{"id":1717,"date":"2018-08-29T13:08:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T10:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/?p=1717"},"modified":"2018-08-31T19:44:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T16:44:19","slug":"taking-a-global-view-of-repression-the-prison-strike-and-the-week-of-solidarity-with-anarchist-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/2018\/08\/29\/taking-a-global-view-of-repression-the-prison-strike-and-the-week-of-solidarity-with-anarchist-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a Global View of Repression: The Prison Strike and the Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the United States, a practically unprecedented prison strike<\/a>\n is underway, setting new precedents for coordination between struggles \nin prisons and detention centers and for solidarity from those not \nbehind bars. Meanwhile, August 23-30 is also the sixth annual week of global solidarity with anarchist prisoners<\/a>,\n when anarchists around the world coordinate solidarity struggles \nbetween different countries and continents. We strongly believe that every prisoner is a political prisoner<\/a>,\n and that the best way to support anarchist prisoners is to build a \nmovement against the prison-industrial complex itself. At the same time,\n the week of global solidarity is an excellent opportunity to get \ncontext from our comrades in other parts of the world about the \ndifferent strategies of repression that various governments are \nemploying today and how to counter them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following text, we\u2019ll explore contemporary patterns of \nrepression targeting anarchists around the world and some of the ways \nthat movements have responded. Looking at this as a microcosm of the way\n that repression functions in relation to the broader population can \ngive us a way to understand prisoner solidarity as one part of wider \nstruggles against prisons and towards freedom for all people. As \nanarchists, we aim to analyze state tactics of repression in order to \ndevelop better security practices, build international connections, and \nbecome more skilled at supporting and caring for each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
\nGraffiti from Khabarovsk, Russia in support of the week of \nsolidarity, reading \u201c\u201dFreedom to political prisoners. #ABC. No torture!\u201d\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Waves of Repression, 2017-2018<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The first two decades of the 21st century have seen steadily \nintensifying repression directed towards anarchists and their comrades. \nSome of the most widely known examples of the past few years include the\n Tarnac case in France<\/a>, an investigation of \u201cterrorism\u201d that started in 2008 and concluded this year with the defendants completely exonerated; Operations Pandora, Pi\u00f1ata, and Pandora 2<\/a> in Spain, which began in December 2014 and concluded this year; Scripta Manent<\/a> in Italy, since 2017; Operation Fenix<\/a> in the Czech Republic, since spring 2015; the raids<\/a> the police have been carrying out across Europe since the battle of Hamburg<\/a> in summer 2017; the Warsaw Three<\/a> arson case in Poland, 2016-2017; and mass repression in the United States resulting from the occupation of Standing Rock<\/a> and the resistance to Trump\u2019s inauguration<\/a>,\n the latter case finally having concluded this past July. We are also \nwitnessing ongoing repression in Belarus dictatorship and Russia, most \nrecently with the \u201cNetwork<\/a>\u201d case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All around the world, states and their police forces choose from the \nsame assortment of tactics to achieve the same ends. The specific \nchoices they make vary according to their context, but the toolbox and \nthe fundamental objectives are the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the same computer programs are used in many different \ncountries to carry out online censorship. In some countries, they are \nonly used to shut down a few websites, while elsewhere, they block a \nvast array of content; but the same principle is at work in both cases, \nand all it would take for the former situation to become the latter \nwould be for the authorities to check a few more boxes in their \nrepression software. The same goes for other forms of police repression.\n This shows how the difference between a supposedly permissive liberal \ndemocracy and an autocratic dictatorship is quantitative, not \nqualitative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When police in one part of the world develop a new strategy or begin \nto employ a specific tactic more often, that often spreads to other \npolice agencies around the world. For example, we can draw a line \nbetween the various entrapment<\/a>\n cases in the United States\u2014Eric McDavid, David McKay, Bradley Crowder, \nMatthew DePalma, the NATO 3, the Cleveland 5\u2014and the subsequent Operation Fenix<\/a>\n case in the Czech Republic, in which agents provocateurs attempted to \nseduce people into planning an attack on a military train and attacking a\n police eviction squad with Molotov cocktails. In the beginning, \nOperation Fenix was framed as a campaign against the Network of \nRevolutionary Cells, a network that had claimed responsibility for \nvarious arsons against police and capitalists; at the end, it concluded \nas an unsuccessful attempt to stigmatize anarchists and restore the \nlegitimacy of the Czech police in the eyes of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, we can also understand Operation Fenix in the context of decades of efforts<\/a>\n from police in Italy, the US, France, Spain, and elsewhere to set a \nprecedent for fabricating terrorist conspiracy cases with which to \ndiscredit and imprison anarchists. Viewed individually, the Marini trial<\/a>\n in Italy, the Tarnac 9 case, Operations Pandora and Pi\u00f1ata, and \nOperation Fenix are nothing more than perplexing examples of \nprosecutorial overreach. But when we consider them as part of a global \npattern in which the repressive forces of the state have been seeking a \nnew method via which to neutralize the networks that connect popular \nsocial movements, we can recognize what they all have in common. In this\n context, it also becomes clear how the Russian tactic of torturing arrestees into signing false confessions<\/a>\n could spread to other countries, if we don\u2019t take steps immediately to \npublicize it. This is why it is important to take a global approach to \nstudying state strategies of repression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Growing International Police Cooperation<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Across the globe, police forces are cooperating more than ever \nbefore. Continent-wide repression in Europe shows international police \ncollaboration and the extremist and terrorist laws in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent Aachen bank robbery case in Germany illustrates this: a \nEuropean arrest warrant, the sharing of intelligence between police \nforces, and the intensification of cooperation between various legal \nauthorities following two bank expropriations in 2013 and 2014. Spanish \nand German police cooperated in obtaining the DNA of the alleged \nexpropriators, who were convicted of robbing the Pax Bank, the bank of \nthe Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can also see evidence of this trend in the last case connected to the SHAC campaign<\/a>\n (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty), which targeted current animal \nliberation prisoner, Sven van Hasselt. Six European states collaborated \nin his arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are also seeing police in different countries exchanging education\n and experience on a more organized basis. For example, the College of \nEuropean Police (CEPOL) held a seminar about terrorism in Greece in July\n 2012, at which the Italian authorities offered an in-depth overview of \nthe repressive measures they have used against the insurrectionary \nanarchist movement. The European Police Office (EUROPAL) publishes an \nannual report, the Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT), in \nwhich you can find a chapter<\/a>\n dedicated to supposed left-wing and anarchist \u201cterrorism.\u201d This kind of\n collaboration has gained momentum in other venues, such as the European\n Union Intelligence and Situation Center (SitCen); European Union Member\n States also cooperate on the legal level through institutions like Eurojust<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments in the Global North routinely equip and train states in \nthe Global South to employ their technology and repression strategies. \nFor example, Germany and Israel made a fortune equipping Brazil<\/a>\n ahead of the 2014 World Cup. In an extreme example of this Great \nBritain is now looking to outsource imprisonment to Africa, building a \nnew prison wing in Nigeria<\/a>. All of these are good reasons to interlink our struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terrorism Discourse and Legislation<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Laws and rhetoric against \u201cextremism\u201d and \u201cterrorism\u201d are some of the\n most powerful contemporary tools to criminalize and delegitimize social\n struggles. Many states developed anti-terrorist laws as a result of the\n previous generation of political movements, such as the Basque \nindependence groups in the Spanish State or the Red Army Faction (RAF) \nin Germany in the 1970s. In a way, this can make the framework of \n\u201cterrorism\u201d somewhat outdated when it comes to contemporary social \nmovements, which usually lack formal hierarchies like the RAF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief function of the \u201cterrorism\u201d framework is to legitimize the \nsuspension of legal rights, in order to empower police to employ \nunlimited surveillance, indefinite detention without charges or trial, \ntotal isolation in prison, torture\u2014all the tactics that were once used \nto maintain colonial regimes, monarchies, and dictatorships. Since \nSeptember 11, 2001 and the declaration of the so-called \u201cwar on terror,\u201d\n anti-terrorist laws have been upgraded all around the world to make \nthese tactics available to repress anyone who might be able to threaten \nthe stability of the reigning order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why the most liberal European democracy can concur with the \nauthorities of a virtual dictatorship like Putin\u2019s Russia that the same \nlegal framework should be used against both anarchists who defend the \npublic against police violence and fundamentalists who carry out attacks\n on random civilians for the Islamic State. These two cases have nothing\n in common in terms of tactics or values or goals; the one thing that \nconnects them is that they both contest the centralized power of the \nprevailing government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Repression: An International Language with Local Dialects<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFind out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have \nthe exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on \nthem.\u201d<\/p>

-Frederick Douglass<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There are some new developments in the field of state repression. For\n example, we see an rapid development in repression tactics in Russia \nwith the example of the \u201cNetwork<\/a>\u201d\n case, in which many activists have been kidnapped, threatened, beaten, \nand tortured via electroshocks, hanging upside down, and other methods. \nUsing these tactics, the officers of the Russian Security Forces (FSB, \nthe successor to the KGB) have forced arrestees to sign false \nconfessions corroborating the existence of an invented group called \u201cthe\n Network\u201d which was allegedly planning to carry out the terrorist \nattacks during the presidential elections in March 2018 and the FIFA \nWorld Cup. These tactics created an atmosphere of fear, isolation and \nuncertainty in Russia, making it very difficult to mobilize solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The innovation here is using torture to confirm the existence of a \n\u201cterrorist network\u201d invented by the state. Torture itself is not a new \nthing to anarchists and other prisoners in post-Soviet countries; it \nremains one of the most powerful tools in the context of a penal system \nthat is notoriously corrupt and permissive towards the police, giving \nthem even less legal oversight than police experience in places like the\n United States. The Russian and Belarusian contexts are distinct in that\n in both cases, the state is openly authoritarian, not hesitating to \ncrack down violently even on basic forms of expression such as banner \ndrops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, this strategy seems to be working in Russia and Belarus, \nbut in the long run heavy-handed oppression makes the authorities \nvulnerable to sudden outbursts of pent-up anger. In Belarus, for \nexample, despite tremendous pressure from the totalitarian government, \nanarchists were at the forefront<\/a> of one of the most powerful social movements of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, in the \u201cWestern\u201d countries, we see more legalistic \nstrategies of repression, such as extreme bail and release conditions \nthat function to isolate and pacify individuals via attrition. This \npresents subtler forms of repression that are more socially acceptable \nto those who like to think of themselves as the citizens of a democracy.\n One police research report described the repression of the SHAC \ncampaign as a process of \u201cleadership decapitation\u201d achieved through \nlengthy prison sentences and extreme bail and post-prison conditions \naimed at absolutely isolating people from their movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police cooperation between different European states does not always \ntake the same form. For example, while Greek, Italian and German \nconferences take place regarding anarchist \u201cterrorism\u201d and \u201cextremism,\u201d \ncountries that have experienced fewer militant actions and less popular \nunrest employ different approaches. Many states carry out intelligence \ngathering in the guise of academic research in \u201cextremism and terrorism \nstudies,\u201d in order to monitor the presence of particular ideas or \ntactics. This was clear in the Czech Republic, where such studies were \nused to analyze the local anarchist movement. For example, despite \nlacking any demonstrable links to the FAI\/FRI or Conspiracy of Cells of \nFire, recent anarchist actions in Czech Republic from the aforementioned\n Network of Revolutionary Cells were described and charged mostly via \nacademic and police research that presented them as a manifestation of \nthe former groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
\nMore art from Russia promoting the Anarchist Black Cross: \u201cSupport political prisoners. #ABC.\u201d\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Learning from Successful Support Campaigns<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe learn a thousand times more from defeat than we do from a victory\u201d<\/p>

-Ed Mead, member of George Jackson Brigade and Men against Sexism, long-term anarchist prisoner and gay liberationist<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy to measure the effectiveness of repression. A campaign \nof repression could be said to succeed if the targets receive prison \nsentences\u2014or if the movement they are associated with is effectively \ndivided, pacified, or destroyed\u2014or if the social struggle that the \nmovement is engaged in becomes co-opted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, for example, you could say that Operation Fenix was unsuccessful \nbecause the legal charges that were pressed did not succeed. However, \nCzech police were able to collect an enormous data on the anarchist \nmovement in the Czech Republic\u2014and despite failing to win the case \nagainst the defendants, they succeeded in implanting anti-terrorist \nrhetoric and \u201canti-extremism\u201d sentiment in the public discourse. Yet, \ndespite this, Czech anarchists gained a lot of support from all around \nthe world, which was very important for the people who were behind bars,\n isolated and charged with extremism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One the most inspiring recent support campaigns was the defense of \nthe J20 arrestees in the US, a case that ended in almost complete defeat\n for the state. We can see another inspiring example under much less \nfavorable conditions in the campaign against the ongoing \u201cNetwork\u201d \nterrorist case in Russia, where defendants\u2019 parents have created a \u201cParents\u2019 Network<\/a>\u201d supporting their children and opposing the totalitarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undertaking Movement Defense<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Repression often imposes isolation and other hardships. Everyone is \nunique, but in general, those on the receiving end of repression need \nsome of the same things: financial support, emotional support, support \nfor the family and friends of defendants, secure or at least reliable \nchannels of communication, publicity about the case, and\u2014most \nimportantly\u2014continuing the struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different groups can play different roles in the fight against \nrepression. There are groups that form in order to react when repression\n hits, such as the campaign<\/a> to support the J20 defendants, or Solidarat Rebel<\/a>, which spreads information about the Aachen bank robbing case, or the Antifenix<\/a>\n initiative, which promotes analysis and resistance against Operation \nFenix in the Czech Republic. These projects are very important in that \nthey respond to an immediate and urgent need for support. There are also\n groups that maintain consistent long-term anti-repression organizing, \nsuch as the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC). The Anarchist Black Cross is an\n international network of anarchist groups engaged in practical \nsolidarity with prisoners that is now a century old<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can work to counter repression on several levels. We can raise \nawareness about the usefulness of security culture and the different \ntactics of repression so as to prepare for the inevitable response of \nthe state to our efforts to create a better world. We can also build up \nmaterial resources\u2014raising money to pay legal fees and related expenses \nsuch as travel costs and to support prisoners during their sentences and\n when they are released. This can involve organizing fundraising events \nor seeking donations in other ways. Most importantly, we have to provide\n care and emotional support to the targets of oppression and to others \nwho support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we can spread information about legal cases and prisoners \nand how to do support work through various media channels including \nwebsites, pamphlets, podcasts, books, speaking tours, and social \nnetworks both virtual and real. For example, this zine<\/a> composed by various ABC groups around Europe introduces the basics of Anarchist Black Cross organizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have to understand our efforts to support specific prisoners as \npart of a much broader struggle against prisons themselves. If we are \nalready organizing in solidarity with prisoners in general, anarchist \nprisoners will be in a much better position. That means supporting \nprisoner organizing, sending reading material and resources to \nprisoners, acting in solidarity outside the prisons when prisoners \nrevolt, and spreading a popular discourse that identifies what everyone \nstands to gain from dismantling the prison-industrial complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a Week of Solidarity to Prison Abolition<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Anarchists are fighting on the front lines of the struggle against \nprison society alongside other poor people, people of color, indigenous \npeople, and everyone else who is targeted by the prison system \nworldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sixth annual week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners is one \nof many opportunities to connect all these different struggles, seeking \nto set an example of what long-term coordinated anti-repression work \nmight look like. The date of the beginning of the week is the \nanniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian-American\n anarchists, in 1927. They were convicted with very little evidence, \npunished above all for their anarchist views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anarchists are not always the chief targets of the state, which often\n prioritizes attacks on people of African heritage, migrants, Muslims, \nand other ethnic groups on the receiving end of colonial violence. \nNevertheless, we are almost always somewhere on the list of targets \nbecause our values and our actions threaten the hegemony of the state. \nPrison is the glue that holds capitalism, patriarchy, and racism \ntogether. As we strive for a society based on cooperation, mutual aid, \nfreedom, and equality, we inevitably come into conflict with the police \nand the prison system. Let\u2019s build a broad movement against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So long as there are prisons, the most courageous, sensitive, and \nbeautiful among us will end up inside them, and the most courageous, \nsensitive, and beautiful parts of the rest of us will be inaccessible to\n us. Every one of us can become a prisoner. No one is truly free until \nall of us are free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
\nA prison van<\/a> burned in the riots of \u201cAngry Friday\u201d on January 28, 2011 during the Egyptian Revolution.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Further Reading<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Till All Are Free<\/a>\u2014the hub organizing the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the United States, a practically unprecedented prison strike is underway, setting new precedents for coordination between struggles in prisons and detention centers and for solidarity from those not behind bars. Meanwhile, August 23-30 is also the sixth annual week of global solidarity with anarchist prisoners, when anarchists around the world coordinate solidarity struggles between<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stati"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1718,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions\/1718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}