Berlin: Demo Freedom for all prisoners affected by repression in Barcelona

Monday 22 March 2021, 16:00
Meeting point: Delegació del Govern a Alemanya
Regierung von Katalonien – Vertretung in Deutschland, Friedrichstrasse, 185. 10117 Berlin

On February 27, 2021, 8 anarchist comrades* were arrested during the riots in Barcelona, as a result of the protests that have been going on since the arrest of Pablo Hasél. All of them are currently in pre-trial detention without bail. They are accused of criminal organization, attempted murder, unlawful demonstration, attack on authority, damage and public disorder. All this as a consequence of a fire being set at one of the vans of the riot police of the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona, a police organization that has a long history of torture and violence. The media, as a propaganda tool of the State, are justifying the repression against our comrades and infusing fear to stop self-organization and dismantle the protests.

After the Pandora and Piñata police set-ups, it is obvious that we are once again facing an operation to repress an ideological current contrary to capitalist interests. They are condemned because they are anarchists. In this type of set-up, the accusation of belonging to a criminal organization or terrorism is something that is being used to create an internal enemy and justify repression. This allows them to judicialize our lives through police harassment, raids, violation of our personal and political spaces, visits to penitentiary centers, etc. Through this they intend to wear us down psychologically and economically, and thus disarticulate our struggles. [Read More]

Berlin: statement about the 8 arrested anarchists in Barcelona

On February 27th, 2021, 8 anarchist comrades* from Italy, France and Spain were arrested during the riots in Barcelona stemming from the protests that have been taking place since the arrest of Pablo Hasél on February 16th. All are currently in pre-trial detention without bail in Brians I prison (Catalonia). The serving judge of the 17th Court of Barcelona charged them with belonging to a criminal organization, attempted murder, participation in an illegal demonstration, resistance to state authority, damage to property and disturbance of public order.
All this happened as a result of a vehicle being set on fire which belonged to the riot police of the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona, a police force that has a long history of torture and indiscriminate violence against migrants and homeless people (1) and which the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau (Barcelona en Comú) promised to disband during the 2015 municipal elections (2). However as we can see, they are still there.

All these accusations are accompanied by a propaganda apparatus provided by the media, which, as a tool of the state, justifies the repression against our comrades* and sparks a climate of fear in order to crush the protests. [Read More]

Spanish state: temporary end of the anarchist terrorism myth

After a total of 33 arrests, three years of investigation during which hundreds of documents were analysed, house searches across the country, hours of phone conversations recorded, bank accounts frozen, and, worst of all, after subjecting some of the accused to months of imprisonment, Spain’s Audiencia Nacional tribunal has closed the legal proceedings and state persecution of anarchists known as Operación Piñata. The reason: lack of sufficient evidence to put anyone on trial. The decision follows the request by defense lawyers to dismiss the investigation.

The police Operation Piñata joins Operations Pandora and Pandora II as criminal cases against the so-called ‘anarcho terrorism’, as the Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, called it during the morning when the arrests took place in March 2015.

Five of the twelve defendants under Operación Piñata were placed in custody for months. The arrest warrants made reference to acts of sabotage, possession of explosives and even possible criminal offenses related to trafficking of narcotics or psychotropic substances’: none of which was supported by evidence. [Read More]

Barcelona: Statement on the last repressive operation and in solidarity with the imprisoned comrade in Soto de Real (Madrid)

Last Wednesday 13th of April, at 5 o’clock in the morning, the Mossos d’Esquadra started an operation in which they raided two houses and a social center in La Salut neighbourhood, «los Blokes Fantasma», where around twenty people that live in the building were detained for twelve hours.

In addition to the looting and destruction that comes together with a police raid, the operation ended with the arrest of a comrade that was already imprisoned due to the Operation Pandora, and who was under an European search warrant that was issued the 11th of April accused of participating in different bank expropriations in the German territory.
[Read More]

Spain: Pandora, Piñata and beyond, we will retaliate!

Demonstration and day of action
June 13th, Barcelona, Plaça de Sants, 18:30
Call for International Solidarity

The last few years have seen an increasing wave of repression against Anarchists and other radicals, here in Spain, best characterized by the police operations Pandora and Piñata. Acting in response to movements, uprisings and upheavals across the country, particularly in Cataluña, the state has arrested dozens of comrades, often under the pretext of anti-terrorism. The result has been to foster a climate of fear and in-action. [Read More]

Brussels: Banner drop in solidarity with anarchists arrested raided in Spain

Recently, a banner was displayed on the entrance of the Botanique tunnel reading:

FREEDOM FOR THE ANARCHISTS ARRESTED IN SPAIN

Signed off: “Until all are free! Death to the state and long live anarchy, now and always!”

Full communique: Brussels Indymedia

Operation Piñata: Five comrades imprisoned, ten conditionally bailed, address for three of the prisoners

Early afternoon on Wednesday 1st April, the judge of the Audiencia Nacional [National High Court] Eloy Velasco, remanded in prison 5 of the 15 individuals arrested on Monday 30th March during the police operation named Piñata. 24 others were arrested during the 17 raids, which took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Palencia and Granada, for “disobedience and resistance”, who were then subsequently released. [Read More]

Barcelona/Granada/Madrid/Palencia: Police Piñata raids

This morning in Operation Piñata (following Pandora in December) cops have raided social centres and arrested people (at least 26) in Barcelona, Madrid, Palencia and Granada.

La 13-14 in Madrid announced it was being raided this morning.
[Read More]

Marseille: Food & film in solidarity with those implicated in Operation Pandora

Thursday 12th February, at 18:30:
Film screening of the documentary “Caso Bombas” on anarchists in Chile
(the film is in Spanish but the subtitles are in English)

Vegan food, liberated price
For the address: blancarde2015 [at] riseup [dot] net

International solidarity with those implicated in Operation Pandora [Read More]

Berlin: Solidarity sabotage with those incarcerated as part of Operation Pandora in Spain

As a sign of our solidarity with projects raided on December 16th, 2014, in Barcelona and in other cities as well as the comrades detained in the course of Operation Pandora, we burnt a vehicle of DHL in the early hours of January 5th, 2015, in the neighbourhood of Neukölln in Berlin.

DHL was attacked not only for their collaboration with the army, but also for the reason of international distribution of vehicles of this company, which constitutes an appropriate target for sabotage actions. [Read More]

Spain: Words written a few months ago by some of the Operation Pandora prisoners

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]

Spanish State: Security is not a crime, Riseup.net statement after Pandora operation

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]