en francais lire ici:
http://infokiosques.net/imprimersans2.php?id_article=592
http://paris.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=98400
in russian:
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/20566/
Nederlands:
http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2008/05/52690.shtml
IN ENGLISH:
You’ll find below a letter from jail as well as an international call for action and solidarity with 4 people locked up in french jails since a few months. They are accused of planning terrorist activity (sometimes just because they were going to a demonstration with DIY smoke bombs) or taking part in sabotage actions. They, amongst others, are pointed out as symbolic figures of the «the resurging threat of anarcho-terrorists preparing for armed struggle». The french State is trying to build up this myth as a reaction to ongoing revolts (migrants’, workers’, students’, struggles against jails…). Faced with waves of radical actions, strikes and an anger that it can’t control, the State tries to isolate part of the « movement » and create divisions. This attempt is closely related to the issue of struggles for autonomous spaces, since state officials, police and media have been accusing « political squats » to be « central ressources » of this new « terrorist threat ». We believe we have to build more visibility, better connexions and a stronger squat movement in order to face this offensive. We also need inspiration from what has been done in Italy, Germany, Spain or in other countries in roughly similar contexts.
Please spread this call and letter around you, in local alternative medias, newspapers and indymedias. Any solidarity actions are welcomed.
# International call:
Solidarity week against « anti-terrorist » repression in France from june 9th to 16th 2008
The translation of this call is coming late but any actions are welcome, even after the action week.
Ivan, Bruno and Damien were arrested on January 19th 2008, on their way to a demonstration against the detention centre of Vincennes (near Paris). They were carrying home made smoke powder and bent nails (to slash tyres). At the police station, they refused fingerprint identification and DNA taking. Ivan and Bruno are jailed, Damien is under judiciary control.
Two other persons were arrested on January 23rd by a border patrol, during a road-check near Vierzon (in the french countryside). In their car, cops found chlorate (to make smoke powder), a map of a youth prison, and sabotage guides. They’re emprisoned under the anti-terrorist jurisdiction. The police’s incrimination is « intention to attack a youth jail » and, for one of them, « attempt to sabotage a police car ».
At the moment, all five persons are under legal investigation for « possession and carriage of explosive or incendiary material » and « criminal association with terrorist goals ». Four of them are up locked in since January. The anti-terrorist jurisdiction can keep them in jail many more months…
Since December 2007, there’s been massive mutinies in detention centres and wild strikes lead by hundreds of migrant workers. It reminds us that exploitation and imprisonment are related.
Solidarity is not only about money and practicalities, it’s also made of acts of resistance and fights against states and capitalism. Solidarity can also be an extension and an intensification of the social struggle.
Some support actions already took place in France (in Paris, Dijon, Grenoble, Toulouse, Rennes, etc.): from smoke candles and smoke canisters burnt during demonstrations to solidarity gatherings, banners, graffiti, blocades, not to forget the disruption of a radio program, direct actions against buildings related with deportations, etc. During this week, we want to multiply solidarity initiatives, and let them know that we won’t stop that soon…
Solidarity with the Vierzon two, with Bruno, Ivan, Damien and all the others! Freedom for all the prisoners, with or without ID! Freedom for everybody!
Action reports, texts, pictures, or anything made for this solidarity week can be sent to: solidarite_sans_frontieres at riseup.net & souti1culpees38 at riseup.net
# A letter from Ivan and Bruno
Hello to all the friends, to all the people who haven’t accepted the situation that we live: the occupation of the streets and towns by the police, evictions, raids, arrests, daily difficulties, dispossession of our lives. This situation that pushes us to give away a big part of our lives to all kind of bosses, to those who decide of our destinies, to the power upon us. When we side with the revolt, we do it for all these reasons. We do it to take back power on our lives, we do it for the freedom of living.
We’ve been arrested on January 19th. Two of us are in jail, while the third is under a judiciary control (he was passing by and was guilty of knowing us). We were carrying a smoke-bomb that we had done by mixing chlorate, sugar and flour. Burnt, this mix releases an important amount of smoke. We wanted to use it at the end of the demonstration that was going that day towards Vincenne’s detention center for migrants. Our aim: to be visible from the locked-in sans-papiers, knowing that the police would try to prevent us from approaching the centre. We also had firecrackers to make noise and bent nails (to burst tyres) that could be put along the road to prevent cars from passing.
For cops and justice, this excuse was found: we had the material to make a nailbomb. This is what we are charged of:
– possession and carriage, in organised gang, of explosive or incendiary material, or components of explosive or incendiary material, with the goal to organise a destruction, or agression on people;
– criminal association with the goal to commit destruction using fire, explosive material, or any other way which could create a danger for people, in organised gang;
– refusal to give fingerprints or be photographed during an ID check;
– refusal to submit to the biologic taking aimed at the DNA identification of people suspected of crime;
It’s quite frightening. So much for the facts. Let’s add a bit of anysis to it.
The way we’re being treated is surely not related to what we had with us or to what we wanted to do with it. The state is criminalizing revolts and tries to kill any « non-aligned » dissidence. It is our very ideas and ways to struggle (outside of political parties, trade unions, or any other organisation of this kind) that are being targeted… Facing anger that it doesn’t manage to supervise or integrate, the State points out and isolates an enemy within. The police and the secret service files are building « profiles ». In our case, it is the « anarcho-autonomous » figure that’s being used, which authorites relate to terrorism. They need to build a threat to create consensus within the population, to strenghten their control and legitimate repression.
That’s why we are in jail. This is the solution the State chooses, to deal with illegalisms and so called «risky populations». Now, the motto is «lock in more and longer». More and more efficient controls. Scaring punishements are here to make us know that we should stay put on the place given. This atmosphere guarantees for those who have or take advantage of power, a society in which everybody is aware that we can’t cross the lines which have been drawn for us, which are surrounding us, which are compressing us; not without paying an high price. We struggle with migrants, because we know that it is the same police that is controling, that it is the same boss who is exploiting, that these are the same walls imprisoning. The day we tried to go to the demonstration, we wanted to shout « Freedom » in echo with the prisoniers, to show that we were many to hear them revolting these last months. We wanted to light a smoke candle, to try to get as close as we could from the prison gates, to shout «no more detention centers», to show our determination to live free. This struggle, in which we can see ourselves, is a common ground to build complicities; it is a way to express our own revolt.
We don’t consider ourselves like «victims of repression». There is no fair repression, no fair imprisonment. There is just repression, and its fonction of control, its role in maintaining established orders: the power of those who possess against the dispossessed. When everobody walks in line, it’s easier to strike those who go out of it.
We hope that we are many, wishing to own our lifes fully, sharing this desire to build and interweave solidarities which will +give birth to upcoming revolts.
Bruno and Ivan, from the jails of Fresnes and Villepinte (close to Paris), april 2008.
http://paris.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=98400
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