SOLIDARITY AND STRUGGLE
For those who struggle, solidarity is not an empty concept, distant from our offensive capacity and the conflicts that develop in the struggle itself.
For those who struggle, solidarity is not an “issue” that emerges only at particular repressive “moments”, because repression is not a “moment”, it’s an otherwise inevitable and permanent part of the state’s mechanisms against those who rebel. [Read More]
It’s now more than one month since the occupation of the Forest House, and that the cabins replace the massively destructive machines in the forest. We are here, and good here.
In spite of the cold and the snow, in spite of the pressure exerted by the gendarmerie[1], in spite of the various attacks that we have suffered, in spite of the frequent sabotages of structures, life goes on at the Maquizad.
On Tuesday December 16th, a large police operation took place in the Spanish State. Fourteen houses and social centers were raided in Barcelona, Sabadell, Manresa, and Madrid. Books, leaflets, computers were seized and eleven people were arrested and sent to the Audiencia Nacional, a special court handling issues of “national interest”, in Madrid. They are accused of incorporation, promotion, management, and membership of a terrorist organisation. However, lawyers for the defence denounce a lack of transparency, saying that their clients have had to make statements without knowing what they are accused of. “[They] speak of terrorism without specifying concrete criminal acts, or concrete individualized facts attributed to each of them” 2. When challenged on this, Judge Bermúdez responded: “I am not investigating specific acts, I am investigating the organization, and the threat they might pose in the future” 1; making this yet another case of apparently preventative arrests.
Four of the detainees have been released, but seven have been jailed pending trial. The reasons given by the judge for their continued detention include the posession of certain books, “the production of publications and forms of communication”, and the fact that the defendants “used emails with extreme security measures, such as the RISE UP server” 2.
We reject this Kafka-esque criminalization of social movements, and the ludicrous and extremely alarming implication that protecting one’s internet privacy is tantamount to terrorism.
Riseup, like any other email provider, has an obligation to protect the privacy of its users. Many of the “extreme security measures” used by Riseup are common best practices for online security and are also used by providers such as hotmail, GMail or Facebook. However, unlike these providers, Riseup is not willing to allow illegal backdoors or sell our users’ data to third parties.
[Read More]
[Other Pandora solidarity actions in Leipzig, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris and San Francisco]
In support of our anarchist and feminist compañeras detained recently as part of the so-called “Pandora case”, and making clear our revulsion at this murderous capitalist and heteropatriarchal system, on the 30th of December 2014 from the colony of the Canary Islands we carried out actions of sabotage against ATMs and painted some graffiti in solidarity with the accused. [Read More]
In solidarity with anarchists arrested in Spain, we wrecked the Deutsche Bank branch in Leipzig.
On the 16th December 2014 in Spain, different police forces conducted coordinated raids in 12 apartments, resulting in 11 anarchists arrested. One of the pretexts for why the raids took place was that the accused had destroyed cashpoints. [Read More]
[Videos: eviction, as well as attempted eviction]
Following the Christmas Day eviction from the central London Royal Bank of Scotland premises the Love Activists set up a soup kitchen outside, giving out food, tea and coffee to the homeless. On the night before New Years Eve police and council officials forcibly evicted the soup kitchen in order to clear the streets for the end of year party revellers
[Note: It was confirmed yesterday that Love Activists have now squatted a new building] [Read More]
[Other recent solidarity actions in Lisbon, Paris and San Francisco]
On Saturday, December 27th, 2014, at 5pm, demonstrators took to the streets in the city centre of Barcelona in solidarity with anarchists detained in the context of Operation Pandora at the request of Judge-executioner Javier Gómez Bermúdez.
Protesters started to march on broad streets, shouting slogans in solidarity with the detainees, and against the police, prisons and the State. The demonstration ended up in the Gracia area. Upon entering this neighbourhood, hooded comrades uninhibitedly attacked many bank branches, several multinational shops, as well as the 5-star Casa Fuster hotel (which was the Nazi Germany’s consulate in Barcelona in 1936, prior to being the headquarters of the revolution’s defense committee in the spring of 1937, until it was taken by the Falange in 1939, and became a luxury hotel during the Transition, after the associative neighbourhood movement attempted to turn it into social facilities). [Read More]
“If you are free NOW we urge you to get to 2a Charing Cross NOW as Westminster Council are attempting to close down the ongoing 24 hr. Streets Kitchen facilitated by Love Activists, many homeless groups and activists. Hundreds of homeless people have found assistance over the Christmas period there and we will resist any attempts to prevent us undertaking this essential service on the streets of London.” – Street Kitchen [Read More]
Update 29/12, 1:20pm: The hearing this morning at the Royal Courts of Justice concerning the Possession Order of 2a Charing Cross Road on behalf of Greencap has been adjourned.
Last several days have been amazing, thanks to everyone who have shown their support in whatever form. Special shoutout to the awesome people who have volunteered to man the stalls day and night. Needless to say many thanks to everyone who have donated to the cause, your help has made this Christmas a great experience for those who otherwise would be swept out of view. [Read More]
(See video from the settlement here)
Tension ran high on Saturday after six people were killed following an attempt to evict squatters from Mengo Farm in Trans-Nzoia County.
The six were among a group of 40 who had been hired to evict the squatters from the parcel of land which has been marred in ownership wrangles.
Trans-Nzoia County Commissioner Stephen Ikua confirmed that four youths were in police custody in connection with the incident which also left seven homesteads razed to the ground. [Read More]
On December 16, Operation Pandora was unleashed. The State’s security forces burst into different houses and squats in Barcelona and Madrid, and eleven anarchist comrades were kidnapped.
This kidnapping—and it couldn’t have been done any other way—was coordinated with the media, who helped justify and legitimate it with heart and soul, spreading the news that the police had carried out an operation against international anarchist terrorism. This kidnapping of eleven comrades set off a multitude of rallies and demonstrations that same day in different cities—Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Zaragoza, for example—thousands of people coming out in solidarity with the kidnapped comrades and showing rage and hatred towards the State’s new repressive operation against the libertarian movement. [Read More]
Welfare workers have been liaising with squatters who have moved into a now defunct nightclub in the centre of Maidstone.
The group of rough sleepers now occupy the former Chicago Rock Cafe in the lower High Street, although it doesn’t look as if anyone’s living there from the street.
Maidstone Borough Council confirmed it had been working with the squatters as part of its project to support the town’s street population. [Read More]
