About the arrestees, convictions and those locked-up from the November and February ZAD demonstrations in Toulouse. A call for solidarity.
Whilst there is currently a campaign of international solidarity and also against the conviction of a single demonstrator from November, it seems important to us to sum up the verdicts and bring forward our modest point of view about the situation. And call widely for solidarity from all.
To recall, the November demonstrations started with the death of a young man [Rémi Fraisse, October 25th 2014]. On the ZAD of Testet there were people saying that one day or another the wild, legal and determined action from the state forces will finish badly. For many the emotion was strong, as we could have been in his place. The identification with him was not the same, when some days earlier, in the centre of Toulouse, a BAC cop [anti-crime brigade] killed a youth during a robbery.
Demonstrations started from Sunday October 25th, but it was only from November 1st that the repression became systematic in Toulouse.
Of what we know, we counted :
1st of November, 16 people arrested;
8th of November, 21 people arrested;
22th of November, 17 arrests, 18 if you count the person arrested the following Tuesday during support gatherings at the court.
21st of February, 13 people charged.
There were a total of at least:
6 people imprisoned of which 4 are still behind bars in Seysses [Toulouse]
47 months of imprisonment
34 months of suspended sentences
860 hours of community service
€5000 of fines
€10,450 of costs for the cops
€2,400 for the cop’s lawyers (February only)
€45,500 of costs for property damage
68 persons in total were arrested during these demos. Some of them were released without charges or conditionally discharged. Without counting the repression against the ZAD and against the demonstrations in Tarn [region of the Sivens ZAD] (where there were 41 arrestees).
(the figures given here are subject to change given the various hearings to come and convictions that will be missed by our monitoring)
We don’t want to fall tempted to the idea that these are new and uncommon acts. We have seen the militarisation of the police, their systematic utilisation in the lower class neighbourhoods, the use of clashes and aggression, that fatally causes mutilation, injury and death. This is not an excess or an accident. This is the consequential logic of social order. We believe we have to organize solidarity and arm our defence, facing the practical problems in our struggles posed to us by the justice system, the police, and its weapons. We have to make the link between the everyday repression of illegal crimes and the repression against our struggles. We have to finish with the idea that the police are doing a good job when not represses us. The police, the justice, the prison are instruments which make social destruction possible.
We have sent (and will continue to send) money to people incarcerated; generally we financially help people accused in these kind of cases. It is a heavy load for us so we call for widespread solidarity. You can help up by sending donations written out to “C.A.J” (nothing else) or CAJ c/o Canal sud 40 rue Alfred Duméril, 31200 Toulouse (France).
Legal Aid Self-Defence Fund Toulouse
Email: caj31[at]riseup.net
[Translated by Contra Info from IAATA, 3rd June 2015]
Against repression – Information is a weapon : Solidarity with the counter-info site IAATA.info (France)
An individual has been prosecuted who is suspected to be responsible for the publication of an article on IAATA.info [Anti-authoritarian Information from Toulouse & it’s Surroundings], a collaborative and anti-authoritarian website in Toulouse. Informing people about police repression is a right and a necessity : that is why you find here a solidarity statement that denounces the criminalization and intimidation of the free independent media.
On Thursday March 7th, the corporate media announced that an individual from Toulouse was prosecuted by the State for a “public provocation to commit a crime or a felony”. S/he is alleged to be an “admin” of IAATA.info, an anti authoritarian website based in Toulouse.
This lawsuit could be linked to the publication of a report about a demonstration held on February 21st 2015 in Toulouse. This protest was organized a year after the demonstration in Nantes against Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport, where three people lost an eye due to rubber bullets. The slogan of the demo was “against police violence and in solidarity with ZAD”. This article provides few tips to resist to police crowd control tactics that led to Rémi Fraisse’s death on October 26th, 2014 as well as in the mutilation of many people during demonstrations and within the suburbs/working-class area.
Let’s keep in mind that in the city of Toulouse about 60 people were prosecuted after the protest held in November following Rémi’s death. 4 of them are still in jail. Let’s also remember that police kill about ten people each year. Recently, Amadou Koumé in Paris, Abdelhak Gorafia in Roissy, Pierre Cayet in Saint-Denis, Abdoulaye Camara in Le Havre, Morad in Marseille, Houcine Bouras in Colmar, Bilal Nzohabonayo in Tours, Rémi Fraisse on the ZAD Sivens, Timothy Lake in Toulouse… all died at the hands of police ; and these numbers don’t take into account the numerous injuries and mutilations caused by police weapons.
Independent media, activist groups and victims’ support groups and families regularly share tips on how to protect oneself during demonstrations, using internet, flyers and posters, or handbooks for self defense against law and justice. Many of these groups have also published advices to secure internet and phone communications.
Police kill and mutilate still with impunity, that without being judged. That’s why self-organised media practices need to spread out more and more. We can’t stand being prosecuted and jailed for ’public provocation to commit a crime or a felony’, when calling for resistance against police violence.
Social movements and struggling people have always built their own media in order to spread alternative news, coordinate struggles, and to let different voices than the mainstream media be heard. IAATA.info is an example amongst others.
IAATA is a website on which anyone can contribute anonymously and represents the collective voice of a city. The police is trying to designate one single individual and hold him/her accountable for everything. They seek to isolate him/her by turning his/her prosecution into an individual case. There is no individual editorial responsibility since this site – as others – operates on a collective, participatory, non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian basis.
At a time when the state is passing new anti-terrorist laws as well as a mass surveillance act ; at a time when freedom of expression seems to be in the hands of only a few ; when justice focuses once again on the Tarnac’s case 9 ; at a time when the courts are prosecuting the Jura Libertaire, there’s only one clear position.
These security laws should concern us all ! Let’s show them our determination.
We are all concerned by the security laws !
We will continue to support and spread information related to self-defense against the police and justice !
We will continue to support projects of independent and anti-authoritarian media against State repression !
An injury to one is an injury to all !
Solidarity with independent media and all victims of repression !
[Source – 325, June 18th 2015]
