communist group CRAC (now

dissolved) and anarchists who know these people have also been put under

investigation.

On March 6, 2003, the second degree trial of Luca and Arturo for the

beating of Daniele Genco took place. People gathered in solidarity in

front of the courthouse. At the end of the trial Luca was exonerated

(only to be immediately re-arrested on other charges), but Arturo’s

sentence of 3 years, 8 months was confirmed. Arturo is currently

fugitive. At the end of the trial, the comrades of Luca and Arturo set

up a blockade in the middle of via Roma in Ivrea near the offices of the

newspaper La Stampa. During the blockade, some people left writings on

the walls inside the newspaper office. Large numbers of cops arrived and

five people were taken away. Three of them were arrested with charges of

resistance and insult. One of these three was also charged with the

attempted theft of an officer’s pistol. The two who were not arrested

were released that evening. One of the arrested people were released on

March 8, the other two on March 22. They are awaiting trial.

The Italian state is carrying out ongoing repressive activity in which

investigations, searches, arrests and imprisonments keep anarchists

quite busy simply in attempting to resist these machinations of the

state. Nonetheless, the state has had problems in using “subversive

association” and “armed gang” charges against anarchists whose methods

of activity do not fit in with such organizational forms. Thus, quite

recently, a magistrate in Milan complained in an interview that the

Italian laws against subversive association and armed gangs were not

appropriate for anarchists, because it was too difficult to convict

them. He requested that the state pass a new law that would allow

magistrates to arrest and convict anarchists even if they are not caught

carrying out an attack of any sort. In other words, he is calling for

the explicit criminalization of all anarchists. If he has his way, the

Italian state would no longer have to resort to difficult undertakings

like that of the Marini trial.

Chapter 1. Documents Regarding the Arrest and Trial of the Four

Anarchists Charged with Bank Robbery

In Respect of the Law

Trained to live in respect for the law. Trained to obey orders, do our

duty, carry out instructions, fulfill obligations, observe rules, submit

to prohibitions, subject ourselves to morality.

That is how they want us: animals tamed and domesticated by superiors to

be respected, televisions to be watched, taxes to be paid, politicians

to be voted for, money to be earned. Robbed of a life that no longer has

any value, spent in resignation while awaiting death. Or rebellion.

On Monday, 19^(th) September near Rovereto (Trento), five anarchists

were arrested, accused of armed robbery. Antonio Budini, Christos

Stratigopulos, Evangelia Tziutzia, Carlo Tesseri and Jean Weir are in

prison, while investigators are preparing to build a castle of

accusations in order to repress the real crime committed by the

arrested: that of being anarchist. Guilty or innocent: for the law and

its servants our comrades cannot be anything else.

For us who feel nothing but repugnance for Justice, it is enough to know

that they are anarchists to give them our solidarity, to be their

accomplices. Because every anarchist, every lover of freedom, lives

their own life in the way and with the instruments they prefer, and if

they need money they go and take it where it exists in abundance.

Because every one of us chooses by themselves how, where and when to

attack the society of oppression and those who support it.

Freedom is the weapon we will never tire of taking up.

Freedom is the crime we will never tire of committing.

Tuscan anarchists

No Act of Revolt is Futile

On Monday September 19, 1994, five anarchist comrades were arrested

(near Rovereto, Trento) following an armed robbery. A Robbery. A single

act which manifests itself in the only logic possible for the

dispossessed in a world based on sackage and exploitation. The only road

open for to those who refuse the condition of hunger, submission,

humiliation and collaboration in their own misery: that of acting

directly in the first person to reappropriate themselves of at least a

part of what has been stolen from them.

Carlo Tesseri, Evangelia Tziutzia, Antonio Budini, Jean Weir and

Christos Stratigopulos now find themselves in prison where they will

presumably remain kidnapped for a good while. Their offense is their

having broken the infamous rules of the social pact, worsened by the

fact that they are revolutionary anarchists.

Christos, Eva, Antonio, Jean and Carlo are part of a particular

dimension of the class struggle. They are anarchists and as such each

has a heritage that others will have to reckon with. Not poor isolated

miserables. Not prey for eventual attempts at recuperation or

reinsertion, but individuals who think and act as part of the conscious

rebellion which has as its perspective the destruction of exploitation,

for a world without thieving exploiters. We will not allow the

criminilization of their act. We claim it referring to its necessity and

social validity. And so, they themselves must be criminalized.

To Carlo, Eva, Antonio, Jean and Christos we want to express our

complete solidarity. In the first place for having with determination

and lucidity attacked one of the multiple expressions of oppression;

then because they are now constrained in even narrower cages than those

in which we all live: punished by the enemy for the affront they have

suffered, caged up by the system to preserve its infamy, segregated by

the State in order to defend itself.

They will try to keep them locked up for months, perhaps years. They

will try to make them repent or repudiate their dignity. Perhaps they

will try to torture them.

They will try to carry out an operation of annihilation of the real

people they have before them. With their schematics and the squalid

content peculiar to their class they will continue along their road of

manipulation in order to better manage the maintenance of consensus.

But they will not remain on this road for long. The struggle carried

forward by the arrested comrades is also ours. The struggle will

continue, extend, will move increasingly to the direct attack on all

those who, individually or collectively, bear the responsibility both in

the specific case and in all the fields of exploitation and oppression

carried out by capital and the State.

On the other side, the apparatus of repression will also try to silence

all those who in one way or another make the five comrades feel the

warmth of solidarity; they will do everything they can (as always

happens) to suffocate any ferment of rebellion, any move of

insufferance, every word or bullet aimed against this system.

They might as well save themselves the effort.

It is open war against the enemy. There will be no turning back.

Anarchist and libertarian comrades of Bologna

Declaration of the Arrested Anarchists

Comrades,

We are speaking out to clarify a few things that are dear to us.

First of all, we thank all those who have expressed their solidarity and

those who will set about dong so through a common practice of struggle.

We are anarchist individuals moved by a common sentiment of freedom. Our

personal need for money would never have found satisfaction in

exploitation, either on our own backs or on those of others. We

therefore decided to turn our attention to a bank, a structure whose

responsibility we are all aware of.

The action we carried out should therefore be considered an act of

reappropriation for personal needs.

We tried, and it didn’t work.

Immediately following our arrest in the Chizzola mountains near Trento

on September 19,1994, the local press began to pave the way for a frame

up, that lost no time in taking form. In huge titles they presented us

as an international gang of anarchist robbers, and to reinforce this

thesis they presented us as the authors of two other bank robberies that

had taken place on the same day in Ravina, Trento, on July 29, 1994.

Our photographs were published in the local newspapers for days on end

and were shown on regional TV on a number of occasions. Jean was

presented as “wife of ex Red Brigades leader Alfredo Bonanno”,[1] in

order, in our opinion, to wave the spectre of “terrorism” and back up

their thesis of “robbery in a political framework”.

Antonio received notification of confiscation of material seized from

his home in Milan on September 19, as “required for investigations aimed

at ascertaining the involvement of others in the robbery, and the

participation of Budini himself in subversive organizations”.

Since then Antonio, Carlo, Christos and Jean have formally been accused

of the above robberies.

It is easy to deduce that they are preparing to saddle us with all their

unsolved cases, and, by investigating in the sphere of our friendships,

that they will try to involve other comrades in order to support their

accusatory theses and inferences.

We are convinced of the need for mobilisation in order to break up this

criminalisation, mobilisation not strictly limited to this case, but

addressed towards other fields of the struggle.

Good work, comrades.

Antonio Budini

Carlo Tesseri

Christos Stratigopolis

Jean Weir

To Those Without Judgment

The daily spectacle of the alternating game of politics continues as a

number of those in power find themselves accused by the very laws that

they themselves impose to defend their privileges.[2] The prevailing

“thirst for justice” is no more than a gregarious sense of satisfaction

felt by those who, incapable of getting rid of their rulers, are

delighting in the misfortune befalling some of them due to the

prevarication of other, new bosses who want to take their place.

Accusers and accused compete in a motionless dance, demanding just laws,

impartial judges, courts at the service of the citizen. On the other

hand, there are individuals for who Justice means no more than a machine

for domination and enslavement. In open revolt against all power, they

feel only that they are hostages in the grips of the law.

Antonio Budini, Jean Weir, Christos Stratigopulos and Carlo Tesseri are

four anarchists in prison following a robbery. The State is trying to

have them convicted for another one. They are anarchists and that is

evidence enough. In the war that everybody declares against those who do

not bow down, anything goes. This new trial against Antonio, Jean,

Christos and Carlo is due to take place in Trento on October 13.

May all the enemies of judges oppose the blows of the tribunal with the

arm of solidarity.

Anarchist individualities

Chapter 2. Documents Relating to the Marini Investigation

Frame-Up

Anarchists are declared enemies of the state and of all institutional

realizations to which it devotes itself in order to control and repress.

This declaration of principle, even in its abstraction, is one of the

essential characteristics of anarchism and has never been put into

doubt.

The state knows quite well that anarchists are its uncompromising

enemies, those who, more or less effectively, fight against it up to the

end.

But it also knows that precisely because of this position of total,

radical hostility, anarchists cannot find allies in their struggle

against the state, except in the spontaneous participation of

individuals who desire to change the oppressive conditions in which we

all live.

Far from every game of power, diamond-hard in the crystalline purity of

their ideas, anarchists have always been the thorn in the side of every

state, from the most despotic to the most democratic; this is why police

organs of all kinds have paid such particular attention to them.

And since the police and the judiciary know well that even though

anarchists oppose seeking political alliances, they manage to gain the

sympathy of those who have not definitively sold out, here these

authorities are trying by every means to implicate anarchist in actions

that often could not be their doing not so much for factual reasons, but

rather due to basic choices and reasons of principle.

Anarchists stand by those who suffer oppression often without knowing

how to react, and everyone knows it. This closeness is sometimes ideal,

but at other times it gives a hand in the attack against the interests

of the dominators. Sabotage is an easy example to follow, especially

when it is carried out with simple means and is thus clearly within

everyone’s grasp.

Anarchists have sharp eyes for distinguishing the places where the

realizations of domination are just beginning to become visible and

strike there. Their way of proceeding is always easily recognizable

because it is aimed at being reproduced in the most widespread manner

possible. They don’t have the pretext of distinguishing the sensitive

hearts of the state or of laying claim to the competence to strike them.

This disturbs.

Anarchists don’t accept “grants” or support; through their struggle they

find their own means by themselves. As a rule, having recourse to the

aid of their comrades through subscriptions or otherwise. They don’t

love to prostitute themselves. This is why they don’t have respect for

the sacredness of the property of the rich. When any one of them knocks

at some bank’s door for personal reasons, because she has so decided, if

something goes wrong, he is quick to pay the consequences. Living free

has its costs. This disturbs.

But there are some things that they are not prepared to do. They are not

prepared to slaughter people indiscriminately, as states do in war as

well as in times of so-called “peace”. They would never accept the mere

idea of an indiscriminate slaughter of persons.

In the same way anarchists are against power, any prison, even that

which kidnappers inflict on those they kidnap in hope that someone will

decide to pay the sum demanded as ransom. Locking up a human being is a

humiliating practice.

Another thing anarchists refuse is a clandestine armed structure,

equipped with an organizational chart, working rules, political program

and all the rest. That which common language insists on describing as

“armed band” is very far from the idea that anarchists have of their

conflict with the state, a conflict that, although it may even be

violent — and thus armed — at times, will never be rigidly arranged

according to norms that are ultimately borrowed from the very structure

that one wants to fight against.

All the frame-ups that have been built up against anarchists over the

last few decades have thus followed two lines: on the one hand the

organs of the state have kept in mind the extreme danger of a model of

life and action that, if it were to be generalized sooner or later and

become sufficiently known, might overturn the present order of the

society of the sleeping and consenting; on the other hand they have

tried to accuse anarchists of being responsible for slaughters,

kidnappings, armed band: precisely the things that anarchists could not

choose to do.

But why does the state try to “use” anarchists? Because with their way

of being that opposes every compromise and all political connivance with

current and future rulers, they lend themselves to being used in this

way. Who will they find to defend them? Who will espouse their cause? No

decent person could do so, and it is really in order to keep decent

people quiet that the state controls, robs, slaughters and all the rest.

Of course, the state could be content with putting anarchists in prison

by simply accusing them of anti-social behavior, of holding to a

dangerous doctrine, of contempt for institutional organs, of support for

various crimes, of incitement to revolt. Dozens and dozens, if not

hundreds, of trials of this sort have been held and there have not been

serious sentences: from a few months to a few years.

But anarchists disturb the gilded tranquility of conformists; they might

form a little flame that makes the fire flare up, and with times that

rush by it is necessary to keep a strategy ready that is sufficient for

putting them completely out of play.

Here comes a Mr. Antonio Marini, deputy prosecutor in the region of

Rome, into the spotlight. A gentleman with sharp teeth and a fertile

brain for inventing stories. He has the experience of trials such as

those for the Moro case or for the attack against the pope behind him,

thus there is no person more suited than he is for what is needed: he

could never ever understand how anarchists reason and of what — in legal

terms — they are firmly responsible.

So here is the distinguished Marini riding in the wake of his

illustrious predecessors and constructing his theorem: anarchists are

responsible for thousands of actions against the state and its economic

offshoots that have spread throughout the national territory in the past

few years. Now, since the theorem is shaky, how can it be shown that a

few anarchists knocked down hundreds of pylons or burned Mr.

Berlusconi’s Standa subsidiaries? It can’t be done. Thus, it is

necessary for him to place them in the middle of much different, larger

matters. There are no slaughters within his reach (in the future, you

never know, we will see!), but there are kidnappings. Here he is then to

attribute the truly amazing act to them of having had a hand in all the

most important kidnappings of the past few years. What does it matter if

anarchists are against any form of imprisonment: the good Marini does

not know this. The theorem stated, seasoned with the corollary of the

armed band, he even finds a young woman who maintains that she knows

them, the anarchists, a few of them; that she knows them well and has

even done a robbery with a few of them. The rest will come of itself.

Let’s go, gentlemen, starting from yet another dramatization.

In their time, there were the bombs at the trade fair in Milan. Some

Milanese anarchist comrades were accused of slaughter and held in prison

for almost a year. At the trial, everything was deflated. Frame-up.

Then the slaughter of the Fontana plaza, with dozens of deaths.

Anarchists were held responsible. The murder of Pinelli, thrown from a

window of the Milan police station. Today, after a quarter of a century,

the same judiciary system has had to admit that the secret services of

the Italian democratic state placed the bombs. Frame-up.

In 1980, dozens of arrests of anarchists throughout Italy who were

accused of robbery, armed band and insurrection against the state. The

investigation didn’t get past the preliminary stage. Frame-up.

From 1984 to 1988, at least four attempts to involve anarchists in the

affair of the high tension pylons cut down nearly everywhere throughout

Italy. In so many trials in the various degrees from first to cassation,

not one condemnation. Frame-up.

In 1989 the attempt to construct a subversive association after the

arrest of some anarchist comrades in the course of an attempted. The

judiciary action came to nothing. Frame-up.

In 1991, sensational operations aimed at implicating a supposed group

“Anarchismo e Provocazione” in the Silocchi kidnapping. The group is

nonexistent, though for some time a magazine called Anarchismo and a

paper called Provocazione have existed. The attempt to give life to this

monstrous machination fails. Frame-up.

In 1994, a search in Florence of the editorial space of the anarchist

weekly Canenero (electronic bugs were discovered in the same place a

little earlier) and the delivery of three notices of investigation to as

many comrades for crimes related to incendiary attacks against

Belusconi’s Standa. In this case as well the inquiry never got beyond

the investigative phase. Frame-up.

Guilty of Solidarity: More police constructions and searches at the

expense of anarchists

We would like so much to talk with you about beautiful things, love

without calculation, children playing noisily, the desertion of all

obedience, relations free from constraint, the factories of harm closed

forever, money being burnt; in short of full life manifesting itself.

But it is repression with all its arrogance that leads us to speak.

A few months ago, in several Italian cities including Rovereto and

Trento, there was a series of searches at the expense of a good number

of anarchists. The pretext was that of a fanciful “subversive

association” with “the aim of terrorism” to which those who were

searched supposedly belonged in the judgment of the men of Judgment.

Obviously, since anarchists have no organization of this kind, so much

the less with leaders, hierarchies and all the rest, the operation came

up with a handful of flies (i.e., with an extension of the

investigations). Now, seeing that the “subversive association” does not

exist, a gang — this one armed — of judges in Rome have decided to

repeat the searches. So, at dawn, on November 16, in Naples, Rome,

Florence, Pinerolo and here in Rovereto, five dwellings were turned

upside-down by military police, faithful through the ages. But this time

they actually added “armed gang” to the crimes charged: “robbery” and

“attack against public utility instillations”. As always, pounds of

books, papers and diaries, taken together with usual computers — nothing

more.

In order to avoid having the zeal of the men of law extend to the

attempt at incrimination for “slaughter of infants” or “international

traffic in organs” next time around, we will take this chance to explain

what our real crime is: solidarity. Solidarity, in spite of all

repression and criminalization, towards anyone who wants complete

freedom.

Power would like it if we kept silent about the arrest of any individual

who does not allow him or herself to be governed, or better yet if we

distanced ourselves. But this has not happened in thousands of

instances, just as it did not happen when four anarchists who had no

money and were hostile to exploitation lightened the coffers of a bank

end up in prison. “Here it is!” shriek the servants of authority, “It is

an entire armed gang; they are all robbers!” Guilty of solidarity; this

is the sentenced announced.

A simple crime, as you can see, of a single word. A crime that we will

never grow tired of committing.

Roveretan anarchists

To the Men and Women of Courage

On the night of January 18 [1996] unknown persons painted the main door

of Rovereto town hall red and fixed a large parchment above it with the

following words:

To the men and women of courage,

With this page, affixed on the doorway of a building in which every day

others decide that you cannot decide but can only obey, we say to you:

They are trying to make you believe that your enemies are not the

tyrants, bosses, exploiters and those who defend them armed to the teeth

with machine guns, uniforms, televisions and newspapers. They are trying

to make you believe that your enemies are the individuals who want to

decide for themselves, and therefore rebel; that we are your enemies.

Twenty years ago they told you that we were the ones who placed bombs in

the public squares, whereas now you know well that it was the state that

acted in this way in order to frighten everyone and suffocate every

tension toward freedom and revolt. Today, a judge in Rome named Antonio

Marini is telling you that we are a band of kidnappers and a clandestine

organization. But you know us, you have heard us speak out and act

against all prisons, and for the complete self-management of our lives.

Do not let these infamous lies pass. Repression denies every dissonant

voice, every proud gesture of solidarity.

We do not have gangs to which one belongs. All parties, including

“revolutionary” ones, disgust us. We want to sink all the galleons of

power, and our crew has nothing to do with captains and flags.

Rebel on your own and forget about us.

Anarchist pirates

The fact that on January 3 the entire national press hurled itself in

unison against the anarchists, copying without scruples the police

bulletins from the Prosecutor’s Office in Rome, couldn’t have passed

unnoticed.

In Bologna, Rovereto, Trento, Florence and Verona on January 7 and 8,

banners appeared in city centers, on monuments, scaffolding and bridges

against the Roman public prosecutor Antonio Marini and against the

frame-up in act against the anarchists.

During the night between January 10 and 11, someone wrote on the wall of

the Courts in Bologna “Fire to the Courts” and “Fire to the military

police” signed with the symbol of anarchy. A few days later a number of

anarchists blocked the doors of the Surveillance Court with silicone,

preventing access, and left some slogans: “Freedom for Camenisch” and

“Free everyone”.

In Florence, late in the morning of January 18, a few hundred leaflets

entitled “Before retirement” were thrown from the Giotto belfry in Duomo

square.

Graffiti against the dirty work of the judiciary appeared more or less

throughout Italy. In Turin in particular slogans were written at the

editorial offices of Il Manifesto [a Communist party newspaper] on

January 24, including messages such as “Manifesto servants of the

masters”.

Against the New Inquisition

Today, January 25 [1996] at about 10am, the editorial offices of the

Manifesto [a communist newspaper — ed.] in Rome were occupied. Like the

rest of the press, this paper was responsible for repeating carbon copy

police reports and thus supporting the repressive frame-up orchestrated

by the magistrates Antonio Marini and Bruno Giardina at the expense of

the anarchist movement.

We are present in the center of the capital, all the potential

components of a single great criminal project, brought out for a day

from clandestinity, without bazookas, dynamite, carnival masks,

helicopters and submarines.

It all began on September 19, 1994 when, surrounded by military police

with the help of police dogs and helicopters, four robbers of the Rural

Bank of Serravalle di Trento were captured. Immediately afterwards,

there was a sensational discovery: it is Jean Weir, Antonio Budini,

Christos Stratigopulos, and Carlo Tesseri — an “international gang” of

anarchist?

What better occasion for the public prosecutor of Florence Pierluigi

Vigna, who has pursued any anarchist who came within his reach without

respite, to orchestrate a scenario that connects this and other

robberies, knocked-over pylons, kidnappings, car bombs to the existence

of a criminal band of those troublesome subversives whose visions of the

world and of life are far too distant from the constituted order and

from profit?

A few dozen anarchists are investigated through out Italy after Marini,

the Roman magistrate prompted by Vigna, himself takes on various

investigations spread throughout the national territory with the aim of

eliminating at the root the inconveniences that spread like an oil

stain.

Still they have a problem: there is not a bit of evidence that confirms

the existence of such a gang. And this is where, with the aid of a

marshal ready to redeem the former flame of one of those arrested, the

“penitent” of the situation originates. The “penitent” doesn’t know

anything, but this matters little to the magistrates and police who

instruct her as necessary about the basic “revelations” to make. And

then anarchists are always an easy target for Them: if you throw them

inside there is no danger that anyone will protest either in the streets

or in Parliament. No one would be ready to defend them: whoever does is

surely one of them and thus can be investigated.

On the other hand, evidence is not what matters, but rather images.

Let’s put it this way: seeing and considering that by tomorrow we could

all be in prison because we are different, we might as well break loose

now. Let’s lay claim to the immediate liberation of all prisoners, to

the extinction of the state, to Life.

Anarchists

Everywhere

We will be everywhere.

Four anarchists — Antonio, Christos, Carlos, Jean — are arrested

following a robbery. The state has decided that the robbery is to be

multiplied by three. Two unresolved cases supply the material necessary.

A little girl who does not even remember the instructions the judges

gave her, invents having participated in 2 robberies herself. She

remembers nothing, but already she involves another three anarchists.

Judges Vigna and Marini would like to use the same girl to transform

anarchist publications and initiatives, as well as the thousands of

attacks which anonymous hands have realized wherever the structures of

dominion and poison exist, into an armed gang with vertices and

organization charts: The state sees its own reflection in the mirror.

The face has already led to the sentencing of comrades in first degree.

On November 7^(th) in Trento, the appeal is due to take place.

The macabre dance repeats itself.

In the face of this spectacle of power and death, the only living

elements are our comrades and the solidarity that links them. The courts

could not contain this solidarity. It went beyond them, towards freedom,

revolt, joy.

Now our comrades will be put on show again like animals in cages,

sacrificial figures on a stage that turns them into passive spectators,

consumers of another infamous buffoonery. The script would have us turn

up there again.

Judges, the game is clear: Everyone into the court, everyone putting on

a mask.

The defect is simple: It is called life.

You want defense, you will get attack.

You want water, you will get fire.

We will be the ones to play. Everywhere.

J. Weir — Autumn 1996

Uncontrollables

Forward everybody! And with hand and heart, word and pen, dagger and

gun, irony and curse, theft poisoning and arson, let us make war on

society!

— Joseph Dejaque

Magistrates are showing off. They give orders and the troops in uniform

and scrap iron invade our homes in the search for proof and expedients

to imprison us, then they pose in the limelight to explain their action,

to wrench consensus, to end up “in triumph” as in the case of the

assistant public prosecutor in Rome, Antonio Marini.

But what are they looking for?

They tell us they are looking for elements to demonstrate the existence

of an armed clandestine organization. This is why they have arrested

dozens of anarchists all over Italy.

An armed gang?

Too poor a thing: it could not contain our excessive intentions. Too

narrow a thing: it would only constrict our uncontainable explosions.

Anyone who rises up against her own and others’ oppression does not seek

leaders, different directives, other cages to take the place of this

society, nor do they seek members.

The impatient one who rebels daily is not a reasonable person, nor full

of good sense; he always creates a sense of uneasiness. Those who

instead are careful not to do so live quiet lives: if any instinct were

to push them to an excess of passion, reason would quickly persuade them

that it is in their own interest to cast such foolish aspirations aside.

Anyone who wants to enjoy freedom intensely, to savor it, will always

find herself faced with a uniform prepared to prevent her, but he will

also encounter many passionate relationships of complicit affinity.

Antonio Marini is showing off.

He does not realize what his actions will provoke: He, who only

associates with regimented people like himself, does not know that

anyone who does not fear the unknown is free to choose the tools she

prefers, according to individual circumstances and attitudes, without

limits.

Anarchists

Repentance is for Sale in the Law’s Bazaar

Every state in the world is based on the same foundation: the

exploitation of their inhabitants and the degradation of the individual.

They more or less openly wage constant war against the enemies of their

power and those who reject their authority. Every state needs a judicial

apparatus to silence and imprison uncompromising individuals, rebels and

fighters in love with freedom.

On September 16, 1996 one of the hugest waves of repression against a

portion of the anarchist scene took place: a grotesque frame-up against

those individuals who break out from the state’s rules in order to

manage their lives for themselves. Against those who take what they need

today without putting up with exploitation by the gears of the system.

Against those who understand solidarity to be more than just an idea.

Anarchist Solidarity is not a political program. It flares up in each

heart, wherever an anarchist is in dock, in whatever part of this world,

for whatever reason. Anarchist solidarity expresses itself in direct

action — in accordance with the ideas and by the specific means of each

individual.

The picture of a free anti-authoritarian society is a nightmare for

every judge and every servant of the state, bringing an end to their

power. That means that they also have to jail every uncompromising

individual in love with freedom — as long as it works, as many as

possible!

They are looking for strategy to accomplish this: all the rebels were

accused of being members of an “armed subversive organization”. This is

exactly what the Italian prosecutors Marini and Ionta have tried to do.

Their construction is based on testimony from a false “repentant” girl,

who must serve as chief witness though she is not able to give concrete

evidence of the things she says.

We are not interested in any of the pretexts of the state’s servants —

they will always side with power and against freedom!

A Letter from Guido Mantelli and Roberta Nano

To all comrades:

In anticipation of the trial that is beginning at the end of October

[1997] in Rome, in which we are defendants, along with several other

comrades accused of belonging to a group called “O.R.A.I.” (or whatever

other name the prosecutors decide to give us at various times), we feel

that it is important to make some of our thoughts public. It is

certainly not our intention to waste time trying to explain to judges

and cops what anarchism means to us. Or the reasons behind our

anti-authoritarian thoughts and actions. In regard to the accusations

for which we are being tried, let’s not waste time: this group does not

exist. Let this be clear in case of our eventual use of certain

instruments or organizational techniques, since, and we will never tire

of saying this, we believe it is a natural consequence of our desire for

freedom that we search and make use of experimentation in methods, ways,

arms, relationships and structures that will give us results in our

revolutionary fight.

Organizations with dull names such as “O.R.A.I.” can only exist in the

stuffy thoughts of men of power. Taking this into consideration, we

believe that this trial is nothing more than a political trial, the

outcome of which is not played out in the courtroom, but rather in the

battle between the interest of power and the effective answer of all our

comrades inside prison as well as those outside to these repressive

maneuvers.

In light of the sort of justice and the political reasons for this

trial, we can expect that we will be imprisoned as has happened in many

other instances even including recent ones (the Silocchi trial). Even

though the lawyers will try to denounce the accusations. But since not

all comrades find themselves with the same ends, starting from the

arrests in September 1996, we don’t consider it possible to find

ourselves in a collective position for confronting the situation that

has occurred (a thing that we would have preferred); it seems that we

must express our position in light of the eventual legal defense that

will represent us in court.

At our request, the lawyers can only be used when it comes to getting

dates and judiciary information and for the presentation of motions and

other resources which the state only allows to specialized persons, such

as attorneys. We certainly cannot count on them to believe in our

political position or to guarantee a favorable verdict. Therefore, not

desiring to delegate, and considering that it is technically impossible

to discuss the technical aspects with attorneys without the possibility

of giving control to an operator in the sector of absolute authority to

decide what would be in our best interests, we ask that through the

defense committee, in agreement with out comrades and relatives, we keep

the lawyers updated in case of eventual recourse and appeal which could

be favorable to the situation of the defendants.

Therefore, no “individualized” treatment and no effort by an attorney to

give the courts any interpretations of our ways, methods and manner of

thought.

We believe that the holding of the other trial can only represent one of

the many mobilizations against the repressive attack of which we are the

object. A momentary fight to be revealed outside the courts through an

initiative of solidarity with the indicted comrades and through

criticism of the democratic regime.

It is in this atmosphere, in the moments of struggle, that we really

decide our fate. To all our comrades, our strongest revolutionary hug.

P.S. In one way or another, we would like this to circulate as much as

possible among all the people involved in the mobilization against the

frame-up constructed by Marini.

Chapter 3. Documents Concerning Related Events

Statement about the Attack on the Italian Vice-Consulate in Malaga,

Spain

We have occupied the vice consular offices in Malaga, Spain, arms in

hand, attacking a center of the Italian state in a foreign country. This

is proof that the interests, structures and representatives of power can

be struck wherever they show themselves. We are well aware that borders

will not divide or differentiate the instruments of repression, and this

is why the Italian state is just a part of the criminal project that is

the United Europe. The United Europe of multinational capital, of

Interpol, of judicial cooperation. The United Europe that will build

barriers of even more significance between the participants in the

management of social-economic power and those outside of it. The United

Europe that will prepare the terrain for repressing the movements that

might spoil the party, with sterile technology or savage brutality,

depending on the circumstance. For years, the judicial apparatus has

played a precise role in the restructuring of power. On the one hand

offering a new credibility to the new dominant institutions through

campaigns against corruption or the so-called “crimes of state”,

comedies that only serve to establish a new equilibrium of government

and to safeguard the illusion that in the democratic system even the

ruling class is accountable before the law. On the other hand, by means

of the armies of guard dogs and informers, more or less professional

police collaborators, increasing the repressive terrorism against those

who do not adapt to the democratic cages.

We think that the revolutionary movement cannot keep its arms crossed

before the old and new strategies of the capitalist regime. We are

acting in this direction, as revolutionaries without mediation — with

strength. We do not consider ourselves a vanguard of any

political-social structure and even less the representatives of other

people or things; we act only for ourselves and our path of liberation

and self-determination. We act in this way, selecting without limits the

methods and instruments we consider most effective in the struggle in

course. For these reasons we are on the side of anyone who fights

against authority in any place that it manifests itself, and we hope

that in the near future more voices of freedom will grow everywhere with

greater energy.

Corazones Libres

Statement of Silvano from Bussoleno

To the civil society, to the anarchist comrades, to the greens, reds,

blacks, to those who understand everything or nothing, to those who are

not interested at all in what happens around them, to everyone aware of

changing the course of history.

Novara, May 5, 1998

The undersigned Silvano is the son of Bruno who was a 15-years-old

partisan order-taker (communist partisans who fought in northern Italy

in 1943–1945 against the nazi-fascists of the Salo republic) in the

Balmafol-Combe-Caserme Sevine area. He never lined with communists,

socialists or other political parties. Nor was he an anarchist. He never

gave back the fire weapons he used during the partisan guerrilla war and

he always kept them to defend himself and his family from any assailants

— Germans, fascists or communists. In 1981, he was jailed just because

he was found guilty of possessing these weapons and he died in the

hospital in 1983 because of bad health.

I confirm and point out that I am an anarchist, rebel and individualist.

This statement concerns me and not my two comrades Soledad and Edoardo,

who were accused and imprisoned for the same crime as me.

I would like to remind you that the crimes we are charged with include

subversive association, assault against public buildings with

explosives, robbery.

I point out that I am incompatible with any way of life you have, with

the wage system, with authority and ownership (which always comes from

exploitation). I am against the TAV (the high speed train) in Italy,

France or Germany or elsewhere. I’m against tourism in the snowfields of

Val di Susa or Valle d’Aosta, as well as on the Cancun beaches in Mexico

or in the Club Med villages, wherever they are located.

I am against any use of nuclear power as well as the exaggerated use of

cars.

I am opposed and incompatible with any form of authority, from the judge

who discharges or charges with a crime according to his whim, to the

policeman doing his job, the head foreman and the school teacher.

In your civil, democratic society, founded on a hypocritical peace I

cannot see a possible space for me to live. I can see no place for

dialogue with your majority that has mainly turned its back on the earth

for the sake of that shame that justifies any slaughter: progress!!!

I deny any involvement in the assaults carried out in Val di Susa or

other places, I deny being involved in a group called Grey Wolves (Lupi

Grigi that has claimed some assaults in Val di Susa and has nothing to

do with the Turkish Grey Wolves).

The idea of being active in an organization does not comply with the

principles of anarchism.

I end this short statement as part of my duty to my comrades who showed

me their solidarity.

I do not want to justify my positions before the so-called civil society

that accuses me of eco-terrorism.

I do not recognize any power and authority to judge my way of living.

I shall take not of the sentence passed against me, which shall only be

executed owing to a greater numeric and technical force.

Everyone may think and do what s/he wants. Those who want it can stay by

me and who do not feel like it can stay away from me as if I were a

demon coming from who knows which hell of society.

Silvano

No surname as it is not important.

Family names are only used for filing.

Soledad is Dead. No Celebrations Please.

Soledad hanged herself (we don’t have any reason to doubt it) on Friday

night (between July 10 and 11, 1998) in Benevagienna (Italy), where she

was living under house arrest in the community “Sotto i ponti”. Her body

has been taken to the hospital of Mondovi, as required by a magistrate

who was very upset because of the unexpected interruption of his

fishing-day. Actually we don’t even know his name. Many journalists, as

usual, arrived immediately but they were chased away.

Soledad was an anarchist 22 years old and she was Argentinean. She was

in Italy since September 1997. During the investigation of the sabotage

against the High Speed Train Project (TAV) in Val Susa, she was accused

of being a member of an armed organization called “lupi Grigi” (Grey

Wolves) which claimed itself as responsible for only one such sabotage

(there have been dozens of them and almost all happened before Summer

1997). She was arrested with two other anarchists, Silvano Pellissero

and Edoardo Massari, at the beginning of March, 1998. The charges were

reduced after the suicide in jail of Edoardo Massari.

Soledad then obtained house arrest in Benevagenna; Silvano was moved

instead to the high security prison of Novaro. At the moment he is at

his 20^(th) day of hunger-strike asking for house arrest and in order to

know the date of his trial.

The magistrate who holds the inquiry about the sabotage against the TAV

(the inquiry was supposed to finish on May 7^(th)) is Maurizio Laudi.

The famous “arsenal” found in the cellar of the Casa Occupata in

Collegno (Turin), where Silvano, Soledad and Edoardo lived, has never

been shown to the public and no expert evidence has ever been presented.

The Media are working to construct a part for Silvano, describing him as

an agent provocateur.

Right now there are no public demonstrations scheduled, and we hope

there won’t be, given the results of the mass demonstrations held on

April 4^(th): just a sort of exorcism after which nothing really

meaningful happened.

Let’s leave apart any mere conventional form act. Anyone wanting to

express his thoughts and sentiments and rage should simply do it, in the

place and the situation where one lives, in one’s own times and ways.

There is nothing to add and nothing to be shouted out. Move.

(think globally and act locally)

El Paso Occupato

Né centro né social... né squat

Via Passo Buole 47

10127 — Torino — Italy

A Statement

With regard to the preliminary hearing that will be held in Ivrea on

July 8 in relation to the actions that occurred in Brosso during the

funeral of Edoardo Massari, we consider it an opportunity to clarify our

positions.

Beyond the various judicial and journalistic declarations and farces on

the various responsibilities some of us could have had during the

funeral, useful only to the repression for sending away “inconvenient

personages” from the Ivrea scene, we think it is opportune to drive a

few things home.

We went to Brosso to salute our comrade, killed by cops, judges and

journalists, and we wanted to do it without the presence of his

murderers. This could not be done because, even during the funeral, the

inquisitors wanted to show their omnipresence and omnipotence with

dozens of police and journalists.

We were insulted and we were provoked — the very presence of these

murderers was and is an insult and a provocation — and in consequence we

defended ourselves. To defend ourselves and send the vultures away was

the only response possible and we have made it.

Those who kill and imprison every day, those who support and promote

wars, those who sell death and destruction have described the happenings

at Brosso as savage violence, cowardly lynching, etc.

Throughout the repressive and slanderous campaign, they have sought to

separate us into “good” and “bad”. Here it is, we are here to say that

they have not succeeded in doing this, that solidarity is stronger than

their courts and that the only thing repression has succeeded in

obtaining is the increase of our enmity toward this wretched existence

and its supporters.

We will continue to hold forth our ideas and practices with dignity and

certainly neither judges nor journalists will make us change our ideas.

We emphasize once again our will to refuse every separation between

“good” and “bad”.

Luca Bertola

Andrea Macchieraldo

Arturo Fazio

And others present at Baleno’s funeral

For a World Without Jackals

A march in solidarity with Luca and Arturo, Thursday March 6, 2003,

9:00, at the Palace of justice of C.so Vittorio Emanuele, third section

of appeal

“Injustice has a name, a surname and an address”

On March 6 in the Court of Appeals of the Tribunal of Turin, the second

degree trial in which two anarchists, Luca and Arturo, are charged for

events that occurred in Brosso five years ago during the funeral of

Edoardo Massari will take place. Edoardo was an anarchist accused of

sabotage against the high speed train project and found dead in his

prison cell in Vallette, suicided by judges, police, journalists and

politicians.

Luca and Arturo have been accused by the inquiring magistrates of being

among the principle people responsible for the aggression against

Daniele Genco: journalist, police confidante and always among the

greatest accusers of Edoardo. For this, our two comrades were sentenced

by the court in Ivrea — after a trial that was, to say the least,

surreal — to 3 years and 2 months and 3 years and 6 months in prison

respectively

We are not interested in discussing the fundamentals of this trial here.

Instead we want to claim in the act in Brosso an act of justice, an act

of collective resistance, against those who have accused, discredited

and offended our comrade in the pages of the newspapers; against those

who daily insult and sully millions of exploited people, men and women

who are kept from having a voice.

Today, so that the role of journalists in the justification of war,

repression in the streets, racism might be evident to everyone, today

more than ever again a little act like that of Brosso is an indication,

an example to follow. Therefore, we invite those that still have a heart

and a mind to demonstrate their solidarity with Luca and Arturo, but

above all, we invite anyone to come with us who is filled with disgust

every time that s/he opens a newspaper to give their contribution to

liberating the world from the pack of jackals and from the terrorism of

Information.

Solidarity to all prisoners, to all the victims of judges in every part

of the world, to all those who suffer journalistic and police terrorism.

Strategies of Repression

One of the strategies used most frequently by the state in order to

suppress anarchist revolt is that of keeping us constantly preoccupied

with dealing with investigations, searches, police harassment, trials

and imprisonment. Frame-ups become a regular part of their repertoire,

because even when they don’t get convictions (and this is fairly

frequent, see the text “Frame-up”, p.20), they have kept certain

“dangerous elements” busy dealing with the judicial system they despise.

In Italy, the authorities have used this strategy for quite some time,

perhaps the most infamous being the Fontana plaza massacre (Milan, 1969)

carried out by state agents and blamed on anarchists, one of whom

(Giuseppe Pinelli) was killed in a “fall” out of a fourth story window

in the police station. More recently the authorities in Italy have

tended to simply try to pin unsolved crimes on arrested anarchists.

With the so-called Marini trial, they have taken a more sophisticated

approach. They have invented a fictional criminal anarchist organization

with two tiers: the larger above-ground tier consisting of publications,

presses, occupied centers and so on; and the clandestine portion, the

armed gang. Using this fictional construction, state prosecutor Antonio

Marini charged dozens of anarchists with “subversive association” and

“armed gang” (and a few with crimes related to actual events). The only

evidence for the “subversive association” and “armed gang” charges are

the letters, periodicals, e-mails, conversations and visits among those

charged.

Because these charges (particularly that of “subversive association”)

are, in fact, not very defined, they give the state an ongoing sword to

hold over anarchists’ heads. If one trial fails, new investigations can

be opened, and the Italian authorities keep on opening investigations

involving raids, searches, bugging, harassment — all the usual police

tactics. Even if the number of convictions that these charges succeed in

bringing about is low, this process can easily lead comrades to focusing

their energy on self-defense rather than attack against the social

order. When this occurs, the strategy of the state has been successful.

There are two specific strategies I want to go into a bit more here.

First is that of pinning additional unsolved crimes on anarchists

arrested for a specific act. This strategy can clearly lead to much

higher sentences for those on trial. It was used here in the trials of

Free and Critter when the unsolved arson at the Tyree Oil Company was

added to the attack at the Romania car lot. Free, in particular, has

suffered from this, receiving a 23 year sentence, so this is not a thing

to be taken lightly. As anarchists, of course, we do not accept the

“guilty-innocent” dichotomy of the state legal system. Nonetheless, it

is important to attack the state strategy of frame-up through

unrelenting solidarity and counter-information.

The other strategy I want to go into a bit more is that of the use of

loosely defined associative crimes in order to justify investigations,

harassment and prosecution. The specific laws being used in the Marini

trial (and other investigations and trials going on against

revolutionaries in Italy right now), the law against “subversive

association” and “armed gangs” don’t have a precise equivalent in the

United States. Up until the Usapatriot act went into effect, the main

way avenues for prosecuting radicals for association would be through

conspiracy laws or laws relating to aiding and abetting, and these

required some clear evidence of actual association for carrying out a

specific crime. The Italian laws do not require such specific evidence,

but do require evidence for the existence of the organization of

association. (As the Milanese magistrate mentioned on page 15 said, this

is why it is so difficult to successfully convict insurrectionary

anarchists on these charges). The Usapatriot act opens the door for far

looser associative charges. First of all it gives ‘terrorism’ such a

loose definition as to be virtually meaningless. An unpermitted

demonstration, a wildcat strike or a simply act of vandalism could

easily be defined as ‘terrorism’ by the guidelines of this act. And the

additional concept of ‘aid to terrorism’ — defined in even looser terms

— creates such a loosely defined category of associative crime that it

could easily provide the basis for the development of a similar strategy

here is the Italian authorities have been using.

As yet, the authorities here do not perceive anarchists as a significant

enough threat to focus the kind of energy on that one sees in the events

in Italy. Nonetheless, the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force in Portland,

Oregon lists anarchists as one of the main groups to focus on and a

recent FBI memorandum issued to local police forces about dealing with

anti-war demonstrations says that they are specifically focusing on

identifying anarchists. In the same memorandum they advise local police

to report any suspicion activity to “counter-terrorism squads”. Thus,

movement toward a greater focus on anarchists by the authorities is

developing, and we need to be aware of this in order to fight it

effectively on our terms.

But in dealing with these matters there are certain things we need to

keep in mind. Of course, the forces of repression would love to see us

all locked up and out of the way, but they know this is unlikely. So the

strategies of harassment, investigation and prosecution have another

purpose as well, that of keeping us focused on self-defense. Such a

focus has certain effects. First of all, it draws our energy away from

attacking the institutions that make up this society. This happens on

all levels. Our analyses and theoretical endeavors are turned toward

specifically analyzing the repressive apparatus rather than the totality

of this society and its institutions. Focusing on the worst, we lose

sight of the fact that even the best of this society requires domination

and exploitation. Also focusing on defense can easily lead to compromise

with the authorities as we try to claim what little ground we think we

have to defend ourselves. Encountering the immediate horrors of police

harassment and of prisons can easily lead one to place the amelioration

of these horrors above the necessity of destroying the society of

prisons, particularly when it is our friends or ourselves who are

suffering these horrors. But if we give in to this pressure, the state

has succeeded in its strategy. Thus, it is necessary to see these

situations as a challenge and to confront them with attack not defense.

This is what distinguishes prison support from revolutionary solidarity.

Revolutionary Solidarity: A Challenge

The tendency to fall into a defensive attitude in the face of repression

is best counteracted by developing an understanding and practice of

revolutionary solidarity.

Revolutionary solidarity is, above all, a revolutionary practice. What

this means is that it carries within itself the aims of revolution. For

this reason, as anarchists, we cannot base solidarity on any

authoritarian or economic foundations. It is not a matter of obligation,

duty or debt. No one owes anyone solidarity, regardless of what they

have done or what they are going through. Rather the basis of solidarity

is the recognition of one’s own struggle in that of others — in other

words, complicity. This is of major importance. If solidarity is the

recognition of my own struggle in the struggle of others, it is carried

out in practice precisely through continue that struggle, continuing to

attack this social order, and doing so with a focus on what unites my

struggle with that of others.

In this light, it should be clear that revolutionary solidarity is not

merely support. On the practical level, it is obviously necessary to

correspond and visit our imprisoned comrades, and to find ways to help

them take care of various needs. But if this becomes the focus of what

we call “solidarity”, then we have reduced solidarity to mere charitable

social work. The maintenance of connections, of friendships and

comradeship in the midst of repression is one important factor for

maintaining support. But what is most significant is active solidarity

with the active revolt of our comrades who are locked up or otherwise

suffering focused repression. It is within this context that the

specific activity of support (letters, visits, financial support, etc)

can become a part of the practice of solidarity as the help to maintain

communication between all of us fighting against this system.

This quote from the Elephant Editions pamphlet Revolutionary Solidarity

clarifies matters further:

“Solidarity lies in action. Action that sinks its roots in one’s own

project that is carried on coherently and proudly too, especially in

times when it might be dangerous even to express one’s ideas publicly. A

project that expresses solidarity with joy in the game of life that

above all makes us free ourselves, destroys alienation, exploitation,

mental poverty, opening up infinite spaces devoted to experimentation

and the continual activity of one’s mind in a project aimed at realizing

itself in insurrection.

“A project which is not specifically linked to the repression that has

struck our comrades but which continues to evolve and make social

tension grow, to the point of making it explode so strongly that the

prison walls fall down by themselves.

“A project which is a point of reference and a stimulus for the

imprisoned comrades, who in turn are point of reference for it.”

So revolutionary solidarity is the complicity in revolutionary struggle

between individuals in different specific situations who can nonetheless

see that their revolutionary projects coincide. Let’s consider the

project of revolutionary struggle against the prison system. Comrades

inside prison will inevitably involve themselves in struggles against

the specific conditions of their imprisonment — for example, the ongoing

struggle against the FIES (special isolation units) in Spanish prisons.

There are various tactics used in these struggles. Underlying all of

them is a refusal to cooperate with the prison regime. Thus, various

sorts of strikes, collective revolts, riots and the destruction of

prison property have all been used. But one of the most common tactics

is the hunger strike. The reasons this tactic is so common among

prisoners is that it can be used collectively or individually, it is

completely in the hands of those using it and it puts a great deal of

pressure on the prison authorities. At the same time, the effectiveness

of the hunger strike — especially when used by one or only a few

individuals — depends on a situation of permanent conflict on the

outside, ongoing battle against the structures and individuals

responsible for repression. In practice this can include flyers,

demonstration and graffiti campaigns expressing solidarity with the

comrades inside, but also in sabotage and other forms of attack against

the police, judiciary and prison systems. Os Cangaceiros, a group of

rebels in France, provide a fine example. From 1984 into the 1990’s,

they were involved in active sabotage of the prison system in solidarity

with a number of prison revolts were occurring in France. Along with a

variety of acts of vandalism and sabotage and the theft and distribution

of the plans for a major prison building project in France, they

published significant analyses of the prison and justice system and

their relationship to society as a whole. And many others chose to

imitate their activity of sabotage against the prison system.

The sort of activity described above shows a principled approach to the

struggle against the prison system and the practice of solidarity. They

share a few things in common: they can be used autonomously outside the

framework either of the institutions of the state or the institutions of

the left (parties, unions and the like); they involve no delegation or

mediation to be carried out; they do not involve negotiation or any sort

of compromise with those in power. Of course, they do require a movement

committed to an ongoing battle against the entire society of prisons, a

movement in permanent conflict with the present social order. The lack

of such a movement makes it easy to compromise one’s stance whether

because one is in prison oneself or because those one cares for are. But

anarchist principles are not essentially moral, but have their basis in

a logic of practice. When we put our time and energy into petitioning,

negotiating, litigating and so on, this is time and energy taken away

from the project of destroying the society of imprisonment and law.

Furthermore, these practices are based in the institutions of the state,

in the legal and judiciary system. Thus, they make us dependent upon the

goodwill of the state and its institutions. This can only end up

strengthening the very institutions that we claim we want to put an end

to. In addition, this dependence on the state as the very precise effect

of undermining any trace of self-determination in our activity, thus

undermining our capacity for direct action as well. How far this goes in

deteriorating one’s perspective and critical capacities becomes evident

when the concessions granted by the state in these contexts — minor

reforms or simple applications of existing laws — are proclaimed to be

victories. Here the reformist mentality has come to dominate one’s

practice — the idea that one can use the most compromised means as long

as they are “effective” in the most immediate sense. But for those who

seek the destruction of the entire system of domination, these are not

victories, but defeats, because they point to resignation in the face of

a system that seems unassailable, moving one to use its means to achieve

what, in the long run, can only be its ends.

So the practice of revolutionary solidarity presents us with a

challenge. Repression is growing as is specific focus by the authorities

on anarchists. We will likely see more and more of us under

investigation, facing trial and spending time in prison. It is very easy

in such situations to simply retreat, to let things blow over or, worse,

to distance ourselves from comrades facing prison or from actions that

frighten us. This response would be a major victory for the state. So

the challenge we face is that of developing the strength within

ourselves to act on our own terms against the state and against is

systems of repression while also learning to coordinate these actions

without compromising ourselves. Since revolutionary solidarity, at least

from an anarchist perspective, is the practical recognition of one’s

project of struggle within the struggle of another, it requires that we

each act as we see fit against this order, as we are moved to act by our

own confrontation with its oppressive power in our daily lives. But it

also requires that we learn to weave these actions together in a way

that strengthens them and makes their meaning clearer. There is no

panacea, no organization or program, that can provide this, because all

such panaceas require that we adjust ourselves to their requirements.

Rather it is necessary to develop the clarity and candor from which

relations of affinity can develop, spreading their complicity in revolt

further and further and maybe even flowering into insurrection. This is

the challenge we confront in the face of an increasingly repressive

system of domination.

[1] Of course, as an anarchist Alfred Bonanno would never have

participated in the centralized, authoritarian, Stalinist Red Brigades,

but the media isn’t prone to accuracy. — editor

[2] At this time there were a number of trials relating to political

scandals going on in Italy. — editor