Haimen, China - Police fire tear gas at Chinese seaside town protesters demanding release of detainees

( / Associated Press ) - Villagers gather to protest Friday Dec. 23, 2011 in Haimen, China. Riot police in the southern Chinese coastal town fired tear gas at protesters Friday on the fourth day of unrest over a planned power plant expansion, according to a demonstrator’s account and TV footage. A crowd of protesters were locked in a standoff with police near the entrance to a highway in the town of Haimen, demanding authorities release an unknown number of demonstrators, a man surnamed Lin.

Haimen’s protesters are demanding a halt to the planned expansion of a coal-fired power plant which they say has contributed to what they say is a rise in cancer cases and heavy pollution in the seas, a serious problem for a town where many make their living from fishing.
The protests started Tuesday when thousands of people besieged a Haimen government office and blocked a highway. When riot police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse them, demonstrators hurled rocks, water bottles and bricks in return. Clashes broke out, injuring an unknown number of protesters and police, residents say.
In response to the protests, the local government said Tuesday that it would temporarily suspend the power plant project, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
But protesters say they have not heard directly from authorities on the matter and say several protesters in their teens or early 20s had been detained.
It was not immediately clear how many people have been taken into police custody, but Xinhua said Thursday that five people had been detained by Wednesday for vandalism during the protests.This is the third time police have used tear gas to disperse protesters in Haimen this week.
Hong Kong’s Cable TV showed footage of tear gas clouds being blown toward protesters, scattering the crowd of hundreds of people. Riot police with helmets and shields had formed a blockade at the entrance to the highway.

Portugal - Army defends motorway tolls

informa-azione

Source: ANSAmed

MADRID, Dec. 19 - The Portuguese government has had to deploy the army along the A22 motorway in the Algarve, to avoid continuous acts of vandalism against toll booths registered after the entry in force of the toll on 8 December.

Agents of the Intervention Unit of the Republican National Guard patrol a dozen automatic payment booths set up along the 130 km of the A22 24 hours a day. In particular, the area of greatest risk located near the town of Boliqueime, 70 km from the border with Ayamonte (Huelva), where last week a few cameras to read license plates were destroyed by being shot at or by arson. The army patrols, according to what the Iberian media report today, are equipped with bulletproof vests, after an official of the company that manages the Algarve motorway was wounded recently by a rifle shot as he approached one of the electronic barriers which vandals had set on fire.
Fri, 23/12/2011 - 12:03

Namu, Belgium - The Tax Office attacked

suie e cendres

"In the night of 18 to 19, the buildings of the tax offices in Namur, not far from the rue du 4ieme Genie, were attacked. About ten windows were smashed."

24/12/2011

Bruges, Belgium - Failed escape with helicopter

suie e cendres

BRUGES - Beginning of November, an planned escape from the prison of Bruges was inhibited by the police. A company offering helicopter flights in Knokke-Heist averted the police of a "suspicious reservation". The morning before the actual flight, police carried out a house search at the place of the person who reserved the flight, and found weapons and a check list on how to hijack the helicopter. They also discovered two getaway cars.

13/12/2011

Athens, Greece - Solidarity with Christos Stratigopoulos - Crisis means war

translated from informa-azione

Social and class war

The State and capital, seeking to impose social peace in these days of war in which we are living, repress social struggles, accuse and imprison those who fight.

Anarchist Christos Stratigopoulos is in prison for having claimed responsibility for a robbery in a bank in Trikala, Greece in October 2009. From July 2011 he should have been allowed a temporary release (from prison) and been released a few months later.

But the cops and judges have extended his imprisonment by trying to attribute another robbery to him, at a bank in Cephalonia in July 2009.
With false accusations, the State is trying to set up another case of repression against revolutionaries in Christos's case.
The accusers, with false evidence and so-called witnesses and imaginative policemen, have tried to destroy him physically and socially.
Foreseeing our massive participation in all forms of social struggle that evolve into social class conflict, this solid State tactic seeks to impose fear through the exemplary imprisonment of anyone who struggles.
Dionysios Manolatos, a resident of Cephalonia, either pushed to consciously become a snitch or to try to gain some personal benefit, has become a false witness for the police.
The young cop Sokratis Markatos, keen to climb the hierarchy in his job, has falsified evidence and handed it to the local press so as to receive medals and free himself from this impenetrable case.

THEY DON'T SCARE US, THEY MAKE US FURIOUS

SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON.

NONE OF OUR COMRADES HOSTAGE OF THE STATE

THE CRIMINALS ARE THE BANKERS AND CAPITALISTS.

FREEDOM TO CHRISTOS STRATIGOPOULOS

Assembly of Solidarity to Imprisoned and Accused Fighters

Wukan, China - 20,000 in open revolt against government land grabs and killing

various sources

"For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village of Wukan, Guangdong now in open revolt." (Telegraph) Enraged over government land grabs, villagers have now overrun local authorities and driven police out. They remain barricaded within their village, roadblocks set up by both police and villagers preventing food and water
...For months, the 20,000 villagers who live in Wukan, near the city of Shanwei in the Guangdong province, have protested first against having nearly $154 million worth of their land seized and sold off by the local government, and then at the brutal tactics used by police to regain control.Back in September, villagers rioted, chasing out the local party secretary and drawing a harsh response from local riot police. The crackdown that followed resulted in the alleged death of a child. If that wasn't enough to further enrage locals, some of the seized land was was the site of a local cemetery. ...Locals said the land sold was collectively owned by the residents. They were unaware of the sale until construction work began on the land. Their outrage was also fuelled by the fact that some of the land was used for the graves of the village people’s ancestors.
4,500 villagers marched less than a month ago promising to escalate the situation if the government failed to solve the land problem.
The situation began to heat up again last Friday, when authorities arrested five of the villagers' 13 self-appointed representatives negotiating a solution. Another confrontation between villagers and riot police took place on Sunday at barricades set up by villagers to keep police out.
Then on Monday things really came to a head when one of the arrested representatives, Xue Jinbo died in police custody of a reported "heart attack." His family claims he was murdered.there are now no police, or government officials.

China's internet censors have blocked searches relating to the village of Wukan.

Villagers say that they have enough supplies to hold out for only 10 more days.

Wukan has been encircled by the police cordon since Sunday, after a failed attempt by 1,000 armed police to capture the village. No food or water is allowed in, and no villagers allowed out, some food is being smuggled in from the next village on motorbikes.

Portland,Oregon, US - Man foils Taser attack with 'Star Wars' light saber

notes from oregonlive

14/12/2011 -  When police tried to arrest a man in a toy store, he carried on swinging a "Star Wars" light saber he was holding. One cop tried to use his Taser on the man but it didn't work. Another used his Taser and made contact, but the man knocked one of the wires away with the light saber. Police arrested him after grabbing him and pinning him to the ground.He was sent for mental reports.

Trento, Italy - 12 DECEMBER - A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER

informa-azione

Text of a poster put up recently in Trento

A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER

December 12, 1969, Milan - Piazza Fontana bombing, 14 killed and 88 injured. It 's the debut of the "strategy of tension". While there is growing awareness that this is a State massacre, the judiciary arrest anarchists Pietro Valpreda and Giuseppe Pinelli. On December 15, Pinelli was murdered and thrown from the third floor of police headquarters in Milan at the hands of the squad of executioner Luigi Calabresi.
December 12, 2011, Bologna - First day of the trial for the "Outlaw" inquiry. Five comrades were arrested April 6 in Bologna, seven more are affected by heavy restrictions, 26 in all charged with "criminal association with subversive purposes", the documentation space Fuoriluogo is devastated and impounded. On trial are years of struggle far from any institutional compatibility and animated by a sincere contempt for the order of this world, against the CIE [detention camps] and prisons, State racism and boss exploitation, the militarisation of the cities and the reappearance of neo-fascist groups, technological domination and the attack on the living.
December 12, 2011, Florence - Final stage of the trial in which 19 anarchists are accused of "subversive association with terrorist aims" (the infamous 270bis). Here, as in Bologna, the specific crimes alleged are small things: blocks, occupations, defacing, unauthorized demonstrations, incitement to commit a crime. Here too, the investigators are trying to make a clumsy distinction between "leaders" and "subjects". In the dock we find the bonds of life and struggle of those who choose to break with social peace and the security-frenzy, determined to upset the dreams (and profits) of the bosses of the city.

December 12, 2011, Trento - First hearing of the trial of nine workers accused of defacing and threats. On May 24 the court of Bassano acquits the bosses of Tricom – Galvanica di Tezza sul Brenta, responsible for the death of 14 workers as a result of exposure to hexavalent chromium, nickel and other nuisances. Outside the court the sentence was greeted with slogans and the throwing of eggs. Justice remains a weapon in the hands of the ruling classes, the court has zealously carried out the task for which it was created: to legitimize the profit of the bosses and suppress the struggles of the exploited.

TODAY AS IN THE PAST, THE TERRORISTS ARE THOSE WHO EXPLOIT AND POISON, WHO REPRESS AND BOMBARD: THE TERRORISTS ARE THE BOSSES AND THE STATE!

WE CHOSE WHAT SIDE WE WERE ON A LONG TIME AGO: ACCOMPLICES OF THOSE WHO STRUGGLE AGAINST A WORLD OF WAR, PROFIT AND CONTROL, ALONGSIDE THOSE WHO DO NOT BOW THEIR HEADS IN THE FACE OF THE REPRISALS OF THE STATE.

SOLIDARITY TO THE COMRADES OF BOLOGNA AND FLORENCE, TO THE WORKERS TRICOM AND THEIR FAMILIES

The comrades of Trento

Chilpancingo, Mexico - Two students killed during protest

globalvoices 
Two students, Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, were killed on December 12, 2011 during a protest held by students of the rural school Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa, Chilpancingo, the capital of the state of Guerrero. The protest blocked the highway “Autopista del Sol” which leads to the tourist area of Acapulco.
La Jornada de Guerrero
Everything started with a smoke curtain, provoked by the tear gas bombs that came out of the hands of the federal police. [..] After that came the first gust of bullets form the federal police, who were authorized to proceed via radio. The second gust, which was longer, came from different hands: ministerial police opened fire against the students from the right lane (of the highway from north to south) […] It didn't take long for the federal police to aim at the same target. […] On the other side, Ayotzinapa's side, the rural students with a daily budget for food of 3.50 dollars, responded with sticks and stones. The domestic bombs that they had weren't used because they didn't have time to load them with gas from the 2 gas stations on of each side of the highway. Some, trying to defend themselves, had time to light up the bottles they got from the service station. The police then threw some fragmentation grenades at the students, that by then were seeking refuge in the space between the buses and concrete walls that divide the highway. There were five grenades in total and none detonated, but they provoked panic […]. The only ones not moving were two students, both 22 years old

We are the 1%

finimondo.org

We've seen you. We've heard you. You're everywhere. We know who you are. You are the 99% protesting against the excesses of capitalism and the wrongs of the State. You are the 99% who want electoral reform, social alternatives, economic subsidies and political measures. You are the 99% terrified of losing their future, of no longer being able to live as you have done till now: a job, a salary, a mortgage, a pension. Live and let live, at least. Have a career, at best. That is what you are asking for.

Waiting for a happy ending that never arrives, you cannot tolerate that some do not share your daydream resignation. From Madrid to Athens, from Rome to Portland, you are ready to stop, denounce and beat up the angry ones do not see the institutions as guarantors of freedom but the cause of misery and oppression. You only appreciate revenge in fiction films; when the mask is off you prefer submission. Faced with a hideous rotten society you fight in favour of a civil, measured, educated protest. A protest that remains at your level: on its knees.

Now we know who the 1% that you hate so much are. With your cordons, your stewards, your accusations, you have shown everybody who your real enemy is. It is certainly not the ruling class, whom you address with respect. It's us. We, who do not have a State to defend or improve. We, who do not have a market to protect or exploit. We, who do not want to exercise or suffer authority. We, for whom life is not reducible to a card to clock in with or a bank account to be safeguarded. We, for whom the crisis was not born with the recent speculations in the Stock Exchange or the incompetence of those sitting in Parliament today, but from living in this very social order in all its aspects. We, for whom every day is precarious in this world that we did not ask for, in which we have never seen ourselves, which suffocates us.

We want nothing to do with your 99%. With your claims for a moderate capitalism and a well-run State. With your political gait that reduces power and privilege to the dimensions of a credit card. With your urban camping like nostalgic Boy Scouts. With the identification of your opponent, the source of the "injustice", becoming more and more nuanced, intangible and out of reach. With your arms ever more outstretched to politicians, industrialists and guardians, and always more vigorous against the rebels. With your weaker and weaker actions that have become just a cozy interlude for the status quo. No, we don't want your reforms, your collaborationism, your alienating jobs, your left claims reheated so many times that they make us throw up.

We know what the real causes of the suffering we experience are: the thirst for power, the worship of money, but also the obedience they demand and receive. These causes continue in the daily lives of human beings, in the actions, gestures and relationships that intertwine in a society where we feel strangers everywhere. And these causes - which must be rejected, deserted and demolished - have been welcomed in your movement. We never felt at home in 99% of our modern life spent lining up to beg for crumbs, and yet you insist on defending 99% of the problem. We'll take our chances elsewhere. Through the hopes, dreams and actions that have earned your condemnation.

Carry on crossing the ocean of universal indignation. Raise your sails passing the ropes to bureaucrats and policemen. Share space and air with the scum that have made life on this planet unlivable. Go straight to a new tomorrow, with the hold full of the shit yesterday. We won't come aboard your ship, if anything we'll get off it. And we will stay on our rafts that you despise so much because they are small and light.

But be careful. A vessel that sails with our enemies on board is too good a chance to miss. Laughing? You're not afraid of us because we don't have the strength to come aboard? You've got it wrong. We are not interested in your gold, we do not want to conquer you. We want to make you go down with your entire cargo of death. To do so, we do not need a majestic fleet, just a fire ship. Small and light.

Banda Aceh, Indonesia - Over 60 punks arrested and their heads shaved. They have been imprisoned for 10 days in a 'moral rehabilitation' camp

AFP
Indonesian sharia police are "morally rehabilitating" more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province's image.
Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.

Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.
Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day "moral rehabilitation" camp run by police.
Police said the objective was to deter the youths from "deviant" behaviour.A local rights activist Evi Narti Zain said the arrests breached human rights.
"What the police have done is totally bizarre. Being a punk is just a lifestyle. They exist all over the world and they don't break any rules or harm other people," she said.
Hasan denied the accusation, claiming the rehabilitation programme was merely an "orientation into normal Indonesian society".
Aceh, on the northernmost tip of Sumatra island, adopted partial sharia law in 2001 as part of a special autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.
Only Muslims can be charged under sharia law, although the non-Muslim community is expected to follow some laws out of respect.
Nearly 90% of Indonesia's 240 million people are Muslims, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.
see
http://325.nostate.net/?p=3686

Athens, Greece - riot police attacked with petrol bombs outside the Culture Ministry in Exarcheia district

athensnews
13 December 2011 - Youths attacked riot police with petrol bombs outside the Culture Ministry, in Athens' volatile Exarcheia district.

The overnight attack occurred shortly after Monday night's stand-off at Korydallos prison in western Athens, involving suspected members of the armed anarchist group Conspiracy of Fire Cells.

No one was hurt in the incident outside the ministry.

Athens, Greece - Escape attempt from Koridallos prison by Panagiotis Vlastos and three comrades of the CCF

Press release about what happened in Korydallos, Greece, on December 12 2011

translated from informa-azione

Warning! This summary of events is based, in large part, of news and reports from the media. The news of some prison guards taken hostage by the prisoners, an action that lasted several hours, was yesterday and still is on the front pages of the media. A version, or rather, the different versions of the facts presented by TV and newspapers have so many contradictory details that are not worth mentioning. The statements of the prisoners have been transmitted in a fragmented way, we hope later to reproduce them in their entirety. The situation in the Greek prisons is however explosive, and the facts of yesterday may have an unexpected continuation ...

Yesterday, Monday, Dec. 12, shortly after 18.00 a group of four (or five) prisoners attempted to escape from Korydallos prison. They are Panagiotis Vlastos, defined by the press as "one of the most dangerous criminals in the country" (arrested in 1998 after a shootout with the police and accused of a series of robberies, murders, kidnapping of a shipowner, etc..) and members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire: the Mihalis brothers and Giorgos Nikolopoulos, Christos Tsakalos and Giorgos Polydoros (some media reports have also mentioned Theofilos Mavropoulos).

But finding themselves trapped in the vicinity of the visiting room, with the help of a gun and some knives they took 3 guards as hostages. At that time there were about 25 family members of prisoners in the visiting room, including some family members of anarchist prisoners, such as the mother and cousin of Stella Adoniou and the parents of Kostas Sakkas. All of them were trapped, most likely because the jailers in the meantime had closed all the entrances. Nevertheless, newspapers have been writing articles titled "Members of the cells have taken the family hostage."

Following negotiations began that lasted several hours. The prisoners refused to talk to the police and claimed to speak only with those in charge of the Ministry of Justice and the prison authorities and in the presence of a lawyer of their choice. Obviously, the whole area surrounding the prison was immediately surrounded by hundreds of riot police forces and the anti-terrorist Unit. It should be noted that family members refused to leave the room, fearing that when they left the riot police would raid to slaughter the rebels. Some of the prisoners were able to communicate with the outside by telephone, but their statements were largely censored by the media. However, Mihalis Nikolopoulos was able to talk about the degrading conditions of confinement in general, lack of permits, the brutality of the jailers, i.e. the problems that all prisoners suffer. He also said: "Nothing will happen to the families. The only ones who can do damage here are the cops, so they should move away. "
Christos Tsakalos said: "Today we tried to do something. To gain our freedom and the continuation of urban warfare. We lost a battle, but we have not lost the war and continue to fight to win. We are an organization that fights for the ideals of a free life without any authority. "

At 23.20 the prisoners "freed" the guards and handed over the revolver and 3 knives. The family members, after being released from the prison, were taken to police headquarters in Piraeus, where they tried to convince them to file a complaint against the prisoners, but they refused.

Dison, Andrimont, Belgium - Fire in hangar of Solar-Tech

suit et cendres

DISON - Fire erupted around 22h45 in the hangar of the company Solar-Tech. Solar Tech constructs photovoltaïc panels and wind mills. 6 fire engines came, it took them several hours to put out the fire. Damage to the hangar is said to be limited.

Brussels, Belgium - Action against Vinci, the nuclear and its world

suit et cendres

"Here like elsewhere, some sand in the rails of daily routine...
In the night of Thursday to Friday, the office of Vinci Park in Ixelles (Brussels) was attacked.
The cables of the surveillance cameras were cut, the locks filled with glue and a chain was attached to block the entrance. Posters were pasted on the windows of the office with this text:" (text in french on http://bxl.indymedia.org/articles/3351)

Vinci is a company that constructs worldwide nuclear power plants, prisons, airports, High Speed lines etc.

Calais, France - Moorings of inflatable igloo of 'snow village' cut, letting it blow away

cette semaine

Sunday, 04.12.2011, 05:10 - La Voix du Nord
Deprived of its moorings, cut by pranksters, the igloo of the snow village flew away. 
On the night of Friday to Saturday, in the Place d'Armes, pranksters had some fun ... breaking the ropes connecting the inflatable igloo of the snow village to concrete blocks. The joke had unfortunate consequences because in the evening, a few gusts blowing in Calais gave the revelers a chance to witness an amazing spectacle. The igloo 18 feet in diameter and 8 metres high, was blown away, crashing a few dozen metres away on parked cars. "Customers in the cafes in the Place d'Armes came out, reports a Sangattois who watched the scene, they saw the igloo land on the cars. Someone called the managers of the snow village and people came to deflate, remove and fold the structure." The operations required about an hour's work. It will take until next week for the children's igloo, torn in several places, to be repaired and re-installed.

Lisbon, Portugal - A general strike not like the previous ones

from Diario de Noticias and other mainstream media

 

«The government tried to undramatize the general strike, but it made the social and political tension grow. There were scuffles at the doors of the parliament – with 7 arrested and 2 injured -, several tension points between flying pickets and police forces, even molotov cocktails thrown at tax offices. The strike didn’t reach the open conflict of Athens, but it wasn’t the usual non-violent protest. […] Now, UGT and CGTP (the trade unions confederations) demand negotiations. […]

 

Flying pickets removed by riot cops of the PSP, train lines unblocked only after the intervention of GNR, molotov cocktails thrown at three tax offices, high tension close to the parliament with the protesters removing the police barriers, seven arrested and two injured. The third general strike wasn’t like the previous ones. And it ended up raising the social and political tension – instead of calming it down.[…] The incidents deserved general reproval. The trade unions confederations condemned them, and the Minister of the Interior (Miguel Macedo) enhanced their good behavior during the whole day.»

On the day of the strike and the following days the websites of several institutions, including those of the PSP and police trade unions, banks, tax offices and the secret services were attacked by hackers “in solidarity with the protests”.

St. Gregory (Rennes), France: 50 Areva workers laid off after anti-nuclear sabotage

cette semaine

Ouest France, November 25, 2011 - A building housing offices of Areva in St. Gregory, near Rennes was vandalized on the night of Thursday to Friday.
Electricity metre fire
Layoffs today for fifty employees working in a building housing, in St. Gregory, offices of Areva, one of its subsidiaries, and a bank. Police said the building was vandalized on the night of Thursday to Friday. Outside the building, an electric metre was set on fire, interrupting the power supply of the three-story building.

On the wall of the building, a tag stating "War to nuclear and its world." "We condemn this militant action strikes the work tool," said the head of Areva's press office, who denounced the incident. Friday afternoon, police had not made any arrests.

After violent clashes between police and anti-nuclear activists, a convoy of highly radioactive nuclear waste left the rail terminal in Areva Valognes (Manche) on Wednesday bound for Germany.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3B__ovj2jU

Brasil - Mass escapes from Brasilian hellholes

AFP
November 28, 2011 - BRASILIA—More than 130 prisoners have escaped from prisons in northeastern Brazil in recent days, with 52 inmates breaking out on Sunday, officials said.
The inmates, 15 of whom were recaptured within hours, fled after assaulting two police officers during breakfast at the prison complex, a police spokesman told AFP.
The prisoners were mostly serving time for robbery or violent assault, according to officials.
The escape comes after a break-out late Friday of 82 prisoners, most were serving sentences for murder, robbery and drug trafficking, who escaped from a prison in the northeastern state of Bahia.
The inmates had fled through a hole in the roof of a building in the prison complex. Authorities were only alerted after locals saw numerous men running in disarray from the jail.
The separate incidents highlighted chronic overcrowding in prisons and slow-pace of judicial proceedings. According to official figures, Brazil has 475,000 people in detention, of whom some 43 percent are being held pre-trial.
None of the escaped prisoners from Friday’s incident had yet been recaptured, officials said.

Cuneo, Italy – Communique read by Guido Mantelli at the demonstration against Casapound

received by angrynews

After several months on the run, Guido presented himself at the preliminary hearing in Cuneo on Saturday, November 26, related to clashes that broke out in February during the contestation of the opening of a  Casapound premises.
Today he will probably be imprisoned in the prison of Cuneo but it is possible that he will be soon be transferred.
To write to him:
Guido Mantelli
C.C. via Roncata 75
12100 CUNEO
Italy

And so another season is drawing to a close and, as when one reluctantly leaves summer pastures, it is time to go home. Of course, it is not with a light heart that I offer my wrists to be handcuffed, but it is something that I had taken into account at the start of this period in hiding because the charges at stake and the projects that await me once this matter has been got out of the way would not have justified a prolonged period on the run.
In the meantime, I took advantage of these months to take care of some matters that are dear to me, I went through beautiful valleys and mountains, met exceptional people and generous hearts, and I was particularly warmed by the fire of a solidarity that I have never felt lacking.
I also dedicated the necessary time to fruitful discussions that commitments and habits would not have otherwise permitted. To be honest, I even had time to “find it long,” perhaps more than on other occasions. Now that the trial that I went into hiding about this time has begun, I feel the need to give you my point of view on the most striking feature that distinguishes this judicial story, namely that it is an indictment against antifascism.
For my part, without exaggerating given my family’s past, I would say that anti-fascism is a congenital tension and that necessarily accompanies the struggle for a world free from bullying and authoritarianism. The anti-fascism that I have always known is practical, it is that which has never got lost in futile pacification without any change or the hypocrisy of calls for unjustified tolerance towards those who, in one way or another, want to impose authoritarian and liberticidal choices on society.
But I don’t make antifascism the exclusive field for criticizing and fighting this existent based on discrimination and
exploitation. So let me offer you a short excerpt from some reading that I’ve done during these months and which I endorse fully.
“... Fascism is historically short-lived, because it is the form of government that the bourgeoisie chooses when its principal form of power, democracy, is unable to fulfill its function: to ensure the accumulation of capital and their power over the producing classes. Once the role of watchdog has been fulfilled, fascism is put aside and the bastard democracy comes back into fashion. The fascists may have the illusion of an epochal transformation, but they are just the shit of transition, thugs, organised cops. Democracy, with its cargo of newspaper gossip-style ethics, with its mechanisms of consensus-building by the entrapment of the petty-bourgeois and a redistribution of the crumbs, fits better into the domain of the Capital ...
Hannah Arendt is absolutely right: ‘evil is mundane’.
There has never been a fascist experience that has not fed off the oppression of the lower classes and the consensus of the small dealer, the small proprietor, that group of animals that trades freedom for order and discipline so that the working class or the immigrants, in other words the ugly, dirty and bad, do not disturb it. Fascism has always been defined by “small” men that graze on national and patriotic mysticism, performing their miserable tasks with dedication. Little clerks of terror committed to doing the accountancy of the enemies to be eliminated. But the forced deportations that capital imposes on the outcasts of the earth, first starving them then concentrating them in the urban web where it can exploit them better or transform them into beggars, whores or in the army of the banlieue, are unmatched. Not to mention their ability to build concentration camps as large as continents, to poison land and rivers...”*.

The trial that awaits us is this sense exemplary: it is not the “good boys” of Casa Pound that we will be facing, but the Police force of Cuneo who is trying to get us out of the way for the umpteenth time, and complacent judges who, in setting up a trial for clashes in the streets, (a situation that by definition requires two opposing sides) deliberately decide to indulge in the criminalization of anti-fascists and let the black-shirted thugs go ahead. Perhaps “Cuneo Gold Medal of the Resistance” hasn’t noticed, but the trial that is taking place opposite the balcony of [antifascist partisan] Galimberti is really embarrassing for History.
Not to mention that until we wipe out the detritus of fascism, another threat will weigh on the roads to individual and collective self-determination. So, I am going to see for myself the faces of the authorities that have been invited to condemn anti-fascism in this land of partisans ... but I can’t wait for the moment to meet up with you again to continue along paths that can damage such a disastrous and harmful social system.
A hug to all those accused in the trial and to those who have not been nor will they be lacking in solidarity!
Guido



*. From the appendix “Appunti sulla storia del FMRP”, in Ricardo
Palma Salamanca, “Il grande riscatto”, Edizioni Colibrì, Milano 2010
(pagg. 267-268).

Grigny (Essonne), France - Bus set on fire with Molotov cocktail

cette semaine

AFP, 06/11/2011 at 12:06 - A bus was set on fire with a Molotov cocktail last night in the district of Great Borne in Grigny (Essonne) by several individuals, prosecutors said today in Evry, confirming a report from Paris. 
The newspaper said the incident occurred around 22h at La Treille. Individuals, the number of whom was not specified, first made the passengers, which included a driver and night mediators whose number has not been communicated, get off the bus. They then threw a Molotov cocktail inside it before fleeing. According to Le Parisien, two fire engines were needed to get the fire under control.
 Last June, a bus was the object of an attempted arson attack in the district of Essonne.

Turin, Italy - seven city police cars on fire

cette semaine, 17 November 2011

La Repubblica, 11 October 2011 - Seven cars of the municipal police of Turin [vigili urbani] were damaged by fire last night. The fires, arson, occurred around 2 am against vehicles parked at the corner of Corso Sansovino and Molise, belonging to the 5th district police of Turin. Two were completely destroyed, while five others were damaged ... 

"This is a serious act of intimidation" said the Commander of the Municipal Police.

Sousse, Tunisia - 3 prison guards severely beaten by thirty people

cette semaine
(November 17, 2011) 
Businessnews, 11/16/2011 7:01 p.m.

Three prison guards under the General Administration of prisons returning home at night in Sousse, November 12, 2011, were violently attacked by about thirty individuals, according to TAP. 
The guards were attacked by using knives, stones and iron bars and wooden clubs, causing them serious injuries in various parts of the body. They narrowly escaped death, due to the intervention of passers-by and security forces who arrested some of the attackers.

Andenne (Belgium): Mutiny at the prison, fires and serious damage

cette semaine (November 18, 2011)
ANDENNE - Andenne Prison: "It's been long time since we had a riot on this scale." A riot broke out Wednesday around 21:30 in the prison of Andenne. More than 200 prisoners caused extensive damage to the building. Many emergency services had to intervene. Everything is back to normal around 2:00.
Shortly after 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, more than 200 prisoners from the prison of Andenne, more than half of those detained, refused to return to their cells after a range of free activities. They caused considerable damage inside the building. It took the intervention of the Directorate of Special Units of the Federal Police to get them to return to their cells. Firefighters and paramedics were also called in to assist. According to firefighters, no one was injured. About two o'clock in the morning, all prisoners were returned to the cells.
The damage in the hallways and common is significant, according to Andenne fire brigade. The prisoners set fire to a particular office, tore out radiators, hoses burned and windows broken. The water used to extinguish the fire caused extensive damage on the ground floor and three floors of the prison. "It's a smash up, breaking up for fun: radiators, doors, window pains pulled out, frames broken, computers, sometimes in the middle of the wings, furniture, everything is broken".

Beijing, China - Dozens of workers injured in massive strike at southern Chinese factory

TWN, AFP  - November 20, 2011-

BEIJING -- More than 7,000 workers went on strike at a southern Chinese factory making New Balance, Adidas and Nike shoes, clashing with police in a protest over layoffs and wage cuts, a rights group said.

Dozens of workers were injured on Thursday as police tried to break the strikers' blockade of the main road in the factory town near Dongguan in Guangdong province, China Labor Watch said in a statement late Friday.

The strike at the Yucheng factory in Huangjiang township took place in the wake of layoffs last month of 18 managers, a move seen by workers as a preparation for the factory's relocation, the New York-based group said.
One of the fired managers told the China Business News his departure was part of a plan to shift production north to Jiangxi province to save on rising costs in the Pearl River Delta around Dongguan, a key manufacturing center.
The strike was the latest in a series of incidents involving labor disputes and perceived social injustices in Guangdong, known as the workshop of the world for the tens of millions of migrant workers who toil in factories there.
Workers at the Yucheng factory were also angered by the recent elimination of performance bonuses and a ban on the overtime they said they need to meet the cost of living.

Brisbane, Australia - suspected sabotage in Qantas Airways airliner during labour dispute

AP Associated Press
2011-02 -11 - Australian police are investigating the suspected sabotage of the entertainment system on a Qantas Airways airliner during the ongoing bitter labor dispute between the airline and the aircraft maintenance union, officials said Wednesday.
Engineers noticed several wires were cut on the in-flight entertainment system of a Qantas Boeing 767 undergoing maintenance at Brisbane Airport on Australia's on east coast on Oct. 26, Qantas said in a statement.
Further investigation by the engineers revealed more cut wires had been covered up, the airline said.
"Given the nature of the incident, we immediately referred it tothe Australia Federal Police," Qantas said.
"There was no operational safety risk at any stage," it added.

Trento, Italy - Telecommunications repeaters sabotaged in solidarity with those arrested for clashes in Rome October 15

informa-azione
source: 'L'adige' 17 november 2011
Incendiary attack on Mount Calisio

TRENTO. An incendiary attack on telecommunications repeaters took place on Mount Calisio, near Trento. A box containing equipment operated by Tower Tel was destroyed in the fire. On the wall the phrase "Solidarity with the arrested in Rome" was written. The damage is yet to be assessed.

According to findings by the Carabinieri, the attackers had set off the fire with petrol.

The glow of the flames was seen by inhabitants of the village of Villamontagna, who called the firebrigade. Further investigations were made ​​by the forensic police and the Digos [political police] also started to investigate.

At first the RTTR [regional television] decided to shut down for safety reasons following the arson attack last night on Mount Calisio, near Trento, on a number of telecommunication towers. This is the second attack within a week on broadcasters of the 'circuit' that transmit the programmes of Santoro [a well known 'left wing' journalist who was censured by Berlusconi when he was with the national tv, RAI], the RTTR have made known. Last Thursday two transmitters of Telelombardia were stolen.

They later confirmed that that Santoro's programme would be broadcast in spite of the attack on the transmitters in Trentino. RTTR communicated that it will be able to transmit as usual from all the installations. The broadcaster then explained that yesterday evening's attack had seen targeted "two systems with two incendiary devices connected to timers. One belonged to the Tower Tel company, which was completely destroyed, served the channels of Radio Maria, Radio Dimensione Suono, and the telephony of Brennercom and Vodafone. The other belonged to the company Op. Im, RTTR editors, TvAlpi, RTT, Terra Trentina, RTT music tv, and was only partially damaged as the incendiary device had not ignited and was defused by the police bomb squad."

The damage, according to what has been referred, is still to be assessed and the broadcasting company confirmed that the carabinieri have cordoned off the area of the attack.

New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Delaware - Fiber optic lines cut during Verizon strike

signalnews

15/08/2011 - The Verizon Strike, which began 6 days ago, grew further away from a compromise over the weekend as the company brought in the FBI to investigate several instances of sabotage, according to CNN.
Verizon claims that since the strike began it has recorded 90 instances of sabotage, including cut fiber optic lines, vandalism, and harassment of management.More than 45,000 union workers for the company’s wire line business–which provides landline phones as well as high-speed Internet and FiOS television–went on strike to protest a number of concessions the company has implored them to make. The concessions include eliminating two paid vacations, a pension freeze, aligning raises with job performance and getting the unions to pay $100 per employee per month for healthcare.
The cut fiber optic lines impacted Verizon’s service in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Also, a police station and a hospital lost service as a result of the sabotage. Since these are critical infrastructure, the FBI field office in New Jersey is investigating the matter.

Frenso, CA: West Coast Solidarity Action – Molotovs thrown into Fresno substation parking lot

waronsociety

19/08/2011 -from indybay - In Solidarity with Everyone fighting against police brutality and the police state, molotovs were thrown into the parking lot of the Fresno SW substation where police cars and pig’s personal vehicles are parked. At least 2 cars burned.
This action is done in solidarity especially with those in the East Bay standing up against the murderous BART police who most recently executed Charles Hill. BART then used fascist type methods by shutting down all cell phones in stations where they thought protestors might be showing up. WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!
All police are murderers. FPD recently executed Carl Maggioroni and have a reputation for executing people of color whether they are armed or not. The time to fight back is NOW! We live in a police state, this is all “business as usual” for them. We have to come together and fight back, FUCK THESE PIGS! This is war, play time is over, join the fight.
In solidarity with Oakland, Seattle, Chile, London, Greece…everyone who is fighting back.
See you in the streets.

Widnes, Chehire, UK - 25 year-old man dies after being sprayed with pepper spray and beaten by eleven cops.

dailymail

23/08/2011 - A 25-year-old man collapsed and died after being overpowered with CS spray as he was being arrested by up to eleven police officers.
Jacob Michael was sprayed in the face inside his home in the Widnes area of Cheshire, but managed to flee officers before being brought down on a verge 30 metres away.
He was taken to a police station where he suddenly became unwell and was rushed to hospital by ambulance. He was pronounced dead two hours later.
The dead man - who was known as Jake - had been with his family and is believed to have dialled 999 himself over a threat made to him when police arrived at the semi-detached home at 5pm.
Police said they were arresting him on suspicion of affray but there was a struggle and Michael was blasted in the face with the spray.
Despite him being temporarily blinded by the effects, Michael managed to run out of the house and got to a grass verge before being tackled and brought to the ground by other police officers who were waiting nearby.
In the words of one of the many witnesses to the scene: 'What the police did was outrageous. He was handcuffed, on the floor with his legs restrained..
'They seemed to be kneeing him in the back of the head. I counted 11 cops. They were all sat on him, giving him a kicking and giving him side digs. There was one woman officer, the rest were men, and she was getting her kicks in as well.
'They started chasing him and hitting him in the back of the legs with batons.
'They had banged his head on the floor and they were giving him punches. He was already handcuffed and he was restrained when I saw him. I don't know what happened in the house, I just saw when they were on the street.
'He was shouting, "Help me, help me". He wasn't coherent. I don't know why they were bringing him in for affray. It doesn't matter, he didn't deserve that.
'He's never been in trouble before as far as I know.'
---
CS Pepper spray is an inflammatory product which causes immediate closing of the eyes, difficulty breathing, runny nose, and coughing.
The duration of its effects depends on the strength of the spray but the average full effect lasts around thirty to forty-five minutes, with diminished effects lasting for hours.
Although considered 'non-lethal', it may be deadly in rare cases, and concerns have been raised about a number of deaths in Britain where being pepper sprayed may have been a contributing factor for those people suffering from asthma
----
Last week bodybuilder Dale Burns, 27, became the first person in Britain to have died from a police Taser after officers shot him three times with the powerful 50,000-volt gun after reports of a disturbance at his bedsit in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.

Bordj Sabath, Guelma, Algeria - Violent clashes due to lack of drinking water.

el watan

21/08/2011 - Violent clashes between the national police and hundreds of young and not so young of Bordj Sabath, town located about fifty kilometers north west of the capital of the province of Guelma, pitted Sunday, early morning and continued until before breaking the fast.
The lack of drinking water since the beginning of Ramadan, is the reason for the protest during which the roads leading to the city were cut to traffic by the rioters, with burning tires and other assorted materials .
According to preliminary information, the police had used tear gas to make inroads among furious young people and allow the clearing of roads.
A preliminary assessment, according to informed sources, reported the death of a man of sixty years, after being hit by stone throwing just before breaking the fast.
The same sources also confirm the wounded among the population and the security services.
The director of the Algerian water explained by water scarcity, "the obsolescence of the 70 km long intake pipe that feeds Bordj Sabath from Ain Arkou (not pumping)."
He added that "under normal circumstances the people of this region are supplied every third day."
In the early evening, the chief town of the town of Bordj Sabath was still under surveillance.

Ragusa, Sicily - Revolt in detention centre for immigrants. 50 people escape, 5 cops wounded

la repubblica

24/08/2011 - It was a night of guerilla warfare in the Pozzallo detention centre (Ragusa) where about one hundred immigrants tried to escape from the structure using pieces of iron disconnected from bunk beds to break the glass of the doors of the building. Fifteen policemen tried to quell the revolt but could could do little to stop the immigrants, moved to Pozzallo in recent days from the island of Lampedusa. Sixteen of the fugitives were tracked down at once, but about fifty are still missing and are being sought by police.
Thirteen immigrants were arrested and charged with damage and resisting a public officer. Five police officers were injured in the accident and were medicated at the emergency room of the Greater Modica, where they were then discharged.

Birmingham, UK - August 9 - Masked and hooded rioters fired shots at police

CNN

Police have released dramatic security camera footage they say shows masked and hooded rioters firing shots at unarmed officers and a police helicopter in the English city of Birmingham.

The footage shows a group of 30 to 40 young men, dressed in black, in the Newtown area of Birmingham as they attacked a pub late on Tuesday August 9, West Midlands Police said in a statement.

As police tried to disperse the group, petrol bombs were thrown at a police car and shots were fired, police said. Officers believe the rioters intended to set fire to the pub.

Pantelleria, Strait of Sicily - Revolt in detention centre holding Tunisian migrants

giornale di sicilia

17 August 2011 - PALERMO. A group of Tunisian migrants, held at the reception centre of Pantelleria, an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily, yesterday set fire to mattresses and furniture. The flames spread to the whole structure and the fire department intervened.
Eighty people were rescued by the police and the Finance military, and taken out of the hotel, some non-EU held there were able to get away and have not yet been traced. It is not the first time that riots have occured in the centre: two similar incidents occurred in July and early August.

Karranah, Bahrain - Cops injured in night of rioting in villages across the country

gulf daily news

20 August 2011 - SIX policemen were injured, two of them seriously, while confronting rioters in Karranah on Thursday night. The Interior Ministry announced the injuries on its official Twitter account yesterday morning following a night of rioting in villages across the country.
Masked youths barricaded roads with bricks, cement blocks and overturned rubbish bins - hurling rocks at police dispatched to deal with the trouble.
However, sources inside the emergency services told the GDN yesterday that police were being routinely targeted on patrol - particularly in the past two weeks - by rioters who sometimes use women as shields.
"When we enter villages, we don't know if we will come out alive," they said. "While going on duties, we always tell our families not to wait for us.
"The rioters throw stones, metal rods and sharp objects at us, which can kill any human.
"And what are we wearing for safety - a helmet and bullet-proof jacket in some cases.
"They have damaged our jeeps which were used for patrolling, but they are cowards - they attack us and run away.
"They come out only at night and hide in dark places.
"As we can't see properly, we don't know where they come out from, they attack us and hide again.
"We are not only attacked by the young, but women, young girls and boys as well. A woman threw a big block from her balcony, which fell on our jeep, shattering its windscreen.