Solidarity with squats under attack in Greece and raids in Berlin from ACAB squat
From Cardiff Squatters Network:
On August 5th cops in Greece continued their campaign of repression against squats by raiding three squatted spaces in Patras: Parartima, Maragopouleio and the Self-managed Hangout inside the Technological Educational Institute (TEI). 16 comrades were detained in total; 5 squatters and 11 supporters.
While those showing solidarity were later released, the 5 occupants faced charges in court on the 13th. Therefore the next day we painted a banner to express our solidarity with squatters facing charges and evicted from their homes.
Additionally today we hung another banner to show solidarity with the squat Rigaer 94 and all those arrested during raids in Berlin on the 14th. The raids were supposedly related to arson attacks of various job centres and a Molotov attack against police, in solidarity with the revolts in Turkey after the eviction of Gezi Park in Istanbul.
We name ourselves ACAB because we are antagonists. We also name ourselves ACAB because we know that all cops are bastards who go to any lengths to attack the squatting movement internationally and the anarchist milieu.
The banners are now hanging from Canton police station that we appropriated for our own use in Cardiff. We squat here to show that not everyone is afraid, that some of us are bored of living in fear, and instead desire to fight back.
Solidarity with squatters facing charges!
Solidarity with squats under attack in Greece!
Solidarity with everyone evicted from their homes!
Antagonistic Collective Against Boredom (ACAB)
Prison squat resists eviction in solidarity with Cardiff prisoners
From Cardiff Squatters Network:
On Thursday 8th August, at approximately 10am, High Court bailiffs showed up to join United Welsh representatives, police and contractors booked to secure buildings, in an attempt to evict Rumpoles, Moira Terrace, Cardiff, CF24 0NE (aka: prison squat / 0ne squat). By 12pm, without even attempting to enter, they left the occupiers in possession of the building.
At 9:30am the first few supporters started arriving outside, while some squatters took to the peak of the roof. The outside had been barricaded with furniture, gas bottles, compressed air canisters and a piano, while the inside was well secured. A ‘Fire 2 the prisons’ banner had also been dropped from the windows the night before, during significant disturbances within Cardiff prison over the road.
Four police officers from Roath arrived warning the resisters that possessions used to barricade would be cleared away by the council, stating ‘Your rubbish makes Roath look poor’, even though the squat is in Adamsdown, but otherwise ignored the situation and promptly left. At this point neighbouring prisoners began shouting in support of the squatters and against the cops.
The rest of the day was spent receiving strong support from, passersby and locals, particularly in the neighbouring Adamscourt, also owned by United Welsh Housing Association. While supporters continued to play piano and eat the skipped bakery goods from the night before.
Prison squat has been lived in for 3 weeks, and has hosted an anti-fascist benefit gig, No Borders film screening, prisoner letter writing, as well as other events. United Welsh plan to demolish the building. This work is to start no sooner than February 2014, in order to build 49 1 to 2 bedroom flats for ‘vulnerable people’, whilst denying the Adamscourt residents access to communal greenland in the process. Attempts from squatters to negotiate with owners have repeatedly failed.
South Wales Echo article – http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/masked-squatters-barricade-themselves-inside-5680263
Police repress anti-fascists on the eve of university championships in Kazan (Russia)
(Reposted from: http://avtonom.org/en)
At 8:00 a.m. 3rd of April, the officers from the Centre Against Extremism came with a search warrant to 4 addresses of Kazan antifascists.
The searches were carried out with clear violations. There was not any documents to substantiate the detentions but four young people: Ruslan Rostov, Oleg Kapustyanov, Dmitry Ilyichev and Artem Sher, were put into a car and taken to the Police Office “for the talks”, threatened with force. During the searches,two anti-fascists, including Artem Sher, who is a citizen of Israel, were beaten. Later a search took place at the workplace of one more antifascist – this time not only search operatives of the Centre Against Extremism, but also members of the FSB (Federal Service of (state) Security) were present. The resolution of a search warrant stated that the suspect “belongs to the informal youth association Antifa”. Read More…
International Week Of Solidarity With Jock Palfreeman 22nd-28th April
(Reposted from Brighton ABC)
Jock Palfreeman is an Australian who, on the 27th December 2007, on a night out in Sofia, Bulgaria; had the courage to stand up against a group of fascist hooligans. Witnessing the fascists chasing and attacking two young Roma boys, Jock ran to the boys’ aid. He did his best to keep the fascists at bay but they ended up turning on and attacking him. Left with nowhere to run, Jock had no choice but to defend himself. Andrey Monov, one of the racist gang, was stabbed and later died. Another, Anton Zahariev was injured. The Roma boys ran away. Jock has since been tried and sentenced for murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and has been given a fine running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It is now more important than ever, that we collectively put as much pressure on the Bulgarian authorities as possible, to accept Jock’s transfer to Australia. Between the 22nd and 28th of April 2013 there will be an, International Week of Solidarity with Jock Palfreeman. We need to let Jock know that he is not alone in his struggle and that we are in it for the long run. Read More…
Freedom For Thomas Meyer-Falk?
Since October 1996 I’ve been kept in the dungeons of the German state. I
was sentenced to eleven and a half years in prison for one bank-robbery to fund raise money for left-wing projects. Later I was sentenced to a further five years and three months for “insulting” prosecutors, judges and politicians.
I have been a Red and Anarchist Skinhead (RASH) for many years, and the
government kept me in isolation (solitary confinement) from 1996 until May 2007. I have been in the general prison population for the past six years and will finish my sentences in July 2013.
But in 1997 the criminal court added the so-called “preventive detention” (PD) to my sentence, based on a Nazi-Law from November 1933 which allows the state to keep a prisoner in custody over and above the end of their regular sentence, if they want to for the rest of the inmate’s life.
Recently the courts opened my files to decide if I will go to PD in July 2013.
In the end there is not much real chance that the judges will set me free, but it would still be helpful and I would appreciate the solidarity, if people could write some letters and e-mails to the court and support my struggle for freedom.
Send letters of support to:
Landgericht
Strafvollstrekcungskammer
Hans-Thoma-Str. 7
D-76133
Karlsruhe
Germany
Or
e-mail: poststelle@lgkarlsruhe.justiz.bw1.de
The file number is 15 AR 1/13
Every kind of support is welcome!
Thanks a lot.
Thomas Meyer-Falk
c/o JVA Schoenbornstr.32
76646
Bruchsal
Germany
www.freedom-for-thomas.de
freedomforthomas.wordpress.com
ABC Belarus Info Talk @ Wells Hotel
Belarus ABC Infotour in Cardiff
On Friday the 23rd of Feb. @ 6pm there will be an info talk by a member of Belarus ABC at the Wells Hotel.
You will hear about the situation of anarchists facing years in prison, the work being done to support them and resistance to repression in Belarus, Europe’s “Last Dictatorship.”
For more information on the prisoners, Belarus ABC, the international solidarity that they have received and how it has helped, visit afed.
The Wells hotel can be found at 77 Craddock St. CF11 6EW. It has played host to all manner of awesome events over the past couple of months and we can only hope that there’s more to come.
State Using ‘Secret Evidence’ To Try And Keep John Bowden Behind Bars
State Using ‘Secret Evidence’ To Try And Keep John Bowden Behind Bars
For the past 30 years John Bowden has been at the forefront of the British prison struggle, and is by far our most prolific prisoner writer. Time and again, John’s articles have shone a searchlight into the State’s murky dungeons, exposing brutality and repression, and challenging the very nature of prison. For many years now, John has been held in jail because of his political views and his willingness to challenge injustice. That has never been clearer than now, as the State attempts to use ‘secret evidence’ to keep him behind bars.
It is relatively rare that prisoners, originally sentenced for non-political offences, become so politicised whilst in jail, that their release is opposed by the prison authorities for exactly that reason.
In the case of life sentence prisoners who have served the “tariff” part of their sentence (or the length of time the judiciary stipulates they should remain in jail), the legal criteria determining their release, or not, are clear and straightforward: Has the prisoner served a sufficient period of time to satisfy the interests of punishment and retribution? Does the prisoner remain a risk to the community? Can the prisoner be safely and effectively supervised in the community post-release?
Of course the prison authorities would never openly admit that apart from the above criteria, there is another “risk factor” that would prevent a life sentence prisoner’s release: Their identification with a progressive or radical political cause. Opposing a life sentence prisoner’s release, purely on the basis of their having exposed and organised against human rights abuse in the prison system, would of course make a complete mockery of the claim that, apart from its punishment function, prison also exists as a place of reform and rehabilitation, a place where supposedly brutal and anti-social criminals are made better people by a system administered by humane and just-minded individuals. The entire legitimacy of the prison system is based on the premise that, essentially it exists to protect the public from individuals who represent a threat , so denying that some life sentence prisoners are kept locked-up solely because they embrace an ideology that actually believes in a society and world free from violence, exploitation, and inequality, is imperative if the myths and fallacy used to justify the existence of prisons is to remain intact.
[read the full article on indymedia]
[read more on John Bowden on Bristol ABC’s wordpress]
[you can contact John and other prisoners through emailaprisoner.com]
or write to him:
John Bowden, 6729,
HMP Shotts,
Cantrell Road,
Shotts,
Scotland,
ML7 4LE.
NYE noise demo outside Cardiff prison
From 325:
Last night as part of the international call out for noise demonstrations outside of prisons and detention centers, a group of anarchists and anti-authoritarians assembled at cardiff prison where some people set off fireworks and scattered hundreds of fliers from the top of the multi-storey car park opposite the jail (which is visible from many of the cells in the prison) whilst others sounded a siren, banged drums, threw fireworks over the wall of the prison and participated in anti-prison and anti-police chants with the prisoners who did everything they could to communicate back to the crowd gathered outside.
The fliers read “Solidarity is our weapon – Freedom now!” on one side and “Fire to the prisons, fire to the borders and fire to those who protect the system that’s killing us all. ACAB” on the other.
The initial group made a speedy and tactical retreat after noticing the approaching filth accompanied by a fire engine heading towards the prison. Roughly an hour later a small group returned to set off the last firework and shout some more in support of those inside.
– some anarchists.
Solidarity with Revolutionary Struggle: Communique from the Bute Dock Squatters
Bute Dock Hotel, West Bute St, Cardiff Bay
From Bristol Indymedia:
We take this opportunity to clarify our position regarding the occupation of the Bute Dock Hotel, which saw two days of successfully resisting eviction in Cardiff, see report here.
Our choice to squat the Bute Dock Hotel, which inter-connects with the largest estate agents in Cardiff, Keylet, was no coincidence – it was carefully chosen. After receiving advice regarding the unique nature of the legal situation, we carefully schemed a plan. This involved confronting Keylet with news of our occupation on the morning of Tuesday 20th November, with delegates from our welcoming committee.
Our intention was to disrupt their business, due to the inconvenience and embarrassment of having their executive offices connected to a squatted social project. To discover they had been storing their ‘personal belongings’ in the hotel was to us, an added bonus. They had a wealth of chairs, storage units, marketing literature, as well as a Christmas tree and popcorn makers we promptly made use of. We had unintentionally taken their tat hostage, and it felt empowering. While people are routinely evicted from their homes and experience difficulty in retrieving their belongings, to have the chairman of the Association of Letting and Management Agents pleading with us to respect and return his belongings was all too ironic.
To give context to who we are dealing with, the executive director of Keylet, Peter Vidler, is a director in twelve different letting and investment companies, including; Cardiff Bay Investment Ltd, Cardiff Property Lettings Ltd and Luxury Lets Ltd. In 2004, he was successfully prosecuted for trying to bully an employee into having an abortion, financially considering her pregnancy as a worst nightmare. She suffered verbal abuse and was repeatedly blamed for computer problems, causing her to contemplate ‘ending it all’, while Mr Vidler attempted to justify his actions publicly.
As a collective fighting against austerity, we feel it should be obvious as to why we targeted an estate agents. They are infamous for keeping buildings empty for their own financial gain, while people are living on the streets, unable to access secure housing. With ever increasing homelessness and the recent criminalisation of squatting residential properties, these property racketeers deserve more than ever to be held accountable, along with the state and their hired thugs. Furthermore, what followed after delivering the news of our occupation is a perfect example of the violence utilized to uphold and reinforce the value of property over people. Hiring heavies and gangs to protect property is second nature to these scumbags.
To elaborate, we wish to re-iterate what the Gremlins expressed in their video communiqué last month:
“The State’s ‘solutions’ to the problem of homelessness are degrading, dehumanising and nothing more than a quick fix. The process is riddled with long waiting lists, poor living standards and often only worsens people’s well being. Countless buildings are left disused and unoccupied, whilst landlords and speculators profit at the expense of the people. The idea that it is a criminal offense to claim a roof over your head on a cold night is offensive and ridiculous.”
Our initial aims were to reclaim this unoccupied space to re-open it for the use of the community, by opening a squatter’s estate agents ‘freelet’, hosting regular café nights, films, talks, discussions, workshops, and much more. It’s naturally disappointing papers have been served for a court date within a week, but also not unexpected. Instead we are using this opportunity to host a few events, express our solidarity with those we identify with and deserve our support, and to call for further resistance.
Strength and solidarity to anarchist prisoner Kostas Gournas, currently being tried for his participation in the armed group Revolutionary Struggle in Greece, and those accused in the same case. Our thoughts are also with Nikos Maziotis and Pola Roupa who remain at large – stay free comrades!
Solidarity and strength with all those fighting for their lives – from austerity riots in Europe, uprisings in the Middle East, insurrections in Latin America, to clashes everywhere in between.
To all the Bristol rebels plotting their next move, Brighton squatters fighting for homes, and London crew, whatever you’re up to…let’s go on the offensive already??
Bute Dock Squatters
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ABC Prisoner Art UK Tour
Cardiff Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) 