EUS-eng

Like many of you in the free world, I have been monitoring closely the daily COVID-19 briefings broadcast from the White House. I have also been observing and analyzing the propaganda disseminated by the mainstream media in regard to the deadly pandemic.

What has been missing from the presidential daily briefings and news media platforms such as CNN and Fox News is any mention of the effect COVID-19 has had on Amerika’s world leading prison population.

There has been a glaring lack of transparency and accountability in regard to what is actually happening inside both federal prisons and immigration detention centers as well as state prisons all across the United Snakes of Amerika. With your mutual aid and solidarity, I will attempt to fill that void in reporting.

I am an older Black man who is currently incarcerated at a high security federal prison in Louisiana, USP Pollock. A few miles down the road from USP Pollock is a low security federal prison known as FCI Oakdale.

The most recent data and information coming out of FCI Oakdale reports over 60 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 10 deaths. I request that all of you reading this report help confirm these numbers. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) employees have been instructed to keep quiet in respect to the current situation at FCI Oakdale.

I have discovered that there are a number of prisoners at FCI Oakdale who have been placed on ventilators and some have been transferred to local hospitals. The prognosis for those who have been placed on ventilators is not good.

Everyone in Amerika knows that COVID-19 is killing Black people at an alarming rate. We are still awaiting the demographic statistics from the White House as they relate to COVID-19 mortality in the Black community

I must ask: “How many of you have heard Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx or President Donald J. Trump mention the growing number of dying prisoners in Amerika?”

The U.S. federal government does not want free world people to begin to think about prisoners or detainees in ICE and DHS facilities. Their thinking is this: “Forget about prisoners’ lives. They deserve what they get! They are animals! Save yourselves – and let the prisoners die.”

Perhaps Trump and his sycophants don’t come right out and say this, but their actions and inactions speak volumes.

To CNN, Fox and other mainstream media outlets I say this: “Prisoners and detainees are people too! Our lives have meaning and we hurt and feel just like you hurt and feel.” But they don’t hear me!

I have friends here at USP Pollock who are from New York City. In fact, my cellmate, Tasheem Carter, is from New York City – Far Rockaway Queens to be exact. Tasheem has beloved family members who have recently contracted the deadly COVID-19 virus and they are literally fighting for their lives.

Can any of you imagine the frustration, hopelessness and pain felt by a human being trapped in federal prison while their loved ones perish during this national pandemic? The pain is real and has long term effects.

This is the reality for many Black and Latinx prisoners. The Trump White House refuses to acknowledge the horrible impact this pandemic is having on communities of color.

To add insult to injury, the Trump administration refuses to order ICE and DHS to test detainees for COVID-19! All that talk about testing and the U.S. government returning numerous COVID-19 infected detainees to Guatemala – it sounds shocking but is absolutely true.

I recommend that you read the expose by Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times. Please read it and see the hypocrisy and lies emanating from these so-called public servants and health care professionals in the White House!

I’d like to know whether or not presidential candidate Joe Biden will comment on these glaring contradictions. We shall see. In the past neo-liberals like Hillary Clinton have labeled us as “superpredators.” Let’s hope that liberals and progressives in Amerika will view prisoners as people in 2020 and 2021.

In the state of Texas, we have seen a pattern where state officials refuse to provide detailed reports on the status of their nation leading prisoner population during the COVID-19 crisis.

I recently received a report from Austin, Texas, based activist Dr. John S. Dolley Jr. of Central Texas ABC. Dr. Dolley reported that one prison guard who worked at the Estelle Unit located in Huntsville, Texas, has died of COVID-19.

Dr. Dolley and I both questioned whether or not the Texas Department of Criminal Injustice conducted contact tracing in order to ascertain how many other employees and prisoners may have been infected by the deceased prison guard?

I do not expect full disclosure from this unscrupulous prison agency. TDCJ spokesperson Jeremy Desel and TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier have established a pattern of violating the public’s trust on many issues.

One of the main responsibilities of the media is to report on issues of public concern. We rarely see rigorous reporting or detailed accounts of what is happening inside of Texas prisons.

The families of prisoners all over the United States deserve transparency and accountability in regard to the treatment and the condition of their imprisoned loved ones. We must demand that TDCJ reveal how many prisoners have died because of COVID-19.

Let us demand that Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott tell us the truth. FREE ALL VULNERABLE AND ELDERLY PRISONERS FROM THE TEXAS DEATH KKKAMPS!

Free Alvaro Luna Hernandez! Free Jason Renard Walker!

LET OUR PEOPLE GO!

Dare to struggle, Dare to win, All Power to the People!

Keith Malik Washington

https://325.nostate.net/2020/04/21/ua-is-prison-authorities-real-plan-let-the-prisoners-die-by-keith-malik-washington/

While deadlier diseases have come and gone, the world is now in a uniquely disastrous position with the COVID-19 pandemic as it affects the entire world simultaneously. With capitalism grinding to a screeching halt in some areas, the refusal of the state to competently allocate resources, millions out of work, and already marginalized communities bearing the brunt of the virus, the contradictions of our current world order have been laid more bare than ever before in recent history. While the far right and the petite bourgeois element of society responds by holding protests demanding the return of business as usual, with a callous disregard for any safety measures and the praise of the president.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Silicon Valley technocrats and old money imperialists trying to hijack the crisis to push for a more permanent form of technological social isolation, which we must reject wholeheartedly. The crisis is, in actuality, a truly American phenomenon. Many places around the world have managed – with a variety of techniques – to alleviate the health, social and political problems associated with the pandemic. The US, in contrast, is going into a rapid, world changing crisis, primarily because of the peculiarities of American greed, the viciousness of American racism, and the ignorance of the American ruling class. The US has never been closer to a total collapse, and it is almost totally self-inflicted.

The left seems conspicuously absent today. Frankly, this situation could have been predicted long ago. In the last four years that Trump has been in office, the radical left has greatly shifted towards careerism, and incremental opportunism. We see self described anarchists rally for Bernie Sanders, social democracy, and even Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden. We used to eject the journalists and smash their cameras at our rallies, recognizing that we are not trying to recreate the spectacle but destroy this alienated world all together. It’s no wonder that in light of all this, the radical left seems toothless as the society collapses.

Ironically, the pandemic intersects with the advent of May Day. While many leftist groups seem to have gone MIA, Trump is pushing for a return to business as usual by May 1st.

In light of the current crisis, and for a reminder that just as before, capitalism, white supremacy, and the state are the biggest roadblocks to the problems we face, in conjunction with comrades around the world, we call for autonomous actions this May 1st. Unlike the far right, we actually care about people’s lives and think it’s a good thing that massive rallies aren’t being planned. As a matter of fact this opens up the day for more useful actions than the typical routine parades held every year.

So for this year we are calling for revolutionaries around the world to take creative autonomous action, and begin exposing the institutions and individuals who are responsible for the increasingly desperate situation we all find ourselves in today.

Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement

https://anarchistsworldwide.noblogs.org/post/2020/04/26/usa-revolutionary-abolitionist-movement-call-for-autonomous-action-on-may-day/

However you tell the tale of May Day, one thing is consistent: it is a time people gather together, to march in the streets or to celebrate a new spring. Although most of us are enjoying the warmer weather blowing in, we are mostly stuck in our homes. Reading the news, trying to figure out the right thing to do, watching May 1^st creep closer and wondering what it will look like this year if we can’t take over downtown and revel in May Day as we have come to know it: a celebration of anti-capitalism.

Life is an evolving story, an ever-changing landscape. We have always had to adapt and shift our tactics to new realities as they crop up. This is no different. The context in which we find ourselves is affected by both the coronavirus and the repressive actions taken by the state around it, but the need for resistance is still just as present.

Even if we can’t gather, there are still ways to mark the day, to feel part of a larger whole that has always honoured the spring, always resisted oppressors, and always carried a new world in their hearts.

Decentralized direct action is a skill we already have, and it can be taken in small groups, which is convenient when the pandemic makes it reasonable to reduce the number of people we’re close to. We propose a two week window centered on May 1^st for going out and attacking capitalism – tags, breaking things, liberating stuff, use your imagination. We are also excited for celebratory actions that honour resistance history and the land. Or both.

There are opportunities in every crisis. For us and for the forces we oppose. It is a delightful new reality that it no longer cocks eyebrows when you’re just someone out for a night jog in a mask and hoodie down the empty, empty streets. And coming out of the Wet’suwet’en solidarity movement, there is a lot of resistance to celebrate, as well as new skills and contacts to build on.

The context as well casts new light on old forms of domination: borders become harder, the police gain new powers to manage small details of our lives, tech and telecom companies excitedly participate in ever more tracking (for our health), bosses rejoice as their low-wage workers are designated “essential” allowing them to profit off the crisis, money lenders (like banks and payday loans) get to sell desperate people new forms of debt, and the state sets itself as the only legitimate actor.

So we invite you to gather together a few friends, take to the night and celebrate the fires that burn within us. Share your stories on websites like North Shore Counter-Info, Montreal Counter-Info, and It’s Going Down, so we all get the reminder that when we resist, we’re never alone.

NS note: Calls for a decentralized May Day are multiplying. This one from Seattle predates covid: https://pugetsoundanarchists.org/for-an-autonomous-decentralized-may-day-in-seattle/

And this international call for a dangerous May has been circulating: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/international-call-for-a-dangerous-may/

https://north-shore.info/2020/04/20/opportunity-in-every-crisis-a-call-for-decentralized-may-day-actions/

Call for financial support to the Solidarity Fund for imprisoned and persecuted militants

The Solidarity Fund for imprisoned and persecuted militants was established in 2010 in a circumstance where, on the one hand, a hard capitalist restructuring was carried out under the guise of the “economic crisis” and, on the other hand, the radical movement, having very recent memories from the experience of the social revolt of December ’08, was in full bloom. Under those circumstances, repression became even more intense, resulting in an ever-increasing number of political prisoners. It is precisely in this context that the Solidarity Fund was formed, initially setting out to provide regular and consistent support to those persecuted or imprisoned for their subversive action or for their participation in social struggles.

The basic aim of the structure is to ensure decent living conditions for the imprisoned comrades through a process that would take place within the political movement; thereby taking the material dimension of solidarity a step beyond close family, friendly and comrade relationships, as well as to help with the immediate coverage of emergencies (such as court expenses and bails for the persecuted). Yet, the actions of practical solidarity and the building and development of communication bridges and united struggles between those inside prisons and those outside of it, remain as priorities of the people who form and sustain the structure.

From 2010 until today, the Solidarity Fund has been trying to obtain a regular and consistent political, moral and material support for collecting funds, which derives primarily from the conscious participation of each and every one of us, as well as from groups and collectives, that contribute to the continuation of factual solidarity. Continued state repression, however, results in a large number of political prisoners and legal costs, and consequently, in particularly high material needs. At this moment, the Solidarity Fund supports 24 prisoners on a regular monthly basis (Athanassopoulou Konstantina, Valavani Dimitra, Yagtzoglou Konstantinos, Dimitrakis Giannis, Koufontinas Dimitris, Kostaris Iraklis, Michailidis Giannis, Xiros Savvas, Petrakakos Giorgos, Sakkas Kostas, Seisidis Marios, Stathopoulos Vangelis, Christodoulou Spyros and the 11 militants from Turkey and Kurdistan). In many cases we also try to cover -as much as our (financial) capabilities allow-the legal expenses and bails of comrades who are persecuted for their political identity, their actions or even for their family or comrade relationship with imprisoned militants.

During these 10 years of activity, we have turned to comrades and collectives many times, as securing financial resources has always been a difficult process. Solidarity and participation of comrades both from Greece and abroad is the main reason why we have stood by our imprisoned comrades with consistency. In this current circumstance, especially in light of the new facts about the virus spreading and the restrictive measures imposed by the state on this occasion, it is again extremely difficult to secure the resources to support the material needs of the ones within the walls. Perhaps it is more difficult than ever. Unfortunately, this has to be added up to the already difficult times that our comrades are facing within the walls, as well as the prison population as a whole, and this is why we are once again turning to our comrades.

The overcrowding of Greek prisons, with the forced packing of prisoners in cells and wards reminiscent of human hives, the inadequate – and in some cases – non-existent medical care, the refusal to provide self-protection measures (prohibition of medical supply, such as antiseptics), the fact that even the most vulnerable (the elderly or the sick) are still incarcerated, create conditions for a pandemic outburst with significantly higher mortality rates than the ones in the society outside the walls. This may amount to the death penalty for many people in prisons. This concern has prompted a series of prison mobilizations with key demands the decongestion of prisons and the implementation of basic protection measures for the inmates. The starting point of these mobilizations was Korydallos women’s prison and was followed by the prisons in Chania (Crete), Agios Stefanos (Patras) and Larissa, while 856 inmates from all the wings of Korydallos men’s prison signed and published a statement.

Under these particular circumstances, the state and its repressive mechanisms follow a beaten track. While no effective measures are being taken to protect the prison population, they block communication with the outside world by suspending visitations with relatives and lawyers, and take reprisals and retaliatory measures where outbreaks of protest occur: abductions-transfers of comrades / militants in the case of the mobilization in Korydallos women’s prison with the abduction of two female prisoners and their transfer to Thiva prison under quarantine (one of which is the political prisoner and member of Revolutionary Struggle, Pola Roupa, and a few days later a violent transfer of Nikos Maziotis took place, who is also a political prisoner and a member of Revolutionary Struggle, to Domokos prison), deprivation of yard time in Chania prison, cops raids, investigations and destruction of cells in Patras prison. At the same time, and while the pandemic is still under way, comrades are facing false indictments, they are being persecuted and imprisoned, reminding us the permanent priorities of the state whose declarations about the decongestion of prisons concern only a small number of prisoners –considering the total population – as the number of prisoners they affect does not exceed the one thousand five hundred.

As Solidarity Fund, at this moment in time, we are announcing our decision to suspend all of our planned public actions for the immediate future, but we are not suspending our solidarity with political prisoners. In this difficult situation that we are experiencing, we are in a difficult position to announce a temporary reduction in the amount of material support for imprisoned comrades in order for us to be able to support them with consistency during the months that follow.

Comrades from Greece and abroad, the Solidarity Fund is currently facing a serious problem concerning the viability and the function of one of its fundamental components, the financial support of imprisoned militants. Due to the objective conditions of the current conjecture, the inability of the fund to secure resources from public actions is going to lead to an economic stalemate during the summer season and the support of political prisoners will be practically impossible. The only way to avoid this is the material / financial support from the wider antagonistic movement around the world. From all the individuals and all the collectives who consider the imprisoned militants to be part of the people who struggle, a struggle that we all engage in -in any way we can- against the barbaric world of authority.

The slogan “no one left alone in the hands of the state” is becoming more crucial and tangible these days than ever. We urge you to defend it once again in practice. Factual solidarity will again be our weapon.

UP UNTIL THE DEMOLITION OF THE LAST PRISON

NONE OF US IS FREE

SOLIDARITY WITH POLITICAL PRISONERS

Solidarity Fund for imprisoned and persecuted militants

Contact us via e-mail to support the financial support campaign: tameio@espiv.net

https://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=37044

In the middle of a global pandemic–as if there never was a global crisis to humanity before–and on the verge of a global economic recession, the Indonesian police have released a statement that anarchists are planning looting on a national scale on 18th April, The Year of Corona. This idiotic and also a strategic statement falsely made by authority are a clear intention of seeking who to blame in this time of crisis while in the lower layer of Indonesian society many are already fed up with the conditions and looting is no longer a taboo subject. Anger is growing. But as media and the police tried to sensationalize the recent arrest of four anarchists accused of graffiti that said “It’s already a crisis, its time to burn” (see photo) they tried to manipulate the crisis and the incompetency of the state in responding to the situation by seeking a “public enemy” now named “the anarchists”. If we can just compare how the impact of some graffiti and the recent situation, the response of general middle class internet society and mostly also by activists, snitches, and cowards who are manipulated into focusing on a small group of anarchists in Tangerang, a few kilometers from Jakarta who were arrested for doing graffiti.

Who are these anarchists?

As false public rage grows towards the anarchists, the common narratives are “anarchists are provocateurs”, even some leftist activists go to the extent of wanting to cooperate with the state to crack down on the anarchists or labeling the action as stupid. And this is not something new. The activists, the middle class, who are so afraid of everything in this time of panic are easily manipulated, why? Other than their binary logic of thinking and their banalities of action, and of course illegalism to them means losing their illusion of safety. These same category of people undermined many anarchist projects during this time of crisis and pandemic such as giving out free food, creating shelter for the homeless, and other grassroots struggles, in which many of the so-called activists are sitting around and going with the “stay home” state scenario while the real public anger is burning and intensifying. The same anarchists who got arrested are active youngsters who run a co-op cafe, and are active in spreading counter-information, and the massive “a really-really free market” at a grassroots level. It is clear that the middle class and activist mentality mirrors the same idiotic scenario orchestrated by the state to make them a part of the society of control. This short update is also a fuck you note to every activist, and even some leftist anarchists who are blaming or accusing any direct action as being idiotic just because people ended up being arrested. It is also a fuck you note to the state that orchestrated this false scenario in blaming the anarchists. Maybe the anarchists will join the looting and it will most certainly happen! But dear state, you know so well that your structures are decomposing and we are going to help you rot. FUCK YOU.

Solidarity with the anarchists arrested in Tangerang!

The Individualist Circle

12/04/20

https://anarchistsworldwide.noblogs.org/post/2020/04/12/about-the-indonesian-anarchist-witch-hunt-and-the-normal-activist-mentality/

Facing the difficulties coming with the COVID-19 outbreak in Gambia for many people, a group of friends came together to raise funds, to sensitize and to help in the material conditions of the people. The Peoples Collective is of and from the people since its not some charitable cause but a mutual sharing of resources between neighbors and likeminded people. We recognize the country is going to be hard hit in the areas of food and basic resource related like sanitation materials; we decided to put our own meager resources together and to call out for help since we can’t cover all of these expenses ourselves.

There will be constant updates on how we are doing with funds and resources. Also how the country is responding to this pandemic. Share the cause widely and help in raising funds to defend the territory of life in The Gambia!

We already delivered food packages to some 80 families and few single person. Beside that we provided some 50 hand washing equipments. For all together we already spent about 250.000 Dalasi, almost 5.000 Euros. To continue the distribution, we need more funds – and this very urgently.

The situation in Gambia will get harder and the virus will spread faster. It is expected that during June and July many people will be infected. To minimize the spread of the deadly virus, we have to act now!

If you like to support, please start your own initiative or contact us:
Email:   thepeoplescollective@riseup.net
Phone/Signal/Whatsapp:   +220 779 14 17

(via The Peoples Collective)

https://anarchistsworldwide.noblogs.org/post/2020/04/23/gambia-empower-the-people-fight-covid-19/

This flyer was distributed in different neighborhoods of Athens over the last two weeks. On public markets, on public transport and door by door. Here you find the English version.

——

Our dignity in quarantine?

It all happened without anyone really realizing it. And now we find
ourselves locked up in our houses, waiting for next day’s news which we all know will contain more and more restrictions. Society is in crisis, they say, because of a virus spreading. The government is pressing that it is of most importance that we all do exactly what it says, and that by this we take our responsibility and act in solidarity. It stresses that the state of emergency is of course temporary, but necessary to win the war against what is seriously threatening our well being.

But wait a minute…

Which virus?

Actually, we cannot know. All the information, numbers and statistics
that are at the base of the imposed confinement are in the hands of the
government and the specialists that work for them. It is not a matter of
denying the actual existence of a virus going around, but to realize
that the knowledge of its characteristics, how it spreads, how it can be
tackled, but also the data concerning its impact, is in the hands of
scientists around the globe, which often don’t agree even among
themselves about how to interpret them or which practical conclusions
they would entail. The conclusion of the authorities on the other hand
is simple; they know, we don’t. And because of this we owe them complete obedience. The mass media is playing its classic role of servant of the system magnificently. Deciding what exists by only showing and endlessly repeating the story by the authorities, not giving a millimeter of space to deviant voices of any kind. Their job consists of fully preparing the grounds for the next even more totalitarian decisions.
And isn’t a virus the perfect enemy? Invisible and possibly everywhere,
with everyone not complying to whatever rule is invented becoming an
accomplice of that enemy. Justified to be oppressed with fines and
prison sentences. A perfect context is created in which the state can
shine as the ultimate savior.

Which responsibility?

And so we cannot open a newspaper or put on television without being
told we should ‘take our responsibility’. But what does this mean then?
They are asking us to blindly follow the orders of some politicians. But
aren’t they the same bureaucrats we were distrusting before? Didn’t they proof so many times to be greedy and corrupt because they are driven much more by personal interest than by care for others? Didn’t it show again and again that their hunger for power is bigger than any sense of justice or reason? And now again, maybe the thousands of euros making sure helicopters are in the air controlling if we are staying in our houses could better be used in mmm… health care for example? These are
the kind of people that are asking us to trust them, no questions asked,
and call it ‘taking our responsibility’. Would we not be doing the
opposite then?
What we are really asked to do is to give up any conscience, critical
thought, and autonomy, to welcome extreme government control in every aspect of our lives.

Which solidarity?

The misleading spectacle continues. We should obey the extreme measures being taken out of a sense of ‘solidarity’. Isn’t it cynical to hear these words from the mouths of the representatives of a system that is based on the exact opposite of solidarity? The whole year through we should run around like chicken without heads to keep up with the constant game of competition, to be exploited, to be hunted by cops for whatever reason they feel like that day, and be robbed by statesmen which made their profession out of it, and now they come to us and dare to speak about solidarity? They dare to act as if they care about our well-being? What about the millions of people living in poverty so people like those in the government can be rich? What about all the people dying at their crappy jobs feeding the relentless economical machine? What about those being tortured in the police stations by the uniformed executioners of the state? What about the thousands of migrants dying at the borders every year? Where is the government with its big speeches about solidarity then?
While they are trying to feed us their hypocrite tales about solidarity
in reality we see that the lockdown is locking loads of people up in
unbearable circumstances. Children in their homes under the
uninterrupted rule of violent parents for example. Or partners, husbands and wives stuck in abusive relationships. Thousands of migrants being trapped in camps, in even worse conditions than usual. In prisons all visits stopped, as did all access of prisoners to material, food and clothes coming from the outside. Empty spaces in prisons are being used to isolate prisoners with symptoms of the corona-virus, these spaces being empty in most cases because they are in not fit to host prisoners.

One can only imagine the effect this will have on the health of the
prisoners being dumped there… In the prisons in Italy massive revolts
broke out after general restrictions on all levels were introduced.
Probably the only way for the prisoners to save their dignity seeing the
conditions they are forced in. Also in Spain and France prisoners are
standing up and fighting back, as other prisoners around the world.
The state doesn’t know what solidarity means and has never been
concerned about our well-being. As always, it will be up to us to take
care of each other, and make sure that those that need it get support.
When the government uses the word solidarity, it is only to give a
feeling of guilt to those who don’t obey their orders, and to push
people to internalize its authority.

Which crisis?

So they tell us we are in crisis. Maybe somebody can tell us when the
moment comes that we are not in crisis? From the financial crisis to the climate crisis, through the migrant crisis to the corona crisis. It
seems the system has a lot of different names for what always turn out
to be periods which are used to restructure its power, to enlarge and
intensify its oppression. In this case, especially in this case, it will
not be different. The idea of a condition of crisis has always been used
to contextualize a further totalitarian evolution of power. The rhythm
on which this evolution is forced is not always the same of course. The
bigger and more urgent they can make the crisis look like, the bigger
and faster the change can be. It goes without saying that the current
‘crisis’ is giving the government (all the governments) the perfect
context in which to take giant steps in the development of their
mechanisms of control and oppression.

Which exceptional state of emergency?

It is always repeated that whatever steps that are taken are
‘temporary’, but this is a lie. Many occasions in the past showed us
that at least a part of the measures from ‘states of emergency’ were
kept afterward and were inbedded in laws never to be taken back. From big examples like 9/11 that changed forever the abilities of states to track, trace and record everyone, to more recent times in which
terrorist attacks were used as a pretext to introduce many new ways to
bring to court whoever disagrees with the state, to get the army (in a
lot of places permanently) on the streets, to boost the general
collection of data etc. And here, didn’t the new government launch a
general state of emergency in the capital aimed at the total repression
of the unwanted (homeless, anarchists, drug users, squatters etc.) since
last year? We all know they are working non-stop on creating an image of ‘crisis’ (in this case some kind of ‘security crisis’) to justify its
absolute thirst for power, implying that its fascist behavior and
totalitarian policies would be of ‘necessary but temporary’ nature…
And now, what is massively happening? People turn toward the internet for their needs, for all their needs.

From communicating to consuming, from working to relaxing. In the blink of an eye a big part of life has deliberately been transferred to cyberspace. By this it becomes even more easy for the state to follow, register and surveil the daily activity of whoever. But especially, it is our own will and creativity to ‘solve’ a lot of the problems being caused by our mass imprisonment, that help normalizing it and finally push its acceptance.
The managing of the current situation will bring forth an unimaginable
set of experiences, tools and know-how that can and will continue to be
used whenever estimated necessary by those in power.

Which war?

But all objections or criticisms are undesirable or even dangerous,
because after all ‘we are at war’. At war against a biological event,
against nature actually. Isn’t this indicative for these modern times?
We forget more and more how to live with or in nature, but multiply and intensify our wars against it. Our whole way of living is built on the
exploitation of nature and, if this reality is not overthrown soon, its
total destruction. Maybe it is the western arrogance culturally
believing we are above all things, and so always extending our ways to
control them. Always looking at nature in terms of its practical value
to ‘civilized’ society. And when we are confronted with something that
causes discomfort everything will be put in place to tame it, to
manipulate or eradicate it. So a constant war is being waged, against
nature, against life and against death. It became an unimaginable
thought that we would not own nature but be a part of it, and by this
can be subjected to some of its conditions…

Of course nobody wants to die, or see its loved ones die or suffer. We
want to live! But is merely surviving at a certain point the same as
living? Is it possible to live in a cage, or can we at best survive in
one? Are we ready to take away all risk of living to have a better
chance of survival? One could say these are philosophical questions,
good to pass the time but nothing to do with real life. Well, at this
very moment all life is being taken away from us because we are told
that this is the only way to survive.
Every day in isolation is an attack on our autonomy, on our ability to
think and act for ourselves, to live, love and fight.

The quarantine has to be refused, because our dignity cannot survive in it!

The lockdown has to be broken, because our desire for freedom will not!

PDF

https://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=37229

What a discovery, society!

Faced with the risk of dying from contagion, millions of human beings are discovering that their own actions and those of others have a real effect on society, that is, on themselves and their fellow human beings. After decades of liberal ideology according to which “society” was a sort of black hole into which anything could be thrown, now the principle of responsibility is rapidly being rediscovered. It turns out that workers are meat for slaughter; that profits come before health; that behind the vague “public interest” is the state and its police. Since viruses cause effects even if they cannot be seen, we discover that there is a “materiality of the invisible”. Digital technologies – to which scientists and governments entrust our fate – are anything but immaterial. To keep millions of people connected while they are locked indoors, we need servers, energy, cables, antennas and, above all, metals and rare earth, which means wars, looting of the earth’s crust, nuclear radiation, semi-slaves (often children) forced to work in mines, entire areas of the world turned into waste dumps, i.e. conditions for new epidemics. Can there be a principle of responsibility on command, under the empire of fear?

What do you mean, “can’t go out”?

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this period is the state attempt to bring together responsibility and obedience. If we think of the tragedies that obedience produced in the twentieth century (“I only followed orders” was, not surprisingly, the phrase most repeated by the Nazis in Nuremberg), such an overlap should make our wrists tremble. So why are we at home? Out of a sense of responsibility? Because the government says so? Out of fear for fines? Millions of people would certainly answer in very different ways. What is ethically and socially unacceptable is to confuse obedience and responsibility. Let’s take an example. If you actually read the government decrees – without being terrorized by the loudspeaker announcements – and followed them to the letter, what would happen? If thousands of people were to go out at the same time to do ” physical activity in the vicinity of their homes”, what kind of assembly would be created? If, on the other hand, the same people go for a walk in isolated areas, in violation of the decree, do they put someone’s health at risk? The sanction has never been an argument.

Obligations and bans

While in some “non-democratic countries” it is becoming normal to trace all data on identity, places frequented, meetings, even in the “liberal West” we look at the guidelines for restructuring 4.0 of social life. In several areas of China (where the cases of contagion are close to zero) one does not enter any public place without a smartphone in hand to “guarantee” one’s status. Not having certain tools is starting to look more and more like being an undocumented migrant, or at least a suspicious person. To understand the phrase, just look at who are the 17 specialists chosen by the Conte government to plan “Phase 2” (i.e. “rethink the organization of our life and prepare the gradual return to normality”). The task force (with references to the inter-ministerial committee of ’45) will be led by the former CEO of Vodafone, Vittorio Colao, who will be flanked by numerous technicians and experts including Roberto Cingolani, the current head of technological innovation of Leonardo (the largest Italian arms manufacturer) and director of the Italian Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, 5G is starting to be a reality. “Every technology brings its own secret obligations and prohibitions”, wrote Günther Anders. And what could be more secret and invisible than a technology that is confused with our own everyday life?

While we still have time

There is an accumulation of announcements and plans to transform “social distancing” into something semi-permanent (since pandemics are already integrated as a “side effect” of techno-industrial production). In this way we would be distanced not only from our fellow human beings, but from the individual and collective possibility of defending ourselves against the administrators of coercion. Without being able to meet and organize ourselves, how to react to increasingly totalitarian surveillance measures, or, more banally, to layoffs? If we entrust the “contagion problem” to a technological-bureaucratic apparatus, the most effective solution – the only one that does not question the apparatus itself – is total control. Not because techno-burocrats are evil or because they are part of who knows what world conspiracy, but because technical solutions must structurally disregard ethical-social considerations. Especially in the name of an emergency. Freedom, especially because it is unpredictable, is a disturbing factor for algorithms; value judgement is always human, too human, while calculation is objective. What is the most effective solution if a child makes too much noise? Tie him up, or give him psychotropic drugs. If parents do not do it, it is not because they do not find it effective (cost-benefit calculation), but because they consider it wrong (ethical-pedagogical judgement). Let’s get it out of our heads: the certainty of not getting sick will never be a certainty. The question, which no artificial intelligence will be able to answer for us, is always the same: what are we willing to give up of life to continue living?

They thought that by calling them”heroes”…

While the health personnel of Piacenza declare themselves ready to go on strike if the factories are reopened, two hundred Greek doctors and nurses signed a document with which they addressed seven questions to the “Committee of Experts” of the Ministry of Health. Here are a couple of them: “What scientific approach imposes the circulation of our fellow citizens wearing gloves and masks in the open air and on the contrary it ironically and “doesn’t matter” the question of the absolutely necessary guarantee from the hygienic and social point of view of all means of individual protection of workers in hospitals and clinics?”; “What scientific approach imposes the ban on meeting of more than two people in the open air, but DOES NOT denounce the functioning of companies and industries that produce non-essential goods with dozens of workers assembled in closed spaces and without the necessary means of protection? Recruitment of other health personnel; providing means of protection to all workers; immediate and unconditional requisitioning of normal and intensive care beds, laboratory equipment and clinics from the private care sector: with these claims, gatherings have been organised in front of 25 hospitals in 20 Greek provinces. Workers from many other sectors, pensioners and students participated in the initiatives. During one of the gatherings, the police intervention was rejected collectively and in solidarity. Among the slogans: “We are only slaves to our conscience” and “the lockdown will not stop the struggles”.

Resisting the emergency, defying the bans

March 31, Milan. Picket of workers (those not yet sick) in the Fruttital [1] warehouse at risk of being fired. In full emergency the company had announced the closure and relocation. In addition, in the previous days no contagion protection equipment had been provided to the workers.

April 1, Calliano (TN). For this day, some relatives of the prisoners had invited to make the beats resonate outside the prisons. So, a small group of anarchists, to explain the meaning of the knocking that there would be in the evening, thought to overturn the institutional practice of spreading sinister alerts and warnings from loudspeakers, going around the country with a sound system to make various interventions in support of prison struggles. Within a short time, eight carabinieri patrols arrived on the scene, plus other local police and Digos [2] cars.

April 8, Turin. “Food delivery” is considered an essential activity but the bike shops are closed; companies such as Glovo or Deliveroo have never maintained the vehicles of those who make the deliveries: riders meet in the square, with bicycles and tools, for a “travelling bike shop” that allows to fix their vehicles for those who, despite the “lockdown”, continue to work.

April 14th, Rome. Revolt in the Torre Maura Refugee Center. Operators prohibited to leave the centre, internees responded with fires and damage. In the previous days there had been protests, acts of self-harm, fires, attempts to escape, hunger and thirst strikes in various deportation centres.

April 15th, Carmagnola (TO). Picket of the health workers of a nursing home where 46 infected people out of 50 had been registered. Requests: masks and buffers for employees. The answers: police and carabinieri arrived, the Socialcoop cooperative declared that it had “hired to make up for the absence of staff”… infected.

April 15th, Turin. The street vendors from the Porta Palazzo market, the only one not yet reopened in the city, have gone to the square (keeping safe distances), perhaps because it is in an area undergoing intense “redevelopment” (more and more investments for the rich, less and less space for the poor).

April 16th, Massalengo (LO). Strike of 250 workers in the central warehouse of Carrefour Lombardia against outsourcing to a cooperative that pays 20% less to workers. An agreement is signed that cancels the outsourcing. In the meantime, we learn of the closure of Fruttital in Milan, transferred to Verona. Since Fruttital is one of Carrefour’s suppliers, the workers decide that its trucks will no longer be unloaded, as an act of solidarity towards the recently laid-off workers.

April 16th. Relatives and supporters of the prisoners protest outside the prisons in various cities (Rome, Bologna, Turin, Bolzano…). In Rome, the police surround them and push them around, not caring about the so called safety distances, and take 8 people to the police station. In the previous days the relatives protested outside the prisons of Secondigliano, Poggioreale, Santa Maria Capua Vetere. In the prisons of Ariano Irpino, Palermo, Crotone, Bologna, Alessandria, Santa Maria C.V., Rebibbia, Secondigliano there are riots, beatings, hunger and thirst strikes.

17 April, Torrazza Piemonte (TO). Strike of all staff at the Amazon facility: the company does not provide information on cases of contagion inside the premises, hiding behind the “privacy protection” shield.

On April 25th

While the government and regions are reopening places of production and trade, the ban on going out in the open air will continue until at least May. This blatant discrepancy does not respond to any “scientific evidence” (unless it confirms what a philosopher wrote more than thirty years ago, namely that the state “cut down the giant tree of science for the sole purpose of making it into a truncheon). On the one hand you have to produce and consume it; on the other hand, before people can go out you want to have planned how to control it upfront. That’s it. So we must anticipate, if we do not want to suffer, in addition to the “health crisis”, also the economic restructuring that will accompany it. And what more evocative date to resist than April the 25th? We launch an appeal to violate the measures. Following the principle of caution for others and our health. And each according to his or her own willingness. It is not only a question of affirming responsibility against obedience, but of making clear that we do not accept the division between expendable and salvageable; that our lives are not “data to be extracted and analyzed”; that there is no health without mutually supportive relationships with others and with nature on which we depend.

We don’t want to “live with pandemics”, but to end the social organization that creates them.

Notes

[1] Fruttital S.r.l, part of the Fruit and Vegetable Import and Distribution business unit of Orsero S.p.A., is a company based in Italy specializing in the trade of fresh produce from every part of the world at all times of the year. https://www.virtualmarket.fruitlogistica.de/en/Fruttital-S-r-l,c44826

[2] The General Investigations and Special Operations Division (Italian: Divisione Investigazioni Generali e Operazioni Speciali), generally known by its acronym DIGOS, is an Italian law enforcement agency charged with investigating sensitive cases involving terrorism, organized crime and serious offences such as kidnapping and extortion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisione_Investigazioni_Generali_e_Operazioni_Speciali

Originally published by Il Rovescio.