Tag Archives: Verschwörung der Feuerzellen

Saturday 23rd April: Day of solidarity with 22 anarchists that stand trial before the appeals court in Koridallos prison

A few words about the appeal’s trial of 22 anarchists on April 20th 2016

The Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case – the judicial, legal and repressive moves of the State in regard to this anarchist organisation – spreads over a period of 7 years and is still underway.

As of April 20th 2016, after 7 years (since the first arrests in 2009), 22 anarchist comrades stand trial in the second instance in Koridallos prison, Athens. In the CCF appeal’s trial, other cases will be tried as well – dubbed “CCF cases” by the police-judicial complex, to give gigantic proportions to their judicial coup against anarchists.

The appeal’s trial that starts April 20th concerns the following:
i) the Halandri case (three trials in the first instance);
ii) the sending of parcel bombs in November 2010;
iii) the arrests in Nea Smyrni, Athens in December 2010;
iv) the capture of five CCF members in Volos in March 2011;
v) the shootout with police in Pefki, Athens in May 2011; and
vi) the arrests for the double robbery in Velventos, Kozani in February 2013.

In yet another judicial innovation, not only comrades that were tried in first instance as alleged members of the organisation and the CCF members themselves will undergo the same appeal’s trial, but also the six accused in the Velventos robbery case: Nikos Romanos, Yannis Michailidis, Dimitris Politis, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos (who’ve claimed responsibility for the double robbery), Argyris Ntalios and Fivos Charisis (who’ve denied their involvement). In the first instance, these six comrades were fully acquitted of alleged involvement in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, so their case doesn’t even fall within the infamous 187A “antiterrorist” law.

But the significance of this police-judicial innovation is not just a simple merging of seemingly and practically unrelated cases. If we take a look at the accusatory dossiers, we can easily understand what’s going on and, most of all, why this is happening.

To defend comrades who’ve been captured for their acts and discourse – as the comrades who’ve claimed responsibility for the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – or comrades who’ve been targeted by the State’s repressive operations, is a precondition for continuing and promoting a battle currently underway. In this battle against Power, joint action with comrades who’ve been imprisoned, persecuted or vilified doesn’t only aim at the liberation of hostages and the release of captive comrades from prison. It is, furthermore, a logic of “not leaving anyone behind”, thereby strengthening the integrity of the struggle. So that we fighters bring the prisoners back in our ranks; so that we nourish and intensify the war against the establishment.

A solidarity-based combative stance next to comrades who are incarcerated or prosecuted is yet another field of conflict with the State and its mechanisms.

International day of solidarity actions with the 22 anarchists that stand trial Saturday 23rd April

Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters
(Athens, Greece)

Greece: A few words about the appeal’s trial of 22 anarchists on April 20th 2016

The Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case – the judicial, legal and repressive moves of the State in regard to this anarchist organisation – spreads over a period of 7 years and is still underway.

On April 20th 2016, after 7 years (since the first arrests in 2009), 22 anarchist comrades will stand trial in the second instance, facing charges related to “acts” for which they were arrested, but also the accusation of membership in the organisation Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.

In the CCF appeal’s trial, other cases will be tried as well – dubbed “CCF cases” by the police-judicial complex, to give gigantic proportions to their judicial coup against anarchists.

The appeal’s trial of April 20th concerns the following:

i) the Halandri case (three trials in the first instance);

ii) the sending of parcel bombs in November 2010;

iii) the arrests in Nea Smyrni, Athens in December 2010;

iv) the capture of five CCF members in Volos in March 2011;

v) the shootout with police in Pefki, Athens in May 2011; and

vi) the arrests for the double robbery in Velventos, Kozani in February 2013.

In yet another judicial innovation, not only comrades that were tried in first instance as alleged members of the organisation and the CCF members themselves will undergo the same appeal’s trial, but also the six accused in the Velventos robbery case: Nikos Romanos, Yannis Michailidis, Dimitris Politis, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos (who’ve claimed responsibility for the double robbery), Argyris Ntalios and Fivos Charisis (who’ve denied their involvement). In the first instance, these six comrades were fully acquitted of alleged involvement in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, so their case doesn’t even fall within the infamous 187A antiterrorist law.

But the significance of this police-judicial innovation is not just a simple merging of seemingly and practically unrelated cases. If we take a look at the accusatory dossiers, we can easily understand what’s going on and, most of all, why this is happening.

To defend comrades who’ve been captured for their acts and discourse – as the comrades who’ve claimed responsibility for the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – or comrades who’ve been targeted by the State’s repressive operations, is a precondition for continuing and promoting a battle currently underway. In this battle against Power, joint action with comrades who’ve been imprisoned, persecuted or vilified, doesn’t only aim at the liberation of hostages and the release of captive comrades from prison. It is, furthermore, a logic of “not leaving anyone behind”, thereby strengthening the integrity of the struggle. So that we fighters bring the prisoners back in our ranks; so that we nourish and intensify the war itself against the establishment.

A solidarity-based combative stance next to comrades who are incarcerated or prosecuted is yet another field of conflict with the State and its mechanisms.

Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters

Greece: Evi Statiri has announced a hunger strike after being denied release

From March 2nd to April 4th 2015, the ten imprisoned members of the anarchist urban guerrilla group Conspiracy of Cells of Fire/FAI-FRI, Gerasimos Tsakalos, Christos Tsakalos, Olga Ekonomidou, Michalis Nikolopoulos, Giorgos Nikolopoulos, Haris Hadjimihelakis, Giorgos Polidoros, Panagiotis Argirou, Damiano Bolano and Theofilos Mavropoulos — along with anarchist captive Angeliki Spyropoulou — conducted an exhaustive hunger strike demanding the release of their relatives, Athena Tsakalou (mother of the Tsakalos brothers) and Evi Statiri (wife of Gerasimos Tsakalos), who were arrested six months ago and absurdly charged in connection with the CCF escape plan, which was foiled in January 2015.

On April 6th, Athena Tsakalou walked out of prison under extremely harsh and restrictive measures.

Half a year after her arrest, Evi Statiri is still being held in pretrial detention in Koridallos women’s prison, solely on the basis of being the life companion of CCF member Gerasimos Tsakalos.

On September 7th, it became known that a judicial council chaired by judge Chalevidou rejected Evi Statiri’s latest motion to be released. On the same day, Evi published an open letter announcing that she will commence a hunger strike on September 14th, demanding her immediate liberation from prison.

Below are excerpts from a letter titled “From the Country of The Forgotten; Against Oblivion” which was recently written by CCF member Olga Ekonomidou as a contribution to Tamara Sol Farías Vergara and Natalia “Tato” Collado, compañeras imprisoned in Chile, as well as a gesture of solidarity with captive Evi Statiri (the full text is being translated from Greek into Spanish):

« For the domination, the extension of Evi’s detention is of double significance. On the one hand, the endurances of urban guerrillas and the tolerances of solidarians are being put to the test, and on the other hand the broader tactic of criminalising family relations is thus being legitimised. It is the psychological game of Power that, among other things, invades the consciences as a battering ram. It aims at the minds of relatives so as to wear them down, dismay them, make them feel frustrated and eventually turn them against us, corrupting the relationship of trust we have with them because they find themselves paying the price of our own choices. And if in the path of every personal history some comrades, friends or close ones stayed by our side and others gave up on us, this is because one easily stands next to people when they succeed in doing something, but hardly in their difficult times. However, the domination has not won this game. They placed a bet on the weakening of emotional ties and their conversion, a bet they lost already. Because, even six months later, the persons who are close to us, either from inside the prison or from the restrictive, delimited areas where they find themselves due to judicial orders, continue to give us smiles of patience and trust while maintaining their own dignity.

So, the wager is ours to make, of every anarchist cell and individuality that promotes the continuous attack, the insurgency, to prove that there will be no truce with the enemy, neither now nor ever. Especially amid repressive operations, one does not back down, but instead reignites the outbreaks of attack so as to become truly dangerous; to remain a threat as an internal enemy of the heart of the system. Because everything that rolls downhill can only be stopped when a barrier is erected in front of it, otherwise it will continue to do so indefinitely by continuously increasing speed, sweeping away anything that’s inferior to the proportions. It is a live wager, without end but with duration, advance and tension, having only one direction… liberation, anarchy.

“I do not need, nor do I want your discipline. With regards to my experiences, I want to have them for myself. It is from them, and not from you, that I will draw my rules of conduct. I want to live my own life. Slaves and lackeys terrify me. I hate those who dominate, and those who let themselves be dominated sicken me. He who bends before the whip is worth no more than he who wields it. I love danger, and the unknown, the uncertain, seduces me. I’m filled with a desire for adventure, and I don’t give a damn for success. I hate your society of bureaucrats and administrators, millionaires and beggars. I don’t want to adapt to your hypocritical customs nor to your false courtesies. I want to live out my enthusiasms in the pure, fresh air of freedom. . . . I’m going to follow my own path, according to my passions, changing myself ceaselessly, and I don’t want to be the same tomorrow as I am today. I stroll along and I don’t let my wings be clipped by the scissors of any one person. . . . I hate every chain, every hindrance; I love to walk along, nude, letting my flesh be caressed by the rays of the voluptuous sun. And, oh, old man! I will care so very little when your society breaks into a thousand pieces and I can finally live my life.
— Who are you, little girl, fascinating like a mystery and savage-like instinct?
— I am Anarchy.”

(Émile Armand, French individualist anarchist)

Olga Ekonomidou
member of the C.C.F.-F.A.I.
Koridallos women’s prison

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2015/09/08/greek-prisons-evi-statiri-has-announced-a-hunger-strike-after-being-denied-release/

Text by CCF-FAI/IRF – Imprisoned Members Cell about the proposal of Nikos Maziotis concerning the Solidarity Assembly (Greece)

Text from the comrades concerning the creation of an assembly of solidarity and action with the political prisoners.

SOLIDARITY MEANS ATTACK

i) C’ Type prisons – an act of war

C’ Type prisons wish to become the monument of the State’s victory against the urban guerrilla warfare. It is a bet for us, if we’re going to let a thousand tonnes of concrete, bars and locks beat the human will for freedom, a bet which is to be answered through action by the enemies of the regime and the friends of freedom.
For years now, politically, TV personalities of the system and salaried pen-holders of the police, have engaged in a mud fight against the urban guerrilla warfare, aid at depoliticizing it. “Osmosis of criminals and terrorists”, “cooperation between terrorists and organized crime”, “revolutionary pool” are the vanguard of the lie. Propaganda wishes to hide, covering with its mud, the self-evident constant revolt. A constant revolt of the ones who refuse to live as slaves and attack with arms against the leaders, the silence, the conservatism and the resignation of the majority of society.

Wishing to decouple the possible perspective of the violent insurrectionary action and to mutilate its diffusion, power uses lies and slander in order to present the armed urban guerrillas as insane criminals. And all this, at the same time when their bloodthirsty democracy makes thousands of people commit suicide and poisons every moment of our lives through the terrorism of poverty, repression, a police state, loneliness, exploitation, while it tricks the naive ones through the fake freedom of consumption, spectacle, mass entertainment, digital reality and the civilization of the mediocre. The highlight of the political propaganda against the urban guerrilla warfare was set up early in 2014, after the escape of Christodoulos Xiros on prison leave, who instead of coming back to prison voluntarily, chose the path of illegality and complicity with the new urban guerilla warfare. Headlines and reportage with catchy titles like “New Year’s terror-eve with the CCF”, “prisons are safe houses of terrorists” became the flagship of lies. What bothered power most, together with the escape of comrade Christodoulos Xiros, was that despite our arrests, we have never turned into dormant trophies in the hands of our wardens. For the unrepentant urban guerrillas, prison is not a palace of fear, it is a place of captivity that digs in and tempers more the willingness for rebellion and freedom.

ii) Propaganda prefaces the war.

Power’s lies fan fear in order for this to be the gateway from the regime of fake freedom, to the status of emergency. The status of emergency is the disguised “we decide and we order”. Early 2014, the ex-judge Minister Charalambos Athanasiou, issued a 100-day ultimatum, on the kick-off of the maximum security prisons. As the famous phrase “politics are the continuation of the war by other means” applies, vice versa, the political propaganda against the urban guerilla warfare is now followed by military measures. So, there is the announcement of the transformation of Domokos prisons into a C’ Type prison, whose external safekeeping will be taken up by 300 policemen, who will camp out in special buildings – military barracks. Moreover, more than half of the “common” detainees have already been transferred [from Domokos], in order for them to be replaced by “dangerous terrorists” and “members of organized crime”. We won’t say much about the C’ Type prisons, because most of it has already been written.
Political and physical isolation, mail censorship, restriction of visiting, ban of license[family or study leave] . . . A new prison inside the prison, a barred place of oblivion in order for us to forget the struggle and to be forgotten as prisoners. A concrete grave where oblivion wishes to erase the will for freedom. At the same time, a public bogeyman in plain sight, a Greek Guantanamo for anyone that questions through action and armed struggle, the local prefects of the global Western empire.

iii) Tomorrow they’re coming after you . . .

Fear is penetrating and reaches into the bone. The answer to fear is not to close our eyes, but to attack with all our strength. It goes without saying that the C’ Type prisons were created in order to curb the urban guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary organizations (whether they’re anarchist or communist, or nihilistic or social) and their members. It would be inexpedient, however, to think that the strategy of power settles only for its basic goal. Power is naturally expansionary. This is why it widens the iron net of the maximum security widespread captivity to comrades or individuals accused of being members of armed organizations, without ever having claimed responsibility, as well as to “powerful criminals” who bother the police.

In any case, the State’s obsession with the urban guerrilla warfare’s repression is also obvious from the fact that in the draft law on C’ Type prisons there’s a beneficial arrangement that even provides the release from prison for every wannabe squealer (unless he himself is persecuted by the anti-terrorist law) who’s going to give any information on armed revolutionary organizations actions. Moreover, Greek authorities, mimicking their foreign colleagues, introduced secretly through the backdoor the “inducement” of public renunciation of the urban guerrilla warfare in return for an advantageous treatment of the repentant ones, in licensing issues and reducing the sentence. There’s not only the warranty of the draft law that sets the district attorney as responsible for the continuation or not of the “imprisoned terrorist” custody after 4 years (needless to say that for any still unrepentant“terrorist” the custody in the C’ Type isolation regime will probably be indefinitely extended). There is also the court of appeals prosecutor’s official report during the disciplinary prosecution process of penitentiary administration for the escape of Christodoulos Xiros, as this “particular detainee never renounced terrorism. Instead through his writings posted on the websites zougla.gr and Athens Indymedia still speaks of popular uprising and armed struggle. . . “

This works as a small prefiguring to a future which shows that even the texts of an“imprisoned terrorist” will play a key role in the granting or denying of prison leave to all.

However, the expansionary war of power, the way it is incarnated during this period with the C’ Type prisons, in no way can it lead anarchists to a stampede of recoil and defense, behind legal defences and funny panicked generalizations; like “the State prosecutes and imprisons anarchist ideas”. No, the State attacks the ones who put into anarchist ideas into practice, regardless of whether the counter-terrorist unit often arrests comrades or people who have no connection with the urban guerrilla warfare. The ideology of victimization produces victims itself and strengthens the enemy. When people either naively or intentionally see the ghosts of the Orwellian thought police existing today and subside into defeatism, they only manage to bring future repression closer and faster.

Every step back, camouflaged in ridiculous excuses like “they will get us”,“things were different some time ago”, “we now don’t have the leeway” is a ground donated to the advance of the police state.

If the State thinks it disentangles the urban guerrilla warfare, it will then expand its repression to every form of direct action that so far doesn’t have “counter-terrorist”criminal penalties. Because, even the State -in contrast with some “anarchists” – perceives the connection of the diversity of direct action with the urban guerrilla warfare.
Whoever isolates and ghettoizes a means of struggle like the urban guerrilla warfare practically buries and weakens all the other means, as it leaves them exposed to the oncoming repression.

“Tomorrow they’re coming after you” is the result of a fetishism against weapons promoted by some smokeless veterans of nothingness, who supposedly counter-propose “non-armed confrontational anarchy”. Complicated and pompous definitions in order for their cowardice to be covered.

iv) Solidarity means attack

Currently in Greece there are several political prisoners accused of being members of revolutionary action groups in which they’re involved, and some comrades and some people who are prosecuted for the same cases. Our word is always clear. Different perceptions and contrasts among us are numerous and enmity with some people is a fact. As the Imprisoned Members Cell of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire we think that, despite the different perspectives between us, there’s a common starting point to connect us with the political prisoners who have claimed responsibility for the organizations they belong to and the comrades accused of these cases, without having slandered and lied against revolutionary organizations. The common starting point is the uncompromising struggle against power, always from the side of the unrepentant enemies of the regime.
As has been said “Words divide. . . Acts unite”.

We read the letter-call [i] from the member of Revolutionary Struggle Nikos Maziotis and we decided to support his suggestion.

The Open Assembly of Anarchists/Anti-authoritarians against the special detention conditions was one of the few, maybe the only public collective procedure, which, in spite of the times, stood against the invasion of the maximum security prisons.
We believe that the suggestion for its restart and its evolution, an assembly of solidarity with the political prisoners, upgrades its qualitative characteristics and makes things clear.
Every comrade who’s against the special detention conditions is automatically a solidarian with the political prisoners and whoever is solidarian with the political prisoners who are persecuted for urban guerrilla warfare actions cannot do anything but acknowledge (regardless of his/her participation or not, or his/her disagreements on specific issues) that the urban guerrilla warfare isn’t just another part of the struggle’s diversity, BUT an indispensable part of it . . . Much could be written on the struggle’s diversity, on direct action and on urban guerrilla warfare.

We believe that we are at the beginning of a conversation that will not disappear in a conversation.

To us, it is important that the assembly of solidarity, if put into practice, is to be a breeding ground of conversation, friction and communication which will provokeaction.
The assembly that just reproduces itself is doomed to lapse into a boring chore. When the assembly turns into a coin of public relations, it becomes person-centered and mostly harmless. We have no illusions about what happens inside the milieu nor will we invoke a fake unity which is useless and hypocritical.

For us, an assembly of solidarity can be a new starting point for the new comrades mainly, to get rid of the ideological past icons, the “retired veterans” and the inertia and meet in order to act. For this reason, we add to the suggestion made, the name of the assembly to become “assembly of solidarity and action with the political prisoners”. To be honest, we don’t like calling someone just a “solidarian”. It subconsciously creates divisions that lead to “personalities” and “followers”. It goes without saying that an anarchist is a solidarian, the bet is for him/her to become an “accomplice” . . . (without stopping being critical of course).

So, as much has been written and more has been spoken on solidarity, so we will end our statement and our support to the suggestion made, with an old but all-time classic slogan:

“If the “innocent” ones deserve our solidarity once, then the “guilty” ones deserve it a thousand times…”

Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, FAI-IRF / Imprisoned Members Cell

Panagiotis Argyrou
Theofilos Mavropoulos
Damiano Bolano
Giorgos Nikolopoulos
Michalis Nikolopoulos
Olga Economidou
Giorgos Polydoros
Gerasimos Tsakalos
Christos Tsakalos
Haris Hatzimihelakis

Korydallos Prison,
10-11-2014

[i] Translator’s note: Nikos Maziotis suggested through a personal text of his the
transformation of the assembly against the special detention conditions(maximum security prisons) into an assembly of solidarity with the political prisoners, imprisoned and persecuted fighters. The assembly has already been transformed and started its actions, with several imprisoned comrades supporting it.

Note: Translated by the Circle of Individualist Anarchists

Quelle: http://325.nostate.net/?p=13780