Against Education - in Solidarity with Alfredo Bonanno - Communique from New York City

from: Comrades 10:36μμ, 26 Friday February 2010

We attacked Marathon bank, a subsidiary of the same Piraeus bank that Alfredo Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulos are accused of expropriating.

Capitalism is a system of relationships, which goes from inside to out, from outside to in, from above to below, and from below to above. Everything is relative, everything is in chains. Capitalism is a condition both of the world and of the soul.
-Franz Kafka

There is nothing left; nothing that hasn’t been molded, molested, or completely crushed; nothing that has managed to escape the network of power as it scours every inch of the earth, lodging itself into every crevice. Crowding each moment, the omnipresent asphyxiation provides ample evidence to this all-encompassing totalization. Heads bowed, backs bent, we bear the weight of the day in our beleaguered entrails.
Now taking on increasingly monstrous qualities, a vampire-likeness of achieved full nocturnality, even the sleeper finds his dreams inhabited. Robbing us of expectations, snatching away our latent potential, Capital has acquired the speculative capability to recuperate futures and integrate things before their invention. After colonizing the entire world, the enemy now works to conquer the collective realm of our imaginations where we once plotted and, consequently, envisioned its very demise.
The cooption of creativity signaled the predetermined defeat, which led the Marxists to surrender to the British Museum before they realized an 1848. The only pseudo-victory to their credit consists in pushing Negri out of the spotlight by ushering “communization” and “insurrection” into the academy’s discursive field. Both trends can be written off as failed experiments because each has neglected to activate the only concept capable of giving jargon any significance. The Struggle.
“To fight, to be defeated, to fight again, to be defeated again, to fight anew until the final victory.”
- An old Italian adage
In practice, the clashes and occupations have divorced the leftist baggage and chosen everyday life as the terrain for conflict, yet unfortunately expression still continues to abide by the activist calendar. A day of action is paled by a year of misery. Like long fits of depression, extended bouts of downtime undermine each subversive act, resulting in the production of militant event planners: blinded to the past and merely anticipating the next unsuccessful Bastille storming. They strike at the same tempo ordinary citizens attend birthday parties, riot at the same rate of wedding crashers and surely, at this pace, they will never RSVP the bourgeoisie funeral.
Detached theory and relegated practice present themselves as nothing other than the comorbid symptoms of statified ideology. Now we can confidently diagnose that the much prophesized “coming” can only amount to a passing fad.
We notice the relentless internalized repression masquerading as patience and so we refuse to wait for March 4th, the ides of March or, for that matter, any date to come. We expressed our distaste for the veiled technological prison of surveillance and electronic monitoring by sabotaging several of the soon to be installed ID-card scanners at the Hunter College campus. Against education as such, we then struck Brooklyn College’s administrative building. Lastly, we attacked Marathon bank, a subsidiary of the same Piraeus bank that Alfredo Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulos are accused of expropriating. We extend our solidarity to the two imprisoned comrades and, as Bonanno’s health deteriorates in a prison cell, we adhere to the following principle.
“For an eye, two eyes. For a tooth, the whole face.”

Déjà vu: the frame up against Alfredo Bonanno has begun

ANSA, 25 février 2010

translated from: cette semaine

GREECE: ANARCHIST BONANNO SUSPECTED OF SECOND ROBBERY

Athens, 25 feb. - Alfredo Bonanno, the Italian anarchist over 70 years old imprisoned last October following an accusation of concourse in robbery of a bank in Trikala, is suspected of being the author of another robbery carried out last July at Argostoli, on the island of Cefalonia. Bonanno's lawyers contest this accusation.

According to police sources cited by the media, Bonanno, with a false beard and wig, would have been recognised by one of the witnesses on the basis of a cctv video, while he robbed the Bank of Cyprus, pistol in hand, 6 July in Argostoli. The information has been partially confirmed to Ansa by a spokesman of the central police station, according to which "an old Italian is considered author of the robbery at Argostoli, which rendered 26 000 euros". The spokesman did not give Bonanno's name directly but implied that it was him.

Joanna Kurtovic, the Greek lawyer of the old Italian imprisoned in Korydallos (Athens), has expressed her doubts concerning the identification on the basis of a video and a critique of the way this accusation was made public. Bonanno, who suffers from diabetes and has cardio-respiratory problems, is one of the main theoreticians of anarcho-insurrectionnalism (sic). He was arrested at the beginning of October with the Greek anarchist Christos Stratigopoulos following the robbery of a bank in Trikala, for 47 000 euros. The Italian was later arrested in an hotel where the police found the proceeds of the robbery. Bonanno's defence is that he received the bag from Stratigopoulos, without knowing what it contained. His version, the lawyer points out, has been confirmed by Stratigopoulos, who has taken full responsibility for the robbery. The judge, apparently due to Bonanno's previous record, already having been sentenced in Italy, did not believe him and sent him to prison awaiting trial.

Bristol - RBS attacked with rocks & fire over Tar Sands project

Wednesday February 24, 2010 author by Carlo Giuliani - Black Bloc Report this post to the editors

In the early hours of Tuesday 23rd February 2010, anarchists attacked the Royal Bank of Scotland HQ in the heart of developing Bristol, UK.
Despite road traffic and proximity of security, the mob succeeded in breaking windows, smashing paint-bombs against upper floors and setting fire to tyres in the middle of the road.
A litany of abuses by RBS or any other bank could continue for pages, but it is enough to state that every bank is part of the financial prison which incarcerates and impoverishes all of us.
These actions will escalate and multiply.
We dedicate this action to all indigenous fighters and their allies struggling against the Tar Sands project in Kanada which RBS is an investor in, and also all those who fight against the 2010 Winter-Olympics.
This action is also in solidarity with Alfredo M. Bonanno, Christos Stratigopoulos, Polykarpos Georgiades, Vaggelis Chrisohoides, Giannis Dimitrakis, Gabriel Pombo da Silva, the entire London G20 defendants/prisoners and all other prisoners in struggle.

For international struggle against capitalism and the state

Alfredo & Christos denied bail

From 325 Nostate

February 12th, 2010

The two anarchist comrades, Alfredo Maria Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulos, accused of being involved in a bank robbery in Trikala, Greece have had their bail refused. Alfredo must come out of the prison now. Alfredo has serious health problems and needs medical treatment.

Alfredo Maria Bonanno remains inside the prison based on his ideas and long reputation as a writer and theorist of anarchism. An anarchism which is not yet dead, which is not yet decaying in the pages of history but is very much alive and growing in ferocity. An anarchism which will tear a hole in the guts of the European Union.

An anarchism long based in the South European ‘Mediterranean Triangle’, of Greece, Italy, and Spain, however finding fertile, rich ground to spread within many more minds not held by any borders, who are receptive to the anarchist vision of a future world without Church, State and Capital. Neither subjugation nor poverty.

This is an anarchism of freedom, joy and solidarity. An anarchism of stones and fire, of subversion and attack. This is the dynamite that explodes against the class enemy in Santaigo, Chile; the broken and smashed banks of countless dead cities of the USA & UK; the burnt BMW and Porsche of Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, which light up the night-sky for a precious passer-by; the gas-canister defence of Thessaloniki and Athens now turned quite deadly.

This is the anarchism of a complicit glance exchanged in a hostile crowd, or in a queue, or at work; sometimes like a smile, a warm expression of joy, sometimes like a friend who picks you up from the dirty punch you took all your life, or sometimes like the bullets which will find themselves periodically in the heads of powerful individuals and their pawns.

Alfredo; a writer who never betrayed his ideas in the pen and ink of conjecture, but wrote his words to express the realities around him, insights which came from the living social struggle that still remains in the hearts of many people, who will never stop dreaming about a beautiful life that has been denied to them by the prison society of capitalism and power.

This is an anarchism which cannot be jailed, cannot be repressed, cannot be put out, because it does not belong to anyone. This is an anarchism, which through the simple methods which people use to defend themselves from oppression, communicates itself through resistance and so finds friends everywhere that people have not given up hope that they can change the conditions that make their life miserable.

Destroy All Prisons – Free Alfredo & Christos.

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Write the comrades :

Alfredo Bonanno
Christos Stratigopoulos
DIKASTIKES FILAKES KORIDALLOS
T.K. 18110
ATHENS
GREECE

Center for Judiciary Studies in Lisbon hit with paintbombs

In the early hours of 9 February the Center for Judiciary Studies (in Lisbon), where the judges of tomorrow are built, was hit with paintbombs.

Solidarity with the prisoners in struggle and with the comrades persecuted by Justice, here and elsewhere.

Freedom for António Ferreira de Jesus, serving a hidden life sentence.

Freedom for the anarchists Alfredo Bonanno (who has a serious health condition) and Christos Stratigopoulos, imprisoned in the Greek concentration camps.

Freedom for all.

A visit to the Greek embassy in London. Solidarity to Alfredo and Christos

On Wednesday, 10 February at around eleven am. a group of comrades and friends went to the Greek embassy in Holland Park, London, in protest against prison conditions in Greece, and to hand in a fax to the Greek Ministry of Justice (see below) demanding the immediate release of anarchist Alfredo Maria Bonanno who has now been held for six months on charges of concourse in robbery despite his increasingly precarious state of health. The group went to the main entrance with a letter and tried to enter, after attaching a banner to the railings of the balcony saying ‘Fire to the prisons (in Greek and English). Freedom to Alfredo Bonanno and Christos Stratigopolous’. Embassy officials refused to open the door and could be seen cowering in the background as, seconds later, five police cars arrived on the scene and a consistent number of police ran up the steps and into the Embassy, the symbolic State boundaries that existed in 2009 having been broken. With the normal contempt of governments towards the people they claim to represent, the embassy refused to accept the letter. Despite attempts by the police to get the comrades to leave, they stood their ground and continued to occupy the balcony while others gave out leaflets and copies of the fax to passersby. Meanwhile more police arrived, some visibly carrying guns. The group only left after the letter was seen to be in the hands of the embassy boss.
This small demonstration of solidarity was aimed at showing the Greek State that our comrades are not alone. We know perfectly well that such acts are in themselves futile concerning the struggle against repression and the fate of our comrades, and should be seen in the context of a wider and deeper projectuality of international solidarity aimed at a generalisation of the attack on the existent.
In fact, the same evening we got news that, once again, the application for bail for Alfredo on medical grounds has been refused, confirming what is now clear to all, that the continued incarceration of this comrade has little to do with judicial procedure, but is a question of political revenge aimed at his physical and psychological destruction. Whether they will succeed or not is a question that concerns the whole movement, it is up to individual comrades to decide where they stand. Already diverse manifestations of solidarity have taken place in various parts of Europe and beyond, as part of the struggle in course. May this continue to spread, each according to their own creativity and choice of methods.
Any act of solidarity for a comrade turns out to be an act for all. It affects all the exploited, inside and outside the prisons of capital in our common need to throw down the walls of oppression and misery everywhere, tear every prison to the ground right to the last stone, and break out into the infinite challenge of freedom.




letter to the Minister of Justice

London
10 February 2010
To the Minister of Justice, Trasparency and Human Rights,
Athens.

We are here today to denounce the ongoing imprisonment of Alfredo Maria Bonanno in the prison of Koridallos, Athens, in spite of the announcement of new detention measures by the Ministry of Justice whereby thousands of prisoners presently being held in conditions that amount to torture in Greece’s overcrowded prisons and concentration camps would be released while awaiting trial.
Given his advanced age, his seriously compromised health and the fact that the charges against him fall into the category of a misdemeanor, it is patently clear that the protracted detention of this 73-year old anarchist comrade is not based on the official judicial accusation of concourse in a robbery in the small town of Trikala six months ago, but is an exemplary case of political revenge against his ideas, aimed at his physical and psychological annihilation.
Active in the anarchist movement for decades, one-time militant in the resistance against the dictatorship of the Greek colonels (1967-1974), writer and editor of many anarchist theoretical works: these are the political reasons why Alfredo Bonanno continues to be held under life-threatening conditions.

With the present, we, a few anarchists and lovers of freedom in London, demand the immediate liberation of Alfredo Maria Bonanno.

International solidarity initiative
to Alfredo M. Bonanno

For the destruction of all prisons






leaflet handed out outside the embassy

Like every other population on the planet, the Greek people are facing a situation of grave economic hardship due to the greed and avarice of bankers, politicians, church leaders, within the context of a global economic system based on the plundering and abuse of natural resources and the exploitation of millions of people.
In that beautiful country, considered by many here as no more than a pleasant holiday resort, it is, as always, the young people, immigrants, over-exploited workers and unemployed to bear the brunt of the crisis. Brutal policing and judicial repressive measures are being employed, and these are sure to get worse over the coming months as more and more people are pushed beyond the limits of stoic endurance. During the weeks following December 6 2009, the whole country was shaking at the wrath of school pupils rebelling following the murder in cold blood, by a policeman, of a fellow pupil, Alexandros Grigoropoulos. They were joined by thousands and thousands of anarchists, immigrants, students and young unemployed, in a widespread social rebellion. Representatives of the repressive forces of this country are now present in Greece to help their Greek counterparts in the repression of all forms of protests while the Greek people continue to suffer the consequences of the economic choices made by the above.
In spite of a protracted hungerstrike in November 2008 involving 7-8,000 prisoners, Greek prisons are full to overflowing and some are such that even the guards refer to them as extermination camps. Promises by the politicians of the recently elected Pasok (socialist party) in government have been mainly ignored and thousands of prisoners continue to suffer in appalling inhuman conditions.
At the present time all expressions of anger and rebellion in Greece are being brutally repressed, inside and outside the prison walls, but the struggle for freedom is vibrant and alive, and is an inspiration everywhere.
The spirit of rebellion will never be suppressed.
Active solidarity in the struggle.
Destroy all prisons

a few anarchists

NO FORTRESS OF POWER IS INVULNERABLE ...AS LONG AS WE ARE DETERMINED

They will never convince us, those fanatics of democracy, that life equals survival, that work liberates, that we have to be submissive slaves in the cogwheels of a global machine based on exploitation and oppression.
We will never become “good citizens” submerged in the depressing loneliness of our couch, audacious cowards at the commands of the security doctrine, satisfied with the mediocrity of our existence.
They will never correct our desires with laws, regulations and dungeons.
There will always be those who dare and will continue to attack against the logic and morality of dominion, which will burn in the same fire we have lit the ashes of knowledge and the flame of action.
We are not interested in creating myths of actions- tools in the hands of every oppressed with a conscience, as we are not interested in the construction of “innocent” and “guilty” by civic legality and all its lackeys.
We salute and respect the personal choices and the polymorphous action of comrades – anarchists, revolutionaries and rebels- who look the enemy in the eye and charge holding a dream in their heart.
Against the existent and its defenders we oppose our solidarity in practice and our raging desire for freedom, until the destruction of prisons and the society that creates them.
FREEDOM FOR THE ANARCHISTS ALFREDO BONANNO AND CHRISTOS STRATIGOPOULOS IMPRISONED AWAITING TRIAL FROM 1/10/2009
ACCUSED OF BANK ROBBERY.

text of poster below, from Athens

WHO IS THE CRIMINAL? WHO IS THE ROBBER?

from Athens

“Freedom, therefore Anarchy is perceivable but cannot be possessed. It is the qualitative whole which I lose at that exact moment that I wonder if I can maintain it and guarantee it against the demands of someone else. To give controls without a price in return the quality, to give yourself means to open yourself up without asking for something in exchange. Without this we will never reach quality but we will always remain in the impenetrable of the deed. The action that doesn’t involve me, that doesn’t change my life by placing me in danger, is just a deed, a routine that tends to pollute even my everyday existence.”
A. Bonanno

1st of October 2009, an expropriation of a bank in Trikala takes place. Later that same day, anarchists Christos Stratigopoulos and Alfredo Bonanno are arrested and imprisoned awaiting trial. Christos assumes responsibility for the action while Alfredo refuses the charges laid upon him.
Up to this day the two comrades remain imprisoned having to face the appalling conditions that prevail in the prison cells of Greek democracy. As always also now, in times of crisis on all levels, the state- the unified party of the bosses, those legal robbers who amass social wealth in their safes and label, through the mass media, as a robber whoever fights against this condition of oppression and exploitation- knows how to punish in an exemplary way its stated enemies.
Particularly in the case of A. Bonanno, the 73 year-old comrade with a long and polymorphous presence in the lines of the international anarchist- subversive current who faces serious- diagnosed even by the state- health problems (heart condition, diabetes, serious myosceletical problems), his continued detention takes on the characteristics of vengefulness and of his physical destruction and places his life in imminent danger.
Like every captive of the state
also Christos and Alfredo are not alone

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALFREDO BONANNO
SOLIDARITY TO CHRISTOS STRATIGOPOULOS

A visit to the Greek consulate in Berlin

On the 3.2.2010 some anarchists payed a short visit at the greek consulate in Berlin, located at the Wittenberg square. With a banner reading in both greek and german „the passion for freedom ist stronger than any prison – freedom to Alfredo Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulis“ we raised attention on the situation of the two comrades imprisoned in Greece.
Some flyers have been given out to the passer-byers. A fax has been given to the consul and sent over to the „minister for justice and human rights of Greece“. The fax sent was the same one greek comrades already sent over during the last days in a similar action.

Alfredo and Christos, both active since long time in the anarchist movement, have been arrested on the 1.10.09 in Trikala, Greece, accused of committing a bank robbery.
Alfredo, 73 years old anarchist comrade from Italy has serious health problems and suffers under the heavy conditions in prison. Despite the fact that the greek law prescribes an earlier release upon serious health problems, the authorities refused until now to set him free.

This small action has been a piece of solidarity along the struggle for the release of both comrades. Different expressiona of solidarity took place in different countries within the last months.

You can check further infos about the two comrades and the solidarity actions under:

http://www.abc-berlin.net/ (in german)
http://www.aftertrikala.blogspot.com/ and http://www.325.nostate.net/ (in english).

Posters in solidarity with both comrades have been printed lately and one can get them by writing the abc berlin.

For the immediate release of Alfredo!
Freedom for Christos and all the prisoners – prison to become holes in the ground!

------------

The fax in different languages:


Il nostro intervento ha lo scopo di denunciare la detenzione abusiva e illegale di Alfredo Maria Bonanno sotto condizioni inaccettabili nel carcere di Koridallos (Atene). La politica vendicativa dello Stato ha come finalita' l'annientamento fisico e psicologico del compagno 73enne che affronta gravi problemi di salute. A. M. Bonanno e' anarchico, attivo nel movimento da decenni, militante della resistenza contro la dittatura dei colonelli (1967-1974) in Grecia, scrittore ed editore di tantissime opere.

Rivendichiamo l` immediata liberazione di A. M. Bonanno

Ps. Questo FAX e' gia mandato al Ministero della Gustizia, Trasparenza e dei Diritti Umani*, all' *Ambasciata d'Italia ad Atene* e alla stampa.


Iniziativa di solidarieta' con l` anarchico A. M. Bonanno

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Αυτή τη στιγμή βρίσκονται υπό ολιγόλεπτη κατάληψη ...

Η παρέμβασή μας έχει σκοπό να καταδείξει την καταχρηστική και παράνομη κράτηση του Alfredo Maria Bonanno στα ελληνικά κολαστήρια των φυλακών Κορυδαλλού. Η εκδικητική στάση του κράτους, που κρατά αιχμάλωτο τον 73 χρονο με σοβαρά προβλήματα υγείας σύντροφο, σκοπό έχει την ψυχολογική και σωματική εξόντωσή του. Ο Α. Μ. Bonanno είναι αναρχικός με πολυετή πολιτική παρουσία στην Ιταλία, με αντιδικτατορική δράση στα χρόνια της χούντας και πλούσιο συγγραφικό έργο.

Απαιτούμε την άμεση αποφυλάκιση του Alfredo M. Bonanno.

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We wish to denounce the abusive and illegal detention of Alfredo Maria Bonanno in unacceptable conditions in the prison of Koridallos (Athens). The vindictive politic of the State is aimed at the physical and psychological annihilation of the 73-year old comrade who is facing serious health problems. Alfredo Bonanno is an anarchist, who has been involved in the movement for decades, militant in the resistance against the dictatorship of the Greek colonels (1967-1974), and writer and editor of many works.

We demand the immediate liberation of Alfredo Maria Bonanno
Solidarity initiative to Alfredo M. Bonanno

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Wir verurteilen die beleidigende und illegale Internierung von Alfredo Mario Bonanno unter inakzeptablen Bedingungen im Gefängnis von Koridallos (Athen). Die rachsüchtige Politik des Staates richtet sich auf die physische und psychische Vernichtung des 73-jährigen Genossen, welcher mit ernsthaften Gesundheitsproblemen konfrontiert ist. Alfredo Bonanno ist ein Anarchist, welcher seit Jahrzehnten in der Bewegung involviert ist, militant im Widerstand gegen die griechische Diktatur (1967-1974), und Autor und Herausgeber von vielen Texten.

Wir fordern die sofortige Freilassung von Alfredo Maria Bonanno
Solidaritätsinitiative für Alfredo M. Bonanno