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.

Germany - Hot August news

directactionde

Leipzig - Arson-attack on CCTV-camera - 2nd August 2011 - Masked persons did huge damage by committing an arson attack (over 5000 euro) on a CCTV used by cops and by attacking the building of the AOK ( big insurance-company) with the use of stones. They might have wanted to start a direct confrontation with the police.

Around 2am eight black-dressed persons set up fire at Connewitzer Kreuz. A tram signal, traffic-sign and high-voltage-cable are burned. The fire took over and damaged the main cable of the CCTV-camera used by police. The unknown persons try to block this camera by attacking it with fire.
In the internet appeared a video. Underneath a comment saying: „ Again fire was set and AOK smashed. Yes, the resistance doesn't go on summer-holidays.“
Berlin - Car of security-company torched - 4th August 2011 - In the night of the 4th of August a car of the Piepenbrock company got arsoned in Berlin Schöneberg. The company does facility-management and cleaning-jobs, executed by precarious workers, mostly in big flats-buildings. There they get knowledge about the habits of the renters. This information is getting used by the security of the Piepenbrock-company. They work together with the cops and as a result play an active role towards a modern model of state and social control. For more about Piepenbrock:
Templin - Arson attack on police station - 5th August 2011 - Friday morning an arson attack was committed on the police station of Templin. Around 5:30am the officers heard a muffled noise coming from the facade and saw an unknown person escaping. The petrol-bomb, that got thrown on the facade just shortly sparkled and extinguished on its own. Just a little damaged was done and nobody got injured. The police are investigating in different directions.
Berlin - Copcar attacked - 06th August 2011 - A 45 year old police officer had to go to hospital because of an ear blast injury last night. He and another colleague were driving on Revaler Straße when they saw a crowd standing on the road in front of a club, waiting to get to the entrance. The cops told them to stand on the pavement, because car drivers really had problems seeing the crowd, as most of the people were dressed in black. When the officers went back in to their car a bottle got thrown at them and the right window got smashed. source: Polizeiticker
Freiburg - Car of the federal-police arsoned - 7th August 2011 - We received following claim:
"In the night to the 7th of august a car of the federal-police got attacked with several molotov-cocktails. That happened as a direct reaction on the repressive politics of the rioting executive-institution of the last days.
Controls, raids and evictions are committed against central autonomous spaces of this city. That cant happen with out a reaction!
For a militant perspective!"
Berlin - Broken windows at ex-Liebig 14 - 8th August 2011 - Once again unknowns damaged an ex-squatted house in Friedrichshain in the afternoon.
The owner reported that 2 windows and the doorbell panel of the house got destroyed.
The State security is investigating. source: Policepress
Berlin - And again broken windows - 9th August 2011 - A renter on Liebigstraße in Friedrichshain called the police last night, because unknowns smashed 3 windows of his flat. 2 of those got smashed and at the other one can see a round whole. The police assumes a political motivation and the State security is investigating. source: Policepress
Paint attack against „Pro Köln“ - Köln 9th August 2011 - following claim got published on indymedia:
"2 hours ago we attacked the offices of the right-populist party „pro Köln“ by using paintbombs.
We hope that we were able to bring a bit of colour into the brown daily life of this confused crowd and will come back regularly, with pleasure.
BUNTFRONT! ;)"
Köln - Headquarters of energy corporation RWE attacked with stones - 9th August 2011 - from the communique we received:
"Do not give up the hope-smash the energy-corporations! In the night of the 8th to the 9th of August we smashed the facade of the headquarters of RWE in Köln.
Not even one year passed by since the big accident (supergau) happened in Fukushima and will endanger the whole region for an unknown measure of time. People are contaminated – the rate of cancer and the number of children that will be born disabled will grow rapid. Contaminated water and food will fasten this processes.

Berlin - 9 cars in flames - 11th August 2011

In Zehlendorf and Steglitz 9 cars were set on fire in the night to Thursday.
On Wednesday a arsonist got sentenced to probation and one day after 9 cars are burning in Berlin.
On Bolchenerstraße in Zehlendorf 5 cars were burning. Shortly before midnight unknowns torched them. 3 cars burnt out completely and 2 got damaged. Half an hour later the police was called again.2 cars were torched in Steglitz on Gutsmuthstraße and 2 cars around the corner on Hackerstraße. source: BZ
Berlin - Car of regulatory agency torched - 12th August 2011

The series of car-arsons in Berlin is not ending. In the night of Friday 4 cars got set on fire in Schöneberg and Charlottenburg – during Thursday night already 9 cars were burning in Steglitz and Zehlendorf.
On Courbierestraße in Schöneberg an „Audi“ got badly damaged.
On Franklinstaße in Charlottenburg a car of the regulatory agency of Pankow got arsoned while it was parked on the ground of a car-dealership. 2 cars got damaged by the flames.
In Charlottenburg a Mercedes-Combi was burning later on.
Police investigates if a political motivation was the reason for the arsons. source: BZ
Berlin - Paint and stones thrown against a bank - 14th August - we received following claim:
"In the night of 14th august we smashed the windows of the bank 'Sparkasse', Heinrich-Heine Straße, Berlin. We painted on the window - 'UK brennt'.
This was in solidarity with the uprising recently in England and the people who are now getting repression.
Spread the insurrection!
Solidarity from Berlin."
Berlin - Cars arsoned - 16th August 2011

In the night to Thursday 11 cars got torched in between one hour in Charlottenburg. Police reported that the arsons started shortly after midnight. Almost every minute mostly luxury-cars got set on fire in the district Westend. Further on seven cars, a scooter and a bicycle got damaged by the flames.
Fire fighters extinguished the flames. Nobody got injured. If the arsons are politically motivated isnt clear yet. The state security investigates. source: Spiegel
Hamburg - Stones and paint against a newly constructed building - 16th August 2011

Unknowns threw stones and paintbombs against the building at Kleinen Schäferkamp. Protest against the changes in the district of Schanze?
In the night to monday unknown offenders threw glasses filled with paint against the facade of the building. The big windows at the main entrance got smashed and paint dripped down the facade and splashed as well on two cars that were parked nearby.“Undercover cops observed 4 suspicious persons around 0:08 am“, said Ulrike Sweden, the spokesperson of the police. But the men were able to escape. State security investigates.
Hanne Schöppner woke up around midnight because of a loud clash. She thought an accident happened and looked down from her balcony. The friend of her left the flat, a real estate on the 2nd floor of a newly constructed building, to check out what just happened. In the doorway he discovered the smashed and with brown paint damaged windows. „We couldnt really fall asleep again“, said the young woman on the morning. „Its scary and unsettling to get the hate of a small group.“ source: Abendblatt.de

Berlin - 15 cars torched - 17th August 2011

The massive series of car-arsons will not end in Berlin. In the night to Wednesday unknown offenders set fire to 15 cars. The investigators assume that the arsons of the last weeks were commited by leftextremists.
Most of the cars of last night were expensive – but as well a truck, a trailer and a scooter got arsoned. Most of the arsons happened in Charlottenburg, which is a decent district. The inhabitants are scared. source: Morgenpost

UK - The struggle against the existent continues

(work in progress)

Thursday, August 4, Mark Duggan, a 'real straight up and down respected man' (words of London rapper, Chipmunk) from Tottenham in London, was blasted to death while on his way home in a cab by a mob of cops wielding Heckler & Koch MP5 carbines. 29 year old Mark, father of four young children, lived on the housing estate known as Broadwater Farm, a depressed predominantly Afro-Caribbean area. The area is infamous since the riot of 1985 after 49 year old Cynthia Jarrett collapsed and died of a heart attack as police raided her home. (During the riot a policeman, PC Blakelock, was hacked to death with a machete.) Today, in the words of a resident, 'if you're from Broadwater Farm, police are on you every day, you're not allowed to come off the estate. If you come off the estate they follow you.' They followed Mark Duggan and he ended up dead.

August 6 - The arrogance of the killers in uniform in the face of the protest by the victim's family and supporters, plus the brutal attack on a 16 year old girl by police during the vigil was the last straw.

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That night in Tottenham the police station was attacked, police cars set on fire, a double-decker bus ends up a twisted wreck after being engulfed in flames, press photographers are beaten and relieved of their equipment for the decades of lies they have propagated. Bank windows smashed. Countless shops looted, stuff thrown all over the streets. Young guys storm McDonald's and start frying up burgers and chips. Indignant anger clears the brain, flushes out the cops in the head. Collective fury at this latest police murder combines with the daily bullying and humiliation of being stopped and searched, the moralising, the false promises, useless lives, no future, desire for status-affirming 'needs' unattainable due to increased taxes, unemployment and cutting of benefits, 4 million cameras, glaring security cops at the entrance to every store, the colonization of all remaining urban space by trendy bars filled with the noisy chatter of the carefree... that and much more that we don't know and will never experience welled up and fueled the will to smash through the invisible and plate glass barriers that hold everything in place.



The hostages of the open prison, the young people of the ghettos of London, rise up and the capitalists' nightmare finally materialises, as the last link in the consumer chain of submission snaps. It explodes into a free-for-all when, in a flash of illumination the solution to the existential dilemma is found: MUST HAVE/CAN'T HAVE = TAKE. It's simple: learn and apply, possibly burning store to ashes on retreating.

The rioting escalates, scores more people come into the area responding to call outs on twitter to come up and fight the cops and loot shops. Over the following days it spreads to many other parts of London and onward towards other cities.

The rage also spreads beyond the main clashes in Nottingham, Manchester, Bristol, Gloucester, Liverpool, Birmingham. In many incidents the stories escape categorisation or quantification. One thing sure that is not reported and deliberately ignored is the chiefly anti-authoritarian flavour to the uprising, the government and corporations relentlessly branding the people 'scum', 'thieves' and other low simple catchphrases of demonisation. The failure in this to stop young people identifying with the uprising is obvious when it is seen how quickly the riots replicate and need little trigger to begin breaking the Queen's peace. Mainstream media reporting becomes incredibly formulaic, and the bosses make mileage from their scenes of interest in reaching their political objectives, looping the same images over and over, overlaid with the stereotypical talking heads' condemnation and reassurance. The widespread disorder does not stop. The people who lost their fear go outside, collect themselves to attack and take as much as they can.


The police are overwhelmed and beaten by the small fluid groups who don't wait around to be crushed, but instead move quickly, spreading terror in those who can't identify themselves as belonging to the mob.

Some anarchists and 'rebels with consciousness' did rush towards the smoke signals on the horizon. For some only to stop in their tracks, in many cases riveted to the spot as spectators of a scenario never played out in their wildest dreams: crowds of young people queuing up outside high street stores like customers at the January sales, calmly forcing their way inside under the implacable gaze of rows of riot cops, to reappear later with huge bags, even trolleys, overflowing with consumer goods.

Elsewhere, behind the hastily improvised barricades erected and set alight by local kids in back streets as they prepare to greet their daily enemy - the cops in their anti-riot vans - with a hail of bottles and stones, the outsider, immediately recognisable by age and colour, is viewed with suspicion. Who are you? What do you want? In various areas, the odd gang, spurred by the momentary shift in the balance of power in the streets, starts high-jacking people's cars and driving off in them or setting them alight, or trashing and looting corner shops, holding no attraction but for the benefit of diversionary chaos so that other small groups can organise and initiate their own attacks. For some, black clothes and face masks are a sign of organised illegality and command respect accordingly. Each area and particular environment creates differing possibilities and modes of co-operation and confrontation. Still days after the clashes there is a changed air in the glances and atmosphere between those in the different sectors of the clash, put under the same rule. Open fighting against the police and the system they defend is a unifying feature for popular resistance against all regimes.


Very soon it became clear that this seemingly strange police tactic of standing by and watching looters empty stores was no accident, as it had already been reported by right-wing media that the police would let the situation play itself out for 3 days before going in with heavy repressive blows, a story which subsequently disappeared from the news. This standard British counter-insurgency tactic, developed in the colonies and in Northern Ireland, is used in the preliminary stages of the social insurgence to attempt to create a situation of havoc where all the contradictions of the mess of society can exacerbate, to force the false question: Do you want an authoritarian regime to maintain repressive order, or do you want 'lawless chaos'? The question is posed by power to the servile masses, using the rebellious as their spear of inquiry.

The police removed their personnel from the most seriously affected areas, giving space for the riot to literally burn out - letting the 'violence' reach such a point as to deny the intensification which could have resulted had the clash been kept at a certain social level, possibly drawing in anarchists, leftists and angry students.

The front line of the clash – that against cops, police stations, media, politicians, started to disappear as the target of these attacks withdrew or were overcome. This channeled the affray into the requisitioning of goods by uncontrolled masses. The design was to secure the forces of the police following their defeat on the streets in order to prepare the massive repressive operation from CCTV surveillance, snitching and investigation - and provoke a media-boosted backlash from those who identify with the system of work and law demanding that the police enforce a severe crackdown. A backlash which was not only seen in the posses of marauding shop-keepers and British nationalists, but also in the citizenist outcry for an open prison society by tidy controlled individuals not adverse to controlling others.

On Wednesday August10th the moment that power had been waiting for in some form or another occurs. Three young men defending local Asian-owned shops in Birmingham are killed when a car is rammed into them. An irreparable loss for those who knew and loved them, a great gain for power. The articulate appeal of one of the fathers in his heartfelt call for 'peace' (how many rivers of tears were spilled that day for sons killed by the capitalist moloch all over the planet) is relentlessly exploited by the class enemy, just as the resulting coming together of Sikhs and Muslims to defend their structures is depicted as a triumph of democracy. The fact that the divide and rule policy that characterises British power was instrumental in the partition of India and creation of Pakistan, an operation that resulted in over a million dead, has been erased from the annals of history. Rule Britannia! This Disney-like multicultural paradise is a fragile mosaic of erstwhile plundered peoples seeking to survive, living shoulder to shoulder each with their miserable prospects of inclusion or exclusion according to their capacity for collaboration, subservience, and self-mutilation.



One part of the equation that has been totally ignored over these days are the producers of the much coveted goods themselves. Crimes spring from fixed ideas. The sacredness of property is one of these ideas and is the crime par excellence that is dangled before the disinherited masses. Just as war is disconnected from murder in the psyche of the common man or woman, the plunder of the resources of the planet and subjection of the invisible producing slaves is totally absent from their diatribes about 'stealing' and 'looting'. What is a high street store in flames compared to the existence of the store itself? Every supermarket is a 'crime scene', MacDonald's and Coca Cola are veritable motors of mass destruction. After babbling sensational accounts of the riots from the teleprompter, the newsreader's disapproving frown erupts into a beaming smile as she announces the news that Apple has surpassed Exxon Mobile to become 'the world's most valuable company'. Wonderful Apple, such style, smart gadgets. Perhaps the searing profits should be put down to good management as we read in the daily press: The man now running Apple, Tim Cook, had a delicate job last year. After nearly a dozen workers committed suicide at Foxconn, a contract manufacturing plant in China, he flew to visit the company – and pressured them to improve working conditions. One move was to hang large nets from the factory buildings.

To see the recent events as something that do not concern anarchists and conscious rebels would be just as absurd as to simply take them at face value and join in the looting spree for a moment of quick gratification or to be 'in the reality of the struggle'. That doesn't mean staying at home safely out of the way of these amoral 'greedy' rioters. What can a movement of predominantly vegan, bicycle-riding anti-commodity anarchists or their moralising anarcho-workerist counterparts have to do with the pluri-appropriation of plasma screens, trainers and fashion labels? The dividing line, which anarchists cannot stomach in spite of their heritage, is that the rebellious protagonists of the past days were not fighting for the noble cause of 'freedom' but were fighting for themSELVES. Selves alienated and stunted by the voracious reality they have been born into, spurred into action in an immediate assault on forbiddance. Now they are being demonised by those who should know better, for their lack of 'political awareness' and altruism. In such situations anarchists can only take stock and seek to put into action elements of a projectuality that is already being elaborated and experimented in small agile groups. What is evident from this flash-point of insurrection is that the anarchist movement, for want of a better term, here in Britain, is largely inadequate as to be insignificant in terms of the attack and the capability to prepare a line of flight beyond the existent, let alone during a mass riot.

If the uprising has caught us unprepared, if we have not already found our affinities, worked out our ideas and put into practice minimal attacks on the reality of dominion and class oppression, it is not from the 'children of men' that we will get the best indications to enter and extend the struggle. Anarchists risk being passive spectators, 'provocateurs', or simply clumsy gatecrashers of someone else's party.

Some comrades have already begun the trajectory of their own projectuality, their own experimentation and attack, which has also materialised over these days alongside or within some of the attacks on the structures of the consumer god and its servants. Without flags, banners or high-sounding political claims. Others are asking themselves how to move in that direction, how to carry on now that 'society', the great myth, the centuries-old swindle adapted to the imperatives of the corporate cartels defended by their servants, government, cops and media, is being reasserted.

Now the party's over, the CCTV footage is being analyzed, facial recognition software is being deployed, the snitches are queuing up for payment. 'Wanted' photos are being displayed on huge 'digi-trucks' driven throughout the cities. People's doors are being smashed in by screaming gangs of riot cops wielding battering rams. Families are being given eviction orders in the old fascist ardor for collective punishment. Welfare payments are to be discontinued. Kangaroo courts are working 24/7 and the cell doors are slamming shut as the “community” is polarised in open conflict. Almost 2,000 arrests so far. Police and politicians argue the toss as to who subdued the battle and Twitter and Facebook have been saved from banishment by becoming the instrument of the good citizens. The broom has been stolen from the reprobate witch to become the symbol of citizenship as hundreds sweep and sweep in this neo Civil Defence corps.

The media and soft cops are hard at work to find the magic formula, the new superglue to hold together the untenable. On the margins, some good anarchists and leftists will give a hand, no doubt.
Nothing will ever be the same after what has happened over the past few days. Our task is not to join forces with the recuperators but, using every means, to start to identify significant objectives and contribute to creating the conditions where the excluded, on whose backs they come into existence, can do something to destroy them.
We are moving into a phase of new, more brutal, more fascistic levels of repression with full consensus of reawakened, engaged citizens. The way has been paved for acceptance of the next stage in British neo-fascism, the Olympics and the related massive installations for surveillance and control.

The struggle against the existent continues, opening up new encounters and fields of experimentation to combine with the unyielding ingredients of all our interventions: affinity, solidarity and self-organisation of the attack.

Saint-Gilles prison, Belgium - Screws on strike following attacks

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03/07/2011 - GRÈVE SAINT-GILLES The personnel of the prison of Saint-Gilles decided to go on srtike yesterday morning. A work stoppage lasted until Sunday night at 10 pm. The movement could continue today if staff decide at the general meeting. If the guards of Saint-Gilles prison abruptly left their posts yesterday, it is not least because of an attack on one of their colleagues on Sunday at 6 am at the subway exit of the south station, gare du Midi. It was the last straw for the personnel that have seen three similar attacks in less than two weeks. The other reason for this spontaneous movement of discontent is the arrival in Saint-Gilles prison of Farid le Fou. A transfer that the guards were expecting for September 15, but management just told them that the convicted person most feared by the guards in the country would be ahead of schedule, on 16 August! Enough to arouse the anger of staff. "There was a tacit agreement with the Director General of Prisons, that the prisoner would not be sent to Saint-Gilles prison during the holidays, when the prison is short staffed, with contracted out personnel who are not used to such inmates considered dangerous. This agreement was not respected by management", laments Cosimo, prison guard and Regional Delegate CSPF. The last straw was this Sunday, the assault of a guard at the South Station while he was on his way to the prison. In only a few days, three staff have been assaulted outside the prison. Starting with a nurse outside the prison walls. Last Wednesday, a uniformed guard coming out of the subway with a colleague was stabbed just because he works in prison. This Sunday, the guard who was attacked was also in uniform. According to the management it is argued that the authors only wanted his backpack, but the attack was too much for the staff of St. Gilles.(dhnet)

Jamioulx, Belgium - Three escape from prison after taking guard hostage

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31/07/2011 - CHARLEROI - Three prisoners took a guard hostage and forced her to open all the doors of the prison. They beat another guard who tried to intervene. Once outside the prison, the three prisoners forced her to get into her car. They drove away with her, and a bit further two prisoners got out of the car. The two carjacked another vehicle and drove away. The guard was released, unharmed, several hours later alongside a highway in France.
The guards went on strike to protest against the recent wave of violent escapes. Also guards from other prisons joined the strike. Meanwhile, police are also threatening to go on strike because they have to replace the striking guards. Last year, in 2010, more than 6000 cops had to do duty in the prisons to replace striking guards. (lavenir)

Tottenham, London, UK - People take to the streets after police killing. Petrol bombs thrown at police and a shop, two patrol cars and a bus on fire

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bbc
Protesters have gathered outside the police station on the High Road in Tottenham, north London.
It comes after a 29-year-old father-of-four, named locally as Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police on Thursday.
The Metropolitan Police said missiles were thrown at the cars, both were set alight and riot officers deployed.
A spokesman said about 300 people were on the streets but not all were involved in the disorder.
He said that officers dispatched to disperse the crowd had had bottles and other missiles thrown at them.
The force said the incident began after police officers parked two patrol cars on Forster Road and High Road and began patrolling on foot.
The spokesman said: "At approx 20:20 BST a number of bottles were thrown at these two cars - one was set alight and the second was pushed into the middle of the High Road. It was subsequently set alight.
daily mail
A family friend of Mr Duggan said the man's friends and relatives had organised the protest because 'something has to be done' and the marchers wanted 'justice for the family.'
Some of those involved lay in the road to make their point, she said.
'They're making their presence known because people are not happy,' she added. 'This guy was not violent. Yes, he was involved in things but he was not an aggressive person. He had never hurt anyone.'
It was revealed yesterday that Mr Duggan had been travelling in a minicab and was gunned down after an apparent exchange of fire.
sky news
2.01am "The Metropolitan Police have also opened their Gold Command Control centre, in south London - normally only used for major incidents, such as the Royal wedding and the student protests. This control centre is only ever activated for major public order events. It has to be a significant event for them to take the decision to move all their commanders down to this control room. There is a very real fear tonight that these localised disturbances do have the potential to spill out into other areas. Petrol bombs and missiles were also thrown at police, and there are reports of shops being burgled and looted. Two vans were set alight near a block of residential flats just off the High Road, as the violence appeared to spread away from the initial disturbance. Sky News were forced to withdraw camera crews from the area as the situation became increasingly volatile in the early hours of the morning."

Hama, Syria - 'People are being slaughtered like sheep' in the streets

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05/08/2011 - Gunmen in plainclothes are randomly shooting people in the streets of the besieged Syrian city of Hama and families are burying their loved ones in gardens at home for fear of being killed themselves if they venture out to cemeteries, a resident says.
Military forces launched an offensive against anti-government dissent in Hama on Sunday and at least 100 people have been killed since, according to human rights groups.
Phones, internet and electricity have been cut or severely hampered for days.
The resident told the Associated Press that people are being forced to ration food and share bread to get by during the holy month of Ramadan, when many Muslims fast from dawn to dusk then celebrate with large, festive meals after sundown.
"People are being slaughtered like sheep while walking in the street," said the resident, who spoke by phone on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
"I saw with my own eyes one young boy on a motorcycle who was carrying vegetables being run over by a tank."
He said he left Hama briefly through side roads to smuggle in food supplies.
The resident said about 250 people have been killed since Sunday.

Essex, UK - Car showroom arson causes £200,000 damage

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02/08/2011 - A fire that caused about £200,000 of damage to cars, motor homes and caravans on the forecourt of an Essex car showroom was arson, police said.

Crews were called to Cherrytree Garage, in London Road, Little Clacton, in the early hours of Monday to find the vehicles on fire.

Two motor homes were completely destroyed by the blaze.